- in this dark time powerful interests are stoking the shadows of the human psyche and our lizard brain tribal instincts for scapegoating and othering. facing this polarization and violence. john a. powell shines a beam of light on how we can move from othering to belonging to build bridges instead of walls, few endeavors are more important and few voices, more eloquent. john's background is too deep and wide to recount here. suffice to say that he's had an illustrious academic, legal and activist career. he's long been one of the worlds and nation's

leading thinkers and scholars on civil rights and liberties, race, ethnicity, housing, poverty, and democracy. he's lived and worked around the world. he currently directs the groundbreaking othering and belonging institute at uc berkeley. john knows our current constitution and laws were not designed to serve we the people but to protect the rights of some of the people and all of the property. democracies about inclusion and the issues of race and class are intimately related. in these dangerous and polarized times we need courageous leaders who encourage us to stand for what's right and what's just. calm leaders who illuminate for, who illuminate the ways forward with compassion. leaders with a deep moral and ethical compass who remind us not to injure our own humanity by demonizing those who are different from us.

what could be more important in this time? please welcome john a. powell who we're so honored to also have as the bioneers board member, john. - hello, my name is john powell. i'm professor atc berkeley and the director of othering and benging initute. and it's a great pleasure to be here with you. and it's a great pleasure to be in the company of ni and ken, who ar the unders of bionr. and i have a challenge for bioneers, nina, kenny, all of you, and we are in a very interesting time in the world. we are facing with, we're facing multiple pandemics, a lot of stresses, a lot of polarization. and, in some respects, is is noentirely new, but in some respects, its very new. global pdemic, racial uprising, climate change,

just to me a few. and what the world really needsow, what the united states needs n, what we need in our personal life is a chance to both heal and come together. and i think the bioneers community is reallwell suited to step in this space and someone to talk about that a little bit in the context of bridging and belonging. and i'llalk about that a little bit. the ctext of breathing, i live in northern california where breathing can't taken for granted. the whole idea of covid suggests the virus robs us of the ability to breathe. and of course, there george floyd and eric connor too frequently marginalized people, african-americans, are faced with place where they're not allowed to breathe. you may say, well, what does that have to do with you? and what does it have to do th bioneers? in my mind onehing that bioneers represent

is the coming together of differe communities, grounded to the earth, rounded to nature. it's actually a bridge which affords the possibility for everyone in all different expressions of life to belong. so how does that bridge work? why is that? why n't thatridge working better n? instead of seeing bridges we're seeing walls, we're seeing breaks, we're seeing fracturin we're seeing demonstrations in the streets. we just had an election. and whe some of usre celebrating half the country is mourning. how do we actually heal? and it seems to me that bridging is a key to heal. at the other end of the long institute, we a very coerned about that process of healing. the good news is we're not the only one. as i said bioneers really reflects that themselves, but so do people on the streets, politians, cpanies, demonstrators.

there's a lot of people who want the country and the world to heal. recent survey in the united stas said that 70% of amecans, democrats, republicans, indepennts, people are not political at all, want theountry toeal. thewant to stop the polarization. the question is how, how do we do that? we may feel we're too small as individuals we may feel that we only control our own lives. i want to actually challenge us on that. so bridging is basically a process. we recognize another person's humanity. the's a south african word called, sawubona, whicmeans i see you or untu, which means i am because you are. i am because you are. we recognize our deep interrelationship. and there's a lot of research suggesting that when people are seeing, they start to hear.

just being seen, just being recognized is a deeply loving and healinevent. and so what we're seeing isll over e countr pele engaging in this process of briing which calls on u to see each other. this callsn us to recognize each other. this has political dimension, ctural dinsion and certnly a spiritual dimension. my assumption is, and it may not be an entirely accuratassumption that many of bioers actually are already leaning into some practice of mindfulness,indful eating, dancing, connecting to the earth. and i think at's critical in order to heal ourselves and in order to heal each othe but also want to push us to go beyond that becauswhat we und at the institute while people gravitate toward bridging and belonging, they gravite in such a way

that it bemes a very individualized practice. that oftenmes you hear the phre, in order to do something on the outside, you must first fix the inside. is suggestringing people together so that people can see each other and that's enough. while that's critica it's not enough. and i'll give you two examples to demonstrate this. anone is fm a book that we don't read anymore calledative sowritten by richard wright. and i'll give you a quick setup of that classic book and if you have time and nothing to do on saturday afternoon, you may actually read it. the hero or protagonist in native son is someone named bigger thomas, bigger thomas is a young african-american, low-income. he gets a jowith this ite family, among other things, being a chauffeur, driving the mily aund and the family's daughter returns from college.

and she's very liberal, about the same age as bigger thomas, and her boyfrid basilly say, we want to recognize your humity bigger. we don't want to, we don't believe in all this hiarchy that you're the chauffeur and where the passengers. so one of the things they do is they say, let's sit up front with you. 're not going to sit in the back. that actually is a false hierarchy. what they don'notice is how uomfortable this makesigger. that bigger is extremely discombobulated by having thestwo rich white people sit up in front of thcar with him, even though they're exercising a sense of good will, they're not acknowledging the cultural and structural impediments that makes it hard for bigger toonnect wh them. anthen latern the book, they drive round and again white couple says, we're getting hungry. and bigger says, would you like me to take you someplace to eat? and their response is yes,

and bigger says where? and they say, take us to your favorite place. this mortifies bigger. he says, no, i can't do that. they said, no, no, it's all the same. we want to see where you eat. we wt to eat what you eat and eventuly bger agrees. anhe takes them to a place where you ea and not only are they the only white people in this place. they're the only rich people in this place, and again, the whole place is a buzz, with these rich yog white people showing up at their place. they're dointhis o of a sense of good intention. they're doing this trying tconnect. th're doing this trying to recogni bigger. they're tryi to bridge, but here the problem. we fail to recognize the structure and culture makes it hard. and without addressing culture, the structure the power imbalance, bridging is very hard. so let me give you a more recent example.

