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NOTE FROM IIMAY HO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RG
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 young wealthy people getting involved in activism, so has the New York Times, which in a recent article about the Black Lives Matter movement noted that, “the age group with the largest share of protestors was people under 35 and the income group with the largest share of protestors was those earning more than $150,000.” If that’s you, that means you’re in the top 10% of the U.S. economy, and you’re in the right place!
I’m so glad you’re here and that you’re getting involved so that you can be part of long-term organizing towards the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power.
As a non-Black person of color with class privilege, I’ve been moved by the many invitations from Black organizers and leaders of the Movement for Black Lives to “get in where you fit in” or as Maurice Mitchell, the National Director of the Working Families Party says, “this is an all hands, no elbows moment”. This means to contribute what we can to support the collective, without jostling for status or position. We as young people with wealth and class privilege are being welcomed into a movement for Black liberation with a transformative vision of cross-class, multi-racial solidarity. We also materially benefit from racial capitalism and anti-Black racism and may have seen our stock portfolios increase even as we were hitting the streets.
What does it mean to contribute in a way that is right-sized and accountable for our privilege and complicity without taking up too much space and decentering poor and working class Black people? I don’t have all the answers but I am grateful to have Resource Generation as a political home that calls on me to constantly reflect on this question, take actions with others, and keep trying and practicing my way towards integrity. Read the rest of Iimay Ho's blog post, “'To be willing to be transformed in the service of the work'" here*
-- Iimay Ho, RG Executive Director
*This blog post's title is from Mary Hooks and the Mandate for Black People in This Time
#BLACKTRANSLIVESMATTER
#BLACKTRANSLIVESMATTER
#BLACKTRANSLIVESMATTER
21 trans people have been murdered this year, including six Black transgender women in the last three weeks alone. Brayla Stone. Merci Mack. Shaki Peters. Draya McCarty. Tatiana Hall. Bree Black. We say their names. We honor and mourn their lives.
This horrific anti-Black, anti-trans violence is escalating as state legislatures and the federal government target trans lives, putting trans people and Black trans women in harm’s way by denying access or rolling back protections to the systems and institutions that might help. 25 states have filed anti-trans legislation in 2020 and the Trump Administration issued a rule allowing homeless shelters to ignore trans people’s gender identity and also stripped away protections for trans people under the Affordable Care Act, exposing trans people to violence when accessing shelter and medical care during a pandemic. This is cruelty and state violence.
There can be no racial and economic justice without gender justice. White supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy are intertwined and consolidates power and wealth for white wealthy cisgender men while denying resources, safety, bodily autonomy, and self-determination to Black trans women. As young people with wealth, the intersecting systems of privilege that give us access to healthcare, jobs, housing, food, and material safety are the same systems of oppression that exclude Black trans women and cause them so much harm and violence.
Support organizations led by Black trans people. Show up for fights to defund the police, since Black trans women are disproportionately criminalized and targeted by the police. Challenge patriarchy and transphobia within your families, friends, religious institutions, schools, and jobs.
Lift up Black trans voices and organizations like the TGI Justice Project which wrote this powerful call to action: From Words to Action: Showing up for Black Trans Women. This statement is from 2019 and unfortunately the crisis of violence against Black trans women continues to this day.
Donate to support Black trans lives:
art by @ashlukadraws for resource generation
RG'S WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION FOR BLACK LIVES
SUMMER FUNDRAISING GOALS!
When we say we want to end racial capitalism and practice wealth redistribution, it means following the demands of Black people to defund the police, invest in Black communities, and fund a generation of Black Liberation organizing. We want Black-led liberation organizing to win. We want poor and working-class movements leading the fight for the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power to win.
In response to Black organizers demanding "fund us like you want us to win," RG is committed to moving $5M in wealth from our community to the Movement For Black Lives network and raising $1M to support the Black-led Southern Power Fund.
We are challenging our community to give big to both of these powerful organizing networks :)
Reminder: Once you’ve given to M4BL and the Southern Power fund, please fill out RG's Giving Pledge so we can collectively track the impact of our community in this moment!
NATIONAL CAMPAIGNS UPDATE & CALL TO ACTION
All over the country, Resource Generation members joined the #DefundPolice uprisings in the streets, online spaces, and more in support of Juneteenth and one of RG's campaign partners, the Movement for Black Lives.
RG members in New York, the Twin Cities, LA, Boston, and the Bay Area marched, volunteered, and raised money in support of Black-led organizing!
Nationally, RG is a part of 3 current efforts we need you to take action on!
- #1 The Breathe Act, a transformational piece of forth-coming legislation from the Movement for Black Lives. Take action by signing up as an individual or organizational co-sponsor, getting their social media kit, and using it!
- #2 We are likely going to see one more round of stimulus, we need to support poor and working class communities by demanding this bill does all it can in line with the principles of the #PeoplesBailOut.Take action by calling, emailing, and tweeting at your senators and representatives using the links on the site.
