Prejudice is not bigotry is not racism.

Prejudice is negative feelings toward members of some group.

Bigotry is the (verbal or non-verbal) behavioral expression of prejudice.

Racism is institutional and organizational patterns (policies) that support and authorize bigotry.

Right now, in 2018, I am teaching the only college course that can help individuals have productive social interactions in these difficult days of neo-diverse America

You see, today we are living int the difficult days that MLKJr prophesied in 1968 in his last speech when he said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead.”

And at NC State, my Interdependence-and-Race course is the only one in the world that shows people how to understand and analyze what is going on in these difficult days of bold prejudice and bigotry in their everyday interpersonal interactions.

My course is the only one in the world that ask and answers “how is an interpersonal interaction influenced when one or both people are aware that the two people are different from each other by some group identity; race yes, but and/also religion, sex-of-person, bodily-condition, gender-identity, ethnicity, mental-health-condition, age, political-affiliation, etc.”

Turns out, you see, not knowing how to have productive social interactions with a person “not like me” is what is tearing at the soul of America.

#Starbucks #MeToo #Syracuse #Blacklivesmatter

Created by me in 2006, in my unique course I take research and translate it into strategies for productive neo-diverse social interactions that anyone can learn. And I send that knowledge out to the public through my essays and books to reach as many Americans as possible.

From Yavapai College in Arizona came this comment about the impact of my book: -White male, early 20s: “This book has changed the way in which I view people.  I used to make side remarks about people. But I have learned ways to communicate to others as anyone else, to not act differently if there is a person of a different race, and how I can control my social anxiety to allow myself to communicate with all people.”

I was able to create my unique course by combining my scholarship with my past real-world experience of intense intergroup experiences in the U.S. Navy.  During my time, with racial tensions swirling throughout, I was trained as a facilitator of racial dialogues to help the Navy deal with racial problems that sometimes reached the level of riots aboard ships.

I did the work to create the course because I knew that what I would teach would help my students come out of avoidance to engage in authentic social interactions.  I knew that I could create a course that would help young people lift their heads into changed lives by showing how they have made mistakes and how to do better. At the end of the course this Spring-2018 a student wrote:

“I have now been given the tools to analyze and think more deeply about the dynamics of interpersonal-intergroup interactions and not rush to dismiss people. I am an American, and I am so thankful that this course has opened my eyes to the inclusive breadth of what that truly means.”

Not just in my classroom; I see positive effects of teaching young people about neo-diversity even when I just give a guest lecture. After my Ramsey Lecture at the U. of Georgia a student wrote:

“One thing I appreciated about Dr. Nacoste’s lecture was that he took the time to define a few terms that are thrown around so often in our society today, I think we have lost sight of what they mean. He talked about racism in the terms of structure, which is often overlooked in pop culture and media, who would rather blame individual entities for inequity because it is more sensational and easier to comprehend. He also defined “bigoted” as having a negative view of an entire group of people. This was definitely a good reminder for me to watch how I think about and generalize about other people.”

Hear me then; We can save the soul of America. I write books and teach a course that prepares people to interact in our neo-diverse America not with anxiety but with respect. Here are my most recent students at NC State:

#Starbucks

How many times have I sat in a Starbucks waiting for a friend before I ordered anything. I guess I was lucky no one called the police since I am a big, giant, dark-skinned, black man.

Most Americans have now seen the outrage inducing video of the police taking away two black men who had been sitting quietly in a Philadelphia Starbucks waiting for a friend. The why is that a Starbucks employee called the police because those two black men were sitting in the store and had not ordered anything.

Kevin Johnson, the CEO of Starbucks published a letter of apology. In it he says a number of things, but this line of thinking stuck out to me:

“We have immediately begun a thorough investigation of our practices…  Regretfully, our practices and training led to a bad outcome—the basis for the call to the Philadelphia police department was wrong.  Our store manager never intended for these men to be arrested and this should never have escalated as it did… We also will further train our partners to better know when police assistance is warranted.”

Mr. Johnson, the CEO, has also now said that employees will be put through unconscious bias training.

That whole line of thinking misses the problem.

The problem today is not unconscious bias. The manager who called the police was very aware of what they were doing and why; they felt anxious and uncertain with the presence of two big, black men.

If Starbucks is going to put people through training, it should be training people to acknowledge and manage their neo-diversity anxiety. That is an anxiety about who belongs in what spaces; that is the anxiety of “who are among the ‘we’ and who are among the ‘they.’

To be effective, the training must start at the top of the organization.

