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WACAN.org Annual Appeal December 6, 2006
Dear reader, Did you know we pronounce our name "waken," as in "awaken?" You found us when there is nothing else quite like us on the Internet. You belong to a small but growing number of people building white anti-racist community. And why do we do that? We do it to empower ourselves in the struggle for racial justice and multi-racial community. You are a WACAN.org member. We tend to be young, many in our twenties, but some are in our senior years or in between. Two out of three of us are women. Eighty-two percent of us are white. We are multiracial, with people from every major racial/cultural group represented. We're even going international with a half-dozen members outside the US and Canada. Just last week WACAN.org enrolled our 1000th active member. Welcome to WACAN.org. This is our 2006 Annual Appeal letter. I am the founder of the WACAN.org project and the person who runs the WACAN.org software. Let me share with you what we do. If I'm going to ask you to donate, it's only fair you know what the organization looks like. I'll talk about the WACAN.org online community in a moment. Did you know WACAN also does on-the-ground work by organizing gatherings where the white anti-racist community can assemble, network, strategize and collaborate? Our current project is the Third White Anti-racist Summit (WAS III), taking place at the White Privilege Conference in April 2007. We founded the summit series. This year we are working in collaboration with people from five organizations. WACAN is a project of the Center for the Study of White American Culture, Inc. (CSWAC), a group I co-founded with Charley Flint in 1995. CSWAC is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation with a governing Board of Trustees. The board is multiracial in composition. Board member biographies are available at www.euroamerican.org/general/fund&board.asp. WACAN has a sister project named Crandall, Dostie & Douglass Books, Inc. (CDDB). CDDB publishes books. We have two current titles, and three forthcoming, including "Struggling for Direction: Accountability and white anti-racist practice," edited by Bonnie Cushing, with editorial consultation by the People's Institute. CDDB is named after three nineteenth century abolitionists: Prudence Crandall, A. P. Dostie, and Frederick Douglass. So you see, WACAN is part of a larger matrix, with CSWAC as the parent organization, and CDDB as a sister. CDDB and WACAN comprise about 95% of the work done by CSWAC at present. WACAN intends to build a communication network and a virtual community that empowers white people to work against white supremacy. And, we intend to create on-the-ground opportunities for the white anti-racist community to gather, network, strategize and collaborate. ABOUT YOU As you may know very well, WACAN.org members are tapped into the network. You are in the vanguard; you share a vision. You are in a historic position, seeing possibility, ready to make change, working to create community. If you have ever felt determined, passionate, frustrated, isolated, in need of connection, angry, loving, or hopeful in the work we do to create community and struggle against white supremacy, then I understand those feelings. In the recent election the Democrats stopped the neo-Conservative juggernaut, but we still find an unarmed black man shot by police 50 times in New York City, and the Federal government supporting a lawsuit to overturn school integration because they feel, in a misguided and inaccurate way, that integrated schools are unfair to white people. I know at some level you must experience the problem we are addressing. Even if your concerns are local, WACAN.org lets you hear about other local efforts, and brings you low-profile national news that the mainstream ignores, but which is of high interest to the white anti-racist community. ABOUT WACAN.org Did you know you have the option of not receiving WACAN email? Actually, with our new software, you can turn your WACAN email on or off as you please. Even so, you, and 90% of WACAN.org members, receive WACAN email. WACAN email sends you bi-weekly updates of news, opinions, and events, and timely announcements of WACAN, CDDB and CSWAC activities. When people ask me to put them on our mailing list, I just ask them to register on WACAN.org. This is our mailing list. Although it may change in the future, right now there's no other list. I thank those friends and colleagues who have taken the time to register as members. As a WACAN.org member, we get the news to you first. WACAN.org is media. True, we're on a small scale. But we're developing experience as an information and content provider. WACAN.org is communications. Our aim is to build a communications network and a virtual community that empowers white people to work against white supremacy. We have some challenges. Getting word out is one. Developing content is another. We look to our members to use the communication tools we offer. Other CSWAC efforts raise money and so compete for our time. We need to cover office expenses, and the computer is getting old. We need to sustain ourselves to grow. Even amidst the challenges, WACAN.org is about building community. We put that principal into economic terms. It's no accident that we have guest facilitators in the WACAN Forums each time we have a fundraiser. Our guest facilitators