When I was growing up in Canada, ho-ho-ho was a no-no-no — not because my parents said so, but because I did. At nine years old, I challenged my family’s decision to put up a Christmas tree. The twinkle and…
Tag: diversity
Diversity Dilemma #3
This is the third installment of a special series that I’ve contributed to “Modern Mentor,” a podcast that explores what helps and hinders success in the workplace. If you’ve read the first and second installments, you know the context of…
Diversity Dilemma #2
Welcome to the second installment of my series for “Modern Mentor,” a podcast that explores what helps and hinders success in the workplace. In this post, I’ll explain why we should avoid the kind of diversity that slices and dices…
Diversity Dilemma #1
“Modern Mentor,” a podcast that explores what helps and hinders success in the workplace, invited me to address several dilemmas that professionals experience when trying to practice diversity without being divisive. The catch? I’d have to address each dilemma in…
When corporate diversity programs are like chicken wings
In America’s transactional culture, workplace diversity often amounts to slapping labels on individuals. Professionals wind up being packaged like products. They’re crammed into prefabricated molds (“Black woman,” for example) and get showcased to make the company look cutting-edge. Emphasize look.…
AMERICA IS CHANGING. THE LEFT SHOULD, TOO
Let’s face it: For all our gushing about diversity, many advocates of it hold a hefty slice of America in contempt. We assume that Republicans despise difference, that Trump voters are lodged in a backward past, and that they plan…
SHAMING WHITE PEOPLE WILL NOT END RACISM
Last year, an organization that promotes dialogue invited two authors to hold a “respectful exchange” about racism. I was one of them. The other was Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility. I accepted the invitation. DiAngelo declined. And that was…
LADY LIBERTY’S STRANGE STORY, AND MY STRANGER CONNECTION TO IT
What you’re about to read is a journey — and I launch it with the most famous line in the U.S. Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are…
YOU WIN BY NOT STRIVING TO WIN
Bruce Lee, the martial arts master, would teach his students to “be like water.” What he meant was, water always gets to where it needs to go — even in the midst of obstacles. Water doesn’t demand that those obstacles…
Constructive Conflict
Increasingly, I’m speaking at colleges and universities about the hottest topic going: how to achieve diversity and inclusion. Most educators see diversity as a matrix of skin colors, genders, religious affiliations and sexual orientations. But diversity is also about airing…