The following collection of pages are the beginnings of a section of our staff website that will be dedicated to the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Right now, there’s not much; but, over time, this will grow into a living collection of content and resources that all can contribute to and, hopefully, collaborate on.
/equity is actually not complicated.
Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.
SHARE!
Do you have something that you’d like to share?
Use any of the “upload” buttons on any of the pages, below, to share.
…also this section of the staff website has essentially been a one-man effort since it was created…volunteers are welcome and encouraged to contact ETC at bjones@avalonhousing.org
A lot of people have asked me for things like this and I have put literally hundreds of hours of my time into this project over the years.
The feedback I have received has been either aesthetic or compliance-based (#brandcompliant). I have worked diligently to incorporate any and all of the limited feedback that has been provided.
Phase 1: (6/2020-8/2020) - Laboriously extract resources from staff to seed this website, Feedback gathered, content curated, multiple efforts made to reach out to those who had earlier said that something like this was needed.
Tolkien Black, formerly known as Token Black[4] and Token Williams, is a male fourth grader at South Park Elementary and is voiced by Adrien Beard. His name is a play on words referring to the politically-correct idea of the "token black guy" commonly featured on American television shows; it is revealed in "The Big Fix" that his name is actually "Tolkien".
When you feel alone in what you think, remind yourself how common pluralistic ignorance is. If you find the courage to be yourself, you might learn that you're not alone at all.
Description: I like this collection of news and updates related to DEI because it looks like it provides an updated list of relevant news articles from a variety of sources.
Description: I think this news feed could be a useful source of information because it's run by the Associated Press and seems like it covers a variety of topics and is maintained regularly.
Racial justice research, scholarship at Stanford University
Shared by - Brett Jones
Description: This collection of articles isn't updated regularly but covers a variety of topics in depth, such as systemic racism in technology, the workforce, and education.
Description: The Equal Justice Initiative's news page is one of the more well-maintained, comprehensive collections of current events and issues impacting BIPOC.
Philadelphia to become first major US city to ban police from stopping drivers for low-level traffic violations
-Shared by Brett Jones
Read more here: 🔗https://cnn.it/3CzbKk0
Description: When Philadelphia's mayor signs landmark legislation as soon as this week, the city will become the first major US city to ban police from stopping drivers for low-level traffic violations -- stops that studies show target Black drivers at disproportionately higher rates.
The Driving Equality Bill, passed 14-2 by the city council on October 14, categorizes certain motor vehicle code violations as "primary violations," which allow officers to pull people over in the name of public safety, and "secondary violations" that don't meet the criteria for a lawful traffic stop, according to the office of Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who authored the bill.
Description: I participated in a United Way 21 Day Equity Challenge and found it useful. The link is to the 2020 21-day Equity Challenge. They are also planning a 2021 Equity Challenge sometime this summer.
Description: This language guide has taught me how the expressions I've used throughout my life have been grounded in white supremacy, and it's helped me to stop, think and change the language I'm using.
Description: Through the years this has always been an incredibly helpful, albeit difficult, resource for understanding, challenging and ultimately changing deeply rooted attitudes and behaviors.
Description: The Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) is a natwork of local governments working to promote racial equity. This page contains several organized guidebooks and how-to manuals for governments and organizations to create and maintain racial equity programs.
Description: The Michigan Library Association often promotes legislative advocacy alerts related to racial equity, such as protesting efforts to limit voting rights.
Description: Color of Change's campaign page features campaigns and advocacy efforts around current events and in response to issues of racial injustice such as police brutality.
The [RACE Method] is an approach that anti-racism allies can take to trying to share their perspective with people who are skeptical that racism against people of color is a problem worthy of specific attention. It is based on principles from Non-violent communication and on findings from the science of persuasion.
RACE stands for: Reflect, Ask, Connect, Expand
Shared by - Lauren Velez
Description: Hidden bias tests claim to measure unconscious, or automatic, biases. Your willingness to examine your own possible biases is an important step in understanding the roots of stereotypes and prejudice in our society.
Background: People took the implicit association test to gauge their subconscious racism. Now the researchers behind the test admit it can’t always do that.
A fairly even-handed look at whether or not the Implicit Association Test (IAT) is scientifically-valid, or even productive. Join nobody in reading a longform, nuanced, even-handed exploration of the usefulness of the tool to educate on bias and serious, systemic social inequities!
Description: This TED talk outlines the public cost of racist policies, including how such policies often end up working against the economic and social interests of the same people who create them. The notes to the video include a reading list and notes and references to learn more about the subject of how racist policy hurts everyone.
Description: The TNQ Show engages leading voices on critical topics of racial justice in America. Created by best-selling author Austin Channing Brown, Season 1 is now available featuring Nikole Hannah Jones, Andre Henry, Brené Brown, and more.
Shared by - Brett Jones
Description: An exploration of the radical idea that seeking restorative justice for perceived harm might be more productive than shallow & vengeful silencing of those with whom we disagree.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Cancel Culture - What is 'Priming?'
Shared by - BrJo......
Critical Race Theory - Why the Controversy?
Shared by - Brett Jones
A philosopher reacts to media hysteria about Critical Race Theory by explaining what it is and - more importantly - isn't.
The 'Power' of Language - Trevor Noah
Shared by - Brett Jones
Is saying “alien” bad? Demi Lovato thinks so. Is the act of changing words actually an effective tool in effecting social justice? Let’s talk about how language affects real life issues.
