Racism, power and truth: Experiences of people of colour in development

Over the past year, there has been a reckoning with racism. The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement after the death of George Floyd in 2020, and global protests against racial injustice have highlighted the pervasive nature of structural racism around the world. We now have the opportunity to reflect more deeply on the colonial roots of the international development and humanitarian system, which continues to insidiously perpetuate racism in the UK and beyond. Employees have demanded greater action on anti-racism, and shone a spotlight on harmful and racist practices within their organisations. This has shown that social justice organisations are perfectly capable of reproducing the kinds of oppressive practices inside their organisations that they purport to transform outside of them.