Code M Magazine - Vol 2 - Fall 2019

FOR THE GLOBALLY CONSCIOUS MAN

a new

Fabulous Five NBA’s Inclusion Crusaders

Nzinga Shaw

Oris Stuart

Kevin Clayton

Dr. Maurice Stinnett

Gail O’Bannon

PLUS

- Collegian Develops Diabetic Device - Ruminations on White Fragility - Ed Dwight: Soaring Where You Stand - Learning to Love Yourself - Being a Best Friend

FALL 2019

FROM THE

PUBLISHER CODE M Publisher Bilal Akram at the Great Lakes African American Writers Conference held at East Cleveland Public Library, September 2019.

Hello and a hearty welcome back to our CODE M readers!

As we publish our 5th issue, we are excited because we are venturing higher and higher. With each issue, we at CODE M are striving to increase our reach, expand our audience and our subscribers. We are also focused on delivering interesting content and insights into issues that directly affect men, especially in communities of color.

Our previous issue, featuring actor Robert Richard on the cover and highlighting fatherhood, was favorably received with quite a few comments and emails from our readers speaking about positive and negative memories of their fathers, and how those memories have impacted their lives.

Truth be told, we also had a spike in female subscribers as well because of Robert gracing the cover, and they mentioned the content was secondary. As Malcolm X has been famously quoted as saying, “By any means necessary,” we welcome the flattering comments and new subscribers.

I am proud to announce that we have achieved some noticeable ‘Firsts” for this issue. This will be the “First” issue with multiple people on the cover and more importantly, this will be the “First” in which women are on the cover.

This will also be the “First” issue connecting us to members who work for teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). We have individuals in the C-suite capacities talking about the issues and challenges surrounding ‘Diversity and Inclusion.” I personally thank Kevin Clayton (Cleveland Cavaliers) who reached out to his colleagues Nzinga Shaw (Atlanta Hawks), Gail O’Bannon (Dallas Mavericks), Dr. Maurice Stinnett (New Jersey Nets), and Oris Stuart (NBA Headquarters) who graciously accepted our invitation to participate in the dialogue.

In the contentious political and racial climate currently engulfing this country, CODE M is embracing the challenge of addressing societal challenges with clarity. We embrace the challenge of delivering content that reflects the best of our communities, irrespective of the obstacles and white noise that surround us. Our intent is to present our culture honestly as an alternative to how we are oftentimes portrayed in other media.

My master’s degree studies in Psychology carried a special emphasis on Diversity Management and Leadership. I understand the uncertainty and the misconceptions that sometimes accompany those terms, as well as the tendency to confuse diversity and affirmative action, another term that is often misconstrued and maligned. The terms are of course separate approaches to dealing with some of the major economic, educational, and societal issues facing our communities.

No matter the difficulties, we need to understand and support those who are bravely doing the hard work to lead us to a more just and equitable society.

Once again, I know many things are competing for your time, so thank you for choosing to spend time with us. It’s about time and it’s about CODE M magazine. #LivebytheCODE

Bilal S. Akram CEO / President CODE Media Group, LLC FALL 2019 | 3

Publisher

Account Executives

Bilal S. Akram

Bilal S. Akram David Williams

Managing Editor

Advertising

Richard T. Andrews

Kevin Jones

Senior Adviser

Alexandria Johnson Boone

Contributing Writers

Elton Alexander

Special Adviser

Bradford Davy

David Christel

Leah C. K. Lewis

Graphic Design

Robert A. Douglas, Jr.

Jennifer Coiley Dial Coy Lee Media, LLC

Herb Boyd Allan Shedlin

Executive Manager / Media Coordinator

Richard McDonough

Paula D. Morrison

Gino McGowens

Executive Assistant to the Publisher

V. Billione Frē

Ladonna “Lala” Dicks Director of Photography

Staff

Sonya Holland

Portia Booker Jay Floyd Skip Thornton Jasmine Showers

Social Media

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Future Executives

Annalise Akram Madison Akram Nora Thorpe

IT Consultant

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codemagintl Subscribe FREE online: www.codemmagazine.com © 2019 Code Media Group LLC 4 | codemmagazine.com

Cover photo of Oris Stuart and Kevin Clayton by James W. Wade, III.

FROM THE

EDITOR Each issue of CODE M is a fresh opportunity to have a conversation with our growing body of readers across the continent and around the world. In some ways we consider ourselves explorers, continuously on the lookout for topics that merit your time and writers who can inform and illuminate.

all the way to the U.S. Patent Office.

We break ground as well on the cover of this issue, our first featuring multiple cover subjects, including two path-breaking women. Our Fab Five cover subjects are building bridges on the front lines of a business that is busy going global. Their work is vital to ensuring that This month we hit the jackpot as we welcome Herb some portion of the burgeoning profits earned from a Boyd to the CODE M team. According to our calcula- product produced largely by supremely talented men of tions, Herb is about to enter his seventh decade as a color — NBA basketball — is shared in equitable meajournalist. His extensive roster of interviewees includes sure with the communities that give rise to the wealth.

Malcolm X from the legend’s Detroit days. In this issue, Herb speaks with Ed Dwight, who was on his way We also offer in this issue our first book review. Brad to becoming the first black man in space before rac- Davy takes a look at what makes White Fragility: Why ism grounded his dream. Undeterred, Dwight found It’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Race, an imanother creative path that he continues to follow some portant book. fifty years later.

