10 ways social change organizations can support the Black Lives Matter movement
The difference between being an anti-racist and not being a racist has never been more stark.
By Todd Paglia, Executive Director, Stand.earth
Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to be an Antiracist” and director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University explains:
“the opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘antiracist’” and this requires “persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examinations.”
In other words, agreeing with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement doesn’t count for much if you don’t also speak up, take action, contribute, and more. White-led NGOs have mostly done ok on the first part, which is speaking up. That’s a great start for a movement that has often stayed on the sidelines of racial justice issues. But more is needed. Now.
And if you work on climate and environmental issues, you know how white our institutions mostly are. How we got here is not a short story — barriers to people of color joining the movement in force go back hundreds of years, and have led to a situation where those who are hurt first and worst by climate pollution and other forms of pollution are vastly underrepresented in the very organizations that try to prevent these problems. Our sector is less inclusive — that hurts us all and it makes us less strategic, contributing especially to larger, whiter groups talking to people just like themselves (i.e, white folks) while continuously revamping failed top-down strategies. What I’m saying is that by becoming more inclusive, you will not only be doing what’s right, you’ll be more effective.
This is not a small movement. What we do and say matters.
The nonprofit sector in the US alone represents a whopping 1 out of 10 jobs. I’ll give you the bad news first: we are part of the race problem in America. The good news? Because we are part of the problem, we get to be part of the solution.
Some small steps you can take:
Short-term:
1. Take a Stand: If you have not yet, make an unequivocal statement in support of the movement for justice sweeping our country and the nation. For example, here is our statement and the Sierra Club’s. Look to Black-led organizations — don’t water your words down to make yourself, your board members, or donors comfortable.
2. Use your Megaphone: You have a platform in the media, with your members, with social media. Share it — share it to the point that at times you are giving it away. We eliminated all our emails and social media work to amplify the work and messages of BLM. We do this periodically as moments happen and as we are requested to do so.
3. Flexible Schedules: Let’s face it — by March of this year the pandemic laid waste to all our campaign plans for 2020. Some organizations managed to effectively pivot their work. The movement to end systematic violence against Black and brown people, however, calls for joining this effort not sitting on the sidelines and not attempting to pivot our issues into this moment where they don’t fit. We gave our teams the flexibility to manage their work and volunteer to support the movement — and yes, on paid work time.
4. Secondment: Giving your teams the flexibility to dip in and out of this movement is key and there is a next level: organizing teams so that part or all of specific departments can join the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) to lend critical support. Right now, they need communications, design, digital, legal and other areas of support. We figured out how we can have parts of our teams volunteer for a two week period. That means no juggling Stand.earth work and M4BL work for these folks: They are 100% M4BL volunteers for a set time period and the rest of us are filling in the gaps.
5. Give: We all spend a lot of time raising money to fuel our work. The real power of what we do is through the passion of our volunteers, allies, activists and partners. But money gives us the capacity to support this grassroots power to maximize impacts. M4BL needs our support. Stand.earth is donating and we are matching all employee donations.
Long-term
6. Organizational Leadership: This is obvious but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Your organization will go where it is led. At Stand.earth, we have made some progress at our highest level, meaning our Board of Directors. While this work needs to go further, it has already resulted in some of the biggest shifts in our organization. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program was a direct result of a more diverse Board. This has changed how we think about our campaigns, our partners, the use of choice points in planning our work, hiring and much more. It changed who we are. While our staff has become more diverse, our executive team is all white — we are prioritizing a) Investing in our teams to mentor up new leaders, and b)Actively working on expanding our networks to hire senior people of color into leadership positions.
7. Resist Pressure on Hiring: You will want to show progress and nothing feels like progress like the organization beginning to look different. Resist. Often you will end up in the revolving door problem where your culture is white dominant and people of color join, then leave. This ends up being a series of false starts and internally it is a morale killer. Don’t do it. Your Board and staff will push you. If your organization is not ready, you will regret making hiring your top (and often, only) priority.
8. Work on White-Dominant Culture: Preparing your organization and changing the culture to be a place that your new hires and Board members want to be a part of is key. This is hard work — you will need to overcome tons of white fragility, be vulnerable, forgiving, make mistakes, admit to implicit biases that you (yes YOU) have, and learn. The great news is there are a lot of people out there who you can hire to help you do this.
9. Now Push Hiring: Your culture will never be “fixed” but you will make progress. This is a journey that never ends. Hopefully all of this public and internal work helps you become more attractive to Board and staff candidates that bring you all kinds of diversity (race, gender, sexual orientation, economic, cultural, experience, etc.). And by now, having invested in changing your culture dramatically, many of the people who join the Board and staff will stay, and push the organization even further.
10. Partnership: When you change your culture and start to change who you are, frontline groups, environmental justice organizations, and community groups will be more interested in being your partner. This means listening, following, and serving where you are needed and have real value. We have unique skills and capacity (including money) to bring to these communities — and they have history, strategy, tactics and skills that we have little experience with. This is where the magic can happen — we are stronger together.
Why do all or any of this? This is hard, risky work that will take you well out of your comfort zone. As white people our comfort zone is extremely narrow and it needs expansion. Doing things because they are the right thing to do can take you a long way. Maybe all the way. For those of us who need more motivation, I would reflect the following: a nation built on Black bodies, built on stealing this land from Indigenous bodies, will eventually be unable to function under the weight of so much death and injustice. By not functioning, I mean just that: Collapse. Sometimes, late at night, I feel this possible future coming toward us like a freight train loaded with hate. It is frightening beyond anything I have ever felt. But it is not inevitable. What will justice require? More than we have ever done. Reparations, truth and reconciliation, defunding the police, revamping education, reimagining cities, revolutionizing criminal justice, reinventing healthcare, reforming a criminal economy that rewards accumulated wealth and penalizes work, and much more.
This union, this great union known as the United States, is damaged almost, but not quite beyond repair. Our union has gotten to the point of such tragic imperfection that it may die — not suddenly, but slowly. Like it seems it has been doing for the last three years, turning on itself, killing itself, burning itself down. We in the nonprofit sector can be a small, but loud, important and perhaps a vital part of bending the arc of history back, once again, toward justice.
Todd Paglia is the Executive Director at Stand.earth, an international environmental organization known for its groundbreaking research and successful corporate and citizen campaigns to create new policies and industry standards in protecting forests, advocating the rights of Indigenous peoples, and protecting the climate. Since 1999, he has worked to transform the sustainability policies of multiple Fortune 500 companies that helped protect more than 65 million acres of endangered forests. www.stand.earth
