Healing Time: A Guide to Reparations as Racial Justice (for Black & Indigenous People)
healing time
a guide to reparations as racial justice (for black & indigenous people)
We are in a rare and special time, as a global community – countries with deep roots in violence against Black + Indigenous people (such as the United States) are being faced with the decision of either transforming or being reduced to ashes. From the perpetual struggles of Indigenous peoples to reclaim terrain they have known and cared for across centuries to the most recent losses (murders*) of Black life at the hands of police and white-hypermasc supremacy, to the fires of resistance that have followed, the marginalised and tired are finding novel ways to rise up. We are digging our inner soils to surface new resilience and to reimagine what life can (and should) look like on these traumatised lands.
At the same time, many white people and non-Black, non-Indigenous people are awakening into a new consciousness of their role in this transformation. Many are asking questions they have never asked before – “What is my work?”, “How do I begin?” – or seeking to renew their commitment to racial justice.
Unfortunately, there is one topic which is often conveniently neglected:
reparations.
A return to the original violences, to those points in time when the first harms were made; a question of whether those harms were ever sincerely acknowledged, and a realisation that they have not been; that they never will be, unless we do that work for ourselves; a commitment to restoring what was stolen to its original caretakers, those who have – for centuries – held and birthed and nourished the abundance of these lands. An abundance founded in and funded by Black and Indigenous blood, sweat, and tears.
I am writing this article as an introductory guide to reparations and as a reference piece, something which you should expect to revisit multiple times (it is long, but just a primer/a very incomplete coverage of this topic’s depth!) – and which you should share with others as you invite them to radicalise their racial justice work. The labor of writing this article has been immense, something I’ve been building over years, and I invite you to pay me back for what you take from it: venmo @miyomiyo or paypal (intuit.hue@gmail.com).
Our exploration of reparations in this article will be structured as follows:
First, how reparations is a form of responding to historical imbalances in B+I (Black and Indigenous) resources due to historical (and current) theft, abuse, and exploitation of our bodies (this article will focus on the United States); we will explore some context and a historical basis for reparations, while providing links for you to further educate yourself (and others) on this topic
Then, a list of the most common questions (really, statements) which white folks present when faced with reparations; we will reframe what those questions and statements are often really saying
Lastly, we will talk about what reparations should look like, as well as imagining some future directions for how we can collectively enact community care (how #wekeepussafe)
(One more note before we jump in: I will be using “B+I” to mean “Black and Indigenous”, as this is who the article will focus on!)
the context + historical basis of reparations
Although many of us grew up being taught skewed versions of history, any research into the United States’ “past” quickly reveals that this country is and has always been rooted in violence; it becomes quickly evident that the U.S. works hard to reframe its brutality into a courageous and collaborative narrative. A warm and encouraging story rather than one which reveals repeated abuse, repeated violations, repeated murders. Even a quick bit of research shows this country to be one not only willing to tear apart B+I families and communities, erase histories while rewriting them for white people’s benefit, and control and deny B+I people basic access to life-supporting resources, but one which is almost eager to violate, as if it knows no other way. One which has committed these atrocious acts over and over and over again – wherever there was profit, something to be gained, this country has been willing to lie, steal, and murder. Violence is the actual legacy of the “land of the free”.
But, of course, what is a country without its people?
These violences were not committed by some unknown presence, a vague and mysterious group – they were committed by mundane, everyday people in their mundane, everyday lives. White people (and, to a lesser degree, other non-Black, non-Indigenous people of color*) have – from the very first moment of landing on these shores – enacted harm on B+I people in order to make profit: setting our communities to till and maintain the fields, to raise white children from our own bodies, to build the homes, factories, institutions, and railroads that would set white families up to passively grow wealth over the many years to come. Even when we have made collective “progress”, white people have always profited and been assured a headstart into a stable future.
* In this conversation, I will be using “white people” to mean all non-Black, non-Indigenous people; this is not to erase the unique struggles and experiences of other people of color, but to recognise the ways in which the questions of reparations and racial violence are pertinent to them, as well; there are many people of color whose communities aligned with whiteness across history to assimilate and establish their own sense of belonging/security; it isn’t just white people who stole/steal resources from B+I people, and so people of other world heritages (especially those with light-skin/color privilege) living in or from the U.S. should also investigate how theft from B+I people has led to their family’s access and abundance
And those who did not enact harm directly still received the benefit of violences they made sure not to see, things they knew were wrong but were not brave enough to fight against. It has always been kind-hearted, community-loved, family-oriented, well-intending white people – those who were not “evil” but who were also not brave enough, not willing to lose something, not willing to give up their comfort and connections and relative abundance – who allowed these systems to continue.
