Privilege is not the enemy; complacency is
Whether you are a white-led organisation, working in the queer sector, the BIPOC community, or the migrant sector—this article is for you. It was written by IGLYO Board Chair and Anti-Racism Panel Coordinator Yassine Chagh (They/He).
On this day, I acknowledge that for many, I may sound like a broken record — repeating the same demands, the same urgent calls for justice — my words may feel familiar. And if they do, ask yourself—why do they still need to be repeated?
For many of us BIPOC, the only power we hold lies in the platforms and spaces we occupy. We are left to amplify what white-led organisations can afford to disconnect from. Yet we remain implicitly or explicitly responsible for this work, without support, while tirelessly voicing our lived realities, again and again, hoping that this time, they will not just be heard, but truly listened to.
If this is your first time encountering these words — buckle up. Discomfort is part of the process. It may feel like confrontation, but truth is not an attack. And if something unsettles you, sit with it. That discomfort isn’t me — it’s your privilege feeling threatened and that’s where the work begins.
REMINDER: Privilege is not the enemy; complacency is.
Below are some INs and OUTs that you should NOT sleep on. Because change isn’t just about awareness and silence; it’s about action.
OUT: BIPOC folks being your charity projects.
IN: Invest in BIPOC leadership and expertise.
BIPOC communities don’t need pity or symbolic gestures. We need real investment in our leadership, knowledge, and decision-making power. True support means providing resources, opportunities, and platforms that shift power dynamics, not reinforcing saviorism. Equity is about structural change, not just visibility. It is not a case of "How can we help?" but "How can we redistribute power?"
OUT: Reducing us to research, studies, and data points.
IN: Recognising our lived realities as undeniable truths.
We are not abstract concepts or ideological debates. Reports, statistics, and academic studies may document our struggles, but knowledge alone does not create change.
The real question is: What are you doing with that knowledge? Who benefits from it? Research without action is just another way of maintaining the status quo. If your research does not contribute to dismantling oppression, then it is only reinforcing it.
OUT: Thinking you have an opinion on our lived experiences.
IN: Listen.
Being in our spaces, witnessing our struggles, or attending our events does not give you the right to debate our existence. This is not “freedom of speech”; it’s entitlement.
Just as cis people should not have opinions on trans bodies, white or non-BIPOC individuals do not get to validate, question, or reinterpret our lived truths. Your role is to listen, learn, and act; not to center yourself in our realities.
OUT: Repetitive raising awareness.
IN: Strategic action and a concrete work plan.
BIPOC+ communities are exhausted from constantly having to “raise awareness” about our fundamental rights and needs. We are well aware of our own struggles. The real demand is for so-called "progressives" to move beyond endless acknowledgment and into tangible, measurable action. Awareness without action is complacency. If you truly stand for justice, show it through policies, practices, and accountability, not just words.
OUT: "We encourage BIPOC, migrants, refugees, and marginalised groups to apply for this position."
IN: Building an anti-racist HR structure that removes barriers and actively supports BIPOC, migrants, refugees, and marginalised groups in securing leadership roles.
Stop pretending BIPOC applicants “aren’t qualified” when the system is built to exclude us. White-dominated hiring processes demand elite education, unpaid internships, and industry connections, privileges that BIPOC communities, migrants, and refugees are systematically denied access to.
If your leadership team, board, or staff is overwhelmingly white, the problem isn’t the “lack” of qualified BIPOC, it’s your refusal to remove structural barriers.
You do not “fix” oppressive hiring practices, you stop repeating the same processes designed to uphold white supremacy.
OUT: Profiting from our realities.
IN: Let us lead the way—you can support.
White-led “anti-racist” organisations, “migrant expert” NGOs, and DEI consultants continue to study, write about, and profit from our struggles, while locking BIPOC out of leadership.
If your name is attached to every grant, every project, and every initiative which claims to serve us, you are not supporting us, you are capitalising on our oppression.
Decolonising this work means stepping aside. You don’t get to be the “voice” for marginalised communities when you refuse to redistribute power, resources, and leadership.
I suppose the queer movement wouldn’t be satisfied if it were only led by cis-hetero allies, so why should we accept the same when it comes to racial justice? Being present in a community without having a real say in it is not inclusion; it’s erasure. Representation isn’t just about who is in the room, it’s about who has the power to shape decisions, narratives, and solutions.
OUT: Allyship.
IN: Co-conspiratorship.
