Since 2020, there has been renewed and growing interest in considering reparations to ameliorate past wrongs and avoid future harms against Black people. Many think about reparations narrowly – as cash payments that would only benefit Black people. Liberation Ventures is a field-building organization committed to thinking about reparations as part of a comprehensive process of racial repair: a project that requires economic, cultural, and political transformation. Racial repair work benefits not just Black people, but all people, catalyzing a true multiracial democracy.

The Black Reparations Project at Mills College has been thinking about and exploring many opportunities within higher education to take up the critical work of racial repair. Universities, especially historically white universities, must reckon with their past and current policies to build a Culture of Repair internally. Colleges and universities are uniquely positioned–given their significant financial resources, research capacity, and historical connections to slavery–to take on the deep work of racial repair for the harm they have exacted on Black Americans. Moreover, they can leverage their research capacity and the experience of their staff to directly support local reparations and truth-telling efforts in their communities.

Join this fireside chat with Dr. Ashley Adams, Dr. Erika Weissinger, Ife Tayo Walker, and Vikas Maturi to learn more about Liberation Ventures’ living framework for racial repair, how the Black Reparations Project is undertaking this work on a college campus, and how to start similar conversations on your campus.