Two years ago, Middlebury announced a community study titled How Will We Live Together. The study examined community building efforts at Middlebury, focusing particularly on the commons system and ResLife. The How Will We Live Together committee recommended dissolving the commons system, a recommendation that is only going into full effect this semester. With additional Covid-19 guidelines, this semester more than ever we should be asking ourselves: How will we live together?

The commons system was designed 22 years ago as a framework for intentionally creating community. In an ideal form, a commons would act like a college family: a place to find support and encouragement from peers, staff and faculty; it would be a source of pride and belonging for a student.

In my experience, Atwater commons was particularly successful in building community. Many of the freshmen for whom I was an FYC, for example, are still close friends as juniors. In my past conversations with former Atwater Dean Scott Barnicle, Ive understood that this closeness wasnt unusual for Atwater students, perhaps due to the centrality of the Allen common room to the Atwater Freshman community.

This echoes the How We Will Live Together Executive Summary, which states, spaces for socializing, [including] informal ones such as residence hall lounges . . . are extremely limited and in some cases and buildings, nonexistent. Put simply, there needs to be adequate spaces available for communities to form. In Allen, there is such a space.

As an innovator at heart, I am thrilled by some of the improvements that How We Live Together suggested. Lets create better common areas. Lets allocate resources, including deans and faculty heads, more equitably across campus. Lets improve our faculty-student connections. Lets create communities that seniors and first years alike can hold dear.

All the same, Ive been wearing my Atwater sweatshirt more in the last few weeks than I have in a long time.

Is it silly to cling so hard to an arbitrary housing allocation named after a long-dead college president? Perhaps. But symbols of a well-built community become identical to a set of important memories and relationships. Atwater is my FebYC celebrating my entry to ResLife. Its late night Ben & Jerrys with my hallmates during my first year. Its my three-person Quidditch team at the Commons Cup. Its dinners at the commons house and long talks with my dean. Its my fellow Atwater Febs and my former residents from when I was an FYC (whom I missed as much as anyone while I was abroad). Community provides a lasting sense of belonging, and Atwater was, for me, a true community.

With the loss of the commons, weve traded previously existing communities for the opportunity to ask: How could we live together? How can we build communities that we can be proud of? How can we connect students across ages, majors, student organizations and extracurricular interests? How can we connect students, faculty and staff outside of the classroom?

Covid-19 complicates these questions and our answers. Many of our community-building strategies concerts, parties, hall activities are more complicated this year, if theyre possible in the first place. At the same time, were depending on one another to stay healthy for the sake of our in-person classes and our physical health.

Ill only note in passing the obvious: life on campus in times of Covid-19 is more difficult and more stressful than in years past. In the understatement of the year, the CDCs website tells us that The coronavirus disease . . . may be stressful for people. CNN suggested that we look out for feelings of helplessness and a lack of interest in pleasurable activities as early warning signs of severe anxiety, but this year many pleasurable activities are cancelled and out of our control. If there were a time to have a strong community support system, this would be it.

This is simultaneously the year to recreate our community support system and to rely on that system more than any of us have before. It is a time that demands community solutions while those communities are being fundamentally recreated. Once again we must ask: How will we live together?

An important presumption Im making is this: community ought to be built intentionally. Theres nothing about the end of the commons, or even Covid-19, that requires us to create community frameworks to replace (or improve upon) the commons. Many of us will be fine without intentional community; we have our friends, our clubs, our classes in short, our communities already formed for us. But for those who fall through the cracks, there will be a world of difference. I have no interest in my community being one in which a first year (or sophomore, junior or senior) can get lost in the crowd. When I ask how we will live together, I mean to ask how we will intentionally ensure that everyone has the opportunity to find community here if they look for it.

I dont have a good answer to that question. Taking care of our mental health will be paramount; our ability to take care of one another in stressful times depends on having spare mental and emotional capacity. Reaching out to others, especially first years, is importantas is smiling more and bringing extra patience, care and love to everything we do. Every little thing we do in service of our community is a way of saying, Wont you be my neighbor?

This is no easy task, but it will make a difference. Do we want to remember our Covid-19 year as one characterized by ill will, paranoia, frustration and worry? Or will it be the year in which we took care of one another and created a new culture of community that lasts for the years to come?

Ben Beese is a member of the class of 2021.5.

Editors note: Editor in chief Bochu Ding 21 was a member of the How Will We Live Together steering committee.

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How will we live together? The Middlebury Campus - Middlebury Campus

Recent events in the United States have confirmed that systemic racism continues to exist and that tragedies such as the current COVID-19 pandemic take a greater toll on communities of color. If we are to stamp out these racial inequities permanently, it follows that we all need to come together to demand change from our civic leaders. And, individually, regardless of the color of our skin, each of us has an important role in this systemic change.

In 2018, the Society of Women Engineers added Diversity and Inclusion as a fourth goal to our Society strategic plan. We stated that SWE will champion diversity in the engineering and technology professions and will promote an inclusive environment. There are several objectives under that goal, including having our membership match the diversity of the engineering profession and fostering an inclusive culture to increase the diversity of the Societys leadership. We recognized that as a diversity organization, we needed to practice what we preached to employers and university partners. In short, we needed to do more. A good start, but I will be the first to admit we have fallen short.

Following the killing of George Floyd, the Society issued a statement condemning his murder, and we discussed collectively turning our pain into purpose. While many members were proud to see SWE take a stand in support of the Black community, many members also pointed out that we needed to start by looking within SWE. Examples such as the lack of diversity on the board of directors or exclusionary behavior at local section events were brought to our attention. FY21 President Heather Doty vowed to lead our efforts to be much more intentional about our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, beginning immediately.

