The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA, in May 2020 dramatically intensified the spotlight on the topic of racism throughout western society. This moment built on the tireless work of countless individuals, communities and movements, including the Black Lives Matter movement. Some of the actions sparked included an opening up of conversations and a re-evaluation of how organisations were really addressing and challenging the endemic racism that exists in society.
Like many organisations, METRO embarked on a journey to understand how racism might be playing out across our own team, structures and processes. After some initial internal steps, and hearing the concerns of racialised team members, we decided that external support would be key.
In April 2022, we commissioned JEDI Consultancy to guide and support us through this work - furthering our understanding, acknowledging our past, and helping us towards becoming an actively anti-racist organisation.
JEDI led a listening exercise, collating the perspectives of staff and trustees across the charity through a survey, interviews and focus groups to produce the interim report below.
The report is difficult reading and highlights some serious internal issues that we need to urgently address. We are disappointed that we have clearly let down our colleagues and we are very sorry that we have enabled a culture where our racialised team members have had these unacceptable experiences.