Category Archives: Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion

Around the world, Race & Ethnicity, Religious Diversity Kit, Social Issues

Baha’i View of Racial Prejudice – by Yvor Stoakley

BAHA’I VIEW 1938

On Christmas Day 1938 the head of the Bahá’i Faith, Shoghi Effendi, wrote a very important letter to the Bahá’i communities residing in the United States and Canada. (The letter was later published as a book under the title The Advent of Divine Justice.) It was the eve of World War II. The Empire of Japan had already invaded China in July 1937. In March of 1938 Nazi Germany had absorbed Austria into the Third Reich. In September 1938 the Germans forced Czechoslovakia to cede part of its territory to Germany. On November 9, 1938 many German Nazis attacked and destroyed Jewish businesses and synagogues in the pogrom later known as Kristallnacht (Crystal Night). Against this background of world events, Shoghi Effendi wrote this letter.

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Authors R-Z, Teams & Leaders

What My Father Taught Me About Diversity and Inclusion — by Mauricio Velásquez

Antonio Velásquez, my immigrant father, who came to this country (legally , you have to say that these days) with nothing, not knowing the language, serving this great country in the military and then eventually, with the GI bill, graduating from college (at age 32) recently passed away.  My father lived to see me go to college and graduate, earning a BA and MBA from two great schools, and watched me marry a fabulous woman and have three wonderful children together and start my own firm – The Diversity Training Group.  DTG has thrived for nearly 15 years.

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Teams & Leaders

Diversity and Inclusion Fatigue — by Mauricio Velásquez

HOSTILITY

Do we have to keep talking about this?  Oh, a diversity workshop… why? You are ruining the workplace; we can’t have any fun anymore!”  Have you heard these wonderful, welcoming, open, pro-learning comments lately?    I had one participant (in front of all of his buddies) recently comment – “This session will probably be about the KKK, right?!”  Another participant in the same session said – “This is going to be a total waste of time (in front of HR)!”

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Authors R-Z, Teams & Leaders

Why Diversity Fatigue — by Mauricio Velásquez

I think many people are tired of the diversity issues percolating and re-circulating in the workplace, marketplace, and society-at-large, but way too many people just don’t realize that these diversity and inclusion issues are going unacknowledged, unresolved and “will come back over and over again.”  The question is not should we fear diversity fatigue but why are so many people so fatigued?

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Around the world, Authors I-Q, Gender, Race & Ethnicity, Teams & Leaders

The Values & Value in Diversity — by Susan Popoola

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If the truth be told, I wasn’t considered to be a diversity expert until I wrote a book, Consequences: Diverse to Mosaic Britain, which touches on the subject.  I am, however, a Black British female of Nigerian origin who happened to live with a white working class family during my foundational years. Not only have I lived in both Britain and Nigeria, I’ve travelled extensively to different parts of the world. I have friends from varying backgrounds as well and I’ve also had the opportunity to work with people from varying backgrounds and countries and I’ve learnt a lot from them, too.

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Authors I-Q, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Unconsciously Biasing Children — by Susan Popoola

I recently found myself watching the “Doll test” An experiment where children, black and white are shown two different dolls at the same time and asked questions such as which one is pretty, nice, bad and ugly.  Most of the children, black and white alike point to white doll when it comes to the positive attributes and the black doll when it comes to the negative attributes.

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Authors A-H, Of Women

Dolley Madison, the Quaker Socialite — by Pat Garcia

Although there were first ladies before her, Dolley Madison was the woman chosen to give the role of the First Lady of the White House, the prestige the title enjoys today.   A widow, who at the age of twenty-five that had already experienced the ravage death leaves behind within her own family with the loss of her husband and her youngest son, this woman would set up the ceremonial and social protocol in the newly built White House in Washington D.C.

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Around the world, Authors A-H, Of Women

A Woman Writing about Iran – by Lori Foroozandeh

If you write a book about something that is little known, you have to be prepared for questions. Some will be silly and trivial, some will be deeper: but there will be questions. I wrote about Iran. Immediately I learned that many Americans know little about that country and its culture. Many of the questions I have been asked have been about the women of Iran. They seem so different from the women of America, so different and so very hard to comprehend.

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Around the world, Authors A-H, Of Women, Social Issues

A Shout-Out Against Domestic Violence – by Terry Howard

There’s been so much in the news lately about gender, women in particular, specifically about the plight of women globally, how they’re faring in the sciences and on corporate boards, the abduction of the girls in Nigeria, the national fixation on Hillary …and it goes on and on and on. However, when it comes to gender, for me there’s no greater gift than my 4-year-old granddaughter, Nadia Lucille Howard.  You see, Nadia owns me, plain and simple. And she knows it.

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Race & Ethnicity, Teams & Leaders

Heck, they all look alike to me! — By Terry Howard

I should cut the brother a check … a humongous one at that; one with lots of zeros at the end of it.  Seriously. I’m talking about one for Leonard Pitts, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at The Miami Herald. You’ve seen his name appear in this column a number of times before.  You see, aside from being an extremely gifted – and courageous – writer, he makes my job easier. I say that because he occasionally provides me with tantalizing topics and eyebrow-raising quotes for bridging his insights on external issues into our kaleidoscopic workplace.

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