An Orienting Framework for Repair

In the last few months, we have heard a lot about healing. Thought pieces, pundits, and social media influencers have all created a surround sound about the need to heal our country after the last four years, and to fix what is broken in our democracy. Based on his tweets, it seems as if ‘healing’ is Joe Biden’s new favorite word — and yesterday’s events at the US Capitol are just the latest, albeit grave, installment of America Today.

The conversation has focused on the wreckage — how media algorithms contribute to divergent views of reality, how differently white rioters and black protesters are treated by police, how fundamentally working people have been robbed of their dignity, health, wealth, and more. The public narrative speaks of repair only in wishful terms; calling for it and hoping it will suddenly arrive on the doorsteps of our homes, organizations, and society.

Indeed, the wreckage is dire. It is not only the legacy of the last four years, but instead, the last 400. Since our inception, we have been a country where white supremacy tears apart our democracy, hurting not only people of color but our entire American ideal. We need to turn our focus to what repair actually looks like — and how every single person in this country, no matter your position, color, or creed, can contribute to it.

At Liberation Ventures, we define repair as a four-part process, mutually constituted in an iterative cycle: reckoning, acknowledgement, accountability, and redress.

• Reckoning: The act of dealing or grappling with something, often focused on the past. Progress looks like: curriculum change, public conversation, narrative shifts, research that unearths injustice, etc.
• Acknowledgement: Admission of responsibility and apology for a harm, also focused on the past. Success looks like public, meaningful apologies where they are due.
• Accountability: Obligation and willingness to take responsibility for wrongdoings; seeing and owning one’s own part of the problem. Often focused on the present. Success looks like: committing financial resources, individual allyship and sponsorship, building capacity to see and root out injustice.
• Redress: Acts of restitution and rehabilitation; proactive steps taken to embed justice into systems and heal the wound. Focused on the future. Success looks like: financial resources deployed, meaningful transfers of power, organizing disenfranchised communities.

Moving between components takes energy and momentum, and the cycle spins at the individual, institutional, and societal level. When the cycle spins faster and more broadly at the individual level, it sparks more change at the institutional level. And when the cycle spins for more institutions, it repairs society.

My goal for this blog is to bring these concepts to life, through interviews and commentary. I will highlight individuals and institutions who are engaging in this cycle of repair, demonstrate examples that we are seeing out in the world, and try to bring home how you can become an engine of this virtuous cycle. It will be a journey; thanks for coming along with me.