A Blueprint for Belonging in California 

The Haas Institute today launched a new online hub for its Blueprint for Belonging (B4B) project, a collaborative initiative with movement organizations working to develop and operationalize a meta-narrative that will underpin our collective work across issue, policy, campaign, and community. This work is informed by a belief that a shared narrative is essential to animate and sustain a multiracial, progressive political identity that crosses regional and class lines in California, that this narrative must be based on rigorous analysis and empirical data, and that it must accurately represent and center not only the concerns and realities of marginalized communities, but also their engagement and leadership.

Some of the just-released pieces from the B4B project include: 

• Findings from a new statewide survey conducted on attitudes towards several policy goals and social values, as well as responses to messages based on a strategic, inclusive narrative. The study gives the B4B project an initial baseline for understanding where as a state and regionally we are in relation to core pillars of progressive agendas. (See the East Bay Times' coverage of the survey findings here.)
• A series of newly published research briefs from scholars and movement leaders such as Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, Manuel Pastor from USC, Rachel Godsil of the Perception Institute, Alan Jenkins of The Opportunity Agenda, and UC's john a. powell, George Lipsitz, Ian Haney Lopez, Chris Benner, among others. These papers were developed to offer analysis and proposals on issues identified as critical to informing a meta-narrative centered on belonging and inclusion. 
• A new video that documents the success of social movements in California in creating a more progressive political atmosphere in the state, pushing for policies that challenge dog whistle politics, xenophobia, and structural racialization.
• A new long-form audio interview with community organizing leader Christina Livingston and our director john powell on the work needed to dismantle a dominant anti-government, pro-corporate, hyper-individualistic narrative, while building a new narrative based on radical inclusion and belonging, and a government and public sphere that serves people over profits. 

Explore more of the new B4B content below or from the new B4B landing page.

MLK's Radical Vision

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was prepared to teach us to become a democracy where all people counted, our director john powell explained during a panel discussion at the King Center in Atlanta earlier this month marking the 50th anniversary of the civil rights leader's assassination. "We have to remember he died when he was 39, and if you watch the trajectory of his life, he was getting deeper and growing more and more profound. And he brought many things to us, most of which we still haven't learned."

Read more about this event, and watch a video of the panel on this page. Also, read powell's blog piece on King's legacy 50 years after his death here.

Scholar Cathy Cohen on how new media shape political knowledge among Black youth

University of Chicago political science professor Cathy Cohen presented some findings from her research on political knowledge at UC Berkeley last week. In the talk, titled, "Reimagining Political Knowledge: Race and the Carceral State," Cohen argued that the advent of new media has changed how young, Black Americans are more in control of capturing and disseminating visuals, and that such a shift has also impacted their levels of political knowledge. Media theorists have long pointed to the significance of visuals during the Civil Rights movement, but today's movement for Black lives differs in who is taking the pictures, what types of devices they are using, and how those images are disseminated. "We believe that the access, reach and control of media content has increased significantly--in this case we focus on Black youth. We contend, however, that not only has the access, reach and control of young people increased significantly, but the images of their vulnerability are now readily available with the affordance of new media," Cohen said.

This lecture was part of the Research to Impact speaker series. Learn more about the series here.