(Keynote speech delivered to the Prospect Union National Conference 13th June 2022)
Good morning friends, comrades, brothers and sisters.
I choose my words carefully and my greetings today because I’d like to think we are all one family. And it is a tremendous honour to be given the opportunity to address the family.
For members of the family that do not know me - my name is Marcus Ryder.
I have been campaigning with Lenny Henry and others to increase better media diversity and representation in our family - in television, film and the creative sector - for over ten years. Writing speeches to deliver in Parliament, devising policies, talking softly when necessary and banging tables when needed.
I fundamentally believe that diversity, inclusion and better representation in the media and every part of British society is one of the most important issues facing Britain today.
And I come with good news - we are the majority.
And history shows that eventually the majority will always win.
Too often when we think about diversity, we invariably think about minority, marginalized, disadvantaged groups.
Black people, ethnic minorities, disabled people, women, LGBTQ - the oppressed and disposed - and if we are lucky the powers that be let us have a seat at THEIR table.
Well, last year, I co-authored a book with Lenny Henry called Access All Areas - and one of the key reasons we did it was because we wanted to reframe how diversity is thought about.
To show diversity is not a minority issue but a majority issue.
So let’s do some simple maths.
If you combine the percentage of the population who are women and then combine that with the percentage of the population which is disabled, then add that with the percentage of the population which are people of color, then finally top it all off by adding the percentage of the population that says they are LGBTQ+...
You get the grand number of 70.5% per cent.
The people so many of us generally think of as the majority and never use the word “minority” to describe – white, heterosexual, non-disabled men – make up less than a third of the UK population.
The rest of us - the vast majority of the population - come under the umbrella- term of ‘diversity’.
Yet, we are too often dismissed as a minority - in need of special treatment.
If we had a level playing field, for every white, non-disabled heterosexual man you see on TV, in Parliament or in any position of power, we should see a woman or Black person or Asian person or disabled person or gay person. Not just once, but more than twice.
This is true for every board room you walk into, every judge’s chambers, every management office you walk into.
Every walk of life you can think of.
From courts to prisons
From schools to hospitals.
However, for me things become even more interesting once you factor in regional diversity and the over-representation of London and the South East of England.
I spent eight years as a senior executive for the BBC based in Scotland and yesterday I travelled down from Scotland - so regionality and the concentration of power in London is something that is close to my heart.
So let’s do the sums again and calculate the percentage of the population that are NOT white, NOT heterosexual, NOT non-disabled, NOT men, AND are NOT from the South East of England. Because these are the people who are seriously under-represented in far too many walks of life.
The number is 96.9% per cent!
That means the people we invariably think of as the majority - the people who overwhelmingly run the country make up only 3.1% percent of the population.
The numbers are almost too staggering to comprehend.
For every three White, non-disabled, heterosexual men with a London accent you see on TV, or in a company board meeting, or sitting as a judge, you should see 97 people with a Birmingham accent or a woman or gay person or Asian person or disabled person, or a lesbian, or some combination of these characteristics.
Three vs. Ninety-seven is the reality of Britain today.
And yet we still talk about diversity in terms of a minority issue.
Gender pay gaps, ethnicity pay gaps and disability pay gaps are not a minority issue, they are a majority issue.
And almost every labour issue you can think of disproportionately hits people who are often seen as quote unquote diverse.
Now my area of expertise is the media industry, so I am going to talk about television for a bit -and talk about it on two levels – the individual first, and then the society level. They are linked and each gives us a window into the other. Both also imply certain potential solutions that trade unions can take forward, and I will leave you with one in particular today that I hope you will all support wholeheartedly as a first step to addressing the majority issue, but before that let me clarify the implications of the majority issue when it comes to the lives of journalists workers and their outputs.
When I listen to the news or watch current affairs programmes, or watch children’s programmes with my son, or even good old drama programmes like bridgerton, or even trash reality TV like love island (hey – don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about!), one of the questions I always ask is – whose perspective do they reflect? Whose interests do they serve?
The 3% or the 97%?
Now so far I have been using polite words and phrases such as “diversity” and “better representation” and “inclusion”.
Too often we use these words not to offend the 3%
But when we use these words it is the equivalent of thinking about the lack of Black news editors, or women film directors, or disabled script writers as just a fact of life. Almost an act of god - like bad weather.
But there are other words I could use to describe what is going on - possibly more honest words:
Words like “racism” and “sexism” and “homophobia” and “ableism”
While this permeates at the society level, and I will come to this, the fact is that even at an individual level we will never be able to achieve better diversity and representation until we acknowledge and address the root causes that are responsible for the lack of representation and the lack of diversity.
This will not surprise you, and of course this is relevant to other industries, but the need to address racism in the media industry is pressing and urgent.
There is significant evidence that not only is there widespread underreporting of racism throughout the television industry, but that when racism is reported it is either not dealt with effectively through informal measures. And when formal mechanisms are used they can often lead to the complainant suffering reputational damage labelling them as a “trouble maker” which can hinder their career in the future. This happens here in the UK, it happens elsewhere too – there is a current case with the Washington Post which exhibits exactly these trends right now.
