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Diversity Briefings: 11/10/2010

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Today’s New Diversity Topics:

 President appeals for Muslim-Christian tolerance

 Difference Between Men and Women Business Owners?
 December Date Set for 2010 Civil Rights Leader Daisy Bates Summit
 Justice Department Reaches Settlement with University of South Carolina
 Demand For Equal Justice: White Farmers Still Ahead, Says Color of Change Advocate
 The Worse Mistake Supervisors Can Make
 President Obama honors Indonesia as an example of diversity, democracy
 “Defense of Marriage” Lawsuits in US,
 Another Bullied 14-year-old commits suicide,
 New York, Chicago Accused of Title IX Sports Discrimination
 Still More on Managing Diversity: People From Diverse Communities and Mental Health
Services
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Volume 1, Issue 15. Published Each Monday - Friday

Welcome back to Diversity Briefings. I hope you are enjoying each issue of this newsletter.
Please feel free to resend this Diversity newsletter on to friends and colleagues. If you would like
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some extra time, take a look at the new diversity glossary, upper left on this blog site. Take Care
and Good Reading!

Susan Klopfer, editor and publisher

P.S. Free gift offer inside today's issue!

You can subscribe to Diversity Briefings at http://diversitythoughts.blogspot.com

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Barack Obama in Indonesia appeals for Muslim-Christian tolerance

The President today, speaking at the University of Indonesia in Jakart, talked of the tolerance
Indonesians had shown him (the foreign child brought up in their midst), and the tolerance
needed today to eradicate the mistrust that had built up over the years between Muslims and
Christians. This was the second major speech of his presidency reaching out to the Muslim
world. The first was in Cairo last year. More from The Guardian --

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/10/barack-obama-indonesia-religious-tolerance

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What's the Difference Between Men and Women Business Owners?

Popular Bag Lady Linda Hollander has been watching The Apprentice as Donald Trump divides
the teams into men and women to see their different motivations and leadership styles. She
reports the gap between men and women seems to be closing and shares some style differences
between the two. Both genders mention the same motivations according a recent study by the
Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship. For example, both “had an equally strong passion to
build wealth.” Hollander’s comments are interesting – Read more--

http://wealthybaglady.typepad.com/blog/

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December Date Set for 2010 Daisy Bates Summit

The NAACP 2010 Daisy Bates Summit will be held Thursday, December 2—Saturday
December 4, 2010. The late civil rights advocate Daisy Bates was president of the Arkansas
State Conference of the NAACP and advisor in 1957 to the Little Rock Nine, the students who
braved hostile opponents of integration to Central High School. Despite mob threats and
intimidation, cross burnings on her property, and other acts of attempted violence, Mrs. Bates
persisted because of her strong beliefs.

For her work guiding the Nine through one of the most tumultuous civil rights crises of the
1950s, she was selected as 1957 Woman of the Year in Education by the Associated Press, and
was the only woman invited to speak at the Lincoln Memorial ceremony in Martin Luther King’s
March on Washington in 1963. But her importance as a historical figure has been overlooked by
scholars of the civil rights movement. December’s Summit will convene grassroots organizers
from across the country to focus on moving the NAACP’s education agenda forward with a
combination of traditional and innovative education organizing techniques conducted in concert
with local allies. Continued --

http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/daisy-bates-summit-2010/

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Justice Department Reaches Settlement with University of South Carolina to Ensure

Students Are Free from Harassment

University of South Carolina has agreed to improve its policies and practices for receiving,
investigating and resolving complaints of discrimination and harassment. The settlement
agreement will ensure that students, faculty and administrators understand and are trained on
their responsibilities under the university’s policies, including when and how to report incidents
of harassment or discrimination, and will require the university to respond to such complaints in
a timely and effective manner. In order to ensure ongoing compliance with its revised policies,
the university also will train select administrators, faculty and students to lead future trainings on
campus. The settlement provides that the university will adopt revised anti-discrimination and
harassment policies before the start of the 2011-12 school year and will initiate training during
the spring 2012 semester. Read on --

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/November/10-crt-1276.html

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Demand For Equal Justice: Farmers Still Can’t Get Their Settlement; White Farmers Still
Ahead, Says Color of Change Advocate

From James Rucker, ColorOfChange.org: For more than a generation, managers at the United
States Department of Agriculture systematically turned down Black farmers' applications for
loans and other critical forms of aid. These loans are the lifeblood of farming, and without them
many Black-owned farms were foreclosed on — and resold to White farmers. This insidious
discrimination enabled some White farmers to prosper and grow at the expense of generations of
Black families who sought to make a living off the land. At the same time, it devastated the
Black farming community. While 14% of all farmers were Black at the turn of the last century,3
by 2002 only 1.4% were Black.

