On Juneteenth—a day whose significance is even more compelling this year in light of the stark racial injustice that is playing out on our streets— we sent this letter to our board members for reflection and to start a conversation about the ways this moment is calling Episcopal Impact Fund to do better. We are sharing this with you, our donors and supporters, to invite you to join us in the struggle for racial justice.
We believe that in seeking to follow Jesus’ teachings, we are called to interrogate our institutional and personal privilege. Practically, this may mean looking at Episcopal Impact Fund’s theory of change through a lens of racial justice, reexamining our grantmaking and activities, and educating ourselves about issues that many of us have had the luxury to avoid. This work will take effort, honesty and time; however, we are committed to embarking on the journey with the urgency this moment demands.
As a starting point, we invite you to spend some time with the following resources, which were offered by board member Dr. Dorothy Tsuruta, Chair of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University, and former Board member/current Program Committee member Michelle Myles Chambers, FAITHS Program Officer at the San Francisco Foundation. We also invite you to share any resources you have found useful and compelling by emailing Kendall Laidlaw at klaidlaw@episcopalimpact.org.
PolicyLink’s Angela Glover Blackwell comments that this moment “feels like a seismic shift, and the beginning of America’s next story.” She encourages, “Do the work and it will be different this time.” Episcopal Impact Fund needs to do our part of the work.
Warmly,
Jenn & Kathleen
Films and videos
8 Minutes, 46 seconds, by Dave Chappelle
How Can We Win?, by Kimberly Jones
An Outrage: A Documentary Film About Lynching in the American South - Viewers Guide, by Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren
When They See Us, by Ava Duvernay
Thirteenth, by Ava Duvernay
Articles and Essays
Who Gets to Be Afraid in America, by Ibram X. Kendi
Glimmers of Hope, by john a. powell
New Analysis Shows Startling Levels of Discrimination Against Black Transgender People, National LGBQT Task Force
America, This Is Your Chance, by Michelle Alexander
The 1619 Project, New York Times Magazine
Juneteenth, New York Times
Curricula and Compiled Resources
Books
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
The Best of Simple by Langston Hughes
Maud Martha, by Gwendolyn Brooks,
Gwendolyn Brooks’ Maud Martha, a Critical Collection, which includes an essay by Episcopal Impact Fund board member Dr. Dorothy
Tsuruta, Edited by Jacqueline Bryant.
The Angela Y. Davis Reader, edited by Joy James
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas A. Blackman
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, by Edward E. Baptist
Fledging, by Octavia Butler
Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Black Wall Street - A testament to the human spirit following the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, by Hannibal B. Johnson
Blog
Funding Black Communities for Long-term, Borealis Foundation