Thread by @NellieMaeEdFdn

We're about to start today's #EdEquityTalks event in a few minutes! Today's event is hosted by @VillanuevaEdgar, featuring @NickDonohueNMEF @jpalfrey and @hpennington_ with closing remarks from @vanessapdaniel! Follow this thread for live tweets of the event! #philanthropysowhite

"For Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color, white supremacy has been the preexisting condition that has exacerbated every other area of pain." @VillanuevaEdgar

.@NickDonohueNMEF and @jpalfrey both talk about the importance of recognizing white supremacy: "I didn't create white supremacy but I certainly benefit from it." -
@jpalfrey

"This is a journey that requires you to do a lot of things differently- who you hire, who you promote, who you listen to." @hpennington_

"I think philanthropy is suspicious of being in deep relationship with our grantees... and we had to turn that on its head." @hpennington_

"I'm trying to find my place in this conversation- what do I have to offer?" @NickDonohueNMEF

"I want to get going [towards justice] and I assume everyone is ready to go with me- but maybe I need to stop and make sure everyone's ready to go together." @NickDonohueNMEF on addressing harm in order to move forward

"How do we actually act in a way that is accountable to the communities we serve, one step beyond our grantees?" @jpalfrey

"You can be a full person and a powerful leader, and I think white supremacy has set up white leaders to be separate from other people so the harm we do is just part of the work. And I don't think that's true." Paraphrasing @NickDonohueNMEF talking about leadership

"Use your power to lift other people up." @NickDonohueNMEF

"I feel urgency about all of our institutions backing organizations led by people of color and understanding that we have so much more to do than just handing them the check." @hpennington_

"I am excited about the emergent change of who are leaders of philanthropy at all levels." @jpalfrey

Closing remarks from @vanessapdaniel: "This work is tough, and the stories you've shared show that there really is a possibility of progress."

"One thing I want to say to white people on the call: people of color don't want you to be powerless, we want you to use your power for good." @vanessapdaniel

"The decision to not use your power for good is a decision. It's not neutral... it's not passive, it's not weak, it's forceful, it's violent." @vanessapdaniel

"The single biggest thing for white people to take away is that the cornerstone of white supremacy is to dominate and control. Liberation can never be built from this cornerstone." @vanessapdaniel

"Who has the ultimate decision-making power?" @vanessapdaniel on what white leaders should ask to know if they are approaching their work from the white supremacist cornerstone of domination and control.

"Inviting people of color into structures in which we are accountable not to our communities but to white millionaires and billionaires who have the power to hire and fire us, that is not inviting us into power." @vanessapdaniel

.@vanessapdaniel to white people in philanthropy: "Free yourself from the lies that white supremacy taught you to keep you from your own humanity."