Because this country has put a lot of money and effort into erasing its actual history, and because it has taught that the few really atrocious events were caused by “bad” people, many people are unaware of their role as active descendants of this history. Many do not realise the ways that their own ancestors – perhaps even as close as their grandparents and parents – profited (and continue to profit) directly from Black and Indigenous suffering. Many will think this does not apply to them, that somehow, they are an exception.
Many reading this article will have never heard the word “reparations” before, and those who do know it have been taught that it is something the government should do as a “sorry” for all of these historical violences – namely, things like “slavery”. While some countries have taken some steps to address their own histories of violence (link, link, and link!), reparations is often treated as a lofty ideal, something which would be nice someday – the general public’s idea of reparations lacks accountability and the critical steps needed to make it happen. And while these past violences have not been answered to (and the present violences continue to grow and take on new shapes), Black and Indigenous people continue to suffer, continue to survive and resist while white people receive and (relatively) thrive in ways they do not even recognise.
historical and current violences white people enact
Here are some of the main ways white people have harmed, violated, and profited from B+I people (and continue to today):
Forced labor + enslavement
o This is the “slavery” that people often think of first when discussing reparations; white people have long tasked B+I people with giving all of their lifetime and labor to supporting the white person’s dreams, sometimes even groups of people devoted to one white person’s well-being and aspirations; however, this form of violence has largely become seen as socially unacceptable in most of the world, and so laws now prohibit such an explicit enslavement
o Links to reflect on the realities of how much white people saw B+I bodies as only existing for their own needs: [Henrietta Lacks] [African bodies used for science] [science’s debt to slave trade]
Exploited labor
o Many forms of enslavement, once “abolished”, simply changed their shape; in other words, white families and business-owners needed to find more creative and subtle ways to exploit B+I people; white people profit here by creating conditions where a B+I person’s only opportunity to take care of themselves and their families is in work where they are exploited/receive only a tiny piece of the profits from their work
o Examples include gem- and resource-mining within African communities so that Western technology can thrive (have you thought about where the precious metal components in your phone come from?), or other work positions involving physical and emotional abuse and trauma, such as in slaughterhouses, prison labor, or undocumented workers being unable to demand fair pay, due to risk of their employers deporting them
Gentrification + displacement
o Another form of theft occurs when white people absorb spaces which B+I people have built, maintained, or nourished
o This doesn’t just mean historical events where colonisers displace and murder Indigenous communities, assimilate/educate-away their languages, and move them to sharply-defined locations where they are more easily “managed”, but also more mundane examples such as when white people move into brown communities and make them disproportionately expensive to live in, not directly requiring anyone to leave but (again) creating conditions which are so harmful/disadvantaged that the only healthful option is to relocate
o A less subtle example would be times when the government/police-state has actively terrorised and bombed Black communities who had dared to thrive/establish their own thriving
Intellectual + cultural theft (“appropriation”)
o Probably the second-most subtle of the violences white people enact, intellectual and cultural theft accounts for the vast majority of the technological, artistic, cultural, culinary, and social developments that white culture have made across the world
o Examples of this are endless:
white people parading B+I cultures as a temporary costume, bringing them an “edge” until they choose to discard it and return to the safety of their whiteness (think Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, or the thousands of other celebrities who went “native”, tanned, etc for fun or spiritual exploration), while Black & Indigenous people are criticised/lose jobs/are harassed for donning the same physical traits, manners of speech, or dress
white companies using fashion inspired directly from B+I people without crediting them, investing in them, or asking their consent [LOL Surprise doll], [Indigenous patterns in fashion]
white people taking ideas and technologies from Black+ minds, profiting immensely from them while excluding Black people from those spaces or relegating them to less impactful/agentive positions
Bon-Appetit and other white-centering food spaces which take ideas from B+I people and ‘put a twist on them’ / Thug Kitchen
Interpersonal theft + demanding emotional labor
o And here we have what I see as the most subtly pervasive way that white people steal from B+I people in the modern day: by taking up our emotional energies and care in personal connections
o How many times each day do Black or Indigenous people provide a service to you? Educate you? Smile or change their behavior to comfort you, emotionally / help you feel safe? How many times have you asked a B+I person to be nice to you? To change their tone? To prove/provide evidence/walk you through when they said something wrong happened? To not be offended by something a relative/person you know said? To explain something to someone you know, because you think the B+I person explains it well?
