 We'd like to take a moment to acknowledge our indigenous and first people of the land in space in which we live and breathe. For our community at Highline College, we recognize that we are on-stolen and occupied Duwamish, Kosahalish, Muckleshoe, and Puyallic lands, and we want to thank all the relations and tribes today as we prepare to hold space as our community. We recognize that we all use our joining conversations from different locations through Zoom and so let us acknowledge and let us acknowledge the indigenous and the first people of the land in spaces in which we currently occupy. Further, we respectfully acknowledge the enslaved people primarily of the African descent who provided exploited labor on which the country was built, with little to no recognition. Today, we are indebted to our labor and our labor of many black and brown bodies that continue to work in the shadows of our collective benefit. And as we begin, I'll pass this to Edwina. Thank you, Genoa. Talofa Lava, Aloe Ngoa, Edwina Fui. Good morning, community. My name is Edwina Fui, and I serve as the interim director at the Center for Cultural and Inclusive Excellence. And I have the privilege of chairing this year's Unity Week 2022. This week, we have three presenters and four opportunities to engage, reflect, and be together in community. I invite our Highline family and community to bring whatever you need and to just be as we dive into conversations throughout this week. Our theme, Lean on Me, Embracing Humanity as a Radical Act of Resistance, was chosen for the action of seeing the humanity of one another while leaning into our connection and responsibility as a collective. So I ask that you lean in, listen, and embrace the conversation. Before I close, I have to give a special shout out to a few folks. First shout out to Rachel Collins and Bob Hire for their continued support and creating these virtual spaces. All the Zoom webinar links set up and coordinating anything that we needed for our events. We appreciate you for your time and efforts to document and share the content. And of course, I have to give a huge shout out to the squad and this year's committee. Betty Vera, Dr. Daryl Bryce, Doris Martinez, Geo Mark Panello, Georgia Peary, Jenoa Wingo, Monica Torch, Dr. Sean McFessel, and Samantha Atienza. Thank you so much for your time and organizing this week. I am extremely grateful for the collective effort and the hard work of these folks. So much love and gratitude to each of you. And now I would like to pass the mic to Dr. Bryce to introduce our keynote speaker for today. Good morning, Highline community and beyond. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Dr. Derek Greenfield today. Dr. Greenfield was on the very first Unity Week committee 25 years ago. And he recruited me to Highline 19 years ago. Dr. Greenfield is a nationally recognized thought leader, speaker and educator with an award-winning career in academia that has included successful stints as a full-time faculty member, eight years at Highline College, vice president for student engagement and campus life, and two-time chief diversity officer. His interactive, powerful workshops and key notes have inspired and informed audiences at over 250 colleges and universities, as well as industry leaders such as CBS Sports, Visa, Progress Energy, and the MBAs Milwaukee Bucks. In addition to publishing a lengthy list of peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters, Dr. Greenfield is co-editor of the book Exploring Issues of Diversity within HBCUs. He earned his BA in MA in Sociology from Northwestern University as well as two doctoral degrees, a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of Washington, and an AAD from Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. So please welcome the great Dr. Eric Greenfield. You know, it kind of hits me emotionally. 25 years of the celebration, unity through diversity. And I was blessed to serve on the first planning committee. Like, we gave birth to a beautiful baby and watched others guide its growth exponentially. I'm so honored to be asked to return home and be part of continuing this legacy. And if there ever were a time to lean on me, to resist to Germany and psychological tyranny by embracing our full humanity, to live authentically, completely unapologetically, it's definitely now when confused folks around the country are trying to silence voices, seeking equity, and to deny history. I mean, creating animosity by banning a theory, CRT. I mean, we need to move with intentionality and empathy quickly like ASAP, because we have to address the trauma in this country. To heal wounds deep in our psyche, shape minds, hearts, and souls for eternity, change behaviors so that we'll have no need for another hashtag RIP, for black men killed unjustly, to provide safety and security for trans folks being attacked simply for living free, for eradicating the hate we've seen experienced by our Asian brothers and sisters and our collective family. We got work to do, y'all feel me? And we need everyone, whether you're a member of the AARP, the NAACP, the HRC, or the JCC, whether you watch ABC or NBC, prefer the WWE or the MLB, we gotta collectively apply CPR to revive the idea of hope. Because you see in the midst of this societal plight, the universe needs more moments of joy and delight. This Zoom choir, it's more than self-care. I'm talking communities of care where we truly unite to heal one another with all our might in spite or despite what some try to tell us, the skin your in is beautiful and your mind is brilliant this morning like sunlight. Stay encouraged. Stay encouraged and committed because we can't allow oppression to become a permanent parasite. We gotta be like electrolytes, supercharged to fight the good fight. Be truth-tellers who use an ultraviolet light to expose what ain't right even when some think it's impolite, please continue to persevere. Keep alive the guiding light remembering to keep believing in you that's your human rights. Our dream of truth, racial healing, and transformation, no stoplight because we can't sit tight, it's go time green light change may seem slow at times, it won't happen overnight. Yet keep illuminating the path forward and moving towards the light but you gotta buckle up the seatbelt nice and tight in that because the road ahead may have a few bumps in sight but stay upright, spirit bright, mind erudite because we will reach our full heights. Stay hungry for new knowledge and feed off inclusion, full appetite. No need to nibble at this work, take the whole damn bite and sometimes folks who aren't about the social justice light might need to be temporarily left behind because we gotta go right. We have no time to sit around playing theoretical games like Fortnite and all you gotta have the foresight to take action today so we can plan together for an explosive future like dynamite. Your greatness, it's your birthright. If others are sadly blind, you lead by example with your 2020 eyesight. If others are asleep in the darkness, you stay culturally low caring your flashlight and if folks are trying to take us back to the not so good old days using rear view mirrors, you keep your headlights focused ahead on a future so bright even the moon looks like daylight. I mean we may fall at times but like a meteorite land strong and make an impact on the world art right you can get up with new insights and fly high like a kite thorough up under birds because those naysayers their bark is bigger than their bite but together highline we are more powerful than a million terabytes. It's hard work but when our positivity level is low like Celsius folks like Dr. Bryce will help you heat back up like Fahrenheit and when society's spiritual sort of machine tastes flat I have confidence that someone here today will be the model of great energy like that fire McDonald's sprite. We have faced some challenges but this morning today and into tonight we've got to commit to ignite hope excite one another and expedite real change keep the faith we got this eye. Good morning I am truly honored to be here with you and what an amazing opportunity Dr. Bryce and the whole committee I remember 25 years ago I remember being that that young guy there at the Highline campus and we felt as a group of new folks who had come that the change was possible that we could indeed be part of transforming an institution to be and as we now know Highline being the most diverse college that you're going to find in the state a place indeed with so many dynamic programs and courses and experiences and a commitment to embedding social justice everywhere I am honored