Diversify: A fierce, accessible, empowering guide to why a more open society means a more successful one. June Sarpong
day in Hawaii, so he was flown in by helicopter to the rally. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as he paid homage to his grandmother, Toot, and the vital role she played in helping to shape him as a man. He went on to explain the origins of his campaign slogan, ‘Fired Up & Ready To Go’, which we all were as we left this poignantly magical evening.
The next day, Margaret, Anji and I watched the election results at the home of legendary Democratic pollster and close Clinton confidant Stan Greenberg. His DC townhouse was heaving with guests, many of whom were close allies of the Clintons.
Everyone was jubilant as the results started coming in and it began looking like victory was on the horizon. Once Ohio was called, we knew it was game over. Everyone began cheering – then, we all sat in silence as we watched the footage of the victorious Obamas and Bidens take the stage in Grant Park Chicago, with Oprah and Jesse Jackson shedding tears of joy in the crowd.
As Anji, Margaret and I left Stan Greenberg’s house, we were met with cheering and dancing in the streets of DC. Cars were beeping their horns, Obama 2008 signs were everywhere, and a joyful crowd was roaring ‘Yes We Can’. The atmosphere was like the homecoming of a winning Superbowl team x10. America was proud of itself because, in that moment, it had chosen to look beyond its complex issues with race and chosen ‘change’ and ‘hope’ over the status quo. In doing so, they had done something that, in all likelihood, no other Western country would have been capable of at the time. This is the dream personified by the Obama presidency, which has been both an inspiration and a post-racial challenge to young black males everywhere. If Obama can do it, why can’t you?
In the UK, this is certainly easier said than done. A recent study conducted as part of a BBC documentary hosted by British actor David Harewood examined the probability of the UK ever having a black prime minister. Using empirical evidence to project how likely it would be for male children from different backgrounds to make it to the nation’s highest electoral office, the findings were shocking, to say the least. Statistically, a black child born in the UK has a 1 in 14 million chance of becoming prime minister, while a white child has a 1 in 1.4 million chance, and a white child with a public school (not state-funded) education and a degree from Oxford University has a 1 in 200,000 chance.* What this effectively means is that we are severely restricting the talent pool for political leadership, and rebirthing the same ideas and thought patterns again and again.
This presents numerous issues, perhaps the most concerning being that by completely excluding ‘other’ talent pools from the decision-making process, the changes that many of us seek become even more unlikely. With few exceptions, it seems that whichever side of the political aisle they sit on, most of the leaders available to us have all trodden the same path and share a similar worldview. It seems pretty clear that in order for there to be sustainable change, the people leading us need to change, too. But in order for this to happen, the education and employment opportunities for young black men need to be firmly put in place, as well as an atmosphere of real, attainable aspiration – in contrast to what, currently, is often an atmosphere of poverty and lack of opportunity.
Twice as likely: the Pew Research Center in the US finds that African Americans are twice as likely to be in poverty as white people.
Because in reality, regardless of the data suggesting that the odds are heavily stacked against black men becoming president or prime minister, the truth is that most don’t want to anyway. The dreams and aspirations of black males are no different to the dreams and aspirations of men in general – the difference is that many will have a shortage of realistic role models in the media or within their own families, who successfully do what is ‘expected’ of a man (i.e. support himself and his family), are supported by the education system, and are able to work hard, attain the right training or qualifications, prove the right to ‘belong’, and be rewarded accordingly. For the ambitious, hard-working black male, this unlevel playing field can be extremely demoralizing. He must ask himself: am I the problem? Is it my colour, or am I simply not good enough? Is he one of those men with a chip on their shoulder, imagining prejudice?
Nina Jablonski believes that a new form of education and honest dialogue is needed to turn back this tide of hundreds of years of misunderstanding and mistrust, and I wholeheartedly agree. She argues that endemic racism is holding back not just black people, but the whole of society:
Erroneous and deep-seated notions about race persist because we are scared to discuss misconceptions about colour and race in our classrooms and boardrooms. Paranoia about race born of political correctness has led to the perpetuation of misconceptions about colour and race, the cloaking of discriminatory behaviour and language, and the persistence of racism. Racism is probably humanity’s single biggest impediment to human achievement.*
Racism is an ancient problem and, thankfully, society has moved on in the last century. We now have anti-discrimination policies and legislation in place, and yet clearly these are not doing enough. The stats prove that a young black man still rarely sees himself reflected in any positions of seniority. He can only hope that things will be better for his son – a hope he believes in as things are certainly better for him than they were for his father. But hope may not be enough. Nina Jablonski is not alone in demanding real, tangible change. ‘Race at the Top’, a comprehensive study by Race for Opportunity on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) representation in leadership in UK business, concluded that there had been virtually no ethnicity change in top management positions in British business in the five years between 2007 and 2012.* In a letter to the British government, Sandra Kerr – the CEO of Race for Opportunity – urged them to deal with this problem as a matter of urgency before it was too late:
By 2051, one in five people in the UK will be from an ethnic minority background, representing a scale of consumer spending and political voting power that business and government alike cannot afford to ignore. The gap must not be allowed to widen further, but without action little will change. I am calling on government for a review to amplify understanding around the barriers BAME employees face in reaching management positions, and for two simple words – ‘and race’ – to be added to the UK Corporate Governance Code. We urgently need this to happen if we are to ensure that we don’t pass the point of no return.†
94.5%: the percentage of police officers in England and Wales who are white*.
If governments heed such stark warnings, if we can undo the centuries of false racial programming and teach our children the scientific truth of our common ancestry and foster a wealth of role models for young black men at home and in the media, then maybe, just maybe, the achievements of men like Barack Obama can become the standard, rather than the exception to the rule.
ACTION POINT: Watch Ava DuVernay’s documentary, 13th
DISCUSSION POINT: Should positive discrimination be employed to ensure ethnic minorities are represented proportionally in the police service and justice system?
‘Conquering others shows strength, but conquering one’s self shows true power.’
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
If the Obama presidency has been the modern defining global event for aspiring black males, then terrorism has been the defining dictate of the Western view of ‘other’ Muslim men. It has arguably led to Muslim men overtaking black men as primary figures of fear: ‘brown’ has become the new ‘black’. This group is the most diverse of the ‘other’ male groups, covering a wide variety of ethnicities, nationalities, and socioeconomic groups, with Islam being the world’s second biggest faith. However, in the modern collective Western psyche there are only really two kinds of Muslim men: those who will harm us, and those who probably won’t. And nobody seems to know the difference.
Integrate or separate?
Though the religion’s main presence has been in the