We started by making a commitment to add at least one woman of color to the FY21 board of directors. A call for nominations was opened and, despite the short window, more than 50 nominations were received. Last month, the board of directors unanimously approved the appointment of two special directors: Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua, Ph.D., and Maisha Gray-Diggs, Ph.D. We are excited to have them join the board, and we welcome their much-needed insight and expertise.

We heard members tell us in no uncertain terms that this is for the Societys leadership to rectify and not a problem for the women of color to fix.

We also recognized that we needed to listen more and that we needed more diverse voices providing feedback to our board of directors. So, on July 22, we conducted two Listening Town Halls to hear directly from our members of color on their experiences in SWE and what we needed to do to improve the SWE experience for women of color, both locally and at the Society level. More than 180 members joined us that day to share and provide feedback. I will admit that much of the feedback was hard to hear. But we need to know where we are if we are to eliminate the inequities within the Society.

We heard members tell us in no uncertain terms that this is for the Societys leadership to rectify and not a problem for the women of color to fix. We agree 100%, but we want you at the table sharing your voice and keeping us accountable. Both SWEs board and staff will be using the feedback we received to develop our action plan. Though the sessions were recorded, we will report out on the discussions only in the aggregate, and the recordings will not be made public because we wanted to create a safe space so members could feel comfortable sharing.

We want to make sure that every member feels welcome and included, whether at a local Section event, on a committee, or at Society-level events. Nothing less is acceptable.

One outcome is clear: At all levels of the Society, training is needed for our leaders on intentional inclusion. We took a first step by hosting a Facebook live discussion on July 9 titled Lets Talk: Allyship for Black Engineers and Technologists (https://bit.ly/3gGzs2W). This is just a first step. The Society is currently meeting with several subject matter experts to help us develop training and a dissemination plan for leadership at all levels within the organization. We want to make sure that every member feels welcome and included, whether at a local section event, on a committee, or at Society-level events. Nothing less is acceptable.

The Society will also be looking at our leadership pipeline and the diversity of our committees, abstract reviewers, and awards and scholarship judges. We want to make sure that speakers, award recipients, and scholarship recipients reflect the diversity of our membership and the profession. This will include making sure that the mentorship and sponsorship of diverse members is intentional. Having diverse voices engaged across the Society will help us avoid our blind spots and be a truly inclusive organization.

We all have a role to play in eliminating systemic racism. I ask all of our members to join in helping SWE be a place where ALL women in engineering, regardless of skin color, feel part of our community.

In the words of Maya Angelou, in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. Lets make our SWE community strong!

Excerpt from:

Closing Thoughts: Being Intentional About Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - All Together - Society of Women Engineers

Governor Cuomo Announces Insurance Fraud Action Against Johnson & Johnson for Leading Role in the Opioid Crisis | Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Skip to main content September 17, 2020

Albany, NY

Part of DFS Action to Recover $2 Billion in Insurance Premium Overcharges for Defrauded New Yorkers

DFS Claim Alleges Johnson & Johnson Fraudulently Mischaracterized theSafety and Efficacyof Opioid Drugs to Expand the Opioid Market, Serving to Promote Both Its Own Opioid Drugs and Opioid Raw Material Business, Spread the Opioid Crisis, and Cause Dramatically Increased Health Insurance Costs for NY Consumers

Read the DFS Statement of Charges for Johnson & Johnson and Related CompaniesHere

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the Department of Financial Services has filed charges and initiated administrative proceedings againstJohnson & Johnsonand its subsidiariesJanssen Pharmaceutica, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. - collectively, "Johnson & Johnson."These charges are the fourth set to be filed against opioid manufacturers arising from theongoing DFS investigationinto the creators and perpetrators of the opioid crisis.

"The opioid crisis has taken too many lives and New York State will continue to take action against thosewho helped fuel this public health catastrophe and bring a measure of justice to families who havelost loved ones,"Governor Cuomo said. "Misrepresentation ofopioidsto consumers for profit is inexcusable and we will use every tool necessary to help ensure those responsible are held fully accountable."

Superintendent of Financial Services Linda A. Lacewell said, "The opioid crisis has had a devastating impact on individuals, families, and communities across the nation. DFS remains committed to protecting New York consumers and ensuring the integrity of the insurance industry."

Johnson & Johnson manufactured a number of opioid products in New York State, most notablySchedule II drugs Duragesic, a fentanyl patch, and Nucynta, a tapentadol drug. In addition, Johnson & Johnson controlled a large portion of the raw opioid supply chain through its patented "Norman Poppy," which at one point was responsible for up to 80% of the global supply for oxycodone raw materials.

The DFS Statement of Charges alleges that the Johnson & Johnson Respondents have had a long-standing and multi-faceted leading role in originating, supplying, facilitating, and actively creating a dangerous market foropioidsfor chronic pain treatment. Their efforts not only supported sales of their own brandedopioidsbut also established under false and fraudulent pretenses an environment that amplified the medical community's acceptance of opioid prescribing, thereby increasing demand for its opioid-related raw materials.

DFS's allegations against the Johnson & Johnson Respondents include the following:

According to the DFS Statement of Charges, the Johnson & Johnson Respondents violated two New YorkInsurance Laws. Section 403 of the New YorkInsurance Law prohibits fraudulentinsurance acts and carries with it penalties of up to $5,000 plus the amount of the fraudulent claim for each violation; DFS alleges that each fraudulent prescription constitutes a separate violation. Section 408 of the Financial Services Law prohibitsintentional fraud or intentional misrepresentation of a material fact with respect to a financial product or service, which includes healthinsurance and carries with it penalties of up to $5,000 per violation; once again,DFS alleges that each fraudulent prescription constitutes a separate violation.

The hearing will be held at the office of the New York State Department of Financial Services, One State Street, New York, New York, beginning on January 25, 2021.

