Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog

A couple of months ago we invited Annie Leonard to our offices to present her amazing project of the Story of Stuff. Through a creative vehicle of live animation, Annie has transformed how people around the globe understand global production & consumption, the climate change debate, the environmental impact of bottled water, and now the industrial undersight of the cosmetics industry and the impact that lax regulation has had on the well-being of millions of people.

This past week her work was featured in the Los Angeles Times.  Throughout the article, “Telling Science with Cartoons” the author highlights the new approach to addressing the pressing issues of climate change and rampant consumerism.  In short, we are way beyond the droll power point presentations and yawn inducing data points, we are in a new moment of popular science brought to you be engaging and relevant narratives.  What is missed in the article is a deeper level of work that is happening through the efforts of activists 2.0.  She is not only opening up a scientific and economic discussion to millions of participants, she is also doing the work that many of our newspapers have forgotten how to do in the last 15 years: investigate the critical issues facing people and the environment and offer insight into the sources of these issues.  She is not only educating through animation, she is informing a popular debate about some of the most critical issues facing everyone and making sure that we can all actively engage in that debate with meaningful information.

My name is Richard Raya. I’m seventeen years old, and will be a senior this year at Berkeley High. I would have to say that I’m something of a nerd- albeit a sociable and athletic one. I love being lazy, reading, writing, playing video games and watching movies. And yet in spite of some of these somewhat immature mannerisms- or perhaps because of them- I have an intense fascination with concepts like equality and justice, and the entire idea of people helping each other. It seems to me that we all have a responsibility, to our communities and to ourselves; to be the very best we can and contribute to the lives of those around us. Thus, I’m very excited to be interning at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation. The work that gets done in the field of social justice is vital- it is the act of helping restore equilibrium to people that have long been marginalized so that we can all become more self sufficient and more powerful in our society. This entails ensuring that people have the means to support themselves, and their community, economically, socially and politically, which subsequently entails community organizing. However, during community organizing endeavors, one key demographic is often overlooked: youth. Youth make up a significant part of a community’s size and creativity, and as such can make a significant impact in the world around them. Young people, although they may lack the power to vote and may not have as much financial power as adults, still retain passion and idealism, and as such can contribute greatly to any social justice campaign’s volume and direction. This summer, I will be delving into various methods of facilitating youth organizing to ultimately conclude what organizations like the Mitchell Kapor Foundation can do to effectively aid youth organizers.

I was an open skeptic of this year’s US Social Forum.  I crossed my arms and huffed when anyone mentioned it.  I imagined an event teetering between Woodstock and the WTO protests in Seattle and although I loved Seattle, I wanted to make sure I stayed good and far away from Woodstock 2010.   I’m working on respecting process and consensus and folks in my life will emphasize the work part of that sentence.  After meeting with Tammy Lu from the Labor Community Strategy Center and cajoling from our own Mario Lugay, I landed in Detroit last Tuesday at 2am.

Detroit reminded me of the landscape in dystopic science fiction movies. While walking though the city Sadiyah Seraaj from the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy said that it looked like a city that was once vibrant and in a moment of crisis everyone stopped what they were doing and ran through the streets and out of Detroit.  So imagine this background, with  30,000 people from across the country meeting to build a national movement for social justice.  It was just amazing.  I visited amazing farms and gardens, connected with restaurant and domestic workers, and saw the future of movement building in this country.  

Over the last couple of years the city of Oakland has become home to numerous blogs discussing the pressing political, community, and economic issues of the day.  These include Oakland Focus, A Better Oakland, Oakland Local, and Living in the O.  These blogs provide a much needed space for everyday people in the city to connect to each other, engage in city life, and sadly fill the space of our lacking newspaper.  I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about citizen journalism- on the one hand I think they provide an important look into how different people live and experience the city and on the other I feel like they too often mistake commentary with in depth journalism.

That said, last week I was invited to be a guest on OaklandSeen and had a great conversation with Aimee Allison on the state of Oakland.  We had an interesting conversation on issues ranging from the city’s gang injunction to economic development opportunities for the city’s long term residents.  Listen HERE and let us know what you think.

