Diversity and inclusion
A space to share thoughts and experiences of diversity and inclusion in pharmacy
Have you seen any examples of an organisation doing well in raising awareness and tackling racism?
This can include other sectors as well as pharmacy
We need to remember that racism is not just between BAME and whites, but also within the BAME community
As Mr Khan pointed out in the previous C+D racism webinar, there is racism between different BAME communities.
You can listen to C+D's 2020 webinar on racism in the pharmacy here.
Do we think mandatory mentorship should be a part of our professional development from day one?
The idea being it requires us to understand others and support them with the tools we have. And actually the mentorship should be in a form where we're not selecting people who we want to be mentored by but instead mentoring those whom we may not have had experience of forming connections within our lives.
Diversity does not equal inclusion
I have worked in an NHS trust pharmacy department where 40% of the workforce were black, yet racism was still rife in the department. They were frustrated at every turn, from being given heavier workloads than their white counterparts, lots more criticism compared to their white counterparts and many other forms of racial micro-aggressions, such as timesheets not being signed. Eventually people of black background in the pharmacy department kept leaving out of frustration, resulting in high turnover of black staff.
People seem to be hiding behind policy, my question is with the numbers reported, why is such behaviour still being carried out?
Sometimes it feels like acknowledgement of racism is now stigmatised as being a trouble maker or a person with a chip on their shoulder.
How can the sector move beyond talking about the issue and take action on racism in pharmacy?
What form should that action take?