Tides at Bioneers - “Race, Class and Power”
Tides’ presence was strong at the Bioneers conference last weekend. Tides folk, ably led by Berit Ashla, produced three panels, including “Race, Class, and Power: Structural Analysis and Fairness.”
Over 350 participants filled a conference room to learn from: Gihan Perera (Miami Worker Center),
Manuel Pastor (USC, Economist),
Colette Pichon Battle (Moving Forward Gulf Coast),
and Van Jones (Ella Baker Center).
I thought they were at the top of their game addressing themes central to Tides Foundation’s emerging ECO Initiative, including:
- How environmental degradation in communities of color is a symptom of the way we have structured the economy, distributed resources and excluded communities of color
- Communities of color must be part of the solution, and that means political and economic power building in communities of color
- There are terrific opportunities based on current work, and there is a need to build more and different kinds of capacity; and
- The high costs we will all pay if we don’t recognize the critical importance of this work.