J ournalism for P eople B uilding a B etter W orld
S pring 2020
The
World we Want
Future of Food: The Search for Planet-Friendly Protein What Public Banks Can Do for Everyday People Legal Systems Make Room for Restorative Justice Imagine a Country That Welcomes Migration
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The Language of Antiracism: An Illustrated Glossary Antidotes for Gentrification US $6.50 Canada $6.50
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Issue 93 YesMagazine.org
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Visions for a Just, Sustainable, Compassionate Future
SOLUTIONS WE LOVE
antiracism 1. The practice of dismantling a system marked by white supremacy and antiBlack racism through deliberate action 2. A theory that explains and exposes multiple forms of racism: overt and covert, interpersonal and institutional, historical and present day, persistent and nascent
People We Love Climate activists of color | 10 The Page That Counts | 12
The Language of Antiracism An Illustrated Glossary
Black girl magic 1. The recognition of the beauty, ability, resourcefulness, and perseverance of Black women in a society marked by anti-Black sexism 2. An effort to highlight the role of Black women in all aspects of U.S. life synonyms: #BlackGirlMagic, #ProfessionalBlackGirl antonym: misogynoir
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Tools of Liberation
Tools of Oppression
Excerpted from Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter by Candis Watts Smith and Tehama Lopez Bunyasi
Special Issue
The World We Want
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VISIONS OF A JUST, SUSTAINABLE, AND COMPASSIONATE FUTURE
Economy
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ILLUSTRATION BY KEVIN WHIPPLE/YES! MAGAZINE
Environment
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Civil Liberties
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Health/Wellness
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A VISION FOR T H E W O R L D W E WA N T
Economy By 2030, we can achieve a significant reorganization of the U.S. economy, from one that serves only the wealthy to one rooted in principles of equality and fairness. One thing is certain: the super-wealthy cannot keep avoiding paying their fair share of taxes. A wealth tax helps kick-start the transformation, but a more progressive tax code overall becomes the basis for ongoing support of a new human-centered economy. That new economy begins with paying a living wage to everyone—part of an anti-poverty program that also ensures jobs for those who can work, and a guaranteed income for those who can’t. The social support network also establishes universal health care, paid family leave and child care, free education in public college or trade schools, and affordable housing for everyone. These robust social services are supported by a network of public banks, modeled on the century-old Bank of North Dakota (see accompanying story), reinvesting local tax dollars in their own communities. This is only the beginning of a just economy, but these first steps will bring us closer to the world we want, where we’ve curbed the power of Wall Street, paid reparations to the victims of slavery and genocide, and reside in a United States that lives up to its founding principles. Chris Winters Senior Editor Christie Obenauer, president and CEO of Union State Bank of Hazen, North Dakota, meets with Matt Clarys of Western Steel Builders. By partnering with the state’s bank, Obenauer’s small bank has been able to finance several large projects in her town.
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WHAT A PUBLIC BANK CAN DO FOR REAL PEOPLE Story by Oscar Perry Abello Photos by Justine Wiedrich
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A VISION FOR T H E W O R L D W E WA N T
Environment Devastating fires, floods, and drought across the globe in 2020 mobilized the U.S. to go all-in on renewables. Energy in 2030 flows from a decentralized grid of local wind, hydro, and solar facilities. The transition has been a just and inspiring one: Former fossil fuel industry workers retrained in green technology, so power is generated by and for local communities. Transportation in electric vehicles and a far-reaching network of high-speed public trains join formerly disconnected populations. Indigenous tribes are recognized for their generational stewardship of the continent, and now lead environmental governance and policy. Collaboration between these leaders and local innovators bolsters the rural and urban infrastructure necessary to withstand rising seas and extreme weather. The oceans are recovering after sustainable, accessible replacements for plastic are adopted globally. Regenerative agricultural and irrigation practices prioritize the health of soils and waterways. Food and water are protected public goods, distributed to all people to remedy sweeping inequities and large-scale food waste. Access to nature is universal, and often prescribed by doctors to improve well-being and reconnect with the Earth. With the rights of nature protected by the constitutions of every nation, healthy forests are expanding every year, sequestering more carbon and supportPHOTO BY JO N LOVETTE / GETTY IMAGES
ing the many species that call them home. Breanna Draxler Climate Editor
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While some Western cultures might cringe at the idea of eating insects, more than 2 billion people around the world traditionally include them in their diets. Above: In Oaxaca City, In Oaxacachapulines City, Oaxaca, locals often fill Mexico, (grasshoppers) their tortillas onions, fill a corn tortilla along with with cilantro, with cilantro, and chapulines, onions and salsadeep-fried verde. grasshoppers seasoned with chile and lime.
