Divestment is about what we can give, not what we can get

Divestment is about what we can give, not what we can get. When we use our ability to give money as a way to increase our decision-making power and extract more social and political capital for ourselves, we perpetuate white supremacy. Divestment is about what Black people need, not what appeals to white wealthy people. Our role is to give, not to dictate how the money should be used. When we talk about divestment, we speak in terms of the percentage of access to wealth divested rather than the amount of money given. The goal of divestment is a meaningful shift in who controls the majority of the world’s wealth. This is why Community Ready Corps created the Black Solidarity Fund, as an answer to the question: how do I actually give up decision-making power when I’m returning stolen wealth? By divesting wealth to the Black Solidarity Fund, white anti-racists also divest decision-making power, allowing Black leadership to decide how to best invest funds towards the development of Black self determination. (From CRC’s Divestment Principles)

In 2019, I inherited a trust fund after my grandfather’s passing.

After month’s of anxious ruminations on the “right” way to use my trust fund, I decided that I would use my trust to start a racial and economic justice non-profit. At the time, it felt like the social justice thing to do – to not use this inherited wealth to benefit myself and to instead use it to contribute to larger movements through service.

After learning about and practicing divestment, I have developed a different relationship to my trust fund, one that centers what Black people need, not what I can get.

Yes, by using my trust fund to start a non-profit, I wasn’t technically going to spend this money on myself and had the good intention of contributing to larger movements for change. But, I was still maintaining power over where and how this money would be used.

I had also self-appointed myself as the leader of this non-profit, replicating class dynamics of white wealthy folks believing that we are deserving and best position to lead this work. I think this is also a very common pattern for rich kids who fear we have nothing of value to contribute without our wealth; if I couldn’t rely on getting a job after graduating, I would just use my wealth to create myself a job, an underlying motivation I would have never been able to articulate at the time.

CRC teaches us that if we are serious about ending white supremacy, we have to change our relationship to money, both individually and collectively. My decision to use my wealth to create a non-profit wasn’t doing that. Instead, I was replicating classed and raced beliefs that maintain white monopoly control of money and power.

I choose to practice divestment because it is offering me a different path and way of relating to money. Rather than buying myself a career, I am making my own way, and am understanding my value as more than the hoarded wealth I can offer.

If you are also a white person with wealth, there is a role for you in this movement. We need you in this movement. If you’re looking for a place to start, check out the Divestment Principles and attend our upcoming Divestment Circle. I would love to be in this work with you.

– Amanda, CRCAA organizer

NOTE: If you missed our November 2023 Divestment Circle, there will be more circles in 2024. Email us at info@the5methods.org to learn more.