NCLUDE 11.19.20

Office of Diversity and Inclusion Author

11/19/2020 Added

48 Plays

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Nebraska Community of Learners — Understanding Diversity through Education A community of learners dedicated to understanding diversity through education. The series of virtual conversations are intended to help students, faculty, staff, alum and the greater community understand and embrace the opportunities we have to create a greater sense of inclusion for all. #NCLUDE is a space to talk candidly about inclusive excellence being a part of our everyday interactions.

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[00:00:01.200]Good morning.
[00:00:02.800]Good morning, good morning.
[00:00:04.130]It is 11:35,
[00:00:06.440]so we're so happy to have you here for NCLUDE.
[00:00:14.070]So we hope that everyone is well
[00:00:17.250]and working toward recovering
[00:00:19.060]from this horrible, debilitating pandemic
[00:00:22.150]that will impact and change our lives forever.
[00:00:25.300]So be safe and stay well.
[00:00:28.270]So good morning, I'm so excited to be here.
[00:00:30.560]I'm so excited for today.
[00:00:33.100]I am Dr.Karen Kassebaum
[00:00:34.930]and I welcome you to November NCLUDE.
[00:00:38.690]If you are new here and have not been here before, welcome.
[00:00:42.900]This is a community in which all are welcome,
[00:00:46.010]and we engage in candid conversations
[00:00:49.430]and partake in learning as it relates
[00:00:52.060]to the importance and awareness
[00:00:54.980]of inclusive excellence.
[00:00:56.950]We meet quarterly and try to learn
[00:00:59.410]from what individuals or organizations are doing,
[00:01:02.730]to demonstrate inclusive excellence.
[00:01:05.050]And we encourage and foster a community
[00:01:08.070]of support and kindness of one another.
[00:01:12.630]I am so honored today,
[00:01:13.740]I don't even know how to behave.
[00:01:15.930]This person means so much to me.
[00:01:18.020]I know I know.
[00:01:19.830]But, I have the honor today of introducing, Dr.Nick Pace.
[00:01:25.610]Dr.Pace is a former social worker, teacher,
[00:01:30.050]coach, principal, currently serves as a Professor
[00:01:34.900]and a Chair of the Department of Educational Administration.
[00:01:38.151](Dr. Kassebaum exclaims) PhD from there.
[00:01:40.320]His passion and scholarly focus has been on preparing
[00:01:44.970]and sustaining school principals.
[00:01:48.520]Let's give a big welcome to Dr.Pace.
[00:01:51.610]Use those reaction buttons please.
[00:01:54.240]Let's go, give me some claps.
[00:01:55.590]Let me see some, yes.
[00:01:57.200]Let's get fired up, yes.
[00:02:00.090]All right, Dr.Pace.
[00:02:02.850]Thank you very much Dr.Kassebaum,
[00:02:05.757]it's an honor to be here.
[00:02:09.600]It's really an honor to be asked by Dr.Kassebaum
[00:02:11.820]and Jessie Peter and Jerri Harner,
[00:02:14.590]really honored that they asked me for their help
[00:02:17.280]in facilitating a conversation today.
[00:02:21.270]And I wanna thank them for their help
[00:02:23.380]in helping me prepare some thoughts.
[00:02:29.208]And I'm very appreciative
[00:02:30.150]of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion
[00:02:31.990]for offering so many opportunities,
[00:02:35.000]to learn and grow.
[00:02:37.550]And I'm really appreciative
[00:02:38.740]of each of you investing the time to be here.
[00:02:43.010]When Dr.K and Jerri and Jessie
[00:02:46.680]and I met several weeks ago to talk about this presentation,
[00:02:50.260]they were tremendously helpful.
[00:02:51.750]And to my surprise,
[00:02:54.980]I choked and cried my way through most of that conversation.
[00:02:58.670]As I shared the stories that I'll try to relate today.
[00:03:03.600]I wanna thank them for holding that space for me
[00:03:06.167]and the grace that gave me that day.
[00:03:08.670]And I hope to get those stories out
[00:03:11.020]with a clearer voice today, but I might not.
[00:03:15.210]Among other things that reminds me of the pain and fear,
[00:03:22.330]that's so close to the surface for so many people right now
[00:03:26.230]in different degrees, from different sources.
[00:03:30.670]But I think, programs like this give us a chance
[00:03:35.950]and a venue to do something with that.
[00:03:39.410]And so I'm very appreciative of the opportunity
[00:03:42.030]and of your time and being here.
[00:03:45.940]As we come together today from so many places,
[00:03:50.230]different places,
[00:03:51.820]I wanna acknowledge that we're doing so on the past, present
[00:03:55.110]and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Oto and Missouri,
[00:04:00.300]Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne,
[00:04:03.500]and Quapaw peoples as well as the relocated whole chunk,
[00:04:07.380]Iowa and Sac and Fox peoples.
[00:04:10.960]And as we treasure the founding principles of UNL
[00:04:14.120]as a land grant institution through the moral act,
[00:04:17.870]we must not forget that displacement violence, settlement
[00:04:21.800]and survival are also a part of our history.
[00:04:25.360]And that the moral act came into US possession often
[00:04:29.240]as a result of injustice to indigenous peoples.
[00:04:33.190]This context, I think is crucial to our conversation today
[00:04:36.710]and in the future, as we embrace our mission
[00:04:39.530]to provide equal access to educational opportunity,
[00:04:44.670]seek inclusion, learn from each other
[00:04:47.540]and work to build long lasting relationships
[00:04:49.970]with the indigenous peoples of Nebraska.
[00:04:56.320]So I've identified some goals here with the team's help,
[00:05:01.610]try to facilitate a conversation using some memories
[00:05:04.420]and stories from my own experience.
[00:05:07.400]I invite you to consider your identity and identities
[00:05:11.420]and your privilege and position,
[00:05:14.920]and hopefully commit to action from where each of us is
[00:05:19.570]to promote inclusion.
[00:05:22.580]As a little bit of background,
[00:05:23.860]I'm a 52 year old cisgender straight male.
[00:05:27.240]Parent of... (Dr.Pace clears throat)
[00:05:28.580]Parent of grown children, Sienna and Addison,
[00:05:31.180]husband to Roxanne.
[00:05:33.710]I'm a former social worker, teacher, coach, principal,
[00:05:36.660]as Dr.K said.
[00:05:38.650]Grew up in Winterset, Iowa in a town, or excuse me,
[00:05:41.810]in a house that was built in 1872.
[00:05:46.100]I can relate to Wilkerson's description
[00:05:49.810]of America as an old house
[00:05:51.870]in chapter two of her book "Caste."
[00:05:54.940]I can tell you, there were a lot of mysteries
[00:05:56.960]behind the bulges, cracks and wonky angles
[00:06:01.290]in that house where I grew up.
[00:06:04.180]And Wilkerson is spot on when she says that,
[00:06:07.480]you may not want, for example,
[00:06:09.050]to look in the basement after a rainstorm.
[00:06:11.730]I did that one time
[00:06:13.180]and saw the kitty litter pan floating
[00:06:15.960]at about three feet of water.
[00:06:19.100]So Wilkerson's analogy
[00:06:20.720]that America is an old house works for me.
