Sasha Salmon Think Piece
Background to the report
Conversations with colleagues from the Black and Global Majority working in the industry in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement made it clear that there was an urgent need for us to prioritise anti-racist action.
We acknowledged that we simply hadn’t done enough to recognise racism in the industry, to support those affected, or to actively oppose and combat racism within the industry.
Gathering evidence
The first phase of our work in this area was to gather an evidence base. So, in 2021, Sasha Salmon joined us on secondment from the Mayor of London’s Office. She is an expert in anti-racism work and systemic solutions to inequity, with an extensive background in Government and civil society.
Salmon heard the testimony of more than 50 people from the Black and Global Majority in the industry to inform her ‘Think piece on Anti-Racism in the UK Film and TV Industry’, published in September 2021. In it she scopes meaningful action which the Charity, and the industry as a whole, could take.
Commitments
The immediate effects of Sasha’s work were to inspire us to make three new commitments:
- Ringfencing 30% of our future grants budgets for beneficiaries from the Black and Global Majority to ensure fair access to our funding.
- New targets to increase representation of people from the Black and Global Majority on the charity’s Board of Trustees and across the team.
- A commitment to invest £1 million of the charity’s own resources in a new programme to support under-funded community leaders and groups working to tackle racism in the industry. We have now completed the co-design phase of this project, which will launch in 2024.
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