
Five Good Ideas
We are in an era of tremendous change, where everything is being disrupted: governments, institutions, personal lives and the workplace. Innovation expert John Seely Brown calls it the Cambrian Moment.
Rosa Park’s legendary sit-in by the window on the Mongomery, Alabama city bus in December 1955 reminds us of Viola Desmond’s earlier decision in 1946 to use her 40-cent movie ticket to sit wherever she pleased in the Roseland Film Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Forbidding Black people from using public spaces—restaurants, swimming pools, prime seats in public transportation, movie theatres, sports facilities (the late Harry Gairey Jr.’s ice-skating experience as a Toronto teenager in 1945, for example)—was a longstanding tactic designed to foster feelings of alienation from society.
Both events reflect a clear determination to resist systemic, and socially entrenched injustices intended to dehumanize racialized people, deny them equality and inflict undue stress even in the most mundane activities of life. These stories also remind racialized people that their freedom and dignity must be unapologetically demanded—asserted as inalienable and non-negotiable. True allies in the struggle for Inclusion, Diversity Equity and Anti-Racism (IDEA) recognize attitudes of resilience and actively support them.
Reflecting later on the bus incident Rosa Parks explained: “I thought of Emmett Till – a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in [August] 1955, after being accused of offending a White woman in her family’s grocery store, whose killers were tried and acquitted – and I just couldn’t go back.”
In her autobiography, My Story, Parks added: “I was not old,… I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
Today, as Canadians proudly celebrate Viola Desmond whose 40-cent protest—$6.52 cents today– is commemorated on our $10 bill, we also remember, with gratitude, Rosa Parks who played her part in extending the ever-growing line of resilient Black leaders and wore her personal mantle of courage and determination with distinction. #inclusion #diversity #equity #antiracism
We are in an era of tremendous change, where everything is being disrupted: governments, institutions, personal lives and the workplace. Innovation expert John Seely Brown calls it the Cambrian Moment.
Happy to be thriving in Canada’s culture committed to advancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism, Iren Kolterman invites us all on a journey of empathy. Reflect, remember and learn from the story of Ten Women of Shiraz who wanted nothing more in life than to practice freely their Bahá’í faith….
Pride. What does it mean for me? It may sound simple, but it means I am free to be me.
I remember the first time I went to the Pride Parade in Toronto. Coincidentally it was World Pride as well—the first-time World Pride was held in North America. I was wandering around the different merchants and booths before the parade and ran into a group of people who were looking for volunteers to march at the head of the parade, carrying the flags of the world. I jumped at the chance.
Nominated for the fourth consecutive year as Canadian Lawyer Magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential in the Human Rights category, Lorin MacDonald is one of Canada’s leading voices on disability issues. Over the last 30 years, Lorin has demonstrated her leadership, passion, and commitment to accessibility and inclusion in various volunteer and professional activities, all informed by her lived experience as a woman born with profound hearing loss.
This Black History Month, and always, DiversiPro celebrates the artistry of novelist Esi Edugyan—two-time winner of Canada’s prestigious Giller Prize—for Half Blood Blues in 2011 and Washington Black in 2018.
For the City of Stratford, Black History Month is an important time for us to reflect on the histories of resistance within the City. During one of our recent City leadership meetings, we provided our team with education about the deep-rooted discrimination and resistance of Africville in Nova Scotia. We had an open discussion about what we can do to celebrate and recognize Black Canadians’ contributions and the local Black history within the City.
Reach out to us today and get a complimentary IDEA review.