Collective Liberation

We envision a world in which everyone is connected to their inherent goodness, known and loved in communities of care, and bountifully giving their gifts toward justice, beauty, healing, and wholeness. And yet we participate in interlocking systems of oppression that prevent us from living in that world. Sacred Design Lab commits to doing our part to name and dismantle these systems and, in their place, to co-create powerful systems of collective liberation.

We do this through discipline, by meeting regularly to revisit and apply our collective liberation commitments; through reflection, by sharing with each other where we have made progress and fallen short; through public witness, by acknowledging white supremacy and anti-Blackness; and through policy, by offering reparational pay.

When we or others fall short, we acknowledge it while never resorting to shame as a strategy. When we or others make progress, we celebrate it while knowing the work is never done. In these ways, we strive to connect our work to the dreams of the ancestors, the work of our colleagues, and a future in which all are free.

Native Land

Sacred Design Lab acknowledges the generations of laws and genocidal violence that have sought to destroy Native sovereignty and communities.

We live and work on land that has been stolen: in Tacoma, WA on the land of the Puyallup and Coast Salish peoples, in Falls Church, VA on Piscataway land, and in Brooklyn, NY on Canarsie and Lenape land.

As part of our collective liberation efforts, we commit to being in ongoing relationship with the Native Governance Center, and to making a reparational payment of 1% of our unrestricted net assets each year to further its work supporting Native changemakers and nations in strengthening their governance systems and capacity to exercise sovereignty.

To learn more about the Native land that you live on, we invite you to explore this map and toolkit. And to learn more about how the United States has perpetrated genocide, land theft, and disenfranchisement against Native Peoples, read about the Dawes Act, the Curtis Act, and the Burke Act.

Reparations

Sacred Design Lab acknowledges the legacy of slavery and systemic economic disenfranchisement in the United States and the Caribbean.

As part of our collective liberation efforts, we commit to a reparational payment of 24.4% to all contractors and employees who are descended from African people who were enslaved in the United States and Caribbean. This percentage reflects the median wage gap between Black and white Americans, according to the Economic Policy Institute. To quote Ta-Nehisi Coates, we understand this to be a step toward the cost of “being able to see ourselves squarely” as we reckon with our collective biography and its consequences.

To learn more about reparations, we invite you to explore the Reparations Resource Center and this collection of resources from The Movement for Black Lives.

Sacred Design Lab acknowledges the legacy of slavery and systemic economic disenfranchisement in the United States and the Caribbean.

As part of our collective liberation efforts, we commit to a reparational payment of 24.4% to all contractors and employees who are descended from African people who were enslaved in the United States and Caribbean. This percentage reflects the median wage gap between Black and white Americans, according to the Economic Policy Institute. To quote Ta-Nehisi Coates, we understand this to be a step toward the cost of “being able to see ourselves squarely” as we reckon with our collective biography and its consequences.

To learn more about reparations, we invite you to explore the Reparations Resource Center and this collection of resources from The Movement for Black Lives.

Sacred Design Lab acknowledges the legacy of slavery and systemic economic disenfranchisement in the United States and the Caribbean.

As part of our collective liberation efforts, we commit to a reparational payment of 24.4% to all contractors and employees who are descended from African people who were enslaved in the United States and Caribbean. This percentage reflects the median wage gap between Black and white Americans, according to the Economic Policy Institute. To quote Ta-Nehisi Coates, we understand this to be a step toward the cost of “being able to see ourselves squarely” as we reckon with our collective biography and its consequences.

To learn more about reparations, we invite you to explore the Reparations Resource Center and this collection of resources from The Movement for Black Lives.

Sacred Design Lab acknowledges the legacy of slavery and systemic economic disenfranchisement in the United States and the Caribbean.

As part of our collective liberation efforts, we commit to a reparational payment of 24.4% to all contractors and employees who are descended from African people who were enslaved in the United States and Caribbean. This percentage reflects the median wage gap between Black and white Americans, according to the Economic Policy Institute. To quote Ta-Nehisi Coates, we understand this to be a step toward the cost of “being able to see ourselves squarely” as we reckon with our collective biography and its consequences.

To learn more about reparations, we invite you to explore the Reparations Resource Center and this collection of resources from The Movement for Black Lives.