The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice

The field of restorative justice arose in the mid-1970s in the United States out of disaffection with the dysfunction of our prevailing justice system, in an effort to transform the way we think about and do justice. This was a new but old justice dawning on the stage of human history. During its first forty years, however, the restorative justice (RJ) community largely failed to address race, quite surprisingly given that it is people of color who overwhelmingly bear the brunt of the horrific inequities of our nation’s criminal justice system, past and present. Just as the restorative justice community has historically failed to adopt a racial or social justice stance, few racial justice activists embrace restorative justice. Calling for a convergence of the two, this Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice urges racial justice advocates to invite more healing energies into their lives and restorative justice advocates to bring more warrior energies into theirs.

My intent in invoking healer and warrior archetypes warrants clarification. I do not use “warrior” in its oppositional or militaristic sense, but in its spiritual valence, connoting the integration of power and compassion, as embodied in the bodhisattva, or warrior-sage. The fierce African Maasai warriors, whose foremost concern is with the well-being of the children, also come to mind. In an example closer to home, I think of the indigenous youth activists at Standing Rock who led the historic resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline installation in 2016 and who engaged in ceremony as a form of social action, proclaiming they were water and earth protectors, not simply protestors.

Nor do I use the term “healer” to connote one who works to heal the human body. Rather, I use it more broadly to mean one who aspires to heal the social body, or transform social harm. Our nation was born in the horrific traumas of genocide and slavery. Because we have neither fully acknowledged nor reckoned with these twin traumas, much less worked to heal them, they perpetually reenact themselves transgenerationally. We who dedicate our lives to social change have a chance to succeed only if we also devote ourselves to individual and collective healing.

Davis, Fania E. The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and US Social Transformation (Justice and Peacebuilding) (pp. 9-11). Good Books. Kindle Edition.