I believe truly and vehemently in diversity - no, no. Not your diversity that plonks a few black and brown people at the sides of offices to make editors and managers feel as though they doing something good in the world. *Gives white manager proverbial shoulder rub to facilitate that comfortability you are so very used to*
No, the type of diversity that allows BAME people the freedom to EXPRESS, to make MISTAKES at work, to be themselves without having to worry every single day if they have code switched their tongue and physical mannerisms well enough.
I believe in diversity of THOUGHT, not in schemes and apprenticeships by companies that scream how well they are doing by allowing alternative people though their doors, only to cower in horror when a BAME person actually speaks freely on their stories and ideas that are ultimately too wildly different from what posh, stale and white workers know.
I believe in a diversity that will allow me to banter with people of ‘my kind’. Yes, I said that unapologetically. It is not that I believe I am humanely different from you as a white person, but our cultures and experiences are not and will never be the same. We may have some cute things in common to talk about such as “Loving the colour of your nails, Stacey!”, but 8 hours a day of me uncomfortably laughing at jokes I don’t understand and wondering when they day will be over so that I can speak to another black girl about the state of Hip-Hop isn’t what I’m about to do.
Read my article for the Metro here, a solution-based piece revealing how managers can create healthy working conditions for BAME people dealing with the effects of societal + economic imbalance.