Even if you’re doing fine it’s becoming increasingly inescapable that the world around you is a pretty miserable place. Quite why the most prosperous mega-region in the history of the world, the US and Europe – the “English-speaking peoples” as Churchill dubbed them – feel so hard done by will engage historians for years to come.
But they do and here’s an example from NGO People Like Us, dramatising the especial problem of an English-speaking person (in verse) who doesn’t happen to be white (the ones Churchill, who was somewhat remiss in the DEI stakes, was referring to.)
In particular #NameTheBias, which has a Shakespeare spin from Romeo and Juliet, complains that non-white people get a bum deal at work, working longer for less pay for example.
Tim Pashen, creative director & partner of creative agency Worth Your While says: “What’s in a name? This famous Shakespearean verse has had people pondering throughout the ages. Well, it’s a good question. So we subverted this 400-year-old British classic. Stripped out the roses and the Montagues, to highlight that what’s in a name, can mean you’re not paid the same. Simply because it doesn’t sound ‘white’ or ‘British.’”
New-land director Naghmeh Pour says: “Sometimes, a project hits so close to home that you can’t let it go. When Worth Your While and People Like Us approached me, I was deeply inspired by their passion and dedication to the cause. The issue at the heart of the film – inequality in pay and opportunities tied to ethnicity — is something I’ve experienced myself and witnessed other people experience too..my hope is that, through the film and the campaign around it, we can spark hope and inspire real action from those in charge.”
Let’s hope Pour is right. But one reason there’s so much gloom is surely that, even when wrongs seem to be righted as in the case of the Post Office managers wrongly prosecuted and penalised over the Fujitsu scandal, little seems to happen. Most are still waiting for their compensation even while the lawyers cheerfully trouser top whack for delaying proceedings and Fujitsu continues to work on big government contracts.
Well, best of luck…
MAA creative scale: 7.
