The Brokerage Youth Forum
Over the last six months it has become even more evident that deep-rooted inequalities exist across all facets of our society including the workplace and our education system, against a backdrop of a global health pandemic and significant and crucial race debates.
Our young people had been expressing to us how they had been affected by these events and discussions and we feel strongly about the role The Brokerage can and must play in bringing about change – faster, better, more vocally – in “our” area of expertise.
So we wanted to hear more from our young people about how they had been affected, how they felt about the current situation and how they felt institutional racism could affect your future.
We launched a series of Youth Forums with the first taking place in early July. In our first forum we focussed on race issues and racial injustices. The forum was designed to be a space for our young people to share experiences and raise concerns about racial and diversity concerns in the workplace.
15 young people joined us for the first forum with two Brokerage members of staff facilitating.
Our young people said…
“It means having a conversation about what it’s like to be black in today’s society and it’s about having the uncomfortable conversations that we haven’t had before.”
“What support will there be for ethnic minorities in the workplace? Are we just ‘decoration’? Is there someone to turn to when needs be?”
“The term has its place but employers can use it to avoid culpability, for example you see antiblackness where ‘100 BAME employees’, but not one is black.”
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