Broken Ladders: The myth of meritocracy for women of colour in the workplace
JVL Introduction
Racism at work is rampant, affecting women of colour very seriously. Research by the Fawcett Society and Runnymede Trust evidences the harmful, pervasive and entrenched racism that women of colour are forced to endure at every stage of their career journey.
The report, naturally, calls on the government to take action.
But we also ask where is the Labour Party in all this?
The Labour Party will no doubt condemn the realities the Report highlights. But its practice is not encouraging.
It certainly does not seem to campaign against all racisms equally – whether inside the Party or in the wider society…
This article was originally published by the Fawcett Society and the Runnymede Trust on Wed 6 Jul 2022. Read the original here.
Broken Ladders: The myth of meritocracy for women of colour in the workplace
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I hate racism with a vengeance. I was lucky to grow up with parents that reacted to racist language and I still use phrases that they used when opposing a person using racist sentences, that they believe we’re not racist.
In my view, people in political power have a responsibility, if they use racist language, they are normalising it and encouraging those that already have a racist bias, to feel confident that it’s ok to be racist and it clearly isn’t.
I really do wish those that have to make the rules/laws all the best, as I see it, they have a very difficult job to do, if they use encouragement, they are likely to only make slight differences in behaviour, if they use force, we all know that racists will react badly.
I wrote this a long time ago, a very long time ago.
Racism.
Why do we never hear from the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and all the leaders of the different religions, the Governments of the World, telling the people about racism, that hating or even disliking anyone who isn’t the same colour as themselves or they speak a different language is wrong and it’s Evil.
When you are born, it is pure chance where and which colour you are, we are all humans and which ever God you pray to, they will be angry if you turn out to be racist.
Please talk to your friends and family about racism and how much you hate it, get them to talk to younger people about the horrors of racism, that millions of people around the World who are suffering from racism who go to bed each night and cry to themselves, they’ve done nothing wrong and yet people are treating them badly, just because of the colour of their skin or they just happen to have been born on a different part of the planet.
Thank you.
My wife is black. She has two degrees. In more than 25 years she has never been promoted at work but has often made the shortlist for internal jobs but has always been passed over for less qualified white and usually male candidates. She often found that the diversity count was only boosted by black people in the post room and canteen. The only way she has progressed is by changing organisations often and is now a CEO albeit of a small outfit.