Our latest housing research shows troubling disparities in homeownership by race
Since 1980, white households in California have consistently achieved significantly higher homeownership rates compared to other groups, according to new research we just published. For AAPI households, homeownership rates were slightly below the overall level prior to 2010 but have shown a steady upward trend, surpassing the statewide rate. Other groups have faced significantly lower homeownership rates compared to the state level, highlighting persistent disparities. And since 1980, all racial groups saw homeownership rates increase, even if only marginally, except for Black households.
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How AI is changing assisted reproduction
A new research paper we published this week looks at how the introduction of AI in assisted reproductive technology is posing ethical and moral challenges to the field. Within the last ten years, a handful of companies have developed products that claim to use big data and image analysis to select the best possible embryo for implantation. But they often rely on poorly understood black box algorithms and are not subject to sufficient regulatory oversight. This research brief underscores the need for a framework that ensures the ethical guidance and implementation of AI-assisted reproductive technologies.
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Blog: Is India inclusive? A personal perspective
Samir Gambhir, Director of OBI's Equity Metrics program, wrote this thought provoking reflection about his recent month-long trip to his home country of India. In the blog post, Samir, who is one of the collaborators on OBI's annual Inclusiveness Index, offers some important observations of areas where he notes social progress in India, but also describes troubling encounters with strangers, friends, and family alike. In one example, he describes tensions that started in a WhatsApp group with childhood friends before his arrival to India due to political differences and prejudices. He writes, "I reminded [my friends] that politics cannot be equated with humanity, and we should use our learnings, wisdom and intellect to help society, not bring it down. However, there was no room for that." He lists some organizations in the country that are working towards progress.
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Interrogating Emergent Narratives from the Year of Elections
In her latest blog piece published last month, Míriam Juan-Torres González, Head of Research at OBI's Democracy & Belonging Forum, reflects on the right-wing political victories over the past year in the United States and Europe which, she writes, "reveals a new reality of mass popular appeal for nativist, exclusionary, and populist politics." What's the pathway forward for building societies based on belonging without othering given this trend? There's no easy path, but one cannot be to try to restore broken versions of democracy, Miriam argues. "Constructing a new vision for democracy requires breaking away from the notion that we are pursuing a restoration project and at the same time recognizing that we need to get collectively better at living with uncertainty and change," she writes.
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Institutionalized Islamophobia and the subversion of US democracy
Global Justice Program Director Elsadig Elsheikh and researcher Basima Sisemore co-authored this recent piece for the American Bar Association about the institutionalization of Islamophobia in the United States. The article makes a distinction between interpersonal expressions of Islamophobia, and institutional ones grounded in policy, which is what their research focuses on. The article belongs to a special issue of the organization's Human Rights Magazine focused on Combating Islamophobia.
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Unconditional Belonging
Since summer 2023, the Blueprint for Belonging (B4B) team has collaborated with key partner organizations—Orange County Congregation Community Organization (OCCCO), Kennedy Commission, OCCORD, Ahri Center, and the Orange County Civic Engagement Table (OCCET)—to develop a strategic meta-narrative that seeks to redefine the economy and belonging, challenging the individualistic notion that worth is tied to productivity.
The framework emphasizes unconditional belonging, advocating for an inclusive future where community voices shape city governance and resist exclusionary economic systems. On December 16, 2024, the B4B team presented the final "Unconditional Belonging" framework to Anaheim partners and facilitated workshops on applying it to their work. The next phase involves hosting webinars to share this case study more broadly and explore creating unconditional belonging everywhere. To participate in the webinar, contact Rio Gonzalez at riogonzalez@berkeley.edu.
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Podcast: A blueprint for creating a world where everyone belongs
UC Berkeley's "Berkeley Talks" podcast featured a conversation we hosted last fall with OBI Director john a. powell and Assistant Director Stephen Menendian about their book, Belonging Without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World. The conversation was moderated by Ashley Gallegos, Director of OBI's Places of Belonging program.
