All posts by Editor-in-Chief

Deborah Levine founded the American Diversity Report in 2006. She is a Forbes Magazine top "Trailblazer" and award-winning author of 20 books. Her published articles span decades including: American Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, The Bermudian Magazine, The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin.
Artists, DL Opinion columns

Culture Wars: Can artists win? – by Deborah Levine

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press   

Why do we now say Kyiv instead of Kiev? It’s because Kyiv is the Ukrainian pronunciation and Russia’s invasion is a culture war.  Their disputes are old-as-dirt and Ukrainian Nikita Khrushchev tried to enable a Ukrainian revival with the transfer of Crimea from Russia. But, Soviet repression went beyond land and sovereignty.

With the USSR dissolution, Ukraine established a new government with its own national anthem in Ukrainian, not Russian. It’s no accident that Putin’s treaty demands include protection for the Russian language. It may seem trivial, but imagine if England suddenly tried to re-establish British control over America and insisted that we revert to British English. If England were like Putin, you might go to jail if you refused to spell “color” as “colour”, the original, British version. Or what about our patriotic song, “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”? That melody was originally an unofficial national anthem of England. We wouldn’t tolerate going back to its original title: “God Save the Queen”. We’d fight a new War of Independence.

Continue reading Culture Wars: Can artists win? – by Deborah Levine →

Being Diverse, Native American

Deb Hunter Podcast – History of the Cherokee Nation

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Cherokee

Deb Hunter was a USA Today best selling author, historian & podcaster.  A former executive director of the World Chamber of Commerce, she was active in Atlanta’s British-American Business Council.

Her journey with the Cherokee Nation began in 2021 when she contacted them for permission to explore their history for a Civil War discussion. That lead to numerous conversations.

The revelation by Secretary Deb Haaland of the Indian Boarding School Initiative is synergistic as the report includes a Cherokee School in Chattanooga TN – the Brainerd Mission – (Deb was originally from Chattanooga).
Note: She worked with a historian from the Cherokee Nation to verify this information.

Continue reading Deb Hunter Podcast – History of the Cherokee Nation →

Books, The Arts

WINDHAM-CAMPBELL PRIZES REVEAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY RECIPIENTS

WINDHAM-CAMPBELL

“I am receiving this award with wide open arms, humbling crumbling with gratitude – calling the names of those on whose shoulders I stand, those that have loved and guided me, those known and unknown who are my champions.”

(l-r: Sharon Bridgforth, Emmanuel Iduma, Margo Jefferson, Wong May, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, Tsitsi Dangaremba, Winsome Pinnock and Zaffar Kunial)

Continue reading WINDHAM-CAMPBELL PRIZES REVEAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY RECIPIENTS →

DL Opinion columns

It’s called war, folks – by Deborah Levine 

 Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

In the days since Russia invaded Ukraine, we’ve tried to avoid World War III. There’s no doubt that the economic strategies are impressive. Putin is right to call out the sanctions as war. The Russian ruble has lost much of its value.  The Russian stock exchange closed for days with one financial analyst toasting its death saying, “Rest in peace dear comrade”. Corporations exited in droves including Ikea, Exxon, Boeing, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Volkswagen, Disney, Nike, Apple, Dell, and Google. Visa and Mastercard suspended their Russian operations.

As devastating as these sanctions have been, Russia continues to demolish cities, take over nuclear facilities, and bomb neighborhoods. And while we’d hoped for a cease fire, plans to bomb Ukrainian military-industrial complex to smithereens were just announced.

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Workplace Strategies Podcasts

JOE SANTANA PODCAST: The New DEI and ERG Frontier

DEI and ERGJoe Santana is Chairman of the CDO PowerCircle and the creator and host of the ERG PowerTalk podcast. The CDO PowerCircle is an association of top diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders within highly respected companies that collectively generate nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars in annual revenue and employ almost one million people. Joe, a former line executive and diversity officer, is a published author and futurist whose mission is to develop DEI leaders at all levels for success in our new, highly disruptive world.

