I recently applied for a diversity internship programme at Pearson Publishing, which is targeted towards young people from ethnic minority backgrounds. I told a few of my friends about it and one of them completely disagreed with the idea: "Internships like that don't advocate multiculturalism. If anything, they divide people even more. It's a form of prejudice in itself." At this point, I should point out that my friend is half Indian and half Irish. Although she’s part of an ethnic minority group, she is totally against these schemes. I see what she's saying. But what else can people from ethnic minority backgrounds do if they are unable to break into or be accepted by particular industries?
It is worrying that these initiatives are still being undertaken in the 21st century but I believe that they are necessary. Having said that, I did find one of the requirements for the above internship a little bizarre:
“You must be from a visible ethnic minority background.”
What is a visible ethnic minority? How white are you not allowed to be? In attempting to make the requirement clear, Pearson paradoxically make it a little baffling too. A close friend of mine is of mixed race heritage – she is half English and half Indian. Although she is a member of an ethnic minority (those from mixed race backgrounds are part of the fastest growing ethnic minority group in the UK), she looks white. People are always surprised when she says that her mum is Asian; so technically speaking, her ethnicity isn’t visible. Does that mean Pearson would consider her as an ineligible candidate, even though she’s from an ethnic minority background? Pearson seriously need to rethink their wording. I applaud them for this initiative as it addresses the issue of under-representation; but you have to admit, “visible ethnic minority” is an odd way of categorising people.
So is this whole “positive discrimination” thing fair? The friend I mentioned at the start believes that it isn’t. People shouldn’t be matched to a job due to their skin colour; it should be about a person’s skills and character. They say the whole point of it is to ensure that industries reflect the realities of society and to promote multiculturalism. It does the exact opposite – it causes more resentment and drives divisions deeper. If anything, the group that needs a “positive action” scheme is one that includes people from underprivileged backgrounds. Race isn’t something that holds people back; it’s financial restraints and a lack of education or experience.
But this is the thing. Pearson’s agenda isn’t a socio-economic one. The issue is race. And this is the case for many other industries, not just publishing.
It’s really important that companies with diversity schemes make clear what issues they’re trying to address in order to achieve their goal of tackling under-representation. Addressing socio-economic problems is one thing, but then mapping it onto issues of race takes it to the next level. You’re either trying to tackle one or the other or both – either way, you have to make it clear. This is exactly what Pearson have done. They’ve looked across the company and have seen that ethnic minorities, although they make up almost 10% of the UK population, are not fairly represented. One way to tackle this is to give these people an incentive to enter the publishing world, make a difference and challenge the creative industry’s status quo.
My friend would say at this point, “Well what if they decide to hire someone who’s black but also financially well off? What about someone who’s white but really poor? Surely it’s about helping the ones with less opportunity?”
This is the bit where I get really harsh and I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me. Socio-economics is about mobility – you are able to go up and down the social ladder provided you get a good education, good experience, lots of encouragement or make the most of the opportunities presented to you. I appreciate that there are many people out there that don’t have any of these things. But with socio-economics, you have a choice to improve your situation. That is the key word – choice. You can’t do that with race. Michael Jackson jokes aside, no one has the option of changing their skin colour.
Look at the stats taken from www.poverty.org.uk in August 2010:
The proportion of people who live in low-income households is:
◦ 20% for White people.
◦ 30% for Indians and Black Caribbeans.
◦ 50% for Black Africans.
◦ 60% for Pakistanis.
◦ 70% for Bangladeshis.
So although my friend says people from disadvantaged backgrounds should be the focus of “positive action” schemes, it seems that it is the ethnic minorities that make up the majority of that group. I went to a seminar at the London Book Fair yesterday and the issue of diversity did come up. One of the speakers, Danuta Kean, explained that unpaid internships (which are endemic in the publishing world) are actually illegal unless they’re part of an accredited course. She argued that people need to be challenging this as, realistically speaking, it is pretty much slave labour. Furthermore, who can afford to do full-time unpaid internships for months on end? Kean’s research showed that most of the time it was young people from white upper middle class backgrounds who had financial support from their parents. It’s things like this which stop particular industries from developing a diverse workforce.
