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Social Justice Discussion Group at SAGE

Chris Burnage

2020 saw one of the largest protest movements in the history of the human race. For black people, the problem was nothing new but for everyone else it seemed to be a moment of collective awakening. That word is a bit of a stretch, but what we at least can say is that it made everyone notice and pay attention. Black Lives Matter was no longer a single country issue and the world had to face the endemic that is structural racism and racial inequality. In the London office of SAGE Publishing the employee-led BAME & LGBTQIA+ groups, set up in Spring 2019, had taken up the task of addressing these issues within the company. They found that this renewed interest in issues around social inequality revealed that, although there was an increased desire to talk about these topics, a lot of people did not have the background or language to be able to do so confidently. There was also the fear of saying something wrong, which prevented a lot of people from engaging and consequently doing the learning they needed in order to confront their own biases or the inequality around them. As a result, the BAME & LGBTQIA+ groups decided to set up the Social Justice Discussion Group with the purpose of consciousness raising and educating ourselves on diversity, oppression, social justice and equality. The organising members choose a topic and relevant content that can be discussed amongst all employees. The recommended content so far has mostly been in documentary format due its ease of accessibility but we have also recently expanded to also include short books and videos, and generally provide recommended further readings for those who want to delve deeper.  

These discussions are not lectures and the aim isn’t specifically to educate but we all come out of them with a feeling that we have learnt something. We usually start with guidance on how to have a conversation about sensitive subjects respectfully and without offending others. There’s faith in the power of calling in rather than calling out. If we have come to this space with the intention to discuss these topics than we would much rather someone say something problematic in this forum where we can address it rather than continuing life with a potentially harmful belief. That being said there is also an understanding that not all sides of an argument hold equal validity, and people are asked to take into account their positionality, subjectivity and privileges, especially when talking about the experiences of a person who belongs to a different group than them. In that sense, we can avoid the painful invalidation of the thoughts and experiences of someone who has experienced some form of social injustice. For some people this is just a discussion or an intellectual exercise, for others it is their daily existence. The discussion is usually led by one of the founders of the BAME & LGBTQIA+ groups and we found that with this sort of structure and clarity, conversations have been rich, enlightening and engaging. Some of the topics and content we have covered so far include: