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Middlesbrough, 6th June 2021, Marcus Rashford (23), the man who fed the nation’s poorest, dribbled past politicians forcing U-turns galore and gave more than £20m to charity (which is more than his personal wealth), leads out England as captain.
The 125th person to lead his country’s team said: “It’s something you dream of when you’re a kid, and today I managed to accomplish that dream.” To cap it all off, he scored the winning goal of the game.
But discussions post match were not about him and his achievements. It is about the England fans who booed the team they support for taking the knee. So many in that stadium would have benefitted from Marcus’s off the field heroics, yet some still showed displeasure at the team showing solidarity in the face of racism.
In the past few months, taking the knee before kick-off has become a much-discussed and debated affair. ‘It has run its course’, ‘It is pointless’, and ‘I’ve never seen the point of it’ are views that reverberate around social media echo chambers. These views of apathy are directly correlated with increases in abuse being directed at players. As recently as 27th May, Marcus Rashford was racially abused for a poor performance by a teacher who direct-messaged him a monkey emoji.
You may be asking, ‘What does this have to do with pensions?’
One year ago, the Black Lives Matter movement made tsunami-sized waves across society, challenging everyone’s role within the racism discussion. The murder of George Floyd was unanimously condemned across the world, and managed to replace the pandemic, on the front pages of the papers.
Many of your pension scheme members will be seeing the recent headlines as a national hero, on his proudest day, is forced to discuss the role of his 'fans' booing him and his team and thinking, ‘Nothing has changed’. They will feel hurt, isolated and alone all over again.
The challenge we face is not something Black Lives Matter can solve. Their role is not to move society forward, it is the role of society to catch up.
So we as an industry need to recall our resolve and remember that this all goes beyond our own personal views. Our friends, colleagues and family members are being hurt with every nasty headline, bigoted tweet and boo within stadia across the country. As we approach the European Championship, expect more rather than less. We will not see the best of England’s fans, and your members will need support.
2) Question your social media, your content, and the stories you share The news you share to your networks has a huge potential to influence the narrative of the conversation. There will be bad examples of racism in the coming weeks. Don’t turn a blind eye to these, apathy fuels the fire. Condemn actions and show solidarity with those who are being affected.
3)Listen, don’t talk Go to your members and see how things stand one year on. Do they feel more included? How have you tried to be an ally – do they know you are? Listen to their problems over a virtual cuppa or if you’re back in the office now, grab a few minutes and learn.
4)Change perspective – make positive changes to the future A year ago, my wife and I started buying dolls and toys from a diverse range of ethnicities. Research shows that children as young as three develop racial biases. It wasn’t until we started critiquing our purchases that we saw the scale of the problem. Many of our daughter’s favourite books only show white children. These aren’t books with narrative, some are as simple as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Now let’s change perspective, imagine you are black and your daughter opens up that book, falls in love with the beautiful drawings of these happy babies singing to the stars. You notice that she doesn’t have a little bit of her in there. Nobody gazing up at the stars who looks like her. You worry that you’re not giving her something to idolise. Nothing of her.
Through these books, programmes and shows, we are whitewashing our future generations. We are just allowing history to repeat itself in our children.
But it doesn’t have to be the youth, or children’s toys that you look at.
How are you changing your perspective to understand member needs? Ask yourself, do our members have people representing their needs on their board? How can we enable inclusivity at board and decision level? How can we stop whitewashing pensions?
We passed the tipping point last year, but we are in danger of forgetting what it was all for and of forgetting our promises. For yourself, friends, family and members:
· Remember – how you and they felt over the past year
· Renew – your call to action
· Respond – stand up to the challenges of society and help
And finally share – we are all in this together and only through dialogue can we learn how to make Better Pensions for Everyone.