to be back so thank you it is so great to see the chat box of my former colleagues I look a little older you don't look great and I'm just again so thrilled that we have a chance to share a little bit today and indeed your theme which I think is just so wonderful uh indeed about leaning on me we're gonna get back to that in a moment so we're gonna talk about getting better together do me a favor everybody if you could reach your hands in the air as high as you can let's get a good stretch it's a Monday morning we got a stretch reach as high as you can in the air all right now reach higher reach a little higher okay you put your hands down now now reach higher if you actually reached higher when I asked you to do so but remember I asked you to reach as high as you get the first time so we're gonna stretch ourselves we indeed in the spirit of authentic identities you know a lot of times young people you talk about keeping 100 a lot of us keep it only about 20 and so I'm gonna encourage you today and for this journey this week and throughout our lives to really celebrate the power of our authentic identities we can truly be who and whose we are we can reach a little bit higher reach out a little bit more and even get more done because we are in challenging times you've seen obviously these incidents that have been taking place all over the country anti LGBTQ events that are that are happening we know that indeed the the rise of anti-Asian hate what a lot of people don't know 70% of in the spirit of intersectionality to recognize that 70% of the attacks on our Asian American brothers and sisters are actually against women and so this is an intersectional issue around inequity and injustice and intolerance and it continues to grow we know that in Seattle hate crimes continue to soar and this is a very recent statistic so this is the challenge that we're in young we know that legislation across the country continues to take shape and maybe you feel a little insulated there in an area that tends to be a little more progressive but for someone like myself traveling this country I I see it everywhere I turn that we know that we are whitewashing the history books and that some people are scared to have these true authentic conversations that children are being told that who you are it doesn't matter and you don't belong and that there's something wrong with you and we will punish you out of that we we've got to be able to have spaces where we can celebrate indeed their children being used as pawns to to fight against what we know is good for us to talk about the injustice to talk about healing and to talk about coming together indeed I happened to look at some of these math books that have actually been banned and and this is a wonderful example and and this is a book that was banned now in Florida for being too I I don't know progressive or understanding and what an interesting notion I wish I had learned math when we were challenged to actually think about that there's multiple ways to do math right many of us were taught either do it this way or you get no credit and if you don't show your work you get punished I have a friend of mine who is a beautiful and wonderful individual and she has a son who didn't show his work on a math assignment and got in trouble he was told that he must have been cheating she comes in and says you're just mad that a young black male whose grandfather was a carpenter and learned to do math in his head he said there's generational genius that courses through the veins of our family and you as a teacher don't see that you believe that because he doesn't do it your way he might not be smart and intelligent she said guess what let's put a problem up you put a problem on the board of my son and you will do it at the same time she's showing all her work and he does it in his head and she says look look how brilliant and genius my son is and you couldn't envision him being as smart as he is we got to look at the fact that maybe another reason that book was was banned because they actually dared to speak the name of all those brilliant BIPOC men and women who have made contributions in math throughout history but have often not been acknowledged we've got to recognize that when we're asking children their math biography and it would a wonderful way to teach math these these really inclusive strategies where people own their authentic identity and say here's how I feel about her here's what I have learned about math in my life and when children can own that indeed this is the best way for them to overcome some of perhaps their imposter syndrome or fears this is a way for us to help them to connect math to the genius that happens in their families and their communities and that indeed people are afraid of what is called social emotional learning but we all learn when we feel connected and guess what if some of these folks are so afraid that maybe white children will have to learn about some of the historical pain well guess what the her black and brown children every single day who feel uncomfortable every day in class and indeed the research actually shows that white teachers with black students are three times more negative so we want to talk about discomfort there are some children every single day who are feeling discomfort and we've got to acknowledge that we can talk about it maybe we can actually make some change so I invite you today and the activities we will do in a moment I'll put you into breakout room to use the chat feature to be our true and authentic selves our true and authentic selves so that maybe we can overcome some of the negativity that we find ourself in a world and the great Audrey Lord when we can indeed speak we're often afraid but when we're silent we're still afraid so it's better to speak and when we dare to be powerful becomes less and less important when I'm afraid Dr. Bryce I thought about you know the first time I ever was out was at Highline College and they were done a presentation like this where actually talked about it and I'm a little nervous I mean who knows who's watching this is recorded and professionally I've never owned that space and that identity in a public setting because of fears of what people but if I'm talking about the importance of all of us being authentic let me go first and Highline was the place where I actually could be my true and full authentic self being out and knowing that this is a community that would support and love and my own liberation which I gave myself as a birthday present on my 30th birthday at Highline I'm still working on it I'm still working on recovering having lived in the south and in other places where indeed I fought myself to be my true authentic self well today begins the first day of the rest of my life and living authentically and freely and becomes less important I'm afraid and more important than indeed we're there for one another and can lead by example indeed as Sherry Porter talked about authenticity is an act of resistance that ties into your theme for this week and indeed when we can truly be our authentic and unapologetic self there's such great power in being you so Highline being this amazing place let's continue to inspire each other you inspire me one of the amazing things that I felt about Highline as you had this incredible diversity of life experiences folks who were 18 and and not sure they belonged in college but realized how their genius operated 75 year olds learning English for the first time and and they could find that's so inspiring we had first generation and and those who had had generations of college within their families folks who indeed walked into classrooms every single day not knowing if they truly would find anybody like themselves but persevere and faculty and staff who continued to fight even despite what they'd encountered in the world to say I will give my life so that this next generation can feel better if you don't mind dropping into the chat box something that inspires you about Highline or someone who inspires you at Highline drop that name drop that program drop that experience drop that idea let's share for a moment that indeed in this space as a collective family there's so much to celebrate so much to be inspired by and so much that indeed we can be honored by let's get that chat box flooded think about the people the things the programs the experiences I love it I love it think about and we'll do more of this at the end but let's begin this journey of what does it mean to you to be in this space who inspires you and what inspires you what keeps us going when indeed we realize all the challenges that we're facing there's