“Let’s stop talking about it. Talk is cheap. You can’t say Black Lives Matter if you don’t have any black employees in your office.” By Sharon Chuter, Founder and CEO of UOMA Beauty.
I applaud the empowering "Pull Up for Change" challenge by Sharon Chuter, which encourages businesses to reveal how diverse (or not!) they are. Sharon came up with the idea for the challenge as the wave of protests by the Black Lives Matter movement gathered momentum. Sharon has put this important issue at the top of the agenda by starting the conversation about diversity in the beauty industry.
I would also like to open this challenge to the Creative Agencies who represent fashion and beauty brands. Can they promote equal opportunities and diversity by being transparent about how many of their companies' senior leadership roles, such as Chief Executives, Managing Directors or Executive Creative Directors, are presently held by members of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME, UK) and Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BlPOC, US) communities?
Creative agencies are keen to get a share of the lucrative BAME pound and BlPOC dollar, but if they genuinely want to embrace cultural transformation, then the BAME and BIPOC communities should be represented in their workforce at all levels, including management.
Jennifer Twumasi, Gemini People consultant, discussed BAME representation within the creative industries (Little Black Book, 2020), which said
“...brands and agencies are happy to use black culture in mainstream advertising campaigns, but, won’t necessarily hire from ethnic minorities to work in their agencies…there is very little diversity within the creative industries due to lack of representation at board and senior management level.
By creating a change in leadership representation, there is hope to create an environment for long-term, sustainable inclusion for BAME professionals in the creative industries”.
Will creative agencies genuinely embrace diversity by hiring more BAME or BlPOC employees? Or will they just carry on with the ‘woke’ #blacklivesmatter posts at the same time as ignoring the systemic racism their companies help to perpetuate?
Be leaders and be accountable - take part in the #pullupforchange challenge.
#equalopportunities #equalityanddiversity #diversityandinclusion #inclusiveleadership #diversityequityinclusion #diversity #stopracism #blacklivesmatter #allyship #notoracism #bame #creativeagency #advertisingcampaign #advertisingagency #unconsciousbias #ethnicity #fashionindustry #beautyindustry #pullupforchange #pulluporshutup #systemicracism #antiracism #bipoc
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