Black Lives Matter or business as usual?
CRER investigates the progress made by organisations in the two years since their Black Lives Matter statements.
BLM Protest in Glasgow Green 7/6/2020. Photo Credit: Steven Mclaren
George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a white police officer in May 2020 sent a shockwave of grief and outrage across the world. In the immediate wake of his death, mass Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations occurred not only in Minneapolis and America but around the world, including in Scotland.
Protests held across Scotland were attended by thousands of people. A debate took place in the Scottish Parliament, ‘Showing Solidarity with Anti-racism’. Demands for Scotland’s role in the Transatlantic Slavery Trade to be better acknowledged were made, including thousands signing petitions calling for more Black history to be included in the Scottish school curriculum. Ordinary people and institutions across Scotland voiced their support for Black Lives Matter and anti-racism.
A year on in May 2021, we at CRER reflected on the commitments made by Scotland's institutions in the wake of Black Lives Matter and the part everyone can play in keeping up the momentum for anti-racism in Scotland. We gathered many examples of public statements from Scottish institutions in support of Black Lives Matter in 2020 and commemorated the anniversary of George Floyd’s death by sharing these statements as a collection.
BLM has the potential for effecting transformative change in politics, policy and in people’s everyday lives. However, we have learned the hard way that public commitments rarely translate into change in the lives of Black and minority ethnic people. Were these simply meaningless gestures towards fighting racism?
This year, we wanted to investigate the progress made by organisations in the two years since their BLM statements. Over a series of blog posts, we’ll be illuminating progress, improvements in practice and notable gaps in the work carried out since 2020.
Organisations were approached at the end of April 2022 and asked about their actions following their BLM statements in 2020. We asked organisations to tell us about the actions taken; the impact that these actions had on Black and minority ethnic staff, service users or others; and any actions planned for the future.
We had a high response rate of over 75%. Out of 70 organisations contacted, 54 responded (however two responses were too late to be included in our analysis). Our investigation looks at the responses of 52 organisations covering councils, government agencies, health boards, charities, colleges and universities.
Type of Organisations Contacted versus Response
All local councils, government agencies and health boards contacted responded, with varying levels of responses otherwise.
To date, we haven’t received responses from Fife College, Glasgow Kelvin College, North East Scotland College, South Lanarkshire College, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, St Andrews School of Earth Sciences, Scottish Trades Union Congress, Triathlon Scotland, Commonwealth Games, The Shetland Museum and Archives, Social Bite, Oxfam Scotland, Christian Aid Scotland, Who Cares? Scotland, Muslim Council of Scotland and Quarriers.
Responses ranged from a few lines to ones which spanned several pages with linked additional documents. One college simply linked to their Public Sector Equality Duties publications.
Some organisations included actions which had begun prior to their BLM statement in 2020. Other responses were focussed on commitments made in or since their statements and clarified that this didn’t include every single race equality action taking place in their organisation. Indeed, there will be other organisations outwith this analysis who made and are carrying out commitments following BLM, meaning that our investigation only provides a snapshot of activity across Scotland.
Interestingly, whilst organisations weren’t asked specifically to (re)affirm their support for BLM, 17 responses (including associated links) out of 52 contained no reference to Black Lives Matter or the global/local context of their initial statement and resulting actions. One organisation asked for it to be noted that while our request referred to BLM, their initial statement did not.
Given that most organisations did refer to the context and BLM in their original statement, these responses could suggest that there’s now a hesitation from some individual organisations to explicitly state that Black Lives Matter, perhaps regarding it a contentious term. This could be problematic for anti-racism in Scotland. A reluctance to name systemic racism and state that Black Lives Matter could make the issues harder to address, rolling back some of the initial progress made.
To quote from a BLM activist in the USA Lauren Allen, “Black Lives Matter [is] the simplest affirmation out there. Anyone against affirming that Black Lives Matter simply thinks they don’t”.
CRER’s investigation will detail the types of commitments made by organisations. We’ll note trends and, where possible, positive strides and measurable progress. Of the 52 responses analysed, organisations made a total of 409 commitments spanning different areas as shown below:
Number and Type of Commitments Made
We wanted to identify whether there has been positive, long term institutional change within these organisations. Some headline conclusions we can share now are:
There are some specific interesting projects focussed on reckoning with Scotland’s role in slavery and colonialism
By far the greatest number of actions within organisations relate to employment and professional learning, such as commitments to anti-racism training, diversifying the workforce and management boards or setting up new committees
Overall, there are notably few instances of measurable change which organisations could share compared to the number of commitments made
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more information on what organisations are doing across the key themes we’ve identified.
In the meantime, we’d like to thank the following organisations for contributing their responses:
Aberdeenshire Council, Edinburgh City Council, Dundee City Council, Inverclyde Council, North Ayrshire Council, South Ayrshire Council, Glasgow City Council, COSLA, Creative Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scottish Social Services Council, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Mountaineering Scotland, The Ramblers, Duke of Edinburgh, Scottish Artists Union, The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Screen Education Edinburgh, YouthLink Scotland, See Me Scotland, Glasgow Woman’s Library, Aberlour, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Rape Crisis Scotland, Scotland's International Development Alliance, The Scotland Malawi Partnership, Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, Scottish Ballet, National Theatre of Scotland, Bike for Good, Scottish Civic Trust, Sustrans, Corra Foundation, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh, University of Stirling, University of Aberdeen, University of Dundee, University of the West of Scotland, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of the Highlands and Islands, Edinburgh Napier University, University of St Andrews, University of Strathclyde, Queen Margaret University, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Ayrshire College, City of Glasgow College, Dumfries and Galloway College, Dundee and Angus College, Edinburgh College and New College Lanarkshire.