With Targeted Universalism, we achieve racial and economic justice, together

Targeted Universalism and the Racial Wealth Gap

Last week our friends at Prosperity Now and Nonprofit Quarterly launched a new weekly essay series that looks at how the O&B Institute's Targeted Universalism approach can be used to achieve economic and racial justice. The first piece, published in NPQ last week by Prosperity Now President Gary Cunningham, imagines a strategy to close the racial wealth gap. And today NPQ published the second essay in the series, authored by OBI Director john a. powell, on the same topic. Look out for several more articles as part of this series dropping each week for the next few weeks!

Lani Guinier pictured in this black and white photo

Tributes to Lani Guinier and bell hooks

Since last month we lost two brilliant thinkers who were close to our Director john a. powell, and who has a tremendous influence on his thinking and our work at the institute. Those two were Lani Guinier, who died earlier this month at the age of 71, and bell hooks, who died last month at the age of 69. Read professor powell's deeply personal and touching tribute to Lani here and his contribution to this collection eulogizing bell hooks in the LA Review of Books.

Illustration of some people sitting around a campfire burning inside someone's hand.

Paper Series: On Belonging in Europe

Today we're excited to launch our new European paper series on belonging with a forward from the project's editor, Míriam Juan-Torres González, and an introduction to belonging in Europe from OBI Director john a. powell and Assistant Director Stephen Menendian. This project explores belonging in Europe from authors across the continent with a new piece dropping every other week.

Summer Fellowship applications extended till Friday!

We have extended the deadline to apply to our 2022 Summer Fellowship program to this Friday, Jan. 21! The program is a paid research experience for individuals seeking to develop their research skills by engaging with the Institute’s multidisciplinary research, analysis, policy, and strategic narrative work. Check our summer fellowship page for information on eligibility and the process to apply.

Listen to our latest Bridging to Belonging podcast episodes!

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Have you been listening to our podcast interviews developed for our Bridging to Belonging Case series we launched in October? In this eleventh episode of our 12-episode series, we speak with Reverend Ben McBride, a spiritual leader and longtime activist for peace and justice in the Bay Area who serves as a national leader around reconstructing public safety systems and gun violence prevention work. In the interview McBride shares how he conceptualizes the building, bridging, belonging, and becoming frameworks.

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In the twelfth and final episode of the series, we speak with the two of the founding members of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the President Desmond Meade and the Political Director Neil Volz. Together, Desmond and Neil have been working on restoring the rights of people who have a prior felony conviction, referred to as returning citizens. In this episode Desmond and Neil discuss their personal path into this work and how they successfully led a campaign through bridging that returned citizens and accordingly restored their right to vote.

Check out more episodes and other work from our Bridging to Belonging case series.

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Treat yourself and your loved ones to some cool swag from our merch store.

Upcoming events

Feb. 16: The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom

Work with us

We currently have one staff position and five Berkeley graduate student researcher (GSR) positions open. See all our job openings here.

Staff position:

Project Coordinator

GSR positions:

In the news

Faculty scholar Darieck Scott was interviewed for this article in Berkeleyside, titled, “Wonder Woman's Black twin, Nubia, inspired book on superhero comics - Berkeleyside.”

Faculty scholar Rachel Morello-Frosch was quoted in several media stories about her new study published in the American Journal of Public Health on unsafe drinking water in California, including in this article by NBC Bay Area, titled, “UC Study Finds Safe Drinking Water Remains Out of Reach for Many Californians” and in this article by CBS San Francisco, titled, “UC Study: More Than 370,000 Californians May Have Unsafe Drinking Water.”
Faculty scholar Elena Conis was interviewed in this article by USA Today, titled, “Skeptics doubted vaccines long before COVID, despite health gains.”