Black representation charity defends discrimination claim against intern scheme

[IwantToRetire]

A charity is defending itself against a legal claim that its flagship intern programme for Black students discriminates against white applicants.
Rebecca Ajulu-Bushell, chief executive of the 10,000 Interns Foundation, told Civil Society that her charity had filed a legal defence against a suit brought by commentator Sophie Corcoran.

Corcoran, also an influencer who has appeared on GB News, took legal action against the charity and the Bar Council after claiming she was rejected from a programme for aspiring lawyers aimed at Black people.

Her suit asserts that she faced a loss of employment opportunity since she is white, and was subject to discrimination under the Equality Act

Article continues https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/black-representation-charity-defends-discrimination-claim-against-intern-scheme.html

I thought positive action was allowed up the EA?

Although I see from the Guardian who first wrote about this that they are implying its a political stunt by an influencer, GB News presenter https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/apr/29/sophie-corcoran-gb-news-sue-charity-not-offering-internships-white-people-legal-action

The equality act does encourage positive action as long as the organisation can make the case that the specific group they are targeting is underrepresented. I think though they would only be able to enact that if they can prove a black candidate was 'as qualified as' this woman and then they would be justified in taking a black candidate over a white one.

Somehow though, I don't think this influencer really wanted the job!

It might be a stunt but it's designed to show the racism behind the anti-racism, if it were a case of Whites only it would be obvious to see but for some reason Blacks only it isn't.
It's a tricky area, Woman only spaces, such as rape centres could come under the same scrutiny, for the same reasons, discrimination, we know there's a need for men to be excluded from single sex spaces (although for some reason the simplicity of it escapes so many people), is there the same justification for Black only spaces.
For an ideology that like to claim to be so inclusive it divides people like no other.

Women only spaces isn’t an accurate parallel. It’s more akin to women-only shortlists, women-only leadership schemes, guaranteeing a minimum number of women on company boards etc. All of which have been either accessed or threatened to be impacted by transwomen. They are there to address underrepresentation and many of us have argued that transwomen should never be included. Turns out we should have been arguing to get rid of them. Who knew?

(Many men in the Labour Party were quite happy for transwomen to be on AWS because they resented the fact women had them in the first place, so saw no need to protect them)

is there the same justification for Black only spaces

Of course there is justification for intern programmes for Black students only. The Equality Act allows positive discrimination where necessary and I very much doubt that Black people as a class suddenly have equal opportunities of advancement across a range of careers that they have historically been under-represented in.

I'd hope that there were also intern schemes to advance people from low socio-economic backgrounds, since they are clearly under-represented in a range of careers. But this doesn't undercut the needs for other types of positive discrimination

What???? It is not a Black only space, it is a charity working to reduce inequality.

Mr organisation participates in this scheme. We work in the creative industries and part of our remit is to broaden participation. Ethnic minorities are massively underrepresented in the arts and humanities. We also participate in other schemes which target lower socio economic groups, but these are far more challenging. Not least because there is a reluctance to sign up for something which signals you as “poor”.

i will say that the interns we work with through the 10.000 interns scheme are of a really really high caliber and largely come from very good universities and middle class backgrounds.

I hope Corcoran loses her case.

I have no idea about the legal technicalities of this, but you've really got to wonder what kind of sick individual launches a legal challenge against a charity that seeks to tackle racial inequality by offering internship opportunities to young black people.

Yes, that too. I don't understand, @TropicalRain , why you are comparing this intern programme with rape centres etc rather than similar attempts to support women's career networking/progression??? Both Black-only and women-only measures seem clearly helpful in principle -- and of course in order to comply with equality law they need (in both cases) to be able to demonstrate the underlying need, proportionality, etc in the specific parameters of their operation.

Why are you bringing up rape centres and women-only or black-only spaces, when this is a charity designed to create networking opportunities for black people via internships?? I've read both of the articles linked and it's nothing like what you say.

It's actually no different to the plethora of charities and groups for women and girls seeking employment opportunities in traditionally male sectors such as STEM for example, these groups which are also under threat by men who say they're women. Corcoran is cut from a similar cloth as the aggressive, greedy male transactivists in my opinion.

When I was doing my degree in the early 2000s, we were once all sat down in a lecture room ready for action and a man came onto the little stage and told all the White people to leave the room. The BBC were there, and only Black people were allowed to hear what they had to say.

Bearing in mind, I was at that stage in my early 30s, was doing a full time hours job around going to uni one morning, one afternoon and one evening a week so I'd taken an actual morning off to attend, thus costing me actual work hours, in a job that I needed to keep a roof over my head. I put myself through university; I got not one penny of a grant or a loan and had to wait til I was in my late 20s to even afford that.

The White people were told to wait in the cafe. What for I do not know as all that happened was the Black people came out, and were told never to tell us what the BBC said to them.

It’s an interesting legal question. I don’t doubt the honourable intentions and desirable outcomes of the scheme and I hope they can justify their work.

There is a difference between positive action (legal) and positive discrimination (illegal in the UK) so I guess it might hang on where this falls.

Oooh the BBC did a secret talk to some black people and none of them ever told a white person what happened in there?! That sounds highly suspicious..🥴

No doubt the BBC were briefing them all on a secret plot to enable black people to take over the world.

What happened to mixed race students? Were they told to grab a coffee in the cafe while the most secrety secret part went on, then join later? Or maybe stand in the corridor between the cafe and lecture theatre so they could hear the secret, but not very well?

The above is a clear attempt to use Maga tactics to dismantle any and all equality initiatives

Absolutely no idea where they went, assume they stayed.

Hang on, I thought lived experience was a thing?

Who knows. Just sharing an experience of mine.

Unfortunately Sophie Corcoran is a grifter. A young woman who is selling her image for publicity at any price.

Unfortunately that experience of being excluded for no reason other than your skin colour happens to non-white people very frequently.

Now you know how annoying and humiliating and discouraging and time-wasting it is.

Of course it's 'a thing'. But whether it's a thing that adds anything useful to an understanding of another thing, typically depends on whether it contributes an example to a bunch of similar examples to demonstrate a pattern of a thing.
My lived experience might be of knowing a TW who insists they are male and that they should under no circumstances use women's spaces, for example. That would undoubtedly be a thing. But would it be a thing that changed anything about the wider understanding of the overall thing?

No, it doesn’t sound suspicious, it sounds really fucking annoying, and not likely to improve understanding and support between people with different ethnic backgrounds

Being annoyed about something that happened 20 odd years ago is probably a waste of energy.

The company I previously worked for opened a scheme for managerial training roles. BAME colleagues only may apply which caused some outrage, much of it from the BAME colleagues who would rather be selected on merit than ethnicity