We Can't Have Climate Justice Without Global Justice

On August 16, 2022, US President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. The IRA is the largest explicit investment for mitigating climate change in federal history, and a concerted effort to mitigate the pronounced economic pressures faced by Americans...

Affordable Housing as Local Reparations for Black Americans: Case Studies

This case study report seeks to illuminate the activism, parameters, and intended outcomes of city programs for property redress as a form of reparations.

Introducing our inaugural Global Senior Fellow

We are proud to announce that author, poet, and public intellectual Báyò Akómoláfé has joined the Democracy & Belonging Forum as its inaugural Global Senior Fellow . In this role, Bayo will act as the Forum’s “provocateur in residence”, guiding Forum...

Answering the Call to Build Equitable Housing

On August 11, Assistant Director Stephen Menendian participated on a panel organized by SPUR on the legacy of housing discrimination in the Bay Area, and discussing the new statewide policy to purge racially restrictive covenants from housing deeds.

Video: The 'Perfect' Baby?: The Dangers of Gene Editing in Assisted Reproduction

Gene editing technology like CRISPR may have potential to treat diseases, but does editing future generations go too far? In this August 9 event, we heard renowned bioethicist Françoise Baylis, reproductive justice activist Nourbese Flint, and...

Understanding 'Replacement Theory'

Most Americans probably encountered the insidious notion of "replacement theory" for the first time in the wake of the horrific mass murder of 10 African Americans in Buffalo, New York in May. The shooter targeted a Black neighborhood for reasons...

The Pervasiveness of Islamophobia in the United States

This report was submitted in July 2022 to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in review of the US government’s compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

Othering and Belonging in a Europe in crisis

In the age of the politics of emotions, the feeling of belonging has a lot to do with individual experiences. Confidence in the future, or the perception of lack of opportunities, can be a determining factor in a citizen’s relationship with their community...

Exclusionary zoning covers 77 percent of Sacramento region

Seventy-seven percent of residential land in northern California's Sacramento region is reserved for single-family housing, according to this new study.

Single-Family Zoning in the Sacramento Region

Introduction The authors would like to thank Othering and Belonging Institute graduate student researcher Shahan Shahid Nawaz for his invaluable assistance in helping build the repository of municipal maps that made this analysis possible as well as...

Cash for Californians

Introduction To meaningfully advance economic justice, we must enhance existing government systems and create new supports targeted to residents most impacted by inequality. In 2019, more than one in three California residents was considered poor or...

Engineering For Perfection

Download a PDF of this report. CRISPR and other methods of gene editing have captured the public imagination, spurring countless lectures, articles, and think pieces about how this technology can shape humanity. Many of these conversations are...

The ‘polarisation’ distraction

However difficult it is to properly gauge the significance of historical events while still living through them, we can surely already state with confidence that the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine together constitute a truly seismic and transformative sequence of years for the world.

Racist Language Should Not Be Purged From Property Deeds

Note: This blog is being published on the occasion of California law AB 1466, which is related to this topic, going into effect. The last few years have brought much greater awareness of the degree to which racism is embedded in our society. Although...

Aligning Federal Policy to Local Needs

We are pleased to release results from our Spring 2022 survey on long-term policy priorities at the federal level. Our team conducted landscape research of major policy platforms and visions to identify 100+ cross-cutting federal policies in five areas tied to crisis resilience.

Explore Othering and Belonging

E-Newsletter Archive

An Archive of past issues of our bi-weekly newsletter.
Jun
11

Reimagining Allyship: Reflecting on Where We Are and Where We Can Go From Here

The Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative is delighted to welcome Simran Jeet Singh to the UC Berkeley campus. Dr. Singh is Executive Director of the Religion and Society Program at the Aspen Institute and the author of the national...

Videos from the 2024 Othering & Belonging Conference

See our playlist below which includes all our videos from the 2024 Othering & Belonging Conference, which took place April 25-27 in Oakland, CA! To select a video from the playlist click on the button in the top right corner of the video player...