It’s hard to believe that this is my last blog post as the Executive Director of Resource Generation. I have truly been transformed by my RG journey, from joining the DC chapter in 2013 to moving into my Associate Director role in 2014 to becoming the Executive Director in 2017. I have built lifelong friendships,…
Content warning (CW): Anti-Asian American violence, racism, sexism Yong A. Yue Suncha Kim Hyun Jung Grant Soon C. Park Delaina Ashley Yaun Paul Andre Michels Xiaojie Tan Daoyou Feng I look into their names and faces and see echoes of my own, and of my mom, aunts, cousins, grandmother, friends, and beloveds. It has been…
I spent most of last weekend in a puddle of sadness and overwhelm. Nothing was okay. Nothing I did mattered. Ominous Election Day countdown emails crowded my inbox (26 days until the apocalypse!). I had a meltdown about accidentally buying chicken sausage instead of pork sausage (true story). Does this sound familiar to you? Perhaps…
*This blog post’s title is from Mary Hooks and the Mandate for Black People in This Time Hello, everyone! I’d like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter or joined Resource Generation as a new member in the last couple of weeks. Not only have we’ve noticed an influx of…
I first joined Resource Generation in 2013 because I wanted to be part of ending the harm of racial capitalism. I have been a member ever since. Being a member of Resource Generation over many years has deepened my accountability and commitment to wealth redistribution and helped me feel connected and grounded in this moment where stress…
I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m into the British royal family. It’s one of the things about me that is least aligned with my politics – to be clear, I am not okay with hereditary monarchy or the British Empire. But through The Crown I became fascinated with the family dynamics of multiple generations navigating…
As the first young person of color with wealth to become ED of RG, Iimay will be sharing reflections on living at the intersection of a strange Venn diagram and fighting racism and classism in the Trump era
How can I possibly be a person with integrity and goodness in the world if I’m benefiting from something so terrible?
It’s critical to center class in the work to build a new economy so that we don’t recreate classism in the alternatives we are trying to create.
I had a nagging sense that wealth inequality was at the root of so much violence, but that I, as someone with wealth, wasn’t doing much, if anything, about it.
We hold the liberation of Black and Indigenous people as central to the liberation of all people. We know that attempted genocide and chattel slavery created the initial foundation for massive wealth disparity in the U.S. and that the continued exploitation and criminalization of those communities upholds the racial wealth divide. We believe that well-resourced Black and Native Left organizing is a critical part of how we all get more free.
We believe social justice movements need to be led by communities most directly impacted by injustice. As young people with access to wealth, we choose to undermine the pattern of funders dictating the work and instead choose to follow the leadership of transformative social justice movements and communities, led by people who are: poor, working-class, Black, Indigenous, of color, women, disabled, queer and trans.
We work towards eradicating classism and towards wholeness. We believe that all classes and communities are interconnected and interdependent and that classism has been used to wedge and divide us. We know that much is lost communally in the name of wealth accumulation and that people with wealth have a lot to gain from returning wealth to the collective and transforming our economy. We know that the current economic system is untenable, and we work to build a solidarity economy.
We believe that people ages 18–35, with wealth and class privilege, are at a pivotal stage in life to make a lifelong commitment to social movements. Youth movements and organizing are, and have been bold and visionary. We are building on the legacy of those who came before us, and we are working for a better world for those who will come after. Young people with access to wealth and class privilege need to be organized as protagonists—actively engaging in and seeking out ways that leverage and redistribute our access to power and resources within our control, and redirect resources and power within the networks and institutions we are connected to. We are committed to resisting ageist norms of people acquiring power and holding on to it and constantly doing leadership development to bring about new leadership.
We believe personal and structural change are deeply connected, and every person has the ability to heal and grow. We are committed to working towards transforming ourselves, our organizations, our communities, and society as a whole through our work. We bring our full selves, our experiences, our stake, and our strategic thinking to build cross-class relationships in working for a just and livable world.
We believe in collective and individual growth, groundedness and interdependence. We know that tensions will arise, and we will approach these with curiosity on behalf of our personal and collective wants. We will work to see tensions as generative rather than destructive and finite. We welcome principled disagreement and will strive to keep conflict generative in service of our broader goals and mission.
We believe in the power of collaboration across class, race, and movements. We know that our vision depends on our relationships with communities, organizations and people across our movement ecosystem, with whom we share similarities and differences. Through our organizing work we also seek ways to invite our families, communities, and other people with access to wealth to this work.
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