This brings back in the socio-economic/race dynamic. If you want to address a socio-economic agenda, the statistics above suggest that you will also be indirectly addressing the question of diversity and race. Like my friend, I agree with “positive action” schemes for people from poor economic backgrounds; but what if a company’s concern is to represent the diversity of race, rather than of class? The two are heavily interlinked; however the attitudes they represent can sometimes be very different.
At this point my friend would reiterate her point, “what if Pearson hire a black person who’s really rich? You can’t deny that’s unfair.” This is when you have to separate race from economics. Many people, regardless of ethnicity, can tell you what it’s like to be poor. But only a black person can genuinely tell you what it’s like to be black. I’m not saying that our outlooks all correspond to what our skin colour is. I’m saying that if you want to know what kind of things an Asian person goes through – whether it is culturally, religiously, socially, politically – you will only find a genuine answer from someone who is Asian. Their response could be the same as a white person’s; but you’ll only know if you ask them. It’s like when someone says, “I have nothing against Chinese people. I have lots of Chinese friends.” So does that mean you know exactly what it feels like to be Chinese? Let’s be real here.
The great thing about books is that you get to enter another place, another mind, another time. Nikesh Shukla – another speaker at the London Book Fair – spoke about the time he tried to get his first book published, Coconut Unlimited. (I won’t tell you what it’s about as it’s worth the read. Plus it’s set in Harrow where I live so it gets some brownie points. No pun intended.) Publishers said to him that there was no way he was going to get his book published as people wouldn’t be interested in it and that it just wasn’t right for the market. Shukla explained that it was a bog standard coming-of-age story centred around rap music. The publisher then said that this isn’t what Asian people are like; it’s not representative of them. The author’s response: “But I am Asian.” Coconut Unlimited went onto be shortlisted for the 2010 Costa First Book Award.
Would we call this racism? This deserves a blog of its own (or more appropriately, further research by someone who knows what they’re doing). People can think that racism is about throwing a brick through someone’s window. But often, it can be something that is so deeply rooted that people are unconscious of the prejudices within them. In a way, this is almost worse. To say to an Asian author (who has written about the experience of being Anglo-Asian) that they don’t know what it is like to be Asian is a form of prejudice. It’s not as obvious or as violent as a brick through your window; but it is a preconception.
Like it or not, these prejudices do still exist in society. I, like many others, agree that sometimes political correctness can go way too far (what the hell was that whole blackboard/chalkboard thing about?), but tackling the diversity problem isn’t part of that. It is about giving people from particular backgrounds and circumstances that they cannot change a platform. There were many things that I disagreed with in David Cameron’s ‘multiculturalism has failed’ speech back in February; but I have to admit, at least he had the balls to mention the true state of tolerance in the UK (surprisingly). Having lived in London all my life, I have often seen multiculturalism at its best. As much as I love the capital, it doesn’t represent the rest of Britain. Multiculturalism doesn’t exclusively exist in society but it’s what we’re striving for.
Diversity is about covering the spectrum of the different views, cultures, philosophies and backgrounds out there. Whether you’re black or white, rich or poor, able-bodied or not, it’s important that industries – especially the arts – try to encourage and incentivise those from under-represented groups to have a voice. In the case of Pearson, they feel that they’re not getting any input from people from ethnic minority backgrounds so they’re doing something about it. I completely disagree with my friend when she says that it will only create deeper divisions. These sorts of schemes don't just give jobs away to people who aren't white; they also look for the right skills and character. By developing a diverse workforce (I don’t just mean race but also those with a disability) in an industry in which all people do is get their views and their stories across to the public; not only will people from minority backgrounds be represented in them, they will also have an opportunity to challenge as well as educate the status quo. If they do this, they have the chance to make a massive contribution to the development of that multicultural society we’re aiming for.
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