The Trouble With Seeking Black Volunteers for the UK Public Service

At a recent event I was having a very interesting conversation with a government Minister. She was perplexed to know why she could not get the 'right' African Caribbeans to consult or appoint to committees; ones who are representative of the community, talented, who had the time to devote to developing things, the 'issues' and could make things happen. Well, I had bad news for the Minister. That is a very tall order!

Each visible culturally diverse community tends to be treated by the majority community as one amorphous whole. Though some difference is grudgingly acknowledged, each is regarded as one mass speaking with one head, no shades of diversity within it. Yet, there is no one person who can represent African Caribbeans, or Asians in the UK at any level. Caribbeans, for a start, originate from at least 10 different islands in the West Indies. Africa is vast and its views so diverse, any one African can only be speaking for virtually one of those countries and certainly not for Black Britons who have probably seen neither the West Indies nor Africa!

Despite that, there are two very good reasons why the real calibre of culturally diverse experts are hard to find and will not put themselves forward for government posts. The first is that the people chosen for positions by the White community, according to their yardstick of suitability, tend to conform, to the given line, are keen to develop their individual portfolio, and not to 'rock the boat'. They seldom have any real clout or connections with the grass roots because of their own ambitions and often would not be the choice of the Black community, if there was a poll.

The sad effect of that is one tends to hear the same old names, see the same old faces and hear the same bland statements churned out from the same tired old voices while dynamic new people, the ones with the ideas, initiatives and credible voice to go with it are often overlooked. Worse still, hardly anything of value is ever really achieved because the innovative, daring people, the rebels and mavericks who have the expertise and respect to make a difference, are kept outside of the decision making process in favour of the toadies.

Black people do not need anyone outside their community to tell them who is best to represent then at any level. Grassroots Asians and African Caribbeans, in particular, know whom they respect, who inspire them and who can persuade

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