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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.”