[00:06:25.190]Despite how that limestone foundation had settled,
[00:06:29.930]despite the years of Midwest weather,
[00:06:33.090]despite what the raccoons and the squirrels had done
[00:06:35.450]in the attic and in the walls,
[00:06:37.160]it was a sturdy house and flawed.
[00:06:41.370]And it had problems that as Wilkerson notes,
[00:06:44.220]left unattended will only get worse
[00:06:47.080]until they're untenable.
[00:06:50.970]Roxanne and I used to joke that we're from Winterset
[00:06:53.630]before Oprah discovered it,
[00:06:55.400]before the book and the movie,
[00:06:56.637]"The Bridges of Madison County.
[00:06:59.400]And most people laughed and said,
[00:07:01.110]well, you may be from there,
[00:07:02.120]but it's never really been cool.
[00:07:05.060]But whatever the case,
[00:07:07.380]that's one of the places where I come from today.
[00:07:12.650]I'm not a sociologist, historian or anthropologist,
[00:07:15.660]and I'm not a diversity scholar.
[00:07:18.340]I'm really not an expert in anything
[00:07:20.490]related to today's topic
[00:07:22.830]other than my own journey of 57 years toward learning
[00:07:26.730]and understanding how I can work
[00:07:29.090]to make the world more just and equitable.
[00:07:36.360]This is a team photograph of the 1990
[00:07:41.050]University of Northern Iowa Panthers.
[00:07:43.680]This was a good team.
[00:07:45.710]It was 23 and nine,
[00:07:46.970]and was one of only two teams in NCAA Tournament history,
[00:07:53.960]for a 14 to beat the three C.
[00:07:59.600]But that's not why we're here today, but set that context.
[00:08:05.660]There was very little racial or ethnic diversity
[00:08:08.290]where I grew up.
[00:08:09.220]I recall a native American classmate,
[00:08:11.560]but I didn't know him well.
[00:08:14.160]I attended the University of Northern Iowa,
[00:08:15.600]won a basketball scholarship,
[00:08:17.110]and that's where most of my exposure to diversity
[00:08:21.630]broadly defined began.
[00:08:26.530]I was a college kid in the early '90s,
[00:08:28.980]a sociology major and a history minor.
[00:08:32.370]So I wasn't oblivious to issues of power
[00:08:36.520]and privilege and oppression,
[00:08:38.850]but I suppose I wasn't dialed into them really either.
[00:08:44.560]My basketball teammates and I
[00:08:46.980]kept our interaction around race,
[00:08:48.780]pretty light like whether KRS won
[00:08:52.050]or public enemy or guns and roses
[00:08:54.400]would be up next on the locker room stereo.
[00:08:58.640]I'm gonna date myself a little bit further
[00:09:01.150]and say that starter jackets were all the rage.
[00:09:04.540]And for those who don't know,
[00:09:06.840]starter jackets were popular in the '90s
[00:09:11.390]NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA teams,
[00:09:14.270]always team colors, team logos, often satin.
[00:09:18.680]So if you wanna go full retro,
[00:09:20.420]you can pick up a starter jacket somewhere.
[00:09:25.830]But beyond the jokes,
[00:09:28.200]I remember being struck how my black teammates
[00:09:31.370]would talk about leaving their starter jackets
[00:09:33.640]in the locker room when they went home for the weekend
[00:09:37.160]or for spring break.
[00:09:40.020]And I thought, well, that's a nice jacket and it's cold.
[00:09:43.350]You're gonna want the jacket.
[00:09:44.680]And I felt embarrassed when they patiently explained
[00:09:49.930]that those jackets were the wrong color
[00:09:55.330]for the gangs that operated in their neighborhoods.
[00:10:00.930]And it really stopped me.
[00:10:05.500]And I didn't have the language to call it privilege
[00:10:12.220]or the insight to do much with it at the time,
[00:10:15.960]but it hit me and it never really left.
[00:10:22.850]I think Jesse's got a poll question here.
[00:10:26.900]Invite you to reflect a little bit.
[00:10:28.560]Have you ever had an experience
[00:10:30.810]where you perhaps suddenly realized
[00:10:33.260]the privilege that others around you did not possess?
[00:10:39.160]And if so, did you have the knowledge or insight or skill,
[00:10:43.700]perhaps the language to do something with it
[00:10:46.810]or to act on that realization?
[00:11:15.610]This is very timely watching the returns come in.
[00:11:21.150]Yes, it is, yeah.
[00:11:32.870]Dr. K, would you like me to stop sharing those results
[00:11:35.710]or do you all have that?
[00:11:37.760]Yeah, I'll stop.
[00:11:38.593]We had 99% that said yes, 1% no,
[00:11:44.690]if yes, did you have knowledge, the language skill?
[00:11:52.055]17 yes, 83% said no.
[00:11:55.040]Gotcha.
[00:12:03.180]The second story, years later after college,
[00:12:09.940]I was principal at a small rural high school.
[00:12:13.010]And I would meet periodically with the counselor
[00:12:15.210]to talk about things that were going on with our students,
[00:12:17.820]families, teachers, et cetera.
[00:12:19.910]It was a small town of 1500 or so people,
[00:12:24.570]two or three gas stations that also served pizza
[00:12:26.970]and carry out sandwiches.
[00:12:30.000]And it was a spring day and the counselor and I
[00:12:32.680]were in my office.
[00:12:33.910]And she shared with me that
[00:12:36.556]a member of the senior class of 38
[00:12:39.010]had come out to anybody that was paying attention.
[00:12:43.450]And he planned to attend the prom with his boyfriend
[00:12:46.520]who was a student from another school.
[00:12:51.350]And I leaned back in my office chair and I said, well,
[00:12:55.970]you gotta talk them out of it.
[00:12:59.260]And those words just came out of my mouth
[00:13:02.930]and they weren't based on my beliefs
[00:13:05.540]about sexual orientation.
[00:13:08.350]I had had some gay friends in college,
[00:13:10.310]but I hadn't given sexual orientation much thought.
[00:13:14.480]And to be clear,
[00:13:16.980]the counselor knew that I didn't expect her
[00:13:19.850]to leave my office and go talk, Pete,
[00:13:22.330]the student out of his plans,
[00:13:25.280]my first thoughts centered around the powerfully negative,
[00:13:28.350]maybe violent reaction that I anticipated
[00:13:31.530]in the school and community.
[00:13:33.890]And I felt responsible for preventing
[00:13:37.860]those kinds of reactions.
[00:13:39.980]The murder of Matthew Shepard had happened
[00:13:41.820]a couple of years before,
[00:13:44.440]and I didn't expect that level of violence,
[00:13:46.670]but I was really concerned about
[00:13:48.810]humiliation, harassment, assault.
[00:13:53.740]At the time, compulsory heterosexuality
[00:13:57.090]or toxic masculinity weren't words I used,
[00:14:01.870]but I was nearly obsessed
[00:14:03.600]with fears around the learning environment
[00:14:05.340]and his safety at school.
[00:14:07.320]And what do you do about the PE locker room?
[00:14:09.170]And how many times a day do I need to check the parking lot?
[00:14:12.420]And I can remember wondering if I needed to, you know,
[00:14:16.220]make it a practice of checking the lug nuts on his car.
