Emma de Zoete is a Public Health Consultant at the Greater London Authority (GLA). She has over ten years’ experience of working at local level within the NHS and Local Government, and has also worked for the independent charity and think tank The Health Foundation, and in the voluntary sector for Catch22.

Emma is a member of the ADPHL Steering Group for the Tackling Racism and Inequalities in Public Health programme.

In this conversation we discuss the concepts of ‘white privilege’ and ‘allyship’ in action.

Lee Pinkerton – could you tell me about your role at the GLA?

Emma De Zoete: I trained as a registrar on the public health training scheme just as they started to take on non-medics, having worked in central government for six years in the Departments of Health, Education and Prison Service.

I’ve been a public health specialist at the GLA since 2019, where my work focuses on Housing and Vulnerable Adults.

Six months after I joined the GLA, COVID hit. After that, I spent the majority of my time focused on protecting and supporting rough sleeping and homeless populations in London. I’m particularly proud to have been part of the team that initiated the programme that then became ‘Everyone in’. It was around that time that I really began to reflect on the role and impact of structural racism in a central way. We could see it so clearly in the disproportionate number of deaths from COVID in the Black and Asian ethnic groups.

I was always aware of racism as an issue, particularly having worked on prison healthcare, and I’ve thought about the unequal outcomes experienced by ethnicity – but recognising the impact of racism on health and addressing it wasn’t systematically in my work.

LP : What are your thoughts around the concept of allyship?  How can privilege be harnessed in the goal of reducing racial inequality?

I’ve always been aware that I’m a hugely privileged person. I had a happy family life, excellent education, and enough financial resources to have lots of choices.

Being from such privilege is something that I regularly reflect on, and I think has driven my interest in social justice. It is for this very reason that I want to fully step into allyship in my personal and professional life. One of the opportunities I’ve had to do this is by joining the ADPH London anti-racist steering group.

For International Women’s Day the ADPHL steering group were asked to submit profiles of themselves and I began to question what value I could bring. The reality is that I’ve not had to deal with any sort of consistent adversity in my life. However, during an away day on inclusive leadership as part of the Aspiring Directors programme – a discussion on allyship made me realise that this is exactly what I should focus on. It became clear to me that allyship to tackle structural racism is essential work—work that I, and others in my position, need to commit to as leaders, as public health professionals, as a profession.

LP: So how do you define allyship?

EDZ: For me, allyship is about accepting how very little I know, creating space to really listen and learn from those who have a lived experience, and then using my platforms, as well as through actions in my day to day living, to amplify the voices of marginalised communities to advocate for systemic change.

Allyship is about asking: ‘how can I ensure that I am not only standing alongside my colleagues who are affected by these issues, but taking action in any way I can to build a more supportive, inclusive, connected and equitable community and systems?’

LP: how do you see allyship, being manifested practically in your role?

EDZ:  In my work, allyship means promoting and advocating for actions and policies that are anti-racist.

On a practical basis, I see this as trying to bring an anti-racist lens to all the work I do, from recruitment and pathways into public health through to policy and practice.

For example, as part of our work on health inequalities the GLA have commissioned the Institute of Health Equity (IHE) to undertake a series of evidence reviews on key issues in London. The reports to date on Housing, Cost of Living and Skills all pick up on the relatively new Marmot principle to ‘Tackle racism, discrimination and their outcomes’. The reality is that we cannot create meaningful change in these spaces, and improve Londoners’ health, if we don’t acknowledge and dismantle the structural barriers faced by our fellow Londoners. And there is so much work that we can do, and need to do.

I hope these and future reports from the IHE will cement structural racism within public health work.

For me that means bringing that lens to my work whether it is on homelessness, affordable housing, inclusion health, how we approach health in all policies, and so much more. John Amaechi in this short piece on allyship on the anniversary of the death of George Floyd expresses this better than I ever could. The bit that stands out the most is this.

‘You are going to leave this video and in your next meeting, conversation, in person or perhaps on Zoom or Teams you will hear an incivility and your decision in that moment will tell the world who you are. Are you an ally or a bystander. If we want to stop talking about subjects like this we need more allies and less people who watch. What will you do?’

This is why the programme of work that ADPHL is leading on Tackling Racism and Inequalities in Public Health is so important.