Have you felt like just giving up on making a difference lately? Almost too burnt out to care anymore? You’re not the only one.

These days, activism fatigue is plaguing many people who want to keep championing the work of social justice and organizational Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). They’re tired, and particularly exhausted by the seemingly endless stream of bad news that reveals just how much has NOT changed in the last few decades of the social justice and worker rights movements.

Yet these are not new experiences – there are those who have been ‘fighting the good fight,’ and along the way learned how to keep going in the face of what might seem like insurmountable obstacles.

That's why we held this ❄️ special holiday edition ❄️ of Unlearning, with host Lindsey T. H. Jackson and techie/community advocate Laura Kaye Chamberlain for a heartwarming fireside chat with the people they know best who have a proven track record of lifelong advocacy… their moms!

🔥 REGISTER for the next Unlearning: www.lthjglobal.com/unlearning/

MEET THE PANEL:

🎙️ Director, Active Transportation Division for the Washington State Department of Transportation: Barb Chamberlain

🎙️ Unlearning tech host, #1 LTHJ Global fan, and Director of Buzz & Hype: Laura Kaye Chamberlain

🎙️ (Semi-retired) Independent Human Resources consultant, coach, and (full-time) Lindsey's mom: Deborah Holland

👩🏽‍🎨 Unlearning host, Cofounder of LTHJ Global, teaching artist and empowered Black mother of three: Lindsey T. H. Jackson

Need more support to activate your values at work and beyond?

Let's connect. www.lthjglobal.com

How can we relate within and without of the gender 'binary' at work and beyond?

Many people, even LGBTQIA+ allies and queer people, are coming up against the genderism present in lifelong lessons we’ve been taught that tightly define successful ‘men’ and ‘women’ (with little to no room for other options beyond those two).

In relating with individuals who do not conform to these societal expectations of gender — including through personal style and the use of pronouns such as they/them, she/they, he/they, ze/zim or other neopronouns — some find themselves resisting or not quite ‘getting’ this expansion beyond the gender binary (of woman and man). This can create unwanted divisions between ourselves and others at work and home.

For queer individuals this can lead to further confusion about society’s difficulty accepting their honest expression, as well as continuing to experience direct harm from macro and micro-aggressions. This rejection of authentic expression is directly correlated with increased rates of suicide, especially in the younger generation.

Given the consequences for rejecting people based on their own freedom of expression, why is this such a sticky matter for many people to untangle in personal & professional relationships? And even for those who are allied with the queer community, why are some of these new expansive social practices taking time to adapt to?

How can we respect the people we work and live with, nourishing a healthy culture at work and home?

🔥Join the LTHJ Global Community and GSBA, Washington State’s LGBTQ+ and allied chamber of commerce to experience this event that was hosted Wednesday, June 1st as we held these questions together, learned insights that help us approach the answers, and practiced engaging in brave conversations in the warmest “professional” community around.

MEET THIS PANEL: www.lthjglobal.com/event/unlearning-the-binary/

Join our next free Unlearning event: www.lthjglobal.com/events/

Toxic masculinity is not to say that masculinity is toxic. Rather, that there are expectations placed on men that perpetuate harm. Examples of these expectations include--

Toughness: that men should be “physically strong, emotionally callous, and behaviorally aggressive.”

Anti-femininity: that men should reject anything that is considered to be “feminine,” such as showing emotion or accepting help.

Power: that men must work toward obtaining power and status (social and financial) so they can gain the respect of others.

Impacts of toxic masculinity culture include:

Discouraging men from getting support from mental & physical health providers

Having their perceived level of masculinity undermined or reinforced by their race or ethnicity

Being less likely to intervene in the moment they witness someone committing sexual or physical violence

We sat down with this incredible panel of do-as-they-sayers and ASL interpreter Stephen Mogul to explore alternative ways of creating the society we wish to live in.

🎙️🎙️ Featuring panelists:

Muchinga Mutambo (he/him) has more than eight years of experience in the fields of social work and public health. Currently, Muchinga is head of programs for Copper Rose Zambia, the largest youth-led organization in Zambia championing sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV prevention, and youth empowerment.

