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Article
Publication date: 20 November 2017

Courtney E. Cole

The purpose of this paper is to show how the principles of Black Lives Matter can be used to enact a culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) in higher education settings…

3088

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show how the principles of Black Lives Matter can be used to enact a culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) in higher education settings, particularly in small colleges that serve significant populations of students who are underrepresented in higher education.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on examples from college courses in media and society, organizational communication, and interpersonal communication, the case study shows application of the principles of Black Lives Matter in the college classroom at two different institutions in the urban Northeast USA, where the majority of the students are young people of color and/or first-generation college students.

Findings

The paper shows how founding principles of Black Lives Matter, particularly diversity, intersectionality, loving engagement, and empathy, can be used to guide concrete pedagogical practices. It provides examples of how to use Black Lives Matter as a framework to enhance and improve college teaching to make it more diverse and inclusive.

Research limitations/implications

This case study is based on the author’s experiences teaching at two majority-minority colleges in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA. This paper is not the result of a systematic research study.

Practical implications

This paper has significant implications for how to enact CSP in higher education settings. This paper is valuable to those looking for specific strategies to include more diverse and inclusive teaching strategies. This research also shows both the utility and impact of Black Lives Matter when applied to higher education.

Social implications

This paper improves public understanding of Black Lives Matter as a social movement.

Originality/value

Since the Black Lives Matter movement is fairly new, there is limited academic research on it. Further, there has not been attention to how Black Lives Matter provides insight into pedagogy, particularly in higher education.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 36 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2017

Tina Opie and Laura Morgan Roberts

Overwhelming evidence suggests that black lives have not and do not matter in the American workplace. In fact, disturbing themes of black labor dehumanization, exploitation and…

7061

Abstract

Purpose

Overwhelming evidence suggests that black lives have not and do not matter in the American workplace. In fact, disturbing themes of black labor dehumanization, exploitation and racial discrimination appear throughout history into the present-day workplace. Yet, curiously, organizations and organizational scholars largely ignore how racism and slavery have informed management practice (Cooke, 2003) and contemporary workplace racism. The authors address this gap, using the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as a platform. BLM is a social justice movement created in response to the pervasive racism experienced by black people. The purpose of this paper is to accomplish five goals, which are summarized in the following sections.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the authors outline historical themes of black labor dehumanization, exploitation and racial discrimination, providing specific examples to illustrate these themes and discussing their contemporary workplace implications. Second, key challenges that may arise as organizations seek to make black lives matter in the workplace are discussed. Third, the authors provide examples of organizations where black lives have mattered as an inspiration for how workplaces can affirm the humanity and self-actualization of black people.

Findings

Fourth, the authors provide organizations with helpful tools to truly make black lives matter in the workplace, using restorative justice as a framework to remedy workplace racism. Finally, while the paper is largely focused on business organizations, as two management scholars, the authors felt compelled to briefly articulate how academic scholarship might be influenced if black lives truly mattered in management scholarship and management education.

Originality/value

This paper begins to articulate how black lives matter in the workplace. The goal is to intervene and upend the exploitation of black workers so that they are finally recognized for their worth and value and treated as such. The authors have provided historical context to illustrate that contemporary workplace racism is rooted in the historical exploitation of black people from enslavement to contemporary instances of labor exploitation. The authors offer a restorative justice framework as a mechanism to redress workplace racism, being careful to outline key challenges with implementing the framework. The authors concluded with steps that organizations may consider as they work to repair the harm of workplace racism and rebuild trust amongst employees. Specifically, the authors discuss the benefits of organizational interventions that provide intergroup contact with an emphasis on perspective taking, and present a case example and suggested key indicators that black lives matter in today’s workplace.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 36 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 December 2020

Courtney Cole and Audrey Grace

The purpose of this paper is to respond to racial injustice and white supremacy, within the context of ongoing Black Lives Matter activism against police brutality through public…

630

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to respond to racial injustice and white supremacy, within the context of ongoing Black Lives Matter activism against police brutality through public protests.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors consider the work of organizing institutions of higher education so that Black Lives Matter.

Findings

The authors offer a number of practical insights and suggestions in order to deal with racial injustice and white supremacy and better support Black faculty, staff and students on college campuses.

