Abbreviation | BEO |
---|---|
Formation | 2022 |
Type | Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) |
Registration no. | 1195506 [1] |
Purpose | Anti-racism, representing the Black British community |
Headquarters | 86–90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Chair | Vivian Hunt |
Chief Executive | Timi Okuwa |
Revenue (to 31 March 2022) | £579,180 |
Expenses (to 31 March 2022) | £435,580 |
Funding | Donations and legacies |
Website | blackequityorg |
The Black Equity Organisation (BEO) is a civil rights organisation and anti-racism charity in the United Kingdom, launched in 2022 with the aim of dismantling systemic racism.
The organisation was registered as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) on 12 September 2021. [2] Co-founded by prominent black Britons including Vivian Hunt, David Lammy and David Olusoga, it was officially announced as a first-of-its-kind civil rights group for the UK in 2022, two years after the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom which resulted in the removal of statues across the UK of figures associated with the transatlantic slave trade. [3] [4] [5]
The organisation is intended to serve a similar purpose to the NAACP in the United States, with the aim of dismantling systemic racism in British society. [6] [7]
In May 2022 the BEO set up an "access to justice hotline" to provide legal advice and representation for racism-related issues, and to provide other support for black families by guiding them to helpful resources. The organisation helped find a lawyer for the family of an 11-year-old black schoolboy in Wales who lost a finger when his hand was maimed while attempting to escape racist bullies. [8]
A report commissioned by the Black Equity Organisation in September 2022 found that a majority of black people in the UK face discrimination from healthcare staff. It found that 65% of survey respondents had been discriminated against by healthcare professionals due to their ethnicity. It also found that the concerns of black women are more likely to be dismissed by practitioners due to a stereotype of "strong black women". It further concluded that 60% of black respondents did not see the changes needed to address these issues being implemented by the institutions in question. [9] [10] [11]
In April 2023 the organisation launched legal action against Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she abandoned key reforms recommended by the inquiry into the Windrush scandal. The proposed reforms involved increasing the level of independent scrutiny of Home Office migration policies, and a further promise of reconciliation events with families of the scandal's victims. A petition with over 50,000 signatories urged the Home Secretary to reconsider, and the BEO sought a judicial review of the Home Secretary's decision. [12] [13] The BEO's Chief Executive Dr Wanda Wyporska called for the Home Office to be stripped of its responsibility for the compensation scheme set up for Windrush victims. [14]
The organisation does not actively raise funds from the public, and instead relies on donations and legacies (donations left in someone's will). In the financial period ending 31 March 2022, the organisation had a total income of £579,180 and a total expenditure of £435,575, with £143,610 retained for future use. [2]
In May 2022, 6 multinational law firms including Herbert Smith Freehills, Allen & Overy, Ashurst LLP, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and Slaughter and May collaborated to support the launch of the Black Equity Organisation by providing strategic, financial and advisory support to combat racism in the UK. [15]
In June 2022, Sky Group announced a £1 million partnership with the BEO for the Future 100 Growth Fund, which provides backing for black British entrepreneurs to launch and grow their businesses. Between 2009 and 2019, only 0.24% of venture capital funding invested in startups in the UK went to black entrepreneurs, with only 0.02% going to black female entrepreneurs. Sky Group pledged a total of £30 million to combat structural inequality and to help those affected by racism. The programme is open to black UK residents between 18 and 30. [16]
As of 26 August 2023 the board of trustees includes: [17]
Diane Julie Abbott is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. She served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Home Secretary from 2016 to 2020 and is an advisor to the Privy Council. She was the first black woman elected to parliament and is the longest-serving black MP.
Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, London, from 1987 to his death in 2000.
Stonewall Equality Limited, trading as Stonewall, is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights charity in the United Kingdom. It is the largest LGBT rights organisation in Europe.
The Runnymede Trust is a British race equality and civil rights think tank. It was founded by Jim Rose and Anthony Lester as an independent source for generating intelligence for a multi-ethnic Britain through research, network building, leading debate and policy engagement.
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British people of either Sub-Saharan African or Afro-Caribbean descent. The term Black British developed in the 1950s, referring to the Black British West Indian people from the former Caribbean British colonies in the West Indies sometimes referred to as the Windrush Generation and Black British people descending from Africa.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) was established in 1977 by the Government of Canada. It is empowered under the Canadian Human Rights Act to investigate and to try to settle complaints of discrimination in employment and in the provision of services within federal jurisdiction. The CHRC is also empowered under the Employment Equity Act to ensure that federally-regulated employers provide equal opportunities for four designated groups: women, Aboriginal people, the disabled, and visible minorities. One member of the Commission is designated as the Accessibility Commissioner under the Accessible Canada Act. The Commission helps enforce those human rights and inform the general public and employers of those rights.
