I have this weird thing about nonprofits.
While I think they’re doing tremendous acts of kindness for whatever community they’re trying to help, I find it weird when…they actually make a profit?
I don’t know. There’s something that doesn’t sit right with me when a grassroots organization that’s been started by a few people from that community turns into a commodity.
It’s kind of the same thing as volunteering when you look at it.
You volunteer at this small place for a while. You ask how you can help. The person in charge just points you to the nearest job and you do your work and go home. Now volunteering has become a job more than anything else.
Well, let me stop rambling and give you some context of why nonprofits are turning into businesses and selling the pain of others for profit.
Black Lives Matter is slowly turning into an institution.
I follow a few activists online who actually go out and do the work.
I watched a video from one of them and they talked about how the Black Lives Matter organization is corrupt…
I had to rewind my video a few times to see if I heard her right. I did hear her right. So you’re telling me that the organization that got millions of dollars last summer in donations for the George Floyd protests is corrupt? That’s a big claim to make.
But it’s true.
I did some digging and there have been numerous complaints from grassroots community organizers who haven’t seen that money funneled back into their own community. I mean, there was a whole hoopla fest around the Grammy performance Lil Baby did this year.
He basically re-enacted the death of Rayshard Brooks (who also died from police brutality over the summer) and used a lot of that imagery while activist, Tamika Mallory gave a speech.
I do think there’s something weird about musical artists and self-appointed Black Lives Matter representatives getting shine and clout from profiting off of dead Black bodies. The families aren’t seeing a return of that profit in their community. Plus, you’re making them relive that same trauma on the big screen!
Profitable activism is the wave now.
A guy from Ohio used money from a grassroots Black Lives Matter organization in Atlanta to buy luxury items.
They got mass donations from people over the summer and he used the money to buy a house and he bragged about his luxury suits and items on social media. He was charged by federal prosecutors with one count of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering.
That’s just another example of other people profiting off of Black pain to make a quick buck. Do you see how nonprofitable activism is now turning into an institution?
It’s turning into the very thing we fear most — capitalism.
Nonprofits are profitable now because it’s cool to be an activist.
The idea of nonprofits should be abolished.
There shouldn’t be an organization based on the pain of others. Now, I’m not saying that people can’t help. If you want to get nine of your friends and join in to help the community, awesome. I’m not stopping you.
The problem comes when those nine friends turn into twenty acquaintances and those twenty acquaintances turn into fifty strangers. Then the strangers keep piling up so much that you need some sort of sweatshop-looking warehouse to continue your activities.
Then boom, you’re taking the donations you made from that nonprofit and putting it in your own pocket.
I used to volunteer at Mathew 25 ministries so I know what a nonprofit-turned-job organization looks like. I volunteered with my family there and we used to go in, ask for a job, and they’d point us to it. Now they have fancy computers, card-swipe machines, they use your ID to create some sort of profile…it’s a whole mess.
Here’s an actionable tip: Keep your activism between you and your tight-knit community. Remember the reason why you and those nine friends got into it in the first place. Keep that communal environment healthy and not capitalistic.
Final Thought
I wish people would stop using nonprofits as mini-businesses to get their activist careers off the ground.
It’s even more disgusting when these people profit from the pain of others. But I digress. I hope grassroots activism stays grassroots activism and remains a communal effort.
Keep the community close first and you’ll escape the dreaded institution.
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Previously Published on medium
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