again, if you have a satury ternoon, nothing to do. i reckon a movie, recommended movie is called knives out. in this movie, there's a very rich family, and there's a caretaker. literally providing care to the fami. who's from latin america, and she's taken care of having a family and inoing some. she actually gets to know the family. they get to know her. and at one point there's a conversation among the family members about undocumented immigrants. and she's very uncomfortable because not only is she an immigrant, her mother who goes with her is undocumented and she needs this job. she n't afford to live without this job. so at some point, the family mbers turn to her. i think her nameas maria. and they sd, maria what do you think? what's your feeling about undocumented immigrants?

anshe's mortified. what should she say? she needs her job. e loves r mother. d one of the fily memberrecognizes that ts is putting her in a incredibly awkward situation. why? because of the structure, because of the per imbalce, because ofhe culture, she can not have an authentic conversation with them unless they began to address this. this gets replicated over and over again in oulives. en we sotimes, our good willon't want to recognize th the things that actually put us into the situations. so it's not enough to just say i'm a good person. i don't see hierarchy. i don't see differences. those differences are al. theye not ological, but they're nonetheless real. and so we can't just sit in ourselves. we can't just engage the internal work to fix tse problems. these problems are inside and outside.

stories, we live in stories, d stories live ius. we live in structus and structes live in us. we have to actuallbe attentive to h those suctures make bridging, make the ability to see each other. very, very difficult. so part of this is to reject the dualy betwn the inde and thoutside. but there's another pepective. ople who are engaged in social justice practice ofntimesould gravitate to what i just said. they would say yes, fore we can do anything we have to fix the strtures. first of all, you have to get rid of catalism. we have get rid of white suprema. tell white people before they come talk to bla people to fix their n neighborhood. and so in this ce, i think e probleis aning too far in the other rectio we he hundre of preconditions before we can actually come together authentically

before we can bridge. and so before i can see you, first of all, i have to have a of the power balances, all of those structures all of those cultural imdiments, removed. that never happens. so we never me together. so here's the chlenge. we comtogether, the structures a in plac and things don't always go smoothly. we wait until all those ructuresre addreed. we nev come together. so it's a messy process. and wh i advate and advoca at the stitute is that weegin with short bdges. and at the same time, we pay attention to structure and culture. we engage and prtice that cenrs our by, centers our minds, nters ouheart. but we also cognize that wee part of the world. it's an erative process. 's not one before the other. we do both at the same te, and we will make mistakes,

and conditions will change. and that's what's called for in terms of bridging. and again, i think bioneers are in t best place. that's the challenge i want to gi to u. you need to be ambassadors for the world to heal for you to help us bridge. one last thing, before i end this talk. some people like leary are bridng becau they thk, well, first of all, if there's idging to be done it needs to be done by those who are in power. and that's not eirely wrong, if you have more power you have morresponsibility, but all of us have pow. all of us have agency, not even, it's not symtrical t all ofs can pontially engage ibridging and so again, i would say, how do actually start where we are, recognizing the things that not perfect, they ner will be, but we can begin to do thwork. there's also reluctance to bridge

because sotimes we'll say that person, whetheit's a member of the kkk or an ardent ump supporter, someone who hates black people, someone who's xenophob. and again i say, start with short bridges, starwith things that are easier. start wi things that e closer to ho. don'start with the most difficult, but so bridging doesn't me we agree with somne. it's not predicated on the notion th i'm gointo convie you that you're right or you're going to convince me that i'm right. it'sredicateon seeingach othe it's predicated on being present, it's predicated on listening. it's predicated on compassion which ans to suffer together. now it turns out that the research shows that when we cado this, wh we can fully prent withomeone else it not only transforms them, it transforms us. so even though we're not doing it for t purpose

of changing the person, it's a very effective change agent. and the last thing i'll say is that the's a subtle thing in this because if you use is bridging, and being present, simplys a technique, we've actuly bastardized him. we're not actually talking about beloing anymore. we're talking aboua strategyo convince someone that i'm right and they'rwrong. and bridging is one of the most effective tools for us to heal the world, and create a world where we all belong. and longing requir that we co-creat and co-creation requires agency, reques power, requires love, d requires responsibilit and i'll end just by saying this, we are all responsible, responsibility is different thanuilt or blame.

so we don't dwell on guilt or blame. we dwell on reonsibili. and we are responsible, all of us for creating and co-creating world where everyone belongs. co-creating a future, whe everyone belongs and we belonto the eth. and that is the challenge i want to leave with you bioneers. to be bassadors for bridging and creating a world where we allelong. thank you.

■x■x?■ unñú ■÷■x■x■÷■÷■÷■÷■÷■÷■÷hxhxhxhxixic c7gvsdsmxxyyú■■■x and creaper: a world hello, and welcome to “fos on europe.” and most people here in europe share just o wish dthe covid pandemic can be stive seas overcome.ehow instead,hat we're witnessing is the worrying spread of the aggressive omicron variant. meanwhile, in southern europe, countries like portugal and spain have come up with lae-scale campaigns starng in the summer vations, to combat the spread of the virusn spain have come up with