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Audition for Belonging Resident Company
The Belonging Resident Company (BRC) is holding an audition to bring in new members on Wednesday, January 29 from 7 to 10pm in Oakland. BRC is a performance ensemble dedicated to making the revolution of belonging irresistible. It activates radical imagination through engaged facilitation, contemporary and hip hop dance, dance/theater, and playback theater, to foster embodied experiences of belonging and dismantle systems of oppression.
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OBI is excited to partner with the Oakland Museum of California's Spotlight Sundays to introduce “Community Conversations,” a new series of conversations to create a space to foster public dialogue and engagement around emerging community topics. The program’s first installment is happening this Sunday, January 19, from 11am – 1pm and will explore the topic, "Reclaiming Democracy, Building Belonging." The panel will include:
- john a. powell, Director of OBI
- Ernestine Nettles, President of the League of Women Voters
- Olivia Richardson Feldman, Co-Chair of the Oakland Youth Commission
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Ashley Gallegos, Places of Belonging director at OBI
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Join us for the virtual book launch of Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 4 PM PT/7 PM ET. When Professor Bernadette Atuahene moved to Detroit, she planned to study the city’s squatting phenomenon. What she accidentally found was too urgent to ignore. Her neighbors, many of whom had owned their homes for decades, were losing them to property tax foreclosure, leaving once bustling Black neighborhoods blighted with vacant homes. Using a multigenerational narrative, Atuahene tells a riveting tale about racist policies, how they take root, why they flourish, and who profits.
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OBI Director john a. powell's book, The Power of Bridging, was featured on The Next Big Idea Club's website. Visit the page for a 15-minute long audio clip of Director powell sharing five key insights from the book. Excerpts of the first chapter of the book were recently published on Bioneers' website.
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Separately, the book was listed on the Center for Compassionate Leadership's list of top books for 2024. They write, "In The Power of Bridging, john a. powell shows us both why and how we can direct our compassionate action to create a world where everyone belongs." Click here to learn more or purchase a copy of The Power of Bridging.
- Director powell is featured in this Reimagining Us podcast where he discusses bridging and belonging. He talks about how small, intentional acts of bridging can feed a collective vision of connection and belonging.
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Housing researcher Nicole Montojo was interviewed for this Spectrum News 1 story about the LA City Council's effort to create affordable housing and prevent evictions. Nicole explains how a public housing option could force the private market to compete, bringing housing costs down.
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New bridging course for UC Berkeley students
Hello Cal students 👋. Do you still have space in your schedule for next Spring? Check out the Bridging & Belonging Course offered by the Campus Bridging Project through the Ethnic Studies Department!
In this class, we will work to integrate the core concepts of bridging and belonging (as well as their counterparts of bonding and breaking/othering) into understanding the work being done on Berkeley’s campus and the possibility of the work to come. The course will offer opportunities for students to develop their own understandings of bridging and belonging, learn about student groups and campus orgs already doing some of this work, and build towards their own implementation and analysis of the course concepts in real-world contexts.
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If you missed our Othering & Belonging Conference in Oakland this past April, here's your chance to grab some exclusive swag we had designed just for the event. Grab your Belonging-themed apparel before they run out from our O&B Conference merch store. This merch is separate from our regular merch store which sells our standard items.
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Did you know that we offer free, online courses? Check out our virtual learning platform, OBI University (OBIU). It's home to a community of nearly 8,000 learners and is growing every day, so why not join them? OBIU offers interactive courses on the key frameworks of othering and belonging, a four-part crash course on bridging, a primer on structural racism, and more — all led by friendly human guides. We are cooking up an exciting new course on targeted universalism too.
Over the past few months, we dug into john powell and Stephen Menendian's Belonging without Othering as a community in our virtual book club, and we are planning another one to accompany The Power of Bridging in February 2025. Sign up now for free! |
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Together, we can make belonging the norm, not the exception. – The Othering & Belonging Institute |
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