Monthly Financial Engagement to Date: $5883

Monthly Goal: $12000

This is the umpteenth time I have attempted to draft the April Mid Month Ask. 

It’s always a hard thing to write, and there is always a reason I feel less than comfortable; pick your reasons in any given month or period– this time it’s Holly and the continuing fallout, and now, this week, having to confront the optics of a funding appeal during a fraught time in our collective psyches: a truncated accountability in the Chavuin case, and, even and including the same day the verdict was rendered, another killing of a Black person, and then another, and yet another just today. 

All of this indeed has a chilling effect; an inhibiting effect that freezes my fingers. 

The work is needed, directly because of the very events that make it so hard to reference for an Ask. So I hesitate; write and discard drafts, and wring my hands; never more so than this week. 

But this happened. An org where I am (more recently) an intermittent lurker, for reasons you will see, delivered what I feel is a direct shot across the bow to people who educate white people, either formally, like here in this space, or informally, where untold Black and brown people give their time, as well as their intellectual and academic capital, to the service of education in service to their people, but which is also (and ultimately) for the enrichment, and the aggrandizement, of white people. (Update: I was removed and blocked.)

Some overarching thoughts of my own. 

Black and brown people should absolutely be paid for their services. We pay contributors here, and that should be true everywhere, even and *especially* when Black and brown people invest of themselves in groups and Pages. That labor is no less legitimate than if one owns or has power/influence in any given space. 

This should be a given. I think of the last five years when significant amounts of white and white presenting/white adjacent people became interested (but not invested; I use that word with intent) and the immense amount of free labor that has been consumed, with arguably little change in behavior, and certainly no change in the economic dynamic between cohorts. 

The absolute imperfect systems that have become more or less accepted practice is in response to that. 

People giving untold hours to problematic people in groups, websites, and Pages, educating not just the individual themselves, but also to the hordes of folk listening in from the cheep seats, sometimes drop their paypal or their venmo. I think it is absolutely a legitimate practice; they need to be seen and acknowledged, and within this imperfect system this is one imperfect way to do so. 

And within formal spaces, there absolutely should be no demonization or hierarchy between those who do not ask for financial engagement against those who do. It is the rare person who can devote significant amounts of time and intellect pro bono. 

But even beyond that, there is the overarching principle that racism and white supremacy are absolutely  economic constructs; a system, both individual and systemic, meant to aggrandize one cohort at the expense of another. 

And this is seen, in sharp relief, in racial justice spaces. That it is speaks to the insidiousness and the pervasiveness of white supremacy itself, even when it is at least on the surface fighting the very thing it is upholding. 

This Ask speaks to that, speaks to the fact that white people–and BIPOC who enable them– absolutely drive the racial justice space. And makes for a dynamic that I have to slog through like so much molasses every time I do the Ask. 

Hear this plainly: it is deeply incongruous to ‘celebrate’ and ‘affirm’ and ‘amplify’ Black and Brown voices, be it in video, or in print, or online without fair compensation. 

Our focus on money here is *not* only for the benefit of Lace on Race, although we absolutely do believe that this free-ish space should be supported and that our Western Star should be honored. 

It is also for  others in the racial justice sector as a whole. People who financially engage here are far more likely to engage in other spaces. We conceived of and administer the Community Partner Fund because we believe that other groups and individuals should be seen and tangibly honored. We created the Lace on Race Mental and Emotional Health Fund for respect and respite for the Black women on whose backs the racial justice movement has rested.

We make sure that Black and brown contributors don’t have to drop their paypal links when they grace us with their knowledge and expertise *because we pay them promptly and fairly out of firstfruits*. 

All of this is done in service to North Star ethos and values. 

We have, already, out of Firstfruits, disbursed to two amazing orgs; one an API group in San Diego, and the other to a woman, who works with and serves Black children and adults on the autism spectrum. As always, we fund our community partners without thought of if we make our budget. Firstfruits are firstfruits. On this, we will never waver. 

This month, we also financially engaged with a former community member who was also, until February, on our leadership team. She is enduring hardship, and while she broke communion and abiding with us, still our praxis and our commitment to her stays extant. This has already been funded. I am sure there will be queries, and I am here for them. 

Know this though: that unilateralism holds. Firmly. There was no question amongst myself, my staff, and my leadership team, that we would respond with our normal and customary Hesed. It is who we are. Hesed is never voided. 

So this: the Mid-April Ask. Currently, we are at a bit less than half of our monthly goal; even as we have fulfilled our commitments to our Community Partners and to our former Community Member, with whom we still walk; albeit at a distance. But walk we will. 

Sustainers, and sustainers in training, if you have not yet fulfilled your internal commitment, we ask that you do so. Those in the Bistro as well. For those of you  who financially engage a la carte, this is also your opportunity. 

And a word to those new people who have graced us this month: the Guidelines give our position on financial engagement, our commitment to a free-ish space, and our affirmation that financial engagement, here and in other online and offline spaces, is a non-negotiable part of your overall racial justice praxis, as you opt in to this space. 

Thank you for allowing us to give you all our very best. 

In Hesed, 

Your Lace

paypal.me/laceonrace

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