Dear Book Group Family,
Thank you for those of you who have been a part of the Greater Washington Community Foundation’s book group over the last year.
As a group, much of our time and attention has been focused on socializing ourselves about the ways that racism, economics, politics, and policy making have played out in American history and created the disparities we see in our society. We have done so with the expectation that we could all align around a shared understanding about the racial and economic choices, histories, policies, and impacts that perpetuate the disparities we see in our society—the racial wealth gap in particular.
To this end, please allow me to offer a draft perspective that we will test, revise, and eventually hold together:
In our book group, we have learned how racism and our prevailing political and economic systems were born and raised together. We have seen how they are mutually reinforcing structures that have instigated profound harm in the lives of Indigenous and Black peoples, and other people of color.
While these groups have suffered the most, we all suffer as long as these systems remain unchallenged and unchecked. We believe that the racial and economic justice that so many of us seek will only come by transforming BOTH the hearts, minds and behaviors of individuals AND the interlocking systems that govern our lives and well-being.
Over this next year we will be making an intentional pivot to volumes and published pieces inviting us to imagine compelling and concrete solutions that address the racial and economic issues keeping us all from living our highest collective potential.
We set the tone for this pivot toward solutions at our last book group when we read Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movement Matter. One of the book’s co-authors, Professor Manual Pastor joined us to offer perspectives on the book. He invited us to reimagine an economic system built on the values and practices of mutuality—in other words an economy that moves away from competition, individualism, and winners and losers, to one that models collaboration, the human desire for community, everyone doing well.
I’m excited to continue our journey as we discuss Collective Courage: A History of African-American Cooperative Thought and Practice. If you don’t have time to read the entire book, feel free to skim this article that includes in an interview with the author of the book—Jessica Gordon Nembhard – who will be joining us for our book group session on March 31st. You can register here.
I hope you’ll continue to join us in the work of learning, dreaming, and taking action together. The change we seek will take all of us.
In Solidarity,
Ronnie Galvin
Senior Fellow & Book Group Facilitator