o How many B+I people have you been in a close relationship with, and how much time have you put into researching or asking about their racial experience? How much have you thought about ways you might be harming them? Have you reflected on your “preferences”, either a positive bias (seeking B+I people) or negative (avoiding connecting with them)? How many times have you fetishised a B+I person (fantasising about being in a role-reversal/power-submission can be fetishising, too)?
o How many times have you put a B+I person you know in potential danger? Called the cops for a noise complaint or other mundane neighbor issue? Argued/furthered a conflict with a cop, rather than deescalating? Put up a tagged photo of them at a protest? Been speeding or otherwise reckless while driving with a B+I person in the car, increasing risk of an interaction with police? Prepared to cross the street before the light turned green? Stolen something in a store while out with them? Booked an Airbnb/housing without considering if they would feel welcome/safe there? Walked or driven on private property without asking if they felt comfortable? Invited them to a space without thinking of who would be present there?
These violences (and others) have allowed white communities to grow beyond what they could have ever achieved alone; the success, wealth, pleasure, and abundance that white people experience today can be directly traced to the thefts named above.
The ways that whiteness enacts violence on Black and Indigenous people are innumerable and constant, and often outside of what you would first imagine as “violence” or “theft” – this is largely because whiteness has positioned B+I people as existing as objects in service of white needs, making it difficult to identify the ways that casual behaviors reinforce harm, steal resources, and violate.
Additionally, these casual behaviors (violences*) are normative. Meaning they seem mundane. Harmless. Just the way things are done, until we start to investigate when they became that way and – importantly – how they could be different. While you may still be struggling to identify how you, personally, are enacting harm on or stealing from the B+I people in your life, you now have an opportunity to begin asking questions and putting those questions into meaningful, personal action.
defining reparations
Having explored some of the numerous ways reparations are a response to violences that have been poorly addressed, it might be helpful for us to adopt a working definition for reparations, something to refer back to. From my own research and labor, I would define the work of reparations to be:
To investigate the ways in which the generational resources you have access to are the result of theft or exploitation of Black or Indigenous people, our ideas, and our labor
To redirect those resources to Black and Indigenous people – directly, unprompted, uncomfortably, and unconditionally
Further, when talking about reparations, I will primarily be using the verb “return” rather than “give” – this choice accurately illustrates the reality of the situation: when you actively participate in reparations, you are not giving anything, because you cannot give something which was stolen, which does not belong to you.
You are returning something which was taken without consent and by force, and you are restoring it to where it originated from.
frequently-asked questions (or statements)
Now that we understand more about what reparations is and the historical/current violences which make it necessary, let’s explore some of the most common questions and statements that white people bring to this conversation when first exploring it.
“But it was in the past / should I be held accountable for my ancestors’ / another person’s actions?”
Yes, many of the violences we most often focus on when discussing reparations happened in the past; however, their effects and the relative wealth that white people experience are still very much current/present today; when you think about the things your parents, grandparents, their grandparents, or any other part of the extended family built, do you also think you should not be able to benefit in any way from those things? If you are asking this question, you are likely not aware of just how much disparity there is between the resources you have access to + the reality of what B+I people make do with each day
Additionally, most of the violences which we focus on (like “slavery”) aren’t past-tense; they didn’t disappear, they just changed shape: rather than having lynchings around a community tree, burning or bombing Black communities who dared to grow something for themselves, Black people being used as experimental subjects for the sake of ‘advancing medicine’, court cases which last only hours and result in the death penalty for young Black myn (oh, wait, none of those things actually went away) .. those violences now show up as institutional discrimination and exclusion, extreme incarceration of Black people, and the police functioning as a mass-murdering force which keeps Black communities in check/making sure we do not gain any valuable agency or establishments for ourselves, while also making sure to create perpetual trauma which keeps us dissociated and in fear of our lives – just to name a few.
“I am happy to give when someone needs it / Just let me know when you have something specific you need!”
Reparations are not based on needs, they are based on the fact that you have resources which don’t belong to you! You control them right now, but they are not yours; they are stolen!
Further, white people being in the role of evaluating when there is a legitimate need is a power dynamic
B+I people are not a charity! You are not making a donation, you are not doing good in the world, you are not helping someone in need – you are doing something that your community and government should have done years and years ago, righting violences that should have never even happened in the first place; do not expect B+I people to be grateful to you!
