Calculating for Reparations

Decolonial Bizness World is a free and open method for business education that promotes reparations and decolonization. #Reparations means repairing the damage that racism, capitalism, and settler colonialism have produced globally through formal, economic amends. #Decolonization means creating open pathways for life to thrive on this planet as we move into the new sun. Both reparations and decolonization involve abolishing borders and prisons and restoring the sacred connections between humans and the many other forms of life that live on this planet, Earth, as we face #ClimateChaos, the #SixthExtinction, and #ProudFascism.

#DecolonialBiznessWorld is made for the magicians of the global economy, those of us who have been forced to the margins of capitalist accumulation, while serving its masters and everyday beneficiaries. We have been made marginal even as we remain the global majority. Decolonial Bizness World is also made for our allies, for people who see truth through delusion and violence and are willing to put their money where their mantra lives: on the books and into daily sacred practice.

This article focuses on calculating for reparations, looking at the costs of police violence from multiple perspectives. May we all have healing justice and #EndPoliceTerrorism.

In this video, I provide a verbal description of the method, which is what adrienne maree brown calls an #EmergentStrategy. This particular video draws attention to the lives of #JeffreyDennis and #ClaudiaPatriciaGómezGonzález, two people who were recently murdered by police. Their families and beloved communities miss them. May we honor and uplift the people who survive them, including you.

It usually takes me about 15 tries before I can teach the method with greatest ease and spoken eloquence. I'll be doing a series of videos on reparations focusing on these two cases because, to me, they speak to the horrors of this time as well as the various beautiful possibilities we have for global transformation. Each video will show the further development of this free and open method for calculating reparations and showcase some of the ways I deploy academic research to achieve my sacred calling, which is to help ease the transition from racism, capitalism, and settler colonialism into what comes next.

Here, in this short article, I give a few tips on how to calculate for the #human, #economic, and #environmental costs of police violence as we work towards decolonization on a world scale.

First, there is no one method or formula for determining reparations.

So much of the violence we experience is personalized. The violence we experience as individuals is always shared by other people and communities, yet how it affects us is embodied and related to who we are in this earth walk. That's why this method was designed for people like you and #MeToo.

Second, calculating reparations is always an economic and spiritual practice.

Above all, the spiritual dimension of this method is central, and survivors must lead each initiative. The point is to foster healing, not pay for therapy and legal costs, and give people the support we require to create solutions for ourselves and our beloved communities. So, what does healing mean for you as a survivor of the violence you seek to stop? Given your daily life and needs at this time, what do you need to put in place to learn and apply the method?

From a purely economic perspective, what aspects of healing can financial reparations facilitate? This question is the most direct, but it isn't as simple as it sounds. For example, you might desire therapy and know that therapists cost a rate of, say $60-250 an hour in your town. What if no therapist in your local beloved community speaks your mother language of Quechua and that's the language in which you sense the world? What is the honest price tag for your therapy sessions if you have to travel three hours to see a therapist who shares your cultural, linguistic, ancestral perspective?

What else is at play when it comes to money? Emotions such as grief and anger, fear and pain, shame and guilt always bubble to the surface when delving into traumatic experiences, and poverty is its own trauma. What can make this learning process a means of healing financial trauma in your personal life and that of your beloved community?

Calculating for #reparations is traveling through time and body. It means seeing a #horror happen again and again and again from multiple perspectives, like the child who misses his father and the mother and six aunties grieving their daughter in a nation, language, and culture that doesn't feel like home – and isn't. Home was where water flowed before it was dammed, put into plastic jugs, and sold back to the people from whom it was stolen.

It can also mean considering the perspective of the store clerk who didn't #intervene or the desperate 911 operator who did double shifts that week and lives two blocks from the border patrol station. It can mean seeing the world from the eyes of the first responders who, honestly, just don't know how to respond emotionally, spiritually, anymore so intense is their trauma.

In light of these diverse perspectives and experiences, how can this painful, traumatizing process be as natural as possible? Start by thinking seasonally, shifting the language of quarterly reports and police transcripts to looking at change over time. Change is natural. Police violence isn't; it is the system operating as it was designed to function. Business education and the calculation of reparations also aren't natural. So what promotes life and natural processes in the face of death, failed policy, and grief?

Earth is naturally abundant. The gap between rich and poor is a manufactured phenomenon that is millennia in the making. We, the divas and homies and refugees and the world's Indigenous Peoples, have been barred from learning business principles and global business leadership because our survival calls into question the world order of racism, capitalism, and settler colonialism. In fact, we don't just call it into question, we undermine it with grit, fierce determination, and glee.

As #AssataShakur says,

“It is our #duty to fight for our #freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Naming #variables sometimes involves naming actual people. Does it matter who pulled the trigger or pulled his boxers down? Sometimes it does. After all, it isn't abstract forces that rape people or put them in cages. It is people, including "respected" engineers, police officers, filmmakers, border patrol agents, and politicians, who engage in these actions.

Names aside or names included, what else contributed to this failure of #justice, this political disaster that you're examining to calculate #reparations? This event is alive. It will #forever shape the lives of all people involved, including the officers and their families? Here, I'm speaking to the role of police education, for example, and police #leadership as well as the broader political context of life in the Trump age when we need social movements called#BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName.

Third, metrics are things that you can measure and analyze. So what counts when it comes to healing the damage and regenerating broken relationships?

