Dear White Women In International Development

You comprise 80% of the workforce and while you may be well-meaning and altruistic in your reasons for working in this sector, institutionalized white supremacy and your mere presence as white women make you complicit in the systemic oppression of the Black and Brown people you feel led to serve in the Global South. No matter how much you feel you are a neutral party just wanting to do good in the world, you are not and you must accept what you represent.

As a Black woman in the global health sector who has worked side-by-side with white women for 12 years on public health projects across Africa and the Caribbean, I’ve found many white women to be culturally illiterate and oblivious to the social nuances involved when leading non-profit organizations and managing projects targeting Black and Brown people. I am perplexed if you are genuinely unaware of how to meaningfully engage with the Black and Brown people you work with and on behalf of, or if you are just too lazy to put in the extra effort. The sector is awash with white saviours who consistently miss the mark. Billions of dollars are being wasted and you are failing to improve the health outcomes of those you supposedly serve.

“What the sector so desperately needs is active reflection and action from white women to interrupt the habits and dismantle the structures that perpetuate white supremacy in our day to day work.”

What the sector so desperately needs is active reflection and action from white women to interrupt the harmful habits and dismantle the structures that perpetuate white supremacy in day-to-day work. Black women need to see you actively working to level the playing field for Black and Brown people and moving the needle closer towards true global health equity.

I’ve listed five practical steps to help you to break down the structures of oppression:

1.   Check and acknowledge your privilege. We operate within a social hierarchy and the development sector is no different. White men are at the top of the totem pole, followed by white women––most likely middle class, well-educated, and financially secure––then Black and Brown men, and lastly Black and Brown women. We are on the bottom rung. You know it and we know it. Being higher up the rung by default gives you greater agency; your voice rings louder and carries more weight. With that in mind, Black women expect you to be more responsible and accountable in the workplace. If you are heading up a public health programme in Africa as a white woman who has lived her entire life in the West, know that your Ivy League or Russell Group education and summer internship with the United Nations (UN) or the World Health Organization (WHO) does not automatically mean you are best placed to lead this project. Your Black colleagues’ lived experience growing up in the region—where they most likely still have family members—gives them closer proximity to the public health issues. These lived experiences trump your Western-based experience and education 10 times over. White women, ask yourself, “am I being a responsible steward with the resources at my disposal to ensure the project succeeds, or has my fancy job title gone to my head that I don’t feel the need to seek the counsel of my Black and Brown colleagues? Am I undermining, sidelining, avoiding my Black female colleagues? Are they even at the table with me when I am developing these large-scale proposals to pitch to donors?” As Black women, our investment in the success of global health programmes is personal. Our main aim is not to climb the professional ladder to be a Project Director but to contribute towards lifting our sisters, mothers, cousins out of poverty and give them a fighting chance at leading a decent life. We will literally do whatever it takes for projects to succeed but we need to be able to hold you accountable and call you out in how you manage projects and lead white-majority organizations that you most likely got offered as a result of your connections and white privilege.

2.   Give up your privilege. Regularly. You are already more visible in your organizations, have a larger platform, and command a bigger audience therefore it is your responsibility to open the door for your Black female colleagues to grow and develop. “Lean out”. Amplify her voice. Give her space. Give up your power, repeatedly. Ask yourself: Do I really need to give that presentation to the department head; must I present those findings at the upcoming international conference or make that field visit to the project site or can my equally competent Black female colleague with limited exposure do this? Because representation matters. Do you really understand the complexities and feel comfortable as a white woman presenting on issues affecting Black and Brown people? Yes, your Black colleague may present in a different style than you would, but as long as they deliver the main points, does it matter that it won’t be done exactly the way you would do it? Or are you on another one of your powertrips that you totally lose sight of the work we’re actually here to do?

3.   Check your biases. Do you treat your Black colleagues the same as you treat your white colleagues? Do you give them equal consideration? I had a shocking experience a few years ago where my white female manager, a Project Director, presented barefooted to our African project staff in East Africa. I was flabbergasted and while taking a picture to share with my mum, I wondered if she would ever even think of presenting barefooted when we were back at our white-dominated headquarters or when she met with our white U.S. donors on a quarterly basis. Why do you think certain behaviours are acceptable depending on who you are interacting with? Do you have internalized racial superiority? You need to check your racial bias and do the work as it affects your habits and behaviour. Your personal convictions seep insidiously into the workplace culture infecting the entire team.

4.   Practice true allyship and stop avoiding conflict. Diversity and Inclusion hires are the all-the-rage after the past year of global reckoning for racial and social justice. Black women want you to give up token allyship and engage in true meaningful partnerships with us. We do not want to be token-hires in your white-majority organizations. We want you to hire us based on merit and then allow us to sit comfortably at decision-making tables and share our expertise and personal insights to positively inform programming and policies. Most times we do not feel like we have a safe space to share or challenge you and you prefer to avoid conflict at all costs, sanitising hard conversations to ensure you remain comfortable.

In one of my many jobs in white-majority institutions, as a senior project member, I proposed and developed an initiative that would improve staff efficiency across a multi-country project. I shared this with my white female line manager for her approval and there was no feedback or acknowledgment to look into my initiative. These micro-aggressions leave Black women wondering: do you really want different ideas to be put on the table? Do you really to be challenged? Or do you only say you want diversity of thought but in reality want people who look like, act like, and think like you?

Credit: The Center for Community Organizations

This infographic accurately portrays my journey through leading global health organisations. There are many Black women like me who are maneuvering their way through minefields in organisations who outwardly promote themselves as being “committed to meeting Diversity and Inclusion standards” but are only paying lip service. We are tired and discouraged from not being heard. You don’t even realize our untapped potential as you continue to whitewash development programs targeting Black and Brown people while your black and brown colleagues remain silent in meetings.

5. Stop hiding behind gender inequality and call out other inequalities that oppress us. The global development sector has championed the gender equality agenda to the extent that most projects now include gender mainstreaming activities. Gender, however, is only one dimension of equality. Little progress has been made for other forms of equality. We need you to recognize that Black and Brown people sit at the intersection of race, class, income, education, age, ability, sexual orientation, immigration status, and geography––and the relationship between these factors and within the broader structures of power (e.g colonialism, racism, and sexism) further perpetuates our oppression and sustains unequal health outcomes. Black people and white people are not the same. We cannot continue you to let your ‘white gaze’ frame global health programs. We need you to start incorporating intersectional approaches into program planning and implementation to ensure interventions targeting Black and Brown people actually meet the needs of these sub-populations and sustainably improve health outcomes for future generations.

White women: Black women need you to do better. We are tired of fighting the patriarchy and also fighting you. As you lead large organizations and multi-country projects you need to do the hard work, reflect on your biases, motivations, habits, then meaningfully consult us, engage us, listen to us, pay us! Find yourself a Black or Brown woman to be accountable to. We don’t claim to know it all but we certainly bring a perspective you just do not have. We do not need any more white saviours from the Global North telling the Global South how to address its challenges. We are all part of the solution and we all need to get on board. Millions of lives are at stake and it is high time that we put our heads together and do the uncomfortable work of working ourselves out of a job, reducing the racial disparities, and improving health outcomes worldwide.