Coined by Rosemary Campbell-Stephens, this term re-centres people who were historically labelled as
Ethnic Minority, Black and Minority Ethnic, and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. While these terms were a
starting point for racialised communities in the UK to talk about racial disparity in the ‘60s and ‘70s,
“People of the Global Majority” centres the diverse array of ethnicities and cultures that make up around
85%of the world's population. This especially contrasts the term "minority" which linguistically marginalises
these communities further. We use ‘people of the Global Majority’, ‘people of colour’, ‘racialised’ and
‘racially minoritised’ people interchangeably throughout this report, depending on the context.
Global Majority:
• Race is a social construct that is used to create and justify differences in people’s access to power. It is
based, in part, on visible physical features like people’s skin colour, hair colour, texture and facial
features.
• Ethnicity is based on cultural factors like ancestry, nationality, heritage and language.
While discrimination based on ethnicity happens, this report focuses on how racism shows up in
communications content within the UK charity sector. This is far more often focused on people’s perceived
race and colour (for example, discrimination against darker-skinned Black people) than it is based on
ethnicity (for example, being Spanish or Moroccan).
Racially diverse:
White supremacy is the aim and purpose of racism. While people usually associate the term with more
visible forms, such as racist hate groups and extremist political parties, it’s important that we use the term
correctly to refer to the behaviours, systems and hierarchies that deliberately benefit anyone who is
thought or perceived to be white at the expense of other racialised communities (the Global Majority).
Throughout this report we refer to descriptions used in the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture, a
body of work co-created by Kenneth Jones and Dr. Tema Okun. Visit the characteristics of white
supremacy culture website to explore these in detail. These characteristics include features like
perfectionism, either/or thinking and fear of open conflict. These characteristics show up in multiple,
overlapping ways and they have created real barriers for marginalised communities, in particular, those of
the Global Majority.
One example, “worship (or dominance) of the written word' doesn't mean that written and text formats are
white supremacist traits in themselves. It only becomes an issue when the written word is seen as the only
credible way to transmit knowledge. That implies that knowledge can only be acquired in one way. As a
result, other forms of communication become 'lower' in status, or less credible. Verbal and visual methods
of sharing knowledge such as images, infographics, videos, and podcasts are not prioritised. Dominance
of the written word is a prominent feature of academic, political and governmental institutions, which have
a long history of excluding Global Majority communities. At the same time, “worship of the written word”
also disregards oral traditions prevalent in Global Majority cultures
White supremacy:
•
using supported language around race,
•
ensuring people of the Global Majority are not harmed through extractive interview processes or
communications safeguarding failures,
•
minimising racial trauma through ethical consent and story-gathering,
•
including vital context, for example, naming when a foundation’s wealth comes from the trade in
enslaved African people, or being sure to explain how racist systems and policies help to create
racist outcomes, rather than presenting the outcomes - like school exclusions or racialised poverty -
as natural and inevitable,
•
countering stereotypes and challenging attempts to minimise Global Majority people’s experiences of
oppression, their perspectives, wisdom and expertise.