We were lucky to get the chance to sit down with Jarell Skinner-Roy, who wrote a powerful article on dismantling white supremacy in nonprofits.
1) Jarell, what is your background in the nonprofit sector?
2) In your YNPN Twin Cities article, you ask people in nonprofit organizations to know and explicitly acknowledge the history, existence, and pervasiveness of white supremacy. What does that look like?
3) I’ve written a few grants, and it seemed like everything had to be in grantspeak to get the funders to fund it. What’s wrong with using terms like “at-risk”? Why shouldn’t we use deficit-based narratives and language?
4) What happens when we over-use negative statistics?
5) What is ethical nonprofit story-telling? How can we commit more fully to ethical storytelling?
6) Why is it important to look at who wields power and influence in your organization, and who doesn’t?
7) What was the response to your article that you got?
What can you do now?
- Continue to find ways to engage across difference
- Enough with the deficit based narrative and language
- White supremacy is not inevitable, it can be dismantled. What is YOUR commitment to help?
Resources:
Jarell Skinner-Roy is here: LinkedIn and On Twitter: @jskinnerroy
From the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan the SALT Model on Critical Consciousness
Here’s his original article at YNPN (Young Nonprofit Professionals Network) Twin Cities: Dismantling White Supremacy in Nonprofits: a starting point
Mission Mirroring: What it is?
For the Wild Podcast Episode: John A Powell on Institutions of Othering and Radical Belonging
if you’d like to learn more about white supremacy, take a listen to our interview with Desiree Adaway
or check out interview with Kishshana Palmer on racism in the nonprofit sector
