Families: Designing a Plan of Repair
Traditional philanthropy is not an appropriate model for redress.
Think about it - the millions of dollars amassed by America's wealthiest families have accrued through intergenerational wealth transfer - a tradition, begun during the slavery era, African Americans have been barred from achieving thanks to de jure segregation, red-lining practices and the resulting inability to acquire real estate. An average African American family's net worth is currently just 1/10th that of an average white family's net worth.
Giving USA estimates that charitable donations totaled $427.1BB in 2018. If each citizen shifted even 1% of their annual charitable donations, redefining them instead as reparations, $4.2BB could be raised for reparations in one year. If a national reparations fund were created, the trillions of dollars that are owed to African Americans could be repatriated in just a few generations. Social change may not ultimately be this simple, yet It IS possible to make a difference.
How will you develop your family's plan of repair?
It's easy to become overwhelmed by the level of harm our white families have perpetrated against African Americans over the centuries. How can we determine the scale of harm? How can we unwind specific harms? Where should we start?
If you have committed yourself to the path of repair, but are not sure how to develop a specific plan, begin here. Then, follow your heart.
“Justice requires not only the ceasing and desisting of injustice but also requires either punishment or reparation for injuries and damages inflicted for prior wrongdoing. The essence of justice is the redistribution of gains earned through the perpetration of injustice."
Amos Wilson
Background Information
The American economic system is designed to protect the wealth of the majority-white top 1%. Few of us live in that world, yet many of us may recognize and participate in some of the benefits the top tier of white wealth-holders enjoy. Consider these mechanisms and how they hold in place a caste system in the United States.
Readings
A Step by Step Guide
Determining our level of complicity with evolving structures of white supremacy is a critical step in designing our path of repair.
If our families arrived in the 1600s, we may have very specific areas of harm, such as enslavement and plantations, to account for in our plans of repair. If we arrived later and gradually helped to solidify existing systems of white supremacy, our level of complicity will be different. Or we may have a mixed heritage that includes ancestors that arrived in waves at various times.
Research your heritage as far back as you can, to determine the necessary scale of repair that is due.
1620 - 1849
Colonizer class
Perpetrator
Architect of structures of white supremacy
Slaveholders, capitalists, industrialists
1850 to 1949
Assimilator class
Participant - Bystander
Solidifies and benefits from structures of white supremacy
Farmers, tradesmen, capitalists, industrialists
1950s to present
Recent Immigrant class
Beneficiary
Benefits from modern structures of white supremacy
Any
Study the state-by-state history of slavery and institutional racism in parallel with researching your ancestry; make note of harm your ancestors may have participated in, actively or passively.
Write and rewrite your family prosperity narrative
What is the narrative you grew up hearing about your family?
What messages did you receive about hard work, meritocracy and the bootstrap argument?
What messages did you hear about people of other races?
Write down your family's "origin story" - who were the first ancestor to arrive and what were their lives like?
Now, consider what their lives would have been like had they been Black.
Example:
"My widowed Norwegian great-great-grandmother arrived here in 1850 with just a washtub;
her 4 children were tied together with clothesline, so they wouldn't get separated as they exited the ship.
She found work as a washer women and supported the children until she met my great-great-grandfather.
They started with nothing and worked hard to achieve the American dream!"
Revised:
"My widowed Norwegian great-great-grandmother arrived here with just a washtub;
her 4 children were tied together with clothesline, so they wouldn't get separated as they exited the ship.
If she had been Black, she would not have been allowed on the steamer ship.
If she had been Black, she would not have found work as a washer women or supported the children until she met my great-great-grandfather.
If she had been Black, she would likely have been captured and enslaved, her children sold.
She started with nothing and was able to work hard to achieve the American dream because she was white"
What is the primary way you express your skills, talents and aspirations? In which area are you strongest? Your fundamental nature informs your natural first steps toward repair.
In which area are you weakest? Choose reparations learning opportunities such as workshops and cohorts in these areas to balance your approach to repair.
Heart
Community building
Trauma healing
The creative arts
Mind
Study and research
Teaching and mentoring
Writing
Organizing
Lobbying
Body
Embodied service, physical labor
Building
Protesting
Spirit
Contemplative healing
Faith community leadership and outreach
Your agency, time and resources may all be applied toward repair. Not everyone has time or resources to offer, but all people can work to change their impact to our communities.
