Kids Company: White privilege personified.

If you're a member of one of Britain's many black communities you've probably  had the experience where you've witnessed well articulated black expertise or experience ignored or invalidated until re-articulated and spoken by a white person.

We've all been there right? Sat in a meeting with the 'suits' who've ignored and marginalised your every word, only to see them erupt in a chorus of applause and adoration for a suggestion made by a white person, that you've made a thousand times before.

Its probably one of the more lesser known aspects of the British black experience and its true not for just white people. Lets be frank, our own can be just as bad, if not worse.

I know of black professionals who will often line up a white person to make suggestions to a black audience, recognising that if they were to suggest something similar they would most likely be sorted down or ignored. Women can face much the same dynamic.

Now hold that thought and think of the recent travails of Kids Company, who for the last 15 years were considered the  'cutting edge psycho-therapeutic' response to the needs of predominantly 'dysfunctional' black children.

I have known of the company for years and even declined to fund them whilst Policy Director for Equalities for the Mayors Office. My reasoning and assessment back then was simple. Kids Company were never going to have any problem getting funding. That was the underestimate of the decade.

If you've worked in the black voluntary sector, you'll know the scenario. Governments, civil servants, local authority officers, funding officers, with little to no real understanding of the reality racism and poverty are predisposed to pathologising black communities as problematic, the black voluntary sector as chaotic and incapable.

This lack of expertise and insight into the reality of racism and its effects, leads to cultural racism infecting public and private funding policy approaches. Lets be clear hear with regard to  Kids Company, their perspective was that black people are incapable of looking after their own children.

This  approach of course resonated and indeed elevated their standing in they eyes of Government and London's white middle classes.



Camila Batmenghelidjh and her all white Board at Kids Company, were seen, by many as the traditional 'white saviours' of poor black communities, who despite their best intentions. were incapable of looking after their own children.

It's a scenario that has its roots in an outdated, racist and colonial 'missionary approach' to 'community development' in Black communities.


Unfair? Lets remember what Camila told a Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System in 2006 where she told  the BBC and MP's that 'black women were hugely responsible for the family breakdown which fuels crime'

In front of an eager and attentive audience she informed them that in her 'experience', black women had a 'cruel' culture of rejecting black men and adolescent boys.  She told the Parliamentary committee that ...

' I also think that actually the mothers are hugely responsible, because they have created a culture where they can get rid of the adolescent boy; they can get rid of the male partner, they can survive on their own.'  24the October 2006 Ms Camila Batmanghelidjh Home Affairs Committee: 

Camila's view of black culture and Black History Month was equally problematic. Here's what she told the same committee.

' I really think these differentiations (Black History Month ) are destructive. Why are we having Black History Month? I am not sure that these constructs are very conducive to having a society that accepts everything as a citizen, and does not define people by their racial identities.'

We now know, through a report published by the National Audit Office, that although concerns were expressed about Kids Company by some senior Civil Servants, they were given a whopping £46 million over the last 15 years, money British black organisations can only dream about.

Further, the National Audit Office has uncovered what appears to be huge sums of money, inappropriately spent on paying peoples mortgages, private tuitions for her chauffeur and God knows what else.

Contrast this with London Evening Standards stories published in 2007 falsely alleging that over 17 London black organisations, all working in the same field, tackling youth violence, were potentially corrupt and or inept.  Two years later and investigations by Met Police. Boris Johnson Forensic Audit Committee, Audit Commission, London Development Agency, Deloittes Forensic accounting all concluded that not a single penny was found unaccounted for.

Kids Company were arrogant and patronising. They simply refused to work with other black organisations period. I know of occasions where funders suggested that they work in collaboration with other groups and were told by Camila in no uncertain terms  'You either give all the money to us or we pull out'.  They complied and backed down.

The reality is Government, desperate for political cover for the cuts to local authority budgets, blinded by their own prejudice, welcomed an Iranian 'Mother Theresa' saviour figure as the solution to our problems.

They loved her, this woman who dressed in vibrant 'ethnic' clothing. A woman who was happy to confirm and support their reluctance to fund black organisations. The Prime minister was also  impressed and in agreement with Camila's demonisation of black communities.

It is also true that with the reality of reductions to health and social care budgets, Government  needed a convenient fig leaf to mask huge cuts to children's services. Problem was Camila was happy to play the game as long as the cash kept coming and come it did by the bucket load

This peculiar conversions of interests and ' ethnic' alchemy worked for Kids Company and as a result local and central Government,  the adoring City of London and wealthy celebrities were all too willing to give Camila all the money she wanted.

No doubt some will say that Kids Company was extremely popular with the very community Camila held in such low regard.  I cannot, nor would I, deny that excellent work done with many with families, it would be churlish to do so.

