Sunday, August 5, 2012

What Animal Related Charity Should I Donate Our Liberating Slavery "Collectibles" Money To?

I would like to thank all of you who donated to WARN's first effort to reclaim some of the slavery artifacts which are now being offered as "collectibles" on Ebay. I would also like to thank the folks at the Daily Kos, as well as the kind people from the Jim Crow Museum, who reached out to me with guidance and advice.

Collecting these objects remains a very worthy effort. However, it is also far more complicated than I first imagined when I was struck by visions of playing black Indiana Jones.

In all, there is a great project here, and one that deserves a good deal of planning and infrastructure. As I learned by talking to people with more expertise than I have regarding these matters, there are many fake and replica slave artifacts on the market. As a practical matter, it is going to be difficult to authenticate objects purchased via Ebay. I do not want your donations to subsidize the very disrespect for our honored dead which sparked your individual acts of generosity. The irony would be priceless: we get some money together to obtain some of these objects and we end up rewarding the very folks who are disrespecting the Black Freedom Struggle and Maafa. The thought was very upsetting to me.

This does not mean that I am going to cease my efforts to reclaim these objects and give them a proper home. I have a friend who works at the Smithsonian and I am going to ask her for some guidance on what resources are available to authenticate slavery artifacts. I also have a colleague who has experience with grants and foundation work. Once we put together the right mix of people, and sketch out a mission statement for a proposed organization, then we can do this on the scale it deserves.

In lieu of sending your money off to a stranger on Ebay, I am going to donate what we collected to a pet related charity. I am torn between donating our funds to a large and established group like the North Shore Animal League or a smaller fund that helps low income people provide emergency medical care to their animal family members. There are also quite a few wonderful pet sanctuaries that specialize in providing forever homes to our animal friends who are "unadoptable" for whatever reasons. If you personally know of a program that I should consider donating to, please email me their info.

On a related matter, the film and culture website Shadow and Act has a great feature essay which offers suggestions and guidance about using Kickstarter to raise money that could be of interest to some of you (I wish I had read it a few months ago).

As I learned from this experiment, asking folks for money--and doing it successfully--requires quite a bit of time, effort, and planning.

6 comments:

chaunceydevega said...

@GT. You need to take a chill pill and relax. I let you continue participating here even after our discussion about our new comment policy following the invasion of the thrasher d affiliated basement dwellers.

Remember, I label all IP's on recurring visitors.

Go, look back at this thread on purchasing these items from ebay from a few months back. I was very plain with my intent and have been very transparent. The terms of the donations were spelled out clearly--we try to get some stuff, barring any problems or a sufficient bid the money will be donated to an animal charity.

If you do not agree with this policy and have donated all I can do is suggest you go in with eyes open next time.

"I do not want my money to go to these organizations!!! I now support the view that these items should be destroyed and not dishonored by being purchased in an on line auction"

"This is offensive when did you and others get permission and license from theirs heirs to do this slave auction??"

I don't know what you mean by this. If you want to buy some of these items and destroy them do start up a collection and do it yourself. Yelling online ain't gonna do it. You are an adult and the internet is a big place.

You are really big on channeling the ancestors' will and wisdom. Are you an oracle of sorts? Do you have a secret evp transmitter in the basement? Where can I buy one?

chaunceydevega said...

@GT. You cannot say I did not try to be patient. Bye bye.

Anonymous said...

I like the idea of the funds going towards helping low income families care for their pets.

Comrade Physioprof said...

As one of the donors, I agree with sabrinabee.

chaunceydevega said...

@Comrade and Sabrinabee. I guess that is what it will be. There are a few places in CT I am familiar with. I will donate the money to them. Here is a link to a group in Stamford I will research:

http://www.stamfordanimalrescue.org

OTB said...

@Chauncey:

Just curious: Why Stamford, CT?

(I'm asking as you are in Chicago).