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The National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity)SM partners with communities, institutions, and schools to develop leaders who guide their peers in conversational communities to drive personal, institutional, and societal change toward social justice.

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Meet our SEED staff team: those who train new SEED leaders and provide ongoing support and guidance to SEED leaders across the country and around the world.

SEED Locations

Where SEED Seminars Have Sprouted: SEED is in almost every US state and countries around the globe.

SEED Locations

Our project leadership is based at two sites, with Gail Cruise-Roberson and Emmy Howe at the Wellesley Centers for Women, and Jondou Chen at the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition.

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SEED leaders are community organizers, educators, and social service providers. They can be found facilitating conversations in classrooms, local libraries, mul...

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Eastern Educational Resource Collaborative’s (East Ed’s) mission is to serve as a resource fo schools, colleges, families and agencies.

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Downloadable Equity Handouts + Resources

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Downloadable Equity Handouts + Resources

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From Ed Change, Equity Literacy Institute, and other organizations like Invisible Disability Project

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Education Equity Resources | Equity Literacy Institute

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View and download free resources and handouts on educational equity related to class, race, gender, and other issues

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Coaching for Equity Tools - Bright Morning

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Tools from Coaching for Equity Welcome to the downloadable tools for Coaching for Equity. Here you will find worksheets, rubrics, and other documents to augment and enhance the material available in Elena's Coaching for Equity. The Coaching Lenses The Consultancy Protocol Planning for an Equity-Focused Conversation Reflecting on My Own Biases The Equity Rubric (Appendix [...]Read More...

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Equity Tools

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Access free equity tools from the National Equity Project designed specifically to help educators approach challenges and lead with an equity lens.

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SpeakOut

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SpeakOut's new e-course, "Race, Power, and Privilege," offers creative and relevant introductory curriculum that provides students with the fundamentals of how interpersonal and systemic racism function, and how we might begin to imagine a safe and equitable world for all.

Through accessible multimedia modules, SHIFT presenters guide students through a framework of individual, collective, and institutional levels of power. The modules:

unpack prejudice, discrimination, and oppression

cover key definitions essential to anti-racism education

offer activities to assess and evaluate one's own identity and responsibility

outline steps to practice solidarity

A powerfully-packaged experience essential for every student, SpeakOut's "Race, Power, and Privilege" e-course will help all students tap into their radical imagination, and grow and thrive in a diverse campus setting.
$20 per person
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE
Group rates available through October 31:
Up to 50 attendees: $20/person
51-499 attendees: $18/person
500+ attendees: $15/person
For group registration, contact [email protected]

Duration: 1 - 3 hours
Audience: First Year & Continuing Students
Certificate Available Upon Completion
Check out this FREE preview of the E-Course!

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SpeakOut's new e-course, "Race, Power, and Privilege," offers creative and relevant introductory curriculum that provides students with the fundamentals of how interpersonal and systemic racism function, and how we might begin to imagine a safe and equitable world for all. Through accessible multimedia modules, SHIFT presenters guide students through a framework of individual, collective, and institutional levels of power.

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Free Self-Paced Mini-Courses for a Primer on Equity and Equity Literacy

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Free Self-Paced Mini-Courses for a Primer on Equity and Equity Literacy

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Equity Literacy Institute

Learning to be a threat to inequity in our spheres of influence.

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Educational Equity | Equity Literacy Framework

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The equity literacy framework for cultivating educational equity in schools and districts.

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If the series fills up, join *action hours* and sign up for updates in the meantime. https://www.surjbayarea.org/events/category/action-hour-events

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Social movements throughout history have engaged in political education to inform organizing and action in the streets. By studying the histories and systems of what we resist, we deepen our understanding of injustice, and learn to take strategic, effective action to dismantle white supremacy.

We are also responding to Black peoples' longstanding call for white people, in large numbers, to talk, study and take action with each other so we can confront white supremacy in our workplaces, schools, with our families and throughout our lives.

Learning in community makes our movements strong. We train up, so we can show up!
​

Eleven weekly Zoom meetings.

Study Week sessions will take place virtually for 2.5 hours from 6:30-9pm on odd weeks

Action Week sessions will also take place virtually for 1.5 hours from 6:30-8pm on even weeks

​You must be available to attend all 11 weeks.
You must have access to a computer with reliable internet access to participate.

​SURJ Bay Area Study & Action is a community of learners committed to examining the histories of white supremacy and resistance movements, and building our abilities to effectively take action in support of Black and people of color-led organizations fighting for racial justice.
​

​Are you looking for a learning community to challenge racism? Do you want to learn more so that you can become a resource for your community? Would you like to find out how to take action locally and be accountable?
​If so, then HECK YES!! JOIN US as we come together to explore:

The creation of whiteness and systems of white supremacy

Economics and the cost of white supremacy

Histories of resistance to white supremacy, especially Black liberation movements

Transforming whiteness for racial justice

Building skills to take part in, and be accountable within, racial justice movements

Taking action in community and with accountability to Black and people of color-led movements
​

Study & Action participants are asked to:

have attended a SURJ Bay Area Introduction Meeting before Study & Action begins;

commit to attending all 11 sessions of this intensive in order to hold accountability to the group, build community, and get the most out of the series;

have access to a computer with reliable internet for the Zoom sessions;

allow enough time in your schedule to read the weekly assignments, about 5 readings for each of the 6 Study Week sessions.​

Making our offerings accessible is a part of the SURJ commitment to creating a multi-racial majority that includes all. Please let us know your accessibility concerns and we will do our very best. Please email us at study.action@surjbayarea.org.

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Social movements throughout history have engaged in political education to inform organizing and action in the streets. By studying the histories and systems of what we resist, we deepen our understanding of injustice, and learn to take strategic, effective action to dismantle white supremacy.

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Brené with DEI Expert Aiko Bethea on Inclusivity at Work

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Brené with DEI Expert Aiko Bethea on Inclusivity at Work

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They discuss empathy, accountability, and the power of listening and believing (including a very real role play). They also dissect the differences between transactional leadership and transformational leadership, and why courage is a prerequisite to lasting, meaningful change.

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In this episode, I talk to friend, colleague, and diversity, equity, and inclusion expert Aiko Bethea. We discuss empathy, accountability, and the power of listening and believing (including a very real role play). We also dissect the differences between transactional leadership and transformational leadership and why courage is a prerequisite to lasting, meaningful change.

Aiko Bethea is a leader, builder, and connector. She successfully navigated leadership roles in government, philanthropic, and corporate sectors, and in each sector, she created and served in inaugural roles to meet growing organizational needs and visions for evolving. Aiko is the principal and founder of RARE Coaching & Consulting, a consulting practice focused on coaching leaders and organizations to remove barriers to inclusion.

Aiko also co-leads The Daring Way and the Dare to Lead communities of Brené Brown Education and Research Group, serving as Senior Co-director. She partners to oversee development and implementation of the overall strategy for the facilitator communities, as well as the specific diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging strategy and oversight of the global 1,000+ member facilitator community.

Prior to this, Aiko served as Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Fred Hutch Research Center. And for over seven years, Aiko was with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she served as a Deputy Director. Aiko has served on several boards and provided pro bono support for nonprofit boards, and she is deeply engaged in community-building.

Aiko earned her B.A. from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a graduate of the Hudson Institute of Coaching at Santa Barbara and is an ICF professional certified coach. Aiko is a Certified Diversity Professional and is licensed to practice law in Georgia. She is highly sought-after as an executive coach and consultant.

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Brené Brown: Hi, everyone. I'm Brené Brown, and this is the Dare to Lead podcast, and I'm so excited today because I get to introduce you to someone who has been such an incredible teacher for me, a friend, we're colleagues, we work together, and she has really fundamentally shifted a lot of my thinking on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work, and I just can't wait for you to meet her because her ideas are so grounded in courage and empathy and connection, it's just the medicine we need right now, and so if you're trying to figure out, "How do I do this anti-racism work at work? How do I show up? What do I need to be watching for? What do I need to be listening for? When do I need to pull back? When do I need to step up?" All those questions that all of us are asking ourselves on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, I just don't know a better teacher than Aiko Bethea. So Aiko is, she's a leader, she's a builder, she's a connector, she has had big leadership roles in government, philanthropic organizations, in the corporate sector, she is a Principal and Founder of Rare Coaching and Consulting, a consulting practice focused on coaching leaders and organizations specifically around removing barriers to inclusion.

BB: Aiko is also a senior co-director at our organization, the Brené Brown Education and Research Group. She co-leads the Daring Way and the Dare to Lead facilitation communities. She partners to oversee development and implementation of the overall strategy for these facilitator communities, and by facilitator communities, I mean folks who are trained in my work and go out and teach people. And she also helps us identify and address specific diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging strategies. And she helps really build, teach, and nurture our global facilitator community, which has close to 2000 facilitators. Prior to working with us, she served as the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Fred Hutch Research Center, and for over seven years, Aiko was with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she served as a Deputy Director. She has served on several boards and provided a lot of pro bono support for non-profit boards. She is deeply, deeply engaged in community building. She's got her BA from Smith in North Hampton, Massachusetts, her Juris Doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she's a graduate of the Hudson Institute of Coaching at Santa Barbara.

BB: She's an ICF professional certified coach, and she is also a certified Diversity Professional and licensed to practice law in Georgia. I just feel so lucky to work with her every day. I feel so lucky to learn from her, and I feel really grateful that I get to share her insights with y'all. These are the questions that we're all asking ourselves and organizations right now about how to do the next right thing. Alright, so first, Aiko, thank you so much for joining me on the Dare to Lead podcast.

AB: Thank you for having me. Super exciting.

BB: I have to say that you have brought so much wisdom, experience, depth of understanding to not only our organization, but as a Dare to Lead facilitator, as someone who headed up our initiative on diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging, our co-creation group, you led that amazingly. So I guess I'm just really excited that you're here and excited that I get to share what you've taught me with a big audience.

AB: Thank you, well, I'm excited to share and I've learned so much more from you so, likewise.

BB: Alright, so let me start here, you wrote an article on Medium. Was this after George Floyd's murder?

AB: It was.

BB: It was, right. It was the end of May that you wrote this, right?

AB: Yeah.

BB: And the title was "An Open Letter to Corporate America, Philanthropy, Academia, etc.: What Now?" Like what's next? And I want to read part of this article. You and I both work with leaders of organizations, from small businesses to Fortune 20 companies who are many, wanting to do the right thing around anti-racism work, wanting to do the right thing around equity and inclusion work, but are scared and don't know where to start. And this was the best thing I'd ever seen.

AB: Thank you for saying that.

BB: Yeah, so let me read some of this: "The fact that some of the leadership of organizations were awake just a bit, are impacted enough to recognize that they should respond to this national crisis, offers a tiny glimmer of light. For many of these CEOs and companies, this was the first time a statement about racism or the trials of Blackness was ever publicly acknowledged. Now we ask you: Do you know what comes next? Do you know that sending that letter to the public and to your employees does not end with a period, in fact, there should not even be a comma. Keep moving. There is work to be done inside your company, in your leadership teams, among people who are making decisions, all too often the focus is on white men, but there are also people who look like your mothers, daughters and wives. There is work for everyone. And here are some steps you can take now, for those of you who penned letters that reflected how soul-crushing this week has been and dedicating support to Black employees." I just have to say I felt some fire reading this, did you write it with some fire?

AB: I did. This article took 30 minutes to write. So it was really feeling it in the moment, so... Yeah.

BB: So those were inspired.

AB: They were, they were.

BB: And they took 30 minutes. Yeah.

AB: Absolutely.

BB: I want to start from the beginning. And if you're listening right now, I've already said this in the intro, but I'm going to say it again, my goal is to give you tangible actionable calls to courage around these conversations. So I want to start here with, can you lay out some terms for us, diversity, equity, inclusion. What exactly do those mean?

AB: Sure. So diversity, of course, we hear it meaning every characteristic trait of people. You hear it meaning things like difference in education, and of course just all the protected class identities as well, and when I'm talking specifically about this work, I talk about it in terms of diversity that matters, that actually creates a difference, that creates disparities. So otherwise, you get in this slippery slope where people might say, "Hey, we have diversity, because we have Stanford class of '70, Stanford class of '71, and Stanford class of '72 on the panel," but we're talking about diversity that makes a difference in terms of disparities. And we know in this country that a lot of those have to do with the one start in the protected classes, and I actually, with clients, I share that, if you're not talking about and you're not including protected classes, then you're not really talking about the diversity that matters, those have to be included.

BB: And so protected classes, you're talking about race...

AB: Yes, race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, national origin, different abilities in some states, I think, and it's necessary to also say LGBT, our LGBT community as well, even though there may not be protections under our constitution or federal laws, definitely our states, several state laws have recognized any groups that are marginalized and historically marginalized, they should be included in that first and foremost, when we're talking about diversity in the context of diversity, equity, inclusion. And of course, we're talking about mental health, right, and differences in that way as well.

BB: And then tell me what is the difference between diversity and inclusion?

AB: So you can actually have... You can have diversity and not have inclusion, so you can have a collection of a lot of different people, but if those people don't feel included, you're not actually going to leverage the power of that diversity. You've just collected a lot of different people who are in the room or in the company together. Inclusion is actually creating a space in an environment where people feel like they can actually express dissent, where they can bring their ideas to the table, and it's not a matter of just feeling welcomed, but also valued, "What I say matters. The perspective that I bring matters, my lived experience matters," and that's the diversity and the inclusion together is what harnesses when you get innovation, when you get psychological safety.

BB: Got it.

AB: So you can have diversity and not have inclusion, but I don't think you can have inclusion in terms of harnessing the outputs without having diversity.

BB: Helpful. How does equity fit in here?

AB: So equity, I see it as intimately connected with why we even talk about diversity. Diversity started being introduced in corporate America based on wanting to have integration, right? And so when diversity was introduced in that context, it was really about equity and about who was not included, so now we intentionally say equity because now you can talk about diversity and talk about... Just like I was saying, a lot of groups that are homogeneous in terms of privilege, so now we intentionally say equity. It's about also recognizing people who have systemically and historically been excluded, are marginalized, so now you have to think about that as well, and then intentionally.

BB: This is something that you've taught me, you think it's important for organizations to define these terms, and that it's dangerous when you've got a group of people within an organization that all have different ideas of what these words mean and the importance of them and what they provide. What happens when you just start saying, DEI, really fast, DEI... DEI... And you don't stop and explain and operationalize what that means, and people are operating from different beliefs?

AB: Yeah, so it's just like any kind of business initiative, right? So organizations introduce values, and you know this about values, if you don't define them, if you don't talk about what the behaviors are that complement them as well, or define them, you just got a lot of random words and everybody thinks that they're talking about same thing, but they're not. It's also when you don't define them, how do you also hold one another accountable, how do you actually measure that you're making progress, and how do you make sure that you're aligned even on the philosophy and the intention underneath it? So you have to make sure you're all talking about the same things, otherwise, people don't even know how to show up around those words.

BB: Okay, so we say to each other in an organization, "This is important to us." We define the terms. What happens when we have varying levels of commitment around the importance to begin the conversation?

AB: So I think that it has to be incumbent upon one, the leadership to really talk about why this is important to them, and not just harping on the business case, but talking about why it's important to them as individuals, and oftentimes we talk about, this is the head and the heart. And this is when we're talking to our leaders about "What's your personal narrative around this?" and why this is important, and this is also when you intertwine or integrate it with narratives and storytelling, and those are the things that people remember is Why... Why was this important to Brad? Why was this important to Cathy? And there's a different type of accountability too. When you look at studies around what makes an organization's culture change, especially around these types of issues, it's not about the business case, right? It's really about social accountability. So that's me looking over at you and saying, "Hey, Brené, that thing that you said, can we talk more about it?" It's not a confrontation, it's asking you and holding your feet to it to say, "Well, what did you mean by that?" And I think there's so much importance now about having those conversations, understanding what that means in terms of getting the stick-to-it-ness, that's what actually brings people on board to be dedicated and loyal to a cause, not just the business case.

AB: When we talk about operationalizing it, there are other things, right? Oh, I'm going to do really well in my performance management, so we're going to include it in performance management, because now people are accountable, right? We're going to include it in our values, we're going to include it in our job competencies, all these ways to operationalize it, but if you only do it in that way of operationalizing it, then it becomes transactional. It becomes a lot of rules and things that you're being graded on and it's almost compliance-driven, but if you're doing it in a relational way, in terms of the storytelling of why this was really important to Brené, and why this is really important to my co-worker right over here, there's a different motivation to want to do something different and want to show up differently, and it doesn't have to do with your compensation doesn't have to do with, this is what the rule says and we're supposed to... how we're supposed to show up. That's the difference, I think, between transformational change and transactional, and one has a much deeper depth of sustainability and culture shift, and the other one has more of measurement and counts and making sustainability in a way of measuring progress, but not in terms of depth of difference in culture. Does that make sense?

