By Enola Aird, Ph.D. and Cheryl Grills, Ph.D.

Say the word “reparations” and many people think about the economic costs of the enslavement and oppression of Black people. But the human costs of these crimes are even greater. Valuing Black Lives 2017: The Third Annual Global Emotional Emancipation Summit will contribute to the international public conversation about reparations by focusing on the human toll of centuries of continuing racism and discrimination against people of African ancestry.

Valuing Black Lives: The Annual Global Emotional Emancipation Summit (VBLS) is a solutions-focused, action-oriented forum presented by Community Healing  Network, Inc. (CHN), in collaboration with the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) to bring together leaders of African ancestry from around the world. It is a global mbongi (gathering of the people for serious deliberation) paying attention to matters profoundly affecting the global African family. Our purpose is to develop and carry out action plans to free ourselves—once and for all- from the root causes of the devaluing of Black lives: the lies of White superiority and Black inferiority.

This year’s Summit, entitled The Why and How of Emotional Reparations, will  be  hosted by Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) in conjunction with the Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington, D.C., on September 22, 2017.

The aims of VBLS17 are: 1) to deepen our collective understanding of the extent of the multi-generational damage caused by racism against Black people; and 2) to equip participants to make the case for emotional reparations in their local advocacy, activism, and policy making.

We will explore the emotional, psychological, physical, and social costs of the lies of White superiority and Black inferiority. These lies are at the root of the anti-Black narrative that has shaped the lives of Black people all around the world for centuries—a narrative created to justify the enslavement of African people and the exploitation of the African continent. It is still with us today –at the root of institutional racism, as well as the many, often deadly, biases against Black people. This is the case within every arena that touches our lives including education, health care, land use, policing and law enforcement, the justice system, housing, transportation, employment, food and recreation justice etc. (Grills, Aird, Rowe, 2016). It is the reason why, to so many people all around the world, Black lives do not matter as much as White lives.

VBLS17 will build upon VBLS16 which was entitled “We Talk. We Tell We Teach: Reclaiming Control of the Narrative Governing Our Lives, and during which we developed strategies for dismantling the global anti-Black narrative.

That narrative has dominated the world’s consciousness for almost 600 years. Nearly every institution of Western society has—explicitly and/or implicitly—carried the message that everything that comes out of Africa is inferior, including everything about its people--Black skin, Black hair, Black culture, and Black values.

The anti-Black narrative is the reason why, according to the United Nations, the descendants of the victims of enslavement, people of African ancestry all over the world, are today among the “poorest and most marginalized groups,” who “have limited access to quality education, health services, housing and social security, … and all too often experience discrimination in their access to justice, and face alarmingly high rates of police violence, together with racial profiling.” (United Nations, 2017)

This narrative has negatively affected every aspect of our lives, including our images of ourselves, our freedom, our mental and physical health, our wealth, our friendships, the sense of trust between and among us, our romantic and familial relationships, our education, and the well-being of our communities.

The idea of Black inferiority has been internalized by most people. This idea fuels implicit biases against Black people in policing, employment, health care, education, and nearly every other area of our lives. It also drives internalized racism with the all-too-common preferences among Black people for light skin and straight hair— even in Africa.

The anti-Black narrative is resistant to change. In spite of all the constitutional amendments, legislation, and litigation, protests, marches and prayers, the lies are still warping the world’s perceptions of Black people--and our perceptions of ourselves.

BLS17 will focus on the emotional damage that has been done—and continues to be done—by the anti-Black narrative, and on strategies for repairing the damage.

Panelists, including physicians, mental health professionals, attorneys, scholars, and activists, will describe the human toll exacted by the lies and recommend a variety of forms of reparation to address the injuries, including and especially the psychic injury, caused by the lies of White superiority and Black inferiority.

Summit participants and panelists will then work together to develop plans for advancing an emotional reparations movement in their local communities.

We will explore new work on the reparations front including that of the Reparations at UChicago Working Group, which is pressing the university to come to terms with its ties to enslavement and the continued oppression of Black people, and make amends not only within the University, but also to the Black community that surrounds it. In its approach to reparations, the Working Group is advocating a “cognitive shift that involves thinking beyond the legal framework of ‘damages’… to imagine an entirely new model of human interactions...”

In the words of the Working Group: “This cannot be a question of what the university will do for black communities. It must be a function of what black communities demand as payment to forgive an unforgivable debt. Black people do not need a seat at the university’s reparations table. They need to own that table and have full control over how reparations are structured.”

VBLS17 will create a space in which we can co-create new strategies for engaging not only national, but also local-governments and institutions, including corporations, universities, media, and philanthropy, in the vital work of repairing the emotional damage caused by the anti-Black narrative.

VBLS17 will be followed by a two-day Emotional Emancipation Circles training (on September 23 and 24) in response to popular demand from participants in VBLS15 and VBLS16. EE Circles are evidence-informed, psychologically sound, and culturally grounded support groups, designed by Community Healing Network in collaboration with the Association of Black Psychologists, to help Black people heal from the historic and continuing trauma caused by the anti-Black narrative. This training will reinforce participants’ capacities to make a forceful case for emotional reparations in their local communities.

It will offer trained EE Circle facilitators from across the country and around the world the opportunity to come together for the first time and share their experiences with participants new to the EE Circles village. We will all be introduced to the exciting new and improved EE Circles training protocol informed by lessons learned from our nearly five years of EE Circles movement-building. It will be an opportunity for EE Circle leaders to learn, network, and collaborate with other local leaders working to build the global grassroots movement for emotional emancipation.

To register for the Summit and EE Circles training, please visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/announcing-the- valuing-black-lives-2017-summit-weekend-tickets-34574745996