I was raised to fight for justice for me and my community. My parents, Mike Allen and Karla Taylor were my first examples of freedom fighters and remain fierce activists to this day. We do not sleep on disrespect and that’s why I won’t be quiet! They also taught me and my Brother Din Allen the value and role of trust in community movements.
There have been so many people including, family, colleagues and newly found friends who have reached out to affirm my experience at Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter by sharing their own experiences of racial oppression or simply by letting me know how their racial justice activism has been ignited. This has been a gift and an affirmation that this is the road for me. And I couldn’t be more grateful to be joined by the most beautiful co-conspirators, the OGs and the newbies.
I believe trust is a commodity and it has a serious function in racial justice activism. One of the core elements of trust is integrity, which for me includes transparency. This is why I share here along with my Brother Mide Akerewusi, the letter that we jointly wrote to AFP-GTA in response to their apology statement of April 12, 2023 and regarding its subsequent removal from their website yesterday.
We are only getting started. Our struggle continues! We can’t stop, we won’t stop.
“And still I urge you to struggle. Struggle for the memory of your ancestors. Struggle for wisdom. Struggle for the warmth of The Mecca. Struggle for your grandmother and grandfather, for your name. But do not struggle for the Dreamers. Hope for them. Pray for them, if you are so moved. But do not pin your struggle on their conversion. The Dreamers will have to learn to struggle themselves, to understand that the field for their Dream, the stage where they have painted themselves white, is the deathbed of us all.”
― Ta-Nehesi Coates
Birgit Smith Burton, Nicole Salmon, Christal M. Cherry, Camila Pereira, PhD, Múthoní Karíukí HBSc, MPNL, CFRE, Stephen Hinds, MA, CPHR, CHRL, ACC, COC, Rickesh Lakhani, Cathy Barrick (she/her/hers), Scott Russell, Esther Saehyun Lee, MA, Elizabeth LeClair, Mazarine Treyz, Julie Berthoud-Jury, Nicole Jamrozinski
