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Sign upWe must make a stand
News / 12.07.2021
12 July 2021
An Open Letter
WE MUST TAKE A STAND
On the 31st of March 2021, the UK government published the race report which in not so many ways tried to diminish that racism still exists in this country. Yet, last night we all witnessed the England team which we had all supported to our first finals in 55years lose painfully at penalty stage. A loss which had nothing to do with skin colour suddenly become a race related. We saw a small minority with very loud voices head over to social media spewing hate and racist remarks towards Bukayo Saka (19), Jadon Sancho (21) and Marcus Rashford (23) for missing their penalties. All young men, who have worked hard in contributing to the success of England!
Racism is a societal issue not just isolated to the football industry. Many of these fans are our very own colleagues working with us in the construction industry day in day out. Our industry is one of the least diverse and no doubt our members are constantly telling us of the inequalities in the workplaces. Guaranteed on seeing three black men miss penalties, anxiety levels on racism increasing at work, on the streets, in our day- to-day life was sky high for those from black and minority backgrounds.
As our partner, you have committed to improving inclusion across the built environment and in times like this, we must all stand together, reflect, remind our workforce of the importance of diversity and how your business does not tolerate discrimination, hate and abuse. Past reminding your workforce, are you actively implementing initiatives to foster a more inclusive workforce? When it comes to getting more talent into your businesses, offering services to increase senior level representation, we are making good progress on diversifying but often we still face barriers hidden as lack of experience to name a few. Is this a real sign of wanting change or just having a name associated with your organization? These are all important questions to ask ourselves. Change always starts at the top and representation and normalising seeing a more diverse senior workforce all foster a good culture of inclusivity.
Following last night’s events, we are going to be working with each one of our partners to evaluate exactly how we are improving inclusion and the actions being taken. We are here as a voice for those without a voice and we intend to make real change in our industry. We look forward to working with you on this and to continue make our industry more inclusive.
We do not tolerate racism.
Yours Sincerely
Amos Simbo
Founder and Director
BPIC