BB: I have goosebumps, and I'll tell you why this is so important. God, this is so important. It takes me back to this professor, I studied under, Karen Stout, and she studied femicide, the killing of women by intimate partners, and I was one of the first qualitative doctoral students, and she really championed me, although she was a quantitative researcher, and she told me one day, she said, "You know what, when it comes to women being killed by intimate partners, I wish all we had to do is put numbers in front of people, but we need the stories as well," and then she said, "And it'd be nice if we could just tell them stories, but we have to have the numbers as well," and she said, "So this conflict between qualitative and quantitative, the conflict that you just brought up between stories and measurement, and the stories and accountability, it's a false dichotomy that just doesn't exist." And I want to play back what I thought I heard. Is that for deep transformational change around diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, can't just be transactional, it has to be relational, it has to be people's stories and their narrative, it has to be not dehumanize, but re-humanize the stories. Is that what you're saying?

AB: Yes, and you said it so much better than I.

BB: No, I didn't.

AB: Yeah. And I do want to say that the other part about this is that when people think transactional and transformational, they don't understand, you have to be really explicit that transformational actually still includes the components of transactional, you're still measuring, you're still looking at data, you're looking at data that matters beyond the numbers, what are even the stories, like, quantitative and the qualitative, right? But you're so much more intentional about what's underneath it and you're disaggregating it in different ways and understanding it in different ways, right?

BB: God, yes.

AB: So it's not that transformational excludes data, it's not that it excludes the components of transactional, you're just making it much more holistic and you're centering people instead of just numbers and sanitized data, right? You're centering... Its people-centric and is also introspective. You can be transactional, making changes, but you never have to be introspective, right? That's a difference between the two, I think.

BB: Yes. And I have to say in my experience, I'm telling you right now, this frame of transactional versus transformative, just the words make me think compliance versus in my bones, in my breath, just in my body, that's what I hear and it's such an important frame because the story I make up and you tell me whether it's true or not, because this is your expertise, right. The story I make up is that transactional only attempts to change culture around diversity, equity, and inclusion, lead to a lot of resentment, lead to a lot of shaming and blaming and create more division than more togetherness?

AB: Yes, I would say that or it doesn't create anything, it's just a lot of numbers, right?

BB: So it's nothing.

AB: It's a lot. Oftentimes it can be, I think though in the operationalizing it, it is putting pressures on people, but they might not understand exactly why, they may not be totally sold on it, and they're just counting widgets, right? But the aspect of transformative work, it is creating connection, it requires empathy, it requires actually hearing stories from one another, and I will tell you about that aspect of being a learner when you're in the transformative part, it's not just changing the culture of the work it's changing people. So what actually goes beyond the work atmosphere, and one of the reasons why I used your model about courageous leadership with the DEI work is one, what's in the article that... DEI work is leadership work, period. But the other aspect of it is that it provides space for people to actually become... Have changes, transformative. So I think about leaders and the people who want to do this work who are leading companies and what some of those barriers are, and you introduced the language of shame, right? And for a lot of people moving forward in DEI work, and you're doing this transformative way, it requires introspection, which can be really painful.

BB: Yes.

AB: And those are the moments where you're thinking, "Oh man, I remember when I said that thing... Oh man, my grandfather. Yeah, he was a racist. Oh man, my church..." You start, it's almost like the scales are lifted and it's really painful, and so it's not only moving through shame, but it's... And having to experience empathy and share these stories of people, right? So that you can move beyond that, but then it's also that, followed right afterwards by grief, because there's a loss... There's a loss of innocence and seeing things as you once saw it, there's a loss possibly of community. "Maybe I don't want to go to that church anymore. Man, I realized I was raising my kids around just all white people and I want them to see something different. Oh man, my spouse always saying that thing, I'm not going to tolerate it anymore." So there is a grief in the change of your relationships, seeing yourself differently, your community, and that is tough, but if you want to get through transformation, those are two of the barriers I talk about often with leaders, is that... This is why it's hard, is not because you don't want to, it's not because you're not sucking it up, right, when you think about the language like white fragility, it makes people feel like, "You know what, I just need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and I need to suck it up." Which you and I both know just means more armor versus let's lean in to this, it's hard.

BB: Wow.

AB: There's shame. There's grief, let's move through this together, and that's where you can get transformative, not telling people, "You're just so fragile, suck it up and put your armor on basically, and move through it." It's "Let's explore this. What are we learning about ourselves? What are we learning about this?"

BB: Man. Yeah, this is hard work. This is such hard work, you're having to challenge where you're from, where you go, what you do, who you hang with, and it's so crazy, because in Dare to Lead, we talk about daring leadership, the importance of creating a culture where armor is neither rewarded or required. So what I hear you saying... I'm just having like... It's like you and I work together almost every day. And I'm just... You're freaking me out here Aiko, because you're just giving me language around new things, because how do you create transformative DEI work where armor is not rewarded or required? That is shame work, that's grief work. That's vulnerability work.

AB: It is, it is. And it's creating that space for it, which we traditionally think about the work for, so the workspace is not a place for that. And you think about right now, there's been this effort to try to provide a clearing or space within workplaces so that the hurt of people of color, particularly Black people in the U.S. at this time, where there's space for that in the workplace. But at the same time, it's, "We're going through our own grieving, and I don't know if I would venture to say that there's a healing right now in it, but there is a grieving and we have learned how to carry that grief, and for many people... I have a lot of workshops that are just only centered on people of color, it's a matter of, "Hey, the script has been flipped," now I'm going to work, and they're wanting to talk about race, they're wanting to talk about these things, and that's painful for me, and I've done really well at compartmentalizing where I go in, I do my thing and I leave, but now there's an expectation that I need to talk about this stuff. And they want to talk about it.

AB: So part of doing this work in organizations is also saying, "Well, who's it serving?" Is it serving the people who are already the most harmed right now in society, and as an assumption of, "It's time to talk about it. It's past due. It's urgent." Well, guess what? It was urgent yesterday. It was urgent before George Floyd. Who are we serving by doing this work and how... And are we being intentional about it? So there's this weighing of, yes, urgency, but recognize that for many of us, this was a daily day-to-day. So thinking about what is the innate privilege there of corporate America or others waking up and saying, "Now, I want to talk about this, now I'm ready," but recognizing that there's always been blood in the water, right?

BB: Yeah.

AB: So thinking about the intentionality of how you're doing this work too.

BB: Do you think to address the centering of white timing around this work, that this work should always be co-created and co-led by people with the lived experiences...

AB: Absolutely, and I think it's a matter of extending that invitation and being willing to be led by, and that means also thinking about our action bias, our pacing, all these other things I think you often talk about horizon conflict, right?

BB: Yeah.

AB: In terms of who's timing and who's pacing, so I think that that's a required balance, but I think our systems, especially in the US, and even our governance structures are not built for that, our systems are to go, go, go, and we listen to who the leader is, versus this idea of collaborative and group learning and moving forward for the better of the whole in this way, we're not wired to do that, our systems aren't wired to do that, I should say.

BB: Yeah, our systems are definitely not wired to do that, and our systems like I guess the culmination of our need to produce, produce, produce, or at least meet those. And one of the things that I want to break down a couple of words that Aiko is using, because they're terms we use in the Dare to Lead work, so horizon conflict, when Aiko and I are both standing on a cliff looking out at the Sea, and her binoculars are pointed straight down and what she sees, and mine pointed out at a ship that I see sailing maybe a mile or so out, but then the person standing next to me is looking past the horizon, and then we get into a conflict because we have different concerns, different timings, different senses of urgency, but it's not because we don't have shared goals it's that we are taking different responsibilities for different horizons, and so that's one thing. The action bias, I want to break this down for a minute, because you've taught me a lot about this, and I thought I was a good teacher around action bias, because it came up in the research, so action bias is the need to fix, fix, fix, fast, fast, fast, and let's just take it out of the DEI realm.

BB: So for a second, just to define it and then bring it back to the DEI realm. So action bias is, " Oh God. We've got to get this shit done right now." The thing that drives action bias is discomfort and vulnerability. I see a problem and it makes me uncomfortable and I feel vulnerable so I'm going to rush to solve it, even before I've defined the problem, which goes against all of our better data. So we know Einstein, my favorite quote, "If I had an hour to solve a problem, that would save people's lives, I'd still spend 55 minutes defining the problem and five minutes solving it." So one of the things we've seen and that you've taught me is when we have a new lens and we're like, "Oh my God, Black Lives Matter. Oh my God, there is racism. Oh, let me fix it. Let me fix it. Let me fix you. Let me fix everything." And you are always telling me personally, and we're always telling leaders together, "Slow down, listen." Tell me about that. Tell me about the slow down and listen as opposed to rushing and applying your sense of urgency as kind of an act of privilege.

AB: Well, if we talked about it in the sense of privilege, we can even talk about specific incidents where many of us don't have space to slow down, right?

BB: Yeah.

AB: You have to keep moving and you're thinking almost with the quickness in terms of 20 different ways from Sunday of what could happen in this situation and the risk associated with it. So that's just one thing about having to consider and think about a million perspectives just in order to survive. So that's one aspect. Another one is just thinking about... And this actually came from you is "What's happening in the space between each moment?" When we were talking about even with empathy and the steps around it, and not even that it's just somebody wanting to jump to action to fix something, but first you have to be present, which means that you have to slow down, you have to listen, which means that you can't rush the other person, you have to hear what they're saying, and sometimes you have to see what they're saying, and then you have to wait. What is the hardest part in between that... And this, I loved this language that you use was believing them.

AB: So in terms of getting to a place of believing somebody, where we are in this country now, it's usually not automated when you have completely different lived experiences, so you actually have to stop and understand and actually hear all of the arguments that are being told to you and being whispered to you about why this perspective can't be real, why you shouldn't believe this, what does this mean if you actually believe what this person is saying? You actually have to engage in that conversation so that you can understand when this person has said, "Yeah, when I was in this meeting, I was the only woman, or I was the only Black person there, no one made any eye contact with me the whole time, even though it was my presentation, and then they started asking Brad for all of the answers." And you have to stop yourself and say, "Why would I not believe this?" And get yourself to the point to believe it, so that all of this takes time... All of this takes time.

BB: Pain. Pain is why, yeah, I don't want to believe it because of pain.

AB: And what does it say, what does it say about the society that I'm living in that I never saw this happen? What does this mean about me because I've actually done that before? There's a lot of process that's happening between that, that you don't capture if you're going from one thing, zero to one hundred, but that's where the introspection is happening that we talked about for transformative change, that's when being people-centered happens, and then asking the person, "Well, what do you think is needed in this moment? What can we do?" Versus jumping to action, because now you fixed it, because you have all the answers. So that takes time, that A to Z right there. Otherwise, we're jumping in, we fixed it, and now we feel great, but we didn't see the person, we didn't assess ourselves, there is no space for us to transform or change or to actually elevate our own existence and learning. So I think that that's something we have to think about in terms of action bias and why we really do take the time.

BB: So role-play with me. I'm going to ask you, so Aiko, "How did your presentation go?" And I want you to be the person that says, "No one looked at me, it was my presentation. No one made eye contact with me." I want you to do the whole thing. So Aiko, how'd your presentation go?

AB: It went okay.

BB: Why just okay?

AB: I stayed up all night and had been planning for this. This is was my big moment.

BB: Yeah.

AB: And it just didn't go... It just didn't feel right.

BB: So I'm just saying to y'all right now I made a decision tree, so my decision tree is... "I'm sure it was great. Hey, what time is our next meeting? I'm sure that's in your head. I'm sure you did great, we all kind of question ourselves," or I can say, "Say more, help me understand what didn't feel right, you really busted your ass putting this thing together. So what felt weird?"

AB: It almost felt like I was just talking to myself. I'm glad that you asked me that. I felt like I was talking to myself and no one was even looking at me or making eye contact with me at all, it was like I could have been in the room by myself.

BB: Okay, so decision tree off-ramp from pain and discomfort is, "Yeah, sometimes we feel like that when we give talks, so I'll see you at noon at the next meeting," or okay, so that's the off-ramp, then the on-ramp is, "Wait, are you saying that you gave this presentation that you've been working on for two months and you felt invisible in there like no one looked at you?"

AB: Yep Brené, that is exactly the word I would use is invisible. I know that, of course, nobody in the room looks like me. But even as I was making the presentation, no one asked me the questions, they looked over at Brad instead of me and I'm giving the presentation. Afterwards when people said, "Good job," they were saying it into the space and to each other, and not me and I'm the one who just gave the presentation. So I was really deflated, and I'm still trying to figure this out.

BB: This is my off-ramp, "Well, it sounds like you might be a little sensitive. And it sounds like... It sounds like maybe you wanted a lot of credit, but this is a team, and so I think... I'm sure you did a great job, and I'm glad that everyone else felt included, and I think I get silly and sensitive after a big moment." Again, that was an off-ramp, that shit happens a thousand times a day. I'm tapping out.

AB: Yes, or "I think you're exaggerating that, or blah, blah." So all of the dismissiveness, the "I don't believe you."

BB: Yeah, so let me go the other way, "Okay, so I just want to play this back to make sure I'm tracking here, you gave this presentation, no one made eye contact with you, they asked Brad the follow-up questions and then they didn't look at you genuinely. That's bullshit, I'm going to call those people into my office right now and we're going to have a CTJ baby, we're going to have a Come to Jesus because no one treats people on my team like that. And you know what? I'm with you, my sister." So let's explain the pain in that.

AB: Yes, so now you haven't paused at all to ask me, "Hey, well, what do you need?" You went straight to fixing, and now you feel great.

BB: I do.

AB: And you're the savior, and you're just with it, and I'm still there with not really fully being heard yet.

BB: And now I'm like, "I've sprouted my white girl halo, I'm the ally now, look at me, I'm in the ally." So this is actually probably what I would say, "I think invisibility is one of the most painful experiences I've ever had in my life, and my gut is, we need to address this, but I want you to take some time and think about what support looks like for you in addressing this, and how we can do this together, or maybe more importantly, how I can support you doing it. And that support can look like whatever you need it to look like, but I'm sorry that happened because I know how good that work was, and I know how hard you worked to put that together, and it's not okay."

AB: Exactly. And now I feel completely seen, I don't feel disempowered, I feel heard, and now even the shame or humiliation I feel has dissipated to an extent, and that is so empowering, completely different way, but it took time and took you to be introspective. Even that pause, I'm thinking about your power and privilege in the moment and how can it be used in concert together, all of those steps, which oftentimes we don't see happening.

BB: And I have to say that one of the things that we talked about yesterday, you and I, in the empathy pause is I am examining, as your leader and as a leader, maybe of Brad and the other people in there, I'm examining... I have a part in this. Maybe I didn't build this culture, but I'm running it now, let me tell you though, I had five off tap out of and discomfort moments that I had to circumvent. Those are real for people, and those are not just real for white folks, those are real for everybody in a situation with empathy. If someone that you love, who looks just like you, who has a shared lived experience, calls you and says, "This is the hardest shit thing that I'm going through right now." Every one of us has tap out of empathy opportunities. The difference is, I think... And this is white supremacy, is, we don't have to pause as long around the believing with people who are more like us.

AB: Yeah, and we have to also just recognize that that is part of human nature, right? Is likeness in group? And it's a matter of now we need to exercise this kind of transcendence in the area of ways and gender very intentionally, and to do it that way. So I think there's something else you just said too, which is that, "Hey, I didn't create it, but I'm a part of it now and I can do something about it." And that is another distinguishing factor that a lot of people don't see, they see this, all of these systemic things as individualistic, "Well, my ancestors didn't own slaves." Well, I didn't say that, but this idea of seeing a system and recognizing we all are impacted, and how do I address the system? That's the thing I can do. How do I address the system? That's my role. Right?

BB: Yeah. And for me, one of the things that was very changing for me probably, I don't know, at some point in my social work career, is I had a teacher, Jean Kantambu Latting, she taught systems theory, it was very difficult class in structural functionalism, like just a study of systems, and she used to say when systems are in place, you are either actively supporting them or actively dismantling them, there are not any neutral behaviors. Do you believe that?

AB: Yes, absolutely. I think that's a lot of the premise of a lot of Kendi's work, right.

