{"id":485,"date":"2019-02-24T14:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev2.wagingnonviolence.org\/fellowship-of-reconciliation\/?p=485"},"modified":"2019-04-17T21:56:53","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T21:56:53","slug":"case-for-interpersonal-reparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/forusa\/2019\/02\/case-for-interpersonal-reparations\/","title":{"rendered":"The case for interpersonal reparations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out \nthree inches, that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the way out,\n that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound, and America hasn\u2019t\n even begun to pull out the knife.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slavery, white pillage, and settler colonialism<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Art: Andrew F. Scott, \u201cReliquary\u201d projection sequence, University of Texas, Dallas.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\n is often said that slavery is America\u2019s original sin. This statement in\n itself either erases the genocide of First Nations peoples or starts \nAmerican history at the Revolution, therefore obfuscating much of our \nsettler-colonial origins. It also sets our understanding of America in a\n Eurocentric lens of Christian redemption and repentance. It would be \nmore useful to say that slavery is the foundation on which we built the \nvery idea of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America imagines itself as a frontier house:\n a well-stocked, nearly self-sufficient, autonomous construct created to\n advance a manifest destiny. Yet what is manifest destiny if not an \nimperial idea? While the frontier people who populate this house may not\n agree with or even be aware of this imperial idea, they continue to \nserve it, and their worldview is shaped by its needs. In many ways, \nAmerica is the pinnacle of a specific settler-colonial project, built on\n stolen land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When various European empires launched their various\n colonial projects in the Americas, they shared a fundamental imperial \nassumption: that land could be owned and Indigenous people could be seen\n as disposable or could be dominated to suit the needs of empire. The \nneeds of imperialism or empire, whether British, French, or Portuguese, \nwere pretty similar. Broadly speaking, empire wants dominance or power \nover land, people, wealth, and other nations. A colony is an imperial \nproject insofar as it is created to further the goals of dominance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n American colonies were an imperial project to extract resources from \nland stolen from First Nations peoples. It is crucial to understand that\n the settler\u2019s existence is predicated on preexisting violence. In order\n for a place to be settled, for the land and people to be pillaged, it \nfirst has to be \u201cpacified\u201d through genocide. The first imperial agents \nsent to a new world are not settlers but explorers who are themselves \nmerely scouts for armies of extraction, domination, and speculation. \nSettlers were sent to the colonies after the genocide began to further \nthis colonial project by providing labor and management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \nsettlers were themselves often refugees and European indigenous \npopulations that were deemed semi-disposable by various European \nempires. We often forget that everyone is indigenous to somewhere<\/strong>, even our oppressors<\/em>.\n Regardless of their personal reason for fleeing Europe, once they \nbecame settlers they became a part of the imperial project of \ndomination, speculation, and extraction. Once they were handed land, \nthey were told it was theirs and told that they must defend it. In \ndefending their land they became complicit in the genocidal colonial \nproject even though it preceded their birth and their arrival in the new\n world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imperialism is a positive feedback loop of domination. As \nthe colonial project advanced, more resources were being extracted, \nwhich fueled the size and power of European states. This increased the \nsize and scale of European wars, which in turn increased the demand for \nresources: more labor was needed. The Indigenous populations of North \nAmerica proved to be difficult to subjugate into forced labor as they \nwere likely to flee plantations and rejoin their Native tribes, which \nwere in active and violent wars of resistance with colonial empires. \nEuropean indentured servants were little better. For one, it was too \neasy for light-skinned European indentured servants to run away from \ntheir contracts early and pretend to be free Europeans in other \nsettlements. Secondly, the most valuable crops were grown in the \nAmerican South and the Caribbean, a clime that many Europeans had \ndifficulty adapting to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, and most importantly, after the ruling class of America’s plantation system had to put down a series of intra-racial rebellions such as Bacon\u2019s Rebellion, it became necessary to separate poor European migrant workers and enslaved Africans. European indentured servants and enslaved Africans coming together in solidarity threatened the economic and political system of the pre-revolutionary American South. White supremacy was the solution to this problem. It allowed the payment of a psychological wage<\/em>, or systemic benefits and privileges, that sent a message to Europeans (increasingly \u201craced\u201d as white people) that they were better than enslaved Africans, in lieu of the land and wage reforms that the American European immigrant working class had been demanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\n is the context in which America currently exists and has always \nexisted. Our revolution was not an anti-colonial one in the normal \nsense. Our revolution was not against empire itself \u2013 it was a coup, a \ndesire to begin our own settler-colonial empire within our own tax \nsystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dynamics of Whiteness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Art: Andrew F. Scott, \u201cReliquary\u201d projection sequence, University of Texas, Dallas.