George Floyd: 100 Days
100 days since the death of George Floyd, ELBA CEO Ian Parkes discusses why businesses play a vital role in driving change
The effectiveness of a new leader or Government, or a new boss at the head of an organisation, is sometimes measured by the degree of change achieved after 100 days. Sometimes you can see the change sometimes you can’t.
It is 100 days today since the death of George Floyd. His killing was followed by protests around the world and calls for fundamental change.
How much change has there been?
Of course, you cannot set right five centuries of social and economic injustice in such a short period, but could this just be the 100 days that changed the path that we are on?
From here, can we shift the trajectory of young peoples’ lives so that they grow up into a world which is genuinely fair and just for all?
As a founder of SHIFT25 we are determined that it should be so.
The fact of the matter is that black and brown children and young people do not believe they will get a fair chance – no matter how hard they work and apply themselves. Add in a working class background, and they feel the odds are very heavily stacked against them.
The evidence says they are right:
Research by the LSE (The Class Ceiling) shows that people from black and BAME backgrounds earn less than their white counterparts;
The TUC found that black graduates from the from the same university with the same class of degree do not achieve the same level of earnings;
A young black male graduate is twice as likely to be unemployed as his white counterpart (BTEG).
You don’t have to look far to find a wealth of other evidence that says the same – the life chances of black and brown young people and children are simply not the same as those from white families. It’s not right on any grounds, socially, economically, morally.
In the face of this unfairness, black families are having to have “The Talk” with their children, urging them to achieve at 110% in order to get on; young black and brown people are learning to code switch, to hide their backgrounds and accents; people in the workplace hide their personality to fit in with a perceived norm, and put up with the daily micro-aggressions.
It’s clearly time to change and that is what SHIFT25 is pressing for – a fairer future for black and brown children and young people. Governments could and should legislate, but we believe that business has the real power to bring about fundamental change, and quickly. Business can change who they recruit, who they encourage as they move through education, how they pay their employees, how they promote them, and how they appoint the leadership of the organisation. It doesn’t require legislation, any business can make those changes now.
I am lucky enough as CEO of ELBA to work with a group of major businesses who for many years have been taking initiatives to try to redress the balance. They can point to many great programmes, but even they would now pause and say it has not been enough. That’s the point of SHIFT25 – we want people of seniority and influence from a wide circle of business, commerce, the professions, the arts and media to come together to use their influence to press for more fundamental change, and quicker.
Please take a moment to find out more – look at the statement of intent on the SHIFT25 website. Start a conversation with your colleagues, bosses, people who work for you.
Join us at SHIFT25 and help make the change.
We cannot change the world in 100 days but we ought to start on the journey that will.