Berkeley Talks: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II: ‘Forward together, not one step back’
Barber delivered the closing keynote speech on April 10 at the 2019 Othering & Belonging conference, organized by the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley
April 14, 2019
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II spoke on April 10 at the 2019 Othering and Belonging conference. (Photo by Eric Arnold)
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is a pastor and social justice advocate building a broad-based grassroots movement, grounded in the moral tenets of faith-based communities and the constitution, to confront systemic racism, poverty, environmental devastation, the war economy and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism in America today.
Barber delivered the closing keynote speech on April 10 at the 2019 Othering and Belonging conference, organized by the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley. The Othering and Belonging conferences are dynamic and uniquely curated events that aim to elevate work nationally and globally in “othering and belonging,” a critical lens developed by the Haas Institute under the leadership of john a. powell for defining structural exclusion and inclusion, and an analytical and applied framework which we can use to design and advance institutions, narratives and policies that support a more fully inclusive “we.”
The 2019 conference highlighted models of bridging that give us examples of how to build and sustain a diverse, pluralistic society underpinned by a new, inclusive social compact where group-based difference and forms of identity — whether race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender, among others — are not dehumanized nor are they subsumed, but instead are celebrated and included in our imagined and real community.