America has adopted a national religion and it’s not mine — The Old Testament, what Jews call the Torah, in Exodus 21:22–23, tells a story of two men who are fighting and injure a pregnant woman, resulting in a miscarriage. The Bible verse explains that if the only harm done is the miscarriage, then the perpetrator must pay a fine. If…

Organizations need to implement more robust diversity programs — Diverse hiring and inclusion programs aren’t really enough to advance the ball on racial equity, Helen Turnbull, internationally recognized expert on the subject, has often reminded us. Turnbull described this Illusion of Inclusion using a cake-making analogy, with diversity being the cake ingredients and inclusion the effort or the mixing…

It’s hard to fix a racist system that’s always been broken — Most Americans over the age of 30 grew up with unopposed notion that the U.S. Constitution was basically handed down from God at Mt. Sinai. That its words were divinely inspired. That “We The People” was chiseled out of the same stone as the Ten Commandments. It would be disingenuous…

End bystanderism and use your white voice to speak up — After the release of his first album in the late 1940s, but before he was famous, Frank Sinatra performed in a theatre in New York. After the show, he headed to Harlem to see the up-and-coming Will Mastin Trio led by a young Sammy Davis, Jr. Sinatra was blown away…

Improving neighborhoods without uprooting them — It’s become quite trendy these days. Buy up old homes, unused or underused warehouses, buildings with local small businesses and other lots. Then tear things down or refurbish them. Then put in high-tech companies, hip restaurants and coffee shops serving up single-origin coffee from the likes of Guatemala and Burundi. …

Black men and women who gave their lives for America — Israel Meir Lau was born in 1937 in Piotrkow Trybunalski Poland. At age five, most of the city’s Jews, including Lau’s parents, were deported to the extermination camp known as Treblinka, where the Nazis would go on to murder 925,000 Jews. Four of my own cousins all under the age…

Businesses should rethink how office rules impact society, not just their bottom line. — On a recent plane ride back from Houston, the person next to me was talking about how her large company in downtown Denver was moving to an entirely remote work platform. Over 2,000 employees, and now they would be working from home. We can chat another day about the horrific…

Who’s holding the New Right accountable for its rhetoric? — On Sunday, May 15, 2022, a white supremacist in military-style camouflage clothing carried a semi-automatic rifle into a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., and massacred ten of our Black brothers and sisters. Community rebuilder Katherine Massey. Retired Buffalo police officer Aaron Salter, Jr. Father and husband Heyward Patterson. Food pantry…

A four-step program to using grace and space instead of cancelation — Let’s face it. Nobody wants to be told they’re wrong. That their way of thinking is part of the problem. Or that they just don’t get it. I’ve yet to meet someone who just craves being put down. Or who rushes to self-reflect or make any real changes after being…