Self-reflect, support and empower: reflections on BHM and LGBTQIA+ month

I, Lara, am a UK-based student studying European Politics and am hoping to become a journalist. During my undergraduate degree I volunteered with refugees, helping them to learn English, an experience that gave me an insight into global inequalities. This helped me to further understand my role in addressing them. Works such as Otegha Uwagba’s Whites: On Race and Other Falsehoods have encouraged me to critique my role in combating global inequality as a heterosexual white girl.

I, Nky, am writing alongside Lara. We share a passion for fighting social inequality, but our backgrounds differ. I am a Black woman who grew up in four countries across three continents and had to navigate my position as a racially minoritized individual in most of them. Exposure to different cultures and manifestations of social inequality encouraged me to identify them from an early age. However, like many young people I was told that these were immutable facts rather than injustices that everyone in society must address. At 16, I had my first volunteer placement and since then have held positions with a range of local and international charities and organisations.

We are two thirds of the founding team of the campaign group Reclaim the Campus that focuses on issues of sexual violence within Higher Education. At the core of our campaign is intersectionality and highlighting experiences of those who face sexual violence, as well as racism and other forms of oppression. We do this to the best of our abilities by lending our platform to highlight these issues while simultaneously acknowledging our positions of relative privilege. 
 
In the US, February marks Black History Month and here in the UK it is devoted to LGBTQIA+ history. For this introduction we wanted to write about both topics in the interest of intersectionality. These months serve as reminders of the historic and contemporary oppression that these communities face, providing an opportunity to celebrate their achievements and roles in driving global social change. 

Arguably, we should not view Black and LGBTQIA+ history as two separate discourses, as one person may belong to both communities. As Kimberle Crenshaw stated, people may have intersecting identities, which can lead to intersecting oppressions. 

Within the LGBTQIA+ community, people of colour may be underrepresented or face racism;  within Black communities those who are also LGBTQIA+ may face homophobia or transphobia. For example, Oluwatoyin Salau was assaulted and murdered by a Black man whilst seeking refuge following protesting the death of George Floyd. In the Western world, white, cisgendered, able-bodied men are often seen as the face of LGBTQIA+ and Pride movements, despite arguably possessing the most privilege, with marginalised, less visible activists doing the riskiest work.

So how is this relevant to international affairs and increasing inclusivity within the sector?
 
Similarly to any field which impacts a group of people as diverse as this one, a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to be effective. This international sector has traditionally been dominated by white men and the inclusion of more young women and those belonging to minority groups is vital. We must avoid tokenism whilst developing workplaces and spaces that discourage exclusion, harassment or prejudice. 
 
If we are serious about anti-racism work, those of us living in the Global North must proactively decolonise our work and end the over-representation of whiteness within this sector. We must also end harmful practices such as voluntourism that promote white saviourism. Local people or those in the Global South are often best placed to understand and serve the complex issues affecting their communities. 

Moreover, we need to ensure that women from these marginalised communities and LGBTQIA+ people have a seat at the table and create supportive workplaces. We could do so by actively enforcing anti-discrimination procedures, examining our own harmful internalised ideas, and supporting the work of grassroots activists who are best-placed to help local communities and resolve inequality on the ground. By opening up the field, we can develop truly equitable solutions to global problems. 
 
We certainly don’t claim to have all of the answers, but we can find solutions by speaking with a wide range of people and creating safe spaces to talk about race, homophobia and community issues. 

We can use these months to reflect on such issues, but it is vital that we ultimately use our learnings to construct a more equal society. 

Lara is studying for a MA in Contemporary European Studies. As an aspiring journalist, she has written upcoming blog posts for the Agora think tank and European Horizons Bath.

Outside of her studies, she cofounded Reclaim the Campus (RTC), establishing the campaign in August 2020, as part of an effort to combat the issues of sexual violence and racism they’d witnessed within UK Higher Education institutions.

Nky is the brains behind RTC, having conceptualised the idea in late 2019 whilst being supported by campaign training facilitated by her Student’s Union. Having grown frustrated at mishandling of personal cases she had reported to her institution as well as prominent ones in the news, she decided to take action.