ask us anything: an opportunity for learning
In our second #AskUsAnything session last week we were the targets of ‘Zoom-Bombing’, which are essentially hate crimes. When the session began, our screens were flooded with disturbing images (the kind you can’t unsee) and explicit, vulgar racist comments were directed at Lydia Amoah, our Learning and Cross Cultural Director. We were blindsided. No one had ever experienced anything like it. Clearly, this is the exact opposite of everything Creative Equals stands for. When we gathered over 100 ticket-holders into the webinar, the last thing we expected was to have a session on inclusion as a parent or carer hijacked by hate-filled content.
Our first reaction was: ‘Make. It. Stop’.
As the leader of Creative Equals, what I didn’t do was pause when we returned to the webinar and take a moment to check in. Our knee jerk reaction was to just continue with our original agenda. On reflection, I should have ripped up what we’d planned and taken time out to deeply discuss racism and what we had experienced. With adrenaline in my limbic system, my instinct was to ‘keep calm and carry on’ and that is precisely what we did. Yet our instincts aren’t alway right especially when they prevent us from stopping to address the impact that hack may have had on the team, clients and guests in that moment.
As a result of this, our future calls will be taking place with enhanced security measures. We reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police as a hate crime. We have since heard there have been many Zoombombs like this, with a variety of hate, including child pornography.
Lydia Amoah, our Learning and Cross Cultural Director talks about everything as an opportunity for learning. She has acted since the incident with great fortitude and foresight and has instigated leading on a wider policy on ‘Duty of Care’ for employees, employers and a ‘What to do’ if any staff member experiences hate abuse of any kind, which we will share insights from with the sector.
We will host a session in our #AskUsAnything programme on Wednesday 13 May dedicated to this topic where we can discuss Hate Hacks, our learnings and share the Duty of Care policy.
I never expected one of our Creative Equals online events to experience any hate attack of any type, but now I know what I would do differently in that situation. With so much ignorance rife in the world, the case for diversity and inclusion is alive and well. It's down to us - those who shape popular culture with advertising and communications to continue to represent, to show hate will not be tolerated in our society.