Resume
 

Donna Lamb is a journalist and anti-racism activist who deals directly with the subjects of white-skin privilege and reparations to descendants of slavery. She holds deeply-felt convictions about the injustice of this society to people of color and her responsibility as a white person to do everything she can to rectify it. She attempts to stand by her convictions in her writing, teaching and in her everyday private life.

Along with her very personal writing on how she benefits from white privilege, Lamb has been widely published on important racial issues such as:

  • Institutionalized racism at the heart of this country's history
  • How the "white race" was invented
  • Police brutality
  • The "crime" of shopping while Black
  • Issues affecting people of color in the criminal justice system
  • Racism in progressive movements
  • Why she supports reparations

In addition to being a staff writer for Caribbean Life, her articles are to be found in such newspapers and on-line publications as:

  • Greenwich Village Gazette
  • New York Beacon
  • Amsterdam News
  • Black World Today
  • Global Black News
Among the awards she's received are:
  • First Place for Personal Commentary from the New York Association of Black Journalists
  • Third Place in the Best Public Affairs Article Division from the Independent Press Association of New York
  • Contributor of the Year from Black Reign News
  • Woman of Excellence Award from the National Action Network
  • Ma'at Amos Award from the Kushite Institute for Wholistic Development in Charlotte, North Carolina

Lamb has led her anti-racism workshop White Privilege: What Is It and How Does It Show Itself? in many venues around the country, including:

  • Understanding Whiteness, Recognizing Privilege: A Conference Towards Racial Justice, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
  • Race Relations Summit 2002, Tallahassee, FL
  • Rising Up on All Fronts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
  • Building the Beloved Global Community, COOL Conference, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA
  • Lehman College, Bronx, NY
  • Brookdale Community College, Red Bank, NJ
  • York College, Queens, NY
  • Earlham College, Richmond, IN
  • Friends Seminary, New York City
  • Unitarian Universalist Churches, Montclair and Englewood, NJ
  • Symposia, Hoboken, NJ

An interview with her on the subject of white privilege was aired repeatedly on the TV program Your Point of View, broadcast throughout Prince George Sound, Maryland. Another interview was shown on The Listening Room on TV stations in New York City and throughout New York State.

Donna Lamb is also the Communications Director for Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (CURE), an organization of white advocates of reparations to descendants of slavery. In this capacity she has spoken on reparations at various religious and secular organizations as well as at universities such as:

  • Howard University, Washington, DC
  • Rutgers University, Camden, NJ
  • Models for Unity Conference, Cleveland State University
  • Suffolk County Community College, Brentwood, NY
  • Tompkins Cortland Community College (seminar held in New York City)
  • Green Party National Convention, Milwaukee, WI
  • Freedom Banquet, Charlotte, NC
  • NAACP Juneteenth Celebration, Kansas City, KS
  • Juneteenth and Cultural Exchange Festival, Olathe, KS
  • Artists and Activists United for Peace Coalition Rally, Harlem, NY
  • Kappa Theta Lambda Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Hackensack, NJ
  • New York and Union Theological Seminaries, New York City
  • Masjidu-Nur's Islamic Learning Center, Camden, NJ
  • All Souls Church, Washington, DC
  • House of the Lord Church, Brooklyn, NY
  • Community Baptist Church, Englewood, NJ
  • Unitarian Universalist Churches throughout New York and New Jersey

She is featured in the new documentary films Slave Reparations: the Final Passage, directed by Arlene Corsano and Untold Legacy directed by Leslie Brown.

Speaking on reparations, Lamb has appeared on such TV and radio shows as:

  • Donahue, MSNBC TV
  • Reparations: Now or Never - A Provocative Discussion, held in Tallahassee, Florida's City Hall and broadcast live on TV
  • Sharp Talk with Al Sharpton, Comcast TV
  • The P.A.G. Magazine Show, Brooklyn Community Access TV, three-part series
  • The VK Report and 30 Frames Per Second, Manhattan Neighborhood Network TV
  • Studio City, shown on TV in Slovenia, Europe
  • Radio documentary on reparations, aired nationwide over Pacifica Radio
  • Reynolds's Rap, aired nationwide over XM Satellite Radio
  • Truth Rising, WURD Radio in Philadelphia, PA (Lamb was scheduled for 30 minutes, but due to an overwhelming call-in response, it was immediately expanded to two and a half hours)
  • Live from the Millions for Reparations Rally in Washington, DC, WPHT Radio in Philadelphia, PA
  • Let's Talk about It, WGFT Radio in Youngstown, Ohio
  • The Women's Collective, KPFT Radio in Houston, Texas
She has also been quoted on reparations by:
  • Reuters News Service
  • Washington Post
  • Houston Chronicle

Lamb has a chapter in CURE's new anthology, The Debtors: Whites Respond to the Call for Black Reparations. An essay of hers about reparations is also published in The Scoundrel Syndrome: Essays on the African American Experience, 1995-2003, Revisiting the Real-Holocaust, by Dr. Gyasi Foluke. Her writing on reparations will appear in The Reparations Reader to be published by Doubleday/Knopf/Random House.

In her advocacy for persons incarcerated in this nation's prison system, Lamb appeared on the Sundiata Sadiq Show, which aired throughout New York State, and Community Cop, broadcast live over Manhattan Neighborhood Network TV. She told of her experiences visiting an inmate in a maximum security facility and spoke about the unjust and unreasonable denial of parole that inmates are subjected to in New York State under Governor George Pataki's administration.

Lamb has recently begun speaking on the subject Being an Effective Social Activist - the Personal Side. She does so because she has seen that while much is written and said about social justice issues of all kinds, and strategies for how to organize around them abound, there is a paucity of information about how to examine oneself and make sure that one's flaws as a human being - which every person has - don't interfere with social justice work.

Lamb believes in not only talking the talk but walking the walk, so she takes to the streets to demonstrate for just causes and has been arrested protesting police brutality. She mobilizes with the Black-led multi-racial organization Artists and Activists United for Peace Coalition and also volunteers for actual hands-on work at various community projects, i.e. the Holy Apostle Soup Kitchen and the Community Service Society RSVP Planned Reentry for Incarcerated Adolescents (PRIA) program, in partnership with Getting Out and Staying Out.