a lot of good stuff I love these names and I love these ideas and we're going to do that throughout this session because we need it especially these moments of challenge as the late great spiritual leader and philosopher tikka han said we beautiful means to be yourself you don't have to be accepted by this just be and accept the beautiful original you there has never been anybody in the history of the world created before like you there will never be another you you got something special the world has never seen before we'll never see again let that light shine I love this example of rawiri what's he in New Zealand who is a politician in the parliament there and he said I'm gonna wear my Jordans and when he faced all this political backlash he said let me be clear not all of the people here my folks that I represent they don't wear suits and ties we wear Jordans I grew up wearing Jordans I'm going to represent me and who I am because there's some people the least those who are marginalized the most need to know that somebody who can relate to them is speaking for them in the places of power and speaking truth to power be that true authentic self indeed this quote many of us have heard that was delivered by melson dandela but actually for maryan williamson that indeed who am I we sometimes wonder to be brilliant gorgeous talented who are you not to be they were all meant to shine and when we let our light shine when we can live authentically when we're able to say I'm proud of who I am and will be that we let other people know that they can do the same people are watching you got little brothers and sisters and cousins and nieces and nephews watching you and when you go for your dreams and when you live in your authentic truth you let them know it's possible and for people who say you're too much you got too many colors you're too loud you're too this you're too that you're bringing too many these issues the forefront well maybe you remind them of this beautiful poem by nakita gill that maybe they're just too little to appreciate that it took an entire galaxy being woven into one soul to make you so be you to not be afraid to to be yourself be authentic because if we are not it's killing us this picture was from my high school friend and i'm speaking actually cornell university right now for the rest of this day and my friend went to cornell and during our first year in college he sent me a we used to actually do a thing called right handwritten letters and he wrote me a long letter and shared some personal things and it was just a beautiful gesture and he signed it at the end love bill read that letter and i wrote a response back and at the end of the letter i paused and i said why don't know if men are supposed to say loved each other and i just signed it derrick my friend bill had a i think i might have got muted for a second there my friend had a terminal list and he passed away just a few months later that was my last interaction with him and i had held back by saying love to him because i thought at that time that's not what men did if we do not live authentically if we are caught up in some societal norms of what others tell us we're supposed to be it literally kills us it takes away our spirit and it keeps us from loving and being the best version of ourselves that's why i love the change we're seeing in the world that states across the country the crown act is saying guess what that those who have faced discrimination on the job for wearing natural and authenticated be you and that net needs to be taken down we have seen folks speaking out and linked in i love this example of a woman who said you know it in my job uh i want to apply for bereavement leave but because it was my uncle who passed i was told by the company that only applies to immediate family she said but wait a minute in my family is he in my my eldest uncle who passed away that is my immediate family in our culture that's how things work see if you apply the culture that you operate under maybe that doesn't fit but my uncle mattered at that level you see equity is different from equality equality treating everybody the same equality is giving everybody a shoe but equity is giving everybody a shoe that fits and if we don't look at some of our policies and practices we're keeping people from fitting in and she would not have been able to access the same right she had as somebody else but luckily she had a supervisor and an hr company policy that changed because she spoke up lived authentically and others were willing to acknowledge the importance of change i love this quote from somebody who works in the corporate sector and says when we truly create a culture of inclusivity people know there are no barriers to what they can personally and professionally achieve by bringing their full and authentic self every day we all deserve that the zulu tribe when people greet each other they say the word sawabona and sawabona yes hello what's up but literally by definition it means i see you and when we see each other and fully honor each other and we realize we encourage people by seeing them that we tell them and show them and make sure they can be authentically themselves something special happens let me play this little video the guy named michael jr he's a comedian and partway through his comedy act he does a thing called break time where he just stops and says all right let me let me just meet people from the crowd and random spontaneous things happen this guy is a music instructor at a military academy he says sing amazing grace watch what happens when we connect and when people can go there and be their true authentic self something beautiful happens the second time verse of the first amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved us that broke a sing you know what i'm saying once you give me the version is if uh your uncle just got out of jail you got shot in the back when you as a kid i'm just saying let me see the version real quick if you know what i'm talking about just see if that exists let me see what you got he took us there and i'm not sure if those two men in the end would have hugged like that there's something that happens when people can be free to go there to be the best versions of themselves you know i do a lot of speaking across the country for athletics departments and about five years ago i speak to the kanda state wildcat football team and at the end of the session the young man are sharing openly and it was powerful and transformative what they were offering to one another and this young man as time was up i said hey we got to go he goes please i need to say something and he's shaking six foot five three hundred twenty pound offensive linemen walking up in front of the room shaking almost convulsing and his teammates said what's up we got you scott now he shared this since publicly so i can tell you the story scott france gets up in front of his teammates and says teammates i'm going to tell you something i've never told anybody in my life number two i picked out the date next month that i'm getting killed myself the room was pin drop quiet one of the most powerful moments i've ever experienced it one by one like a movie those young men on the team were standing up like popcorn popping up saying scott don't you ever be ashamed to be yourself we got you we love you we got your back everybody rushed we're hugging and crying scott says i never thought i could be my true authentic self-sat france had planned to kill himself but by taking our risk to be his authentic self by his teammates who supported him embraced him in the spirit of love as an active resistant to the world he said who had tried to tell him he didn't matter he said teammates i've spent my life hearing from my family my church my community my school he said anytime you represent a marginalized group you hear everything everybody says he said sometimes in the locker room you guys have said these jokes and everybody apologized and said we know we've been wrong we we want to make this right we're hugging and crying scott france was gonna be dead but his teammates saved his life can't we do that for each other every day can't we find a way to let people be their authentic selves and show them how much we love them and let them know i got your back no matter what a year later scott france came out publicly on espn the first openly gay division one football player and indeed as he said on espn how much closer he was to his teammates how amazing the experience has been his teammates started to tweet how proud they were from scott france didn't play a single down before he came out he had not played a single down