Draft 990
Our Story
A 30 minute exploration activity
The social sector, as it operates today, is not equipped to solve the pressing problems of Black America and Poor America
As valiant as their efforts are, we can no longer put the burden of ending poverty on the doorsteps of resource-strapped human services organizations. If we as citizens care about creating a society where everyone has access to opportunity, it’s time for us to be bold.
We can't continue to wait on incremental change
“A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.”
―
This is still America
The founding fathers built a system that prioritized White shareholders. They also built a system where Black people were three-fifths a person. This was done after centuries of genocide of indigenous peoples. This is America. We are all cogs in the system that the founding fathers designed for us.
Public pleas for change have consistently been ignored
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders was an 11-member Presidential Commission established by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes of the 1967 race riots in the United States and to provide recommendations for the future.
Their report, issued in March 1968, argued that the riots were caused in large part by poor neighborhood conditions and limited labor market options facing Black Americans as a consequence of racism and rampant discrimination in housing and labor markets. These factors underlay the development and maintenance of the northern black “ghettos”, where residents endured extreme segregation, limited housing choices, concentrated poverty, and poor schools (Kerner, 1968)
White backlash to the findings of this commission helped to lay the foundation for the law-and-order campaign that elected Richard Nixon to the presidency later that year. Instead of considering the full weight of white prejudice, Americans endorsed rhetoric that called for arming police officers like soldiers and cracking down on crime in inner cities.
This continues today.
We need a scalable solution, yesterday
The Kerner Commission report is a framework that can serve as a starting point to self-fund our efforts. Their recommendations embraced three basic principles:
- Mount programs on a scale equal to the dimension of the problems
- Aim these programs for high impact in the immediate future in order to close the gap between promise and performance;
- Undertake new initiatives and experiments that can change the system of failure and frustration that now dominates the ghetto and weakens our society.
Things will stay the same until we change our collective approach
Black America must diversify its approach by investing social and political capital in our own institutions. We cannot continue to rely solely on American systems still built to maintain the standards set during slavery.
The financial success of "the chosen few" in our village is not good enough
A privileged few may have enough money to shield themselves from systemic racism, but true freedom escapes all of us.
- Are our children free to play in the park with a toy gun like other Americans?
- Are we free to walk home at night with Skittles and an iced tea like other Americans?
- Are we free to speak our mind to a police officer like other Americans?
- Are we free to vote without having to deal with adverse circumstances?
- Are we free to protest for our human rights like other Americans?
- Are we free to breathe easy as we pass the police parked on the side of the highway?
You don’t search your entire life for something you already have. And we’ve been searching, and searching, and searching.
Money is needed to fund substantive change
“We have the courage in our ranks, we have the skill and capacity. We lack most desperately funds to organize and educate. To do a major job we need your help in this struggle for citizenship. Our common desire for Constitutional rights can be realized now if contributions reach us now.
Your investment in Negro suffrage will yield dividends in a vibrant democratic life for both Negro and White, Jew and Gentile. I hopefully await your supporting hand to launch to the next great surge forward.”
―
The social business market segment can transform our modern economy
Profit can fund change.
The Black America Foundation is the face of a social business ecosystem that intentionally centers the needs of Black America and is designed to create an environment for us to succeed through market-based, community-based, and advocacy based initiatives.
The Black America Foundation uplifts our community by fostering economic prosperity, addressing the root causes of criminal injustice, closing the Black-White health and wealth gap, eliminating external education barriers and doggedly fighting against our political and moral adversaries with unguarded honest candor while still promoting joy, love and happiness. The Black America Foundation pools funds from social investors around the world to create spaces and opportunities that promote and explore Black excellence.
Substantive change for Black lives is a balance of activism, fundraising, direct political advocacy, systems building, community organizing and media representation.
Impactful change requires intentional collaboration. Together, we can solve our complex problems
The Black America Foundation proactively partners with organizations already doing good work without intentionally duplicating efforts. No-one has all the necessary knowledge – No-one can sustain change alone. In true collaboration, we acknowledge that the solution can only be created if we work together.
Issue Areas: How can we drastically change our generational narrative? Where is YOUR work?
