Making Reparations
Reparations are crucial for racial and economic justice. WMSURJ has been engaged in making personal reparations payments and encouraging others to do so as a regular practice since 2018. Please scroll down and click here for information about our past reparations work.
NEW as of January 2021: 100% of the reparations money we collect in 2021 and 2022 will go to the Nipmuc People in Grafton, MA via the tribe's 501(c)3 - the Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation (NIDC). The NIDC is the community development tool used by the tribe to further their goals including improved spiritual and physical health, increased economic stability, and the development of communal responsibility to land, water and people.
WMSURJ is inviting settlers* to engage in a practice of paying Indigenous Reparations -- an acknowledgement that we occupy stolen Indigenous land, and a step towards repair with Indigenous communities. For many of us in Western and Central MA, we occupy the ancestral homelands of the Nipmuc People, who currently have sovereignty only over the Hassanamisco Reservation, 4 acres of land in Grafton, MA. Through paying Indigenous Reparations, WMSURJ seeks to acknowledge past harms perpetrated by settlers against the Nipmuc People, and lift up and support the vital work of the The Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation (NIDC). Sign up to make monthly Indigenous Reparations payments below, and scroll down or click here for more information about the NIDC.
*A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. It is also used to describe people whose ancestors migrated to a new area, or who were born into an already established settler colony. As settlers, WMSURJ members recognize that a brutal process of genocide is an undeniable part of our existence here in so-called New England. We understand that colonialism, racism and capitalism intertwine in a harmful vicious cycle which poses an existential threat to life on earth. We are implicated in that harm unless we work to undo it. Paying Indigenous Reparations is one small step towards repair, and we continue to look to Indigenous communities for other ways to show up and follow their leadership.
We encourage you to read below to learn more about deciding how much to pay in reparations, including a sliding scale of suggested amounts. We welcome contributions from anyone. To make monthly payments, make sure you check the "make this a monthly donation" box when you are sent to PayPal. A note about language: We don't believe that reparations payments are "donations"- we believe they represent a debt owed to BIPOC by white people. However we are not able to change the PayPal button and language on their site at this time!
NEW as of January 2021: 100% of the reparations money we collect in 2021 and 2022 will go to the Nipmuc People in Grafton, MA via the tribe's 501(c)3 - the Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation (NIDC). The NIDC is the community development tool used by the tribe to further their goals including improved spiritual and physical health, increased economic stability, and the development of communal responsibility to land, water and people.
WMSURJ is inviting settlers* to engage in a practice of paying Indigenous Reparations -- an acknowledgement that we occupy stolen Indigenous land, and a step towards repair with Indigenous communities. For many of us in Western and Central MA, we occupy the ancestral homelands of the Nipmuc People, who currently have sovereignty only over the Hassanamisco Reservation, 4 acres of land in Grafton, MA. Through paying Indigenous Reparations, WMSURJ seeks to acknowledge past harms perpetrated by settlers against the Nipmuc People, and lift up and support the vital work of the The Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation (NIDC). Sign up to make monthly Indigenous Reparations payments below, and scroll down or click here for more information about the NIDC.
*A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. It is also used to describe people whose ancestors migrated to a new area, or who were born into an already established settler colony. As settlers, WMSURJ members recognize that a brutal process of genocide is an undeniable part of our existence here in so-called New England. We understand that colonialism, racism and capitalism intertwine in a harmful vicious cycle which poses an existential threat to life on earth. We are implicated in that harm unless we work to undo it. Paying Indigenous Reparations is one small step towards repair, and we continue to look to Indigenous communities for other ways to show up and follow their leadership.
We encourage you to read below to learn more about deciding how much to pay in reparations, including a sliding scale of suggested amounts. We welcome contributions from anyone. To make monthly payments, make sure you check the "make this a monthly donation" box when you are sent to PayPal. A note about language: We don't believe that reparations payments are "donations"- we believe they represent a debt owed to BIPOC by white people. However we are not able to change the PayPal button and language on their site at this time!
If you prefer to make a monthly payment using a credit or debit card rather than a paypal account, select the debit card option in the next step. If you would like to pay by check (and help us avoid online fees), please contact us by email for a mailing address.
We’re asking you to give boldly and courageously and to make some sacrifice, without giving more than what you need to live on. We gratefully welcome everyone’s contributions -- some of us can contribute $5 per month and some $500! We suggest you take some time to think about how much money you bring in, and the resources you have access to. Think about your monthly budget (if you don’t have one, now might be a great time to create one -- the more information you have, the more clear you might feel how much room you have for reparations and community support/mutual aid!). If you’re not sure how much to pay, try the amount on the sliding scale based on your income, and see how that works for you. Check out the list of factors that might impact how much money you have access to, and remember that you can skip or lower payments if you have hardship. Trust your gut -- this might feel a little scary!
Factors that may impact how much you can afford*:
Pay less on the scale if you:
Receive public assistance
Support dependents (children, parents, anyone else relying on your money)
Don’t have savings
Are formerly incarcerated
Are an immigrant and your status is threatened
Do illegal work or work that is unstable in some other way
Must make payments on debt that interfere with being able to access your basic needs
Are an elder with little support
Have less access to money because of abuse
Pay more on the scale if you:
Have few or no dependents
Have savings, investments, inherited money
Can ask people in your life for money
Own the home you live in and are accustomed to your basic needs being met
Choose to work less than you can and have higher earning power than you are currently tapping into
Net Annual Household Income / Suggested Monthly Donation/Payment
0 - 18,000 $5+
18,001 - 23,000 $15+
23,001 - 32,000 $25+
32,001 - 40,000 $75+
40,001 - 50,000 $200+
50,001 - 70,000 $400+
70,001 - 100k $550+
100k + $850+
Include money in your income that you regularly expect from job(s), gifts from family, interest on an account, and any other sources. If you have access to money from family, add that to your income.
