Why We Must Go Beyond Anti-Racism and Aim for Empowerment

(From an original speech delivered on 8th September to 'Inc Arts' and 'What Next')

Good afternoon everyone,

I am the Head of External Consultancies at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity and the Chair of RADA.

First of all I would just like to thank Amanda Parker, Inc Arts and What Next for inviting me, and giving me the opportunity to speak today. What Inc Arts is doing is incredibly important and much needed.

I am however going to be just a little bit controversial today, and I hope people will listen with an open mind, especially considering the fact I am speaking at an event titled “Arts Against Racism”.

So here goes...

After 25 years working in the media industry I am not sure I am “anti-racist”, or at least I am not anti-racist in the way it is usually discussed, and how policies are usually shaped in order to address it. And a lot of my approach to the issue is shaped by my experience of eight years as a senior BBC executive based in Scotland and attempts to address poor representation in regional and out of London productions. And my experience of hitting a glass ceiling and leaving the UK and living in Asia for over five years.

So let’s talk about racism.

A simple definition of racism is prejudice plus power.

In my experience far too many policies have focused on the first bit of the equation “prejudice” and not enough has been focused on the second part, the question of “power”.

We have unconscious bias training.

We have active bystander training.

Companies commit to implementing the Rooney rule of having one ethnic minority shortlisted on interview panels. 

Companies commit to employing more widely to identify and attract talent from a broader range of backgrounds.

Organisations set employment targets for Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff throughout their organisations, and at senior levels.

We see all this and yet we have seen very little progress.

Most importantly we have seen even less progress in terms of who is commissioning our arts, and who ultimately wields power.

And until we change who wields power. The fate of ethnic minorities are at the whims and vagaries of White people’s values, prejudices and beliefs - good and bad. So even if we make progress today, it is rarely sustainable in the long run.

We have seen this repeated time and time again.

Which is why we must ultimately change the power part of the equation when it comes to addressing racism.

And this is where my Scotland experience is invaluable.

While not equating any animosity between the Scots and English as being the same as historical slavery and racism, what we can learn from my experience of working for BBC Scotland is how do you address under-representation and differences in power differentials.

The answer for the BBC when it came to addressing underrepresentation outside of London was not to try and convince English commissioners to be nicer to Scots, or the Welsh or Northerners. Or even for bases in London to employ more Scottish or Welsh commissioners - in their London offices.

The answer was to tackle structural issues that lead to power differentials.

My discussions with my BBC Scottish colleagues were rarely predicated on whether English people in general, and Londoners in particular, didn’t like them.

But there were a lot of discussions on who controls the finances, who has editorial control, and how do we restructure organisations to make them more equitable.

This involved metrics that went far and beyond simple headcounts.

It was looking at programme hours, programme spend, percentage share of salaries spent in each region. There was even physical infrastructure spend and working with local governments to build new bridges (over the river Clyde) and extend tram lines (in Salford).

That is why in working with the Lenny Henry Centre and before, I have always tried to address structural issues and how the television industry is set up.

I have looked at ring-fenced money, as this was the primary mover for increasing regional diversity.

I have looked at contestable funds as this has been used to address the market failure in television when it comes to children’s programmes.

And I have advocated for diversity tax breaks, as tax breaks have been instrumental in stimulating the film and high end TV industry in the UK in general.

We have seen intiative after initiative fail to change our industry over the last thirty years despite the lack of good will and the best intentions.

If we are to achieve a better more equitable media and arts industry we must recognise that diversity is not the same as anti-racism, and anti-racism is not the same as empowerment. 

We need all three if we are going to make real progress.

I believe we are currently in a unique time and we are all hungry for change now.

Now is the time to think structurally.

Now is the time to push through real change.

Now is the time to bring about real equality and fairer representation throughout media and arts.