Bobby A. Syed had set up the EMMA Awards, after working at Saatchi & Saatchi, which were broadcast on ITV and the BBC; this ultimately led to the creation of the Mr. Multicultural show. There is no doubt that the EMMA show reflected the world’s first-ever Creative Industry show, thereby making history and helping to define this industrial sector alongside its Multicultural roots – creativity has always been based on our social evolution, whereby civilisations have formed, by learning from each other. Sadly, civilisation has also fallen when ‘hubris’ is the norm based on greed.

The Mr Multicultural YouTube channel, launched on May 25, 2021, over a one year period was presented by EMMA Founder, Bobby A. Syed, with the aim to promote social cohesion highlighting our many EMMA role models who either won an EMMA Award or supported the EMMAs. This allowed us to finally celebrate those Multicultural champions who have clearly defined what it means to be a Multicultural role model. Every civilisation throughout history has been Multicultural in essence, as we live on a planet that has evolved through diverse cultural and social evolution within society.

The Mr. Multicultural Social Media campaign was about promoting Multicultural values through our many role models. It had all started with the EMMA Awards show content we had gathered since 1997 with the EMMA Awards show broadcast on UK National Television for many years since 1999. We at EMMA believe in promoting social cohesion, as this is the greatest strength for society through Multiculturalism.

The EMMA show was a showcase for those collective efforts since 1945, which was made globally to eradicate many injustices like the Nazis’ racist ideology that had destroyed a generation. The recent commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 2025 was largely due to a successful multicultural army who destroyed the Nazis’ philosophy and the Japanese Imperial forces. Let us hope we learn from those many lessons from the past and not repeat them in future.

The many who fought, regardless of their race, colour or religion, had stood up for those “Multicultural” values – so that a person can be judged by their character, not be labelled differently through some hate crowd or community that unfortunately still seems to be promoting Far Right Nazi ideology in the 21st Century. EMMA stands for Multicultural values that defines social cohesion leading to better social inclusion.

Mr Multicultural or even Ms Multicultural, through EMMA’s work, stands against all types of Apartheid and Racism. This is why we firmly believe that individuals can make a difference by embracing our Motto: “It’s what’s inside that counts.” This has been the bedrock of EMMA since 1997; hence, our many EMMA winners/supporters have reflected more inclusive professionalism and social inclusion. EMMA was proud to highlight their commitment, through the Mr Multicultural online videos, which helps to define the meaning of Multiculturalism through their own life journey over decades.

Mr Bobby A Syed has dedicated his whole life to fighting all forms of discrimination, including his active role as an Anti-Apartheid member since the 1980s. This was appreciated by Nelson Mandela, who acknowledged the EMMA Award bestowed upon him at a ceremony at South Africa House in 2000 for his courage in standing up to the Apartheid Regime. Mr. Mandela also acknowledged Mr. Bobby A. Syed’s progressive vision, as he clearly understood what it should take to be “Multicultural”.

Nelson Mandela helped us understand the term ‘Multicultural’ better through his own deeds alongside others in our diversely rich communities. The Cambridge Dictionary goes on to define the term ‘Multicultural’ to mean: “including people who have many different customs and beliefs – Britain is increasingly a Multicultural society.” This was no coincidence, as Mr. Multicultural, Bobby A. Syed, founded the EMMA Awards in 1997 to celebrate Britain’s Multicultural society. As a person who had grown up in Britain (London) from the 60s, when racism was an everyday reality for all minorities, the environment that minorities had grown up in was defined as an inner city ‘Ghetto’ that led to those riots due to consistent discrimination as imposed on impoverished communities from the Commonwealth. The “River of Blood” speech by Enoch Powell MP didn’t help race relations with this “us and them” politics leading to more division.

The irony here was that these workers from the Commonwealth had migrated to help rebuild Britain after the devastation of the Second World War, and many of their own kinfolks had also died to support Britain in these wars, which seems to be overlooked since the end of the First and Second World Wars. Without those sacrifices, Britain in post war stage couldn’t rebuild and would have lost the respective wars against a well-disciplined foe who dominated Europe (Germany), which was countered by our Multicultural force referred to as the Allies – the subsequent victory created the UN.

Commonwealth subjects only sought equality as Ethnic Minorities in Britain after they migrated to help rebuild the country from the Second World War devastation. Britain has a history of ultimately embracing Multicultural values through invasions from the many European races. Whereby, common values are formed to build social harmony.

Bobby A. Syed devoted his life by challenging those racist narratives to help promote Social Cohesion and encourage a better understanding of the meaning of the word “Multiculturalism”. Because if society has a diverse language, whereby one word has many meanings, at some point society will collapse, due to communication failures.