by: Jinnie Array June 19, 2015   Rachel Dolezal, President of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), made headlines and became the top trending item on Twitter last week when it was discovered that she had been posing as Black for many years. In her interview on the Today Show, she continued to assert: “I identify as Black.” These events have sparked strong emotions—anger, confusion, sympathy,…

by: Naomi Mazin April 01, 2015 This week, the world lost a true hero. Dr. Leon Bass, who turned his personal and life-altering experiences with racism and anti-Semitism into opportunities to educate, inspire action in others and bear, in word, deed and character, the mandate of “Never Again,” died on Saturday, March 28th at the age of 90. ADL joins the world in mourning his loss. As a young man, Leon Bass grew up in a country divided by racial prejudice. He often shared…

by: Lorraine Array March 23, 2015 Recent incidents around the world remind us of the power of hate and vitriol to permeate our religious, cultural and national borders. ISIS continues to expand its alliances and fear-mongering tactics. The world is in many ways paralyzed to see a way forward, and the need for solutions capable of building bridges of understanding and respect has never been greater. In this spirit, in early 2013, the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Connecticut Office…

by: Jinnie Array March 16, 2015 Last week, disturbing video emerged of fraternity brothers from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) chapter at the University of Oklahoma laughing while singing a racist chant: “There will never be a ni**** SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me. There will never be a ni**** SAE.” The news comes on the heels of the recent findings from a Department of Justice investigation in Ferguson, MO which, among other things,…

by: Lorraine Array January 22, 2015 "After Auschwitz, the human condition is not the same, nothing will be the same." - Elie Wiesel   January 27th marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp by the Russian army at the end of World War II.  For those who were able to survive the horrors of Auschwitz, finally hearing the words “We’re free! We’re free!” echoing across the camp barracks must have seemed…

by: Oren Segal December 17, 2014 Malala.  Ferguson. Immigration. Ebola. Voter ID Laws. Climate Change.  These are just a few of the topics teachers are regularly and actively bringing into their classrooms.   Whether they teach English, Social Studies, Advisory or another subject and whether they have five minutes or decide to do a week- long study, teachers know that topics in the news will engage and interest students in a deep and meaningful way.  Research…

by: Oren Segal December 05, 2014 In the wake of two grand jury decisions—in Ferguson, MO and Staten Island, NY—not to indict the police officers who were involved in the killing of black men, the time has come to ask ourselves: Where do we go from here? There are a myriad of ideas and legislation on the table--diversity training for the police, funding to provide body cameras for police officers and legislation to tighten standards on military-style equipment for local police…

by: Oren Segal September 04, 2014 I can’t tell Asians apart. You’re different for a Black guy. You don’t look Jewish.  Microaggressions. They are everyday slights, indignities, put-downs and insults that people of color, women, LBGT populations and other marginalized people experience in their day-to-day interactions.  Their impact is often unintended, subtle or seen as innocuous, which makes it easy to dismiss them or tell people who object that they are being…

by: Oren Segal July 29, 2014 If you have been reviewing any number of parenting or education blogs lately, you’ll see headlines proclaiming the menace and dangers of technology.  Technology, and more specifically, social media and mobile apps are often treated like “monsters” to guard against and the creators of all matter of social ills.  Even if technology is scary and daunting to some adults, for youth it is a necessary and positive part of life.  In…

June 07, 2014 “Stonewall was just the flip side of the black revolt when Rosa Parks took a stand.  Finally, the kids down there took a stand. But it was peaceful.  I mean, they said it was a riot; it was more like a civil disobedience.” -- Storme DeLarverie (1920-2014), early leader in the Gay Rights Movement   June is LGBTQ Pride Month.  To understand the LGBTQ movement, it’s important to appreciate the meaning of pride.&nbsp…

by: Mark Onofrio March 17, 2014 A teacher raises his hand in A World of Difference® Institute training and says, "I like to kid around with my students." He says, "I like to have fun in my class so they are more likely to come to me when they need help."   He calls one student his “favorite Mexican,” another student “Dopey” and the only African-American student “MLK” (short for Martin Luther King Jr.) This well-intentioned…

by: Oren Segal February 26, 2014   It happened again. College students dressed up like members of a “culture” for a stereotyped theme party. In the most recent example, sorority students at Columbia University were photographed wearing sombreros, thick mustaches, ponchos and holding maracas. They also portrayed other nationalities. What’s worse is that these types of parties are not anomalies, but common occurrences on college campuses. African-themed…

by: Mark Onofrio February 07, 2014 Criticism of immigrant policy is not an excuse to undermine the humanity of others with the kind of vitriol that dominated the internet, especially Twitter, after the Atlanta-based Coca Cola Company aired a commercial with “America the Beautiful,” sung in different languages and featuring a diversity of people during the Super Bowl. The term immigrant is a descriptor, not a slur. However, it is often used in a pejorative way. For those who are…

by: Mark Onofrio January 31, 2014 The Super Bowl is arguably one of the biggest days in American sports, and with good reason. In addition to being a competition of the best two football teams in the most popular sport in America, this year it is also the kind of celebration not often associated with professional sports. Derrick Coleman, a running back for the Seattle Seahawks, is the only legally deaf athlete in professional football history to play offense. In early January 2014, Coleman…

by: Mark Onofrio January 24, 2014 We recently had a reminder of the endur­ing power of stereo­types in Amer­i­can when an inter­view by Seat­tle Sea­hawks cor­ner­back Richard Sher­man prompted a slew of racist remarks on Twit­ter and a main­stream media com­men­ta­tor referred to him as a “thug” and an “ape.” While per­haps unin­ten­tional on the part of media com­men­ta­tors, the…

January 21, 2014 The phrase "that’s so gay" has persisted as a way for students to describe things they do not like, find annoying or generally want to put down, while it is promising that fewer students are hearing homophobic slurs than in previous years. The phrase is used so commonly that many students no longer recognize it as homophobic because it is “what everyone says.” When educators and other adults intervene, common student responses include “I was just…