Growing up as a white woman in the south, I have always been aware of the privilege I have due to my skin color. I knew I would have an easier time dealing with the police than someone with darker skin. I knew people in society may assume I am more educated than others because of my caucasian skin. I knew all the major issues my privilege could play a role in but I failed to consider the mundane, everyday hardships people who look different from me face. That was until I met my college roommate, Janita Echagile. Janita is an African American whose parents immigrated from Nigeria. She shared many stories about growing up as a black girl in the south. These stories opened my eyes and helped me deeply understand the challenges people of color deal with. Growing up is hard enough but it is even worse when you feel as though your appearance doesn’t fit the beauty standards. Janita shares her experience feeling like that. Continue reading Black in the South: A Complicated Journey of Self Love – by Catherine Corcoran
Category Archives: Transforming
Projects that are making a difference, improving lives, and building communities.
No Plan A, No Plan B Next? – by Grace James
Women have been faced with inequality since the beginning of time. Today, their rights are still being oppressed, along with their healthcare rights as human beings. Specifically, Walgreens announced a few weeks ago that they will not be distributing abortion pills, such as mifepristone, in states where GOP AGs (Grand Old Party attorney generals) object. The nation’s second-largest pharmacy chain also confirmed it will not sell abortion pills in several states that remain legal. This decision was based on the consistent harassment in letters by nearly two dozen Republican state attorney generals who threatened legal action against the drug store.
Continue reading No Plan A, No Plan B Next? – by Grace James
The Issue Within the ‘Missing White Woman’ – by Lilli Morgan
In August of 2021, “Twenty-two year old female missing in Wyoming” was a news headline that scoured the media. Two years later, the name “Gabby Petito” still makes headlines from time to time. What exactly was it that made this story captivate an audience of millions? Was it because she and her spouse had a YouTube channel, they posted vlogs to? Was it because Gabby was a young, white, conventionally attractive female? Regardless of what the reasoning may be, her story perfectly aligns with what is commonly known as ‘missing white woman syndrome’. Missing White Woman Syndrome refers to the media’s infatuation with covering missing white women and its failure to cover identical stories about women of color. A question that may be commonly asked when analyzing Gabby Petitos story is, would this story be as popular if Gabby was not white?
Continue reading The Issue Within the ‘Missing White Woman’ – by Lilli Morgan
Disability at Work – by Grace McGahey
Working with a disability presents many different physical and mental challenges. Employers fail to realize that many people with disabilities (PWDs) are qualified and able to work and continue to miss out on hiring PWDs. Disability inclusion goes beyond just hiring people with disabilities, it’s about accommodating those in need and valuing all employees for their strengths. Although I haven’t experienced being turned away from a job by having a disability, I often experience a lack of resources needed to perform tasks.
Representation matters, even in medicine – by Peyton Schultz
According to the CDC, black women are three times more likely to die after childbirth than white women in the United States. This is a statistic I read in an NPR article in 2021, titled “Trying To Avoid Racist Health Care, Black Women Seek Out Black Obstetricians.” I was shocked to read how many Black women are met with discrimination, or simply do not feel safe in the care of non-Black physicians. The article explains that black patients are often under-treated, having their pain ignored and are less frequently referred for specialty care, which usually occurs due to an unconscious bias held by doctors.
Continue reading Representation matters, even in medicine – by Peyton Schultz
Brands overusing LGBTQ+ Pride Campaigns – by Chloe Atkinson
It’s not a secret that the LGBTQ+ has faced an extremely long and strenuous journey regarding equality. The road that the group continually travels is paved with hate crimes, betrayal, self-denial, and various other guttural pains. That’s why, for many members of the LGBTQ+ and its supporters, the initial acceptance and usage of same-sex celebratory branding and advertising was exciting. However, less than 8 short years after nationwide marriage equality was enacted, brands are overusing and oversimplifying LGBTQ+ content for marketing purposes. In practicing what some call “Rainbow-Washing,” brands have taken a form of allyship and tacked a price tag onto it.
Continue reading Brands overusing LGBTQ+ Pride Campaigns – by Chloe Atkinson
Propaganda and Re-education: Ritchie Boy Lessons – by Deborah Levine
How do they hate us? Let me count the ways. There’s Holocaust denial, Nazi memes, attacks by Supremacists, far-right conspiracies, and victimization appropriations. Ironically, Russia which was the source of a favorite Nazi propaganda, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, recently joined that list. Russia’s Foreign Minister, furious with their isolation and Ukraine support, compared Western leaders to Hitler who “wanted a ‘final solution’ to the Jewish question.”
Continue reading Propaganda and Re-education: Ritchie Boy Lessons – by Deborah Levine
African American History Month – by Eva Jo (Saddler) Johnson
African American History (AAH) Celebrations for decades have been designated to the month of February, mostly. I remember when invited the very few African American Educators’ staff members and our high school’s English Department Chairperson this was two years after I was hired in the state of Connecticut and after my college graduation.
We staff members were well aware that no knowledge or acknowledgement of African American History lessons were being incorporated or extra-curriculum programs into our school’s educational classroom goals and activities.
Continue reading African American History Month – by Eva Jo (Saddler) Johnson
Ron “The Banner” DeSantis! – by Terry Howard
Doggonit Ron DeSantis, so-called “governor” of the great state of Florida. You just can’t seem to let well enough alone, can you? Your obsessive thirst for power and a move to the White House knows no boundary. Here you go again with another asinine effort to “ban” something, this time the teaching of an AP African American History course to be taught in Florida public high schools.
Now if memory serves me correct, it was not that long ago when you got your jollies off by banning books and – the absurdity of all absurdities – banning the word “gay.” There’s something pathological sick about your weird penchant for banning stuff.
Continue reading Ron “The Banner” DeSantis! – by Terry Howard
Bridging the Choice Chasm – by Dr. Shalini Nag and Surya Guduru
A path to a sustainable future
As we get look ahead to 2023, sustainability takes center stage, yet again. Can we really achieve a sustainable future? Today, we posit that we can, if we are able to apply the equity and inclusion lens to the problem and bridge the Choice Chasm – the seemingly unbridgeable gap between the haves and the have-nots, between developed and developing nations, between incumbent practices and emerging norms.
Aftershocks from the Covid19 pandemic exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, combined with climate chaos made 2022 a chronicle of global challenges. These include the intermittent resurgence of Covid variants, the mental health epidemic, continued supply chain disruptions, internal displacement in Ukraine, worsening food crisis in the world’s most vulnerable regions, and a global energy crisis. By October 2022, weather disasters alone cost nearly 20,000 lives and 30 billion dollars, refocusing governments and organizations alike on sustainability.
Continue reading Bridging the Choice Chasm – by Dr. Shalini Nag and Surya Guduru