Posted on: 20 October 2021
Following concerns raised by a member of the public regarding a statement used within one of the Root Out Racism movement’s graphics, a meeting was held on Tuesday 19 October with the person and others he invited. Colleagues from the Race Equality Network and Anti-Racism Project Group were present at the meeting.
Our colleagues featured in the graphic concerned are aware of the situation and are supportive of the actions taken.
In response, the Partnership’s Race Equality Network would like to share the following statement:
‘The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Root Out Racism movement was co-designed by staff and people with lived experience. It’s aspiration is to address racism and inequalities within our communities and our workforce following on from our independent review published October 2020. We do appreciate that exploring and confronting racism can evoke pain and strong feelings. The photographs and messages have been designed to reflect a reality of what many people have to deal with on a daily basis. By doing so they challenge people’s thinking, and we hope, change the conversation so that we can address racism together.
It was never our intention to trigger trauma and consequently the Network have made the decision to reword the text on the images which have provoked painful emotions for some. We also wish to encourage anyone impacted by racism to seek support. There are some links to organisations here.
The leadership of our health and care partnership strongly support our anti-racism movement and will act to ensure that we are a truly anti-racist system.
We’d like to thank people for bringing forward their ideas and concerns as debate. Dialogue is a fundamental part of our approach as a learning system.’