Reflections on The Summer School Edit
THE UK IS INSTITUTIONALLY RACIST (IF YOU DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW)
Having spent the last few weeks reading, listening, following and watching the work of Lavinya Stennett, Marsha P Johnson, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Andrea Levy and Alayo Akinkugbe, what is clear to us is that the system is not designed for everyone. Our institutions, workplaces and universities are racist.
We know from the work of organisations like The Black Curriculum that the lack of diversity in the current curriculum sends children out into the world with a distorted view of history, low self esteem and a lack of a sense of belonging that’s vital to success later in life.
The isolation is not just in the content either, a report from Stonewall found that 15% of LGBTQ+ students from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds have been excluded from school. Black Caribbean students have the worst educational outcomes at secondary level with research from Lambeth council in 2018 finding that 46% of Black Caribbean pupils gained 5+ A*-C grades including English and maths at GCSE, compared with 54% of all pupils nationally.
BAME students have lower offer rates at Russell Group institutions even when equally qualified to white students. In a recent post exploring the disproportionate impact of COVID 19 on BAME students, Karis Campion (a researcher for the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity at the University of Manchester) noted “BAME students are already more likely to drop out than their white counterparts. The rate for Black students is 1.5 times higher than that of Asian and White students. This is partly because BAME students tend to lack a sense of belonging in the university environment.”
After we leave school this pattern continues, the “curriculum” we follow outside of school is determined by the media we consume, the sport we watch, the books we read, the podcasts we listen to and the people we surround ourselves with. Here’s just a few of the stats we came across over the last month that stood out us:
In the media industry, 94% of journalists are white, we recommend listening to Nadine White talk to Yemisi Adegoke about her experience in navigating the industry.
In sport a recent study by RunRepeat revealed the racial bias in English football commentary: “players with lighter skin are more often praised for intelligence” and just 5% of the commentators and co-commentators were from a BAME background.
When reviewing the publishing industry, Shola von Rheinhold found that in 2016 ‘out of 165,000 new titles only 100 were by writers of colour. 33 were cookbooks and 33 were self-published.’
BUILD YOUR OWN FRAMEWORK FOR CONTINUED LEARNING
It’s our responsibility to join the campaign to rewrite the school curriculum but also to evaluate the spaces in which we live and learn.
Racism is complex and fast-changing: so our anti-racism work needs to be equally dynamic. We need to interrogate and adapt our own learning on a regular basis. It helps to have a friend (please don’t lean on your Black friends) or someone you do the work with to hold you to account. Together you can develop your understanding of the part you play in the wider movement and the impact your anti-racism work can have on your community.
Some questions to start addressing in your own life;
In which spaces do you hold power in your life?
Review Peggy McIntosh’s list of privileges - how many of the 50 listed are you fortunate to hold?
There are so many brilliant organisations run by Black women, what’s needed now is financial support. Financial activism means planning regular donations these groups rely on - what does your plan for 2020 look like?
Have you taken the time to understand the structural inequalities in the industry within which you work and where you have a role to help dismantle those barriers?
Which social justice campaigns are you a part of? (Don’t leave the work to other people)
How are you holding the organisations you are part of accountable? Routinely holding our educational institutions, workplaces and communities publicly accountable for doing the work to make sure their Brand Statements, Instagram Posts and Corporate Social Responsibility strategies - are followed through the diversity of our curriculum, the development of senior leadership teams, and HR/recruitment policies.
How are you holding your friends and family to account? What difficult conversations have you made the effort to start?
IT'S A LIFETIME'S WORK
It’s one thing to read and educate yourself, it’s another to confront it personally. It would be incredibly arrogant to think we can achieve anything that will ever be ‘enough’ or ‘finished’.
But the great news is there is a phenomenal amount of work that women around the world have been doing for centuries to dismantle racist systems and institutions.
It’s actually this unending number of women who are creating art, literature,TV, activism, science and comedy (the list goes on) which The Yes List is dedicated to celebrating. The list is growing every day, but the relentless pace of creativity and innovation means we will never be short of important and inspiring messages and women to learn about and share with you. To get you started we’ve pulled together a doc with amazing resources that we hope can act as a starting point for your own research.
We’d love to know your reflections on this month's edit, any recommendations you have and how you are holding yourself and your community accountable for learning and unlearning what they taught us in school - let us know in the comments or we’d love to hear from you by email anytime :)