What Do We Do Now? By Khadijah Anabah
From the crisis of EDI towards true anti-oppression.
EDI has always been a limiting vision for change, focussed on empty gestures. Anti-oppression attempts to diagnose the cause of marginalisation and commits to imagining and building differently.
“EDI was never meant to be transformative nor offer meaningful power to marginalised people in the workplace.”
Summer 2020 was a significant moment in history for all of us. Whilst in the midst of a global pandemic, the video evidence of the extra-judicial murder of George Floyd was broadcast throughout the world. Floyd's murder sparked global uprisings led by a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Alongside the public call for justice for Floyd, there was an additional call for a focus on racism as an ever-existing reality in the lives of Black people and racially marginalised people globally. In response, organisations from large global financial institutions to small NGOs were pledging their commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion. Some were even bold enough to name anti-racism explicitly.
The surge in EDI and anti-racism commitments saw a significant industry boom. Subsequently, EDI vacancies flooded the job market. Larger institutions were paying high sums of money for consultants and EDI roles. Many organisations were conducting reviews of their policies, diversifying their leadership, and “listening and learning” in reading groups. Robin DiAngelo's “White Fragility” and Ibrahim X Kendi's “How to be an Anti-Racist” topped the charts at most bookstores – because we can read our way to anti-racism, right?
“In the aftermath of the EDI surge of 2020 and 2021, a growing and terrifying force that can only be described as fascism has become the popular narrative.”
For many of us there, it was clear much of this was performative and tokenistic. The backlash came as swiftly as the initial sentiments of allyship. In the aftermath of the EDI surge of 2020 and 2021, a growing and terrifying force that can only be described as fascism has become the popular narrative. 2022 saw a popularisation of anti-wokeness as a global calling card of the right, as well as the codification of anti-LGBT policies and the banning of books that spoke the truth about the realities of racism and the history of slavery. EDI roles have, for the most part, disappeared, and many of the previously made appointments have been rescinded.
Two urgent questions must be asked: how did we get here? And what do we do now?
How did we get here?
For myself and many others, neither the current backlash against EDI nor the consequences of its performativity on real anti-racism work are surprising. This is why we have to fully understand the distinction between EDI and Anti-Oppression.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion are capitalistic attempts at obscuring and expanding oppressive structures. What I mean here is that EDI is not a tool for meaningful change or reform; it is a way for oppressive institutions to limit the reality and possibilities of emancipation. More often than not, emancipation requires a systematic overhaul of everything institutions currently know and do. When used by organisations, like those in the charity sector, that are compliant with the capitalist global system, EDI can do more harm than the few goods it proposes. This is because it gives the illusion of doing good whilst hiding the true nature of where and how power within organisations is used.
To illustrate this, consider where EDI often sits within an organisation: Human Resources (HR). HR systems act as a security measure or protection mechanism for employers that mitigates their relationships with their employees. Employers are often willing to engage with employees within this relationship but under their terms, and usually, this is limited to what is legally required to avoid any possible litigation. Employment laws become employers' only accountability tool, and those laws can offer some form of good for workers. Still, like many devices of the state, this depends on access, knowledge, and resources to successfully navigate and advocate. This leaves many, especially marginalised people, unable to access its limited benefits.
“People, especially marginalised people, are used as a tool to promote a vision of a diverse workplace.”
EDI, in turn, operates as a mitigation mechanism that often proposes well-meaning intentions to support employees but ensures this is never at the risk of employers. Sitting within human resource departments, EDI often merges the basics of employment regulations and equality legislation. Equalities legislation, whilst an essential part of our rights as citizens that offers some protection, is still a state mechanism that is simplistic in its approach to addressing marginalisation. Its simplicity is necessary within a capitalist society where profit and the market are the priority. People, especially marginalised people, are used as a tool to promote a vision of a diverse workplace. Yet, our marginality is a direct by-product of its exclusionary practice.
