If Black and Indigenous people, and people of colour, matter in your PR agency, prove it
Davina Ramnarine has often been the only person of colour in the room at the PR agencies she’s worked at. She’s never had a manager of colour. She’s experienced racial micro-aggressions. And, as the Black Lives Matter movement ripples around the world, she asks: How is it that we work as creative problem solvers, selling ideas and solutions every day, yet somehow diversity and inclusivity remain so elusive?
No-one can plead ignorance about the social injustices and inequalities faced by the Black community anymore, especially those of us for whom the media agenda is our bread and butter.
People have taken to the streets. You can’t escape the news. Content is plastered across social channels. That white supremacy and systemic racism exist and are having a devastating effect on the life prospects of Black people, as well as Indigenous people and people of colour, is an inescapable fact.
A Black Lives Matter protest in 2014
Well written, and I can only imagine it took a bit of courage to write and put your name to it. You are not the only one to notice this.. I have long thought the push for ‘Diversity’ in agencies has been too myopic.. centered only on gender diversity.
Agencies trumpeting “changing the ratio” and being “more diverse” yet all the while remaining close to 100% white in senior leadership roles.
Firstly I feel it necessary to clarify:
Your topic is important, and better can always be strived for.
However, articles like this can make it even harder to speak out. You’re effectively questioning and criticising the way others are handling the conversation, which may discourage many from speaking out, for fear of further criticism. I also feel that aligning this to the topic of Black Lives Matter may also be counter intuitive to encouraging debate. It intertwines multiple topics, making it more difficult to have an opinion on one topic, without it also being applied automatically to another (whether closely aligned topics or not).
If you’re to do a second part to this article. I’d love to hear more about what you’ve tried to implement yourself in the white majority countries you’ve had the opportunity to work in. What you’ve seen work, what barriers you encountered and how you feel they could be overcome.
I’m a person of colour, but not Black. Not sure if being a Yellow person grants me the privileges to comment on your piece as I don’t seem to fall within your definition of a person of colour.
You don’t understand the fundamental demographic factors at play within Australian society.
And no, no one is going to force me to spend my days “assuaging guilt, or learning about white supremacy”. That just reeks of querulous paranoia.
Firstly, Black people make up a tiny proportion of Australia’s overall population. You calling out for more representation of People of Colour (in your piece PoC = Black people) because you don’t see Black people in your industry claiming that this doesn’t represent the demographic composition of Australian society due to some inherent racial bias is simply wrong.
African Australians make up 1.6% of Australia’s population, with a third of them from South Africa and likely White. Indigenous population represents 3.3% of Australia’s population, with only a third of the Indigenous population residing in major cities. So add that up, you are talking about less than 3% of the Australian population.
I would understand if you were calling out the under-representation of Asian Australians who now make up 16.3% of Australia, which in your piece is not what you are advocating for. There are outside factors at play here also, that result in the underrepresentation of Asians in the media industry and this is NOT due to bias.
So, no, the lack of Black people within any industry is not an under representation due to bias, it is a much deeper social issue concerning the wealth gap, education gap, and a whole myriad of issues sadly plaguing the First Nations’ people.
Australian media have a talent problem, and you would find an over-representation of British people seeking permanent residence here. If you were ever in a hiring capacity, you would understand. As much as you would like diversity in your immediate workplace environment, if the applicants are all White, you’ve got no choice.
Instead you should have suggested something more tangible or practical such as education programmes driving awareness about the media industry to Indigenous Australians, or scholarship programmes etc. that actually address the issue at root cause. But you’re not.
Likewise, there are similar issues, like the over-representation of certain non-White demos in Accounting, Dentistry, Cleaning Services, etc. Or the high concentration of Indian born IT workers in the country.
You have to understand the government’s targeted immigration policy, the motivators and employment preferences of newly arrived immigrants and their children and so much more. ie. Yellow people tend to shy away from media jobs, because language is one thing but there are government policy driven factors (such as PR eligibility) as well as different cultural connotations that drive employment decisions.
Great article Davina Ramnarine – an insightful and brave piece.
I am disappointed however to see Mumbrella did not report on the racist language used in the Sunday Telegraph by Peter Gleeson – surely one of Australian’s most read papers using such words takes the entire Australian media industry 10 steps back? Kudos on Pedestrian for covering it: https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/peter-gleeson-sunday-telegraph/
Hi P,
Unfortunately that just comes down to COVID-related hour cuts. We’re all working at reduced capacity and no longer cover weekends. This means that by the time Mondays roll around, a few weekend stories will fall through the cracks.
I am aware many high-profile people encouraged people to complain to the Australian Press Council (APC) about this, so we will definitely keep an eye on that ruling either way.
As you can see with this piece though, we are trying to give a platform to the BIPOC community so that more people hear their voices.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
Really well written and appreciated response. Thank you for putting data to thoughts I had while reading through the article.
