Service • Activism • Philanthropy
May 20, 2024
THE OPPOSITE OF POVERTY IS NOT WEALTH.
THE OPPOSITE OF POVERTY IS JUSTICE.
Bryan Stevenson
EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE
(See below)
ABOUT TIME!
Long story but here are the highlights. We are building this website with the intention of it becoming an interactive experience so that like-minded social justice activists can edit and improve our ability to help others who are helping others. It is not currently our intention to ‘go live’ until we can afford all the whistles and bells that come with a fully functioning site.
Friends for Justice Inc was founded in January 2015. We are a Not for Profit Florida Corporation. It is our goal to generate revenue through a variety of business activities, donations, and other revenue streams not currently on my radar, and return 90% of our net profits to the communities we serve.
WHAT’S NEXT
Depending on when you are visiting, both ‘down page’ and exterior links will be added. A Contact link will allow visitors to make comments and suggestions. Our corporate logo will link to our FB group page, created on Christmas Day, 2014. The TAA logo will link to an executive summary of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program which I created and offer freely to anyone who is interested in running with it. All content created by Friends for Justice Inc (F4J) is non-proprietary, including the curriculum that supports the TAA program.
THE STORE
It is our intention to raise revenue through sales of swag, publications, and other media offerings from the site. We may or may not try to reclaim the f4j.com domain. We also intend to operate a sales platform for artists whose work is intentionally focused on social justice causes. Qualified vendors will receive 90% of the sale price of any item they sell. In most all cases, the artist vendor will be responsible for shipping their work directly to the purchaser. And the artists will be allowed to link their website for possible off-platform sales.
THE SOUNDTRACK
When fully operational, we will have an ASCAP license which will allow us to play most copyrighted songs. Visitors will be able to upload songs they want to be included. We will create our own until then and send our visitors to the streaming service of their choice. But it is hoped we can create many diverse soundtracks that will appeal to visitors of all ages and musical tastes. My personal F4J soundtrack starts with “Talk Is Cheap,” Johnny Winter; “My Friend,” Jimi; “Unified,” G. Love; “Yes We Can Can,” Allen Troussaint; “Take This Job and Shove It,” by Johnny Paycheck. Others soon to be added to my list include Bob Marley and the Wailers’, “War/No More Trouble,” Canned Heat’s, “Let’s Work Together,” and Nina Simone’s version of, “Strange Fruit.” I might even throw in a little Thunderclap Newman.
HERE’S THE LATEST
5/5/22
Our ‘corporate’ site is still in the planning stages. All suggestions are welcomed. Before that goes live a Store page will be added here. These initial offerings will be items from my friends as well as links to the web stores of various charitable organizations. The Sellers will ship directly to the Buyer. No fees or commissions. So basically, we’re just calling it a Store.
Work continues on my #followme2Selma plan. Currently, this effort is taking the form of a Social Justice Residency program designed to match South Florida non-profits with non-profits in Dallas County, AL, and beyond. Our first exchange is underway and involves children and nutrition.
To indoctrinate Florida’s schoolchildren with Critical Race Theory (just kidding), I have purchased and plan to distribute educational rulers to as many school kids as I can. This may necessitate me seeking funding for the first time. In general, personal contributions to me are a good way for your money to go a long way. By that, I mean, you’ll never see it again! But the rulers, which I will “sell” at my cost, will provide an opportunity to earmark your gift should you wish to join my Anti-Ron DeSantis campaign.
There are too many big and small for-profit opportunities in Dallas County to even list.
Stay tuned…
HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you are good at anything, literally anything, we can use you. Until we are funded, however, we are largely asking you to consider what you might be willing to do. Whatever that may be, there is a place for you. The DEI program is ready to rock and so take a look at the TAA summary if you feel like disrupting an entire industry. If social activism is more your thing, tell us what is working for you and what your biggest challenges are. And if keyboard “slacktivism” is more your thing, you can help us by word of mouse. I take co-learning seriously. What have you got to teach me?
