The massacre of 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, shook the small nation to its core — as people around the world bore witness to this horrific act of violence, which was livestreamed on social-media platforms that enable hate.
On Saturday, in Poway, Calif., a white nationalist opened fire in a synagogue on the last day of Passover, killing one woman and injuring the rabbi, an 8-year-old girl, and others. Just one day earlier, the shooter began his rampage online citing Christchurch and the mass shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest anti-Semitic hate crime in America’s history, as his inspiration for white supremicist violence.
That same day, President Trump also doubled down on defending his statements about “very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville.
While the President named the attack in California for the anti-Semitic hate crime it is, he said he doesn’t think white nationalism is a growing threat in the United States or elsewhere. I vehemently disagree. That’s why it’s important that all of us in philanthropy call out white nationalism for what it is — a terror movement grounded in centuries of white supremacy. A social movement that is undermining democracy and our shared values of pluralism, compassion, and fairness. We must count it, condemn it, and confront it.
The truth is that hate crimes are rising, and hate groups are at a record high. Just last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said white supremacy presents a “persistent” and “pervasive” threat to the United States.
Over 10 days at the end of March, three historic black churches in Louisiana were destroyed in acts that the NAACP has named domestic terrorism, reflecting the “emboldened racial rhetoric and tension spreading across the country.” And a white-power symbol was found near the burned-down main office building of the Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee, a sacred place that trained Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and where the history of social-justice movements was held to inspire the next generation of leaders.
Communities across America are still suffering from and trying to heal from horrific terror inflicted by white nationalists, including the Oak Creek gurdwara in Wisconsin, and the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, as well as violence at the 2017 Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Va. Ethnic-supremacist violence is a global trend, causing harm to societies as diverse as India, Israel, Italy, Poland, Russia, and more.
All of us in leadership roles, whether we’re president of a country or an organization, must tell the truth about what is really happening in America and around the world and commit to standing with those brave enough to confront it.
Denounce White Nationalists
At the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which I lead, we have grown increasingly concerned about white nationalism. In the past three years, we have channeled new and increased grant making to support nonprofits that track extremist activity, train communities and movement leaders about the manifestations of white supremacy — including anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, and religious bigotry of all forms — and build powerful forces of people organizing to defend our democracy and hold our leaders accountable.
We must denounce policies that encourage or coddle white nationalists. We cannot forget that a ban on Muslim travelers is still in place or that in any given year, dozens of anti-Muslim bills are introduced in state legislatures and municipal governments. White nationalism can show up in policy and practice in any number of institutions, including police departments, polling places, courts, schools, banks, and more. And we must hold accountable the social platforms that are, quite literally, profiting from the spread of hate.
We need only look at the example of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to know what courageous leaders do at times like these. She acted swiftly to counter the violence by enacting a military assault-weapons ban. She focused her energy, and the gaze of the world, on using her platform to call upon the strength of our communities when united, rather than stoking division and glorifying the hateful.
Here in the United States, the House Judiciary Committee took an important step in April when it held a hearing on “Hate Crimes and the Rise of White Nationalism.”
Nonprofits that Nathan Cummings supports provided testimony that brought the truth to light. Bend the Arc Pittsburgh provided testimony from survivors of the Tree of Life shooting. The Anti-Defamation League testified that 78 percent of all extremist-related murders in the United States in 2018 were committed by white supremacists and noted that research shows a clear corollary “to the rise in polarizing and hateful rhetoric on the part of candidates and elected leaders.” The Western States Center also raised the alarm against threats to our communities and leaders, pointing to an increase in white-nationalist rhetoric and recruitment in schools and a spike in anti-government activity and threats to government officials.
As Western States Center also noted in its testimony, “White nationalism is also deeply rooted in historic and contemporary anti-Semitism and misogyny. It falsely promotes the conspiracy theory that Jews, people of color, women, and immigrants are responsible for perceived threats to white demographic, cultural, and political dominance.” This same conspiracy theory was used by Facebook to undermine the efforts of the racial-justice group Color of Change and the Open Markets Institute-led coalition Freedom From Facebook, two organizations that Nathan Cummings supports.
