For or Against?

I woke up feeling depressed. It had been a while since I arrived the UK and out of job. Quite frankly I was feeling very defeated. I've applied for jobs and I was told I'm either over qualified or not a perfect fit for the role. I was not given a chance. Once the recruiter calls and discovers from my accent that I'm an immigrant, black immigrant, the conversation changes and there is always an excuse to want to leave the call. "Something urgent just came up that needs my attention. Let me call you back" they'll say. Of course, they don't call back.

My aunt whom I was living with adviced that I forget my dreams of working as an IT professional and rather find a minimum wage job at Sainsbury’s because that's what black freshly minted immigrants like myself do. She told me not to compare myself with her son (my cousin) who was already working as an IT support staff somewhere. In her words, he is British and doesn't have my Yoruba accent ignoring the fact that I'm way more qualified than he is. It dawned on me that even within the family, there is an expectation of failure.

That morning, I decided to be innovative. I printed little flyers and shared them in the neighbourhood. The flyer reads, "Do you need someone to clean your house, watch your kids, take care of your garden or laundry? Give me a call. I live in your neighbourhood and you'll have the opportunity to carryout background checks". I got quite a number of enthusiastic callers who always become less excited once they perceive from my accent (not minding that I speak very near perfect English) that I'm not one of them. Needless to say I didn't get a single person to hire me. They can't trust a black immigrant in or around their property.

After several months, I eventually got a job with one of the leading telecommunications company in Europe. I was an analyst. My line manager knew from our interactions how much I needed the job and how limited my options were. He will cuss and use the F word with me so randomly. Something he would never do with his other direct reports. He made it clear that I was at his mercy. He exploited my situation. He will ask racially charged questions about Nigeria. Once he asked, "How come you speak and write so well? Did you drive to school or ride donkeys?" When he realised how ridiculous he was sounding because I told him my first experience of riding a donkey was in Greece, he added, "I love animals. You guys are so lucky".

I finally left the UK and returned to Lagos. I remember losing a bid for a consulting and training opportunity at a multinational, a very big firm with the name of two countries in its own name. I didn't think much of it because like everything else, we lose some and we win some until a contact directly involved with the selection process told me we had the best proposal and our offer was most competitive. However, the person(s) responsible for deciding who gets the job said they'll prefer a white person from the UK to come deliver the solution. It was PRINCE2 training. In their own judgement, it gives more credibility to their project. At the time, I was the only licensed PRINCE2 trainer in West Africa. I had been part of the very first set of accredited PRINCE2 Professionals in the world when the Professional level of the certification was launched at the beginning of last decade. I passed the rigorous 18 step assessment process brilliantly. The white person they preferred was accredited and licensed by the same body that licensed and accredited me. I being local meant I was quoting in Naira without the additional logistics and travel expenses but still, I am not good enough. Not because I'm incompetent or lacking experience, but because I'm black and Nigerian. I'm not good enough for the optics of the project.

Schooling abroad, my best times where the ones where I had multicultural and very diverse colleagues and faculty. In the less diverse ones, there were usually a lot of prejudice. I remember leading a team of all white people at a Financial Times top ten business school and getting condescending remarks, not been taken seriously and sometimes being outrightly told to F off. Something that rarely happens when it's the turn of a white colleague to lead the team.

The media too is culpable. The narrative of Africa they mostly project to the world is one of a starving, dying very backward people that needs saving. Little wonder why immigrants from 3rd world nations are seen as opportunists who have come to take from the West and not necessarily contribute to the growth they have come to be a part of.

These stories and testimonies of my lived experiences with racism and discrimination isn't proof that I understand completely the struggles of Black Americans and the systemic racism that's so endemic and sadly woven into the the fabric of the American society. However, it speaks to the many sides of the same problem faced by countless millions across the globe.

If we don't look we won't see. When we turn a blind eye, we tell those directly impacted by this evil that they don't matter. When we deny services to or tell a gay man he should be jailed or killed because he prefers to be in relationship with an adult of same sex; tell a woman she can't buy a property without her husband or male relative's consent; won't rent our properties to someone of a certain tribe or consent to our child marrying someone they love who doesn't look like us, we are also culpable of similar motivations as those of the police officer that killed George Floyd. It is that simple.

I used to believe that excellence is the greatest deterrent to racism, sexism, tribalism and all similar evils. It's painfully untrue. The thinking that we can work our way to recognition, acceptance or equality simply through excellence is illusory. Look around you, there are marginalised groups, tribes, communities and people who are exceptional yet underserved or totally ignored.

We shouldn't need to say something so obviously true but tragically we do, black lives matter. Racism is exacerbated by undefeatable ignorance. For the sake of mankind, we should not be uninformed. Ignorance might be bliss but to those affected, it is literal destruction. Ignorance doesn't absolve anyone of culpability.

It's not enough for those discriminated against to work 10 times as hard and several times more excellently but for those who perpetrate these injustices to learn to love and come to a place of understanding of how those on the receiving end of their actions or inactions are affected. It's also for those on the fence and with superior morality complex to side with the marginalised and oppressed. There are no middle grounds. If you don't speak against prejudice in clear terms, if you don't fight unequivocally with your voice and your means, you're already one of them, those with their knees on the neck of another.

It is not enough to say, "I don't discriminate or see colour" because that's not true. If you don't fight those who set up and continually perpetrate systems that hurt the vulnerable, you're culpable. Indeed, when we don't see colour or acknowledge what we see as truly what they are - prejudice - we give more power to the perpetrator and take a dim view of the pain and suffering of the oppressed.

There's outrage and people all over the world have taken to the streets in protest. Many people are already asking questions like, what can we do? I remember reading a tweet by a Partner at Sequoia Capital asking a similar question. Regardless of how well meaning it sounds, asking "how do we fix the system?" is already offloading the problem. Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. It has backed companies that now control $1.4 trillion of combined stock market value. What about Sequoia hiring talented black associates? What about bringing talented black people within Sequoia to the table? McQuitty & Ashley is an investment firm I started recently. A project conceived out of the sheer fact that I couldn't get venture capitalists and fund managers to look in the direction of Africa and minority owned businesses. I was relying on my network and contacts at Silicon Valley to provide visibility to some amazing projects in Africa. The journey has been everything but smooth. Offering platitudes and niceties aren't enough if we won't back it up with concrete actions. I was looking at the websites of leading VC firms and fund managers in America, the Whiteness of the Team is unmistakable. We must effect changes first within our immediate sphere of influence.

When black people, women, marginalised communities etc. get a seat at the table, it must never be done for the optics. Don't ask them to leave their blackness or any other thing that defines them at the door, don't leave them to focus only on black matters, women affairs, community related issues because that's just bullsh*t. Empower them to be a part of the real action. We must push the conversation, narratives and legislation beyond equality to equity. We must do better than hoping everyone gets the same thing to ensuring everyone gets what they need to better improve their lives and living conditions.

Image from Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire. interactioninstitute.org, madewithangus.com

The men who benefit from cultures that promote patriarchy and misogyny, white people that gain from institutional rasicm and the privilege it bestows must themselves lead the charge in dismantling and curing these cancers eating up our communities. We cannot normalise the pain minorities feel. We cannot be deaf or blind to the agitations of millions and their cry to be heard or seen. It is true that we judge what we do not understand and judgement doesn't come from the place of love. It's always a product of fear. We must therefore replace those fears with love. Fear brings torment and not just to the fearful but to everyone around them. We cannot offer judgements right now but understanding. No one is better than the other. Fear makes us think we are. Only love can truly show us who we are, equal and by all means the same in the eyes of God.