Read a copy of the DFS Statement of Charges for Johnson & Johnson and related companies on the DFSwebsite.

The State of New York does not imply approval of the listed destinations, warrant the accuracy of any information set out in those destinations, or endorse any opinions expressed therein. External web sites operate at the direction of their respective owners who should be contacted directly with questions regarding the content of these sites.

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Governor Cuomo Announces Insurance Fraud Action Against Johnson & Johnson for Leading Role in the Opioid Crisis - ny.gov

BREWSTER Second-year University of Washington School of Medicine student Antonio Guadamuz spent part of his summer serving the largely Latinx population of Brewster.

Born in Nicaragua and raised in Miami, Guadamuz knows exactly what racism looks and feels like.

It's the open stares in grocery stores. It's the awareness of being followed by store employees while doing your shopping. And unfortunately, it can lead to difficulty in getting a correct diagnosis when you're sick. That's what drew the 33-year-old to medical school.

"Five years ago, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, but it was a circuitous, complicated process because as a person of color, they assumed I had Type 2 diabetes," said Guadamuz, who explained current medical algorithms indicate Hispanics are at greater risk of developing the Type 2 form of the disease.

The frustration he experienced as a patient propelled him toward a career as a physician.

"I see the potential to address the inadequacies in society," he said. "Medicine meshes with my worldview and ideals about what I want to do with my life."

At the end of his first year at UWSOM in Seattle, Guadamuz had the opportunity to participate in a summer training program known by the acronym RUOP: Rural Underserved Opportunities Program; its open to all medical students between years one and two of medical school.

During the four-week summer program, students live in rural underserved communities, working alongside local physicians in hospitals, clinics and private practices.

"Our students develop a profound appreciation of what life is like for physicians practicing rural medicine," said John McCarthy, MD, assistant dean for Rural Programs at UWSOM.

Guadamuz served in Brewster, population 2,300, working with Dr. James Wallace at Family Health Centers.

"We serve all of Okanogan County and part of North Douglas County," said Dr. Wallace. "Brewster's population doubles in size during harvest season. We have a huge influx of migrant workers from Mexico, Central America and even Jamaica. It adds a unique flavor to the cultural melting pot of the town."

Wallace, a North Carolina native, was drawn to underserved communities while in medical school at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

"My medical school class voted me, 'Most Likely to Practice Rural Medicine in North Carolina,'" he laughed.

Okanogan County is a long way from North Carolina, but it meshed with Wallace's goals.

"I was drawn to the needs of rural areas," he said. "And serving in a community health center fits my vision of how I want to practice."

He was delighted to work with Guadamuz.

"Antonio is one of the best students I've had," said Wallace. "He was thirsty for experience and very intentional in the clinical skills he wanted to learn."

While Wallace learned Spanish during his residency, he said watching Guadamuz converse easily with patients was eye-opening.

"Seventy-five percent of my patients speak Spanish. They really appreciate someone who speaks their language," he said. "Because Spanish is his first language, Antonio could convey empathy, humor and a depth of cultural understanding that I can't. Seeing him work with our Spanish-speaking patients was an experience that drove that home for me."

McCarthy understands how vital that kind of doctor/patient interaction is.

"It's incredibly important to have providers with whom patients can identify. Much of what we do is based on trust and relationships," he said. "This is easier when we have shared experiences."

Guadamuz was glad to be of service while he was learning about rural medicine.

"I really enjoyed my time and training in Brewster. It's a beautiful area." he said. "I received a great clinical education, and I was able to use Spanish frequently to help patients feel more comfortable."

But because of earlier small-town experiences, Guadamuz had some reservations.

"I was apprehensive about being in a rural, conservative area," he said. "I'd already experienced stares and being followed in stores in my travels to smaller communities throughout the state. Rural areas often feel like unsafe, unwelcoming places for people of color."

It's a conundrum McCarthy is well aware of.

"Our goal is to develop students into physicians who appreciate and respect diversity," said McCarthy. "At the same time, it's important to cultivate a workforce which mirrors the populace of the communities we serve. I've seen patients light up when they see a provider who mirrors their culture and experiences."

However, attracting minority physicians to places they may feel unwelcome can be difficult. Wallace says conversations with medical students like Guadamuz are an important place to start.

"Antonio helped me to recognize my own deficiencies and to explore ways to make up for them," Wallace said. "Traditionally, the best health care wasn't available to people of color which led to worsening health outcomes. We're trying to hire health workers who are part of these communities to provide feedback about how to better serve our patient population."

To be clear, Guadamuz didn't feel unwelcome everywhere he went. Patients felt at ease with him, and the medical staff was very open to important dialog.

"Racism is an uncomfortable topic," he said. "But it's an uncomfortable experience too, and it's important to keep talking about it."

He valued observing how Family Health Centers is actively meeting the needs of the communities it serves.

"When you are among only a handful of doctors in a small town, its important to build long-term relationships with patients," Guadamuz said. "That was a key takeaway from my RUOP experience."

His hope is that conversations about discrimination will become part of a larger dialog that centers on the voices of the people most marginalized.

Wallace agreed, citing the dire need for physicians that fit their cultural population.

"Antonio gives me hope that there are students out there who are endeavoring to explore rural areas despite the expectation that they might experience racism," he said. I appreciate that through RUOP and other rural programs, UWSOM is addressing two of the most vexing problems facing our societyracism and improving the physician workforce in underserved areas of our state.

Guadamuz feels it's way to early in his medical education to know what kind of medicine he will one day practice, or where he and his family will settle, but he does know this: "Wherever I practice I hope to have real conversations about how to address inequities in health care, and how physicians can better meet the needs of the entire community."

Cindy Hval is a freelance writer who writes for the University of Washington School of Medicine.

