As we face a tough winter ahead and many people struggle to make ends meet, the fact is those challenges are even more acute for many people in Black communities. This is due in large part to systemic racism in the UK. The need for systemic change is highlighted by its disproportionate impact on Black people:
- 53% of Black children live in poverty – double the rate of poverty for White children.1
- 4% of the Black population are trapped in insecure work, compared to 3% of White people.2
- Black people are more than three times as likely to experience homelessness than all other ethnicities combined.3
- Black people are 30% more likely than White people to experience a common mental health problem in any given week.4
- Black women are four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than White women.5
- Black Caribbean pupils are three times more likely to be permanently excluded than White pupils and twice as likely to experience a fixed-term exclusion.6
- Black people are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched and three times more likely to be detained than White people.7
These fundamental problems require big ideas and long-term plans to deliver the change required.
This year’s Giving Tuesday is on 29th November and we ask you to continue with us on the journey to dismantle systemic racism. We are optimistic about what we can achieve together but are also realistic that will take time. With your help and financial support, we can get there quicker.
Any donations you give BEO this Giving Tuesday will help us move these plans forward and will help us challenge the status quo that stops the Black community in the UK from living safely, freely and fulfilling their potential.
Finally, we want to say thank you. For your support to date, your encouragement, your donations and your input. Whether you have attended one of our listening webinars, engaged in our campaigns, or donated previously - we want to firstly thank and celebrate you.
You are part of the solution, and we can not thank you enough for that.
- More than half of UK’s black children live in poverty, analysis shows, The Guardian, Andrew Sparrow, January 2022
- Black women twice as likely to live on zero-hour contracts, says TUC, The Voice, Leah Mahon, March 2022
- Black people are more than three times as likely to experience homelessness, Shelter, October 2020
- Common mental disorders, NHS Digital, October 2017
- MBRRACE-UK Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care – Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2017-19, MBRRACE-UK Maternal Report, 2021
- Timpson Review of School Exclusion, Department for Education, May 2019
- Black people nine times more likely to face stop and search than white people, The Guardian, Vikram Dodd, October 2020
