The last time England, where I was born, beat Germany in a major soccer tournament was 1966. It’s taken 55 years for us, as a country, to process our doubts and overcome them.
What does England’s 2-0 victory over Germany on Tuesday have to teach us about the value of long-term doubt in overcoming underlying issues? And how might nonprofits and philanthropy reflect on it as we struggle to address long-standing issues in the way we do business?
Well. When Rahim Sterling scored on Tuesday I still couldn’t believe he’d done it. Harry Kane scored a second, and I texted my friends: “It is not beyond us, as a country, to lose the game despite being two-nil up against Germany and with just five minutes left to go.”
Doubts run deep. They affect whole countries. As Rory Smith at the New York Times writes:
The maudlin sense of imminent doom that infects England before every major tournament. The self-flagellation and the endemic doubt and the frenzied querying of every decision, no matter how minor: that all stems back to those defeats, to those days when England was so close and yet so far, when Germany stood for all that the country — or at least its soccer team — could not be.
And often, doubt can be paralyzing. I will probe a client’s doubts as a way of shaping our messaging together. Something I’m realizing, though, is that occasionally, the desire to act on a doubt can be counterproductive.
I say that because this week I’ve been attending a fascinating conference hosted by the Racial Equity Index. They posted a blog which begins by critiquing the race to ‘provide solutions’, particularly in the philanthropic space, to problems like racial equity.
The Racial Equity Index firmly rejects the rushed approach that international organisations are now practising — including the philanthropy sector — to (finally) ‘do something’ about the ‘problem’ of systemic racism within the global development sector. In our work, we have encountered many of these organisations and in this piece, include quotes from real conversations we have had with these groups as examples of white supremacy culture in action.
I won’t spoil the blog for you but would encourage you to read it. And you can still sign up for the rest of the conference, which runs through this Saturday, by clicking here. The point being: Doubts are sometimes a good thing. Conversely…
White supremacy culture can be identified by many characteristics including: Defensiveness, perfectionism, paternalism and a sense of urgency — a phenomenon that many organisations in global development are experiencing, given the long ignored calls for racial justice within the global development sector. Urgency from these ‘well-intentioned’ organisations comes in many different forms and is detrimental to meaningful progress.
In that context, strategic communication can sometimes be a bad thing. The desire to gloss over or spin a negative means we don’t get to its root cause. And back to the “football”, the first goal was all the sweeter because it overcame 55 years of doubt.
Soccer and racial equity. Strategic communications, and more. I do my best for you.
Meantime, if you’re in the U.S., have a great fourth of July weekend. 🇺🇸
I feel like I tried my best to cover all the ideological bases this week. But now I’m feeling some doubt about the coherence of my position. Instead of acting, though, I’m going to sit with it. And that is what we have learned today. 🪑
I appreciate you!