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He speaks their language: UW medical student trained in Brewster this summer - wenatcheeworld.com

As discussed yesterday, the world of philanthropy wields powerful influence, but that generosity often leaves out people of color. Two of the biggest factors holding back philanthropys quest for social change are rooted in race, according to recent research from Echoing Green and The Bridgespan Group. One is understanding the role of race in the problems that philanthropists are trying to solve. The second is the significance of race when it comes to how philanthropists identify leaders and find solutions.

We found a clear barrier is getting connectedthat leaders of color need equitable access to social networks that enable these vital connections to the philanthropic community, said Echoing Green President Cheryl Dorsey in a recent interview with TriplePundit.

This came up time and time again in our conversations with leaders. A leader of color is invited to a conference, for exampleIve experienced this myselfand at the end of the conference, you find out there was a meeting within the meeting, Dorsey added. A small group of funders invited a small group of nonprofit leaders to meet at the hotel bar or to go out to dinner, and the leader of color just didn't have access to that invitation or that conversation, which was directly correlated with their inability to build these relationships that lead to funding.

Another barrier people of color face in the philanthropy community is the difficulty in building rapport with funders. Even if you can get connected to these funders, there are all sorts of ways that interpersonal bias can show up and inhibit the ability to build trusting relationships between a funder and a leader of color, Dorsey said.

Yet another barrier is the getting across the finish line and getting that funder to write the check. Funders will often lack understanding of culturally relevant approaches that proximate leaders of color bring to the table, continued Dorsey. Leaders of color will often hear, I would really like to fund solutions generated by communities of color, but there's just not enough evidence of effectiveness, or it's just not clear they have the capacity to execute on the work. And it's a vicious cycle of disadvantage. Because quite often, leaders of color don't have organizational capacity because funders don't invest in them.

As Dorsey noted, Evidence-based philanthropy can be weaponized to exclude leaders of color who are often nearest to the issues that their communities face and are really rolling up their sleeves to do deep, complicated, complex social change work that doesn't necessarily lend itself to easily measurable variables. How do you dismantle 350 years of structural racism around wealth and credit? There's not going to be one metric that you can easily use to measure that organization against. Its much more complicated and nuanced and sophisticated than that.

The research by Echoing Green and Bridgespan recommended three steps, or three gets, for donors to remedy these barriers:

Get proximate: Actively build knowledge of, connection to, and mutual trust with communities most impacted by the social change issues you seek to address, through intentional learning and investment.

Get reflective: Collect, analyzeand reflect on data disaggregated by race for your portfolio in order to unearth and assess assumptions and biases that are limiting your philanthropy. Then make necessary shifts to your organizational culture, process, and investment norms.

Get accountable: Set racial equity goals to build power among community members and leaders proximate to the problems you seek to address. Share these goals with others who can hold you accountable.

When we look at social innovators, they are a powerful agent of change for a whole host of reasons. They have that entrepreneurial and disruptive mindset that allows them to leapfrog and fundamentally re-imagine how things are done in a particular field, Dorsey said.

Echoing Greens Fellows are illustrative of what can happen when people of color break through the barriers. Gina Clayton-Johnson, for example, founded Essie Justice Group, the mission of which is to build a women-led movement to end mass incarceration by uniting, supportingand empowering women with incarcerated loved ones.

T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa GarrisonlaunchedGirlTrek, which seeks to pioneer a health movement for black women and girls grounded in civil rights history and principles through walking campaigns, community leadership and health advocacy.

And Colette Pichon Battle started the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP) to promote equity in Gulf Coast communities of color that are most affected by climate change by providing community stabilizing legal services and ecological equity training and support for civic participation.

That Echoing Greens new fund is focused on engaging the corporate community in a big way is quite intentional, Dorsey explained. They are such profoundly important institutions in our global economy that if they are ignored and are marginalized, we do not get anywhere. At its core, movement building is about changing hearts and minds at scale. So to me, it would be malpractice not to include the millions and millions of business leaders who sit on top so many resources. They provide the opportunities to scale the work of these incredible social change agents.

She added: And its a nice win-win for these companies, as being part of social impact has become a really important part of employee engagement and retention. The reason weve focused on engaging 10,000 employees is that were trying to be ambitious and audacious and to what we can to reach a tipping point. To get that many people engaged could be really powerful for shifting the way that these business leaders think about their personal role as civic leaders, but also the role of their companies and the civic footprint that they are responsible for in economies across the globe.

Dorsey rounded out her interview with 3p by saying she hopes that Echoing Green has been successful in holding up a mirror to the world of philanthropy and saying, To get the results, you have to do the work. And it starts with investing in black and brown leaders. If you care about social impact, that is your shortest path to impact on all of these deeply entrenched issues.

Image credit: Essie Justice Group/Facebook

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Philanthropy, Race and Overcoming Lack of Access to Networks - Triple Pundit

Forty-six percent of Biden's full-time staff are people of color, up from 35% percent when the campaign first reported its diversity data in June, according to new figures provided to CNN by a Biden campaign official. Forty percent of senior staffers are people of color, up from 36% ten weeks ago.

The number of women on the campaign also grew with 59% of full-time staff identifying as female, up from 53% in June. Fifty-six percent of senior staff are female, a slight decrease from the 58% of women who comprised senior staff in June.

Five percent of staff chose not to specify race. The campaign did not provide a full staffing breakdown based on race and ethnicity. The new figures are reflective of 622 full-time Biden campaign staff, a campaign official said.

"The Vice President is committed to building a campaign team that reflects America. The growth in our diversity numbers reflects that commitment and is another great example of the Vice President demonstrating his values through his actions," said Michael Leach, chief people diversity and inclusion officer for the Biden campaign. "As our campaign continues to grow and as we round out the final months of the general election, diversity, equity, and inclusion will continue to be at the forefront of our inclusive growth philosophy and strategy."