Also, for many the formal processes of trying to address racism in the industry are also often viewed as too difficult and costly - both financially and psychologically - so many victims of racism simply do not raise a complaint.
On top of that, much of the industry defines racism as simple one on one interactions and effectively frames it as a subset of their bullying HR procedure.
This fails to capture the complexity of racism beyond obvious name calling or direct interpersonal interactions. These definitions fail to capture systemic racist practices which can include, but are not limited to; over-scrutiny of non-White employees’ work in comparison to their white counterparts, over-disciplining of non-White people’s mistakes in comparison to their white counterparts and unequal terms of trade experienced by independent productions led by people of colour compared to their white counterparts.
Even when individuals do complain, complaints are often not systematically collected by the organisations involved, anonymous complaints are often not recorded at all, and there is no industry-wide mechanism or process to collect reports of racism to obtain an understanding of the problem let alone come up with industry-wide policies and suggestions of how to address the issue of racism.
This is a failure on an industrial scale and we wonder why representation is so bad. - or maybe we don’t wonder at all.
And yet the truth is racism is an issue that is hardly talked about as we opt for words like “diversity” instead.
The lack of talk about racism however does not mean the problem has been solved.
The racism in the industry hinders people of colour being hired, being treated fairly, being denied promotions and ultimately leaving the industry all together.
But this racism – and the outcomes it promotes in terms of lack of representation – is not only a problem for the victims – it is a real and present danger for our entire democracy – and this is where I really hope you will all sit up and listen.
Better representation in the media is fundamentally about democracy and whether we can all live in peace with one another.
News is where this issue is most crucial. You cannot have freedom of speech if large parts of society are not given equal access to the media.
What we see on the news determines what politicians talk about and actually do anything about.
However, due to all of the “isms” I’ve talked about, there is not one single major television news bulletin from the BBC’s Breakfast News, One O’clock, Six O’clock or Ten O’clock to Channel 4’s Seven O’Clock to any of ITV’s major bulletins or Channel 5s which is headed by a person of colour or a visibly disabled person.
There is not one major television political current affairs programme - which sets the political weather, including Panorama, Newsnight or Dispatches which is headed by a person of colour or a visibly disabled person.
This is not just a problem for today - this is true for the entire history of British television. Our news is determined by the 3%, not the 97%.
And it has consequences. The lack of diversity in news affects which stories the 3% decide to pick and how the 3% cover them.
It will peak the interests of, as well as favour the interests of the 3% - and not the 97%.
Today, in newsrooms across Britain – whether print, online or on TV - it is primarily the 3% who are deciding whether news organisations cover industrial action – whether such stories are prominent or not, and how journalists frame any news stories around industrial action. It is the 3% that are determining whether the unemployment figures are more important to feature than stock market figures. The 3% are determining whether white refugees' lives matter more than black and brown refugees.
I could go on. But you understand my point. We have to recognise that racism, sexism means our news, our current affairs is skewed. And this skew can shape our society, shape our democratic outcomes. It shapes the “overton window” that unions operate in. It shapes what we think is possible in British society and what is not possible.
Right now the industry I love and I suspect many of you love as well is failing us.
It should be everyone – the 100% who are determining what “we” see and know and assess about our society, and help create the circumstances for change to the lives of the 100%. It shouldn’t be just the 3% who do so. Hence, I want the 97% to have a fighting chance in our industry!
And in all industries across the UK.
That is why following the murder of George Floyd and the global Black Lives Matter protests I joined with BECTU and Prospect to call for the establishment of an independent racism reporting body for the media industry.
We - myself, Bectu and Prospect believe that this is one key step to start fighting this problem of over-representation of the 3%.
An industry wide body which can both gather reports of racism from all the major industry industry bodies as well as be a body that people in the industry can go to, to report incidents of racism including anonymous reporting.
A body that can initiate investigations into issues of systemic racism that would be unlikely to be raised by individual complainants.
A body that can offer advice and assistance to people who believe they are the victims of racism, and/or feel they have experienced unequal treatment due to their race, on how to process a complaint and the resources available to them to pursue a complaint - including the services of the appropriate trade union.
Finally, the body should publish an annual report on the state of racism in the industry, to measure progress, build on best progress and learn from mistakes. The report should be complete with policy suggestions for industry stakeholders on how to tackle racism.
Now, the current focus of the proposed body is on racism but that is not to say the independent body could not be expanded to address other forms of prejudice and bigotry. Or other focused bodies could not also be established.
And working with BECTU the current focus is on the media industry but talking to Prospect that does not mean it could not be expanded to other sectors. It is much needed throughout Britain. My recent book, Black British Lives Matter, also edited with Lenny Henry, illustrates exactly this point - ending racism in the media sector, the police sector, the social sectors, architecture, sports - will enrich British society.
Brothers and sisters - friends and family.
We have an important opportunity to fundamentally improve a basic foundation of our democracy - freedom of speech and who has access to it.
And it starts with fighting the racism that plagues the media industry.
We must set up an independent racism reporting body now.
Our democracy is too important not to do it.
Thank you.