Agency
Changing your family justice footprint
How you behave in your neighborhood
How you vote
How you make decisions in community
Time
Volunteering
Mentoring
Lobbying
Fundraising
Resources
Investing in people, communities and projects
Disengaging from white supremacist institutions
The longer our families have lived in this country, the longer is our list of harms perpetrated against African Americans.
This harm is embedded in America's racial wealth gap.
To begin to make amends, we must inventory the individual and collective harms our families have committed and seek specific remedies of repair.
Taking An Inventory of Vocational Harm
How have you earned your living?
How did your parents earn their livings?
How did your grandparents earn their livings?
Go as far back as you can to determine family patterns of endeavor
Next, assemble a list of the 4 or 5 main career trends you have found
What are the historic harms associated with each trade?
Are there any specific harms your family perpetrated?
What geographic areas were impacted? How?
These are the areas you must repair.
Study Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap and Modern Vectors of Economic Racism
to add specificity to your understanding of economic harm.
The longer our families have lived in this country, the longer is our list of harms perpetrated against African Americans.
This harm is embedded in America's racial wealth gap.
To begin to make amends, we must inventory the individual and collective harms our families have committed and seek specific remedies of repair.
Taking An Inventory of Philanthropic Harm
How have you engaged in philanthropy?
How have your parents engaged in philanthropy?
How have your grandparents engaged in philanthropy?
Go as far back as you can to determine family patterns of giving
Next, assemble a list of the 4 or 5 main giving trends you have found
What are the historic harms associated with each philanthropic mission?
Are there any specific harms your family perpetrated through philanthropy?
What geographic areas were impacted? How?
These are the areas you must repair.
Write Your Family Origin Story
Edit your story to reflect your understanding of erased history and your family's role in the establishment of white supremacy culture and institutions
Outline your family's impact over time
Describe the areas and types of harm committed
Clarify which resources you will apply toward repair; commit to a clear goal and set a timeframe.
Craft an apology to injured parties
Work within an African American Reparations Tribunal setting to develop the specific terms of personal partial atonement.
Our first steps toward repair will always be performative, because performance is a hallmark of white supremacy.
Go to church, check the box.
Make a donation, check the box.
This is not a judgement; these are our fist steps along the path of repair.
As we begin to shift power and resources to those we've harmed, our work moves from being performative to being transformative.
Performative
You control decisions regarding your impact, time and resources
You decide which projects to donate labor and resources to
Living in a white bubble:
Most of your day to day contact is with white people
Test:
If you married today, who would attend your wedding?
Of your ten best friends and colleagues, how many are African American?
If you died today, who would attend your funeral?
Transformative
You are guided by the African American community
In best uses for your available resources for repair; you are also participating in African American-led mutual aid networks
You are beginning to change the places you frequent and shop, the groups and social circles you move in
to increase exposure to those outside your white community
Living in Community:
Much of your day to day contact is with with people who are not white
Test:
If you married today, who would attend your wedding?
Of your ten best friends and colleagues, how many are African American?
If you died today, who would attend your funeral?
Family narrative
This is the narrative I grew up with:
"No matter what happens, always remember that you are descended from the finest New England blue blood"
Level of historic complicity
Most ancestors arrived in the 1600s; the majority of my family is of the colonizer class with a few ancestors arriving in the 1850s.
I do have a line of Quaker abolitionists in my family tree as well.
Primary mode for engaging in repair?
My primary mode for engaging in repair is mind - I am good at organizing, writing and teaching.
Primary mode for reparative learning?
My primary modes for reparative learning are heart and body - I hope to develop reparative empathy
Resources to apply toward repair
Impact - I commit to changing my impact in my community
Time - I will allocate 10 hours weekly toward reparative work to heal myself and support our communities
Resources - I have $200,000 to allocate to reverse the harm my family has perpetrated against African Americans over 400 years.
