Black Lives Matter

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Black Lives Matter. The murder of George Floyd, and the powerful response around the world, has shown yet again that anti-black racism is a real, specific and frequently violent force. It exists not just in the US, but here in the UK and elsewhere. We think it’s important to add our voices to the millions acknowledging this fundamental reality, before looking at how we will respond at Causeway.

As a charity supporting young people to overcome barriers in accessing Higher Education, structural inequalities are a daily focus of our work. This does not mean that we can sit back, confident that we are already part of the solution. We’ve listened to the disappointment expressed at organisations claiming to be in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement while being oblivious to racism within their own organisations. Tackling structural racism demands action at the political level, but also at the level of organisations and individuals. This means we need to look inwards too.

Over the last three weeks, the progress already made by Black Lives Matter campaigners through committed activism has been incredible, and we have come together as a team to discuss what we can do. Listening to the demands of those leading this struggle, there are some key things we want to avoid:

  • Short term promises and one-off gestures which don’t address structural issues

  • Broad commitments around diversity which don’t address the specific issue of anti-black racism

  • Solely outward-facing actions which step around the need to critique our own practices as an organisation

It’s going to take time, thought and help to work this out. We won’t be putting out a list of our actions straight away, but we would like to tell you what we’re seriously looking at. Some of the things we’ve started discussing are:

Taking a critical look at ourselves

We’ve started exploring the guidance produced by #CharitySoWhite and want to work through implications for how we can work better.

Advocating strongly for mentoring specifically for black students where they are under-represented

We carry out mentoring on behalf of a number of organisations, each with their own targeting criteria. Anti-black racism places specific barriers in the path of black applicants to HE, so we would like to see a higher priority placed on supporting these students. Christine Kinnear from With Insight Education also sets out the benefits of having mentors from the same ethnic background as mentees.

Adapting our training workshops for teachers and outreach professionals to support them in addressing anti-black racism in their settings

We run training sessions on tackling different areas of inequality in progression to HE. We would like to develop these to integrate specific evidence and analysis of anti-black racism.

This is where our thinking is at right now, but we see this as just the start. We will be saying more as we learn more, and as we move to take concrete actions. In the meantime, we would love input from others in the sector and beyond who have insights and reflections that can help us be better.