{"id":72714,"date":"2016-05-02T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=72714"},"modified":"2016-04-27T18:35:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T17:35:45","slug":"the-story-behind-princes-low-profile-generosity-to-green-causes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/05\/the-story-behind-princes-low-profile-generosity-to-green-causes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story behind Prince\u2019s Low-Profile Generosity to Green Causes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"prince_purplerain1\"<\/a>

www.vulture.com<\/p><\/div>\n

26 Apr 2016 – <\/em>In the outpouring of media coverage after\u00a0Prince\u2019s death at the age of 57 last week, fans around the globe began to learn more about the notoriously private star \u2014 including that\u00a0he gave away a lot of\u00a0money. Van Jones \u2014 the activist, author, former Obama administration\u00a0official, and current CNN commentator \u2014\u00a0revealed<\/a> that Prince had secretly funded causes\u00a0from public radio to Black Lives Matter to the Harlem Children\u2019s Zone. He also conceived of\u00a0#YesWeCode<\/a>, an initiative to train black\u00a0kids for\u00a0work in tech. And he\u00a0supported Green For All<\/a>, a group working to fight climate change and bring green jobs to underprivileged populations.\u00a0Jones is in the leadership of the latter two organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was an Oakland activist giving speeches about the need for green jobs,\u201d Jones told me over the phone, recalling how he first came into contact with the musician 10 years ago.\u00a0\u201cPrince heard me in the media and\u00a0sent a $50,000 check to support the work I was doing. But he did all his giving completely anonymously, so I sent the check back. You never know when someone is trying to set you up \u2014 it could have been from Chevron or from a drug dealer or whatever. So then\u00a0he sent the check back and I sent it back again, and then he sent it back and then I sent it back, until finally a representative called and said, \u2018Will you please accept this check? I won\u2019t tell you who it is from, but the guy\u2019s favorite color is purple.\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, now you have a different problem: I\u2019m not gonna cash this check, I\u2019m gonna frame it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"1401x788-prince-extralarge_1412016787658\"<\/a>

www.rollingstone.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Soon after, Prince reached out to Jones, and the two became friends \u2014 a friendship that would last until his death. Jones\u2019 role in Prince\u2019s life\u00a0was, he says, as \u201chis lead guitarist for social impact, for lack of a better term.\u201d Jones helped distribute Prince\u2019s\u00a0resources when he\u00a0didn\u2019t want the attention, including providing solar panels for families in Oakland. The families never knew who their benefactor was.<\/p>\n

As a Jehovah\u2019s Witness, Prince wasn\u2019t permitted\u00a0to advertise his good works. But even without his spiritual tradition, Jones says Prince would have been modest about his giving. \u201cHe\u00a0thought it was in poor taste for these celebrities to get millions of dollars and then write a check and have their publicists all over the media bragging about it,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHe was like, \u2018This is ridiculous. We get enough attention. We\u2019re celebrities.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"www.rollingstone.com\"<\/a>

www.rollingstone.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Jones says that what Prince really cared about was humanity.\u00a0\u201cHe cared about life and love and freedom,\u201d Jones says. \u201cHis politics were not red. They were not blue. They were purple.\u00a0He had a mind that let him see answers \u2014 musically, spiritually, even politically. Rather than argue about global warming, he said, \u2018Let\u2019s help kids put up solar panels.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear in conversation that Jones deeply mourns the loss of his friend. When asked what he will miss most, he takes\u00a0a long pause, so long I think for a moment that the line has gone dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody will tell you about the songs, but the genius didn\u2019t stop when he walked out of the studio,\u201d Jones says. \u201cHe was so hilariously, ridiculously funny. He was Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart\u2013level funny. Dave Chapelle is probably funnier, but he\u2019s the\u00a0only one. Everybody else, Prince could have eaten their lunch, and half the time with no curse words. That\u2019s irreplaceable. You can\u2019t find that on YouTube or iTunes.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/p>\n

Katie Herzog is <\/em>Grist’s news writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 grist.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPrince heard me in the media and sent a $50,000 check to support the work I was doing. But he did all his giving completely anonymously, so I sent the check back. You never know when someone is trying to set you up \u2014 it could have been from Chevron or from a drug dealer or whatever. So then he sent the check back and I sent it back again, and then he sent it back and then I sent it back, until finally a representative called and said, \u2018Will you please accept this check? I won\u2019t tell you who it is from, but the guy\u2019s favorite color is purple.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}