[00:14:19.170]'Cause I think I had read somewhere
[00:14:20.780]that a gay person had been involved in a car crash
[00:14:24.900]and they determined that someone had sabotaged the car.
[00:14:28.280]Felt like I needed to be everywhere.
[00:14:32.220]Despite my fears and worst case scenarios,
[00:14:34.520]none of those things came to pass,
[00:14:38.110]and Pete actually only had a couple of negative things
[00:14:41.020]said to him at school, to my amazement.
[00:14:44.520]The students, and especially the girls,
[00:14:46.690]rallied around him in an unmistakable way.
[00:14:51.360]He attended the prom virtually
[00:14:53.580]without incident or disruption.
[00:14:56.302]And a couple of weeks after the prom,
[00:14:58.470]the word came that Pete was being awarded
[00:15:02.170]one of the first Matthew Shepard scholarships in Iowa,
[00:15:05.330]which covered full tuition, books,
[00:15:07.340]and fees at a state university.
[00:15:11.460]I knew having that award presented
[00:15:14.510]at the school Awards Night in a packed gym of 1200 people
[00:15:18.130]was the right thing to do.
[00:15:20.130]And I knew we would do it
[00:15:22.350]even though other schools had chosen
[00:15:24.290]to not allow that award to be presented.
[00:15:26.950]And even in recent years,
[00:15:28.040]some have chosen not to allow it to be presented.
[00:15:32.140]But again, I thought the odds were pretty good.
[00:15:33.660]I'd have to pack somebody out of the gym
[00:15:35.380]for being violent or disrespectful or disruptive.
[00:15:39.840]The town relied on the county sheriff
[00:15:41.590]18 miles away for law enforcement.
[00:15:44.440]So I didn't know what we would do
[00:15:45.670]if Fred Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church
[00:15:47.920]showed up to protest as they had done a week before
[00:15:51.300]when the award was presented to another student
[00:15:53.520]elsewhere in the state.
[00:15:56.170]Thankfully, none of those things happened,
[00:16:00.130]and I was more than a little disappointed in myself
[00:16:03.520]for having assumed the worst,
[00:16:05.500]and anticipated only negative outcomes.
[00:16:13.730]Later that summer I left the school
[00:16:15.560]and transitioned to a faculty position
[00:16:18.740]in higher education back at my alma mater,
[00:16:23.450]and later I conducted some research
[00:16:25.950]into the events of that spring and Pete's senior year.
[00:16:30.130]I think Jesse has made one of those pieces available
[00:16:34.320]in the chat if you're interested in reading it.
[00:16:37.220]But through that process,
[00:16:38.470]I talked pretty extensively with Pete
[00:16:41.610]about the events of that spring
[00:16:43.590]and his coming out experience
[00:16:45.240]and what he anticipated and what he experienced at school.
[00:16:49.430]And he sent me an email during that time
[00:16:53.610]that really moved me.
[00:17:00.111]And it wasn't anything I had done.
[00:17:06.190]It was a lot of things, but it wasn't anything I had done.
[00:17:10.480]Despite my apprehensions and my fears,
[00:17:13.310]Pete had given us the chance to choose a side.
[00:17:16.650]And he'd given educators like me the opportunity to grow.
[00:17:21.130]He'd given us a chance
[00:17:22.160]to use a bit of our power and privilege.
[00:17:25.440]He'd given us a gift, even though my initial self reaction
[00:17:29.800]and self absorption prevented me from seeing it as such.
[00:17:35.890]I would've gladly passed on the whole experience
[00:17:39.300]given the choice.
[00:17:43.420]I'm very glad I didn't have that opportunity to pass now.
[00:17:51.210]The third story I wanna to quickly share with you
[00:17:53.980]is how do people respond to your work?
[00:17:58.230]This is a stairwell in the Schindler Education Center
[00:18:01.040]at the University of Northern Iowa.
[00:18:02.860]A few years after Pete's graduation,
[00:18:05.610]I had returned to my alma mater, as I said,
[00:18:09.530]and I was working on my doctoral dissertation,
[00:18:12.380]which examined the school experiences
[00:18:14.650]of eight other students who were openly gay
[00:18:17.470]or lesbian in high school
[00:18:18.570]who also had received a Matthew Shepard scholarship.
[00:18:23.080]And one day I was talking with a female colleague
[00:18:28.150]from another discipline on this stair,
[00:18:32.630]on this landing in the stairwell.
[00:18:35.150]And she also did some research related to sexual minority,
[00:18:38.380]youth, and sexuality in general.
[00:18:40.530]And she asked how people were responding to my research.
[00:18:46.060]And I said, great.
[00:18:47.290]People have been nothing but supportive.
[00:18:50.150]I've had tons of encouragement.
[00:18:52.700]And that was really true.
[00:18:53.910]To a person,
[00:18:55.410]my colleagues and mentors
[00:18:57.300]had really enthusiastically encouraged me
[00:18:59.890]to pursue my work and to share it.
[00:19:04.040]They were generally...
[00:19:05.960]I should say they were genuinely excited
[00:19:08.770]about what I was doing.
[00:19:11.017]"How about you?" I asked,
[00:19:13.520]and she shared a different story.
[00:19:17.500]She said that even well-meaning colleagues
[00:19:19.350]who were supportive of her and her work
[00:19:22.730]had discouraged her from pursuing that line of research
[00:19:26.810]until after tenure.
[00:19:29.470]Stay away from the sexual minority youth stuff
[00:19:33.180]and sexual orientation stuff.
[00:19:36.230]And they cautioned her that it might put a spotlight on her,
[00:19:39.630]or it might generate suspicion or unwanted scrutiny.
[00:19:47.040]She was new to campus and unpartnered.
[00:19:51.010]My situation was different.
[00:19:57.220]And as we stood there and talked,
[00:19:58.780]I felt surprised and then very naive
[00:20:03.950]as we talked about how our research wasn't that different,
[00:20:08.290]but the reactions sure were.
[00:20:10.990]And in that moment I felt layers of privilege
[00:20:13.840]come more clearly into view.
[00:20:15.550]One stacked on another.
[00:20:18.890]I listed a few of them here.
[00:20:21.440]But it struck me that day in the stairwell
[00:20:23.580]that I had multiple get out of jail free cards
[00:20:26.600]that my colleague lacked.
[00:20:29.620]And to be clear,
[00:20:31.840]she was and is a stronger scholar and better researcher.
[00:20:35.580]I am convinced.
[00:20:38.240]But other things seemed to matter more,
[00:20:42.420]like my gender, my being married, my having kids,
[00:20:47.800]my visibility in the community,
[00:20:49.740]being a basketball player from there, my privilege.
[00:20:57.380]My practice and outlook changed further
[00:20:59.780]to include much more awareness and attention to being,
[00:21:04.220]purposeful about trying to serve as an ally and advocate.
[00:21:08.850]I had a much deeper sense of my privilege
[00:21:11.560]and also ways I could do something positive with it.
[00:21:15.470]And to be sure,
[00:21:16.370]I felt awkward about how easily I had missed
[00:21:20.890]what was so painfully obvious to her and others.
[00:21:25.360]But that exchange broadened my view,
[00:21:28.420]my evolving view of the world and of equity
[00:21:32.110]and of my role in bringing the latter to the former.
