Dear John,

If you live in one of the most deprived areas of the UK you are twice as likely to get Covid-19. [1] The death rate from Covid-19 has been highest among black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. [2] As I mentioned in my blog a few weeks ago, the Covid-19 crisis has put a spotlight on some of the deep inequalities and dysfunctions of our society and economy.

Positive Money is supporting #BlackLivesMatter protests taking place around the world in response to the killing of George Floyd and systemic racism. We support everyone fighting for racial justice.

Positive Money is working to develop its organisational understanding of issues of structural racism, power, privilege, diversity and oppression, and aims to embed this understanding within ourselves, our work, practices and policies.

We can’t build a fairer, more sustainable, and democratic economy without tackling structures of oppression. That includes the deep racism that still exists.

We want to help our supporters in whatever way we can to start looking at racism and how it intersects with our campaigns for a fairer economy. The roots of structural racism can often be invisible.

Racism in the UK is alive and well in large part because we haven’t reckoned with our history and our role in not only being part of the invention of race and whiteness, but exporting those ideas all over the world. Many of the institutions we are battling to change - including the Bank of England, too-big-to-fail banks, and the City of London - established their wealth and power from the slave trade from the mid-1600s to its abolition in 1838. 

We are planning a research project on our modern financial system, its history and structural racism. We’re excited to have the opportunity to take on this important piece of work, and we look forward to sharing it with you all. 

In the meantime, there are loads of books, programmes and podcasts available, some on history, and some on how we can all play our part in standing up to racism. We recommend you take a look. Here are some of the resources we’re finding most useful:

• Anti-racist reading list
• Watch David Olusoga on Britain’s forgotten slave owners, and looking at the roots of the Windrush scandal
• Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race
• Daily curriculum through the month of June (a lot of it draws on US-based material, but it's all very relevant to racism in the UK).
   

All best wishes,

Fran

Notes:

[1] New Scientist: Covid-19 death rates twice as high in England's most deprived areas:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-covid-19-death-rates-twice-as-high-in-englands-most-deprived-areas/

The Independent: Coronavirus: Death rates twice as high in England’s deprived areas, new figures show:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-death-rates-england-london-north-east-deprived-a9562621.html

[2] The Guardian: Covid-19 death rate in England higher among BAME people: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/02/covid-19-death-rate-in-england-higher-among-bame-people

Gov.uk: COVID-19: review of disparities in risks and outcomes:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-review-of-disparities-in-risks-and-outcomes

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