#1284 How progressive philanthropy strangles progress
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2019
⏱️ 84 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Air Date: 6/25/2019
Today we take a look at the surprisingly varied ways that progressive, well-meaning, do-gooding philanthropists have consistently held back the social movements they are attempting to help and have strangled attempts to implement truly egalitarian policies designed to help everyone
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: How philanthropy captures social movements - Tiny Spark - Air Date 3-21-19
Megan Ming Francis explains how philanthropists—even well-intentioned ones—can “capture” the social movements they fund and, in doing so, steer grassroots organizations and activists away from their original missions.
Toxic Avenger extraordinaire, Walter Hang, joins us to talk about how they outlawed fracking in New York State and why Big Green groups have failed to stop Donald Trump’s anti-environment agenda
Ch. 3: How Nonprofits Made the LGBT Movement Straight with Myrl Beam - Tiny Spark - Air Date 10-11-18
Myrl Beam started to notice the ways big philanthropy, corporate sponsors, and wealthy donors stymied the LGBTQ movement from his own experiences working in nonprofits.
Ch. 4: Anand Giridharadas: Winners take all - Jacobin Radio - Air Date 9-27-18
Anand Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All, on the win-win business- and plutocrat-friendly philanthropy of today’s nouveau riche.
Stanford professor Rob Reich’s new book Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better investigates how charity can undermine democratic values and explores the ways federal policies help to facilitate greater inequality.
Dana Kawaoka-Chen partners and guides philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world. She is a co-author of “The Choir Book: A Framework for Social Justice Philanthropy”
Ch. 7: Fragility, frustration and funding - Tiny Spark - Air Date 2-7-19
Whether vocally critiquing the sector on his blog Nonprofit AF, or working to develop leaders of color at his nonprofit in Seattle, Vu Le’s frustrations fuel his drive to make the industry do better.
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 8: A reading and watching list for you - V from Central New York
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 9: Final comments on the Prisoner's Dilemma of fighting for just causes
MUSIC(Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Beast on the Soil - Desert Orchard
- Glass Runner - Marble Run
- Chrome and Wax - Ray Catcher
- Milkwood - The Cabinetmaker
- Rafter - Speakeasy
- Glass Beads - The Balloonist
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This program is made possible by members and donors to the show. |
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| 0:18.9 | Sign up at patreon.com slash best of left or visit the contribute tab at bestofleft.com. |
| 0:25.9 | Now welcome to this episode of the award winning best of left podcast in which we shall learn |
| 0:31.1 | about the surprisingly varied ways that progressive, well-meaning, do-gooding philanthropists |
| 0:38.8 | have consistently held back the social movements they're attempting to help |
| 0:43.2 | and have strangled attempts to implement truly egalitarian policies designed to help everyone. |
| 0:49.7 | Clips today come from Tiny Spark, the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Jacobin Radio, and next economy now. |
| 1:03.2 | For me, it was just kind of the story about the celebratory story, right? |
| 1:07.9 | About a foundation and a Black Civil Rights organization that basically combined forces and were |
| 1:15.2 | able to change the very framework of Jim Crow as it relates to education and therefore kind of |
| 1:20.3 | change the trajectory of civil rights in this country. And I like that story and I think a lot of |
| 1:25.2 | us like that story. The problem is that narrative isn't accurate according to Megan Ming Francis. |
| 1:31.1 | She's associate professor of political science at the University of Washington and author of |
| 1:35.4 | civil rights and the making of the modern American state. More recently, Francis wrote a paper for |
| 1:40.8 | the Law and Society review entitled The Price of Civil Rights, Black Lives, White Funding, |
| 1:47.4 | and Movement Capture. In it, she looks closely at the relationship between the NAACP and its main |
| 1:54.0 | funder, the Garland Fund, and a long-held narrative about the collaborative relationship between the two. |
| 2:01.0 | I basically uncovered a different narrative and the narrative that I think I disrupt is that kind of |
| 2:08.3 | the traditional narrative about the education desegregation campaign being a collaborative effort |
| 2:13.8 | between the NAACP and the Garland Fund. It was a bit more fraught than what we have thought |
... |
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