Activist and actor Matt McGorry is the co-founder of Inspire Justice.

Netflix may not be one of the first things that comes to mind when you think about inspiring social change but maybe it should be. Increasingly, writers, actors, and directors are considering the social implications of their content. Its why in the midst of the immigration crisis at our southern border, we saw actors from TV prison-drama Orange is the New Black lend their platforms to our Real Money Moves campaign, keeping money out of private immigrant detention centers and instead, looking at ways to invest back into communities. And why (spoiler alert) the plot of season three takes on the issue of for-profit incarceration, by demonstrating the potential real consequences for inmates when the prison is bought by a private company.

Another of the original OITNB cast members, known for his role as Corrections Officer John Bennett, Matt McGorry has made a name for himself as an artivist constantly looking for opportunities to use his celebrity and media presence to illuminate the struggles of the most marginalized, and to ask people to join him in examining their own power, privilege, and opportunities to create change. His company Inspire Justice sets out to educate, organize and train celebrities, influencers, and media companies to best leverage their hearts, creativity, and platforms to transform culture toward social good. I sat down with McGorry to learn more about this venture, and dive into the role of money and cultural change in forging a better future for all of us.

Youve made your mark in Hollywood not only for your contributions to hits like Orange is the New Black and How to Get Away With Murder, but for your role as an outspoken advocate for social justice across the board. How do you see the fight for economic justice intersect with the fight for racial and gender justice?

Quite simply there is no racial and gender justice without economic justice. In order for people to even have a chance to thrive, they need to be able to meet their basic needs. And in a country where the number-one cost of bankruptcy is people trying to pay their medical bills, its impossible for people to really live their best lives if they have to worry about how to pay for the basic costs of living.

Because of systemic racism and sexism, women of color are more likely to be in poverty. So really gender justice without economic justice means that at the end of the day, wealthy white women may benefit, while leaving poor women and especially poor women of color behind. My understanding of how all these different pieces come together was definitely a journey, and was not something that I initially knew as I began stepping into my role as an activist.

I think for many of us, theres this fear of talking about money. Whether we grew up with it or without it, theres a lot of money trauma that perpetuates in communities. I wanted to ask what your personal money story has been over time. What was your relationship to money at a young age, how did that shift, and then how is that impacting your activism?

I grew up in a family that had money, and I was not given a political analysis of how that money accumulated. And I think when we dont understand the systemic factors, were left to fill in the blanks. And those blanks are usually filled with ideas of individualism and this American bootstrapping mythology. Simultaneously, I had a feeling of guilt that my family was able to be comfortable while knowing that other families were not. And that of course had made it difficult to talk about.

It was about six years ago when I first became aware of the concept of feminist politics and my own privilege as a man like when I realized I projected an expectation on a woman that I would not have on a man. And at the same time, I was talking to a woman in my life about being an entrepreneur, trying to start a business, and having to deal with all of the things that women have to deal with, including riding this fine line between not being so friendly to not seem like youre flirting, while also not being too cold. I realized, though I might not necessarily be as bad as some of the people that I was hearing about, , the ideas that I had and the ways that filtered into my being were of the same system.

My initial foray in getting into activism was looking at feminist politics solely through a gender lens. I had been unconsciously looking to mostly white women to understand how to be an ally. It shows how systems of privilege filter into all areas, right? And as I began to grow, reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, for example, I came to understand that anti-racism was a really essential part of this as well. My own analysis and politics was actually inadequate. Because women of color experience both sexism and racism, its a unique combination that is not just the sum of its parts, but becomes something entirely different.

bell hooks wrote a book called Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center that talks about racism historically even in the feminist movement. Feminist women like Betty Friedan for example, wrote the Feminist Mystique which rang true for many women of the time and was an important experience to be talking about but at the same time it was erasing the experiences of many poor and working class Black women. Over time I was able to understand that essentially if I wasnt being explicit with really fighting racism and classism in my feminism, then I would be tending to be lifting up those who still have the most privilege.

And now youre in business with lots of amazing women. Tell me more about Inspire Justice, how it came together, and what are you looking to build.

JLove Caldern became a social impact advisor to me about two years ago. At the time I had met her I was in a place where I frankly wasnt sure if I was going to be able to continue being an actor or not. There was so much personal development work that was lacking, so much lacking in terms of really understanding how to move through conflict and have conversations in a productive and generative way. As I began to really understand more and more about how systems of power operated and how I was complicit with them, the specific model that she used and that we ended up developing together really completely changed my life. Its a combination of both social impact advising and empowerment coaching. And really to be able to hold people accountable with love in the way that JLove did for me.