Patriarchy
Anti-Negro, Pro-Lightness, Pro-Whiteness, and Cultural Entitlement
Intra-Village Distrust, Adversarialism, Classism, Elitism, Black Shaming, and Xenophobia
Damage from Hopelessness, Helplessness, Worthlessness, Bitterness, Brokenness, Shame, Perceived Inferiority, Self-Hatred
An Absence of Shared Economic Prosperity
Financial Under-Servicing
Juvenile Delinquency
Isolation of the Incarcerated
Police Misconduct and Lack of Accountability
Recidivism
Legal Predators
Unconscious and Conscious Racial Bias in Police Departments
Racial Health Disparities
Negative Police Encounters
Infectious Violence
Primary Care Doctor Shortage
Pain
Unhappiness
Gun Violence
Chronic Stress
Lack of Fully Resourced Community Spaces
School Attendance
Systemic Racism
Environmental Racism
Digital Divide
Hunger
Lack of Media Representation
Unaffordable Housing
We must be fearless
Even though we’re taking the advice of dominant society – the “go solve your own problems” advice – we will still be judged. We’ll be accused of reverse racism. We’ll be accused of segregation. Some will say that it’s racist to intentionally direct efforts toward one group of people.
Racism is a system. White Supremacy is that system. Black Supremacy has never existed. So reverse-racism does not exist.
What could our Wakanda look like?
Draft - The Beginning
Where is the right place to begin?
“The nation has been warned by the President’s Commission that our society faces catastrophic division in an approaching doomsday if the country does not act. We have, through this non-violent action, an opportunity to avoid a national disaster and to create a new spirit of harmony.”
Please send the maximum contribution in this crisis year that your circumstances permit. While we are engaged in our Washington project we will also be continuing our far-flung work in voter registration, citizenship education and other activities. We can, together, write another luminous moral chapter in American history. All of us are on trial in this troubled hour, but time still permits us to meet the future with a clear conscience. Please mail your check today to fill tomorrow with optimism and hope.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., 1968 SCLC fundraising letter
Wherever we begin, this vision will require financial resources. There are amazing organizations working hard in the trenches everyday while still making room to do the pioneering work of researching and testing new ideas, methods, models, and programs. These organizations take advice from advisors, strategists, consultants, thinkers, village leaders, while treating every voice with the same importance.
These organizations can help us finish our journey to find our “promised-land” here in America. They need resources to grow exponentially. Join this movement by supporting Black Giving Month and making a monthly commitment to a pro-Black organization that you trust that is if not solely committed, at least has consistently demonstrated a commitment to our liberation.
You are a Benefactor.
Consider making a mustard seed commitment to financially support a pro-Black organization in your community.
Just like our grandmothers used to do when a neighbor had a need, when they would take money out of their own pocketbooks for someone else, when the strong women who raised us would leverage the resources of the community to help an individual, to support each other – this has always been our culture, and we want to come together to lift each other up and to have this support and impact on a larger scale. On a nation-wide scale. We believe it’s not only possible, it’s inevitable if we work together.
So our question for you is, are you in? We know you’ve been disappointed before. We know you are probably skeptical (hell, we all skeptical). The truth is that we have real, statistical economic power, and this is the time to put in work. Our approach to creating wealth is different. We believe in partnership vs. employment, an economic model of sharing. And it starts with each of you being willing to test this hypothesis with us, to say, “Yes, we can do this together.” It starts with believing that our freedom is possible. The next step will be one day supporting this effort financially.
If that seems like a big commitment, think about the hours of labor a Habitat for Humanity homebuyer puts in as their house is being built. Think about their sweat equity, and what the return is on that investment. The return on investing with us will be worth it because our problems are not insurmountable. Our freedom guarantees that. And as we walk deeper into the freedom we have in this country, as we give, as we work to foster growth and change and joy in our communities, we firmly believe that we will overcome them. Together.
There can only be one America. There is only this one house, and it needs Chip-and-Jojo style renovations. This is a moment for all Americans to come together, and work with each other, to help resew our now fragile American fabric.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.
Let's keep in touch
Lookout Mountain
Chattanooga, TN
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