It has taken profound effort and sacrifice to work against entrenched prejudices in our history and cultivate the inclusive diversity that is key to our country’s special dynamism. Cooperatives have been a crucial strategy for realizing the ideals behind those efforts, building on our longstanding and distinct advantages as a democratic business model, a participatory strategy for achieving inclusive socioeconomic goals, and a movement based in values and principles that speak directly to these challenges. Historically, cooperatives have been used to create access for people with few alternative options, to facilitate economic solidarity, and to provide the social stability that enables greater participation in society.
Along with acknowledging the contributions that cooperatives have made to improving diversity and equity, we need to be clear that more work needs to be done. The fact remains that in many quarters, co-ops can do a better job of ensuring that people who were historically discriminated against are more fully included in representation and leadership of cooperatives. Co-ops can do more to promote economic collaboration, sharing resources to support success across boundaries. One of the key resources we have to look to for guidance are the cooperative principles.
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