Diversity and Inclusion
On March 7, 2024 we celebrated Women’s History Month with a panel of Women Groundbreakers whose work locally and globally serving diverse communities will Inspire & Instruct. Facilitated by Deborah Levine and sponsored by the American Diversity Report and G100 Women Leaders, the panel shared their expertise and experience. CLICK to hear their WUTC interviews.
Continue reading Women GroundBreakers Storytelling: Serving Diverse Communities
Whereas, March is National Women’s History Month, and the National Women’s History Alliance has designated the theme for Women’s History Month 2024 as “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion”; and
Whereas, this theme recognizes the invaluable contributions of women who have dedicated themselves to advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of society; and
Whereas, women from diverse backgrounds have long been at the forefront of efforts to address systemic inequities and promote a more inclusive and just society; and
Whereas, the courageous advocacy of women for practical goals such as equity, diversity, and inclusion serves as a beacon of inspiration for all individuals and communities; and
Whereas, in 2024, we honor the women who have tirelessly worked to dismantle barriers, challenge prejudices, and create opportunities for all individuals, regardless of their background and attacks against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusions programs and training in our institutions;
Now, therefore be it resolved, that the American Diversity Report does hereby proclaim March 2024 as Women’s History Month in Tennessee and
Be it further resolved that, We encourage our communities and organizations to celebrate the achievements of women who have championed equity, diversity, and inclusion, and reaffirm our commitment to advancing these principles in our society. Let us honor the women who have dedicated themselves to advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion, and let us continue to work together to build a more just, equitable, and inclusive world.
Keeping up with the ongoing changes in diversity language has become a matter of lifelong learning. For a near-nonagenarian (I turn 90 on April 6), this means continuous learning as well as relentless unlearning. That is, trying to unlearn old uses of language that decades of repetition have deeply wired into my brain.
Take gender. Growing up in 1940’s Kansas City, Missouri, I learned that men were men and women were women. I inhabited a world of man talk and woman talk, men’s jobs and women’s jobs, men’s clothes and women’s clothes. It wasn’t much different in college during the 1950’s. We were men and women, not cisgender or transgender men and women.
Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 44: Generations of Gender Talk – by Carlos Cortés
“Some voters are burned out on outrage!”
That’s the recent headline in a national publication. That outrage? The eyebrow raising rancor, silliness and general awfulness surrounding the upcoming presidential election.
And the truth is that if we strike out the first four letters in the word “outrage” what’s left are three letters many voters are particularly burned out on…. age…as in President Joe Biden’s age! Count yours truly among them. Shucks, if I had a dollar for every time Biden’s age is cited in the news, I could purchase a luxurious mansion in Miami, Malibu (or, eh, Mar-a-Lago).
Continue reading Why not a “Sully” Sullenberger for President? – by Terry Howard
The push to attract women to STEM education and careers is gaining steam, but the impact is questionable. Young women have ample cause to be discouraged given the decrease of the number of women professionals in many STEM fields. Bucking the trend, efforts to encourage women to embrace STEM have increased dramatically. Those efforts span the country, including in Tennessee where Chattanooga’s Women GroundBreakers Storytelling featuring women in STEM.
Continue reading STEM Women Storytellers – by Deborah Levine
I’d just driven into my parents’ driveway. I was time to pick up my toddler from the babysitting grandparents. And there was my little 3-year-old Rosie, rocking back and forth on her rocking horse without a care in the world. The horse squeaked and groaned on its springs, far too annoying to be allowed in the house.
Some people are just made to cause, as the late Congressman John Lewis called it, “good trouble.” They’re contrarian by nature. It’s in their DNA. It ignites their fury. It explains their courage to put life and limb at risk for what they believe in.
Which brings us to African American History Month 2024 and to “Mrs. Good Trouble” herself, the late civil rights pioneer Amelia Boynton Robinson, inarguably the matriarch of the voting rights movement. Now if you subscribe to that familiar saying, “behind every great man is a woman,” then I’ll say, “behind every great movement is a woman.” Many of them in fact.
Continue reading “Mrs. Good Trouble”: Amelia Boynton Robinson – by Terry Howard
The Nineteen Sixties promised a new chapter in US history, with the election of a young charismatic President, John F. Kennedy. However, the perfect storm of the Vietnam War, multiple assassinations (JFK, RFK, MLK, MX), the Cuban missile crisis, and continued segregation in the South, turned it into an extremely turbulent decade. Taken together, the failures of the Reconstruction (1865–77), Brown v Board of Education (1954), and President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, shattered America’s self-image as “The City Upon A Hill”, destroyed faith in the political system, and forced the nation to question its foundational assumptions.
Continue reading Civil Rights: A Most Righteous Hangover – by Ashok Panikkar
We are at the threshold of a new era where diversity, equity, and inclusion will leap beyond biology into an interaction with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics. We are at a stage where robots mimic human motions, AI voices converse and learn, and technology pushes the boundaries of our understanding. We are witnessing the breakthroughs of innovation advances: quantum computing redefines reality, genetic engineering rewrites the code of life, and self-driving cars reimagine mobility. But it is the cognitive diversity introduced by AI and robotics that truly compels us to redefine our concept of “different.”
Continue reading Embracing Unique Thinking Styles – by Lee Webster
Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer are some of the many leaders who paved the way through the rocky history of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. But the movement would not have succeeded without the contributions of people from all races, among them philanthropist Julius P. Rosenwald, whose name is associated with hundreds of schools for Black students throughout the south.
But first, we should remember the many largely unreported Black/Jewish American partnerships in that history. Case in point is the relationship between Dr. King and close friend and advisor Stanley Levinson, a Jewish American.
Continue reading Jewish Allies in African-American History – by Terry Howard