#Thank you!
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve had a very fruitful year, helping to bring about change in several #leadership#teams and #organisations. Here’s another I wish to share with you.
I worked with a small #university based in the South-East, who prefers to remain nameless. I ran some #workshops with their #staff over the course of a #semester (Jan–June) on the #values of #antiracism and #intersectionality in the #workplace. Like many universities, the workforce and #academic#culture are overwhelmingly #white and #Eurocentric, making it rather difficult for #peopleofcolor – staff and especially students – to identify with the spaces of #learning and #administration.
Here are a couple of #testimonials:
“Paula (#Academic Dean): “Gifford, I have found that there are three groups of people who emerge in approaching DEIB training: (one) there is the reticent group, who is wary about the training for whatever reason; (two) there is the slightly larger group of those who sit on the fence and are prepared to go with the flow; and (three) there is the very small group who welcome the training.
“I was in the first group. I have always associated the problem with others because of their overt racism and with some stirrers who raised the issues, but never with myself. But your affable and non-threatening approach drew me in. The way you conducted our conversations enabled me as a white person to reflect on my identity and socialisation and on why I was resistant in the first place.
“Thank you for helping me to confront my baseless fear and granting me the safe space to reflect and take action towards being an antiracist rather than a nonracist.”
Here’s another given by one of the support staff:
(Korrin) “Gifford was brilliant in sensitising me to the issues of DEIB. I thought that the problem of racism had nothing to do with me since I’m from Eastern Europe. However, I learnt very quickly that antiblack racism is rife across Europe and I unwittingly brought those attitudes to Britain. We have already taken steps in addressing this on our Finance team.”
And yet another:
(Philip, Associate #professor) “Gifford’s work with our department was very pastoral and focused. It’s hard to work with academics. Our achievements and qualification say that we’ve made it. So we can be quite sensitive when someone suggests another way. Gifford carefully showed us that mastery, control and possession are the opposite aims of education. This framing disarmed us and opened us to new possibilities for an inclusive curriculum and co-learning environment. For me, this was a defining moment!”
The work continues, but it’s great to see the needle move and progress made. 2023, bring it on!