I saw this article on Linkedin today and had to write a blog about this:
“Twenty years ago, I became the first Black woman to anchor a primetime UK current affairs show. Not because I was “included.” Because I was undeniable. But I didn’t stay. Not because I lacked talent or capability, but because the room was never built to hold me without breaking me. And I see the same pattern today. Look at Nadiya Hussain, Great British Bake-Off winner, hijab-wearing, working-class, Bangladeshi Muslim woman. Lifted up as a symbol of progress, a national sweetheart. Until she dared to speak her truth. The moment she said she still experiences racism daily, she was called “controversial,” accused of being “ungrateful,” of “playing the race card.” Her truth made the room squirm. And just like that, the applause stopped. Because people like us are only welcome when we’re palatable. Quietly excellent. Grateful. Digestible. Not when we speak not for the community, but from our own lived, embodied experience.” See my poem below: The Race card
The Problem with DEI
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) has become the buzzword of progress. But let’s be honest:
- EDI was never designed to dismantle power. It was designed to maintain appearances.
- EDI asks for performance, not presence. It rewards assimilation, not authenticity.
- EDI never asked the real questions. Why is the room still so white? Why does success still demand we contort ourselves?
I was told the culture “wasn’t ready.” That I was “too intelligent” for primetime. That I might “confuse the audience.” The message was clear: stay, but only if you play the role. Be grateful, be manageable, be silent.
Being the “first” or the “only” isn’t a win. It’s a warning. You’re not being welcomed, you’re being contained.
Key Messages
- Representation without transformation is tokenism. Visibility isn’t the same as equity.
- Performance isn’t presence. We’re rewarded only when we flatter the system. The moment we tell the truth, we’re cast out.
- Burnout isn’t failure. Women of colour are not breaking because we’re weak, we’re breaking because the system was never built to let us thrive.
- Truth is always framed as provocation. Speaking out is seen as “controversial” because truth threatens the illusion of progress.
Actions We Can Take
- Stop waiting for permission. Institutions will not validate what threatens their comfort. Take up space without apology.
- Refuse the performance. Excellence doesn’t mean assimilation. Honour your voice, not the role they scripted for you.
- Name the illusion. Call out cosmetic EDI for what it is: containment dressed as progress.
- Build outside the system. Author spaces, platforms, and opportunities where your full presence can live.
Conclusion: A Permission Slip
If you’re exhausted, you’re not weak. If you’re disillusioned, you’re not broken. You’re simply done outsourcing your power to systems that were never designed to honour it. So, here’s your permission slip, not from CEOs, not from blue ticks, not from EDI officers. From you.
- To go where your full voice lives.
- To build what they could never imagine.
- To stop waiting. Start owning.
EDI didn’t fail us.
It was never for us.
Start authoring your presence. Because when you do, no system can take it away.
The Race Card
I hate the statement, ‘playing the race card’.
It lacks understanding, compassion, empathy and is hard.
It minimises what I am feeling and how I have been made to feel.
Trust me, when I raise the issue of race, it is completely real.
I do not play a card when I complain of inequality and disrespect.
I do not play a card when I am treated as a lesser being and a reject.
I complain about my treatment; I complain of racial abuse.
I do not play the race card; for me, it has no use.
When staff complain of being treated less favourably than you
Accept that there may be discrimination taking place, which real leaders would pursue.
You cannot be impartial on this if you suggest a card is being played.
To me, and others like me, your decision has already been made.
Listen to what I have to say; investigate, probe and question.
Until you have the facts, you will not know if there has been a transgression
Be clear about the issue, be clear about my claim.
Do not refer to my complaint as a ‘Race card’ – it makes me feel ashamed.
Ashamed to work in your organisation, ashamed that you treat me so
It affects my mental health and well-being, and makes me want to go.
It makes me want to leave this employment, leave this place today.
I cannot continue in an environment where I do not have an equal say.
Alyson Malach
2018