Nets Owners Award Black Brooklyn Leaders Through $50M Fund

BROOKLYN, NY — A doctor on the frontlines in the coronavirus crisis, a climate expert working to protect Brooklyn's shores, an activist inspired by barbershop conversations.

These are some of the Black leaders Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center Owners Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai trust to bring social justice to the borough.

The NBA moguls revealed the first five grant recipients of their new Social Justice Fund on Thursday, kicking off a $50-million 10-year plan to promote equality in the borough first announced this summer.

The awardees include five Brooklyn-based Black leaders the Tsai's say were chosen for their work tackling the root causes of racial disparities in healthcare, climate policy, education, journalism, and the criminal justice system.

“When it comes to dismantling systemic racism and economic inequality in our communities, we want to lead by example. That’s why it is so important to us to invest in the Black leaders combating racial injustice from every angle right here in Brooklyn,” Wu Tsai said in a release. “...We are honored to support their anti-racist work and to invest in creating a more just and inclusive Brooklyn through scalable, proven initiatives.”

On top of the grant, the awardees will have their work amplified through The Black Voices for Black Justice Fund.

Here's a look at the first round of awardees:

• Dr. Uché Blackstock is an emergency physician who worked out of a Brooklyn urgent care center at the height of COVID, and the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, which partners with healthcare organizations to combat bias and structural racism in the healthcare system. Dr. Blackstock will use her grant to support the Brooklyn Movement Center and Ancient Song Doula Services, two Brooklyn, Black-led organizations committed to reducing racial health inequities.

• Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a Brooklyn native, the founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank dedicated to advancing equitable climate policies in coastal cities, policy expert, and author of the Blue New Deal. Named one of Elle’s 27 Women Leading on Climate and called “the most influential marine biologist of our time” by Outside Magazine, Dr. Johnson’s work focuses on reimagining the future of coastal cities and how to handle the risk coastal communities like Red Hook in Brooklyn face from sea level rise.

• Natasha S. Alford is a journalist and storyteller committed to amplifying untold stories impacting Black America and is the Senior Correspondent and VP of Digital Content for TheGrio. Natasha will use her grant to start a scholarship fund for student journalists of color in her hometowns of Syracuse and Rochester and in her current borough of Brooklyn.

• Rafiq Kalam Id-Din II is the founder of Ember Charter Schools, a Black-led charter school in Bed-Stuy focused on African and African-American culture and dedicated to anti-racism and justice for Black students. He is a leader in the charter school movement and founder of the #BlackLedSchoolsMatter initiative.

• Michael “Zaki” Smith is an activist and policy expert who works to dismantle the barriers in employment, education, and housing that prevent formerly incarcerated Americans like himself from fully reintegrating into society. Focused on East New York, Brownsville, and Bed-Stuy, Zaki is also a barber whose social justice work was sparked by conversations with patrons at his barbershop.