A research-backed guide for building bridges across difference in any area of our lives, developed with the Othering & Belonging Institute's Rachelle Galloway-Popotas.
"Bridging is a salve for our fractured world," powell says. "We can overcome the illusion of separateness by honoring our differences, transcending the notion that difference divides us, and instead co-create a world where everyone belongs."
With inimitable warmth and vision, powell offers a framework for building cohesion and solidarity between disparate beliefs and groups. He defines key concepts such as "othering," which primes us to see people as a threat; "breaking," which excludes people or sees them as threatening our belonging; and finally "bridging," which fosters acceptance both of those we might have othered and even aspects of ourselves.
In The Power of Bridging john shares personal stories and reflections on how his life experiences helped shape his journey to becoming a bridger. He outlines practices in the book to help you begin bridging wherever you are, in your community, friendships, family, workplace, and even those with whom you might never have imagined you could find common ground.
Here's what people are saying about The Power of Bridging:
“john powell’s vision for a world where we all belong is powerful and compelling in large part because it's rooted in decades of values-based work advocating for civil and human rights. His ideas have inspired shifts in policy that have transformed people's daily lives, and his approach to justice questions has influenced countless activists and policymakers alike." — Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
"The Power of Bridging gives us the understanding and tools we need to recover the innate bonds we as human beings have with each other, and invites us to actively build bridges across the generational, cultural, political and ideological divides that shape our world. Both timely and timeless, this is a unique guide to help us navigate the challenges we face as a society." — Ai-Jen Poo, president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance
"With careful attention to the realities of fragmentation and the stories that reproduce it, john a. powell points us toward a better story—what he calls a “bridging story”—that can help us find a bigger “we.” This is the kind of scholarship we need to build toward a Third Reconstruction of America."— Rev. William J. Barber II, Yale Divinity School; President, Repairers of the Breach; Co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival.
From the Berkeley News story: Bridging Divides: from anger and mistrust to belonging - and hope
The root of all inequality is the process of othering – and its solution is the practice of belonging.
We all yearn for connection and community, but we live in a time when calls for further division along the well-wrought lines of religion, race, ethnicity, caste, and sexuality are pervasive. This ubiquitous yet elusive problem feeds on fears – created, inherited – of the "other." While the much-touted diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are undeniably failing, and activists narrowly focus on specific and sometimes conflicting communities, Belonging without Othering prescribes a new approach that encourages us to turn toward one another in unprecedented and radical ways.
Here's what people are saying about Belonging without Othering:
“At a time when social justice movements seem determined to divide into smaller and weaker factions, Belonging without Othering makes the convincing case that we are being deliberately pitted against each other by elites, and that the most radical thing we can do is invest in our shared humanity. This sharp and hopeful analysis is a generous and transformational gift. The stakes — our collective survival — could not be higher.”
— Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
“A powerful offering to a world longing for less division and less hate. powell and Menendian bring story and social science together to create a persuasive case that we can have our identity and culture without warring over them.”
— Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
“With a breathtaking understanding of justice and an unshakeable belief in human dignity, john a. powell and Stephen Menendian describe a divided society and invite us into a finer world where unity does not require erasure. The writing is lucid, generous, and often beautiful, and it is used to express profound righteousness and moral clarity. It would be hard to read this book and not be inspired to think better and live better.”
— Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon
“It is easy to feel like our nation is broken apart and can’t be repaired–that our differences are just too great. john a. powell and Stephen Menendian disagree, and after you read Belonging without Othering, you will, too. This is the most hopeful book I have read in a long time.”
— Arthur C. Brooks, author of From Strength to Strength and Build the Life You Want
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In Racing to Justice, renowned social justice advocate john a. powell persuasively argues that we have yet to achieve a truly post-racial society and that there is much work to be done to redeem the American promise of inclusive democracy.
Gathered from a decade of writing about social justice and spirituality, these meditations on race, identity, and social policy provide an outline for laying claim to our shared humanity and a way toward healing ourselves and securing our future. With an updated foreword and a new chapter on polarization, this new edition continues to challenge us to replace the attitudes and institutions that promote and perpetuate social suffering with those that foster relationships and a way of being that transcends disconnection and separation.
Racing to Justice is a thought-provoking book that offers readers a look into the issues that continue to plague our society. It is reminder that we have yet to address and reckon with the challenges we face in providing equal opportunities for all people in this country and the world.