‘Playing the race card’ has become the weapon of choice for people desperate to silence legitimate debate surrounding race and racism, but a new three-part series from Complex UK, Lynx and SocialFIXT, called The Race Card, is flipping that on its head. The new series will use in-depth conversations with influential Black Britons to explore microaggressions and their personal experiences with stereotyping at school, at work, and in wider society.

Rapper AJ Tracey and Man United star Jesse Lingard sit alongside MC and producer Novelist, presenter and comedian Sideman, writer and stylist Ayishat Akanbi, and presenter and journalist Chanté Joseph as they tackle some important topics. The first episode dives into education and the pressures heaped on young Black people, as well as the early attempts to confine Black people to entertainment or sport, and how those preconceptions can be internalised and ripple through the rest of their lives.

“There’s limitations that are set on a lot of young Black kids,” Chanté Joseph explains, “and then we’re constantly told that we don’t aspire enough or we don’t have enough aspirations. If those are the things you’re told, that can live with you forever.” AJ says of careers advice at school: “The assumption was that a lot of Black and ethnic kids, they don’t really know what they want to do so they just pick sport or music. It has to be creative, you can’t pick something academic.”

The Race Card was created in partnership with youth culture title Complex UK, Lynx, and SocialFIXT—an online job-board platform and community connecting Black talent to jobs in the creative industries. As part of their commitment to racial equality, Lynx will also be building on this relationship with SocialFIXT. The partnership is part of a broader diversity and inclusion plan focused on building a bridge between Black talent and the marketing and creative industries. For more information, head here.

Watch episode 1 of The Race Card above.