About Us

Find out more about Beyond Racism and its vision.

Who We Are

We are a movement of Activists, Animateurs, Academics and Ordinary People who all want to live to see an Anti-Racist Birmingham and West Midlands.

Why

We are people with lived experience of racism.

Our Vision

Our Aims

01 Keeping Race on the Agenda

We refuse to let the conversation on racial justice fade, ensuring a cycle of sustained action and equity remains a constant priority.

02 Holding Institutions to Account

We actively challenge powerful organisations and leaders to create meaningful, systemic change that goes beyond empty promises.

03 Passing the Baton to Future Generations

While preserving the history of anti-racist activism, we are empowering a new wave of activists to build on the progress of the past.

Our Story

From Past to Future

On June 4, 2020, more than 5000 young people, elders, and families stood united in Centenary Square for Birmingham’s largest Black Lives Matter rally. It was Birmingham’s response to yet another senseless murder of a Black man.

Many of us had been here before, in the 1960s, 1970s and more significantly, the 1981-85 uprisings.

We could now predict the play book. It’s wasteful cycle of outrage, noise and silence.
Race, is back on the agenda.
There will be a commission…
There will be a report…
Outsiders will be brought in to investigate, units opened and refreshed.
Then, as the outrage subsides, race will once again fall off the agenda…
Until the next murder!

We have been here before and are likely to be here again because all we ever get is “performativism” the pretence of doing something but never actually doing anything meaningful.

We set up structures, but ‘structures’ don’t deliver and there is no learning about what has or hasn’t worked – there is no progress or deeper understanding of how systemic, embedded, societal racism operates.

The anti-racist reactionary movement has been in a perpetual loop: one step forward, driven by short-term reactions to the here and now; two steps back, until it falls off the agenda AGAIN!

The cycle continues.
Anti racist measures are seen as ‘hard’.
So we fall back on ‘tick box’ approaches.
And like climate action, there’s no lasting commitment, no sustainability.

Anti-racism is more important now than ever before because here in Birmingham, we are a minority-majority city with 70% of pupils of colour in our schools.

People have come saying they are committed but they don’t know what to do.
We all agree there are no priority sectors, all areas need equal weight if we have any chance of moving forward.

Our Vision

By 2035, Birmingham will be a world-leading anti-racist city on the path beyond racism. Racism will no longer determine who thrives and who is left behind.

Anti-racism demands that we face why racism continues to exist, why it shifts shape, and how it embeds itself in the systems that govern our lives. Racism is not accidental prejudice; it is bound up with the histories of slavery, empire, and colonialism, and continues today as a tool of exploitation and global inequality.

From the historic treatment of Irish communities to the ongoing reality of antisemitism, Islamophobia and the hostile narrative about immigrants and migrants today, it adapts but it has not gone away.

If we fail to grasp racism’s changing nature, our strategies will fall short, and our tactics will miss the mark.

This means confronting racism at every level: personal, cultural, institutional and structural. It is lived in the disparities we see in employment, education, health, housing and the criminal justice system.

It means naming anti-Blackness directly, and recognising how racism intersects with gender, class, faith, disability and other identities to create compounded injustice.

We do not relish conflict, but when racism threatens the lives and dignity of Black and Brown people, we have no option but to resist. Our goal is not simply to oppose but to transform, to hold institutions accountable, dismantle systems of exploitation, and build a society where equality is not an aspiration but a lived reality.

We are neither anti-white nor do we have narrow sectarian ambitions. We believe that racism damages both the perpetrator and the victim. It is in all our interests that racism is eliminated, and we are pledged to bring that about.

BRIG is Race-led and Birmingham-rooted and our drive is clear:

To keep alive this city’s long tradition of struggle and solidarity
To connect our local work with global movements
To Equip communities with knowledge and power
To insist on a future where all of us can live, lead and contribute as equals

The struggle continues…and so does our determination.

Beyond Racism

Why from BRIG to Beyond Racism?

The Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG) is to change its name to Beyond Racism (BR). This is not simply a cosmetic exercise in rebranding. It marks an important moment to restate why we exist and where we are going.

Why we began BRIG was formed in the immediate aftermath of the violent death of George Floyd at the hands of the American police.

It was our local response to a global outcry – a protest against the deep-rooted and, too often, violent forms of racism and systemic discrimination that persist across the whole of Western society.

Now, nearly four years later, the urgency remains. Racist thinking and practice still shape lives and institutions.

As long as racism exists, we will be bound to resist it – wherever, whenever and in whatever form it occurs.

Why is our name changing? Yet we do not exist solely to oppose racist thought and practice. Our ambition is not confined to adversarial combat with the agents of racism.

We envision a world beyond where, to echo Bob Marley, the colour of a person’s skin is as insignificant as the colour of their eyes.

BRIG dares to imagine a society in which everyone, black and white, can flourish in every area of life, enriching it with the knowledge, wisdom and traditions of their own background, heritage, ethnic origin, religion and language.

In this vision, no single culture claims superiority, but all are open to learning from one another, with social cohesion and cultural diversity held in perfect balance.

We recognise that our lives are not restricted wholly by race or racism. Our commitment to social justice stands alongside our solidarity with all those facing discrimination: women, LGBTQ+ communities, disabled people, migrants, and everyone whose dignity and opportunities are undermined by prejudice and structural inequality. These struggles are interconnected; to move beyond racism is to move towards justice for all.

A World Beyond Racism

Now is the time for BRIG to signal our greater purpose.

Alongside our unwavering commitment to challenging racism, we seek to cultivate a vision of the world beyond, glimpsed in:

a poetry reading by a young Pakistani;

a Kathak dance by an Indian performer;

a BBC Reith Lecture by a Nigerian author;

a public mural by a Bangladeshi artist;

a classical recital by a young Chinese pianist;

a performance of gospel music by Birmingham’s Black voices.

The change from BRIG to Beyond Racism positions us to move decisively into the future with anticipation and resolve.

But this journey is not ours alone. We invite individuals, institutions and communities to walk with us, to share your ideas, talents, and stories, so that together we can build a more just and connected world.

Ranjit Sondhi - Chair of BRIG

"A name change is an emblem of your evolving identity." - J Camile

How to Support Us

There are many ways you can support us and we are always open to new ideas and suggestions as well to help us make Birmingham an Anti-Racist city. Here are three ways to get involved.