14th December 2021

Putting the Race into Formula One and the Workplace

Lewis Hamilton is a "fantastic example" on "how to handle defeat" and is "committed" to coming back stronger next season, says former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard.

I find this statement hard to read and accept, it fills me with rage and frustration. Of course, Lewis Hamilton will be an authentic leader as he is a true sportsman. While society and Formula One refuses to see racism, racism continues to harm. There is little doubt that the lived experience of race discrimination is a significant factor in the over-prevalence of psychological distress that can be found within Black groups in the workplace.

Around 2:45 pm on December 12th 2021, on my sofa, watching the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. I suffered from my first bout of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Sure I have experienced this in the past, but this was worse. I watched this affect me in real-time live, I felt it, the micro and macro aggressions, tore me into depression and anxiety, but most worryingly it ripped open a deeper racial trauma. I suffered from indirect exposure, what happened to Lewis Hamilton has happened to me in the past too. Whilst I am not a 7 time Formula One World Champion, but having the goalposts moved and rules changed/broken right in front of me to favour someone else and let’s say it a white person.

Later that day, I was part of a Twitter Space for 8 hours, listening to other people suffering from the Black and Global Majority community, it was not just me who felt this. Perhaps the biggest victory in this is that Lewis Hamilton inadvertently made millions around the world, feel for a thousandth of a second what it feels like to be Black and have your dreams and life goals taken away from you and given to a white man. Watching the aftermath of the race you could see it, the event organisers at Abu Dhabi limited the pyrotechnics, the podium ceremony was drab and the TV outlets did not know what to say, everyone knew it was not right. However, voices remained silent, mainstream media and news reporters for Formula One are already in the sunken place and they want to tell themselves this is just racing and this is how it is. Not one person wanted to acknowledge what was clearly not spoken but felt.

Navigating a white corporate environment can be a tricky proposition for many Black professionals and while many white managers are obviously both completely well-intentioned and competent, they simply can’t give Black employees a perspective that they don’t have. My perspective is similarly limited by my own personal perspective and viewpoint; therefore, I offer this piece through the lens with which I’m most familiar – Blackness.

Howard Ross author of Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives says that “many white employees don't realise that the experience of Black professionals is significantly different from their own”. Therefore by simply having this conversation is difficult, if you’ve read to this point and thought “oh look, it’s the race card” you have missed the point of this piece. To discount race in how we all live, work and exist would be facetious. This is why the statement “playing the race card” is simply a derailment tactic. We should not and can not continue to derail important conversations with flippant proclamations of “playing the race card”.

While 65 per cent of Black professionals said Black employees have to work harder to advance, only 16 per cent of white professionals agreed with that statement (The Journey to Equity and Inclusion, SHRM, 2020). Black professionals are more likely to encounter racial prejudice and microaggressions than any other racial or ethnic group. Forty-three per cent of Black executives have had colleagues use racially insensitive language in their presence. Microaggressions include having a colleague touch their hair without permission, being mischaracterised as "angry," and being excluded from growth opportunities or one-on-one meetings with leadership.

This is why, David Coulthard’s comments that Lewis Hamilton is a "fantastic example" on "how to handle defeat" is problematic, because Hamilton has to be. If he is not gratuitous he will be mischaracterised and publications around the world are waiting for that moment like hungry hyenas. We have seen examples of this with Meghan Markle. Hamilton does not need to “code switch”*, and he does not, people say he doesn’t fit in as a regular Formula One driver because he speaks, dresses and styles his hair in ways others can’t. However, James Hunt is known as the “motorsport maverick with the playboy persona”, Hunt’s lifestyle is lauded, but he was vastly different to his rival at the time Niki Lauda, both were celebrated. So why is Hamilton not celebrated in the same sense, why is he labelled ‘different’ or an ‘outcast’?

Whilst this piece has no perfect solution for overcoming hardship in this context, it is the hope of highlighting this will help bring down the barriers just a little bit. There is a brilliant article by the Harvard Business Review, about Giving Black Employees Time to Rest and Recover (https://hbr.org/2021/02/give-black-employees-time-to-rest-and-recover).

This article offers some solutions for organisations to utilise to actively support, uplift and unlock Black talent. Will the barriers ever fall? Probably not, but can we make sure our voices get louder and more powerful? Yes we can

We can learn how to protect our Black minds, there is a fantastic organisation called BMM - https://www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/ - whose mission is to connect Black individuals and families with free mental health services — by professional Black therapists to support their mental health.

Lewis Hamilton will break the record one day, the same as Lebron James, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, Sha’Carri Richardson and Bubba Wallace have all done. We will all have our moment, and in the days of darkness, we must remain authentically ourselves, and recognise our superpower is who we are, it is our cultural capital, it is our weapon.

If you have found this piece useful, you may be interested in coming to JEDI, the Business School’s innovative social justice programme. Every month we host The GrapeVine, The Grapevine is an open and informal space, and an opportunity to facilitate stimulating debate, to foster a community that actively engages in important social topics. The conversations are powerful and they bring many different points of view to the fore, with many of us leaving with deeper cultural understanding and perspectives. The next GrapeVine will take place in January 2022. Visit www.wlv.ac.uk/jedi for more details.

*The term “code-switching” refers to an individual’s need or belief that they have to make adjustments to their behaviour, mannerisms, personality in order to fit in, particularly in an environment where they are the minority.