Decolonizing Wealth Inequity
In her book Red Pedagogy (2004), Sandy Grande tells the story of working on a lesson plan while waiting for students to arrive. At one point, one of the students asks her what that sticker on her laptop meant. The sticker read, “Keep Calm and Decolonize,” but the student was interested in the word “Decolonize.”
Grande wondered how she could define Decolonize to a middle school student, when she was still struggling with its definition herself. Later, she tried to break down the theories of colonization and decolonization to this student she concludes:
Decolonization can only occur when we realize that our realities, lives, experiences are colonized. In the past, we have spoken about historical trauma and treaties. Today, we spoke about school and how it can be an assimilating and colonizing system. To decolonize, we must break or disrupt the system. We must begin to refuse and rethink, re-imagine our traditions in our everyday lives- how we think about land, government, education, etc.
Ultimately, I believe decolonization is not about describing or defining, it is about doing. My definition was incomplete because I was unable to show the youth decolonization in a practice. As I defined decolonization, I was reminded that the “overarching goal of Red pedagogy…. is, and will always remain, decolonization. ‘Decolonization’ (like democracy) is neither achievable nor definable, rendering it ephemeral as a goal, but perpetual as a process (2004, p. 166).
Because the breadth of wealth inequity and race in the U.S. is too large to cover in one course or book, let alone one chapter, this chapter will attempt to decolonize the concept by focusing on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) -led movements to break the housing, education, financial, and labor systems entrenching racial wealth disparities. In order to create a foundation to understand the current state of racial wealth inequity being disrupted, we will first substantiate its existence with some statistics and an overview of the historic and present systemic efforts to maintain economic inequity. But in laying this foundation, this chapter will also employ the decolonial methodology of testimony to embed all stages of learning with decolonial practice.
What is Testimony?
Although it is critical to understand the statistics when examining wealth inequities and race, it is even more critical to read the testimonies of those families and individuals who have been impacted by these patterns of inequity. The impacts of poverty and racial economic discrimination are far more human (and their psychological, spiritual, financial, and intergenerational effects are far more complicated) than numerical inequalities can show alone. Testimonies, such as Gil Scott-Heron’s, can therefore be a powerful tool in understanding and when working with the process of decolonization of racially disparate economic systems. Tuhiwai Smith explains:
Testimonies intersect with claiming because they are a means through which oral evidence is presented to a particular type of audience. There is a formality to testimonies and a notion that truth is being revealed… indigenous testimonies are a way of talking about an extremely painful event or series of events. The formality of testimony provides a structure within which events can be related and feelings expressed.
A testimony is also a form through which the voice of a "witness" is accorded space and protection. It can be constructed as a monologue and as a public performance. The structure of testimony - its formality, context and sense of immediacy - appeals to many Indigenous participants, particularly elders. It is an approach that translates well to a formal written document. While the listener may ask questions, testimonies structure the responses, silencing certain types of questions and formalizing others. Testimonio is more familiar to Latin American context as a narrative of collective memory: it has become one of a number of literary methods of making sense of histories, of voices and representation, and of the political narrative of oppression (2021, p.165).
Testimonies can help us break down wealth inequality barriers that exist by sharing lived experiences with one another and realize that wealth inequality is not an individual issue but a shared issue. It can also give human dimension to numeric measures of racial wealth disparities. We have to keep sharing and witnessing in order to keep it in our consciousness. While decolonization is perpetual, so is fighting for equality and equity.