Family and ancestral vocations and entitlements, with locations
Land grants (Virginia, Mississippi, Colorado, Maryland)
Farming - planters and farmers (Virginia, Mississippi, Colorado, Maryland)
Government - governors, mayors, burgesses, senators (Virginia, Mississippi, Colorado, Maryland)
Medicine - physicians, psychologists (Alabama, California)
Law - attorneys (Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana)
Art - Filmmaking (California)
Finance (California, Colorado)
Harm associated with ancestral vocations and entitlements
Land grants - land theft from Native Americans
Farming - the enslavement of African Americans, sharecropping contracts
Government - laws passed to enact and uphold slavery and white supremacy
Medicine - medical experimentation, medical bias, unequal care, lack of access to care
Law - laws passed to enact and uphold slavery and white supremacy
Art - Intellectual property theft, unequal pay, lack of access
Finance - lack of access to capital, predatory lending
Family and ancestral philanthropic giving
The arts - opera, theatre, music, museums
Education - scholarships
Environment - conservation, the outdoors
Medicine - research, care
Harm associated with ancestral philanthropic giving
Art - Intellectual property theft, unequal pay, lack of access
Education - lack of access, lack of resources
Environment - environmental racism, lack of access to outdoor programs
Medicine - medical experimentation, medical bias, unequal care, lack of access to care
Assessment of Trajectory
We are starting at the performative stage; we do not have contact with African Americans in our everyday lives
Family statement of apology to harmed peoples
Selection of African American Reparations Council for Allocation of Reparational Resources
National Reparations Giving Council
Plan Co-Developed with Council:
Impact:
- I will research my family's history and look for ways to reverse harm wherever I find it.
- I will repatriate family slavery-era documents to Black-led ancestry groups
- I will study the history of slavery and institutional racism as well as modern vectors of economic racism in each area my family lived to better understand historic harms
- I will engage in anti-racism work in my spheres of influence
- I will begin the process of disengaging from corporations, programs, and institutions that have perpetrated historic harm to African Americans
- I will meet my African American neighbors and work toward equitable solutions to community challenges
- I will consult African American organizations before I consider how I will vote
- I will consult African American organizations before I take action at my children's school
Time:
- I will apply my best mind-skills toward repair
- I will engage in reparative learning to strengthen my body and heart-skills
- Because I worked in finance, I will mentor African American students in financial literacy and strategic planning
- Because I worked in education, I will tutor African American students in reading
- Because I have organizational skills, I will volunteer with a local racial justice non-profit to organize meetings
- I will serve on my church's racial justice and repair committee
Resources:
- Because my family received land grants, I will contribute funds to the harmed tribes' reparative rent funds
- Because my family enslaved African Americans and later cheated them in sharecropping contracts, I will contribute funds to a Black Land Trust in Mississippi
- Because my ancestor's plantation is still standing, I will fund restoration of the burial site of the enslaved
- Because my ancestor was involved in a Reconstruction-era insurrection in Louisiana, I will contribute to an Equal Justice Initiative monument to memorialize it.
- Because my family funded education for white students, I will establish scholarships for African Americans in law, political science and medicine, the areas my ancestors worked in.
- Because my family funded the arts, I will fund programs in music, film and theatre for African Americans, who have historically been cheated in these areas.
- Because my family snubbed the poor, I will contribute to feeding and clothing poor African Americans
- Because my family created environmental damage through mining but later supported white-led nature organizations, I will contribute to Black-led environmental advocacy organizations
Applying Our Agency, Time and Resources toward Repair
Agency, time and resources are the elements we can apply toward direct repair. While not everyone has time and resources to apply, all of us can use our agency to open doors, change our impact in our community, and work toward needed change.
Beyond wealth, each of us has inherited some of the characteristics and qualities of our ancestors. Let's also put those to good use as we commit to the path of direct repair.
We Can Facilitate Change.
Both Black and white Americans feel the effects of institutional racism; however, while white Americans can ignore its effects, African American suffer multiform harms.
Perhaps the most important thing white people can do, beyond being socially and emotionally aware of our impact on people of color in our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and public institutions is to open up our spheres of influence.
Do you serve on a board of directors? Does your board's racial make-up match your community, especially the people your organization serves? If not, take the initiative to begin the process of change. Next time you are about to term out from a board appointment, help the organization find a person of color to fill the role. If appropriate, offer to provide support or mentorship for that person as they onboard and get acclimated.
What other ways might you use your agency to affect change?
Each of has the key to facilitate needed change in this country. Why should we do it? Consider a recent report on the racial wealth gap by CitiGroup - racial disparities affect our GDP, robbing each of us of ~$2,000 per year of income.
LET’S CHANGE THE WAY WE RELATE TO MONEY. LET’S DEPLOY OUR RESOURCES SO THEY BETTER REFLECT OUR VALUES.
Consider these approaches to increasing your impact:
- Change your investment strategy to support a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) approach
- Invest in companies that feature Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) best practices
- When a racial justice investing lens is developed, begin to migrate your investments to reflect these values
- Or - consider deploying your dollars directly rather than hoarding wealth! How much do we really need?
