Welcome to September:
We start this short work week with a mix of inspiration and desperation.
First, the inspiration:
Every day this month we’ll be asking an extraordinary person who truly understands inclusion and creativity – some who are already high-profile, others who deserve to be – to suggest a single action you can take today to become more open, curious, and empathetic. (Learn more here.)
We’re five days in, and the inclusive juices are flowing. Todays’ challenge comes from young adult bestselling writer Daniel José Older. “Can you truly listen to someone else, to what they’re saying in such a way that you’re not spending your time preparing to rebut them?” he asks. The key is to think more deeply about power and the way the world operates. “Can you look inward to understand your positioning in the realm of power – not just your opinion, but where you are placed? What power do you have, what power don’t you have?” In just five minutes, he says, you can become better at this type of deep listening.
If you haven’t been following along with our 30-day diversity and inclusion challenge, here’s what you’ve missed so far:
Challenge 1, Tim Ryan, PwC: Check yourself at the door before having a difficult conversation
Challenge 2, Luvvie Ajayi, author and strategist: Do something that scares you today
Challenge 3, Bernard J. Tyson, Kaiser Permanente: Appreciate someone and mean it
Challenge 4, Hugh Weber, CEO, community builder: Ask a stranger to curate your reading list
Challenge 5, Daniel José Older, YA author: Close your eyes and deeply listen to the world
Challenge 1, Tim Ryan, PwC: Check yourself at the door before having a difficult conversation
Challenge 2, Luvvie Ajayi, author and strategist: Do something that scares you today
Challenge 3, Bernard J. Tyson, Kaiser Permanente: Appreciate someone and mean it
Challenge 4, Hugh Weber, CEO, community builder: Ask a stranger to curate your reading list
Challenge 5, Daniel José Older, YA author: Close your eyes and deeply listen to the world
Follow #IncludeU30 to share your breakthroughs.
And now for the desperation:
The Trump administration on Tuesday formally announced the end of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) – an Obama-era program that had been designed to protect some 800,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
“I am here today to announce that the program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday at a Justice Department news conference. Though new program applications will not be accepted, anyone whose status was set to expire in the next six months will be renewed.
Many people might be surprised to learn that undocumented immigrants are not typically problem children. In fact, according to this March 2017 report from the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants currently pay some $11.74 billion in state and local taxes each year. (If you’re curious about your neighborhood, the New American Economy, a bipartisan immigration reform coalition, has a powerful tool that maps the number of immigrants, their level of entrepreneurship, taxes paid, and other economic activity by state and district.)
The stories of people who are being impacted by the DACA decision are worth your time. Here’s one example: Kok-Leong Seow was only six years old when his family moved to the U.S. His father works as a waiter, and the family has squeaked by for years.“We pay taxes, abide by all laws, and don’t live on welfare,” he says in this opinion piece for the New York Times. Now, no longer eligible for a DACA application, the magna cum laude graduate in computer science can’t drive, fly, work, get health insurance or pay for grad school at Columbia. “I’m unfazed and undocumented. I’m not going anywhere,” he says. Click through for more.