Hakim Adi is a British historian and scholar who specializes in African affairs. He was the first African-British historian to become a professor of history in the UK when in 2015 he was appointed Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester, launching in 2018 the world's first online MRes in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Phyllis Akua Opoku-Gyimah, also known as Lady Phyll, is a British political activist known for her work for racial, gender and LGBT+ equality. She is Co-Founder and Chief Executive of UK Black Pride and former executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust.
Nicholas Marcus Thompson is a Trinidadian-Canadian human rights advocate, union leader, and influential figure in the fight against systemic discrimination in Canada. Thompson has been at the forefront of advocating for the rights of Black Canadians, most notably through organizing the landmark $2.5 billion Black Class Action lawsuit against the federal Government of Canada. This lawsuit, filed on behalf of about 45,000 Black federal employees, challenged systemic discrimination in hiring and promotions, leading to profound changes in Canada’s employment legislation.
Eunice Olumide MBE is a Scottish fashion model and actress.
Augustine John, known as Gus John, is a Grenadian-born writer, education campaigner, consultant, lecturer and researcher, who moved to the UK in 1964. He has worked in the fields of education policy, management and international development. As a social analyst he specialises in social audits, change management, policy formulation and review, and programme evaluation and development. Since the 1960s he has been active in issues of education and schooling in Britain's inner cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and London, and was the first black Director of Education and Leisure Services in Britain.
David Adetayo Olusoga is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and filmmaker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contributed to The One Show and The Guardian.
Dame Vivian Yvonne Hunt is a business executive and a recognised advocate for equal opportunities across business and society. She is the Chief Innovation Officer of UnitedHealth Group, which is listed 5th in the Fortune 500. With over 400,000 employees and revenues of $370 billion, UHG is committed to improving healthcare for everyone.
The UK Home Office hostile environment policy is a set of administrative and legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may "voluntarily leave". The Home Office policy was first announced in 2012 under the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition. The policy was widely seen as being part of a strategy of reducing UK immigration figures to the levels promised in the 2010 Conservative Party Election Manifesto.
The Windrush scandal was a British political scandal that began in 2018 concerning people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in at least 83 cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office. Many of those affected had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries, as members of the "Windrush generation".
Guy Arlington Kenneth Hewitt is a Barbadian British Anglican priest, racial justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion advocate, and specialist in social policy and development. He held the ambassadorial appointment of High Commissioner of Barbados in London from 2014 to 2018. He previously worked with the University of the West Indies, Caribbean Policy Development Centre, Commonwealth of Nations, Caribbean Community, and the City and Guilds of London Institute.
Jacqueline "Jacqui" McKenzie is a British human rights lawyer specialising in migration, asylum and refugee law. Her legal career encompasses practice in the areas of civil liberties, crime and immigration with solicitors Birnberg Peirce and Partners, and since 2010 running her own immigration consultancy, McKenzie Beute and Pope (MBP), having previously spent more than a decade in senior local government roles with responsibility for equalities, community development, communications and urban development. She joined human rights law firm Leigh Day as a partner in 2021. She is the founder of the Organisation of Migration Advice and Research, which works pro bono with refugees and women who have been trafficked to the UK. McKenzie has won recognition for her work seeking justice for victims of the Windrush scandal that initially gained notoriety in 2018. She was named one of the top 10 most influential black Britons in the Powerlist 2022.
Nicholas Marcus Thompson Et Al V. His Majesty The King (T-1458-20) is a landmark case known as the Black Class Action filed with the Federal Court of Canada on December 2, 2020. The $2.5-billion claim filed by both current and former Black public servants seeks damages for "the unjust practice of Black employee exclusion due to systemic discrimination" dating back to the 1970s. The Black Class Action is a registered non-for-profit organization that is coordinating the legal action.
The LGB Alliance is a British advocacy group and registered charity founded in 2019 in opposition to the policies of LGBT rights charity Stonewall on transgender issues. Its founders are Bev Jackson, Kate Harris, Allison Bailey, Malcolm Clark and Ann Sinnott. The LGB Alliance describes its objective as "asserting the right of lesbians, bisexuals and gay men to define themselves as same-sex attracted", and states that such a right is threatened by "attempts to introduce confusion between biological sex and the notion of gender". The group has opposed a ban on conversion therapy that includes trans people in the UK, opposed the use of puberty blockers for children, and opposed gender recognition reform.
The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED) was a UK Government commission supported by the Race Disparity Unit of the Cabinet Office. It was established in 2020 in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd. Boris Johnson gave it the brief of investigating race and ethnic disparities in the UK. Johnson argued that the UK needed to consider important questions about race relations and disparities and that a thorough examination of why so many disparities persist and what needed to be done to work out to eliminate or mitigate them.