Acts of dehumanization and humiliation are tools of war and submission. But, the flip side – the impact of offering dignity and acknowledging humanity, is less well studied. Claudia Cohen has coined the phrase everyday dignity to describe small acts that can restore our humanity. Cohen is adjunct faculty at the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia Teachers College, and a founding member of the Summit Interfaith Council Anti-racism Committee and Anti-Racism Community Collaborative in Westfield/Scotch Plains, NJ.
Category Archives: Blog
Civity Update: Standing Up for Connection in a Divided Country
At a time when “our divided country” is all the buzz at cocktail parties (well, at least the cocktail parties I’m going to!), Civity is standing up for connection, compassion, and conversation. And Civity is not alone. Other organizations with aligned missions – The Village Square, One America Movement, Everyday Democracy, Islamic Networks Group, Living …
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Civity, Relationships, and the Art of Playground Jump Rope
“Relationships carry action verbs. Love. Marry. Rule. Fight. Correspond. Mix.”Dorothee Kocks* Malka and I arrived at Civity by different paths. By the time we met, Malka had spent decades convening and facilitating a wide range of civic engagement processes in communities all over California, and she had noticed that the relationships between the people involved …
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Seeding Civity: An Update From Redwood City
Our Seeding Civity initiative is off to the races in our first partner community: Redwood City – home to around 86,000 residents and located 27 miles south of San Francisco. Redwood City’s diverse population and changing demographics create ideal opportunities for Civity-building. Like many cities in Silicon Valley, Redwood City is a changing community. The …
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Civity Update: Growing the Civity Counter-Story
I’m writing at my desk in San Francisco, where terrible fires have been burning just north of me over the last few weeks. I have been glued to the radio, TV and Internet, trying to discover news of friends and colleagues and hearing terrible stories of death and loss of homes. I have also been …
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The Power of Civity: A Story with a Moral and More
Many of us are feeling powerless these days. We are overwhelmed by disturbing news stories and feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Yet we also want to contribute to making things better. We ask ourselves, “What can I, just one individual, do to make a difference? How can I be the change …
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How Complexity Makes Civity Clearer
By Daniel Friedman In everyday parlance, to describe a situation as “complex” is to deem it complicated, intractable, and unmanageable. Politicians might label an issue as “complex” if there is no clear path toward resolution, essentially using the adjective “complex” as a rhetorical parry to side-step further discussion. Thus, from the smallest towns to the …
Silicon Valley’s Empathy Gap
By Daniel Harris Is Silicon Valley making the world a better place? In a piece recently published in CityLab, entitled What Silicon Valley Doesn’t Get About People, Daniel Harris of the Knight Foundation suggests that the Valley could use some more empathy … right in its own backyard. Poor planning didn’t just aggravate the area’s …
A Divided Nation? The Civity Counter-Story
We at Civity, along with people throughout the country, were gripped by the events in Charlottesville. As in the wake of many disturbing events like this, we first reacted with horror and sadness. Then came the questions – those persistent questions that we turn over and over in our minds. We look back: What happened? …
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Civity Work: Grounded in Partnerships
Over the past few months we have conducted Civity workshops with people at some wonderful organizations! In these workshops, we provide simple and focused strategies for connecting with one another, sharing stories, and listening to each other’s stories. Civity storytelling and storylistening support understanding and celebration of difference – as well as discovery of commonality. …