I can’t stop thinking about the news regarding the remains of 215 Native children found at the site of a residential school in Kamloops Canada. It is deeply sad and horrifying. I can only imagine the pain and trauma these children endured, and what Indigenous families and communities have been going through.

Meanwhile, this week marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, where in the span of hours hundreds of Black people were murdered, thousands left homeless, and Black Wall Street was burned to the ground. It is profoundly horrendous, and something I don’t think many of us were taught in school.

Both of these atrocities, and so many others that we know about and don’t know about, are a result of white supremacy. However, so many of us are in denial. Not always denial like refusing to acknowledge that white supremacy exists. More so the subtle denial that we ourselves, who are Good People fighting for a just and equitable world, could further white supremacy. After all, we weren’t involved in the acts of genocide at Kamloops or Tulsa, we tell ourselves. This is what makes white supremacy so potent. It is subtle. It happens in ways we often don’t think about.

When I bring up white supremacy in meetings or presentations, sometimes I get the feedback of “that’s a really heavy term. Is it really applicable to this situation? Can’t we just call it ‘inequity’ or ‘injustice’ or something that won’t turn people off?” We are a sector terrified of naming things, even as we seek to fight them. But how can we be effective when we refuse to name what we’re fighting?

Besides naming it, we need to have a better understanding of what it is. White supremacy is not just the cross burnings and racist marches and other awful things we see in the movies. In nonprofit and philanthropy, it manifests in ways we may not even realize, or in ways we refuse to acknowledge as white supremacy. These things add up.

Read the full article about white supremacy in philanthropy by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.