Five Ways To Boost Inclusivity Within Your Organization; Forbes, November 28, 2018

Jeff Thomson, Forbes; Five Ways To Boost Inclusivity Within Your Organization

"Let’s dispel a myth for a moment. Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are only about race and gender. Right?

Wrong. Diversity includes sexual orientation, religious affiliation, ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic status, age and personality traits.

There’s a similar misconception that these are all things your HR managers are exclusively responsible for. Wrong again. Yes, HR plays an important role, but D&I must be a standard that is set from the top down, and that means at the CEO level. There is a good reason for this: D&I initiatives, properly implemented, give organizations an edge. The research doesn’t lie; according to Deloitte’s “Global Human Capital Trends” survey, 78 percent of respondents now believe D&I is a competitive advantage.

And it is. From a business perspective, D&I can help increase a company’s bottom line, drive innovation and create more opportunities for growth – attracting more top-tier talent. As a CEO, I believe there’s unquestionable value in the D&I initiative within the professional membership association I lead. But I’ve also witnessed its impact firsthand on the finance and accounting industry. At IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants), we’ve committed ourselves to ensuring that our members and staff, and ultimately the businesses they serve, feel represented, heard and included.

Here’s how you can do the same.


How to Boost Inclusivity Within Your Organization"

Ireland announces women-only professorships to close academia's gender gap; CNN, November 13, 2018

Kara Fox, CNN; Ireland announces women-only professorships to close academia's gender gap

"Ireland has announced a new plan to combat gender inequality in higher education by creating women-only professor positions across its universities and technology institutes.

Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O'Connor said the project would ensure that 40% of Ireland's professor-level positions would be held be women by 2024.

Speaking at the Gender Action Plan for Higher Education's launch in Dublin on Sunday, O'Connor said that increasing female representation at the highest academic level would "underpin the transformation and cultural change" necessary to ensure that Ireland's higher education "fully realizes the benefits of gender diversity.""

Addressing the Crisis in Academic Publishing; Inside Higher Ed, November 5, 2018

Hans De Wit and Phillip G. Altbach and Betty Leask, Inside Higher Ed; Addressing the Crisis in Academic Publishing

[Kip Currier: Important reading and a much-needed perspective to challenge the status quo!

I just recently was expressing aspects of this article to an academic colleague: For too long the dominant view of what constitutes "an academic" has been too parochial and prescriptive.

The academy should and must expand its notions of teaching, research, and service, in order to be more truly inclusive and acknowledge diverse kinds of knowledge and humans extant in our world.]

"We must find ways to ensure that equal respect, recognition and reward is given to excellence in teaching, research and service by institutional leaders, governments, publishers, university ranking and accreditation schemes."

Thanksgiving dinner: How to find common ground on divisive issues; CNN, November 22, 2018

Harry Enten, CNN; Thanksgiving dinner: How to find common ground on divisive issues

[Kip Currier: Whenever I see articles like this, talking about how to traverse potentially uncomfortable holiday gatherings, I remember and want to rewatch this 2015 Saturday Night Live (SNL) video "A Thanksgiving Miracle"...three years old now, but still as timely and hilarious as ever. Enjoy and--in the final words of the little girl in the spoof--"Thanks, Adele!"

It's also a brilliant example of "remix", combining copyright content from one creator (check out the song the SNL spoof repurposes--Adele's "Hello" video here, with nearly 2.5 billion views) with new content from others, in transformative ways.

The CNN article linked to this post has some good advice for navigating "whitewater rapids" issues too...]


"Here are five thorny issues that could come up on Thanksgiving Day and how you and your family could find common ground:.."

Stan Lee Spoke Out Against Bigotry, Again And Again; Comic Book Resources, November 13, 2018

Hannah Collins, Comic Book Resources; Stan Lee Spoke Out Against Bigotry, Again And Again

""None of us live our lives in a vacuum," Lee wrote in 1970, "none of us is untouched by the everyday events about us -- events which shape our stories just as they shape our lives." Here, Lee directly addressed readers who had been disgruntled by his "moralizing," a bell continues to be rung to this day. "They [Marvel comics readers] take great pains to point out that comics are supposed to be escapist reading and nothing more. But somehow, I can't see it that way. It seems to me that a story without a message, however subliminal, is like a man without a soul."

