The Foley Hoag Foundation

http://www.foleyhoag.com

The Foley Hoag Foundation was established by the law firm of Foley Hoag in 1981. Originally

focused on improving race relations among youth in Greater Boston, the Foundation’s mission is

now broadened to support programs addressing inequality in its various forms, including but not

limited to racial, ethnic or gender disparities. Preference is given to innovative projects where a

small grant is likely to make a meaningful difference. Through its grantmaking activities, the

Foundation is committed to fostering a spirit of mutual respect, understanding and cooperation

among people of diverse backgrounds, for the long-term benefit of all residents of the city. The

Foundation hopes that its funding interests and activities will encourage other firms and

professional organizations to become more involved in community-based philanthropy.

Movement for Racial Equality

Proposal to Fund the Stepping Out of Oblivion Project

Surabhi Gupta
 COVER SHEET

Request to: Foley, Hoag & Eliot Foundation

Full Legal Organization Name: Movement for Racial Equality

Organizational Mission Statement: To achieve racial equality and eliminate racism in the

United States of America.

Brief Description of Organization: Movement for Racial Equality is an organization founded

with the goal of raising awareness of racism and racial inequality in the United States today in

hopes of eliminating racism completely in the future.

Population Served: Americans of all ages

Program/Project Name: Stepping Out of Oblivion

Priority Funding areas of grant maker: The Foley Hoag Foundation initially started to

eliminate racism in Boston. Its main area of focus today is social inequality in its various forms.

My program is focused on eliminating racism through education and striving towards racial

equality in the entire United States of America. This is related to the foundation’s overall mission

of addressing any forms of inequality including racial inequality.

 FULL PROPOSAL NARRATIVE

Organizational Information

1. Organization’s History

Movement for Racial Equality is a recently founded non-profit organization founded in

Boston, Massachusetts in 2018. Movement for Racial Equality’s mission is to bring awareness to

the widespread racism towards black people in the United States and eliminate racial inequality

in every form.

2. Organizational Goals and Objectives

Surabhi Gupta founded the organization with the vision to end suffering, inequality,

police brutality and discriminatory actions in law enforcement due to racism in America.

Movement for Racial Equality strives to bring awareness to and acceptance of ongoing racism in

the United States as the first steps in achieving the end goal of eliminating widespread racism.

3. Programs and Services

As the future generations with the power to make changes in society, students from

middle-schools to universities will gain awareness of hidden implicit racism in America today

and the causes of what still drives racism today.

4. Organizational Structure

The organization is led by the director Surabhi Gupta and manager Linnea Rachlin. Staff

members will include sociology and history professors with specialties in African American

studies and intercultural communication. Volunteers from over 20 organizations striving for the

empowerment of black communities will offer a diverse range of perspectives and ideas to enrich

the programs created. Student volunteers and any other volunteers from the community will help

communicate and establish various programs.

Proposal Information

5. Description of Program/Project

Explicit and very subtle forms of racism permeate every level of society throughout

organizations and everyday personal interactions (Gonzalez, Houston & Chen, 1998). Our first

project Stepping Out of Oblivion seeks to reduce implicit systemic racism and racism perpetuated

through stereotypes passed on through generations and popular culture. Professional sociologists

and historians will come together to form a social studies curriculum in which history is not

written from solely the white man’s perspective. Instead, the hidden and suppressed histories

surrounding the oppression of African Americans in the United States will be revealed through

the texts chosen or written. To increase the students’ understanding of the gravity of the issue of

racism, texts will be complemented with workshops, activities, guest-speakers, and field-trips

that allow students to witness real-life experiences today and the effects of racism first-hand.

Persons within the surrounding community and other organizations will have the opportunity to
contribute their own perspectives and ideas in order to create an enriching curriculum with

higher capabilities of success.

This program will allow upcoming generations to recognize ongoing racism and make

efforts to rectify the wrongdoings of prior generations. The curriculum will also cover global and

intercultural communication so that individuals can recognize the common humanness among

everyone they interact with and learn to empathize with one another. In this way, students will

become more open-minded individuals and slowly drive away from any mentality that still

drives racism today. The curriculum will also be aimed to relieve any thoughts of inferiority

among African Americans. It will be made mandatory for this curriculum to be taught from

middle school until the end of high school. Furthermore, a similar course will be mandatory for

incoming freshmen in universities. The education board in the greater Boston area will be

approached initially. Subsequently, this initiative will be expanded to all the other states in the

United States.

