When presenter John Sarpong agreed to take on the BBC’s more public-facing diversity and inclusion role in the fall of 2019, the company – and indeed the world – was a different place.
“I joined when the BBC was just coming out on the other side of everything that happened [breakfast presenter] Monchetti survived,” says Sarpong diverse On her last official day at the BBC, capping her three years as Head of Creative Diversity. Feelings increased.
The BBC was appalled by the backlash against the attempt to blame Monchetti, who was reprimanded for breaching neutrality guidelines after she criticized, on air, US President Donald Trump for what is believed to be racist. The decision was overturned by the then-director-general of the BBC, Tony Hall, but only after a widespread protest against the company for punishing one of its top hosts for advocating racism, which many felt needed to be exempted from the neutrality rules.
Three years later, feelings about the BBC and issues of race remain tense, although Sarpong says she has tried to create an “environment for honest discussions”.
The CEO — who started her career as a DJ and MTV presenter before moving on to host youth channel T4 on Channel 4 and became a mainstay on shows like ITV’s “Loose Woman” — initially signed on to a two- and three-day-week contract. However, it was extended by a year when it became clear she needed to follow through on the BBC’s first year of creative diversity commitment. The $124 million Diversity Fund, designed by Sarpong, was set up shortly after the killing of George Floyd in the US in 2020 and the major paradigm shift around diversity and representation that followed in the British media.
Sarpong says there has been “a lot of scrutiny” about her role in the aftermath of the events of 2020. “First, because this job was a creative, rather than just a workforce, it focused so much on our output and the content our audience interacts with. Also, I think it’s was so I It means there will be more scrutiny.”
In fact, Sarpong’s three years at the company weren’t without storms. earlier this year, diverse The Times of London has reported a worrying exodus of women of color from the BBC, particularly from the News, Diversity and Inclusion department. They said many of them are simply tired of fighting a system that is “not systematically built to support anyone who is different”.
Many blamed systemic failures that made it impossible to speak without being punished, but a number of women particularly criticized Sarpong for not doing enough to support them. (Sarpong’s departure from the BBC has been confirmed within a day of miscellaneous break the probe.)
Sarpong says she has a very clear creative competence at the BBC, which has largely alienated her from human resources matters that fall under the workforce department. “My specialist was a lot more about production,” she says.
There has also been a “confusion” between women who have already applied and gotten better job offers elsewhere – “I was very proud of some of them because I was part of their career journey” – and those who felt their employer had wronged them, Sarpong says.
“There is a level of responsibility – as a black woman in an industry where I’ve often been the only one in the room – for the press to report things accurately, because [we want] Women of color to feel that they can advance in our industry. Let’s show examples of where progress is taking place.”
But what about the many women in diverse The investigation that left the industry entirely after the BBC’s toxic experiments? Sarpong is sympathetic to their “complaints,” but encourages women in those situations to “stick with it” and persevere.
“It’s funny, because often, when you experience what some women felt they went through, it wasn’t imagined,” Sarpong says. “I’ve been on the receiving end of some of these things throughout my career, and it’s hard to say to someone, ‘Hold on to it,’ because change is happening. And change doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. But that’s what I’d say, because at the end of the day, it’s our right to be here. And if we’re going to represent all of our audiences effectively, we need to make sure we’re in the room, even sometimes. When it’s hard to be in that room.”
However, going forward, changes have been made to the head of the creative diversity role – changes which indicate the BBC is trying to make the position more responsible for workforce issues related to racism and discrimination.
Sarpong will succeed L’Oreal’s Director of Diversity Chinny Okolidoh, who will step into a newly expanded role (as Director of Diversity and Inclusion) that effectively combines creative diversity and workforce competencies, meaning Okolidoh will oversee internal HR operations as well as lead the on-screen diversity strategy. And beyond, working with external producers.
It’s a big role for just one person, particularly in the UK where, as Sarpong admits, “it’s a job that somehow gets caught in the midst of some culture war debate.” Much has been made, for example, of Sarpong’s £267,000 annual salary on a three-day-a-week contract.
She’s not the type to “talk about that kind of thing” and not comment publicly when her earnings made headlines. But what worried Sarpong was the racial sting that had thrown her way.
“I’m starting to get really awful [messages],” she admits. “I’ve actually been very lucky — a lot of people talk about being trolled and I’ve never been the one who got trolled. But this unleashed a barrage of racist rhetoric and abuse that I had never encountered before on the Internet. It was not an easy time. But I kept my head down and focused on the job.”
One of the main pillars of Sarpong’s legacy is a commitment to creative diversity. In July, the BBC revealed it had invested £44m in supporting a total of 67 TV shows across all genres, following the first year of the £100m initiative, to increase diversity and inclusion both on and off-air. The company is now on track to invest by 2023/24 totaling £112m, of which £100m will go to television and £12m to radio.
In the fund’s first year, programs were set up by 48 different independent production companies, 73% of those companies had diverse leadership.
While Sarpong lights up when the discussion turns to her Diversity Fund, which she predicts will likely “exceed” the goals, she also understands the criticisms leveled against her, particularly the diversity criteria required to qualify, which include race as well as caste and disability, resulting in What some describe as a “pick and mix” approach falls short of enhancing each specific area.
“I understand what you mean in the sense that the criteria are those three underrepresented groups, and [there] “It’s not mandated about how much of each group you need within it,” Sarpong says. “But what I would say is: We have to start somewhere.”
exec refers to the company’s diverse leadership standards that have been set in place – a directive that has resulted in the BBC increasing its supplier chain by 10% of companies “we hadn’t worked with before”.
Of course you can criticize it and people are okay with their rights. But if you’re looking at where we started, I’m very proud,” says Sarpong. “The thing everyone has to remember is: This is a floor, this is not a ceiling—that’s the bare minimum of what we’re going to spend.”
The next phase in Sarpong is a month-long transition period in which Okolidoh helps settle into the new position, followed by two months off. Then we move on to a new chapter that has not yet been revealed.
Looking back at her last three years, Sarpong – who is close to General Manager Tim Davey – speaks positively of her experience at the BBC. Despite being drawn to the company’s diverse diversity scandals, the high-spirited CEO takes pride in what has been accomplished in her three years. Beyond the steps being made in restructuring the commissioning process “from a more comprehensive perspective”, Sarpong hopes to lead it with a “point of difference”.
“I hope my legacy is that I have set an example of being an authentic self in the workplace, particularly as a working-class woman of color, in an industry where there are not many. I hope I have created or helped nurture a place that is safe enough to do so.”
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