Bottom of the pile
My cousin Gina had gone to bed, sitting and watching the continuous running commentary on the 2008 US election was just a bit too much for her. Curled up on her sofa, cup of earl grey by my side, I began to watch the results of what the Americans call Super Tuesday. On this day the race to the White House really begins. Presidential nominees for the republican and democratic parties can win the greatest number of delegates from what are called primaries and caucuses in the largest number of states. Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses are typically held in a large number of states from geographically and socially diverse regions of the country, it typically represents a presidential candidate’s first test of national electability. Gina’s husband, like most men was dominating the remote control, I asked him to switch channels so I could watch Hillary Clinton give a speech, she had in fact lost quite heavily that night to the new kid on the block, Barack Obama and I wanted to know what she would say. Junior looked at me as if I’d just landed from the planet Zarg, “Why do you want to hear her? Surely you don’t support her? The question was left hanging in the air.
It occurred to me then as it has occurred to me on many other occasions since that the expectation is that because someone is black I am unconditionally expected to support them, being a woman or having similar beliefs and values is irrelevant, to them my blackness comes first. It really made me think about whether my gender or my race was the dominant part of me.
I responded to Junior by saying “Well, I am a woman too” and in a heartbeat he came right back at me and said, “yes, but you are not just a woman, you are a Black woman!”
I recall reading somewhere about the hierarchy of race, the article written by Martin Jacques for the Guardian, back in 2003 talked about there being a racial hierarchy globally that helps to shape the power and the prejudices of each race. He wrote that at the top of this hierarchy are white people and the reasons for this are deep-rooted and profound. White societies have been the global top dogs for half a millennium. With global domination, first with Europe and then the US, whites have long commanded respect, as well as arousing fear and resentment, among other races. Being white confers a privilege, a special kind of deference, throughout the world, be it Kingston, Hong Kong, Delhi, Lagos or Britain. Whites are the only race that never suffers any kind, of systemic racism anywhere in the world. And the impact of white racism has been far more profound and baneful than any other: it remains the only racism with global reach. The stereotypical description of white people is that they are entrepreneurial, hardworking and adventurous.
The article had a profound effect on me, it highlighted for me my place in the world order, that my blackness in the eyes of the world was what defined me, it was not my gender or religion. Yes, I was a woman but not the kind of woman that is oft described when gender is being discussed and reports written about, the stereotypical view of me as a black woman is that I am full of anger and rage, usually have several children out of wedlock and can dance well!. When authors are talking about the lack of female representation at the highest level of organisations, they are usually not talking about me or women like me. Those reports and articles almost exclusively refer to white women. How do I know this? It’s relatively simple; there are next to no black females at the most senior levels of our society. In a report written by the EHRC it discussed the need to increase the number of women in director positions in the FTSE top 250 companies it did not differentiate in terms of which women, there was no need, to the reader the kind of woman needed no description.
Being at the bottom of the racial hierarchy and knowing it is an interesting and often challenging place to be, particularly as living in a relatively liberal country we like to think of ourselves as equality champions and that fairness and equal opportunities exist regardless of our background. This of course, is not true. I recall having a conversation with a woman a few years ago and her telling me that she got down on her knees and thanked God every day for making her white. I remember being deeply offended by these remarks at the time but on reflection I realise this woman understood more about the etiology of race at that time than I did. She knew her position in the hierarchy and she understood mine. She knew that being at the top of the pile meant she was afforded special privileges and entitlements that I could only dream of. It is what makes many white people peculiarly and uniquely insensitive to race and racism, and the power relations this involves. It means they do not have to think about their colour and this obliviousness shapes their expectations of what to expect from others.
You would imagine that some of the advances that have been made for women over the years would have benefited all women regardless of background, the sad fact is that the hierarchy of colour exists within gender, sexuality, age, religion, in fact with all the protected characteristics, if you are black the evidence is that you will have a more difficult time navigating your way through society, through life.
Having role models that look like you is known to be motivating and inspiring, the fact that there are no black women CEOs and very few black senior leaders in the NHS is an issue for me but perhaps not for other women, who then do black women look up to and aspire to be like? Michelle Obamba? Oprah Winfrey? Whoopi Goldberg? all American, having British Black female role models, women that have achieved a lot in their profession would be so encouraging and no doubt encourage the next generation of black women to want to achieve similar levels of success.
I raise this issue because I think most people believe that all women are equal, but in my experience some women are more equal than others” and the sad fact is there is no shared sisterhood between women. Being a black or a white woman means such different things, in terms of expectations, experiences and the challenges we face, yes our genders might be the same but there it ends..
‘We must have 25% of women at the board table’ said Lord Davies of Abersoch in 2012′
and guess what; we already have 23.5% of women sitting at board. We must have more women in top jobs, and lo and behold it happens, the question no one asks is who these women are, what are their backgrounds and what is it that they all have in common? A couple of weeks ago I read in the HSJ that Ed Smith, the Chair of NHS Improvement was to become the NHS champion for gender. The new women’s leadership network in the NHS is to be welcome; however it should be explicit in highlighting the differing needs of various groups of women. I get tired of hearing myself defend the work I do on race equality. People often say to me, ”that’s all well and good Yvonne but what about women?” the truth is that White women have done better than other group of women as a consequence of legislation and other initiatives to improve gender equality. They also have, as a friend once pointed out, partners that are sitting at the top of the racial hierarchy pile, white men. It is not an accident that gender issues have progressed as quickly as they have for white women when you look at the influence they have socially and domestically on the law and policy makers in white dominated societies. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for women of colour in the western world.
I wrote this blog because I am conscious of the issue of race hierarchy how it impacts on gender equity. My plea to women that are in the happy position of not having to think about their colour and have access to the men that make the rules by which we live, is to think about other women, Look around and notice which women are at the table with you and try to understand why many women of colour are not there.. By acknowledging these issues and talking about them openly we can perhaps start to make changes in our society to make life fairer for all women.
As for me, I have tussled with this question and come to the conclusion that I am both a woman and I am black; the two I believe are inextricably linked and cannot be separated. I cannot be ‘just a woman’ neither am I just black. I am a black woman therefore when authors and writers produce articles on gender equality they should differentiate between the different experiences of black and white women, they are different and their needs should be considered as such.
Yvonne Coghill 