Mitt Romney Claps Back at Trump

Ellen McGirt

August 18, 2017

Here’s your week in review, in haiku.

Prebiously in

the West Wing. Currently on

Bob Mueller’s short list.

Burkina Faso.

Konduga. Barcelona.

And yes, Charlottesville.

A Pershing “missile”

misfires. Executives

break ranks. Guam exhales.

I miss the days when

On Point

Mitt Romney asks for Donald Trump to apologize and repudiate hateAfter posting a Facebook note about the president’s stance on Charlottesville, the former candidate began trending on Twitter. “Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn,” Romney wrote. In the post, he makes an interesting case for diversity, one I hadn’t fully considered. “Our allies around the world are stunned and our enemies celebrate; America’s ability to help secure a peaceful and prosperous world is diminished,” he says. “And who would want to come to the aid of a country they perceive as racist if ever the need were to arise, as it did after 9/11?”Facebook

What eleven CEOs have learned about advocating for diversity

Stefanie K. Johnson, an associate professor of management and entrepreneurship at University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, interviewed eleven chief executives (Salesforce, Medtronic, YouTube and Kaiser Permanente are in the mix) to find out what was working and what wasn’t. All validated the business case for diversity, and all talked about the cultural benefits. Of her four findings, one jumped out at me: hold yourself and direct reports accountable for results. “Indeed, research has shown that setting and following through on diversity goals is the most effective method for increasing underrepresentation of women and minorities,” says Johnson.

HBR

One fifth of American workers find the workplace hostile or threatening

Here’s some really bad news. A new study of 3,066 U.S workers shows that nearly one in five workers say that their workplaces are threatening or hostile, which can include bullying and sexual harassment. The study was conducted by the Rand Corp., Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles. It gets worse: Anyone with a customer facing job is taking the lion’s share of abuse. It’s part of the reason for the massive discontent among the working class – there are jobs, but they’re destroying people. The authors of the study also call the rates of abuse “disturbingly high.”

Bloomberg

Solange quits Twitter

Before you panic, she’ll still be on Instagram. But deleting her account was clearly an act of self-preservation. Click through for her thoughts – which included anguish that her now school-age son was learning that the world still tolerated race-themed hate. She also didn’t want to give her energy to the “racist ugly ass fuck bois who reek of citronella,” while she’s on tour, which is a pretty damning indictment of the kind of abuse black women take on the platform every day.

Vanity Fair

The Woke Leader

What do you do if you’re a white supremacist but your DNA test shows that you’re not actually white?

This is the dilemma that many white supremacists are facing in the age of genetic testing. Many online forums discuss testing or require proof of purity to participate, but not all tests come back the way people expect. Two UCLA scientists have spent years studying posts about genetic tests on Stormfront, the white nationalist forum. Turns out some white supremacists have increasingly nuanced ideas about race, genetics and the flaws of the genetic testing industry. “If we believe their politics comes from lack of sophistication because they’re unintelligent or uneducated,” says one of the researchers, “I think we’re liable to make a lot of mistakes in how we cope with them.” A fascinating read.

The Atlantic

On learning to be an ally

I’ve spent a bit of time at The Bitter Southerner, a thoughtful online journal dedicated to giving cultural shape to the “new South.” To do that well, it seems, means to wrestle with the old one, and the scars of Jim Crow. I found many wonderful examples of white writers struggling to articulate the cognitive dissonance of being both from and of a place as complex as the American South. I suggest you start with Greenville, South Carolina’s Brad Willis. A moment in a candy store and a text about Charlottesville triggered an epiphany. “For all the ways I’d convinced myself that I was too privileged to speak, for all the ways I’d convinced myself that I couldn’t write words that mattered to the most important of causes, for all the ways I’d decided my silence would let others be better heard, I’d gone too far. I’d disengaged.”

Bitter Southerner

Lupita Nyong’o doesn’t know how to make ugali, and it’s hilarious

The Academy Award winner drew ire from her fellow Kenyans when she admitted in an interview that she didn’t know how to make ugali, a Kenyan national staple made from maize flour. In this short video, she visits her parent’s farm in Kenya for a lesson. “It’s like an abdominal workout!” she declares as she stirs the floury glop over a cookstove. It’s also a dramatic departure from most “let’s go visit the folks of famous people” videos, if you get my drift.

YouTube