re-post: Love, Challenge, and Insights: Organizing Wealthy Folks

here's my latest on the RG blog. Eep!

Love, Challenge, and Insights: Organizing Wealthy Folks (re-posted below)

I love the crap out of rich people. RG has helped show me that. Meeting dozens and dozens of wealthy people, each and every one who is smart, thoughtful, and wanting so badly to do right by the world—time and time again, I am bowled over by the sheer magnitude of kindness and generosity in this community.

And organizing RG’s base has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever taken on. Y’all are a tough crowd! For good reason. Pretty much every message in the world tells wealthy people to run away from coming together and from envisioning a more connected, community-based, “less-is-more” kind of world.

Personally, I’m no exception. I love my job, and the people I work with… and, it is still a huge struggle for me to stay committed to being deeply involved with my community of young people with wealth.

As a young person, I’m being told the world is my oyster, and I should be testing the water on all sorts of fronts—parts of me want to forgo all commitments (like to RG and organizing with rich people) and run away. Parts of me are sick of examining my own privilege and reminding myself and others that rich people have a strategic and important role to play—at times the work feels unsexy, uncool, and boring. Parts of me want to keep a lot of the money I inherited “just in case” I decide I want to take time off from paid work, or I wake up one day and realize I do “need” a suburban house with a yard and no mortgage. Some days I really think I might.

Y’all in the RG community (and I mean you all—young and older, wealthy and middle and working class alike) help remind me why I try to stay committed to organizing—and being organized as—young people with wealth. Its not always easy, as everyone knows, to stick with something—or anything—for the long haul. It’s deep! But it’s the people at RG and the commitment you express that keep me here. It keeps me grounded. Hear that? At the end of the day, you all keep me grounded!

And I wanted to share a few trends I’ve learned about us over my past few years of organizing in this community of young wealthy folks. They are broad generalizations, but… any of them resonate for you? (I see myself reflected in most of them, whether I like to admit it or not.)

• As rich people, we’re often told we are self-sufficient and should get everything done by ourselves. No interdependency required if we can buy everything we need! So we easily forget to ask for help or lean on each other—despite intellectually knowing that this is how you really get close to people and really build community.

• Most of us haven’t been taught how to depend on other people. Like really depend. We haven’t been forced to need other people and seen them come through for us, so this makes it hard for us to build trusting relationships and not be afraid to get messy. (I hope you’ve gotten the memo that social change is gonna be messy).

• We’re encouraged to travel the world and not put down roots. We’re not forced to get a job. It’s been modeled for us that we are entitled to not have to stick with commitment, so we have trouble building deep relationships, and sticking with a community, people and places.

• We think we’re exceptional and always have an “out” of anything we dive into or tinker with. We can change our minds on anything if we have the money to pay for the fallout, so we back out when stuff feels hard, can’t seem to plan ahead, or change our minds about what we want.

• We have the endless privilege and burden of having anything we want (that money can buy)… so we think whatever particular project we are involved in, or whatever we want to see through, is the most important. We have trouble trusting the thinking of other people in what to prioritize or what is best for the community or movement as a whole.

• Most of us haven’t been taught that living in a world with such vast wealth disparity, and being cut off from the majority of humanity as the people at “the top” is terrible for us… so a lot of folks in RG easily forget that we are doing this work for ourselves. We forget that we get to reclaim connection, relationships and work.

• We forget how important social change is for our own well-being… so it’s easy for wealthy people to run away from RG, like it’s easy to run away from lots of things in our lives.

Often people will say that RG’s work is different from marginalized people fighting for justice. Those folks are dedicated to the fight because a “win”—say, affordable healthcare—would have a direct positive affect on their lives. At RG, some people assume our fighting is optional. We can choose to confront our privilege, we can choose to go against the grain of wealth accumulation and capitalism, or we can choose to walk away. We can choose to leave the fight, no skin off our back.

Well, sure. It’s very true that our lives are not literally on the line. I’m not out to pretend like there’s the same urgency behind making better lives for rich people as there is for communities being slammed by injustice.