[00:21:45.380]Last spring, I sat at home,
[00:21:48.680]at my car table office with, tears in my eyes.
[00:21:54.540]Following the murders of George Floyd
[00:21:56.760]and Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery,
[00:21:59.410]and so many others on my mind.
[00:22:02.610]In anger and disbelief and crushing sadness,
[00:22:06.120]and uncertainty of what to do.
[00:22:10.390]And so, with that uncertainty,
[00:22:11.820]I reached out to my black team mates.
[00:22:23.360]I told my guys that my heart hurt for them.
[00:22:37.830]And I told them that, "I know they live."
[00:22:46.440]With challenges,
[00:22:48.940]that I don't know anything about,
[00:22:52.040]and that I will not experience.
[00:23:01.540]I told them I wasn't looking for them to tell me,
[00:23:03.200]I was a woke white guy,
[00:23:05.950]but that my heart, my heart hurt for them.
[00:23:09.760]I told him I was afraid for them,
[00:23:12.590]for their sons and their daughters and their wives.
[00:23:24.530]My son had gone to shoot hoops
[00:23:27.680]at the school playground the night before,
[00:23:30.760]of our text exchange.
[00:23:32.870]And, the playground I think was officially closed
[00:23:37.020]because of the virus.
[00:23:40.180]And I told them, I was sure that if there was one of their
[00:23:42.090]sons at the playground shooting hoops,
[00:23:43.630]somebody probably would have called the police.
[00:23:46.930]And what often happens after that breaks my heart.
[00:23:54.000]I told them that other than vote and donate
[00:23:57.140]and learn and try to use my position and privilege
[00:24:00.980]to acknowledge and address racism and injustice,
[00:24:03.550]I wasn't sure what to do.
[00:24:07.820]We had a really good exchange and,
[00:24:11.960]they shared some things that I knew
[00:24:13.160]and some things that I didn't.
[00:24:15.950]And then, at one point I said,
[00:24:17.820]it seems like the whole world has lost its mind.
[00:24:24.740]And then John Cox,
[00:24:26.530]number 22 point guard from Springfield, Illinois,
[00:24:31.970]who does diversity work at our Alma mater said,
[00:24:35.017]"no, it was always lost.
[00:24:38.450]It's exposed to the light and not in the darkness anymore."
[00:24:43.990]And there it was again,
[00:24:46.750]I said, you're right.
[00:24:48.190]My privilege kept me from seeing it.
[00:24:53.260]Despite years of learning and efforts to address
[00:24:56.150]injustice and prejudice and racism,
[00:24:58.380]and even being recognized for some of those efforts,
[00:25:02.920]despite being more in tune to my immense privilege
[00:25:05.770]than I once was, I still needed JC to point it out to me.
[00:25:13.200]To make it plain, I wasn't, am angry with myself,
[00:25:18.380]embarrassed and ashamed that I still needed to be shown.
[00:25:23.320]I can't believe that after all this journey traveled,
[00:25:26.210]all the books read,
[00:25:27.270]all the professional development sessions attended,
[00:25:29.860]degrees earned and diversity committees served on,
[00:25:34.360]I still needed it.
[00:25:39.250]Isabel Wilkerson could have been quoting me
[00:25:41.870]on page four of "Caste" when she wrote about people saying,
[00:25:45.787]"this is not America, I don't recognize my country."
[00:25:50.790]Wilkerson recognized it.
[00:25:53.570]And so did my teammates and I needed them to help me see it.
[00:26:07.190]I, changed this slide or actually Jesse had to change it
[00:26:11.870]about 14 times because I kept changing things.
[00:26:16.460]But she changed this slide from lessons learned, past tense
[00:26:20.490]to learning lessons, present tense,
[00:26:22.590]because if I've learned anything,
[00:26:24.940]it's that I have more work to do.
[00:26:27.850]And so, I'll try to capture a few of those lessons here.
[00:26:32.100]First, I think Covey was right.
[00:26:33.590]We have to seek first to understand.
[00:26:38.040]These are some of the questions that come up for me
[00:26:40.910]in my story.
[00:26:42.960]I invite you to think about these questions
[00:26:45.090]and think about your own life and your own path
[00:26:48.150]and come up with your own questions and try to answer them.
[00:26:54.450]What's it like to have to leave your jacket
[00:26:56.270]in the locker room?
[00:27:00.220]What's it like to wonder if your sexual orientation
[00:27:03.260]or gender or race or disability or religion or language
[00:27:06.250]or immigration status, or,
[00:27:09.890]will override every other thing about you?
[00:27:15.740]What's it like to have great passion and talent
[00:27:18.380]and be discouraged, dissuaded, dismissed, delayed,
[00:27:22.660]and detoured from pursuing it?
[00:27:26.800]What's it like to feel that you have
[00:27:29.660]to ignore what Parker Palmer calls your "soul's imperative"
[00:27:34.700]or that one thing that you can't not do.
[00:27:48.930]Some more learning lessons.
[00:27:53.320]I'm learning that all those layers of privilege,
[00:27:55.500]give me an audience that some people can't access
[00:27:59.140]and that's not right.
[00:28:01.690]But in some circles, my privilege equates to,
[00:28:06.560]for lack of a better word, credibility and access.
[00:28:10.310]And again, I don't think it's right.
[00:28:12.300]But I've learned that I can get an audience
[00:28:14.150]with athletic directors or with coaches
[00:28:16.310]or school administrators, educators.
[00:28:20.150]Some folks who aren't all diversity warriors by nature
[00:28:24.150]but most of whom I want, I believe, want to do good.
[00:28:30.480]I once wrote a letter to the editor
[00:28:32.910]promoting marriage equality.
[00:28:36.450]And I also made the mistake of reading the online comments,
[00:28:40.110]which I never recommend now.
[00:28:43.560]But despite the things I was called,
[00:28:50.310]one of my takeaways was that for some people
[00:28:53.770]being the former basketball player,
[00:28:55.580]former principal, whatever,
[00:28:57.570]made me an okay guy with reasonable points to make
[00:29:02.180]and not a crazy activist, their words.
[00:29:08.130]And that showed me that maybe
[00:29:09.200]I can bring some people along a bit, whereas other people,
[00:29:13.960]most of whom are better qualified to make the same argument
[00:29:19.410]and to try to get to the same place
[00:29:21.500]would have been dismissed or discounted,
[00:29:24.190]devalued, uninvited.
[00:29:26.450]And again, that's not right.
[00:29:28.280]But if I've got that lane,
[00:29:32.000]I think it's incumbent upon me
[00:29:33.600]to take the opportunity and to try.
[00:29:38.560]Despite all that privilege, it took 22 attempts
[00:29:41.520]before I found a publisher to accept my first book,
[00:29:45.220]The Principal's Challenge:
[00:29:46.270]Learning from Gay and Lesbian Students
[00:29:48.170]based on my dissertation research.
[00:29:50.730]I don't think that's because it was horribly written,
[00:29:56.140]but rather because at the time
[00:29:59.300]publishers in school leadership
[00:30:00.970]weren't very interested in talking about
[00:30:02.790]the sexual orientation of high school kids.
[00:30:06.520]They were more interested in talking about test scores
[00:30:09.270]or publishing books on charter schools are safer stuff.