BB: Oh, Ibram Kendi, yeah.

AB: Yeah, yep, yep. So the other part too, is even in working again with just people of color, it's the same thing, a fish doesn't know it's in water. We're swimming in it too, as people of color, you're swimming in white supremacy also, and there's a risk that you're perpetuating it, when we talk about the cheap seats, or we talk about where is the inner critic coming from, for people of color it's repeating things that a white supremacist system has told you about yourself and now you're repeating it to yourself. So we also have to extract ourselves actively in order to support ourselves and see ourselves separate from what the messages are that we're being told everyday that, "You don't belong here. You're not worthy. You're less than. Who do you think you are that you're in there?" And it's different, a lot of people can play impostor syndrome as the same for everyone, but when you're in a system that's designed to tell you that you're less than and for everyone to believe it, that's a hell of a different kind of impostor syndrome and inner-critic voices that you're hearing than others.

BB: Oh God, yes.

AB: And us doing that work constantly to have to elevate ourselves in a way that's totally counter to what the system would be telling us about ourselves, right?

BB: Yes. And that is the entire field of study of internalized oppression, that is... I think of our friend Sonya Renee Taylor, it's like her work.

AB: Yes, amen to that, amen to that. Yes, and even that... Yeah, just her as part of a closure process, I often talk about her three pieces.

BB: Tell us.

AB: But that idea of not feeling like you have to understand everything. Her three pieces about your body, they are exactly what we need in order to make us stop, reflect, and make sure we're not internalizing. So it's the same steps we talked about before about racing to action bias when you're dealing with somebody who has an experience different from yours and assessing your privilege and what have you, it's the same for us in terms of, "Hey, what am I thinking? Why am I thinking that about myself? Okay, whose message is that?" And then reclaiming a message about yourself that's true, that tells you that you belong, that tells you that you're worthy, and that means that you have to slow down to be able to do that. You have to slow down and reflect all of those same steps that we talked about for other people, we have to do it ourselves. I don't think anybody escapes that, right?

BB: No, no one rides for free on that one, for sure.

[laughter]

AB: There's not much in society that gives us space to just slow down unless we take it. It's definitely something that we have to take. So I want to say that making peace with not understanding, making peace with difference, and making peace with your body, those three pieces that she talks about.

BB: Those are Sonya Renee Taylor's three pieces?

AB: They are, they are.

BB: Say them one more time.

AB: Making peace with not understanding, making peace with difference, and making peace with your body. In her work, it is so powerful in terms of using it with in-group, I use it often, yeah.

BB: She's got a great book called, The Body Is Not an Apology, and I also did an Unlocking Us episode with her.

AB: Yes, and anybody who has not listened to it needs to, and if you have not gotten the book, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, get it.

BB: As you can tell, Aiko and I are fans. Okay.

AB: Yes.

BB: I'm going to have to ask you this. Can we do Part Two of this?

AB: Yes.

BB: I think we have just blown my mind, shored up my heart, grounded my feet. I just loved you so much going into this, and now it's even more, if possible.

AB: Thank you for having me, and I will just say that the work that you've put out there has been so instrumental in the work that I do and DEI work with leaders, and also with in-group communities, it's been super powerful, the language and experience of shame and grief, they're universal, and I think really for us to get to this transformative space where we appreciate ourselves, our experiences, and one another is core to it. It's core.

BB: It's core. We are just the innate need to be loved and seen, and to love and see others, maybe we end up with another person whose work we both... We appreciate Austin Channing Brown, who said anti-racism work is the work of being a better human being to other human beings.

AB: Yep, yep.

BB: Alright. We're going to come back, we're going to... If you're listening, you can access Aiko's Medium article on the web page for the podcast, and then we're going to come back. I think this is just the most unexpected and powerful conversation, and then we're going to come back and do a Part Two to this with tangible next steps.

AB: Oh, we didn't even get to that. [chuckle]

BB: But you know why we didn't?

AB: Why's that?

BB: Because we didn't succumb to the action bias.

AB: That's right, you're right. We took our time, we had a conversation. [chuckle]

BB: We had a conversation that was transformative about transformative, and we didn't go straight into the list of things for organizations to do, and I saw your heart in this conversation, and I think this is where change starts because someone named Aiko taught me that.

AB: Oh, you made me warm and fuzzy, oh no. We need to end it now because now it's now like... [laughter] Thank you for saying that.

BB: Thank you. But Part Two, are you... Can I commit to all of our listeners here there's a Part Two?

AB: Yep, I'm down with that.

BB: Alright, before I let you go, we're all warm and fuzzy, but before I let you go, we've got to do the rapid-fire questions, fill in the blank for me. Ready? Vulnerability is.

AB: Everyone.

BB: What is something that people often get wrong about you?

AB: That I don't have a sense of humor.

BB: That is definitely wrong. Okay, what is one piece of leadership advice that you've been given that's so remarkable, you need to share it with us, or so crappy that you need to warn us?

AB: Terrible is make sure you're seen. Wonderful is, I love when people say, "Why did God give you two ears and one mouth?" That's the best. That's a church lady, giving me that.

[laughter]

BB: That's the best. Okay, what is one stereotype or myth of leadership that we need to let go of?

AB: Well, that's the last person in the room.

BB: Say more.

AB: Leadership is the person who's in the front of the room.

BB: Yeah. So really the leader is the last?

AB: Yes, absolutely.

BB: Okay, what would you say to someone who doesn't consider themselves a leader or leadership material?

AB: Everybody is a leader. Don't believe the lies.

BB: What's your best leadership quality?

AB: I love stories, I love listening to stories.

BB: What's the hard leadership lesson that you have to keep learning and unlearning and re-learning, that lesson that the universe just keeps putting in front of you?

AB: You can't fix everything, and you shouldn't fix everything, everything's not there for you to fix.

BB: That felt aggressively attacking of me.

[laughter]

AB: That's mine, for sure.

BB: Yep. Okay, what's one thing you're really excited about right now?

AB: Georgia turned blue. I'm super excited about that. Georgia turned blue. I'm so proud of all the people who made it happen. Stacey Abrams, Natasha Brown, these folks who I love and I'm just, I'm so proud.

BB: Amen. Tell me one thing that you're deeply grateful for right now.

AB: My boys. Wes and Ben.

BB: Wes and Ben. Ages?

AB: 12 and 11. Now ask me, sizes: 6 feet and 5'8″.

BB: In order? Is the 12-year-old taller?

AB: Yes.

BB: Got it. Wow, those are big boys.

AB: They are. With big hearts.

BB: So we asked you for five songs, you can't live without. You gave us seven and we said, "Okay," because you're Aiko and we love you. You did make a note on number one, which is "Lift Every Voice." That this is the only one that you really can't live without. The others are "Baby, I'm a Star," by Prince. "Stand Up," by Cynthia Erivo, from the Harriet soundtrack. "Keep on Going," by Vivian Green. "Blessed." by Jill Scott. "I Choose," by India Arie, and "Freedom," by Beyoncé. In one sentence, what does this mini mix tape say about you?

AB: It says that I'm hopeful, it says that I love my heritage, and it says that I'm looking forward to my legacy.

BB: Thank you, Aiko Bethea for joining us on the Dare to Lead podcast. You're making a difference.

AB: Thank you for having me Brené.

[music]

BB: Man, do you see now why I'm so incredibly grateful for Aiko as a teacher, as a friend, as a colleague? She just has a deeply human way of helping us understand our own humanity, if you want to follow her on Instagram, it's @rare_coach, Rare is R-A-R-E. She's LinkedIn Aiko Bethea. Facebook is Facebook.com/rarecoach. And her website is www.rarecoaching.net. Really appreciate you listening to the Dare to Lead podcast. My goal is to take on the issues that we are all up against, that we're all facing the real questions, we're going to have Aiko back, we're going to dig into some more tactical, practical steps, not for transactional change, but for transformational change, but I love that we started with the conversation and the narrative. Thank you so much for joining us on the Dare to Lead podcast. This is a Spotify original from Parcast. It's hosted by me, Brené Brown. It's produced by Max Cutler, Kristen Acevedo, Carleigh Madden, and by Weird Lucy Productions. The sound design is by Kristen Acevedo, and the music is by the amazing band, The Suffers.

[music]

© 2020 Brené Brown Education and Research Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Brown, B. (Host). (2020, November 9). Brené with Aiko Bethea on Inclusivity at Work: The Heart of Hard Conversations. [Audio podcast episode]. In D are to Lead with Brené Brown. Parcast Network. https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-aiko-bethea-on-inclusivity-at-work-the-heart-of-hard-conversations/

Brené Brown: Hi, everyone. I'm Brené Brown, and this is the Dare to Lead podcast, and I'm so excited today because I get to introduce you to someone who has been such an incredible teacher for me, a friend, we're colleagues, we work together, and she has really fundamentally shifted a lot of my thinking on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work, and I just can't wait for you to meet her because her ideas are so grounded in courage and empathy and connection, it's just the medicine we need right now, and so if you're trying to figure out, "How do I do this anti-racism work at work? How do I show up? What do I need to be watching for? What do I need to be listening for? When do I need to pull back? When do I need to step up?" All those questions that all of us are asking ourselves on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, I just don't know a better teacher than Aiko Bethea. So Aiko is, she's a leader, she's a builder, she's a connector, she has had big leadership roles in government, philanthropic organizations, in the corporate sector, she is a Principal and Founder of Rare Coaching and Consulting, a consulting practice focused on coaching leaders and organizations specifically around removing barriers to inclusion.

BB: Aiko is also a senior co-director at our organization, the Brené Brown Education and Research Group. She co-leads the Daring Way and the Dare to Lead facilitation communities. She partners to oversee development and implementation of the overall strategy for these facilitator communities, and by facilitator communities, I mean folks who are trained in my work and go out and teach people. And she also helps us identify and address specific diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging strategies. And she helps really build, teach, and nurture our global facilitator community, which has close to 2000 facilitators. Prior to working with us, she served as the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Fred Hutch Research Center, and for over seven years, Aiko was with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she served as a Deputy Director. She has served on several boards and provided a lot of pro bono support for non-profit boards. She is deeply, deeply engaged in community building. She's got her BA from Smith in North Hampton, Massachusetts, her Juris Doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she's a graduate of the Hudson Institute of Coaching at Santa Barbara.

BB: She's an ICF professional certified coach, and she is also a certified Diversity Professional and licensed to practice law in Georgia. I just feel so lucky to work with her every day. I feel so lucky to learn from her, and I feel really grateful that I get to share her insights with y'all. These are the questions that we're all asking ourselves and organizations right now about how to do the next right thing. Alright, so first, Aiko, thank you so much for joining me on the Dare to Lead podcast.

AB: Thank you for having me. Super exciting.

BB: I have to say that you have brought so much wisdom, experience, depth of understanding to not only our organization, but as a Dare to Lead facilitator, as someone who headed up our initiative on diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging, our co-creation group, you led that amazingly. So I guess I'm just really excited that you're here and excited that I get to share what you've taught me with a big audience.

AB: Thank you, well, I'm excited to share and I've learned so much more from you so, likewise.

BB: Alright, so let me start here, you wrote an article on Medium. Was this after George Floyd's murder?

AB: It was.

BB: It was, right. It was the end of May that you wrote this, right?

AB: Yeah.

BB: And the title was "An Open Letter to Corporate America, Philanthropy, Academia, etc.: What Now?" Like what's next? And I want to read part of this article. You and I both work with leaders of organizations, from small businesses to Fortune 20 companies who are many, wanting to do the right thing around anti-racism work, wanting to do the right thing around equity and inclusion work, but are scared and don't know where to start. And this was the best thing I'd ever seen.

AB: Thank you for saying that.

BB: Yeah, so let me read some of this: "The fact that some of the leadership of organizations were awake just a bit, are impacted enough to recognize that they should respond to this national crisis, offers a tiny glimmer of light. For many of these CEOs and companies, this was the first time a statement about racism or the trials of Blackness was ever publicly acknowledged. Now we ask you: Do you know what comes next? Do you know that sending that letter to the public and to your employees does not end with a period, in fact, there should not even be a comma. Keep moving. There is work to be done inside your company, in your leadership teams, among people who are making decisions, all too often the focus is on white men, but there are also people who look like your mothers, daughters and wives. There is work for everyone. And here are some steps you can take now, for those of you who penned letters that reflected how soul-crushing this week has been and dedicating support to Black employees." I just have to say I felt some fire reading this, did you write it with some fire?

AB: I did. This article took 30 minutes to write. So it was really feeling it in the moment, so... Yeah.

BB: So those were inspired.

AB: They were, they were.

BB: And they took 30 minutes. Yeah.

AB: Absolutely.

BB: I want to start from the beginning. And if you're listening right now, I've already said this in the intro, but I'm going to say it again, my goal is to give you tangible actionable calls to courage around these conversations. So I want to start here with, can you lay out some terms for us, diversity, equity, inclusion. What exactly do those mean?

AB: Sure. So diversity, of course, we hear it meaning every characteristic trait of people. You hear it meaning things like difference in education, and of course just all the protected class identities as well, and when I'm talking specifically about this work, I talk about it in terms of diversity that matters, that actually creates a difference, that creates disparities. So otherwise, you get in this slippery slope where people might say, "Hey, we have diversity, because we have Stanford class of '70, Stanford class of '71, and Stanford class of '72 on the panel," but we're talking about diversity that makes a difference in terms of disparities. And we know in this country that a lot of those have to do with the one start in the protected classes, and I actually, with clients, I share that, if you're not talking about and you're not including protected classes, then you're not really talking about the diversity that matters, those have to be included.

BB: And so protected classes, you're talking about race...

AB: Yes, race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, national origin, different abilities in some states, I think, and it's necessary to also say LGBT, our LGBT community as well, even though there may not be protections under our constitution or federal laws, definitely our states, several state laws have recognized any groups that are marginalized and historically marginalized, they should be included in that first and foremost, when we're talking about diversity in the context of diversity, equity, inclusion. And of course, we're talking about mental health, right, and differences in that way as well.

BB: And then tell me what is the difference between diversity and inclusion?

AB: So you can actually have... You can have diversity and not have inclusion, so you can have a collection of a lot of different people, but if those people don't feel included, you're not actually going to leverage the power of that diversity. You've just collected a lot of different people who are in the room or in the company together. Inclusion is actually creating a space in an environment where people feel like they can actually express dissent, where they can bring their ideas to the table, and it's not a matter of just feeling welcomed, but also valued, "What I say matters. The perspective that I bring matters, my lived experience matters," and that's the diversity and the inclusion together is what harnesses when you get innovation, when you get psychological safety.

BB: Got it.

AB: So you can have diversity and not have inclusion, but I don't think you can have inclusion in terms of harnessing the outputs without having diversity.

BB: Helpful. How does equity fit in here?

AB: So equity, I see it as intimately connected with why we even talk about diversity. Diversity started being introduced in corporate America based on wanting to have integration, right? And so when diversity was introduced in that context, it was really about equity and about who was not included, so now we intentionally say equity because now you can talk about diversity and talk about... Just like I was saying, a lot of groups that are homogeneous in terms of privilege, so now we intentionally say equity. It's about also recognizing people who have systemically and historically been excluded, are marginalized, so now you have to think about that as well, and then intentionally.

BB: This is something that you've taught me, you think it's important for organizations to define these terms, and that it's dangerous when you've got a group of people within an organization that all have different ideas of what these words mean and the importance of them and what they provide. What happens when you just start saying, DEI, really fast, DEI... DEI... And you don't stop and explain and operationalize what that means, and people are operating from different beliefs?

AB: Yeah, so it's just like any kind of business initiative, right? So organizations introduce values, and you know this about values, if you don't define them, if you don't talk about what the behaviors are that complement them as well, or define them, you just got a lot of random words and everybody thinks that they're talking about same thing, but they're not. It's also when you don't define them, how do you also hold one another accountable, how do you actually measure that you're making progress, and how do you make sure that you're aligned even on the philosophy and the intention underneath it? So you have to make sure you're all talking about the same things, otherwise, people don't even know how to show up around those words.

BB: Okay, so we say to each other in an organization, "This is important to us." We define the terms. What happens when we have varying levels of commitment around the importance to begin the conversation?

