Power and privilege in social investment
The Diversity Forum’s fourth Breakfast Talk of the year was held on Tuesday 3rd November and hosted by Henna Shah and Anny Ma from Charity so White.
How it began
Charity So White was born out of the #CharitySoWhite hashtag following the discovery of training materials by Citizens Advice that reduced diverse groups to generalisations about ‘low levels of literacy’ and ‘intrinsically cash-centred cultures.’ This was not an isolated incident, but symptomatic of widespread institutional racism in the third sector and provided an opportunity to have a candid, public conversation about racism and urge leaders to take action in dismantling the kind of racist structures that allow incidents like the Citizen’s Advice training to happen far too frequently. People of colour were encouraged to tweet about their experiences of racism in the third sector using the #CharitySoWhite hashtag and the campaign came to life. Thousands of people began to share their experiences, from interns to board members. If it wasn’t clear that the third sector had racism problem, it was now undeniable.
The four ‘I’s of oppression: Ideology, institutional, interpersonal, internalised
It is important to first of all acknowledge that racism does also exist within the social investment space and that we suffer from the same issues in relation to power and privilege that the charity sector does.
Often racism is seen as an institutional or interpersonal problem, which it is, however we must also acknowledge the ideological and internalised aspect of racism. Ideology includes problems like white saviourism while internalisation is more about the impact of racism on the way a person views themselves or the choices they make. Within social investment ideological racism manifests itself in the way we actually view charitable work, namely, that funders generally tend to trust large organisations with grant funding more than they would smaller, local community organisations. This is hugely problematic as most BAME led organisations and social enterprises are smaller and community led thus locking them out of accessing funding. These community organisations are often the ones on the front-line providing important services to local communities and are also often the ones in greatest need of funding.
The internalised aspect of racism, on the other hand, includes aspects like imposter syndrome, lack of self-confidence and feeling that you should behave in a certain way. Do our colleagues from underrepresented communities feel able to bring their whole, authentic selves to work or do they have to code-switch to fit in with white norms? These are important questions that we must ask ourselves if we want to make progress as a sector.
Brave spaces not safe spaces
We need to be brave when tackling racism within social investment and ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions like whether social investment invests power and privilege in certain individuals and norms and whether as a sector we are truly just and equitable.
Social investment is an extremely niche sector with a lot of inaccessible information and jargon. Often you have to be in the right circles, have a higher education and have worked in finance in some way – these are all pre-existing factors which lock out under-represented groups. We need to make social investment more accessible to underrepresented groups to get applicants and employees through the door. A lot of this has to do with how we are framing the issue. Often words like ‘hard to reach’, ‘disenfranchised’ and ‘voiceless’ gets thrown around when discussing BAME led organisations reinforcing the idea that these groups don’t know what they’re doing and need our help to get there. When in reality it’s about having an equitable access and removing barriers.
However, it doesn’t just stop with numbers. We must also be ready to acknowledge our own privileges and power as individuals within the sector and use this to make the change that is necessary. When BAME staff do join an organisation, we need to ask where they are sitting in it. Are they sitting in delivery roles that manage investment portfolios or are they sitting in operation roles like HR? Are BAME staff actually empowered to be able to make key decisions?
This is not a conversation about data
Diversity data is often used to create a commercial case for diversity and although this data can be hugely important it’s also important to acknowledge that it doesn’t always tell us the whole story and particularly where the money is really going. Most importantly, we already know what the numbers look like in terms of representation – our inclusive impact report clearly highlighted that there were serious problems with representation within the sector. Thus this is not a conversation about the numbers, which are already there, it’s actually about how we use these knowledge as well as power and privilege; we can increase diversity and we can increase representation but what does this actually mean for communities of colour and ethnic minorities to have genuine power and genuine control of resources within the sector?
Questions for the sector
• How does racism exist and operate within our organisation? How do we experience it? How does it impact our work?
• How might external structures of inequality be manifesting themselves inside our organisation?
• What changes need to take place in our organisation and in the sector to tackle institutional racism and structures of inequality?
• What personal commitment can you make to tackling racism within our organisation and in the sector?
• What is the reality of your BAME staff’s experience in the sector?
• Can the environmental, social and corporate governance approach be replicated for racial equity?
It is clear that the social investment sector suffers from the same problems that the charity sector does with regards to racism, power and privilege. It is important that we as a sector first and foremost acknowledge that there is a problem and then radically re-frame how we invest in organisations and social enterprises. We must look at who holds power within the sector and why and work to dismantle these power structures.
Ebru Buyukgul is Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator at Social Investment Business.