reparations
[Image shows a mixed-media collage that is featured in the 2020 Coping Calendar, this version has no words. Against a light brown backdrop, a silver moon-like orb is mostly covered by a Palos Verdes Blue butterfly, which is illustrated in detail and looks very fuzzy and soft. Surrounding these is a white circle.]
i’ve thought about doing this for a while…
And honestly, I’m embarrassed that it’s taken a global revolution for me to formalize it. But, here we are.
During the flood of donations to Black-led organizations, businesses, and individuals by non-Black POC and white folks in early June 2020, many spoke out to say ‘where will you be for us in a month from now?’ calling us in to make supporting Black leadership and individuals an ongoing practice rather than a knee-jerk response to a moment of crisis. Reparations are “broadly understood as compensation given for an abuse or injury” (wikipedia). Although I recognize that no amount of money can undo the harm that white supremacy and settler-colonialism has waged on Black and indigenous communities, I support reparations as one small way of moving toward justice (I learned a lot about this via the the Shuumi Land Tax, which I found out about through the incredible organizers of Queer Magic Makers).
I believe in reparations on a much larger scale, but since I also individually benefit from white privilege I have an individual role to play in making amends. (An instagram post from Annika Hansteen-Izora motivated me to formalize and act on this!) I hope other white folks reading this will seriously consider making reparations an ongoing part of your relationship with money.
One thing that’s kept me from committing more formally to making reparations is my perfectionism, my fear of getting it wrong! (The first person to make me aware that perfectionism is tied up in white supremacy was Leesa Renée Hall). Also, if I commit publicly to this, I need to be accountable, which means I need to get WAY better at accounting! (My accounts are an absolute MESS). But I’m coming to realize that these are all invitations to grow, and that it’s okay if/when I don’t get things perfect the first time— it’s okay to mess up, make adjustments, and try again. Below you can read about the reparations I’m committing to now.
As a white settler on colonized land I’ve been in the practice of paying a voluntary monthly Land Tax for a couple of years now. Currently, I pay $25/month to the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, who are the original stewards of the land I live on here in Santa Cruz. I would like to increase this amount as I become more financially stable!
20% of all sales for the month of June from both of my businesses were donated to the Movement for Black Lives. Now I am building reparations into my business model in an ongoing commitment to donate 10% of all sales to Black-led organizations working for justice, Black individuals, and/or Black-led collectives of creatives and cultural workers. I will update this page as I make clearer decisions about what that looks like (and I’m open to feedback)! For now I’m simply scooping 10% out of all sales and putting it into a “reparations” category of my budget any time I get paid. I envision using the money in that category to contribute to individual people’s crowdfunding campaigns, political campaigns for radical Black candidates, and Black-led fundraisers and orgs. I would like to make adjustments and improvements to this as I improve my skills at accounting and managing my finances ~ I’ll be checking back in and refining my reparations commitments on the Fall Equinox, 2020 (Tuesday, Sept. 22)!