Hyperallergic - Chicago Case Study

In Chicago, a Case Study in the Ethics of Cultural Philanthropy 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 Protesters outside the MacArthur Foundation headquarters (image courtesy The Black Star Project) 
 
 Last Friday the Black Star Project , an organization that works to eliminate the racial achievement gap in Chicago, hosted a “Children’s March on the MacArthur Foundation” in front of the foundation’s headquarters in the city. The Black Star Project states , “The children of Chicago are demanding that $100 million of the $7 billion MacArthur Foundation has in assets be used to invest in Black communities and help Black children in Chicago survive violence in their communities.”

 It’s a little strange to demand a foundation give away its money, because nobody is ever entitled to a gift. At the same time, what are the ethics of a foundation sitting on a pile of money, doling it out little by little, in the context of urgent need? Black Star’s campaign asks troubling questions about the ethics of cultural philanthropy in times of crisis.

 
 The MacArthur Foundation headquarters in Chicago (image via J. Crocker on Wikimedia) (click to enlarge) 
 
 According to MacArthur’s website , John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur began their philanthropy primarily giving in their two home cities, Palm Beach and Chicago, even before the couple created a formalized foundation in 1970. Since then, the foundation’s mission has been to give money to “creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.” And it has done that to a considerable extent.

 MacArthur argued over email that it has “provided more funds to Chicago ($1.1 Billion since 1979) than to any other place in the world […] with a special focus on supporting the city’s neighborhoods where economic disparity, racial inequality, violence, and inequitable access to opportunity persists.”

 But the Black Star Project would have MacArthur now locally investing in entrepreneurship, jobs, after-school activities, tutoring, mentoring, violence reduction, counseling, parent development, and black empowerment programs. It believes MacArthur should step into a leadership role, uniting foundations around Chicago’s “most crucial issues,” which in a recent op-ed in Crain’s Chicago Business, the Black Star Project accused MacArthur of ignoring.

 Phillip Jackson, author of the op-ed, is the former Chief of Staff for Chicago Public Schools and Chief For Education for the City of Chicago, and founded the Black Star Project in 1996. Analyzing the $56 million in grants given to Chicago organizations during 2015, he found that only $375,000 went to black organizations working to improve the black community. He calls this “modern day redlining.”

 
 (image courtesy The Black Star Project) 
 
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