thought experiments
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My colleague Clara and I were facilitating a meeting that was long overdue. The participants were there to solve a problem that was also long overdue. One participant explained, with clear emotion in his voice, everything that had gone wrong. He told us how the actions of others caused him
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This post is narrated! listen below… I had a situation gnawing at me for the better part of a year. I was working with a group for several months and had a good rapport with almost everyone. One person in particular was stirring conflict in ways I struggled to respond
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My extended family was very social when I was growing up. The Sri Lankan community in Austin, Texas is one of the largest outside of the island itself. Once or twice a month someone in the community would throw a dinner party at their house. These were nothing like the
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I’ve been thinking about Nat Turner’s Rebellion for the past week or so. Imagining the sticky late summer of 1831 in Virginia, an hour’s drive west of Virginia Beach. Learning more about Nat Turner and the brave people who joined with him. How he struck out against
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How do organizations change? Why is it that most organizations can set goals for racial justice and then never achieve them? What’s so difficult about doing things in different ways? Equity filters can be clunky. They can be hard to integrate into an existing decision-making process. I want action
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So many people want to do the right thing. With enough awareness, we start to see the world of injustices embedded around us. We might think, “all I need to do is get a bunch of friends together and we can change the system!” Lots of people, including me at
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In 2003, the TV miniseries Battlestar Galactica premiered in the united states. Battlestar Galactica is a gritty science fiction series set in a politically complicated universe. The concept of the show comes from the 1978 TV series of the same name. Here’s a quick summary: billions of humans live
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Another heatwave hit Seattle last week. It was mild compared to so many places in the world. I complained as the heat and smoke descended, a regular marker now for the end of summer. But we were fine. Around the united states, people felt temperatures well into the 100s (+37℃
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Last week, wildfires swept the region of Maui known as Lahaina. This is a place of great significance to kama’aina, or Native Hawaiians, everywhere. Before the u.s. government conquered and colonized the Kingdom of Hawai’i, Lahaina was their capital. Hurricane winds fed by climate change gave strength
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June is LGBTQIA+ Pride month in most of the united states. This is great news for people who want to sell things to us! I’ll back up. There’s a joke in some parts of the queer community. People wake up on June 1 to see which brands have
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Last year I joined a coalition of small-business owners whose members are LGBTQIA+. They recently advertised a forum on community safety. Safety is a high-priority topic in most major cities these days. Lots of people live in cities; local media loves covering things that scare people. The forum featured three
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Throughout his term, Barack Obama had a call for the activists agitating for change. He recalled what Franklin Roosevelt told his activists pushing for their own reforms. FDR said, “I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.” Then-President Obama met with members of the
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