on the field but when his teammates rallied around him see inclusive excellence when people can be who they are they're better when the world of weight the world of pain that they've experienced is lifted from their shoulders you can run faster and you can jump higher when you know people got your back you you'll fight a little bit harder on that one yard line scott france who hadn't played before he came out his teammates saved his life his courage saved his life and helped him become an all-star player his team won twice as many games the next year but maybe even though he was expected to go to the nfl the the league perhaps a couple years ago was too much homophobia well we know this past year things are changing y'all even when we see all of this negative reaction from some segments of our society we got to know that hearts and minds have changed see scott france could not get drafted at that time and the league wasn't ready but we know just a few months ago carl nasib comes out as the first openly gay nfl player and the league not only responded with positivity but recognized and honored him we are seeing some change and we've got to keep fighting for that change because everyone has a story everyone's story deserves to be heard so i'm going to ask you to grab your cell phones for a moment take your cell phone out for a second and i'm going to use a little activity here that hopefully will come up on your screen right now and uh you are going to let me just do a quick little shift to this what i'm going to ask you to do is go to your text messaging and at your text messaging i like you as you see the phone number here three seven six oh seven you're going to send a message to that phone number so just go to your text messaging no area code no two five three or two just type three seven six oh seven as the recipient for your text message now in the text box i'd like you to type just the number you see and leave it there for a moment where you would type words or emojis type the number you see six four four zero three so no words no emojis just six four four zero three for now not hitting send yet if you did it's end just go back and type another one so three seven six oh seven the phone number six four four oh three is the text and after the six four four oh three i'd like you to type your answer to the following question what is one thing about you that is so central to who you are an identity you hold and experience you've been through past or present painful or promising what is one thing that is so central like scott france talked about that identity for him being gay what is something so central to who you are but nobody at highline knows about it and when you type it out not just one word you can type five ten fifteen words when you type it out after six four four oh three and hit send it'll come up anonymously in the screen no names no phone numbers just the real authentic you so if you could do that right now what is something about you that nobody at highline knows but it is so important and let's take a look at who we are as a community and obviously i'll ask people to make sure that they and be you can be specific what does it mean to be an immigrant you can talk about that you can give us a little bit more i know that we'll all be thoughtful and not do something silly i never had that problem but let's just really honor our collective space this is who we are and even the things that might be painful some of you these have been your superpowers and and indeed there's so much we can learn from each other when those who have been survivors if we could create a space for you to feel safe to be your authentic self we can learn from you we can help you heal but you can teach us you can share maybe there's things that we say or do that you hope that we no longer do we can learn by our authentic truth there's so much that we have gone through and yet you're still here so think of this as your superpower think of this as your opportunity to say despite what i've been through i am here i deserve to be here and i'm gonna make it through this and maybe if we can be a little more vulnerable maybe if we encourage people and tell people i'll go first let me share i got your back maybe if that hugging as a love language will allow us to say let's talk honestly maybe we can let go of some of that burden maybe we can live a little bit healthier maybe we can love and let people in maybe we can heal each other and we can learn from each other and celebrate celebrate who we are to learn to move from being a shame to be a white male to actually saying how can i use that as a motivator to engage me in the struggle for change so i can be proud to be a contributor not just as an ally but a co-conspirator as an accomplice for change and take pride in the movement you've made there's so much here there's so much more to us and maybe if we can talk a little bit more and we'll do that towards the end of the session maybe if we could just be our true authentic selves maybe we'll be a better highline family maybe if we remember all the things we've heard and ensure that our language is always thoughtful and loving when we interact with each other even when we're frustrated if we take a pause and say the person i'm speaking with may be on that screen and i've got to give love i've got to give love so thank you for your courage if in the chat box is anything you're thinking and feeling please drop it in the chat box any thoughts or comments things you want to offer to our collective community in this moment of courage in this moment indeed what we're saying we can be our authentic selves and we got each other and we've got to fight just that little bit harder for one another let's see if there's some chat box comments i would love to see if anybody wants to offer something at this moment indeed as katie mentioned we are more like than we realized our similarities bring us together our differences make us smarter and stronger if we can indeed find some common ground then we can understand even more how we experience it in similar and different ways then we'll know better how to fight for each other see the golden rule treat people the way you want to be treated i prefer the platinum platinum is worth more than gold and the platinum rule is treat people the way they want to be treated we've got to think about we got to know each other savovona to see each other and to really know there are places all throughout this campus where people got your back where people will love you and that we can be better together we're gonna have to take some risks to have some tough conversations take some risks to be authentic so anybody here singing the shower but not in public so anybody singing the shower but not in public we see we have a hand raise or someone who says in the chat box anybody singing the shower but not in public who do we got here all right all right k williams k williams empress queen and boss if you're a boss and you're queen and empress come up off of mute let me hear you let me see you where where is where is our friend k williams who said that maybe where's k williams say hello to us where you at k williams where you at where you at come up off of the mute come up onto the screen come on as it's carmen all right come on carmen where you at where where you at carmen you said maybe let's if we're gonna truly be our authentic selves and risk takers let's see if we can have a little bit of fun where's carmen at is there someone else if carmen is not oh she can't unmute sorry about that anybody else who is will be not able to unmute can we can we do that for folks can we unmute people please those who are facilitating our tech if you can let people be unmuted all right should be able to now carmen let's see can you unmute now where you at I'm not sure if carmen can unmute carmen can you unmute can anybody unmute let me hear from anybody there we go okay hey Laura Manning I need everybody to unmute everybody to unmute my good friend Laura Manning well I'm gonna put it on you then because you're gonna sing for us I think she just said shit I don't know um so so Laura Manning here's what I need you to do everybody unmute everybody make some noise for Laura Manning because she's gonna she's by the chair she's here for you Laura Manning what are you doing you can't do it you can't do it Laura don't Laura hi Laura so here's what we're gonna do Laura I need you to start us off and you're just gonna sing the first three words to lean on me all right with all that highlight pride you'll go lean on me and then we're gonna all join in everybody stay up on on the mic no mutes everybody we're