THE SEARCH FOR PLANET-FRIENDLY PROTEIN We can take a cue from cultures that eat further down the food chain. Adam Lynch
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A VISION FOR T H E W O R L D W E WA N T
Racial Equity Our world is changing. Historically marginalized people—Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color—continue to rise up globally against centuries-old oppressive systems. Telling these stories is often difficult because they don’t always feel good. Yet for the better world that we so desperately want, we have to grapple with the challenges and struggles people face daily. In the United States, experts, activists, and advocates for social change are helping us to do this by reimagining these systems—educational, political, medical, legal. They are working overtime to create and implement solutions that are just and equitable for a positive future for all. When we uncover their stories, we learn about the work of those building a just justice system (see page 42), to remedy the harms of our current criminal legal system that disproportionately targets Black and Brown people. We learn about the high rates of illness among Black and Brown people nationally and what people like Arletha Livingston, who is training young people in Georgia to be community health workers (accompanying story), are doing in an effort to improve the health of their communities. With a transformative justice system, affordable health care, quality education, anti-racist policies, and economic and socio-political equity we can achieve the world we want. Zenobia Jeffries Warfield Executive Editor
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Fayron Epps and her son Malachi Ward both work in the health care field. As a high school student, Ward was trained as a community health worker, which increasingly play a vital role advocating on behalf of patients from underserved communities.
HIGH SCHOOL HEALTH WORKERS? IT WORKS A medical school and Georgia students partner to reduce public health disparities. Story by Claire Jarvis Photos by Sara Wise
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A VISION FOR T H E W O R L D W E WA N T
Civil Liberties November 2019 marked the launch of Protect Press Freedom, a campaign using radio, video, print, and social media to promote a simple but important truth: “To remain free, we must be informed.” In the world we want, regular people take this truth to heart, working together to reverse the erosion of civil liberties at the national, state, and local level. Cities will follow New York City’s lead in creating initiatives like the Hate Crimes Task Force, with the goal of protecting vulnerable groups, including Muslims, Jewish people, LGBTQ folks, and people of color. Communities that saw their federal rights rolled back will find allies in the halls of power, invited into the decision-making process by an evermore diverse and socially conscious Congress. Meanwhile, grassroots organizations that are successfully choking off investment in private immigration prisons are expanding their targets for even greater impact. Tech workers are organizing to pressure their employers to stop providing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with technology to surveil, incarcerate, and deport immigrants. And as climate change exacerbates migration, policymakers look to countries with their own complex political histories, such as Colombia (accompanying story), for models of humane immigration policies that respect the human rights and fundamental dignity of all people. Lornet Turnbull Associate Editor
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Karen Rodríguez crosses the border into Colombia for Kren Rodríguez arrived in Colombia in August a medical checkup for her baby after spending holidays with her 3-year-old son. The next month she with family in Venezuela. Rodríguez’s baby was born had her baby at a hospital in Cúcuta, where in September 2019 at a hospital in Cúcuta, Colombia, births to Venezuelan mothers outnumber those where births to Venezuelan mothers outnumber those to Colombian mothers 3 to 1. to Colombian mothers 3 to 1.
