African American Policy Forum (AAFP) is a far-left think tank dedicated to promoting racial and gender intersectionality in the United States. The organization primarily launches online campaigns to promote specific racial issues, such as highlighting police violence against black women and opposition to bans on teaching critical race theory. ¹

AAFP was co-founded and is led by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a university professor credited with creating intersectionality theory, a philosophical concept that asserts that discrimination directed against an individual will compound based on the number of factors that distance the person from the historical center of American socio-economic and political power (in proponents’ view, heterosexual white men). Intersectionality holds that an African American woman will face unique and greater discrimination than an African American male because she encounters both racism and sexism. ^{2 3}

AAFP often collaborates with the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, where Crenshaw works as a professor.

Campaigns

#SayHerName

In 2014, the African American Policy Forum worked with the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School to launch #SayHerName, a campaign to highlight abuse against black women perpetrated by the police. ⁴

In May 2015, AAPF held a vigil in New York City at Union Square. In July, the organization released “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women,” an “intersectional framework for understanding Black Women’s susceptibility to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence.” ⁵

#TruthBeTold

#TruthBeTold is a campaign against an executive order signed by then-President Donald Trump to prohibit federal agencies, contractors, and grant recipients from conducting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training programs. The campaign has since expanded to include state-based legislative efforts to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory and similar concepts in public schools. ⁶

Under the Blacklight

Under the Blacklight is a series of filmed conversations concerning alleged racial injustices revealed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ⁷

Social Justice SOS

Immediately after the election of President Donald Trump, AAPF launched “Social Justice SOS: What We Need to Know About What Happened, What’s Coming and Why We Must Join Together Against Hate.” ⁸ A preamble to a transcript of the webinar event declares that it “illuminates ideas and strategies that are now proving central and demonstrates the kind of intersectional, cross-issue thinking that is coming to define resistance to the Trump Administration.” ⁹

Then-Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) — later Minnesota’s attorney general and deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee — wrote the forward to the transcript, which includes an explicit call to political organizing to reduce prison populations, student debt, barriers to abortion, and alleged police violence, and to roll back “corporate power, unregulated capitalism, and … economic and social exclusion.” ¹⁰

The seminar included several discussions analyzing the demographics of voters in the 2016 presidential election and advice on how to defeat Trump’s reelection effort. ¹¹

Speaker Mary Frances Berry of the University of Pennsylvania addressed the topic “What’s the story behind the electoral college?” and concluded that “Protest is an essential ingredient in politics” and advised listeners to “continue to protest relentlessly” when “Trump promotes harmful policies.” ¹²

Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, spoke on the topic “Is there anything new about how white women voted in this election?” Denouncing the election of Trump as a “plea for more racial superiority,” she advised that the Democratic Party needed to pivot away from appeals to class warfare and instead focus more on intersectionality and identity politics, and reduce its “focus on the white male working class. That’s not going to get us anywhere.” ¹³

One year later, AAPF released a 90-minute video exploring the social justice implications of the Trump presidency, including the rising scores of Americans on the “Racial Resentment Index.” ¹⁴

Critical Race Theory Summer School

In 2020, the African American Policy Forum began hosting a five-day critical race theory summer school with the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School. ¹⁵

Funding

Nearly half of the African American Policy Forum’s funding comes from left-of-center nonprofits, including the Tides Foundation and Ford Foundation. ^{16 17} In 2021, AAPF received a $600,000 grant over a two year period from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for a “Racial Justice Initiative.” ¹⁸ In 2012, the AAFP received a $20,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. ¹⁹

AAPF’s revenue has fluctuated with racial controversy in the United States. From 2011-2014, annual revenues were between $141,000 and $205,000. In 2015, revenues more than doubled to $408,000. Revenues rose again the following year to almost $700,000, and after the election of President Donald Trump, revenues nearly doubled again to $1.3 million. In 2018, revenues fell by nearly half to $669,000, and in 2019, they tumbled back to the pre-Trump level of $169,000. In the fiscal year ending in June 2020, which ended a few months after the police-custody death of George Floyd, revenues reached new heights at $1.6 million, ^{20 21} including an $81,000 PPP loan from the federal government. ²²

1. “AAPF Staff.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.aapf.org/about.
2. “Crenshaw Urges: Challenge the Narratives.” HBO. Accessed February 25, 2020. https://www.hbo.com/hbo-news/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality.
3. Coaston, Jane. “The intersectionality wars.” Vox. May 28, 2019. Accessed February 25, 2020. https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination
4. “#SayHerName.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.aapf.org/sayhername.
5. “#SayHerName.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.aapf.org/sayhername.
6. “Welcome to #TruthBeTold Campaign.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.aapf.org/truthbetold.
7. “Under the Blacklight.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.aapf.org/blacklight.
8. “Social Justice SOS.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.aapf.org/social-justice-sos.
9. “Social Justice SOS 16: Social justice leaders respond to the 2016 election.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53f20d90e4b0b80451158d8c/t/58b48851ebbd1a5b746381e1/1488226402735/Social_Justice_SOS_full_r6c_sm-2.pdf.
10. “Social Justice SOS 16: Social justice leaders respond to the 2016 election.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53f20d90e4b0b80451158d8c/t/58b48851ebbd1a5b746381e1/1488226402735/Social_Justice_SOS_full_r6c_sm-2.pdf.
11. “Social Justice SOS 16: Social justice leaders respond to the 2016 election.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53f20d90e4b0b80451158d8c/t/58b48851ebbd1a5b746381e1/1488226402735/Social_Justice_SOS_full_r6c_sm-2.pdf.
12. “Social Justice SOS 16: Social justice leaders respond to the 2016 election.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53f20d90e4b0b80451158d8c/t/58b48851ebbd1a5b746381e1/1488226402735/Social_Justice_SOS_full_r6c_sm-2.pdf.
13. “Social Justice SOS 16: Social justice leaders respond to the 2016 election.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53f20d90e4b0b80451158d8c/t/58b48851ebbd1a5b746381e1/1488226402735/Social_Justice_SOS_full_r6c_sm-2.pdf.
14. “Social Justice SOS.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.aapf.org/social-justice-sos.
15. “Critical Race Theory Summer School.” African American Policy Forum. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.aapf.org/2021crtsummerschoolaapf.
16. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted March 4, 2020.
17. “African American Policy Forum.” ProPublica. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/61597874.
18. “The African American Policy Forum.” Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.rbf.org/grantees/african-american-policy-forum.
19. “African American Policy Forum.” W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.wkkf.org/grants/grant/2013/06/african-american-policy-forum-consultancy-on-affirmative-action-p3024030.
20. “African American Policy Forum 990.” ProPublica. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/61597874/05_2021_prefixes_06-13%2F061597874_202006_990_2021052618210236.
21. “African American Policy Forum.” ProPublica. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/61597874.
22. “African American Policy Forum.” Federal Pay. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.federalpay.org/paycheck-protection-program/african-american-policy-forum-new-york-ny.