Auntie’s quota-led new faces
THE COVER OF THE BBC’S LATEST 40-page “diversity and inclusion plan” features a photograph of staff merrily posing for a selfie. If the image of cosy inclusivity is meant to represent a snapshot of how the corporation would like to see itself, then it sends out a confusing message, highlighting the strange inconsistencies embedded within the plan’s so called “50/20/12 workforce drive”.
Over the next three to five years, the corporation aims to change the face of public broadcasting, quite literally, by making sure that half of those faces are women; at least 20 per cent are black, Asian or minority ethnic; and at least 12 per cent belong to people with a disability. Of the seven staff featured in the selfie, three are men of colour (one in full African garb), three are women, and lurking at the back is a sole white male.
