Down with wanels

There was discussion about wanels over on charity twitter last week and then this week I was asked to present a webinar for someone. The webinar is part of a series so, before agreeing to take part, I asked about the racial diversity of the other speakers. There is none so I ducked out and within a few hours I’d found someone else to take my spot. No big deal. It’s something I’ve been doing for a while.

In fact, I’ve been doing it ever since I was a speaker at an event a few years ago where I hadn’t asked in advance. There were two panels, the first, all white men, the second, two white women and two white men. The other woman and I made embarrassed noises about how we were clearly the diversity on the panel. Looking out at the sea of white faces in the audience, it was quite a turning point for me, and sowed one of the seeds for the work that I do now. Additionally, if I’m ever putting an event together I set out to create a representative panel from the outset. It’s really not that hard.

This pledge for charity leaders includes a pledge about panels:

“Be part of panels where at least 50% of the panel is women and 20% of the panel Black, Indigenous and People of Colour”

I came across the Centre for Anti Racist Education a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been looking through their web site which has some really useful tools and information. I liked the clarity of their Vision and Principles. Not just for teachers!

I found this graphic on the internet this week too, created by Andrew Ibrahim, a Professor of Surgery in Michigan, to reflect his journey toward becoming Anti-Racist. Where would you put yourself? Not just for doctors!

Interesting and useful links 🖇️

I’ve seen a lot of charities hiring EDI leads which is great but Hiring a Chief Diversity Officer Won’t Fix Your Racist Company Culture

An update on Save the Children's anti-racism commitments: glad to see this commitment to regular, transparent reporting. Will be good to learn from their learnings.

“We know that in some of these areas we’re taking longer to deliver than we would have liked or initially planned for, both due to the complexity of the issues we are tackling but also as our understanding of these issues evolves. As an Executive Leadership Team we take full responsibility for the delivery of the commitments set out in our Statement of Solidarity and our D&I Strategy, and will always transparently report on what we achieve and the mistakes we will no doubt make.”

And, I did like Jaz Nannar’s piece about the distance between the actors hired to front charity TV ads and the staff at the top of those charities: The curious relationship between TV ads and leadership teams

Learning points 🎓

I’ve started lighting candles much more regularly and I’ve had one burning on my desk as I write this to honour the funeral of a friend’s mum. I find them very comforting and companionable.

Day of the Week 📆

It was World Book Day this week and to celebrate I thought I’d share Nadia Owusu’s reading list of books inspired by notions of roots and belonging. (Nadia also wrote the article above about Chief Diversity Officers)

What am I reading? 📚

I read Under the Stars - A Journey Into Light by Matt Gaw this week which is a beautifully-written book about the author’s explorations of the night sky and search for darkness. I enjoyed reading it and discovered more places to add to my Want to Go list in Google Maps. However, I do find these explorer-type books very male, though. I don’t think many women would feel comfortable striding about in the dark on their own.

What am I watching? 👀

I liked Emilie Wapnick’s TED talk about multipotentialites. If, like me, you’re still not sure what you’re going to be when you grow up, it might ring some bells.

What am I listening to? 👂

Bishi’s new track reminded me of when I used to go to Club Kali many moons ago

Here’s an interview with Bishi and the track’s producer, Tony Visconti, if you want more.

Joy-giving things 😍

I loved reading about J.E.B. Biren’s “Eye to Eye” - an anthology of portraits of lesbians originally published in 1979 that is due to be republished.

“The overwhelming feeling in the pictures – and in the accompanying accounts of some women who appear in them – is one of profound joy and quiet confidence.” ❤️

Love, Lucy

PS. The consensus seems to be wanels, not whinels. Although whinel does have a certain ring to it given the depths of the debate in certain quarters

I write this newsletter because I believe in sharing progressive ideas that help us work towards a truly equal world.

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ChangeOut is created by Lucy Caldicott. You can find more about my work at ChangeOut.org. If you’re looking to have a chat about culture, leadership, purpose, equity, or a facilitated team discussion about any of those things, get in touch. You can also find me on Bluesky, Instagram, and, LinkedIn.

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