While in the US companies have pulled DEI off their websites, the UK has largely further entrenched it into law, but with notable setbacks. The most misread story in our field is the "mass roll back and collapse" of DEI in the US and, some assume, in the UK. But when you look closely, and two countries are heading in almost opposite directions. In the US, the currently administration declared war on DEI and the retreat has been loud. References to "DEI" fell by around 98% acr

The term "white privilege" continues to be a lightning rod. A while back, I wrote an article about how the term had been weaponised and suggested it might be time to ditch it. A few years on, we are still having the same conversations. Recently, I listened to two people who often speak eloquently on issues of race – celebrated South African comedian and host Travor Noah and Femi Oluwole, a British political activist, journalist and co-founder of the pro-European Union advocac

DEI is under attack and yet its core principles and aims have never been more important.

Is there a widespread “pushback” against DEI or have some sections of the media decided to make this an issue and give voice to the few naysayers and doubters? On January 11th, the BBC posted an article on their home page with a catchy headline: “ Is a DEI Backlash Brewing”. On clicking the headline, I was taken to an article by Elizabeth Bennett entitled: US Business Leaders Are Pushing Back against Years of Corporate Diversity Efforts. As per the headline question – is a DE

The phrase "diversity of opinion" is to DEI work what #AllLivesMatter is to #BlackLivesMatter, a seemingly benign but extremely harmful attempt to obfuscate, devalue, and derail meaningful diversity efforts. It has no place in serious DEI Work. As a DEI consultant and lead, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the phrase “Diversity of Opinion” being thrown around. In my opinion, the term is a lousy, clumsy, ridiculous excuse for justifying having more white men in th

Introduction In June 2023, the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket released report entitled Holding Up A Mirror to Cricket. The report was through and extensive and unforgiving for the England Cricket Board (ECB). The report found in ECB an organisation bedevilled with widespread racism, classism, and sexism. The report put forward forty recommendations for the ECB to clean up bias and discrimination. In this review, I will only focus on the recommendations on Approa

Human civilisation and society have always operated on the presumption, promise and ideal of fairness. That is why we have political ideologies like socialism, communism, and even capitalism. That’s why we have legal systems, social welfare systems, a national health service, etcetera. And we require fairness in the way the media covers stories. So, when the Titan, a seemingly improvised sub carrying five wealthy people, went missing in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and th

Imagine you come home to find an abandoned baby on your doorstep. Suddenly, the baby is your responsibility regardless of who left it there or why. You should treat everything in life like a baby on the doorstep. Even if think it’s someone else’s fault, it’s always your responsibility to do something about whatever situation you find yourself in. To illustrate a point about taking responsibility for your life, Mark Manson, in his book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k, giv

Men, we have a problem. Violence against women. And we are the problem, the cause. This violence is not a women's issue; it's our issue. We must lead the way in fixing it! In the days following the discovery of Sarah Everard's body in 2021, one BBC headline read: Sarah Everard: How a woman’s death sparked a nation’s soul-searching. Many news outlets ran similar headlines about how the murder of the 33-year-old woman in London had sparked a national conversation about women’s

We have heard it too many times that it has graduated from dogma to undisputed fact. Population growth is at heart of the climate change crisis. There are too many people and the planet cannot cope. But is that really the case? What other subliminal messaging could be lurking in such thinking? Michael Moore's "documentary", Planet of The Humans, tried to expose (and rightly so) what he saw as the issues with renewable energy in the fight against climate change. In the doc

In today's polarised society, the term "white privilege" has been weaponised. Ditching it may be the best way to move the conversation foward. Origin of the term “White Privilege” is an academic term that was supposedly coined by civil rights activist William Du Bois in the 1930s, but brought into academic prominence by anti-racism activist and writer Peggy McIntosh in her 1988 essay entitled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. In the essay, Peggy wrote: “As a

In today's polarised society, the term "white privilege" has been weaponised. Ditching it may be the best way to move the conversation foward. Origin of the term “White Privilege” is an academic term that was supposedly coined by civil rights activist William Du Bois in the 1930s, but brought into academic prominence by anti-racism activist and writer Peggy McIntosh in her 1988 essay entitled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. In the essay, Peggy wrote, “As a

We agonise over the outcomes and consequences of our decisions. But should we? Decisions are neither good nor bad, they are different. But here is how to make decision-making easy. Our lives are series of decisions punctuated by intended and unintended consequences of those decisions. We make decisions every minute, hour, day, month…. Whether it’s a small decision - to eat an apple or a banana, or big decisions like buying a house, marrying someone, moving to another country;

The British and American media have been dominated by headlines that black and ethnic minority people are dying disproportionately from Covid-19. That is a crass and gross misrepresentation. The British media has been carrying headlines about the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on black and ethnic minority people. In the US, similar stories have dominated most news networks, especially in Chicago where 70% of those who have died from Covid-19 are black. These developme