Category Archives: Transforming

Projects that are making a difference, improving lives, and building communities.

Black-Jewish Dialogue, Levine articles

Black-Jewish Dialogue: February 2021

HISTORY, ARCHIVES & MUSEUMS

The monthly Black-Jewish Dialogues began in Chattanooga virtually in July 2020 and quickly spread across the USA and internationally. As our communities progress in understanding each other,  we explore new topics each month. History is frequently an underlying theme.

Many thanks to our February Presenters:

John Edwards: Chattanooga historian working with the Bessie Smith Cultural Center and President of The Chattanooga News Chronicle.

Dr. Dana Herman: Managing Editor and Director of Research & Collections of the American Jewish Archives.

CLICK to hear the February Black-Jewish Dialogue

CLICK for background information and links to earlier dialogues

Dialogue Partners:
American Diversity Report,  Chattanooga News Chronicle, Mizpah Congregation, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, C.U.R.B. – Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda.

Authors A-H, Social Issues

Diversity and Speech Part 18: Hate Speech – by Carlos E. Cortés

Hate speech may be the thorniest point of contention between diversity advocates and free speech absolutists.  Of course most people oppose hate and detest hate speech.  But what should we do about it?  That’s where disagreements begin.

Let’s look at hate speech from four perspectives.  Legal: what does the U.S. Constitution say about hate speech?  Behavioral: is hate speech merely speech?  Aspirational: ideally, what would we want when it comes to hate speech?  Operational: how might government hate speech restraints work in practice?

Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 18: Hate Speech – by Carlos E. Cortés →

Go Green, Levine articles, Of Women

Greenpeace, Matriarchs, and Me — by Deborah Levine

2 Comments

I’ve always included articles on the environment in the almost 20 years of the American Diversity Report.  When I considered doing an article on the iconic Greenpeace movement which started much of our environmental activism, I thought it would be an intellectual and historical project.  But,  my 93-year old Aunt Polly informed that Green-ness runs in the family. Greenpeace is just a cousin away,  including one of the movement’s matriarchs.

Continue reading Greenpeace, Matriarchs, and Me — by Deborah Levine →

Authors R-Z, Education, Trends 2021

The Changing IT Arena – by Sridhar Rangaswamy

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2021 Cyberspace Trends

Many thanks to Deborah Levine, editor of the American Diversity Report, for assisting in sharing my work with the ADR. I’ve been part of IT field for a long time and have presented on Big Data, technology in education. I have also been part of Takelessons.com in teaching SQL.

  I used to teach RDBMS for new employees in 1998, then taught in Oracle University on RDBMS, SQL in 1999-2003. I have taught also PeopleSoft University on the Workflow. And have taught as a Mentor for Cyber Patriot in the year 2019 locally in Summerville, SC. Let’s take a look at how IT has evolved and what’s coming up in the future.

Continue reading The Changing IT Arena – by Sridhar Rangaswamy →

Black-Jewish Dialogue, Levine articles

Black-Jewish Dialogue – January 2021

Our Black-Jewish Dialogue for January 2021 featured presenters Mike Green and Dov Wilker. Many thanks to them and Mizpah Congregation, our co-host.

Mike Green
ADR Advisor Mike Green

Mike Green is an award-winning journalist headquartered in Colorado. He is the Chief Economic Strategist for The National Institute for Inclusive Competitiveness (niicusa.org) and also co-founder of Common Ground Conversations on Race in America.
He is also co-founder of ScaleUp Partners LLC, a nationally networked consulting practice  focused on changing the nation’s economic narrative.

Dov WilkerDov Wilker is the National Director for. Black-Jewish Relations for the American Jewish Committee  and heads the AJC Atlanta Regional Office  with the goal of enhancing the well being of the Jewish people worldwide and advancing human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. The office has worked with the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition for nearly 35 years.

