My workplace is overwhelmingly white. What can I do to raise diversity awareness?

I work for a large governmental agency. It is on the whole a liberal and open-minded place with good diversity in terms of gender and sexual orientation, but it is overwhelmingly white, especially at more senior levels. I am pretty sure my colleagues don’t have active prejudices, but I am also not sure they are conscious of this issue or thinking about how to change it.

I’m white and have a medium-senior position. Only relatively recently, by reading Reni Eddo-Lodge and others, have I become a lot more aware of how seriously race prejudice still affects people in this country. I would really like to do something within my organisation, but I am not sure where to start. I’m conscious of not trying to be a saviour (and I am seriously not a lover of any limelight that might come my way), or of pushing my own perceptions of what is necessary, rather than allowing people of colour to set the agenda. But I also don’t know how to open those conversations with the few non-white people in the organisation, without that in itself highlighting their race – which they may wish not to make an issue. Plus, there are so few non-white people that I don’t even have any particular relationships with non-white colleagues. There are none on my team or on the teams I work closely with.

Finally, I am conscious that I myself managed out the only non-white person I did work with. I genuinely think she was not performing in her job, to the extent that it put progress in delivering a really important public service at risk, and the (white) person I hired to replace her is a lot better. I did make efforts to try to improve her work etc, but for reasons that I think were pretty specific to her, those efforts were not successful. But it’s kind of not a good look if I then try to advance a diversity agenda.

Maybe the best thing I can do is “stay in my lane” and merely talk positively about diversity to colleagues. When involved in recruitment decisions I can be alert to diversity, and if I do get a chance to encourage, advocate for or mentor a person of colour then I will take it up. But that seems a pretty lame approach that relies on others to do the lifting, when there is no indication that they will.

You have recognised there may be a problem here, and that deserves credit. Acknowledging that our successes may relate to privilege rather than just hard work, and that others may be unfairly losing out, can be uncomfortable. By choosing not to be colour-blind, you have made the first step.

I spoke to Pooja Sachdev, a consultant and author of Rewire: A Radical Approach to Tackling Diversity and Difference, who points out how important this is: “Many people in senior positions say the right words, but deep down they don’t think this is an issue – they believe just following the processes is enough. The reader actually wants to know what he can do.”

Sachdev says to think about where you have influence. Perhaps in your power over recruitment? It’s important not to set people up to fail: “That in itself can lead to a dangerous narrative about certain candidates not being good enough,” says Sachdev. So instead of promoting people out of guilt, think about things like cross-cultural competence: “Subjective terms – like confidence, indecisiveness, gravitas, arrogance – can be used to describe people’s performance. We need to do the extra work of thinking about these words. Where a person comes from can change how they perceive a question, and how their response is perceived.” This may include asking why one person was called arrogant in a context where a different person behaving similarly wasn’t.

Getting people through the door might also be important. Temporary or locum staff may be one route. Is enough being done to ensure the best people are applying to roles, instead of just the ones who feel comfortable to? “It’s about knowing the impact of little things,” says Sachdev. “Research shows that women tend to underestimate their readiness for a role if they think they don’t meet all the listed criteria. So one person once suggested to me, why don’t we just write on job adverts: you don’t have to tick all the boxes to apply. Small things like that can make a difference.”

There may be ways you can push forward on race, too. See whether your organisation published a race audit alongside the compulsory gender pay audit. If not, suggest they do. Try to focus on real change instead of diversity programmes, which the Harvard business review looked into in great depth, explaining why they fail and what alternatives you may seek out.

Your question suggests that you don’t really believe there is one lane for you and another for others. You have taken the brave first step of acknowledging a problem and your own privilege. But don’t beat yourself up, or be afraid. We all have privileges – myself, as a brown lady, included. The best we can do is to begin to name the issue and start to do something: “It’s about being colour-brave, not colour-blind,” says Sachdev.

Doing this will take the burden off non-white people in your organisation having to call this out themselves. In doing that, you will also set the precedent that this is something everyone should care about, not just a minority issue. Those actions will be incredibly helpful, even if nothing else comes of this. But I’m sure something will.