Acknowledgments

I have been profoundly fortunate to spend my career working to support and help build social movements. Over that time, I have learned that groups of people can accomplish truly amazing things when they are all pulling in the same direction. I have also had more fun than I thought was possible as part of one’s job. Yet the most valuable part of this experience has been getting to meet, work with, and learn from hundreds of extraordinary and inspiring people who dedicate themselves each and every day to serving the people in their communities. Every valuable insight in this book is most likely the product of the wisdom that they have graciously shared with me over the years. Every less-than-valuable portion of this book is most likely the result of my not having done a good enough job of learning from them.

I want to thank all my brilliant colleagues, teachers, mentors, and friends who have inspired, shaped, and sharpened my thinking on these issues over the years, including Roger Bertling, Allison Brown, Matt Cregor, Leigh Dingerson, Chris Edley, Dan Farbman, Alana Greer, Lani Guinier, Damon Hewitt, John Kim, Chinh Le, Dan Losen, Maxine Phillips, Lewis Pitts, Bill Quigley, Brooke Richie, Alexa Shabecoff, Purvi Shah, Anita Sinha, Marbre Stahly-Butts, and Elizabeth Westfall. In particular, I want to offer my deep gratitude to Judith Browne Dianis, Penda Hair, Eddie Hailes, and Monique Dixon, who gave so much of themselves in helping me grow into this work. They, more than anyone, helped me to discover that it was possible to work in the exact space in which my head meets my heart, and there is very little that is more valuable than that.

Nobody has shaped the ideas in this book more than the many community organizers and community leaders who have been my tour guides into the ugly depths of systemic racism, including Mónica Acosta, Jenny Arwade, Raul Botello, Jitu Brown, Oona Chatterjee, Manuel Criollo, Patrisse Cullors, Maria Degillo, Ruth Dinzey, Nijmie Dzurinko, Marsha Ellison, Juan Evangelista, Kesi Foster, Fred Ginyard, Joyce Johnson, Nelson Johnson, Daniel Kim, Sarah Landes, Dale Landry, Jon Liss, Tammy Bang Luu, Pam Martinez, Ricardo Martinez, Charles McDonald, Lalo Montoya, Marco Nuñez, Adora Obi Nweze, Andi Perez, Francisca Porchas, Hiram Rivera, Leidy Robledo, Elsa Oliva Rocha, Bill Schiebler, Jonathan Stith, Mustafa Sullivan, Marlyn Tillman, Evelin Urrutia, and Geoffrey Winder. These individuals, and so many others whom I have been fortunate to collaborate with, are constantly working to bring people together and help them understand how much power they truly possess to change the world. They are my heroes.

I also want to offer my sincere thanks to Fran Benson, who gave me perhaps the three greatest gifts an editor can give: (1) an immediate and precise understanding of what I wanted to say and why I wanted to say it; (2) genuine enthusiasm for helping me to actually say it; and (3) the remarkable ability to know exactly how to nudge me to say it better.

I want to extend my deepest appreciation to my family, my network of friends, and all the other members of the communities I have been a part of that I probably took for granted for far too long. I now appreciate with far more clarity that no one is able to achieve anything worthwhile without a great many others helping, encouraging, and investing in them. We all need that support system. We all need ladders of opportunity. We all need a safety net when we fall off track or make mistakes. I have spent most of my adult life working with people who have never been able to enjoy the type of supportive infrastructure that was built for me and others around me, and it is not lost on me that without it, my life’s journey could have gone very differently.

Finally, I want to thank Lexi, Cheyson, and Charley, who have brought far more joy into my life than I ever thought was possible. Of all the many privileges I have enjoyed in my life, the one I am most thankful for is being able to live with my three absolute favorite people on the planet.