Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This second edition expands Edgar Villanueva's provocative analysis of the dysfunctional colonial dynamics at play in philanthropy and finance into other sectors and offers practical advice on how anyone can be a decolonizer. After over a decade in philanthropy, Edgar Villanueva has seen past the field's glamorous, altruistic fa ade and into its shadows: the old-boy networks, the savior complexes, and the internalized oppression among the house slaves, those select few people of color who gain access. Villanueva broadens this analysis to address all the institutions along what he terms the loans-to-gifts spectrum, which reflect and perpetuate the same underlying dynamics that divide Us from Them and the Haves from Have-Nots. The second edition includes a new foreword and three new chapters that address wealth decolonization in sectors outside of philanthropy and finance, such as libraries, museums, the entertainment industry, and more, and focus specifically on how readers can make an impact in their own spheres of influence. Decolonizing funding processes, argues Villanueva, is key to healing. Because the Native way is to bring the oppressor into the circle of healing, the author diagnoses the fatal flaws in funders with great compassion while unflinchingly drilling down to the core of colonialism and white supremacy in his Seven Steps for Healing.
Synopsis
This second edition expands the provocative analysis of the racist colonial dynamics at play in philanthropy and finance into other sectors and offers practical advice on how anyone can be a healer. Though it seems counterintuitive, the $1 trillion philanthropic industry has evolved to mirror colonial structures ultimately doing more harm than good. Edgar Villanueva has seen past the field's glamorous, altruistic fa ade, and into its shadows: white supremacy, savior complexes, and internalized oppression. In this critically important book, he shows how to make money a tool of love, to help us thrive rather than to hurt and divide us.
The second edition has two new chapters. "Medicine Beyond Money" relates inspiring examples of people using their resources to decolonize entertainment, museums, libraries, land ownership, and much more . "Story as Medicine" explains how sharing our stories is a vital part of that process.
Across history and to the present day, the accumulation of wealth is steeped in trauma. Drawing from Native traditions, Villanueva empowers individuals and institutions to acknowledge and begin to repair the damage done through his Seven Steps to Healing: Grieve, Apologize, Listen, Relate, Represent, Invest, and Repair. As Villanueva writes "Everyone has a role in the process of healing. All our suffering is mutual. All our healing is mutual. All our thriving is mutual."
Synopsis
Decolonizing Wealth is a provocative analysis of the dysfunctional colonial dynamics at play in philanthropy and finance. Award-winning philanthropy executive Edgar Villanueva draws from the traditions from the Native way to prescribe the medicine for restoring balance and healing our divides. Though it seems counterintuitive, the philanthropic industry has evolved to mirror colonial structures and reproduces hierarchy, ultimately doing more harm than good. After 14 years in philanthropy, Edgar Villanueva has seen past the field's glamorous, altruistic fa ade, and into its shadows: the old boy networks, the savior complexes, and the internalized oppression among the house slaves, and those select few people of color who gain access. All these funders reflect and perpetuate the same underlying dynamics that divide Us from Them and the haves from have-nots. In equal measure, he denounces the reproduction of systems of oppression while also advocating for an orientation towards justice to open the floodgates for a rising tide that lifts all boats. In the third and final section, Villanueva offers radical provocations to funders and outlines his Seven Steps for Healing.
With great compassion--because the Native way is to bring the oppressor into the circle of healing--Villanueva is able to both diagnose the fatal flaws in philanthropy and provide thoughtful solutions to these systemic imbalances. Decolonizing Wealth is a timely and critical book that preaches for mutually assured liberation in which we are all inter-connected.