\n<\/p>\n
Solidarity is how we win.<\/p>\n
Last month, the Democracy Alliance \u2013 a network of foundations, individual donors, and unions \u2013 took the first trip of its kind for our community, gathering in Alabama to mark the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. With our co-hosts Black Voters Matter<\/a> and the Alabama Alliance, we retraced the steps of Black civil rights leaders who were met with police batons and dogs and vigilantes. And who refused to turn back.<\/p>\n Selma is an intense reminder that the threats we are facing today have deep roots. Trump 2.0 is the latest chapter in an epic struggle between two ideas of America: one grounded in white supremacy and violent domination, another grounded in multiracial democracy. What is<\/em> new is us: the people living through it.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, we are witnessing some law firms, universities, and other institutions choose to appease rather than stand up to authoritarianism.\u00a0<\/p>\n But capitulation is neither the right thing to do nor the right strategy to win.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bravery of civil rights and racial justice leaders, and solidarity from allies across all walks of life, is the most powerful lesson we all need now. Because the question they answered with courage and sacrifice now faces all of us across philanthropy and far beyond. When we look back on this moment in history, what did each of us do?<\/p>\n Fear is not unfounded\u2014but we must not turn back<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s important to begin by acknowledging what we are all feeling: fear. This moment is<\/em> scary. From harassment and targeting of individuals, to attacks on our institutions, the threats are real and our eyes are open.<\/p>\n But we can\u2019t let fear leave us frozen\u2014or silent. In the words of Audre Lorde: \u201cYour silence will not protect you.\u201d History shows us that staying silent in the face of authoritarian threats only serves to embolden the authoritarian. For Trump in particular, his whole life shows us his playbook: power is rooted in the perception of power. <\/em>The more who fall in line and refuse to speak up, the greater that perceived power grows. Our silence is his strategy.<\/p>\n The launch today of an open letter from foundation leaders<\/a> offers a powerful example of a courageous and effective path forward. As Tonya Allen, Deepak Bhargava, and John Palfrey write<\/a>: \u201ccomplacency is complicity. Foundations must lead\u2014not just with grants, but with guts.\u201d<\/p>\n Momentum is building. The recent open letter from civil rights leaders<\/a>, organized by Maya Wiley and the Leadership Conference, along with a letter from law school deans<\/a> also demonstrate the power of collective voices.<\/p>\n The sheer act of speaking up, and importantly speaking together<\/a>, is itself a direct threat to authoritarian power. It is strategic. It matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stay united<\/strong><\/p>\n If the administration can\u2019t silence us, they are hellbent on dividing us. We must understand their strategy. Today\u2019s authoritarians are choosing their targets carefully and deliberately because they want to distract and divide our own voices.<\/p>\n Case in point: the abductions of Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk and many other student activists who voiced opposition to the war in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n By specifically labeling and targeting activists engaged in peaceful protest antisemitic, they seek to drive a wedge between those who would otherwise speak out. If they can convince just enough people\u2014and institutions\u2014to choose silence, this brazen denial of our most basic Constitutional rights will become the new status quo for all.<\/p>\n We must all see and then speak the truth: This is a direct attack on First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. It is an attack on all of us. We should all be speaking up.<\/p>\n The NEA offered a powerful example of a clear and principled response, releasing an open letter<\/a> from President Becky Pringle shortly after Mahmoud Khalil\u2019s abduction stating: \u201cThis violation of First Amendment rights is an assault on the core freedoms and values we hold as educators, students, parents, and community members.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Move resources boldly<\/strong><\/p>\n The most important thing we can do is move money at a scale that matches the threat. And we must ensure those resources reach the movement leaders on the frontlines of the fight for democracy. Here again, MAGA is working around the clock on a strategy to stop us.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be clear: When the administration says it is targeting<\/a> \u201cDEI,\u201d what it actually seeks is the full-scale destruction of civil rights and racial justice infrastructure \u2013 infrastructure that funders have invested for decades to build. Most of all, it wants funders and donors to do their work for them. <\/em>The goal is to cause <\/em>just enough funders <\/em>to overread the legal risk of the administration\u2019s threats, obey in advance, and cut or pivot funding on their own.<\/p>\n This is an administration that never stops talking about race and gender<\/a> \u2013 while seeking to intimidate others from doing the hard work of advancing racial and gender justice. Black-led organizations had already begun to face a steep drop-off in funding since George Floyd\u2019s murder in 2020. Our democracy depends on us not only continuing \u2013 but radically increasing \u2013 support for pro-democracy leaders committed to the struggle for racial and gender justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n Solidarity has always been how we win<\/strong><\/p>\n As the history of the civil rights movement calls us to action, it also reminds of the immense power of solidarity: when people across race, class, age, and place chose courage and decided to do their part. In the summer of 1964, a group of three young Black and white activists: James Chaney, 22, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, responded to the call of Freedom Summer to help lead a voter registration drive in Meridian, Mississippi. Soon, they were brutally murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is for us the living to dedicate ourselves that these dead shall not have died in vain,\u201d said<\/a> Andrew\u2019s father, Robert Goodman, as he echoed Abraham Lincoln\u2019s words at Gettysburg a hundred years earlier.<\/p>\n Today that call extends to all of us. As we stand on the shoulders of giants who got us this far, and as we are led by brave and brilliant movement leaders who take enormous risks to fight for freedom and democracy today, funders must bring their own power to the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n This administration is coming for every issue we care about, because each is central to consolidating power. From reproductive rights<\/a> to LGBTQ+ rights<\/a>, immigrants\u2019 rights<\/a> to education<\/a>, climate action<\/a> to voting rights<\/a>, the real-time destruction of rights and infrastructure is an existential threat.<\/p>\n Authoritarians will never be able to beat a pro-democracy movement that successfully links across race, age, class, place\u2014and sectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n The only question now is: will we all join it?<\/p>\n Pamela Shifman is president of the Democracy Alliance.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Solidarity is how we win. Last month, the Democracy Alliance \u2013 a network of foundations, individual donors, and unions \u2013 took the first trip of its kind for our community, gathering in Alabama to mark the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. With our co-hosts Black Voters Matter and the Alabama Alliance, we retraced the steps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":285116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115004,115005],"tags":[87710,115006,1254],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-285115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-democracy-alliance-blog","category-from-the-president","tag-boldness","tag-braveryand","tag-call"],"yoast_head":"\n