Change is here – new black civil rights group launched

New body aims to scale up the fight against systemic racism at a crucial juncture.

CHANGE: An image taken from BEO's new promotional video

ON THE EVE of the second anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd – which sparked a global Black Lives Matter movement – a new civil rights group is being launched this morning to ramp up the fight for racial equity and justice.

The Black Equity Organisation (BEO) is backed by several prominent public figures, including TV historian Professor David Olusoga, playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, and Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy.

With the support of a range of top companies, BEO hope to dedicate unprecedented resources to the goal of “building on protest to make lasting progress and dismantle systemic racism.”

Watch their launch video below, narrated by Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh.

Dame Vivian Hunt, previously named in the top ten most influential black people in Britain, and chair of the BEO board of trustees, told The Voice the new civil rights organisation aimed to be an authoritative voice for black Britons.

“The goal is to be a consistent evidence-based voice, closing the gap so that black Britons reach their full potential. There are many good solutions and good organisations all across the country that are doing excellent work, but the work doesn’t scale [up].

“We want to help community based organisations in the black community who have good solutions, raise more money and scale, we can be a convening organisation and a conduit.”

BEO, which launches with several staff, intends to work in six areas: economic empowerment; justice and immigration; representation and respect; education; housing; and health and wellness.

They point to the fact that many racial disparities – such as home ownership and unemployment rates – have barely improved despite the Black Lives Matter protests. The organisation plans to conduct their own research, as well as pull in expertise and resources from black professionals and top companies.

ACTION: Dame Vivian Hunt says the new group will be independent

The civil rights organisation begins work today, following a launch at Lilian Baylis Technology School in Kennington, south London, which will include an address to school pupils.

BEO has been in development for two years and Hunt, a senior partner at consultants McKinseys, said the organisation was working with a consortium of Magic Circle law firms to support “strategic litigation” 

Speaking about the cost of living crisis and the need for economic empowerment, Hunt said: “When a black family has interruptions or instability in employment the impact on black families is worse.

“Less than 1% of all venture capital in the UK goes to black British [entrepreneurs]; we don’t have any capital. If you want to build wealth any business in this country will tell you that you need a capital base. 

“If you look at the disproportionately lower rate of homeownership of black Britons; owning your home is the primary source of wealth for most people, so if you don’t have an asset of any kind, be it a pension or home, it’s very hard to have savings.”

Hunt said BEO wished to complement the work of other anti-racist organisations, adding: “It’s an invitation for us to come together in areas where the community has experience and expertise – in housing, health care, legal areas – and direct strategic efforts to make change.”

Members of BEO’s board include business leaders Karen Blackett and Ric Lewis, Siobhan Aarons from Conservatives Against Racism, and Yvonne Field, head of the Ubele Initiative. Partners and allies include Sky, law firm Freshfields, funders Lankelly Chase, and communications firm WPP.

The launch comes just weeks after the TUC revealed that black Britons have been at least twice as likely to be unemployed for the past 20 years, spanning five governments both Labour, Tory and coalition.

With predictions that the cost of living crisis – like austerity – will hit black families hardest, anti-racism activists are concerned that Britain is heading towards hot summer of crisis as the government continue to deny the existence of institutional racism, and new police powers to stop and search without reasonable suspicion will ramp up the criminalisation of black youth.

Comments Form

1 Comment

  1. | Chaka Artwell

    I have called many times for a self-funded; politically independent political lobby exclusively to advocate for Her Majesty’s African-heritage Subjects in the comment section of the Voice. Therefore, I would like to wish this organisation success.
    However, for three reasons I am sure this new “Black Equity Organisation” (BEO), will pander to the Middle-Class Marxist Labour and Left wing “anti-racist” Creed; rather than genuinely seeking to connect and advocate for Her Majesty’s marginalised African-heritage Subjects.
    First of all, the name.
    The “Black Equity Organisation” has been clearly taken straight from the Marxist Left-wing “Politically correct” handbook.
    We are African-heritage people- our African skin is a daily reminder of our African-heritage.
    Asians are not referred to by the colour of their brown skin; but by the name of the continent of their heritage.
    Referring to African-heritage Subjects by the colour of our African-skin started the moment African people were lowered into the cargo hold of Caucasian Europe’s slave ships, and it is time that we stopped referring to ourselves in this way.
    Secondly, African Heritage people; despite the 500-years of intimate association with Western, Caucasian, Christian, European-heritage men and women, for the majority of this association, Europeans promoted the Creed of African Inferiority and not “equal” with Caucasian-heritage men and women. Caucasian Europeans have regarded African-heritage people as being unequal historically; politically, biologically, intellectually, theologically, academically and financially, and the inferiority and unequal creed is present today.
    It is absurd for independent thinking African-heritage people to reduce the skin-colour disparity; segregation and racism endured by England’s African-heritage people to the problem of “equality.”
    Thirdly; with the backing of people who are very comfortable in their Middle-Class Caucasian social milieu, and their publicly paid salaries, such as the Rt Hon David Lammy MP and the BBC’s historian Professor David Olusoga OBE, the real concerns of England’s rank and file, African-heritage people will be addressed from the prism of their middle-class Left-wing Politically Correct ideology.
    Her Majesty’s African-heritage subjects require genuine independent political advocacy.
    The “Black Equity Organisation” is too closely associated with the Labour and the Marxist Left to be of real and genuine political assistance to Her Majesty’s African-heritage Subjects.

    Reply

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