👋 Muchinga Mutambo on LinkedIn: / muchinga-mutambo-29641b78

Tim Hanley is a comic book historian and the author of Wonder Woman Unbound, Investigating Lois Lane, The Many Lives of Catwoman, and Betty and Veronica: The Leading Ladies of Riverdale. His newest book, Not All Supermen: Sexism, Toxic Masculinity, and the Complex History of Superheroes, is out in July 2022. Three registrants of Unlearning Toxic Masculinity who registered by July 27th won a free copy of this new book, with a signed bookplate from Tim Hanley!

👋 Tim Hanley @ https://thanley.wordpress.com/

Ben Reuler (he/him) is the Founder & CEO of In the Area Productions where he supports other white people, especially white men, in progressing on their antiracism journey. During his 7+ years previous with Seattle Works, Ben acted on his commitment to building workplace cultures where employees from all backgrounds feel supported, and where harmful default systems are dismantled.

👋 Ben Reuler: https://intheareaproductions.com/

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🔥 Want to register for the next Unlearning? www.lthjglobal.com/events/

How can we relate within and without of the gender 'binary' at work and beyond?

Many people, even LGBTQIA+ allies and queer people, are coming up against the genderism present in lifelong lessons we’ve been taught that tightly define successful ‘men’ and ‘women’ (with little to no room for other options beyond those two).

In relating with individuals who do not conform to these societal expectations of gender — including through personal style and the use of pronouns such as they/them, she/they, he/they, ze/zim or other neopronouns — some find themselves resisting or not quite ‘getting’ this expansion beyond the gender binary (of woman and man). This can create unwanted divisions between ourselves and others at work and home.

For queer individuals this can lead to further confusion about society’s difficulty accepting their honest expression, as well as continuing to experience direct harm from macro and micro-aggressions. This rejection of authentic expression is directly correlated with increased rates of suicide, especially in the younger generation.

Given the consequences for rejecting people based on their own freedom of expression, why is this such a sticky matter for many people to untangle in personal & professional relationships? And even for those who are allied with the queer community, why are some of these new expansive social practices taking time to adapt to?

How can we respect the people we work and live with, nourishing a healthy culture at work and home?

🔥Join the LTHJ Global Community and GSBA, Washington State’s LGBTQ+ and allied chamber of commerce to experience this event that was hosted Wednesday, June 1st as we held these questions together, learned insights that help us approach the answers, and practiced engaging in brave conversations in the warmest “professional” community around.

MEET THIS PANEL: www.lthjglobal.com/event/unlearning-the-binary/

Join our next free Unlearning event: www.lthjglobal.com/events/

Research shows that leaders and teams who avoid open conflict meet worse outcomes for all.

Furthermore, researchers Tema Okun & Kenneth Jones identified that fear of (open) conflict is an attribute of White Supremacy Culture which continues to oppress people of all backgrounds.

According to their research, fear of (open) conflict shows up as:

people in power are scared of expressed conflict and try to ignore it or run from it;

when someone raises an issue that causes discomfort, the response is to blame the person for raising the issue rather than to look at the issue which is actually causing the problem;

emphasis or insistence on being polite; setting the rules for how ideas or information or differences of opinion need to be shared in order to be heard (in other words, requiring that people "calm down" if they are angry when anger often contains deep wisdom about where the underlying hurt and harm lies);

equating the raising of difficult issues with being impolite, rude, or out of line; punishing people either overtly or subtly for speaking out about their truth and/or experience;

labeling emotion as "irrational" or anti-intellectual or inferior, which means failing to recognize the importance of emotional intelligence;

pretending or insisting that our point of view is grounded in the "rational" or the intellectual when we are in fact masking our emotions with what appear to be rational or intellectual arguments.

We gathered with our dynamic panel to Unlearn the ways we reinforce our cultural fear of conflict. Meet the panel:

🎙️Karla Monterroso (she/her) is committed to the work of closing the opportunity gap for Black and Latinx people. Karla spends the majority of her time creating coalitions and tools that support power building for Black and Latinx leadership through a variety of industries.

Connect with Karla Monterroso: / karlamonterroso

🎙️ Sara Huang 黃詩惠 (she/her) is the founder and lead facilitator at Bureau Tw!st, which designs and supervises group sessions that create space for difficult conversations, verbalizing and owning discomfort, and growth and transformation.