all gonna sing in one hot zoom mess we're gonna sing as a family because we do is the title of your week highlight the diversity theme lean on me well let's sing lean on me and we'll do it together so Laura give us the first three words with all that pride and then we'll all sing and join you go for it Laura we're yet oh now it says they can't unmute tech folks all right I think we're good now I think we should be able to unmute okay so Laura are you there I'm here yeah I'm here all right Laura Manning are you there I'm here all right start us off and let's all sing together everybody unmute lean on me when when you're not home I'll be your friend I'll help you live in my arms for it won't be long while I'm done and you have me I'm gonna get you lean on me you just fall upon me when you're not there when you need a lean on me you don't need how do you you just lean on me lean on me I just might have I'm gonna fall upon me when you're not there when you're not there when you're not there when you're not there when you need a lean on me when you need a lean on me lean on me notice for Laura Manning you know it might have been like oh and if you notice it's moments when we listened a little deeper we actually got in sync and that's the spirit that I want to make sure that we have because you know what diversity is a fact but inclusion requires us to act we know and I've spent I've been living in the Dominican Republic for a while now and I took Spanish classes I've gotten a little better we know that when we act towards building inclusive worlds where we understand we take risks to learn about other people and their realities it actually benefits us bilingualism is great socially emotionally and even our brains are better so literally reaching out to each other leaning on each other makes us better together when there are folks who can inspire as Bree Newsom who as you may recall from a couple of years ago went up the South Carolina state flagpole there in front of the legislature to take that Confederate flag down to say you know what we will take risks for change and indeed this young man at Mississippi State I lived in Mississippi and for generations we've tried to get rid of that Confederate flag and this young man said you change the flag or I won't represent the state and literally within weeks the state legislature voted on a new flag it's possible young people indeed it's always been young people who have been the movers and shakers that if we indeed have the courage to live authentically and fight for change maybe some of you had a chance to watch this video during the past week of a woman who talked about as a white straight Christian mom her responsibility to fight for change her responsibility to be part of it I'm having a little challenge bringing that up but maybe I'll play it at the end because if we want to see a better world we've got to be that change and indeed maybe you've heard that at 211 degrees you got hot water but 212 it boils it can have steam it can be purified it can power a locomotive I'm just going to challenge you to make one degree of difference to reach out a little bit more to think about ways to be inclusive in everything you do well I'm Jewish my son is Muslim fun home and I used to teach at a Southern Baptist University the story gets better but the chaplain would close all his prayers by saying to whom you pray for me it is Jesus he honored his own faith but acknowledged sawabona I see you I want everybody to know to whom you pray that everybody is welcome there's little things we can do every single day you know I think about my story my parents and eight years ago I was teaching in the college in North Carolina and graduation so many of my students for first generation to graduate so was a special day and my brother called said get home tonight dad's not going to make the night with the cancer that had taken over his body I'd visited him a week before and he was doing well but it had quickly changed and I rushed out in two planes I can remember getting off the plane in the car that drove us the door we went in the elevator that was on my birthday and I rushed to get to the hospital before my dad passed away and I got a hug from him I'll never forget him he couldn't speak at that point I had a good relationship but there were things that I wanted to tell him things I wanted to share with them things I wanted to talk to but I waited too long don't wait too long to tell people how much you love him don't wait too long for your own liberation don't wait too long to speak your own truth my dad couldn't talk buddy we took turns giving him kisses all night long and he was fighting all night long and I didn't understand why six months later my mom told me that that morning he had woken up and said I will not die on my son's birthday he knew it was my birthday so he was fighting all night long there was no chance to make it to stay alive much longer he just didn't want me to remember every birthday with his death and he made it a little while longer he gave me that gift there have been people giving us gifts y'all I want you to think about who's that person who has been that gift giver who's authentic example has inspired you and you need to let them know how much you appreciate them do it today call them text of whatever you do but let them know how much they matter to you and for those who haven't thought about it you are that for somebody else whether you realize it or not their people are watching whom do you want to make sure by following your example you let them know that the world is available to them that whoever they are is beautiful brilliant and loved and you will shine and be that example for them you see maybe if we just share our stories more like you saw on the poll everywhere screen from texting the research is clear when we tell stories where you remember more we connect more we indeed have greater empathy is this individual a TIAA CREP CEO the Sunderbraun Duckett says when I want to bring the best version of myself when we lead with authenticity when we share our vulnerable moments that opens up everybody else to share their real life too so let's take a risk I'm going to put you in some breakout rooms for five minutes and then we'll do a quick wrap up to get you out in time for your next hour but for five minutes I'm just going to ask you for everybody to take 45 seconds to say this is my story to take off those masks the figurative masks that hold us back and just for 45 seconds to a minute say let me tell you about the real me and just be you whatever part of your story you want to share maybe there's something inspiring that we would all be moved and motivated by just knowing what you've overcome or maybe right now you're facing a challenge and you just want to be you and have a space where you feel loved by our community everybody gets 45 seconds to a minute to share their story now before you get started try something fun really fast maybe you've seen these videos of teachers that have a unique handshake with all their students and every student feels special I want your group to take just 20 seconds and virtually come up with a fun handshake that just connects you have a little fun for 20 seconds on the camera to do a little fun handshake that bonds you together and then we'll take about five minutes for everybody to go around this is my story and then we'll close and celebrate together and wrap up after that so if we could just take five minutes I'm going to put you into some breakout rooms now and I'll ask you to just be you take a chance whatever it is you want to share to let people know that this is a place where we can truly honor and affirm each other and after each person shares cheer for them let them know their love so quick handshake 45 seconds a minute each person this is my story and cheer and celebrate that we are a community that loves together so if you could click on the button that says join you can join the breakout room and we'll see you in five minutes for a quick wrap up to the session today I welcome back I hope you had a chance to just connect and we reminded of the people in this space that we collectively share some amazing experiences and to be there and be inspired by each other to lift each other up to encourage and love on each other and anytime you see each other on campus give them that handshake to let them know they have a log and that they matter and indeed maybe instead of debating ideas and try to figure out who's got the right belief system maybe we just start with sharing our experiences and if we just listen to each other as we share our stories we can learn so much from each