Humanity United was founded on the guiding principle that all humans possess inherent dignity. For many years, our work has focused on the systems that contribute to human exploitation and violent conflict around the world. This focus has required us to grapple with underlying issues like the role of trauma in conflict and the importance of local agency and accountability.
Unfortunately, like many U.S.-based organizations, we never explicitly confronted the role of structural racism in our own work and communities, how it impacts our partners and staff, and how it also contributes to systems of exploitation and violence in the United States and around the world.
Systemic and institutional racism, rooted in a culture of white supremacy, continues to be an inescapable reality of daily life for Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC). Acknowledging this reality has required us to closely examine our mission and the focus of our work. As a result, Humanity United began supporting exploratory work on Racial Justice & Equity (RJE) following the racial justice awakening of 2020 . We know that if we hope to change systems of exploitation and violence and contribute to a more just and equitable global society, we must work at home as well as abroad.
By honoring the lived experience of our grantees, RJE led a collaborative strategy process centered on the grantees’ visions. We desire to promote the voices of our partners in non-extractive ways while investing in communities of promise, thereby attempting to mitigate harms that often occur in philanthropy.
To learn more about our strategy, click on this link.