Category Archives: Race & Ethnicity

Racial and ethnic cultural differences

Levine articles, Race & Ethnicity

Hispanic Heritage Month: Nurses, Education & Scholarships

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Hispanic Heritage Month

This is a the time to educate about the US community:

On average, this community is 6 years younger than the median and 6 out of 10 Are millennials or younger. They are currently 40% of the labor force growth and 8 out of 10 new businesses are Latino-owned. They are 54% of projected population growth (2017-2027) and 74% of new US workers are Hispanic. They are a vital part of the US making up 18% of active enlisted military and 19 million are essential workers.

Continue reading Hispanic Heritage Month: Nurses, Education & Scholarships →

Authors A-H, Education, Race & Ethnicity

Diversity and Speech Part 22: The Critical Race Theory Donnybrook – by 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 →

Authors I-Q, Race & Ethnicity

Diversity Matters: At Boardroom Tables and Beyond – by Kobina Ansah

JuneteenthJuneteenth, or Freedom Day, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States following the surrender of General Robert E. Lee in 1865. Since that day, each year Black communities have commemorated that fateful day by uniting in celebration. Over the last year, however, following the murders of George Floyd and many others, Juneteenth has taken on a new meaning.

As a person of color who has worked in Corporate America and gone on to start my own company, Juneteenth is a time for me to reflect not only on the progress that has been made, but also focus on the steps we need to take to give Black and other minority founders the same opportunities as our non-minority counterparts.

Continue reading Diversity Matters: At Boardroom Tables and Beyond – by Kobina Ansah →

Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

The Wound that Will Not Heal – by Dianne Irvine Fleet

I am a 72-year-old well-educated, sad, tired and angry Black woman.  Let me tell you why I am so sad, tired and angry.

I am writing this in April, 2021, at the end of the prosecution’s case in the Chauvin trial.  For most Black Americans, the killing of George Floyd was like opening an old wound and picking at a scab again and again so that the wound never quite has a chance to heal.  The Chauvin trial has caused us to relive that terrible day and to realize that the wound has not yet healed.  You may not read this until the trial is over and the verdict is in, but, no matter the outcome, the wound will still be there.

Continue reading The Wound that Will Not Heal – by Dianne Irvine Fleet →

Authors A-H, Of Women, Race & Ethnicity

Voices of Asian American Women – by Terry Howard

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Reports are that there are over 23 million Asian Americans living in the United States. Other reports are that over the past year, there are at least 4000 reports of various forms of harassment, including assaults, directed against Asian Americans in the United States. And tragically, during recent shootings in Georgia, eight lives were snuffed out, among them six Asian women. These are the facts.

So I begin this by introducing you to incredible Asian American women – Wei Wei Jeang and Lisa Ong – long-time friends of mine during the years I lived in Texas. Not only did I want to check in on the well-being of Wei Wei and Lisa, both outspoken and strong advocates of equality and fairness, I wanted to get their thoughts on what’s been happening to Asian Americans over recent years. I’ll begin with a little bit about their backgrounds.
Continue reading Voices of Asian American Women – by Terry Howard →

Authors I-Q, Of Women, Race & Ethnicity

I’m Black and I’m Proud – by Eva Johnson

Eva Johnson and John Lewis
Eva Johnson and John Lewis

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.

Continue reading I’m Black and I’m Proud – by Eva Johnson →

Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

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.

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Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

Tikkun Olam / Ubuntu: We are one – by Cindy Steede Almeida

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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 →

Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Diversity & Speech Part 16: Creating an Anti-Racism Vision Statement – by Carlos E. Cortés

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The May, 2020, Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd launched thousands of anti-racism proclamations.  Millions took part in that performative aftermath.  Include me among those millions.

Like many people, I wear multiple hats.  One is chairing the Mayor’s Multicultural Forum in Riverside, California.  My half-century hometown is a sizable (330,000-person) city, whose steady but not explosive growth has enabled it to maintain a community feeling.  My wife and I continually encounter people we know when we go to a restaurant or take our daily two-mile walks around a nearby lake loaded with noisy ducks, geese, and egrets.

Continue reading Diversity & Speech Part 16: Creating an Anti-Racism Vision Statement – by Carlos E. Cortés →

Authors R-Z, Race & Ethnicity

Changing how we talk about racial divide – by Lynne Winfield

CURB218 years of enslavement and 137 years of segregation have left Bermudians struggling with the legacies of intergenerational trauma and economic inequities across our society. A culture of silence and fear arose ensuring that past was suppressed and not talked about. People speak of the need to work together and the need for unity, however, the racial divide is widening, economic disparity between the races continues to grow, and social media is both educating and inflaming passions.

With direct descendants of enslaved people and slaveowners still living on the island, and sharing in many cases the same last name, we needed to find a way to speak to the divide and bring light and truth to our understanding of that past.

Continue reading Changing how we talk about racial divide – by Lynne Winfield →