What is your vision for Akonadi Foundation’s work in Oakland and the region?

Our vision is a racially just Oakland, an Oakland where all families can fulfill their greatest potential, an Oakland rich with opportunity – free from structural oppression. Like our partners in the field, we dream of a city where schools are beacons of freedom and possibility,  spaces where all children can learn without fear of being pushed out, criminalized or policed. Like the grandmothers holding it down in their neighborhoods, we dream of safe streets and spaces where redemption and transformation are synonymous, and culture and space and democracy are ensured for communities of color.

What is your vision for boys and men of color across California?

Our vision for boys and men of color is to live – live long lives in the community. That our straight, and queer, black and brown cis and trans folks build futures together void of the harmful realities grown from racism and disinvestment. We dream of spaces where our communities can dream and thrive.

What are the most pressing issues facing boys and men of color in the Bay Area and across California today?

Our communities have continued to survive amidst unthinkable conditions – and yet we press on. Instead of lifting up the pathologies placed among black and brown communities – we see an undeniable history of struggle, but also strength and power. Our communities are dreaming up a new future abundant with educational and economic opportunities, the creation and implementation of policies that lift us up, and a future void of violence and cages.

You’ve also spoken about not leaving women and girls of color out of the conversation – can you expand on how you see this being part of the work?

Our founder, Quinn Delaney has worked for decades to advance gender justice. I’ve spent much of my adult life advocating and working on behalf of young women of color in systems. So, our foundation deeply values the importance of framing our work through a gendered and race analysis.  

Our families and communities and our fight for justice are intersectional. Gender justice centers the call for freedom from patriarchy. We won’t get free until we clear the devastating underpinnings of toxic masculinity. This toxin pervades our culture – and gendered work must be grounded in a lexicon of building communities to collectively fight and win. Our focus must be supporting boys and men of color – and our focus must be supporting women and girls. It’s a both/and not an either/or.

Prioritizing the dismantlement of patriarchy within our institutions, in government, in our movements, in our homes, and on our streets is a mantle we all must hold.

You have dedicated your career to criminal and juvenile justice reform. Can you talk about how that translates into Akonadi Foundation’s strategic focus and grantmaking?

I’ve always admired Akonadi’s approach to confronting injustice through an explicit and centered race analysis. We’ve been funding the movement against structural racism in Oakland for 20 years, and we’re so honored to have been in partnership with movement leaders who’ve moved the needle on criminal justice reform.

It is our duty as a racial justice funder to support groups, visionaries and cultural makers in their efforts to decrease incarceration and to free our schools from over policing while investing in alternatives that promote wellness and wellbeing. We fund in partnership. We listen. We prioritize the spaces where our partners on the ground determine critical. We fund black and brown liberation. We’re committed to funding the way forward.

What lessons can you share with funders about supporting racial equity and systems change work in our communities on a local and state level?

If we are going to talk about advancing equity and justice, then philanthropy has to be bold, courageous and be willing to talk about race. I believe that being explicit about racial justice and centering race in our analysis is so important. People who are closest to the problems, the people whose lives are most affected are the ones that should be leading the charge. Philanthropy has to yield power and step away from the role of “expert” and fund and the people who are doing the actual work of dismantling the structures that perpetuate racism,  poverty, and injustice.

How else is Akonadi Foundation responding to the threats facing our communities in the current political and social landscape?

In 2018, the foundation provided over half a million in grants to organizations mostly led by young people to mobilize potential voters to come out to cast votes in the election for District Attorney. It is important for communities to have the resources to organize folks to choose leaders and hold government and decision-makers accountable.