Reflections from Hull Sisters
Racism is not simply an individual act of prejudice or an isolated incident of discrimination. It is a deeply rooted system of power that destroys lives, fractures families, shatters confidence, and leaves lasting scars on a person’s identity and sense of worth. For many of us, racism creates an internal struggle that never fully rests-a constant questioning of one’s humanity, competence, and belonging. It forces people to ask themselves repeatedly, “What have I done wrong?” even when they have done nothing at all.
Racism limits personal development, blocks opportunities, and slows progress in ways that are often invisible to those who do not experience it. Its impact is not only emotional but also physical and psychological. Stress, anxiety, depression, loss of confidence, and chronic fear are common outcomes. Over time, racism affects how people work, how they interact with institutions, and how much trust they place in systems that are supposed to protect and support them.
For Hull Sisters, racism is not an abstract concept. It is a daily reality that shapes the lives of our clients and the work we do. Our organisation occupies a unique position: we support women who face racism, yet we also experience racism ourselves as a grassroots, minority‑led women’s organisation. This dual experience gives us a deep understanding of the pain, humiliation, and injustice our clients endure. We do not simply empathise—we share their struggle.
A Shared Experience between Hull Sisters and Our Clients
Hull Sisters has a unique and deeply connected relationship with its service users when it comes to racism.
On one hand, we support women and families who are facing racism in their daily lives, at work, in schools, in housing, within health services, and in interactions with the police and other authorities.
On the other hand, Hull Sisters itself has been a victim of racism at an institutional and structural level.
This shared experience allows us to understand our clients in a way that goes beyond professional training or policy frameworks.
We do not only listen to their pain; we recognise it because we have lived it ourselves.
We understand the fear, the hesitation, and the exhaustion that comes with challenging racism, particularly when it comes from people or institutions that hold power.
Hull Sisters supports clients at every step of their journey.
We encourage them to report racist incidents to the police when appropriate.
If racism occurs within government departments, local authorities, or public services, we support women and make efforts not only to break down barriers but also to submit formal complaints through the appropriate processes.
When children experience racism in schools, especially when black and minority pupils are not believed or taken seriously in incidents involving white students, we stand beside families and advocate on their behalf.
However, many people from minority communities do not report racism at all.
Years of being ignored, dismissed, or treated unfairly have taught them that speaking up often comes with risks and rarely brings justice.
Fear of retaliation, fear of not being believed, and fear of further discrimination silence many voices.
Hull Sisters believes that racism coming from positions of power such as institutions, government departments, funders, and educated professionals is far more damaging and long-lasting than racism from an individual on the street.
When racism is embedded in systems, it becomes harder to challenge and easier to deny.
This may be one of the reasons racism has spread so deeply within society.
Experiencing Institutional Racism as an Organisation
Hull Sisters and its board members have been pressurised to work in isolation, much like our clients. Throughout our journey, we were repeatedly made to feel that we were “lesser than” our white counterparts, regardless of our impact, professionalism, or dedication and commitment. We were treated as outsiders and strangers and people who are not worthy.
When we were evicted from our building, we were denied support until we launched a campaign and national organisations became involved. In one particularly disturbing example, two local funders went as far as suggesting changes to our board. A representative from a national organisation, who was coordinating between Hull Sisters and the council regarding a building, contacted one of these funders. During that conversation, the funder’s CEO clearly stated that if our CEO were demoted and replaced, and if other board members were replaced with white board members, Hull Sisters would receive guaranteed annual funding and support with council matters. Otherwise, both funders would withhold funding.
For 13 years, Hull Sisters has been a low priority for funding, receiving either no funding or extremely limited funding in the local area. Funding was not only restricted for us, but rumours were also spread to discourage other funders from supporting us. Funding offers were withdrawn from us without any reason. When funding was given, it came with harsh terms and conditions, as well as additional scrutiny and monitoring. This experience was not only financially damaging but also emotionally devastating. It communicated a clear message: our leadership, our identity, and our independence were not acceptable unless they aligned with white power structures.
The worst situation occurred when we were evicted from our building, and it took us one and a half years to secure an abandoned building with a very limited annual budget, especially to cover bills, council tax, and repairs. We had no chairs or tables, and for one month we delivered sessions on the floor. Our morale was high, the women were united, and they were happy that at least they had a roof over their heads.
In another example, a councillor openly told our board member during a meeting that because she was white and local, she would get a building for her supported charitable work. This direct and plain statement clearly showed that as a white British person, one had priority over others. This was said without hesitation, apology, or shame.
When we were evicted from our building, instead of being supported by services, a carefully planned campaign was raised against us and our efforts. Women’s organisations predominantly working with white women turned away from us, and we were left caught between “their” and “ours” problems. Our issues were pushed aside, and we were told that these were not ‘their’ problems, which completely classed us as outsiders. Groups were formed and instructed to keep their distance from us. Services were told not to believe us. Some religious groups, to this day, discourage women from engaging with us and have labelled us “family breakers.”