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Whiteness\n is an elaborate story created not only to justify inequity and \nenslavement but also to teach poor European immigrants a standard of \nconduct. White people were told that the system works for them; if they \njust worked hard and assimilated they could advance up the social \nladder. In addition to cultural components made to build internal \nsolidarity with other white people, and by extension the state \n(Protestantism, English language, work ethic, et cetera), whiteness also\n set a standard of conduct and achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whiteness as a \nstandard meant valuing formal Eurocentric education as the prerequisite \nto economic success; listening to your boss; not speaking out; and using\n the courts and other institutions when problems arose. This is a \nconcept often called labor discipline, crucial to keeping workers \nobedient in the inhumane capitalist system. If your boss treated your \npoorly and the systems for redress didn\u2019t work in your favor, you were \nprevented from going outside the system by a counter-story of lazy, \nunruly Black masses. In time, ideas like \u201cwhite trash\u201d further cemented \nwhiteness as tied to middle-class bourgeois values and \u201cgood workers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this lens, it is clear that white people did not create white supremacy: they are in fact creations of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\n is the basis for what is now called white middle-class dominant \nculture: perfectionism, sense of urgency, defensiveness, quantity over \nquality, worship of the written word, belief in only one right way, \npaternalism, either\/or thinking, power hoarding, fear of open conflict, \nindividualism, belief in one\u2019s own objectivity and the right to comfort,\n etc.<\/em> (\u201cDismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups\u201d by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, ChangeWork, 2001, see Dismantling Racism Works<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n unnatural standards of whiteness breed a racial anxiety in white \ncommunities and inhibit empathetic and emotional supportive family \nrelations by making so many things off limits for conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\n told, this creates a culture that lacks many of the spiritually \nfulfilling traditions and activities that typify ethnic cultures. Again,\n it is crucial to remember that whiteness is a culture of dominance, not\n an amalgamation of European cultures. If you were to ask most white \npeople about spaces, habits, and activities that are \u201cwhite\u201d and spaces \nthat fulfill them emotionally and spiritually, there would be little \noverlap. White people tend to invest heavily in subcultures, regional \ncultures, and multicultural events for spiritual and emotional \nfulfillment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main drivers of cultural appropriation\n is the construction of whiteness itself. Whiteness is not merely an \namalgamation of European cultural tendencies. This means that whiteness \nis not a melting pot of French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and \nItalian cultures. Rather, it is a culture of dominance that exists to \nboth bestow and justify privilege for people perceived by society as \nwhite. White ethnic groups had to give up parts of their culture and \nidentity in order to access the privileges of whiteness. Whiteness began\n to be bought and sold through marketing and advertising, like many \nother cultural values, during 1950\u2019s consumerism.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As \nwhiteness was being sold through visions of an American dream in \nsubdivision ads and car commercials, consumer capitalism worked to \ncreate a cultural deficit in white Americans, a feeling that they didn\u2019t\n quite \u201chave it all.\u201d Consumer capitalism is then there to fill that \ndeficit, with the next new \u201cmodern\u201d thing. This leads to a tendency to \nmine other cultures for new music, hair styles, and clothing that were \nprevious considered low, uncouth, or unprofessional.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumerism,\n Capital Production and Cultural Appropriation are an unholy trinity of \nexploitation and marginalization. They provide fertile ground for white \nAmerica\u2019s obsession with Black pain and trauma. Whether it is in the \ntragedy porn of shows like <\/em>The Wire or advocacy organizations\u2019 \nlove of Black tears but aversion to Black power, this obsession forces \nBlack people (and POCs) into permanent victimhood. The permanent \nvictimhood of Black people is one of the reasons that the Black \nLiberation movement is so viscerally frightening to some white people. \nBlack Liberation\u2019s expressions of joy, rage, and even apathy are beyond \nthe box in which liberal white America puts the Black American other.