Calling Everyone: “Take Action, Influence Now, & Deny Complacency!”

Miriam Smith Stevens The Brand Paramedic & Creator of The Thankful Revolution is calling all to join the movement to make a difference in a positive manner.

There are many ways that you can make a difference. It doesn’t have to be an enormous action. Take small steps. Do you know your neighbors? Have you reached out to a co-worker now that the new normal is remote working? Read a book about diversity, cultural sensitivity, or implicit bias. Below are some awesome Ted Talks I watched that encouraged me in my own personal journey to not remain stagnant or hide in a shell like a hermit turtle.

Mellody Hobson is president of Ariel Investments, a value-driven money management firm — and an advocate for financial literacy and investor education.

UPS’s Janet Stovall has developed a business approach that addresses corporate racism head-on — and has created methods to help dismantle it.

Baratunde Thurston is an Emmy-nominated writer, activist and comedian who addresses serious issues with depth, wit and calls to action. He believes the stories we tell help shape the world in which we live. Also, he’s from the future.

Priya Vulchi is a co-founder of CHOOSE and author of “Tell Me Who You Are” (Penguin Random House, June 2019). She will graduate from Princeton University in 2022. Winona Guo is a co-founder of CHOOSE and author of “Tell Me Who You Are” (Penguin Random House, June 2019). She will graduate from Harvard College in 2022.

Vernā Myers is dedicated to promoting meaningful, lasting diversity in the workplace.
Why you should listen
Vernā Myers is a diversity consultant and self-described “recovering lawyer” with a degree from Harvard Law. She leads the Vernā Myers Consulting Group, an organization that has helped break down barriers of race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation in thousand-member workplaces. She is also the author of Moving Diversity Forward: How to Go from Well-Meaning to Well-Doing.
Myers encourages us to recognize our own biases in order to actively combat them, emphasizing a “low guilt, high responsibility” philosophy. In her work she points to her own inner biases, because, as she says, “People relax when they know the diversity lady has her own issues.”

Alice Goffman’s fieldwork in a struggling Philadelphia neighborhood sheds harsh light on a justice system that creates suspects rather than citizens.
Why you should listen
As an undergraduate studying sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, Alice Goffman was inspired to write her senior thesis about the lives of the young people living in the historic African-American neighborhood that surrounded the school. She lived side-by-side with a group of young men in one of the US’s most distressed communities, experiencing a troubling and rarely discussed side of urban policing — the beatings, late night raids and body searches that systematically pit young men against authority.
Goffman spent six years in the community, the work transforming into her dissertation at Princeton and then into the book, On the Run. In it, Goffman weaves groundbreaking research into a narrative amplifying neglected and often-ignored voices into a stirring, personal indictment of the social, economic and political forces that unwittingly conspire to push entire communities to the margins of society.
Goffman is now an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a vocal advocate for change in America.

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.
Why you should listen
Bryan Stevenson is a public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. He’s the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), an Alabama-based group that has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent prisoners on death row, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.
In 2012, EJI won an historic ruling in the US Supreme Court holding that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger are unconstitutional. Stevenson’s work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system has won him numerous awards. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government, and he has been awarded 14 honorary doctorate degrees. Stevenson is the author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

Christian Picciolini is dedicated to helping others counter racism and extremism.
Why you should listen
After leaving the white-supremacist skinhead movement he helped build in America during the 1980s and 90s, Christian Picciolini earned a degree in international relations from DePaul University. He launched Goldmill Group, a global media and counter-extremism consulting firm. In 2016, he won an Emmy for his role in producing an anti-hate advertising campaign aimed at helping people disengage from violent extremist groups. His life since leaving the white-supremacist movement over two decades ago has been dedicated to helping others counter racism and extremism by founding the Free Radicals Project.
Picciolini has spoken all over the world, sharing his unique and extensive knowledge, teaching all who are willing to learn about building greater peace through empathy and compassion. His involvement in the early American skinhead movement is chronicled in his memoir White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out, and his more recent book Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism examines extremist disengagement. He has also co-developed a television docu-series, Breaking Hate, based on his work helping people disengage from violent ideologies.

Theo E.J. Wilson encourages us to break through the divides that separate us.
Why you should listen
Theo E.J. Wilson is a founding member of the Denver Slam Nuba team, who won the National Poetry Slam in 2011. He’s also know as slam poet Lucifury. He began his speaking career in the N.A.A.C.P. at the age of 15, and he has always had a passion for social justice. He attended Florida A&M University, where he obtained his B.A. in theater performance. Upon graduating, he interned as a full-time actor at the St. Louis Black repertory company.
Wilson is the executive director of Shop Talk Live, Inc. The organization uses the barbershop as a staging ground for community dialogue and healing. In 2013, Wilson began speaking with “Rachel’s Challenge,” an organization dedicated to ending school violence through compassion. After viral video success beginning in 2015, he published his first book in 2017, The Law of Action. The book addresses some of the misconceptions about the law of attraction and the role direct action plays into manifestation.

Unconscious Bias: Creating a Culture of Inclusion: Vernā Myers

YouTube Video post Video post by Baker McKenzie

Vernā Myers, Vice President of Inclusion Strategy, Netflix, speaks at the Global Employer Forum 2019.

In a time of mourning and anger over the ongoing violence inflicted on Black communities by police in the US and the lack of accountability from national leadership, what is the path forward? Sharing urgent insights into this historic moment, Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, Rashad Robinson, Dr. Bernice King and Anthony D. Romero discuss dismantling the systems of oppression and racism responsible for tragedies like the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and far too many others — and explore how the US can start to live up to its ideals. (This discussion, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded on June 3, 2020.)

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff · CEO, Center for Policing Equity
Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff works with police departments to help public safety be more equitable and less deadly.

Rashad Robinson · President, Color Of Change
Rashad Robinson is President of Color Of Change, a leading racial justice organization with more than 1.4 million members.

Dr. Bernice King · CEO, The King Center, Daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Bernice Albertine King is a connector, communicator, community builder and CEO of The King Center.

Anthony D. Romero · Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union
Anthony D. Romero is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Chris Anderson · Head of TED
After a long career in journalism and publishing, Chris Anderson became the curator of the TED Conference in 2002 and has developed it as a platform for identifying and disseminating ideas worth spreading.

Whitney Pennington Rodgers · TED current affairs curator
Whitney Pennington Rodgers is an award-winning journalist and media professional.

Published by msstevenspr

Miriam S. Stevens aka "The Brand Paramedic", is an online social multimedia network strategist. She works with entrepreneurs, special interest groups, and non-profits to develop a social media campaign, marketing strategy, and customer engagement blueprint. She offers this three-prong approach to successfully connect business brands with their clientele. As the creator of MsStevensPR.Com, Miriam encourages productive, one-to-one focus meetings to pinpoint a company’s vision, research their targeted audience, and develop the right implementation plan. View more posts

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