Check out Sara Huang's offerings: https://linktr.ee/bureautwist

🎙️In 2002, Carol Bowser (she/her) founded Conflict Management Strategies Inc. Since then she has been helping leaders and organizations become "conflict competent," work that she loves.

Visit Carol Bowser's site: https://conflictmanagementstrategies....

🎤❤️‍🔥 And meet your host… 🎙️ Lindsey T. H. Jackson! (she/her)

Lindsey is a creative force in motion. Every year, organizations and outlets like MoPOP, the Washington State GSBA and King5 News call on her to guide thousands of individuals through their shared journeys of Unlearning our culturally patterned biases and traumas. And now, we’re fortunate enough to be one of them!

Today, she’s the CEO creating the future of work with her team at LTHJ Global — leading the organizational Diversity, Equity & Inclusion evolution from the inside out.

❤️‍🔥 www.lthjglobal.com

Register for the next Unlearning: www.lthjglobal.com/unlearning/

How can you decolonize the way you live, work and serve your team & community?

The impacts of colonialism can be found throughout our personal, organizational and societal beliefs and behaviors. Decolonizing our ways of being in relationship with each other – at home, at work and beyond – is a liberatory practice.

To start American Indian Heritage month, we held this free virtual event to learn from the panelists, connect with an anti-oppression community of leaders, and ask our questions. Topics included:

The ongoing impacts of colonization, particularly in North America and the Caribbean

How colonial mindsets and structures are reinforcing extractive processes today, leading to disconnection from the self & others

Questions to ask yourself to begin unlearning the ways you unknowingly reinforce colonialism

Ways to begin decolonizing your leadership and team’s ways of working

How the panelists are decolonizing DEI, creating a worker-first job search app, and organizing in Jamaica & across the Caribbean to remove the British monarch as head of state

The part you can uniquely play in the collective work of decolonizing our homes, workplaces and world

🎙️ Featuring our incredible panel:

Adria McMichael (she/her), the Founder and CEO of Job Swiper, grew up in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her Weimaraner Kingsley. She is creating a tech startup Job Swiper that believes that every seat at the board table can, and should, be filled with traditionally targeted people who are not traditionally seen in the technology ecosystem.

Kohenet YA (she/her) is a Hebrew Priestess of Liberation, bringing 25+ years of experience supporting people in reclaiming their heart, magick & sovereignty. As a self-described Jewyorican (NY Jewish + Puerto Rican) poet, she weaves words & Jewish liturgy with multi-dimensional frequencies that support our embodied complexities and erotic necessities. From the boardrooms to the prisons, schoolrooms to businesses she helps folks unpack the distortions and dispel dissonance, so that they can reclaim their fullest self.

Professor Rosalea Hamilton (she/her) is CEO of the LASCO Chin Foundation. Recently she has been recognized for her work as Coordinator within the Advocates Network Jamaica, in the collective push across the Caribbean to republicanize and remove the British monarch as head of state.

And meet your host… 🎙️ Lindsey T. H. Jackson! (she/her)

Lindsey is a creative force in motion. Every year, organizations and outlets like MoPOP, the Washington State GSBA and King5 News call on her to guide thousands of individuals through their shared journeys of Unlearning our culturally patterned biases and traumas. And now, we’re fortunate enough to be one of them!

Register for the next Unlearning (free each first Wednesday of the month): www.lthjglobal.com/unlearning/

What kind of responses do we get from people when we dogpile on them? Are their apologies or defensiveness coming from a place where they can truly learn?⁠

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What happens when we completely ignore the complexity of an issue and jump to an immediate 'hot take'?⁠

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What alternative ways of relating might bring us deeper into community and collective justice at work and beyond?⁠

We sat down for this community event with our openhearted, research-backed panel to discuss.

🎙️ The Panel:

Educator & author of 'Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment', Leticia Nieto

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Philosopher, Seer, and guide to Worldbuilders through esoteric traditions including astrology, @saltwater.stars

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Relational DEI leader for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, @nicholeossa⁠

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... and of course our creative, empowered Black mother of three, CEO of LTHJ Global, and host of Unlearning, @lindseythjackson!⁠

REGISTER FOR FUTURE UNLEARNING EVENTS: www.lthjglobal.com/unlearning/