Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law

October 17, 2010 San Rafael, CA

“We are all androgynous, not only because we are all

born of a woman impregnated by the seed of a man

but because each of us, helplessly and forever,

contains the other -- male in female, female in male,

white in black and black in white. We are a part of

each other. Many of my countrymen appear to find

this fact exceedingly inconvenient and even unfair,

and so, very often, do I. But none of us can do

anything about it. -- James Baldwin

Global Inter- & Intra- Connectedness

Our world today is complex and interconnected

Global labor market

Global credit market

Global climate change

The World Wide Web

Important Issues

These can be both challenges and opportunities.

Climate change

Migration

Poverty

Diversity

Being in Relationship A proper relationship is one that acknowledges our

relationship to everything.

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What is water?”

David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College commencement speech. May 21, 2005

Intra- & Inter- Connected We are in relationships not only with each other but

also with ourselves and with processes, called things.

We need to find a balance of the individual and the collective.

Individual and community should not compete.

Interconnectedness We need to be continually aware of our interconnectedness.

Consider how humans connect and organize:

Families

Tribes

Communities

Nations

The world, etc.

What does this connectedness mean Ethically?

Morally?

Socially?

Culturally?

Uneven Connections We often underestimate our connectedness.

Recognizing relationships is not enough. Our relations can be distorted by structure and power imbalances.

Our relatedness is uneven and mediated through:

Space Structures Languages Cultures

Our Unconscience

Even our unconscience is social.

People raised in different areas have different unconsciences.

In the Eye of the Beholder

Industrialized societies: Line A is shorter

Small-scale Societies: A & B appear the same

Jones, Dan. (2010). “A WEIRD View of Human Nature Skews Psychologists’ Studies.” Science 328(5986): 1627.

Where is this family sitting?

Your response is indicative of your cultural orientation.

The Dancing Girl Illusion

http://www.moillusions.com/2007/06/spinning-sihouette-optical-illusion.html

The Dancing Girl Illusion

How did you see her?

Can you change how you look at her?

She doesn’t change directions.

Linkages We need to focus not only on the things, but also the

relationship between the things.

“What is food?”

Everything. One person’s waste can be food for another.

Relationships are complicated.

Systems Thinking

Systems view A systems theory model changes our analysis of

responsibility and response to harms.

Ex: Climate change:

Caused by cumulative and mutual actions ofmany actors and structures

Need for collective/structural action

No need to show intent before responding

“Low Synergy” Societies Individuals advance at the expense of others

Zero-sum equation

Low synergy societies exacerbate inequalities by limiting opportunities.

“High Synergy” Societies Individual good is linked to community advancement

through institutional arrangements.

People are encouraged to uplift the community.

High synergy societies promote equality.

Envisioning a “High Synergy” Society

We are related – not isolated.

Racial and spatial segregation (religious, otherness) can impede our ability to see ourselves as a interdependent.

Diversity can be a great strength if we use it to forge relationships.

OR, it can lead to fragmented spaces and meaning.

Dancing in a Dynamic World

We live in a dynamic world where relationships, cultures, and structures are always in process.

Differences are both related and dynamic.

Moving Towards High Synergy

Change the way we think about ourselves

Change the way we think about our communities

Changes in institutional arrangements

Dancing

The way we relate to each other matters.

The way we relate to systems matters.

The way we relate to matter matters.

KirwanInstituteon:

www.race-talk.org

“We need to look at the individual in

terms of many different relationships

to him/herself, many things in

~ john a. powell

relationship to his/her community and to the

larger community, not just in isolation. If we take

this approach seriously, it affects how we see the

world, how we experience ourselves, how we do

our work, and helps move us to a truly inclusive

paradigm.”