“Know you are loved and enough. And put yourself in the proximity of pain. The rest follows naturally.” This is how we can start the work of reparations, says Joel Goza, professor of ethics at Simmons College of Kentucky, and author of multiple books, including: “Rebirth of a Nation: Reparations and Remaking America.” “Or you stay in your segregated bubble. Then you will stay stuck and not grow.” “Reparations has a cost that is much bigger than financial. It requires us to transform as individuals and as society.” Part of that cost is repentance – taking responsibility how we individually and collectively are complicit in the racist systems we live in. “Stepping into the river of repentance can be scary. Know that there are stepping stones at the bottom of that river.” They include transformation and healing, and unexpected connections and intimacies with others. Is it worth it? “Know that it is always the 1% of people who make the impossible inevitable. Think of how few people were in the abolitionist movement and how emancipation eventually became widely accepted.” And maybe as importantly: it will help you grow as a human being.
