Rebuild the Dream Read Free

programs to teach young people how to get, keep, and create jobs. It had taken me nearly a decade of urban activism, but I finally saw the wisdom in my dad’s tough-minded, American idealism.
    I figured out pretty quickly the kinds of jobs that I wanted to focus on.
    California had passed a raft of laws supporting the solar industry; the clean-tech sector was beginning to boom in Silicon Valley; other green businesses—organic food and eco-friendly products—were beginning to take off in the state. I realized that there might be a tremendous opportunity in the growing green economy, a host of good jobs that required minimal training at first. With the right approach, Oakland’s youth could be trained and hired to weatherize buildings and make them more energy efficient; to install solar panels; to repair, recycle, and reclaim materials for re-use; to plant and tend community gardens and gardens on rooftops. Alongside these entry-level jobs was a long list of green careers that are perfectly suited to revitalize the dead and dying manufacturing belt of this country, jobs for our skilled laborers whose jobs have been outsourced to other countries.
    Some of the Ella Baker Center’s donors were the leading entrepreneurs and investors in these socially responsible businesses. I had met them through progressive business groups, such as the Social Venture Network. I was ashamed to admit that we had asked them for donations but not for job opportunities. We needed to up our game—and up their commitment.
    So I turned my attention in 2003 to promoting green jobs as one solution to poverty. I traveled the country, evangelizing the idea. “The surest path to safe streets, peaceful communities, and a healthy future is not more police and prisons, but ecologically sound economic development,” I argued. “Today’s youth need green jobs, not jails.”
    As I learned more about the ecological crisis that was spurring the green revolution, I had another lightbulb moment: I saw that our country was throwing away too many precious resources into landfills and incinerators—and too many precious people into jails and prisons. Both patterns violated a central tenet of my faith. There are no throwaway species, children, resources, neighborhoods, or nations. All of creation is sacred and should be treated with respect.
    Along the way, I found my true calling—working with the private sector and policy leaders to spread the benefits of eco-friendly business opportunities into struggling communities. “We need to build a green economy that Dr. King would be proud of,” I said. “The green wave must lift all boats.”
    In 2007, my team helped to convince Oakland’s city council to create a Green Jobs Corps to train urban youth for the jobs of the future. The program has since been replicated in dozens of cities across the country. Additionally, I worked with Congressional leaders, including then-U.S. Representative Hilda Solis and then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, to create the Green Jobs Act. President George W. Bush signed the measure into law as a part of the 2007 energy bill. It designated millions of dollars for job training in green industries.
    I had begun my activism as a critic of the market system, someone who scorned all businesses as inherently exploitative. Over the years, I encountered problems too big to be fixed without entrepreneurship, business smarts, and market-based solutions. I continuedto reject the incarceration industry, the military-petroleum complex, and Wall Street’s gamblers. But I learned to distinguish between predatory and productive capital, between irredeemable and more responsible forms of capitalism. I became a champion for business solutions that uplift people and the planet.
    In 2008, I cofounded Green for All, a national advocacy and technical assistance organization that promotes green jobs for disadvantaged communities. I had