Been meaning to do this ever since Lizzo gave her amazing People’s Choice speech a couple weeks ago. Went thru the list of links in this LA Times article and donated to every single one of the activists/organizations, except the big schools and the individual artists where I couldn’t find a way to do so — and in those cases I donated to similar causes.

I figure that before Lizzo stood up and used her own brilliance to spotlight these folks, she and her team vetted the everloving f*ck out of them, so I can trust that my money will have impact… and anyway, I believe strongly that our tendency to want to “know” that our donations will be “well used” and avoid grassroots nonprofits that seem “risky” dramatically misunderstands the realities of WHAT RISK REALLY IS.

Risk is not “Andie Byrd wastes ten dollars.” Yeah, I’m not working right now so that’s the amount that I donated to each person on the list. I’ve made larger donations this season to orgs where I’m personally involved, for the record. But my point is, I would easily spend that much on, say, a sandwich. And if I thought, meh, that wasn’t tasty, I would shrug it off and just not go back to that sandwich stand. So losing ten bucks… that ain’t what qualifies as a risk for me.

WHAT IS ACTUALLY FREAKING RISKY IS allowing injustice to deepen around us. Allowing hatred to grow and thrive. Allowing gun violence to continue unchecked. Allowing our rights to bodily autonomy to be taken away. These things ARE HAPPENING EVERY DAY. The risk that they will keep getting worse is OVERWHELMING.
That urgency far, far outweighs the risk that maybe I accidentally put $10 in the wrong hands.

My lovely friends, I bet you didn’t need to hear this rant from me, because you’re already doing what you can, where you can. Thanks for letting me get it off my chest, though.

❤️