Kalief Browder
Kalief Browder. Everyone needs to know this name. Kalief was a 16-year-old who lived in the Bronx. Kalief was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. He subsequently spent 3 years on the notorious Rikers Island. Of that 3 years, half of the time was spent in solitary confinement. I encourage everyone to watch the documentary series about him produced by Jay-Z. It is on Spike, but can also be watched online here.Kalief Browder
I have watched the entire series and I caught myself feeling sad, angry, hurt and confused. I continued to wonder how many other Kaliefs there are; how many more young people are locked away during critical times in their development to be thrown back on the streets with no ability to cope with life on the outside. Regardless of how you feel about the criminal justice system, I highly recommend watching this documentary and maybe doing some research on Rikers and young people in jail. As an FYI, New York's governor has committed to closing down Rikers. Additionally, New York has moved to stop trying 16 and 17-year-olds as adults.
Once you watch it, I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback! Reach out to me and let me know what you think!
Privilege
Recently I have participated in panel discussions and done presentations around ideas related to diversity and inclusion. This week I sat on a panel about privilege. Privilege is a concept that can be uncomfortable to discuss. The definition I use for privilege is a set of unearned benefits given to a person because of a social group they fit into. For example, men have privilege because of their status as a man. White people have privilege because of their race. When people discuss this topic, I think it makes people uncomfortable because they think we are negating hard work and do not want to think they have a leg up over another group. But privilege by definition means one group has power over another. That is just a face. Many of us have privilege. I would encourage you to check out this BuzzFeed quiz. My hope is that this post makes you think about privilege and how it affects you. I encourage you to instead of ignoring it, recognize that it exists and try to learn more about it. This article is a place to start.
Notorius R.B.G.
Politics is a dicey subject, but one that many people are talking abotu right now. While I won't get too much into politics and my opinions, I will use this blog as a platform to discuss lessons I have learned from watching political leaders. Supreme Court judges are incredibly important, but I don't think they get much credit or are discussed enough. The decisions made by the Supreme Court affect the lives of Americans for years (think Roe v. Wade or Brown v. the Board of Education). These were landmark decisions. The Supreme Court made same sex marriage legal across the states and will continue to be influential in our lives. President Trump has made his nomination for the Supreme Court (Neil Gorsuch), so I am using this as an opportunity to talk about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I am obsessed with the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She is affectionately known as the Notorius RBG and is a feminist icon. I have read two great books about her (Notorius RBG and Sisters In Law) and have listened to interviews about her and she is an icon. As a continuation of the post about podcasts (and since March is #trypod month), I reccomend everyone listening to the What it Takes podcast interview with Judge Ginsburg.
Podcasts
Podcast: a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device. There are thousands of podcasts that can be downloaded (via the podcast app if you have an iPhone) in almost any category you can think of.
Here are a few of my favorites broken up by topic:
Professional Development:
Most of these are interview based.
- Your Kick Ass Life with Andrea Owen
- Mentoring Moments with Denise Restari
- Talk to Jess: Conversations with today's thinkers, movers and shapers
- Girlboss Radio with Sophia Amoruso
- Hashtags and Stilettos
- What it Takes
- Missing Richard Simmons
- Serial
- Undisclosed
- Wrongful Conviction
- The Generation Why Podcast
- Real Crime Profile
- Someone knows Something
- Court Junkie
- Sword and Scale
- Martinis and Murder
- Code Switch
- Embedded
- This American Life
- Freakonomics
- Stuff you missed in history class
- How I Built This