Having been part of the Board working to get our community launched as a formal entity at the beginning of this year, and as a white woman that is a member of our online community, I have two primary opinions on why revenues dropped when and how they did.

First, the fact that we received a deeply generous endowment was made public by a person with an axe to grind. This person’s disclosure contained factual inaccuracies, if I recall correctly, and it also violated the anonymity of the family endowing our new Center. Basically, the news was broached in a way that gave maximum cover to anyone who wanted to excuse themselves from the financial engagement part of their praxis in community here.

Second, one of the people involved in the murder of George Floyd was convicted. I feel that we white people in general took a collective victory lap, said “hey, the system works, my money did its job, and the rest is allll for meeeeee,” and stopped participating, stopped putting our skin in the game, here and likely elsewhere. These opinions of mine are not new or unique to me. Lace has pointed out these reasons and more. But I see the truth of these, and they weigh most centrally on my mind.

So. I can’t fix us all. But I can keep ME on a path of congruent praxis. I’ve engaged financially for September. I set myself a monthly alert to engage on the 1st of each month, and toward the end of each month I evaluate my ability to do more, and I do more when possible.

My ideas for how we can gather more and more of us to support the wellbeing of this community, which I find so valuable… are nebulous. Recruiting is not a wheelhouse I’ve ever made myself at home in. But I see that even here on the website we have Facebook and Twitter sharing options. I want to make a commitment to start using those habitually when I engage here on the website. I also am working toward bringing myself back to reliable participation. I do a lot of work back of house and that keeps me visible and in relationship with Lace and the Leadership Team, but… I am not as present here for our community as a whole, so I’m working on that. The more I’m here, the more I share, I hope that will be part of a path toward growth.

whyte people are attracted to novelty and treated racial justice last spring like a shiny penny we wanted to get behind. We wanted to be ‘on the good side’ in those moments, but the moment we could, we did a slow intentional fade. I have seen some ongoing continual change from the Black spring in my community, and that gives me hope, but it’s still only a fraction of what was. Now it takes more intentionality, work, effort. So what am I going to do to increase our membership and financial contribution here? <font face=”inherit”>For one thing I’m going to go through my friends list on facebook and find some folks to reach out to directly to invite them to check out the LoR website. Also, a question, do we have addresses for folks who financially engage (is there a way of making that part of the step in </font>PayPal<font face=”inherit”>? I’d be happy to write some hand written thank you’s for intermittent engagers. A local racial justice organization I financially engage with does that for their new or occasional folks, adds kind of a personal touch. I’d be happy to help with something like that. </font>

September engagement sent. I commit to expanding reach by sharing posts more regularly

I am just reading this.

While I am not able to make my next financial engagement until close to the end of the month, I understand and commit to the necessity of financial engagement as part of my overall praxis. In fact, I hope to at least double my portion within six months.

In addition, I am working with not only Lace on Race, but a few other groups, regarding white supremacy and racism. That said, I consider this space chief among them.

I am in the process of launching my coaching business. While that does take a lot of my time and effort, I consider this community and the issues we deal with here very important, and I make sure I participate regularly.

I am almost twins with Lace Watkins. I have absorbed much more of the racist white supremacy than I like. I hereby vow to work and walk alongside everyone here to combat and uproot it.

This space cannot sustain itself with the current monthly revenue. I commit to doing whatever I can do to ensure that the doors of LoRCRE remain open. My financial engagement is a bit less than I would like it to be right now because I’m in an employment gap but I am still engaging. I commit to continue increasing my engagement in this space, sharing content from LoR on social media, and sustaining LoR, in back of house. I’d like to lend my hands for the chopping of vegetables! We do need each other.

The Black Spring came when white people’s lives had otherwise been disrupted by the pandemic. And recently too. Many were at home, others were still going to work, but were limited in options about how to spend their money as travel was not an option and children’s activities were limited and so on. Since January, things have been opening up. In addition to all the other reasons listed here by others, as things open up, white people are excited to get out and do a lot of things that were not options earlier in the pandemic. we are ready to spend money on ourselves and our own interests and our recreation again. And even if we still could afford to contribute AND also do these other things, our fear of scarcity is kicking in and the future possibilities for our money is leading us to close our wallets to people who need that money now just in case we want that money in the future.

I am continuing to meet my commitment that I made to financial contributions last new years and also to contribute additional funds monthly, contributing more since January this year than I did previously.

While my sharing and talking about the community has added a couple lurkers to the Facebook page and at least one person dropping in to check out the website. I have not been successful in recruiting any new community members who contribute either their thoughts or their money. It our society it is rare that funding matches what we say we value. I don’t know how to turn that around.

I sent in my engagement on September 1, and I am contemplating the many facets of membership. What draws us here, sparks our engagement, sustains our engagement? What characteristics do committed walkers have in common? How can we seek more of those people, and how might we adapt what we offer to bring other types of people in?

This walking we do together isn’t always traipsing through a meadow of wildflowers; in fact, that doesn’t happen very often. I need to maintain a commitment to the swamps, the peat bogs, the switchbacks, the rain, the heat…

Financial engagement has definitely been affected since the Holly incident. Looking for excuses and outs are part of white supremacy and it seems that many community members sided with supremacy (both in the incident and their ultimate withdrawal of engagement while many are still taking in the content). I have and will remain committed to the space and I have financially engaged for September. What can we do to grow the community in order to sustain it, to ensure Lace is compensated for her work, and to live out lessening and mitigating harm to Black and brown people perpetuated by white people and white supremacy? I do share posts on FB and will continue to do so but I don’t get any engagement from people on them and some of that is my fault for not being more present on FB. When I’m not on FB being in relationship with others, they’re even more unlikely than supremacy already makes them to engage with LoR posts or me about LoR posts. I know 3 women that I think would be great walkers with LoR but all have young children so I’ve never directly asked them if they’d be interested; that’s the supremacy in me sabotaging this work and I’m pulling that weed and will invite them directly. I’m going to re-evaluate my financial engagement for ways to increase it.

I have some shame around not being able to bring others to the table durably. I promote the posts on instagram and talk about Lace quite a bit. I even was able to get a donation from my church family, but I don’t really think any of them joined us or financially engaged. One friend engaged for a short while and then jumped right out of the car! But as a white woman, it is my responsibility to continue to follow the North Star and invite others. It is part of the praxis to continue to mitigate harm in every way I can including continuing to invite – over and over again.