Imagining utopia — a world with equal consequences
Yesterday, almost a year after Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of George Floyd for over 9 minutes, we held our breath again as the jury returned. Justice, finally.
I’m grateful that the courts have been just… this time. Even though so many other times it has failed to adhere any value to Black life. Sandra Bland. Mark Crawford. Philando Castile. Breonna Taylor. And in the UK — Mark Duggan. Joy Gardner. Sean Rigg, Anthony Grainger — killed at the hands of law enforcement, with zero accountability.
This verdict is a start.
Yet, I feel strangely hollow. Is this success? A man who took a vow to uphold the law murders someone live on camera, followed by visceral condemnation, worldwide protests — and we’re still holding our collective breath while the verdict was being read? What does this say about our societies? How was “not guilty” even an option. This isn’t success. This is the minimum.
Black people have worn our pain on the outside this year. We bared our souls to make progress, reliving our painful experiences aloud. All the experiences were different and yet strangely similar. Only to have our concerns vilified and trivialised, with efforts to silence us given weight in the Sewell Report. Gatekeepers telling the story — deliberately obfuscating the Truth. Harshly set against the grain of other predecessor reports, whose recommendations gather dust.
It’s exhausting.
Black Lives Matter — the desperation is in the name… hear us, see us, our lives matter too. And even that name has been vilified — turned into something that it is not, so the Truth can be concealed.
We’ve spoken a lot this year about unconscious bias, about discrimination, about equity. There have been pledges of solidarity, corporate platitudes and even more black squares on social media. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that…
The bias isn’t unconscious.
It’s unacknowledged…
It’s unexamined…
It’s even understated, but unconscious it is not — especially when it comes to race.
It’s uncomfortable to discuss. Unsettling to explore. It brings up feelings of “I’m a bad person” and the primal instinct to defend and deny — sometimes, at all costs. The perpetrator turned the victim. The victim, voiceless.
Back to square one. Again.
Let’s explore something for a moment — the core of all of this. It doesn’t even matter if people have prejudiced and stereotypical views of Black people. Yes, I believe we should definitely be working toward growth of a more empathetic and informed society. But, our current focus on changing hearts and minds, is stunting progress. What might be more effective is to focus on ACTIONS.
Why do Black people have to send out 70–90% more CVs than White candidates with IDENTICAL CVs?
Why are Black people 9 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people?
Why are Black people paid less than their White counterparts for the same (if not more) work?
We ask ourselves why, but seem to ignore the obvious answer… ACTIONS. Actions of the hiring manager, of the police officer, of management.
How do human beings typically change undesirable actions? We learn cause and effect through consequences. Consequences help us learn what is right and wrong. They encourage us to change course through either punishment or reward.
Why is this not applicable in societies’ interactions with Black people? In situations across types of institutions, at every level from personal to organisational, behaviour that causes harm to Black people is often actively shielded from consequence.
If we change that, we change everything.
Annette Joseph is the CEO and Founder of Diverse & Equal, a EDI consultancy that offers holistic inclusion, productivity and skills solutions for tech-enabled organisations.
