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or centuries people from African and Caribbean backgrounds have played an often overlooked but pivotal role in British society. Black History Month gives everyone the opportunity to share, celebrate and understand the influence of black heritage and culture.

It offers the opportunity for all people to look beyond traditional themes of racism and slavery, and to challenge the negative stereotypes sometimes seen in our own communities and our workplaces.

This engagement provides context on the past and present while encouraging people to nurture respect and open-mindedness for other cultures. Black history celebrations provide greater visibility, encouraging communities to better credit and value the contribution of black people in our history books.

By further integrating Black history into mainstream education, news and culture, it will help dismantle negative stereotypes and represent black people’s contribution to the world in a more realistic and positive light.

There are plenty of ways we can look to move the dial to action on better diversity in our workplaces, and nurture a more inclusive environment. Farai Mwashita, ACE Emerging Professional

There is also an intersectionality between celebrating Black History Month and Equality Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) initiatives in the workplace – crucial to improving diversity.

We should not be passive on this topic. For emerging professionals like myself, there are plenty of ways we can look to move the dial to action on better diversity in our workplaces, and nurture a more inclusive environment:

• Create safe spaces – review policies and laws within the workplace that affect colleagues.
• Share black history facts and knowledge – through awareness and education we can create a more inclusive work environment while ensuring a deeper understanding of black history and its culture.
• Understand that representation matters – an inclusive leadership which promotes the visibility of people of black origin is crucial. Organisations with a more diverse workforce generate a sense of belonging for current and future colleagues.
• Continual diversity training – regular ED&I discussions and training will ensure minority workers feel supported and provide every employee an opportunity to learn and unlearn their biases, stereotypes by becoming allies.
• Become a mentor – create a platform to nurture future black leaders through mentorship, providing support to challenge inequality, drive reform and improve both their workplace and their local communities.
• Reverse mentoring – encourage senior leaders to learn from others lived experience. Reverse mentoring provides senior leadership with visibility to drive a culture of change whilst promoting diversity.

For myself, building an inclusive workplace is at the core to making them better. ED&I should be part of our everyday working lives and making positive changes begins with acceptance. Ensuring everyone gets treated fairly, is awarded the same opportunities as well as recognising and celebrating differences and valuing people as individuals, is vital to achieving this.

Find out more about ACE’s Building Inclusivity campaign.

Farai Mwashita is international projects lead at CBRE and is a member of ACE’s Emerging Professionals group. Farai was a panellist at our most recent Building Inclusivity roundtable on Ethnic Minorities.