British journalist and television presenter Ranvir Singh has said her colleagues’ refusal to call out discrimination at the workplace during the early years of her career motivated her to become who she is today.
Singh, who appears in ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme, said when people around ignored her, she made sure they would not do so to her again.
She, along with other television presenters Lorraine Kelly, Charlene White, Katie Piper and Andi Peters, shared her experiences in ITV’s film Becoming The Person I Wanted To See which will go on air on Friday.
Singh, 45, said: “What was really upsetting but also at the same time weirdly reassuring, was that all the other decent white people in the office knew I wasn’t being spoken to in the same way that other women with my same inexperience were being treated, and none of them stepped in.”
The winner of the Best On-Screen Talent award at the 2010 Royal Television Society’s North West Awards went on: “None of them tried to do anything, and you know what? Everything I’ve done since then is a f*ck you to that. Everything I’ve done since then has been – you ignored me, I’ll make sure you can never ignore me [again]”.
Singh, who previously worked for BBC Radio, said, “It makes me quite emotional because I don’t really think about it very often.”
Peters, who also works for ITV, talked about overcoming barriers, saying “We’ve got to become comfortable with the uncomfortable” and “it is still a sore subject.” He insisted people should not let the colour of their skin hold them back.
Kelly recalled how she was told while working for BBC Scotland that she would never make it on air “because of my accent.”
Piper said she thought she would never make it on TV because of her accident that occurred 15 years ago.
She said the chat show Loose Women was a place where “I forget that I’m burnt”.
