We are two white people working in the field of racial equity & tackling racism. We seek to contribute to cross-cultural leadership in this space, modelling an honesty when it comes to owning our racism, and a willingness to hear the voices of Black and Asian people.
“Much racism is excused under the guise of protocols and systems… Why do racial health inequalities exist? Because our current systems result in them, and we don’t put our systems to one side and do something different. Racism is ‘designed into’ these systems.”
So What is Different?
John and Leonie have been working together for some time.
We have worked with local authorities and communities to explore the degree to which public services offer equitable supports to Black and Asian people.
We have supported local community members to conduct research into Black and Minoritised Ethnic people’s experiences of services.
We have worked with commissioners and public servants to help them listen to and learn from the input of Black and Minoritised Ethnic people.
We bring our complementary experiences of marginalisation as a cis gay man and a cis woman.
We are both gestalt psychotherapists and bring a relational orientation and a recognitions of the systemic dynamics of privilege and oppression.
We seek always to learn from and to lead projects with Black and Asian parters.
We believe the answer to the scourge of racism begins from equal and honest relationship.
The work is difficult and painful, and we all need support.
This is a piece of writing I (John) wrote about my process of coming to understand my white identity.
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People from global majority cultures have universally lower uptake of drug & alcohol services across the UK. John and Leonie were commissioned by Wandsworth & Richmond Councils to work with local BAME people to understand the reasons for underuse of services, and with wider system partners to address issues around accessibility and cultural sensitivity of treatment services.
The first thing we did was to reach out to specialist BAME drug & alcohol support organisation BAC-IN (https://www.bac-in.org/). Together with BAC-IN we worked to support local people to carry out research within their peer groups and cultural communities, and we allocated half the budget towards paying local people.
There are cultural factors such as shame, taboo and stigma, which make it harder for people from some cultures to access support. Additionally aspects of the ‘medicalised model’ of addiction were developed with mainly white people in mind.
And yet it is only once addiction is understood in the context of traumas stemming from experiences of systemic racism - such as being the only black or brown person, cultural dislocation, absence of mentorship, subtle ‘othering’ and overt racism - that services can begin to respond humanely and appropriately to the experiences of people from different cultures.
Leonie and John have both been been through our own journeys with recovery, and the step of accessing support was hard for us to take as white people. We bring an appreciation of how much harder it can be for people of colour, where the links between racism and trauma/addiction are only partially understood.
We are drawn to connecting with others who are committed to working to tackle systemic racism. And we welcome approaches from colleagues who share our values, motivations, and would be interested in working with us as friends or associates.
The work isn’t easy…
“As a white person, I will inevitably find myself taking positions that on closer examination feel like I am a part of the problem - for example when I align myself with colleagues whose decisions have the impact of propogating racism. I have found myself in mixed racial groups saying things that on closer examination feel similar to “white lives matter too”! As a therapist I have some grasp of how my (white) nervous system is conditioned to feelings of guilt/fear/shame/anger when confronted by black people’s pain. I cannot take myself out of my ‘whiteness’ nor my heritage. A continual reminder to humility is when I find within myself the ‘racism’ that is more comfortable to project out onto the macrocosm.” (John)
We have experience of working in: Health and social Care, Criminal Justice, Refugees and asylum, Voluntary Sector commissioning and infrastructure, Carers, Dementia, Drugs and alcohol, Children and Young People (including gangs and knife crime), Mental Health, Racial Issues and marginality. Social investment, voluntary sector consortium development, community development (ABCD).