- Consider whether you might invest in non-extractive community finance programs with low or no return that instead yield high impact in our communities
- Consider selecting a financial advisor or platform that can help you develop a program of direct repair for your family.
Strategies
Guides
An investors’ guide to investing for racial equity - Generocity Philly
Racial Equity Investing: A Catholic Call to Action
Latest Research & Perspectives | Cambridge Associates
Investing-to-Advance-Racial-Equity_Second-Edition.pdf
Racial Equity & Impact Investing | Mission Investors Exchange
A guide to investing for racial equity - Technical.ly
Invest Your Values — As You Sow
Radical Redistributive Resource Library — Ancestors & Money Coaching
BARG Investing Workshop - Google Slides
Transformative Investment Principles
GCEI Discussion Series — Transform Finance
What You Need To Know About Racial Justice Investing (forbes.com)
Reparations and Redistribution
Advisors
Radical Redistributive Resource Library — Ancestors & Money Coaching
Mission Driven Finance Impact Investing + Lending Services
Justice Funders: Powering Philanthropic Transformation
Funds
Integrated Capital Investing's Article on 25 Funds
Invest in Black Economic Liberation - Natural Investments
Racial Equity & Impact Investing | Mission Investors Exchange
Transitioning From Philanthropy
Impact Investing and Racial Equity: Foundations Leading the Way
Systemic Racism During COVID-19: Impact Investing & Philanthropy’s Role | by Lynne Hoey
Funds
Liberated Capital - Case4Reparations Fund
Impact Investing & Lending | NDN Collective
Southern Reparations Loan Fund
Funds (ravencapitalpartners.ca)
NESsT Launches Impact Fund to Invest in 30,000 Jobs | NESsT
AG Business Loans | Organic Operating Loan | Regenerative Farm Loan – The Perennial Fund
Boston Impact Initiative Fund – Investing For Justice
Native Community Capital – Native Community Capital (nativecap.org)
Oweesta – National Native CDFI Intermediary
Kachuwa Impact Fund | Investment Cooperative | United States
Social Impact Now – Social Impact Now
Home - Founders First Capital Partners
We invest in inclusive entrepreneurship (missiondrivenfinance.com)
Cooperatives
East Bay permanent Real Estate Coop (ebprec.org)
African American Giving Guides
Guidance for giving to Black-led organizing for Black liberation (resourcegeneration.org)
Ideas for Direct Support
Check out these ideas and sites offering direct connections to make reparations:
- Donate airline miles.
- Help with housing down payments.
- Help a graduate pay off student debt.
- Help an African American church pay off its mortgage
- Help a young African American establish a retirement account
- Provide direct suppport for victims of police violence.
- Provide travel and scholarship funds for attending trainings and conferences.
- Support an African American business launch or project.
- Fund an emerging African American artist's work
Examples
Join churches, foundations and organizations all over America to forgive outstanding community medical debt; donate to this fund which buys unpaid medical debt from hospitals and other medical facilities then forgives the debt!
Church Pays off $4M in Community Medical Bills
Mutual Aid Platforms
African Diaspora Reparations for Slavery | Reparation Hub
Transitioning from Philanthropy to Repair
- Continue to donate to the same institutions
- Research ways to direct dollars to programs that benefit people of color
- Restrict donations to these programs:
- Scholarships restricted to African American students
- African American art programming at museums
- Grants for African American civic leadership training
Example: Sphynx Organization grants supporting diversity in symphonies
- Speak with local African American leaders to find out what needs there are in your local community and which organizations are leading the effort.
- Gradually shift your donations to include support to these African-American led organizations
- Consider adding a direct support element as well:
- E.g. helping young African American civic leaders pay off their student debt will help increase the time they are able to commit to providing vital services for the community.
- Consider moving away from creating endowments, or increase the distribution percentage of your current endowments to 20% or more to increase annual impact. Social change is effected more rapidly when funds are held by organizations that benefit African Americans rather than by the wealthy.
- Begin to direct donations to African American led organizations' annual funds to increase program impact
To better understand alternative perspectives on wealth and philanthropy, visit this site: Seed Commons and read this book: Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva
How Are Others Engaging in Direct Repair?
"Now That I Know, What Can I Do?" - a conversation with Tina Slaughter of Coming Together Virginia
and reparationists Lotte Lieb Dula, Sarah Eisner, Allison Thomas and Phoebe Kilby.