Reimagining Making Change on Racial Justice: A call for philanthropists
"What risks are we in philanthropy and impact investing willing to take to make lasting change? Are we willing to continue to sacrifice the lives, livelihoods, and well-being of entire communities for the comfort of our well-polished theories of change?"
Mekaelia Davis, program director of the Inclusive Economies program at the Surdna Foundation, asks in a recent article in Stanford Social Innovation Review discussing how philanthropists must reimagine the formula for making change on racial justice and learn from protesters that have taken the Black Lives Matter movement mainstream.
In this article, Davis offers six ways philanthropy and impact investors can help our nation respond, recover, and reimagine a more thriving America. One of them is a call to "get comfortable with being uncomfortable."
According to Davis, "the risks we take must extend beyond our comfort zones, beyond diversity and inclusion efforts. They must be commensurate with the consequences of inaction." She continues,
Diversity and inclusion are not going to solve the problem. Diversity and inclusion are not enough to rebuild a more just and equitable economy. They don’t go far enough to address systemic racism, and we must do better. We must accept and seek out greater risk and be more concerned about the consequences if we do not. It’s a risk worth taking. And one that will pay dividends for decades to come.