Category Archives: Authors

A Co-Authored Interview

Carlos: Steve, now that you’ve retired as Associate Director of Residence Life at the University of Maryland, College Park, I would love to get your thoughts about the changing nature of student speech. In the twenty-five years that I worked with your department, I saw many changes.

Steve: You’re right. The two of us certainly had fun designing our Common Ground program back in the 1990s. That program would bring together diverse groups of students – sometimes more than a dozen – to discuss current equity dilemmas. A series of four, 90-minute dialogue sessions, all framed around a single provocative question. Should laws governing abortion be changed? Should universities use intentional methods to diversify their student populations? Rousing and illuminating conversations.

Continue reading Diversity and Speech No. 26: Trends in Student Speech – by Carlos E. Cortés, Steven Petkas →

Authors A-H, Religious Diversity Kit

Entrepreneurship as a Black Humanist – by Ken Granderson

December 10, 2021 Ken Granderson

My name is Ken Granderson. I was born in New York City in 1963, and grew up in a blue-collar household. Like most Black Americans, I grew up in a religious background surrounded by both very religious and very sincere adults.

I have no negative experiences to speak of from my days growing up in the church. The church I attended tended was very moderate and the biggest thing that we kids had to worry about was strict older church ladies.

And it is safe to say that I’ve been a Humanist my entire life – long before I ever learned the word.

Continue reading Entrepreneurship as a Black Humanist – by Ken Granderson →

Authors A-H, Religious Diversity Kit

Diversity and Speech #25: Growing Up Bi-Religious – by Carlos E. Cortés

December 9, 2021 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés 1 Comment

Many diversity trainers tell me that they steer clear of religion. Not me. Faith discussions are always welcome in my workshops. I love talking about religion. Maybe that’s because of how I grew up.

Church Some people are reared in a strong religious tradition. Others with none. I grew up in a home with two faith traditions. To this day that experience affects the way I view the world around me.

Consider the opening lines of my memoir, Rose Hill: An Intermarriage before Its Time. “Dad was a Mexican Catholic. Mom was a Kansas City-born Jew with Eastern European immigrant parents. They fell in love in Berkeley, California, and married in Kansas City, Missouri. That alone would not have been a big deal. But it happened in 1933, when such marriages were rare. And my parents spent most of their lives in Kansas City, a place both racially segregated and religiously divided. Mom and Dad chose to be way ahead of their time; I didn’t. But because of them, I had to be. My mixed background meant that, however unwillingly, I had to learn to live as an outsider.”

Continue reading Diversity and Speech #25: Growing Up Bi-Religious – by Carlos E. Cortés →

Authors A-H, Disability

What It Means to Make a Mark – by Jody Alyn

November 13, 2021 Jody Alyn

Though she died six weeks ago, Marilyn Golden is with me in her wheelchair at the start of the ADA Accessible Trail in the Nags Head Woods Preserve. An eye-catching sign points the way into the forest. This is her doing. The New York Times described her, in its obituary, as a “lynchpin” in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Marilyn and I grew up together in San Antonio. Our birthdays were a month apart. We went to the same synagogue and sometimes sat in our beloved Mrs. Durham’s high school English classes together. We skipped out of other classes to meet friends and expound on the meaning of life, social justice and Grateful Dead lyrics. Marilyn was brilliant. Funny. Tenacious. She dug deeply into any argument and every detail, and never gave up.

Continue reading What It Means to Make a Mark – by Jody Alyn →

Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

How to Build a Measurable Pathway to Racial Equity in One Generation – by Mike Green

November 8, 2021 Mike Green

Consider the tremendous economic opportunity inherent in a single percentage point. Think about the enormous economic impact of moving the needle of progress along a pathway toward racial equity by just a single percentage point.

First, let’s define the term, “racial equity” to establish a common frame of reference and understanding. For many, racial equity refers to equitable access to resources and opportunity. That definition is accurate but incomplete. In the realm of homeowners, business owners and investors, “equity” refers to “ownership.” Equitable ownership of lands, homes, businesses and intellectual property are valued assets that can be passed onto future generations as “generational wealth.” This is a more complete definition of racial equity in measurable terms.