Racism Within the Charity and Voluntary Sector
Racism within the voluntary and charity sector is rarely loud or obvious. It is often hidden behind polite language, bureaucratic procedures, and so-called “professional concerns.” Discrimination does not usually appear openly; instead, it works quietly through unequal scrutiny, double standards, and selective support.
Several services expressed an interest in working with us, but only to access our statistics and our clients, without offering any meaningful support to the organisation itself. We were excluded from strategic meetings to mute our voices, and when we were invited, our contributions were treated as unimportant. Our work with different organisations brought unique challenges; organisations that claimed to support our clients later denied working with us in meetings, erasing our role and our impact.
Despite having more than 80 local, regional, and national media reports including ITV, BBC, Hull Daily Mail, Channel 4 News, Grazia, and Stylist covering live case studies of our women experiencing domestic violence, abuse, mental health challenges, racism, and severe financial hardship, we have still been deprived of the most basic resources. Public recognition did not translate into institutional support. Our visibility did not lead to security.
Barriers were deliberately placed in our way to stop our progress. Our referrals were ignored. We were removed from our clients best interest meeting in the middle of the online meetings without any reason. Rumours were spread about our Governance so that people and services began to judge us before ever speaking to us. Misleading information was shared with funders and partner organisations. Our reports, our concerns, and our repeated calls for help were dismissed. Different tactics were used to silence our voices and weaken our credibility.
This did not happen only at a local level. Regional and national funders were also influenced to withdraw or withhold support. At the same time, new community groups and alliances were created, funded, and resourced often duplicating work that we were already doing while we were deliberately kept deprived.
This pattern shows how racism operates within systems of power: not through open hostility, but through exclusion, erasure, and denial of opportunity. It ensures that Black and minority-led organisations remain under-resourced, over-scrutinised, and unheard, even while doing the most difficult and essential work in their communities.
One trustee from a charitable trust visited Hull Sisters and initially showed strong interest in our work. She praised our services and spoke about wanting to support us. In that moment, we felt seen. We felt valued.
However, after meeting with local services, her attitude towards us changed completely. On later visits, she no longer came to understand or strengthen our work. Instead, she arrived looking for faults, describing our work as “duplication,” without recognising that we are the only organisation in the area run by and for Black and minority women.
Following her visits, several unannounced inspections were carried out by different departments, despite the fact that we operate from a council-owned building. No problems were found, yet the scrutiny did not stop. A local councillor even contacted the safeguarding team with false information, claiming that a child had been injured outside our building. No evidence was found. No incident had taken place.
This pattern mirrored the behaviour of the trustee herself: creating pressure, questioning our legitimacy, and generating additional work for us instead of supporting us to make the building safe and suitable for the women who depend on it. The repeated focus on our building and procedures felt less like genuine safeguarding and more like suspicion as though our very existence required constant justification.
What we experienced was not concern; it was control. It was not partnership; it was surveillance. And it was not equality; it was the quiet, exhausting reality of racism operating through power and authority.
She later told us that she had collected £2,000 from her trust for Hull Sisters and described this as a “large amount.” The way this was said made it clear that we were expected to prove ourselves more than others that a small amount of funding for a Black and minority-led organisation required extraordinary justification and excessive monitoring, even though we support over 2,500 women from marginalised backgrounds every year.
During a discussion about a community event where food had been provided to a large number of women through a recognised catering service, her reaction was one of visible anger and disbelief. She questioned whether Hull Sisters was even allowed to provide food, whether the food had been checked, and whether inspectors had visited the catering service. These questions were not asked with care or protection in mind; they were asked with doubt and mistrust, as if wrongdoing was assumed simply because of who we are.
We asked one direct and necessary question:
“Would these questions be asked if we were a white-led organisation?”
She left without giving the promised donation. Instead, Hull Sisters was later offered old computers as a replacement. This felt deeply insulting. It reduced our work, our women, and our dignity to discarded equipment. Because of the disrespect shown, we declined. When we formally complained to her trust, our concerns were dismissed. Shortly afterwards, the trustee resigned from her role.
These experiences reveal how racism operates through power even inside organisations that claim to stand for equality, human rights, and social justice. It does not always shout. It quietly questions. It delays. It withdraws support. And it leaves Black and minority-led organisations fighting not only for resources, but for basic respect and belief.
Hull Sisters is the only grassroots organisation in the region working directly with Black and minority women supporting them, empowering them, educating them about their rights, and amplifying their voices. Our work is rooted in lived experience. In contrast, many larger organisations operate at a distance, relying mainly on referrals and remaining disconnected from the daily realities of the women they claim to serve. Yet it is often these larger, white-led organisations that receive consistent funding, public recognition, and institutional support.