6. Description of Need

People construe racism as something that happened a long time ago and refuse to accept

its existence today due to the lack of awareness and education surrounding racism. Such beliefs

are only deemed acceptable in order to mute racism and its impacts in the United States

(Loewen, 1995). The first step in combating this problem is with our program Stepping Out of

Oblivion. In 2010, the Texas Board of Education became a clear example of racism today with

the implementation of a racist educational curriculum; it changed its social studies curriculum to

cover-up the atrocities of slavery and lessen the issue to one of the many “patterns of

immigration” (Higson, 2016). Although history textbooks in Texas are known to have some of
the most inaccurate descriptions of slavery, mostly all American history textbooks barely

recognize the gravity of the issue of slavery in the United States. “By never blaming the system,

American history courses present Republican history” (Loewen, 1995). To compound the issue,

teachers fear hurting national pride by revealing the inadequacies and injustices of the political

system that has run America since the colonization of the United States. Slavery, the Jim Crow

laws, racism, lynching, implicit systemic racism today and in all, the oppression of African

Americans has been minimized and covered-up in fear of hurting national pride. Americans

believe that holding on to the inhumane parts of history prevents the nation from moving

forward. In contrast, not recognizing the brutal aspects of American history has been way more

detrimental to the nation today. Often people believe that America is the “land of opportunity”

where equality prevails and everyone has the opportunity to achieve success. On the other hand,

academic frames of diversity create the presentation of a “diverse” front in organizations as a

cover-up of ongoing racism (Tolliver, Hadden, Snowden & Brown-Manning, 2016). In large

organizations, a black person is a token or “a box someone needed to check off” (Simmons,

2015). Ignoring the issue of racism and covering it under the terms “diversity”, “melting pot” or

the “land of opportunity” has resulted in racism to be transformed into systemic racism in the

form of mass incarceration of black people today (Tolliver et al., 2016). Additionally, systemic

biases also result in lack of educational opportunities in most black communities, lack of

employment opportunities because of the color of their skin, poor quality housing and constraints

in health care.

Therefore, it is essential for Americans to recognize and acknowledge their history for the

ongoing racism and oppression of African Americans to come to an end. Additionally,

recognizing America as “the land of opportunity” has led many Americans to believe that in
order to be successful, a person must be hardworking and intelligent. However, America is one

of the most stratified countries in the world similar to Mexico (Loewen, 1995). Many African

Americans are unaware of this and as a result, begin to feel inferior and believe that they deserve

what they get when they are in reality lowered to the social and economic rungs of society. Once

African Americans learn of the “actual” American history and systemic racism in America today,

students feel liberated (Loewen, 1995). They let go of the negative self-image once they learn of

the processes that have resulted in keeping their family poor.

Our program is one of a kind as it has never been executed before. American high-

schools barely scratch the surface of slavery and many fail to mention racism. Also, most history

and social studies curriculums focus solely on past events and overlook or understate the impact

on the present day. For the first time, through our innovative curriculum, students will be able to

learn all aspects of American history, recognize the importance of learning of these issues that

continue to haunt American society today, and rectify the wrongdoings of prior generations.

7. Specific Activities

Finding history books with accurate descriptions of American history: Most American history

textbooks cover-up the reality of slavery stating that the slaves were “well-fed” or “happy”. As a

result, professional sociologists and historians passionate about racial equality in the United

States will locate history books that depict the entirety of American history. Additionally, they

will also have the option of creating their own texts to be published and used. An example of a

book that reveals the injustices present in the United States include the book “Lies My Teacher

Told Me” by James W. Loewen and “The People’s History of the United States” by Howard

Zinn.
Hiring teachers that are not afraid to speak about the real issue: Many teachers are afraid of

hurting American national pride or “bringing down” what it is to be American. Additionally,

stereotypes perpetuated about black people have led to many discriminatory and prejudiced

actions on part of many middle-school and high-school teachers. Therefore, there will be a

mandatory training course for all teachers as to prevent black students from less capable than

their other peers. Additionally, despite covert racial discrimination, many teachers are unaware

of racial inequalities and injustices present today. This preparation program will allow teachers

to understand the issues and gain awareness themselves, and as a result, instill in students a sense

of social justice (Ruiz & Cantú, 2013).

Complementing material with media: Vivid images or studying lyrics of many black artists will

allow students to step-back from “reality” and understand the circumstances of many black

people in America today. Some examples of media include the documentary “13th” and Childish

Gambino’s recently released song and video “This is America”.

