I recently learned about the White Panthers. It was during a conversation with Nneka Allen, CFRE, COC, PCC where we were contemplating white folx fear of action. I had never heard of the White Panthers before, and likely, neither have you.
The White Panther Party were “white activists who supported the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary Black socialist movement.” During the 1960’s civil rights movement, this group of white anti-racist activists asked the Black Panther group how they could help combat anti-Black racism. In response, Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton said they could form their own organization.
The White Panthers protested alongside their Black counterparts for years. From the early 1960’s to the late 1970’s they marched and were arrested. They were willing to pay the price for mutual liberation. They put their white bodies and white lives on the line for a more just society.
The White Panthers suffered tremendous consequences for their actions. Ones that they gladly paid to advance the cause of civil rights in America. They were not just working on being “woke” and being seen to be allies, but were actively engaged in the mutual liberation of Black people in America.
They were actively anti-racist.
So Where are the hashtag#Fundraising Sector’s White Panthers?
Being actively anti-racist is something white folx in the hashtag#fundraising sector seem to be missing. Once again, when Black fundraising leaders step forward to declare their experience with anti-Black racism on the board of Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter, the sector went silent. For four years, Nneka Allen, CFRE, COC, PCC, Mide Akerewusi, B.Sc., M.Sc. (Econ), CSR-P, CDEP., and Múthoní Karíukí HBSc, MPNL, CFRE spoke to white colleagues and peers about the abuse they suffered. They boycotted AFP events, they wouldn’t speak at AFP chapter sessions, and no one bothered to really ask the question, “why?”
It took Nneka Allen, CFRE, COC, PCC cultivating a group of Co-Conspirators – people she could trust – to lift up her lecture Us and Them: What it Means to Belong. It took a collective of Black, Brown, and white anti-racism activists to finally break through the deafening sound of silence from our sector about this issue. And our work has come with some significant consequences, including a cease and desist letter (essentially legal threats and intimidation) lodged against Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP Global), Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter and AFP Foundation for Philanthropy- Canada.
The Co-Conspirators have also seen the consequences of these actions, and have witnessed the continued threats against Nneka, and Muthoni, and Mide. There are significant personal and professional consequences for speaking out. One cowardly person went as far as to create a fake “Concerned Fundraiser” email and emailed UBC to question Nneka’s Indigenous heritage. You could not make this up if you tried.
But what are the larger consequences for white folx in the sector?
Truthfully, there are very few.
The consequences for white folx are hurt feelings. Shame, disappointment, denial, anger. White people are very good at “feeling badly” about racism, but not very good at doing anything about it.
In 2021, actor Daniel Kaluuya noted “Blackness and racism are not synonyms, so when white people sit down and ask Black people how do you fix this racism thing? I ask them, why are you asking me?“
So I ask our sector – why are we asking Black fundraisers, Black fundraising leaders, Black non-profit professionals what we do to fix this racism thing?
White fundraising folx, what are you willing to DO to fight for collective liberation and joy? What are you going to DO to help our Black, Brown, Indigenous and other colleagues of colour? What roles are you going to give up? What power are you going to relinquish? What ways are you going to put your personal and professional self on the line to ensure those with power and privilege cannot continue to do harm?
In April, I attended the African American Development Officer Network conference where I had the distinct pleasure listening to Tene Traylor and Janelle Williams, PhD speak. What they ended their talk with was a mantra for all white folx to say its not good enough to just “say the thing” but we must “do the thing.”
So my white fundraising folx, what are we going to do?