Mercy Muroki: Representation matters but diversity agenda has gone too far

Ash Attalla, the Bafta award-winning TV producer behind The Office has said that he has overheard white people saying they can’t get on TV any more because of the ever-expanding diversity agenda.

People who do the hiring are apparently more focused on box-ticking, on getting more brown faces on screen in a bid to be more ‘representative’.

And this feeling isn’t just in the arts. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that many white people from all works of life are starting to feel that when they go into an interview, there’s a very real prospect that a less impressive candidate will get the job just because they tick the right boxes.

And there’s some truth to that. The odds are rapidly increasing in favour of people who well, look like me; and less in favour of people who look like my co-host Patrick, a blonde haired (hmm some might say ginger) white middle class man.

Now, my feelings on this are mixed. I do think representation matters to some extent and not just representation when it comes to race.

It does matter when you can see people being successful who come from your class background, or your gender.

I remember watching the fanfare after Boris Johnson won the election in 2019 – my daughter (who is sadly subjected to daily politics by virtue of being my daughter) turned to me, looking baffled.

“Mummy”, she said, “who’s that?”

“That’s our new Prime Minister, darling”, I said.

“But how come he’s a boy?”, she said, confused.

“Well, what do you mean?” I said.

To which she replied “I thought only girls can be Prime Minister”

And then it occurred to me that my daughter, until that point, had only ever seen a British Prime minister on TV who was a female – who was a girl like her. All that time seeing Theresa May on the TV in the background at home (which, some would describe as a form of torture) had made her feel that being a female Prime Minister was a norm, a default.

Yes, Theresa May had made my daughter believe the job of running the country was for people ‘like her’.

So, yes, I do think representation matters. But, the diversity agenda can, and indeed has, go too far. If I was ever offered a job – a job in reality someone else was more cut out for – because I ticked a box, I would be traumatised. I would say no thank you, and be on my way.

It’s bad enough employers putting representation over meritocracy when they’re hiring people, but what about being that person who got a job because of some ‘diversity initiative’. Imagine people having to constantly question whether you really deserve to be where you are. Imagine having your white colleagues feel resentment as you get special treatment whilst they get forced to do unconscious bias training.

I don’t want that life. And if staying well off the diversity and initiative fast-train to the top means I have to work a bit harder to prove my worth, then I’ll take the long route.