It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white. They were admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions, public parks, and the best schools. The police were drawn from their ranks, and the courts, dependent upon their votes, treated them with such leniency as to encourage lawlessness. … The newspapers specialized on news that flattered [them] and almost utterly ignored the Negro except in crime and ridicule.

Examining many parts of our country today, this quote from W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 might feel like a live reporting from our current political landscape. But the truth is–notwithstanding the immediately noticeable similarities in divisive strategy across race and class–we are just ten years shy of a full century since Du Bois wrote these words. And still, his warning of the weaponizing of media and public institutions to uphold white supremacy and distort reality feels eerily prescient in what many are experiencing as the violently oscillating forces of America’s Third Reconstruction. His analysis remains chillingly relevant in a time when media has grown into the primary weapon for reinforcing racial hierarchies, manipulate public opinion, and suppress movements for justice, underscoring the need for a just media ecosystem.

Over the past few weeks, philanthropy and philanthropic media have been both staggering and rebounding, making sense of how and where to best intervene as the new administration pursues policies intended to harm the nonprofits and communities we serve. As we experience shock and confusion alongside the rest of the nation, new challenges continue to unfold. In under 90 days, the President has ordered a comprehensive freeze on federal funding—a decision that, if implemented, is expected to decimate critical safety net protections, public health research, and climate justice initiatives, as well as nonprofit-efforts to address local needs related to education, health care, housing, and beyond. Additionally, executive orders have been enacted to end DEI programs across federal departments, challenging, for example, hardwon accessibility protections for disabled communities and workforce opportunities for underrepresented groups. These simultaneous unravelings underscore the pressing need for manifold and strategic interventions to build a just media ecosystem. And, they remind us of another section from Du Bois that gives us necessary pause.

The espousal of the doctrine of Negro inferiority by the South was primarily because of economic motives and the inter-connected political urge necessary to support slave industry; but to the watching world it sounded like the carefully thought out result of experience and reason; and because of this it was singularly disastrous for modern civilization science and religion, in art and government, as well as in industry. The South could say that the Negro, even when brought into modern civilization, could not be civilized, and that, therefore, he and the other colored peoples of the world were so far inferior to the whites that the white world had a right to rule mankind for their own selfish interests.

While our current context finds us up against our own “espousal” of “doctrine” equally “carefully thought out,” but this time spread across a breadth of historically marginalized identities, we have the privilege of history’s teachings on our side. We already know that “The U.S. media system has been a chief architect of our nation’s anti-Black narrative since 1619.” We know that from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement to the Movement for Black Lives; across LGBTQ+ rights, disability justice, immigrant and workers’ rights, policing, even food and climate justice, we have seen political attacks increase in direct response to our escalated wins across the board.

We know – even while experiencing understandable despair – our grantee partners are forging the path to liberation for all. And still, we must utilize all of our tools to the best of our ability.

Read the full article about investing in a just media ecosystem at Borealis Philanthropy.