A champion of racial equity

Growing up, I experienced how the foundations for human potential can be eroded and, in some cases, crushed. These experiences – poverty and miseducation through a racist school curriculum - led me to conclude that the primary reason for wasted potential is the abuse of power. 

My motivation 

We are born with potential; the possibility of living happy, creative and fulfilled lives through gaining knowledge and skills, and by being able to apply these in ways that are meaningful to us.

But we are not all born with an equal opportunity to fulfil this potential. Some are denied fair access to resources and opportunity because of their gender, sexuality, colour or class. As such they are also denied full expression of their culture and identities. 

In our system some thrive while others struggle to have their basic needs and rights met. For over 25 years, my focus has been on reducing racial discrimination and its primary manifestations: the identity gap and the poverty gap. 

Early years in music (1986 – 1996)

In my early 20s I pursued a commercial music career to achieve recognition and financial security. In short, to escape poverty (filling the financial gap) and to gain recognition (filling the identity gap). 

While never becoming rich, my music career gave me sufficient wealth to be able to take time at pivotal moments to stop working, think about what was meaningful to me and then do it. 

Having worked in the music industry for 10 years, I took such a career break.

Founder of Tribal Tree (1996 – 2004)

In 1996 I set up Tribal Tree, a charity which provided young people at risk of exclusion or criminality access to music industry related programmes. Tribal’s services reached more than 1,200 people a year in various schools and youth centres across London.  

From the outreach cohort, 10 participants were selected for longer term development through an incubator programme. All achieved success in different ways: some attaining fame; others became community leaders emulating the work of Tribal; one became a psychotherapist.  

In 2004, despite its success in realising the potential of marginalised young people, funding cuts eventually led to Tribal closing. It took 8 years for me to work out what my next project would be.

During this time, I was able to fully reflect on my experiences growing up as a Black person in the UK and explore how this had shaped me. Through this I was able to deeply think through the ‘what next’, the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ behind my new idea.

Founder of MeWe360 (2012 – 2019)

In 2012, I set up MeWe360 (MeWe) to develop Black entrepreneurs – and their enterprises – in the arts and creative industries.

11 years on, MeWe has supported the development of over 4,500 creative entrepreneurs. These organisations between them have touched the lives of tens of thousands of others directly and millions indirectly as consumers of their various creative outputs.  

The primary reason for wasted potential is the abuse of power. 

Creating space to do more (2019 – now)

After 8 years of running MeWe, I felt a need to directly challenge the systemic racial inequalities I had encountered through the work at both Tribal and MeWe. This included directly challenging the inequitable practices of some of our funders, potentially putting MeWe’s (and my) financial security at risk. 

The idea of destabilising MeWe in this way, having invested so much in establishing it, was uncomfortable to say the least. But so was the idea of not responding to a calling to do more. I reflected on this tension in an article for the Clore Leadership Programme.

“‘Walking your talk’ is a tightrope. You are constantly navigating the line between ‘I have a dream’ and ‘the art of the possible’. The ‘possible’ emphasises small steps, the gaining of currency and the building of foundations in the world as it is. But the ‘dream’ (or the ‘art’) opens the imagination to new ideas that might change the world… 

How do you [gauge] the extent to which you lead with bravery and authenticity on the issues you care about, whilst managing the risk to your career, status and financial security?"

I reduced my hours at MeWe to explore how I could resolve these tensions and effectively work to create the system change I wanted to see. What emerged was the need to create a new organisational structure so that I could both ‘play the game’ while pushing for the changes I wanted to see.

An equitable society where everyone has an opportunity to try, fail and thrive.

Create Equity (2019 – now)

At the end of 2019 I set up Create Equity, a limited company with a social mission to make investment in the arts, social enterprise and commercial industries racially equitable. 

As well as creating investment and development funds to give black and Asian-led organisations finance to grow, Create Equity advocates for funders and investors to distribute their funds in proportion to the black population. 

Create Equity and MeWe now form part of a group, and each will have a new CEO. The group structure provides organisational flexibility, allowing different activities to happen in each separate (and independent) entity while minimising the risk to the other.

As the group’s Executive Chair, I will have the space to directly challenge systemic racial inequality and create new projects to achieve our collective social vision: An equitable society where everyone has an opportunity to try, fail and thrive.

Back to my motivation

Human potential is the most valuable resource we have and wasting it, through acts of discrimination, fragments society. It is arguably the single biggest threat we face. We should harness all human potential for its own sake; and if we don’t do it from a sense of altruism, then we should do so out of self-interest. 

Discrimination thwarts aspiration which leads to a sense of exclusion, polluting society with cynicism and resentment. Without equity we are out of balance and we lose the potential to harness wealth for society as a whole. When people are denied fair access to wealth, we all pay the price through apathy, antisocial behaviour, criminality and violence. 

If the abuse of power is the cause of wasted potential and money is a proxy for power, then the redistribution of wealth is the single best way to help people meet their basic needs and achieve their potential. This is the driving premise behind my work. 

Whatever I go on to do I will continue to work to create a more inclusive society, where equal motivation and ability results in equal economic outcomes. 

Kevin Osborne is CEO at MeWe360 and Create Equity. 
@_KevinOsborne | @mewe360 | @createequityuk
createequityuk.com | mewe360.com