It's alarming and disappointing that so much of what Lee railed against over 50 years ago still feels so prescient in 2018. He also made mention in the same column of his talks at college campuses where "there's as much discussion of war and peace, civil rights, and the so-called youth rebellion as there is of our Marvel mags per se," and Lee continued to connect with people, face-to-face, as recently as last year. A 94-year-old Lee recorded a video message for Marvel's YouTube channel in response to the violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, reaffirming that Marvel's stories "have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender, religion or color of their skin. The only things we don't have room for are hatred, intolerance or bigotry.""

Stan Lee’s Radical Fight Against Racists: ‘The Only Way to Destroy Them Is to Expose Them’; The Daily Beast, November 13, 2018

Stereo Williams, The Daily Beast; Stan Lee’s Radical Fight Against Racists: ‘The Only Way to Destroy Them Is to Expose Them’

[Kip Currier: Inspiring and powerful example of the ways every person can make a choice to stand against hatred of the "other" and bigotry, in all its forms.]

"Regardless of ongoing controversy surrounding the contributions of Kirby and others, Lee should be remembered for being an agent of change in his medium. A 1968 post from Lee’s mail column has been making the rounds in the wake of his death. In it, Lee makes plain his stance on racism.

“Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them—to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater—one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he’s never seen—people he’s never known—with equal intensity—with equal venom.

“Now, we’re not trying to say it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God—a God who calls us ALL—His children.”

Stan Lee’s creative voice helped reshape the role of comics in American society and helped affect how American society saw comics. In doing so, Lee helped challenge his readers and his peers. His characters live now as part of the fabric of our culture—in blockbuster movies, acclaimed TV shows, video games and a host of other media. Generations of comic-book lovers saw themselves in those characters, and that was what he’d wanted all along. As some quarters of America tell themselves that politics have no place in pop art, the proof in Stan Lee’s history reminds us that the message has always been a part of the medium. Those who believe otherwise maybe have to consider that they aren’t the “good guy” in the story. After all—you can’t be a hero if you don’t stand for anything."

How Stan Lee Helped Bring Humanity to Superheroes; Comic Book Resources, November 13, 2018

Brian Cronin, Comic Book Resources; How Stan Lee Helped Bring Humanity to Superheroes

"Spider-Man's introduction in Amazing Fantasy #15 achieved two notable goals. One, it took the idea of Reed Richards' cosmic ray screw-up leading to the creation of the Fantastic Four to a whole other level, as now Peter Parker's selfishness almost directly led to the death of his beloved Uncle Ben, giving Spider-Man a painful reminder why he has to be a superhero and two, it took a teen hero and had him not as a sidekick or a younger version of an older hero, but as THE hero."

Current Events Classroom lesson from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), re the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, October 30, 2018

Current Events Classroom lesson from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), re the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh:

[Kip Currier: I'm posting helpful information below, received from my former and now-retired University of Pittsburgh colleague Dr. Ellen Detlefsen, whose son David Reynolds works within the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Education Division. As Ellen wrote: 

"David...has put together a lesson plan and resource page about the tragedy in Pittsburgh.  He has asked us to share this widely, and we urge you to do the same!  Sadly, it is more needed now than ever, so please see that this is shared with teachers, preachers, health workers, and your friends, neighbors, and relatives!"] 

"ADL has a new HS Current Events Classroom lesson: Deadly Shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

 On the morning of October 27, at Sabbath services, Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA and yelled “All Jews must die,” then opened fire upon the congregants. He was armed with an assault rifle and several handguns and killed eleven congregants and wounded six others, four of whom are police officers.  When surrendering to law enforcement, Bowers told an officer that he “wanted all Jews to die” and that Jews “were committing genocide against his people.” This shooting is the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the U.S. This lesson provides an opportunity for students to analyze this incident in the context of the shooter’s background and history of anti-Semitism, as well as the nationwide rise of anti-Semitic incidents over the last year.  In this lesson, students will learn more about the incident, understand and consider the larger context of anti-Semitism in the U.S., explore how the escalation of hate operates and how allyship can make a difference.

We also posted a new blog: The Week in Hate and Bias and How to Talk with Young People

Here is a landing page with all the related resources that I’ve been sending the past few days plus these—all in one place!  After the Deadly Shooting at a Pittsburgh Synagogue: Resources for Educators

Dave Reynolds, Director of Professional Development and Regional Support

40 Court St. Boston, MA 02108

t: 617.406.6345 | email: dreynolds@adl.org
adl.org"