About the American Diversity Report
In case you didn’t know, September 12 is the start of HHM (Hispanic Heritage Month). And I’ll be completely honest with you, readers – I missed writing something uniquely significant and celebratory about HHM and other heritage months over the past few years. To be clear, I’m not Hispanic by birth, although that doesn’t matter, nevertheless I still regret missing that annual opportunity.
Continue reading Mr. and Mrs. President, tear down those border walls – by Terry Howard
Throughout history, political discourse in the United States has oscillated between civility and conflict. There were notable times when individuals from opposing perspectives engaged in constructive debate, exemplified by the 1965 exchange between author James Baldwin and conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr., as well as the bipartisan relationships of leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill during the 1980s. Yet, it is important to recognize that political violence is deeply rooted in the nation’s origins. The American Revolution itself was marked by actions that, had they failed, would have been deemed treasonous. As we complain about masks being worn to hide the perpetrator’s identity, colonists dressed up as Native Americans when they engaged in the Boston Tea Party. Hiding one’s identity is not new.
Continue reading Political Violence & Inclusion – by Deborah Ashton
originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
It’s wonderful that there are so many book clubs in Chattanooga! Folks gather together to discuss all kinds of books: history, novels, science fiction, mysteries, and poetry. They meet in homes, churches, synagogues, schools, libraries, book stores, coffee shops and more. This weekend I was invited to speak and share one of my books at the East Ridge Library Book Club. As a long time resident of East Ridge, it was truly a pleasure to talk about my book, Going Southern: The No-Mess Guide to Success in the South.
Continue reading ‘Going Southern’ at the Book Club – by Deborah Levine
For nearly a year I’ve been going through an out-of-body experience. It was launched by a simple request that has turned into a not-so-simple journey. Here’s what happened.
In the fall of 2024, Steven Mandeville-Gamble, Director of the University of California, Riverside, Library, asked me to donate my professional papers to the library’s Special Collections. Feeling quite honored, I agreed. Since then I have been preparing my papers for delivery. This has involved months of wading through file cabinets, bookcases, and stacks of boxes crammed with books, articles, correspondence, course notes, past public lectures, workshop outlines, video and audio tapes, and published and unpublished manuscripts.
Continue reading Renewing Diversity Part 9: Rediscovering My Professional Journey – by Carlos Cortés
Cross-dressing has a Different Meaning at a Different Place in a Different Time
In recent years, with more and more social acceptance of multiple variations of gender identity, cross-dressing has become an empowering tool for transgendered individuals who are out, proud, and loud to assert their gender identity. Notwithstanding, we have to be cognizant of the fact that cross-dressing validates the practice of the binary system of gender. We also have to remind ourselves that the binary system of gender is a social construct and that it is built on a medical model using the binary system of sex. More importantly, cross-dressing carries a different meaning at a different place in a different time. Here, I will describe three specific examples of females cross-dress as males.
Continue reading Survival Matters: Cross-dressing – by Julia Wai-Yin So
“It’s hard to know when to respond to the seductiveness of the world and when to respond to its’ challenge. If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But, I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day”.
~ E. B. White
Somewhere around 1970 I came across the notion of self-help support groups for the unemployed. They reported remarkable results so I set the task of translating this into a workbook for young adults: Job Search Education. The success of that title brought me some 20+ book contracts of various topics from leisure wellness, to intergenerational programing, to mixology. It’s been a grand trip…and now as I take step back in the last quarter of my life I have found the value in writing one last “resume”. It is directed not at future employers; it is simply a summation for myself. It may inspire you to do the same.
I plotted out an outline that contained the following categories:
Without further ado about nothing (See Shakespeare’s play with that title), I’ll proceed with samples and words.
Continue reading Your final job interview is with yourself – by Martin Kimeldorf
The Jewish New Year is upon us, but may not feel like new, with vaccines being banned and Trump destroying democracy, making Americans hungrier, dumber, sicker, less safe, and more prone to natural disasters. He’s facing more days in court, alas with a Get Out of Jail Free card form the Supreme Court, which has absented itself from the Constitution. The book of Proverbs says, “To do righteousness and justice is preferred by God above sacrifice” (Proverbs 21:3). The psalmist exhorts: “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute” (Psalms 82:3).
Fall is the beginning of the Jewish High Holy day of Rosh Hashanah. It means “the head of the year.” Some say it’s the birthday of the universe, the day God created Eve and Adam.
BREAKING NEWS: Recent Department of Labor statistics show that nationwide, Black women lost 319,000 public and private sector jobs from February to July this year compared to 142,000 and 176,000 increases, respectively, by white and Hispanic women. White men saw an increase of 360,000 over that same period of time.
Now that I got your attention, denial, urge to fact check me or fire off a letter to the editor look, just chill out as we turn our attention to all those unqualified “DEI Hires” we’ve been hearing about. If you believe the pundits, those “DEI Hires” have infiltrated every organization, taken over our nation and taken our jobs, that is except the thousands of (“DEI Hires”?) who, out of fear of deportation, have abandoned the backbreaking jobs picking fruit and vegetables in California, mopping floors in hospitals and putting in long hours in restaurants and on construction sites leaving their employers desperate for new workers.
Okay readers, let’s peel back the onion on the who and why behind all the “DEI Hire” shenanigans, shall we?
Continue reading Confessions of an unashamed DEI Hire – by Terry Howard
Education is a fundamental right that opens doors to opportunity, growth, and empowerment. Yet, according to the 2024 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, over 251 million children and youth worldwide remain out of school. This stark reality affects millions, especially in underserved communities where access to quality education is limited due to poverty, geographic isolation, or other barriers.
Continue reading Bridging the Education Gap – by Muhammad Usman Qazi
‘REMEMBER’
“Treat this earth well:
it is not a present from your parents,
it is on loan to your children.
The people who enrich their minds are those
who keep their history on the leaves of memory.”
Any and all of these terms identify those persons who act as the caretakers of our planet. Some of them, such as the Aborigines of Australia, have sustained the uninterrupted thread of their society for more than 40,000 years. They are the lucky ones.
Continue reading Rediscovering What Has Always Been There – by Glenn Welker
