All posts in Racial Justice

Eric Marshall of our key partner Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law just shared their new interactive Map of Shame, which “paints the picture of the threat posed by the rolling tide of vote suppression legislation.” This map is a terrific tool to learn more about restrictive legislation (standing and pending) in a large number of states, resources for voters to get required IDs, a petition for voters to push back against voter suppression, and links to state-by-state election rules.

The threat to voter access is REAL – as reported (in a partisan frame) by these frightening accounts in Rolling Stone magazine and the Washington Post. In the next year the Kapor Foundation will continue its nonpartisan focus on Elections Protection to ensure that every eligible voter can participate in our democracy!

The Mitchell Kapor Foundation is looking forward to celebrating 15 years of inspired work and impact by the Ella Baker Center, as well as to celebrating this year’s Ellas award winners, Favianna Rodriguez (among other things, the artist responsible for the murals at the Kapor Center’s Oakland site), APEN (a Kapor Foundation key grant partner), and Akaya Windwood, President of the Rockwood Leadership Institute.

We hope to see many of you there!

Ella Baker Center’s Anniversary Celebration and Award Ceremony

This year’s Ellas will feature a Community Reception, Art Exhibit of works by Favianna Rodriguez, our Awards Dinner, the announcement of the 2011 Van Jones Scholarship Winner, and much more.

WHEN: Thursday, September 22, 2011. 6:00 – 9:30 PM
WHERE: Oakland Marriot City Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland

The 2011 Ellas also marks our 15th Anniversary of giving people the skills and opportunities to work together to strengthen our communities so that all of us can thrive.

The Annual Ella Awards Dinner will honor social change leaders whose inspiring and ground-breaking achievements build community strength and promote peace, justice and opportunity. People-powered action, driven by hope and the belief thatthings can and should be better, is how change happens.

Just wanted to share more news of the alarming movement to disenfranchise large voting blocs through restrictive elections legislation across the nation. Check out Judith Browne Dianis, Co-Director of the Advancement Project (one of our key grant partners), speaking on MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From Advancement Project: Our outreach is continuing to build Momentum, sparking more media coverage of the largest legislative effort to scale back voting rights in a century. In a September 15, 2011 Rolling Stone article, Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis examines these efforts as a coordinated strategy to ‘. . . undermine democracy by cutting off the voices of the people.’  Advancement Project remains steadfast in its determination to safeguard voters from these anti-democratic barriers to impede access to the ballot.

Note: Both Advancement Project and the Kapor Foundation approach voter access and elections protection as nonpartisan issues.

In the spirit of twitter’s #FollowFriday, here’s one from me.

We at the Kapor Foundation know Jordan Thierry well from his role as staff member of the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation. But for the past 5 years, he’s also been director of the Black Fatherhood Project.

Most recently featured on the Open Society Foundations’ website, the Project is both a film and a nonprofit organization working to uplift a historical and present-day exploration and conversation about fatherhood in Black America. Ultimately, it will provide ”insight on how communities can come together to ensure the power of a father’s love is not lost on America’s Black children.”

As my colleague Justin Davis says about this project, “black men, fathers in particular, play an important role in the black family and within black culture. It is necessary that we understand the context for which this is so and why black fathers will have an even more significant role in the progression of the black community.”

This Friday and moving forward, you can follow Jordan and The Black Fatherhood Project by signing up for updates on his website, http://blackfatherhoodproject.com/?page_id=133.

Have a great weekend!

Cedric moderating "Quick Wits" at FCCP's Spring Convening

Taking place in Portland, Oregon, the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation’s annual Spring Convening allowed Cedric (FCCP Steering Committee member) and myself (former program director at FCCP) another great opportunity to learn about the latest and greatest happening in the field of civic engagement and to do so alongside our philanthropic colleagues.

Among many things discussed, one in particular has been of particular concern – voter suppression as a point of intersection, as an issue where separate attacks on various communities add up to something more insidious.

All data points to a new demographic reality by 2045. It’s around that year that people of color are expected to comprise the majority of the population. By most definitions, a healthy democracy would demand a parallel trend in the demographic composition of the electorate and of who votes.

This, though, isn’t the way our country is moving forward. There’s a fight right now over the composition of our electorate, both directly and less so. Here are three arenas where those fights are taking place and recent links to learn a little more about each:

• Voter ID Laws and the Voter Fraud Bogeyman – “How States are Rigging the 2012 Election” by EJ Dionne in the Washington Post
• Mass Incarceration within the U.S., namely 1 in 15 African American males ages 18 & older (combine this with voting laws disenfranchising formerly incarcerated individuals) – “[Infographic] Combating Mass Incarceration – The Facts,” ACLU
• Criminalization of Immigrants (combine this with denial of citizenship status) – “Immigrants for Sale” Video, Cuentame

The prospect of an increasingly unrepresentative electorate raises large questions, including for me: how does the ratio of residents to eligible voters, particularly if these attacks continue and succeed, compare historically? How does the ratio of residents to eligible voters compare across countries? Given the answers to these questions, how will people and parties respond to the implications of these numbers? How will they respond to the implications about what the numbers say about who we are as a country, where we’re headed and how and by whom our country will be governed?

Yes! We’re very happy to be among the initial co-signers of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy‘s new campaign, Philanthropy’s Promise, which impels grantmaking institutions to commit “at least half their grant dollars for the intended benefit of underserved communities, broadly defined, and at least one quarter of their grant dollars for systemic change efforts involving advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement.” Not only will this commitment help to channel grant dollars to communities most in need, it also offers a smart strategy for helping to maximize philanthropy’s collective impact! The Kapor Foundation is proud to join the 60+ other grantmakers, including many of our Bay Area colleagues, who have made this commitment.

Learn more about the initiative here: PhilanthropysPromise.org!

Read our statement here (pdf): Kapor Foundation’s Commitment

People, I have to say that if you’re in the house for the College Bound Brotherhood Graduation Celebration this Wednesday at the Oakland Museum, you’re in store for a beautiful evening! We’re building on the past celebration and on the momentum from this year’s Brotherhood activities. The event is close to being sold out, though! Click here for last minute registration!

Projections vary about the United States becoming a majority people of color country. Some say this shift will happen late this century, yet the latest census projections identify between 2030 and 2040 as ushering in the time when people of color will become the majority. One of our grant recipients, PolicyLink, released a great tool that will help you, your organization, and your community understand where these shifts have already occurred and project where we might see these changes take place in the coming years. The “Maps of America’s Tomorrow: Equity in a Changing Nation” is a multimedia series by PolicyLink exploring the United States changing demographics and the leaders who are making a difference as these changes take hold. These time-lapse maps run from the beginning of these shifts in the 1990s in states like California and Texas and go through the year 2040, where we are able to see these changes takes place nationally.

Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO of PolicyLink, said that within 36 hours of the release of this great tool over 200,000 people in 148 countries were able to access it. I agree with Angela when she says that the “Map of America’s Tomorrow is the catalyst of this rapid worldwide recognition of how dramatically and quickly the face of America is changing”. To follow this series of maps as they are developed, please visit www.PolicyLink.org/AmericasTomorrow.

Be sure to check out the upcoming Bay Area screening and discussion of “Beyond the Bricks,” an important documentary that has been making the rounds on the East Coast. More information is available here.