A Letter to Pillar Nonprofits Interim CEO & Community Panel
Hi friends, it has taken me some time to gather my thoughts around all of this, but I've finally come to a version of this letter that is direct but still captures the complexity here.
--
I'm immensely proud of the work we, as an informal community response team, did and the space we held for each other, and thankful to the leadership of Louise and Johnny. I'm also thrilled to know the Board will be stepping down, giving Pillar a chance to reflect, ground, heal and reemerge stronger after all this chaos.
To be clear, it's indisputable that there was significant, unjust harm done to Mojdeh. However, the focus of my letter here is - at the risk of sounding like a broken record - to urge decision-makers to remember that considerable community harm was also done here.
I'm 31, I've got a master's and an undergrad, I'm a woman of colour, an accidental entrepreneur and an advocate for social justice and a better world. By all measures, I likely have a long life of work in community leadership, policy change and social good ahead of me. And yet, I am certain that the events over the last year will never leave me and will inform so much of the decisions I make from now on.
In elementary school, that famous quote by MLK Jr. was shared with me, and I've always had it tucked away in my mind. As I grew older, I began to understand that racism (and sexism) would always be part of my lived experience, but I thought - however naively that now seems - that in environments where people would get to know who I am (like work, school, etc.,) that I would be judged by the content of my character and not the colour of my skin.
That changed when Mojdeh - a woman who is highly regarded, has loads of incredible experience, is a head-and-heart approach leader and was CEO of a major community organization in London, Ontario- was escorted out of the building like a criminal by her very own Board of directors at her place of work.
As a woman of colour, finding out a leader of a highly regarded community organization who is also a woman of colour was escorted out of Pillar Nonprofit like a criminal fundamentally changed me. This is not an exaggeration, and I'm confident that many more people who were significantly harmed by what happened here - whether they know it or not.
Because, as a friendly reminder, you can be harmed and not have the language to speak to it. You can also be harmed and not have the privilege to speak up (you have a boss, you have a racist Board you report to, you don't have job security, you have to think of the rest of your career and what it means to be labelled that person, etc.).
Now, on its own, we can agree that the abrupt firing of Mojdeh and escorting her out the way this Board (allegedly) did is highly racist, traumatizing (for both the community and Mojdeh) and problematic.
Now add in the (alleged) reports of community gaslighting of the Board's actions.
Add in the (alleged) reports of months of abuse of their power as they panicked about the community response.
Add in the (alleged) reports of intimidation of Pillar staff members (and subsequent mental health concerns of my former colleagues).
Add in the (alleged) reports of intimidation of community leaders and other BODs.
Add in the (alleged)reports of power, privilege and social location that Pillar, as an org, holds in the London, Ontario, community.
Too many people know about this, and too many people experienced this from the sidelines. So it isn't enough to have the Board step down quietly or privately check in with staff, the people who have spoken up, and community partners.
There must be an acknowledgement of the (alleged) racism that occurred because we know that had Mojdeh been a white woman, she would not have been treated that way. There must be an acknowledgement of the (alleged) community harm that the Board (allegedly) caused after and in addition to the firing of Mojdeh. Because even in the unlikely event some of the (alleged) reports aren’t true, they are what many in the community currently believe.
And listen, I get it; talking about how white supremacy manifests is uncomfortable; talking about the (alleged) abuse of power can be challenging, especially for people new to their unlearning journey.
I also recognize that there may be political/legal reasons why owning this might look bad on Pillar's reputation.
However, there must be a way for both the community panel, incoming Board, and Maureen, as interim CEO, to meaningfully address what happened and work towards the healing the community needs. There must be accountability and ownership - and since we know we won't get that from this Board, I would like to ask you to consider ways you can achieve this.
I suspect there will be a temptation to wait until the news cycle moves on, wait for things to go back to "normal," wait until this Board is gone, etc., and then figure out if it is necessary to take ownership here.
