S2, E14 Defund the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
The industrial complex is an industrial complex! Today we’ll be talking about the spread of industrial complexes, non-profits, so-called activist influencers, the controversy around BLM Global Network spending, and the whispers around Nikole Hannah-Jones and Kimberlé Crenshaw being problématique. What's the Word? Industrial Complex. Popularized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the industrial complex refers to the profit-driven enmeshment of the state and private industry in a way that makes it more profitable to perpetuate the problem they claim to solve. What We're Reading. “In The Shadow of the Shadow State” by Ruth Wilson Gilmore in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. In this essay, Gilmore discusses the rise of the non-profit industrial complex as an industry that takes up "kindness" work for those the state has abandoned and operates to suppress revolution. Her solution is to take the money and run, without fooling ourselves into believing the state or capitalism will give us the keys to our freedom. What in the World?! In this segment, we discuss our ongoing experience of forming a non-profit, the questionable financial decisions of Black Lives Matter, what Alyssa and Brendane would do if we came into $90 million, whether we really should be putting our faith or support in famous people or so-called "activist influencers," and why you should stay away from Teach For America. Join our Patreon community! Discussed In This Episode The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (INCITE!, 2017) Black Awakening in Capitalist America (Robert L. Allen, 1969) Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship (Aimee Meredith Cox, 2015) Re-Visions of Abolition: From Critical Resistance to A New Way of Life (Setsu Shigematsu, 2021) Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought a $6 Million House (Sean Campbell, 2022) ZD merch available here and the syllabus for ZD 202 is here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.