Video: Toward Belonging kick-off digital dialogue

This event featured a conversation with: john a. powell, Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley Catherine Fieschi, Director of Counterpoint UK, a comparative political...

Blog: All lives can't matter until Black lives matter too

I’ve lived in and traveled to all corners of the country talking to people about race for many years. One question that many people new to understanding racism are asking is, “What’s wrong with saying all lives matter?” Sometimes the question is...

Moving beyond police reform to addressing structural racism

A global protest movement focused on racial inequality has opened the window of opportunity to address systemic and structural racial inequality, and the aperture seems wider than at any point since perhaps Reconstruction. Already the protest...

Blog: Moving beyond police reform to addressing structural racism

A global protest movement focused on racial inequality has opened the window of opportunity to address systemic and structural racial inequality, and the aperture seems wider than at any point since perhaps Reconstruction. Already the protest...

The Road Not Taken

This report memorializes key findings of the conference, focusing on two issues that the Kerner Commission addressed—policing and housing—to gauge what progress we have made toward advancing the recommendations made by the Commission and to examine where we have fallen short.

Video: Rise up for Justice: Black Lives and our Collective Future

Click here for an archive of event info (including a toolkit and resource sheet) The racial justice movement sweeping across the country presents an opportunity to radically transform America to more equitably serve all of its citizens, panelists...

The 2020 uprisings and the Kerner report

The Othering & Belonging Institute on Tuesday re-released a report originally published last year on government failures to address the recommendations of the 1968 Kerner Commission report.

Video: Forum Keynote Address by Professor john powell

On June 5, 2020, Director john a. powell spoke to the New York State Youth Justice Institute about the unique risks that youth face from Covid-19. Although their infection rates are lower relative to the rest of the population, they have been beset...

Uprising 2020

We're living through multiple, overlapping crises that finally erupted into nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd. The warning signs have been flashing for decades about what racism, segregation, and inequality would do to our country.

Poem: Once Again

Once again, a brother lies dead in the street Once again, he screams, “I can’t breathe” with no relief Once again, policemen stand idly by Once again, a man in blue condemns a Black man to die Once again, Black lives really don’t matter Once again, a...

We're in a moment of collective trauma. But there are glimmers of hope

I’m writing firstly to express my sincere condolences to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the many others who have been killed in recent months at the hands of police and related violence, including the protesters who...

Podcast: "It's not just murder. It's terror." john a. powell on George Floyd

In this episode of Who Belongs? we’re bringing back john a. powell, our director at the O&B Institute, and professor of Law and African American studies at UC Berkeley, to talk about the ongoing events in Minneapolis following the police killing of...

On George Floyd and the struggle to belong

Like you, I've been inundated these last few days with painful images of police abuse, heartbroken families, and growing protests. This is our national ritual—a black American like George Floyd, Tamir Rice or Breonna Taylor is killed at the hands of...

Blog: What if we grounded our societies in love?

Many of the problems we live with today can be distilled down to a lack of belonging. And at the center of a lack of belonging sits a failure to build society from a place of love.

The Muslim Ban Cases

On January 27, 2017, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that banned individuals from certain Muslim-majority countries from entry into the United States. The district and circuit courts’ subsequent refusals to sanction...

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E-Newsletter Archive

An Archive of past issues of our bi-weekly newsletter.
Aug
13

Bridging Partnerships for Scaling Housing Justice

Register now Housing justice for all. To truly be for all, we need housing solutions at scale. Scaling just solutions that match what our communities want and need is about more than building more affordable housing units. It requires building...

Blog: Gender, Goosebumps, Grace, and Grieving

Julia McKeown's tattoo inspired by the poetry of Andrea Gibson. “When I left my body I did not go away. That portal of light was not a portal to elsewhere, but a portal to here. I am more here than I ever was before.” From Love Letter From the...