But it has been months, and I - a woman who writes content about systems of oppression for a living - needed to write and rewrite this letter several times because even months later, and all the way from Toronto, I'm still feeling the impacts of the choices this Board made over and over again. Time doesn't heal systemic racism and (alleged) abuses of power - I mean, look at our world and society for proof. These things stay, they linger, and they fester, so I do not believe waiting this out is the strategy here.
I'll specifically note here, especially for those who don't know me well, that this isn't me being petty, making it personal, being too sensitive about race, being a snowflake millennial or trying to ‘get back’ at the board members by suggesting we individually drag them (to be clear I am not suggesting that). This is simply me suggesting that Pillar does right by the community, for the community.
I know that young women of colour, including future leaders of the nonprofit sector in London, Ontario, were impacted by this moment. Perhaps they aren't donors- yet, or leaders of other orgs - yet, but they are critical to acknowledge, as are the staff and the larger community which has watched this whole trainwreck go down for months. And as we look ahead, why should any woman of colour want to work at Pillar if Pillar does not address what happened here?
In closing, I'll leave you with -- "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
Not acknowledging and condemning the Board's actions makes it look like Pillar supports what the Board (allegedly)did.
Kindly,
Samanta Krishnapillai
UPDATES from Samanta Krishnapillai:
Edits for clarity were made for the public release of this letter.
For the public release of this letter and for legal reasons, I have edited the public version of this letter to reflect that there have been reports of and alleged problematic behaviour from the Board. It’s wild to me that speaking truth to power needs to be so tone-policed, but as a woman of colour with no generational wealth and a crap tonne of student loans debt, it seems important to cover all my bases here.
The reality is many of us have heard stories of the Board’s behaviour or experienced it ourselves, but there isn’t full-on “proof” of it - so I just wanted to ensure this public copy reflected that.
I’ve also only included things in this letter that I believe to be true and have not added anything to cause any harm to others, as that’s not really my vibe. In the event that something I mentioned above isn’t accurate, I think it is worth nothing that many people in the public do believe a lot of this to be true - so I believe that Pillar still has a responsibility to acknowledge all of the actual and perceived community harm.
it’s also worth noting, and this might make folks feel uncomfortable, but we had recourse to the Board’s actions- didn’t we?
Mojdeh was fired on July 14, 2022. We could have called an immediate general meeting to hold this board accountable, as the By-Laws allow, and ask the Board to explain their actions right from the jump.
I understand that we tried to first individually ask the Board to reason with us, but when we noticed they didn’t seem open to carrying a meaningful discourse here, members of the community responded by holding a small meeting. I was at this meeting at Innovation Works, via Zoom, along with many other well-intending people. We agreed that the action of the Board seemed inappropriate and wanted to find ways to deal with this.
What we did next is what I’ve been reflecting on recently.
Some of us, myself included, wanted a public education campaign and rallying the community to help us get signatures for a general meeting, but the majority of people in the room believed the next step involved politely asking the Board to acknowledge their harm and hold a general meeting so Pillar members could potentially vote them out of their roles.
Of course, Pillar’s Board found reasons to avoid a general meeting and avoided meaningfully engaging in a conversation around this.
What I’m reflecting on now is what stopped us - a group of well-intending people - from doing what needed to be done. We prioritized the comfort of the Board, of us (the community) - at the expense of Mojdeh Cox and the staff at Pillar. There were members of the Pillar staff who literally asked for a general meeting, and our response was to offer help the way we thought they needed, instead of the way they asked - it’s giving white saviour-ism friends.
I’ve been asking myself a lot about why prevents me from doing what I think is the right thing to do, and I’ve learnt that it often comes back to one or more of the 15 characteristics of white supremacy. I invite friends reading this to consider what prevented us (in this situation and others) from doing what was asked, what was needed - and instead opt for what we thought was best.
Lastly, here is the first essay I penned on all of this. Titled Glass Ceiling, Glass Cliffs, and a Shard of Glass to the chest: Women in Leadership