- #3 For too long foundations and especially donor-advised funds (DAFs) have been tools for hoarding and amassing wealth with minimal and long unchanged rules around payout. If you have a DAF, or foundation, sign on to this call for an emergency “charity” stimulus mandating foundations and DAFs payout 10% for the next 3 years.
UPCOMING RG WEBINARS & ONLINE EVENTS!
THIS TUESDAY July 21st at 4-5:30 PM ET/1-2:30 PM PT
RG 101 Online orientation call for folks who are new to RG!
We are welcoming folks who are new to RG to learn about RG and share a little bit about their own personal stories and why they’re excited about RG.
You’ll get a chance to meet some other RGers and RG staff, and we really hope you can make it!
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RG's Online High-Net Wealth Praxis
Apply by August 15th, 2020
This program will run through September 2020 - June 2021
Resource Generation is thrilled to launch a new cycle of virtual praxis groups for young people with access to $1M or more in liquidable assets and/or who have influence over $10M through family assets to explore social justice giving.
This will be an intimate, 10-month program in which you will develop a long-term giving plan, develop a network of peers with similar levels of assets, explore different giving models and deepen your skills and capacity to implement a social justice strategy in your giving.
Participants will learn how to support and engage Resource Generations’s national campaign partners, The Movement for Black Lives and the Center for Popular Democracy in addition to getting support to build relationships with local organizations. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
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RG's Online Transformative Leadership Institute
Apply by August 28th, 2020
This program will run through September 24th - October 15th, 2020
RG is offering the Transformative Leadership Institute this year for members who are ready to level up their leadership skills!!!
With COVID 19 continuing to surge and ravage communities, troubling leadership at all levels of government, and with the demand for freedom ever present, many of us are still reckoning with this new reality. We want to continue providing quality programming for RG members to show up the best way they can. We believe that this time of devastation is a time to offer more tools for us to process our collective power and move towards active solidarity with people who are being deeply harmed. To that end, we're offering a virtual version of our leadership development institute!!!!
We're asking participants to commit to attending all four sessions which will include: creating a leadership development plan, how to build transformative digital relationships, campaign & fundraising skills.
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*Note about this year's Making Money Make Change: Due to continued uncertainty about the safety of travel and large gatherings, we will be offering a shortened virtual MMMC for 2020. Registration and more information will be available in late August.
CHAPTER & STUDENT UPDATES
RG Atlanta
RG Atlanta is growing this summer! We hosted a physically-distanced RG Field Day in June to safely be together off screens. We played “field games” and discussed what it means when we show up and take action as class privileged/wealthy folks in this moment! There were squirt “guns,” mad libs, and new and returning friends.
The chapter hosts a weekly drop-in collab session on Zoom as a time to gather, connect, and vision around chapter happenings and connections to local organizations. We’re also starting back up a monthly chapter meeting, and continue to be active on our listserv sharing asks, requests, offers, and events.
RG Philadelphia
July is a month of many exciting new developments in the Philly Chapter. We are starting a newsletter to keep the Chapter (and the world) up to date on our affairs. For our three praxis groups ending this summer, we are designing and offering leadership development 1-1s for each person, and implementing a support system and training for the next round of praxis facilitators. We are also starting to coordinate a giving plan accountability buddy system. Meanwhile, some of our core organizers are visioning how we want our fundraising and political work to grow together this year, as we continue to support our partner, The Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, and grow our relationship with Our City Our Schools.
RG Tennessee
We're a brand new RG Chapter based in Nashville, TN, focused on bringing young people together across Middle Tennessee to process our class and wealth identities and redistribute wealth in our communities. We're particularly focused on supporting black land ownership in the South and our first campaign was fundraising for the Water Bear Cooperate Land Project. We are grateful for a space to collectively process stewarding resources and to work towards a more just future. RG allies and mentors in chapters across the South, specifically in Atlanta and Durham, have helped us so much as we've gotten started.
RG New York City
RG NYC did almost 100 new member 1-1s in June! Members organized weekly #FreeThemAll4PublicHealth phone banking sessions that are ongoing, and we have several new projects going to collect feedback on Praxis, start a chapter newsletter, fundraise for M4BL and more. We've also appreciated the cross-chapter communications that have come up, and the national support around virtual praxis and monthly orientation spaces.
Emerging chapters
RGers in Maine are coming together on July 23rd at 7pm to vision and build towards a statewide chapter. Know someone in Maine? Reach out and join us! (Contact Nadav at [email protected])
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***RG has 16 local chapters across the U.S. and growing! If you are interested in connecting with your local RG chapter or community to support local mutual aid efforts (and the long-term fight for social justice!), please check out the RG intake form.
FROM PARTNERS
RG WEBINAR RECORDINGS & RESOURCES
RG BLOG POSTS AND BEYOND
Learn more about RG membership here!
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