If we ACTUALLY want liberation in our recovery, we must stop centering white voices and capitalistic practices, part 2.

When we lean into Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty, we all collectively benefit. 

We all get to heal from the legacy of colonialism, the sickness that is capitalism, white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, fatphobia, classism and all the ways with which our society seeks to divide us. 

Leaning into this liberation means engaging with the uncomfortable truth of how we collectively have come to be as a society through the exploitation of Black, Indigenous people of color and privileging of whiteness. We get to actually look at this truth, acknowledge it, and heal from its deep intergenerational pain.”

There is a way through this pain, but white people cannot lead this movement. White people cannot center themselves in where recovery needs to go if we actually want to stop the cycle of addiction by putting a stop to these horrifying systems of oppression that make us want to numb out and kill so many of us.

We MUST center BIPOC liberation in recovery. 

• Support BIPOC of intersectional identities who face further barriers to accessing recovery and wellness and capital under these systems by dismantling all forms of oppression. Center liberation for ALL BIPOC.

• Pay BIPOC in the recovery space and value our labor

• Honor BIPOC experiences, especially if they call to question reality as you perceived it to be under the veil of oppression

• Support BIPOC in building out and amplifying our platforms and recovery spaces centering our experiences and needs

• Listen to how BIPOC in recovery are asking you to show up and take those actions. Make those changes

• If you are inspired by our work or have learned from us, credit us and pay us ALWAYS. Name your sources.

We MUST center BIPOC liberation in recovery. 

• Black people are owed reparations for slavery and all systems that have exploited Black people. Indigenous people are owed reparations for all the ways white supremast countries have profited off their land, led to genocide and erasure of their people and culture, and not supported their sovereignty. People of color whose countries have been ravaged by colonization and imperialism are owed reparations. 

• Plan to set aside money each month to contribute to reparations asked for in these communities. That money being hoarded is not actually earned; it’s rooted in BIPOC oppression. 

• Hold government and institutions accountable for reparations owed.

• Move towards dismantling oppressive systems!

• Learn about transformative justice, mutual aid, trauma-informed care, decolonization/unsettling processes, sustainable ecosystems, and different systems of exchange and governance to help create new ways of being away from capitalism, systemic oppression, and punitive justice

We MUST center BIPOC liberation in recovery. 

• Do not gaslight or diminish our experiences or question our sobriety for calling for accountability and change in recovery 

• Do not police anyone’s recovery. PERIOD. 

• Do not put extra burden on us to do the labor of educating you or emotionally coddling you, especially if we do not consent. Not all BIPOC in recovery want to engage in these conversations

• Do not keep things the same in recovery to prioritize white comfort

• Do not keep us from seeking our own spaces and forms of recovery

• Do not steal the work of BIPOC, or anyone for that matter

• Do not peddle or appropriate our cultural practices

• Do not tell us that these are individual issues for us to contend with. These issues in recovery reflect systemic oppression in and out of the structures of recovery”

• Learn about how the forces of oppression impact addiction and recovery and move forward committing to dismantling oppression

• Redistribute access to resources (knowledge, money, land, food, etc) that have been hoarded under capitalism and white supremacy

• Consider where you’re giving your money. Is it to people or organizations (especially recovery orgs) that are actively centering anti-oppression practices that support BIPOC, that are lead by BIPOC? Redirect your funds to those who are.”

We MUST center BIPOC liberation in recovery. 

• Explore the ways your businesses and places of employment may be barring access through exploitative capitalistic pricing and practices and its centering of white money-making, white experiences, and white preferences

• Explore how your business may be upholding other businesses (Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc) that are exploiting BIPOC. Explore how these businesses may also facilitate access to services for disabled folks, facilitate connection, and employ many who are not often able to access work easily, including BIPOC

• Shift towards anti-capitalist practices in your own businesses and explore systems of governance, new technology, and ways of living that are interdependent, redistributive, and promote ways of living outside of the exploitation of capitalism 

• If you are inviting BIPOC to your recovery spaces or platforms or to speak on panels or podcasts, consider: are you truly practicing anti-racism in your work and your life practice or just hoping having BIPOC faces in your recovery spaces will make you look like you’re here for this movement and hide some ways you still need to dismantle white supremacy internally or externally? If you catch those motives, take time to explore them!”

If you have caused harm and that is called forward by BIPOC, believe them, reflect deeply on your harm and understand it, and be willing to be held accountable and be different. 

Especially if that means taking space away to develop a true understanding of the harm caused, tend to the roots of it within you, offer these roots compassion. We are all living in systems that want us to exploit and harm each other and never tend to the inner hurt within that keeps us doing so. From this place of tending to the roots of our harm caused, see what needs to be shifted, and move forward in ways rooted in this compassion towards self and others that are dismantling of privilege and cycles of harm, and uplifting to all marginalized communities. 

We make supportive, healing communities this way. This kind of work has the capacity to change the world.

There will be mistakes, and we all just need to have an openness to accountability, a practice of compassion, an ongoing curiosity and learning of what’s needed to show care and support for all marginalized people, and integrating these ways of giving care as we move forward.”

White supremacist, capitalistic practices are not the future of recovery.

Black, Indigenous, people of color in recovery seeking liberation see a much brighter future ahead. 

One of actual belonging, of interconnectedness, of healing, of pleasure, of compassion, of sharing, of security based in mutual care and love.