These are the real underlining factors, which will be missed if we’re only basing opinion on articles which are using current events for self promotion.
As a ‘POC” of African descent and an immigrant, I’d like to challenge some of the writer’s assertions. Firstly, when it comes to race relations, Australia is not the USA. Australia wasn’t founded on 250 years history of slavery, and we didn’t fight a civil war. Australia didn’t have Jim Crow laws, the KKK or race riots in the 60s. Against this backdrop, trying to equate the grievances of the BLM movement in America to Australia’s indigenous community is, in my humble opinion a major stretch. I’m guessing that’s why there’s less interest in BLM. There is enormous public good will towards indigenous Australians, and successive governments have spent, and continue to spend, billions trying to improve their situation.
Secondly, there is no “responsibility” to be either a supporter or activist for BLM. It’s entirely up to the individual. The writer goes completely OTT by suggesting the local PR industry has somehow failed to question its “complicity” in ignoring BLM, and “assuaging your guilt”. I’m guessing agencies are too busy being focused on trying to keep clients well serviced and their staff employed during the Covid crisis.
I’ve worked in the Australian PR industry for 35 years in senior in-house roles and in agencies. I can honestly say I’ve never encountered the “white supremacy” and “systemic racism” that Ms Ramnarine says she’s experienced during her career. I reckon I would’ve come across it by now.
As for never having worked for a “manager of colour” , in my experience that’s less important than working for a decent and fair boss who will judge you on your capabilities and contributions, not your skin colour.
Finally, as one POC to another, here’s some advice for Ms Ramnarine: to succeed in our industry think less about “intersectionality”, “safe spaces” and “unconscious bias”, and focus more on how you can use your skillset to help your clients succeed. They’ll thank you for it, no matter what your colour. It’s worked for me.
While I do not work in an agency, I have had plenty of interaction with agencies over the past thirty years and have had social contact with many during that time. I have never experienced any racist comments or expression of racial bias from any media employees from management through front desk staff. I am sure if there was more media graduates from indigenous or ‘black’ backgrounds they would be treated equally and given all the necessary experience and assistance to reach the top. The number of non-white ‘actors’ being included in tv commercials is one indication of the attempt by agencies to be inclusive. Check it out.
Really appreciate your time to reply and understand the COVID-related hour cuts.
Hopefully the APC ruling will draw more attention to the disgusting words used and Australian advertisers who have been supporting the Black Lives Matter movement will think about where they spend their campaign dollars.
You have written much more eloquently, and with the added perspective of being non-white, than I would have done to echo these thoughts.
Of the 3% of Indigenous people making up Australia’s population, I would hazard a guess that less than 0.001% of all people in PR would be Indigenous Australians.
There are many things that need to be fixed in this country to improve the plight of our First Nations People so it is a shame that this article has been written as just another excuse to get some personal PR and put the boot into the white people that work in this industry.
The struggle has been more visible in the US and has hit mainstream news and cultural references, but the history (distant and recent) in Australia is pretty similar in terms of shamefulness – not that it’s a competition.
This history is not well taught in our country, in fact it’s hidden. Indigenous Australians have not yet had the cultural clout of African Americans to address this. So US comparisons are often based on poor understanding of the actual experience of indigenous Australians.
Tip of the iceberg:
https://theconversation.com/was-there-slavery-in-australia-yes-it-shouldnt-even-be-up-for-debate-140544
Hi Pete, with your thirty years of experience and interaction with agencies, how many non-white people have you met in senior leadership roles? And how many white people have you met in senior leadership roles? I’m sure you’ll agree the percentage is very low
As another POC, I agree with the sentiment but I’ve always had issue with this ‘Educate yourself’ line. Beside it being a bit mean, it’s wholly unpragmatic. We in this industry know it makes no sense to sell your ideas by telling people to look it up. Never mind the multitude who don’t care to do it, the remainder wouldn’t know how.
If you are uninformed on the issues at large, how would you know where to start? What do you even google? Do you know how many terrible takes there are on the internet? Antivax exists because of “self-education.” Ditto with 5G conspiracies and Flat Earth. And these are just the easily scientifically provable ones. When we start talking about social issues with their incredibly complicated nuances, the odds of your average punter stumbling on the ‘right’ take is almost zero.
It’s easy to call out things that are unfair but a lot harder to identify what *is* fair. That’s why it’s incumbent on those who know to tell those who don’t. At the very least we can recommend writers, speakers and pieces as a good place to start. We of all people should know that expecting the uninformed to magically become informed of their own volition is an exercise in futility. This industry wouldn’t exist if that happened.
It just seems so bizarre to call for more POC leadership while telling people they should lead themselves to… where, exactly?
why would you identify as a ‘yellow’ person?… people are people regardless of creed, colour or race…. See you all in 2021