Crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo has been a hero to conservatives in recent years after its more mainstream competitor, GoFundMe, became notorious for cancelling conservative-leaning campaigns. But GiveSendGo’s commitment to allowing all campaigns (except for fraud or expressly illegal activity) has recently been tested, and it’s stood its ground.

We have to applaud their principled stance, even as two recent campaigns reveal some of the ugliest parts of our cultural moment.

On April 2, Karmelo Anthony got in a tussle with a student at a track meet. He proceeded to pull out a knife and stab the other student in the chest, killing him. Anthony has admitted to the stabbing, but claims it was self-defense. While Anthony is still going through the legal process to see if this defense holds up, the fact remains that a young man who was unarmed is now dead.

Anthony is black, and his victim was white. That fact has made this something of a cause célèbre for a group of people who want to make this a racial justice issue. They started a GiveSendGo campaign for Anthony, which has received over $525,000 to date.

Angry comments that GiveSendGo co-founder Jacob Wells very diplomatically referred to as “championing a racial narrative” have regularly accompanied the donations.

Wells says he’s “not proud” of the fundraiser, but the site is sticking to its principles and allowing the campaign to continue.

But the problem isn’t one-sided.

A woman named Shiloh Hendrix recently went viral for calling a young man, who was allegedly trying to steal from her diaper bag, the n-word. She has since repeatedly doubled down on her use of the term.

She also has a GiveSendGo campaign, and donors have given her over $733,000 and rising. The comments on this campaign also contain racially-charged anger, mirroring the Anthony campaign but in reverse.

It’s no secret that both the black and white communities have felt extremely aggrieved in recent years, but the fact that that anger could make people like Anthony and Hendrix millionaires is a dire warning of just how bad it has become. 

Many donations appear to be motivated less by support for the individuals involved and more by a desire to “settle the score” in broader racial or cultural battles. As any observer of history knows, vengeance of this type doesn’t end problems; it worsens them. 

GiveSendGo didn’t intend to become a battleground for racial resentment. However, as co-founder Jacob Wells put it, “In free societies, people can say stuff that is divisive and not unifying.”

That’s the challenge — and the burden — of living in a free society. We can’t rely on platforms to clean up our cultural mess. If we want something better, we have to be the ones to build it: with empathy, responsibility, and true tolerance. There’s no time to lose.