About Us

The Pan African Center for Empowerment (PACE), founded in 2015, actively works to improve the lives of African people globally since its inception. PACE is a non-partisan WA state nonprofit headquartered in downtown Seattle WA. We aid in the economic development of resource-poor and marginalized global African communities (commonly referred to as “Black”). To that extent, PACE’s foundational services seek to empower primarily through economic and workforce development.

We are a member organization that employs grassroots organizing and direct advocacy with the goal of affecting social, economic, and political change on behalf of the members in our community. Our members pay dues to show financial commitment to our execution. PACE dues are structured on a sliding scale based on the income of our prospective member. This means under-resourced individuals can trade time for membership value by serving others in their community through our programs. An individual with a higher net worth may support us through a mix of capital and skill donation.

We are built on a modern mission of community and workforce development with a focus on science, technology, entrepreneurship, arts, and media (also referred to as our S.T.E.A.M. engine); which is well positioned to empower Africans into the 4th industrial revolution (Tech, Data, AI, & Surveillance Capitalism). Our growth and development programs are possible only because we ensure our communities are provided the basic human needs of food, clothing, and shelter. To aid the global African community to #getonPACE we operate as “Hacktivists” unwinding through a systematic approach the systematic attacks our people have managed (many unknowingly) their entire “Black” existence.

We acknowledge that there are many major issues impacting African communities in the US and Globally. We acknowledge that no one organization can solve the problems generated by an elegant system at work for hundreds of years. It is our mission to counter the negative impacts of this system by amplifying the work of like-minded individuals and organizations. Therefore, P.A.C.E. unifies collaborative efforts through ideology alignment with our members and other community-focused organizations. To ensure supporter and partner alignment, it is imperative to understand what PACE is determined to achieve through programmatic execution.

00. “Black” People Must Recenter on the AFRICAN TRIAD!

We start at zero because an understanding of and dependency on this African Triad precedes all that follow. What is "woke" without working to reconstruct what white supremacy has done to our beings? No matter how conscious you are of the African condition globally, there is something we can always be working on to get closer to our ancestral identities. To achieve this our communities must rediscover “Afrocentricity” as an accepted standard. This requires us to consciously drop the “prefix” to European culture. No longer are you a Black President or first Black Astronaut. The African Triad centers our communities on African Spirituality, Physicality & Mentality. This means we must work to rediscover our religions, languages, body standards, beauty standards, in addition to our intellectual and artistic achievements.

01. The Racial Narrative Must Be Challenged and Changed

Once you have embraced the African Triad all else becomes easy. The next step is to deconstruct that which the oppressor has constructed, namely RACE. The concept of white people and Black people is one of the oppressors’ greatest tricks. It is the first trap of the system; self-identity. In order for the whole system to work people must choose a side (but the “Blacks” do not get a choice). Europeans have free choice and once the “white” identity is selected the systems take care of the rest. In order to shed the assigned labels, we must reclaim our ancestral identity. When you know from where you came you will lose the desire to use the oppressors’ labels for you (both race and nationality) unless they “benefit” you. Language is a powerful weapon, therefore words have meaning and we must not let operational definitions of words hide our oppressors’ intent. Language has meaning and through language misuse. We are kept confused. We actively deconstruct what has been constructed to oppress our people. We aren’t activists, we’re “HACTIVISTS” actively working to bring down a system of oppression.

02. Everyone has a role!

PACE promotes the principle of a “Scientific Distribution of Labor” in any struggle. This is a long struggle with a lot of surface area that won’t be achieved overnight. We are committed to generational execution. We refuse to get caught up in simple-minded in-fighting, and focus our energy and efforts on NATION BUILDING. We understand that the fight for liberation from oppression isn’t always done in equal parts by everybody. However, the part each person plays in the collective effort is critical to having systematic impact. Our members and allies fall into 3 types of people; theoretical, applied or a hybrid of both. At PACE YOU define your role, then are responsible for YOUR position.

