Category Archives: Social Issues

Social causes, activism, and projects

Authors R-Z, Social Issues, The Arts

Waymakers: Celebrating and Protecting Diversity in Appalachia – by Joe Tolbert Jr.

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The Waymakers Collective is dedicated to supporting community arts and organizations in the heart of Appalachia that are historically underfunded: those led by BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and people of color), youth, LGBTQIA+, and non-English speakers/immigrants. Earlier this month, we held our Annual Gathering to celebrate our community of Appalachian artists, culture workers, organizers, activists, doers, and creatives who are committed to building a just and equitable Appalachian future.

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Authors R-Z, Social Issues

A Closer Look Inside India’s Cleanest City – by Yana Roy

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If you can discern the presence of disproportionately more temples than public toilets; wide streets; tri-segregated waste bins lining the intersections of lanes and roads; the selling of meat concealed by humongous black cloths; mannequins, automobiles, absolutely any entity at all being adorned with orange flags depicting the Hindu God, Ram, you have successfully reached Indore. Welcome. Officially known as the cleanest city of India, this city boasts being free of open defecation, of possessing a minimal Air Quality Index (AQI) ranging from 50-80, source segregation of waste, and the list is interminable.

But, what does it mean to be the cleanest city of India? What are we cleaning? And for whom? Who gets to reap the benefits and who is burdened with the colossal task of cleaning? Let us find out.

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Levine ADR articles, Social Issues, USA Culture

Tracking our Terrorist Destructors – by Deborah Levine

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I used to write about terrorist destructors in the U.S. every spring. My articles began with the domestic terrorism of the Oklahoma City bombing more than thirty years ago on April 19.  That’s when I became the community/media liaison for Oklahoma’s Tulsa Jewish Federation. It was shortly after the bombing destroyed the Murrah Building and so many lives were affected. I felt compelled to investigate what led to the deadliest bombing, prior to 9/11, on our native soil.  The violent hatred that I saw has not only continued, but has expanded globally, and now, it  encompasses the entire year.

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Academic Articles, ADR Advisors, Around the world, Authors A-H, Social Issues

Catalyzing Inclusive Urban Economies- by Ainesh Dey

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The Dynamics of Urban Economies in India 

 In the rapidly changing landscape of urban economies in India, nuanced civic engagement, enhanced transparency, accountability, and representation have come to the forefront as significant issues. This piece seeks to investigate the shift in the public administration’s discourse from a traditional solution to a more collaborative one  with the aim of creating  inclusive and sustainable policy frameworks.

The prospect of nuanced civic engagement in democratic processes plays an important role in spearheading transparency, accountability and representation. It also strengthens  the overall socio-political and economic character of contemporary administrative discourse. At a time when we are experiencing a paradigm shift from traditional redressal of grievances to instances of collaborative solution building, considerable emphasis has been laid on the effective streamlining of policy frameworks, thereby making them more inclusive and sustainable.

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G 100 Women Leaders, Of Women, Social Issues, Storytelling, Women & Technology

Women GroundBreakers Storytelling: Serving Diverse Communities

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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.

**CLICK for PANEL RECORDING**

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Authors R-Z, Social Issues, Trends 2024: Divisive World

Overcoming Bias: A Guide to Skilled Skepticism – by Sondra Thiederman

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Don’t you love being right? I sure do. I think that’s one reason most of us are afflicted with what’s called “confirmation bias” – the pesky habit of noticing only the evidence that proves our previously held beliefs correct. In other words, we see what we expect to see.

This is where our biases – our inflexible beliefs about categories of people – trick us into jumping to the wrong conclusions. Once we get it into our heads that members of particular groups “all” – because they are members of that group – share a particular characteristic, our brain just can’t resist proving that bias right.

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ADR Advisors, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

“Mrs. Good Trouble”: Amelia Boynton Robinson – by Terry Howard

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civil rightsSome 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.

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Authors I-Q, Social Issues

Civil Rights: A Most Righteous Hangover – by Ashok Panikkar

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How Outrageous Successes of the Civil Rights Movement Weakened Minorities
and Destroyed Liberal Society  

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.  

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ADR Advisors, Authors A-H, Politics, Social Issues, Trends 2024: Divisive World

2024 Trends: Healthcare at Risk – by David Grinberg

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Despite its overwhelming success, Obamacare remains the target of relentless partisan attacks. Donald Trump is again vowing to end the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, during a potential second term as president.

“Obamacare is a catastrophe,” Trump recently said at a campaign event in Iowa. The twice impeached former president also wrote on his social media platform: “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare.”

But terminating Obamacare, assuming Trump wins the presidency again, would decimate healthcare for about 40 million Americans for no good reason. These citizens in need of affordable healthcare had been locked out of the private insurance system for decades based on discriminatory reasons — including socioeconomic status and preexisting conditions, which disproportionately hurt minority groups the most.

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