In this conversation on race I’m joined by Diversity pioneers and original thought leaders Lee Mun Wah and Howard Ross to talk about the current state of diversity, racism and white supremacy in the US today
Howard is known for his cutting edge work on implicit bias and Mun Wah made the ground breaking film on race, Color of Fear.
Key Topics:
- Origins and current state of the Trump executive order banning diversity and inclusion training in the government and companies that do business with the government
- Threats against Howard Ross and his family for his work in diversity, equity and inclusion
- The content of the letter suspending Mun Wah’s training with the government calling diversity and inclusion unpatriotic, propaganda and unamerican.
- Why diversity, equity, inclusion and conversations on race are more important now than ever in the current culture of the US and across the globe
- How Black people and others protesting in the name of social justice are being shot, threatened and attacked
- Overcoming resistance and fear of diversity, conversations on race and social justice
- Whose lives matter? Do white lives matter more than Black lives? Do heterosexual lives matter more than LGBTQ lives
- The fact that the media doesn’t mention the large numbers of Native American women who have disappeared, the lack of funds to help Native American communities and the high Covid death rate in that community
- How issues of racism against LatinX, Asian and other people of color are often neglected, trivialized and ignored
- Intercultural
- Health care disparities that result in higher death rates for Black women during childbirth than white women
- Howard and Mun Wah share experiences engaging in dialogues with white supremacists
Guests Bio
Howard Ross is a lifelong social justice advocate and the Founder of Cook Ross. He is considered one of the world’s seminal thought leaders on identifying and addressing Unconscious Bias. Howard authored the Washington Post best seller, Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives (published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2014) and ReInventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose and Performance, (published by Rowman and Littlefield in conjunction with SHRM in 2011). His new book, Our Search for Belonging: How the Need for Connection is Tearing Our Culture Apart (with JonRobert Tartaglione)
Lee Mun Wah is an internationally renowned Chinese American documentary filmmaker, author, poet, Asian folk teller, educator, community therapist, and master diversity trainer. He is the Executive Director of StirFry Seminars & Consulting, a diversity training company that provides educational tools and workshops on cross-cultural communication and awareness, mindful facilitation, and conflict mediation techniques. His first documentary film, Stolen Ground, about the experience of Asian Americans, won honorable mention at the San Francisco International Film Festival. His most famous film about racism, The Color of Fear, won the Gold Medal for Best Social Studies Documentary and in 1995, Oprah Winfrey did a one-hour special on Lee Mun Wah’s life and work that was seen by many. His latest film, If These Halls Could Talk, was just released. The film’s focus is on college students and their experience with racism and other diversity issues in higher education. Thousands of people from government and social service agencies, corporations and educational institutions have taken Lee Mun Wah’s workshops and partnered with Stirfry Seminars & Consulting on their diversity initiatives.