Allyship is too often practiced in a way which is self-serving, performative, and rooted in white saviorism. It is passive, centered on comfort, and obsessed with optics rather than impact. It’s the act of wanting to “help” without risking anything, the desire to be seen as “progressive” without actually dismantling oppressive systems.
Co-conspiratorship* is not about standing next to us for visibility, it is about putting yourself on the line in ways that actually shift power. It means sacrificing comfort, status, and privileges to actively disrupt oppression. It requires challenging white supremacy, not just when it’s convenient, but especially when it isn’t, when no BIPOC are watching, when it could cost you influence, reputation, or access. It means refusing to uphold exclusionary policies, funding decisions, and power structures that keep us on the margins, even when it comes at a personal or professional cost.
You are not here to be a savior. You are here to leverage your privilege, shake up the system, and create permanent shifts in power. If your solidarity does not involve redistribution of resources, accountability, and real risk-taking, then it is not solidarity, it is self-preservation disguised as activism.
*Co-conspiratorship is active and transformative, demanding those who hold privilege to take direct action, redistribute resources, and disrupt oppressive systems, even at personal or professional cost. In contrast, allyship is often passive and performative, centered on optics, comfort, and acknowledgment without real risk or systemic change.
OUT: Diverse organisations.
IN: Diverse, inclusive, and dismantled white-structured organisations.
Simply having BIPOC presence in white-dominant spaces does not mean those spaces are equitable. Too often, "diverse organisations" remain systemically white supremacist at their core, where inclusion is superficial, and power structures remain unchanged. Our presence alone does not dismantle these systems, true equity requires actively deconstructing the barriers that have long kept us out. If you are serious about justice, diversity cannot be a checkbox; it must be accompanied by real structural change that redistributes power and transforms the way these spaces operate. Diversity without dismantling is just performative.
OUT: White fragility.
IN: Accountability.
BIPOC communities can no longer afford to waste time managing white emotions when conversations about racism should center our realities.
Defensiveness, tears, and feelings of being "attacked" when confronted with hard truths only serve to derail necessary discussions. Instead of addressing the harm and systemic issues at hand, the focus too often shifts to soothing white discomfort,diverting attention away from the real issue: the lived experiences of Black and other marginalised communities.
Progress requires sitting with discomfort, taking responsibility, and committing to real change, not making it about your feelings.
Racism is not about how you feel, it’s about the impact of your actions, silence, and complicity.
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Accountability is not “cancel culture”—it is the foundation of justice.
OUT: Tone focusing.
IN: Content focusing.
BIPOC communities do not have the luxury of stepping away from racism. Expecting us to remain calm, patient, and gentle, while advocating for our own survival, is not just delusional, it is dehumanising.
Gentleness has never ended racism. The LGBTQI community did not secure rights over just a nice cup of tea; we fought, yelled, and disrupted.
If your activism is fragile enough to be derailed by our anger, then your commitment to justice was never real. Focus on what we are saying, not how we say it.
OUT: “Not all white people.”
IN: Acknowledge privilege, then act.
Not all white people actively uphold white supremacy, but all benefit from it.
Similarly, not all privileged individuals directly sustain oppression, but their silence does.
If your instinct is to say “not me,” rather than ask “how am I complicit, and what am I doing to change it?”, then you are choosing inaction over justice.
AGAIN, privilege is not the enemy,complacency is.
OUT: Reactions.
IN: Actions.
Showing up only in moments of crisis is not solidarity, it is tokenism.
If your activism is triggered by headlines rather than driven by a long-term commitment to dismantling oppression, then you are not an activist, you are a spectator.
Performative outrage does not dismantle systemic harm.
OUT: Romanticising "being in community."
IN: Working towards being in community.
Community is not just a feel-good concept, it is built and sustained through reciprocity, shared responsibility, and mutual care.
Too often, in civil society spaces and political movements, BIPOC groups are expected to understand everything about the lives and culture of dominant (white) groups for the sake of survival, while that same effort is rarely reciprocated.
Instead, when true reciprocity is required, it is seen as inconvenient, too demanding, or even a threat. Being in a community is not just about proximity,it’s about commitment, accountability, and ensuring that the labor of connection is not one-sided.
OUT: “how can we build trust?”
IN: Trust isn’t given — it’s earned through action.
White-led groups often ask how to “build trust” with BIPOC communities. Trust isn’t automatic, it must be earned. You can’t expect it when history, and even the present, show that white-led spaces still benefit from white supremacy.
Saying you’re anti-racist means nothing when oppression is baked into norms, habits, and institutional structures. Trust is broken by silence in moments of harm, prioritising funders over justice, dodging accountability, and refusing to challenge white-dominated systems.
