The charities speaking out against racism

Posting a #BlackLivesMatter statement or a few EDI commitments doesn’t make your charity anti-racist. It takes concrete action. As Angela Davis says, “In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist.” 

 

Anti-racism is not a checklist, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Every charity is different, so there will different nuances depending on who you are, where you and how you work. Namira Islam Anani puts it beautifully: “Anti-racism is a mindset, commitment, goal and way of being in everything we do.”

 

What it means to be an anti-racist charity  

 

While every charity is different, anti-racist charities are likely to have a few characteristics in common. They:  

• • Are honest about their failures in the past and the problems they still have 
  • Understand that racism is structural: it’s about policies, processes, and systems (not ‘one bad apple’)
  • Honour the importance of anti-racism by dedicating significant time, energy, and money  
  • Properly support staff who work on anti-racism, recognising how traumatic and exhausting this work can be
  • Know that anti-racism work is everybody’s responsibility and can’t be delegated to a couple of under-resourced EDI leads
  • Gather quality data about their staff and work, disaggregated by race and ethnicity
  • Use that data to track progress on ambitious targets and design evidence-based strategies
  • Take an intersectional approach to EDI , paying attention to how racism overlaps with sexism, ableism, classism, and so on
  • Bring anti-racism into everything they do: from fundraising to communications, governance to operations 

The work of becoming anti-racist is huge and complex. It won’t be done in a few easy steps. Nobody is perfect, no charity has got it perfectly right. 

 

But there are charities that are speaking out against racism in notable ways, and we can all learn from them. Let’s look at four non-profits that are inspiring us.  

 

 

Mind: showing how systemic racism affects other issues 

 

First up, a charity that makes clear links between racism and the cause of mental health. Mind talks in plain language about how racism is a mental health issue: from the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on racialised communities, to the racial trauma of witnessing police violence, like the tragic killings of George Floyd or Chris Kaba.  

 

However, Mind have been criticised for not holding firm when challenged by supporters. An anti-racist charity must talk openly about structural racism and stick to their message in the face of hostility.

 

 

 

Shelter: telling complex stories free from stereotypes 

 

Structural racism affects every social issue, so it’s no surprise to see Shelter talking about the connections between racism and homelessness.  

 

Featuring racially diverse people in your content doesn’t make your brand anti-racist: it’s the bare minimum. And diversity is no predictor of equity, inclusion, or belonging. 

 

After all, you could feature countless stories by and about people of colour, but those stories could still do harm. They might homogenise people of colour’s experiences or present structural racism as a series of individual, interpersonal events.  

 

BAME ain’t the same. People who experience racism have vastly different life experiences, wants, and needs. Our storytelling must give space for the richness and diversity of global majority experiences, or it can’t possibly be anti-racist.  

 

Shelter tells complex, varied and compelling stories that centre the experiences of people of colour. Their Home Is Everything series is a beautiful example.  

 

 

Wellcome: owning up to failures and how far they have to go 

 

Every charity is affected by structural racism in some way. But it’s rare to find a charity that says it as plainly as Wellcome.  

 

Wellcome publicly declared their commitment to anti-racism in 2020. Two years later, they hired auditors to assess how much progress they’ve made. The answer was clear: they’re still a structurally racist organisation, with much more work to be done. 

 

For many of us, it’s shocking to hear a charity call itself racist. But it’s also refreshingly honest.  

 

Charities, and the wider sector, can’t become anti-racist until we’re honest about racism. We must be brave enough to admit our failures and bold enough to continue our anti-racist journey by working in the open. 

 

 

Spark and Co: calling out racism with nuance and sensitivity  

 

As a charity that supports racialised people and communities, Spark and Co are constantly doing work to dismantle racism and it’s hard to pick just one area to highlight. But I want to particularly celebrate how Spark and Co talked about the death of the queen.  

 

Many White-dominated charities quickly put out a statement after her death. They offered condolences or celebrated her life, without touching on the harmful legacy of monarchy and empire. Many of these same charities say they are committed to anti-racism.  

 

But sweeping celebrations of the British monarchy – without acknowledging how it has facilitated enslavement, colonialism, and other forms of racialised violence around the world – erase the experiences of countless people, including people of colour from formerly colonised countries. 

 

Spark and Co break down these complex ideas into clear yet nuanced explainers, like this tweet thread.

 

 

 

Prioritise internal change over external appearances 

 

We need to see examples of charities speaking out about anti-racism to keep us inspired and encouraged. But we must not mistake charity messaging about anti-racism for real change. 

 

Many of the charities that are hardest at work dismantling White supremacy don’t enjoy a lot of visibility. Others are quick to talk about their unwavering commitment to anti-racism, and slow to provide the evidence for what they’ve done.  

 

To transform our sector, we must prioritise internal change over external spin.