Alida Garcia, founder of Inclusv, a diversity in politics group that has worked with the Biden campaign to bring in more diverse staff, said the new figures reflect a "real committed focus" by the campaign to diversify its staffing, including in its battleground states' operations.

"It shows how intentional they've been in building out their state teams to ensure that the state operations in these critical battleground states are reflective of the communities that are going to make up the Biden-Harris victory," Garcia said.

"When we think about those communities and we think about communities of color, they are the hardest hit by the pandemic right now," Garcia added. "As it relates to building campaign apparatuses that respect and understand what communities of color are facing, the fact that the campaign has been intentional about who is at the top in doing this work with them to me speaks volumes and also is going to provide them with the opportunity to build systems that engage these voters."

Biden has pledged, if elected, to build an administration that reflects the diversity of the country, including in his staff, cabinet and other government officials.

"My administration's going to look like America, not just my staff, the administration from the vice president straight down through Cabinet members to major players within the White House, and the court," Biden said during a June townhall focusing on issues tied to the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. "It's going to be a reflection of who we are as a nation."

The Trump campaign last released its diversity data in June when a spokesperson said 52% of full-time staff were women and senior staff was comprised of 56% women and 25% people of color. At the time, the campaign did not provide a breakdown of people of color on the full-time staff.

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Biden campaign grows more diverse with people of color making up nearly half of staff - CNN

In recent months, we have seen calls for peace and civility aimed at the Black Lives Matter movement. The argument made is that violence and riots are not the proper way to achieve change. At its core, this argument asserts that true protest is not only nonviolent, but borderline passive. Such a claim could not be further from the historical truth.

Every major liberation movement, from the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s to the Palestinian struggle to attempts to free colonized lands around the world, has had both violent and nonviolent elements. From King to the Black Panthers, from Mandela to the Jacobins, great figures and inspiring messages of struggle and triumph have echoed and resonated centuries after their movements ended. Many of these movements have been whitewashed over the decades and centuries, painted as simple requests for change without any violence or force involved, which the powers that be were kind and wise enough to grant.

As a non-Black ally of the Black Lives Matter movement, I hope to use this piece to reach my readers who are also non-Black allies. My goal is to help provide context to the violence/nonviolence debate, and to illustrate that it is not our position to define the means by which the Black community fights for justice and liberation, for, as Dr. King said, the greatest threat to Black liberation comes not from the Klansmen, but from the White Moderate, who would ask Black Americans to wait for a more convenient season..

Violence and nonviolence do not have the moral distinction that we typically associate with them, a fact well reflected by the work of Malcom X, Frantz Fanon, Dr. King, and other great thinkers, activists, and heroes of change. Social movements have always contained both violent and nonviolent elements, both of which were necessary to achieve change. Our understanding of violence is often very one-sided.

With this in mind, we must first understand what violence and nonviolence are. The World Health Organization defines violence as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation. From this definition, we can gather that violence is not restricted to physical harm, but can extend to psychological and emotional harm as well. There are two key takeaways here: first, not all violence is equal, and power dynamics play greatly into the severity and degree of violent acts; and second, violence can and does include everything from individual assaults to economic sanctions that cause starvation to mass incarceration. Violence is not limited to individual interactions it can be perpetrated against entire communities.

With this in mind, we must now ask the question; what is nonviolence? I would like to distinguish nonviolent resistance from passivity, as the two are often conflated. Passivity implies that oppression goes without response or resistance, and that individuals will simply ignore or accept acts of violence and terror that come against them. Nonviolence, on the other hand, is a response to terror, violence, and oppression that relies on tactics that do not result in physical harm, be it direct or indirect. These tactics include general strikes, mass protests, boycotts, and sit-ins, to name a few. Often, the violence that occurs at such events is from the oppressive group itself, usually through the military or police. The hope is that people will see the brutality of those in power and begin to consider joining the fight.

Now that we have at least a baseline understanding of these two ideas, let us turn to the issue of morality and effectiveness. Often, nonviolence is painted as the good or moral form of resistance, and violence is painted as evil and immoral. Additionally, nonviolence is often held up as the effective and correct way of protest, and violent resistance is made out to be doomed to fail. Dr. Kings explanation for a nonviolent campaign was, We are outnumbered; we do not have access to the instruments of violence. Even more than that, not only is violence impractical, but it is immoral; for it is my firm conviction that to seek to retaliate with violence does nothing but intensify the existence of evil and hate in the universe.

King argues that violent resistance would not be possible, because the masses do not have access to the same tools as the military and police. Second, he argues that violence of any kind is immoral, for it creates more evil in the world. Kings accessibility argument is an interesting one. It is worth noting here that the NRA, which is commonly associated with strong anti-regulation efforts for guns, took a stronger pro-gun-restriction stance during the era of the Black Panthers, in an effort to get firearms out of the hands of Black Americans. This not only demonstrates the inherent white supremacist nature of the organization, but it also shows that there was considerable fear around Black Americans being able to actually arm themselves and orchestrate an armed resistance against the systems and mechanisms of oppression.

A counter to this accessibility argument comes from Frantz Fanon, who argued in his work, The Wretched of the Earth, that:

Another thing is that they are convinced violent methods are ineffective. For them, there can be no doubt, any attempt to smash colonial oppression by force is an act of despair, a suicidal act. Because the colonizers tanks and fighter planes are constantly on their minds. When they are told we must act, they imagine bombs being dropped, armored cars rumbling through the streets, a hail of bullets, the policeand they stay put. They are losers from the start.

Essentially, Fanon argues that violent resistance is viewed as not possible because of fear, and because of the fact that for many, the idea of being able to overcome military force seems impossible. The last line, especially, illustrates Fanons belief that many act as though they have already accepted defeat. He argues that this mindset is what makes violent revolution unlikely, when in reality, he believes, it is necessary.

