The organisation Democracy in Colour is made of a core team of personalities who share decades of experience creating social changes. They are all volunteers hailing from various professional backgrounds such as communication, policy-design and implementation, trade unionists, etc.
For each person in the organisation racism is a very personal experience for themselves, their families and their friends. That is what led them to create Democracy in Colour, the first social justice organisation led by the communities that are the most affected.
"People of colour have been a convenient scapegoat for political con-artists, for merchants of fear for false prophets who want to tell people who are suffering under our economic and political system that has never been about them, that has never been designed to work for them."
Tim Lo Surdo is the founding director of Democracy in Colour. He is of Italian and Chinese ancestry and grew up hearing stories from his parents and the racism they experienced. He says this is the driving motivation around his involvement in the organisation.
"People of colour have been a convenient scapegoat for political con-artists, for merchants of fear for false prophets who want to tell people who are suffering under our economic and political system that has never been about them, that has never been designed to work for them," says Tim Lo Surdo.
Structural racism can be tackled by short and long term political as well as cultural strategies.
"We can start by fighting against the pervert form of politics that's taken rise in the last couple of years; a type of politics that seeks to 'weaponise' our differences," says Lo Surdo.
"A type of politics that is contingent on chronic fear that is contingent on convincing people who have been screwed over by our system that they've been screwed over not by the rules and the system of concentrated power that prioritizes profit over life, but that they have been screwed over by their neighbor that doesn't look like them."