In this impromptu piece, Noah shares his perspective on well-intentioned people who "are just changing words just for the sake of changing words." Citing recent efforts to pressure people to start using the term "unhoused" in leiu of "homelessness" as an example, Noah jokingly suggests that "people seem to think that if they make a term clunky enough then people will just stop saying it and then...I don't know.. 'un-housed-less-nes' will be solved."
Noah suggests that, "at some point we have to admit: the problem isn't the words. It's how we treat the people that the words refer to."
About The Daily Show:
Trevor Noah and The Daily Show correspondents tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and pop culture.
Canadian Truckers Inch Closer to U.S. Border in Protest of COVID Restrictions | The Daily Show
Shared by - Who else? Mr. Brett Jones
Daryl Davis is an accomplished musician, a piano player who has played all over the world with legends like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry. He also has an unusual and controversial hobby: Daryl likes to meet and befriend members of the KKK, many of whom have never met a black person. When some of these same people decide to leave the Klan, Daryl keeps their robes and hoods — building his collection piece by piece, story by story, person by person. In Accidental Courtesy, Daryl takes the viewer on a journey from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to Memphis, from Alabama to Ferguson, Missouri, as he recounts the entwined history of black America and popular music.
Along the way, the viewer is invited to sit in as he questions several current and former Klan leaders as well as young Black Lives Matter activists who vehemently disagree with his tactics.
Born in Chicago in 1958, Davis had a unique childhood. The son of a Foreign Service officer, he traveled the world, attended an international school, and assumed that all kids grew up with friends of different nationalities, races, and religions. It wasn’t until his family returned to the States that he suddenly and personally felt the sting of racism. After graduating from college with a degree in music, Daryl hit the road, performing his unique style of boogie-woogie with a range of musical greats, a lifestyle that brought him into contact with all kinds of people and led him on a journey to question and confront racism, one racist at a time. For the last two decades, he has reached out to Klan members and even formed lasting friendships along the way.
Accidental Courtesy is the portrait of a man who has spent a lifetime pursuing an answer to the question, “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?”
Shared by - Brett Jones
Button Poetry
Shared by - Lauren Velez
Description: This has been a site I've relied on for content to share with regard to our DEI work and meetings. I like the array of material provided here.
Description: The National Guild for Community Arts Education's resources page contains multimedia resources centered around issues of social justice and racial equity. The National Guild also frequently hosts online webinars and training.
Description: The NASW's Advancing Racial Equity page contains several recordings of educational conversations, recordings, and town hall meetings on issues of racial equity.
Description: The Shriver Center’s Advocate Resources and Training program equips advocates with the specialized training and leadership development they need. The Shriver Center offers trainings in multiple formats—online, onsite, and through a mix of online and onsite sessions
Description: The Curious Theatre [sic] Company, located in Denver, Colorado - is a playhouse promoting the work of playwrights of color, LGBTQUIA+ playwrights, or female playwrights. During COVID they have started offering tickets to stream plays online.
Description: This is a collection of reading resources we've used for suggested reading after the cultural humility sessions. I think that all of these could get transferred to a website based resource list!
Description: Discussion of empathy, accountability, and the power of listening and believing (including a very real role play). Episode also dissects the differences between transactional leadership and transformational leadership, and why courage is a prerequisite to lasting, meaningful change.
Description: 10-question quiz you can take to assess your knowledge of equity and diversity in the US.
Shared by - Brett Jones
Description: The Movement for Black Lives's resource page contains dozens of downloadable educational resources that focus on issues of racial injustice spanning from the more obvious issues like the war on drugs to less well-known & important issues such as the effect of the cash bail system on BIPOC communities.
Description: The Racism Scale shows you how racist you are along a graduated scale of behaviors and biased statements, from committing literal hate crimes to simple problematic microaggressions.
Briana Carpenter <bcarpenter@avalonhousing.org>, Equity Action Committee <equityactioncommittee@avalonhousing.org>, allstaff@avalonhousing.org, Tuesday, September 20 2022 at 9:26 AM EDT
Lunch & Learn Recording, Slides, & Resources
Hi All,
Included in this email are slides, resources, and the recording from yesterday's Lunch & Learn session with Dr. Yakas regarding "saneism". For the video presentation, you may have to download it in order for it to play. I was also able to open it with my "movies & tv" app on my laptop.
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From Laura:
Here are the slides - there are follow-up resources linked to the slides as well as the speaker notes beneath the 🔗slides:
And here are a few extra resources, based on what came up during our conversation:
when we were discussing how advocacy organizations can cause more harm than good, I was thinking of this blog post:
the topic of addiction came up, and I talked about the work of Drs. Carl Hart and Gabor Mate in promoting a trauma-informed / anti-racist model of addiction. Here are some pieces folks might want to check out
Not necessarily related to DEI in a direct sense, this collection of explinations of various types of bias affect the ways people occasionally think. I think it's relevant. FWIW.
"Per Scholas envisions a technology workforce as diverse as the customers it serves. Over 15,000 graduates have launched successful careers in tech to date through our no-cost technical training. Our mission is to advance economic equity through rigorous training for tech careers and to connect skilled talent to leading businesses.
We know that talent is ubiquitous, but opportunity is not. From the digital divide to racial wage gaps to the impact the pandemic has had on women in particular, significant challenges remain in order to achieve an equitable and inclusive workforce. That’s why we’re committed to increasing access and creating opportunities for individuals who aspire to work in tech, because the right career changes everything."
This is an example of what happens when I include an excerpt when creating a blog post.