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 “5 Pillars of Anti-Black White Supremacy\u201d by Aaron Goggans<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\n Black communities, the lie of Black inferiority, when internalized, \ncreates its own self-limiting beliefs and habits. Racialized stress \noften leads to horizontal oppressions, as feelings of shame lead Black \npeople to lash out at each other. The lie of Black inferiority, when \ncombined with a disempowering social script that expects \u201cdocility\u201d in \noppressed Black people and a history of white violence, causes many \nBlack people to be uncomfortable speaking out against white people \neither because they have been socialized to expect silence from \nthemselves or because they have experienced the violence of speaking out\n first hand. Equally important, white supremacy and settler colonialism \ncreate economic security in Black communities. This forces Black people \nto have to prioritize acquiring basic economic necessities over \nactivities that might allow for eventual liberation from capitalism, \npatriarchy, white supremacy, and other forms of domination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relationship and building power in coalitions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Art: Andrew F. Scott, \u201cReliquary\u201d projection sequence, University of Texas, Dallas.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

All of this means that effective coalitions between white and Black people are difficult and tend to be transactional. Transactional relationships<\/strong>\n are typified by a \u201cwhat can I get out of this\u201d mentality. Transactional\n relationships are unable to make systemic change or even effective \nreforms because they are not strong enough to get people to make any \nsacrifice. Transactional coalitions tend to fall apart at the first \nobstacle. They also tend to do more harm than good, as power \ndifferentials and resource differences tend to build resentment over \ntime. For instance, Black communities have grown to resent white \norganizations coming to us with fully planned-out campaigns and asking \nfor our support by telling us how \u201ctheir\u201d issue affects us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reciprocal relationships are far more effective. Reciprocal relationships<\/strong>\n are typified by a collaborative solidarity informed by honesty, equity,\n and long term vision. Reciprocal relationships center on real \nconversations about the needs of both parties and reframe the \u201casks,\u201d \ngoals, and terms to respect those needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reciprocal coalitions \ntend to be able to overcome moderate obstacles because all parties see a\n need to fight and overcome adversity. Reciprocal campaigns are often \nstill susceptible to divide-and-conquer strategies, however. Privileged \ngroups often make deals with those in power who meet their major \ndemands, sometimes at expense of the core demands of marginalized \npartners. Tipped workers getting left out of minimum wage increases are a\n great example of this. Even the strongest reciprocal relationships can \nonly achieve reforms of enfranchisement, reforms that bring marginalized\n communities into current systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transformative relationships<\/strong>\n are ones that leverage the power of reciprocal relationships to \ntransform the context in which the relationships exist. Transformative \nrelationships transform spaces and endeavors in ways that improve the \nfreedom, joy, power, and self-determination of all parties. \nTransformative relationships means investing in each party\u2019s capacity so\n that together you can create a world in which you both thrive. \nTransformative coalitions are not concerned with making demands of the \ncurrent system; they are concerned with dismantling the current system \nand building a new one. Transformative relationships are aware of each \nother\u2019s past, current context, and visions for the future, and are able \nto take this into account when plotting a shared course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too \noften, the model of solidarity we use in anti-racism work is based on \nabusive transactional relationships. Anti-racist solidarity is distinct \nfrom other forms of transactional relationships between different \ncommunities, like services presented as charity or the tokenism rampant \nin the performance of white and POC allyship.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is \nboth a particularly dehumanizing and ineffective model of solidarity in \nwhich the transactional nature of the relationship is obfuscated as a \nrepayment of a historic debt. While white people and other communities \nthat benefit from anti-Black white supremacy do have a debt that they must pay<\/strong>, that debt is fundamentally not payable by disempowering themselves<\/strong> through some guilt-ridden attempt to shift their power over to Black people.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get free we need more power, not less.