As the final votes were tallied in Georgia Wednesday morning and Congress convened to certify the presidential election, we knew the day would be significant for our democracy and the sanctity of fair and free elections. What unfolded was a direct assault on our democratic values and institutions and a flagrant display of the white supremacy that permeates our society and its institutions.
Democracy is a process and an ideal. It takes work to protect, improve, and ensure all people have a voice. To achieve an equitable democracy and a more perfect union, we must confront all the ways white supremacy operates: the rhetoric that foments racism, the policies that disenfranchise, the unequal application of so-called justice, the violence that undermines our constitution and ends the lives of fellow Americans. We owe it to one another to end white supremacy in all its forms, especially within our own institutions, and to drive resources to the very people and organizations bearing the brunt of it.
FCCP will continue to advance an open and equitable multiracial democracy that ensures Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Arab communities are heard and their leadership elevated— and to help you do the same. In the days and weeks ahead, much will be said about the events of yesterday. We will keep you up-to-date on what we are hearing from our network.
In solidarity,
Kristin Purdy
Executive Director, FCCP
Read the statements from our network partners:
- The California Wellness Foundation: Before It’s Too Late
- Ford Foundation: Democracy is a threat to white supremacy—and that is the cause of America’s crisis
- Group Health Foundation: We condemn all attempts to steal the presidential election
- Heising-Simons Foundation: Letter From the President: Yesterday, Today, and the Future
- The James Irvine Foundation: Violence and leaders who incite it have no place in our democracy
- The Joyce Foundation: Our Statement on the Capitol Attack
- Marguerite Casey Foundation: More Than Money: Philanthropy’s Role in the Fight for Democracy
- Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation: Toward a New Democracy
- The New York Women’s Foundation: Our Statement Against This Week’s Act of Domestic Terrorism
- Rockefeller Brothers Fund: Insurrection at the Capitol
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation: Statement from SVCF CEO Nicole Taylor on Capitol Hill violence on Jan. 6
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation: This Healing Time & Unity