B+I people have been denied some of the same freedoms that white people have long had – for example, access to pleasure, risk, and wastefulness. White people have a much greater freedom to do things out of ‘self-care’, treating themselves, or just making risky investments and exploring different options, knowing they will be taken care of; B+I people (and those experiencing poverty in general!) are often expected to only use their resources in a functional, need-meeting way, a way that white people can say ‘makes sense’, while white people can largely do as they please – it is not your business whether B+I people use the returned resources in a way that makes sense to you!
If someone stole from you, especially in a way that put you at constant risk of being without housing, struggling to find food, and just generally unable to find security in your life, you would make it a priority to put things in order; show a similar eagerness to do right when a wrong has taken place, and don’t wait for other people to tell you they are hurting enough for you to finally take action, once you feel like you personally care; it isn’t about you, and you need to be able to do better even when it’s not personally meaningful to you!
“But isn’t that the government’s job?”
Are they doing it? If you’d like to put years of energy towards working to change a coloniser’s government system rather than immediately, urgently working to get resources into the hands of B+I people struggling today ..
“I already give to organisations / I don’t mind giving to organisations, supporting Black businesses, groups ..”
There are many, many people who have needs + wants that will not be met by organisations that currently exist; many organisations which say they stand for B+I lives do not accurately allocate their resources to caring for our communities in the ways we need or would like, and even with the ones that do, the process of getting those resources from your pocket into the hand of B+I people can be lengthy/delayed
When I hear this question, it suggests two things to me:
You are uncomfortable with B+I folks being in control of resources without someone to manage them first; you are trusting your conditioning which tells you that B+I people (and folks in poverty in general) are not capable or self-aware enough to make decisions about our own needs and wants, or
You would like B+I people to put in a labor to show that they deserve the resources you will be returning – it takes work to apply to receive support from an organisation or to establish a self-directed business, and you need proof that we are worthy before you will do your part
“Is reparations only about money? Are there other things I can give?”
Yes, there are certainly many other ways to return reparations
The intention is to identify resources you have access to which are the result of theft or exploitation of B+I people; here are some resources white people tend to have far greater access to/much more agency to negotiate in their day to day lives:
Your time/free time, agency to define how you spend your time; leisure time is often not available to B+I people in the first place (due to needing to work to stay afloat constantly), and when it is available, our joy and pleasure and just existing are constantly policed (where we can walk, how late we can safely be out, etc)
Your physical possessions; how many things have others given directly to you, hand-me-downs that helped you get where you are today? Things you can casually borrow from family or connections? Jackets you never wear? A laptop no one really uses, or could afford to not use? A car? A safe home space?
Your inheritances from family and those who treat you like family, as well as your connections; do you know someone who could hire a Black or Indigenous person rather than hiring within the family? Someone who could help get an application moved through more quickly? Help someone secure housing?
Your assets, such as land, “property”, housing, stocks, and other private funds; many white families feel like they are middle- or low-income, that they are just getting by and struggling like anyone else, but often have tucked away resources as a safety net (and will often keep this information from the younger family members, intentionally or otherwise!), something which B+I people often do not have and which could be redirected to us/to helping people get their needs and thriving met, rather than just sitting in a bank account or drawer in case of an emergency; many B+I people live in a daily emergency, even if they do not recognise or express the urgency of their situation
Your emotional and mental energy; B+I people are often spending our energy simply trying to fight for basic rights (such as having clean water or hoping to not be murdered while walking down the street each day), processing these constant traumas, as well as processing how/whether to educate others on how to stop violating us
Your tangible skills and labor; skill-sharing; many of the skills that B+I people learn are for our survival, to ensure we can defend and provide for ourselves; the B+I people in your life likely didn’t/don’t have the same opportunities to develop the skills you have (whether more casual skills like learning a musical instrument or another art, more academic/’professional’ skills such as writing composition or coding/programming, or more physical skills such as gardening, how to build a shed, or numerous other hand skills – these are privileges, in many cases, which white people had the financial resources and leisure time to explore comfortably)
However, I strongly encourage you to explore if you feel any resistance to the idea of “giving” “your” money and “your” properties/assets/belonging to B+I people; there is a historical pattern of white people seeking to only yield resources that don’t sincerely challenge their social position; whichever forms of reparations you feel most uncomfortable with, that’s probably where you need to start!
