The Equity and Justice Committee is excited to announce the launch of our “Conversations with Staff” series on a variety of topics related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in our work. Committee members from UW Botanic Gardens are working together with our partners at the Arboretum Foundation to present these Conversations and to coordinate our work on equity and inclusion. Our partnership on this important topic will give us an opportunity to work together to provide an inclusive and welcoming experience for all visitors, staff and community members to our grounds and our programs.
The goal of this series is to move our organizations towards more equitable and inclusive programs, organizations and practices by engaging staff in the discovery, learning and implementation of equitable and antiracist practices. Our plan for 2021 is to host six Conversations over the year on a range of topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Each meeting is developed around a central topic and committee members compile related resources and materials for staff to view before attending the Conversations. We have compiled those resources below.
Equity & Justice Staff Conversation Topics
(most recent -> oldest)
Expand for meeting goals, resources, and discussion prompts.
#11 - Supporting Caregivers in the Workplace
#11 – Supporting Caregivers in the Workplace, September 2022
Pre-reads for Caregiving staff chat:
- Article: Family Caregiving is a Diversity and Inclusion Issue – TLNT [tlnt.com]
- Article: Mental Health Worsens For Parents, Other Unpaid Caregivers During COVID-19 : Shots – Health News : NPR [npr.org]
Optional additional reads/listens
- Article: Caregiver Discrimination in the Wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic [racism.org]
- The Primal Scream – NY Times Story [nytimes.com]
- Podcast – No One is Coming to Save Us [lemonadamedia.com]
Discussion questions:
- How does caregiving show up in your life?
- Who provided care for you when you were a child? How do you think that caregiver role impacted them?
- Who do you anticipate will care for you when you are elderly? Who typically cares for elders? What do they look like?
- Is it reasonable for an employee with caregiving responsibilities to expect to advance into higher-responsibility roles?
- How do race and gender influence caregiving? How do associated biases intersect?
- What do you think makes a workplace inclusive to caregivers? Are there any specific changes in your workplace that could make it more inclusive to caregivers?
- During the pandemic, caregiver networks across the country dissolved or were greatly reduced. Did that have any impact on your life, or on people in your life?
- What level of flexibility do you think is reasonable in a workplace to address situations like the pandemic, or a teacher’s strike like we’ve seen recently?
#10 - Anti-Semitism
#10 – Anti-Semitism, May 2022
Goals:
- Listen to personal stories from our staff about their experiences growing up Jewish and with Jewish community members.
- Learn and reflect on how anti-semitism manifests in modern times and ways to address it.
Resources:
- Reading: Brief history of antisemitism (ADL pdf)
- Video: Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO ADL; PBS News Hour 4/29; Antisemitism incidents hit a record high in 2021. What’s behind the rise in hate?
- Reading: LA Times Op-Ed, 4/4. Ran in Sunday Seattle Times, 4/17; “At my high school, the Holocaust is barely taught in history class. That scares me.”
Discussion Prompts:
- Scapegoating and “othering” have been hallmarks of discrimination throughout human history. As one example from a homogenous population in northern Europe (White, Anglo-Saxon/French, Catholic), Jews were expelled from England in 1290 and were banned from openly living there for nearly 400 years. The first influx of English settlers to North America arrived while the prohibition was official policy, and many of these early groups were intolerant of other religions or other Christian beliefs.
- How might this history have helped Anti-Semitism to take root in what is now the United States? How can we use our stated founding national principles of religious tolerance and equality to counteract these forces, historical and resurgent?
- What actions can we take as a society to stand against Anti-Semitism today?
- UW staff were recently required to take updated Title IX training, which also discussed bystander actions of various levels.
- Drawing on this and your own thoughts and experiences, how can bystanders take steps to call out and push back against Anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination?
- How can we as individuals be proactive in stopping the rise in Anti-Semitism?
- Intolerance and hateful speech, while always a factor throughout American History, has risen significantly in the US over the last several years. In general, there seems to have been a broader relaxation of what is considered acceptable discourse in politics and public life. Common acceptance of what were once broadly accepted historical truths and widely accepted facts have also been increasingly dismissed.According to the ADL, Anti-Semitism was perhaps at its lowest point in the last 100 years in the immediate years after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the documentation and acknowledgement of the scale of Holocaust. As those with living memory of the Holocaust has receded in recent years, it has been easier for some to ignore or diminish the scale of the atrocities committed. As the LA Times article discusses, the causes and reality of the Holocaust is not being widely discussed in many schools or taught much at all.
- Thinking of your own experience, how much was Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust taught or discussed when you were in school?
