Reparations
What is reparations to me?
It is not financial
It is not legislative
It is not policy based or retro-fit in any way.
Those answers
Accept as truth
The systems that created and continue the harm.
Those answers are the master’s tools.
Reparations to me is a new constitution.
A declaration that is not built on
Deliberate anti-black and anti-indigenous violence.
A governing document that does not merely tolerate
But celebrates all gender, sex and sexuality as the completion of humankind.
A public agreement that requires that mental, physical and emotional disability
Are not segregated, demeaned or erased by either intent, ignorance or shame.
A statement of universal affirmation for spirituality
Especially if that affirmation is of no spirituality at all.
Reparations for me would be this and so much more.
Reparations is a new constitution
That may not be called constitution
Or even covenant
But rather invitation
To wholeness, to aliveness
To life.
What is reparations to me?
It is a future that is only possible
Without the historical apparition
Or the exclusive tangible presence
Of whiteness
maleness
cisgender-ness
assumed able-bodied-ness
or Christian-ness
etched on fading parchment
blocking the way.
Originally published at https://spirituwellness.com on November 23, 2020.