AB: So I think that it has to be incumbent upon one, the leadership to really talk about why this is important to them, and not just harping on the business case, but talking about why it's important to them as individuals, and oftentimes we talk about, this is the head and the heart. And this is when we're talking to our leaders about "What's your personal narrative around this?" and why this is important, and this is also when you intertwine or integrate it with narratives and storytelling, and those are the things that people remember is Why... Why was this important to Brad? Why was this important to Cathy? And there's a different type of accountability too. When you look at studies around what makes an organization's culture change, especially around these types of issues, it's not about the business case, right? It's really about social accountability. So that's me looking over at you and saying, "Hey, Brené, that thing that you said, can we talk more about it?" It's not a confrontation, it's asking you and holding your feet to it to say, "Well, what did you mean by that?" And I think there's so much importance now about having those conversations, understanding what that means in terms of getting the stick-to-it-ness, that's what actually brings people on board to be dedicated and loyal to a cause, not just the business case.

AB: When we talk about operationalizing it, there are other things, right? Oh, I'm going to do really well in my performance management, so we're going to include it in performance management, because now people are accountable, right? We're going to include it in our values, we're going to include it in our job competencies, all these ways to operationalize it, but if you only do it in that way of operationalizing it, then it becomes transactional. It becomes a lot of rules and things that you're being graded on and it's almost compliance-driven, but if you're doing it in a relational way, in terms of the storytelling of why this was really important to Brené, and why this is really important to my co-worker right over here, there's a different motivation to want to do something different and want to show up differently, and it doesn't have to do with your compensation doesn't have to do with, this is what the rule says and we're supposed to... how we're supposed to show up. That's the difference, I think, between transformational change and transactional, and one has a much deeper depth of sustainability and culture shift, and the other one has more of measurement and counts and making sustainability in a way of measuring progress, but not in terms of depth of difference in culture. Does that make sense?

BB: I have goosebumps, and I'll tell you why this is so important. God, this is so important. It takes me back to this professor, I studied under, Karen Stout, and she studied femicide, the killing of women by intimate partners, and I was one of the first qualitative doctoral students, and she really championed me, although she was a quantitative researcher, and she told me one day, she said, "You know what, when it comes to women being killed by intimate partners, I wish all we had to do is put numbers in front of people, but we need the stories as well," and then she said, "And it'd be nice if we could just tell them stories, but we have to have the numbers as well," and she said, "So this conflict between qualitative and quantitative, the conflict that you just brought up between stories and measurement, and the stories and accountability, it's a false dichotomy that just doesn't exist." And I want to play back what I thought I heard. Is that for deep transformational change around diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, can't just be transactional, it has to be relational, it has to be people's stories and their narrative, it has to be not dehumanize, but re-humanize the stories. Is that what you're saying?

AB: Yes, and you said it so much better than I.

BB: No, I didn't.

AB: Yeah. And I do want to say that the other part about this is that when people think transactional and transformational, they don't understand, you have to be really explicit that transformational actually still includes the components of transactional, you're still measuring, you're still looking at data, you're looking at data that matters beyond the numbers, what are even the stories, like, quantitative and the qualitative, right? But you're so much more intentional about what's underneath it and you're disaggregating it in different ways and understanding it in different ways, right?

BB: God, yes.

AB: So it's not that transformational excludes data, it's not that it excludes the components of transactional, you're just making it much more holistic and you're centering people instead of just numbers and sanitized data, right? You're centering... Its people-centric and is also introspective. You can be transactional, making changes, but you never have to be introspective, right? That's a difference between the two, I think.

BB: Yes. And I have to say in my experience, I'm telling you right now, this frame of transactional versus transformative, just the words make me think compliance versus in my bones, in my breath, just in my body, that's what I hear and it's such an important frame because the story I make up and you tell me whether it's true or not, because this is your expertise, right. The story I make up is that transactional only attempts to change culture around diversity, equity, and inclusion, lead to a lot of resentment, lead to a lot of shaming and blaming and create more division than more togetherness?

AB: Yes, I would say that or it doesn't create anything, it's just a lot of numbers, right?

BB: So it's nothing.

AB: It's a lot. Oftentimes it can be, I think though in the operationalizing it, it is putting pressures on people, but they might not understand exactly why, they may not be totally sold on it, and they're just counting widgets, right? But the aspect of transformative work, it is creating connection, it requires empathy, it requires actually hearing stories from one another, and I will tell you about that aspect of being a learner when you're in the transformative part, it's not just changing the culture of the work it's changing people. So what actually goes beyond the work atmosphere, and one of the reasons why I used your model about courageous leadership with the DEI work is one, what's in the article that... DEI work is leadership work, period. But the other aspect of it is that it provides space for people to actually become... Have changes, transformative. So I think about leaders and the people who want to do this work who are leading companies and what some of those barriers are, and you introduced the language of shame, right? And for a lot of people moving forward in DEI work, and you're doing this transformative way, it requires introspection, which can be really painful.

BB: Yes.

AB: And those are the moments where you're thinking, "Oh man, I remember when I said that thing... Oh man, my grandfather. Yeah, he was a racist. Oh man, my church..." You start, it's almost like the scales are lifted and it's really painful, and so it's not only moving through shame, but it's... And having to experience empathy and share these stories of people, right? So that you can move beyond that, but then it's also that, followed right afterwards by grief, because there's a loss... There's a loss of innocence and seeing things as you once saw it, there's a loss possibly of community. "Maybe I don't want to go to that church anymore. Man, I realized I was raising my kids around just all white people and I want them to see something different. Oh man, my spouse always saying that thing, I'm not going to tolerate it anymore." So there is a grief in the change of your relationships, seeing yourself differently, your community, and that is tough, but if you want to get through transformation, those are two of the barriers I talk about often with leaders, is that... This is why it's hard, is not because you don't want to, it's not because you're not sucking it up, right, when you think about the language like white fragility, it makes people feel like, "You know what, I just need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and I need to suck it up." Which you and I both know just means more armor versus let's lean in to this, it's hard.

BB: Wow.

AB: There's shame. There's grief, let's move through this together, and that's where you can get transformative, not telling people, "You're just so fragile, suck it up and put your armor on basically, and move through it." It's "Let's explore this. What are we learning about ourselves? What are we learning about this?"

BB: Man. Yeah, this is hard work. This is such hard work, you're having to challenge where you're from, where you go, what you do, who you hang with, and it's so crazy, because in Dare to Lead, we talk about daring leadership, the importance of creating a culture where armor is neither rewarded or required. So what I hear you saying... I'm just having like... It's like you and I work together almost every day. And I'm just... You're freaking me out here Aiko, because you're just giving me language around new things, because how do you create transformative DEI work where armor is not rewarded or required? That is shame work, that's grief work. That's vulnerability work.

AB: It is, it is. And it's creating that space for it, which we traditionally think about the work for, so the workspace is not a place for that. And you think about right now, there's been this effort to try to provide a clearing or space within workplaces so that the hurt of people of color, particularly Black people in the U.S. at this time, where there's space for that in the workplace. But at the same time, it's, "We're going through our own grieving, and I don't know if I would venture to say that there's a healing right now in it, but there is a grieving and we have learned how to carry that grief, and for many people... I have a lot of workshops that are just only centered on people of color, it's a matter of, "Hey, the script has been flipped," now I'm going to work, and they're wanting to talk about race, they're wanting to talk about these things, and that's painful for me, and I've done really well at compartmentalizing where I go in, I do my thing and I leave, but now there's an expectation that I need to talk about this stuff. And they want to talk about it.

AB: So part of doing this work in organizations is also saying, "Well, who's it serving?" Is it serving the people who are already the most harmed right now in society, and as an assumption of, "It's time to talk about it. It's past due. It's urgent." Well, guess what? It was urgent yesterday. It was urgent before George Floyd. Who are we serving by doing this work and how... And are we being intentional about it? So there's this weighing of, yes, urgency, but recognize that for many of us, this was a daily day-to-day. So thinking about what is the innate privilege there of corporate America or others waking up and saying, "Now, I want to talk about this, now I'm ready," but recognizing that there's always been blood in the water, right?

BB: Yeah.

AB: So thinking about the intentionality of how you're doing this work too.

BB: Do you think to address the centering of white timing around this work, that this work should always be co-created and co-led by people with the lived experiences...

AB: Absolutely, and I think it's a matter of extending that invitation and being willing to be led by, and that means also thinking about our action bias, our pacing, all these other things I think you often talk about horizon conflict, right?

BB: Yeah.

AB: In terms of who's timing and who's pacing, so I think that that's a required balance, but I think our systems, especially in the US, and even our governance structures are not built for that, our systems are to go, go, go, and we listen to who the leader is, versus this idea of collaborative and group learning and moving forward for the better of the whole in this way, we're not wired to do that, our systems aren't wired to do that, I should say.

BB: Yeah, our systems are definitely not wired to do that, and our systems like I guess the culmination of our need to produce, produce, produce, or at least meet those. And one of the things that I want to break down a couple of words that Aiko is using, because they're terms we use in the Dare to Lead work, so horizon conflict, when Aiko and I are both standing on a cliff looking out at the Sea, and her binoculars are pointed straight down and what she sees, and mine pointed out at a ship that I see sailing maybe a mile or so out, but then the person standing next to me is looking past the horizon, and then we get into a conflict because we have different concerns, different timings, different senses of urgency, but it's not because we don't have shared goals it's that we are taking different responsibilities for different horizons, and so that's one thing. The action bias, I want to break this down for a minute, because you've taught me a lot about this, and I thought I was a good teacher around action bias, because it came up in the research, so action bias is the need to fix, fix, fix, fast, fast, fast, and let's just take it out of the DEI realm.

BB: So for a second, just to define it and then bring it back to the DEI realm. So action bias is, " Oh God. We've got to get this shit done right now." The thing that drives action bias is discomfort and vulnerability. I see a problem and it makes me uncomfortable and I feel vulnerable so I'm going to rush to solve it, even before I've defined the problem, which goes against all of our better data. So we know Einstein, my favorite quote, "If I had an hour to solve a problem, that would save people's lives, I'd still spend 55 minutes defining the problem and five minutes solving it." So one of the things we've seen and that you've taught me is when we have a new lens and we're like, "Oh my God, Black Lives Matter. Oh my God, there is racism. Oh, let me fix it. Let me fix it. Let me fix you. Let me fix everything." And you are always telling me personally, and we're always telling leaders together, "Slow down, listen." Tell me about that. Tell me about the slow down and listen as opposed to rushing and applying your sense of urgency as kind of an act of privilege.

AB: Well, if we talked about it in the sense of privilege, we can even talk about specific incidents where many of us don't have space to slow down, right?

BB: Yeah.

AB: You have to keep moving and you're thinking almost with the quickness in terms of 20 different ways from Sunday of what could happen in this situation and the risk associated with it. So that's just one thing about having to consider and think about a million perspectives just in order to survive. So that's one aspect. Another one is just thinking about... And this actually came from you is "What's happening in the space between each moment?" When we were talking about even with empathy and the steps around it, and not even that it's just somebody wanting to jump to action to fix something, but first you have to be present, which means that you have to slow down, you have to listen, which means that you can't rush the other person, you have to hear what they're saying, and sometimes you have to see what they're saying, and then you have to wait. What is the hardest part in between that... And this, I loved this language that you use was believing them.

AB: So in terms of getting to a place of believing somebody, where we are in this country now, it's usually not automated when you have completely different lived experiences, so you actually have to stop and understand and actually hear all of the arguments that are being told to you and being whispered to you about why this perspective can't be real, why you shouldn't believe this, what does this mean if you actually believe what this person is saying? You actually have to engage in that conversation so that you can understand when this person has said, "Yeah, when I was in this meeting, I was the only woman, or I was the only Black person there, no one made any eye contact with me the whole time, even though it was my presentation, and then they started asking Brad for all of the answers." And you have to stop yourself and say, "Why would I not believe this?" And get yourself to the point to believe it, so that all of this takes time... All of this takes time.

BB: Pain. Pain is why, yeah, I don't want to believe it because of pain.

AB: And what does it say, what does it say about the society that I'm living in that I never saw this happen? What does this mean about me because I've actually done that before? There's a lot of process that's happening between that, that you don't capture if you're going from one thing, zero to one hundred, but that's where the introspection is happening that we talked about for transformative change, that's when being people-centered happens, and then asking the person, "Well, what do you think is needed in this moment? What can we do?" Versus jumping to action, because now you fixed it, because you have all the answers. So that takes time, that A to Z right there. Otherwise, we're jumping in, we fixed it, and now we feel great, but we didn't see the person, we didn't assess ourselves, there is no space for us to transform or change or to actually elevate our own existence and learning. So I think that that's something we have to think about in terms of action bias and why we really do take the time.

BB: So role-play with me. I'm going to ask you, so Aiko, "How did your presentation go?" And I want you to be the person that says, "No one looked at me, it was my presentation. No one made eye contact with me." I want you to do the whole thing. So Aiko, how'd your presentation go?

AB: It went okay.

BB: Why just okay?

AB: I stayed up all night and had been planning for this. This is was my big moment.

BB: Yeah.

AB: And it just didn't go... It just didn't feel right.

BB: So I'm just saying to y'all right now I made a decision tree, so my decision tree is... "I'm sure it was great. Hey, what time is our next meeting? I'm sure that's in your head. I'm sure you did great, we all kind of question ourselves," or I can say, "Say more, help me understand what didn't feel right, you really busted your ass putting this thing together. So what felt weird?"

AB: It almost felt like I was just talking to myself. I'm glad that you asked me that. I felt like I was talking to myself and no one was even looking at me or making eye contact with me at all, it was like I could have been in the room by myself.

BB: Okay, so decision tree off-ramp from pain and discomfort is, "Yeah, sometimes we feel like that when we give talks, so I'll see you at noon at the next meeting," or okay, so that's the off-ramp, then the on-ramp is, "Wait, are you saying that you gave this presentation that you've been working on for two months and you felt invisible in there like no one looked at you?"

AB: Yep Brené, that is exactly the word I would use is invisible. I know that, of course, nobody in the room looks like me. But even as I was making the presentation, no one asked me the questions, they looked over at Brad instead of me and I'm giving the presentation. Afterwards when people said, "Good job," they were saying it into the space and to each other, and not me and I'm the one who just gave the presentation. So I was really deflated, and I'm still trying to figure this out.

BB: This is my off-ramp, "Well, it sounds like you might be a little sensitive. And it sounds like... It sounds like maybe you wanted a lot of credit, but this is a team, and so I think... I'm sure you did a great job, and I'm glad that everyone else felt included, and I think I get silly and sensitive after a big moment." Again, that was an off-ramp, that shit happens a thousand times a day. I'm tapping out.

AB: Yes, or "I think you're exaggerating that, or blah, blah." So all of the dismissiveness, the "I don't believe you."

BB: Yeah, so let me go the other way, "Okay, so I just want to play this back to make sure I'm tracking here, you gave this presentation, no one made eye contact with you, they asked Brad the follow-up questions and then they didn't look at you genuinely. That's bullshit, I'm going to call those people into my office right now and we're going to have a CTJ baby, we're going to have a Come to Jesus because no one treats people on my team like that. And you know what? I'm with you, my sister." So let's explain the pain in that.

AB: Yes, so now you haven't paused at all to ask me, "Hey, well, what do you need?" You went straight to fixing, and now you feel great.

BB: I do.

AB: And you're the savior, and you're just with it, and I'm still there with not really fully being heard yet.

BB: And now I'm like, "I've sprouted my white girl halo, I'm the ally now, look at me, I'm in the ally." So this is actually probably what I would say, "I think invisibility is one of the most painful experiences I've ever had in my life, and my gut is, we need to address this, but I want you to take some time and think about what support looks like for you in addressing this, and how we can do this together, or maybe more importantly, how I can support you doing it. And that support can look like whatever you need it to look like, but I'm sorry that happened because I know how good that work was, and I know how hard you worked to put that together, and it's not okay."

AB: Exactly. And now I feel completely seen, I don't feel disempowered, I feel heard, and now even the shame or humiliation I feel has dissipated to an extent, and that is so empowering, completely different way, but it took time and took you to be introspective. Even that pause, I'm thinking about your power and privilege in the moment and how can it be used in concert together, all of those steps, which oftentimes we don't see happening.

BB: And I have to say that one of the things that we talked about yesterday, you and I, in the empathy pause is I am examining, as your leader and as a leader, maybe of Brad and the other people in there, I'm examining... I have a part in this. Maybe I didn't build this culture, but I'm running it now, let me tell you though, I had five off tap out of and discomfort moments that I had to circumvent. Those are real for people, and those are not just real for white folks, those are real for everybody in a situation with empathy. If someone that you love, who looks just like you, who has a shared lived experience, calls you and says, "This is the hardest shit thing that I'm going through right now." Every one of us has tap out of empathy opportunities. The difference is, I think... And this is white supremacy, is, we don't have to pause as long around the believing with people who are more like us.

