"White people should NOT be PROFITING from anti-racist work"

From a post I saw on Instagram - Author Shezal

Whilst browsing instagram, I came across this post which got me thinking. The author was not happy about another "non-Black" company profiting from anti-racist work. Now, we all know that D&I is hot topic at the moment and many D&I Consultants/Organisations who worked in the D&I space pre-covid and the BLM protests focusing on all aspects of D&I apart from Race are now focusing on Race - the taboo topic pre-covid.

The author goes on to mention "Is this part of the White saviour complex? These poor Black folk don't know what they are doing, let me do the job and get paid handsomely whilst doing so for them."

It got me thinking about companies who are engaging White D&I consultants to do anti-racism work. Is this really a bad thing? Surely it is the job of EVERYONE to help end systemic racism right? I am a true believer of Allies and the power they have in fighting the injustices of racism along side their minority colleagues and friends and using their platform to amplify the minority voice. A lot of Allies I know are doing great work and I am grateful for their support.

If organisations are not engaging Black D&I Consultants to do Anti-Racism work, why not? And if White D&I Consultants are jumping on the bandwagon and doing Anti-Racism work and getting paid more than their Black Peers, what can we do to stop this? There was news late last year of a prominent diversity consultant getting paid more for a speaking assignment than her Black Peer at the same event.

So if there is a problem, how can we stop it from happening? Is it the job of these corporations to ensure that they are equally giving opportunities to experienced minority D&I Consultants who have lived experiences of the injustices of racism? Should White D&I Consultants stop jumping on the bandwagon and not take on Anti-Racism work and refer their Minority D&I Consultants? Or is it the job of everyone to end racism and as long as the job is getting done it does not matter.

I would like to hear your views