|
21 Signs You
or Your Organization May Be the White Moderate Dr. King Warned About
Posted on January 17, 2021 by Vu
This
week we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose
teachings have often been beacons of light for our sector. As we transition
into something resembling hope and renewal with this incoming presidential
administration, I encourage us to reflect on the words Dr. King wrote in
his Letter from a Birmingham Jail,
where he warned of the “white moderate” being the biggest barrier toward
social justice. He said:
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been
gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the
regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride
toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner,
but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who
prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace
which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in
the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’;
who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s
freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises
the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from
people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from
people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than
outright rejection.”
I
had written about this earlier, quoting the
same passage, but I think it’s important we explore it further. Regrettably,
nonprofit and philanthropy have in many ways become one giant white moderate
sector. It is filled with good people who want to advance justice and help
create an equitable society, yet we often get in our own way. We may have the
same dreams as MLK, but so many of our good intentions serve to further the
very injustice we claim to be fighting.
Here
are a few ways you or your organization or foundation may be perpetuating
this sort of well-meaning white moderation that’s preventing progress. This
list, aggregated from colleagues across the sector, is not comprehensive.
Also, all of us, including people of color, are prone to many of these
because this is what we have been taught. We all need to constantly examine
ourselves and make adjustments:
- You call for unity and for people to get along after
the violent white supremacist attack at the Capitol
- You steer away from publicly condemning white
supremacy, racism, fascism, etc. because that might affect your funding
- You center the feelings of white donors and avoid
anything that could make them uncomfortable
- You encourage people to be more “civil” or to use a
“respectful tone” when having conversations about race and other
challenging subjects
- You avoid anything that you think may be too
“political”
- You are more worried about affecting your org’s
reputation or upsetting team dynamics than you are at the inequity of
pay and power allocated to Black, Indigenous, women, LGBTQIA+, disabled
people, and other marginalized folks
- You strive to create “objective” processes for
grants, jobs, etc., believing that that would ensure those with the most
merit would be selected.
- You use white-people-determined standards such as
academic writing, formal credentials, “articulate” speech, and
“professional” personal appearance to judge people and organizations’ intelligence
and effectiveness, which often rewards white men and white-led orgs
- You believe it’s more important to hoard resources
for the future than to spend out more to effectively address current
injustice
- You avoid race to focus on class as the basis of so
much of the injustice in the world
- You make major decisions, such as grant selections,
on your timeline and what’s convenient for you or the rich people on
your board
- You support spending significant time and money to
find solutions when
marginalized communities have already told you the solutions multiple
times
- You help marginalized people and organizations survive and compete in
inequitable systems instead of working with them to dismantle those
systems
- You allow racist, sexist, white supremacist, and
other hateful views to have airtime for the sake of “diversity of
thoughts/perspectives” or “equal time”
- You dismiss people’s actions to advance social justice if they’re
not done through the “right” and “proper” channels
- You spend more energy comforting the privileged when
their privilege is challenged and they’re upset than you do to address the injustice
suffered by racialized and marginalized folks
- You prioritize costs over equity, for example going with the cheapest
vendors/contractors than intentionally hiring women- and BIPOC-owned
businesses
- You play “Devil’s
Advocate” when activists and organizers bring up solutions that may
actually lead to radical changes
- You say racialized and marginalized people complain
too much and that they don’t offer enough solutions
- You act on the belief that the potentially equitable
ends justify the inequitable means you may use to get there, for example
not paying interns or not providing disabled people fair wages
- You believe in radical changes in theory but you think people
should be pragmatic and incremental in their approach.
There’s plenty more.
Please
add in the comment section. And feel free to disagree. This week, and the
rest of 2021, it’s not good enough just to post inspiring quotes by MLK.
We
all need to reexamine our actions to see which ones align with equity and
justice, and fix the stuff we do that don’t.
FacebookTwitterLinkedInPinterest16Tumblr 16
Posted
in nonprofit field, Race, Equity, Diversity, InclusionTagged equity, Martin Luther King Jr., MLK, MLK
Jr., nonprofit, white
moderate
|