Category Archives: Social Issues

Social causes, activism, and projects

Authors A-H, Pandemic, Social Issues

Becoming a better (No Bullies) nation – by Terry Howard

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Organizations gripped in COVID-related fear, uncertainty and job insecurity these days are ones that are most vulnerable for empowering bullies who thrive and exploit those realities.

Keep that thought in mind as you read this recent email.
“Terry, those in our office love your articles and want to know if you have written – or could write – something on bullying; not the overt type, but the subtle kind we’re seeing that’s hard to put your finger on. Got anything?”

When I got that email, two things entered my mind. First, given the havoc COVID is wreaking today, why on earth should we worry about bullying of all things?

Continue reading Becoming a better (No Bullies) nation – by Terry Howard →

Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Diversity & Speech Part 16: Creating an Anti-Racism Vision Statement – by Carlos E. Cortés

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The May, 2020, Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd launched thousands of anti-racism proclamations.  Millions took part in that performative aftermath.  Include me among those millions.

Like many people, I wear multiple hats.  One is chairing the Mayor’s Multicultural Forum in Riverside, California.  My half-century hometown is a sizable (330,000-person) city, whose steady but not explosive growth has enabled it to maintain a community feeling.  My wife and I continually encounter people we know when we go to a restaurant or take our daily two-mile walks around a nearby lake loaded with noisy ducks, geese, and egrets.

Continue reading Diversity & Speech Part 16: Creating an Anti-Racism Vision Statement – by Carlos E. Cortés →

Levine articles, Religious Diversity Kit, Social Issues

Explaining antisemitism – by Deborah Levine

Antisemitism goes back long before the term was  coined by a German historian in 1781. Violent attacks and expulsions of Jewish communities span centuries. The Babylonians exiled Jews from Zion, the earliest use of the term, into Middle Eastern and Mediterranean regions. The Romans forced Jews into Europe. Blamed for causing the Black Plague, Jews were driven out of England, France, Germany, and Italy. They fled to Eastern Europe but experienced violent pogroms and isolation into The Pale. Throughout it all, the elements of antisemitism rarely changed.   

For example, the Blood Libel dates as far back as the Temple in Jerusalem with claims that Jews sacrificed Greeks. It reappeared in the Middle Ages when an English cult announced that Passover Seder wine was actually Christian blood. Centuries later, a mob destroyed a synagogue in Damascus for this blood libel. As recently as 1928 in New York, Jews were accused of kidnapping and ritually killing a young girl.

Continue reading Explaining antisemitism – by Deborah Levine →

Authors A-H, Education, Social Issues

Diversity & Speech Part 15: English Language Learners – by Carlos Cortés

It has become a truism that COVID-19 has widened the gap between America’s haves and have nots.  As the wealthy add to their corpus, the poor struggle to survive.  But beneath this master plot lie millions of disparity narratives, stories that repeat themselves over and over.

So it is with the narrative of English Language Learners (ELLs), educationese for kindergarten-twelfth-grade students who live in homes where English is not the primary language.  Their parents may speak little or no English.  Add the fact that many of these students — maybe most of them – come from working class families and are students of color.  The absence of privilege triple whammy.

Continue reading Diversity & Speech Part 15: English Language Learners – by Carlos Cortés →

Make a Difference Podcasts, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Forest Harper: INROADS Closing Corporate DEI Gap

InroadsForest T. Harper Jr. is the President and CEO of INROADS, the nation’s largest non-profit model of salaried corporate DEI internships and corporate and community leadership development for outstanding ethnically diverse talent at the pipeline and mid-career level.

This year marks 50 years for INROADS. Hear how the organization is important to corporate America’s landscape today and is proving effective in closing America’s Racial Wealth Gap.  Understand how to execute diversity & inclusion strategies to accelerate organizations in today’s multicultural market.  Harper shares how vital it is to establish talent pipeline development for attracting, recruiting and sustaining diverse talent as well as securing C-Suite alignment.

CLICK for INROADS podcast

Make a Difference Podcasts, Social Issues, Workplace Strategies Podcasts

Laurel Taylor: Student Debt Specialist

student debt Laurel Taylor is the Founder and CEO of FutureFuel.io, a student loan repayment platform that uses innovative, technology driven solutions for customers to pay down student debt quickly and efficiently. Financial wellness and equal opportunities should go hand in hand, however, historically that’s not always the case. Regardless of one’s diverse background, financial literacy should be at the forefront of an overall healthy relationship with financial wellness. Laurel  has used her own personal experiences with student debt as a catalyst to founding FutureFuel.io and dedicating her life to help those burdened with student debt.

CLICK to hear Laurel Taylor’s podcast interview

Authors A-H, Social Issues

Election Public Service Announcement – by Terry Howard

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“A recent report co-authored by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project and Atlanta-based Militia Watch, warned that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Oregon are at highest risk of increased militia activity in the election and post-election period.”

I could kick myself in the behind for my oversight.

And still might.

You see, by the time the ink is dry on this, the 2020 elections will be behind us. But unfortunately, I missed an opportunity to offer some tips on how to protect yourself from potential spikes in violence by right wing militia should Trump lose.

Continue reading Election Public Service Announcement – by Terry Howard →

Authors R-Z, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

RIP John Lewis – By Elwood Watson

A Tribute to the ‘Conscience of Congress’

John LewisAs he’s laid to rest, there are no shortage of salutes to Congressman John Lewis, the formidable civil rights activist and legislator from Georgia who departed this earth on July 17, 2020, at the age of 80.

Mr. Lewis was a larger than life figure, a fierce, fiery presence packaged in a medium-sized man’s body. He was a person who lived an extraordinary life.

Continue reading RIP John Lewis – By Elwood Watson →

Levine articles, Politics, Social Issues

Tribalism and The Vote – by Deborah Levine

Some have called our “Me & Us First” politics as nationalism but I prefer to apply the label ‘tribalism’.  In this COVID-19 environment, racial lines, regional preferences, current events and heavy political advertising, are not shaping public opinion as much as the identity of a specific community and the resonance of a leader to that community. Communities are built on religious and ethnic values, family preferences, housing patterns, and health habits. Their political choices have always been shaped by those cultural traits. With the economic fallout and the growing disparities in jobs and  education, politics will become a complex mix of leadership styles that symbolize communities along with the body language, word choice, and facial expressions that resonate specific communities. Policy positions and biographical details will be less relevant as they are filtered through the lens of each group.

Continue reading Tribalism and The Vote – by Deborah Levine →