Birmingham Council is set to create a fast track recruitment programme for ethnic minorities, force staff to undertake “equalities training” and launch a new “race equality” curriculum in schools.
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, which is funded by many of the world’s biggest corporations, the multicultural city will also review street names, monuments, statues, and public art displays to ensure that they “properly reflect and respect the city’s history and communities”.
A plan drawn up by the Labour council leader Ian Ward and his cabinet includes measures to monitor equality of outcome between ethnic groups in areas including pay and health, BirminghamLive reports.
It includes a raft of proposals for advancing the career opportunities for non-white people at Birmingham City Council, including that shortlists for all staff vacancies must have at least one ethnic minority, and the creation of a “fast track recruitment and development programme for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people”.
In addition, “every elected councillor and every member of staff will be required to participate in mandatory equalities training, which will take place at least annually”.
According to the Midlands-based media outlet, the council will also work with historians to create a new curriculum highlighting the so-called diversity of the city, as well as with “partners in the education and community sectors to develop a new ‘Race Equality education programme’ for use in Birmingham’s schools”.
A report prepared on behalf of the council asserts: “The unprecedented socio-economic crisis created by COVID-19, together with the global calls for justice articulated by the Black Lives Matter anti-racism movement, have starkly highlighted the extent to which injustice, inequality and discrimination persist within our society.”
The review of public monuments and artworks in Birmingham follows the lead of London mayor Sadiq Khan, who in June announced that the capital would be looking at street names, statues, and landmarks to remove and replace in the name of reflecting the city’s “diversity”.
Soon after, the Labour Party disclosed that it would be conducting similar reviews at all 130 councils across the United Kingdom where they are in power, Breitbart London previously reported.
On Thursday, the Bar Standards Board (BSB), which regulates barristers and specialised legal services businesses in England and Wales, launched a “reverse mentoring scheme” in which senior white barristers are given junior barristers from ethnic minority backgrounds as mentors.
The scheme is hoping to “address the barriers to race equality at the Bar, by providing insight into people’s experiences of racism”, according to a press release from the board.
One of the scheme’s first mentees, Paul Stanley QC of Essex Court Chambers, commented: “I know it will make me a better anti-racist ally, and help me to change myself and the profession for the better.”
His mentor, “black female Bar student and race equality activist” Elisha Lindsay, said: “Seeing how receptive members of the Bar are to hearing and learning about anti-racist practices and achieving true diversity within the Bar gives me hope for a more inclusive environment.”