But I am out to say that there is some urgency behind it. It is absolutely necessary that there is a big, healthy dose of positive transformation for wealthy folks in order to build the world we all want to see. Transformation that means grounding in our humanity as generous, symbiotic, social beings that are at our best when everyone is taken care of well.

This transformation is a BIG project. This takes time, love, commitment, and thoughtfulness. This means not moving every six months, so we can actually build relationships with people (wealthy or not) around us. This transformation means remembering to prioritize attention to the RG community, and reminding other wealthy people how important this type of work is. It looks like deconstructing and reconstructing our perceptions of reality and our creative imaginations, envisioning a world in which we feel awesome about ourselves, where we get to be dependent on and close to and trusting of all sorts of other people, and get to learn from all the brilliant minds that we’ve been divided from for so long.

So, I love the heck out of organizing rich kids (yep, I said it). Getting to figure this out and fight for it is one of the most incredible and personally-satisfying projects I’ve ever taken on.

Do me a favor, young people with wealth: challenge yourself to be organizable. Challenge yourself to become an organizer and leader in this community yourself. Open up to it and let it in. There are many ways to do this. Here are a few ideas:

• Respond to the doodle poll: Scheduling things to happen is not to be underestimated!

• Ask for help: What do you need? A more socially-conscious financial adviser to shift your investments? Guidance for creating a giving plan? Support to introduce the idea of non-family board members to your family foundation? Reach out to the RG community—there is so much expertise.

• Offer help: We all have so many experiences and so much expertise in different areas. When someone sends a question out over a listserv that you can help answer, respond!

• Stick it out: Everyone has a lot on their plate and we should all be trying to pick quality over quantity (see next bullet). But once you commit, really commit. Joined a Praxis group? Then do your darndest to make it the best it can be, whether you’re brand new or a primary facilitator. No one responding to the email about scheduling your next meeting? Send out a reminder! Don’t let it slide, even if it gets hard. And see bullet #2—don’t be afraid to ask for help.

• Slow down: Don’t take on too much. No matter how excited you are, adopting 100 projects will devalue your ability to do any of them well. Outside RG, this looks like committing to a few organizations or causes and diving deep into the role you play. Inside RG, this looks like committing to a few projects and then going for them full-throttle.

• Work with others: Everyone has so many fabulous ideas about what we can do at RG, and its gonna take a lot of different perspectives—definitely not just from wealthy folks—to make RG’s work the best it can be.

• Remember the person or people who have inspired you, and be that to someone. Talk to somebody new about why you’re involved.

Remember how much this community means to you, and remember to stay in the fight. It’s for you!

tooting my own horn

there are so many updates to be had! none more important than the next. BUT i'm going to choose to do this one thing, which i feel kinda funny about but is just posting links to some press i've been in lately, since it's cool and new (and scary as hell) for me to be so visible. (gentle if its critical) commentary is most welcome.

• al jazeera english, dishing about taxing the wealthy
  
• on AFP talking 'bout why I, as a wealthy person, fight for economic justice
• huffington post spot on why the 1% should support the occupy movement (at 0:54 seconds)
  

BONUS: POOR's amazing new "decolonizers guide to a humble revolution." i wasn't a part of putting this together but the title is enough to make you want more, right?!

xo

We are the 1 Percent, We Stand with the 99 Percent

Check out our Tumblr! Pictures! Stories!

We are the 1 Percent, We Stand with the 99 Percent

(Are you in the 1%-ish? Make your own and post it!)

Xo

Speaking out! 1% for the 99%

Check out this article by the fabulous Pete Redington in the Valley Advocate, about Occupy Wall Street, Resource Generation, me :) and speaking out in solidarity with the 99%.

"Raise My Taxes: A wealthy Northampton activist brings her powerful message to the Occupy Wall Street protests"

xo

Re: Occupy Wall St

y'all, it's been a tiring weekend. i have lots of thoughts on all of this but none all-too coherent yet. for now, here's some links to please check out re: this occupy wall street business.

also: my sign at occupy wall st:



Really great reflections from Brown Power on POC presence at Occupy Wall St.