Continue reading How to Build a Measurable Pathway to Racial Equity in One Generation – by Mike Green →

Authors A-H, Inclusion

Diversity and Speech No. 24: Curse of the Floating Signifiers – by Carlos E. Cortés

November 4, 2021 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés

It certainly would be easier if everybody used words the same way. Clearer communication. Fewer misunderstandings. But no such luck. Words mean what people make them mean. And people make meaning differently.

Sociolinguists refer to the idea of floating signifiers: words that mean more than one thing. For example, when one person says X meaning A, but another person hears X but understands it to mean B. This constantly happens in diversity discussions.

Take the word justice. Ask ten people what it means and you may get ten very different answers. When people in one of my workshops or classrooms start talking about social justice and I ask them individually what they mean, I am likely to get as many different answers as there are people in the room. Lots of virtue signaling; little clear communication.

Continue reading Diversity and Speech No. 24: Curse of the Floating Signifiers – by Carlos E. Cortés →

Academic Articles, Authors A-H

Speech vs. Diversity, Diversity vs. Speech – by Carlos E. Cortés

October 31, 2021 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés

Edward A. Dickson Lecture
University of California, Riverside

In February, 2018, I began a new scholarly odyssey. I became an inaugural fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.

In my fellowship application I proposed the following question: “over the past fifty years, why have so many diversity advocates become opposed to our nation’s hallowed tradition of free speech?” However, I soon discovered that I had asked the wrong question. Instead my question became “over the past fifty years, what has happened when two worthy values collide: inclusive diversity and robust speech?”

Today I invite you to accompany me on part of my personal odyssey. This involves two acts followed by a brief epilogue. Please join the conversation by posting questions and comments in the chat box. I’ll also pause for a few minutes of discussion following each of the three segments. And if the digital gods should step in and freeze me for a minute or so, please hang around. Like the Terminator, I’ll be back.

Act One will focus on speech, primarily through the lens of diversity. Act Two will address diversity, primarily through the lens of speech. In the epilogue, I will suggest what I think lies ahead for the intersection of diversity and speech.

Continue reading Speech vs. Diversity, Diversity vs. Speech – by Carlos E. Cortés →

Authors A-H, Authors I-Q, Education

Equity, Social Justice and Education – by Godson Chukwuma, Joseph Nwoye, Katina Webster

September 21, 2021 Chukwuma NwoyeWebster 1 Comment

As the debate rages on the extent of equity and social justice for all, two perspectives are emerging. On the one hand, the traditional school of thought represents people who believe that things are going well and that the system operates well based on their conception of equity and social justice for all. These traditionalists assert that our system is fair and that it works as it is supposed to do. They further claim that the system’s operation aligns with the founding fathers’ statements in the 1776 Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that their Creator endows them with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Continue reading Equity, Social Justice and Education – by Godson Chukwuma, Joseph Nwoye, Katina Webster →

Authors A-H, Education, Race & Ethnicity

Diversity and Speech Part 22: The Critical Race Theory Donnybrook – by Carlos E. Cortés

September 11, 2021 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés

A year ago, who would have predicted that Critical Race Theory (CRT) would have become a 2021 national buzz word? A buzz word for those attacking it. A buzz word for those defending it. Probably with relatively few of those attackers and defenders actually having read much of it.

I have, but it’s not easy going. Lots of ideas. Lots of jargon. Lots of obscurantist legal analysis. But if you stick with it, CRT can be very thought-provoking.

CRT is based on a simple premise: the law is not neutral. As a result, institutions and systems that arise from the law will not be neutral. When Mark Twain asked a friend to explain his position on a controversial issue, the friend answered, “I’m neutral.” To which Twain responded, “Then whom are you neutral against?”

Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 22: The Critical Race Theory Donnybrook – by Carlos E. Cortés →

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