Originality/value

In addressing issues of racial injustice and white supremacy on college campuses, the authors bring together our experiences and perspectives as diversity officer and faculty member, respectively.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 September 2020

Nelarine Cornelius

2020 has proved to be a challenging year. In addition to the challenges of COVID-19, yet again, the USA has witnessed police brutality leading to the death of a Black man, George…

5646

Abstract

Purpose

2020 has proved to be a challenging year. In addition to the challenges of COVID-19, yet again, the USA has witnessed police brutality leading to the death of a Black man, George Floyd. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, founded in the US but now an international organisation which challenges white supremacy and deliberates harm against Black people, mobilised hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets across the globe. Increasingly, the protests focus not only on George Floyd's murder but also the continued failure to challenge the celebrity of those involved in the transatlantic slave trade and European imperialism. In this article, the author will contend that many organisations are now reexamining their association with these historical wrongs against Black Africa and its diaspora. Further, the author will contend but that the failure to highlight the role of Black chattel slavery and imperialism in the accumulation of economic, commercial and political benefits reaped by the global north is a source of shame not only for many firms and institutions but also for universities.

Design/methodology/approach

The author has reviewed the online media for the latest developments in response to Black Lives Matter's George Floyd campaign in 2020 and reviewed the literature on the link between European global ambition and its impact on the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa.

Findings

Internationally, there is a discernible change in outlook towards the importance of the evils of slavery and colonialism on the Black experience today. These small steps will require scholars to embark on a fresh reexamination of race, society and work.

Originality/value

For decades, the slave trade and colonialism were issues rarely raised in government, firms and business schools. This will inevitably change especially in those countries that are the main beneficiaries of Black chattel slavery and colonial exploitation. Much Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practice is fundamentally tokenism. A root and branch reappraisal will be needed to create more effective EDI policy and practice in support of race equality and anti-racism.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 July 2020

Remi Joseph–Salisbury, Laura Connelly and Peninah Wangari-Jones

The purpose of this article is to show that racism is not only a US problem. Rather, racism is endemic and pervasive in the UK context, manifesting at every level of policing…

29666

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to show that racism is not only a US problem. Rather, racism is endemic and pervasive in the UK context, manifesting at every level of policing. From stop and search, to deaths after police contact, the authors highlight long-standing and widespread racist disparities in UK policing. The authors therefore pierce through any delusions of UK “post-racialism” in order to show that, as protesters have reminded us, “the UK is not innocent”.

Design/methodology/approach

In this piece, the authors reflect on the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Whilst the catalyst was the death of George Floyd in the United States, the authors explore what the protests mean in the UK context. To do so, the authors draw upon recent high-profile examples of police racism, before situating those events within a wider landscape of racist policing.

Findings

Demonstrating that UK policing has to be understood as institutionally racist, the authors suggest that responses to police racism need to be radical and uncompromising – tweaks to the system are not enough. The authors therefore look towards defunding and abolition as ways in which one can begin to seek change.

Originality/value

The piece takes up the challenges set by this Black Lives Matter moment and offers a critical take on policing that seeks to push beyond reformism whilst also highlighting the realities of UK racism.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 September 2020

Kevin Hylton

In this invited professional insight paper the author draws parallels between recent debates on racism, Black Lives Matter and related research in sport and cognate domains.

5538

Abstract

Purpose

In this invited professional insight paper the author draws parallels between recent debates on racism, Black Lives Matter and related research in sport and cognate domains.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on Critical Race Theory (CRT) the paper contends that 1) sport is a contested site, 2) sport is a microcosm of society 3) “race” and everyday racism are central to our understanding of sport. It overlays this critique with a recognition of the dynamic and multi-dimensional nature of racisms.

Findings

While the deaths of Black lives are being mourned it is argued that our attention can also become distracted by narrow manifestations of racism (overt). Such approaches leave key stakeholders efforts focused on the individual to the detriment of challenging systemic policies, practices and dispositions that entrench racism. The color-coded racism of past decades is still with us but in addition to this, our critiques and activism require continued surveillance of cultural, institutional and structural arrangements in the everyday that remain nebulous, complex and difficult to challenge.

Research limitations/implications

This is a viewpoint paper. The author draws on previous original empirical work and current insights to draw parallels between sport, Black Lives Matter and broader social contexts. Due to limitations in the extant literature in regard to the section on cycling and ethnicity, examples are drawn primarily from the US and UK.

Practical implications

This focus on sport and leisure past times demonstrates that the Black experience of “race” and racism transcends social boundaries and cannot be perceived as restricted to narrow social domains.

Social implications

Racisms are embedded in society and therefore its cultural products of which sport is a significant one should not be marginalised in antiracism efforts and activist scholarship.

