Liberation Ventures Family, 

As we reflect on 2021, we are overwhelmed with gratitude. This past year has left us motivated, inspired, and in great need of rest. We are excited to share updates with you.

Since you last heard from us in May, the movement for reparations has grown stronger and Liberation Ventures’ work is advancing alongside our partners. The momentum for H.R. 40 has grown in congress (but we’ve still got no vote). At the state and local level, we’re seeing huge gains – like Justice for Bruce’s Beach that successfully campaigned for the return of property that was unjustly stolen from Black owners in Manhattan Beach, CA. At the state level in California, community engagement processes focused on AB3121 have begun in earnest.

[Photo Credit: Justice for Bruce’s Beach leader launches national project to reclaim Black families’ land, Daily Breeze]

At the same time, the political landscape remains highly polarized, as evidenced by voters in Virginia and New Jersey. It is a stark reminder that our work is a marathon, not a sprint; we are here to build strong racial repair infrastructure for the long term. While others are doing critically important near-term work, we try not to overreact to today’s narrative and political environment, and instead stay laser focused on our long term goal: building a culture of repair. 

As we gear up for 2022, we’re steadfast in our commitment to resourcing truth-tellers, learning from those that have been doing this work for decades, and bridging to new audiences and institutions with a clear and compelling vision. As Nicole Carty, Founder of Project Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations, and one of our partners, said in a recent public statement, “There is no outside the movement. We shouldn’t be saying ‘this is the movement and that’s everybody else.’ We should be building power by bringing people in and helping them see their role in the movement.” This is our work; and together, we are paving the way for reparations in our lifetime.

With that, check out what’s new with us! In summary, LV’s Repair Learning Community has launched, our strategy and development is progressing, and our team has expanded. This newsletter is on the longer side -- one way to think about it is as our (semi) annual report. Thank you, in advance, for reading!

REPAIR LEARNING COMMUNITY
We are thrilled to announce that LV’s Repair Learning Community (RLC) is underway. The RLC is a monthly convening for seasoned and emerging organizations in the reparations ecosystem to gather, build relationships, and collectively envision the potential for our movement. Join us in welcoming:

• Project Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations 

• Grassroots Reparations Campaign 

• Media 2070

• Beloved Community Center 

• The Amendment Project

• Where is my Land?

In addition, we’re involved in a number of innovation and learning projects that overlap with the RLC, including hosting:

• California Reparations Kitchen Cabinet sessions with reparations organizers across CA that seek to uplift community engagement strategies for the task force;

• Calls with community organizers and public officials on local and municipal reparations efforts in Asheville, NC, Baltimore, MD, Berkeley, CA, Jacksonville, FL, Providence, RI, Los Angeles, CA, and San Francisco, CA

POLLING: HOW DOES THE BROADER PUBLIC DEFINE REPARATIONS?

In partnership with five other organizations in the reparations ecosystem, we conducted a public opinion survey to better understand the way the broader public currently defines reparations. Over the course of four design sessions, we co-created a survey with representatives from Asheville, NC, Providence, RI; Quarterman & Keller Foundation, Project Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations, and the California Reparations Task Force. 

We are unbelievably grateful for volunteer Christina Pao, a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University who supported the design process to ensure the work is methodologically sound, and reached a representative sample of the American public. She also conducted the analysis, and we are working on a fact pack with a synthesis of the data and implications. So far, our high-level takeaways include:

• When respondents are asked a very simple, open-ended question -- do you support reparations? -- the data breaks down as follows: 37% support, 41% oppose, and 22% don’t know

• When respondents are asked using a more expansive definition of reparations means -- including acknowledging the lasting impacts of slavery and making investments into Black communities -- support increases to above 50%

• As expected, there are many statistically significant correlations between sociodemographic characteristics and levels of support: Democrats, Black people, women, Queer-identifying people, young people, and people living in urban and suburban areas are all more likely to support reparations.

When we compare these numbers to other polls conducted over the last five years, there is a clear trend: support for reparations is growing, and the frame we use when talking about reparations really matters. We look forward to conducting additional research in the new year.

We would like to send a huge thank you to Anthony Torres, Bret Jacob, Shawndell Burney-Speaks, David Greenson, Dr. Cheryl Grills, Nicole Carty, Paige Ingram, Quintin Nard, Rob Thomas, and Sarah Eisner for their contributions to this work.

LV IS GROWING!

In addition, we partnered with Media 2070 to host two phenomenal summer interns, Maylene Hughes and Zac Johnson, who conducted a literature review on the four components of LV’s racial repair framework: reckoning, acknowledgement, accountability, and redress. We are grateful to Harry Elam, President of Occidental College, as well as the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University for supporting their work. We are currently in the process of turning this research into a report that demonstrates the benefits of racial repair; more to come on this in the new year. 

FUNDRAISING

We have now raised $2.5M from over 20 major funders, and we are thrilled that this has positioned us to begin re-granting. In particular, we are grateful for support from new donors, including New Media Ventures, Omidyar Network, Raikes Family Office, Hewlett Foundation, Fund for Nonviolence, Quarterman & Keller Foundation, and Kataly Foundation; as well as continued support from Kenan Charitable Trust, Joshua Mailman, New Profit, and others. We are excited to announce further details about our grantmaking next year!

In addition, we have been so grateful for the support of a diverse and experienced group of informal advisors, including Gaurab Bansal (North Forty), Jeff Bradach (Bridgespan), Joan Briggs (Threshold Foundation), Pat Clark (Fund for Nonviolence), Yordanos Eyoel (New Profit), Megan Ming Francis (University of Washington), Anu Khosla, Vanessa Kirsch (New Profit), Josh Kirschenbaum (PolicyLink), Virginie Ladisch (International Center for Transitional Justice), Michael McAfee (PolicyLink), Tulaine Montgomery (New Profit), Susie Richardson (Facing History & Ourselves), Sarah Tucker-Ray (McKinsey & Company), and John Wilson (Harvard University).

COMMUNICATIONS

We’ve been sharing our ideas with the world! Here are some highlights: