Wednesday 30 October marked a historic day as the first step to creating an Anti-Racist Birmingham and West Midlands.

For the first time, leaders from across every sector – city, regional, civic, public, education, private, cultural, Voluntary, Community Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE)– came together in a powerful show of unity.

This landmark event took place at the BRIG (Birmingham Race Impact Group) bi-annual summit “What’s Changed?”, where the landmark pledge was signed, marking a bold step forward for the city's and region’s future.

A cross sector Leaders Debate Panel also took place at the summit.

Coinciding with the Summit, several themed position papers have also been published.

BVSC has signed the Pledge and with BRIG has published the final VCFSE Mini Race Impact Summit (MRIS) Position Paper, further to consultation earlier in the year.

The Position Paper is available for download here

The Pledge

We acknowledge that:

“In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”

― Angela Y. Davis

And will pledge:

We commit to work collectively to create an Anti-Racist

Birmingham and West Midlands

The importance of the city and regional leaders working together to take anti-racist action can’t be emphasised enough. Our growing Black, Asian and racialised communities that drive the city / region are being racially discriminated and not being afford the same opportunities as white people decade after decade. The increasing size and contribution of our global majority communities necessitates a collective step change in order that our city and region flourish in realising its potential.

To do this the first step must be seriously tackling the barriers created by a racist society preventing our global majority communities to flourish.

Pledge Signatories

Many organisations are signing up to the pledge. Click here to see the list of those organisations.

Position Papers

Coinciding with the Summit, several themed position papers have also been published in either consultation draft or final version.

Position Papers are available for download here.

Cross sector Leaders Debate Panel:

- Birmingham City Council

- West Midlands Combined Authority – Richard Parker – Metro Mayor

- Police and Crime Commissioner West Midlands

- Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board

- Birmingham City University

- Birmingham BMet College

- Women Acting In Today’s Society

- WM Independent Race Equality Taskforce

- Birmingham Race Impact Group

 

Ranjit Sondhi – BRIG Chair said:

“Bringing City and regional leaders together to tackle racism pro-actively must be a game changer. It can’t be left to stagnatingpolicies and procedure, which essentially manages the inequality that exists without trying to change anything.  We have worked tirelessly for decades to get the city, region, and its institutions on the same page in tackling racial inequalities seriously.

In action is not a choice. Due to the multiple barriers faced by racialised communities we are aware this has opened up a life expectancy gap of circa 10 years between ethnic minorities and their white counterparts. The response from the system for decades has been “it takes time”, frankly we haven’t got it.

We have learnt from anti-racist campaigners who came before us just how difficult the struggle is to eradicate the deep, persistent, and periodically violent, racism in Britain. But we are now at a moment in history when all major public institutions and community groups have pledged to make, Birmingham an anti-racist city. We are pleased that BRIG has played a significant part in this development.

We live in hope that the signing of the pledge for creating an Anti-Racist Birmingham and West Midlands will be an impactful fore runner for making ‘Birmingham a leading Global Anti Racist City by 2025 (draft summary City Vison) and the Anti-Racist Commissions that will kick start it in 2025.

To do this justice we will need to do more than just signing a pledge, though it is a start for collective action. To be truly anti-racist you need to understand how racism operates and keeps reinventing itself. Covid exposed how racism operates structurally and culturally in a racist society in killing many more people of colour both on service and community frontlines. Its our job to stay well ahead of it.”

 

Further Information:

• BRIG Summit: www.wearebrig.co.uk/news/historic-anti-racist-pledge-signing-by-city-and-regional-leaders
• Position Papers: www.wearebrig.co.uk/position-papers
• BVSC: Visitwww.bvsc.org/vcfse-mris or contact [email protected]
• BRIG:  Visit: www.wearebrig.co.uk/ or contact [email protected]