john a. powell - Belonging without Othering: The Story of our Future | Bioneers 2023

Western culture has for the last several centuries built a society founded on three strong separations: our separation from ourselves, our separation from the other (or the person we call the other), and our separation from the Earth. But, according to john a. powell, one of our nation’s longtime leading experts on civil rights, structural racism, poverty, and democracy, Director of the groundbreaking Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, the reality is that we're not separate. We’re deeply connected to each other. Our challenge is that in order to emerge from the existential crises we face and to birth a far more humane civilization, we now need to look deeply at ourselves and our social structures to overcome the separations that have been inculcated into us for so long and rediscover our fundamental connection to each other and the entire web of life.
john a. powell was previously Executive Director at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State, and prior to that, the founder and Director of the Institute for Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. He also formerly served as the National Legal Director of the ACLU, co-founded the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, and serves on the boards of several national and international organizations. Well-known for his work developing the frameworks of “targeted universalism” and “othering and belonging,” john has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University. His latest book is Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.
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[@krzystofsibilla3516]

Our success in dominion over the natural world will always result in all the levels of separation .Technology is a result of the desire to dominate more effectively ,thus as long as we invest in technology we won't be able to have a true community, a community where All parts are important. "Live simply so others can simply live " is not an option to build a balanced community but is a guiding educative principle.

[@elarakamai]

Great framework of "targeted universalism"... What baffles me though is the difficulty the dominant american culture has letting go of its sense of superiority. It used to be inculcated in our history books as the progress of Western Civilization - with Americans at its zenith. But the history books have been moderated over the last 50 years. The world history books now describe the nobility of all the early civilizations from Assyria to Zimbabwe. Yet the implicit compact within the dominant culture's hierarchy seems to somehow persist. We get the idea that we can continue displace our frustrations and angers onto some other group. That we are still the top dog. Psychologist actually call it displacement. You say othering. Sociologists might call it scapegoating. The question is, when will the dominant culture learn to take responsibility for its own miseries and stop dumping on others? That will be a key precursor step to achieving unity in diversity. I don't think it can be legislated.

[@bradyyoung4236]

simply beautiful

[@hologravy]

Given the privilege to speak from the Bioneers platform, Mr. Powell spends the time projecting his deeply held prejudices, unwittingly illustrating the total hypocrisy of his worldview.

[@edoardoeichberg1380]

You are completely clueless as to what he is saying aren't you? Didn't listen to a single word... you heard, but you didn't L-I-S-T-E-N smh!