bring interest and information, and with our fund drive, the whole thing builds upon itself. Nothing new there. But we have decided to offer our guest facilitators a share of the funds we raise. AR-15 is appearing during this drive, and we will give them 15% of the funds we raise in our Annual Appeal to support their work. Needless to say, WACAN guest facilitators are chosen because we appreciate, respect and support the work they do. And here are a couple more examples. In our forthcoming book from CDDB, we are paying a modest fee to the author or authors of each chapter. And, when WACAN holds on-the-ground gatherings, we provide scholarship help on registration. The amounts we are talking about are not large, but on the scale of WACAN they are significant. Personally, I do what I do because when I came of age as a white anti-racist, no network was available. Also, I believe empowering the work of the white anti-racist community is necessary to bringing about an anti-racist multiracial society. I believe the WACAN beliefs are true. I'm passionate about my work. I'm in need of a supportive community. I want to know the work is valued. These are all reasons why I put WACAN.org together, and why I continue to support it. WACAN.org is beginning to take shape as a vibrant community. Any community has several locations of activity. Not everyone assembles in the same place all the time to talk about the same thing. WACAN.org offers several different ways to become engaged. SOME THINGS WE DID IN 2006 We launched WACANnews. We collect, package and publish news, including event announcements and press releases from organizations doing white anti-racist work. News items are released in our bi-weekly email, WACANupdate, and made available online in the News section of WACAN.org. We began to accept international registrations. We published a report of the Second White Anti-racist Summit and placed a copy in the Library section of WACAN.org. We added several additional items to the Library. We invited Ida Hakim of CURE to join us in June in the Forums section for a discussion of white people and black reparations. In just a few days, we'll begin a discussion with AR-15, a socially conscious white anti-racist rap duo. We began our Hall of Remembrance & Commemoration and are taking nominations for the first class to be inducted. You can make a nomination. You will get to vote and select the entering class. We added some features. Now you can control your email subscription, look up cool WACAN.org demographics and statistics, and enter historical items of interest. For power users, we have a feature in the Forums section that allows you to receive email notice if anyone posts a message to a topic or forum of interest to you. In the past month we have set up a forum at the request of WACAN.org member Joyce Dowling. Named SOUL WORK, the forum is a place to discuss theology and white supremacy from a Unitarian Universalist point of view. One does not have to be a UU to follow or join in the discussion. Plus we operated continuously 24 hrs., 52 weeks, allowing members like you to post messages and review information. One recent, spontaneous interracial dialogue was able to sustain itself for the better part of a year on WACAN.org. WACAN is on an exciting edge of a historic moment. It's important to live life with people who share an interest in racial justice. That's why we intend to: Build a communication network and a virtual community that empowers white people to work against white supremacy. Create on-the-ground opportunities for the white anti-racist community to gather, network, strategize and collaborate. It costs between $2,000 and $3,000 per year to support WACAN.org. Direct costs include software, occasional hardware, technical guides, outside programming services, and ISP services. We also need to cover costs for that portion of office operations that support work on WACAN.org. CDDB sells books. CSWAC has received some small grants and also sells publications. WACAN on-the-ground gatherings bring in registration fees. WACAN.org contributes through our Annual Appeal. This is our annual appeal. New donors, step in. Renewing donors, step up. Substantial donors, we need you again. So that we can move ahead. Please give $35 to support WACAN.org. If you have need to give less, consider a gift of $5 to $10. If you can afford more, consider a gift of $100. We accept contributions at any time but to be counted in our 2006 Annual Appeal, please respond by January 3, 2007. My warmest wishes to you, now and for the new year coming. Sincerely, Jeff Hitchcock WACAN.org p.s. If you know someone who might be interested in joining WACAN.org, please send them a copy of this letter. Oops! Not a WACAN.org member? CLICK HERE to register. HOW TO DONATE CREDIT CARD
PAYPAL
CHECK OR MONEY ORDER Send a check payable to "Center for Study" PREMIUM OFFER If you donate $75 or more, you may select one of the following: BOOKS •The Anti-racist Cookbook •Lifting the White Veil
DISCUSSION GUIDE •The Racial Awareness Quiz ADDITIONAL INFORMATION For more information about the Center for The Study of White American Culture, see www.euroamerican.org Our online credit card donations are processed by Groundspring.org, a reputable partner to many activist organizations. For more information about Groundspring.org, see www.groundspring.org GO ONLINE TO WACAN
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