AB: Yeah, and we have to also just recognize that that is part of human nature, right? Is likeness in group? And it's a matter of now we need to exercise this kind of transcendence in the area of ways and gender very intentionally, and to do it that way. So I think there's something else you just said too, which is that, "Hey, I didn't create it, but I'm a part of it now and I can do something about it." And that is another distinguishing factor that a lot of people don't see, they see this, all of these systemic things as individualistic, "Well, my ancestors didn't own slaves." Well, I didn't say that, but this idea of seeing a system and recognizing we all are impacted, and how do I address the system? That's the thing I can do. How do I address the system? That's my role. Right?

BB: Yeah. And for me, one of the things that was very changing for me probably, I don't know, at some point in my social work career, is I had a teacher, Jean Kantambu Latting, she taught systems theory, it was very difficult class in structural functionalism, like just a study of systems, and she used to say when systems are in place, you are either actively supporting them or actively dismantling them, there are not any neutral behaviors. Do you believe that?

AB: Yes, absolutely. I think that's a lot of the premise of a lot of Kendi's work, right.

BB: Oh, Ibram Kendi, yeah.

AB: Yeah, yep, yep. So the other part too, is even in working again with just people of color, it's the same thing, a fish doesn't know it's in water. We're swimming in it too, as people of color, you're swimming in white supremacy also, and there's a risk that you're perpetuating it, when we talk about the cheap seats, or we talk about where is the inner critic coming from, for people of color it's repeating things that a white supremacist system has told you about yourself and now you're repeating it to yourself. So we also have to extract ourselves actively in order to support ourselves and see ourselves separate from what the messages are that we're being told everyday that, "You don't belong here. You're not worthy. You're less than. Who do you think you are that you're in there?" And it's different, a lot of people can play impostor syndrome as the same for everyone, but when you're in a system that's designed to tell you that you're less than and for everyone to believe it, that's a hell of a different kind of impostor syndrome and inner-critic voices that you're hearing than others.

BB: Oh God, yes.

AB: And us doing that work constantly to have to elevate ourselves in a way that's totally counter to what the system would be telling us about ourselves, right?

BB: Yes. And that is the entire field of study of internalized oppression, that is... I think of our friend Sonya Renee Taylor, it's like her work.

AB: Yes, amen to that, amen to that. Yes, and even that... Yeah, just her as part of a closure process, I often talk about her three pieces.

BB: Tell us.

AB: But that idea of not feeling like you have to understand everything. Her three pieces about your body, they are exactly what we need in order to make us stop, reflect, and make sure we're not internalizing. So it's the same steps we talked about before about racing to action bias when you're dealing with somebody who has an experience different from yours and assessing your privilege and what have you, it's the same for us in terms of, "Hey, what am I thinking? Why am I thinking that about myself? Okay, whose message is that?" And then reclaiming a message about yourself that's true, that tells you that you belong, that tells you that you're worthy, and that means that you have to slow down to be able to do that. You have to slow down and reflect all of those same steps that we talked about for other people, we have to do it ourselves. I don't think anybody escapes that, right?

BB: No, no one rides for free on that one, for sure.

[laughter]

AB: There's not much in society that gives us space to just slow down unless we take it. It's definitely something that we have to take. So I want to say that making peace with not understanding, making peace with difference, and making peace with your body, those three pieces that she talks about.

BB: Those are Sonya Renee Taylor's three pieces?

AB: They are, they are.

BB: Say them one more time.

AB: Making peace with not understanding, making peace with difference, and making peace with your body. In her work, it is so powerful in terms of using it with in-group, I use it often, yeah.

BB: She's got a great book called, The Body Is Not an Apology, and I also did an Unlocking Us episode with her.

AB: Yes, and anybody who has not listened to it needs to, and if you have not gotten the book, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, get it.

BB: As you can tell, Aiko and I are fans. Okay.

AB: Yes.

BB: I'm going to have to ask you this. Can we do Part Two of this?

AB: Yes.

BB: I think we have just blown my mind, shored up my heart, grounded my feet. I just loved you so much going into this, and now it's even more, if possible.

AB: Thank you for having me, and I will just say that the work that you've put out there has been so instrumental in the work that I do and DEI work with leaders, and also with in-group communities, it's been super powerful, the language and experience of shame and grief, they're universal, and I think really for us to get to this transformative space where we appreciate ourselves, our experiences, and one another is core to it. It's core.

BB: It's core. We are just the innate need to be loved and seen, and to love and see others, maybe we end up with another person whose work we both... We appreciate Austin Channing Brown, who said anti-racism work is the work of being a better human being to other human beings.

AB: Yep, yep.

BB: Alright. We're going to come back, we're going to... If you're listening, you can access Aiko's Medium article on the web page for the podcast, and then we're going to come back. I think this is just the most unexpected and powerful conversation, and then we're going to come back and do a Part Two to this with tangible next steps.

AB: Oh, we didn't even get to that. [chuckle]

BB: But you know why we didn't?

AB: Why's that?

BB: Because we didn't succumb to the action bias.

AB: That's right, you're right. We took our time, we had a conversation. [chuckle]

BB: We had a conversation that was transformative about transformative, and we didn't go straight into the list of things for organizations to do, and I saw your heart in this conversation, and I think this is where change starts because someone named Aiko taught me that.

AB: Oh, you made me warm and fuzzy, oh no. We need to end it now because now it's now like... [laughter] Thank you for saying that.

BB: Thank you. But Part Two, are you... Can I commit to all of our listeners here there's a Part Two?

AB: Yep, I'm down with that.

BB: Alright, before I let you go, we're all warm and fuzzy, but before I let you go, we've got to do the rapid-fire questions, fill in the blank for me. Ready? Vulnerability is.

AB: Everyone.

BB: What is something that people often get wrong about you?

AB: That I don't have a sense of humor.

BB: That is definitely wrong. Okay, what is one piece of leadership advice that you've been given that's so remarkable, you need to share it with us, or so crappy that you need to warn us?

AB: Terrible is make sure you're seen. Wonderful is, I love when people say, "Why did God give you two ears and one mouth?" That's the best. That's a church lady, giving me that.

[laughter]

BB: That's the best. Okay, what is one stereotype or myth of leadership that we need to let go of?

AB: Well, that's the last person in the room.

BB: Say more.

AB: Leadership is the person who's in the front of the room.

BB: Yeah. So really the leader is the last?

AB: Yes, absolutely.

BB: Okay, what would you say to someone who doesn't consider themselves a leader or leadership material?

AB: Everybody is a leader. Don't believe the lies.

BB: What's your best leadership quality?

AB: I love stories, I love listening to stories.

BB: What's the hard leadership lesson that you have to keep learning and unlearning and re-learning, that lesson that the universe just keeps putting in front of you?

AB: You can't fix everything, and you shouldn't fix everything, everything's not there for you to fix.

BB: That felt aggressively attacking of me.

[laughter]

AB: That's mine, for sure.

BB: Yep. Okay, what's one thing you're really excited about right now?

AB: Georgia turned blue. I'm super excited about that. Georgia turned blue. I'm so proud of all the people who made it happen. Stacey Abrams, Natasha Brown, these folks who I love and I'm just, I'm so proud.

BB: Amen. Tell me one thing that you're deeply grateful for right now.

AB: My boys. Wes and Ben.

BB: Wes and Ben. Ages?

AB: 12 and 11. Now ask me, sizes: 6 feet and 5'8″.

BB: In order? Is the 12-year-old taller?

AB: Yes.

BB: Got it. Wow, those are big boys.

AB: They are. With big hearts.

BB: So we asked you for five songs, you can't live without. You gave us seven and we said, "Okay," because you're Aiko and we love you. You did make a note on number one, which is "Lift Every Voice." That this is the only one that you really can't live without. The others are "Baby, I'm a Star," by Prince. "Stand Up," by Cynthia Erivo, from the Harriet soundtrack. "Keep on Going," by Vivian Green. "Blessed." by Jill Scott. "I Choose," by India Arie, and "Freedom," by Beyoncé. In one sentence, what does this mini mix tape say about you?

AB: It says that I'm hopeful, it says that I love my heritage, and it says that I'm looking forward to my legacy.

BB: Thank you, Aiko Bethea for joining us on the Dare to Lead podcast. You're making a difference.

AB: Thank you for having me Brené.

[music]

BB: Man, do you see now why I'm so incredibly grateful for Aiko as a teacher, as a friend, as a colleague? She just has a deeply human way of helping us understand our own humanity, if you want to follow her on Instagram, it's @rare_coach, Rare is R-A-R-E. She's LinkedIn Aiko Bethea. Facebook is Facebook.com/rarecoach. And her website is www.rarecoaching.net. Really appreciate you listening to the Dare to Lead podcast. My goal is to take on the issues that we are all up against, that we're all facing the real questions, we're going to have Aiko back, we're going to dig into some more tactical, practical steps, not for transactional change, but for transformational change, but I love that we started with the conversation and the narrative. Thank you so much for joining us on the Dare to Lead podcast. This is a Spotify original from Parcast. It's hosted by me, Brené Brown. It's produced by Max Cutler, Kristen Acevedo, Carleigh Madden, and by Weird Lucy Productions. The sound design is by Kristen Acevedo, and the music is by the amazing band, The Suffers.

[music]

© 2020 Brené Brown Education and Research Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Dare to Lead Podcast with Paul Leonardi & Tsedal Neeley

Dare to Lead Podcast with Paul Leonardi & Tsedal Neeley

Dare to Lead Podcast with Mike Erwin

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Brené with Aiko Bethea on Inclusivity at Work: The Heart of Hard Conversations

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In this episode, I talk to friend, colleague, and diversity, equity, and inclusion expert Aiko Bethea. We discuss empathy, accountability, and the power of listening and believing (including a very real role play). We also dissect the differences between transactional leadership and transformational leadership and why courage is a prerequisite to lasting, meaningful change.

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ADHD and Black lives… We know ADHD doesn't discriminate. It impacts all races, genders, and ethnicities. The question is, are Black lives underserved and/or underrepresented? In this episode of Attention Talk Radio, ADHD coach Jeff Copper (www.digcoaching.com) interviews ADHD coach Larry A.

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Hugh Vasquez with Tim Wise on Understanding and Undoing Subconscious Racial Bias

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Hugh Vasquez with Tim Wise on Understanding and Undoing Subconscious Racial Bias

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Tim speaks with activist and educator Hugh Vasquez of the National Equity Project about the role of subconscious bias in perpetuating racial inequities, and how individuals and institutions can begin to undo the impact of these biases and create policies and practices that minimize the damage they can do.

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episode 24: hugh vasquez on understanding and undoing subconscious racial bias

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Episode 24: Hugh Vasquez on Understanding and Undoing Subconscious Racial Bias

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On this episode Tim speaks with activist and educator Hugh Vasquez of the National Equity Project about the role of subconscious bias in perpetuating racial inequities, and how individuals and institutions can begin to undo the impact of these biases and create policies and practices that minimize the damage they can do.

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Monthly self paced, self priced learning collective, committed to celebrating and highlighting the genius of academics of colour.

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We have created an online learning platform rooted in providing resources and critical discourse to aid in unlearning. I believe that knowledge leads to action. The Great Unlearn platform is used to both provide education and inspire meaningful action.

Become a member and access monthly syllabi, reading lists and live lectures from experts and academics covering topics from the History of Race and America's Birth story, to Black eco-feminism and much more.

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Monthly self paced, self priced learning collective, committed to celebrating and highlighting the genius of academics of colour. We have created an online learning platform rooted in providing resources and critical discourse to aid in unlearning. I believe that knowledge leads to action. The Great Unlearn platform is used to both provide education and inspire [...]

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Racism by Another Name Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education

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Racism by Another Name Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education

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Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education

Edited by:
Dorothy E. Hines, University of Kansas
Mildred Boveda, Pennsylvania State University
Endia J. Lindo, Texas Christian University

A volume in the series: Research, Advocacy, Collaboration, and Empowerment Mentoring Series. Editor(s): Donna Y. Ford, Ohio State University.

Racism by Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education is a thought-provoking and timely book that provides a landscape for understanding and challenging educational (in)opportunities for Black students who are identified for special education. This book provides a historical and contemporary analysis through the eyes of Black children and their families on how they navigate and push against inequitable schooling, ways they are reframing discourse about race, dis/ability, and gender in schools, how educators, administrators, and school counselors contribute to disproportionality in special education, and ways that parents are collectively organizing to dismantle injustices and the carceral state, or criminalization, of special education.

Each chapter provides a ground level view of what Black students with dis/abilities experience in the classroom, and examines how the intersection of race, dis/abilty, and gender subject Black students to dehumanizing experiences in school. This book includes qualitative and quantitative approaches to exploring the material realities of Black students who are isolated, whether in separate or general education classrooms. Drawing from Critical Race Theory, DisCrit, Critical Race Feminism, and other race-centered frameworks this book challenges dominant norms of schools that reinforce inequality and racial segregation in special education.

At the end of each chapter the authors present practitioner-based notes and resources for readers to expand their knowledge of how Black students, their family, and guardians advocate for themselves and their own children. This book will leave educational advocates for Black children with a clearer understanding of the obstacles and successes that they encounter when striving for a just and equitable education. Furthermore, the book challenges readers to be active agents of change in their own schools and communities.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments. Introduction: And We "Still" Are Not Saved. PART I-WHY ME?: STUDENT EXPERIENCES, IDENTITY, AND ABLEISM. Special Yet Unequal: Race, Disability, and the Prison Pipeline for Black Youth in America, Charles Bell. Illusions of Preparedness: Self-Concepts of African American Children with Learning Disabilities, Janelle Alexander. A Pattern of Practice: Federal Law and the Carceral State of Special Education for Black Girls, Dorothy E. Hines, Abiola Farinde-Wu, Ayana Allen-Handy, and Jemimah L. Young. The Carceral State Effect on My Swagger: An Exploratory Study of Being Young, Black, and Male in the U.S. Education Institution, Larry C. Bryant and Bryan E. Cichy-Parker. Mis-education at Woodson Middle School: Student Perceptions of a Magnet School Within a School, Erica D. McCray, D'Annette Mullen, Alexis J. Freeman, and Lourdes Santiago Poventud. PART II-INSIDE THE WALLS: TEACHERS, ADMINISTRATORS, AND SCHOOL COUNSELORS. In White Imaginations: A Synthesis of Research on White Teachers' Colorblind Racism and Implications for Black Students in Special Education, Julia C. Ransom and Crystal M. Menzies. Overcoming Racism and Ableism: Why Are Black Students With Disabilities Overrepresented in Disciplinary Actions? Weadé James and Cassandra Willis. Preparing Teachers, Administrators, and Service Providers to Engage, Motivate, Support, and Educate Black Children and Adolescents, Denise K. Whitford. Challenging the Carceral State of Black Students With Disabilities in K-12 Schools: The Role of School Counselors, Renae D. Mayes and Erik M. Hines. PART III-PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN: PARENTAL ACTIVISM, COMMUNITY BUILDING, AND ENGAGEMENT. Whose Parenting Is Legitimate? School Positioning of Multiply-Marginalized Black Families and Consequences for Black Girls, Hailey Love, Subini Annamma and Amanda L. Miller. Carcerality, Special Education, and the State of Black Children and their Families, Ambra L. Green, Mattina Davenport, and Cynite Cooke. "They Never Listen to the Parent": Parent Narratives at the Intersection of Anti-Black Racism, Disability and School Discipline, Tunette Powell and Stephanie Keeney Parks. Marronage Refusal: Racism and Special Education as Technologies of a Racial Carceral Democracy, Awo Okaikor M. Aryee-Price. Reconceptualizing Black Family Engagement in Special Education: Understanding the Motivations of Parents and Caregivers, Jolan M. Smith. Epilogue: Where Do We Go From Here? Appendix: Intersections of Race, Gender, Dis/ability, and Positionality. About the Authors. Index.

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Edited by: Dorothy E. Hines, University of Kansas Mildred Boveda, Pennsylvania State University Endia J. Lindo, Texas Christian University A volume in the series: Research, Advocacy, Collaboration, and Empowerment Mentoring Series. Editor(s): Donna Y. Ford, Ohio State University.

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Alphabetical by author

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Chen, Jondou Chase, "The Personal Urgency and Pedagogical Necessity of Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity," Research & Action, Fall/Winter 2014.