[00:30:15.560]And I think that's another really important thing to look at
[00:30:18.600]because it's structural.
[00:30:21.070]It's structural in the sense of
[00:30:23.670]it reflects what gets shared, what gets talked about,
[00:30:28.580]who controls the conversation and what's undiscussable.
[00:30:34.660]Maybe we base those decision on what'll sell or what won't.
[00:30:38.720]And who makes those decisions?
[00:30:41.290]The editorial board?
[00:30:44.160]Credentialed White guys with experiences that match mine?
[00:30:49.140]The Conference Planning Committee?
[00:30:52.100]The Publishing House?
[00:30:54.740]The White House?
[00:31:01.340]This quote is often attributed to, wait for it,
[00:31:08.880]a white guy named Benjamin Franklin.
[00:31:11.510]But I have been able to find no evidence
[00:31:13.870]that he actually said it, but I believe it to be true.
[00:31:20.130]In that spirit, I've had to become outraged
[00:31:23.100]over my guys leaving their jackets in the locker room
[00:31:26.790]and the individual and systemic racism
[00:31:29.540]that shows how far we haven't come.
[00:31:34.380]I've had to allow myself to be outraged at the things
[00:31:37.790]students in my dissertation research more than 15 years ago
[00:31:41.200]shared about their high school experiences
[00:31:43.960]that I know are the reality for far too many still today.
[00:31:50.890]I've had to become outraged at how much I still miss
[00:31:56.210]in multiple settings.
[00:31:59.320]I've had to allow myself to become outraged
[00:32:01.280]at how my colleague was discouraged,
[00:32:03.280]discounted and redirected.
[00:32:06.500]And as I said, outraged at how much I still miss,
[00:32:11.670]still don't understand,
[00:32:13.730]despite my best efforts, frustrations, inadequacies, tears.
[00:32:20.530]I'm fortunate to be participating
[00:32:22.023]in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Leadership Program
[00:32:25.740]this year with some staggeringly talented
[00:32:31.050]leaders and scholars from across the conference.
[00:32:34.490]In a discussion last Friday about leadership
[00:32:36.750]that supports diversity, equity and inclusion.
[00:32:40.020]Dr. Christine Simonian,
[00:32:41.780]being at the University of Michigan said,
[00:32:44.380]as our personal risk decreases our responsibility increases.
[00:32:50.470]I think that captures a lot.
[00:32:53.620]So for me, that responsibilities to my teammates,
[00:32:56.810]to Pete, to my colleague, and to so many others
[00:33:01.940]to use my privilege to illuminate
[00:33:04.550]the individual and systemic racism and inequity,
[00:33:08.640]and to dismantle the beliefs, behaviors, and structures
[00:33:11.740]that underlie it.
[00:33:13.550]Through my official role at my job
[00:33:18.290]and through my work as a private citizen.
[00:33:21.550]Through things like engaging in
[00:33:24.200]103 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice.
[00:33:28.120]When I first became familiar with that list in June,
[00:33:31.590]it was only 75 things.
[00:33:32.970]So I've got still more things to do.
[00:33:39.050]And it's also my responsibility to trust dudes,
[00:33:41.410]like JC to point out my failings
[00:33:44.970]and to thank them for doing it out of love.
[00:33:52.960]I don't have a recipe for how this supposed to work.
[00:33:56.210]And a lot of folks about how it's messy work
[00:33:58.770]and it's hard and it's dangerous
[00:34:00.310]and we make mistakes and it's hurtful, et cetera.
[00:34:04.940]And so I tried to capture a few points here.
[00:34:09.070]One is embrace the space and seize that opportunity
[00:34:12.150]when it presents itself
[00:34:14.050]and look for those opportunities wherever we are.
[00:34:19.920]And it's not an all-inclusive list,
[00:34:21.835]but listening is big.
[00:34:25.640]Check yourself, push, advocate, demand,
[00:34:31.160]admit mistakes, listen some more,
[00:34:36.140]get uncomfortable, be vulnerable.
[00:34:40.390]Repeat.
[00:34:47.160]This is the old house I grew up in
[00:34:50.150]at 422 West Jefferson in Winterset, Iowa,
[00:34:53.010]which is nearly as old as UNL now.
[00:34:57.690]And I believe Wilkerson's right in chapter two
[00:35:00.220]as I said, when she describes America's an old house,
[00:35:05.540]overlooking brittle shingles will cause the roof
[00:35:08.060]to eventually leak and it'll rot the roof joists
[00:35:12.730]ignoring weight, and weather's toll on the stack limestone
[00:35:16.180]foundation will eventually bring in stability.
[00:35:20.320]And even the most frugal owner knows that the coal burning
[00:35:24.710]furnace and knob and spool wiring eventually become obsolete
[00:35:28.640]and have to be replaced.
[00:35:30.830]Ignore those at your peril.
[00:35:33.010]That's the reality. If you're gonna live in an old house.
[00:35:38.920]Wilkerson's words, remind me of another smart woman,
[00:35:41.690]my mother.
[00:35:48.970]Who likes to say nothing works in an old house,
[00:35:51.060]but the people.
[00:35:58.770]Both of these women are right.
[00:36:00.570]And friends we've got some work to do on this old house.
[00:36:05.580]I'm deeply honored to have been with you today.
[00:36:09.710]Very much value your presence and your commitment
[00:36:12.820]and the work that you do.
[00:36:14.680]And I sure appreciate you being here.
[00:36:18.810]Oh wow, I was just going to sit in it for a minute, right?
[00:36:23.170]Just want to sit in it for a minute.
[00:36:25.640]Well, Oh, that was awesome.
[00:36:27.550]That was awesome. Thanks so much Dr. Pace.
[00:36:30.430]We appreciate you sharing your journey,
[00:36:32.410]your lived experiences.
[00:36:35.200]Whew, that was amazing.
[00:36:37.240]So I just want to open it up.
[00:36:38.680]If anyone has any questions for Dr. Pace,
[00:36:42.620]please use your raise-your-hand button
[00:36:44.360]and we'll take a few questions.
[00:36:47.320]But wow, that was awesome.
[00:36:50.110]Thank you.
[00:36:56.480]There's a lot going on in that chat check it out.
[00:37:00.065]Loving on ya, loving.
[00:37:17.060]Yeah.
[00:37:20.670]Jerry, did we get any questions?
[00:37:25.990]No, we did not have any questions.
[00:37:28.850]All right. Thank you.
[00:37:31.240]All right. Yeah, that was a lot to take in.
[00:37:34.150]All right, Oh, thank you again.
[00:37:36.170]So, so much.
[00:37:37.705]We're gonna transition now.
[00:37:52.260]Hi everyone, I'm Jessie Peter.
[00:37:54.840]I'm the graduate graduate assistant with Dr. Carsen Bam
[00:38:00.420]We allow transition into breakout rooms to discuss how these
[00:38:05.500]three books have helped us have conversations about
[00:38:09.830]diversity, equity and inclusion.
[00:38:14.130]You can use these prompts to help you in this discussion.
[00:38:18.100]And we welcome everybody to participate.
[00:38:21.450]Even if you've not got a chance to read the book.
