The Caucasity in Global Development is WILD
On 3 April 2021, the Racial Equity Index posted a Twitter thread calling for accountability from WILD Innovators and Fiona Macaulay — the founder of WILD Forum for their upcoming Leadership Forum on 5–6 May 2021.
We listed in a thorough thread a series of questions and suggestions around their speakers and panels for their forum and asked why there was an utter lack of diversity on some key panels and why the forum was cost-prohibitive for the development community at large.
We made it very clear that the thread we posted was not an attack but in the spirit of accountability.
We have listed the tweet’s out in order below:
- on @WILDinnovators ‘s upcoming Women in Global Development Leadership Forum on 5–6 May 2021. To WILD’s leaders including @F_Macaulay - this is in the spirit of accountability. It will not be comfortable but is necessary b/c it’s 2021 and we shouldn’t have to make these asks.
- What we are detailing below includes our comments and suggestions on the panels that have been put together for your upcoming forum in May starting with the plenary with USAID on “Our Journey to Bold and Inclusive Leadership.” @CharitySoWhite @nomorewanels @NonprofitAF
- Your plenary session is by @F_Macaulay and @USAID. USAID’s journey to ‘bold and inclusive leadership’ has included causing incredible harm to BIPOC staff: Pay disparities, disparities in promotion & racism to name a few systemic issues within USAID.
- Having a plenary session hosted by one of the largest development agencies in the world who have not only promoted and upheld white supremacy culture within their organization but on the ground working with local communities is harmful. You could make a different choice!
- Another panel: “WHERE DO WE BEGIN? TACKLING DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION” Your description of the work of EDI is harmful. Equity is not a destination — it is a journey. Your trivialisation of the immense disparities and issues that BIPOC people in development face is violent.
- The description on the panel: SERVING AS A CHIEF OF PARTY: NAVIGATING POWER & EMPOWERING OTHERS — is not ok — esp this part, “…the significance of locally led responses mixed with world class expertise…”
- We see the framing in a panel talking about power as deliberate. To frame ‘locally led responses’ as not being THE experts is white supremacy. Additionally, we are far from reaching a post #AidToo world given the immense harm perpetually caused by this sector.
- “What is Feminist Leadership” The fact that we even have to say this NOW in THESE times is (exploding head emoji). YOU HAVE NO FEMINIST BIPOC WOMEN ON YOUR PLENARY. Are you really saying IN 2021 that WHITE WOMEN continue to define feminist leadership?! Do you NOT SEE how problematic this is?
- “FROM YOUTH VOICE TO BLM: MAKING DEI A PART OF AN ORGANIZATION’S DNA” This thread is exhausting — maybe @nomorewanels @LeadrshpSoWhite or @CharitySoWhite can help fill in why this is problematic: We’ll start — Where Are The Black Development Leaders In This Panel?
- Your registration fees are NOT EQUITABLE or ACCESSIBLE. You are holding a leadership forum that is not open to young development leaders who CANNOT AFFORD your fees due to PAY INEQUITY and WHITE SUPREMACY in Development. An option for donated tickets could help support this.
- To wrap up this thread: your panels promote white supremacy culture, white feminism, and harmful power dynamics of white supremacy in global development and your fees are not accessible or equitable Remember — accountability isn’t an attack. It’s an invitation to do better.
- Finally — we will be watching the developments of your BRIDGE Survey closely but would encourage you to support the work of BIPOC led collectives who are already doing this critical work — and with an antiracist lens. Namely — us — The Racial Equity Index.
We knew in posting this thread we as a BIPOC collective could receive the following responses:
- “Educate me”
- “We will do better”
- “But we are trying”
- “DM me and let’s talk”
- Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender (DARVO) — Rachel Cargle has outlined DARVO and its use by people in response to calls for accountability.
- “But you see we did X so we aren’t racist and we value racial equity”
- “Thank you for holding us accountable” (A very rare response in this sector)
or
- “Thank you for holding us accountable, here are the actions we will take, and here’s how we are going to commit the journey of race equity from here on out” (the Unicorn of responses).
The responses we received from both WILD Forum and Fiona Macaulay were predictable and unsurprising:
DARVO
Educate me
DM me and let’s talk
Let us make it clear — people who are not committed to racial equity and intersectionality in 2021 should not be leading global development forums championing feminist leadership and teaching others how to build cultures of inclusive leadership.
Furthermore, the mockery of the violence, marginalisation, racism, and trauma that BIPOC face in this sector at large and by the WILD Forum in the panel called FailFest — is an egregious — yet unsurprising — representation of what the global development sector thinks about the journey of racial equity. It’s virtue signaling — nothing more, nothing less.
What we find even more problematic is the deletion of tweets and then further ongoing promotion of WILD Forum as if nothing happened or was said about the problematic nature of their forum:
While there is so much more we could say on the events of the past week, the fact is that we are TIRED BIPOC volunteers who once again have to take the time to hold this sector accountable for an ask that is so basic yet so fundamental — racial equity .
And unfortunately, our work is not yet done as we cannot overlook yet another component of WILD Innovators work — the BRIDGE Survey: The BRIDGE survey was designed by a coalition of organizations dedicated to meaningfully addressing the DEI challenges of the global development and humanitarian assistance sector.
We wanted to dig into this survey because they purport to being the first to survey diversity across the US-based global development and humanitarian community. The REIndex was started in June 2020 and we released our Global Mapping Survey open to everyone who works in global development in December 2020. BRIDGE was initiated in Fall 2020 and made their survey available only to the US headquarters of international organizations (and not their external staff) in March 2021.
Here’s their description of their survey (screenshot):
Here’s what we know:
- The BRIDGE Survey is a ‘coalition’ effort of white-led organisations: WILD Network, Social Impact, IREX, Humentum and supported by: PSC/CIDC and Interaction
- They are working: “to baseline diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across US-based organizations in the global development and humanitarian sector.” However:
their survey will only be sent out to US headquarters and NOT their satellite offices.
there will only be one submission from each organisation (it is unclear which individual/position would be submitting the survey on behalf of the organisation).
the survey appears to only be available in English.
As we said last weekend, we will be watching the developments of the BRIDGE Survey but it is clear that this benchmarking effort has had little to no input from those most affected by racism in global development.
By focusing exclusively on US perceptions of racism in global development and only offering the survey in English, BRIDGE has indicated how little they care about hearing from the individuals and communities who are most harmed by the racism, white supremacy and neocolonialism that exists in the sector.
The excuse that surveying satellite offices increases reporting burden is wholly unacceptable. If you do not have the resources to conduct a survey equitably and comprehensively, don’t do it.
As we said last week: It’s time the global development sector supports the work of BIPOC-led collectives who are using an anti-racist lens to hold this sector accountable for racial equity.
Established in June 2020, the Racial Equity Index Group is a collective of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) who currently work or have spent part of their career working in international development and are dedicated to holding the sector accountable through the creation of a global racial equity index.
Follow our work at TheRacialEquityIndex.Org