- How can our teachers and schools be encouraged to teach this history—both on its own and in relation to ethics, world history, and humanity’s tendency to “other” and scapegoat those different from “majority” groups?
#9 - Horticulture/Public Gardens
#9 – Horticulture/Public Gardens, March 2022
Goals:
- Understand the role of colonialism in history botanic gardens and its legacy.
Resources:
- Reading: How the colonial past of botanical gardens can be put to good use
- Reading: The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire
- Reading: The Long Shadow Of Colonial Science
Discussion Prompts:
For individual reflection –
- What five words would you use to describe our garden. What kinds of meanings and associations do they suggest?
- Thinking about the five words you chose, reflect on your public garden’s location within a historical and local context.
- What are the relationships between your garden and its local/regional communities?
- Take a moment to analyze the style of organization and wayfinding in your garden. Would it make sense to a first-time visitor? Whose perspective does it represent?
For group discussion –
- To whom specifically is the public garden directing its voice and values? What kind of voice does your public garden present?
- Whose stories are being told? From whose perspective are these narratives constructed? What narratives, identities and truths do we have about our garden that may exclude other people?
- How do different communities value and use our programs and spaces?
- What plants are represented in your collection? Who chose these plants and where are they from?
- What is the one thing in your garden that came at a great cost?
#8 - Segregation in Seattle
#8 – Segregation in Seattle, January 2022
Goals:
- Participants will gain a better understanding of the history of segregation in Seattle and its lasting effects on communities today
Resources:
- Video: The History of Redlining in Seattle
- Presentation Slides: Seattle’s Segregation Story
- Video: Racial Equity in Seattle – Documentary by Roosevelt High School Alumni
- Reading: Racist Deeds – Seattle Times 2021
- Reading: Housing Discrimination – Seattle Times 2015
- Reading: UW project on Segregated Seattle
- Reading: Achievement gap in Seattle Schools – Seattle Times
Discussion Prompts:
- Did anything surprise you about this history of Seattle? Did you learn something new?
- Have you or someone you know ever felt excluded from a space or neighborhood? What signals did you get that made you feel excluded?
- How do you think the history of segregation affects Seattle today?
- Given the history of segregation in our area, what can UWBG and AF do to make sure everyone feels welcome in our gardens and programs?
#7 - Gender Identity
#7 – Gender Identity, November 2021
Goals:
- Participants will understand concepts and language of transgender and nonbinary identities
- Offer tools for personal and public support of transgender and nonbinary people
- Normalize gender identity is a conception of oneself that is neither visible nor static rather than dictated by physical attributes
Resources:
- Video: Gender Identity and Pronouns
- Reading: Understanding Non-Binary People: How to Be Respectful and Supportive
- Reading: Frequently Asked Questions about Transgender People
- Video: theyThem
Discussion Prompts:
- What’s an experience you’ve had with encountering new pronouns?
- Has there ever been a time where a stereotype of your assigned gender was uncomfortable for you?
- What are strategies you can employ to be more gender inclusive in your personal life and at work? How can we be more inclusive to coworkers, visitors, and volunteers?
#6 - Privilege
#6 – Privilege, September 2021
Goals:
- Understand the concept of privilege.
- Explore how privilege impacts our work at UW Botanic Gardens.
Resources:
- Reading: Why It’s Important to Think About Privilege — and Why It’s Hard
- Video: Privilege is power. How you can use it to do some good!
- Quiz: How Privileged Are You? Check(list) your privilege.
Discussion Prompts:
- Have you ever been in a situation where you were confronted with your own privilege? How did it feel? Did it affect your behavior?
- How might your privilege have influenced your awareness of and ideas about botanic gardens, arboreta and nature?
- Can you identify ways in which privilege could affect interactions with the Botanic Gardens? Consider experiences as an employee, visitor, program participant or volunteer.
- What are some strategies for making the Botanic Garden a more inclusive and inviting place?
“When we are willing to check our privilege, we are not only identifying areas where we are perpetuating oppression in order to stop personally perpetuating that oppression, but we are also identifying areas where we have the power and access to change the system as a whole.” – Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race
#5 - People with Disabilities
#5 – People with Disabilities, August 2021
Goals:
- Introduction to the civil rights history of people with disabilities.
- Explore the barriers preventing people with disabilities from full participation in society.
- Increase awareness of disability issues and disability culture; recognize stereotyping; familiarize ourselves with appropriate language, etiquette and disability culture when communicating and interacting with people with disabilities.
- Explore concepts of access and accommodation to encourage awareness of our environment (work spaces and the park) with regard to access.
