5 Questions with Board Member Arnold Perkins

Richard: We've witnessed multiracial and intergenerational organizing efforts across our history - from the civil rights movement, efforts demanding policing accountability in the wake of the death of George Floyd, and ongoing movements for economic justice and racial equity. Talk about the importance of multiracial organizing and intergenerational work.

Arnold: When I was in the armed services, I served as an operating room technician. If I walked in the room, I had no idea what [race] you were. Everyone's spleen was in the same place, heart was in the same place, liver in the same place. You only make judgment when you got to the recovery room and saw who was who. And that always taught me a lesson that this thing that we call race is only skin-deep. We are all from the very same blood — it just shows up differently in all of us. My oldest son is white, and my grandchildren are European-Irish. My next son is African. My third son is African and European, and my fourth son is African and Japanese. Any of us would live for each other or die for each other. We're a very proud family. And so, I don't get hung up on race. We often use the term “white supremacy.” But I say the notion of white supremacy because white people are not supreme. They never have been, and they never will be. We are collectively supreme. The power of words is important. Your words determine how you think and vice versa.

As far as intergenerational work, one of the things that I think is important is mentorship. Part of my responsibility is to sit with our young people and share with them, and even more important, to learn from them. Out of my work in co-founding the Young Executives group with Woody Carter and Robert Wilkins came the Brotherhood of Elders Network. It's an intergenerational network of African men where there are the elders, and there are the brother men. We've been around for about 14 years now, and it's an intergenerational effort to exchange wisdom, wealth, and knowledge. Every Monday, I go to a juvenile facility, and I work with young men who have been involved in all sorts of crimes. And what I've found out from them is few people have been in their lives long enough to imprint on them what's right and what's wrong, or what's positive or what's negative. In working with them over a period of time, I see changes in them. I also spend time at our state prisons with the men there. It's all about spending time with people and helping them get on track. These are not bad people — they're just people that no one spends time with and they end up raising each other. So as I listen and learn from them, I'm able to provide meaningful interventions for them.

Richard: One of the many pieces of connective tissue across your journey of servant leadership, has been a focus on racial and health equity. One of our beliefs here at Cal Wellness is that “wellness requires social justice.” What does wellness mean to you?

Arnold: It means mental, spiritual, physical, and financial health. It means  having a sense of belonging. I belong to something bigger than myself. To me, wellness is a state of positive mind and positive thinking. It's a feeling that you have inside. You could be in pain and still experience wellness because you know that there's a future, there's a tomorrow, there's a sense of stability. One of the things that wellness has taught me, is to live in the moment. There's a saying, "The past is history, the future is mystery. The gift we have right now is a present." And so, I just really relish the discovery of living in the present. And to me, that's what wellness is about. Wellness is being present at all times.

Richard: This month highlights the history and culture of African-American people in America. For many of us, it’s both a celebration of the diversity of African-American excellence in our country and a sobering reminder of how much more work there is to achieve liberty and justice for all. As an activist, grounded in history, experience, and action - where do we go from here? And what should be mindful of along the way?

Arnold: The month is often a reminder of the pain that we've gone through — that's usually what is played back at us, more than the achievements that we have achieved and the incredible things that we have done.

One thing that’s important to me is to practice the seven principles of Kwanzaa. That's one of the things I think is so important that we practice those every day. The second thing is the belief that freedom cannot rest until freedom comes. We have rested and made it easy for our children and our children are in some ways out of sync with what we went through, and what we are going through presently. So, I want to see us in the community providing mentoring to our young people, so they get back on track. And I want to see us making commitments to give to the less fortunate, to provide for the least. I want to see us pool our resources so that we aren't always begging as a community and not being on the bottom.

I'm very proud of the work that the California Wellness Foundation is doing, and the way that we help our community is great. And I want to see us do participatory philanthropy. I want us to figure out how we make this real so that we can alleviate some of the suffering as well as enrich our young people in the community.

Someone said to me just the other day, “dead bodies float downstream and live bodies walk upstream.” I want to see us boldly walk upstream because I think it's important to look carefully as we take those steps upstream, because floating downstream is easy to do. You don't have to do anything but just float downstream. I want Cal Wellness to continue to walk upstream.