Six months ago, Melanie Cervantes (Akonadi Foundation), Luke Newton (Common Counsel), Kazu Haga (Peace Development Fund), and I joined forces to establish a place for progressive funders to get together, talk about our work, and identify opportunities to collaborate in our grantmaking.  We are very excited to invite you to the launch of the Bay Area Justice Funders Network this Wednesday in Downtown Oakland!

I’m sure you’ve all read the articles, seen a bit of the video footage, or caught a blog or two on the linkage between racism and reform on the heels of the passage of the Health Care Bill last week. The shift from accusing President Obama of not being a U.S. citizen and forcing Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor to publicly apologize for describing herself as a “wise Latina” to spitting on Representative Emanuel Cleaver and screaming the ‘n-word’ at Representative John Lewis was seamless and to be expected. This hatred has been fostered and fomented by leaders in the Republican party, encouraged by the non-stop media coverage from all ends of the political spectrum, and driven by a fearful white mass who is nervous about the changing demographics in their communities.

Along with these clear links between Racism & Political Reform, this moment is also a clear example of the difference between the Law and Justice. I urge you to consider the following questions:

• What would happen if it were Black, Latino, Arab, Native American or Asian protesters waving guns at political events, spitting on elected officials, or yelling slurs at Representatives?
• What would happen if it were Black, Latino, Arab, Native American, or Asian elected officials screaming “No You Can’t”, “Liar”, or “Baby Killer” to their colleagues in public debate?
• What would happen if it were a Black, Latino, Arab, Native American, or Asian publicly stating their desire to kill the president?

You could be assured if any of the above scenarios was the case, the perpetrators would be incarcerated, ostracized, and placed on the fridge of public debate as opposed to the center. The law in the above cases would work to it’s fullest extent, but as the perpetrators of the crimes are white the threats and acts of extreme violence are transformed from ‘terrorist’ to ‘minor threats’. For example, the longest charge for plotting and publicly threatening to kill President Obama was one month. Justice would insure equal protection and punishment, but this debate about race and reform reveals that the Law is far from anything equal.

Who would have thought the days of 2010 could go by so fast? It’s already February and we’re in the midst of a convening frenzy at the Foundation.  We are planning a number of really exciting convenings and conferences and to kick them off, we are sponsoring a fundraiser for Art in Action featuring Van Jones and Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins from Green for All.  Art in Action empowers youth leaders by engaging arts for social change through personal, social, political, and cultural education. They work collectively with youth from diverse historically disenfranchised communities impacted by violence through programs in music, media arts, spoken word/poetry, dance/theater, storytelling, and painting.  2009 was a great year for Art in Action as they were able to rehabilitate an office space and transform it into an amazing Green Youth Arts Media Center.  With support from the Mitchell Kapor Foundation as well as from the Pea Pod Foundation, they opened the doors this January to a space with recording studios, dance space, and a community garden.

This fundraiser is to make sure they are able to keep their doors open through 2010.  Since we recognize these are hard economic times and $200 maybe too steep for interested individuals, a number of tickets will be held at a discounted price.

Raj Patel & Cedric Brown

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, particularly in the midst of the holiday shopping madness, I’ve spent some thinking about how and what we value. I keep coming back to this question: Do Americans value consumption over citizenship? Believe me, these are not my random thoughts.

It all started with this story on National Public Radio about a 3-D television that would make the Super Bowl a ‘greater’ experience for sport fans. I turned to my husband and was outraged that advances in technology could allow us to watch football practically live in our living rooms, but that we, as a society, did not prioritize preventing voter fraud or providing all people with accessible quality organic food over this experience. It all seemed crazy.

Thankfully, there are people like Raj Patel in the world who are thoughtful about these contradictions and are able to offer some insight on how we can transform this madness. Raj Patel is what my graduate school adviser would call a ‘double-agent’. He worked at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and is now at the forefront of battling these institutions by calling into question how we come to value goods in our current economic and political configuration. In the ‘The Value of Nothing: How to reshape market society and redefine democracy,’ he asks a simple question: Do we really know what goods and services cost in our society? His response is no and that we really need to wake-up and smell the impact of not knowing this cost soon or we’re going to be in serious trouble.

