This is a different kind of Ask.

It is an Ask embedded in a conversation, preceding two upcoming articles, by Town & Country, no less.

The conversation is about money. About Funding. About how we spend our dollars in service to our stated praxis.

Not a new thing for us, but perhaps a new way of looking at things. The first article talks specifically about racial justice organizations, and how they are funded.

There are some large racial justice orgs, and then there are smaller ones like ours, and some micro orgs that are smaller still.

All require funding. Even the larger ones rarely receive large grants or endowments or princely one-time donations; while racial justice work is finally coming onto the radar of the mainstream, large scale funders have not yet caught up with the enthusiasm. When they do fund, they tend to fund ‘legacy’ orgs, like NAACP, Urban League and the like. As well, they also can and do give to political orgs and PACS. That is good. There is, and will continue to be, a need for large scale cash infusions in the upcoming election year, both for national and state races, but also for down-ticket races as well.

But. That often leaves smaller orgs and individuals doing yeoman work fighting for the crumbs. And it makes for the model we ourselves use here at Lace on Race: direct funding with absolutely no reliance on large funder dollars.

Let me stop here and speak plainly about both this intro post/Ask as we prepare for the two T&C articles–and two articles specifically about Robin D’Angelo coming in the following weeks.

You need to know just how fraught this subject is, as I attempt to hold this conversation about money and funding without seeming (or feeling, ugh) self serving and opportunistic. There is always that risk in speaking squarely about money and about our painfully imperfect, but necessary, funding model.

Still, the subject must be broached, and regularly, and especially now, in this election year.

Anti racism work, both here at Lace on Race, as well as elsewhere, runs on funds. Period. Not black boxes. Not bumper stickers. Not lawn signs. Not ‘thoughts and prayers’.

No. Racial Justice Work Runs On Money.

White people blanch at this fact, even as they grudgingly acknowledge it.

Whether the work is a community/learning/relationship building space like this one, or exhortative prose like Ally Henny or Sean Codger, or sharp, pungent commentary like Kinfolk Kollective or DiDi Delgado, or action oriented spaces like NAC or Real Talk, there is intellectual/academic/movement building work being done by individuals that deserve compensation; and organizations that deserve support. So far, none of the individuals or groups I mentioned have received large grants, or column inches in publications or major book deals, or 5 figure speaking gigs.

White people often do. And this needs to be confronted and confronted hard. And unflinchingly.

We will talk about this phenomenon in later pieces, about the fact that the bulk of antiracist dollars given by white people (who, by force of sheer numbers, as well as economic and social capital are the bulk of funding) are given to other white people.

There is something deeply concerning about this.

Even if I did not run a space focused on racial justice, I would find this troubling.

We have spoken about this before. We have talked about the dynamic, where, in the niche of racial justice work, most of the very few people able to make a living without tentmaking are white people, and how that dynamic drives the racial justice discourse overall.

Yes, it’s supremacy.

And it needs to be acknowledged, confronted, critiqued, and course corrected.

As we saw with Jim’s (competent, but by no means original) compilation of facts regarding African American history, very little proffered by white scholars or commentators is actually new. It’s either been known or written before by black people. What ups its retail value is that is repackaged and spoken by white lips; giving already known facts a sheen of legitimacy and reputability that white people all to often deny black voices.

As you will read in the T&C article about anti-racist organizations, every dollar is a vote. What *does* it mean when white people are more willing to pay white people to rebottle our tears and oppression and sell it at Nordstrom prices, when the actual Black voices are thrown metaphorical quarters?

So, yes, it is indeed a matter of liberation and of political and ethical congruence that we make the Ask without clench, hesitation, or apology. Black people should be paid for our intellect, for our scholarship, and for our own narratives. White people should not need middlemen or middlewomen to make our pain and our positions palatable for white consumption.

And yes–saying it that baldly makes me cringe. Not because I don’t believe every word of the above; I do. But because the risk I take, for myself, for my staff, and for the community as a whole is a large one. It is impossible to talk about money and race without risk of angering or alienating the very people we depend on to keep the doors open.

But we must. And we must go bigger.

We have said, from the very founding of Lace on Race, that yes, we need and deserve community engagement, but that we were and are hardly the only ones who do.

In addition to the individuals and organizations mentioned above, there are other regional and national individuals and orgs doing simply amazing work. We have made a point of featuring some of them here, but we do not pretend that the orgs and individuals we feature in LoR are the only ones doing work worth supporting. We have never said that this is the only place you should engage with financially.

For this reason, look for Dimes and Envelopes Round 2. We have never done it here in a formal way, and as I revise that essay, we will embark on what will be one of the most meaningful financial engagements of your life.

As has been mentioned before, we pay full freight for materials and conferences and courses so I and our staff can stay on top and give you all the best information available. This is important. Paying full price for a book is the only way to insure dollars get in the hands of the makers. We demand a strong praxis from you all. We can do no less.

We continue with funding our Community Partners, as firstfruits, not out of our excess. Yes, that is a risk. Yes, it is a risk worth taking, and since we started this model, we have never failed to meet goal. We believe in affirming and amplifying voices and work outside of this space.

Anti-racist funding should be, welp–anti-racist.

Any whiff of the white supremacy we are working hard to dismantle both on internal or external levels should be eradicated.

So– the Mid-Month Ask. We will be re-running this along with the articles we will be giving to you in the latter part of this month. As said before, we are suppressed; we run several times for maximum reach and to wiggle around Facebook’s opaque and inscrutable algorithms. We thank you for your graciousness.

As we take a deep dive into the politics, the racialized nature of this work, even as we work toward racial justice, and a way of thinking of financial engagement you may not have seen before, we keep walking.

As always, thank you to Sustainers and those working to become Sustainers; if you have not yet fulfilled your commitment for July, we invite you to do so.

For those whose giving is more extemporaneous, this is also your time. If you find value in the work we do and would like it to continue, please consider tangible engagement with this community.

People have asked us to resume placing the PayPal link in the Asks for ease of use. Here it is. We will have a link available on the Facebook Page as well, embedded in the comments.

Every day I continue to walk with you is infused with gratitude.

Deep thanks.

Your Lace