The Wellcome Trust’s honest – and somewhat brutal revelation – about the failure of their anti-racism work in their latest report has left many in the sector – including me! – open-mouthed with surprise.
Two years ago – in response to the mainstreaming of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the Wellcome Trust released a commitment to tackling racism within the organisation as part of an updated strategy.
Despite a carefully planned programme of anti-racism work over the last two years, the funding body admitted that they continued to practice institutional and systemic racism. Bold move. Particularly as – unlike other funders – Wellcome is not accountable to much external oversight. So, it would have been easy for them to simply focus on the parts of their work that have been a success and sweep the rest under the rug.