More reflections, from Racialicious, on colonialism and the weight of the act of "occupation"

Good footage of the first folks getting arrested at the Bridge. Cops a lot more aggressive than they were by the time they got to us "ladies"...

Look how fast the Great and Powerful can influence headlines to re-spin stories.

Sarah Abbott's smart query: Thinking about what it means to use the language of Occupation re:Occupy Wall Street, by non-native folks on native land. Good image circulating that says "Decolonize Wall Street: Decolonize the 99%". Truth. We need to push ourselves to shape language and demands that recognize our history of genocide and fight to address it

Aforementioned powerful "Decolonize Wall Street" image.

and, my question: does anyone know what the deal is with Safety at these demos, and being in solidarity with folks who are at high risk of being arrested/really can't be arrested? aka, those of us with race and class privilege and job safety getting in the way of the arrests of folks for whom arrest would bring a lot more severe consequences...this seems like another key role for RG-esque folks to be playing and i haven't heard of any formalized contingents yet.

big asks with a full heart

i made a big ask of my parents recently to make a $5,000 gift to POOR magazine (20 times more than any gift they've ever given on my behalf). i put a lot of energy and thought into the email i wrote them, and thought it might be useful to share. it's below.

(*spoiler alert* it was received with a prompt, enthusiastic, and loving response, and "yes" to my ask!)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hey mom and dad!

Hope you're having a good anniversary, despite mom being in another state :) I'm so excited to see you guys in just a little over a week!

This summer, we talked about giving and loaning money (for instance -- mom, on that hike in Menemsha Hills; dad, on a bike ride about the YMCA solar panel loan project). It was so great talking to both of you and recognizing how far we've come even in the past couple of years in being able to have really great, dynamic, adult conversations about money!

As I've done for the past few years, I'm asking people in lieu of gifts to please give a donation to POOR Magazine. As you know, I've been deeply involved in POOR for the past 2 1/2 years, and continue to find it an incredible source of education, growth, and community on a personal level, and an awesome, cutting-edge, game-changing organization on the institutional level.

I want to ask you guys to give POOR $5,000 in honor of my 25th birthday. It's the same amount that I'm giving them this year.

As I told mom this summer, the reason why POOR has been so incredible for me is that I've learned so much about myself through the process of being on the Solidarity Board. The Solidarity Board is a group of about 5 young wealthy folks like myself who literally use our privilege to help the work of POOR move forward.

This looks like: us helping with fundraising. Us using our college-level-writing skills to help edit a new book they're putting out. Us doing the logistical back-end work and research to go to a land auction in Oakland and actually purchase land for POOR's Homefulness project (more below**). Us using our networks to connect POOR to pro-bono lawyers, researching architects, filling out government loan forms, testing the soil on our land, calculating square footage and materials needed, etc, to help build Homefulness.

Being on the Solidarity Board has also had huge implications for me personally. As an owning (upper) class person, there are deep-seeded ideas within me that working class or poor people won't like me because I have money. Or, that they will only like me because I have money. All my life I've been very conscious of the class background of people in my life, and have noticeably often run away from deep relationships with people who I fear would judge me for having money. I also struggle with the feeling that the history of mom's side of the family is "bad" because a lot of our ancestors did fucked up things like own slaves. Yet again, I often feel like there are no "right" places for me to be a leader, because as a privileged person, I don't deserve to have my voice heard, or to step up into leadership, or to be made to feel important.

None of these things have anything to do with you guys, I hope you realize!! The point of saying all of that is to say: being on the Solidarity Board has changed so much of that. Working with the folks at POOR, notably one of the founders, named Tiny, has taught me that my story is valuable. That I'm wanted and needed and liked by poor folks, and people of color. That I have a key, and very important, role to play in the social justice movement that is beyond just giving money away. That my family is important; crucial, in fact, for me to maintain and build ever-stronger ties to, and for me to learn about and deeply explore. Did you guys know that POOR is the reason why I started thinking about moving back home?!