A particularly troubling practice within the voluntary sector in Hull and the East Riding is the creation of so-called “bubble organisations.” When funders are unwilling to support established, women-led migrant organisations, they instead create new organisations or launch parallel services inside existing mainstream organisations duplicating work that is already being done by grassroots groups. These new services often begin as mixed-gender projects with little understanding of women’s rights or trauma. They are later rebranded as women-focused initiatives and promoted with substantial funding, publicity, and official backing.
In many cases, these organisations are temporary and fragile. When funding ends, they disappear or return to their original purpose, leaving women without consistent or specialist support. Meanwhile, long-standing grassroots organisations with proven impact particularly those led by Black and minority women remain underfunded, heavily scrutinised, and pushed to the margins.
This pattern reflects a deeper, structural racism within the charity and voluntary sector. Power, credibility, and resources are repeatedly taken away from Black and minority-led organisations and redirected toward those that fit more comfortably within existing white power structures. Our experience is not an exception; it is part of a system that continues to silence, doubt, and undermine the very organisations closest to the communities in need.
The Impact of Racism on Victims of Domestic Violence
Racism has particularly devastating consequences for women experiencing domestic violence. When women from minority backgrounds face racism from police, social services, courts, housing providers, and support organisations, their trust in these systems is severely damaged.
Many survivors already struggle with fear, shame, and isolation due to abuse. When racism is added to this experience, it creates another powerful barrier. Women begin to believe that they will not be believed, that their concerns will be minimised, or that they will be blamed for their situation. Some fear that reporting abuse will expose them to immigration issues, child removal, or further discrimination.
As a result, many women stay silent. They remain with violent partners not because they lack strength, but because they lack safe and trustworthy systems. Racism teaches them that seeking help may bring more harm than protection.
For these women, racism does not just deny justice, it traps them in danger. Loss of trust in institutions means continued suffering behind closed doors. Confidence is eroded, self-worth is damaged, and the cycle of abuse continues.
Loss of Trust in Systems
Women who experience racism from police, social services, schools, or healthcare providers often lose confidence in these institutions. They begin to believe that:
- they will not be believed
- their suffering will be minimised
- their partner’s behaviour will be excused
- they will be blamed for the abuse
- reporting will make their situation worse
This fear keeps them silent. They continue to suffer at the hands of violent partners because the systems designed to protect them have already failed them in other ways.
Isolation and Continued Abuse
Racist treatment reinforces the abuser’s control. Many perpetrators tell their partners:
- “No one will help you.”
- “You’re not from here; they won’t believe you.”
- “If you go to the police, they’ll take the children.”
When women have already experienced racism from authorities, these threats feel real. Racism becomes a tool of abuse.
Psychological Harm
The combination of domestic violence and racism creates deep emotional wounds. Women internalise the message that they are less worthy, less protected, and less human. This damages their self‑esteem, their mental health, and their ability to rebuild their lives.
The Impact of Racism on Women’s Empowerment
Hull Sisters is the only grassroots organisation in the region working directly with minority women, educating them about their rights, building their confidence, and giving them a voice. Larger organisations often work only on a referral basis and do not engage with women at the community level.
Racism from institutions and people in power severely undermines the empowerment of minority women. When organisations like ours are blocked, side-lined, or pressured to change leadership, it directly harms the women who rely on us. It sends a message that their voices do not matter, that their advocates can be silenced, and that their struggles are not taken seriously.
Conclusion
Racism is not an individual problem; it is a structural failure rooted in power, privilege, and silence. The experiences of Hull Sisters and the women we support show that racism operates through institutions, funding systems, and decision-making processes that repeatedly marginalise minority women. When these systems fail, they do not only fail organisations like ours but they fail survivors, children, and entire communities.
For Hull Sisters, the fight against racism is both personal and professional. We stand with our clients because we understand their pain, and we face the same discrimination in our work. Racism from institutions, funders, and those in power does more than damage organisations; it directly endangers women who are already vulnerable. When survivors of domestic violence lose trust in the systems meant to protect them, they remain trapped with their abusers, suffering in silence.
Challenging racism requires honesty, accountability, and the courage to listen to uncomfortable truths. Until systems are genuinely fair and inclusive, minority women especially those experiencing domestic violence and abuse will continue to suffer in isolation.
Hull Sisters will continue to raise its voice, stand with its clients, and challenge racism wherever it exists. We will advocate for justice and empower women to reclaim their voices. But meaningful change demands that institutions confront their own biases and recognise the harm caused when minority women are treated as less deserving of safety, dignity, and equality. Silence has never protected the vulnerable, and justice cannot exist without equality