We start with our core values: we believe that accountability plus love equals liberation. Some of what we see in our coaching a lot is that the Hollywood industry is just like the industry of the world of business or non-profits. Theyre all very ripe with racism and sexism and are primarily controlled by white men who are not necessarily aware or are trying to actively de-construct those things. Theres been a great hunger and gratitude for the integrity that were able to bring to the work. And to support people to act in integrity with their values, while still being able to live in this career.

As social entrepreneurs, we have a triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. We do one-on-one coaching as well as trainings. For example we were able to lead a series of trainings for How to Get Away With Murder, that were aimed toward producing a more thriving culture for the entire cast and crew and creatives.

When we recognize the system has been designed to exploit, we also know that we must do the best that we can. And unfortunately in the non-profit system, a lot of times harm can be reproduced by those who are funding the work, by maintaining a really tight grip over how much money will get spent. And in order to truly move resources in a way that empowers people, communities, and grassroots organizations, we believe that money should not be contingent on it being used in a certain way. Ninety-two percent of foundation CEOs are white, and 98% of foundation boards are white. It means that those who are farthest from the problem, from the pain of how the systems impact them, are not the ones making those decisions we need to shift this dynamic.

Decolonizing Wealth Event with Inspire Justice co-CEO's and Social Impact Advisors. Left to right: ... [+] Dayanara Marte, JLove Caldern, Siva Kaneswaran, Edgar Villanueva, Favianna Rodriguez, Matt McGorry, Ella Turenne, Richard Reseda.

Knowing that a number of people that youre advising, whether or not they came from wealth, have had the opportunity to have thriving careers as cultural influencers, Im curious what youve been learning or sharing with folks about how they can use their role as wealth owners for good.

A big part of how we do this work is advising folks on where to put their time, their creativity, and their resources. Specifically, our model of change at Inspire Justice is one that supports grassroots organizing. In order to make the largest changes that we really believe are necessary, in order to shift the country from the way that its been for the last several hundred years, we believe it requires deep and radical work. And we find oftentimes that grassroots organizations are the ones doing that work. And they tend to exist outside the nonprofit structure as well. Obviously the nature of 501(c)(3)s is that they are apolitical but at the end of the day, nothing is apolitical.

Can you share more in terms of the decision to make Inspire Justice a for-profit as opposed to a non-profit? I think nowadays a lot of young folks are looking at the landscape of social enterprises and trying to figure out what structures are best. Theres so many different options; you could be a non-profit, a for-profit, a co-op, or a collective how did you decide which organizational structure was going to best serve your purposes?

Often, activists dont get paid for the work that they do. Id see this with other friends of mine who are actors or artists or public figures where they would ask folks who were primarily organizers or activists questions about should I take this project? And its beautiful and great to be able to have a deep relationship and connection with folks across the spectrum from organizers to artists. But at the same time, there ends up being a lot of unpaid labor. And its an injustice to see people who are fighting so hard for the world that we all need, sometimes not even be able to make ends meet.

Obviously theres important work thats done in the non-profit sector, including services that are provided in the meantime while our government does not provide those services. Through this work, though, to be able to have folks be supported, we can also allow them to continue in the more radical politic that they have, without feeling like they may have to regretfully go to a nonprofit or be in a place where they might have to shave off the more radical edges of the work that they are doing.

As a business, folks who have class privilege and can pay us are doing that, and out of that were also able to run a reparations platform and use a profit-sharing platform.

Amen to paying activists. Were a fan of that philosophy. And I think that goes back to really thinking about how your work can not just transform money, but also transform the culture of money.

Edgar Villanueva, author of Decolonizing Wealth, is a part of your very robust team of social impact advisors. Im curious how you think about decolonizing wealth when youre talking to some of your clients about what their relationship to money should be. Knowing that a number of actors or athletes might be first-time wealth holders asking Where do I donate? or Where do I invest? for the first time how do you help this process become transformational both for them and for communities?

Edgars an incredible thinker and activist, and his work has obviously had such a huge impact in the world of philanthropy and beyond. The part of Edgars message that really resonated with me and is a part of my own personal politic and the way that we work at Inspire Justice is this idea of mutual liberation. The mindset I grew up with, which is often what is propagated in the nonprofit world, was that poor people were underserved or needy. And these words often come with the connotation that its unfortunate. And I think that its a real problem when we begin to see injustice as unfortunate, because injustice means that there is the possibility of justice to be done, and it means that people have been deprived of that by the system. Viewing people with pity I think actually reinforces separation between people.

I love that Edgar really talks about money being medicine. Its not inherently evil. And it opens the opportunity for healing. Theres this sort of scarcity approach that still exists that even if theres not real scarcity, there's a hoarding of resources and power and control. That actually is really detrimental to everyone in a way, though poor and working class folks are affected by it most. For me it actually feels like a spiritual harm. To be out of integrity with my deepest values is to mean that I cant face the truth. And if I cant face the truth about the world around me, facing my own truth is going to be that much harder, and therefore my evolution as a human being is going to be much harder.