As a multigenerational family foundation rooted in Jewish social-justice values, we are clear-eyed about rising anti-Semitism: It is real and dangerous, and it is being weaponized to divide communities and attack leaders fighting for a multiracial democracy.
5 Steps for Foundations to Take
Together we can deactivate hate. Our foundation is inspired by the work of our grantees, and we urge all in philanthropy to join the call to stop hate. Here are five things foundations can do to support these efforts right now.
Raise the alarm about growing white nationalism.
Western States Center, Political Research Associates, and the Anti-Defamation League are providing research, analysis, and training to help the country understand white nationalism so we can see the threat for what it is and push back effectively.
Support efforts to fight back in radical solidarity.
Hate threatens all of us, but we are stronger when we work together to involve people from multiple backgrounds and identities. Nonprofits like the Pillars Fund, Bend the Arc, Faith in Action, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, the Religious Action Center, T’ruah, and New Israel Fund are using their collective voice to condemn hate and stand in unity with all those targeted by it.
Build the political and economic power of targeted and marginalized people to tip the scales in the fight against policies that institutionalize white nationalism.
Community Change, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Jobs With Justice, Mijente, and Jolt Initiative are organizing against policies that target immigrants and for solutions that strengthen all families. This June, the Poor People Campaign’s Moral Action Congress will bring people from all 50 states to Capitol Hill to demand action on poverty and the real emergencies facing 140 million people living in poverty in the United States.
Expand and nurture a culture that ensures we live in a world where all flourish.
Groups like Auburn Seminary, the Revolutionary Love Project, and the Faith Matters Network are helping to provide the spiritual guides that movements need, lifting up the power of prophetic voices, and building the possibility of a world repaired and healed.
Use our financial and institutional clout to pressure social-media and technology companies to tackle hate on their platforms.
Based on the Action Center on Race & the Economy’s report “Delivering Hate,” Nathan Cummings Foundation used its status as an investor to submit a shareholder proposal asking Amazon to report on its efforts to address hate speech and the sale of offensive products. Amazon fought to exclude our proposal from its proxy statement, but the Securities and Exchange Commission concluded it focuses on an issue that is significant for Amazon, and our proposal will go to a vote later this spring. Color of Change, Center for Media Justice, Action Center on Race & the Economy, and Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility are pushing corporations to curb hate on their platforms through campaigns, shareholder and investor organizing, and other strategies.
Charting a Course of Action
This is the moment for philanthropy to come together.
In Pittsburgh, the Jewish Federation collected donations for Muslim families in New Zealand after the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh raised $250,000 from Muslims all over the country to help the families of Jews who were killed. Amalgamated Bank recently launched a “Hate Is Not Charitable Campaign” that calls on donor-advised funds to screen out hate groups and cut off their funding. Thirty foundations, DAF providers, and donor networks have joined so far.
This spring, the Nathan Cummings Foundation will gather our grantees to join a philanthropic roundtable of local and national foundations to discuss the threat white nationalism poses to social justice and democracy, issues we all care so deeply about. These discussions will illuminate how to use all our resources to face this threat with the courage required.
When I think about this moment in history, I think about my Aunt Annie Daniels. A Jewish woman born in New Jersey, Aunt Annie served as chief court reporter during the trial of Hermann Goering, Hitler’s deputy and the second-highest-ranking Nazi on trial at Nuremberg. I think about her sitting through months of hearings as the atrocities of the genocide against the Jews in Europe were recounted and as one of its chief architects sat in the room claiming ignorance and innocence. I think about what it took for my aunt to show up every day so that history would know the truth — so that we would know the truth.
Under our watch, no one should be able to argue credibly that white supremacy and white nationalism aren’t threats to our democracy, our economic security, and the health and vitality of the social fabric of our communities.
I urge everyone in the nonprofit world to add your voice to collective, courageous action to move us from tragedy to transformation. We must commit ourselves to bearing witness and stand with leaders who are confronting white nationalism and the violence it unleashes.
Sharon Alpert is chief executive of the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
