Eric Greene

I am a writer, civil rights activist, racial equity advocate and renter proud to run on the Progressive Slate for AD51 delegate.

I began my civic involvement in Los Angeles working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. I saw how the structural disparities and injustices that afflicted Black Americans repeatedly affected Latinos, Asians and the working class White folks who lived with them and I learned the value of coalition.

The importance of strategic action in coalition to address vital issues and advance the common good became a guiding goal in my work. 

That goal was reinforced when I went to Stanford law school and served as vice president of the Black Law Students Association and was a founder of the West Coast Conference on Progressive Lawyering.

It remained my goal as Policy Advisor at the ACLU of Southern California working on national and local racial justice issues, ballot campaigns, public education initiatives, community coalitions and communications strategy. 

The importance of making common cause across ethnic lines in service of shared values of inclusion and economic justice inspired my work as Southern California Regional Director of Progressive Jewish Alliance/Bend the Arc, overseeing its interfaith coalition-building, local community organizing, policy advocacy and leadership training efforts. 

This same goal animates my work today as an equity advocate helping institutions meet the needs of marginalized populations and ensure that commitment to authentic and empowered inclusion is integral and prioritized.  

In addition to my work in the Los Angeles social justice community, I have been a longtime organizer in national and local Jews of Color circles and serve on the board of Jewish Multiracial Network for which I wrote the Kaddish for Black Lives in 2020.

Questions of diversity and inclusion have run through my work as a cultural critic as well. I have written or contributed to half a dozen books on the intersection of race, politics and the arts. My first book "Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics and Popular Culture" has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a classic". 

Our political systems must champion the imperatives of equity, inclusion, diversity and justice for all, from inner cities to Indian Country. I think the candidates on the Progressive Slate share that commitment.