Commonwealth Club of California Shuns Anti-Sexual Violence Protesters
Advocacy groups protest at Whole Foods CEO John Mackey event
I’m working with Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR), the country’s first rape crisis center, founded in 1971. Every 98 seconds, someone in this country is sexually assaulted. How do we change the culture of sexual violence?
Advocates from BAWAR were among a group of protesters last evening at a book-signing event featuring Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, presented by Commonwealth Club of California at the Cubberley Theatre in Palo Alto.
Leaders from organizations including the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV) and Faculty Against Rape (FAR) have called for “sexual violence accountability,” urging Mackey to disavow spiritual leader Marc Gafni, a former rabbi accused of sexual abuse. Gafni is leader of Bay Area-based think tank The Center for Integral Wisdom.
Mackey’s involvement with Gafni was first reported by The New York Times in December 2015. The Times reported Gafni describing one of his accusers:
“She was 14 going on 35, and I never forced her.”
The Times also reported:
“A co-founder of Whole Foods, John Mackey, a proponent of conscious capitalism, calls Mr. Gafni ‘a bold visionary.’ He is a chairman of the executive board of Mr. Gafni’s center, and he hosts board meetings at his Texas ranch.”
The NY Daily News reported Gafni denying allegations, stating that underage accusers in the 1980s, then 13 and 16, were willing partners.
More than 100 rabbis and Jewish leaders undersigned a petition to Whole Foods, citing “many, repeated and serious allegations, both public and private, former and recent, against Marc (Mordechai) Gafni.”
Sara Kabakov identified herself as the then-girl whom Gafni described as “14 going on 35.” She came forward publicly for the first time in an opinion piece in the Forward: “I Was 13 When Marc Gafni’s Abuse Began.”
The Washington Post reported on protests at Whole Foods stores in New York City and Los Angeles in May 2016.
In June, Mackey issued a statement of loyalty to Gafni. As reported by the Forward, Mackey said:
“I have known Marc Gafni for several years, and he has continued to tell me that he is innocent of the allegations being made about him. Loyalty and the presumption of innocence are important values to me, so I will not join those who are condemning him.”
An undated “Marc Gafni Statement” on the Whole Foods Market Newsroom says Mackey is no longer on the board of directors of Gafni’s center.
Mackey’s Whole Foods Market Blog was edited last June to say his involvement with Gafni is now “strictly a personal relationship.”
Soon after news of Donald Trump’s vulgar brag “grab them by the p***y” made headlines, Gafni tweeted: “Donald Trump is an Outrageous Lover.”
An open letter from 130 advocates urged Mackey to disavow Gafni. Addressed to board members of Whole Foods and Conscious Capitalism, Inc. (a business ethics nonprofit Mackey founded), the open letter was published by Feminine Collective and signed by nonprofit leaders, university professors, and students.
In February 2017, advocacy groups organized a protest at Mackey’s keynote speech at Conscious Capitalism, Inc. in San Francisco, the organization’s headquarters location.
Led by Peaceful Hearts Foundation (founded by Matthew Sandusky, one of six adopted children of former Penn State coach, convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky), February protesters included advocates from the Stop Abuse Campaign, Protect NY Kids, RAINN Speakers Bureau (from the country’s largest anti-sexual violence organization), and SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the organization featured in the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight.
Business and ethics experts, including professors from Harvard Business School, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, have criticized Mackey’s association with Gafni.
Gafni has never been charged with a crime. According to Andrew Willis, CEO of the Stop Abuse Campaign, Gafni is protected by New York state’s statute of limitations laws, among the most restrictive in the country. Governor Andrew Cuomo has unveiled a plan for the Child Victims Act to eliminate statutes of limitations for claims of child sexual abuse. In April, NY GOP senators sidestepped a vote on the bill.
So how do we change the culture of sexual violence?
BAWAR leaders invited Commonwealth Club executives to engage in an open dialogue about Mackey’s appearance. As Mackey and Whole Foods have, The Commonwealth Club ignored requests from advocacy leaders to discuss this matter.
The Commonwealth Club blocked me on Twitter. At the protest last evening, I asked a woman who said she worked for The Commonwealth Club, “Why has the Club ignored requests from BAWAR to discuss Mr. Mackey’s appearance?” She ignored me. I couldn’t follow up with her because she scurried behind a line of four large men in dark suits, security detail.
Now, more than ever, we need to amplify voices of survivors of sexual assault. Ignoring advocates damages efforts to change the culture.
A tag line on an auto-reply email from The Commonwealth Club director of programs said: “We only propose to find the truth and set it loose in the world.”
Changing the culture of sexual violence is on all of us. We must all hold each other accountable. If the Commonwealth Club wants to live up to its credo, it ought to begin by emboldening survivors of sexual assault, not stifling them.