Cruise-Roberson, Gail, Odie J. Douglas, and Sarah E. Fiarman, "Examining Systems and Self for Racial Equity," School Administrator, March 2021.
Flyswithhawks, Brenda, "The Process of Knowing and Learning: An Academic and Cultural Awakening," Holistic Education Review, 1996. Logan, Judy, Teaching Stories, Minnesota Inclusiveness Program, 1993 (Second edition 2013). McIntosh, Peggy, "White People Facing Race: Uncovering the Myths that Keep Racism in Place," The Saint Paul Foundation, 2009. McIntosh, Peggy, "White Privilege: An Account to Spend," Saint Paul Foundation, 2009. McIntosh, Peggy and Emily Style, "Social, Emotional, and Political Learning," in Educating Minds and Hearts: Social Emotional Learning and the Passage to Adolescence, ed. Jonathan Cohen (Teachers College Press). McIntosh, Peggy, "Interactive Phases of Curricular and Personal Re-Vision: A Feminist Perspective," Working Paper #124, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women (now the Wellesley Centers for Women). (Digital version) McIntosh, Peggy, "Interactive Phases of Curricular and Personal Re-Vision with Regard to Race" Working Paper #219, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women (now Wellesley Centers for Women), 1990. (Digital version) McIntosh, Peggy, "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies," Working Paper # 189, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women (now Wellesley Centers for Women), 1988. Nelson, Cathy and Kim Wilson, eds., Seeding the Process of Multicultural Education: An Anthology, Minnesota Inclusiveness Program, 1998 (and © 2010 The National SEED Project). Russo, Joe, "Sharing Classroom Power: Why We Sit in the Same Room," Transformations (The New Jersey Project), 2001. Style, Emily, and Linda Powell Pruitt, "In Our Own Hands: Diversity Literacy," Transformations (The New Jersey Project), 1995. Towery, Ila Deshmukh, Rachel Oliveri, Calvin L. Gidney, "Peer-led Professional Development for Equity and Diversity: A report for teachers and administrators based on findings from the SEED Project," The Schott Foundation for Public Education, 2007. Wood, Diane, Debra Smith, and Mark Hicks, "Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity in Elk Grove Schools: A Retrospective Look at the Impact of SEED," Collaborative Inquiry and Development Group at the University of Southern Maine, 2005.

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Chen, Jondou Chase, "The Personal Urgency and Pedagogical Necessity of Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity ," Research & Action, Fall/Winter 2014. Cruise-Roberson, Gail, Odie J. Douglas, and Sarah E. Fiarman, "Examining Systems and Self for Racial Equity," School Administrator, March 2021. Flyswithhawks, Brenda, "The Process of Knowing and Learning: An Academic and Cultural Awakening," Holistic Education Review, 1996.

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Join our candid conversation on addressing the disparities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students with disabilities.

Students with disabilities, especially students of color, have long faced challenges in navigating classrooms, Individualized Education Program (IEP) protocols, and advocating for their specific needs across the education system. These challenges are now exacerbated by the pandemic.

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[Webinar] Ways to affect change for disability + BIPOC youth

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Join our candid conversation on addressing the disparities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students with disabilities. Students with disabilities, especially students of color, have long faced challenges in navigating classrooms, Individualized Education Program (IEP) protocols, and advocating for their specific needs across the education system.

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Equity in ADHD Care: Strategies for Improving Diagnosis and Treatment Among Black and Latinx Children

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Equity in ADHD Care: Strategies for Improving Diagnosis and Treatment Among Black and Latinx Children

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Access the video replay, listen to the podcast episode (#352), download the slide presentation, and learn how to get a certificate of attendance for this ADHD Experts webinar originally broadcast on April 29, 2021.

Episode Description

Clinicians and parents are increasingly recognizing the inequities in ADHD care for Black and Latinx children. Children of color inadequately treated for ADHD face serious consequences at school and experience long-term negative impacts on health and well-being. Expert Dr. Tumaini Coker will address these diagnostic and treatment disparities, the negative impact of these inequities, and how the medical community can adapt Parent Behavioral Training programs to help meet the needs of these families and achieve equity in ADHD care.

In this webinar, you will learn how to:

Recognize and assess disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD for black and Latinx children

Evaluate how these disparities, compounded with structural racism, can affect the health and long-term well-being of these children

Explore ways to reduce these disparities in care

Watch the Video Replay

Enter your email address in the box above labeled "Video Replay + Slide Access" to watch the video replay (closed captions available) and download the slide presentation.

Download or Stream the Podcast Audio

Click the play button below to listen to this episode directly in your browser, click the symbol to download to listen later, or open in your podcasts app: Apple Podcasts; Google Podcasts; Stitcher; Spotify; iHeartRADIO.

Read More on Racism in Healthcare
Why We Must Achieve Equitable ADHD Care for African American and Latinx Children Children Left Behind
Obtain a Certificate of Attendance

If you attended the live webinar on April 29, 2021, watched the video replay, or listened to the podcast, you may purchase a certificate of attendance option (cost: $10). Note: ADDitude does not offer CEU credits. Click here to purchase the certificate of attendance option "

Meet the Expert Speaker

Tumaini Rucker Coker, M.D., MBA is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of General Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She also serves as Director of Research at Seattle Children's Center for Diversity & Health Equity. Her research focuses on community-engaged design and evaluation of innovative interventions to reduce socioeconomic disparities of care among children, and on primary care practice redesign for children in low-income communities. Dr. Coker practices primary care and teaches medical students and residents at Seattle Children's Odessa Brown Children's Clinic. | See expert's full bio "

Listener Testimonials

"Very helpful and grounding. This webinar highlighted ongoing need for work on equity and development of skills and awareness through diversity training and introspective work."

"Thank you for being so intentional and including the historical facts that impact our African American children and families!"

"She was a wonderful speaker with great insight and I learned so much!"

Follow ADDitude's full ADHD Experts Podcast in your podcasts app:
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"Equity in ADHD Care: Strategies for Improving Diagnosis and Treatment Among Black and Latinx Children" [Video Replay & Podcast #352]

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Access the video replay, listen to the podcast episode (#352), download the slide presentation, and learn how to get a certificate of attendance for this ADHD Experts webinar originally broadcast on April 29, 2021. Clinicians and parents are increasingly recognizing the inequities in ADHD care for Black and Latinx children.

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recording of presentation by Adiaha A. Spinks-Franklin MD

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Adiaha A. Spinks-Franklin MD, MPH, FAAP

Discusses how Social Determinants of Health and physician implicit bias negatively affects ADHD diagnosis and treatment in Black Indigenous Children of Color.
Learning Objectives:

Review the diagnostic criteria and epidemiology for ADHD in children and adolescents who are Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC).

Describe disparities in ADHD diagnosis, treatment, and management in BIPOC children and adolescents.

Discuss evidence-based practice for improving healthcare access and quality for BIPOC children and adolescents with ADHD.

Speaker Bio:
Adiaha Spinks-Franklin, MD, MPH, FAAP is a Board Certified Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician at Texas Children's Hospital and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. She is on the Executive Committee for the Section of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics for the American Academy of Pediatrics, where she leads the Education Committee and the newly formed Equity and Justice Committee. Dr. Spinks-Franklin is an active member of the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, where she formerly served as co-chair of the Advocacy Committee for two terms and one term on the Board of Directors. She is now inaugural co-chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, where she leads efforts to educate and train developmental-behavioral pediatric professionals in anti-racist medical care. In 2017, she founded of the anti-racist pediatric organization, Race & Children Education Collaborative of Anti- Racist Developmental Professionals (R.A.C.E. C.A.R.D.), which has conducted numerous anti-racism and social justice trainings for physicians and other health care professionals around the country.

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Ask the Expert: Disparities in ADHD Care for BIPOC Children and Adolescents Ask The Expert - CHADD

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Adiaha A. Spinks-Franklin MD, MPH, FAAP Discusses how Social Determinants of Health and physician implicit bias negatively affects ADHD diagnosis and treatment in Black Indigenous Children of Color. Learning Objectives: Review the diagnostic criteria and epidemiology for ADHD in children and adolescents who are Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC).

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Why We Must Achieve Equitable ADHD Care for African American and Latinx Children

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Why We Must Achieve Equitable ADHD Care for African American and Latinx Children

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Inadequate ADHD interventions for Black and Latinx children is a multifactorial problem - the result of distrust in medical providers due to historical trauma, coupled with disparities in diagnosis and treatment, plus relatively poor access to care. Furthermore, inadequate treatment for ADHD will and can result in serious consequences at school that negatively impact the health and wellbeing of children of color. It is crucial, therefore, for clinicians to provide early and adequate intervention for ADHD in these children.

EXPERT WEBINAR WITH DR. TUMAINI RUCKER COKER ON APRIL 29
Register for "Equity in ADHD Care"

Serious disparities in health care for African American and Latinx children with ADHD are well documented. As rates for ADHD diagnosis increase across the population, a growing body of literature highlights barriers to ADHD diagnosis and treatment - from the clinical level to systemic factors - that disproportionately impact children and adolescents of color. These inequities have created and deepened societal divides that put Black and Latinx children at greater risk of poor educational outcomes.

Sufficiently addressing disparities in care starts with an understanding of why racial and ethnic imbalances matter, the roots of these inequities, and their consequences for overall health and well-being. Pediatric clinicians can further work to reduce ADHD stigma and improve equity in ADHD care by providing culturally relevant care, and by applying treatments to meet the specific needs of children in African American and Latinx families.

Health Equity: Why It Matters for ADHD Care

Early childhood experiences and environmental influences can have a profound impact on developmental trajectories and eventual health outcomes. We can observe this through the school-to-prison pipeline, where Black students, can suffer severe consequences for behaviors associated with and triggered by their symptoms.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline

This model describes how schools' harsh disciplinary reactions to behavioral concerns, including zero-tolerance policies, can push children out of the educational system and into the juvenile justice system. Talking back to a teacher, as an example, can be interpreted as a form of intimidation, possibly leading to suspension, expulsion, or even arrest for a behavior that should result in a trip to the principal's office at worst.

Ample data shows that Black students are more likely than are white students to be placed in this school-to-prison pipeline. In fact, they are suspended and expelled three times more often than are white students. And when students are suspended or expelled for behavior, they're almost three times more likely to be in contact with the juvenile justice system in the following year.
[Click to Read: ADHD Clinicians Must Consider Racial Bias in Evaluation and Treatment of Black Children]
Black children are also disciplined at higher rates for certain behaviors than are white students. According to an analysis of a Seattle school district over one year:

52 percent of students suspended for disruptive behavior were Black, compared to 24 percent who were white

For interference with school authority, 56 percent of students suspended were Black, versus 6 percent who were white

For disobedience, 44 percent of students suspended were Black students, compared to 25 percent who were white

Certain populations are even more at risk. Black boys are three times more likely to be suspended than are white boys; Black girls are six times more likely to be suspended from school than are white girls.

Research also shows a disproportionate use of suspensions and expulsions for children with disabilities, even at the preschool level. According to the Center for American Progress , preschool students with behavioral problems represent about 4 percent of all preschoolers, but make up 70 percent of children who have had a suspension or expulsion. The same report found that preschoolers with ADHD, who comprise just 2 percent of the preschool student population, made up 53 percent of preschool suspensions and expulsion. Harsh discipline for behavioral concerns at this early age is particularly problematic, since children at the highest risk for this type of discipline - Black children, Latinx children, low-income students, and children with disabilities - are also more likely to experience multiple adverse childhood experiences, which may manifest as the behaviors for which they are routinely punished.
[Childhood Trauma and ADHD: A Complete Overview & Clinical Guidance]
ADHD, African American Youth, and Incarceration

Studies have found significant rates of ADHD among incarcerated populations. One meta-analysis estimates that 25 percent of the incarcerated population has ADHD, with the prevalence increasing to 30 percent among incarcerated juveniles.

Given what we know about the school-to-prison pipeline, could it be that ADHD, which can affect school behavior, increases the odds of incarceration for African American youth and adults?

The authors of 2014 publication hypothesized that ADHD symptoms would be commonly interpreted as school behavioral problems in African American children, which would then be associated with negative teacher ratings and lower standardized test scores. This, in turn, would predict more suspensions, expulsions, and juvenile arrests, which would then predict arrest in adulthood. In the end, the study's findings were largely consistent with the hypothesis.

Harsh discipline approaches, of course, lead to other adverse consequences. Nearly half of high school students with three or more suspensions will drop out of school. Today, African American children, despite comprising 16 percent of the youth population, represent 44 percent of youth in juvenile facilities. And as of 2015, Black youth are more than five times as likely to be detained or incarcerated compared to white youth.

Health Equity: Improving ADHD Care

Behavioral Parent Training

Given the severe consequences for school behavior problems at school, particularly among Black children, one way to improve equity in ADHD care is through behavioral parent training (BPT) - specifically to meet the needs of African American families.

Why focus on BPT? Studies have shown that combination treatment of ADHD with BPT and ADHD medication, is most important for children in low socio-economic households, particularly for those who are African American or Latinx.

Despite parent training being an important component of a child's treatment program, it is not a service that is readily accessible in many clinical settings, or widely provided in primary care. But even with access, another important challenge is providing BPT in a way that maximizes parent engagement.

Parenting Styles

Understanding diverse parenting styles is a prerequisite to discussing parent training among Black families. Parenting styles have been described in three broad categories, which have been found to differ among families by race and ethnicity:

Authoritarian parenting, where parents have high behavioral expectations and often utilize more punitive disciplinary strategies

Permissive parenting, where parents have few demands or behavioral expectations, limits, or restrictions

Authoritative parenting, defined as a balance between the appropriate behavioral expectations and responsiveness to the child. Much of parent training for ADHD focuses on strategies that emphasize this parenting style (like praising compliant behaviors and ignoring negative ones), which is thought to be the most effective form of parenting in terms of positive child behavioral outcomes.

Researchers have found, on average, that African American parents are more likely than white parents to use an authoritarian parenting style. Historical and sociopolitical contexts can help explain the functional significance of this type of parenting. By understanding these contexts, clinicians can adjust and adapt the content of behavioral training to meet the needs of Black families.

Parenting in African American Families

This historical context of African American parenting starts in slavery, through Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement, through present day. And through all of this history, to our current societal realities, African American parents are faced with the challenges of preparing their black children to endure racism and unfair treatment.

Historically, children made up a substantial portion of enslaved Africans in the U.S. Of the 12.5 million Africans trafficked to the U.S. before 1865, nearly a quarter were children. These children were subjugated to all of the horrors of slavery, including brutal violence, separation from family, sexual assault, and trauma. Parents who were slaves had no authority over their own children, and, in many cases, had to watch them suffer abuse from slavers and overseers, or see them sold away.

When slavery ended, the injustices facing young Black children persisted. Thus, African American parents continued to teach their children how to show complete reverence and compliance to white people in public, as any deviation from the white definition of "appropriate behavior" from a Black child could lead to severe consequences. One of the most notorious examples of this is the case of Emmett Till, who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 at age 14 after a white woman falsely accused him of whistling at her. She later admitted that she lied, but for the perceived sleight, Till was kidnapped, brutally beaten, and murdered.

This trend continues to the present day with Black youth killed by police officers. Tamir Rice, of Ohio, was 12 years old in 2014, when he was shot and killed for playing with a toy gun in a park; Laquan McDonald was shot and killed at 17 by Chicago police as he walked away from officers in 2014; Kwame Jones was 17 when he was shot by police at a traffic stop in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2020. These are just a few of too many examples.

Adjusting Behavioral Parent Training

Given historical contexts for Black parenting, BPT programs must be adjusted and adapted to better engage these families. This may be achieved with the following strategies, among others:

Providing scenarios and videos to which parents can connect and relate

Using providers who have similar lived experiences to encourage and facilitate participation

Changing wording and delivery of strategies; overcoming language barriers

Providing courses in local neighborhoods with other parents that have similar lived experiences; using mobile options and online tools

Understanding racial socialization, or teaching children how to effectively cope with racism

These changes can significantly improve the BPT experience for Black parents. I can personally attest to this, having undergone parent training with my husband for our twin boys with ADHD some years ago. Though I, as a pediatrician, intellectually understood the concepts of BPT, it wasn't until the instructor in class showed a video of a Black mother using BPT techniques on her daughter that I emotionally understood.

Health Equity: Other Disparities in ADHD Care

Clinicians also need to understand how these additional factors lead to inequity in ADHD care from diagnosis to treatment:

Diagnosis and medication rates: A number of studies have found that Black and Latinx children, when compared white children, are less likely to receive a diagnosis of ADHD and to take a medication for ADHD. Black and Latinx children are also more likely to discontinue medication and disengage from treatment compared to white children.

