There is a moment every single day when I wonder where all you white allies are at? Do you even know the sheer amount of work your BAME colleagues and friends are doing, let alone what they experience? Sharing quotes on your insta really doesn't help, speak up, loudly and often https://twitter.com/yiwen_h/status/1390573407218118658

I genuinely shouldn't need to tell you what to do... this is LABOUR you should be doing yourself. If it is hard, then welcome to the party! However, here are a few examples of things myself and BAME colleagues have been doing lately

Over on @libdiverse I have been asking institutions posting jobs to explain their anti-racism work/policies before sharing that job. This is so much admin! Before you share a job (and when you advertise one) can you please ask these questions and share this info proactively?

We have staff forums and Q&As at work. A large majority of those questions have come from myself and two(!) BAME colleagues, despite urging for others to ask questions and racism and other oppressions. I didn't see any white people doing this, although they appreciated the qs?

We have been asking questions about recruitment, mental health and wellbeing support for BAME colleagues, changes in policy, the reporting of racism and microaggressions, and the sharing of data. Why aren't you asking these too? We are having meetings with people, writing plans..

All of these things take a lot of time on top of your job (although I do have a tiny amount of time on my role as the co-chair of the BAME staff network). All of the network chairs are women, and we have noted that cis, white, able-bodied men don't need staff networks

When someone is recruited to a senior position and they are a white cis man, you can ask questions about that recruitment process. How many people were interviewed? Was there a diverse shortlist? Was this an internal hire? Encourage this info to be shared routinely

Ask to see the membership of strategic panels and committees. Who is making the decisions? Apply pressure to ask them to make this info public and to commit to diversifying these groups.

When people say offensive things (e.g. people denying racism exists, asking to see evidence, complaining that racism has had too much spotlight, complaining that people will make false accusations against them) you need to challenge this. Say something, report it, don't just gasp

What other suggestions do people have? What work have you and/or your colleagues been doing? Please add your tips below, as I don't know how much longer we can listen to people saying all they need to do is 'be aware' and how shocked they were when they read Reni's book

You could ask your library and senior leaders in your uni watch the recent BBC doc 'Is Uni Racist' (spolier: it is) and then discuss it. Will they publicly admit that there is institutional racism? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p09dhr3f/is-uni-racist

Did you ask questions about the recent and discredited 'report' from the Commission on Race
and Ethnic Disparities? Did you ask your institution to stand with BAME colleagues (and ALL colleagues) in their rejection of this report? Did you ask if they had read it??

If this sounds like a lot of work and you are worried about you may be perceived … this is the work myself and colleagues have been doing only in the past couple of months. There has been so much more! So why are we doing this when we are the ones suffering from racism?

Ok last one - intersectionality and allyship are v. important. Make sure you also support women, LGBTQ+, trans people, non-binary people, people with disabilities. Amplify, support and do the work for everyone who needs it xoxo