[00:38:25.380]Jerry, we'll put in a link for the prompts
[00:38:28.140]and we can use that as you are discussing.
[00:38:32.400]Be prepared to share some of your action steps,
[00:38:36.707]key learnings, or change in perspective When you come back.
[00:38:42.890]Seeing the size of the group,
[00:38:44.870]it might take us about a minute to transition.
[00:38:47.270]So bear with us. Thanks.
[00:39:44.350]I guess we were the group that followed the rules.
[00:39:46.823](laughs)
[00:39:49.970]How did you? How can you even get to stay in I mean
[00:39:53.210]I'm here
[00:39:54.271]You should have to stay
[00:39:56.029](laughs)
[00:39:57.450]Maybe we can just keep meeting
[00:39:59.176](laughs)
[00:40:02.801]I wish all my students, I like this, right?
[00:40:06.090]I got a job so much easier.
[00:40:07.901](laughs)
[00:40:09.940]One thing that, you know, the book I was reading the
[00:40:13.960]Oh please go away
[00:40:29.430]Welcome back, everyone.
[00:40:31.020]We'll just give it some more time
[00:40:33.500]to make sure everybody joins us
[00:40:37.120]Yeah.
[00:40:51.750]Okay.
[00:40:56.030]All right.
[00:40:57.410]So I wanna invite anyone who discussed the book cast
[00:41:02.760]to share some of your learnings with the group.
[00:41:11.190]You can raise your hand and then Jerry will unmute you.
[00:41:22.980]Alright.
[00:41:23.813]I think Marmee Nelson is raising her hand, let me try.
[00:41:31.180]Yes, I was the spokesperson for our group.
[00:41:33.770]We had a really great conversation.
[00:41:35.320]We talked a lot about conversations and perspectives
[00:41:37.820]and different voices and needed more and more in classes
[00:41:41.320]and education and in our conversations
[00:41:43.610]and how much we appreciated that.
[00:41:45.970]We think that back to how important these conversations are,
[00:41:49.210]and hopefully inviting more people to these conversations,
[00:41:51.730]to see their value and but even be more richer,
[00:41:54.220]robust conversation with more and more folks.
[00:41:58.190]Thanks for sharing.
[00:42:01.330]Any other thoughts from the Cast book?
[00:42:05.290]I know Dr. Pace referred to that quite a bit,
[00:42:08.760]so that was helpful for me.
[00:42:15.250]I cannot see everyone on one screen,
[00:42:17.940]so in case you're raising your hand and I miss you
[00:42:20.721](laughing) sorry.
[00:42:25.860]Jerri, do we have anyone else in line?
[00:42:30.910]No one has used the raise-your-hand feature yet.
[00:42:34.350]Okay.
[00:42:36.300]Probably because we're trying to like,
[00:42:37.327]"where is that feature at?"
[00:42:38.806](Jessie laughing)
[00:42:39.730]Like, nobody knows how to use that thing.
[00:42:45.080]Okay, oh I see Michelle Harvey.
[00:42:50.256]Yeah, I read Cast,
[00:42:52.610]well almost the first 10 chapters,
[00:42:55.730]and I found it-
[00:42:56.954]Ooh.
[00:42:58.420]You can hear me, right?
[00:42:59.620]Yep.
[00:43:00.453]I found it to be a really fascinating perspective
[00:43:03.060]that I had never thought of
[00:43:06.480]because she doesn't use the word racism in the book,
[00:43:08.630]she talks about how that's not her perspective
[00:43:11.780]and her perspective is setting up the cast very similar,
[00:43:15.140]she compares it to India,
[00:43:16.450]and it was just a really interesting perspective
[00:43:19.410]and allowed me to think about where we are in our country
[00:43:23.430]and how it's laid out very differently from other places,
[00:43:26.520]and how we got from,
[00:43:28.450]how we've gotten to where we are.
[00:43:30.100]So what I've loved about the first third of the book is just
[00:43:34.410]putting me understanding more
[00:43:36.610]of how we've had the events of the past year
[00:43:40.670]and where all of this is coming from.
[00:43:43.160]And just in a different perspective of the term that some,
[00:43:46.877]"oh, you're racist and move on",
[00:43:48.550]but she just really lays it out in a very systematic,
[00:43:51.127]"this is how, this is why we feel this way",
[00:43:53.850]and I'm looking forward to getting to the end of the book
[00:43:56.020]to hopefully she'll give some tips
[00:43:57.480]on how we can get past this direction.
[00:43:59.410]But so far, it's just, it's been super fascinating
[00:44:02.000]and an interesting perspective.
[00:44:03.240]And her comparison to the house that Dr. Pace brings up was,
[00:44:07.975]it's so easy for me to internalize
[00:44:11.900]seeing how that's exactly how she's setting it up.
[00:44:14.770]And it's really interesting, and a great read.
[00:44:18.590]Thank you.
[00:44:25.970]Any other thoughts?
[00:44:29.170]Okay, I'm gonna open up the floor
[00:44:31.020]for anyone who has discussed how to be an inclusive leader,
[00:44:35.360]and some of your thoughts on that.
[00:44:51.520]Dr. Jones has raised her hand.
[00:44:54.340]Yeah, so I'm reading this book
[00:44:56.410]and actually our group was fascinating
[00:44:58.230]'cause we were all reading a different book,
[00:44:59.820]so it was really nice to see the parallels across the books,
[00:45:03.110]But the one interesting thing so far for me,
[00:45:06.450]and I don't know if this is a good strategy or not,
[00:45:09.350]but it's sort of like just naturally happening I think
[00:45:12.320]as I read the book,
[00:45:13.810]and because I am in a leadership role,
[00:45:16.350]and the part of the book that talks about the stages,
[00:45:20.450]or the categories of leaders if you will,
[00:45:23.210]being unaware, aware, active, an advocate.
[00:45:27.760]It's interesting now as I'm moving around in my role
[00:45:32.810]and around campus,
[00:45:36.020]to think about where other leaders are
[00:45:39.140]that I'm engaged with,
[00:45:40.850]and also the barriers that I see.
[00:45:47.480]I really felt that, in my role,
[00:45:49.360]when I moved to the level of Dean,
[00:45:51.450]I would be able to have change.
[00:45:54.040]I would be able to help things change.
[00:45:58.150]And the barriers that I run into, it's just,
[00:46:01.500]it's incredible, to tell you the honest truth.
[00:46:03.800]It's just incredible,
[00:46:05.210]and I, you know, I'm not giving up,
[00:46:07.960]but it's, you know, I feel the barriers.
[00:46:15.950]Thank you for sharing Dean Jones.
[00:46:17.410]Is there like a action that you've taken
[00:46:19.920]to maybe tackle one of these challenges?
[00:46:23.220]Well, so like one of the things...
[00:46:25.760]I actually pulled up the book this morning,
[00:46:27.730]like in the active stage, right?
[00:46:29.520]You're proactively working toward equity
[00:46:31.660]and equal opportunities,
[00:46:33.080]supporting those underrepresented
[00:46:35.010]and marginalized identities.
[00:46:36.490]And I think a couple of things that I have done are,
[00:46:42.520]you know, we're being very bold
[00:46:44.510]and I'm gonna say critical,
[00:46:47.610]but we're being bold and critical of ourselves as a college.
