Reparations

Reparations describe a system of redress for grave injustices; a payment for harm and damages. - Rashawn Ray and Andre M. Perry

Examples of Reparations

Adrienne Maree Brown	"I tend to think of abolition as one result of transformative justice: abolition is the end of prisons; transformative justice is the methods people use to uproot injustice patterns in communities. I tend to think of abolition as a totality, and I think that can be tricky. People set out to abolish slavery and we ended up with the prison industrial complex because while there were surface and policy level shifts, the culture did not shift. That deep underlying racism and classism remains and is now roaring to the surface as we write this. So, while I identify as an abolitionist, I find speaking about the iterative tangible work of transformative justice makes more sense to me now–I don’t simply want the prisons gone, I want a radically different way of interacting with each other to grow."
Mia Mingus	"I understand abolition to be a necessary part of transformative justice because prisons, and the PIC, are major sites of individual and collective violence, abuse, and trauma. However, transformative justice is and must also be a critical part of abolition work because we will need to build alternatives to how we respond to harm, violence, and abuse. Just because we shut down prisons, does not mean that these will stop. Transformative justice has roots in abolition work and is an abolitionist framework, but goes beyond abolishing prisons (and slavery) and asks us to end–and transform the conditions that perpetuate–generational cycles of violence such as rape, sexual assault, child abuse, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, intimate partner abuse, war, genocide, poverty, human trafficking, police brutality, murder, stalking, sexual harassment, all systems of oppression, dangerous societal norms, and trauma."
Amanda Aguilar Shank	Interpersonal harm is inevitable. Abolition imagines that "each moment where harm happens is an opportunity to transform relationships and communities, build trust and safety, and grow slowly toward the beautiful people we are meant to be, in the world we deserve."

Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Peoples should receive reparations through land and billions of dollars for being forcibly exiled from their lands, killed in masses, and stripped of their culture, language and way of life. Canada was ordered to pay billions to compensate First Nations children who were unnecessarily taken from their homes and put into the child welfare system.

The land back movement is an example of a movement that demands returning a meaningful amount of land to First Nations, Inuit and Metis people, so that they can rebuild their connection to it, and to each other.

Check out the following 10-minute video on the land back movement and reparations for Indigenous Peoples:

Black People

Black people have not received reparations for state-sanctioned racial discrimination, while slavery afforded some white families the ability to accumulate tremendous wealth at the expense of the labour, health and lives of enslaved Blacks. Today, racial discrimination, intergenerational trauma and a racial wealth gap continue to exist. The case for reparations can be made on economic, social, and moral grounds.

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