Black History Month and ERCC's Anti-Racist Work

It is coming to the end of Black History Month, and this year it feels especially important to spend time as organisations, and as individuals, reflecting on the reality of racial inequality, its impacts, and what action we are taking towards being anti-racist.

The killing of George Floyd in May of this year, triggered global protests, and was the motivation for many public and private conversations about systemic racism, and its far-reaching consequences.

The Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC), exists to support survivors of all forms of sexual violence, recognising that this is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality.

As an organisation that exists to address the results of systematic, and institutionalised inequality, it is imperative that we:

• Remember, and celebrate the contributions of women of colour to the feminist and violence against women movements so far.

• Acknowledge where the feminist movement has failed to prioritise the voices and experiences of people of colour.

• Understand the dual oppressions of sexism and racism that Black and minority ethnic (BME) women experience, and move forward with anti-racist actions.

Recognising BME women in the movement

BME women have been instrumental in some of the key moments throughout the history of the feminist movement, but can often be side-lined or excluded from the narrative.

The suffragettes are some of the most symbolic figures of first wave feminism, and the fight for women’s right to vote, but their non–white members are often forgotten or erased. Sophia Duleep Singh was one of the most prominent members of the suffragette movement and marched up front on Parliament in the Black Friday protests in 1910.

She is notably absent from much of the narrative surrounding the suffragettes, despite being a close friend of probably the best known figure of the movement – Emmeline Pankhurst. Pankhurst was played in the 2015 film Suffragette by Meryl Streep, but Sophia Duleep Singh was again absent from this retelling of the story of suffrage.

Connie Mark, a black woman who worked as a medical secretary during the Second World War was denied an MBE in the 1950s, due to both her race and gender. She spent decades raising awareness of the contributions of black women to the war, finally receiving her MBE in the 1990s.

It was a black, Trans, woman named Marsha P. Johnson was one of the key figures of the Stonewall riots – the catalyst for the gay pride movement.

And, one of the most culturally seismic movements of the last decade - #metoo, was spearheaded by a black woman called Tarana Burke, although often wrongly attributed to Hollywood actresses who used the phrase in viral tweets many years later.

Image credit: metoomovmt (Instagram)

These are a few examples that highlight that BME women have always been, and continue to be, at the centre of women’s fight for equality. But the fact that figures have often been erased from stories of women’s liberation, and their voices marginalised, forces us to acknowledge the ways we have failed in the past and the importance of recognising and celebrating the contributions of these women.

ERCC projects, and our anti-racist work

In 2018, ERCC delivered a project called My Big Beating Voice, in partnership with Amina, Muslim Women’s Resource Centre. This project worked specifically with young black and ethnic minority women, encouraging them to learn about BME change makers and influential figures. A group of these young women visited the Scottish Parliament to advocate for the inclusion of more diverse stories within the Scottish educational curriculum.

The feminist movement, and organisations like ours, which exist to address the causes and consequences of gender inequality and men’s violence against women need to acknowledge that we have not always made adequate space for BME people, and their unique experiences of misogyny and racism.

Women of colour cannot separate their experiences of oppression based on race from their experiences of oppression based on gender. A truly intersectional approach is needed in order that no one feels the erasure of one part of their identity is necessary in order to be prioritised.

At ERCC one of the steps that we have taken to address this inequality of access is through the creation of a specialised support service for BME women called SIA.

The SIA project was created in response to identifying that we had limited numbers of women from BME communities accessing our adult service. SIA provides support to BME survivors of sexual violence who face barriers to accessing our adult service. These barriers can include the impacts of health and social inequalities, their experiences of the asylum and immigration processes, their experiences of racism, and most recently, the disproportionate impact of COVID19 on people from BME communities. SIA offers culturally sensitive counselling and support services, with the option of receiving support in a number of languages, including Hindi and Urdu.

As an organisation that seeks to highlight, and address inequality, and the consequences of this, we recognise how important it is that we make space for each individual’s experiences of multiple intersecting oppressions.

If BME women do not feel that the feminist movement represents them, includes them, or prioritises their experiences of oppression, then they will put their energy elsewhere, and the movement will be the worse for the absence of their knowledge, experience, and energy.

Organisations that exist within this space must do all they can, moving forward, to identify and challenge racism, implement anti–racist policies and practices, and deliver projects and services that explicitly support, empower, and prioritise BME communities and individuals.

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Organisations that provide projects or services for BME women

Amina: The Muslim Women’s Resource Centre

Amina provide a range of services to Muslim women across Scotland, including employability support, befriending, and refugee support.

Helpline: 0808 801 0301

Shakti Women’s Aid

Shakti offers emotional and practical support to BME women and children who have experienced domestic or intimate partner violence.

Phone number: 0131 475 2399

The Multicultural Family Base

MCFB offer a range of services and projects including group and one to one support for BME families, parents and children.

Saheliya

Saheliya offer specialist mental health and wellbeing support to BME women in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Phone number: 0131 556 9302

Books

If you’d like to learn more about anti-racism and feminism, below are a few introductory resources.

• Davis, A. Y. (1983). Women, Race & Class. New York: Vintage books.

• Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017). Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race. Bloomsbury publishing.

• Hirsch, A. (2018). Brit(ish): on race, identity, and belonging. London: Jonathan Cape.

• Kendall, M. (2020). Hood Feminism: notes from the women that a movement forgot. Penguin Publishing group.

• Phipps, A. (2020). Me, not you: The trouble with mainstream feminism. Manchester University Press.