What makes reparations, reparations?
Reparations acknowledge that white wealth and land ownership comes from violence, slavery, genocide, systemic racism, discriminatory housing practices, and global systems of finance that siphon resources to white people at the expense of Black and Indigenous people.
Reparations is the act of returning money, resources, and land to Black and Indigenous people to repair harm and to reverse systemic injustice. It is not a donation, and it is not optional.
Reparations are unconditional, and they are done for the sake of liberation. They are most effective with the acknowledgement that the liberation of Black and Indigenous people benefits everyone. Many people say things along the lines of “systems of racism benefit white people.” I disagree with that completely. White people do not benefit from anti-Black and anti-Brown systems. They are positioned as superior, yes. They have more access to land and resources, yes. But they are losing in huge ways that can only be realized once they gain the experience of being in equal and liberated community with Black and Brown people.
I’m not talking about equality within the emotionally-empty and violent systems of capitalism and extraction. I’m talking about actual collective liberation, which is ever-unfolding, and difficult to imagine unless you’re actively participating in it.
Participating in collective liberation can look and feel a lot of ways, and you can tell you’re in it when you experience an emotional freedom that you haven’t felt before. They say “you don’t know what you got until it’s gone;” but more importantly, I like to say, “you don’t know what you’re missing until you have it.”
To white people holding generational wealth, land, or other property: I invite you to explore what you are missing. I invite you to return what has been handed to you through legacies of violence. I invite you to feel the benefits of being in equal and liberated community with Black and Brown people.
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