Diversity Dialogue Project Article

The Myth of the Iron Lady
by Shankar Vedantam
The conventional explanation for why female leaders are widely perceived as mannish, conniving and ruthless - not just by men but by other women, too - is that politics is tough, and the only way for a woman to survive in a male-dominated field is to have sharp elbows.
+ View PDF

Exploring What It Means To Be Arab American
by Omar Fekeiki
The different takes on what it is like being an Arab American in a post Sept 11 world reflect a dichotomy experienced by at least 3.5 million Americans in the United States.
+ View PDF

Power and Office Politics : Rumor and Reality
by Jacqui Love Marshall
Ignoring office politics is not likely to land you a dagger in the back or a bullet in the head. But don't underestimate the career fatalities that can befall the politically unaware.
+ View PDF

How to Communicate with Coworkers with Disabilities
by Eric Hinton
The corporate office can be filled with potential landmines. Its the uncertainty in terms of how to act, and in some cases what to say, that potentially can lead to disruptions in the workplace.
+ View PDF

Disabilities
excerpts from Wikipedia
The term "disability", as it is applied to humans, refers to any condition that impedes the completion of daily
+ View PDF

Politics Come With the Office
by Michelle Neely Martinez
Politics dont only make for strange bedfellows, they can make for uncomfortable work situations.
+ View PDF

Bridging the Communication Gap Between Introverts and Extroverts
by Peter Moen
The most powerful strategy for relating to others who are different from you is to increase your awareness of these personality-based differences, and modify your behavior to be more like the preferred mode of others.
+ View PDF

Why Welfare?
Economist, 3/2004 Vol.370, Issue 8366
An important new book traces the links between politics, racial diversity and the generosity of the state.
+ View PDF

Emerging Bias: 'Your Family or Your Career'
Christian Science Monitor - Work and Money, 10/2004
Fighting discrimination against working mothers and fathers gets an important boost from a key court ruling.
+ View PDF

Young workers say their age holds them back
by Stephanie Armour, USA Today
In this tepid economy, some workers in their 20's and 30's say their age is being unfairly held against them, and new legal developments mean more reverse age discrimination claims may soon be ending up in court.
+ View PDF

Dads Say Bosses Discriminate Against them Caring for the Kids

The number of employees who say dads are getting a raw deal at work has almost doubled in the past two years, with about half saying fathers are being disciriminated against.
+ View PDF

Communication Styles on the Job
by Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor/i>
Have you ever felt like nobody at work understands you? Have you woked with a colleague you just couldn't get through to?
+ View PDF

The Difference Between the 'Haves' & the 'Have Nots'
by Earl Nightingale
Meet two kinds of people - the "Haves" and "Have Nots" - and the one decision that separates them.
+ View PDF

He Said, She Said : Differences To Be Admired
by Sondra Thiederman, PhD
While it's always risky to generalize about gender differences, it's possible to make certain flexible generalities that can be valuable when communicating across the gender line.
+ View PDF

Single Workers: Do bosses assume your job is you life?
by Timothy Burn
Many single, childless employees are concerned about quality-of-life issues and some are worried that they're working hard while the employees with kids are getting to slack off with all those snazzy work-life programs.
+ View PDF

What's Your Cultural Proficiency?
by the Cultural Proficiency Group, Summer 2006
When times get hard, people often pull apart along the lines of race, religion, and nationality. What skills do we need to develop in order to navigate the misunderstandings and mistrust that can accompany diversity?
+ View PDF

The Pressure to Cover
by Kenji Yoshino, 1/2006
Socialogist Erving Goffman's book "Stigma" describes what he calls "covering". The book describes how various groups -- including the disabled, elderly, obese -- manage their "spoiled" identities.
+ View PDF

Addressing Generational Diversity
by Ken Columbia
Addressing the needs and distinctions of various age groups in your workplace can help you reap the benefits from your most talented employees.
+ View PDF

Council Discussion Articles

Toyota: Driving Diversity
by Janet Wiscombe , January 2007
Brent Loescher, a self-confident white male of 39, hardly looks like a poster child for diversity. At Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., his job title is operations design manager. But he also carries a badge that identifies him as a "diversity champion," one of 138 out of Toyota Motor Sales6,272 employees who serve as leaders at the grass-roots level to promote diversity and inclusion internally and at regional sales and distributor offices throughout the country.
+ View PDF

