CLOSING PLENARY

Professor Carol Baxter

Formerely NHS Employers head of diversity, Inclusion & human rights. She is now a consultant and campaigner for equality.

Things have Changed

After tuning in to each session at the digital forum, Professor Baxter remarked on how the level of awareness, determination and tools to address race relations have evidently increased. The five themes of Community Cohesion, Criminal Justice, Education, Health and Work, reminded her of the complex structure of racism. As something that we are all born into, for Professor Baxter, like air, racism exists and whether white people know it or not, this is the case - it will find a way to affect us no matter what.

Techniques

Professor Baxter reflected on a time when the conversation at gatherings such as the Burning Work digital forum typically focused around the necessary act of ducking and diving through society. She noted how we now have more tools and power at our disposal. Tools such as the technology of video conferencing used to virtually bring people together and another crucial tool being language itself. As a community, Professor Baxter points to how we now link disparities to causes and outcomes and recognise racism beyond being personally discriminated against. Professor Baxter draws attention to the creation of new media tools and techniques which allow us to visualise the set of socio-economic traps built into the organisation of society. She then ends by reflecting on how this Burning Work is something we are required to tend to at every opportunity.

Burning Work

Professor Baxter commented on how Burning Work is an appropriate conference title which draws attention to the urgency and exhaustive nature of the work to undo and abolish racial injustice. It is intergenerational work across centuries of fighting. Yet there is still a need to constantly be creative which can lead to burn out due to balancing front line work with responsibilities to care for children and grandchildren.

If you know your history then you know where your coming from. Connecting present past and future. - Bob Marley