Ryland Fisher on diversity and inclusion

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: WHAT’S IT REALLY ABOUT?

Ryland Fisher shares his belief that social transformation needs to be addressed through gender, race and cultural sensitivity training

The only thing that shocks me whenever a racist incident happens is that people are shocked. It is unrealistic to expect that the basic underlying currents in our society, which enabled us to suffer more than 300 years of colonialism and 50 years of apartheid, would go away in 26 years of democracy.

Most of us were so keen to move on with rebuilding our country after years of apartheid that we never stopped to question what we should do with racist feelings, which many might have suppressed, and racist actions, which others were waiting to perform at the (in)appropriate moment.

We thought that we’d all move on happily building what Archbishop Desmond Tutu called “the Rainbow people of God”.

It does not help to be shocked by the actions or the utterances of a Penny Sparrow, or to be upset by people who do not understand why black lives matter. It does not help to get angry when someone like Julius Malema makes racial comments aimed at denigrating either whites or blacks, depending on his audience.

South Africans need to try to understand where we come from as a nation, accept the hurt that many people suffered during apartheid and, if necessary, apologise for that hurt, whether they feel responsible or not.

The economic transformation of our society, which led to things like employment equity (EE) and affirmative action (AA), was never going to address the social transformation issues that are at the heart of racism.

Years ago, after I published my book, Race, which dealt with issues of race and racism in post-apartheid South Africa, I was called by many corporates to help them deal with racerelated issues in the workplace.

I realised very quickly that the government might be erring with its insistence on seeing transformation in only numbers and that redress requires much more than AA and EE. The insistence on AA and EE provides an easy escape for corporates not to deal with the real issue of transformation, which is changing mindsets.

After a lifetime of working in the transformation space – economic and social – here is my thinking on diversity training. • It should not be called diversity training because diversity training often emphasises what is different among us without dealing with the issues of why this matters. • It should rather be called race, gender and cultural sensitivity training because you would want to look at all the potential areas where ignorance could lead to intolerance and tensions in the workplace. • This training should start before people reach the workplace. It should be taught to children at primary or, at least, high school level. • In corporates, the first person who should volunteer for training is the CEO, MD or chairperson of the board. If the leader shows that they take it seriously, others will be inclined to follow. Otherwise, it might seem like an additional burden on the staff. • The training needs to start with an understanding of the South African

Constitution – one of the most progressive documents in the world, which clearly outlines the need for transformation in a way that will benefit everyone in society. • Race, gender and cultural sensitivity training should be seen as a way of enhancing the potential profitability of corporates. If your employees do not understand and are intolerant towards each other, they will not be able to work together productively. If they understand each other, the chances are that they will be able to work together more productively. • This training is not an event, but part of an ongoing process, it never stops.

Regular check-ins on the progress among employees should become part of corporate culture. Diversity training, or rather race, gender and cultural sensitivity training, can assist companies to deal with understanding the complexities of our society and could help them navigate potential political and societal problems more confidently. It should not be a nice-tohave, but a must-have.

South Africans need to try to understand where we come from as a nation, accept the hurt that many people suffered during apartheid and, if necessary, apologise for that hurt, whether they feel responsible or not.