Charities’ handling of complaints of racism
Experiences of racism are one thing, but for many online survey respondents these situations were compounded by the ways in which they were poorly handled. The three quotes below are indicative:
My line manager told me I needed to be more resilient. It’s taken me four years and a great deal of therapy to come back to the understanding that I was correct and should not accept treatment like that.
Online survey
My grievance was not taken seriously and at the time my line manager was a director who simply rejected my claim. She presented me as the problem.
Online survey
My complaint was not recognised as racism and deflected to conflicting working and communication styles of my manager and me.
Online survey
A number of important themes come through here. All three quotes show that respondents feel unheard when making complaints. There is a sense of grievance processes being stacked up against the complainant.
More specifically in the first two quotes, to differing degrees, blame is passed on to the BAME person with the complaint, e.g. for being insufficiently resilient.
The third quote points to something related – a desire of those running the complaints procedure to put the issue down to something other than racism. This ties in with an idea discussed by other BAME project participants about some charities wanting to avoid racism. One interviewee put this down to a desire to maintain positive self-image in the sector.
I think that [desire to downplay racism] comes more from the white society in self-denial … especially charities, because they feel themselves as a good guy. It’s almost to say it’s a reflection of them. They don’t want to look in the mirror and say, you know, I’m actually part of the problem.
Interview – BAME charity employee
This quote suggests one reason why charity complaints processes might be geared against finding racism. There is a further discussion in Section 3 about the reticence to discuss racism.
Out of 310 responses, 159 (61 per cent) had raised concerns with senior leaders (e.g. senior management, chief executives or the chair of trustees) about incidents of racism that they had experienced or witnessed in a charity.
In most cases, the complaint (111 out of 159) was raised informally. Also, a majority (88 out of 151 people) of those who responded to the question had made multiple complaints.
Respondents were mostly dissatisfied by how their complaints were addressed. We recognise that this negative feeling can be present even when grievances are handled ‘fairly and reasonably’, but in a racialised context this dissatisfaction is important. Out of 154 responses only 31 (20 per cent) felt that all or most of the concerns raised were dealt with satisfactorily, compared with 123 (80 per cent) who felt that none or a minority of concerns raised were satisfactorily handled.
More specifically, we asked respondents to focus on the handling of one particular concern that they had brought forward, to allow us to understand in more detail how complaints are treated. One hundred and forty-two people responded to this question and were allowed to give multiple answers as to the outcome of the issue. Key results were that:
34 people
said that their complaint/grievance was taken seriously
40 people
said that their complaint/grievance was ignored
32 people
said that they were identified as a troublemaker
17 people
said that they were forced out of their job
Therefore, in our sample, BAME respondents generally feel that complaints about racism are not well handled and can even backfire on them.
In the most extreme example uncovered in our research, one BAME interviewee reported the inappropriate conduct of a colleague (towards another person in the charity). As a consequence, our interviewee was isolated and pressured by senior colleagues and ended up feeling suicidal and signed off work by their GP. This example highlights how a BAME person reporting a problem can themselves be seen as a problem and be targeted and penalised.
If the findings in our work are replicated (even somewhat) among BAME people in the wider charity sector, then it seems that BAME people can find themselves in a double bind: say nothing and put up with racism, or say something and risk punishment and getting a reputation for being ‘outspoken’ and not a ‘team player’.
