Eddie said...
I’m not sure if actions always speak louder than words though. The case of Ron Atkinson is a good example. Yes, here’s a guy who promoted black players when under the media spotlight and the cameras were rolling. But when 90 minutes were up and he thought his mic was switched off, he called Marcel Desaiily the dreaded n-word.

It’s all very well putting on a good show for the public but it’s what we say off the record that is a true barometer of whether or not we’ve truly bought into something, in this case equal opportunity. We need to engage hearts before minds: we need to truly believe in change before we seek to implement it. Because it’s who we are when we think no-one’s looking that truly counts. Just ask Big Ron.

Andrew Metcalfe said...
I think we have to avoid assuming that this MP can be branded as "disgraced". All too often things are over heard that can be taken out of context.

However I also admit that on the flip side I have met similar gentlemen who are racist and hide behind a PC smokescreen. The lift incident mentioned in the article is more cut and dried in my eyes.

I think the real judge is action. Ron Atkinson said things about the black french footballer Marcel Desailly that are completely unacceptable when he thought no-one could hear, but he did a lot to promote black players being accepted in football. Maybe overall he should not be considered a racist, but someone with a bad vocabulary.

I wrote a similar blog piece not so long ago about HR departments having the opposite problem. Just because people say the right things does not mean they don't actually discriminate, even sub-consciously.

Maybe some people are walking the walk, not talking the talk and others are the more obvious talking and not walking.

Danny said...
Hear, hear! Well said that man. This story should send alarm bells ringing through the corridors of power. It should be the spark that stirs people into action. It should lead to a clamour of outrage and protest.

It should, but it won’t.

The reality? No spark, no outcry, no outrage. Embarrassed hush, nervous cough, closed door, case closed. “Racism? Around here? Don’t be so absurd!”

Gross caricature? Sadly not. Just look at the facts:

A black MP has a drink on the Commons Thameside Terrace and overhears a colleague mutter: “they let anyone in nowadays.”

And what did the disgraced MP say when questioned about the incident?
“It’s quite absurd, I simply asked her what she was doing at that end of the terrace, and they are quite sensitive about this kind of thing, they think that any kind of reprimand from anyone is racially motivated. We are exaggeratedly courteous to anyone with a different skin colour, so the idea that anything I have said is racist is absurd.”

Look at the way the moral dynamic is turned on its head here: the way the accused can spin a few lines and disable any allegation of bigotry by dismissing it as PC madness: the victim perversely becomes the self-indulgent perpetrator.

This sticky scenario is enough to send a shiver down the spine of the most well-intentioned HR professional. But it is nonetheless their duty to cut through the deflective tactics, blow away the smokescreens and cast crystal clear clarity on the issue at hand.

And employees need to take a stand and join them. Because passivism and ambivalence are the enemies of progress. Change means we all need to stand up and prepare to be counted.

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