The harm reduction, therapeutic approach to violence trauma and familial dysfunction utilised by Kids Company is the correct philosophical and pragmatic approach to this incredibly difficult and complex work. Work done by the Wave Trust over a decade a go pioneered this approach.

 Great work indeed but all is now overshadowed by the incredible way in which finances were managed.

Notwithstanding this good work, we cannot lose sight of the brutal fact that handing out huge sums of money every Friday afternoon will always be popular among poor, desperate, deprived  communities.

Then as we saw the slow unraveling of Kids Company, as it neared its end, we saw the hapless Alan Yentob Chair of Kids Company and Camila deploying the classic  'Mau Mau' strategy remonstrating with Government, telling them, 'If you close us down there will be riots.' 

 

Racism never comes cheap and the effect of Kids Company dominating the funding arena's and hoovering up all available funds, made possible because of the predisposition of white people to stereotypical tropes about black people and their fundamental fear of the black communities, has cost the country dear at a time of great austerity.  

£46 million of our money to be precise, millions that could have been spent more effectively in in other areas desperate for funds. Money that could have saved many of the credible and effective black and white voluntary sector organisations many of whom were sacrificed to ensure Kids Companys survival.

Such community organisations struggle on valiantly against the odds, but many have closed being unable to compete with Cameron's favourite charity. The damage of raised child expectations now being dashed is incalculable and the retrenchment of institutional racism in funding circles is explosive.

We are all victims of the  combination of hubris, racism arrogance, political naivety and white privilege that defined the charmed existence of Kids Company.

Why are white voluntary sector organisations like NCVO, colluding with racism and betraying black communities?

The coalition public sector cuts are biting hard. Poor communities are watching their civic, cultural and social support and development infrastructures being swept away in a tidal wave of closures and cuts. The brutal reality is that we have seen only 15% of these cuts actually be delivered: there is much more pain to come. In the context of these savage cuts a conference held by the leading voluntary sector umbrella body should have been a welcome opportunity to discuss the potential impacts and possible responses to Government economic policy.

5^th March saw the gathering of the annual conference of the National Council of Voluntary Sector Organisations. This is the UK’s premier event for the 3^rd Sector. The event attracts representatives from a broad range of community voluntary sector organisations. The focus of the conference is to examine and explore the latest trends in the sector, lobby Government and local authorities, identify best practice and innovation whilst highlighting issues and problems of policy or implementation. These issues were of course discussed and the conference provided a wealth of information to those in attendance.  In general terms this is to be welcomed, however in the recent context of recession, riots and increased levels of racism, one might have reasonably expected that these issues would have been given an airing. 

Not so I’m afraid. The NCVO conference has traditionally been a terribly white and middle class affair and this year seemed no different.

There were very few attendees from black organisations or voluntary groups. There were no speakers representing these communities and no representation of the specific issue of racism on the conference agenda. Astonishingly in 2012 the NCVO conference failed to identify or highlight the reality of institutional racism within Government policy and its consequent effect on black communities. Given the huge turmoil in the sector and the fact that this is the number one issue in black communities nationwide, this omission is unforgivable.

The end of black voluntary sector provision.

Eric Pickles’s, Secretary for Department of Communities Local Government, ideological hostility to what he terms 'state funded multiculturalism' has amplified current levels of racial disadvantage. This is a result of the Governments shift from a policy for social cohesion focused on encouraging and supporting integration, to a policy of forced assimilation. As a result, black only provision across the board is being increasingly seen as “racially divisive” and inimical to the promotion of racial harmony.

This is of course nonsense. Separate or additional social care or welfare provision arose in response to the reality of institutional racism in service provision and the failure of the mainstream voluntary sectors to adopt and implement equality and anti racist policies.

NCVO conference sailed on oblivious and bizarrely made no mention of the impacts of policy on levels of racism and racial disadvantage. The issue of Governments failure to conduct Race Equality Impact Assessments as currently required by the Equality Act 2010 was absent despite a range of recent successful legal challenges.

There was only a passing reference to the August ‘riots’, and no real recognition of the substantive issues of deaths in custody, stop and search and the hugely disproportionate impact of cuts on black communities.  Given the very strong link between recession and the potential for increased rates of racism as communities compete for scarce resources, this omission is very serious indeed.

The conference provided no real focus on any of the myriad of social, economic and political issues that impact on urban black communities, all of which are set become much worse.

Why would a major national umbrella body for the UK’s voluntary sector dismiss these important issues? Access to additional finance may provide the answer. But first it’s important to get a historical perspective on the development of the black voluntary sector.

Back to the future: Racism, paternalism and marginalisation.

