EP 91: Decolonizing Wealth: Confronting Exploitation and Healing Wounds with Edgar Villanueva

The Unburdened Leader

What is your relationship with money?

Do you have a healthy or neutral relationship with money? Or do you fall into the common extremes of worrying about it, constantly thinking about acquiring more money, or avoiding knowing what is happening with your finances or checking out on your responsibilities around money?

And what is your relationship with giving away your money? Is it part of a spiritual practice, a tax write-off, or an extension of your values?

We learn early how wealth can impact our future trajectory, well-being, and ability to earn and save it.

And there are constant opportunities to donate our money–to charities, to politics, to nonprofits, to do something good and get a tax write-off. It feels good to feel like we’re doing something to help.

But we also don’t have to look far to find critiques of social programs supporting those who lack essential resources or critiques of the many tax loopholes the wealthiest in our country benefit from, especially when it comes to philanthropic giving.

Today’s guest helps connect the dots on how our relationships with money and the industry of philanthropy needs to change.

Edgar Villanueva is an award-winning author, activist, and expert on race, wealth, and philanthropy issues. Villanueva is the Principal of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital and the author of the bestselling book Decolonizing Wealth (2018, 2021). He advises various organizations, including national and global philanthropies, Fortune 500 companies, and entertainment, on social impact strategies to advance racial equity from within and through their investment strategies. Villanueva holds a BSPH and MHA from the Gillings Global School of Public Health at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe and resides in New York City.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why we need to recognize that colonialism–past and present–is systemic in our social and political institutions
• How to begin healing from an extractive and exploitative definition of money to a version that honors what we value
• Why acknowledgment and grief need to happen before we jump to take action
• How to enter a process of decolonization without appropriation or getting bogged down in guilt
• The profound impacts of colonialism on philanthropy and charity in concept and practice in the United States
• How we can begin to invest differently in charitable giving to make real impacts

Learn more about Edgar Villaneuva:

• Decolonizing Wealth Project
• Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance

Learn more about Rebecca:

• rebeccaching.com
• Work With Rebecca
• Sign up for the weekly Unburdened Leader Email

Resources:

• Money as Medicine
• Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, Tyson Yunkaporta
• Beyoncé - BREAK MY SOUL
• Reservation Dogs
• Dirty Dancing