Cultural exposes/Workshops: Cultural exposes that allow students to experience different

cultures first-hand will allow students to connect and recognize the common humanness that ties

everyone together. Racism is accentuated when a “homogenous white community” does not

make efforts or does not have much opportunity to interact with other different culturally,

ethnically, or racially diverse communities (Vora & Vora, 2002).

8. Objectives and Goals for this Request

The Foley, Hoag & Eliot Foundation will provide the opportunity for this newly founded

organization to begin to grow and spread awareness through education starting in the greater

Boston area. Boston is one of the most segregated and racist cities in the United States and
success achieved here through this program opens a promising future in many other areas across

the United States (Richardson, 2016). This grant will allow us to gain greater awareness of the

issue and provide us with a voice to bring Americans to recognize the necessity of such

education. Goals in the implementation of Stepping Out of Oblivion are:

• Recognizing and accepting that racism is still widespread in America today

• Bringing awareness to all the issues and inequalities present because of systemic barriers

formed as a result of racism

• Realizing that acceptance of such issues is not going to bring down America as a nation

but instead strengthen the nation

• Recognizing the many privileges that white people have that black people do not in the

United States

Stepping Out of Oblivion is one of many future programs that will bring awareness to the racial

issues that still haunt American society till this day.

9. Evaluation

The short-term success of the program will be measured by the acceptance of the

curriculum among high-schools, middle-schools, and universities. The long-term success of the

program will be measured on the increase in initiatives taken towards better educational facilities

in black communities, a decrease in cases of police brutality and incarceration of black people,

among others. Additionally, long-term observations of teachers’ attitude towards black students

will be conducted because currently, many teachers have a pre-set mentality that black students

are not as capable or intelligent as white students. Looking down on black students results in a

high drop-out rate of black students in their senior year of high-school. Therefore, a
representative will be randomly sent to middle-schools and high-schools to not only observe a

change in the overall mindset of teachers and students but to also inform teachers if racial

discrimination or prejudice is observed.

Stepping Out of Oblivion aims to have a positive impact towards racial equality in the

initially the greater Boston area and then expanding to all the other states. Through the Foley,

Hoag & Eliot Foundation we will have the ability to have a meaningful change in systemic

racism and the mentality of the larger population in the greater Boston area. Additionally, this

grant will help us take a big step in our greater mission of racial equality in the United States.
Budget Information

AGM COMMON PROPOSAL FORM

PROJECT & ORGANIZATION BUDGET SUMMARY

Organization Name Movement for Racial Equality

Federal ID # 04-1234567
Fiscal Year End 06/06/2018
Stepping Out of Oblivion
Total % to
This Project Total
Request Budget Income
Income Sources
Government Grants - - 0.0%
Foundation and Corporate Grants - - 0.0%
United Way - - 0.0%
Individual Contributions - - 0.0%
Earned Income - - 0.0%
Interest Income - - 0.0%
In-Kind Support - - 0.0%
Other Income - - 0.0%
Total Income 200,000 200,000 100.0%

Expenses
Salaries and Wages - - 0.0%
Employee Benefits and Taxes - - 0.0%
Total Personnel Costs - - 0.0%
Bank/Investment Fees 100,000 100,000 50.0%
Depreciation Expense - - 0.0%
Equipment Rental & Maintenance - - 0.0%
Food Costs - 0.0%
Fundraising/Development
Expenses 20,000 20,000 10.0%
Insurance Expense - - 0.0%
Marketing/Advertising - - 0.0%
Postage and Delivery 20,000 20,000 10.0%
Professional Development 10,000 10,000 5.0%
Professional Fees - - 0.0%
Rent and Occupancy 20,000 20,000 10.0%
Supplies and Materials 20,000 20,000 10.0%
Telephone Expense 5,000 5,000 2.5%
Travel Expense 5,000 5,000 2.5%
Other Expense 1 - - 0.0%
Other Expense 2 - - 0.0%
Miscellaneous Expenses - - 0.0%
Total Non Personnel Costs 200,000 200,000 100.0%
Total Expenses 200,000 200,000 100.0%

Excess of Revenue Over

Expenses - - 0.0%
Diversity Form
 References

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Higson, R. (2016, May 2). Removing slavery from textbooks. Retrieved from

https://www.prindlepost.org/2016/05/removing-slavery-textbooks/.

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 Tolliver W. F., Hadden B. R., Snowden F. & Brown-Manning R. (2016). Police killings

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389-404.

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https://newleftreview.org/II/13/loic-wacquant-from-slavery-to-mass-incarceration.