On the morality claim, the argument that violence spreads evil is disputed by Fanon and others, including the 20th century French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Violence, Fanon argues, is a cleansing force, as long as the targets of the violence are well-chosen. For example, a military base or a police department (as was the case during the liberation of Algeria from the French) would be an institutionally powerful target for violent action. In this way, it is possible for violence to serve as a tool to overcome power imbalances. Targeting buildings, or other symbols of institutional power, serve not only as symbols of reclamation of power and control to the movement and the world, but also demonstrate to the oppressive group that the movement knows where the power lies and is not afraid to strike it directly.

In the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panthers were pivotal in securing the right to self-defense in the Black community, and in pushing back against the violence of the police. In every major movement and uprising, violence has been a necessary element for liberation and freedom. Sartre argues that a strictly nonviolent uprising will not be capable of succeeding, as it concedes the right to use force to the oppressor, which, he argues, is a way of justifying the power of the oppressive group. I would argue that oppression is inherently evil, and as a result, violent revolution, if necessary, can and should be considered a moral means to achieve change. I would like to point out that even Dr. King did not have the whitewashed philosophy that many attribute to him today. While he preferred to avoid violence as his strategy, he was not a complete pacifist. As early as the 1950s, records show that he owned several firearms for the defense of himself and his family, and after the bombing of his house in the mid-1950s, he applied for a concealed carry permit. Additionally, he argued in a 1967 speech that rioting served a purpose:

The riots are not simply a reign of terror or a splurge of crime, though both elements are partially present. They are also a wildly emotional protest and a desperate attempt to display the utter desperation that has engulfed many Negroes. The vast majority who actively participated were remarkably discriminating in avoiding harm to persons, venting their anger by appropriating or destroying property. There is an ironic purpose in this choice; to attack a society that appears to cherish property above people, the worst wounds to inflict on it are those to property.

That violence does not necessarily need to be shunned as a tactic, and those riots could never match the violence levelled against Black Americans:

There is probably no way, even eliminating violence, for Negroes to obtain their rights without upsetting the equanimity of white folks. All too many of them demand tranquility when they mean inequality Nonviolent action in the South was effective because any form of social movement by Negroes upset the status quo. When Negroes merely marched in Southern streets it was close to rebellion. In the urban communities marches are less disquieting because they are not considered rebellions and secondly, because the normal turbulence of cities absorbs them as merely transitory drama which is ordinary in city lifeLet us say boldly that if the violations of law by the white man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the law-breaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man. These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we face in our society.

We come now to the argument that if protestors simply acted more nonviolent, they would have more supporters. I would like to propose a counter-argument. When Colin Kaepernick took the knee to protest police brutality, he was viewed as a traitor, blacklisted from the NFL, and told to protest the right way. When Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted in the military during the Vietnam War, he was called a traitor, had his titles and boxing license revoked, and told to stay in his lane. When Martin Luther King Jr. called for a nonviolent revolution against the forces of racism, war, and wealth, he was assassinated. When Malcolm X called for justice by any means necessary, he was assassinated. When Fred Hampton argued that Black Americans had the same right to arm themselves under the 2nd Amendment as White Americans, he was assassinated. The pattern here is the same: regardless of the means, or how nicely packaged the message of resistance is, the message is met with similar anger, hatred, and violence.

If nonviolent action is not the correct way, and protesting in the street is not the correct way, then what is? It is clear to me that the issue is not, and has never been, the means of revolution. The issue has almost always been the revolution itself. I have not found that any of the critics of violence in movements today would argue that the American Revolutionary War should have been nonviolent. Those in power wish to keep their wealth, their status, and their control. Movements never achieve what they want by simply asking. The path to a just society, and an equal world, will not be won by asking. As non-Black supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, it is key for us to understand that regardless of how oppressed groups fight for justice and liberation, they will always be told by some that they are doing it the wrong way. Protests and uprisings against systems of power and oppression always come from within marginalized groups, and we must work to uplift and support the work of freedom fighters today. This means donating to bail funds, providing protection in numbers on the streets, and uplifting the messages that are already out there. It means educating yourself, your family, and your friends. It means standing up and pushing back when it is most uncomfortable, for that is when it is most important.

Instead of asking why people wont stop rioting, we should be asking why they have to in the first place. Violence is not inherently evil, and nonviolence is not inherently good. We must start asking ourselves how much of our beliefs reinforce the power of those at the top, which of our ingrained beliefs merely serve to prevent us from creating a world that is just, kind, and fair. It is time for us to stop asking for peace, and start asking for justice.

Excerpt from:

No Justice, No Peace: On The Role of Violence - The Phoenix - Swarthmore College The Phoenix Online

As the world continues to grapple with the realities of racism and injustice brought most recently to the national spotlight by the murder of George Floyd, many in the real estate industry are looking inward and acknowledging that there is work to be done to heal and support our communities, while best representing our industry.

Jessica Edgerton

The real estate industry is a key vertical in the fight against racial injustice, said Leading Real Estate Companies of the World EVP of Operations and Corporate Counsel Jessica Edgerton. Our nations housing landscape carries with it a painful history of redlining, racial covenants, and both de jure and de facto segregation. By the same token, we are uniquely positioned to take a lead in breaking down the enduring binds of institutional racism and inequity that continue to inflict damage on our communities, our families, and our colleagues.

Edgerton notes that, as an industry, we have the power to face this issue on multiple fronts. From the consumer-facing standpoint, we must ensure that we provide services that meet and exceed Fair Housing standards. And as leadersbusiness owners, agents, association executives, relocation directors, all of uswe must be deeply intentional about making this an inclusive profession. Without inclusivity and diversity, we are unable to effectively serve any community.