In his recent talks and interviews throughout the Bay Area, he gives the example of knowing the cost of how and what we eat. One in five health care dollars in the United States is spent treating someone who has diabetes. We know that there are food choices that can transform the impact of diabetes, but we do not place a value on trying to eat well nor in staying away from processed sugars or fats. On the contrary, it actually costs more to eat better. He offers the solution of having a tax on goods that we know have less value on our health. Just imagine a soda tax or a juice benefit!  The world is already a little better.

P.S.  from Cedric: I’ve known Raj for about four years through his wife/partner Mini Kahlon, one of my former colleagues at the Level Playing Field Institute.  Lots of brainy pizazz in that family! I’m so proud of him!

Hi everyone! It’s been an exciting couple of months in the world of Green Access to say the least. We’ve been planning for the Foundation’s 2010 roll-out, following the amazing work of our grant recipient organizations and partners like Green for All and Movement Generation fighting the good and hard fight for racially and economically just climate change solutions in Copenhagen, Denmark, and we had our end of the year convening documenting what works in the movement for green jobs, climate justice, and food security in low-income communities of color. We’ve been a busy bunch at the Foundation to say the least.

Our end of the year What Works! zero-waste convening was a great success with almost 100 participants, 3 panels, and 15 presentations from some of the nation’s leaders in building a racially and economically just green movement. The panels were rich reflections of on-going work in our neighborhoods, across our state, and throughout the country. On the local panel we heard from people like Adam Kruggel from Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organizing, which is organizing families to fight for a just green economy in Contra Costa County and Joshua Arce from Brightline Defense Project describing their strategies to shut down power plants throughout San Francisco.  On the regional panel we heard from Juliet Ellis from Urban Habitat describe the need to build political power by training our community leaders to run or be appointed to local and regional boards and commissions and Nikki Bas from the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy who has been working tirelessly to green our ports.  Our final presented the work of Nile Malloy from Communities for a Better Environment, which is working tirelessly  to extend local power to Sacramento in order to shape and inform California’s toxics exposure policy and  Jakada Imani from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights highlight the organization’s ability to inform and shape the State’s green jobs training program.  All in all, the day has been described as inspiring, innovative, and energizing.  In closing 2009 on such a high note, we are ready and waiting for the movement building and systems change to come in 2010.

Happy Holidays and we’ll see you next year!

Hi there! It’s been a booming and bustling couple of months with trips to Alaska and Washington DC, planning for next year, and making sure that all of our ts are crossed before we let go of yet another year. On the Green Access front, we’ve had an amazing couple of months.

I was lucky to work with a couple of amazing leaders in social justice philanthropy to pull together a panel for this year’s Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA) convening in Anchorage, Alaska. The panel titled, “Broadening the Base: Redefining Environmentalism in the Age of Ecological and Economic Crisis” featured the work of amazing leaders from WeAct from New York, Power U from Miami, and the Indigenous Environmental Network from Arizona. The panel was a great reflection on how low-income communities of color are building power to address these pressing issues. That same month, I contributed a journal article to the EGA journal titled, “Minding the Justice Gap: Bay Area Collaborations Offer a Model for Hard Times”, which you can find here.

Last week I was in Washington, D.C. with an amazing collaborative of funders at the 10th anniversary Health and Environmental Funders Network meeting. The meeting offered a rich learning environment and an opportunity to connect with progressive funders that are building bridges between climate change, community health, reproductive justice, and food security. The highlight of the meeting was learning about the Cleveland Green Co-op model, which has been an amazing engine for economic development, a solid pathway out of poverty, and a hands-on strategy to fight climate change.

This weekend is the Green Festival. If you haven’t been, you really can’t miss it! Its three days filled with the best in green with more than 150 renowned speakers and 400 green businesses, this event is great for everyone, so get out there and fight the green fight!