03. Radical Non-judgment

The global African community is a beautiful tapestry of all kinds of subcultures, indigenous practices, grounded beliefs, spiritual faiths, religions, and ideologies. PACE holds every African up equally regardless of their core beliefs. As long as we can find a single place of alignment, there is no reason we can’t work together. PACE believes that a single place of alignment is around our African spirit. Radical non-judgment means we believe all people of African descent have faced oppression for simply existing and we have no desire to perpetuate white systematic oppression through classic divide & conquer warfare techniques. Our approach is simple, we don’t worry about where you don’t align, we prefer to focus on where you do!

04. Radical Inclusivity

We unite as Africans first, then we respect individual choices and beliefs. We must not fall into the traps of policing behavior or actions, unless we deem it detrimental to the viability of our fight for the liberation of African minds, bodies, and spirit from “white” systematic oppression. We welcome everyone to our HACKTIVISM.

05. Space Creators

We actively seek to correct the detrimental effects of “integration”. The concept of integration was well meaning but poorly executed. All it achieved was to further divide our community by extracting those of us who achieved financial success to now be “accepted” into a system that only extracted the brilliance and economic base of African communities while amplifying the economic gains of the global economy that doesn't serve the people that power it. To correct this we are championing a new model of progression called Self-Segregation. The concept of self-segregation is already being used by almost everyone in America except for communities of African descent. By forcing ourselves on others (space invading) we lose the best of us while enriching our oppressors. PACE creates physical and digital space to foster community and begin the hard work towards building interconnectedness among communities of African descent globally. By fostering “Pan-African Trade Routes” we can quickly amplify the amount of time money stays in our communities which we help build our generational base.

06. Settle Conflict Through Conversation and Reparation

To be “Black” is to know pain and trauma. After so many years of systematic oppression our collective trauma is great but healable. Healing comes from restoration not forgiveness. We cannot heal or forgive until what has been damaged has been restored through similar or comparable means. All conflict restorations are guided by the elder board in our communities. These individuals have the wisdom, perspective and patience to center on the focus restorative healing between disputing parties.

07. Economic Development and Independence

We don’t believe that capitalism is the enemy. Capitalism is like any system implemented by humans, over time it will inherit the flaws of it’s designers. In this case, the humans themselves who are responsible for maintaining, refining, and expanding the system of “white” supremacy through economic oppression. PACE believes we should tweak the same systems that oppress us as a means to free us. We are ushering in the age of conscious capitalism. Conscious Capitalism is a simple economic tweak that forces us to examine the flow of money and use it to build instead of destroy.

• Microeconomics: We must build self-sustaining communities that can provide for the basic needs of the people without begging or being bound to whiteness
• Macroeconomics: Influence the GDP of African communities & countries by creating new trade relationships and business opportunities within the diaspora
• Generational Wealth: Teaching basic financial techniques to grow passive generational wealth and take advantage of economic loopholes.

08. Education & Workforce Development

We are innovating new forms of skills training and curriculum development.We are focusing on helping our community build both tech and non-tech based skills to secure higher paying jobs. IF we increase the earning potential of our communities we increase the global GDP. Simultaneously we are ensuring to power the next wave of entrepreneurs building an independent economic future for our communities in technology and entrepreneurship to propel underserved communities forward.

09. Cultural Preservation

We must bring to a halt the immediate cultural erosion and appropriation of our traditions birthed out of our trauma. Our culture is exploited forr the enjoyment of a system that won’t even allow us to monetize our trauma generated artforms. As such we are creating programs to sustain and propel “Black” art and culture in our likeness and historical accuracy to prevent the further “white-washing” of our existence in culture and media. We are dedicated to the preservation of the following “black” creations:

• Jazz
• Gospel
• Blues
• Tap Dance
• Hip Hop

We believe that adherence to these principles
will help people of African Descent #GETONPACE