This blog is written by Japheth Monzon, Project Officer.
As the UK collectively begins to settle after the Bank Holiday commemorating the Coronation of King Charles III, we should also look towards celebrating Black Inclusion Week 2023. Black Inclusion Week is, as described by Inclusive Employers, “an opportunity for organisations to show its commitment to Black Inclusion and work towards creating an anti-racist culture.” BSWN, as a Black-led organisation, has racial justice deeply embedded into its ethos. We strive towards the uplifting of Black voices and Black minds in myriad forms. As a result, we are strongly enthusiastic about celebrating Black Inclusion Week!
Black Inclusion Week, an initiative originally created by Black leaders, is determined not only as a means of celebrating Black British excellence but as Founder Paul Sesay states, as a reminder to prioritise the “embedding” of a “fair and just society for all.”
Whilst some progress has been made in the inclusion of Black voices into white-dominated spaces, there remain stark inequalities in representation. People Management’s reference to the Race at the Top: Revisited report (by Business in the Community) found that there has only been a 0.1% growth in Black people in senior leadership roles in the UK Private Sector since 2014 – at 1.5%. These statistics remain “distressingly low” for Black women, whose leadership experience has largely remained “generally absent from the leadership canon” (Morgan, 2020). Within Finance, the Financial Conduct Authority reports that “less than 1% of investment managers are Black. This compares with 3% of the UK population and more than 13% of London. [This] raises questions about the future of the talent pipeline” and is one of many reasons why Black representation matters.
What is clear is that there is still a lot of work to do in ensuring that Black voices, Black minds, and Black physicalities are present in all UK workspaces. Even in inclusion, there remain issues of equity within sectors, as Black employees still experience unacceptable amounts of racism in the workplace – with Pearn Kandola uncovering that nearly two-thirds of Black employees experienced racism in the workplace in 2021. Black Inclusion Week, therefore, seeks to include Black people in leadership, employment sectors, and pioneering technological work but also seeks to ensure that instances of racism are held to account and exiled from the workplace. Black Inclusion Week recognises that inclusion means little-to-nothing without equality following in its trail.
In this week of representation, inclusion, and workplace equality, remember to uplift Black voices, Black minds, and Black excellence in all its forms; advocate for a fair and just society for all, and remember that this work doesn’t stop at the end of the Week. BSWN is proud to spotlight Black leaders and share their perspectives on what inclusion truly means. Join us in this important mission and help create a more equitable world, not just for today or this week, but for the future.