Charity campaign group #CharitySoWhite has written a blog post explaining why the group has been largely absent for over a year, as well as setting out what comes next.
I have copied some of their statement below:
After a year and a half of internal reflection, we are a team of people who have been fractured, humbled, and rebuilt with stronger bonds throughout this process.
In 2019, the #CharitySoWhite online campaign was coined to create space for People of Colour (PoC) to safely share their experiences of racism and to call on the charity sector to change.
In that long overdue conversation, we shifted the narrative on charity sector racism; from denial it exists, to acknowledging the systemic harms underpinning the sector and the harm this causes.
We set out with hope, belief, and tenacious passion to ensure that no other PoC in the sector would have to endure the workplace problems we had. We quickly grew a large audience of people who shared in these horrors, and well-meaning allies shocked at them. We reached notoriety and milestones with campaign wins, public speaking, advocacy, and events, as well as sector commentary weekly (sometimes daily).
As a group, having each faced the force of white supremacy in the charity sector, we felt passionate about driving systemic change. At the time, this looked like commenting on every racist incident and coddling every leader over coffee. This was not sustainable. We burnt out.
The engine of #CharitySoWhite was fueled by personal trauma, a resource that doesn’t come in regulated measures. When we considered doing less where we could, or bringing new people into the team, a culture of hierarchy, hazing, and mistrust within the group made it untenable.
It was unwise to invite PoC into the committee, presented as a place where experiences were validated and channelled into change, when the PoC already in it felt unsafe and unwelcome. Unequal power and hierarchy came to define our “flat structured” activist collective. Success became an individual pursuit chased through the lens of white supremacy, replicating those toxic dynamics we wanted to escape.
We were acting from a space of pain having experienced harm, so we prioritised the urgency to react over intentionality, care and boundaries for ourselves and each other. Today, we want to return to our values of accountability and honesty by sharing our story with you and holding ourselves to account.
Radical change requires radical change. Change of self, change of thought, change of behaviour.
Many of you have asked us individually “what’s going on with #CharitySoWhite?”. Beneath the fake smiles and dismissive rehearsed lines, here’s the long answer: a story of activist burnout; the difficulty of building a movement; and how a culture of white supremacy can exist in activist spaces…even those dedicated to dismantling white supremacy itself.
