It’s becoming more and more apparent that there is no longer a global consensus – particularly in the increasingly far-right-leaning West – on the basic human rights that we all thought we were guaranteed.
Freedom from discrimination? This week, the US Supreme Court legitimised race as a reason for immigration officials to search, detain and eventually deport those they suspect to be undocumented migrants. The right to dignity, expression, and equality? Burkina Faso just became the latest country to make it ‘illegal’ for people who identify as LGBTIQ to express themselves. In some countries with particularly extreme laws, even parenting a queer person is outlawed. And there seems to be a concerted effort by powerful, well-resourced European and American Christian non-profits to erase trans people – women especially – from public life both at home and overseas.
We are living through an extraordinary, historic deficit of collective compassion. For the Black Feminist Fund, an international philanthropic organisation founded in 2021, this is the time to get to work. The organisation believes that by giving money to Black feminist movements carrying out intersectional, social justice work around the world, we all benefit: women (including trans women), girls, marginalised demographics, poor people. All of us.
