Maybe I should have started with this one. When I asked my peers in university what they wanted to do, very few knew. A lot of them who studied Economics or Finance degrees did not know where they could see themselves a year on from graduation (myself included).
I ask do a lot of us within the black community even want to work within the professional workplace? Many don’t and I have a few theories as to why this may be. Now if we take into consideration where most of us grew up, there was a real sense of community as you all are from the same background you could even say you are more comfortable as you are around your own people or social class.
Many black people who may be considered a professional may feel that they are abandoning their people and to make matters worse they are around people who may not have the same values that you had growing up on ends. Many of us also feel that when you work in a corporation you may not really add value to where you are working and you are simply there to keep the machine running.
This may be why a lot of us in our community choose to go into the world of Sport and Entertainment, as many of us know who Stormzy, Skepta and Anthony Joshua are. Now I am not discrediting the Sport and Entertainment industry in anyway (Remember I wanted to be a Footballer) However I do wonder how many of us know who Ken Olisa, Tidjane Thiam or Dr Sandie Okoro are, I’m guessing not many?
Media, in general, are quick to write tabloids about footballers, drug dealers and musicians, however, when it comes to the first UK black Board Director or the CEO of one of the biggest investment banks in the world, we’re legally blind. I just feel that we can amount to much more than we are generally given credit for without compromising where we come from.
D
Just trying to make it 