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Changing the narrative
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When our Diverse Voices group turned its attention to black history they agreed something needs to be done to change the narrative.
Carl Mullings and Belinda Wabwire Moosbauer (pictured above) are the co-chairs of the Diverse Voices Network at Choice Support and help to organise and conduct group meetings with agendas and topics of interest.
Their Black History Month meeting for the Diverse Voices Network sparked an interesting discussion. It started with an open conversation about black history, and while this is an extremely wide topic there was a clear underlying theme for the group: the narrative of history, and how we can change it.
The narrative can be thought of as the perspective from which history has been written and is commonly understood. The group pointed out examples of how past and current narratives seem to be from the perspective of white Europeans.
An example was brought up and questions were asked about how the waterfall called Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe has come to be known by this name. It’s not as if the waterfall was first discovered by visiting Europeans. The fact that the site is now known around the world by the name of a white monarch who lived thousands of miles away, demonstrates the point and shows us that certain perspectives have been ignored in favour of other narratives.
Belinda pointed out that most black history from the ancestor’s point of view is likely to be lost because it wasn’t written down, or it was written from the colonialists’ point of view. Adding to this, she suggested that black people should write their own history by bringing any remaining documents written by their ancestors forward.
This is easy enough for us to understand, but what can we do about it? Perhaps one of the most appropriate ways to ‘celebrate’ black history is starting these kinds of conversations in our everyday lives and putting black history at equal consideration.
Carl suggested that perhaps these conversations should begin in the family, he says: “We need to be the pioneers in navigating the narrative”.
Gifted with this knowledge, I believe we should be starting conversations in our everyday lives and sharing the perspectives that are often ignored, with those around us. Perhaps this will begin a change to the narrative? Ultimately, these conversations should not only be important for ‘Black History Month’ but happen all year round.
The Diverse Voices Network not only gives Choice Support employees a chance to discuss important issues like black history but it also supports them in diversity and inclusion matters and sends feedback to our senior leaders, with the aim of making Choice Support better as an employer and support provider.
This means that Carl and Belinda, as co-chairs, also support colleagues with issues they may be facing in the workplace.