“I hear what you’re saying, but I just don’t have that much to give / I’m not wealthy / I wish I could do more / middle-class families should not be asked to give reparations”
I have had this conversation tens or hundreds of times with white acquaintances, kin, and partners, and this is consistently something that they have said the first time reparations was brought up – especially among those in a younger (20s and 30s) age group, who feel they have not yet established security in their own life
It is important that people who feel this way understand that reparations is about investigating where they have access to resources which B+I people do not; that “wealth” is a very relative/subjective concept, and that you likely have access to *much* more than B+I people will ever have access to in their lifetime
You should be investigating not only your own “wealth”/the resources within arm’s reach, but also the safety nets, stockpiled funds, hidden assets, and other resources your family and connections have; this may be even more important than investigating what *you* have by yourself, because resources tend to be collected (hoarded) across generations
The majority of people I have spoken with have shared that they did not know just how well-off their family was until they started to investigate and ask questions on their own / that older members in the family made vague (either by not really knowing their relative wealth or by intentionally misleading/hiding the information) just how much abundance the family had access to; adopt the perspective that your family has gathered and safely put away resources over several generations (in the form of land, stocks, trusts, wills, funds, businesses, cars, boats, and much else), and do not assume that they have kept those resources in a way that is easy to recognise
In short: you may not feel like you have much, but you almost certainly have more than a Black or Indigenous person would have, and your family and their connections have things that can really transform that person’s life; you will not be aware of the actual racial disparity between you and the B+I people you know, nor just how much of a safety net you live in, unless you actively research it and ask difficult questions
“How much should I be giving? Is there a percentage of my income I should give?”
Until uncomfortable; brown people live in discomfort near constantly; many black people would devote their whole lives – their whole day, and everything they created from it – to a white person’s well-being; oftentimes, whole families or multiple families would work, with every bit of their sweat, blood, and labor going to make sure a white family (or even just one white individual!) could thrive
What percentage of “giving away” your income creates discomfort for you? What percentage leads you to feel worry or distress about if you will still have enough to take care of yourself? These discomforts and concerns are ones which B+I people have simply adjusted to living with (things many think of as ‘the way it is’); when you experience a similar concern for your own ability to consistently provide for your needs, you will be experiencing something approximating what B+I people have experienced for hundreds of years
If you feel comfortable with the amount of reparations (the percentage of your labor, time, and other resources) you are returning, then you probably are not doing enough; when you are doing a transformative work, it will be extremely uncomfortable, because you are undoing years of power roles and dynamics which have allowed you to live with far less worries, through the subsidising labor that B+I people do each day
“How long will I need to return reparations?”
For as long as you live, probably (remember that part above where I talked about B+I people living their entire lives to support white people’s dreams?)
Once you grasp the idea that most of the resources you have don’t belong to you, that they’re not yours, that they’re stolen, you will shift your view from obligation to a desire to do right / to right historical (and current) wrongs; you might start asking questions like “what are ways I can use my ability and access to enrich other people’s lives, the way they (and their ancestors) have enriched mine? and how can I continue to find new ways to return what’s not mine?”
Plan to give consistently, and plan to give without being asked to do so; talk with a B+I person in your life and ask how you two can form a reparations agreement, if perhaps they can receive your returns monthly, twice-monthly, each week..
what reparations should be
Here are 4 keywords for what your reparations work should look like – in order to get resources to Black and Indigenous people in a way that responds to our urgent needs in a healthful/collaborative way, your reparations should be:
Direct
If you see need, you respond; B+I are already struggling and can use the resources you have right now; we do not have time to wait for the bureaucracy of going through organisations or waiting for the government each time we need something
Returning to organisations can make sense, if you’ve researched and investigated that the funds will be consistently allocated to the right places and people (or allow B+I to indicate where you can direct the resources; trust B+I people!)
Unprompted
You do not wait until you see “need”, or until someone brings it to your attention; when B+I people reach out about their needs, that is more free labor they are giving you
You give without being asked; set a recurring day (or days) of the month where you return reparations so that others can anticipate when they will receive from you
Uncomfortable
You “give” until you feel uncomfortable with how much + what you are returning, then you do a little more; it is uncomfortable to have our privileges and social power challenged, but that is one way you can identify that you are doing something actually transformative/which undoes power dynamics
B+I people have long made do with risk, with feeling unsure about when they would next have resources; your safety nets will provide for you, while we do not have the same luxury
Unconditional
You release control around knowing how those resources will be used – why? Because they are not yours.
