Talking about race at ITV
To make ITV and our industry more inclusive, we need to be able to talk about race and racism.
The creative industry is focussed on increasing representation and boosting diversity, inclusion and equity. So, we've collaborated with other broadcasters on research from the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity reviewing B.A.M.E. terminology.
We've committed to trying to avoid, wherever possible, the use of the collective term B.A.M.E., an acronym for Black, Asian and minority ethnic, when more specific terms are available.
The move towards specificity, and away from a catch-all term, paves the way for greater acknowledgement of the unique experience of people from different ethnic backgrounds and offers insight into the issues facing specific groups. It is expected to inspire similar action across the creative industry.
Ade Rawcliffe, ITV Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion says: "We were delighted to work with the other broadcasters on this very interesting and useful piece of research from the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. Language plays an important role in building trust and confidence in organisations. We will use the findings to build on our internal race fluency training, which will help us to further embed an inclusive culture at ITV as we work to deliver the actions that we have committed to in our Diversity Acceleration Plan.
You can find out more about the research in this press release.
The full report is available with recommendations on pages 52-57, and the BBC have created a plaintext accessible version.