CLICK NOW for
BLACK-JEWISH DIALOGUE – January 2021

CLICK HERE for information on our Black-Jewish Dialogues and links to additional dialogue recordings

Dialogue Partners:
American Diversity Report,  Chattanooga News Chronicle, Mizpah Congregation, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, C.U.R.B. – Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda.

Authors A-H, Politics, Social Issues, Trends 2021

Bystanders and the Sergeant Schultz Syndrome – by Terry Howard

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Why, in many instances of social unrest, do we look the other way; that we do nothing? But before we offer some possible answers, last week’s rampage in Washington gives us some context, a starting point.

Like millions, I watched in disbelief thousands of “protesters” (or whatever you choose to call them) converge on the Capital building. The images of them scaling walls, overwhelming police and breaking windows while lawmakers cowered in hiding or were rushed out for their safety will be etched into my memory forever.

Continue reading Bystanders and the Sergeant Schultz Syndrome – by Terry Howard →

Authors A-H, Social Issues, Trends 2021

Feeling Like An Outsider? – by Martin Kimeldorf

OutsiderChatting off-topic one day with one of my favorite editors, Deborah Levine,  I talked  about feeling like an outsider at age 7 in my own family. Perhaps she had not discussed her similar feelings before because she embraced the topic and told about similar feelings in her childhood. Deborah told her mom how she believed she belonged to gypsy parents who must have left her on the doorstep.  Then without surprise or forethought she asked her mom, “Would you please return me to where I really belong?” Her mom was amused by her hyperactive daughter with the quick mind and tongue.

Continue reading Feeling Like An Outsider? – by Martin Kimeldorf →

Authors A-H, Social Issues, Trends 2021

The Future: Coming Trends – by Marc Brenman

1 Comment

We don’t know yet what the future will bring. We never know what the future will bring. Analysts often say it’s a mistake to predict the future by extrapolating the trends of the past. The world is too complicated a place. With the current pandemic, it’s been “up jump the Devil.” But never in our lifetimes has a Devil occupied the White House. Will we forget an important lesson we should have learned—that Evil exists, and walks among us? I’ve said for years that many people believe in good, but deny that evil exists also. Yet there can be no good without evil.

Continue reading The Future: Coming Trends – by Marc Brenman →

Authors R-Z, Education, Social Issues, Trends 2021

Let’s Deconstruct the Stereotype – Dr. Julia Wai-Yin So

In the 1960s, sociologist Harold Garfinkel founded a new field of inquiry called ethnomethodology. As such, Garfinkel uses the term indexing to describe how we depend on whatever information and experience we have to make sense of every social context. We call this social cues. For example, when a man in the US meets a person who is wearing a dress and a pair of high heels while carrying a lady’s purse, the man instantly concludes that this is a woman and therefore will instantaneously interact with this person according to the social etiquette between a man and a woman.

Garfinkel calls such mental exercise indexing. When we are unaware of social cues because we have not had interaction with members of a particular social group, we would depend on the common information available, whether true or not. This is when stereotyping comes into play.

Continue reading Let’s Deconstruct the Stereotype – Dr. Julia Wai-Yin So →

Black-Jewish Dialogue, International Podcasts

Dr. Janét Aizenstros Podcast: Global Social Entrepreneur

JanetDr. Janét Aizenstros is a signatory with the United Nations Business Action Hub (UNBAH) for the United Nations Global Compact Network. She is an award-winning businesswoman with several leadership awards such as the Top 40 under 40, a recipient of the 2020 WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur Award: Top 100, the Stevie® Award winner for Female Entrepreneur of the Year Canada. She also received Employer Of The Year for Canadian Business which ranked her company 12th on Canadian Business ’s 2020 Growth List. Thus, she became the first Black Canadian woman in history to scale a 9-figure organization and sole female founder to be featured on the list.

Dr. Janét Aizenstros is also a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO), a participant with Concordia Leadership Council and a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the Global Goodwill Ambassadors Foundation.

CLICK for interview of DR. JANET AIZENSTROS