Reparations and Spiritual Integrity

Making reparations is about mending what’s been broken, about reaching out to heal a wound you had a hand in causing.

I know the word 'reparations' can feel heavy, even confusing. So let’s set aside the big conversations about race for just a moment. Picture this: you’re looking after your dearest friend’s beloved pet.

You’re out in a sunlit field, tossing a ball, letting the dog run free. Suddenly, a car backfires. The dog bolts, fear in its eyes, and before you know it, it’s gone. You didn’t mean for any of this to happen, but now your friend’s companion is lost.

Would you just stand there, frozen? Or would you spring into action, heart pounding, determined to make things right?

Most of us would run after that dog, calling its name, hope and worry tangled together.

If running didn’t work, you’d hop in your car, circling the neighborhood, calling out, asking strangers for help. Maybe you’d make posters, call shelters, search the internet for advice. You’d try everything you could think of, because that’s what love and responsibility demand.

Sooner or later, you’d have to face your friend. You’d have to tell the truth.

But what if the story takes a darker turn? What if the dog is gone for good, lost to a car accident you never saw coming? The loss is permanent. Would you let your own guilt swallow you to the point you never spoke to your friend again, or would you sit with your friend in their grief, offering comfort, maybe even tears of your own? Would you try to help them heal, knowing nothing could ever truly replace what was lost? Would you still try to make things right, even if forgiveness felt out of reach?

Reparations are about stepping up to repair harm, to do what you can to mend what’s been broken, especially when you’ve played a part.

It’s not about pretending the harm never happened.

It’s not about shrinking your guilt, or wiping the slate clean. Whether you meant it or not, someone was hurt.

It’s about doing what’s right. About choosing to repair, even when it’s hard.

You didn’t make the car backfire. But you did unclip the leash. You played a part, even if you never meant for things to go wrong. That’s a hard truth to sit with.

In the same way, none of us invented white supremacy. But we’ve all been shaped by it, taught its lessons, whether we wanted them or not. If you’re white, or even white-passing, you benefit from it, sometimes in ways you don’t even see. How?

• When you get pulled over, and the police give you the benefit of the doubt and don’t shoot you over a burnt out tail light.
  

• Even if you do commit a crime, you’re more likely to be arrested, receive a fair trial, and be allowed to be accountable for your actions instead of being murdered by police. You even benefit from the chances that the people on the jury and the judge look like you.
  

• When buying undergarments, makeup, and band-aids in “nude” and your skin tone is within the range of assumed nude. You benefit from being able to buying shampoo that is made for your hair type at the grocery store rather than an expensive specialty shop.
  

• If you own a nice car, you get the benefit of the doubt that you did not steal it. If you own a nice apartment, no one assumes you’re trying to break into the building, even after you show them your key.
  

• Another benefit is going to the movies and seeing futuristic worlds, and romance stories, and heroes that look like you as the default.
  

You never asked for these privileges. You didn’t have to. When the roots of a society are tangled up in white supremacy, those benefits just fall into your lap. That doesn’t mean your life has been easy, or without struggle. It just means race hasn’t been another weight on your shoulders.

The Black Community Has Been Harmed by White Supremacy and that Harm is Ongoing

White supremacy has woven itself into nearly every corner of life on this planet. It shapes what we see as beautiful, who holds the power, who gets to write the rules.

Until very recently, medical textbooks didn’t even show what illness looks like on dark skin. Camera film wasn’t made for brown faces. Most of the world’s poor have brown skin. Spiritual traditions rooted in brown cultures are both demonized and sold back to us as trends. In North America, brown-skinned people face higher rates of infant mortality, heart disease, illiteracy, police violence, hunger, and domestic abuse.

There are two streams of thought as to why this happens.:

Either people believe that people with brown skin are inherently inferior; IE: white supremacist ideology.

or

As a result of longstanding colonization, enslavement, segregation, systemic oppression (including redlining, gerrymandering, internment camps, head taxes, laws which barred people from certain countries from obtaining citizenship, accessing education, voting, etc) people with brown skin have been very intentionally and systematically disadvantaged. IE; white supremacy in action.

Nowadays, many white people would not have intentionally chosen to create a society which purposefully disadvantages Black, Indigenous, or people of colour.

Many white folks I know want a world of peace and equality. They value love, kindness, fairness. They want things to change, but sometimes the weight of guilt and confusion about where to begin can feel paralyzing.

It can be especially disorienting for white people who’ve known poverty. White supremacy promises prosperity to those who fit its mold, but often fails to deliver. It can’t work without someone being pushed down, someone being left out.

Reparations are a Practice of Spiritual Integrity

Making reparations starts inside. It’s a choice, a moral, spiritual one, to begin making things right. When we step back from centering whiteness, we let our inner compass swing back toward humanity, empathy, equality, compassion, and love.

We can’t wait for someone else to fix the wrongs we’ve benefited from.

Governments and corporations can’t do this work alone. They’re just buildings and systems—what matters is the people inside them. When people choose to make things right, the structures will follow.

Reparations are a personal act of peace-making. They start in the heart, even when their ripples reach far beyond us.

A Final Note on Reparations

Reparations aren’t a quick fix. They don’t wipe away the harm or erase a lifetime of guilt with a single donation. They aren’t about making us feel better; they’re about doing better.

Reparations are about doing what is right and just.

The past may be behind us, but its echoes still ring in our bones. Just as your friend might still ache for their lost dog, even if you bring them a new puppy. Sometimes, a new beginning isn’t enough. Healing takes time, and sometimes help.

In the same way, reparations don’t guarantee forgiveness, or even a thank you. They only have the power to heal when they come from a place of honesty and a heart wide open.

If you give money just to prove you’re an ally, or to get a pat on the back, you miss the point. That’s whiteness trying to turn Black pain into a badge of honor, instead of facing the truth and working to repair the harm.

So what can you do?

• Practice giving reparations anonymously.

• Give reparations without being asked.

• Do not ask for social credit in return to giving reparations.

• Practice giving reparations to activists who are on the front line doing work you benefit from, even when it makes you uncomfortable.
  

True reparations will deplete the white community financially – they are intended to do exactly that because they are the collective redistribution of economic power. Let go of any ideas that you are owed goodness, kindness, or elevation through your choice to repair an imbalance. Reparations aren’t a quick fix. They don’t wipe away the harm or erase a lifetime of guilt with a single donation. They aren’t about making us feel better; they’re about doing better.