New research reveals bias within the theatre industry – my thoughts
Last weekend I was drawn to a feature on Sky News talking about racial discrimination in the theatre industry.
This caught my eye not least because much of the work we do at Spotlight Inclusion to create equitable, diverse and inclusive environments is in the arts sector and much of that is in the theatre industry.
The Sky article cited the Black British Theatre Awards’ research, August 2024. Of course, I welcome the report but sadly, there is nothing surprising or revolutionary in it. The majority of the work we do with organisations involves listening activities to ensure we are targeting our support in the right areas. We also leave space in our workshops for discussion and co-creation of new ways forward. Therefore, there was nothing in this research that we haven’t heard from the lips of artists with Black and global majority heritages ourselves.
Quality of the data
The methodology in the research is clear in the report. However, my initial concern was how white fragility will kick in when those who are white and leaders in the theatre look at it. I expect there will be critique about the fact that the researchers engaged primarily with people in Solange Urdang’s network, which could lead to bias in the data. The fact that 291 people responded to the request to take part in the research is likely to be ignored in favour of any excuse to disregard or invalidate what the contributors, Black British Theatre Awards, and we know to be true.
The very fact that The Stage has over 40 000 followers and only managed 5 likes (at the point of writing) for their post on this research, is testament to how committed people are to not hear and engage with what is plainly in front of them.
Racial bias and institutional structures
The research explores the presence of racial bias and institutional structures. It points to the fact that most leaders and owners of theatres are white and suggests that the lack of representation leads to exclusionary practices.
I agree to a point. Racism is about power, systems and processes. Simply having a presence of blackness or brownness doesn’t mean that the power structures, systems and processes are suddenly antiracist. The fact that a small number of people with black and brown skin have managed to navigate predominantly white spaces simply means that they have gained the skills that allowed them to do this, or the systems and processes of the theatre are set up in such a way as to allow a tiny number through.
Suggesting that appointing individuals to improve representation number, still keeps the focus on individuals rather than systems and processes which exclude. It is of course important to think about racial diversity and training which supports diversity. We do this. However, we always insist that leaders are part of any EDI related and antiracism work we do. Unfortunately, leaders who experience training on antiracism, which often includes strategies to dismantle racist systems and processes, do not engage with or implement the strategies they have been given.
Leaders may engage with some equity, diversity and inclusion strategies, but they are often too comfortable with keeping these very general rather than taking an intersectional approach which looks at the layering of barriers for Black people.
Lack of representation and misunderstanding
As we might expect, there are a few references in the report to the experiences of Black people wigs hair and makeup departments. In our experience this is a common complaint. What’s worse, is that when theatres provide training for their wigs, hair and make-up departments, they often give the impression that they are going over and above by doing so. Treating Black people with dignity and respect whilst they have their hair done is perceived as special in these circumstances.
Theatres are still in a position where they are failing to see lack of knowledge, skill and understanding as a deficit in the institution. It is still too easy for them to see Blackness as something to be worked around and tackled. Rather than saying, ‘I lack the skills, qualifications and expertise to handle your hair and I’m sorry for that.’ There is still a focus on, ‘Black hair is difficult, it is time consuming, it is problematic’. See the difference? The former requires some self-reflection and understanding of how we view Blackness as deficit.
Reference to quotas
Participants in the research suggest that there is too much of a focus on filling quota which leads to tokenism and continues to silo Black people in junior or freelance roles. This is what happens when organisations focus on appearance rather than process. It is also why you will find Black and brown people on stage, but not so much back of house. Just this weekend The Guardian wrote a feature on The Lion King at 25. Have a look at the behind the scenes images and you will find it very hard to find a person with global majority heritages in the back of house roles featured.
I’m not against targets. They offer accountability, which is often the bit that is missing from effective EDI strategy. However, quotas only focus on number. They don’t focus on experiences. A target should focus on the how. How will we get there? What needs to happen earlier in the pipeline for us to reach this target? What are the historical and social factors which have led to this? Systems and processes.
The problem of quotas can emerge for arts industries in the creative process. Often, there is a sensible order to how things are created. If there is a quota which says, ‘the creative team needs to be comprised of 20% people with global majority heritages, 50/50 male-female (using the recognised parlance here around gender representation in some arts roles, rather suggesting there are only two genders), 15% Disabled’, then what can happen is that the burden of fulfilling this quota falls to the last stage of the creative process. That leads directly to tokenism and a lack of care reflected in the voices of those who contributed to the research. In order to address this, everyone would have to take accountability for pipelines into creative industries, learning and development, career development, succession planning, recruitment etc. etc. Each individual would have to hold themselves accountable and be accountable for their area of expertise.
Discrimination based on skin colour
53% of the participants said they have experienced discrimination on this basis. This could be racism but can also be colourism – the preference for lighter skin. We can often see that racial diversity looks like light skinned or mixed heritage people with global majority identities. Often this diversity is female and neurotypical to boot.
This subtle form of racism does need acknowledging and addressing properly as some arts organisations can hide behind this demographic and continue to exclude people with darker skins whilst congratulating themselves for being diverse.
Suggestions made by Black British Theatre Awards:
As we might expect, the BBTA made some recommendations on how things might change for Black artists:
Promote equity and inclusion
Enhance support systems and knowledge around them
Amplify diverse voices and provide accurate representation
Bring about structural change
The most impactful suggestion here for me, is the fourth, ‘bring about structural change’. Racism is about power. It is utterly baked into our status quo, social norms and ways of working, no matter what industry we are talking about. Individuals can be challenged on this, but it is our ways of educating, ways of recruiting, ways of creating, how we create hierarchies in our workplaces, how we lead, and how we make decisions, which leads to the status quo. The status quo which continues to see groups of people excluded, under achieving, suffering from poorer health, experiencing disparities in our justice systems.
Therefore, tinkering with current systems and processes is not a complete waste of time, but is not going to have the impact of changing the way we do things. To achieve this, we would have to be brave. We would have to reimagine how things might work. We would have to involve the very people who have been excluded in being part of a new design.
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