Jump to Main ContentJump to Primary Navigation

Don't Lose Faith In Us: How Grassroots Activism Can Hold The Government To Account

It is no surprise that black women have lost faith in the government; we can look to examples from the past two weeks to see why. The recent appointments to the women’s equality select committee lack diversity or representation of our community. Similarly, the leaked document from within the Labour Party demonstrated what we already knew, that black women within the party have been bullied and discriminated against. And don’t get me started on the appointment of Trevor Phillips to lead the enquiry on the impact of Covid-19 to BAME communities – the same man who compared Grenfell to the “Tower of Babel”. Amongst everything else in the world, we are constantly reminded that the current make up of political parties are not for us!

But losing faith in politics doesn’t have to mean losing faith in political activism, or the fight for racial justice and social change. I’m part of an organising group called #CharitySoWhite. We are grassroots activists working to tackle racism in the charity sector and to hold government and civil society to account by challenging power structures. We are calling for senior leadership and funders to be representative of the communities they work in and prioritise their needs.

I’m sure there’s lots of black women doing this anti-racist work in different spaces, and we all know it ain’t easy. It’s exhausting but my hope was restored when I met the #CharitySoWhite crew. We are 13 volunteers of colour who’ve worked together to build this campaign and we are so proud of the successes we have achieved in less than one year.