Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 15 - Race, racialisation, and coloniality in the humanitarian aid sector

Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024.
This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 15 – Race, racialisation, and coloniality in the humanitarian aid sector - contributed by Lata Narayanaswamy.

From the introduction
In this chapter I will elaborate on two key observations inspired by my own positionality both as a former development practitioner and a person of colour (PoC) academic/activist based in the UK/Global North, and both are inflected through the lenses of ‘impartiality and neutrality’. The first is that a manufactured distinction tends to be made in both discourse and practice between the delivery of humanitarian aid, which is about the immediacy of perceived need as a result of acute crisis, and longer-term (political) change processes that we might link to broader ‘development’ goals (see also Chapter 5 by Singh and Banerjee on Humanitarianism, development, and peace in this volume).
The concern this raises is that questions of inequalities – whether in relation to race, class, or gender – may be dismissed as beyond the remit of the humanitarian worker and/or agency (see also Chapter 16 by Roy on Humanitarian organisations as gendered organisations and Chapter 18 by Ward and Bian on Class matters in this volume). The second concern, following on directly from the first, is that given the urgency of the crisis context, principles of ‘neutrality’ and/or ‘impartiality’ on the part of the humanitarian aid worker become central to the delivery of this form of aid.
This (artificial) separation of designated ‘humanitarian’ action from the broader social, political, and economic context within which humanitarian aid is delivered raises questions about both the nature of this action but also who gets to be considered a ‘neutral’ actor in this space (see also Chapter 11 by Martí i Puig and Martín Álvarez on Political solidarity movements and humanitarianism and Chapter 12 by Vandevoordt on Subversive humanitarianism in this volume).
The key concern here is that perceptions of humanitarianism as a politically neutral form of intervention in crisis operate in context-free ways that can exacerbate inequalities and ultimately cause more harm than good. Moreover, that humanitarian actors may be understood as impartial, neutral, and ‘outside the fray’ is only possible on the presumption of a ‘white saviour’ as the default humanitarian actor; that is, only people who would be raced as ‘white’ could be seen to be acting outside of political, social or economic subjectivities, with a unique capacity to deliver aid in a crisis without ‘fear or favour’. Drawing on the work of Mills (1997) amongst others, this chapter will argue that the Global North has both centred and invisibilised (aspirational) whiteness as integral to the racial hierarchies prevalent in ‘aid’ chains and humanitarian work.

Note on contributor
Lata Narayanaswamy is Associate Professor in the Politics of Global Development, School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds, UK.
Since 2001, Lata has worked as a research practitioner, consultant, and now an academic, and her research and published work critically reflects on the gendered/intersectional and post/decolonial dynamics of development knowledge and its perceived contribution to addressing global development challenges. 

Overviews are already available for the following chapters:
Introduction: humanitarianism and inequality – a re-orientation

Humanitarianism and colonialism

Humanitarianism and the global Cold War, 1945–1991

Humanitarianism and the new wars: humanitarianism, security, and securitisation

Humanitarianism, development and peace: a southern perspective

Localisation and the humanitarian sector

Human rights and humanitarianism

Humanitarian organisations: behemoths and butterflies

Faith actors in humanitarianism: dynamics and inequalities

Diaspora assistance  

Political solidarity movements and humanitarianism: lessons from Catalonia, Spain (1975–2020)

Subversive humanitarianism

Citizen’s groups and grassroots humanitarianism

Humanitarianism and the military