In our Real Money Moves campaign, we talked a lot about expanding our definition of legacy as it applies to ones personal investment philosophy. That its great to look at your kids and your grandkids one day and be able to say, Here is the wealth that I built for you but that joy is greatly diminished, in the context of, for instance, investments in private prisons and immigrant detention centers, that may mean you have to lock up someone elses family in order to serve your own.

Im curious in particular, working with people in the public eye, do you feel like youre able to shift that concept of legacy and how it connects to capital accumulation? Can we build legacies for our own families, without hurting the families of others?

I do. And obviously different folks of different identities have all sorts of different relationships with money as well, and rightly so. Because even if one person in a family that came from a poor working class background is doing well, that often might mean that they are supporting other folks, for example, in a way that I would not necessarily have to.

What was a big realization for me a couple of years ago was that the accumulation of privilege and that sort of general wealth that youre talking about was building before I was born, from the racist policies that were in place, that might not even be in place anymore. So if members of my family benefited from the New Deal, bank loans, and policies that were pretty much exclusively for white people that is part of how the wealth got accumulated.

Theres this great quote from Edgars book:

White supremacy is a story that humans created. Race is just a story that humans created. Resources and scarcity, greed, as an inescapable aspect of human nature, and that money is the root of all evil, are all stories. Over time these stories have become so solidified and familiar and true, that they begin ruling our view of the world and our choices.

I think that theres so much in that. That again, even if, for example, folks with class privilege are not necessarily materially impacted by the systems of scarcity that exist even the fact that we live in a country where frankly the possibility of destitution can get so real, so deep, and so scary I think it makes us cling on to control in a way thats even toxic for those that have wealth. And I do believe in this idea of being able to redistribute wealth as fulfilling, even for those who have class privilege in the first place.

Absolutely. I really appreciate what you were saying through Edgars work around the need for new stories around money and policy. Thats been really integral to the energy that Bernie Sanders has brought to this election, and you've been an active supporter of his campaign for President. Could you talk about why you think hes the best candidate to dismantle the inequity so entrenched in our country?

I love that he has essentially been for all of the things were currently talking about, for as far back as we can look. Hes had a consistency in values. Oftentimes these ideas of justice and equity and fairness seem radical, but more people begin to accept them. It requires someone really willing to stay the course of that over the long haul.

Its been really great for me to see these ideas that hes been pushing for since the 2016 election, and really since Occupy Wall Street, that started to come to the forefront of consciousness around the 99%. And the need to redistribute wealth is exciting to me that these have now become topics that are part of the mainstream conversation. That through organizing workers, Bernie was able to raise the minimum wage for a number of the largest corporations in the country, is huge and very telling about the energy that he brings, and the energy that he creates and sustains in those who are following him.

We have in this country three men who own more wealth than the bottom half of the entire country. And its an unsustainable model, it doesnt make sense. To be living in a city like Los Angeles where there are so many billionaires and yet there are close to 60,000 unhoused people, I think theres a new story that needs to be told. Its not just unfortunate that people are having to sleep out in the streets, but its actually an injustice. And in this political system, where money buys power and power buys leverage, its so important that those who have that power and that leverage are willing to redistribute it in the most effective way possible.

In order to be able to do that, as part of the model of change at Inspire Justice, folks on the ground who are closest to the pain of the problems and really have the solutions are the ones who drive them. Because no matter how many books Ive read and Ive read many books trying to figure it all out or how many direct actions Ive been to, or lectures Ive been to at the end of the day, there needs to be a community that is supporting this work and its critical for me as an actor to be able to lean on our community of incredible advisors to say I dont actually have to do this all myself. This is what I have this community for. To show me the areas that I cant see, and to point me in the right direction.

Share a bit more about some of the specific initiatives with Inspire Justice that youre excited about, and how people can connect with your work.

For folks that are wanting to follow on the journey and the development, social media is a great tool for that. Our instagram is @weinspirejustice. A lot of times well help people plug into campaigns, like the Measure R campaign which just passed in LA and is really exciting.

For folks that are artists who have public platforms, who are interested in doing this deep work of personal transformation towards collective liberation, they can reach out through the website: weinspirejustice.com.

Were going to continue expanding and we have so many brilliant minds in the company who just blow me away in terms of their ideas for building out the organizing capacity. So I think its been an exponential growth process as new ideas are born and created and interacted with. Im excited to see where that continues to grow.

Thanks to Jasmine Rashid for her contributions to this piece. Full disclosures related to my work here. This post does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, and the author is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided herein.

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Matt McGorry Talks Money And Inspires Justice - Forbes