EDITOR’S COMMENT I am sad, I am angry and I am sorry. This week we run the results of our second survey looking at race diversity in real estate and the experiences of professionals in the sector from ethnic minority or BAME backgrounds.
It was one of the hardest pieces of content I have ever had to write. And what you will read over those four pages is just the tip of the iceberg. There was so much to digest in the survey results that what I have written does not do it justice. There will be more.
The results of the survey had me feeling ashamed, angry, sad, hopeless and entirely powerless. All the talk that so many very well-thinking businesses (us included) have talked has largely been just that. The promise of “hard action” has been just that, a promise. Nothing more.
When I read the result of 2020’s survey I was shocked by some of the experiences of the individuals that took the time to share their stories. This year what shocked me most was the despondency. There was an overwhelming tone of “well, this is just how it is”, that nothing had changed and that it was unlikely that anything would.
Lip service
Not a single business was highlighted for making a change. In fact, many were singled out for merely paying lip service to D&I agendas, for box ticking. I won’t name them here, but I will offer any firm out there that wants to know what is really going on in their business a frank and honest consultation (anonymised, of course).
One of the clearest issues that was revealed in the report for me was how people like me – white, middle class, privileged, in a position of power – have a much more positive view of how the industry is doing. That things are improving, that we are taking hard action.
Delving into the results by ethnic group (in the survey we were very granular, but in the write up – for ease – we have grouped results into Black, Asian, mixed, all ethnic and white), it’s clear to see that no real progress has been made. Not a single respondent who identified themselves as Black or Asian felt that the industry was doing enough to get professionals from BAME backgrounds into senior positions. Respondents who identified themselves as white also didn’t agree that the industry was doing enough, but only 75% of them compared with 100%.
We have still not done enough
There is clearly an issue in perception, and we have to do something about it. Do we, those white people in positions of power, think that if we are talking about it we are making a difference? That we are making it better? That’s the question I have left myself with. And this is why I feel ashamed of these results. I have spoken a lot about these issues. I thought, I hoped, that we at EG were making a difference. We have worked hard at trying to widen our pool of commentators, of specialists in this industry, that we talk to on a daily basis. We have tried to remove some of the unconscious bias that slips into the words we write, the images we use to illustrate stories, but we clearly have still not done enough.
I wrote a few weeks ago, following the racist tweets that littered social media following the penalty shootout in the European Championship, that we would be coming up with a policy at EG to turn our words into action. The results of this survey are informing that policy, massively. So, thank you to everyone who filled it out.
I encourage every single person and business to read some of the recommendations for change put forward. A comprehensive overhaul of how we run our businesses, of how we recruit, of how we reward and of how we call out and punish bad behaviours is vital if we really do want to do better.
It will be a big job and it will be difficult. Not everyone will like it. Nor will everyone think it is necessary. But we cannot continue as we are. Despondency cannot win.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
