Mohsin Zaidi

In this session, Mohsin Zaidi addresses the stigma around mental health within ethnic minority communities. He draws a parallel between this and a cultural stigma around discussing mental well-being in the workplace. Through very personal and, at times, harrowing tales, Mohsin articulates the case for honesty in personal identity within yourself but also at work and amongst colleagues.  

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The single most pressing issue of diversity facing society and businesses is the one to which we give the least attention. While measures of equity on race, gender, and sexuality move in the right direction, the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. Through personal experience of growing up in a council house and going to a school ridden with gang violence (a school from which he became the person to go to Oxford University), Mohsin Zaidi addresses the issue of class bias and discusses what we can do about it. 

None of us are just one thing, and Mohsin Zaidi is the personification of an intersectional life. On race, Mohsin has the facts and figures to back up the experiences of ethnic minorities we so often hear about in the news. On class, he speaks candidly about the difference between the world he came from and the world he now lives in. On sexuality, he describes the struggle to accept yourself in the face of cultural stigma. But the strength in his experience lies in the intersectional tale it tells. 

Through eye opening stories in a professional and personal context, Mohsin Zaidi explains how diverse representation in key roles doesn’t just demonstrate a commitment to being an inclusive organisation but adds value to it.  

In this Q&A around the critically acclaimed memoir ‘A Dutiful Boy’, Mohsin Zaidi draws on all the strands he writes and speaks on.