I owe acknowledgment
Over the past month, proclamations of allyship, and expressions of Black Lives Matters (performative and authentic) have filled my social media feeds.
Foundations found creative ways to maintain their assets while getting more money on the streets, often with fewer strings and a greater sense of respect and trust. Corporate America and Hollywood began to acknowledge their role in perpetuating narratives that minimize and inaccurately illustrate the role and importance of Black Americans in U.S. history while also preventing the voices of Black and Indigenous People of Color to portray themselves in those narratives. Confederate flags and statues of historical figures have been removed, no longer standing as monuments to political views and actions that affirmed that Black Lives Did Not Matter.
I toggled in and out of being engrossed in what was happening around the globe and not wanting to see or hear another thing. Then Juneteenth 2020 happened and I realized - or rather, remembered - something.
It is only through and in solidarity that will we transform into a country that values all lives with humanity and respect.
I was ready to try my hand and heart at a land acknowledgment.
As a descendant of peoples stolen from their land, enslaved as property to create wealth for others, it felt like something that White people should do. For me to do it, I needed to find a way for it to sit in my specific history.
I am lucky. I am able to trace my lineage back for generations. One of the benefits of being “mulatto” is that there is paperwork. On my paternal side, we can go back to the 1600s and Westmoreland, VA. On my maternal side, we can go back to the 1800s and Nelson County, VA, and Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio. We worked, lived on, and eventually owned land that was stolen from others. This provided food, security, and wealth for my family. Something that has been systematically and intentionally denied from Black/African-Americans by deeply embedded structural racism.
So, like those who colonized this land, I owe acknowledgment. Here is my working draft.
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About The Author:
Jara Dean-Coffey (jdc) is Founder and Director of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative and the Founder of Luminare Group. For the past twenty-five years, she has partnered with clients and colleagues to elevate their collective understanding of the relationship between values, context, strategy and evaluation and shifting our practices so that they are more fully in service of equity. For more about musings + machinations click here.
