The world will long remember the past year! We were thrust into circumstances that will forever change us individually and globally. We know the results – over 530,000 dead in the United States alone, millions sickened, an economy in free fall struggling to recover, a severely challenged health care system, new medicines, new disease conditions, and trillions of dollars in government spending attempting to ameliorate the effects of this global pandemic. The list of negative consequences goes on. But are there some “silver linings?” Is there some good coming from this daunting and often frightening global challenge?
Continue reading Maybe Some Silver Linings – by Gay Morgan Moore
Category Archives: Inclusion
Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and Speech Part 19: The Gendered Sports Dilemma – by Carlos E. Cortés
The theme for this month’s edition: what gender related issues should be addressed and how can they evolve productively? Let’s up the ante. What gender related issues must be addressed? Here’s one: transgender women in sports.
Oh that all equity conflicts could be resolved simply by mouthing diversity clichés. Not this one. With regard to this perplexing issue, two pro-diversity camps have gone to war. Probable allies on most equity concerns, these two camps have dug in their heels, often engaging in hyper-accusatory rhetoric in what has become known as the TERF wars.
TERF stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminists. That term is used derogatorily by trans activists when referring to feminists who are perceived as not fully and unconditionally accepting trans women into their ranks. Targets include TERF lesbians, revealing an LGBTQ split over this issue. Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 19: The Gendered Sports Dilemma – by Carlos E. Cortés
I’m Black and I’m Proud – by Eva Johnson
I attended 12 public schools in Chattanooga during times when almost everything was racially separated: schools, churches, restaurants, tours, organization memberships. After my high school graduation and an early marriage, I relocated with family to New England and eventually graduated from Southern Connecticut University. In the mid-seventies when I became an educator in a large suburban high school in Hamden, Connecticut, only about 10% of the school’s staff and student body was African American.
Defeating Disparity– By Katelyn DeBaun-Fee
Race & Economic Disparity
By the end of 2020, federal student loan debt in the United States surpassed $1.7 trillion, increasing by over 100% in the last decade. While this has become a national crisis impacting nearly 45 million borrowers, Black women are the most heavily burdened. A 2020 report by the AAUW indicates that Black women, on average, hold over $37,000 in loans each, compared to $31,346 held by white women, and $29,862 held by white men. As a whole, Black women, despite being the most institutionally educated demographic in the U.S., have a total of $35 billion in student loan debt. Furthermore, 57% of Black female college graduates indicate that they struggle to repay their student loans. While white borrowers are able to pay back an average of 10% of their total student loan debt each year, Black borrowers are only able to pay an average of 4% back, largely due to racial pay disparity.
Continue reading Defeating Disparity– By Katelyn DeBaun-Fee
Is it just a Box? – by Michele Wages
Complexity of Diversity
As I rode the elevator, I overheard a conversation between two African American adults. They were talking about one of their bosses and one said, “People who are not Black do not understand the prejudices and oppression we have gone through.”
As I left the elevator and walked into the doctor’s office, I was handed a clipboard with some required forms I needed to fill out. One section caught my attention: Race. It asked me to check a box. I immediately thought about the conversation I just heard, and looked over my choices, Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander. I then thought about prejudices and oppression for each choice.
Continue reading Is it just a Box? – by Michele Wages
Greenpeace, Matriarchs, and Me — by Deborah Levine
I’ve always included articles on the environment in the 15 years of the American Diversity Report. When I considered doing an article on the iconic Greenpeace movement which started much of our environmental activism, I thought it would be an intellectual and historical project. But, my 93-year old Aunt Polly informed that Green-ness runs in the family,. Greenpeace is just a cousin away, including one of the movement’s matriarchs.
Continue reading Greenpeace, Matriarchs, and Me — by Deborah Levine
Diversity and Speech Part 17: Diversity Training – by Carlos E. Cortés
2020 turned into a momentous year for diversity training. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many diversity trainers, myself included, to re-invent themselves by adapting their workshops into an online format. The Memorial Day killing of George Floyd thrust anti-racism into the center of diversity training, challenging those presenters who had generally soft-pedaled the issue. President Donald Trump’s September 22 executive order, “Race and Sex Stereotyping,” caused government agencies and contractors, including some higher education institutions, to suspend or mute their diversity training.
Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 17: Diversity Training – by Carlos E. Cortés
Here to Stay: Cultural Diversity & Inclusion – by Robert Maisel
The words “diversity” and “inclusion” are big buzz words in today’s society, and they should be as they are very relevant and important in today’s times. But although these words are often thrown around, it is important for us to think critically about what they mean. And to assess their impact on business and society as a whole.
Many large companies are hiring for diversity in race and gender, amongst several other categories. But why, so often, is culture left out of the equation? Should it be? Definitely not. And here’s why.
Continue reading Here to Stay: Cultural Diversity & Inclusion – by Robert Maisel
COVID Stories of Perseverance and Caring
COVID Stories:
3 Women Share & Inspire
Many of you are changing your lives and work to care for others and yourselves in new ways. The ADR honors all of your efforts and shares these COVID stories to inspire and motivate.
Tikkun Olam / Ubuntu: We are one – by Cindy Steede Almeida
This is an invitation to the Jewish diaspora and the African diaspora to see and hear with their hearts, not their heads, and not even though the lens of religion or traumatic memory of the events that occurred over the past 500 years and beyond.
I have a desire to see us all whole again and embrace the undeniable and long hidden truth of our connectedness. The ancient bloodline between us is speaking and revealing itself. The Native Americans acknowledge this existence of “blood memory”. Native American Storyteller and Journalist, Mary Annette Pember shares the Ojibwe people’s definition of the blood memory in her article published in the Daily Yonder, 16 July 2010. “The Ojibwe understand that blood memory is their ancestral (genetic) connection to their language, songs, spirituality, and teachings. It is the good feeling they experience when they are near these things.”
Continue reading Tikkun Olam / Ubuntu: We are one – by Cindy Steede Almeida