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Sy Joshua
Anti Racism Trainer and Educator
I recently delved into an eye-opening 2019 Employment Tribunal ruling detailing a racial discrimination incident that happened during an EDI training session. It was a stark reminder that not all training session.
This mandatory training left Ms. Theresa Georges, a Black employee, feeling 'physically sick and distressed.' So what went wrong?
📣 Here's the chilling part: During the training, to emphasise the importance of workplace sensitivity, participants were asked to ‘shout out’ and then rank the worst names they could think of targeting ethnic minority people and other identities. The irony!
Ms. Georges, the only person of colour in the training room had to endure the 'N' word being said in full repeatedly by colleagues around her. Shocking, right?
🕰️ Astonishingly, this same training had been rolled out 180 times over eight years, with no recognition that this could be problem. Even when Ms. Georges complained that hearing the ‘N’ word multiple times by her colleagues was unwanted conduct related to her race that created an intimidating, degrading and humiliating environment, her employer refused to see the issue, saying no one else had ever complained and that the exercise was designed to illustrate what you shouldn’t say in work.
Ms. Georges, exhausted the grievance process and had to seek accountability at an employment tribunal, where she won.
Even though Ms. Georges succeeded in proving racial harassment at tribunal. People often forget the human cost to speaking up about discrimination which goes way beyond the incident itself. Usually, in these situations, the employer deals with you coldly as an adversary. You’ll have to wait months for a tribunal hearing with the risk hanging over you, that if you lose your case, in addition to paying your own legal fees, you could be liable for all your employer’s legal costs as well.
A high price to pay for speaking up about discrimination during an EDI training and begs the question: Are we failing at Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training, particularly when it comes to race?
💡 So, why might Black and ethnic minority colleagues hesitate to trust your training? Here are five compelling questions for you:
1️⃣ Tokenistic Training: Do you mention race discrimination as part of EDI training to tick the box?
2️⃣ Inclusion of Perpetrators: Do you prepare for the possibility that your EDI Training may bring together the perpetrator and Black and ethnic minority colleagues who’ve been affected in the same space.
3️⃣ Outdated Content: Do you check your training for harmful terminology or ideas around race that could be outdated?
4️⃣ Inadequate Facilitation: Do your facilitators have the skills to navigate complex issues that challenge the denial and perpetuation of racism?
5️⃣ Empty Promises: Is it all about awareness or do participants walk the talk afterwards.
🙌🏽 These are some solutions that have had great results:
✅ Specialised Resources: Supplement your Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training with race equity-focused training resources.
✅ Wellbeing Support: Offer wellbeing support alongside training.
✅ Proactive Monitoring: Set ground rules and monitor participants for signs of anxiety and distress.
✅ Co-design: Involve Black and ethnic minority staff in fine-tuning the training and reward them.
✅ Foster Engagement: Encourage staff to understand the 'Why' behind Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and post-session ensure that plans to address issues are taken forward.
Need any help supplementing your EDI training with a specialised race-equity resource? Let's have a chat. Email Sy at: info@ritw.co.uk
To book a meeting with Sy Joshua visit his website.
Check out Sy's TEDx talk: Representation Matters.
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