Using the symbol for metrics that mean justice, start listing all the things that matter to you in determining financial reparations. Keeping that question in mind – what counts? – flow through the regenerative medicine wheel using the traditional western clock position and moving from 1 to 2, then 4 to 5, then 7 to 8, then 10 to 11. With each symbol, list the variables that matter to your personal healing and the healing of your beloved community and our shared planet. [I’ll flesh this out soon.]

Fourth, let the four directions of decolonial business planning guide your heart at each step -- and as you review your growing list of variables.

Like reparations and decolonization, a business is deeply personal and always political. Your business is healing yourself, your beloved community, and our global ecosystem. Move through the four directions of decolonial business planning, asking if the list of variables you’ve identified can help repair the damage and help for the regeneration of community relationships.

In the West, we balance expenses and revenues while keeping our hearts as light as a feather.

Based on the variables you’ve listed, do you foresee any expenses and possible revenue streams such as collaborating with local police to ensure accountability? Your business, for example, might entail providing expert guidance to the police department, while you are also seeking the abolition of prisons and migrant detention centers, some of which you might visit. Given your personal work and role as a healer, not simply a survivor of violence, are there other metrics that matter and mean justice?  

In the South, we look for and find the most relevant business structure for our personal context be we undocumented, formerly incarcerated, shackled by morally bankrupt student debt, all three, or none of the above.

Given the nature of your healing business and the work to come, are there other variables you can include or perhaps exclude from your list?

In the East, we mix economic and financial currencies to create the firmest foundation possible for our lives.

Really, how much money do you need to ensure that your healing business thrives in the face of climate chaos and proud fascism? What currencies are you willing to accept, and what kinds of exchanges do you wish to have moving forward? Guilt and shame are dying currencies, much like monetary and financial capitalism. Love is the world’s most natural currency, but love isn’t a deed to land and water rights. Do you need cash or do you prefer a fast, direct transfer of ownership? Some forms of amends aren't monetary but material like a deed to your ancestral home that was stolen by settlers in Ramallah, Palestine.

In the North, we look to our north stars for business leadership so we can more easily navigate the rapid changes of our time while we honor our ancestors and all future children.

Who is your north star? When you invoke their sacred counsel, does your ship, your social enterprise, lift on angel wings? That's the goal. You want your heart as light as a feather, a ship that soars into the new sun, and a firm economic foundation. What does your guide, your north star, see for you or for your future work as a healer? Include or subtract variables as needed, desired, required.

Fifth, take your calculations home to your heart, your roots, your rocks, your peeps, our lovely planet in crisis.

If you look closely at Decolonial Bizness World, you'll see that blue diamonds are balanced, more or less, on the sides of the heart, which sits at the center of a tree. In many world cultures, a tree represents life, a sacred connection between the earthly and the galactic. The Tree of Life was also the site of a recent massacre. May we end this cycle of violence. Based on your list of things that matter in the making of justice, do you feel able to elevate your healing venture and play your part in your local and global beloved communities?

Go deeper. Sink into the soil of natural abundance. Imagine your dreams for this planet, our mother. Can your list of variables facilitate elevation and regenerative agriculture? Are there additional variables to consider or eliminate? See the loving future unfold. When you do, when healing seems possible -- because it is! -- it's time for research, math, and a formal campaign to raise the funds!

Sixth, find the data and crunch the numbers. Or, find a data scientist you respect to do the work for you. You can also name your tune, a flat rate that feels honest, restorative, healing.

Do the math and move forward. #PalanteSiemprePalante. You’ve got love to grow and money to raise through a formal campaign for financial and material resources. Next step, activate!

In closing, a prayer, a mantra, and a personal example to share freely.

This method for calculating reparations is part of a larger project to put the #honest price tag on violence in all its forms, from #rape and #incest to #policing and #gentrification. May we #endpoliceterrorism and create a world where everyone can live well and free and feel happy and loved. Much love to all people working towards #HealingJustice on a world scale. #Love is always the answer.

I've been the target of hackers since I first learned that my former husband, a Google engineer, is a sexual predator. #GoogleProtectsSexualPredators. As I've set about calculating financial reparations for myself, I've realized that I don't want to crunch all the numbers at this time. I'm already crushed by the burden of personal experience and knowledge.

I want $500K from individuals in and outside Google who love my work and want to fund my #MigratingUniversity and #DecolonialBusinessAcademy.

No matter how much funding I receive, I'll continue in my public shaming campaign of Google because reputation matters to the company and Google’s policies have a direct impact on global culture and resource distribution, not just my life. As I move forward in this work, I'll create a more honest calculation and share it.

If I have to stand before the courts to stop this crazy #madness and see the public return of all the stolen documents in my hacked Google accounts as well as the internal documentation that Google owns, I have a long list of variables to consider in the financial calculations. Lies – as in proven falsity – increase the dollar amount by a factor of two, then four, then eight. Here's why: you can lie or tell the truth. There are four directions to decolonial business planning. There's the Noble way of Buddha, also called the Eightfold Path.

Google has been a huge player in the Wisdom 2.0 Summits that take place in the Ohlone bay AKA the San Francisco Bay Area that I was forced to flee as a direct result of that global tech company's failed policies that cause so much harm when the tech itself can do so much good. To me, this 2-4-8 factor for proven falsehoods is a rather elegant formula and culturally appropriate. I reserve the moral right to change the formula and process.

Yes, love is always the answer, and sometimes our love is fierce, stubborn, and reverberating.