Racism and discrimination: Black and Latinx children who report perceived racial and ethnic discrimination are more likely to have symptoms of ADHD, mood disorders, and other mental health conditions compared to white children.

Trust: Black parents have lower trust in their providers than do white parents. They are less likely to have racial concordance, and therefore a shared lived experience, with their provider, which is part of a larger pattern of distrust in the healthcare system due to a legacy of racial discrimination.

Health Equity: Conclusions

Childhood experiences and influences - like racism, poverty, and other stressors - greatly shape developmental trajectories and potential health outcomes in adulthood. Inadequate intervention for ADHD in Black and Latinx children is multifactorial - the result of low levels of trust in medical providers due to historical trauma, coupled with disparities in diagnosis and treatment, and less access to care. Furthermore, inadequate treatment for ADHD behaviors in children of color will and can result in serious consequences at school that have an overall negative impact on their health and wellbeing. This is why it is crucial for clinicians to provide early and adequate intervention for ADHD in these children.
The content for this article was derived with permission from "Equity, Diversity, and ADHD: Achieving Equitable ADHD Care for African American and Latinx Children," presented by Tumaini Rucker Coker, M.D., MBA, as part of the 2021 APSARD Annual Virtual Meeting.
Health Equity in ADHD Care: Next Steps

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Updated on April 27, 2021

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Why We Must Achieve Equitable ADHD Care for African American and Latinx Children

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Inadequate ADHD interventions for Black and Latinx children is a multifactorial problem - the result of distrust in medical providers due to historical trauma, coupled with disparities in diagnosis and treatment, plus relatively poor access to care. Furthermore, inadequate treatment for ADHD will and can result in serious consequences at school that negatively impact the health and wellbeing of children of color.

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ADHD Clinicians Must Consider Racial Bias in Evaluation and Treatment of Black Children

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ADHD Clinicians Must Consider Racial Bias in Evaluation and Treatment of Black Children

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The best evidence suggests little or no difference in the true incidence of ADHD in different racial or cultural groups in the United States. Treatment rates, however, do vary significantly. And the diagnostic process is complicated by race and stereotype effects, and by a history of discrimination experienced and/or observed by many Black or BIPOC individuals. A clinician must be sensitive to all of this in order to deliver an accurate and effective evaluation.

Female doctor in white coat using stethoscope and listening to her little patient's heart at hospital

Discussions of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), like discussions of mental and behavioral conditions generally, seldom explicitly mention race. Yet race (along with culture, ethnicity, and other social identities) is an important consideration in understanding - and properly diagnosing and treating - ADHD. It's time we started discussing and studying it with purpose.

First, terms. No term is perfect for any group that includes diverse, cross-sectional members - and who would like to choose their own term for self-description. One common term for under-represented groups is person of color (or POC); another is BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color). With almost no research on Black African or Caribbean immigrants to the United States, my use of the term Black generally refers to African-Americans; I use the term BIPOC to refer to other non-white groups; and the term White, for brevity.

Genetics and race.

One enduring falsehood about race is that it is biological. We have seen this ugly untruth surface lately with suggestions that extraordinarily high COVID-19 deaths among Black American and British communities relate somehow to weak genetic immunity. That is scientific nonsense. There surely is individual variation in genetic immunity (and some family lines for inherited conditions are more common in certain socially defined groups), but infectious disease variation across socially defined race groups is largely related to social factors (differential exposure, differential health care, and so on). Genetics can identify ethnic lineages, but these bear little relation to what a given society calls a race or ethnic group.

Bias in ADHD research and clinical care.

Most research on ADHD has studied male children of European-Caucasian ancestry in North America, Europe, and Oceana. Relatively few studies specifically examine aspects of race or cultural variation, although we've seen a slight increase as studies of ADHD have grown. My own research is no exception.

Results of simple Pub-Med search 6/8/20 for "ADHD,race" and "ADHD" from 1990-2020 show dramatic increase in total articles and corresponding percent increase in articles on race, but little change in percentage.
[Read This Next: The Children Left Behind]
In clinical care, bias in ADHD diagnoses and treatment decisions is slowly being addressed (for example, by specific training to overcome implicit bias) but still persists. The health and mental sectors as a whole, not just those related to ADHD, struggle to address racism, stereotyping, implicit bias, research representation, and care disparities. ADHD stigma abounds in the BIPOC community, and black individuals and families are often reluctant to participate in research due to mistrust.

The deplorable and unethical Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American Male may seem like ancient history to many, but it only ended 48 years ago and it is a haunting memory within the Black community. Mistrust of research is also fueled by ongoing experiences of discrimination in research and health care settings.

Despite some progress, the fact remains that too many health-care researchers and practitioners remain inadequately aware of the best ways to serve these highly diverse communities. With the limitations on the available research in mind, here are a few things recent studies have reported specifically about race and ADHD.

How racism and stereotyping affect health and behavior.

Among American youth, concern about societal racism has risen over the last few years alongside exposure to incidents of public racism and discrimination. Recent weeks have amplified this phenomenon. Over time, exposure to discrimination and prejudice - a daily experience for many African Americans and other persons of color - is associated with a subsequent increase in symptoms of depression and ADHD, as well as a higher likelihood of trying alcohol, smoking, or marijuana. Experiencing racism or discrimination is also associated with higher blood pressure.
[Read: We Need Equity in ADHD Health Care for African American and Latinx Children]
Children are acutely aware of stereotypes about gender and race even before they start school. Youth, like adults, are sensitive to the activation of social stereotypes and how it affects their performance. The term "stereotype threat" refers to this psychological phenomenon: Sometimes, when a member of a stereotyped group is faced with a challenging situation that matters to them and that could activate the stereotype, the threat of fulfilling the stereotype interferes with performance and they do worse on the task as a result.

How trauma and social disadvantage are related to ADHD

Trauma and social disadvantage are related to ADHD. They can trigger ADHD-like symptoms. In addition, children with ADHD are more likely to be harmed when exposed to trauma as they are less resilient. Children who are BIPOC in the U.S. are exposed to more social adversities than are White children, on average. Thus, separating adversity effects from ADHD itself is a greater challenge in these populations.

Factoring in rater "bias."

Although ADHD symptoms seem to cluster together mostly in the same way across race groups, bias is still a factor. Bias is notable in ratings of the same videotaped behavior across races of child and observer. Factors affecting ratings include role, setting, past experience of discrimination, acculturation, identity, race of rater, race of child, sex of child. (Ratings are not much affected by the rater's prior experience of ADHD or valuing certain expressive styles).

At the same time, in rating their own children, Black parents rate their children (boys and girls) higher on ADHD symptom scales than do White parents. It is unclear whether this stems from different parent tolerance, different child behaviors, or other factors. Some standardized assessment measurements take this difference into account, but not all reflect national norms for Black children. Rater bias must be considered in an ADHD assessment.

Racial and Cultural Differences in Parenting and ADHD

Appropriate parental strategies for handling disruptive child behavior in White populations are well known and guide psychological counseling for child behavior problems accordingly. The extent to which these same methods are the right approach for Black parents and other cultural groups is less clear. In several studies, parenting styles appear to have different correlations with child outcomes depending on race and ethnicity. A more nuanced lesson from the literature appears to be that the best way of parenting to maximize for child development for ADHD may vary across race, socio-cultural context, as well as child temperament.

ADHD has the same incidence among Black and White children. Yet ADHD is less often identified and treated in Black children. We still don't know if this means there is over-identification in the White community or under-identification in the Black community.

In addition to other barriers to care, the diagnostic process itself is complicated by race and stereotype effects, and by the aforementioned history and often by prior discrimination experienced and/or observed by Black or BIPOC individuals. A clinician must be sensitive to all of this in order to deliver an accurate and effective evaluation.

If you are in an under-represented minority group trying to understand if your child has ADHD, it is important to realize that ADHD is just as common, but harder to accurately identify, in minority groups for the reasons noted. It is therefore critical that you work with a clinician who is mindful of race-specific norms; considers the potential for implicit bias, including unconscious stereotype uses even by well-meaning educators and caregivers; understands the tendency to over-diagnose conduct disorder in African American youth with behavior problems; and also considers social dynamics and contexts such as trauma, isolation, and exposure to other important contexts.

A thorough clinician will obtain standardized ratings from multiple informants, and also consider objective evidence like grades and classwork. They look for and try to use norms for your child's social group. They will also pay careful attention to impairment - that is, are the ADHD symptoms really interfering with the child's development? Finally, they should know that Black youth are more likely than White to discontinue ADHD treatment or use it only intermittently for multiple reasons not well studied or understood.

On the science side, we can't yet be sure that ADHD criteria identify children accurately across race and ethnicity. Some evidence says yes, some says not quite. Regardless, racism and stereotyping can't be ignored if clinicians and scientists hope to accurately diagnose and truly help all children with ADHD and ADHD-like symptoms. Prejudice and bias impact our ability to get accurate evaluations of Black and BIPOC persons' abilities and needs and, therefore, to appropriately support their growth and development. I will certainly be continuing my own efforts to learn, listen, and improve.

Additional studies that take into account race, acculturation, and identity are sorely needed. For ADHD, it is very important to continue to learn about rater effects across race groups and to evaluate the validity of different ADHD correlates, including treatment success, across populations.

ADHD-Related Research Used to Compose this Article

Kang S, Harvey EA. Racial Differences between Black Parents' and White Teachers' Perceptions of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Behavior. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2020;48(5):661‐672. doi:10.1007/s10802-019-00600-y

DuPaul GJ. Adult Ratings of Child ADHD Symptoms: Importance of Race, Role, and Context. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2020;48(5):673‐677. doi:10.1007/s10802-019-00615-5

DuPaul GJ, Fu Q, Anastopoulos AD, Reid R, Power TJ. ADHD Parent and Teacher Symptom Ratings: Differential Item Functioning across Gender, Age, Race, and Ethnicity. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2020;48(5):679‐691. doi:10.1007/s10802-020-00618-7

Scharff, D. P., Mathews, K. J., Jackson, P., Hoffsuemmer, J., Martin, E., & Edwards, D. (2010). More than Tuskegee: understanding mistrust about research participation. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 21(3), 879-897. doi.org/10.1353/hpu.0.0323

Slobodin O, Masalha R. Challenges in ADHD care for ethnic minority children: A review of the current literature. Transcult Psychiatry. 2020;57(3):468‐483. doi:10.1177/1363461520902885

Coker TR, Elliott MN, Toomey SL, et al. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment. Pediatrics. 2016;138(3):e20160407. doi:10.1542/peds.2016-0407

Miller TW, Nigg JT, Miller RL. (2009). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in African American children: what can be concluded from the past ten years? Clin Psychol Rev. 2009 Feb;29(1):77-86.d https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2008.10.001

Hales CM, Kit BK, Gu Q, Ogden CL. (2018). Trends in Prescription Medication Use Among Children and Adolescents-United States, 1999-2014. JAMA. 2018 May 15;319(19):2009-2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.5690.

Ji X, Druss BG, Lally C, Cummings JR. (2018) Racial-Ethnic Differences in Patterns of Discontinuous Medication Treatment Among Medicaid-Insured Youths With ADHD. Psychiatr Serv. 2018 Mar 1;69(3):322-331. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.201600469.

Leventhal AM, Cho J, Andrabi N, Barrington-Trimis J. (2018). Association of Reported Concern About Increasing Societal Discrimination With Adverse Behavioral Health Outcomes in Late Adolescence. JAMA Pediatr. 2018 Aug 20. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.2022.

Yetter G, Foutch VM. (2017). Comparison of American Indian and Non-Native BASC-2 Self-Report-Adolescent Scores. Am Indian Alsk Native Ment Health Res. 2017;24(3):14-38. doi:10.5820/aian.2403.2017.14.

Dr. Nigg is a Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University and a licensed clinical psychologist who has conducted federally funded research on ADHD for more than 25 years and contributed more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles. (The views expressed here are his own). [Click to Read: Nine Conditions Often Linked to ADHD]
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Updated on May 6, 2021

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ADHD Clinicians Must Consider Racial Bias in Evaluation and Treatment of Black Children

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The best evidence suggests little or no difference in the true incidence of ADHD in different racial or cultural groups in the United States. Treatment rates, however, do vary significantly. And the diagnostic process is complicated by race and stereotype effects, and by a history of discrimination experienced and/or observed by many Black or BIPOC individuals.

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McKenzie Adams and Maddie Whitsett should still be here with us today. But after being tormented at their respective schools last year, the two girls, both 9 years old, died by suicide. According to the girls' families, McKenzie was the victim of racist bullying, and Maddie was taunted because she had ADHD.

These two children represent the human faces behind a disturbing study published in JAMA Pediatrics in 2018: Although the overall suicide rate for Black youth is about 42 percent lower than for white youth, that number represents all young people under 17. While Black teens between the ages of 13 and 17 are 50 percent less likely to die by suicide than white teens, the suicide rate for Black children between the ages of 5 and 12 is about twice as high as that of their white peers.

The study, which analyzed data from 2001 through 2015, does not describe reasons for the disparity, but it points to the need for culturally informed interventions. In a 2015 study published in JAMA Pediatrics, which analyzed data from 1993 through 2012, researchers came to a troubling conclusion: Because there was no significant change in the overall suicide rate among youth, the fact that the suicide rate had decreased among white children but increased among Black children had been obscured.

While youth advocates note that these statistics are disturbing, they welcome the much-needed and long-overdue conversation about the well-being of Black children. This awareness of suicidality among Black youth is why the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) established an emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health in April 2019. It aims to determine the reasons for the significant increase in suicide, recommend ways to improve Black children's access to mental health care and create solutions to better protect and support them.

Black people, including youth, are less likely to receive adequate care for mental health issues for a number of reasons: disparities in access to care, stigma about mental illness and lack of culturally competent mental health practitioners. According to a study published in the International Journal of Health Services, Black children are about half as likely as white children to get mental health treatment. As the CBC task force, mental health experts and policy makers mull over ideas to address this gap, it's also crucial that schools devote significant attention and space to mental health literacy and provide mental health services in the form of counselors and psychologists.

Schools Must Fill the Gap

Because the racial disparities in mental health access and treatment affect children, schools necessarily play a major role in helping to mitigate those disparities. This inequity "perfectly underscores schools as the de facto providers of mental health services to students," says Charles Barrett, a school psychologist and multicultural committee chair for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). "Because systemic issues related to race and poverty disproportionately affect Black children and families, schools, due to having access to large numbers of children, are a practical way to meet a significant need."

Advocates agree that school administrators and educators must be part of this work. School faculty and staff are likely to notice signs and symptoms that something is amiss and refer students to the help they need. But schools often fail in this effort when it comes to Black students-and sometimes cause even more harm.

When Black students exhibit negative behaviors or become withdrawn, educators often label them as problems and subject them to reactionary, zero-tolerance policies and other practices that disproportionately affect Black students but don't address the root causes of such behavior.

This harm manifests in a number of ways: adopting curriculum that isn't culturally responsive, lowering academic expectations, tracking Black students into remedial or special education classes and seeing Black youth as older and less innocent than their white peers-a bias known as adultification.

"Kids who don't feel safe, engaged or supported cannot show up in schools and demonstrate what they know and have learned," says David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black LGBTQ and same-gender-loving communities. "In particular, those who have been terrorized by [educators'] indifference and our ignorance-and the hate that is often birthed from that-suffer and are suffocated."

We see this suffering play out regularly in news reports of egregious assaults on Black children's dignity at school: A Black student is humiliated when made to clean feces off a bathroom wall; a teacher rips the braids from a Black girl's head; groups of Black kids are forced to act as enslaved people while their white classmates pretend to trade them as property; Black students are turned away from school because they have dreadlocks or some other "unacceptable" hairstyle.

These stressors are serious. And sometimes they rob children of their lives, especially if they're compounded by underlying mental health issues.

"I'm acknowledging that the world often doesn't allow Black people to simply be," Johns says. "But it's incredibly important for parents, family members and educators to protect the ability for our babies just to be babies-to laugh, to make mistakes, to color outside of the lines, to create things with blocks that don't make sense to those of us who have forgotten how to dream. Too often we snatch them from Black kids in ways that are unfair and undeserved."

Johns leads a policy committee for a working group commissioned by the CBC's task force. He leverages his experience as a former kindergarten and third-grade teacher into policy work and activism. He spent a decade crafting federal policy, from serving as a congressional fellow to directing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans under President Barack Obama. His work has focused on education and health care issues as they relate to children and families.

