After Woke

A record is only useful if it changes something

Keeping the receipts is the first half of the work. The second half is naming what a genuine repair looks like, so that the record cannot be used simply as a grievance.

Reversal is not repair

A policy quietly withdrawn is not the same as a policy acknowledged as wrong. The archive tracks both, and distinguishes between them, because the difference matters to the people who lived under it.

What we ask institutions for

  • An accurate account of what was decided, by whom, and on what evidence.
  • Public acknowledgement where a decision caused measurable harm.
  • Practical remedy where remedy is still possible: reinstatement, records cleared, fees returned.
  • A published process that makes the same failure less likely next time.

What we ask of ourselves

  • No pile-ons, no doxxing, no campaigns against individuals.
  • Publish the response of anyone named, in full, alongside the record.
  • Correct our own errors as visibly as we report anyone else’s.

These commitments are set out in full in the Never Again principles.