Jacksonville is losing its favorite race hustler.
Dr. Kimberly Allen, the CEO of the rase-based nonprofit 904Ward, is reportedly moving to Houston for a new job in June. No word yet on her new role.
As Dr. Allen moves on, let’s take a moment to look back and celebrate all the important work her and her organization, 904Ward, accomplished in the past four years.
Dr. Allen began her career with 904Ward back in 2020 when getting paid to whine about pretend racism/oppression started to become cool for the highly educated. Over the years Dr. Allen cashed in as donations from the guilty and taxpayers funded her nonprofit. In a letter to donors Allen claimed the 904Ward has “flourished in some amazing ways” because of their “giving.” She thanked them for being an “incredible force” and for paying her more than $100 grand a year to be the CEO so she can do the “work.”
I became familiar with Allen’s work and 904Ward last year after reading a “substantial percentage” of third graders attending DCPS’ Title 1 schools “simply cannot read” from Mayor Donna Deegan’s 2023 Transition Committee Report. That shocking statistic led me to find out why, which then led me down the rabbit hole of local race-based taxpayer funded nonprofits like the 904Ward.
Read more here: https://eyeonjacksonville.com/diversity-is-our-strength-not-reading/
The 904Ward believes, so one could assume Dr. Allen also believes, “collection action” must be taken to “end racism in Jacksonville and beyond so all people can thrive.”
According to public records, Dr. Allen’s nonprofit helped end racism in Jacksonville with a $7,500 donation from Crowley. Baptist Hospital gave 904Ward $20,000 for racial healing, deep conversations, and collective action. The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida Inc, which we also fund in multiple ways, gave more than $650,000 to 904Ward to end racism by curating a “collection of oral histories” from those impacted by the shooting at the Dollar General, address racial healing, and building “little free diverse libraries.” Those libraries were the nonprofits way of making sure inappropriate children’s books removed from DCPS libraries are available to kids outside of the classroom.
Even more city-wide racial healing commenced after a nonprofit based out of Virginia called Together Rising gave Dr. Allen’s nonprofit $25,000 to “support their anti-racism work.” Dr. Allen returned the favor by also giving Together Rising $25 grand to “support their anti-racism work.” Isn’t that great? How many anti-racist brownie points does $25,000 buy a nonprofit, I wonder?
Donations also paid 904Ward to come up with unproductive events like hosting “race card conversations.” The nonprofit created a deck of cards to proposition participants into answering stupid questions like, “When did you first become aware of your race?” And “What do the hashtags #blacklivesmatter and #alllivesmatter mean to you?”
Dr. Allen worked to rectify our city’s racist past by creating the Jacksonville Community Remembrance Project. 904Ward claims the city is suffering from an “epidemic” of “racial terror lynchings” because eight people were lynched in Jacksonville 100 years ago. By placing dirt in a jar from where a lynching victim was found and displaying it at M.O.S.H. so young children on field trips can learn about public displays of murder all before lunch, racist wounds are healed, somehow.
Let’s also not forget how less racist we have all become since 904Ward paid the $187,000 tab to remove that 109-year-old Confederate monument no one cared about from a park no one used, in the city’s most dangerous neighborhood after convincing Jacksonville’s mayor it had to go. “There was so much concern about the injury that it was doing to the community,’… ‘especially to the black community that had to see that all day long,” Mayor Deegan said. It is important to note, 43 homicides were reported in the area in 2023, and the mayor has shown more outrage over hypothetical hurt feelings regarding a statue than the dozens of black lives lost to senseless violence.
Racism levels dropped so low due to Dr. Allen’s work, the Jaguars presented her its first ever Duval Diversity Playmaker Award on the field so fans in the stands could see the person responsible for the city’s racial healing. Mayor Donna Deegan is one of 904Ward’s biggest cheerleaders. The group has been by her side and whispering in her ear for all of Jacksonville’s race-based political theater. “We must expand the work that is harnessing our city’s diversity, not undermine the people and programs that nurture it,” Mayor Deegan said. The mayor never wastes an opportunity to defend racist opinions of those who do not look like her in order to bring us all together.
After years of 904Ward facilitating millions of dollars’ worth of deep conversations, soil ceremonies, and racial healing campaigns, Dr. Allen has reportedly declared: “racism has not been eradicated,” so we got trouble right here in River City.
Luckily, Dr. Allen’s team at 904Ward are staying put so they can “water and prune” the anti-racist seeds the good doctor planted four years ago.
Now, let’s all take a moment to thank Dr. Allen for working so hard to not end pretend racism.
