Professor Megan Ming Francis’ new paper “The Price of Civil Rights: Black Lives, White Funding, and Movement Capture” was featured today on Vox. In the paper, Francis explores a case from the early 20th century–the NAACP and the Garland Fund–to examine the influence wealthy, white external funding has on the direction of social movements (even those with the best intentions), in both the past and present. From Kelsey Piper’s article, “How ‘Movement Capture’ Shaped the Fight for Civil Rights”: “‘That’s the conundrum of contemporary philanthropy,’ she told me. ‘It’s not bad that we have these so-called thought leaders. It’s not bad that there’s the work being done by [George] Soros, or by other groups, on work they think is genuinely important. But what was concerning back in the 1920s, and what I think is still concerning today, is the way that exciting localized social justice organizations get co-opted by funders.’ Sometimes, the only work that ends up happening is the work that attracts enthusiasm among the wealthy — and critical perspectives end up missing.”
The entire article can be read here.