There’s no checklist for trust, it happens when oppression is acknowledged, power is shared, and action is consistent, not performative.
OUT: “White working class.”
IN: Class solidarity includes everyone, not just whiteness.
You can be white and working class, but you cannot politically organise around being “white working class.” If your organising efforts are truly about class, they must include the entire working class. Otherwise, what you're actually organising around is whiteness.
This is exactly what we see happening in many white-led organisations and movements, where class struggles are framed in ways that center whiteness “in a legitimate way” while ignoring the realities of BIPOC communities, excluding racial aspects and only rebranding white dominance.
OUT: Diversity-washing “success” with bare minimum standards.
IN: Do the actual work.
Many organisations across Europe are quick to highlight their engagement with BIPOC communities, inviting speakers, publishing articles, featuring panels, or consulting with BIPOC experts. Yet, this is often treated as a milestone or a moment of celebration when, in reality, it is merely performative and tokenistic. Whether done strategically or unintentionally, this approach does not dismantle systemic barriers,it only maintains the illusion of progress.
OUT: “It is a BIPOC issue.”
IN: BIPOC issues are queer issues.
Oppression is not separate, it’s interconnected. BIPOC issues are queer issues, and queer issues are racial justice issues. Yet in European advocacy spaces, LGBTQI struggles are framed as white issues, erasing BIPOC queer people. Meanwhile, in anti-racism spaces, queerness is sidelined or ignored.
This erasure is institutional and deliberate. Major agency reports and data reflect it clearly, when LGBTQI issues are addressed, BIPOC voices are missing. When racism is discussed, the framing is binary and cisheteronormative, making BIPOC LGBTQI communities invisible.
This isn’t an oversight, it’s systemic exclusion. Until research, policies, and advocacy stop treating queerness as separate from race, liberation will remain fragmented, performative, and incomplete.
OUT: "It is a work in progress and it needs time."
IN: Urgency over comfort—do the work now.
Time is a luxury that BIPOC communities do not have. White-led organisations have spent years “learning,” “reflecting,” and “processing,” while people continue to die, suffer, and fight.
You have had centuries to fix this. Delays are a choice, and every delay costs lives. If you truly believe in change, act like lives depend on it, because for many it does.
OUT: Conditional inclusion.
IN: True equity means dismantling power imbalances.
Many BIPOC voices, upon entering white-dominant spaces, are expected to feel grateful just to be included. The unspoken rule is clear: don’t be too critical, don’t challenge too much, or risk being labeled radical, difficult, or aggressive.
This dynamic keeps white organisations in control, knowing that if one BIPOC person refuses to conform, there’s always another willing to assimilate for survival. The cost? Many BIPOC faces in the room, but whiteness still dictates the rules.
Equity isn’t about allowing us in, it’s about dismantling the structures that force us to shrink ourselves just to stay.
OUT: "Oppression Olympics"
IN: Acknowledging layered oppression.
Within marginalised communities, too many dismiss the realities of the most oppressed by calling it a “competition” of suffering. But it only feels like a competition when people refuse to acknowledge who is most at risk.
We are not all comrades in struggle. Just as the queer movement is not built around the experiences of white gay cis men, racial justice cannot ignore Black trans women, migrants, or other BIPOC at the intersections of multiple oppressions.
Oppression isn’t equal. Until we recognise that, those who name these disparities will continue to be treated as a threat, rather than as truth-tellers. Justice isn’t about flattening oppression, it’s about dismantling the systems that target the most vulnerable first.
OUT: Bad BIPOC.
IN: Unconditional inclusion.
When BIPOC enter white-led spaces, we’re expected to feel lucky just to be there. But if we’re “too Black,” too bold, or push for systemic change, we’re seen as aggressive or ungrateful.We get micromanaged—even on our own issues—and if we walk away, we’re easily replaced.
Inclusion that punishes authenticity isn’t inclusion. We’re not here to behave—we’re here to lead and disrupt.
Reminders
- Not every BIPOC person is an anti-racism expert, nor should they be burdened with the responsibility of guiding you through this work. Engage only with those who choose to do this labor and are willing to lead — not just to educate you
- The right is more organised in its oppression than we are in our liberation, and part of the reason is that our struggles are still treated as separate.
- Oppression isn’t just institutional; it starts from within. It’s easy to blame governments and policies, but the truth is, many of the same exclusionary practices exist within our own movements and communities.
This article was written by IGLYO Board Chair and Anti-Racism Panel Coordinator Yassine Chagh (They/He).
