We asked MOSL's Diversity Lead Abu Rashid, to share his thoughts on privilege and kindness for National Inclusion Week.
It's National Inclusion Week, a week dedicated to celebrating and raising awareness of inclusion activities in the workplace. For some, being inclusive means thinking about more than yourself - you think about your colleagues, your stakeholders, your customers - and you try to listen to the voices of all the people you can. You let those that you've invited to the table be listened to.
For me, being inclusive means doing all of the above but with kindness. I often think about all of our great initiatives at MOSL, from those promoted by the Diversity Society, the Mental Health First Aiders, the Green Team, our HR colleagues and other great MOSLers. I think about the huge focus on wellbeing - both mental and physical - along with the policies that drive the systemic change that is needed. I reflect on the radical shift in workplace culture that MOSL has had since its inception- it could not have happened if those in positions of power and privilege had not pushed for those changes.
Which takes me onto privilege. What a word. And what a concept.
When I first heard of the idea of privilege in 2020, it was in the context of white privilege, and I was really confused. When I heard others speaking on it, I thought, "But that's just how the world is... isn't this already known?!" As a person from a global majority background, I was having trouble understanding why something I had known from my teens was now being discussed: that if you're white, you're probably going to have an easier life than if you're not. I can't speak for global majority people, but I would guess that most of them have always thought the same. It's just how the world is! So when someone put a name to it, I was confused for a while before I educated myself about privilege.
Privilege refers to certain social advantages, benefits, or points of prestige and respect that a person has by simply belonging to certain social identity groups. In some cases, like being white, it may be unearned. It may be earned to a certain extent in others, like health and wellness. Having privilege is not an innately good or bad thing, just like being born white is not an innately good thing or bad thing. Being white doesn't mean that you may not fall ill, may not experience heartbreak, may not struggle financially or may not go through hardships. But not being white can have a huge impact on how society views you, how you're treated when you're on holiday, whether the mood changes when you enter a room, whether career opportunities are available to you, how you see others who have the same skin colour as you portrayed in every day life or whether you're followed around by the CCTV camera in a shop. I know I don't have white privilege or white-passing privilege because when I holiday abroad, I stick out like a sore thumb and have to get a 'random' airport security check every time.
"Where are you heading to in England, sir?" "Errr... to London... the same place as my wife ...who you just checked literally a second before me but didn't ask this question to..."
What I do have is male privilege, which I try to use for the greater good. Men sometimes think a problem isn't a problem because it doesn't affect them personally. They can forget that the world is currently made for men. Sometimes forward-thinking inclusion initiatives - like a menopause policy - can be forgotten because, well, which one of the leaders (who are all men) is currently going through menopause? Privilege is more often than not invisible to those who have it.
On 17 October, MOSL will be holding a conference with the Institute of Water on the theme of Power and Privilege, looking at the interplay between these concepts. Those with the most privilege often have the most power to effect positive workplace changes, but they can be disengaged with the process. As a MOSLer who's been here since 2016, I can wholeheartedly say that MOSL's culture would not be where it is now if those with power and privilege at the company did not commit to those long-lasting changes.
We have also published a revised Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Toolkit for the conference on our website. This toolkit delves into several EDI-related areas, such as unconscious biases, communication, privilege and structural inequality, and outlines ways companies can make their workplaces more inclusive. The toolkit includes descriptions of different concepts, links to online resources, other notable toolkits, case studies, lived experiences, exercises and challenges the reader to think differently. We hope that by sharing the toolkit, we will empower colleagues to do more for those around them and use their positions of power and privilege for the greater good.
To learn more about what it's like to work at MOSL, visit our People and Culture webpage.
