BREATH TAKING RACIAL INJUSTICE AT THE WORLD BANK AGAINST BLACKS

Few days ago, I stumbled upon a publication talking about racial injustice at the World Bank and I thought it wise to dig a little deeper to understand the crux of the matter.

However, what I found was beyond believe. It was heart breaking and out rightly demoralizing and i am forced to ask, is this how endemic racial injustice takes place at the World Bank?

President of Hosea Initiative, Terry Beatley wrote an open letter to the new Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, calling on the youngest African leader to use his good office to seek African Union (AU) intervention in the case of one Dr. Yonas Biru an Ethiopian citizen, racially violated beyond human comprehension at the World Bank.

In the letter, Terry brought together all relevant facts and evidences to back up the need for action at Africa’s continental highest body.

ABOUT THE VICTIM
Dr. Biru was the former Deputy Global Manager of the World Bank’s International Comparison Programme (ICP). According to the World Bank, the ICP is the “largest and most complex” international economic comparison programme in the world.
The World Bank’s official record shows that Dr. Biru was credited for “overhauling the ICP from the brink of collapse.”

He was commended for “managing one of the most critical programmes the Bank has ever managed.” He was also credited for “managing and bringing to fruition, important methodological innovations in critical areas that have created a lasting-legacy” and for “broadening the global partnership” for ICP.

The World Bank summed up Dr Biru’s leadership and management role, stating: “The Bank’s role in managing the ICP is extremely important and high profile with many international partners involved in the work on day-to-day basis.

Yonas’ work in managing sensitive relationships between stakeholders is very impressive. The Programme just couldn’t be successful without his expertise and knowledge of key players.”

HOW THE PROBLEM STARTED
The problem started when Dr. Biru applied to become the Global Manager of ICP. As documented in numerous independent reports, including United States Senator Chris Van Hollen’s 73-page report, the World Bank told the African, “Europeans are not used to seeing a black man in a position of power.” A confidential document marked Dr. Biru “will not get a copy or see it” revealed the culprits were the European Union, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Monetary Fund.

BRAZEN ACT OF RACIAL INJUSTICE AND CRIMINALITY
In a brazen act of racism, the World Bank disqualified Dr. Biru from becoming Global Manager by retroactively downgrading his official personnel record. Senator Van ’s report provided hard evidence including copies of “Dr. Biru’s original performance record, the redacted version, as well as a list of the damaging citation that remain on the Bank’s website that contradicts Dr. Biru’s official performance record.”

The explanation for the criminal act was more dehumanising than the act itself. As documented in the Government Accountability Project’s (GAP’s) independent report, the World Bank “regretted” giving him an “overinflated” performance rating because “it had the unintended consequence of feeding into his megalomaniacal view of his performance and the resultant sense of entitlement to the Global Manager position.” An African applying to be Global Manager was regarded as megalomaniac in the World Bank’s written legal defence.

This is not all. The Hill (one of the prominent conservative newspapers in the United States), in 2017, affirmed that Dr. Biru was “disenfranchised of his hard-earned professional credentials because the World Bank deemed his record too good to be true for a black man.”

BEYOND THE NATURAL CAPABILITY OF A BLACK MAN
A liberal civil rights leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson, in 2018, independently confirmed that the World Bank stripped Dr. Biru of his professional accomplishments, declaring his record “beyond the natural capability of a black man.”

The World Bank’s own official diversity report characterised the case as a “blatant and virulent case of racism.” The Bank’s Senior Advisor for Racial Equality condemned it as being “profoundly beyond the pale.” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim shrugged all voices of reasons and justice and retreated behind the veil of its immunity from lawsuits.

U.S CONGRESS FUTILE INTERVENTION
As Breitbart News (America’s most conservative newspaper) reported, Dr. Biru’s “case prompted the US Congress to pass a law.” However, the World Bank ignored the US law and has still refused to redress the injustice, hiding behind the curtains of its sovereign immunity status.

The Bank’s inexplicable stance that Dr. Biru’s record is “beyond the natural capability of a Black man” is an insult to the human race and represents an affront to [more than] one billion sub-Saharan Africans both in continental Africa and around the globe.

“Americans from Senators to Cabinet members, and from religious leaders to iconic civil rights advocates, have stood up for Dr Biru.

Most Americans have no doubt that if they travelled or lived in Africa and were disenfranchised of their lifelong professional accomplishments because of their Caucasian race, their government would speak up for them, rather forcefully and indignantly and this is why people who came across his matter were speaking for him in America.

WHY AFRICAN UNION MUST DEFEND AFRICANS
However, the seriousness of the matter demands a more radical step of involving the African Union because this is not an isolated case. It reflects the Bank’s endemic and historic culture of racism against sub-Saharan Africans. Here are some highlights:

A 1998 World Bank Memorandum documented: “A World Bank report revealed cultural prejudice among some managers, who rated sub-Saharan Africans ‘unsophisticated and inferior.’”

A 2003 official World Bank report titled “Enhancing Inclusion at the World Bank, World Bank Report”, took note: “Blacks are told they can only work in the Africa region because they can be more competitive there and [some nationals] do not want to work with Blacks.”

A 2015, official World Bank diversity report acknowledged black staff members “referred to their assignment as kind of apartheid”