Sharing Our Stories: Thoughts on what it takes to improve race relations

Know Better, Do Better
A guest post by Marie W. Watts

Being the change we seek in race relations requires a different mindset.

Have you heard the following?

“If you do what you’ve always done, you get what you’ve always got.”

For the sake of our nation, we cannot continue business as usual. But what’s the first step in breaking the cycle?

The psychological phenomena, the Pygmalion Effect, offers clues. This paradigm focuses on self-fulfilling prophesies. High expectations in a certain area led to enhanced performance. If I expect race relations to get better, they will get better. While I cannot change other people, I can change myself.

Ask yourself this question: Are you a person who wants better race relations or are you a person who improves race relations?

Just wanting something is nice but working for it makes all the difference. Once we begin with the mindset that we are someone who works to improve race relations, then we can begin to build habits that support our identity as a change agent.

Our mindset is enforced by small wins. And these small victories become habits. Soon these new behaviors become second nature.

These are some examples of small personal wins on the journey to racial equality:

· Do you hear/read something that reinforces negative stereotypes? Research it. Is it true?

Offer different opinions to others. Ingrained cultural stereotypes are difficult to tune out. Recognize yours and change your habits—stop acting on them.

· Smile and greet persons who are different from you. Do not ignore them.

· Be thoughtful while voting or contacting your elected representatives. Do you urge them to support legislation that furthers your goal of improving race relations?

· Volunteer or donate to causes that support your identity.

· Watch programs or read books about the effects of inequality on those who are different from us. Have you seen the PBS award-winning series “Eyes on the Prize”?

· Cultivate friendships with people who are different from yourself.

Set a goal for 2021 to remake your identity. The changes you make within radiate to those around you, setting the trajectory towards equality.

~*~
Author Bio:

Marie W. Watts is a former employment discrimination investigator and human resource consultant with over twenty-five years of experience. In pursuit of justice in the workplace, she’s been from jails to corporate boardrooms seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly of humans at work. 

Her on-the-job observations came in handy when she co-authored a textbook about how to behave at work, Human Relations 4th ed. Additionally, her work has been published in the Texas Bar Journal and the Houston Business Journal as well as featured on Issues Today syndicated to 119 radio stations, NBC San Antonio, Texas, and TAMU-TV in College Station, Texas.

A popular diversity and employment discrimination trainer, Marie has trained thousands of employees to recognize their own biases and prejudices and avoid discriminating against others in the workplace. She has brought her experiences to life in the trilogy Warriors For Equal Rights about the struggles of ordinary people who work at the little-known federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

She and her husband live on a ranch in central Texas. In her spare time, she supports a historic house and hangs out with her grandsons. For more information about Marie and her stories about life, visit www.mariewatts.com.

~*~
Connect with Marie:
BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/profile/marie-w-watts
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mariewattsbooks
Twitter - https://twitter.com/MarieWattsBooks
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mariewattswriter/
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-w-watts-5b2a2b/

A Devotional about Togetherness

People Getting Along With People
A devotional by Jo Huddleston

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” –Matthew 7:12 (NIV)

We have seen America reel under unthinkable occurrences most wouldn’t have imagined could ever grace our history pages. Much of the good and the bad in our country springs from relationships between people.

We don’t all think alike; nor come from similar backgrounds that influence our actions; nor hold the same principles that govern our lifestyle. Differences are a distinguishing characteristic between people.

Differences tend to set us apart. We hold differing opinions on many issues and get excited about different things and cling to different values and virtues.

In light of all our differences, seeing eye-to-eye with everybody becomes a difficult task. Something is needed or else we could never get along with many folks. Yes, something has to be done to the hard, dry soil of personalities before a right relationship can exist between people.

The Bible tells a parable of the farmer, a sower of seeds (Matthew 13:1-10). Some of the seeds he planted fell along the path where the birds ate them. Some seeds fell on rocky places with little soil where they could not form adequate root systems and they died. Other seeds landed among thorns and were choked up by them. Finally, other seeds fell on good soil where they produced a fine crop.

Getting along with people can be likened to those seeds the farmer planted. All kinds of obstacles lie along the way to good human relationships. The rocky places and thorns are the differences we have.

In such cases, we must prepare the soil of differences so that we can realize a bumper crop of harmony and goodwill. The highest priority of preparation would be to put aside selfish desires. Putting other people first, loving one another. It’s all a thing of the heart.

Getting all these relationships correct is not easy. Just as farming is not easy. But following an unsuccessful crop, the farmer doesn’t quit. He goes out the next time, prepares the soil and plants again, striving toward that abundant, bumper crop.

Yes, the preparation indeed is often as important as the actual deed that is achieved. May we all continue preparing our hearts for a moral and ethical brotherhood of all people.

Embracing excellence, enthusiasm, courage, and compassion promises a wholesome outlook for America. The task will require generous measures of each of these principles, especially that of faith. America can shed her apathy and aim for a better today and greater tomorrows. She can submit to a divine purifying process and emerge a stronger, united country possessing these healing attributes.

I pray America chooses to turn toward her founding fathers’ worthy design for this nation.

~*~
Author Bio: 

Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author who writes novels inspired by her fascination with the 1950s and her love of her native American South. Novels in her endearing Caney Creek series, her West Virginia Mountains series, as well as her stand-alone release, Tidewater Summer, are sweet Southern romance novels.

Her writing career includes more than 200 articles and short stories, which have appeared in over 50 well-known Christian and secular publications including Guideposts and Decision. She's an online contributor to Christian Devotions Ministries.

Jo’s devotions appear in eight anthologies and she wrote devotions on assignment and freelance for the following daily devotionals: Devotions, Open Windows, Pathways to God, The Quiet Hour, The Secret Place, and The Upper Room.

She is a member of the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds a M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. Visit Jo online at this address, www.johuddleston.com.

A Must-See Movie that May Change Your Mindset...for the better! :)

This movie, ya'll, breathed LIFE into me tonight! You need to watch it. Turn OFF the NEWS on TV, put down the newspaper, take a break from social media and watch this movie!

Zootopia is a movie made by Disney and I do believe it is their most genius, culture-changing, call-to-action, creative and clever production! Seriously, this one needs to go down in the history books!

The acting, music, storyboarding, plot and voice overs in this animated film were second to none. The comedic timing of the lines was perfect and best of all, this film's power to galvanize generations of old and new is just...brilliant!

We're living in crazy, unpredictable times and people are on edge. People are scared of each other, they're judging each other unfairly, they're taking in all of the news that's negative and not digesting enough positivity and hope is feeling like a foreign concept.

But this movie, Zootopia, will remind you that we all belong to ONE race...the HUMAN RACE and We are ALL better TOGETHER.

This movie will encourage you to NOT judge people based on their skin color, beliefs and style. It will inspire you to live out The Golden Rule which is to simply "Treat others how you want to be treated."

It will make you laugh out loud, cry (happy tears), touch your heart and make your mind believe that despite our hostile times, there still are good people in this world and together we can fight for justice and together, we can make the world a better place.

So what are you waiting for? Go watch the movie! It's available on Netflix. :)

A Truth to Remember, for Election Day 2016 in the U.S.A.