LeadingRE is taking this charge seriously, both for its own staff and for its network of 550 member firms. LeadingRE is expanding its library of Fair Housing resources, building alliances with inclusivity-based organizations, developing new plans to support members in their diversity recruitment efforts, and creating an information co-op with resources and insights from membersmembers like Chicagos Baird & Warner and Bostons Jack Conway & Company.

Baird & Warner builds on its history

Jennifer Alter Warden

As an early advocate of Fair Housing in the 1960s, Baird & Warner has a legacy of opening housing opportunities for all, and the company is now doubling down on its efforts. Housing inequities continue to happen on our watch, and we are intent on being part of the solution, said COO Jennifer Alter Warden.

The company hired a consultant who conducted an internal assessment on diversity, equity, and inclusion. While these conversations can be difficult, what we are learning is vital in shaping our long-term plan for engaging and serving a broader communitya plan that involves training, awareness and action, Alter Warden said.

Expanded educational offerings include a lecture series on racial equity and housing and training that focuses not only on what agents should not do when it comes to Fair Housing, but also what they should do to engage and serve more diverse clients. As part of a massive archiving project that covers its 165-plus year history, the company has also documented the progress and set-backs of racial inequity in housing as a means of ensuring those experiences are not forgotten.

When it comes to awareness, Baird & Warner is using its charitable arm, Good Will Works, to address larger issues. For example, one of this years beneficiaries, the Spanish Coalition for Housing, will speak to agents on the importance of understanding the specific needs of diverse consumer segments and offering services in multiple languages.

Jack Conway & Company encourages conversation and action

Similarly, Jack Conway & Company approaches diversity and inclusion with a multi-part plan. President/CEO Carol Bulman directly addressed George Floyds killing in a video message sent to agents and staff. It broke our hearts to see so many of our people in pain. It was important to acknowledge it openly and honestly, Bulman said.

Carol Bulman

Next, the company developed a marketing vision with themes that emphasize inclusivity and caring for your neighbor. Social media graphics are made available to agents every week, giving voice to these issues and reflecting the values of the company. Education is also a top priority, including holding a Fair Housing CE class and enlisting a diversity trainer.

One of the most impactful components of Jack Conways strategy was a panel discussion, moderated by Bulman and COO Al Becker and featuring a diverse group of staff and agents. Our discussion was raw and emotional, and the feedback has been overwhelming. As leaders, we have the obligation to close the gap of silence and truly listen. We shouldnt be afraid to actually ask the questions because our own insecurities can keep us from having important conversations.

Edgerton acknowledges that the work thats been done to date, while significant, is just the beginning. This isnt a sprint. Its not even a marathonmarathons have finish lines. In the end, as real estate professionals, we are in the business of dignity, of community, of helping others build wealth. And our way forward is to ensure that these things are not out of anyones reach due to their skin color, or their national origin, or their membership in any other protected class. Inclusivity needs to be in our blood.

More here:

Keys to addressing diversity, equity and inclusion in real estate - Inman

In recent weeks, seemingly every day there is news of another massacre in Colombia. On August 11, five teens were slayed in Cali, and five days later eight more youth were killed in Nario. The following week, there were massacres in Arauca, Cauca, Antioquia, and another in Nario. Then on September 7, there were three massacres in 24 hours, two in Antioquia and one in Bolvar a mere two days after a massacre left three dead in Cauca. On September 9, a video circulated social media showing police in Bogot killing Javier Ordez. Twelve more died in the ensuing protests.

Massacres have risen 30 percent during the first two years of Ivn Duques presidency. Through August 25, Colombian think thank Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz (Institute for the Study of Development and Peace, Indepaz) registered 55 massacres this year. The killings coincide with areas where social leaders have been murdered in recent years, and where the now demobilized FARC-EP guerrillas previously controlled territory. While the massacres follow past patterns of violence, they also indicate new dynamics, where the actors and interests behind attacks are not always clear-cut.

The regions with the most massacres this year have been Antioquia with 12, followed by Cauca and Nario on the Pacific coast with seven each, and Catatumbo on the Venezuelan border and Putumayo on the Ecuadorian border with four each.

There is an interest to control these areas: Control of strategic corridors, of places for political control, and of places where there is conflict between armed groups, says Abilio Pea, a human rights defender based in Bogot who works with the NGO Ansur, which gives self-protection workshops to grassroots communities .

Its obviously systematic. It isnt coincidental that there have been more than 40 massacres this year. There is a pattern, says Pea.

Leonardo Gonzlez, author of the Indepaz report, pointed out the conflict between armed groups to control territory is linked the failure to implement the 2016 Peace Accords with the FARC-EP.

There are two phenomena. One is the homicides of social leaders, and the other is the massacres, says Gonzlez. These phenomena began to appear in 2016, and with a sharp increase more recently. We could say this has been a response by armed groups to impose order in areas vacated by the FARC.

Post-Peace Accords, Cycle of Past Violence Continue

In August, the number of social leaders assassinated since the 2016 Peace Accords passed 1,000. There is nearly an identical geographical correlation between departments with the highest number of assassinations of social leaders and the highest number of massacres. In Cauca, 240 social leaders have been killed, 133 in Antioquia, 91 in Nario, 75 in Valle del Cauca, and 61 in Putumayo.

The apparent deepening of the conflict should not be viewed in isolation but, instead, as connected to cycles of past violence. There have been patterns throughout history. During the times of President Turbay, torture was more frequent. During the time of Samper and Uribe, there were more forced displacement, Pea says. Today, they have combined selective assassinations with massacres as strategies of social control. As a way to exercise dominance in certain areas. And, obviously, there are economic and political interests in these areas.