Resources:
- Video: Olmstead Decision Explained
- Video: Conversations with Ivanova: People First and Identity First Language
- Movie: “Crip Camp,” a documentary about a groundbreaking summer camp that galvanized a group of teens with disabilities to build a movement for disability rights.
Discussion Prompts:
- Think about your own experience with a disability and/or of somebody you know who has a disability. How has that shaped your thinking about disabilities?
- What institutional barriers exist that people with disabilities continue to navigate? Consider mental as well as physical disabilities.
- What are some of the barriers (physical and non-physical) that exist at our organizations and physical locations? What are some ways we have or could address these?
#4 - Problematic Plant Names
#4 – Problematic Plant Names, May 2021
Goals:
- Share information around problematic plant names and naming systems and discuss ways to shift our practices.
Resources:
- Reading: What’s in a Name? Plant Common Names and the Stories They Tell – by Rebecca Alexander
- Reading: Decolonizing Species Names – The Revelator
- Reading: Change Species Names to Honor Indigenous Peoples, Not Colonizers, Researchers Say – by Kate Evans
Discussion Prompts:
- Are you aware of any plant names that are considered problematic?
- Do you know of any movements to change the naming systems?
- What steps can you take that would shift us away from using these names?
- Why wouldn’t we want to change these names?
#3 - Implicit Bias
#3 – Implicit Bias, March 2021
Goals:
- Understand the concept of implicit bias.
- Begin to identify our own individual biases.
Resources:
- Video: PBS Implicit Bias Peanut Butter, Jelly and Racism
- Video: PBS Implicit Bias High Heels, Violins and a Warning
Discussion Prompts:
Scenario Study – The physician’s dilemma: A father and his son are playing basketball in their driveway when the father accidentally knocks his son to the ground when going for a basket. The son grabs his arm and cries out in pain. It is obvious to the father that the son seriously hurt his arm, and he immediately rushes him to the emergency room. When the child arrives at the hospital and is checked in, the attending ER doctor sees his name on the chart and exclaims, “This patient is my son!”
How is this possible?
Answer: The doctor is his mother. This example highlights our unconscious biases of women in the workplace, and of heteronormative families.
- Have you ever had someone make a judgement about you that was wrong? How did it feel and how did you respond?
- Are other’s perception of your identity true to how you view yourself?
- Have you ever been misidentified?
- Are there ways you introduce yourself to clarify your identity to others?
- Can you think of a time (personal or professional) where you caught yourself making a judgement about a person or situation that turned out to be wrong? What did it feel like, and did it change your behavior?
- What kinds of situations make it easy to pass judgement unconsciously?
- Have you been corrected by someone about an unconscious judgement?
- What implicit biases can you identify within UWBG/AF? and/or within your hiring policies? Why is it important for us to learn about implicit bias for our work? What happens if we don’t?
- What are some strategies for overcoming unconscious or implicit bias? When an implicit bias is identified, what steps can you take individually or institutionally to stop the implicit bias from continuing? What steps can you take to prevent implicit biases?
- Suppressing or denying biased thoughts can actually increase prejudice, rather than eradicate it. Have you ever said or heard someone say, “I don’t have bias” or “I don’t see color?” What might you say in response to a statement like this that would provide the opportunity for intervention?
#2 - What is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)?
#2 – What is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)?, January 2021
Goals:
- Defining and better understanding DEI terminology.
Resources:
- Reading: What’s the Difference Between Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity?
- Reading: How to Talk About Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – by Alida Miranda-Wolff
Discussion Prompts:
- Think about a process within your organization in which you are involved (.i.e. supervising staff, volunteers or students; talking about the Arboretum to the public, writing website content, etc.) What biases have you faced related to this role? Can you think of any biases you might have in one of these roles? Can you think of ways to change your approach to be more inclusive?
- Can you think of a time (personal or professional) where you felt particularly included OR particularly excluded—what elements contributed to that experience? What elements describe an inclusive organization?
- How do we apply the concept of equity to our work? Where do you see equity and/or inequity at UWBG/The Arboretum Foundation? What are some examples of changes we can make to be more equitable?
- Think about the diversity of your organization. What is it like? How might we increase diversity and what benefits would that bring?
#1 - Community Guidelines
#1 – Community Guidelines, November 2020
We started off this series with a Conversation about our Community Guidelines to make sure we all understand and agree to some common principles for having meaningful and respectful conversations about equity and social justice. We feel it is important for every staff member to understand and agree to these Community Guidelines in order for this work to be productive; therefore, participation in this initial Conversation was required for staff. See these Guidelines in the attached document below.