campaigns
HISTORIC ANTI RACIST PLEDGE SIGNING BY CITY AND REGIONAL LEADERS
Wednesday 30 October 2024 marked a historic day as the first step to creating an Anti-Racist Birmingham and West Midlands.
For the first time, leaders from across every sector – city, regional, civic, public, education, private, faith, cultural, community and voluntary – came together in a powerful show of unity.
This landmark event took place at the BRIG bi-annual summit “What’s Changed?”, where the landmark pledge was signed, marking a bold step forward for the city's and region’s future.
The importance of the city and regional leaders working together to take anti-racist action can’t be emphasised enough. Our growing Black, Asian and racialised communities that drive the city / region are being racially discriminated and not being afford the same opportunities as white people decade after decade. The increasing size and contribution of our global majority communities necessitates a collective step change in order that our city and region flourish in realising its potential.
To do this the first step must be seriously tackling the barriers created by a racist society preventing our global majority communities to flourish.
BRIG Birmingham Race Equality Manifesto
The Manifesto was created for the 6 th May 2022 Birmingham City Council elections. The manifesto was developed for consultation during Race Equality Week in February 2021 and sent to all party leaders contesting the election. All the key political parties on the City Council and the smaller one contesting the election endorsed they manifesto. BRIG followed up with the political parties on the Council Post election and are now in the process of seeking to get it formally adopted by Birmingham City Council. The manifesto has a more of actions that cross city agencies can adopt for action. The Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board at their summit on 7 th December 2022 adopted the manifesto and added pledges to these.
10 Year Birmingham Race Equality Delivery Plan (BREDP)
The 10 Year BREDP underpins the BRIG Manifesto in delivering actionable change required to make Birmingham an Anti-Racist City over the next decade. Tackling racial inequality across the city cannot be done without thematic sectors working proactively together in driving change. The core thematic sectors imputing into to the plan following their respective impact summits are Education, Employment, Environments, Health, Housing and Criminal Justice. Each are forwarding three recommendations, one of which needs to shift the dial in the next two years, to for inclusion in the plan. These actions will be accompanied by race inequality metrics measured over 1-3, 4-7 and 8-10 years. Other sectors such as the Arts, Sport, Further Education etc action plans and recommendations will be added to the plan when they are ready. The 10 Year Plan is also aiming to include actions from the City’s core agencies. Progress on the Plan will be monitored every two years at the Birmingham Race Impact Summit.
Mini Summit (position papers)
It is crucial to make progress we learn from the past in the present in developing meaningful interventions recommendations for the further. The key aim is to confirm the learning from the past without having to constantly return to it, because it has not been researched and recorded. Once done it becomes the reference point from where we calvinize required action to bring about the change. The BRIG thematic position papers thus explore the Past – how have we got here, what’s gone before, recommended and still left to do. Present – What’s the current picture backed by race inequality metrics, data (where it exists) and lived experiences as a basis of what now needs to happen. Future – What needs to happen going forward in putting forward three recommendations, one of which that shifts the dial in the next two years feeding into the 10 Year Birmingham Race Equality Delivery Plan. These thematic position papers are developed for or from the respective thematic summits. Individual academics, research centres or agencies are sought to become custodians for hosting and refreshing the position papers.
We Came to Live in Birmingham
‘We Came to Live in Birmingham’ is a free 112-page pack of teaching materials for primary and secondary schools about the experiences of people who have come to Birmingham and have made the city what it is today, and about the roots of Birmingham’s prosperity in the centuries of Empire.
It can be downloaded from the Resources section of the website of the Birmingham District of the National Education Union at https://neu.org.uk/west-midlands/birmingham-district/resources. It is also available on the portal of the Birmingham Education Partnership, along with related teaching materials from other sources, at https://bep.education.
B2022: Playing Games with Diversity
The B2022 Commonwealth Games created a diversity branding which became integral to both its delivery and legacy. Early on in July 2020 it became clear to communities that the diversity credentials of the B2022 Organising Committee (OC) / Board where way of track, with only 1 in 20 of its Board members being black. This was highlighted by a collective letter of 51 key community figures to the OC. BRIG invited the B2022 OC to engage with a race equality audit leading to a RAG (Red / Amber / Green) Race Report. The BRIG report set out a range of recommendation set against keep player in the delivery of the games. Birmingham City Council accepted the recommendation relating to them, but we have not heard back from the remaining delivery agents.
Backlash
“Blacklash” is a centre piece ground breaking exhibition that ells the moving and powerful untold story of a shared resistance, as seen through the eyes of Mukhtar Dar. It brings into the public domain archive material and original artwork which has been dormant for 40 years and which testifies to a unique moment in British history during which members of the Asian and African Caribbean communities came together to forge alliances behind the inner-city Black political barricades.
This exhibition inspire a new generation and contributes to the current discourse as part of the Black Lives Matter movement and decolonising mainstream institutions. Having exhibited to wide acclaim in 2022 at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Muktar Dar, Kalaboration, with BRIG and other key sponsors now seek to develop “Blacklash” into a national touring exhibition.
ROOTs
ROOTs Heritage Trails builds on the work of the many groups who have developed trails across Handsworth and Lozells. Roots brings together six beloved trails in capturing the rich history of the area and the continued cultural imprints of both older and newly settled communities, who have made this their home.
Soho House Mural Project
The Soho House Mural Project (SHMP) unleashed a torrent of ideas and art work from communities, schools and artists that contributes to the need for re-imaging three centuries of Birmingham's history within the context of colonialism, slavery and empire and their role in generating the wealth that made it "great." As one of the the UK's first "super diverse" cities it is more relevant that Birmingham acknowledges that history as others such as Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow have. The SHMP steering group and BRIG are currently exploring funding opportunities and partnerships that enable the commission of an art work at a prominent place that unpeels this fascinating but neglected aspect of Birmingham's past in imaginative and engaging ways.
Birmingham Race Impact Summit
Earlier this year on 25th May, Birmingham witnessed a conspicuous gathering of over 200 delegates invited by the Birmingham Race Impact Group to address the challenge of eliminating the long standing and deep running problem of racism in in the City’s civil institutions. There were a number of significant aspects to this gathering. It marked a significant departure from the ‘race relations’, ‘multicultural’ approach to the enigma of race. It brought service providers, commissioners and regulators face to face with the communities they serve. It provided an arena for the active participation of a vociferous younger generation. And It cut across all ethnic groups - Black, Asian and White - moving away from an indulgence in cultural politics towards a political culture in which all stand together with a single purpose of eliminating injustice against all disadvantaged groups. It signalled the beginning of a new movement that that has the inexorable power to create a fairer and more just society for the generations to come. Such movement, with such a beginning, cannot fail to succeed.
Chest Cam
Chest Cam develops BRIG’s work on the need to reduce the unacceptable levels of Stop and Search on Black people from the police, inclusive of working with young people, policing and the West Midland Office Police and Crime Commissioner Office.
