Race Equality Week: The Stories We Tell - and the Ones We Leave Out

The Belonging Lab
Feb 6
4 min read

As Race Equality Week comes to a close, we've been thinking a lot about the stories we consume - the ones that shape our understanding of the world, and the ones that quietly rewrite it.

And unexpectedly, we happened upon this reflection whilst watching The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel.

If you've watched it, you might know where we are going with this... The show is a riot of colour, wit, ambition and possibility. It's intoxicating, it's comforting, it's a world where women push boundaries, chase dreams and reinvent themselves with perfect comedic timing.

But, there's something else happening too - something harder to ignore once you've noticed it. In Maisel's 1950's / 60's New York, racism simply...doesn't exist.

Characters move through their lives with a freedom and safety that is inaccurate. It's a version of history where segregation, discrimination and racial violence are quietly erased. A world where the barriers that shaped real lives - and still shape lives today - are nowhere to be seen.

And that absence creates a strange duality.

On one hand, it's idyllic. Who wouldn't want to imagine a world where racism isn't part of the story? Where talent, charm and determination are enough to carry you forward? But on the other hand, it's deeply uncomfortable. Because that world never existed. And pretending it did doesn't just soften the truth, it risks rewriting it.

What was Really Happening Outside Maisel's Frame

The Marvellous Mrs Maisel gives us a sparkling, witty, technicolour New York - a city where ambition is the biggest barrier anyone faces. But the real 1950s and 60s looked very different for many communities.

For Black Americans

Segregation was still legal in many parts of the United States until the mid-1960s.
Redlining systematically denied Black families mortgages and access to certain neighbourhoods.
Many industries openly refused to hire Black workers for skilled or public-facing roles.
Voting barriers such as literacy tests, poll taxes and intimidation prevented many Black citizens from exercising basic democratic rights.

This was the era of the Civil Rights Movement, not the era of effortless mobility, opportunity and harmony that the show depicts.

For Jewish Communities

Antisemitism was still common, both socially and institutionally.
Many universities, clubs and neighbourhoods had quotas or outright bans on Jewish membership.
Housing discrimination and "unspoken rules" kept Jewish families out of certain suburbs and co-ops.
Corporate leadership roles in many industries were still largely inaccessible.

The show celebrates Jewish culture beautifully - but it doesn't show the prejudice that still shaped daily life.

For Chinese and other East Asian Communities

The Chinese Exclusion Act had only been fully repealed in 1943, and immigration quotas remained extremely restrictive until 1965.
Chinatowns were often the only places Chinese families could live due to discriminatory housing policies.
Employment opportunities were limited, regardless of skills or education.
Cold War xenophobia meant Asian communities were often treated with suspicion.

These realities existed just outside the frame of Maisel's glamorous New York - and that's exactly why the absence feels so striking.

Why this Matters for Workplaces Today

The stories we tell in our organisations work the same way.

When we talk about inclusion without acknowledging inequity, we create a glossy version of reality - one where everyone has equal access, equal voice, equal opportunity.

It's comforting.

It's tidy.

& it's untrue.

Real equity work requires us to look directly at the gaps, the absences, the silences. To notice who isn't in the room, who isn't being heard and who is carrying the invisible labour to belong.

That's why, at The Belonging Lab, we focus on building cultures where no one's story is edited out for comfort or convenience. And it's why our Mutual Mentoring Programme exists.

Mutual Mentoring: Rewriting the Narrative Together

Traditional mentoring often reinforces hierarchy - one person with power, experience or privilege guiding another.

Mutual Mentoring flips that.

It creates a space where lived experience, cultural insight and identity-based knowledge are recognised as expertise. Where people learn with each other, not over each other. Where the stories that are often missing - the ones erased, minimised or overlooked because it's more "comfortable" - become central to how organisations grow.

It's a model that:

Builds empathy and understanding across difference
Surfaces the realities that don't show up in glossy corporate narratives
Creates accountability for equity, not just awareness
Ensures that no one's experience is quietly written out of the organisational story

Because if we want workplaces that are truly equitable, we can't rely on the Maisel version of history - the one where inequality is invisible. We need to build cultures where people feel safe to tell the truth and that truth leads to change.

As Race Equality Week Ends - the Work Doesn't

The stories we celebrate matter.

The stories we ignore matter just as much.

This week has been a reminder that imagining a world without racism is not the same as building one. And that belonging isn't created through silence - it's created through honesty, connection and shared responsibility.

At The Belonging Lab we're committed to helping organisations do that work with courage and care. Because the real world should be more equitable than fiction - not the other way around.

The Belonging Lab