The killing of George Floyd by police in the US has prompted a global debate about racism in our society. From activists toppling a statue of a slave trader in Bristol, to footballers kneeling in protest, we’ve seen some bold gestures and historic moments in this new wave of protest.
These actions prove that there is much more that we can and should be doing every day. We need to recognise white privilege and dismantle the deep-rooted systemic racism that shows through in employment, housing, media, politics, policing, healthcare and the impacts of climate change.
Charities must do more
Charities are not exempt from this conversation. This powerful moment for anti-racism campaigning has encouraged us at Greenpeace UK to confront our own position. Although we have started the journey of tackling systemic racism, there is much more we can and will do.
We will do this to demonstrate solidarity with those fighting systemic racism. But we will also do this because we recognise that systemic racism is directly linked to climate change and environmental abuse. The mainstream environmental movement has been too slow to expose this link. When lives are being lost to systemic racism, to stay silent is itself a kind of violence. We will not be silent.
These are our commitments
1) We recognise that black voices are underrepresented across our sector, in particular in leadership positions. We commit to proactively achieving stronger representation of black people and people of colour across both the wider sector and our own organisation – in particular within leadership positions.
2) As an actions led campaigning organisation we will become strong allies of the anti-racism movement and explicitly expose the links between systemic racism and environmental abuse.
3) We will organise ongoing anti-racism education programmes for all staff in order to embed a culture of anti-racism into the fabric of our organisation.
4) We will continue to review this work to hold ourselves to account and be better.
Want to work with us on this? Get in touch
Greenpeace already works to support under-represented groups, including by funding positions for people of colour on the Campaign Bootcamp training programme, running our own activist trainings and offering our warehouse space and equipment to activist groups – and of course we must do more.
If you are an anti racist/ BAME led group or collective and would like to explore how Greenpeace could support or work alongside you please email meena.rajput@greenpeace.org.