AFFILIATE CHAPTERS > F4J/SELMA
It is our intention to assist anyone who is interested in starting their own local chapter of Friends for Justice. These chapters, largely social in nature, can get started with just two people who believe that living a less segregated life results in a richer and fuller life. A blueprint for how to do this will be demonstrated on this platform as we build out our first chapter, Friends for Justice/Selma. Whether it becomes the first ‘real’ chapter or not is up to my friends in Selma.
Support for these efforts begins with adding an extension to this domain, i.e. friendsforjustice. org/Selma. A certain percentage of monies raised by the national organization (me, until further notice) will provide funding for their activities and operations. Any swag they create will be prominently displayed on our web store. And the two original founders will have a voice in all future decisions about the direction we take as a national organization.
F4J/FB started on Christmas day, 2014, never made it beyond Facebook but I was able to use the “Brand” as a platform for my activism as I began to focus on developing my racial equity program (TAA) and staying alive through Covid. I am proud of what my friends and I built there (click on logo above). And of the many friendships that I made and helped to make. That was the coolest part.
ETC.
THE LIBRARY/LOUNGE- A chill place to hang and discuss what we’re reading and thinking.
PEOPLE/THINGS WE LOVE- Cool folks/ links. Maybe you/yours’s.
UPCOMING EVENTS- A Social Justice Calendar.
GAMES/ PRIZES/ CONTESTS– We will always be on the lookout for ways to reward our contributors with cash!
YEAH, I USED TO WRITE- Selected writing of mine back when blogs were a thing.
CONTACT/DONATE- For now, hit me here~ ijakzen@gmail.com By donate, we don’t mean $.
QUOTES
It is our intention to have a different quote autoload each day and for the previous ones to be archived so that they can be read by future visitors. We also intend to invite activists to add their favorite quotes to our database and to publicize their organization in a, ‘Today’s quote was submitted by,’ manner including their contact information, thereby having their organization’s info becoming a permanent addition to our national site. Or something like that…
QUOTES
HERE’S THE LATEST
ETC.
THE LIBRARY/LOUNGE
A chill place to hang
PEOPLE/THINGS WE LOVE
Cool folks/ links. Maybe you/your’s
UPCOMING EVENTS
A Social Justice Calendar
F4J/SELMA-
#followme2Selma “Out here on the perimeter, there are no stars…”
QUOTES
Incontestably, alas, most people are not worth much based on their actions; and yet every human is an unprecedented miracle. — James Baldwin, Esquire (MLK tribute, 1968)
The power of stories…opens our hearts to a new place, which opens our minds, which often leads to change. — Melinda Gates, The New Yorker (7/1/19)
We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us. — Marcel Proust, “Remembrances of Things Past”
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead
An antiracist America can only be guaranteed if principled antiracists are in power, and then antiracist policies become the law of the land, and then antiracist ideas become the common sense of the people, and then the antiracist common sense of the people holds those antiracist leaders and policies accountable.” — Ibram X. Kendi, “Stamped From The Beginning”
Racist ideas have always been the public relations arm of the company of racial discriminators and their products: racial disparities. Eradicate the company and the public relations arm goes down too. Eradicate racial discrimination, then racist ideas will be eradicated, too.” — Kendi, SFTB
Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise. If we, and now I mean, the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must insist on, and create, the consciousness of the others- do not falter in our duty, we may be able, handful that we are, to end this racial nightmare and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. — James Baldwin, “The Fire Next Time,” 1962, (paraphrased)
All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy. — Sarah Moore Grimké, an abolitionist, 1837
He’s a blockhead who wants a proof of what he can’t perceive. And he is a fool who tries to make such a blockhead believe.
— William Blake
We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for.
— Maya Angelou
I am not an intellectual. All I am is feeling.
— Samuel Beckett
I have always contended that all of the -isms and -phobias are cousins, that in a society that creates a hierarchy of humanity with white, straight, cisgender men at the apex, every person who is not white or straight or cisgender or male gets assigned a lower order of being.
—Charles M. Blow, NYT, 8/26/21
Service • Activism • Philanthropy
THE OPPOSITE OF POVERTY IS NOT WEALTH.
THE OPPOSITE OF POVERTY IS JUSTICE.
Bryan Stevenson
EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE
May 20, 2024
May 20, 2024 10:55 am
