The June Ask has presented us with a unique opportunity here at Lace on Race. Over the past few weeks, we have had a massive influx of new community members. Welcome! We are excited you are here. For those who are seasoned walkers, we have an exciting update that has been long awaited. Before we announce that, we will take a moment to speak to all community members about the Ask here at Lace on Race.

If you’ve delved into the pinned posts or guidelines (if you haven’t, here is your nudge to do so), you know that we prioritize community engagement in our space. Engagement is not just commentary, though. We ask community members to engage with their minds, their resources, and their praxis.

When you participate in the Ask here at Lace on Race, you strengthen your praxis. You support the community, not only through your regular engagement on posts, but also through sustaining the space.

Since last fall, we set a goal to move past our basic budget and reach for a middle budget that would allow us to add contributing writers, admin staff, deeper support for featured organizations, and, ultimately, sustainability for the space.

Lace is the creator, brains, and leader here at Lace on Race. She puts in countless hours to engage with the community and to provide challenging content with the goal of reducing and mitigating harm to Black and brown people perpetuated by white people. The admin team is staffed by Claire, Marlise, and, our recent addition, Danielle. Admin are responsible for engaging with the community and doing the background work to keep Lace on Race running smoothly. We have also recently added Radha and Selika as monthly contributing writers.

With our new staff additions and influx of community, we are excited to announce after three months of meeting the bare bones $2k budget and matching support to featured organizations that we are raising our budget goal to $5k. We will be keeping the $2k goal for our featured organizations with the desire to exceed that quickly. This is good news for several reasons: we will be able to plan for the future with confidence that we will be a reliable resource for years to come; we will be in alignment with our stated ethos of fair and equitable treatment of workers, and not least, that new walkers will see the call for financial engagement as something as crucial and as reflexive as deep engagement with the material and with their fellow walkers.

We have gained almost 3000 new walkers in the last month. It has been a pleasure to see you, and to watch you take your first tentative steps toward a relentlessly reliable and holistic praxis. We want to be with you for the long haul both as a community and as a resource. New walkers have the same level of responsibility as to the health and growth of this space.

And as we have said in recent posts, our commitment to Full Respect Living includes inviting everyone into this Ask, regardless of tenure or of how one identifies racially/ethnically. We know this is different than other spaces. But here, as we look each other in the eye, the same benefits and responsibilities are imperative to all.

We encourage you to read through our posts about financial engagement if you have any questions about the method and reasoning behind our Ask and budget. Choosing to become a community member with skin in the game and a stake in the sustainability of this space we are co creating is our shared commitment.

Financially Engage: PayPal.me/LaceonRace

Become a Sustainer:
A sustainer is someone who has been consistently in the Lace on Race Community for 6 months or more and is committed to financially sustaining this space. Our Sustainer Circle is not about perks or access to exclusive content. Rather, it is about another level of accountability and responsibility. As a Sustainer, you have spent time in the community, practice Kind Candor, and are ready to walk consistently with fellow community members.

You can fill out the Sustainer form here: https://forms.gle/x752Sc5ckVvj6wMC9