[00:46:50.560]I mean, we're taking a good, hard look at ourselves
[00:46:52.650]in the mirror.
[00:46:53.483]We're not afraid to do that, and I think that's important.
[00:46:56.500]And then, for me personally,
[00:46:59.500]I'm seeking out all that feedback and all that assistance
[00:47:04.670]where people can help us move forward, right?
[00:47:07.500]So people can be harsh in their words,
[00:47:09.800]people can be very critical,
[00:47:11.770]but the first thing I say is "thank you for the feedback".
[00:47:14.660]You know, "how can you help us?"
[00:47:17.240]And that has really enabled a lot of people
[00:47:20.930]to come to the table that maybe previously,
[00:47:24.640]you know, would not have,
[00:47:25.730]or if I'd responded differently, you know,
[00:47:28.480]would have stepped back and been and stayed silent.
[00:47:32.470]But I'm trying not to have that happen, right?
[00:47:36.050]That we want everybody at the table.
[00:47:40.160]Thanks for sharing that.
[00:47:50.490]Any other thoughts or comments?
[00:47:53.070]Okay, I think Erin Omar has raised her hand, okay.
[00:48:03.170]Yeah, so one of the things that was interesting
[00:48:05.630]in the book and we kind of talked about in our group,
[00:48:08.080]is how you can be farther along in the stages
[00:48:12.260]of being an inclusive leader for one group,
[00:48:15.370]but then not really be aware of struggles of another group.
[00:48:20.800]So it's this constant stage of moving forward,
[00:48:24.320]and then kind of looking,
[00:48:26.550]starting back over at the beginning and moving forward
[00:48:30.010]and being okay with that.
[00:48:33.080]To echo what Dr. Jones just said, you know,
[00:48:34.500]like always listening and looking for others to help you.
[00:48:39.310]And what Dr. Pace said earlier, you know,
[00:48:42.440]sometimes you need someone else to point out your short,
[00:48:47.490]like what you don't know yet,
[00:48:50.230]but acknowledging that and being able to move forward.
[00:48:53.570]But I just thought it was interesting that, you know,
[00:48:55.490]you might think like, "oh I'm this really great advocate",
[00:48:57.580]and then you realize like,
[00:48:58.413]"oh, but I've completely missed out
[00:48:59.790]on this other group of people.
[00:49:02.230]So I think that was one of the big takeaways for me.
[00:49:05.850]Thanks, Erin, for sharing that.
[00:49:07.510]I completely agree with you.
[00:49:08.950]Like, it's important to acknowledge where you stand, right?
[00:49:12.490]Like some things you're doing,
[00:49:13.860]some things where probably you can do more.
[00:49:16.480]So yeah, absolutely.
[00:49:19.174]Ooh, we have Jennifer Wood next.
[00:49:23.000]So I'm not reading this book, but I have a quick question.
[00:49:25.735](Jennifer laughs)
[00:49:26.620]I have a question to throw out, and whoever wants to answer.
[00:49:29.910]But how do you do this
[00:49:32.120]and keep people from getting defensive?
[00:49:34.640]So I grew up in a really small town.
[00:49:38.130]I grew up with plenty of people who,
[00:49:42.640]racial, gender, all of those things were bad.
[00:49:47.530]I am in a department where people I think
[00:49:52.530]will get defensive if we have these conversations.
[00:49:55.620]So is there a good strategy
[00:49:58.190]for preventing some of that defensiveness?
[00:50:01.580]I mean, I can read the book.
[00:50:03.440]I suppose I should do that.
[00:50:04.800]But just curious if there's anything there
[00:50:07.400]that talks about how to prevent people
[00:50:10.580]from immediately having that visceral defensive response.
[00:50:14.660]Well, Jennifer, yes, you should read,
[00:50:17.021](all laughing)
[00:50:19.280]but I don't think you can control people, right?
[00:50:22.190]Because it is an emotional, it's an emotional thing, right?
[00:50:25.200]So people might get upset,
[00:50:28.020]or people might go negative right away, but tone helps.
[00:50:33.630]Continued conversations help, and gaining some skills
[00:50:38.180]to have those conversations with help.
[00:50:43.050]So people are gonna be angry.
[00:50:44.450]People are going to be negative.
[00:50:50.200]Yeah, I was gonna say, like, I'm not sure if you can.
[00:50:53.240]I don't know.
[00:50:54.073]I've never been able to prevent yeah, any reaction.
[00:51:01.940]I think for me what's been helpful is like,
[00:51:06.749]I think what is helpful for me
[00:51:08.100]is to recognize the humanity of this all,
[00:51:11.360]and I think that it gives me a bit of room
[00:51:13.530]to just be like, "You know, it's not at me, per se."
[00:51:16.700]It feels like it, and I think there are times when
[00:51:19.060]it's my humanity on the line, so it feels really personal,
[00:51:23.110]and at the same time, it's gonna be uncomfortable,
[00:51:28.520]and I think for me, it's like figuring out
[00:51:30.310]how I can tolerate that discomfort
[00:51:31.960]and how I continue to have this conversation, or not,
[00:51:35.080]and how I do that in a way that also preserves
[00:51:37.620]how I can do that in that moment.
[00:51:41.200]It's hard.
[00:51:43.000]Yeah, it's hard.
[00:51:44.400]And I think it's also important for my own work.
[00:51:50.380]Yeah, the thing is, when you think about courage,
[00:51:54.610]you think about trust and skill.
[00:51:57.360]You have to accept that people will come at you.
[00:52:00.710]When you wake somebody up from their sleep,
[00:52:03.060]they might get angry at you.
[00:52:04.360]They might attack you.
[00:52:06.147]Are you willing to take on that risk?
[00:52:08.550]And then skill.
[00:52:10.240]There's a lot of information out there
[00:52:11.420]about how to facilitate conversation, critical conversation.
[00:52:15.320]Like, I talk to my students all the time,
[00:52:17.067]"If you feel triggered, you could name it and say,
[00:52:19.030]This is how I feel.
[00:52:20.830]I wonder how it's affecting other people in the group,"
[00:52:23.570]or, "Would you please explain to me,
[00:52:26.170]where did you get these information from?"
[00:52:28.820]You know, as a facilitator,
[00:52:32.610]I think part of your responsibility to do that self-work
[00:52:35.910]and that skill training, and I think it's also the trust.
[00:52:41.780]Everywhere you go now,
[00:52:43.090]you know that she's giving you the truth.
[00:52:46.160]I have students who come to me and say,
[00:52:47.757]"Hey, Dr. K told me to do this, and I'm doing it."
[00:52:51.210]So I think it's the trust that's important,
[00:52:53.540]and I hope that your leadership is supportive.
[00:52:56.800]I think that's another very important part,
[00:52:59.800]that people might have resistance at first,
[00:53:01.610]but if the leader leads by example and shows up
[00:53:04.870]to all the meetings and models it like Dr. Pace did,
[00:53:10.700]they have vulnerability, they have courage,
[00:53:12.360]then people start to follow the example.
[00:53:16.580]Yeah, that's a great point.
[00:53:18.520]Yeah, I think next we have Lisa Fricke,
[00:53:21.620]and then Jonathan Eagan to make a comment.
