The 3 biggest barriers to your anti-racist brand work (and what to do about them)

When we ask people what is stopping them from progressing their anti-racist brand work (understanding how racism shows up in the brand, the actions they need to take to tackle this and delivering it consistently) their answers are always the same. Time, budget and will.  However are these truly barriers to anti-racism work?

We don’t think so. 

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How to make time for anti-racism

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When people talk about time as a barrier, they are in fact, talking about inability to prioritise. Because anti-racist brand work is a lifelong commitment - not a one-off project. So the timeline doesn’t have a beginning or end - and it’s not that this work is time-consuming. It’s that organisations are not making it a priority. And therefore, for those of us tasked with leading anti-racism work and moving it forward, there are always other, competing priorities which divert our time and attention.

I’m not here to talk to you about time management or prioritisation - you already know how to do this. So to make time for anti-racism, you need to make it a priority for your brand. Just like driving awareness, analysing audience data or communications planning, anti-racism has to be a strategic priority so that you will make time to progress this work.

Like any other strategic priority, you make time by assigning and blocking time in your diary to focus on it.  And by time-limiting the lesser priority tasks that tend to take up a lot of time, but don’t have a strategic impact.  Like email.  Yes, inbox zero might be your aspiration - but if your whole day is taken up by emails and meetings, it’s really difficult for you to prioritise your strategic responsibilities.  Including anti-racism.  So rather than saying “I don’t have time”, make time!

Joining an anti-racism accountability programme or community can really help with this.  It will force you to make time regularly for this work. That’s why we are running quarterly masterclasses, starting in June and running through to 2027. 

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Book on to our masterclasses series 

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How to find budget for anti-racism work

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Someone once told me that “Money is a zero-sum game” as an explanation as to why their organisation is not investing in external anti-racism support.  Meaning that if you spend money on one thing, it has to be taken from elsewhere in the budget. 

This is true.  And in this time of cuts and spending freezes, it can be easy for your anti-racist brand work to fall by the wayside, because you don’t have the money to invest in external help.

However it should not be a barrier to doing anti-racist brand work. Getting the right external help to support you in your anti-racism work will mean that you progress faster, stay accountable, avoid placing emotional labour on internal employees (this is particularly relevant if you’re leading this work as a person from a Global Majority background) and navigate the harmful power dynamics inherent in organisational structures and cultures.  So whilst you are building the case for external investment in anti-racism work, you can still move forward.  

Your organisation will likely have anti-racism resources compiled in 2020 - why not use these in peer support groups or internal action planning and accountability sessions? If you don’t have them, this blog and my Substack have great resources you can use to progress your anti-racism work. There are so many books to support you too - my two favourites and must reads are Shereen Daniels “The Anti-Racist Organisation” - now available in paperback and Nova Reid’s the Good Ally.  You can use these books as the source material and create a small internal task group to hold each other accountable for continued action. 

Our masterclasses have been deliberately priced so that individuals can invest. Or you can apply for a solidarity place on our upcoming masterclass series. There are a few places available for individuals facing financial difficulties, especially if you are leading this work as a person from a minoritised background. 

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Apply for a solidarity place

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Finally, make sure that you review and identify any unspent budget towards the end of the financial year.  This is how many of our clients pay for our services and as a small consultancy, we can be very nimble in responding to this type of request. 

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How to build the energy for anti-racism work

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In an external environment that is actively hostile to anti-racism work, it can be difficult to keep going.  People talk about “diversity fatigue” - and this usually refers to white people getting tired of having to talk about, prioritise and take action to ensure diversity (not even anti-racism).  It’s one of the ways that structural racism shows up - finding new language and concepts to prioritise the feelings of white people over the harm caused to Global Majority folks.  

However there is a weight and labour for people who are serious about this work, especially if you are from a Global Majority background. I talk about this at length on my Substack, which you can find here.  

To create the sustained and continued energy for anti-racism, this work cannot fall to one person, or even a few people. It needs to be about collective action. And this means that doing this work in groups and providing peer support is essential. 

I was delighted the other day when a group of people from the same organisation signed up for our masterclasses. The organisation recognised that they need to progress their anti-racism strategy and wanted to make sure that the learning could be shared across the organisation. So this particular charity sent representatives from fundraising, communications and programmes to ensure that their anti-racism brand work is embedded fully across the organisation. 

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Contact us about group booking for our upcoming masterclasses.  

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Becoming an anti-racist brand takes prioritisation, investment and energy - not just for one person, but across an organisation. You can read more about how we support our clients in this work here.

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Find out more about our work with clients. 

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