40 Acres: Reaching reconciliation

Sep 15, 2022

Kavon Ward, founder of Where Is My Land and instrumental in restoring Bruce's Beach, shares her journey in fighting for land restoration for Black families. Edgar Villanueva, an Indigenous philanthropist and creator of the Decolonizing Wealth Project, discusses the growing grassroots reparations efforts across the U.S. They debate whether smaller reparative actions dilute the push for comprehensive federal reparations. The conversation also highlights the emotional significance of land reclamation and reparative justice for healing historical injustices.

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ANECDOTE

Kavon's Discovery

Kavon Ward, founder of Where Is My Land, was unaware of Bruce's Beach history.
She discovered it in 2020 after George Floyd's murder, sparking her fight for land return.

ANECDOTE

Kavon's Advocacy

Kavon Ward sought legal and legislative avenues to return Bruce's Beach.
She organized protests with BLM, facing threats and opposition.

INSIGHT

Unpaid Reparations Work

Reparations organizing is often unpaid work driven by a desire for justice.
The first grant for Justice for Bruce's Beach allowed the team to start paying members.

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What good are piecemeal reparations? From Georgetown University, where school leadership once sold enslaved people, to Evanston, Illinois, where redlining kept Black residents out of homeownership, institutions and local governments are attempting to take reparations into their own hands. But do these small-scale efforts detract from the broader call for reparations from the federal government?

Fabiola talks with Indigenous philanthropist Edgar Villanueva, founder of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and creator of the Case for Reparations fund, about the reparatory justice efforts underway across the country and the role that individual donors might be able to play in reparations. Fabiola also speaks with activist Kavon Ward, who worked to restore Bruce’s Beach, waterfront land in California, to the descendants of Black families who were pushed off the land by eminent domain. (Ward’s work was funded by Villanueva’s organization.) They discuss how jurisdictions are repaying Black people for what was taken from them — and if that repayment can be considered reparations at all.

This series was made possible with support from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9

Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox

Guest: Kavon Ward, founder, Where Is My Land; Edgar Villanueva, founder, Decolonizing Wealth Project

References:

Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva (Penguin Random House, 2021)

How a California beachfront property now worth millions was taken from its Black owners (CBS, May 2021)

Governor Newsom Signs SB 796, Authorizing the Return of Bruce’s Beach (California state Sen. Steven Bradford, September 2021)

How Black activist Kavon Ward found her calling in the fight for Bruce’s Beach (Orange County Register)

272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? (The New York Times, April 2016)

In Likely First, Chicago Suburb Of Evanston Approves Reparations For Black Residents (NPR, 2021)

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This episode was made by:

Producer: Jonquilyn Hill
Engineer: Patrick Boyd
Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall

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