Anti Racism
At Minga, we believe that structural racism goes beyond the United States and is the primary reason behind poverty in the Global South. The very same dynamics of racism and dehumanization also contribute to the impoverishment and exploitation of people of color in the United States, of minority groups around the world, and of the so-called Third World overall. This is why deaths from malnutrition result not from a lack of food but rather from the insistence that food should go only to those who can pay for it, not to those who need it. This is why the diseases of the poor, like tuberculosis, cholera, or dengue, remain underfunded and understudied.
That is why we do this work. Because no human is disposable. Because black, brown, and poor lives do matter. And centuries of colonization and global power dynamics have left numerous populations behind. We believe that the only way to undo racism is to fight back against each and every one of those inequities, not only through platitudes and hashtags, or even through education, introspection, and cultural change, but also through real material changes in people’s life conditions. Fighting racism means working to literally reverse health inequities by channeling resources to the poorest and most vulnerable, and engaging in advocacy efforts to ensure food, water, sanitation, education systems are designed with equity in mind. And above all it means building a world in which all communities—and all of their members—have the power to achieve health, to pursue development on their own terms, and to craft the futures they want.
Knowing that dismantling racism will not happen overnight, at Minga we are committing to sustained, intentional action and an ongoing process. If there are things we are doing that could be improved, we want to continually learn and be sure we are adjusting our lens to do so. We plan to provide transparent updates to how we are doing on each item and populate this page with resources from BIPOC on understanding how racism manifests abroad, and what we can do to decolonize foreign assistance.