Originality/value

This paper draws on the author's original published research and current insights. The paper makes a contribution to the development of critical race theorising to the sociology of sport, and broader ethnic and racial studies.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 September 2023

Christopher Stuart Taylor

Using the examples of Grenadian-born Jean Augustine, the first Black Member of Parliament in Canada, and Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the piece argues that the ethos of…

Abstract

Purpose

Using the examples of Grenadian-born Jean Augustine, the first Black Member of Parliament in Canada, and Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the piece argues that the ethos of the Emigrant Ambassador—the collective empowerment of Black feminism, liberation, and radicalism—ushered in a new era for change abroad and in Canada, as transnational and international change was driven by Black women from the West Indies.

Design/methodology/approach

The author used historical research and social science theoretical frameworks to formulate conclusions, lessons learnt and steps forward for current equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) practitioners.

Findings

Black women born in the West Indies in the mid-twentieth century were the catalysts for social justice movements in the 2010 and 2020s. Many methods used for social change in the twentieth century are applicable in the 2020s and beyond.

Research limitations/implications

Research is focused on Canadian and West Indian relations but will have implications for those across the British Commonwealth.

Practical implications

Practitioners and students of EDI will have a new tool on how to approach and confront anti-Black racism, particularly after May 25, 2020.

Social implications

This article provides opportunities to support the dwindling efforts of anti-racism to support the lives of Black people across the Black Atlantic.

Originality/value

This is an original article built on previous scholarship of the author.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 43 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 January 2023

Kristin S. Williams, Heidi Weigand, Sophia Okoroafor, Giuseppe Liuzzo and Erica Ganuelas Weigand

This paper explores intergenerational perceptions of kindness in the context of Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the COVID-19 global pandemic. The purpose of this exploratory…

1720

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores intergenerational perceptions of kindness in the context of Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the COVID-19 global pandemic. The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate perceptions of kindness in the context of traumatic events and its potential value in authentic allyship in organizational environments.

Design/methodology/approach

Authors interviewed 65 individuals (31 self-identifying as non-racialized and 34 self-identifying as Black, Indigenous and People of Colour aka BIPOC). Participants included Generation Z (Gen Z; born between 1997–2012/5) and Generation Y (Gen Y; also referred to as Millennials, born between 1981 and 1994/6) across North American, Europe and Africa. Millennials currently represent the largest generation in the workplace and are taking on leadership roles, whereas Gen Z are emerging entrants into the workplace and new organizational actors.

Findings

The paper offers insights into how to talk about BLM in organizations, how to engage in authentic vs performative allyship and how to support BIPOC in the workplace. The study also reveals the durability of systemic racism in generations that may be otherwise considered more enlightened and progressive.

Research limitations/implications

The authors expand on kindness literature and contribute theoretically and methodologically to critical race theory and intertextual analysis in race scholarship.

Practical implications

The study contributes to the understanding of how pro-social behaviours like kindness (with intention) can contribute to a more inclusive discourse on racism and authentic allyship.

Originality/value

Authors reveal the potential for kindness as a pro-social behaviour in organizational environments to inform authentic allyship praxis.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 42 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 20 November 2017

Leslie Ashburn-Nardo, Kecia Thomas and Aspen J. Robinson

4836

Abstract

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 36 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Article
Publication date: 12 December 2019

Francesca Sobande

This paper aims to explore how and why ideas regarding “intersectional” approaches to feminism and Black activism are drawn on in marketing content related to the concept of being…

18796

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how and why ideas regarding “intersectional” approaches to feminism and Black activism are drawn on in marketing content related to the concept of being “woke” (invested in addressing social injustices). It considers which subject positions are represented as part of this and what they reveal about contemporary issues concerning advertising, gender, race and activism.

Design/methodology/approach

This study involves an interpretive and critical discursive analysis of so-called feminist advertising (“femvertising”) and marketing examples that make use of Black social justice activist ideas.

Findings

Findings illuminate how marketing simultaneously enables the visibility and erasure of “intersectional”, feminist and Black social justice activist issues, with the use of key racialised and gendered subject positions: White Saviour, Black Excellence, Strong Black Woman (and Mother) and “Woke” Change Agent.

Research limitations/implications

This research signals how brands (mis)use issues concerning commercialised notions of feminism, equality and Black social justice activism as part of marketing that flattens and reframes liberationist politics while upholding the neoliberal idea that achievement and social change requires individual ambition and consumption rather than structural shifts and resistance.

Practical implications

This work can aid the development of advertising standards regulatory approaches which account for nuances of stereotypical representations and marketing’s connection to intersecting issues regarding racism and sexism.

Originality/value

This research outlines a conceptualisation of the branding of “woke” bravery, which expands our understanding of the interdependency of issues related to race, gender, feminism, activism and marketing. It highlights marketing responses to recent socio-political times, which are influenced by public discourse concerning movements, including Black Lives Matter and Me Too.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 54 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

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