Black farmers eventually filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government, winning a
landmark legal settlement in 1999. At the time, the USDA paid only a portion of the farmers
with legitimate claims, so a second settlement was announced — but Congress never approved
funding to pay the remaining farmers. This story and Rucker’s demand for equal justice
continues --

http://www.colorofchange.org/pigford/?akid=1691.242831.GEK8QT&id=2413-
900765&rd=1&t=3
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Handling Employee Complaints: The Worse Mistake Supervisors Can Make

Here’s a tip from the HR Cafe on the WORST mistake a supervisor can make: When employees
make complaints, listen. Take good notes. Ask questions and get all the facts. But don’t judge.
It's a bad idea in general to make assumptions about what employees did or didn't do. But if an
employee comes to you with a complaint, those assumptions become even more dangerous. Read
on to learn more about the worst mistake supervisors can make in dealing with employee
complaints.

http://rapidlearninginstitute.com/hrcafe/employee-complaints-worst-mistake-supervisor-can-
make/?
utm_source=The+HR+Cafe+Blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=02e19878a2
-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_HRCAFE

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President Obama honors Indonesia as an example of diversity, democracy

President Obama honored Indonesia, as an example of how this country embraced diversity and
democracy. The president said that innocent individuals all over the world were still under attack
by militants but underlined that the United States was not at battle with the Islam. According to
analysts, it is the president’s greatest effort to connect with Islamic world since he talked to
Cairo in 2009.

http://whatisthetrend.net/president-obama-honors-indonesia-as-an-example-of-diversity-
democracy-20104618.html

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Europe’s Largest Gay News Service Follows “Defense of Marriage” Lawsuits in US

Pink News reports: “Two lawsuits have been filed against the US Defence of Marriage Act,
which bars federal recognition of gay marriage.They were filed in Connecticut and New York by
gay rights groups, who argue that the 1996 law, known as DOMA, violates the US
constitution.Connecticut’s lawsuit was filed by the Gay & Lesbian Advocates &
Defenders on behalf of gay couples in Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire.” Follow this
report –

http://gay.pinknews.co.uk/2010/11/10/two-lawsuits-filed-against-us-defence-of-marriage-act/

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Still Another Bullied 14-Year-Old Commits Suicide

From the New Civil Rights Movement Blog: Fourteen-year old Pennsylvania high school
freshman Brandon Bitner wrote a suicide note, left home around 2:00 AM Friday morning,
walked thirteen miles, then, threw himself into highway traffic, killing himself. A friend says, “It
was because of bullying. It was not about race, or gender, but they bullied him for his sexual
preferences and the way he dressed. Which they wrongly accused him of.” Here is more --

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/bullied-14-year-old-called-gay-girly-fag-commits-
suicide/news/2010/11/08/14890

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New York, Chicago Accused of Title IX Sports Discrimination in High School

Bloomberg reports: New York, Chicago and 10 other U.S. school districts failed to provide high
school girls with opportunities to play sports in violation of federal law, the National Women’s
Law Center said. The school systems, which also include Houston, violated Title IX by denying
girls the same access to sports as boys, the organization said in a statement today. The group
filed administrative complaints that are based on the schools’ data and show “pervasive and
growing inequalities,” said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the center.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-10/new-york-chicago-among-school-districts-
accused-of-title-ix-sports-breach.html
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Lots of my friends are enjoying this free gift.  I hope you will, too. Susan

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Still More on Managing Diversity:

People From Diverse Communities May Be Fearful To Seek Mental Health Services

Maria recently confided to her doctor that she was having a hard time at work because of her
depression. He immediately referred Maria to a psychologist and she was able to start getting
some benefit from therapy, combined with medicine from her physician.

Because Maria knows her problem didn't arise overnight, she recognizes it will not go away in a
week or two. Even with medicine and therapy, her treatment will probably take at least a month
before any significant results occur, her therapist says.

While Maria wants to talk to her boss about this matter, particularly since she is having some
trouble adjusting to her medications, she is afraid of her boss's reaction.
"Lots of people really don't understand mental illness very well, so you had better keep this to
yourself," Maria's mother advises.

By Susan Klopfer -- Read On ...

http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Susan-Klopfer-7986/diversity-127391.php_____
_____ _____ _____

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