Learning to be an antiracist

Those of us who have been around for awhile and who have always been committed to racial equity know that the work has changed over the years. The 80s and 90s were an era of melting pots, tolerance and multiculturism. We talked a little bit about dominant culture, but this word, “antiracism” was never part of our vocabulary. How do we learn what this means and integrate it into our lives? I write this as a non-Black person of color and the executive director of a nonprofit, as I explore my own obligations to fight anti-Black racism.

The nonprofit sector, like many sectors in a country founded on a racist economic system and legal code, has a particularly sordid history that further adds to the complexity. The first charitable foundations were set up as tax havens over 100 years ago by the wealthy robber baron class, who could then dictate, through their foundation structure, how their tax-free earnings were used to protect their own interests. 

In one vivid example, one wealthy family used foundation dollars to give small relief packages to exploited, underpaid workers as “charitable” gifts so they would no longer feel the need to unionize, which was seen as the gravest threat to the wealth of millionaires. When congress got a whiff of this extraordinary power and started to try to regulate foundations, nonprofit organizations were developed to act as the middle men and distance the foundations from their self-serving agendas.

Essentially, as leaders of nonprofits, we must face the reality that our sector has often been used as a bandaid and a distraction. If folks are just comfortable enough, have just enough food, have at least some kind of roof over their heads, then we can keep them exhausted but satiated enough to avoid demands for true structural change. And, that, of course, is one way that nonprofits have enabled structural racism for decades.

To be antiracist, I’m learning, isn’t simply holding racial equity as a value. It’s to actively examine and dismantle the practices that increase racial inequality in this country. Our motives don’t matter if the outcome is still greater racial inequality — racism is then still embedded in our systems. You’ll see our first attempt at that work on page 5 and throughout this issue.

Of course, we are still in the midst of a raging global pandemic and are arguably in worse shape than we were during the initial shutdowns. The fact that this pandemic is impacting Black and Latino communities so disproportionately heightens the urgency of the antiracist movement. We will soon provide opportunities for engagement. Stay tuned, wear a mask if you can and take care of yourselves.