In this solo episode, I recap the latest good vibes in DEI. This week our conversation is about pickleball making access the default, autistic Barbie done with care, bonuses for the whole crew, and more!
In this solo episode, I recap the latest good vibes in DEI. This week our conversation is about pickleball making access the default, autistic Barbie done with care, bonuses for the whole crew, and more!
Here are this week's good vibes:
Good Vibes to Go:
Bernadette’s GVTG: It’s Girl Scout Cookie time! Here’s the now-annual list of trans kids to order Girl Scount cookies from.
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Speaker 0: hey, folks. it's bernadette smith, sheher, ceo of equality institute. welcome to five things live, good vibes in dei. the world needs proof of positive change. it is bleak. so i like to focus on the good stuff. let's do more of what's working. and, uh, you know, last week in my i had a virtual session, um, in which it was for a sales team, and they're really struggling with inclusive communication. they're having a hard time not accidentally offending each other. they're getting a little spicy in slack, and they really want to do better. they all do. they wanna do better. and so the in the beginning of the session, i always invite folks to share private messages to me in the chat so they can stay anonymous. if they wanna contribute, if they have a question, i will read their comment anonymously to protect them. but it means that i get some juicy stuff. i get to hear things that they might not share if this was an actual in person event. so one of the questions that i got, which i've actually gotten a lot of, is how do i be more inclusive when my act of inclusion could offend someone else? so my answer for everyone is to do it anyway. do the inclusive thing. be the inclusive person, human, anyway. do not back down. absolutely show up and do your inclusive thing. and if you get any pushback on it, make it bigger than you. bring it back to your core values, something beyond just your action. make it about, you know, this is what i believe. you know? make it bigger than you. and remember that you are not probably not going to change someone's beliefs. you may be able to get them to change their behavior, but you probably not gonna get them to change their beliefs. so focus on, uh, behavior, not beliefs. and if you have to set a boundary, you know, and that boundary could look something like, alright. well, we're just not gonna talk about this at work, or we're not gonna talk about this at thanksgiving. you know, a boundary can look like a lot of different things, but you wanna make sure you close the loop and move on by establishing a boundary. but the bottom line is be inclusive anyway. the world needs you. the world needs me to keep showing up in an inclusive way. alright. well, let's get into this week's good vibes. the first story this week is about pickleball. i love pickleball. and now there is a group of students in india who are deaf or disabled, who have gotten officially ranked in the duper rating system. that's a global pickleball rating system. these students now have duper ratings because the school that they go to had a co has a coach who did adaptive drills and signs for coaching, um, which is so cool. and that kids were able to go on and get duper rated. very, very awesome. and i love how it all starts at the beginning. it starts with the coach being intentionally inclusive and then sets everyone up for success. alright. the second story this week comes from barbie where there is a new autistic barbie. um, and it was developed over eighteen months with the autism self advocacy network. it's part of the new fashionistas line. and the doll includes noise reducing, uh, headphones, a fidget spinner, um, a tablet which recommend represents their augmentative and alternative communication styles or needs. so this has received some pushback, a little bit of flack because maybe it's a little too stereotypical. but honestly, you know, these types of things are what help people feel seen, represented. it's good for everyone. i know it's not maybe maybe not everyone's gonna love it, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. progress is always a good thing as far as i'm concerned. alright. so the next story this week comes from matt damon and ben affleck who have a company called artists equity. it's their film production company. so a little bit of history about how people are paid in the film industry. so, typically, in the film industry, um, in major broad studios, the actors get paid a salary, and everyone else gets paid, you know, a salary. and then some of the lead people, some lead actors, and some producers get a a percentage of the back end. that has not been the model for streaming. in streaming, everyone just gets paid their salary or their their hourly wage. now ben affleck and matt damon have a new film on netflix called the rip, and they are requiring netflix to pay a back end, uh, but, essentially, royalties to all of the crew, not just the stars, not just the producers, but all of the crew. so definitely, uh, pioneering for streamers, definitely pioneering for net netflix, and even beyond that for the industry because the whole crew is getting a bonus, not just the stars. alright. the next story is from volvo, which is unveiling a new font called volvo centum, which is a custom typeface for the displays in in a car, and the typeface makes in text in in car text easier to read at a glance. so it's engineered to reduce visual noise, um, helping drivers scan dashboards and infotainment faster. so it's a safety tool created through a font, which is amazing. and it's not just about disability. it's about inclusion and safety for everyone, which is exactly how things should be designed from the ground up. alright. and the last story this week comes from the video game minecraft, which which is this is not news, apparently. apparently, this story is about five and a half years old. but the reporters without borders group built a the uncensored library inside of minecraft. so it took hundreds of hours for these couple dozen, uh, builders, minecrafters, coders, i don't know the lingo, to create the library inside of minecraft so folks who who have who were getting censored can actually get their news, get books inside this digital library. so it's super cool. uh, it's about press freedom. it's about saying screw you about censored journalism and giving everyone access to this important stuff. so lots of good vibes this week, but let's move into this week's good vibe to go. alright. it is girl scout cookie time, which means it's time to buy girl scout cookies from trans kids. and you can buy, uh, check out the list of trans kids who are selling their cookies on this website from erin in the morning. so check those out. buy yourself some cookies and, um, help all kids get their girl scout cookie, uh, needs met, sold, and get your cookie fix. alright. thanks, folks. if you don't already get the five things newsletter, you can subscribe at 5thingsdei.com. have a great week.