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Reviews
Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva
shermreads's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating insight into how many philanthropic organizations still fail to uphold the social principles they promote due to structural issues
sparky_penny's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
combepherre's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
niniane's review against another edition
Stopped at 41% after the story of how his boss (a Black woman) gave him terrible references. I wanted to hear a more systemic analysis.
pennym_'s review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.0
great info for a field i am not in!
skbledsoe's review against another edition
3.0
Good book, but the message seemed a little confused at time. Overall, it's focused on the concept of healing through communication, participation, and understanding, and looks at the modern non-profit structure as symptom of the colonizer mindset. It takes aim at the concept of wealth hoarding as a way to fix problems, where the author makes the argument that this comes from a savior mindset. Its biggest focus is on indeginous people, due to the author being Lummi. These are the parts I like the most, they show off the author's knowledge in the subject he's talking about and seems to give the most advice about to move forward and heal from problems.
The parts about race seem to be the most confused parts to me. At times he acknowledges how ideas about race affect and hurt everyone, but then at other times leans back on this mentality of white overlords and makes sweeping generalizations about pale skin. I agree with the idea with the idea that this comes from a colonizer mindset, and I agree that more people of color are needed in these organizations that claim to help the communities, I'm just not sure if offers any real strategies for organizations that are mostly white to bring in more of these groups. He's got a great concept about comparing the communities to victims of abuse and he discusses the problem as "victims, perpetrators, and saviors" then goes in to great ways about break out of the cycle and talks about the idea that saviors add to the problem because it creates a mindset that that victims need to be save. When he keeps coming back to the idea of 'the old white man' that runs the system and controls the wealth, it seems to contradict his message by continuing to focus on a perpetrator that needs to atone for their actions and behaviors. When he makes comments about pale skin being different or part of this group, it also seems to continue this idea that all indigenous people are colored which isn't true and pale skin indigenous people are still targets because they don't fit into the 'mainstream white culture' for reasons others than the color of their skin.
Over all, really good book. It's a book about trauma and healing from trauma, and he offers a lot of interesting insight into non-profit work from the stories he told. He does have a way of telling stories that communicate cross cultures.
The parts about race seem to be the most confused parts to me. At times he acknowledges how ideas about race affect and hurt everyone, but then at other times leans back on this mentality of white overlords and makes sweeping generalizations about pale skin. I agree with the idea with the idea that this comes from a colonizer mindset, and I agree that more people of color are needed in these organizations that claim to help the communities, I'm just not sure if offers any real strategies for organizations that are mostly white to bring in more of these groups. He's got a great concept about comparing the communities to victims of abuse and he discusses the problem as "victims, perpetrators, and saviors" then goes in to great ways about break out of the cycle and talks about the idea that saviors add to the problem because it creates a mindset that that victims need to be save. When he keeps coming back to the idea of 'the old white man' that runs the system and controls the wealth, it seems to contradict his message by continuing to focus on a perpetrator that needs to atone for their actions and behaviors. When he makes comments about pale skin being different or part of this group, it also seems to continue this idea that all indigenous people are colored which isn't true and pale skin indigenous people are still targets because they don't fit into the 'mainstream white culture' for reasons others than the color of their skin.
Over all, really good book. It's a book about trauma and healing from trauma, and he offers a lot of interesting insight into non-profit work from the stories he told. He does have a way of telling stories that communicate cross cultures.
heybalestoo's review against another edition
5.0
A much needed book. It gives me hope that we are ready to change the narrative in philanthropy that this book is getting so much attention and being read by philanthropic leaders.
vividynasty's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.75