September's Skill of the Month: Anti-Racism

Welcome to the September edition of Skill of the Month.

Each month, I take one skill that culturally inclusive engagement depends on, and show you what it looks like in practice.

Whether you work in research, heritage, planning, design, culture, health, EDI or any field where you want to engage communities well, these skills are for you.

This month’s skill is anti-racism.

Why this matters now

The treatment of Professor Jason Arday over the summer, and the responses from Black academics to the public and media scrutiny around him, have made for a sobering start to September. Many have spoken about a familiar double standard: when one Black person is under attack, it can quickly become a challenge to the credibility and place of Black people more widely in academic life.

That matters far beyond universities.

If you are inviting people into research, asking communities to share histories, designing public services, collecting heritage or making decisions about places, anti-racism is not an optional extra. It affects who feels safe enough to participate, whose knowledge is taken seriously, and whose experiences are dismissed, misunderstood or extracted.

Anti-racism is not about having all the right answers. It is the ongoing practice of noticing, challenging and changing the ways racism can show up in our language, decisions, relationships and systems.

This is not a small issue

Racism has a huge effect on people’s wellbeing, confidence and ability to contribute.

• In the TUC’s 2026 poll of more than 1,000 Black and ethnic minority workers, 41% reported racist jokes or “banter”, 36% reported racist remarks, and 26% reported physical violence, threats or intimidation at work. The figures have risen since 2020.

  
  

• In a 2025 Institute for Employment Studies survey of frontline health and adult social care staff who had experienced workplace inequalities, 62% said this affected their performance at work and 68% said it affected their mental health. That is not a resilience problem. It is a workplace and leadership problem. See the research here.

  
  

• Racism is a public-health issue too. A recent Health Foundation report found that people of colour are three to four times more likely to report discrimination when looking for somewhere to live. Housing, income, work, green space and safety are all building blocks of good health. Racism shapes access to all of them.

  
  

• In the Department for Education’s latest national survey, 9% of Year 7–13 pupils who had experienced in-person bullying said their race or ethnicity was one of the reasons. Parents’ reports of race-based in-person bullying also rose from 6% in 2024 to 9% in 2025. The full report is here.

These are not just statistics. They represent people using energy to stay safe, stay credible and stay in the roo - energy that should be available for learning, working, contributing and thriving.

What anti-racism looks like in practice

Name racism when it is relevant.

Do not hide it behind vague phrases such as “a cultural issue”, “miscommunication” or “a difficult perspetive”. Culture matters, of course. And anti-racism can be part of an culturally inclusive strategy. But treating it as anything else can obscure the real problem.

A useful question for your next project meeting is:

Could our assumptions, criteria, language or decision-making process make it harder for people from particular racialised or ethnic backgrounds to take part, influence the work or feel safe doing so?

Build relationships before you need them.

Do not wait until recruitment starts to contact a community group, leader or organisation. Build trust early, listen properly and pay people for their time and expertise. Community knowledge is not a free resource.

Design for safety, not just attendance.

Clear ground rules, a named person to raise concerns with, and a plan for responding to harm all matter. So does being honest about what you can change. People notice quickly when they are invited to speak but nothing shifts.

Do not assume place tells you everything.

Anti-racist practice matters in a village hall just as much as it does in a city-centre workshop. In rural places, a lack of visible diversity can make experiences of racism more isolating. In urban areas, diversity does not automatically mean inclusion, trust or shared power.

Are you the right person to facilitate?

Consider whether you need to plan for a Global Majority community member or leader tofaciltiate engagement activities, likemI've done for universities? Lived experience not only allows us to connect quicker with other people who experience racism, but the conversations we have are much richer and more authentic, and offer deeper insight. If you aim for excellence in your work, I encourage you to consider this approach.

Your starting point

Choose one live or upcoming piece of work and ask:

1. Who might feel that this project is not for them - and why?

2. Whose knowledge are we overlooking?

3. What would we change if someone told us racism had shaped their experience of engaging with us?

You do not have to solve everything this month. But you do have to begin.

The takeaway

Anti-racism is not a project for EDI teams. It is a core engagement skill.

Because people can't fully share their ideas, stories, needs or expertise where they expect to be stereotyped, disbelieved or treated as an afterthought.

See you next month for the next skill, and quick updates in between!

Any questions about embedding anti-racism into engagement? Get in touch: hello@elmaglasgowconsulting.com.