A Philanthropic Commitment to Dismantling White Supremacy and Anti-Blackness Must include Support for Defunding the Police
Philanthropy has a moral obligation to support the systemic changes that reverse and repair centuries of harm.
by Maria Nakae, Senior Engagement Director, Justice Funders
In this moment of awakening about the deep-seated problems of white supremacy and anti-Blackness in the United States, people and organizations from all sectors of society are coming to terms with the need for real, systemic change. Over the last month, there has been a growing demand by movements of all kinds to defund the police. It is a demand that is gaining traction, and the reason for this is crystal clear: policing is an inherently racist institution. While defunding the police will not in and of itself end systemic racism, a commitment to dismantle white supremacy and anti-Blackness must include support for defunding the police.
When we consider the fact that philanthropic wealth in the U.S. can be directly traced back to the economic practices that relied on the exploitation of Black and Brown communities — slavery, the theft of Indigenous land, and Wall Street investments in the prison industrial complex to name a few — it becomes impossible to ignore that philanthropy has a moral obligation to support the systemic changes that reverse and repair centuries of harm. By calling for the divestment of resources from a brutal and discriminatory system that has terrorized Black and Brown people since its inception, and the reinvestment of those resources into community-led solutions that support health and well-being, our sector can play a critical role in reimagining what true public safety looks like.
Modern American policing is an outgrowth of two early systems of law enforcement that were used to control the behaviors of people of color. Night watch groups policed Indigenous populations in Northern colonies, while slave patrols were created to control and discipline enslaved populations in the South. Following the end of the Civil War, Southern police forces continued to subjugate Black communities through the enforcement of “Jim Crow” segregation laws. Meanwhile, they neither intervened nor held perpetrators accountable when Black people were lynched. Policing remains a racist institution today, in which racial profiling is rampant and Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people.
This recognition that white supremacy and anti-Blackness are baked into the system of American policing is what is driving the demand to defund police. It is a demand that recognizes that, as a system that is racist at its root, policing cannot truly be reformed.
Reform simply does not work: Use-of-force regulations, body cameras and increased training have not stopped police from killing Black people, nor have they prevented police from violently beating and tear-gassing people who protest in defense of Black life. In essence, police reform is a false solution, one that merely addresses the symptoms of a problem without addressing its root causes, and will in fact worsen the problem over the long term.
It is a false solution because it further resources a racist system that has violently oppressed Black and Brown people to achieve its primary aim of protecting capital, private property and the interests of the wealthy. It is a false solution because more resources for police departments require cities to defund programs that actually keep us safe, including youth programs, housing and mental health services. It is a false solution because it does not create systemic change toward a world where resources are equitably redistributed, solutions to safety are collectively governed, and Black and Brown people have dignity and freedom to thrive.
The unequivocal call to defund the police, as well as the unapologetic assertion that police reform is a false solution, is a clear indication that funders committed to supporting movements for justice have a responsibility to throw their support behind this movement-identified priority.
If philanthropy fails to follow the lead of Black-led organizations and movements in this moment, and instead reacts to police violence with increased funding for police reform, we risk engaging in what professor Megan Ming Francis calls “movement capture,” whereby funders use their financial leverage to redirect the political agendas of social movements. The term was coined in an article in which Francis describes how, in the early 1900s, white funders pressured the NAACP to shift its focus away from its aggressive advocacy to end lynchings and racist mob violence toward more moderate issues of education and economic opportunity.
Given that racist police and vigilante violence against Black people continues to this day, Francis’ research is a stark warning against philanthropy’s insistence on wielding power over grantees and tightly controlling the decision-making processes over how resources are allocated.
If we are to learn from the mistakes of the past, philanthropy must shed its ingrained practice of allowing funding priorities to be set by wealthy (often white) donors and trustees, and instead follow the lead of Black-led organizations who are fighting relentlessly to defend Black life and defund the police.
By doing so, philanthropy can help to usher a Just Transition toward a regenerative economy that “redress(es) past harms and creat(es) new relationships of power for the future through reparations.”
The demand to defund police exemplifies the vision and values of a Just Transition by shifting economic resources away from an extractive, exploitative system that unjustly targets Black and Brown communities and into systems that create community safety and resilience such as youth, education and public health programs.
This transfer of financial resources out of police budgets and into community investments in true public safety is not merely an immediate solution to racist police violence, but also part of a long-term strategy to return stolen wealth to the communities from which that wealth was taken, and create the cultural and economic transformations needed to build a regenerative economy.
This transfer of resources, along with a transfer of power about how those resources are allocated, is one in which philanthropy can play a catalytic role.
In addition to supporting this transfer of public resources, philanthropy can align its own, private resources with the priorities of Black-led organizations and movements. This includes divesting grant dollars from police reform work, divesting endowments from any holdings in the carceral state including the prison and military industrial complexes, and reinvesting in grassroots organizing for real solutions to health and public safety that center community governance.
Like our movements who are calling on governments and educational institutions to reassess their spending priorities, philanthropy must also reassess its priorities by considering the following: How was our foundation’s wealth accumulated, and who was harmed in the process? What makes our communities feel safe? Are we investing in solutions that create safety and resilience, or are we funding the systems that perpetuate further harm?
It’s hard to imagine a world without police because it is an institution that has always existed as part of our daily lives. But the work of building a more just and thriving world requires us to radically expand our imaginations beyond what we think is politically feasible, envision the kind of future we truly deserve, and do the hard work of actualizing a world that we never thought was possible.
We invite you to read the other posts in our series on Dismantling White Supremacy & Anti-Blackness in Philanthropy:
- Dismantling White Supremacy & Anti-Blackness in Philanthropy: A letter to our colleagues in philanthropy
- Philanthropy’s role in dismantling white supremacy and anti-Blackness toward a Just Transition
- Can philanthropy relinquish enough power and control to support BIPOC communities in governing resources for themselves?
- How Philanthropy Gets to Transformation: The Human Experience of Change
