#you know not to lead the witness but uhhhhh IT'S RACISM

[thedreadvampy]

here is a situation I would like you to consider. Imagine a charity, right?

This charity has a staff of 207, of whom around 5-8 are people of colour

This charity works in poverty and homelessness reduction, an area which disproportionately affects Black people, Asian people, and non-EU migrants.

This charity operates in Scotland, a country which is considered extremely white with a population who identified as 96% white in the 2011 census

This charity operates in Edinburgh, a city with a population that's still pretty overwhelmingly white, with 91.7% identifying as some form of white in 2011 (5.5% Asian, 1.1% Black or African, 1.6% other/mixed) (the 2022 census numbers aren't out yet so this is real outdated)

The charity has an Inclusion and Diversity staff working group

Despite operating in a pretty white country, this charity is still managing to limbo under the line of 'less white than Scotland as a whole in 2011' by having a staff body which is under 4% people of colour, despite operating in the capital.

All staff of colour in the organisation are below junior management level

All but 2 people of colour in the staff team have, at some point, joined the staff working group then left. Several have mentioned feeling like they're being expected to take on extra diversity work because of their race, and one spoke to feeling like there was no room or interest in discussing racial equity.

There has never been any concerted data gathering or analysis on the racial picture of applications vs successful recruitments in the organisation

When asked, the general take from management is 'people of colour prefer to work for BAME organisations'

When asked about racial equity in recruitment, managers in the inclusion and diversity group repeatedly deflect to talking about reaching BAME client groups by co-working with BAME-focused community organisations.

When asked about putting budget underspend behind scoping the reasons for racial inequity in hiring and retention, managers in the (entirely white) I&D group said, and I quote, "obviously it's important but it's never come up as a priority and we don't need people to come in and tell us what we already know"

"ok what do we already know"

fucking nothing as it turns out because it's "never been a priority"

we don't even know if it's a recruitment or hiring issue

except I do

because I've talked to multiple people of colour who applied and went through the hiring process and were not hired

so people are fucking applying aren't they

anyway I had a very angering day yesterday, how are you all doing?

It's not, in fact, that "they don't want to work here for some reason"