*Life factors come from Little Red Bird Botanicals (http://www.littleredbirdbotanicals.com/consultation-fees/) and information on sliding scales comes from Ride Free Fearless Money (http://www.ridefreefearlessmoney.com/blog/2016/05/sliding-scale-1/)
Pay less on the scale if you:
Receive public assistance
Support dependents (children, parents, anyone else relying on your money)
Don’t have savings
Are formerly incarcerated
Are an immigrant and your status is threatened
Do illegal work or work that is unstable in some other way
Must make payments on debt that interfere with being able to access your basic needs
Are an elder with little support
Have less access to money because of abuse
Pay more on the scale if you:
Have few or no dependents
Have savings, investments, inherited money
Can ask people in your life for money
Own the home you live in and are accustomed to your basic needs being met
Choose to work less than you can and have higher earning power than you are currently tapping into
Net Annual Household Income / Suggested Monthly Donation/Payment
0 - 18,000 $5+
18,001 - 23,000 $15+
23,001 - 32,000 $25+
32,001 - 40,000 $75+
40,001 - 50,000 $200+
50,001 - 70,000 $400+
70,001 - 100k $550+
100k + $850+
Include money in your income that you regularly expect from job(s), gifts from family, interest on an account, and any other sources. If you have access to money from family, add that to your income.
*Life factors come from Little Red Bird Botanicals (http://www.littleredbirdbotanicals.com/consultation-fees/) and information on sliding scales comes from Ride Free Fearless Money (http://www.ridefreefearlessmoney.com/blog/2016/05/sliding-scale-1/)
INDIGENOUS REPARATIONS 2021
Information from the Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation about their work and issues their communities face:
The NIDC serves the needs of the Nipmuc community. It promotes and broadens the cultural, economic, educational, and social levels of tribal members living within and without our homelands. Our overarching goal is to bring our people back to the land, re- establish our connection to the land, and heal our people to preserve our future. We do this by integrating Nipmuc traditions and self-reliance into our modern lives to become our best selves, reclaiming not only our culture but also our spiritual and physical well-being.
Nipmuc people have endured 500+ years of devastating colonial policies that have sought to undermine, eliminate and destroy our way of life. Women in leadership were ignored, our food systems destroyed, and the people dispossessed of lands through erroneous debts and for safety purposes. The political, social and economic instability of many Nipmuc people today is indeed an outcome of the socioeconomic challenges we have endured through the colonization process. The devastation has accumulated to poor health (both spiritual and physical), loss of traditional knowledge, and lack of communal responsibility and self-determination.
Our youth come of age disconnected from their cultural identity and heritage and into a prevailing social climate that still reinforces messages of inferiority and racism against Native Americans. The racialization of our people and perpetual myths about a vanished Indian while holding our cultural items, sacred objects and the remains of our ancestors hostage in museums and state collections sends horrible and degrading messages to our people about self worth. The Industrial Revolution drastically changed the landscape and polluted our waterways and traditional food sources to the point that our anadromous fish no longer run and others are too contaminated to eat. Empty dirt plots now stand where homes and gardens owned by Nipmuc people once stood. Many of our Nipmuc relations are dispersed and isolated living in urban areas - Worcester, Providence, Springfield and Boston.
Current programs and initiatives of the NIDC include: Reservation improvements and expansions, annual powwows and social activities, food sovereignty programming, installing and maintaining reservation and home gardens, a community food assessment, youth programming, a women’s group, maintaining the Hassanamisco Indian Museum, the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, and various websites.
Thanks to the NIDC for providing the italicized language used here. See the following websites for more information:
https://nippi.org/
http://www.nipmucmuseum.org/
Update June 2020- House Buying Campaign a Success!
We have some really exciting news to share! From January 2019 through August 2020 we collected reparations payments with the goal of buying a house for STiCKii and ShaeShae Quest, two Black freedom fighters in Springfield. We did it! Many months, fruitful conversations, and commitments to reparations later, these two amazing organizers have a home in their name. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed in the name of reparations and wealth redistribution to support this house-buying cause!
Update October 2020- Our Reparations Work this Fall
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Thank you to those who supported our house buying campaign and those who have continued to pay reparations since the purchase of the house. We hope you’ll continue to pay reparations! In this political moment, with the pandemic and the economic fallout, building a practice of paying reparations feels important and urgent.
WMSURJ is committed to collecting reparations and distributing them to four Black or Indigenous led local projects until the end of 2020. We hope you’ll both continue to pay reparations through WMSURJ and that you learn a bit about and support these causes.
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About our campaign
Reparations are an acknowledgment and an apology to Black and Indigenous people in the United States for 400+ years of racial injustice and white supremacist violence. It refers to the repayment of the debt owed to Black and Indigenous people for the taking of lives, wealth, land, freedom, and resources. Anyone who benefits from white privilege and racialized capitalism can pay reparations: white individuals, families, the U.S. government (local on up to the White House), and institutions (i.e. banks, universities, corporations, etc).
Western Mass SURJ has been working on a cross-class reparations campaign since fall of 2017. In 2018, we collected a little over $11,000 through monthly and one time payments and one $5,000 grant. We made payments to Black Lives Matter 413, Springfield No One Leaves, and the Holyoke Food & Equity Collective. Coalition partners BLM413, Out Now, and Springfield No One Leaves have given us significant wisdom and information about reparations and housing justice. Listen to Black and Native organizers from these groups talk about reparations at our campaign kick-off event in May 2018. Our campaign focuses on personal reparations as part of a longer term process that includes institutional reparations and policy changes.