Hello {{ first name | friends}},
So, it's 2026, and I'm reflecting on one of the toughest years yet for people engaged in anti-racism activism and DEI work.
Exceeded Expectations - And Not In A Good Way
We knew it was coming because 47 won another term in the US, and Reform got some parliamentary seats in the UK. In other parts of the world, right leaning parties made inroads and won elections. None of these were good signs for lefty, human-centred, anti-oppression types like me (well, like us, because if you're reading this newsletter you're almost certainly part of this group).
What we perhaps didn't foresee at the start was the pace of change. Sure, we had been tracking the changes that made it more likely that freedoms would be eroded. We witnessed it and called it out, and yet the daily, sometimes hourly, depredations left many of us overwhelmed and depressed. The move away from anything DEI and the will from those at the highest levels to scapegoat, blame and undermine the people who most need support showed us some of the worst of humanity. We saw even more of that in the willingness to ignore the genocides in Palestine, Sudan and Congo. (And don't even get me started on what's happening in Venezuela, and elsewhere.)
There was also a lot of fear brought on by the very real sanctions imposed and the uptick in violence against minoritised people in different parts of the world, and queer folx, especially trans folx, in the US. It seemed everywhere you turned people were being harmed. Then there were the catastrophic job losses in the US, mostly affecting Black women, but also others. And the deliberate actions to write Black folx out of the US story - it has felt very heavy.