I’m still thinking about reparations. This shouldn’t be a hard sell, I named my daughter Jubilee after all, in honor and longing to see renewal, release of captives, debt forgiveness, the return of land and assets to those whose luck went south, or even made poor choices. Generationally, everyone would experience at least one Jubilee year in their lifetime, which would, and should change everything. As I read about reparations, I’m seeing the parallels. Right now, I’m sifting through the resources at www.resourcegeneration.com. They unpack the features of UN’s definition of reparations:

United Nations definition of reparations:

– Cessation, assurance, and guarantees of non-repetition
– Restitution and Repatriation
– Compensation
– Satisfaction
– Rehabilitation

Clearly, this is very. VERY complicated. I think what’s clear is that we as a nation are so unbelievably far from even approaching these concepts. Even if there was widespread support of reparations, we white people just like to throw money at things and move on, thinking the debt has been paid. What I’m learning from this organization, as well as what Randy shared, is that reparations cannot take place without relationship, which is built slowly. It’s almost more than what was required in the year of Jubilee: it’s repentance. A commitment to not turn around and manipulate a family out of a field you just had to return. It is not just re-dealing the cards and all’s fair, it is committing to NOT cheat in the future.

I’ll copy/paste a few additional things I’m thinking through from Resource Generation:

Reparations and Redistribution

Differences between reparations and redistribution 

• Reparations and Redistribution both include the idea of returning wealth that has been extracted and/or denied to certain communities. 
• Reparations relate to a specific, and generally speaking, racialized violence or harm; including broad harms such as chattel slavery or more specific harms such as forced sterilizations in North Carolina. 
• Redistribution is a more general act relating to the current unjust distribution of wealth and our class system.
• Within the current economic system in which wealth generates more wealth and debt generates more debt, redistribution is an ongoing necessary practice to prevent further wealth accumulation.
• Reparations are needed to close the racial wealth gap for the long term. Reparations for any category of systemic harm, including mass incarceration, land theft and denial, and the economic system of slavery, would all immediately change the landscape of poverty in this county.
• Reparations should come from the state or an institution that did harm, and include cultural repair and guarantee of non-repetition, in addition to the transfer of wealth. 

Examples of how RG members can engage in reparations work 

• Be part of reparations-based campaigns locally or nationally.
• Participate in reparations praxis groups for deeper peer-based learning
• Researching your family’s wealth accumulation story and how it has profited from anti-Black racism and attempted Indigenous genocide, as applicable, working with your family and impacted Black and Native communities to return stolen wealth through a reparations, rather than redistribution, lens.
• Funding power-building organizations working towards reparations, such as the Movement for Black Lives.
• Orient towards reparations as lifelong, intergenerational healing work that asks us to be in daily practice toward its full actualization.

Sadly, after much research, I did not find any resources for reparations/land tax, land acknowledgment, etc on the tribal websites from areas closest to Central Oregon. I do wonder why. Surely these communities have heard about these efforts elsewhere, especially Seattle. I’m curious what their barriers are, and if given the opportunity I’d like to find out.

Finally, one thing that’s been tricky for me, is that I have relationships with some local activists who are indigenous (but not originally from local tribes). Interestingly, a crew of them and self identifying white allies barged on the scene of outreach to the unhoused about a year and a half ago. They had no training, they did not work with any of the milieu of other organizations already working in this area. They shunned advice and partnership. They made assumptions that the hard work of other outreach organizations were useless. They were purposefully disruptive, uncooperative, and championed “open conflict” as a value of interpersonal communication. Their actions were unethical at times, and put people (both the unhoused, and other outreach workers) at risk. After a year and a half, they disappeared from the scene. They changed course, rewriting their mission as an organization, and are now focused on helping indigenous people reconnect to their roots, and pursue food security via bison farming. Talk about a wild ride! The intersection of these issues for me are striking. I joined JOH specifically to learn skills to manage conflict around issues pertaining to the unhoused population in our community, which included conflict with individuals such as these. And, now, I’m also being called to pursue relationship with them, possibly even reparations with them. I’m confronting my own feelings of ugh. Can’t I find indigenous people that are easier to like? (oof isn’t that a terrible question? It’s like, giving only to the “deserving poor,” whatever that means.) But I think my struggle is universal- it’s easier to try to build bridges to people who are different that we at least LIKE! So, I’m considering ways that I can support them. I’m also considering too that cultural differences are also at play here. They saw a fellow marginalized community that was in their eyes, uncared for. Why, with the US history we are all considering, would they trust do-gooder white people to truly care? Truly sacrifice? Truly listen? Or even be remotely capable of being authentic and committed learners and allies? Their tactics made them come across as @$$ holes, but perhaps there is a lot more at play that originates in generational trauma and distrust of the system. Perhaps I need to move towards them with curiosity, despite how hard they made things for us (in homeless outreach) this past year. Perhaps I can take baby steps of reparations and the spirit of Jubilee by supporting their new endeavors, and hope that it brings them the peace and healing I know they are seeking.