AFP Canada Apology for Anti-Black Racism
The Board of Directors of AFP Canada sincerely regrets the anti-Black racism experienced by Nneka Allen, Mide Akerewusi and Múthoní Karíukí at the Greater Toronto chapter. We are deeply sorry for the profound harm caused to our colleagues Nneka, Mide and Múthoní.
We are keenly aware that this experience of anti-Black racism is not isolated and are deeply concerned about continued harms across our sector and association resulting from ongoing and systemic racism.
We acknowledge and are sorry that it has taken a year since the publication of Nneka Allen’s lecture “Us and Them: What it Really Means to Belong,” the two-part podcast by Agents C “Boards and Black Tokenism: What it Really Means to Belong,” for us to issue this apology as leaders in Canada. Given that we contributed to the apology issued by Mike Geiger, president and CEO of AFP Global on behalf the AFP membership and that it came from the highest level of AFP, we believed a statement or apology from AFP Canada would not help to repair the harm done and that we should instead focus on making changes in our work. We now understand that our silence has caused further harm, which we regret.
Going forward we are committed to continuing to apply the learnings so generously shared by our colleagues from their experience. We will make further changes both to how we work and what we do at AFP Canada, in service to creating a place of welcome and belonging for all AFP members across our country. We will continue to share this work through our website and stories in the AFP Daily in Canada.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors of AFP Canada
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