EDI was never meant to be transformative nor offer meaningful power to marginalised people in the workplace. Unsurprisingly, many EDI-based initiatives require little organisational change, and there are no meaningful accountability systems beyond what an organisation self-imposes. If EDI were indeed an attempt at eradicating oppression, then the focal points of its interventions would be about power. Instead, many who work within EDI teams focus on tokenistic gestures, such as ‘unconscious bias’ training, book clubs, EDI staff networks, or monthly celebrations of marginalised groups, and, in the best case, EDI action plans that are seldom actualised. That is not to say these are necessarily bad initiatives or done with bad intentions, but rather an assessment that until power is the central focus, EDI will continue to limit actual transformation for marginalised people.
What do we do now?
Anti-oppression, unlike EDI, was not founded with an attachment or allegiance to a capitalist worldview. Anti-oppression’s starting point is recognising how power exists and is maintained. Anti-oppression is both personal and institutional; it is both local and international. This is because the historical conditions that brought about our current reality tell us that our work and focus must be multifaceted and adaptable to the ever-changing nature of oppression.
The question of who has power and how it is used to cement marginalisation leads us to recognise that access to power is exclusive to a small minority. We also recognise that that power was consolidated through colonisation, slavery, and other systems of exploitation of the global majority.
“This is not to say that those who hold power are irredeemable or unable to do differently, but rather that much needs to be given up.”
The corruptible and seductive power of oppression allows for the hoarding of resources by those with the power to oppress. This is not to say that those who hold power are irredeemable or unable to do differently, but rather that much needs to be given up. There are many who, in recognising the legacies of oppression, chose not to be conscripted into maintaining unjust systems. Anti-oppression requires bravery from all of us.
For marginalised people, oppression maintains itself by severing our ability to identify with the power we have. This alienates us from ourselves, our communities and our hope of a better future. The power of collective organising and communities of resistance is part of a legacy that has ensured our survival, and it is to our detriment that we forget those histories.
Anti-oppression demands that we are grounded in an understanding of our condition: understanding ideologies and systems of power and their histories. Only with that grounding can we begin to build alternatives. Learning is a significant part of this process. However, learning grounded in an anti-capitalist future guided by serving the community is distinct from the “self-help” anti-racist coffee table books peddled by Robin Di Angelo and Ibrahim X Khendi. These are just two names amongst countless others who have personally profited from this deradicalisation of anti-racism. And what of the communities their work capitalises on for its success? What meaningful change have they experienced?
“Liberation for marginalised people means the agency to consider and construct power differently, building creatively and working collaboratively.”
Learning guided by anti-oppression is accessible; it is found both in text and in conversations; it sits alongside building a future that recognises that racism, sexism, classism, ableism, climate injustice and all forms of oppression are intimately connected and govern our global system. Through this, we recognise how we can and are on a macro or micro scale conscripted into maintaining it. Liberation for marginalised people means the agency to consider and construct power differently, building creatively and working collaboratively.
Becoming an Anti-Oppressive Organisation
In my work, I am inundated with very well-meaning people who work in an organisation, often in the third sector and want to engage in anti-racism or anti-oppression. It is admirable when organisations want to take on this work, but it's essential to be honest and realistic about the terrain.
“The hierarchical structure of a charity or foundation is in opposition to an anti-oppressive framework.”
Regulations and institutional constraints bind organisations in the charity sector. When you commit to structure your organisation in an anti-oppressive way, be prepared to recognise that your organisation cannot look the same as it did when you started. The hierarchical structure of a charity or foundation is in opposition to an anti-oppressive framework. Differential waging that requires those doing delivery to be paid less needs to change, leadership needs to be centralised and the attachment to modelling your organisation after private companies with a profit motive has to end.
Unless you are willing to sign up for this reality, it is okay to be honest and say you’re not doing anti-oppression work. You’re likely just about ready for some EDI.