<\/strong> We need more leaders, not enfeebled followers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\n idea that white people must give up their power is based on a white \nmiddle-class and masculine limiting belief in scarcity. It presumes that\n either power is inherently bad (or at least bad in white people\u2019s \nhands), or that it is a zero-sum game. Intersectional transformative \nrelationships teach us that power works in abundance. Just as standing \nin solidarity with my Black Trans siblings requires me to stand in my \nown transformative non-binary masculine power, not abdicate it, so too \nmust non-Black people stand in their own transformative power. Yet in \norder for them to do it, they must first discover it and reimagine their\n identities in a way that accepts my existence and my inherent humanity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\n you are afraid of your power or unable to separate your use of it and \nyour identification with it from the dominance of my Black maleness, \nthen you cannot stand in solidarity with me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 “What Black Queer Feminism Has Taught Me\u201d by Aaron Goggans<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divesting from White Supremacy and investing in Black Liberation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Art: Andrew F. Scott, \u201cReliquary\u201d projection sequence, University of Texas, Dallas.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Stokely Carmichael once said, \u201cIf a white man wants to lynch me, that\u2019s his problem, but if he has the power to lynch me, that\u2019s my problem.\u201d The problem with white supremacy is a problem with power. But it\u2019s not who has power, it\u2019s what kind of power they have. White supremacy and settler colonialism give white people power over everyone else in the world, but leave them with little power over their own lives<\/em>. This is a kind of power so indebted to the master\/slave relationship that middle-class white people are able to order any resources they want but unable to provide for their own spiritual wellness and wholeness. They are too used to relying on Black people to raise their children, cook their food, and entertain them to develop an organic culture of their own, and as long as they have the power to force Black people to do it for them, they won\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black people have power and lots of \nit. We have spiritual power and communal power built out of a long \nhistory of resistance. Yet our communities are under attack, and the \nonslaught of neoliberalism means that we must rely on white institutions\n and economies in order to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we live in this constant \nparadox of not being able to live healthily with each other but being \nunable to live without each other. Instead we are killing ourselves \ntrying to exist in an abusive relationship that is over four centuries \nold. In order to untangle ourselves from this abusive relationship we \nhave divest from the system that supports it and invest in something \nelse. We must heal and be whole before we can come together as equals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\n Black people, that has meant divesting from the lies we are told about \nourselves and investing in Black community, healing, love, and joy. This\n why Black Lives Matter DC<\/a>,\n for instance, focuses on Black Joy Sunday, supporting Unchained\u2019s \nEmotional Emancipations, and hosting Black Organizer Dinners. This \nallows Black people to heal and to decolonize our ideas and \nrelationships with our bodies and ourselves. From these spaces we can \nbuild a liberated culture<\/em> and dual power<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liberated culture<\/em>\n is culture born out of resistance to capitalism, white supremacy, \npatriarchy, and alienation. Elements of a liberated culture include: \nvalue of iterative processes, abundance, generative ideas and processes,\n being adaptive and conducive to life, transformative, grounded, \ncommunal, polycentric, polyrhythmic, nurturing, creative, and centered \non manifesting our greatest good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dual power is an idea first \nposited by Lenin and further developed by Marxists, anarcho-socialists, \nBlack nationalists, revolutionary nationalists, and others. At its most \nbasic it is building alternative power. It is building a community\u2019s \nability to collect and leverage the resources it needs for its own \nsurvival that do not depend on mainstream oppressive structures. In many\n ways it is Gramsci\u2019s counter-hegemony in practice. It is, to borrow an \nIWW saying, building a new world in the shell of the old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Movement for Black Lives<\/a> (M4BL) groups are beginning to formulate plans for building our own version of dual power based in an explicitly Black Queer Feminist liberated culture. These plans are both informed by and birthed in the unapologetically Black spaces that we create and fund with our own salaries, mostly from government and nonprofit work. Many of the vibrant cultural aspects, artwork, chants, songs, and events that have enriched lives and inspired activism come from these spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be \nclear then, how white folks in our network are directly benefiting from \nthis work. The work of the M4BL is providing the keys for white people \nto dismantle white supremacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means:<\/p>\n\n\n\n