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A COUNTRY THAT WELCOMES MIGRATION Story by Gustavo Andrés Castillo Arenas and Patrick Ammerman Photos by Marlon Andrés Moyano Castellanos y e s ma g a z i n e . o r g
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MAKING SPACE FOR RESTORATIVE JUSTICE Some prosecutors and policymakers are beginning to work toward a legal system designed to benefit all people. Amanda Abrams
Atlanta closed its city jail, left, and is considering repurposing it as a center that benefits the people who suffered the most from unfair policies. Proposals, such as the one illustrated, include a health and wellness center, a job training center, or a mental health facility.
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ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DESIGNING JUSTICE + DESIGNING SPACES
O
ver the past few years, statistics on how the U.S. justice system is failing its citizens have come fast and hard. With more than 2 million people detained in jails and prisons, we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world—a rate that’s increased 500% in the past five decades. Possibly as many as 482,000 people currently held in local jails are there simply because they’re too poor to pay bail; they haven’t been convicted of a crime. African Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police than White people, and Black men have a 1-in-3 chance of being imprisoned at some point in their lifetimes. And two-thirds of those
who’ve been incarcerated are rearrested within three years of their release. Those numbers paint a picture of a justice system that’s anything but just—or effective. Rather than focusing on rehabilitation, our police, courts, and detention systems are aimed at retribution, particularly toward people of color; they harshly punish those who break the law instead of addressing the real reasons crimes occur, experts say. But change is afoot. A wide range of justice-focused nonprofits, legal advocates, academics, and activists are developing and implementing concepts that, together, form a radically different vision of what crime and punishment could look like in the United States. Re-visioning means thinking big, and these groups are working toward a
wholly new framework: one that gives people and communities what they actually need. Instead of continued neglect, low-income communities get resources they’ve identified as priorities. In the place of Miranda warnings, plea deals, and prison cells are truth-telling, accountability, and forgiveness. And pain—which lies at the heart of so many of the crimes that currently wind up before the justice system—is met with love, transformation, and healing. “The justice system is a hammer, and not everything is a nail. We don’t want to hammer people who use violence,” says sujatha baliga, who leads the Restorative Justice Project at the Bay Area-based organization Impact Justice. “I see the criminal legal system as a system of violence. We need to use nonviolence, in
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CULTURE SHIFT Powerful Ideas Emerging
Small Works The secret to building community wealth and resilience | 60
BOOKS
Antidotes to Gentrification Plans for democratized, affordable housing Valerie Schloredt
WE TEND TO TALK ABOUT GENTRIFICATION AS IF IT’S BEYOND OUR CONTROL, that replacing old urban houses with identical high-end condos is a law of nature. We sigh as historically Black, ethnically diverse, and immigrant communities are displaced, destroying social infrastructure that was built up over generations. ILLUSTRATIONS BY FR AN MURPHY
The YES! Crossword Foods of the Future | 64
But it isn’t inevitable; it’s the result of decades of policies that reflect the power of wealth in shaping our urban landscapes. So why do city governments in the United States usually do such a poor job of balancing people’s rights with property rights? Samuel Stein, a doctoral student at City University of New York whose work focuses on urban planning and gentrification, takes on that question in his well-received new book, Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State (Verso, 2019). The answer has to do with money, history, and the economy. As North America deindustrialized from the mid-20th century on, capital began investing in land and buildings, “the literal and figurative space left by urban industrial flight.” Real estate is now a $217 trillion industry, Stein writes, forming 60% of global assets. We’re living in “a real estate state,” where real estate interests with capital to invest have undue influence in city planning decisions. Stein sees urban planners as basically nice people with good intentions. They want to make beautiful cities that are good places to live, but in practice their work is directed by the imperative to make cities profitable. Citizens who’ve attempted to have a voice in their city’s housing and planning policies may appreciate Stein’s point: “Planners operate in a system that must appear open to the public, while simultaneously guaranteeing that ultimate power resides in the hands of propertied elites. It can be a really shitty job.” Instead, Stein wants urban planning to democratize cities, making them places that belong to everyone, not just yesmagazine . org
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THE YES! CROSSWORD
FOODS OF THE FUTURE
Patrick Blindauer
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Answers at yesmagazine.org/crossword
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