If you identify yourself as BAME and have a white manager

[passthepesto]

I've just finished watching The school that tried to end racism and it made me start thinking about transference to the work place. I am white British and accept that I have a privilege at work as a result I line manage a number of BAME staff and shortly will be moving into a new to role to manage other managers with mixed ethnicity and race.

I was so impressed with the children in the program and how they opened up to each other, in particular with how they addressed discussions about race and it got me wondering... if you are BAME and have a white British manager, what do you wish they knew?

I have never thought of myself as racist but watching the program has made me aware that I can be colourblind and not necessarily think of the bias/difficulties that those who are not white may have... naively assuming that people are not facing racial bias in the workplace.

I work in HR so I get to see lots of what goes on at both an individual and organisational level.

I find that generally speaking, staff and managers have satisfactory working relationships on a 121 basis. However, all organisations I have worked in have had BAME/women in the lower levels of the organisation and white men (and a few women) at the top. Plus, BAME staff are less likely to get promoted and are more likely to be disciplined, statistically speaking. Most managers don't like to think of themselves as racist, but clearly something is in the 'system' isn't working as it should.

I don't have the answers, but I think there is something about encouraging diversity of views within the organisation. Also, recognising that, you don't need to look or speak a certain way to be talented. A good manager/leader should develop all of their staff, but BAME staff for example, may need more support, or different support to overcome invisible barriers.

I know this will make me sound like an incompetent sour puss but looking at my work place, 70% are BAME however the managers and better paid staff are white men and women. They also seem to progress and be put forward more.
Maybe it is my workplace, maybe it's the whole system and the opportunities and privileges they have just because they are white, i don't know. I would like more opportunities specifically tor BAME. I know positive discrimination exists in recruitment but I would like to see it in my work place in promotions.

My white manager dismissed concerns about a racist client. Instead of refusing them service I had to deal with them all the while dreading him making a comment because i know whose side the managers will take. They will say i overreacted, the client is frustrated. I get the impression that they don't believe me.

Certain accents making employee more favourable, chosen to represent the employer unless its a token photo of diversity for twitter or website.
That's in a charity sector btw. This is just my own experience.

Thank you for your replies. I never got a notification so assumed nobody had sent a reply so apologies for the delay in coming back to you.

I definitely agree there is still some consideration made for appointing staff based on race/gender/age etc as I recently watched someone calculate ages on applications based on details & circle the number next to the name and called them up on it. I personally only print the body of application off with candidate numbers so I do my shortlist fully without considering age/gender/race but I know that I am rare in that respect.

My last two appointments were both young asian muslim women (by coincidence) and the team previously was largely white middle aged men & women... probably because my predecessor was a white middle aged man so recruited people who felt "familiar" and like himself.

I also refused to let a customer make racist comments against a black african member of my team and called the customer out for their behaviour (& they regularly put in complaints about me now for it but I stand by my actions) so I think I am doing everything you have suggested but I have picked up some food for thought here so thank you because the comment about BAME staff maybe needing more or different support makes me think, generally we have less BAME staff apply for senior roles however this could be due to previous rejection and the feeling that they are always beaten by someone with white privilege so with some nurture for personal development perhaps I can change that tide in my own team and encourage them to apply.