For any organization to work through today’s neo-diversity issues, the organizational leadership must have a deep understanding of the root of that neo-diversity anxiety.  And the most important step in that direction is not training workers but training the top-level executives.

First line of change is getting the Executive board to understand that neo-diversity anxiety is rampant in their ranks and in our country. That is the only way the Executives and the organization will learn to operate in our multicultural 21st century with respect.

I coined the concept of neo-diversity. Like I do at colleges and universities, I can do the kind of neo-diversity training the Starbucks executive board needs.

Tell somebody: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22822943-taking-on-diversity

Wakanda Forever!

March 3, 2018, on the campus of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, I was the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Triangle Model United Nations. As it is stated on the Triangle Model UN website, “Our mission is to create a Model United Nation’s conference for middle school students in North Carolina and beyond that is professional, high quality, and allows for and embraces the diversity of delegates from different backgrounds, preparation levels and experiences.”

As keynote speaker, I knew it was my job to set a tone and deliver an opening message that would connect to the meeting theme of examining ways to fight “…the rise of nationalism and extremism… and move toward unified development.” How could I, this old professor, do that in a way that would excite and engage the thinking of these middle-school kids?

Well, given the way the movie has captured the imagination of our nation, especially young people, I presented myself as a delegate sent by King T’Challa, the Black Panther. Declaring myself the proxy delegate from the Kingdom of Wakanda, I presented the Wakandan anti-bigotry proposal to the gathering of the Triangle Model UN.

To quote my speech, I said:

“To the Secretary General and to the distinguished representatives, delegates and ambassadors of the nations represented here today, I bring you greetings from the Kingdom of Wakanda and King T’Challa, the Black Panther.

Wakanda Forever!”

[There was an audible reaction from my audience; gasps and giggles.]

“What King T’Challa and all of Wakanda is saying through me today, is that we must deal with each other as if we are all of the same tribe; no worry about who are the ‘we’ and who are among the “they.’ We must treat each other with respect for the humanity that we are all members of; no, us versus them.

Humanity Forever!

How do we create that world where we all respect each other no matter our tribes, no matter our background group memberships? We must train people to stand against bigotry by using this interpersonal strategy: “I’m sorry I find that kind of language offensive, it hurts me.”

I thank you the UN for listening to the Wakandan proposal to you for action, to create training programs to develop interpersonal leaders who will speak up against bigotry in all its forms.  We need, humanity needs, interpersonal leaders who will speak up against bigotry against women, bigotry against the disabled, bigotry against religion, bigotry against homosexuals, transgender or the gender fluid. We need, humanity needs, interpersonal leaders who will stand up against bigotry in all its forms.

That is what the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was telling the world when he said,

“The greatest tragedy of this age will not be the vitriolic words and deeds of the children of darkness. But the appalling silence of the children of light.”

You Delegates of the United Nations are the representatives of the ‘Children of Light.’

To slow and stop the rise of global nationalism and extremism, the UN needs to train interpersonal leaders to speak up against bigotry in the small interpersonal moments where extremism starts. That is our, the Kingdom of Wakanka’s proposal to you.

Humanity Forever!”

A couple of days after, I got an email from one of the organizers of the event, Sumana.

Sumana wrote to say:

“We received many positive comments regarding your talk from both teachers and students. Several of the teachers told us they thought your talk was a perfect fit for the theme of the conference and said they thoroughly enjoyed it. I also overheard many students discussing your Black Panther reference, which I think they really appreciated.”

#WakandaForever

Just announced Thursday, February 15, 2018:

In April I will be at the University of Georgia giving the College of Public Health Ramsey Lecture: “Getting Along on a Neo-Diverse Campus.”

America has a long history of teaching people to try to use skin color to “put people in their place.” That, of course, has never been a foolproof approach, but it is definitely not working today with the increase in interracial (and other intergroup) dating, marriage and childbearing.

So now when people can’t rely on “…the look of a person” too many people experience an intense psychological discomfort. Then to settle themselves in the social interaction, without thinking, people rudely blurt out the question, “…what are you?” Over the years, a number of my mixed-race college students have written about having this experience.

Here is my essay about the “what are you” neo-diversity anxiety moment which includes one of my @NCState student’s stories about having that experience: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quiet-revolution/201802/what-are-you-legacy-laws-segregation

It is an interesting experience to find yourself quoted in a tweet sent out to all who follow the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) at the university (NCSU) where you teach. The quote came from my Convocation speech and was sent out today (February 1, 2018) with the tweet that read:

Sage advice from @DrNacoste. #ThursdayThoughts