All Resources

OBI Director john powell gives a response to Eboo Patel's talk with additional reflections on the needs and challenges of bridging work and the potential and perceived tensions between "bridging" and justice. Also joining the conversation is GGSC...

Assistant Director Stephen Menendian investigates the problem of "entanglement" in gerrymandering cases, where race and political identification are so bound-up that it is difficult in many cases to differentiate between motives when evaluating...

I recently gave a talk to a local California Association of Realtors group on the “Past, Present and Future of Fair Housing” to commemorate Fair Housing month (April), and to help the group think about their role in promoting fair housing. It is...

So how can bridge-builders support one another and the communities with which they engage to show up to the table consistently and fully as we work toward a just, inclusive, pluralistic democracy? What does it mean to model pluralism in a way that...

This April 18 event featured Eunice Lin Nichols, Co-CEO of Co-Generate; Bobby Duffy, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute at King's College and author of Generations: Does when you're born shape who you are?; and Manu Meel...

On Friday April 14, OBI Director powell spoke on an the afternoon panel entitled “ Beyond War on Crime/Towards a Third Reconstruction.” Professor powell spoke about the promise of both the first and second reconstructions, as well as the challenges...

On April 12, 2023, OBI director john a. powell was a featured panelist in a webinar introducing Over Zero and the American Immigration Council’s Belonging Barometer—as well as reporting the results of a national survey which featured the Barometer...

In an April 8 keynote at the Bioneers conference in Berkeley, OBI Director john a. powell spoke about the importance of recognizing our interconnected relationship to both nature, and fellow humans. Against the separations that society has...

The demand for racial equity has acquired greater intensity and urgency in recent years. Advocacy groups are demanding policies designed to address racial inequality in housing, the criminal justice system, and health care systems, among other areas...

Belonging: a Weekly Practice Space (BaWPS) is a free, weekly, drop-in space from the Othering & Belonging Institute. In form and content, it responds to some of the most consistent questions we get about belonging: Is belonging a destination, a...

In this March 29 event as part of the ongoing series The Edges in the Middle, scholar and activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Global Senior Fellow Bayo Akomolafe explore Black identity, Black excellence, and the limits of seeking inclusion...

There is a clip of US Senator Bernie Sanders making the rounds from a recent episode of Bill Maher’s HBO program, in which the host asked Senator Sanders to distinguish “equality” from “equity.” Senator Sanders explained that “equality” refers to...

For some, the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election and the prosecution of January 6th insurrectionists might suggest that US democracy has remained strong through years of social and political instability. In this year’s State of the Union address, President Joe Biden claimed that US democracy is “unbowed and unbroken.” However, it would be remiss to believe that the threat of authoritarianism has abated.

On March 8, 2023, Director john a. powell led a discussion on targeted universalism at the Leadership Learning Series hosted by the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. During the session, powell first discussed the concept, explored how it can help...

OBI Director john a. powell on February 17, 2023 interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson at San Francisco's Sydney Goldstein Theater about her most recent book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Hosted by City Arts & Lectures...