other by storytelling so much by hearing each other's experience there's so much knowledge in there and there's so much love indeed what research has found when people share stories their brain waves become connected they literally begin operating on a similar brain wave which allows them to feel and hear and learn from each other so here's what I like to do as we wrap up in the spirit of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Matai it is a time for us to reach a little bit higher to get that moral ground to have that heightened consciousness to shed our fear and give hope to each other I challenge you to live and be the authentic you all the gifts that you've been given and all the genius you offer to this world please and if you can share your authentic truth we can all learn so much from each other so I want to wrap up by continuing what we did earlier and encouraging everybody to get in that chat box and I want to see it flooded with as many people as we can complement as many put their name and what you appreciate about them I want to see this chat box completely lit up with names and why the people in this room do three, four, five, six, ten of them I want to see the chance for everybody to know that indeed I'm loved and celebrated so get into the chat box if you could type someone's name what you appreciate celebrate love about them I love it someone's light and love your wisdom for believing in me for their bravery for caring for all students keep it going because some people never get to hear it some people never get told that indeed they matter and let's just get it going it starts in the chat box but it lives every day on our campus when you see people give them that hug or that love give them that compliment show up when they ask you to be there for them ask them can we sit down and talk if you see someone walking on campus alone maybe ask if you can walk with them and just say I'd love to get to know you because sometimes there are people that never feel like anybody got their back and you become that agent of change and as you see this love flowing through the chat box let's keep it going every single day that's how we lean on each other that's how indeed we speak truth as an act of resistance by being our authentic selves and that's how we build a better campus community and world together so I'm so honored to have had a chance to share I hope that you'll remember what you've seen and heard from each other more even importantly than my voice collectively we are stronger and smarter and wiser together and that's why I wanted you to share your stories and we continue to build the better and best community together I love y'all I thank you for allowing me to be here and I wish you the very best for an amazing rest of the unity through diversity week an outstanding year and a life where you feel valued and affirmed and loved thanks so much thank you Dr. Greenfield appreciate that wonderful opening great start to unity through diversity week and you know as always Highline you know welcomes you back and was great to have you so we were supposed to take a 10 minute break let's take a couple minute break so that y'all can have some Q&A so we'll take a two minute break and then we'll come back with Q&A for Dr. Greenfield if he's taught me anything is you know we just work with what we got so we'll take a couple minutes breaks and then come back and start a Q&A with Dr. Greenfield let's see any other questions I'm trying to sneak through the chat box yeah and I love you know I love that last comment you know for Doris and I've you know known Darryl for a long time and indeed is you know his humility and is the power of his example and his commitment you know to students is certainly legendary and you know I was just fortunate enough to like I said to to have met him by accident but by purpose and that I guess I mentioned that make that happen well so you any questions there or anything let's just you and I chat for a little bit what's good yeah I'm sorry for sure thank you for all the love man y'all are too much y'all are too much but really a lot of the credit is you know due to Greenfield who had a vision that I didn't and never wanted to come out there sometimes it takes someone seeing a spark in us that others have not to ignite that fire absolutely because y'all need to see Darryl Bryson an interview because I'm gonna tell it I tell the real deal Darryl Bryson did I mean brilliant right there's no but he had never done that type of interview before and so it's funny part of the interview that we say for folks is you have to act like this is a class and you're teaching well it was a bunch of you know older shall we say majority older white man in the room who weren't really and Darryl was using this example and he brought on a football and he was talking and he was connecting sociology in these great ways but he was struggling to to treat them like they were students he would he would talk to them like they were you know the elders were like no pretend we're a class you know it was just so wonderful to see he didn't do a bad anybody anti-stretch but it was an interview where he was just sort of nervous and and I think you know to find his voice and to know you do belong here you are needed here and so luckily like I said because we have that commitment from Jack Birmingham and others we're able to say no what you saw was somebody who has all this genius and talent in them had never been in that situation the situation was awkward the situation is not allowing people to be at their best that's a fake situation a pretend class put them in a real class you'll see a dynamo and indeed once he got into his real class that's what happened I appreciate Gio's you know comment sometimes you know that I do recognize our audiences that are just sifting through we had a lot of emotional kinds of things that were talked about in that session where people poured their hearts out on the screen at the end they had a chance to share with each other and so yeah so I'm saying struggling about being nervous yeah yeah Mark I'm telling you it was uh yeah it was fun but um so someone talked about let me see this question here enjoying it work how do you center yourself positively to join pleasure when you're missed of heaviness yeah that's a that's a great question and I think that there's a couple of things one it is an act of resistance it is an act of political action to center joy in a world that tries to tell you that you don't belong anymore that's why the that hashtag you know black boy joy that we saw a couple of years ago where people are saying we're going to make sure that indeed we center this idea that just being a way to be happy to celebrate the community that we do have not always just worrying about what other people are doing sometimes we have to stop and say we are part of a special view it may be our family that grows us joy it may be having a chance to listen to music that just elevates your spirit whatever it is that brings you joy center it create time for it build it into your schedule if you need to literally lock it in and say Tuesdays you know I'm going to make Tuesday from 10 to 11 my hour of joy because not only do you need that to keep going not only do you need that to maintain the spirit and a motivation for us to continue the good fight but it actually is as I said a tool of resistance to not let forces that try to destroy us keep us from our own joy so so thanks for you know for that comment I think again making it intentional finding ways to getting a community of folks that remind you of it and will continue to hold you accountable for it build that network of individuals that really will make sure that you have joy every time I come into town I try to make sure I go over to see you know Daryl and Yoshiko I'm sorry President Hardin we celebrate the great President Hardin who started now yeah I'm going to tell that story too y'all don't know but Yoshiko Hardin worked in multicultural affairs in a position that had obviously great importance but we're talking about there's a lot of levels there's levels to this ish right I mean she at that point with none of us had thought we would be vice presidents and presidents who were just doing this great work but there are some amazing individuals in this space and so I always make sure that I get to Daryl and Yoshiko's house and be around them and we laugh and we tell stories and Daryl pokes fun at me and we joke with each other and we trash talk a little bit and we love on each other because I need to be in their presence I need to be surrounded by the love watching Daryl with his children and