In his postgraduate work at Teachers College, Columbia University, Johns describes how schools themselves are sources of trauma for kids who are not white, cisgender or heterosexual.

Too often, he says, academic researchers and policymakers approach conversations about issues Black youth face with a deficit mindset-treating Black students, their families and communities as perpetually problem-ridden despite the fact that these conditions were forced on them. "We need to invert that. Black feminists a long time ago talked about the reality that there are signs, symbols and systems that work to make white privilege real and work to preserve it and often make it invisible," Johns emphasizes.

Johns notes that there is urgency in the establishment of the CBC task force, which is expected to produce a report with recommendations by the end of the year.

"The emergency in this context also signals that it's not designed to be permanent," he explains. "This isn't going to be a standing caucus. We are working through the first quarter of next year to accomplish as much as we can and to plant seeds that will continue to bloom."

"We're Still Healing"

Gabriel Bryant, coordinator for Engaging Males of Color, a Philadelphia youth initiative, sees firsthand how under- or undiagnosed mental health issues can add to the challenges Black students might have at school.

"Oftentimes, there are added stressors for young people when they don't feel that they have an outlet with which to cope, with which to manage the grief, the loss, the anger, the sadness," Bryant says. "And what happens is that it's compounded when that young person recognizes that they also have just a whole host of social determinants to navigate. That can be overwhelming."

He argues that these added stressors-the causes of that grief, loss, anger and sadness-must be addressed before there can be real change. Such stressors include the effects of poverty, environmental issues, living in a food desert and having disabilities.

The growing awareness of mental health concerns for Black children doesn't mean something new is happening. Educators and mental health advocates note that perhaps the increase in Black youth suicidality may be coming to light now because previously there wasn't a collection of such data specific to Black children.

"And in particular," David Johns points out, "we have a lot of work to do to overcome the stigma that's still associated with mental health, which is still seen in too many communities as a 'white people thing.'"

Charles Barrett encourages school psychologists and school counselors to help Black families understand how depression and anxiety look in children, which may be different from adults.

"Relatedly, school-based mental health professionals need to assist Black families with accessing culturally responsive community-based resources-for example, counseling and therapy," Barrett says. "And although it's improving, school-based mental health professionals can also work with Black families to reduce the stigma that is associated with mental health in the Black community."

Trust has to be built, though.

"Whenever possible-and it's not always feasible-I think identifying other Black providers for families could be very helpful," Barrett says. "I think sometimes I've shared the same message that they've heard from others, and it's received better from someone who looks like you."

Another aspect of that lack of trust has to do with Black communities' historical and ongoing struggles for equal rights. On top of that, some communities must also tackle issues that are exacerbated by these inequities, such as violence, poverty and substance abuse. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, an associate professor of English education with Teachers College, Columbia University, says Black people are often left out of critical conversations about these problems that plague families of any race.

"As Black people, we're still healing," she says. "We've been ignored for so long. The issues that have been in other communities-let's say issues of abuse or incest or whatever-always seems to get public media attention when it happens to white families. Some of these same ills have always been happening in our community and probably more so because of the vestiges of enslavement and captivity in this country."

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McKenzie Adams and Maddie Whitsett should still be here with us today. But after being tormented at their respective schools last year, the two girls, both 9 years old, died by suicide. According to the girls' families, McKenzie was the victim of racist bullying, and Maddie was taunted because she had ADHD.

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I wonder how much faster I would've grown up if I could've asked for help.

My dad's entire parenting philosophy was physically disciplining me when I did something wrong. There was no room to question why what I did was wrong, or to say I didn't understand. I wasn't owed an explanation.

Up until my teen years, having a learning difference was as unacceptable in my home as saying you weren't a Christian. My dad was a pastor. Veggie Tales and the Boys' Bible were my go-tos for most adolescent questions. I was taught to believe that God would answer my prayers when I wanted to fix something in my life. I was not taught to ask the people around me for help.

As a teen, I learned I had social anxiety and depression before learning the cause of those issues. Today I understand that the cause was having ADHD, feeling at odds with everyone around me, and being unable to get help. It's one thing not to understand ADHD as a concept, and it's another to be discouraged from asking for help.

I only ever heard white kids say they had ADHD. Claiming something like that around Black kids would get you made fun of. Recognizing a brain or thinking difference requires you to accept that being different is OK.

But the Black community is taught to move collectively so that our wealth as a people is raised. Black kids won't have room to exist outside of these lines. This means our nation has to answer for over 400 years of slavery and discrimination. We have to work to affirm Black kids' humanity, in all forms. When there is room to be different, or special, we feel comfortable admitting we need assistance.

None of my siblings, parents, friends, and teachers could relate to not being able to hold a thought long enough to act on it. I drew murals in my notebook instead of paying attention in class because I was always dreaming myself into a world where I could speak what I felt and put words with my emotions.

I was taught to live in fear, so I retreated to my inner thoughts. Having the difference was only the beginning. Not having the language to explain what...

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Why this Black boy couldn't ask for help

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Ryan was raised to conceal his vulnerability, even though he knew he needed help. Then he found the power to advocate for himself - all on his own.

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Instructions

Getting Started

Bring to mind a challenging interaction (or series of interactions) with a student.

Draw on the following framework to begin unpacking your assumptions about your experiences with the student.

Use the steps and questions below to practice distinguishing objective description from interpretation and evaluation (both of which are influenced more by culture and experience).

For example, description is about what actually occurred-what you see or hear (e.g., Shelley raised her hand five times during the lecture and talked with her seatmate two times), while interpretation (inferring meaning behind the behavior) and evaluation (attributing positive or negative significance to the behavior) can be influenced by our past experiences and cultural lenses. "Shelley really needs attention" or "Shelley is really interested in this topic" (interpretation), and "I don't like that," or "I appreciate her energy and initiative" (evaluation).

Keep in mind-evaluation assigns a positive or negative attribute to the behavior, while interpretation makes an assumption about what the intent was behind the behavior. Evaluative statements are inherently interpretative.

Step 1: Explain the attributions that you have about the student.

Describe what you and the student said and did.

How did the student react to your actions or comments?

Collect notes on multiple days and at different times of the day.

Step 2: Write out or reflect on your feelings and thoughts when working with the student.

Take into account the potential for misinterpretations resulting from deficit thinking, prejudice, and overgeneralizations.

How does this student make you feel? What are your worries or fears?

What are your assumptions? Why do you find the student problematic?

Have you evaluated, interpreted, or described the behavior?

Try to rewrite the examples in descriptive terms.

Step 3: Consider alternative explanations by reviewing your documentation and reflections.

Review the explanations and reflect on why the student may be doing what he or she does. Look for patterns in your behavior and the student's behavior.

What are your expectations for the situation? How is the student not meeting your expectations? In what way is the behavior interfering with learning?

List alternative explanations or interpretations of the student's behavior.

What external factors and/or personal factors could be influencing the student's behavior? What recent changes have occurred in the student's life, disability, acculturation, and so forth?

Step 4: Check your assumptions.

Share your reflections with a colleague, parents, and/or community members. Meet with parents to learn more about expected and observed behaviors in the home.

Share your list of alternative explanations or interpretations of the student's behavior with a colleague, parents, and/or community members.

Meet with the family to learn more about their perspective in understanding the behavior. Do they notice the same behavior at home? Do they find it problematic? How do they interact with the student at home? Have there been any major changes or upsets in the home?

Be open and responsive to the family's ideas and perspectives.

Seek to understand rather than to judge.

Step 5: Make a plan.

How will you change or respond differently?

Brainstorm ideas on how to change the environment, your actions, and/or expectations for this student.

Experiment with responding differently. Note what happens.

Reflect on your feelings as well as the student's response.

Frequently communicate with the family. Ask whether family members have noticed a difference. What have they been trying that works?

Consult with colleagues, parents, and/or community members while you experiment to check your assumptions and interpretations.

Step 6: Revisit this process to reassess your attributions and your progress with the student.

Notice when you are overgeneralizing, attributing behavior within a deficit perspective, or behaving in prejudiced ways toward certain students.

Remember that this process is a continuous one, so revisit the steps periodically to continue your growth and understanding of students.

Source

Dray, B. J. & Wisneski, D. B. (2011). Mindful Reflection as a Process for Developing Culturally Responsive Practices. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 44(1), 28-36.

Learning for Justice describes Dray and Wisneski's Mindful Reflection Process in this article, and it is also featured in Chapter 3 of Zaretta Hammond's book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.

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Mindful Reflection Process for Developing Culturally Responsive Practices | Greater Good In Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Getting Started Bring to mind a challenging interaction (or series of interactions) with a student. Draw on the following framework to begin unpacking your assumptions about your experiences with the student. Use the steps and questions below to practice distinguishing objective description from interpretation and evaluation (both of which are influenced more by culture and experience).

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POV | Implicit Bias: Check Our Bias to Wreck Our Bias | PBS

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Signs of implicit bias lurk within our inboxes, social networks and our daily lives.

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Instructions

Getting Started

Bring to mind a challenging interaction (or series of interactions) with a student.

Draw on the following framework to begin unpacking your assumptions about your experiences with the student.

Use the steps and questions below to practice distinguishing objective description from interpretation and evaluation (both of which are influenced more by culture and experience).

For example, description is about what actually occurred-what you see or hear (e.g., Shelley raised her hand five times during the lecture and talked with her seatmate two times), while interpretation (inferring meaning behind the behavior) and evaluation (attributing positive or negative significance to the behavior) can be influenced by our past experiences and cultural lenses. "Shelley really needs attention" or "Shelley is really interested in this topic" (interpretation), and "I don't like that," or "I appreciate her energy and initiative" (evaluation).

Keep in mind-evaluation assigns a positive or negative attribute to the behavior, while interpretation makes an assumption about what the intent was behind the behavior. Evaluative statements are inherently interpretative.

Step 1: Explain the attributions that you have about the student.

Describe what you and the student said and did.

How did the student react to your actions or comments?

Collect notes on multiple days and at different times of the day.

Step 2: Write out or reflect on your feelings and thoughts when working with the student.

Take into account the potential for misinterpretations resulting from deficit thinking, prejudice, and overgeneralizations.

How does this student make you feel? What are your worries or fears?

What are your assumptions? Why do you find the student problematic?

Have you evaluated, interpreted, or described the behavior?

Try to rewrite the examples in descriptive terms.

Step 3: Consider alternative explanations by reviewing your documentation and reflections.

Review the explanations and reflect on why the student may be doing what he or she does. Look for patterns in your behavior and the student's behavior.

What are your expectations for the situation? How is the student not meeting your expectations? In what way is the behavior interfering with learning?

List alternative explanations or interpretations of the student's behavior.

What external factors and/or personal factors could be influencing the student's behavior? What recent changes have occurred in the student's life, disability, acculturation, and so forth?

Step 4: Check your assumptions.

Share your reflections with a colleague, parents, and/or community members. Meet with parents to learn more about expected and observed behaviors in the home.

Share your list of alternative explanations or interpretations of the student's behavior with a colleague, parents, and/or community members.

Meet with the family to learn more about their perspective in understanding the behavior. Do they notice the same behavior at home? Do they find it problematic? How do they interact with the student at home? Have there been any major changes or upsets in the home?

Be open and responsive to the family's ideas and perspectives.

Seek to understand rather than to judge.

Step 5: Make a plan.

How will you change or respond differently?

Brainstorm ideas on how to change the environment, your actions, and/or expectations for this student.

Experiment with responding differently. Note what happens.

Reflect on your feelings as well as the student's response.

Frequently communicate with the family. Ask whether family members have noticed a difference. What have they been trying that works?

Consult with colleagues, parents, and/or community members while you experiment to check your assumptions and interpretations.

Step 6: Revisit this process to reassess your attributions and your progress with the student.

Notice when you are overgeneralizing, attributing behavior within a deficit perspective, or behaving in prejudiced ways toward certain students.

Remember that this process is a continuous one, so revisit the steps periodically to continue your growth and understanding of students.

Source

Dray, B. J. & Wisneski, D. B. (2011). Mindful Reflection as a Process for Developing Culturally Responsive Practices. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 44(1), 28-36.

Learning for Justice describes Dray and Wisneski's Mindful Reflection Process in this article, and it is also featured in Chapter 3 of Zaretta Hammond's book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.

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Mindful Reflection Process for Developing Culturally Responsive Practices | Greater Good In Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Getting Started Bring to mind a challenging interaction (or series of interactions) with a student. Draw on the following framework to begin unpacking your assumptions about your experiences with the student. Use the steps and questions below to practice distinguishing objective description from interpretation and evaluation (both of which are influenced more by culture and experience).

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Myths and Facts About People with Disabilities

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Myths and Facts About People with Disabilities

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Everybody's fighting some kind of stereotype, and people with disabilities are no exception. The difference is that barriers people with disabilities face begin with people's attitudes - attitudes often rooted in misinformation and misunderstandings about what it's like to live with a disability.

Myth 1: People with disabilities are brave and courageous.

Fact: Adjusting to a disability requires adapting to a lifestyle, not bravery and courage. Of course, people with disabilities can be brave and courageous, just like someone without disabilities can; be mindful about how you use those terms as they are often seen as offensive when applied to a person with a disability for simply existing.

Myth 2: All persons who use wheelchairs are chronically ill or sick.

Fact: The association between wheelchair use and illness may have evolved through hospitals using wheelchairs to transport sick people. A person may use a wheelchair for a variety of reasons, none of which may have anything to do with lingering illness.

Myth 3: Wheelchair use is confining; people who use wheelchairs are "wheelchair-bound."

Fact: A wheelchair, like a bicycle or an automobile, is a personal assistive device that enables someone to get around.

Myth 4: All persons with hearing disabilities can read lips.

Fact: Lip-reading skills vary among people who use them and are never entirely reliable.

Myth 5: People who are blind acquire a "sixth sense."

Fact: Although most people who are blind develop their remaining senses more fully, they do not have a "sixth sense."

Myth 6: People with disabilities are more comfortable with "their own kind."

Fact: In the past, grouping people with disabilities in separate schools and institutions reinforced this misconception. Today, people with disabilities are in mainstream society.

Myth 7: Non-disabled people are obligated to "take care of" people with disabilities.

Fact: Anyone may offer assistance, but most people with disabilities prefer to be responsible for themselves.

Myth 8: Curious children should never ask people about their disabilities.

Fact: Many children have a natural, uninhibited curiosity and may ask questions that some adults consider embarrassing. But scolding curious children may make them think having a disability is "wrong" or "bad." Most people with disabilities won't mind answering a child's question - just ask and introduce your child beforehand.

Myth 9: The lives of people with disabilities are totally different than the lives of people without disabilities.

Fact: People with disabilities go to school, get married, work, have families, do laundry, grocery shop, laugh, cry, pay taxes, get angry, have prejudices, vote, plan and dream like everyone else.

Myth 10: It is all right for people without disabilities to park in accessible parking spaces, if only for a few minutes.

Fact: Because accessible parking spaces are designed and situated to meet the needs of people who have disabilities, these spaces should only be used by people who need them.

Myth 11: Most people with disabilities cannot have sexual relationships.

Fact: Anyone can have a sexual relationship by adapting the sexual activity. People with disabilities can have children naturally or through adoption. People with disabilities, like other people, are sexual beings.

Myth 12: People with disabilities always need help.

Fact: Many people with disabilities are independent and capable of giving help. If you would like to help someone with a disability, ask if he or she needs it before you act.

Myth 13: There is nothing one person can do to help eliminate the barriers confronting people with disabilities.

Fact: Everyone can contribute to change. You can help remove barriers by:

Understanding the need for accessible parking and leaving it for those who need it

Encouraging participation of people with disabilities in community activities by using accessible meeting and event sites

Understanding children's curiosity about disabilities and people who have them

Advocating a barrier-free environment

Speaking up when negative words or phrases are used about disability

Writing producers and editors a note of support when they portray someone with a disability as a "regular person" in the media

Accepting people with disabilities as individuals capable of the same needs and feelings as yourself, and hiring qualified disabled persons whenever possible

More about inclusion:

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Myths and Facts About People with Disabilities

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Everybody's fighting some kind of stereotype, and people with disabilities are no exception. The difference is that barriers people with disabilities face begin with people's attitudes - attitudes often rooted in misinformation and misunderstandings about what it's like to live with a disability. Fact: Adjusting to a disability requires adapting to a lifestyle, not bravery and courage.

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Trauma in Adult and Higher Education : Conversations and Critical Reflections

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Trauma in Adult and Higher Education : Conversations and Critical Reflections

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Online shopping from a great selection at Books Store.