Top Five Diversity Trends for 2020

At the verge of the new decade, some racial rows have sparked here in the U.K.. In late December 2019, two elite schools in the U.K. were embroiled in controversy after rejecting scholarship donations, earmarked for white working class boys. A Twitter announcement from the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, to encourage young black women to apply for a creative programme has been met with accusations of him being racist on the cyberspace. Last but not least, on New Year’s Day, BBC News reports that a record number of primary school children are being excluded from school for racist bullying.

This is quite a tense start to the decade, with the diversity and equality debate getting more and more polarized—even among the very young. How will the decade pan out, from the perspective of diversity and inclusion?

1) It is still time to talk about race

Race has been a major point of discussion in the U.S. for a long time, but across the Atlantic, the topic has been fairly muted. For the U.K., which is also racially diverse and has a colonial history, race only came to the government’s attention after the Race Disparity Audit, first published by the Cabinet Office in 2017. Race is now an everyday discussion, after popular figures in music, such as Stormzy, and in football, such as Raheem Sterling, spoke out against racism. In France and Germany, the two biggest European economies also with histories of colonialism, these conversations are starting to become more prominent.

BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images fund two black British students to go to the University of Cambridge. Stormzy (C) visits his old school Harris City Academy in south London on the day he announced to fund two black British students to go to the University of Cambridge (BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images)

At the BMW Foundation’s Berlin Global Forum in October, the ending plenary featured a crowd-sourced poll from the 200 attendees from all over the world, to answer the question, “What structural factors prevent more inclusivity?” The top ones included: Racism, capitalism, sexism, governments, power, education, hierarchy, prejudice, fear, and white supremacy. Race-related factors are featured twice among the top ten.

Bonnie Chiu factors that prevent more inclusivity.A shot of the crowd-sourced intelligence at BMW Foundation Global Forum, regarding structural factors that prevent more inclusivity (Bonnie Chiu)

While there is more awareness about racial inequality across Western Europe, there is increasing backlash, mainly from white people. Writer Robin DiAngelo has summarised this response as “white fragility,” a reaction in which white people feel attacked or offended when the topic of racism arises. These tensions will likely continue as discussions on race gain traction in popular discourse, through the 2020s.

2) Gender is not just about women

The 2010s have seen a progress in discussions about gender equality, with the #MeToo movement and the intersectionality discourse. LGBTQ activists have also looked back on the 2010s as a decade with huge success, including the increase in trans visibility. Moving into the 2020s, these nuanced debates will likely continue and finally, discourse on gender will not be equated to women; instead, discussions will likely encompass broader issues, including issues relating to men and boys such as men’s health and fatherhood.

The #HeForShe campaign, most famously championed by actress Emma Watson and Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, was a highlight of the 2010s - what will the next decade hold? (Getty Images)

3) Re-emergence of class as a rallying cry

During the Cold War, when the dividing line was socialism versus capitalism, class was a rallying political cry in the world—or at least in the socialist world. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, class has retreated as a front and center political issue, until its comeback in the latter half of the 2010s with the astonishing election of Donald Trump and win of Brexit. The woes of the white working class were a central tenet of both the Trump and Brexit campaigns, and they will continue to preoccupy voters’ minds. On the New Year’s March in Hong Kong, which is entering into its seventh month of anti-government protests, protestors added a new chant about forming unions, which have traditionally been the organizing force of the working class. Increasingly, discussions about diversity will include class.

4) Age: The old versus the young

In the Brexit vote, and the subsequent general elections, has seen the old and the young occupying the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Traditionally, voting preferences are divided along class or racial lines, but age has now become the dividing line–not least because of the economic disparity between the young and the old. A recent research showed that spending by retirees in the U.K. rockets while spending by youth has decreased. When it comes to the issue of climate change, the conflict between the young and the old becomes more apparent. Greta Thunberg, the face of climate activism, has long condemned the inaction of older generations. Last week, in Germany, a satirical song (#Omagate) mocking a fictional grandmother's environmental habits was released, including lyrics that say “my grandma is an old environmental pig,” causing a huge controversy. The generational conflict will most likely continue and intensify in the 2020s.

5) More focus on cognitive diversity

In the past year, the world has grown more aware of how social media channels are creating echo chambers for all of us–people on one’s Facebook news feed may look diverse, but they all think the same. Cognitive diversity has always been on executives’ agendas, but the latest recruitment drive by Dominic Cummings, the aide to U.K.’s Prime Minister, has brought this to the limelight.

Dominic Cummings has also said in his blog post that what Whitehall "needs is not more drivel about ‘identity’ and ‘diversity’ from Oxford humanities graduates (Getty Images)

He has called for the need for “true cognitive diversity” by hiring for a wide range of talent, including “weirdos and misfits with odd skills.”  It remains to be seen how successful he will be in pushing for cognitive diversity, but it will certainly be a word on people’s minds for 2020.

Bonnie Chiu is a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur, a gender equality advocate and a social impact consultant. She is the Founder and CEO of Lensational, empowering marginalised women in 20 countries in Asia and Africa through photography training and platforms to sell their work and also serves as the Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy, an internationally impact advisory firm, with a focus on gender and diversity within impact investing.

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