in particular we'll watch him with the sun right and and the notion of that love and to model what it looks like for men to truly love and show affection for men to be vulnerable and open and honest is life changing so be around the people that bring you that and yeah let me see here thank you for for some of those other comments I'm scrolling through here yeah yeah yeah Yoshiko is Yoshiko's a real deal that's the real deal you know and that's someone who who is never afraid to well or at least externally make sure that when she walks into a space I'm going to be authentic self like it or not right and so if anybody says well what's the consequence of that president and that doesn't mean there have been hits that doesn't mean that she hasn't taken some lumps and she hasn't you know struggled and faced some challenges you persevere there's a saying that some people have and then some of their churches where they talk about in the fullness of time and sometimes we get caught up in that moment right now right now it might not be good in the fullness of time Dr. King talked about that arc that bends toward justice it may take some time but we can get there we can get there the Daryl had been applying for a lot of faculty positions and had been getting a look this is I mean think about it if you think about it Daryl right that he wasn't even getting interviews he wasn't being considered he applied all these places to teach and kept going and in the long run look at the contribution that he's made so yeah what are the questions you have yeah yeah Stephanie feel free to ask any questions you've got no don't hesitate don't hesitate jump on in I can talk about a million things but I wanted to hear what inclusion is a leadership tool wonderful James Payton oh my gosh well these names he's blasphemed in the past he still looks like he's 25 now so as a leadership tool we know that inclusive leaders so a study that mentioned and I could bring it up on my screen but that inclusive leaders generate a 70 percent increase in psychological safety so when people are around folks who would lead and lead with love and lead with inclusive people feel safe they feel like okay I can be me and not only does that mean we can bring our authentic selves it means we can take risks when you feel valued and included it means you can you can go there and try new ideas out because you know your safety so as a leadership tool one of the things we can do is make sure that everybody's voice gets heard leaders make sure that in every meeting you use poll everywhere and so when people say things like tell us what you really think and people are afraid to say it out loud they can put it there all of us have had a boss or a professor that said tell me what you really think about me and we're like I need my grade I need this job I can't really be honest but if I could be honest in an anonymous space then maybe I can really give so inclusive leaders make sure they create space to hear all voices especially ones that may challenge us that push us in ways that are uncomfortable and that's how we grow and so that to me is so powerful when we create spaces where everybody's voice is heard we come up better solutions racially diverse juries make better deliberations they make fewer errors research is found so when we create space for all voices to get heard and acknowledge that we all learn and live and love differently then everybody can get in let's see who else who else Dr. Greenfield I just realized I have the power to unmute and ask my question out loud instead of in the chat which is easier for me I have a question about career trajectory kind of in a way thinking about man a lot of things like pleasure activism and having joy at work and feeling like I know that it's true for a lot of people like you were saying how Dr. Bryce applied at many places and that's a lot of effort and hours of work each time you put in an application and a lot of us put in so much sacrifice to be educators and to make it and then we get here and I think what for me I found Dr. Bettina Love talks about the trauma the education causes as spirit murder because school will murder your spirit and I didn't realize that it would continue to spirit murder me when I became part of the institution actually spirit murder me harder and it became really hard for me to you know here I am at this dream job and I was miserable and I'm trying to do my job in a way that doesn't feel miserable but it could be real difficult a lot of the times and sometimes I question if institutions of higher education are places where I could be my full self and I'm trying to figure that out and I'm lingering here I'm not in any rush to change but you left a tenured position you're doing big things I don't know institution cannot contain all this greatness here me and a lot of us that are here so what does that look like do you think how do you think institutions could adapt to hold and to give space for all of our greatness to thrive within them because I would argue right now it does not and in the event that the institution is not ready for us which it is not and continues to not be it will not allow us to transform it what does that look like I mean did you feel did you feel like you were just so expansive in the after the tenured situation or just speak on that for a bit please yeah yeah thank you for lifting up all those ideas you're right there's a lot of trauma and institutions have been spaces where folks have felt traumatized one of my favorite pictures of Dr. King is him playing pool because what he knew that he had to do is to have joyful outlets to to to feel good and to center that throughout I love that notion of the pleasure activism so I think what we do is you know we keep using that word camp and I would challenge you to say what keeps you from just doing that more what keeps you from saying you know what I'm just going to be me or I'm going to be more authentic or I'm going to push the buttons a little bit more yeah I may get some pushback yeah it is possible it's not likely it's possible you might lose a job but to believe in yourself enough to bet on yourself enough to say that I could always find another job but I can't find another life this is mine and this is the life that I want to be able to have and to be who I deserve to be for me and for others so when we say things like why can't be or they don't let me to some degree we allow that and so the challenge for us is to say what can we do step by step it may mean we don't have to do it all at one time maybe we step by step work on that but I want you to think about what can I do each day to just one percent like I mentioned that 211 or 212 degrees that one degree of difference maybe I just show up a little bit more authentically today or speak out a little bit more tomorrow what are the things I could do every single day because again it is tough institutions tend to change slower than individuals and you have a choice there's lots of ways that we can make our contribution if you choose to do it through an institution like higher ed then fight like heck to make it the best it can be then fight like heck so let me ask Dr. Bryce for a quick second and I talked about applications that was in the past I want you to think he's been trying to go anywhere else Dr. Bryce with the you know great doctoral degree all this experience all this notoriety all these publications you have you could have gone lots of places too you could have easily left Highline and I'm sure there have been people who said things like oh why don't you why don't you I mean Highline's too small for you what is it either about Highline or for you that said this is where I want to do my work I'm curious so for me it has always been about you know the love I have for my colleagues and the love I have for my students you know and Highline was a special place like you say it took a shot at me when nobody else would and you know as we continue to lose you know qualify folks especially you know qualify folks of color you know it was even more important for us to you know love on each other and you know surround ourselves you know with the folks that you know allow us and keep us you know doing what we're doing so what I've tended to do towards the end of my career is to move in circles where you know my thoughts my opinions you know are you know sort of respected and to not move in you know those other circles and sometimes you know people can see that as a cop out but for me you know my well-being isn't worth you know the energy of putting myself in circles where I know that's not going to happen right yeah I love that because