Elizabeth LeClairElizabeth LeClair(She/Her)
UPDATE 🔻 🔻 🔻
This post was reported to LinkedIn as SPAM along with three other of my posts. When people who commit acts of racism can’t win legally, they go after you in any other form possible.
I will repost over and over and over again. Defamation is a high standard to meet and demands you prove what I have said is a lie.
It’s the TRUTH.
🔺 🔺 🔺
Anti-racism requires us to be very specific. Specific in our apologies, specific in our actions, and specific in how we reflect upon the harm we have caused.
Last week, Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter issued a very non-specific, very hallow, and very unreflective apology to Nneka Allen, CFRE, COC, PCC, Mide Akerewusi, B.Sc., M.Sc. (Econ), CSR-P, CDEP., and Múthoní Karíukí HBSc, MPNL, CFRE for their experiences of anti-Black racism by the chapter.
Let’s be specific. They specifically kept it vague, they specifically hid it on their website buried beneath other content, and they specifically did not speak to their actions of repair.
I’ll be specific. On October 26, 2022, I met with Amy Pawluk (past chair), Sandra Sualim (incoming chair), and Rebecca Harris, M.A., CAE to discuss two issues of great concern leading up to AFP Congress. Jennifer Bernard CFRE sent her regrets, in spite of knowing I was flagging two very serious issues, including accusations of anti-Black racism.
I told Amy, Rebecca, and Sandra about these two serious concerns. One was a man who I had flagged in 2019 for serial sexual harassment at IFC conferences. The other was the issuing of an award to Caroline Riseboro who I knew was involved in these acts of anti-Black racism against my peers.
What were the specific results?
The man was immediately asked not to attend Congress.
The anti-Black racism? I was informed by Sandra Sualim that she nominated Caroline for the award, and that as far as she was concerned, what transpired was not anti-Black racism and that she could speak to that as a Black woman. I argued that her experience and how it landed for three others did not constitute nullifying the harm done. I told them all that this was an open wound that was festering, and if not dealt with it would continue to grow.
The specific result of that conversation? NOTHING.
These three women practiced white feminism. Protecting the interests of white women over protecting and repairing harm done to Black people.
So today, our collective is issuing this open letter to Mike Geiger, MBA, CPA and Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP Global) to revoke Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter 10 Star Chapter status.
Join us by sharing these posts and signing the petition: https://bit.ly/3L9C4Is
#afpicon#antiracism#whitefeminism#justice#racialdiscrimination#fundraising