Lifting Black Voices: 5 Leaders Awarded Grants To Help Tackle Racial Disparities In Brooklyn
The recipients of the grant. (Alford, top left; Dr. Blackstock, bottom left; Dr. Johnson, middle; Kalam Id-Din II, top right; and Smith, bottom right)
Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai announced the first grant recipients of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation’s Social Justice Fund as part of the couple’s five-point action plan to support social justice and equality initiatives that benefit Black, Indigenous and People of Color. All five recipients are Brooklyn-based Black leaders tackling the root causes of racial disparities in healthcare, climate policy, education, journalism, and the criminal justice system.
The first awardees of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation’s Social Justice Fund are:
• Dr. Uché Blackstock (@uche_blackstock) is an ER doctor who worked out of a Brooklyn urgent care center at the height of COVID, and the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, which partners with healthcare organizations to combat bias and structural racism in the healthcare system. Dr. Blackstock will use her grant to support the Brooklyn Movement Center and Ancient Song Doula Services, two Brooklyn, Black-led organizations committed to reducing racial health inequities.
• Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (@ayanaeliza) is a Brooklyn native, the founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank dedicated to advancing equitable climate policies in coastal cities, policy expert, and author of the Blue New Deal. Named one of Elle’s 27 Women Leading on Climate and called “the most influential marine biologist of our time” by Outside Magazine, Dr. Johnson’s work focuses on reimagining the future of coastal cities and how to handle the risk coastal communities like Red Hook in Brooklyn face from sea level rise.
• Natasha S. Alford (@NatashaSAlford) is a journalist and storyteller committed to amplifying untold stories impacting Black America and is the Senior Correspondent and VP of Digital Content for TheGrio. Natasha will use her grant to start a scholarship fund for student journalists of color in her hometowns of Syracuse and Rochester and in her current borough of Brooklyn.
• Rafiq Kalam Id-Din II (@Rafiq610) is the founder of Ember Charter Schools, a Black-led charter school in Bed-Stuy focused on African and African-American culture and dedicated to anti-racism and justice for Black students. He is a leader in the charter school movement and founder of the #BlackLedSchoolsMatter initiative.
• Michael “Zaki” Smith (@Zakithebarber) is an activist and policy expert who works to dismantle the barriers in employment, education, and housing that prevent formerly incarcerated Americans like himself from fully reintegrating into society. Focused on East New York, Brownsville, and Bed-Stuy, Zaki is also a barber whose social justice work was sparked by conversations with patrons at his barbershop.
That’s why it is so important to us to invest in the Black leaders combating racial injustice from every angle right here in Brooklyn,” said Wu Tsai. “They are on the ground day in and day out --- working to eliminate racial disparities in our healthcare system, advocating for environmental justice, amplifying the untold stories of Black Americans, mentoring young people of color, and fighting on the front lines of the most pressing social justice issues of our time. We are honored to support their anti-racist work and to invest in creating a more just and inclusive Brooklyn through scalable, proven initiatives.”
The Brooklyn awardees’ work will be amplified via The Black Voices for Black Justice Fund to support Black leaders addressing systemic racism at the national and community level. The Tsai Foundation’s Social Justice Fund will focus on programs for BIPOC and women-owned small businesses; skills training to improve job mobility; mentorship of young women and men of color; and immediate needs of the Brooklyn community created by the COVID-19 pandemic.