Denise Myers is CEO of recruitment firm Evenfields and founder of the Black Talent Awards

Recasting the negative Black narrative to foster achievement.

It was the historian and author of Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari, who underlined the power of storytelling. That humans’ ability to compel and persuade through a well-crafted, charismatically delivered narrative is what critically sets us apart from the animal world.

Storytelling is a potent force for change. It’s one of the key reasons why I founded the Black Talent Awards – now open and in its third year – championing everyday, relatable, Black professionals from all careers and walks of life. It is less about the award itself and more about providing a platform upon which remarkable people can tell their stories.

There is a reason why storytelling plays an important part in the ongoing plight of racial equality. Switch on any news channel or scan through the news and current affairs; you’ll find more negative news coverage of Black people than positive. This matters because an ongoing barrage of negative narratives that constantly align Black people with crime (no matter whether they are the perpetrators or the victims), hardship and underachievement only affirms the negative ecosystem. Poor expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Wider society accepts the norm of Black failure and Black people lack the self-belief to prove society otherwise. Thus, nothing changes. Incumbent, consciously biased systems remain in place.

The real tragedy here is that the positive narratives get drowned out by the bad. How many people, for example, know that the innovator who developed the illusion transmitter – later used by NASA in its satellite technology – was a Black woman? Or that a two-way traffic light system was invented by a Black man? These were great pioneers, inventing technology that radically advanced modern society, who undoubtedly operated against a backdrop of racial hostility and succeeded nonetheless.

Moments like last month’s Black Inclusion Week and the globally practised Black History Month provide opportunities to reset the negative narrative, but the work should really be a sustained effort, not just contained to a handful of awareness days and annual occasions. We must be indefatigable in championing the inspiring stories of those within the Black community to combat the perpetuity of negative narratives that instil, almost unconsciously, a feeling of hopelessness rather than hope.

I’ve been in recruitment now for over 20 years, owning two separate agencies and a grassroots community project that supports emerging talent who don’t quite have the confidence or self-belief to aim for ambitious careers. Unsurprisingly, imposter syndrome is a common problem among Black youths.

Back when I was at school, I had a teacher who recommended that I set my career sights on something he believed was more attainable and commensurate with his perception of my ability – and that was a job at a local factory.

I didn’t believe for one second that a job at a local factory (honest work as it is) was all that I was capable of. That was because I had a very supportive and encouraging family who believed in my abilities. I was therefore able to transform someone else’squite minimising and even patronising subjective opinion of me into something so productive that I’ve made it my life’s work to rally against imposed limitations.

Every time I do meet a young person who questions their potential, I am reminded of why I entered the recruitment industry in the first place and I remember the wider context in which that lack of self-belief comes. I think of all the young Black people who were dispensed the same words of ‘wisdom’ as I was, be it a teacher or otherwise, and who subsequently aimed for lower because they were told that that was all they were capable of.

Since establishing the Black Talent Awards, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet with so many inspiring people who succeeded despite the setbacks. I think about the lawyer who left school with very few qualifications only to become the first Black senior partner to be appointed in a Top 100 UK law firm. I think about the young man, brought up in care, who acquired an MBA and is now helping his employer spearhead a long-term strategy to drive fair and equitable representation for the Black community within the organisation. I think about the Black female engineer working hard to improve diversity and inclusion within the nuclear energy sector through an initiative she devised and executed, which is now having a positive impact on a predominantly homogenous industry.

So many business stories that we are used to consuming herald the tech billionaire who dropped out of college (Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are among some of the most famous billionaire college and school drop-outs we know of). Whilst the ingenuity that led to their success should not be underplayed, it is important to always remember that their privilege, by virtue of their socio-economic background, race and gender, remains huge determiners for such success. These peddled entrepreneur narratives of ‘failures-done-good’ hide a more pernicious truth about the way societal structures are built: that is, largely and deliberately exclusionary of Black people.

Storytelling is not a panacea for the racial equality problem but it can move mountains in terms of the wider perceptions of Black achievement. If we’re able to shift the ratio of negative coverage of Black people to one that is more positive, perhaps more of the seeds of self-belief can finally be sown. And if self-belief is there, no detractor – no matter how well-meaning – will ever be able to tell a young Black person what they can and can’t achieve.

Denise Myers is CEO of recruitment firm Evenfields and founder of the Black Talent Awards, championing relatable professional role models and tackling employment discrimination. Nominations for the 2024 awards are now open.