In January 2016, RG Philly created a Political Action working group, to discern our role in and take action on local economic and racial justice campaigns. We went through a process of considering where we could have the most impact, … Continue reading »
by Ben Goldstein
Photo courtesy Bread and Roses Giving Project
What does it mean to be accountable to a cross-class, cross-generational and multi-racial group raising money for grassroots organizing as a young white man with access to wealth? This is … Continue reading »
After the tragedy in Orlando, the New York City RG chapter hosted a conversation about moving money in response to crises. Here are some choice quotes from our discussion:
How to understand Orlando:
“We can’t forget that [Orlando] is one … Continue reading »
Cara from a Skype window
by Cara Romanik, RG member
Tracy is always in the same place when we talk: her study in West Cornwall, Connecticut, at her desktop computer. There is a cherry-colored wall behind her, a bulletin board … Continue reading »
Farhad Ebrahimi – RG alumni member and long-time major supporter of RG – on strategy and movement-building with his foundation. Lots of juicy nuggets and modeling of social justice values and transparency in philanthropy. This post originally appeared at Medium… Continue reading »
by Willa Conway and Cara Romanik
On one of the first hot sticky days of June, a group of RG New Orleans chapter members and local organizers came together for an outdoor meeting to discuss our engagement with the ten-year … Continue reading »
Each generation must, out of its relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.
-Frantz Fanon
I’m part of a generation (I’m 27) in North America that grew up being told that everyone should be born equal and have equal opportunity. I think my parents’ generation believed that so much they started to think of it as a reality, something already achieved, and not as a should-be, as something to aspire to. They were trying to believe in the dream of the civil rights movement. Believe it into reality, even if the work was so far from done. And so from a young age growing up in Toronto in a wealthy family I didn’t understand why people would choose to be poor. Why not just be rich? Everyone was given the same opportunities, after all.
Early in life I had somehow internalized the lesson of the inherent fairness of things. Being in middle and high school and trying to understand money and wealth at a society-wide level was confusing. At least it was for me. I wasn’t taught about the racial and gender divisions of wealth that have existed for hundreds of years here. Or about how that history led to today’s reality. I was simply taught that we live in a fair society of many opportunities. That’s the proud Canadian narrative. Not too different from the American dream.
This post is a part III of a three part blog series and RG campaign, “It Starts Today: Moving $1 Million to Black-Led, Black Liberation Organizing.” Visit our campaign webpage.
Written by Lily Andrews, bex kolins, Jason Rodney, and Jen … Continue reading »
On May 17, members of Philadelphia’s RG Chapter turned out to the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education rally to demand more funding for public schools, charter school accountability, shutting down the school to prison pipeline and returning schools to local control. Heather, a member of of this chapter who was at the rally, says that the chapter is starting to work on the fight for fair funding for public schools.
“We were slightly worried before we showed up–is this the right place for us, our message,” Heather says. “The other folks there were mostly union members, and a handful of student and parent groups. But we went for it, and we were surprised by how well we were received. One of the first people who saw us came up and took our picture, and heartfeltly said, ‘That’s the best sentiment I’ve seen in years.’”
