Episode 69: Conversation on race with Lee Mun Wah and Howard Ross

In this conversation on race I’m joined by Diversity pioneers and original thought leaders Lee Mun Wah and Howard Ross to talk about the current state of diversity, racism and white supremacy in the US today

 

Howard is known for his cutting edge work on implicit bias and Mun Wah made the ground breaking film on race, Color of Fear.

 

Key Topics:

• Origins and current state of the Trump executive order banning diversity and inclusion training in the government and companies that do business with the government.
• Threats against Howard Ross and his family for his work in diversity, equity and inclusion.
• The content of the letter suspending Mun Wah’s training with the government calling diversity and inclusion unpatriotic, propaganda and unamerican.
• Why diversity, equity, inclusion and conversations on race are more important now than ever in the current culture of the US and across the globe.
• How Black people and others protesting in the name of social justice are being shot, threatened and attacked.
• Overcoming resistance and fear of diversity, conversations on race and social justice.
• Whose lives matter? Do white lives matter more than Black lives? Do heterosexual lives matter more than LGBTQ lives
• The fact that the media doesn’t mention the large numbers of Native American women who have disappeared, the lack of funds to help Native American communities and the high Covid death rate in that community.
• How issues of racism against LatinX, Asian and other people of color are often neglected, trivialized and ignored.
• Intercultural
• Health care disparities that result in higher death rates for Black women during childbirth than white women.
• Howard and Mun Wah share experiences engaging in dialogues with white supremacists.

 

Guests Bio:

Lee Mun Wah, M.A. Special Education, M.S. Counseling
Executive Director of StirFry Seminars & Consulting

 

Lee Mun Wah is an internationally renowned Chinese American documentary filmmaker, author, poet, Asian folk teller, educator, community therapist, and master diversity trainer. He is the Executive Director of StirFry Seminars & Consulting, a diversity training company that provides educational tools and workshops on cross-cultural communication and awareness, mindful facilitation, and conflict mediation techniques. His first documentary film, Stolen Ground, about the experience of Asian Americans, won honorable mention at the San Francisco International Film Festival. His most famous film about racism, The Color of Fear, won the Gold Medal for Best Social Studies Documentary and in 1995, Oprah Winfrey did a one-hour special on Lee Mun Wah’s life and work that was seen by many.  His latest film, If These Halls Could Talk, was just released.  The film’s focus is on college students and their experience with racism and other diversity issues in higher education.  Thousands of people from government and social service agencies, corporations and educational institutions have taken Lee Mun Wah’s workshops and partnered with Stirfry Seminars & Consulting on their diversity initiatives.

 

Howard Ross is a lifelong social justice advocate and is considered one of the world’s seminal thought leaders on identifying and addressing unconscious bias.  He is the author of ReInventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose and Performance, (published by Rowman and Littlefield in conjunction with SHRM in 2011), and the Washington Post best seller, Everyday Bias:  Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives, (published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2014, Second Edition released in 2020).  His latest book, Our Search for Belonging:  How Our Need to Connect is Tearing Us Apart, released by Berrett-Koehler in May of 2018, won the 2019 Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal for Social Change and Social Justice.

 

Howard has specialized in the synthesis of neuro-cognitive and social science research and direct application re: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Accessibility work.  His client work has focused on the areas of corporate culture change, leadership development, and managing diversity, inclusion and belonging.  Ross has successfully implemented large-scale organizational culture change efforts in the area of managing diversity and cultural integration in academic institutions, professional services corporations, Fortune 500 companies, and retail, health care, media, and governmental institutions in 47 of the United States and over 40 countries worldwide.  In addition, Howard has delivered programs at Harvard University Medical School, Stanford University Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, the Wharton School of Business, Duke University and Washington University Medical School and over 20 other colleges and Universities, as well as for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  Howard served as the 2007-2008 Johnnetta B. Cole Professor of Diversity Professor of Diversity at Bennett College for Women, the first time a white man had ever served in such a position at an HBCU.  

 

Howard’s writings have been published by the Harvard Business Review, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Fast Company Magazine, Diversity Women Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Fortune Magazine and dozens of other publications.  He appears regularly on National Public Radio. Howard has served on numerous not-for-profits boards, including the Diversity Advisory Board of the Human Rights Campaign, the board of directors of the Dignity and Respect Campaign, the board of the directors for the National Women’s Mentoring Network, and the Board of Directors of the National Center on Race Amity.  Howard has been the recipient of many awards, including the 2009 Operation Understanding Award for Community Service; the 2012 Winds of Change Award from the Forum on Workplace Diversity and Inclusion; the 2013 Diversity Peer Award from Diversity Women Magazine; the 2014 Catalyst Award from Uptown Professional Magazine; the 2014 Catalyst for Change Award from Wake Forest University; the 2015 Medal of Honor by the National Center for Race Amity; the 2015 Trendsetter in HR by SHRM Magazine; and the 2016 Leadership in Diversity Award by the World Human Resources Development Conference in Mumbai, India.  He was also named an Honorary Medicine Man by the Eastern Cherokee Reservation in N.C. and given Medicine Holder designation by the Pawnee Nation.  Howard has also been honored to serve as a “Contributing Expert” in both 2015 and 2020 to the Global Diversity and Inclusion Benchmarks by the Centre for Global Inclusion.

 

Howard is also a former Rock ‘n Roll Musician and has taught meditation and mindfulness for more than 20 years, including his role as co-founder and Lead Facilitator for the Inner Journey Seminars.

 

In 1989, Howard founded Cook Ross Inc., one of the nation’s leading Diversity and Inclusion consultancies.  He sold the company in July 2018 and founded Udarta Consulting, LLC.

 

Howard keynotes and speaks regularly at Conferences for SHRM, SHRM Diversity, the Forum for Workplace Inclusion, National Association of Corporate Directors , ATD, the World Diversity Forum, and dozens of others.  

 

He can be reached at [email protected].