Exclusion and equality!

As I reflect on these two concepts, exclusion and equality, I link them to some of my personal experiences. I was moved to write this piece because of some incident that took place this week. I take an excursion to places where you would think that you would meet the kindest and most thoughtful people, where you would be included and treated with equality – for example, the church and organisations with people that espouse that they care about the poor, developing countries, Africa etc. In my limited experiences of these few places, I have met some of the most horrible and hateful people that words cannot describe. The display of psychopathic tendencies, especially by those most revered and venerated and how they manipulate people for their selfish gain, use their social skills to gang up, bully and belittle others. One of the reasons, I stay out of organised religion. 

One of the issues that Black Minority Ethnic (BME) face especially in the workplace, is exclusion. This morning, I read the case of a council worker who won a race row relating to a colleague placing a plant pot on her desk, excluding him from having conversations with work colleagues. Benyam Kenbata took legal action and claimed that the plant was placed on a colleague’s desk, blocking his view, thereby segregating him and restricted the ease with which he could hold discussions with colleagues (London Evening Standard). Often times and in this case, in the workplace, instances like this are not taken seriously and laughed at. I found the headline quite ridiculous at first but when I read Mr Kenbata’s viewpoint, I understood where he was coming from. No matter the subtle jibes and inconspicuous behaviours of bullying, the bullied is human and has feelings. Acts of Exclusion with little subtleties and nuances actually hurt people. It was an act, whether intended or not, that excluded him.

What people do not understand is the hurt, emotional pain and trauma that exclusion brings to the person excluded. Some of my friends, including myself, have experienced pain and emotional turmoil because of some nasty and unprofessional people who just feel superior putting others down, just for being different. Most time, the oppressed just bears it because they know that there will never be justice. They will get labelled as the troublemakers.

Many times, we read about racism in the workplace, usually, by a white colleague to a person of an ethnic minority. I want to deviate from that and talk about discrimination and exclusion from within the BME group -BME Versus BME. The categorisation of BME is wide and varied and cannot be homogenised. The group is made up of people from different nationalities, ethnic groups and different cultures. Within the BME group, there is this unspoken hierarchy where the black African is placed at the bottom of the hierarchy. The question thus is and in this instance, where an aggressor is a person of BME group, when can you claim discrimination?

When do subtle digs become so serious of an issue that you report to HR or any reporting officers? And how do you prove that those subtle digs where indeed acts of discrimination? Remember, it may not be deemed as racism because those behaviours were meted out by a person of BME group even though, you are from different nationalities. And how do you fight for justice when your aggressor is close to the top echelon? Where is the justice going to come from?

In all these, I reflect on and ask some question, such as if there was anything that I could have done differently, could I have handled the situation differently, is being quiet, not being garrulous or loquacious a good thing or rather damaging? Am I being too emotional and should just zip it, suck it up and pretend that the bad behaviour never happened? Is my perpetrator oblivious to their behaviour? Even if it was intentional, should I rise above it? Should I speak to this person even though I want nothing to do with this person? Is it petty and should I focus on bigger things like putting things in place for my career progression? Move on, move forward, move out? If I make noise about exclusion, will I be seen as the aggressor and will there be anyone to sympathise with me? Will I be further excluded and victimised, knowing fully well how many people want to be in favour with those on top (or have some linkage to the top), suck up to them, sympathise with me in secret but pretend when they are confronted in actually speaking the truth. Going for it means confronting a majority who would support this person, who is quite likeable, highly manipulative and knows how to pull strings to gather people, who will then out of sympathy for them, victimise you.

At the end, is there really genuine fairness out there? How cliché is the equality and diversity policy in the workplace and does justice really come easily?