Civil society leaders unite to condemn racist abuse directed at Barnado’s

NACCOM has joined a call by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) for civil society leaders and charities to stand together against racism.

Renae Mann, NACCOM’s National Director, joined other charity leaders to condemn the racial abuse that leading UK children’s charity Barnado’s, and its CEO, Javed Khan, received after the publication of a blog on Twitter about white privilege.

The statement, issued on 12th November on the ACEVO website, and replicated below, reads: 

“We stand with all civil society chief executives and people working in the social sector who are striving to create a more just society. There is countless research, and more importantly the testimony of racialised and minoritised people, which unarguably shows that systemic racism exists in the UK and across the globe. Civil society exists to create a better society and a better future but it will not be able to achieve this without deliberatively and openly tackling racism.

The anti-racism work of Barnardo’s and any other organisation meaningfully tackling racism, will always receive our support. In particular we offer our support to Barnardo’s CEO Javed Khan and all other Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic leaders for the racism directed at them because of their organisations’ important work on white privilege.

We acknowledge that civil society leaders haven’t always got it right when it comes to tackling racism and that for too long, too many of us didn’t prioritise action or speak up. We are still learning but as a community of civil society leaders, we stand together as committed to changing, taking action and supporting each other.”