Beyond White Supremacy: Healing White Men as Tools for Violence Prevention and Harm Reduction
Why is healing White men critical within racial equity work? What can prevention and harm reduction look like in US culture?
Loran sits down with Ben Jealous (President, People for the American Way and former President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP]), Pablo Cerdera (Founding Associate Director, Restorative Practices at Penn), and Fred Jealous (Founder, Breakthrough for Men) for a conversation hosted by The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) and co-sponsored by People for the American Way.
Ben Jealous has spent his professional life at the nexus of social change, media, and emerging technologies. He is a former Democratic Nominee for Governor of Maryland, former National President & CEO of the NAACP, former Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), and for more than half a decade has been investing in social impact startups. While at the NAACP, Jealous led a series of wholesale changes in how the organization used social media and related technologies to enhance its organizing, He is a Professor of Practice at the Annenberg School for Communication, Penn Law School, and the School of Social Policy & Practice. His efforts started with proving the efficacy of online viral voter registration drives in the 2008 Presidential Election. The NAACP's numbers of online activists really took off when Jealous began using their platforms to organize support for individuals fighting injustices in the criminal justice system. The last such campaign he led for the NAACP signed up more than 600,000 new activists on email and approximately 400,000 via text in less than two weeks. These efforts have also been credited by a major polling firm with shifting public opinion and paving the way for landmark civil rights state legislative victories.
Pablo Cerdera is a Restorative Justice (RJ) Practitioner and Educator and has been the Associate Director of Restorative Practices @ Penn since February 2020. He began his professional work at the Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis and has volunteered or worked as an RJ practitioner with Restorative Justice Community Action, the Conflict Resolution Center, the Good Shepherd Mediation Program, and Let's Circle Up. He is committed to sharing the restorative approach and firmly believes in the power to transform harm, promote meaningful accountability, and develop strong and healthy communities through this approach.
Fred Jealous, created Breakthrough, a non-profit organization in 1987. As a teacher of nonviolent communication, this organization aims to provide men with skills to free themselves from non-productive, painful, or abusive aspects of their lives. Jealous, also a leader in his community, has empowered hundreds of men to begin to create the lives they have always wanted through education and support in a supportive group-learning setting in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Prior to Breakthrough, he spent many years as a teacher at all levels from preschool to graduate school. Locally, he taught Social Science courses and developed programs for veterans in transition, at Monterey Peninsula College. He created Monterey County's first Men's Alternatives to Violence Program, and he chaired the statewide coalition of alternatives to violence programs. He founded the local chapter of the National Coalition Building Institute, an organization that does workshops on reducing prejudice and claiming pride in our heritage.
This conversation was part of the SP2 Speakers Series (2021-2022). As part of the school's effort to host "conversations about race, equity, and justice with experts on social policy and social work." The conversation is moderated by Ben. SP2 Dean Sara S. Bachman, PhD introduces the event. Closing remarks by the SP2 Associate Dean for Inclusion, Joretha N. Bourjolly, MSW, PhD.
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During the episode, Fred references a post made by Loran and The Spillway promoting the event. That post may be found here.
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