How Reboot opened my eyes to my unconscious ignorance of discrimination

Life throws up daily challenges which take up most of my brain space, like responding to clients, fixing dinner and bringing up two teenage daughters. 

This is why movements like Reboot are hugely important, not just to highlight persistent issues surrounding racial inclusion to white colleagues, but also to lift the blinkers from individuals like myself, who have become colour blind while concentrating on a busy life.

Early years: consciously aware of discrimination

I grew up in Bradford in the 1980s, the youngest of nine, and through a quirk of school boundaries, at a majority white school.

ack then, I was reminded on a daily basis about the colour of my skin, usually verbally but with the occasional physical reminder, too. I learnt to run pretty fast.

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Outside of school, my world was Bradford’s Gujarati community, a culture I absorbed while playing football at every conceivable opportunity.

My friends and I all developed a sixth sense. Within seconds of walking into a venue we knew immediately whether we were welcome or not and whether the risk was worth it.

While unpleasant, seeing and feeling the antagonism meant you could choose how to deal with it – address it, ignore it or avoid it.

Early career: conscious ignorance of discrimination

My first job was in retail banking, where I started on a graduate scheme during the early 1990s.

I spent some time working in branches and offices where I was the only ethnic minority member of staff.

Everyone was friendly but all the managers were white males and there was an expectation to fit in with the “banter”.

I recall wincing internally at some of the comments and jokes, but because it was done with a smile not a scowl, I did not have the confidence or skills to react.

In hindsight, my fear was that I would be labelled a troublemaker and that would be worse for my prospects.

In those days, I found it easier to leave my ethnicity and culture at the door, rather than seeing it as a useful tool to add diversity of thinking to the workplace.

Not being able to be yourself or express your true essence is stressful and demotivating, but you learn to be resilient and plough on.

Mid-career: unconscious ignorance of discrimination

My career took me across various industries and geographies before returning to finance in 2013, when I joined Alquity after co-founding the firm in 2010. Over that period I can barely recall facing any overt discrimination, although perhaps, as a result of my initial experiences, I had just learnt to ignore it.

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Separately, and this has become particularly noticeable in recent years, the increased importance of diversity and inclusion has shifted workplace culture, at least in my experience, with white colleagues being more sensitive to racism without me having to raise it.

However, I think this led me to become complacent, and to a large extent ignorant, to the more systemic elements of discrimination.

Reboot: returning me to a conscious awareness of discrimination

In December 2022 I was invited to speak at a wealth management conference in Zurich.

I delivered my presentation and sat on a panel to discuss issues around sustainable investing. That evening I was tagged in a LinkedIn post by an attendee, a female executive from a major asset manager.

She commented that during the entire morning there had not been a single female presenter and mentioned me as the only “person of colour” on the stage.

Neither issue had registered with me until I read this post.

My immediate feeling was embarrassment: firstly, that I had not noticed the lack of gender diversity, and secondly, that it took a white person to spot I was the only minority on the stage. I vowed to never join another conference panel unless it had gender diversity.

The recent ethnicity pay gap reporting campaign launched by ShareAction, and supported by Reboot, has had the same impact, removing my blinkers to the continued challenges ethnic minorities face within financial services.

Becoming ‘consciously aware’ enables you to address the issue and support others experiencing similar or worse situations.  

We have made big strides, and the vast majority of white colleagues are on our side, but our institutions still have inherent barriers and the role of organisations such as Reboot is critical in overcoming these, not least by galvanising those of us in the industry who have become unconsciously ignorant of them.

Suresh Mistry is a Reboot ambassador and head of sustainability at Alquity