“How on earth am I going to find a husband now Marcus?!”
I had been talking to a fellow BBC colleague for about an hour. We had talked around the subject, we had avoided the issue and cracked jokes to lessen the brutal reality. But after an hour there was no avoiding it and it finally came out as a question, a plea for help and resigned desperation - all in equal measure. She repeated it; “Seriously how am I going to find a husband?”
The black colleague had been relocated out of London, along with thousands of other BBC people in the last five years, as the Corporation has tried to more accurately reflect the UK it broadcasts to and the license payers who support it.
First of all I completely support the BBC’s moves to be less London-centric and think the recent regional developments have strengthened the BBC’s connection to the wider population north of Watford no end, as well as improving its output. It would be perverse if I supported diversity in the media on one hand and didn’t support increasing regional diversity and representation on the other.
However that does not mean that I don’t think there are very real challenges that the BBC and every broadcaster face who wants to be less London-centric.
According to the 2011 census a staggering 70% of black British people live in Greater London. If the borough of Barnet were a city it would have the fourth largest number of black people after London, Birmingham and Manchester. Yes you read that right Barnet! I’m not even going to discuss the usual suspects of Lambeth, Lewisham and Brent.
The wider issue my black colleague’s lament - about a potential husband - points to is the fact that she was moving to a part of the UK where she felt she could not relate to the community in the same way nor are the same community support structures in place for her to deal with problems outside work and achieve a proper work / life balance. All of these are essential if she is going to reach her full potential in her career. (This is without even going into whether she should be limiting her search for a potential partner to black suitors).
The challenge to broadcasters is to make sure that they do not champion one diversity goal (in this case regional diversity) at the potential expense of other diversity targets (BAME representation).
And so with this in mind I would offer the following advice to any broadcaster or media company who is quite rightly trying to make their output and staffing practices less London-centric. I call it the “The Three R’s”
1. Recognise that you are moving from a part of the country with a large concentration of black people to one that is less concentrated. Acknowledging the issue is the first step in addressing it.
2. Redouble your efforts to increase BAME diversity in front of and behind the camera. If you continue with the same policies all things being equal BAME diversity will decrease.
3. Remedy the problems that existing BAME staff will experience when relocating that might be different from their white colleagues. This can be the most difficult one to solve but simple measures such as making them aware of organisations such as the TVCollective so they can find virtual support from black colleagues at the other end of the country can go a long way.
I was part of the first wave of relocations out of London over five years ago moving to Scotland to be Editor of the BBC’s Current Affairs Programmes. It was a promotion for me and career-wise it was one I embraced with open arms. I’ve been very lucky finding a great team to work with and a supportive wife who moved up with me. But if we want to increase the number of BAME people working in television and ensure the careers of those already working in television really flourish we need to rely on more than just luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment