Respect, Advocate, Change: What Black History Month means to me

Not many people know this, but I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. My mother’s side of the family is from Nigeria and my great grandmother was a woman of colour and a formidable woman. She lived a small river village and was a well-respected person in her community. When she passed the whole village came and celebrated her life and mourned with us. My Nigerian ancestry has taught me so much, such as being a strong woman as well as respecting others and their cultures.

My father’s story is just as important to me. My father moved to Nigeria alone when he was 14 years old, he lived and died there. He loved Nigeria and felt that the people there needed to be respected and admired. He spoke Hausa, the language of the North of Nigeria and my mother speaks Yoruba, which made for exciting times when they fought! Although I grew up in the UK the Nigerian culture was strong in my household, from the language spoken, to the food we ate, to the music we listened to.

My history with Nigeria and the black culture is rich and something that I know has made me a more rounded person and the women I am today. But what does Black History Month mean to me? It’s a time for us to stop and reflect on the achievements of black communities, leaders, even colleagues and friends.

As the leader of the projects team within Rethink, I am proud to say we have a diverse team, but how have we achieved this? In the recruitment process I wanted to get to the core of who people are and what they are passionate about. I believe this allows people to bring their whole self to work and be seen for who they are. This allows us to tap into their authenticity and personality to do their jobs. In a business where we help our clients find the best talent, doing that with no bias and focusing on the best candidate is critical. I believe if we give our teams the support and ability to be themselves, they pay it forward. Every candidate and client should feel the same support to be themselves and celebrate who they are.

I am proud of my history and upbringing and feel a deep connection with Africa, and I want to ensure to lead a team who can be respectful and supporting of everyone. But to be brutally honest there have been people within my team and across many organisations globally that have been treated differently because of the colour of their skin. This month allows them to share some of these stories, but it’s all our responsibilities to change that, the burden is not just on black people.

Although I have not experienced racism directly, I have witnessed it with my grandmother being followed in shops by security, which even as a 6-year-old child I understood what was happening and faced-off to security. Or when I was 19 and working in a hotel in London, a manager called out all my black colleagues but told me it did not apply to me, I stood up and challenged that. I resigned and made a formal complaint. I am sharing this because it has to start with you and a willingness to not tolerate any racism or underlying tone that means someone of colour is not being treated fairly.

In recruitment the top agenda for most of our clients is Diversity, Equality and Inclusion which is fantastic but what does that really mean for the black communities? There are fantastic organisations such as 10,000 Black Interns who are driving change at entry level. And let’s be honest, we need to change the diversity from C-Suite level down - but giving opportunity to black youths is an important start. I was lucky enough to work at the BBC when they ran the Stephen Lawrence internship managing the team that was identifying these people is something I am most proud of. But we can do more!

And now I look at how this month translates into what we do in our day to day lives. For me it starts with showing our black colleagues that we are here to support and advocate for them if needed. That we will not allow colleagues to be treated differently just because of the colour of their skin. Now is the time for action and not words. Action Not Words.

#BlackHistoryMatters #BlackHistoryMonth2022 #TimeForChange #ActionNotWords #Rethink