Let Them Kill DEI. I’ll Bring Back Philanthropia.

If the work was ever real, it doesn’t die with a budget cut.

#philanthropia #DEI #abolitionistphilanthropy #truthwork #radicallove #dontcallitacomback #wewerealwayshere #onpaperllc #justicework

Let them kill it.

Let them wipe “equity” from the website.

Let them dismantle the department, ghost the consultants, rename the position to something “less political.”Let them act like they didn’t mean it when they said they cared about justice.

Let them.

Because if DEI died that easy, it was never alive.

And I don’t mourn what was never breathing.

What I mourn is the lie.

The lie that you meant it.

The lie that you were ever ready to give something up—power, comfort, dominance—for the sake of someone else’s freedom.

I see the memos.

The compliance masks.

The white-knuckled silence at Board meetings.

You’re not tired of the work.

You’re tired of being accountable.

So fine. Walk away.

But don’t think you’ve killed the movement.

Because where I come from, we know how to survive on scraps.

We know how to make meaning out of absence.

We know how to breathe when they’ve stolen the air.

You can bury DEI.

But we will resurrect something older.

Something truer.

Something rooted in bone and blood and fire.

We will call it philanthropia.

And we will not let you have it.

Philanthropia: Love as a Demand, Not a Feeling

Before philanthropy became a playground for billionaires, it was philanthropia:

The love of humankind.

Not tax write-offs. Not legacy vanity.

Not “giving back” as if the world wasn’t already stolen.

Love—as in, I will not leave you behind.

Love—as in, your suffering is mine to feel and mine to fight.

Love—as in, I don't need a DEI training to remember you’re human.

This is not branding.

It’s not spin.

It’s reclaiming what capitalism tried to gut.

Because equity was never about hiring one Black person and calling it diversity.

It was about reckoning. Redistribution. Repair.

If that feels like a threat to your institution,

good.

That means you’ve finally understood it.

You Don’t Get to Quit What You Never Started

Let’s be real.

Most of you were never doing DEI.

You were doing PR.

You were polishing statements while your house was still on fire.

You called it inclusion while the ceilings leaked injustice.

You called it belonging while you muted every voice that shook your comfort.

You called it diversity while hoarding the decision-making power for yourselves.

So now, when it gets hard—when it gets political, when it costs you something—you back out.

And some of us don’t get to back out.

Some of us live this work.

We carry it in our mouths, in our skin, in the quiet breath before speaking truth in rooms that don’t want to hear it.

I don’t get to opt out of being Black. Or queer. Or poor. Or too much.

I don’t get to rename my pain so it’s more palatable for your donors.

So no, I don’t care what you call it.

But I will not let you pretend it never mattered.

We’re Not Rebranding. We’re Remembering.

Philanthropia is not a euphemism.

It’s a calling.

It says:

• I see you, and I’m still here.

• I remember, and I won’t look away.

• I build, and I don’t need your permission to do it.

Philanthropia is what my ancestors practiced when they fed whole communities with one pot of beans.

When they built freedom schools. When they whispered truth in code.

When they named each other kin because the state would never protect us.

This isn’t charity. This is survival.

This isn’t soft love. This is reckoning.

This is accountability as care.

This is truth-telling in public.

This is I love you enough to burn the whole system down and build something freer.

So Here’s What I Know

You can fire the DEI officer.

You can strip the budget.

You can sanitize the mission.

You can act like nothing happened.

But the work is still in the air.

In the bones.

In the breath between meetings.

In the quiet refusal to give up on each other.

And we—those of us who have never had the luxury of quitting—we will keep going.

We will call it philanthropia.

And we will mean it.

Call to Action:

If this hit, say something.

Say it out loud. Share it. Name it where they’re trying to erase it.

And if you’re ready to rebuild—without the buzzwords, without the bullshit—then let’s build something true. Together.