A Difficult Conversation about Difficult Conversations forDeveloping Medical Educators of the 21st Century: New Ideas and Skills for Adaptable and Inclusive Learning Environments Conference
February 4, 2022 (Revised, February 6, 2022)
Let’s start with today’s ground rules.None.No rules; no powerpoints.
But three hopes.That you speak honestly without obsessing about maybe saying the wrong thing, a bane to diversity discussions.That you contemplate divergent ideas.And that you reflect openly on your own perspectives by posting comments and questions in the chatbox as we go along.
So let’s turn to our theme, difficult conversations about diversity and health equity.Health equity conversations necessarily involve discomfort because they address the idea of group diversity, not just random individual differences.
The debate over Black History Month is not new, but it intensified when the Oscar nominees were all Caucasian and earned the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Provoked an outcry, it raised questions about the existence of Black Entertainment Television awards (BET) and whether it hurt rather than helped African Americans in Hollywood.
“Either we want to have segregation or integration. And if we don’t want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the Image Awards, where you’re only awarded if you’re black. If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms. It’s a double standard, ” said actress Stacey Dash in Variety. .
The controversy also involves Black History Month. My conversations with friends showed considerable ambivalence. Some felt that limiting the recognition of African Americans to one month was not helpful. Recognition and respect should be awarded throughout the year. Further, they felt that Black History should be seen as American History. Luronda Jennings, a member of Chattanooga’s Lean In – Women GroundBreakers, expressed her views. “Although Black History awareness is extremely valuable, I feel that once the entire human race respects and embraces American history and the uniqueness of all individuals, we will begin to move forward with positive change.” Another member of the group, Tina Player, shared similar thoughts, “Black should be recognized every day and not focused on one month of the year. We as a people are important and each of us has a story to tell.”
Hopes for a time when Black History Month will be obsolete were joined by a down-to-earth perspective. Voicing concern that young people learn little about Black History in school, they were reluctant to reject events marking Black History Month. Too few youngsters know about prominent African Americans beyond The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
If there was no Black History Month, would there would be any recognition at all? Current censorship of race-related history suggest that instead of becoming more comfortable together as some claim, we’ll enter a culture war. Casting us adrift from our culturally diverse roots to achieve a more perfect union has never worked.. I have always said that attempts to “Homogenize NOT Harmonize” only alienates and creates more discomfort and conflict, not less. Perhaps the best solution is to use the tools of Black History Month to advocate for more visibility and equity.
Carlos: Marjorie, as a historian, I was blown away by the richness of your class syllabus.How did you come up with the idea of using history to ground a clinical psychology course?
Marjorie: I was a history major in college, so I have always loved it.I remember when I first discovered that history is not just facts about wars and dead people, but was an interpretation of past events.Then I began to learn that most history was controlled by those with power and privilege, which meant there were those whose voices were silenced or never heard from.I knew it would be important for therapists.Once I began teaching at Azusa Pacific University, I found that students were often overwhelmed when working with older adults and clients from a different historical era.They did not know their history, which became a barrier to providing effective treatment.We decided to add a class to close this gap.
Eileen Koteles is an actor and choreographer. Raising her three sons, she realized the gift of teaching through the Arts. Now returning to the stage, Eileen performs as Dr. Ruth, an iconic sex therapist who lost her family in the Holocaust.
Eileen finds she is still teaching through the Arts and urges us to support the arts as a platform for tolerance whether theater, writing, poetry, dance, painting, or photography.
Hear Eileen talk about:
1. How does teaching through the Arts apply to diversity and inclusion?
2. What does the one woman show about Dr. Ruth teach us?
Following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, the number of diversity-related jobs increased significantly as organizations worked to address issues that could no longer be ignored. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) became more important as organizations launched initiatives focusing on making meaningful change. While some organizations simply increased their diversity efforts, others created new positions focused on diversity. These positions ranged from entry-level jobs to executive-level positions and spanned all types of organizations including academia. Indeed.com reported that diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DI&B) job postings increased by 123% between May and September of 2020.
Carlos: Steve, now that you’ve retired as Associate Director of Residence Life at the University of Maryland, College Park, I would love to get your thoughts about the changing nature of student speech.In the twenty-five years that I worked with your department, I saw many changes.
Steve: You’re right.The two of us certainly had fun designing our Common Ground program back in the 1990s.That program would bring together diverse groups of students – sometimes more than a dozen – to discuss current equity dilemmas.A series of four, 90-minute dialogue sessions, all framed around a single provocative question.Should laws governing abortion be changed?Should universities use intentional methods to diversify their student populations?Rousing and illuminating conversations.
Edward A. Dickson Lecture University of California, Riverside
In February, 2018, I began a new scholarly odyssey.I became an inaugural fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.
In my fellowship application I proposed the following question: “over the past fifty years, why have so many diversity advocates become opposed to our nation’s hallowed tradition of free speech?”However, I soon discovered that I had asked the wrong question.Instead my question became “over the past fifty years, what has happened when two worthy values collide: inclusive diversity and robust speech?”
Today I invite you to accompany me on part of my personal odyssey.This involves two acts followed by a brief epilogue.Please join the conversation by posting questions and comments in the chat box.I’ll also pause for a few minutes of discussion following each of the three segments.And if the digital gods should step in and freeze me for a minute or so, please hang around.Like the Terminator, I’ll be back.
Act One will focus on speech, primarily through the lens of diversity.Act Two will address diversity, primarily through the lens of speech.In the epilogue, I will suggest what I think lies ahead for the intersection of diversity and speech.
Our approach to Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is broken. We have done the same thing over and over for years, expecting better representation and more equitable treatment, all to no avail. In fact, many people still don’t know exactly what D&I is.
At every turn, there’s news about people being mistreated, excluded, and harmed. The social and political unrest often seem impossible to escape. Situations arise on a regular basis that create a social media nightmare for organizations resulting in public shaming and forced apologies. The mental, emotional, and physical toll this turmoil takes impacts us all, regardless of our role— victim, perpetrator, or observer.
We can’t fix the mess we’re in with a 2-hour training session. Creating a world that is truly more equitable for everyone is a process. It takes time and practice.
Cultivating compassion can help us nurture more connected communities and workplaces. On the surface, compassion sounds like a soft skill. However, compassion isn’t just about being kind to other people and doing nice things for them. Instead, it’s an active process through which we build skills and knowledge to understand what kind of help is wanted, rather than assuming what is needed.
This article is distilled from my book, “The D Word: 12 Steps to Diversity Recovery,” which is focused on building the skills needed to bring a more humanitarian approach to D&I using compassion and resilience.
Juneteenth, 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.
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
In those memorable opening lines of his novel, The Go-Between, writer L. P. Hartley captured many dilemmas.The dilemma of memory.The dilemma of change. The dilemma of misunderstanding.
Eileen Koteles is an actor and choreographer. Raising her three sons, she realized the gift of teaching through the Arts. Now returning to the stage, Eileen performs as Dr. Ruth, an iconic sex therapist who lost her family in the Holocaust.
