Why housing providers must develop racial intelligence

On 29 July, Bebe King, Elsie Stancombe, and Alice Da Silva Aguiar, aged 6, 7 and 9, were stabbed to death, triggering days of rioting and violence across the UK. Some rioters assaulted people and destroyed property, spreading fear up and down the country. Although they claimed they were protesting on behalf of these girls, in my view, their actions did not align with this.

Fortunately, communities came together to form anti-racist and anti-Islamophobic counter-protests and clean up the damage done by the rioters. They proved that most people in the UK are not bigots and will defend their communities against racist vitriol. This community action and the Prime Minister’s strong denouncement of the rioters was heartening because the riots made me really worried about the future of diverse communities in this country.

If you were disgusted by what you witnessed, I’d like you to think of residents from minoritised backgrounds going through this experience. Think of people with black and brown skin, those who speak different languages, have non-English sounding names, or visibly present their different cultural backgrounds. Imagine how vulnerable they must have felt in those moments.

As a sector, we must not let this pass us by. We must ensure that anti-racism shapes our operational culture and delivery. We must subscribe to and continually advocate for an anti-racist stance. To do this, our organisations must develop racial intelligence.

What is racial intelligence?

According to Afua Hirsch, journalist and social commentator, racial intelligence is knowing that the media has spent years pushing the baseless narrative that minoritised communities are deviant and don’t conform to ‘British values’. For years, the UK’s mainstream news was run by a workforce that was 94% White, even though news organisations are concentrated in London where over 45% of inhabitants are from ethnically diverse backgrounds. According to Hirsch, this has significantly influenced the way Black and Brown peoples’ identities have been framed in the UK, especially amongst less informed parts of White society.

Racial intelligence means recognising that both mainstream politicians and far-right outliers have used anti-immigration narratives as a strategy to earn votes for hundreds of years. They compare immigration to an invasion and imply that it leads to fewer jobs and is a burden on resources. In reality, politicians are acutely aware that immigration is needed to make the country more economically productive and meet labour shortages. It is this damaging narrative which led to the violence across the country in early August.

We know that our sector is not exempt from racism. Quoting the Better Social Housing Review (BSHR): ‘The Grenfell Tower disaster and the subsequent inquiry clearly evidenced how an entire community can be catastrophically let down, exposing fundamental racial inequalities and discrimination.’ The work around Awaab’s Law, Daniel Hewitt’s ITV investigation, and Kwajo Tweneboa’s social media campaigns have all exposed racial inequalities in social housing.

NHF research demonstrates that minoritised communities are more likely to live in poorer quality homes and that there aren’t enough people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds in leadership positions in our sector. This must change.

The Social Housing Anti Racism Pledge

In 2022, BME London Landlords developed the Social Housing Anti Racism Pledge (SHARP) with the support of the Housing Diversity Network. SHARP is a framework to support housing providers to become anti-racist organisations. Our aim was to keep racism on the sector’s agenda. SHARP requires organisations to review their internal processes through an anti-racist lens and decide whether they can improve them.

As housing providers, we already have a legal requirement to treat our staff and residents equally. The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against people based on nine protected characteristics, one of which is race. Equality is also becoming more central to our regulatory requirements. The consumer standards enforce equitable outcomes in the sector. They introduced measures like the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, which ensures that housing providers treat all tenants and prospective tenants with fairness and respect and take action to deliver equitable outcomes for them.

Racial intelligence is crucial to fulfilling these regulatory and legal obligations. Developing racial intelligence would enable housing associations to better serve current and future residents and SHARP is an essential tool to develop this intelligence.

What does SHARP involve?

The SHARP Level 1 commitment award requires housing providers to:

·       Adopt anti-racism as a core value.

·       Develop an anti-racism working sub-group.

·       Complete the SHARP self-assessment.

·       Develop an anti-racism strategy/plan.

Although over 60 organisations completed our online self-assessment in the first 18 months of SHARP launching, only 15% chose to embark on the SHARP Level 1 commitment award. Organisations which didn’t move forward told us that they couldn’t get sign off at senior leadership and board level. We want to see greater commitment across the sector. To sign up to SHARP, visit our website.

We know that our organisations can demonstrate that they have sufficient policy frameworks in place and have competent personnel to translate how equality and inclusion work in practice in their organisations. But does that mean that organisations actively deal with race discrimination? Do they have the racial intelligence to shape their organisational culture and ensure that everyone feels safe and secure in their homes? Are they encouraging strong and thriving communities? As housing associations, this is the standard we must set ourselves. If the last month has taught us anything, it’s that anti-racist work is just as important as ever.