Stop Perpetuating White Supremacy Culture in the Race to ‘Provide Solutions’ to the Problems the Global Development Sector has Created.
The Racial Equity Index firmly rejects the rushed approach that international organisations are now practising — including the philanthropy sector — to (finally) ‘do something’ about the ‘problem’ of systemic racism within the global development sector. In our work, we have encountered many of these organisations and in this piece, include quotes from real conversations we have had with these groups as examples of white supremacy culture in action.
White supremacy culture can be identified by many characteristics including: Defensiveness, perfectionism, paternalism and a sense of urgency — a phenomenon that many organisations in global development are experiencing, given the long ignored calls for racial justice within the global development sector. Urgency from these ‘well-intentioned’ organisations comes in many different forms and is detrimental to meaningful progress.
Let’s break down the sense of urgency in global development and the harm that organisations are perpetuating by acting on it
Systemic racism within global development isn’t a problem that has suddenly appeared at our doorstep. It is the product of a global development system designed, implemented and upheld by white folks who promote and uphold white supremacy culture, whether they are aware of it or not. At its core, global development is a neocolonial tool used to wield political and economic power over previously colonised and exploited populations (read: mostly Black and brown communities). The rush by international organisations to “do something” about systemic racism is not born out of a desire to create sustainable and meaningful change. If it was, something would have been done a long time ago about the systemic racism within the global development sector. This rush is a self serving act — which instead is rooted in competition to prove that ‘they are good’. Organisations are vying for the chance to be applauded for their short-term work, even if it offers no contribution to the wider issue of systemic racism in the sector.
“We just want to release it (an index) and then refine it because we have three years to get it right.” (yes, a real quote).
White supremacy culture is housed in white capitalist interest — it demands a culture that rushes through work to produce as much as possible — through ‘innovation labs and short sprints’ which are majority white-led. This rush to push through silver bullet solutions serves to temporarily silence Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities and avoid criticism. In the long term, this enables white led organisations to concentrate power and avoid accountability or sustainable change. Global development has fully embraced this culture. Funding hinges on an organisation’s ability to produce as many outputs for as little time and money as possible, under the guise of working together to create “much needed change”. Under time and resource pressure, it is not surprising that so many organisations are cutting corners. The scramble to produce, however, often eliminates arguably the most important component of development: the voices of the individuals that organisations are trying to ‘help’. Failing to include these perspectives leads to meaningless solutions that trivialise racial equity and that exist, again, purely for public recognition. Take the recent tweet below:
Who knew that long (and deliberately) held issues would be open to solving and transformation in the mere matter of one month?! A quick look at the responses to this tweet show that the people who have excitedly raised their hands for this transformation process are NOT diverse nor is there any note to commit to centring racial justice in their rush to transform problems in the global development sector from every angle.
“We haven’t thought about getting grantees’ voices in this process because we haven’t had time to think about it.” (again a real quote).
The rush to ‘solve’ the problem of systemic racism, develop tools to measure progress, monitor organisations in their work to acknowledge these issues, is deeply problematic and incredibly harmful. The lack of thought and of centring grantee communities at the heart of what they are trying to achieve makes efforts useless and invalid. Furthermore the, ‘oops we forgot to actually ask the people that could be impacted by the outcome of our rushed ‘solution,’’ while having resources to actually take the time to do this, is shameful. It’s 2020, and we still have to remind organisations and funders that YES they need to include the people most impacted by issues of systemic racism AT.THE.TABLE. Even better? Give them the senior roles of authority and WATCH.THEM.LEAD.
We asked a funder collective whether they had considered the risks they are incurring by rushing through the process (of building an index). Answer: ‘The risk of getting this wrong is zero because this has never been done before and we need to rattle the cages of this sector.” (again a real quote).
Let’s not use the phrase, ‘rattle the cages’ ever, given that there are kids in actual cages separated from their parents by a racist and facist administration in the United States (yes we know the results of the election — but there are still over 600 separated kids whose parents cannot be found). The belief of zero risk when embarking on racial equity work is protected by white supremacy culture. White supremacy dictates that you will not get it wrong, (and if you do fail, that there will be minimal fallout, and you can easily try again). It dictates that you know best, and you are the experts in finding solutions to problems that white folks have deliberately upheld for decades. We know of indexes which started the same time The Racial Equity Index was initiated (June 2020) that are purportedly releasing their first index in December of this year! When we shared this feedback on our working group call one of our members said, “My Masters projects take more time.”
At The Racial Equity Index, we are moving at the speed of trust because we know the burden we carry if we get this process wrong. We owe it to the BIPOC people in the global development sector to do this work mindfully, transparently, and intentionally. This is why our work is peer-reviewed and why we are not releasing an index in December, but instead launching the very first step in building an index — our global mapping survey. This survey will ensure that we hear from as many people as possible on what issues of racial equity impact them most in the global development space. We are not here to scream that we have found a solution — we are here to intentionally and meaningfully bring systemic and radical change. And neither of these change processes can be white-led or rushed through.
In Conclusion:
…thank you so much white people for taking the time to listen to us. Please sit down and send resources our way so we can lead the work that you want to unwisely rush through without thought or care.
Established in June 2020, the Racial Equity Index Group is a collective of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) who currently work or have spent part of their career working in international development and are dedicated to holding the sector accountable through the creation of a global racial equity index.
Follow our work at TheRacialEquityIndex.Org