When you return reparations, you do not ask or hope to know how the resources will be used, nor do you stop returning them because you find they are used in a way you see as irresponsible or unnecessary
things you can do now
Additionally, here are 9 ways you can begin returning reparations starting this very moment:
Ask B+I people for their venmo / paypal / cashapp links (after informing them of your intention and making sure they consent to receive; feel free to practice returning reparations to my venmo (@miyomiyo) and paypal (intuit.hue@gmail.com))!
Ask B+I folks if they have a current wishlist (of needs, of wants..) and purchase items they have indicated – do not prioritise based on your own thoughts; communicate what you are prepared to do today and ask which items are a priority to them
Check if a B+I person around you has asked for help with something; look on the people you’re connected with on social media – perhaps they could use your proofreading time, résumé help, a ride to/from somewhere, don’t have time to cook meals, need a prescription picked up, you could mention them to a recruiter for a job..
Use your next free time to go to a food pantry and deliver that food to families/individuals (ask if this would be helpful to them, first!); remember that people experiencing poverty deserve pleasure/comfort foods as much as highly nutritional items!
Spend one day each week educating other white people by directly sending them links to articles like this one, then asking them to make a commitment to some action; let them know what you’re doing and that you are available to help them make transformative actions, too
Teach a B+I person a skill that you’ve been privileged to develop; make it widely known that you are offering some hours of skill-building/tutoring, maybe meet each week – and make sure to not offer just professional skills (prioritising helping someone with résumé and other professional skills can be a covert form of racism and classism); share skills which can help B+I people find pleasure and ease and joy, or which they have said they would like to learn (gardening, a musical instrument, cooking, constructing physical buildings/workshopping, programming, graphic design, writing..)
Look at the physical belongings you have and consider which ones you can do without (a laptop, a winter coat, art supplies, a piano, a car or other transport..); then, ask if any B+I person is ready to receive that belonging; make sure to not just give things that are dirty or near unusable – “give” things that you would be excited to receive and that you might miss
Divest energy from white sources of art and education, then invest it in B+I artists, innovators, educators; the goal here isn’t for you to receive (you should absolutely be “giving” whether you receive anything or not!), but to redirect resources (especially your time/attention and your money) you’d usually put into supporting white artists, podcasts, media, news sources..
Research groups redirecting resources to B+I people directly in your community, then return to them; here’s a great example of a community initiative which puts funds directly in the hands of North Carolina’s queer and rural BIPOC)!
widening our perspective
As we bring this article to a close, I wanted to take some space to reflect on how we can widen our perspective, how we can start to see reparations as a more nuanced question, a practice/process we explore throughout all of our lives. I will continue to update this space with “future directions” and other perspectives as I grow and learn more.
One thing that does come to mind now – I think a major next step, as a world culture, is to begin reflecting on the ways in which “reparations” for femmes are also necessary:
Reparations may seem like a racial issue, but we can also consider the ways in which the work that femmes create is fundamental to the day-to-day functioning and thriving of the world; many of the things built in the world came from femme imagination and are sustained by femme labor
Who are the womyn, femmes, and feminine-aligned folks in your life who care for you? recognise that there may be ways they are laboring in their relationship with you that you are unaware of; make notes of the specific things they do to care for your relationship, share with them that you see this labor, and ask them if they feel the relationship is equitable/nourishing to them – ask what more you can be doing to help them meet their needs and also to give them space to rest/receive nourishment and ease in the connection
Reparations – more essentially – is a general consideration of how the things you have access to might be the result of harm, theft, or abuse, even if you have the privilege of not seeing how those resources/items/energies get to you.
As a whole, reparations is a reflection of (1) accountability, a willingness to engage in crafting healing whenever and wherever we recognise harm and (2) interpersonal care, seeking for ways that community can show up when other systems have failed to care for us.
Black and Indigenous people have suffered for far too long, and it is far past due for us to reclaim the things which have been stolen from us: our time, our ideas, our labor, our love, our dreams, our visions.
Reparations is an important part of doing work that should have never been necessary in the first place, but which exists now – and which will not go away; reparations will not restore lives which have been taken from this earth nor replenish the lands, nor will it alone achieve our liberation, but it will ease our suffering and increase our access to care as we collectively work towards that healing.
Reparations takes a closer look at our past as we prepare to envision our future;
it bridges what shouldn’t have been with what could be.
Reparations is a work of healing time.
Amani Michael
intuit.hue founder + guide
return reparations:
VENMO: @MIYOMIYO
PAYPAL: INTUIT.HUE@GMAIL.COM / paypal.me/intuithue
(if you send reparations to Paypal, I often redirect those funds to others - just fyi!)