Michael Jordan announces $2.5 million donations to fight systemic racism

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Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand announced the beginning of Jordan’s promised $100 million in donations to “directly impact the fight against systemic racism” on Thursday. To begin, they are donating a total of $2.5 million to combat Black voter suppression in the United States.

Jordan and the Jordan Brand will donate $1 million to each the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM). In addition $500,000 will go to Black Voters Matter to “support reformative practices that drive real change in the Black community.”

In the statement, it says those organizations were chosen “based on their ability to take action that can create impact now.”

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“There is a long history of oppression against Black Americans that holds us back from full participation in American society,” Jordan said. “We understand that one of the main ways we can change systemic racism is at the polls. We know it will take time for us to create the change we want to see, but we are working quickly to take action for the Black community’s voice to be heard.”

Voter suppression claims have been made throughout the United States’ history, from the Jim Crow era to today.

Reports of minority voter suppression for the 2020 election have included disproportionate polling station closures in Texas, missing absentee ballots in Wisconsin and missing polling machines in Georgia that affected predominantly Black communities.

Back in June, Jordan announced that he and his brand would donate the $100 million over a 10 year period to fight systemic racism, focusing on social equality, economic equality and education.

They say the work of the partners they’ve selected will primarily focus in cities and states “where Black people are underrepresented in registration and turnout numbers, relative to their share of the overall population.”


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