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Building an anti-racist industry together
The FUTURES Network unveils its community manifesto to better identify the barriers and drivers of positive change in their companies.
Nicola Kemp
Editorial Director CreativebriefFUTURES, the network for WACL Future Leader Awards winners has launched a manifesto in order to help the creative industries build businesses which are actively anti-racist.
In Autumn 2020, the FUTURES Network hosted a roundtable discussion and brought their community together from different parts of the industry and specialisms, to share their collective experiences of anti-racist action in their respective workplaces. The collaborative approach of this agenda underlines the fact that the mantra ‘nothing about us without us’ is key to understanding the real barriers and challenges to progress.
Gina Hood, who is on the leadership team at FUTURES Network explained: “The FUTURES community is a great believer in the power of collective learning. By bringing together our brilliant members to discuss their experiences, we hope to empower ourselves to further instigate change, but also share these insights with the wider industry to inspire action.”
Identifying barriers to change: How to shift culture
- To inform the discussion FUTURES ran a survey amongst their community which revealed:
- Pre-2020, 75% of respondents told us that their companies rarely discussed anti-racism proactively. Only 25% did on a regular basis.
- Due to the recent focus on racism within the advertising industry, most people reported some action taken at their workplace, with 47% reporting internal initiatives with budget support, 43% internal initiatives without budget support, and 38% external initiatives with budget support.
- Three out of four respondents tried to instigate changes and discussions internally.
- The biggest factor that enabled people to drive change at their company was a culture that welcomed opinions; psychological safety, community support and knowledge all supported grassroots action
The power of collective learning
Although many organisations have instigated anti-racism initiatives and driven conversations internally, the FUTURES anti-racism roundtable was a unique opportunity to bring a cross-industry, diverse group of women into a room, in various stages of their careers, to act as one single voice and to learn from each other.
Maria St Louis, Inclusion and Diversity Manager at Channel4, a FUTURES member and the co-moderator of the roundtable, explained: “If we all make a commitment to listen, teach, evaluate systems and lean into the discomfort it can bring with compassion, then we have a real opportunity to make sustainable and systemic change within our industry and therefore in the world in which we live. By coming together in solidarity for each other, we are committing to positive change for all and pushing for talk to equate action. Together we are stronger.”
Her co-moderator, Selma Nicholls, Founder and Casting Director at Looks Like Me and FUTURES member, added that she was proud to belong to a community inspired by collective learning. She explained: “By discussing our lived experiences, members help educate each other and create meaningful change".
In this safe and open forum, together they built a community manifesto on how to identify barriers and drivers of positive change in their companies. FUTURES now has over 150 female members as part of their community that span across all parts of the industry from mid to senior management.
Anti-racism is a shift in behaviour and culture. Understanding what we mean by it will in turn shift perceptions that this is a problem for all of us to solve, not a select few. Defined by the members of the FUTURES Network as:
● “A journey not just a destination”
● “A shift from awareness to action”
● “Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable”
● “Not just not being racist; actively fighting against racism”
● “Systemic change as well as personal change.
Barriers to change
FUTURES identified the key challenges in some organisations, which has meant that anti-racism fell lower in the priority list. These included:
- No budget. Lack of money for longer-term change, or non-reallocation of funds for quick wins/prioritising change.
- Accessibility. Leadership or committees making it difficult for people to contribute and not being transparent about action.
- Business pressure. Clients not building change on racism into objectives/requirements from suppliers.
- Hiring freezes, meaning active recruitment more difficult at the present.
- Responsibility. Absence of a formal role for handling anti-racist initiatives.
- Lack of supporting voices, both from leadership and staff.
- Not enough time. Employees expected to support and manage initiatives within working hours.
- Emotional labour. Burden on Black employees to drive change.
- Words not deeds. Rushing into early PR, or token actions that are performative procrastination.
FUTURES Community Manifesto
To overcome these barriers and drive positive change, FUTURES Network offers 10 starters to building an anti-racist industry for leaders and peers to take back to their businesses.
FUTURES’ mission is underpinned by the pillars of Connection, Insight and Solution: they believe in the power of group collective learning, harnessing this to drive action. That’s why they want to share 10 starters sourced from the positive drivers and barriers discussion, to help equip people to move into a ‘brave’ space of change.
1. DEDICATE TIME & MONEY. Both are vital to change. Reallocate and prioritise budget, and think about where you can support Black suppliers, and use, and pay, Black diversity consultants. Allow a percentage of time for employees to implement initiatives.
2. CREATE PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY. Support cultures that enable bold, candid discussion and people to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
3. THINK SHORT TERM & LONG TERM. Don’t miss the quick wins, as well as planning for the long-term systemic change.
4. BE ACCOUNTABLE. State objectives/trackable targets and be answerable to them to ensure deeds as well as words.
5. ENABLE EDUCATION. Provide resources and training for self-education and harness the power of pre-existing networks for sharing this.
6. BE AN EVERYDAY ALLY. Share the burden and the work. Keep supporting those affected, and advocate for them.
7. ENCOURAGE DIALOGUE. Encourage networks, community support and peer conversation.
8. HARNESS INTERSECTIONAL ACTION. Utilise existing action and learnings on gender equality to support anti-racism.
9. BE TRANSPARENT. Continue to share as the progress develops across all levels of organisations, and encourage participation, learning and listening.
10. WORK AS ONE. If you’re at the top of an organisation, listen and act. If you’re a company member, use your community to keep the pressure on, and contribute.
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