The following is a transcript of Episode 3 of NCRP’s video series, Unpacking Philanthropy.
Check out the video here on LinkedIn.
Hello, and welcome to Unpacking Philanthropy. I’m Aaron Dorfman.
For the past several years, there has been a lot of talk in philanthropy about “racial healing.” Much of the conversation was driven by the W.K. Kellogg foundation.
I was skeptical of this concept at first. Some of you may have been, too. Some you still may be.
The concept of racial healing seemed fuzzy to me, and of limited utility and no nutritional value. Kind of like the outer shell of a lychee fruit.
You see, I’ve devoted the past 30 years of my life to pursuing social, racial and economic justice. The driving force of my work has been to help communities build enough power to change systems and policies.
I sought tangible, sweet victories that improved people’s lives. I celebrated wins like the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Marriage Equality, and increases in the minimum wage. To me, those were and are the sweet fruit of the lychee, not the fuzzy red outer shell.
In my 50s, I still want those tangible policy changes that help us become a more fair and just society. I want them more now than ever.
But the truth is, racial healing is more like a peach than a lychee. The outside of a peach might not look like much. But it has great nutritional value, too. No one peels a peach before eating it. Its outer shell is just as delicious and – like racial healing – as essential as the rest of the fruit.
According to the Kellogg Foundation, Racial Healing is a process that helps us repair the damage caused by racism and restore communities to wholeness. And truth-telling about past harms is essential to the process.
So what changed my perspective?
In 2021 and 2022, I participated in the Racial Healing Certificate Program offered by the School of Community Philanthropy at the Clinton School for Public Service at the University of Arkansas.
We had an amazing cohort for the inaugural run of this new program, and incredible faculty advisors like John Powell and Manuel Pastor.
We went on a learning tour that took us to Little Rock, Arkansas and Montgomery, Alabama.
As I toured the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, I allowed myself to be fully present as I soaked in all the names of people who had been lynched, including in places where I’ve lived.
At The Legacy Museum, I was moved by the exhibits showing our path from Enslavement to Mass Incarceration.
In Little Rock, I learned more than the few paragraphs I was taught in school about the brutal reaction to integrating Little Rock High School.
Some would have us believe that the harms of slavery and segregation are in the distant past. But they aren’t past. And until we deal openly and honestly with those harms, we can’t heal and move forward into a more lush future where everyone thrives.
Where – and how does philanthropy begin to reckon honestly with past harms? Later this month, NCRP will look to help answer those questions when we release our Reckoning Initiative report. We’ve been studying how fortunes that make philanthropy possible were built on exploitation and harm to Black people. We’ll publish the stories that too few of us know and invite foundations to reflect on the uncomfortable truths that our research unearths.
onest truth-telling is a first step towards healing. To build a sweet, delicious future and move our society towards justice we have to be honest about the harms of the past.
I invite you to be bold, friends, and come on this journey with us.
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