and that's a really interesting thing to think about our work in the long term and as the life trajectory kind of like you know we talk about developmental theories that there was a time there where you said look I have to fight those fights I've got to speak up and say and do these things and you maybe had that energy at that time or that passion for that and maybe now as you say the fact that you're saying towards the end of your career oh my god oh my god narrow rise all grown up to think about that maybe now you're saying okay this is not giving it it's saying I choose to place my energy and be in spaces that are lifted and affirmed and where I know that people who are sharing that space with me need that love and affirmation too so you're still doing life changing work it's just realizing in this phase there's lots of ways to do it so so yeah and Russ I appreciate you the chat box it's true the first public presentation I ever did in my life was from a high school students a whole auditorium and in three minutes left my presentation a young man was like oh your fly is down your zipper is down I'm like oh my god and they laughed at me and the principal actually came up to me afterwards and said you'll never come back here again because the kids got so out of control they literally ran out the auditorium laughing as my first time ever speaking so that's a great thing about zoom I don't have to worry if I fly down now you'll never know but the point is like we're gonna face challenges you can get bitter you can get better all right some of this that is happening in this world right now maybe we need because it's really centering us this pandemic has taught us a lot about what we need to honor in our lives it's given us new strategies to communicate right we're able to if you and engage with people all over the world in ways we didn't before and even in the midst of challenge see those moments see this anti-spirit that we're seeing in this country right now as a moment to galvanize us to reach out to each other and love a little bit harder see this is our wake-up call then maybe we got a little comfortable maybe we've been living in a in a space where we thought hey we're making progress no we need to keep that fight going and be in the spaces that give you what you need how to collaborate folks who say they want to be equal they're insertion on the line a couple of things one don't be afraid again to you know speak and give examples and raise your voice another thing give evidence one of the things we don't do a really good enough job I think in this work is to demonstrate the research about how you know inclusive spaces make us better or the examples of how when we bring in you know diverse faculty look we're a better faculty so I think what you can do is think about concrete examples whether it's through data specific numbers or experiences and stories demonstrate to people that actually this works it's not just because it's nice it's not just because you know it's the right thing to do all that matters it's also true that it benefits that it makes us better so for those folks who don't quite get it speak to it give them examples to model that so they can see it and understand that sometimes fear is real and one of the things I've discovered in my work during this pandemic is there's so many faculty that struggle to do the zoom thing and everything else not because they didn't care about students not that they didn't want to learn but what if you've been teaching for 30 years and you're afraid you don't know this technology you don't want to be embarrassed it's it's tough for us none of us want to feel embarrassed so for so many people change is scary and maybe if we just sit and talk to people and have a chance to hear their story maybe their resistance or maybe their acts that are not aligning with what they're saying is because they don't know or they're afraid and we can be the shepherds to bring them to the next level so thanks for the story that was mentioned there I love for you know this wonderful this big gorgeous brain and your advocacy for the underdog is transcendent I just want it I want to like I just want to bathe in that idea right there right isn't it wonderful that we've got people in our midst so those moments you start saying that you know the institution and I might speak about highlights I haven't been there as I can't say anything good or bad but now I just know that when I was there it was a place that was so special to me if you are saying that the institution isn't giving you a chance then these folks are the institution too Darrell Bryce is Highline College Gamla Ross is Highline the institution is not just the people at the various positions in administration or the buildings the institution is the people and move to affirm and inspire them so we can continue because you have no idea people are watching I just want to remind you that when we think nothing is happening the bamboo tree takes five years to grow above ground and you think nothing's going on and it shoots out 90 feet in six weeks the bamboo tree for five years has to anchor itself and when it's ready it shoots out some of us we think that we don't see the change happening maybe we're just anchoring ourselves some of us maybe we've been scared for years I had talked about coming out and I didn't do it there's nothing happening no I was anchoring myself and when I was ready I could do that for some of us to realize that what might look like no change is really the universe telling us we're getting you ready so that when change is about to happen you're better positioned to experience that so I really appreciate all that folks are saying and the comments here in the chat box I just maybe we could take the last two minutes for everybody just to drop some wisdom in the chat box drop a thought a comment an idea a feeling anything that you want to offer to the space let's just take the last 90 second you don't need to hear my voice anymore let's hear each other's voices let's hear each other's voices with thoughts of encouragement insights words of wisdom maybe it came from your grandmother maybe it came from something you read once or maybe it just came from your own soul and brain let's put in the chat box the words we need to hear at this moment I'm glad we're recording this maybe we could Dr. Bryce somebody can grab and go through some of these chats and maybe we can create a little document to send as a reminder of all the love that people have shared I don't know if there's a way to do it so someone doesn't have to sit there and type every single one of these out maybe there's technology to make it easier let's keep dropping them in the chat box because our collective wisdom is so strong yeast flying v formation because they know that they go 71% faster by flying together that's how we get better together Thunderbirds we fly together and you are as Izzy said enough so I thank you so much for the chance to be able to be with you I'm gonna go run up a floor and go talk about storytelling to folks and and getting people engaged and just sharing and being together as a family what an amazing amazing place this is Dr. Bryce I love you I'm inspired by you every time I read these chats or sometimes I do you know I'll be honest sometimes I go on ratemyprofessor.com and I just read Darryl Bryce's reviews because I just want to I love seeing and hearing people celebrate each other I love I love going to religious services that I maybe know nothing about and watching people not it's not about the religion it's about the spirit where people feel affirmed and and love on each other I love to to be in place I love showing up to random events and just watching a play and even if I don't know anything about the author I could watch people just be amazing and gifted with what they do and we should show up for each other show up for each other and and catch each other being good it's life affirming especially when folks that felt marginalized especially in a world that tries to tell you you don't belong and you matter hail to the now you matter you belong and the world needs you so thanks again I just want to thank Dr. Greenfield again man thank you so much much love coming back your way appreciate you squeezing us in right you're always welcome you know you can always come home right I love it so thank you Dr. Greenfield before everybody go please join us this week for more programs join us tomorrow at 10 30 a.m. with being here being human and they will be sharing on brief literacy you know there's more information in zoom links and thank you everybody and have a great day much love to everyone