In a recent article (link below) I wrote with Daniel Singh for Grantmakers in the Arts' journal "The Reader" I shared this schematic I've been working on below. The intent of the image is to support a conversation that since U.S. nonprofits are a system designed to reproduce the (White) capital class and the State and these entities are co-constructed with the exploitation, oppression and premature death of African/Black, Indigenous, Asian, in the U.S. and around the world, anyone and particularly Black people, engaging racism as a radical problem i.e. a problem that fundamentally implicates capital and the State will almost immediately feel employment/contract/grant threatening levels of tension. As a result, the only way to have any chance of maintaining employment, etc. is to engage racism as a root problem (the national/race, class and gender relations are the crux of the matter) and then lower the tension and engage it as a reform problem (the capacity, skills, knowledge of the ppl is the crux of the matter). In other words, to engage in this cycle of antiracist (radical) and racist (reform) practice.
I think you'll agree that most of what we see is simply racist work intended to reproduce capital and the state through DEI work that is essentially offering BIPOC and other identity capitalism (entrepreneurship, skill development, target grant pools) as the solution to problems that are really just symptoms of the social relationships. I offer the model below as a way to disrupt our/my own participation in racism and continue to study/resist White capital while at work. However, the contradictions abound and since we are immediately disobeying as soon as we frame the redistribution of land, money and authority to BIPOC ppl, particularly working-class BIPOC ppl, in antiracist terms this can lead to the "canceling" noted above or reframing of the work in reform ways from White settler and/or BIPOC management.
As our article touches on, in this particular case, Daniel's employment is threatened and I ended the consulting contract (I was a subcontractor to a predominantly White main contractor) because there just was not agreement to prioritize antiracism. My learning was that I have to work with folks to better politically map the environment, and the work will be strongest if led by folks outside, i.e., working artists/broader BIPOC communities. To be clear, this group will face the same set of consequences, so participating in the broader radical Black liberation movement (this is the pressure from below on the diagram) is our best option, although we know this will face repression as well. The good news is that BIPOC artist organizing was taking place early in my time in Nashville and continues today under the leadership of Arts Equity Nashville and Daniel's section explains it and who to contact.
https://lnkd.in/em5jMaWx
