A mess on so many levels (white saviorism, horrible management, toxic culture)
Pros
The experience was so poor for mine and my colleagues' mental health, any pro is really obsolete
Cons
The culture here is absolutely toxic. Leadership is incredibly condescending and lacks any transparency or integrity. The organization is resistant to different perspectives to the point of feeling cult-ish. There's a huge disconnect between those who have been at the organization for a long time, and newer hires. More significant is All Stars' actual work and ideology... they present a pretty good veneer but really it's all based on a philosophical underpinning created by a psychotherapist in the 70's and not actual social justice or community engagement practice. They have no idea how to work with communities of color and refuse to learn (they think they're perfect and any feedback is met with defensiveness.) The entire organization is riddled with white saviorism and white protectionism. Without an actual understanding of racial structures of power and privilege, the message they portray to the young people and communities they're trying to serve is one that mirrors our society's inequitable structure, as opposed to challenging it. (ex. silencing students when discussing the racial bias they experience in their corporate internships, committing regular micro-aggressions both internally and externally, referring to updated ideas or criticism as being too PC, appropriating black stories, loads of cultural racism, fetishizing poverty, etc.)