Foreword

2020 was a year the history books will never forget.

Already in the grips of a paralysing global pandemic, the world was then shaken by the shocking scenes of George Floyd’s tragic, brutal and callous death. The catalyst for arguably the largest worldwide civil rights movement, individuals and organisations united in the call for an end to racial inequality.

 

While overt and direct racism is widely condemned by Western society, the killing of George Floyd brought to the
forefront the impact of systemic and covert racism. This includes subconscious bias and structural racism
which is often all too easy to either ignore or dismiss. As such, it’s important that leaders within companies and organisations take steps to consciously address the structural racism that still exists, no matter how tolerant they consider the organisation to already be. If leaders take a systematic approach to reviewing and challenging inequalities, any which exist will begin to break down and, subsequently, companies will be able to move further towards true diversity and equivalence.

 

As three females of African and Caribbean heritage and drawing on our own personal life experiences, including
our own encounters of racism, we have reflected on how we can support society in challenging the racial inequalities that exist. Racial injustice is not a problem unique to the United States but present and prevalent in British society and arguably all Western cultures.