DEI and ERGHis latest book is The New DEI and ERG Frontier: How You and Your Efforts Can Rise and Thrive in the New World of Constant Disruption! In this book, Joe teaches DEI and ERG leaders how to produce workforce, workplace, and marketplace equity and inclusion in the constantly evolving and disruptive age of AI, robots, a non-employee workforce, and multiverses.

Hear Joe discuss…

  • Why DEI leaders seeking to create more inclusive cultures today need to think like a futurist
  • Why creating an equitable and inclusive workplace today demands attention to all aspects of the new 4-dimensional workplace (not just hybrid)
  • Why DEI leaders at all levels need to get involved in shaping and governing artificial intelligence

CLICK for PODCAST

UTC Interns

Diversity and the Media: Student Voices  

What is the future of the media and its attempts to reach a diverse audience? We can better understand the upcoming generation’s issues concerning diversity and the media with this collection of quotes from articles by Communication students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. These issues include race, gender identification, intellectual disabilities, healthcare, cultural differences, stereotyping and discrimination of women, as well as microaggressions.
Note that some of the quotes include links to a full article. 

Continue reading Diversity and the Media: Student Voices   →

Authors A-H, Politics

Political Commentary #2: Ketanji Brown Jackson – by Terry Howard

Well folks, darn, he’s back in the limelight. Ben Carson that is. Can’t say that we missed him. Last we heard was when he left his gig as a failure as Housing and Urban Director under the previous administration. 

Now maybe I missed the memo but for the life of me I cannot recall any grandiose retirement parties on “doc’s” behalf at the White House – or while he threw down on caviar and grilled mushrooms at Mar-a-Lago – before he slipped off to who knows where. What I do recall were high fives, fist bumps, “good riddance” and other sighs of relief.  

Continue reading Political Commentary #2: Ketanji Brown Jackson – by Terry Howard →

DL Opinion columns

Ukraine’s aching pain: Cold War 2.0 – by Deborah Levine 

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
(First of 3 columns on Russia-Ukraine war)

Back in 2019, my opinion column called, Don’t Underestimate Putin’sThreat, was published. I quoted Ukrainian-born comedian Yakov Smirnoff’s joke about how the KGB, Soviet Russia’s secret police, stood for Kiss Goodbye Your Butt. Today’s Russia is “…a world erupting with new money and new power” says British producer Peter Pomerantsev in his book, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible. Not much has changed. Russia still uses the KGB “false flag” strategy, claiming that the current conflict is Ukraine’s fault, pseudo-annexing Russian-leaning parts of Ukraine and sending in its military as “peace keepers”.

Continue reading Ukraine’s aching pain: Cold War 2.0 – by Deborah Levine  →

Gender Podcasts, Workplace Strategies Podcasts

DEEPA PURUSHOTHAMAN Podcast: Women of Color at Work

DeepaThe First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America

DEEPA PURUSHOTHAMAN is the co-founder of nFormation which provides brave, safe, new space for professional women of color. She is also a Women and Public Policy Program Leader in Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to this, Deepa spent more than twenty years at Deloitte and was the first Indian American woman to make partner in the company’s history.

Deepa is the author of The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America.  She writes about how the structure of corporate America was not built for Women of Color. Hear her discuss how we can begin to reframe the “fit in” and “lean in” mentalities that have left women feeling burnt out or isolated in the workplace.

CLICK for Deepa’s podcast interview.

DL Opinion columns

Playing the political discourse game – By Deborah Levine

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

 Remember those playground rumbles after school? “You’re wrong!” “No! I’m right and everybody knows it.” In case you’re wondering, this back-and-forth wasn’t between a couple of kids arguing over kickball. This was the former President and Vice President arguing over the United States constitution. Will this conversation be quoted by future generations? Who knows? Maybe it’ll sound like Shakespeare given how the Republican National Committee (RNC) is trying to redefine the violence of the Jan. 6 Capital riot.

The RNC condemned the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 and censured Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for participating in the almost 400 interviews about the “Stop the Steal rally” that day.  The investigation was called a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in “legitimate political discourse”.

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