Silent Partners

 
Logo: Jaylen Taylor

This page is an archive of the original Silent Partners website, which went dormant in June of 2022. All copy, images, and content below was created collaboratively by the Silent Partners board, co-founder D’hana Perry, and designer Jaylen Taylor. For my (Ben Sisto’s) part, I co-founded the project and did all the fundraising and a lot of admin, but was 100% removed from decisions around copy, images, brand, and the grant issuing itself. If you scroll to the bottom there are also two screen grabs of Jaylen’s original site design.


Here’s What We Did, 2020–2021

Silent Partners was/is a group of Black artists and community organizers working to combat unequal outcomes resulting from institutional white supremacy within traditional granting opportunities. Silent Partners believes artists and community organizers are essential workers who are too often underpaid and overworked. In the face of ongoing - and heightened - social, cultural, and economic precarity, our project provided approximately two $1,000 grants per month to support Brooklyn-based Black artists and community organizers who needed it. As a collective focused on intentionality and equity, we prioritized financial support for Black folks further marginalized within Blackness (e.g. queer, trans, disabled, etc). We supported work that is rooted in/reflective of the community and has the potential to enrich the collective. 

Over the course of roughly one year, we supported a diversity of ideas and kinds of labor; grants went towards art and organizing practices, and also towards supporting our grantees’ basic needs like rent and bills. We never asked for receipts.

 

Grant Recipients

 

Funding Model

The Silent Partners model— an attempt to decentralize the role of white people in the narratives of Black creativity and prosperity —took inspiration from two sources: the Awesome Foundation, and Mireille Cassandra Harper’s text on non-optical allyship. Partners (white people who provided funding) were asked to refrain from discussing their involvement online in an effort to reduce virtue signaling. Partners were removed from the grant giving process entirely; they never saw applications or knew the makeup of our panel. 

While many of our grant recipients are now publicly known, partners participated with the knowledge they may never know exactly where their money was going. Additionally, we stated a position that any conditionality— asking for grantee project receipts, documentation, etc  —would undermine the concept of Reparations. Partners were however, asked to contact other potential funders and initiate conversations about Silent Partners, antiracist project models, and their own roles in upholding white supremacist systems. For more about non-optical allyship, please check out the original thread from Mireille Cassandra Harper on Twitter. The post has also been transcribed on Medium by James Arthur Cattell.
 

Some of the Team

Silent Partners was formed by two long-time friends and collaborators; one white cis man, Ben Sisto and one Black trans person, D’hana Perry. D’hana is a new media artist and lecturer with a parallel career in public health. They have a B.A. in sociology, a MFA in Media Art, and are a founding member of the beloved KUNQ DJ collective. Ben is an artist, and beyond the initial brainstorm for Silent Partners, mainly did fundraising and admin support; nothing to do with awarding grants. 
Shortly after Silent Partners’ launch, Manhattan-based designer and social media manager Jaylen Taylor joined the team to build out the project’s online presence. At present, our Black leadership panel is still anonymous.  
 

FAQ for White People

Silence? I thought silence = violence? Why the name?
Our exercise seeks to decentralize the role of white people and white money in the narratives of Black creativity and prosperity. The silent in Silent Partners is about making space, and is specific to this project. To be anti-racist, white partners must continue to be vocal supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement at both public demonstrations and with their vote. This isn’t just a box one checks to be absolved of additional labor.
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What if the money is given to an individual partners disagree with?
Black people are not a monolith. Silent Partners is not here to say what Black views, opinions, and projects matter, or to impose any sort of litmus test. We are here to say all Black views, opinions, and projects matter and to that end, once funds have been handed over are fully trusting the Black community to allocate the funds in ways they feel are most appropriate. Funders may opt out at any time but we don’t do refunds.
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Are you a 501c3? Is this a scam?
No and no, but we understand the concern. It’s a big ask, especially during a time of economic instability resulting from a global pandemic, to ask people to give money away without knowing exactly who the recipient is. We are not a 501c3 or 501c4; this model isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. We’re an option, not the answer. Our project relies heavily on trust and personal relationships, and we encourage potential funders to ask a lot of questions. Even if you don’t fund, the process can lead to great and necessary talks among white people about racism and institutional white supremacy.
It’s mentioned elsewhere but just to be extra clear: we are not a 501c3, do not provide info for your taxes, do not offer refunds, and do not guarantee Partners will know exactly where their funds are going, beyond generally supporting our two monthly grants, panelist honorariums, and paying our designer.
 

Screen Shots