A Cultural Awareness, D&I Links Menu, & Q&A for Your Community, Org., Family & Individual Transformation
Note: Your 5 Listening/Action Questions are at the very end of this extensive Menu.
Here are 3 steps to transformative Allyship and D&I for any org., group, familyor individual, no matter what your culture, background or experience is:
1Review 1-3 links (some only 3 min.) from the extensive Menu below
(we recommend including 1 w/edu-comedy, music or excellence lables).
2– Answer the 5 Study/Action Questions at the very end of this Menu.
3–Repeat steps 1 & 2 for the next week, month, or lifetime
(that’s how transformation happens).
What is this Diversity Circles List, and who are its main focus? It’s an extensive list of very diverse links. Individuals & orgs from academia, science, the arts, commedy and everyday people, whose voices represent their own group(s). The main focus is on groups who currently experience the most suicides, wrongful arrests, isolation, institutionalizations or killings.
Who is this for? Any and every group, family or individual:
No matter what our culture, ability or background, generous and effective Allyship and Cultural Awareness (or lack of it) impacts people we do and don’t know, every day, and limits or broadens the friends and connections we can make. Engaging in it generously and regularly can be transformative for us and those around us. These links are voices from people who experience many different forms of disenfranchisement while they’re out living their lives. They show us new and old ways of listening, learning from, and appreciating each other. This is not political; it’s just part of the human condition.
Who started this list & study, and why? Inspired by requests after a “Community for All” conference, I’ve been working with an international, very diverse group of professional historians educators and practitioners, (who prefer anonymity), who shine the light on useful information, organizations and individuals around intersectionality, phraseology, antibigotry and accomplice Allyship. From these many different cultures, we offer this reviewed, curated, imperfect, and evolving menu of links and how-to’s for everyone. These voices are hilarious, serious, intriguing, inspiring, eye-opening. Many of the speakers deal with uninvited subjects like aggression, microaggressions, or invisibility on a daily basis, and offer new ways to engage with someone who seems (but usually isn’t) very different.
What this list does not include: It does not include many well-known subjects, genocides, internments nor many other atrocities. This list is only a sampling of the vast knowledge, wisdom, history and personal testimonials, available in libraries, online and in oral history.
Some Tips: Start with the “Top 20 Requested Links”, below, as an ice breaker at home, school or office, and/or to start your diversity circle. Many groups and businesses now use it as their ongoing training or fold it into their existing training.
Reading each link’s comments can be invaluable.
Bursting your search filter bubble! As an added bonus, clicking the links also shifts your search filters, further broadening what information is recommended to you, your options and future perspectives.
Share & discuss as you wish. We hope this list & Q&A serves our shared and individual journeys during these raw and transformational times.
All links are healthy and free. Please support some or all of the listed influencers, authors, historians, etc. No one “digests” info the same way, so we begin with the Top 20 Requested. Laugh, cry, learn, act, and please share far & wide. Did we mention SHARING THIS LIST!?Peace, health and safety to you & yours, always.
Some reviews: ”These videos are amazing!”, “The 5 questions focused us”, “I thought I was the only one”, “Thought I knew all this—powerful words right from their mouths”, “I’m so glad we’re doing this” “I laughed & cried, & was shocked–now inspired to act.” “We’re incorporating this program in our organization.”, “Our whole family loves it!–and we’re black/indigenous”. Did I mention SHARING THIS LIST!?
Peace, health and safety to you & yours, always.
–The Diversity Circles Crew
The Diversity Menu
Your Quick (or slow) 5 Listening/Action Questions…
(For transformation, we recommend revisiting these Q’s each day, week, or twice monthly). A short or long, fun or intense, link a day makes a difference.
Happy, sad or reflective: These Q’s are designed to facilitate vulnerable inquiry, learning & sharing, and committed action and reflection. Not debate or blame.
No matter what group(s) we belong to, we each have certain rights & access that others don’t share. We take certain rights, safety, ability, or access for granted that others struggle with daily. We can never fully understand, but we can listen, learn, reflect, and act in loving, mindful service and Allyship (see the How to be an effective Ally section in the Menu above).
The 5 Questions:
Read or watch a link from the Menu above (alone, or w/a partner or group).
Then clarify/answer the following 5 questions.
Be mindful to refer to the link/influencer(s) as questions arise (rather than interpret their words).
Question/Inquiry/Deep Listening Ground Rules: (in addition your general groundrules)
- This is a shared, unique, precious inquiry and deep listening practice focussed on the influencer’s message.
It’s not an intellectual debate, sermon, confessional, therapy, sharing session, nor a venue to splash about in “lake me”. - Keep genuine generosity & respect throughout. Try to stick to clarifying questions focussed understanding the influencer’s message(s) or the question at hand.
- This is a space for vulnerability, mistake-making, deep listening practice, learning and even epiphany.
- Even through changing emotions, please generously, maturely remain focused on the topic at hand. If you must leave, remember to remind the group that you’re OK, and leave generously (unless you need emergency help).
1. What from the influencer(s) has shown you more deeply, a right, access, or “privilege” that you have?
2. What miniscule or large assumptions or biases of your own were shaken or exposed by this influencer/group?
3. What practice will you take on to deepen your learning, and retain any insights you’ve gotten from this influencer/group?
4. What small or large service or action will you take in the following days; in family, community, country, or world, and what short or long-term impact do you intend to have?
5. (Take your intended service or action). After taking that action: what have you learned? What has changed for you and/or others? What do you intend to build upon?
Thank you for sharing and supporting valuable diverse influencers and groups like those above and below.
Please feel free to spread the awareness, and to share this far and wide.
What is the Diversity Circle for?
To explain, first watch this video HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BEFORE STARTING/JOINING A GROUP: Vid. Experts on White Fragility: Robin DiAngelo, Erin Trent Johnson, Aaron Morrison (~40 min)It’s for listening rather than sharing. It’s at different times hilarious, heartbreaking, inspiring, frustrating, bonding, awe-inspiring, and always a deeply generous, vulnerable space for learning from the voices of groups in the links. This is a great opportunity to practice listening and learning from deepening levels–even if you feel you’ve heard it before. This is a time to let go of the urges to share, reinterpret, get defensive, or any tendencies that can inhibit deep listening of these voices.
In these Diversity Circles; these voices also distinguish the many useful and detrimental forms of Allyship, and how to point to the voices in the links. Some links have adult themes and blunt language. Use generous discretion when referring to these.
What is the Diversity Circle NOT for? It’s not therapy, not a time for you to talk about yourself/your experience, or your relations–no matter how tempting (unless you are part of the group of focus). It is not a consensus, It’s not a confessional. It’s not “whataboutism” (changing the focus or subject when you get uncomfortable or switching focus to a group not mentioned above). It’s not about being comfortable, not a time for judging the materials, topic or any speakers; not a time for you to explain yourself; not a competition to see who is more anri-racist or a better ally. It’s not about you. Not about making up your own questions.