8 Minutes 46 Seconds - by Qorsho Hassan, Educator, Artist, & 826 MSP Board Member
8 minutes 46 seconds.
526 seconds.
How long George Floyd was pinned to the concrete ground by an officer kneeling on his neck.
400 years.
12,614,400,000 seconds.
How long African-Americans have endured unending inequality, hatred, and racial injustice.
Dear America, injustice burns fires you can’t put out.
In the past month, the state of Minnesota has witnessed protests, riots, looting, and grief. Minneapolis became the epicenter of protests heard all around the world. This revolution has incited many to question their own relationship with race and racism. It has demanded injustices to be accounted for, systems to be questioned and changed, and antiracism to be an action rather than an afterthought. As a board member and educator, I’ve been thinking hard about how the spaces I occupy serve BIPOC students but are led primarily by white stakeholders. I’ve been reflecting on the role of philanthropy and specifically how the board I am a part of contributes to racism willfully.
826 MSP is a promising and growing chapter of the 826 National. We are in the Seward community of Minneapolis, serve predominantly East African youth in our tutoring and creative writing center, and have a vibrant Writer’s Room in South High School. The writing produced by our brilliant students is showcased in books, blogs, chapbooks, etc. Our staff, volunteers and board do not reflect our diverse student body or community. The system in which our board governs is not diverse nor is it anti-racist. But this is all so much bigger than the 826 MSP chapter—this is a reflection of a much bigger system that is rampant in philanthropy.
There is a strong need to accept that anti-Black racism and white supremacy are the bedrock of every single social injustice. You cannot fundraise for BIPOC communities, address the opportunity gap in education, or even highlight the inequities that exist in our country without stating the cause: racism and white supremacy. Sadly, nonprofits do not emphasize the rampant racism and white supremacy in the sectors they serve such as housing, education, income, civic participation, LGBTQIA freedom, immigration, hunger, etc. Instead racism exacerbated through white saviorism brings forth harmful narratives. Help the needy. Aid the disenfranchised youth. Serve the impoverished and underserved. Be a generous contributor. Support at-risk children in school. None of these sentiments shed the truth of why marginalized communities are marginalized. There’s no context to “giving” and because of that, it’s easy to fall into the perpetual mindset of BIPOC communities being in deficit because they choose to instead of holding the system accountable.
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless Black bodies were murdered by a racist police system. They didn’t choose to die, they were murdered. At-risk youth don’t choose to be at-risk, they are marginalized in a racist education system.
So how do we begin to “burn” or in other words dismantle this system?
Fully fund racial justice.
My call to 826 National and all of its chapters is to:
Support the work that centers organizing and community building to counter anti-Blackness and racism.
Commit to being an anti-racist organization that mobilizes for racial justice.
Prioritize the voices, leadership, and communities of Black people.
Amplify Black youth voices and writing in their quest for a more racially just world.
Dismantle the white savior complex that reinforces racism in the philanthropic community.
We have work to do. Are you ready?
Peace and power,
Qorsho Hassan
