In this first of our Reimagining DEI series, you will hear excerpts from my conversation with Cherry Steinwender. Cherry is cofounder of the Center for Healing Racism, and has been working in this space for many years. Our conversation ranges from how Cherry and her colleagues developed their methods, the importance of inner work, and how to keep going when you don't see the results you want.

Today, I'm really excited to introduce a unique series on the Being Luminary podcast, one that's really close to my heart. Earlier this month, we hosted a sensational event. It was a summit called Reimagining DEI for a new era of ethical leadership. And it was focused on reimagining diversity, equity and inclusion work in the context of all sorts of leadership roles, whether that's coaching or service provision, consultancy, whether you are somebody that's a school leader, a charity leader, we were really looking at how we do this work across our fields. It was an event that was filled with rich discussion, I think some really interesting workshops, and just genuinely inspiring people inspiring talks from leaders across various sectors. So I'm really excited to share that we're bringing parts of this amazing summit to you through our podcast, the series isn't just going to be a replay of the summit. Actually, we're, we're repurposing some of the conversations and some of the insights and some of the wisdom that was shared across the two days. And you're not going to get the whole thing if you do want access to the whole summit, you can still get that later on towards the year we'll be sending sending out some details about that. But for the podcast, we're going to have episodes featuring our guests. And really, we're going to invite you to draw together the themes of the various conversations that we had really thinking and listening deeply to the integral role that diversity, equity and inclusion work has, in any kind of leadership. I'm going to be inviting you to draw together the strands of learning of wisdom from our guests thinking about the importance of humanity, and courage, thinking about how that comes out through all of the conversations that I had with my guests and, and also in these times that we're in, to really think about how some of these conversations can give you heart that we can enact cultural and institutional change if we want to. Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.ukA full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/introducing-our-reimagining-dei-seriesThis podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media. 

"I do think that because of my experiences, and because of, of my feeling around learning, that made me excel in the classroom as a teacher, because I really could understand how to do the building blocks of learning, you know, and break things down and make sure that understanding was there. I think that teachers I've met that have not struggled at school and that have been, you know, those learners that are flying through, have found that journey of being able to break learning down harder." In this distilled episode Angie talks to Carla Whelan, Chief Executive Officer at Empower Trust, about how her experience of school has informed her teaching and leadership practice.

Introducing our 2023 Virtual Summit - Reimagining Diversity, Equity, Inclusion for a new era of Ethical Leadership In this episode Angie introduces some of the speakers and conversations that will be available at the Summit, which will be taking place on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th October 2023.

Introducing our 2023 Virtual Summit - Reimagining Diversity, Equity, Inclusion for a new era of Ethical Leadership In this episode Angie explains the purpose and format of the summit, which will be taking place on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th October 2023.

"I'm really interested in this idea in spiritual education. And we don't we say it, but we don't really engage with it in schools. And when I have talked about it, people get a little bit kind of itchy." In this distilled episode, Angie talks to Rebecca Leek about how her faith as a Quaker informs her teaching, and why schools in Britain don't engage well with faith.

“So I want to live in a liberal society where people can have their freedom of speech recognised where people can debate openly on issues on the issues of the day, where people can debate things. Yeah, I think I think liberal societies need debate. And I think they need to have people feel confident enough to call others out as part of that debate. But debate isn't possible where tone policing happens, I don't think because debate requires that everybody's voice does get to be heard, however, that voice is being used. And so I think tone policing and other underminings of the way that something is delivered are a really effective way of actually avoiding liberalism and avoiding debate in a liberal society.” In this solo episode, Angie tackles the thorny issue of freedom of speech and cancel culture, and proposes some questions to ask ourselves when we feel ‘cancelled’.

“Now I've been the token., so I can wholeheartedly speak from experience of how being the one representative made me feel both a kind of responsibility, and a specialness, but also a visibility that perpetuated my marginalisation. That visibility, that responsibility and visibility also meant that it was impossible to genuinely include me, because I was never just like everybody else, I was always just the voice over there, that might have a really different way of viewing things. And so although I applaud any organisation for wanting to have people in the organisation, who come from a whole range of different backgrounds, experiences, hold a whole range of identities,. I think that without the proper procedures, processes and culture in place, you are at risk of making things worse.” In this solo episode, Angie explores the dangers of tokenism, both to the individual and to organisations. She invites you to ask why you want representation, and to consider how to ensure that true representation avoids tokenism.

“Our colourblindness attempts to sanitise, through our intention, the very reliable and very lived impact of the significance of colour in the lives of many people who are racialized as black or brown. Because colourblindness ignores the persistence of racial discrimination and the lack of equity experienced in the day to day lives of people who hold racialized identities.” In this solo episode, Angie explores why the ideas of neutrality and colourblindness in leadship are problematic. She proposes some tips to consider for yourself when confronting colourblindness and the supremacy of whiteness in your own thinking, and developing colour consciousness for yourself.

“When we say that we need to run diversity training, what we actually do is reassert the centre ground. We say we need to train people who don't hold minoritized identities, (the centre ground (everybody who we understand)) on all of those people who do have minoritized identities (those at the margins (everybody that we don't understand)). So what it becomes is a reassertion of the idea that there can be a centre ground, when in actual fact, it's kind of an impossibility. If we are talking about diversity, the question always has to be, diverse from what? Diverse from WHO?” In this solo episode, Angie questions the limits of ‘diversity training’ that focuses on othering minoritised groups, and instead suggests that DEI training that examines ourselves has longer lasting effects within an organisation. In the latter part of the episode, Angie poses some questions to ask yourself next time you run training for and about minoritised people.