So, in a nutshell, POOR has been hugely transformative for me. If you remember the chronology, the first year I starting digging into this class & wealth redistribution stuff it was sometimes challenging for us to talk about privilege and money and giving. I was reactive and judgmental and impatient, and felt like you were not trusting of me. I won't try and put words in your mouths, but you can probably remember whatever it was YOU were feeling at the time :) After my first year at Resource Generation, I gained enough skills and confidence to venture to the weekend-long session at POOR...and that's when things shifted in terms of me being able to slow down, think more broadly, and not be so...angsty, or something. It helped me grow, to be able to engage in conversations and have perspectives (like, how quickly giving away the majority of my money wouldn't solve all the world's problems).

Anyway, this is getting long. I want to remind/tell you a little more about Homefulness, specifically.

** This summer, we helped POOR navigate the crazy system of land-acquisition and bought a piece of property in Oakland!!! (POOR is based in the Bay, CA). It's on a residential street. There is a dilapidated building and space for a garden. To paraphrase Tiny, the vision of POOR is "a project rooted in the landlessness of so many of our [poor] people. It’s a sweat-equity cohousing model, meaning that people will work in the community in exchange for living there. The vision includes gardens, microbusinesses, community spaces... the idea is about moving off the grid of social-service management of poor people’s lives. It’s about creating healing and equity for landless, urban, indigena families." As a permanent solution to landlessness - they will own their own space.

As I said, we already bought the land and are currently securing a government loan for building, vetting our pro-bono architect options, and searching our more funding sources. The vision is to construct a 4-story building, that will have space for media equipment, training and performing art, as well as 6 units of low-income housing (which we might be able to secure as Section 8, getting additional government assistance for the cost of building). As much as possible we will use recycled products and "green" the building. The POOR office is already virtually a community center, but it's currently a tiny, rented space. The Homefulness project would create a true community center--materialize that reality.

Specifically, residences in the co-housing project and POOR community members will connect to community spaces through:

• A site for POOR's F.A.M.I.L.Y. program (Family Access to Multicultural Intergenerational Learning with our Youth), an on-site child care and education project for homeless children and families that incorporates a multi-cultural and multi-lingual curriculum centered around social justice and arts for families and children of all ages
• A site for POOR's offices and all their media training and educational programming
• A site for Uncle Al & Mama Dee’s Café, POOR's cafe & performance art space
  

Ok, I will let you go now. Sorry this got to be so long...as you know, I'm a long-winded writer. I would love to talk to you more about this. I love you tons and will no matter what you decide about giving, of course! And, it would mean so, so much to me if you gave POOR the $5,000 in honor of my birthday.

LASTLY! I want to respond to the "asks" you each made of me this summer as well.

• Mom, you made a big ask of me to give to the Care Center, I believe $3,000. I've thought a lot about it, and decided that if you two are willing to give the $5,000 to POOR, I will make a contribution of $1,000 to Care Center (given that I am one person and you are two, and that you collectively earn a lot more money than I do). I trust and want to support the things you are excited about.
• Dad, I continue to be excited about the YMCA solar panel project. I believe you asked me to loan $10,000 -- I am happy to do that! Let me know when its set up.
  

Lots and lots of love,
Jessie

rock on, dad!

my dad is a city councilor in northampton, MA and last night they passed a unanimous resolution to opt out of "secure communities." what's more, they passed a "sanctuary" resolution that reads:

"“Municipal employees of Northampton, including law enforcement employees, shall not monitor, stop, detain, question, interrogate, or search a person for the purpose of determining that individual’s immigration status. Officers shall not inquire about the immigration status of any crime victim, witness, or suspect, unless such information is directly relevant to the investigation, nor shall they refer such information to federal immigration enforcement authorities unless the information developed is directly relevant.”

rock on, dad!