Giving Compass' Take:

• In this blog post from Nonprofit AF, Vu Le explores the often-heated discussions among colleagues and friends in the sector around issues of social justice, and how understanding is sometimes in short supply.

• This is a nuanced, thoughtful call for better interpersonal relationships in the nonprofit sector, especially among those who are driving toward the same goals. It's NOT a call for "civility," but rather "grace" and "patience."

• Here's the importance of trust when it comes to social justice funding.

A while ago, activist Frances Lee wrote “Excommunicate Me from the Church of Social Justice,” a thought-provoking article that led to a lot of needed discussions. Lee wrote:

Activists are some of the judgiest people I’ve ever met, myself included. We work hard to expose injustice and oppression in the world. But among us, grace and forgiveness are hard to come by. It is a terrible thing to fear my own community members, and know they’re probably just as afraid of me.

I’ve been noticing similar patterns, both online and offline. There are expectations of perfection. There is little room for forgiveness. There is often the one-strike-and-you’re-human-garbage mentality. If you don’t know the latest terms and concepts, if you make a mistake, or if you simply ARE a particular identity, then you are a terrible and irredeemable person whose presence does nothing but add to the oppressive systems everyone ELSE is trying to fight. We are all walking on social justice eggshells, always one misstep away from having all the good that we are, that we’ve done, invalidated.

What also disheartens me is seeing progressive leaders weaponize social justice terminology and concepts against others, including other progressives. Terms like mansplaining, gaslighting, heteronormative, patriarchy, etc., serve as useful common language for us to identify the issues we’re working on; but lately it seems they’ve been used just as frequently to one-up and shut down others.

A colleague of mine told me she left an online group after sharing her #metoo story of life-traumatizing sexual assault and basically had it invalidated because she was white and was “centering” herself. Can we not empathize and affirm someone’s pain and humanity while also acknowledging and confronting the disparities inherent within injustice?

Read the full article about misusing the tools of social justice by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.