There is no gender justice without racial justice: Womankind Worldwide makes commitments towards racial justice
By Maggie Baxter, Chair of Trustees
Systemic racism permeates all aspects of our society. From public health and the criminal justice system to the development sector we’re operating in, there are vast power imbalances and racial inequalities that perpetuate discrimination, harm and exploitation. Today, we are presented with a stark reminder of the pervasive and underlying racism that still exists, both here in the UK and across the globe.
One year ago today, Belly Mujinga tragically lost her life to COVID-19. Overlooked by many of the headlines reporting her death last year is the fact that Belly was a trailblazer and had overcome much adversity throughout her life. Born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belly graduated from the University of Kinshasa with a degree in journalism and became the first woman sports reporter for the national broadcaster, Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise. Due to unrest in the DRC, Belly moved to the UK in 2001 as a political refugee and worked at a post office before working as a railway worker. It is in this role where she was likely exposed to COVID-19. On 21st March 2020, Belly was selling tickets at London Victoria station when she and a co-worker Motolani Sunmola were spat and coughed on by a man claiming to have the virus. Regardless of whether this racially aggravated attack led Belly to become infected, her story exemplifies both the blatant and more covert, structural racism existing in our societies. COVID-19 has demonstrated that racism impacts public health, with Black people dying at four times the rate of white people in the UK. Inequalities and discrimination play a significant role in this, with London disproportionately relying on Black and people of colour to fulfil key worker roles.
As an organisation based in the UK and supporting work carried out in the Global South, we recognise that colonial legacy plays out domestically and internationally. Today, we pay tribute to Belly – and all other Black and women of colour whose lives were cut short by racism – and wish to commemorate and celebrate her. As calls for an inquest and public inquiry into Belly’s death heighten and the trial into George Floyd’s murder takes place in the USA, we stand in solidarity with all those demanding justice for Belly and all Black and people of colour who face injustices in all aspects of their lives.
As a feminist organisation, working to dismantle systems of oppression that discriminate against women, girls and gender diverse people is at the heart of what we do. This includes understanding and addressing the ways Black, Indigenous and people of colour experience discrimination around the world. We also recognise that the aid and development sector was founded in the context of colonisation and that there are ongoing power imbalances and power dynamics at its core which perpetuate racial hierarchies and discrimination. We cannot overcome racism without reckoning with the colonial past of the development sector and addressing our working practices, both within our organisation and the wider sector.
To this aim, Womankind has developed an anti-racism pledge that details our commitments to working sustainably in the long term – and in a reflective and accountable way – in order to ensure that anti-racism permeates throughout the strategies, culture and working policies and practices of the organisation. Our pledge broadly covers three areas:
- Our internal commitments, looking at how we will strengthen anti-racism within the organisation, how we will work towards equitable and feminist team composition, how we will create a safe and conducive working environment for Black and women of colour, and how our forthcoming organisational strategy will prioritise and support anti-racism;
- Our commitments to partners and allies, including how we will forge better equal partnerships and collaborations with our partners in the Global South, and how we will progress from amplifying our partners voices to shifting the power to them;
- Our commitments in funding, communications and public affairs, considering how we address colonial dynamics in fundraising practice, how we make flexible and core funding available to partners, how we ensure our communications do not perpetuate power imbalances and how we learn and share with others in the sector.
As we engage in this process, we will continue to re-evaluate and develop new ways of working that are more aligned with a transformative justice approach and feminist values. We hope that our anti-racism work over the coming years will enable us to be part of a movement towards systemic healing, justice and a more equitable world no longer based on racial hierarchies. Because we know, there is no gender justice without racial justice.