In Boardrooms and in Courtrooms, Diversity Makes a Difference
by Shankar Vedantam , January 2007;
When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called on America to open the doors of opportunity to people of color, the civil rights leader was making a moral argument. Cedric Herring recently decided to take things one step further. Given that discussions about morality are often divisive, the sociologist decided to take a more scientific approach. In other words, beyond the question of whether diversity is a good thing, is there evidence that it makes a difference?
+ View PDF

The Color of Change
by Ellis Cose, Newsweek, Nov 2006
Why are we still debating whether race should be a factor in college admissions? Affirmative action may not be the most divisive issue on the ballot, but it remains an unending source of conflict and debateŅat least in Michigan, whose citizens are pondering a proposal that would ban affirmative action in the public sector.
+ View PDF

The World Is J-Curved
By Ian Bremmer, Open Up, Already, October 2006
U.S. officials threatening to isolate Iran from the international community may want to take their cue from the Iranian leadership, which is doing a fine job of purging the Islamic Republic of foreign influences all on its own. Last December, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad banned Western music from state-run television and radio.
+ View PDF

Enough Apologies
by Anne Applebaum, September 2006
Already, angry Palestinian militants have assaulted seven West Bank and Gaza churches, destroying two of them. In Somalia, gunmen shot dead an elderly Italian nun. Radical clerics from Qatar to Qom have called, variously, for a "day of anger" or for worshipers to "hunt down" the pope and his followers.
+ View PDF

Allen Quip Provokes Outrage, Apology
by Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear, Washington Post, August 2006
Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) apologized Monday for what his opponent's campaign said were demeaning and insensitive comments the senator made to a 20-year-old volunteer of Indian descent.
+ View PDF

Male Scientist Writes of Life as Female Scientist
by Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post, July 2006
Biologist Who Underwent Sex Change Describes Biases Against Women : Neurobiologist Ben Barres has a unique perspective on former Harvard president Lawrence Summers's assertion that innate differences between the sexes might explain why many fewer women than men reach the highest echelons of science.
+ View PDF

Dissonant Voices Inside the Border
by S. Mitra Kalita , Washington Pos, May 2006
Some Established Immigrants Want to Restrict Newcomers . Under Yeh Ling-Ling's proposal for immigration reform, even she wouldn't be allowed into the country.
+ View PDF

Resignation Revelations: Why Minorities Quit
by Melanie Lasoff Levs, Diversity & The Bar, March/April 2006,
Today, more law firms across the country are working toward the goal of achieving a practice that looks like America. Formal mentorships, affinity groups, flexible schedules, and other programs have been established in order to attract, retain, and promote minority and female attorneys.
+ View PDF

A Poverty of the Mind
by Orlando Patterson, NY Times, March 2006
Several recent studies have garnered wide attention for reconfirming the tragic disconnection of millions of black youths from the American mainstream. But they also highlighted another crisis: the failure of social scientists to adequately explain the problem, and their inability to come up with any effective strategy to deal with it.
+ View PDF

The New American Mosaic: Old Labels Just Don't Stick
by Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg , USA Today, December 2003
Lucero Murillo is a single working mother who saved enough money to buy a modest home last year. She moved out of a neighborhood of recent immigrants on the west side of Columbus and into an older, working-class residential area on the city's south side. The fact that Murillo, 35, is Hispanic matters less today than it did 10 years ago -- at least to businesses looking for customers.
+ View PDF

Remarks on SB390, Hate Crimes Legislation
by Georgia Representative, Donald Ponder, March 2000
(This speech was made from the well of the House of Representatives) "I am probably the last person, the most unlikely person that you would expect to be speaking from the well about Hate Crime Legislation. And I am going to talk about it a little differently from a lot of the conversations that have gone on thus far....."
+ View PDF

Dick Lamm (former Governer) talks about Diversity
We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of America's finest minds and leaders.
+ View PDF

A plea for tolerance
by Rany Jazayerli , ESPN
As a nation, we grieve. Even as the hours since the horrific attack on our country pass into days, and our society begins the slow but necessary return to normalcy, we grieve. We are hurt, we are angry, and we are determined to make sure that such evil never threatens our families and our homes again. And we feel this as a nation, feel it in every community, regardless of race, regardless of religion, as united today as any time in our history.
+ View PDF