Willian Aljure can also speak to the connection between todays violence and the past. He lives in the municipality of Mapiripn, on Colombias eastern plains, a disputed territory. He is the president of a network of Indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and campesino communities called Comunidades Construyendo Paz en Colombia (Communities Constructing Peace in Colombia, Conpazcol). Aljure has lost parents and grandparents to the Colombian conflict, and his land is currently occupied by the palm oil company Polygrow.

This isnt new, at least, speaking from the experience of the Aljure family. My grandfather had signed peace accords with the government that in the end werent upheld, he says.

The Colombian government has denied that there is conflict. As if lifted straight from the Principles of Newspeak, President Duque described the recent wave of massacres as collective homicide. The Colombian Defense Minister blamed drug trafficking, enraging victims and using a common trope for the state to avoid responsibility for its own inaction to prevent these tragedies.

The Colombian High Commissioner of Peace, Miguel Ceballos, went further, denying that there were any massacres at all, and attributing the deaths to disputes between drug-traffickers, except for the assassination of the eight youths in Nario.

Massacres as a Form of Social Control

Massacres are not collateral damage as armed actors dispute territory. They are an intentional strategy to consolidate social control.

Massacres are intended to send messages to those who live. If they want to have territorial control, they need to have social control, says Gonzlez of Indepaz For example, illegal armed groups are massacring people for having violated the quarantine. So, its a way to tell the population we are the ones who are in charge here. Massacres are a message to the population.

Aljure agrees. They are different contexts, but in the end its the same story. And the story is to kill at all costs to send a message. In Nario, they were adolescents having a good time, and look at what happened They arent killing old men anymore, just look at the quantity of children they have killed the past few weeks, he says. By killing children, those behind the massacres are trying to intimidate any resistance that might oppose their domination.

Another contrast between the current moment and the past is the clandestine nature of the modus operandi of the armed groups carrying out the violence. For example, in 2017, 62 percent of murders of social leaders were perpetrated by an unknown assailant or assassin.

It isnt like an armed group is arriving to an area, threatening people, and then carrying out a massacre, Gonzlez says. Its a new modality because before you knew the identity of the armed group and you knew what this group was trying to accomplish. Today, we dont know who is moving the chess pieces of war, who is winning and who is losing.

Violence Linked to Economic Interests and Paramilitaries

Enrique Chimonja is a human rights defender with Fellowship of Reconciliation and Conpazcol, and a victim of the armed conflict who lives in the department of Huila. He adds that in addition to the clandestine nature of todays illegal armed groups, the political goals of these organizations have been subordinated to economic aims.

Chimonja says that the economic interests go beyond drug-trafficking. The model has no other option but to resort to what it has always done, Chimonja says And that is to resort to violence and criminality. It has to take advantage of the states weakness to displace and continue consolidating its economic project of accumulation without limits that characterizes the neoliberal model.

Armed groups aim not only to control drug-trafficking corridors but the resources in these disputed regions. Extractive economic projects exist in many of the municipalities where there have been massacres. For example, in El Tambo, Cauca, where six were killed on August 21, there are solicitations for coal mining licenses. In Samaniego, Nario, where two massacres happened this year including the eight youth killed in on August 15, there was a meeting between the mayor and the National Mining Agency in 2017 to explore the extraction of gold and other minerals. Arauca, where five where killed on August 21, has extensive oil interests. The Canadian company Colombian Crest Gold Corp owns gold mining titles in the municipality of Venecia, Antioquia where three were killed on August 23, and the municipality of Ands, Antioquia, where three were killed on August 28, has a dozen mining concessions in gold, coal, and other minerals with solicitudes for dozens more. In the region of Catatumbo, where four massacres have happened this year, there are agro-industrial and mining interests at stake.

Aside from achieving territorial control and controlling populations, Aljure refers to a third factor which he was almost reluctant to admit. The current political context of Colombia includes the recent order by the Supreme Court to put the former President lvaro Uribe Vlez on house arrest.

Pea says that while there is no direct relation between the order to arrest Uribe and the massacres, there are correlations. He says that since the days of Pablo Escobar, a sort of mafia-drug trafficking-landowning class had been rising in power, peaking with the arrival of Uribe to the presidency in 2002. And now, we are in a moment where this power is in decline, and the capture of Uribe is a symbol of this. However, this doesnt mean the power will end soon, Pea says.

The spirit, the mentality of paramilitarism has been conceived by the ex-president Uribe. With the Convivir, with the massacres, with the parapolitica, are all connected to the ex-president Uribe. And this continues intact. This hasnt changed, Pea says. The Convivir was a legal mechanism created in the 1990s to allow for private citizens to defend themselves against the guerrillas, but became a nexus for coordination between paramilitaries, militaries, and private companies. While governor of Antioquia, Uribe advocated for the use of Convivir throughout the department. The parapolitica scandal involved over one hundred Colombian lawmakers and politicians under investigation for relationships with paramilitary groups. Recently released cables show that during the Bush Administration, the U.S. Defense Departments strongly suspected Uribe of having ties to paramilitary groups.

Pea also pointed out the U.S. administrations unconditional support for Uribe. Vice President Mike Pence tweeted his support for the former president.

There has been fear growing in the territories of Colombia. Aljure, as president of Conpazcol, is concerned about community of the Naya River which received news of a possible massacre on August 23. This Afro-descendent community on the Pacific Coast lives in a disputed region, where three people disappeared in 2018.

Aljure says that more international attention to the massacres is needed. Not just to talk about what already happened, but to avoid what may happen.

Thomas Power is a candidate for a masters degree in Estudios Polticos (Political Studies) in the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Universidad Nacional of Colombia) and was an International Human Rights Accompanier with Fellowship of Reconciliation from 2016-2018, where he continues to collaborate.

Read the original here:

Massacres in Colombia Lay Bare Next Phase of the Conflict - NACLA