The last decade has seen an unmistakable rise of new forms of (primarily) online activism driven by the social justice commitments of younger generations, facilitated by social media and new technologies, highlighting and tackling entrenched forms of inequality and discrimination. The rise of such broad-based movements as #BlackLivesMatter or #Metoo (from 2013 and 2017, respectively) has been augmented by more specific initiatives in relation to race and racism. Of particular note has been the Rhodes Must Fall campaign at the University of Oxford and elsewhere, as well as wider calls to decolonise university curricula (Why is My Curriculum White?), usually targeted at specific disciplinary areas; indeed, these have had echoes outside of academia, such as the recent Twitter campaign #CharitySoWhite. Of course, this cannot fail to have influenced particular academic disciplines and Social Policy is not alone in urgently needing to come to terms with this challenge. The Royal Historical Society established an inquiry into racial and ethnic inequalities in the teaching and practice of History in the UK, resulting in its landmark ‘Race, ethnicity & equality report’ in late 2018 (RHS, 2018). Although this wider context has undoubtedly influenced the Social Policy Association (SPA) in its thinking on the topic, a more direct challenge was the difficulty in establishing a diverse sub-panel in the lead-up to Research Excellence Framework 2021 (REF2021). There was a notable absence of black and minority ethnic (BAME) academics coming forward and being endorsed for panel membership, as well as a shortage of academics with a central focus on race and ethnicity. It was also recognised that race and ethnicity were relatively absent from conferences and journals, and that SPA membership does not exactly model ethnic and other forms of diversity. Thus, as the beginning of a response, in 2018, the SPA commissioned an independent audit of the position of ‘race’ and ethnicity in Social Policy. The resulting report recognises various areas where teaching and learning in Social Policy could be diversified, as well as the role of the SPA in supporting a higher profile for journal articles, research and curriculum development (Craig et al, 2019). Of course, in many ways, this is only the start of the conversation.