Learning to appreciate diversity
The topic of diversity didn’t mean much to me until about 25 years ago, when I was in my late 20s and working as a features editor at a newspaper in Florida. I grew up in Iowa, pretty isolated from...
View ArticleRace exhibit needs to spur people to get off sidelines
Among the many powerful, thought-provoking exhibits that I viewed on Thursday night, there was this quote that stood out to me: “How can it be that so many well-meaning white people have never thought...
View ArticleSeeking students to participate in Unite Rochester
Perhaps the most exciting thing to me about the exhibit “Race: Are We So Different?” is the opportunity for school children. The Rochester Museum and Science Center is expecting several thousand to...
View ArticleLiving close together can lead to solutions
I get riled up when I hear people (Yankees) make fun of Southerners, as if they are all ignorant fools just because they talk with a different accent than Northerners. Some of those same Yankees look...
View ArticleLearning about Native American culture through art
I think one of the best ways to learn about the culture of other people is look at art made by individuals of that culture. On a snowy Saturday afternoon, my husband and I toured the exhibit “Changing...
View ArticleSucceeding in a “flat” world
Are there certain qualities that are inherent in an ethnicity or race? I’ve been thinking about that after recently hearing a talk by Hector Flores, dean of graduate studies at RIT. Flores spoke at a...
View Article‘Do one thing’
The command, “do one thing,” has been going in and out of my consciousness since I attended the Susan B. Anthony birthday luncheon a few weeks ago. Anthony, who is one of my heroines, told that to...
View ArticleMany different ways to “Stand Against Racism”
The YWCA of Rochester’s annual campaign to recruit businesses, groups and churches to take a “Stand Against Racism” is in full swing. Unite Rochester is partnering with the Y on this endeavor, as a way...
View ArticleBeautiful message from author Luis Alberto Urrea
Just like in his novel, Into the Beautiful North, author Luis Alberto Urrea was both funny and poignant in talking about his life to several hundred people on Wednesday night. I was among the crowd of...
View ArticleFood is the tie that binds and forms bridges
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power of food to bond people together. Gov. Andrew Cuomo reminded me of its power recently when he visited the D&C Editorial Board. He was asked how he was...
View ArticleStimulating conversation with Lani Guinier
There’s nothing like having a Harvard law professor, who has spent her life researching and teaching about race and diversity issues, tell you that you are on the right track with a project. That was...
View ArticleNorman touches lives well beyond music
Jessye Norman has a beautiful voice, but what impressed me most about her was what I learned about her off-stage life. Norman performed Sunday night at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre as a benefit for...
View ArticleA slam against racism on Friday night
When we conceived the idea of the Unite Rochester project, we wanted to find a way to get students involved. What would be an effective way for students to join the conversation? The idea came from...
View ArticleBlown away by student poets
I’m a writer, but I can’t write anything like the RIT student poets I heard perform on Friday night at our Unite Rochester Poetry Slam, a partnership between the Democrat and Chronicle and the Office...
View ArticleReclaiming our youth — a must-do in Rochester
If you know Elaine Spaull, you know it’s not often she’s speechless. But the gregarious and intense Rochester city councilwoman and director of the Center for Youth told several hundred people on...
View ArticleCheering on the Americans on the LPGA
It’s been a couple weeks since Sergio Garcia’s stupid remarks about Tiger Woods and fried chicken sparked a needed dialogue about racism and golf. USA Today columnist Christine Brennan urged Garcia and...
View ArticleLearning what’s ‘worse than war’
When I was in eighth grade, if my teachers had told me we were going to study genocide as a big project, I don’t think I would have been too excited. So I am especially impressed with the work that...
View ArticleIt’s not about the test scores, it’s about citizenship
I just completed my second year of tutoring at School 22 off Joseph Avenue. This past school year, I worked with fifth-graders whose first language is Spanish and are just learning basic English. So,...
View ArticleThink of revolution as an evolution
Grace Lee Boggs is a Chinese-American philosopher, civil rights legend and social activist; that’s the way Krista Tippett describes her. I recently listened to a podcast of Tippett’s public radio show...
View ArticleInequality taking a toll on health
Does inequality make us sick? It’s a provocative question, and one that health care professionals have been talking about this summer. The University of Rochester Medical Center’s Department of...
View Article