[00:53:25.340]This is Lisa Fricke,
[00:53:26.420]and I agree with Dr. K and the other speakers.
[00:53:29.410]One of my dear friends who's since passed away,
[00:53:32.490]Doctor, not a doctor, but Frank Lumier, said,
[00:53:38.497]"Meaningful change doesn't happen
[00:53:41.637]"unless you feel uncomfortable in situations."
[00:53:46.720]It is gonna be uncomfortable,
[00:53:48.510]but I think the advice of the previous speakers
[00:53:52.960]is very, very important, and listening to understand.
[00:53:58.460]There might be a trigger in somebody's life
[00:54:00.850]where they hear something or see something,
[00:54:04.640]they get enraged, but you need to listen to understand
[00:54:09.400]rather than to listen to think of a rebuttal.
[00:54:16.620]That's a great point, thanks so much.
[00:54:21.850]I think that, I'm not sure exactly how to phrase this,
[00:54:25.480]but particularly with the conversation
[00:54:28.920]that we've been having about racism recently,
[00:54:33.180]I think that for a lot of people, there is this fear that,
[00:54:41.070]I mean, they do not consider themselves to be racist
[00:54:44.956]or anything of that nature, but there is this fear
[00:54:48.210]that everyone sort of understands something that they don't.
[00:54:53.160]So they don't wanna talk about it, because they feel
[00:54:55.940]like it's a hard thing to wrap your head around.
[00:54:59.940]I mean, the scope of it is enormous.
[00:55:03.530]And I think what is helpful, at least in conversation,
[00:55:08.860]is to acknowledge and reassure them
[00:55:13.020]that nobody has the answers.
[00:55:17.260]Nobody is really able to encompass this entire thing
[00:55:22.640]and articulate it, and the reason
[00:55:25.470]you're having this conversation with this person
[00:55:27.610]is that you are both learning.
[00:55:30.490]And I think that's an important approach to take.
[00:55:35.550]I mean, I certainly, I'm not gonna have a conversation
[00:55:38.520]with someone and pretend that I know what I'm talking about.
[00:55:43.160]And I think if you can help them understand that
[00:55:46.860]you're both kind of really on the same level
[00:55:49.350]and you're both growing, you're not preaching at them,
[00:55:54.140]I think that's good.
[00:55:55.380]Yeah, and Erin has some good stuff in the chat
[00:55:57.760]talking about, she also talks about how
[00:56:00.050]it can be helpful to know your audience.
[00:56:01.780]Sometimes it's better to focus on facts
[00:56:03.770]instead of stories other times empathy, more effective
[00:56:06.820]and continued exposure to different points of views.
[00:56:09.650]That's really good.
[00:56:14.170]We're making some great comments over here
[00:56:16.420]so I thank everybody for participating.
[00:56:19.000]But I'm also trying to keep track of time.
[00:56:22.180]So as I want Ann Koopman to make the next comment.
[00:56:27.240]But as she's talking, I want everybody
[00:56:29.630]to think about the third book that we had in our list,
[00:56:33.207]"How to Be an Antiracist".
[00:56:35.250]So if we have any final comments,
[00:56:37.250]we can share maybe one more after Ann,
[00:56:40.860]and then we'll wrap up.
[00:56:42.480]Thank you.
[00:56:43.790]Jesse, I'm in the one " How to Be an Antiracist"
[00:56:47.457]Perfect.
[00:56:48.290](both laughing)
[00:56:50.640]You're one of the things because in setting the tone
[00:56:53.660]and having some of these conversations in my work.
[00:56:56.110]And in in our department, we've had some achy situations.
[00:57:00.190]As I would call it, but what I just wanna say
[00:57:04.370]is how appreciative I am to have these groups
[00:57:07.440]to come to and have these conversations.
[00:57:10.170]Because when it gets hard, the people that usually come
[00:57:13.320]to these groups can help you through those moments.
[00:57:17.170]And so, this was something I needed in this busy time,
[00:57:21.500]and I'm always like, I don't know if I have time,
[00:57:23.370]but I'm so appreciative of that.
[00:57:26.320]Because just hearing you all talking
[00:57:28.630]in this small group about this book,
[00:57:30.980]really gave me hope to go back into those conversations
[00:57:34.790]that I know can get a little messy.
[00:57:36.780]And, to have the courage to continue to do that.
[00:57:40.110]So that's what I wanted to say is I appreciate this so much.
[00:57:44.020]Hey, thank you! Thank you keep coming back.
[00:57:50.710]Anyone wants to take the final comment
[00:57:53.090]before we wrap up?
[00:58:03.330]Okay, all right.
[00:58:05.670]I thank everybody for participating and I encourage you
[00:58:09.340]to continue reading and learning.
[00:58:12.140]And I hope to see all of you in the next meeting.
[00:58:17.240]So I will hand it over to Dr. Kay now.
[00:58:19.760]Thank you.
[00:58:20.830]I'm curious of how many people got into their groups
[00:58:24.460]and was just like and you can use your reaction buttons.
[00:58:27.510]And we're just like, I just want to sit here for a minute.
[00:58:30.870]And just think about everything that Dr. Pace said.
[00:58:34.890]I really don't want to answer those questions right now.
[00:58:37.590]Usually action buttons to show me because I know
[00:58:40.010]I was one of those folks that were just like,
[00:58:42.690]I just wanted to sit for a minute.
[00:58:45.460]Yes, for sure it was so amazing.
[00:58:49.760]But the conversation I had a done group.
[00:58:51.550]It was really good. It was really fun.
[00:58:57.180]So our next meeting which I'm very excited about,
[00:59:02.810]is going to be on February 18,2021.
[00:59:08.160]Can we get to 2021?
[00:59:10.750]And get rid of COVID at the same time?
[00:59:12.700]That would be fantastic.
[00:59:14.700]The conversation will be led by Dr. Debra A. Hope
[00:59:18.110]And Mr. Nathan Woodruff on reducing health disparities
[00:59:22.340]for transgender and gender diverse people.
[00:59:25.710]So make sure you mark your calendars
[00:59:27.830]for obviously it will get responses, or email reminder.
[00:59:33.050]I also just really wanna thank again
[00:59:36.260]and if we can use those reaction buttons for real Dr. Pace
[00:59:40.740]for sharing his experience and his stories with us.
[00:59:44.630]That's Wonderful.
[00:59:46.280]I also wanna thank Jerry Hannah
[00:59:49.710]for making all this stuff happen.
[00:59:51.630]She's always behind the scenes,
[00:59:53.550]making things move and shake.
[00:59:56.270]I so appreciate her,
[00:59:57.750]I also appreciate being on a team with her.
[01:00:00.230]And I just have a little quote,
[01:00:01.447]"diversity is a fact inclusion is an act."
[01:00:05.470]The author is unknown.
[01:00:08.180]Be inclusive, visit our website, sign up for our newsletter.
[01:00:13.430]Share your Husker action on MyHuskerAction.
[01:00:17.680]You can find that on diversity.unl.edu.
[01:00:21.150]Follow us on Twitter and Facebook,
[01:00:24.220]we're on social media now.
[01:00:26.430]And enjoy the day and remember, be inclusive.
[01:00:31.710]Thank you

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NCLUDE 11.19.20

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