The change in the administration’s tactics in Minneapolis is not a retreat. Instead, they are regrouping and planning another mode of attack, with the hopes that their repression might be met with resistance that is easier to control and contain. People who garner their relevancy and power through the dehumanization and oppression of others will do whatever it takes to cling to their soulless sense of self.

Authoritarianism never acquiesces. It only shape-shifts its cruel intentions into new messaging or band-aid policies that keep the core of their ill intentions intact, while masquerading as reform and change. Trump and his administration are not going back into their box. Their terror has been unleashed, and it must be snuffed out once and for all.

For those of us in philanthropy: we helped create this authoritarian Pandora’s Box. The project to remake the US into a white nationalist state was pursued under Reconstruction and again under Jim Crow. It was a project that started long before Carnegie and Rockefeller masterminded the creation of the charitable sector, and it has continued through our complicity. Their vision for philanthropy is centered on the preservation of wealth and power within the control of the white and wealthy elite. Foundations retracted funding from Black-led social movements that called us to “Defund the Police” after the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. For decades, funders have abandoned those who chose to stand in solidarity with Palestine; most recently, against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

As a sector, we have become so attached to our own power and wealth that we were willing to undermine any social movements that we thought might threaten the order and comfort we enjoyed. What we didn’t understand is that our cowardice and instinct for self-preservation at the expense of others would eventually lead the demons to knock on our own doors. When dealing with an insatiable monster who feeds on people’s blood, tears, and fears, there is no amount of freeze, flight, or fawning that will keep you from its hunger. It’s only a matter of time before that monster sets its sights on you.

Read the full article about how philanthropy can fight authoritarianism by Nwamaka Agbo at Nonprofit Quarterly.