Fabric of Repair - The Impact of Braiding Narratives of Reparations and Land Back on Black and Indigenous Audiences

Summary

A randomised experiment from BLIS Collective with creator Garrison Hayes: 4,506 Black and Indigenous participants watched short videos on Reparations, Land Back, or a ‘braided’ story linking both. The braided video did best, “increasing support for both initiatives by 4% from baseline”. None narrowed the ‘hope gap’: “It is not enough for our people to want Reparations and Land Back”.

Rationale

Short videos lifted support but not hope, which the authors trace to “historic betrayal”. What experience has taught, a message rarely unteaches. We interviewed co-author Trevor Smith.