After watching countless spy and detective movies, most of the time, we have generalized conceptions of how these spies or intelligence officers would look like. As a James Bond movie fan, this pre-connotation is even stronger.
We imagine spies as someone who are well-built, are likely White, come from a specific ethnicity, and more. However, a real spy from Military Intelligence, Section 6 (MI6) recently spilled the tea on the reality.
MI6, also known as Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) is a foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom. It looks after the collection and analysis of undercover overseas human intelligence of foreign nationals.
“MI6 is more exciting than James Bond”
The first Black spy at MI6, Kwame, recently spoke to BBC Radio 1Xtra sitting at the agency’s iconic London headquarters, known as the MI6 building or the SIS Building. During the broadcast interview, he spoke about the drive to recruit more individuals from Black and Asian backgrounds.
Talking about what it is like to work at MI6, Kwame said, “It’s more exciting than James Bond. I’ve seen some of the coolest stuff. Things that will blow your mind.”
“You have to be in it to see it. The issue is if you talk about James Bond it gives you a different connotation,” he added.
Kwame identified himself as the director of organizational development, particularly as the finance and HR director. He said that a part of the recruitment drive was to inform people that anyone can work for MI6, irrespective of their ethnicity or background.
MI6 Spy debunks rumors
Kwame also spoke about the famous MI6 gadget master, Q, portrayed in the fictional James Bond world created by author Ian Fleming. He revealed, “Q here is a woman actually, and her deputy is a woman. We’ve got a whole line of Qs doing really cool stuff in the tech space who are women.”
Addressing the misconceptions around MI6, Kwame added, “We don’t torture people. Absolutely not. The UK is firmly against that. You get really good pay, a really good pension, a really good reward. But, actually, it is the impact that makes a difference for me.”
Talking about MI6 and its overall mission, he said that the ultimate mission of MI6 is to protect the UK and protect its people by gathering intel and doing things overseas.
“We want the brilliant men, women, non-binary friends and brothers and sisters and non-binary family members from within the Black and Brown community to come and join us because there is real talent there,” he added.
Interestingly, according to the intelligence service’s most recent ethnicity pay gap report, less than one in every 10 MI6 staff (9%) is from an ethnic minority background. Similarly, their median pay is 13.2% lower than white employees.