The black voluntary sector at a national and local level is being eviscerated as a result of a culture of institutional racism within Government at both a local and regional level. This has seen disproportionate cuts to the sector and the closure of thousands of black and ethnic minority voluntary sector projects providing vital frontline services. Local authorities and Government are paying scant regard to race equality issues in making these decisions.

Across the country we are seeing the return of the old ‘colonial’ style model of 3rd sector provision where white mainstream voluntary sector organisations are colluding with the implicit racism of disproportionate cuts by agreeing to provide services to black communities who were once served by black organisations.

Reports from black organisations in London, Bristol and Birmingham reflect a national trend. Whereas they previously provided services directly to black communities they have endured cuts to their grant funding. In a twist of bitter irony these same organisations are now being approached by mainstream white organisations to either join bidding consortia as a junior partner or as sub contractors expecting to provide the same service to our communities for a fraction of the money required.

Generally, majority white organisations by definition fail to represent the communities whose needs they are now seeking to meet. Unable to demonstrate real commitment to equality through the test of representation of both staff and management, combined with a NCVO like disinclination to highlight and confront issues of racism, these organisations do not have the cultural or professional competence to meet our needs.

And yet they are queuing up to bid for such contracts. For those black organisations that do seek to partner these organisations, they report that their treatment is largely condescending and patronising. Black groups find themselves being sidelined, marginalised and undermined in bidding consortiums.

Black organisations providing services such as youth diversion, crime prevention, supplemental education and employment projects, are all being closed down at an alarming rate. Black women and elderly social care projects, public health campaigns targeting black communities, business start up programs, adventure playgrounds and community centres are all facing closure.

The fact is that the funding for such projects had already seen a dramatic decline over the last 20 years. This resulted in a small but dynamic sector that was seeking to look at new ways of identifying and developing a new sustainable model of funding.  The combined effects of the recession are obliterating these projects at a rate that will lead to their virtual extinction.

These specialist culturally distinct services were fought for and won on the back of decades of struggle for race equality in the provision of public services. Throughout the 1980’s black communities struggled to access culturally appropriate mainstream provision of social and health, health, supplementary education, youth employment and housing projects were funded in recognition of the inability of mainstream public services providers to meet the needs of culturally distinct communities. 

Prior to this, services such as local meals on wheels for the elderly, were providing traditional English dishes to Asian and African elders. Fish and chips instead of chapatti and curry. Bangers and mash instead of ackee and saltfish.

Sufferers of Sickle Cell were misdiagnosed; black youth kicked cans down the road as they boycotted youth services that failed to meet their needs, mainstream community centres refused to allow black social events as they were culturally alien: ‘too loud and noisy’, black homelessness was hidden as black people refused to stay in hostels where they were subjected to racial harassment, people seeking to challenge racism were turned away from advice agencies who had little or no experience or understanding of the dynamics of racism in British society.

Those employed in the provision of these services were overwhelmingly white and failed to have the cultural competence necessary to understand the reality of racism. The cultural reality of institutional racism that pervaded service provision of the statutory and voluntary sector services meant that even where staffing was more diverse, in the absence of effective equality policies, they struggled to deliver for black communities.

The conscious betrayal of a black community for profit.

Today as a result of public sector cuts and a resurgent level of institutional racism we see a fast forward return to these bad old days. On a fundamental level it’s a return to a culture of paternalistic racism of 1980’s that deemed black people as incapable of providing professional services or as venal and untrustworthy. We thought those days were gone and although we might expect a Tory led coalition Government to promote racism, that white mainstream voluntary should collude with that racism for financial gain whilst perfectly aware of the circumstances in which these developments have taken place, is frankly a betrayal of black communities. Add to this their cultural predisposition and deep political reluctance to challenge racism, conferences that ignore the issues, staff and boards that don’t reflect diverse communities and you can begin to assess the enormity of that betrayal.

I sat in on a meeting in Bristol where these things were being discussed. An elderly Asian man spoke about the closure of his local Asian elderly centre. He spoke movingly of the culturally appropriate and professional service he enjoyed on a daily basis. He bemoaned the closure of the centre saying that all those who attended the centre are now sitting at home “whilst their brains rot.” Asked if they would go to the largely white elderly centre that remained opened he said no as the food and the culture was alien to him and he believed he would not fit in and probably have to deal with a degree of racism. It was heartbreaking stuff.

I recently raised these issues with NCVO on line during a twitter '#NCVOevents' debate about the conference and was invited in to meet the Chief Execute for a chat about these issues. I certainly intend to do so with a small delegation of organisations that can seek some accountability from NCVO as to why in the 21^st century we still have to raise these issues. The phrase ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’, comes to mind. Watch this space

Lee Jasper