Technology continues to shrink our world and quickLongevity seems to have emerged as a theme in this is- en our future, offering us new pathways to ever greater sue. Sportswriter Elton Alexander reached out to Ralph connectivity as individuals and cultures. But we need to Boston, winner of Olympic Gold in Rome in 1960. Bos- remember that technology is value neutral, certainly no ton, who also won Olympic medals in Tokyo in 1964 guarantee of greater harmony or world peace. It is up to and Mexico City in 1968, offers us a look back into the each of us to learn from our past and find ways to work run up of Bob Beamon’s incredible long jump at those together for a fairer and brighter future.

1968 Olympics.

Until next time, As the concept of Sankofa teaches us, it is sometimes important to look back to know the way forward.

And in this issue, we are pleased to present reports on folks who are indeed trailblazing the future. Richard McDonough tells the engaging and exciting story Richard T. Andrews of young men who took a college assignment hand- Managing Editor ed out at Jackson State University, a flagship HBCU, FALL 2019 | 5

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inside...

8 Ralph Boston

by Elton Alexander

13 Book Review: Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility

by Bradford Davy

14 Audacious Love

by Leah Lewis

16 A Best Friend

by Robert A. Douglas, Jr.

20 Pioneering Astronaut Ed Dwight

Became a Renowned Sculptor

by Herb Boyd

COVER STORY

24 A New Fabulous Five: NBA’s Inclusion Crusaders

Work to Change the Business of the Game

by R. T. Andrews

33 How I See It: Diversity & Inclusion Offer

Corporate America Opportunity to

Do the Right Thing and Grow the Bottom Line

by Gino McGowens

35 #ManCodes: DIVERSITY 36 The Chronicles of Aspirations: Chevan Baker

by Richard McDonough

42 Daddying – The Great Equalizer

by Allan Shedlin

45 In Search of Unconditional Love:

5 ways loving myself shaped my love for others

by V. Billione Frē

FALL 2019 | 7

Ralph Boston

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By Elton Alexander Ralph Boston laughs easily these days, comfortable with a life well lived and Olympic memories easily recalled.

The Gold in Rome came with a then Olympic record leap of 26 ft, 7 and 1/2 in. Boston set the world record the same year with a leap of 27 ft, 1/2 inch, the first man to soar past 27 feet.

“I’m living outside of Atlanta, doing as little as I can,’’ he said by phone with a soft chuckle in his Even more stunning, in retrospect, is that Bosvoice. “Who would want an 80-year-old man to ton’s accomplishments came at a time when many consult with these days?’’ training methods that are now commonplace were unheard of.

Truthfully, there should be quite a few leaning on his Olympic knowledge as a long jumper. With “I never lifted a weight,’’ Boston said. “When I say the XXXII Olympic Games in Tokyo upcoming that to some of the guys now, they say ‘you’re kidin 2020, any track and field athletes should search ding me.’ We didn’t have weights back then. We out Boston, if nothing else just for inspiration, didn’t have any weight trainers at the university, as well as a little history as he participated in the so I never lifted weights at all.’’

1964 games in Tokyo, winning his second of three Olympic medals.

While many current sprinters have the physique of football players, the 6-2 Boston and his peers Perhaps in time that will happen, but right now would look like waifs in comparison.

Boston is the prototypical Southern gentleman of leisure.

“I try to swim a few times a week,’’ he said. “I was at one time playing golf. Renee Powell from there in Ohio and I would play there for a while. But turning 80, nothing works like it used to.’’

Not so. His mind remains sharp and he shared a few memories from winning Gold Medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Silver in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and Bronze in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. That’s almost 60 years ago, but also like yesterday for the native of Laurel, Mississippi. He was a product of Tennessee State during the Jim Crow era. It was a team loaded with talent, both men and women. His female counterpart at TSU was Wilma Rudolph, an equally celebrated Olympian.

Ralph Boston at the 1960 Olympics.

FALL 2019 | 9

“Competing, my weight ranged between 165 mon) with all these legs flailing everywhere. to 170-pounds,’’ He said. “I was like 6 o’clock I remember saying to Gayle Hopkins, I said, when I stood up.’’

‘Hoppy, if he ever learns what he’s doing we’re in trouble.’’’

Yet he was highly competitive, setting elite level marks in the 100, 200, 120-hurdles, high And yet, the leap almost never happened. Few jump, long jump, triple jump and even the pole remember, Beamon almost missed the long vault. Boston was asked if he ever entertained jump finals. thoughts of being a decathlete, and the answer was surprisingly, yes. While the shot put would “Remember, this was the first year the compehave been a definite challenge, he was very tition was spread over two days,’’ Boston said. familiar with throwing the javelin.

“The first morning was qualifying. I think it was 25’7” (to advance to the finals). Everyone “I threw the javelin in high school,’’ Boston who jumped that distance moved on to the said. “In the state of Mississippi, when I was in second round the following afternoon. high school, that was a contested event. I threw the javelin right through college. I wasn’t much “They divided us up. Bob and I were on one bigger than a javelin, but I threw it.’’ side of the stadium at one pit, while Charlie Mays, our other long jumper was on the othSo he did have an early venture into being a er side. I was actually more concerned about decathlete.

Charlie, because Bob had been jumping well.

On our way to the stadium, I said ‘guys, we “Yeah, I thought about it for about a week. At can’t win a medal today. Let’s just go out, get that time, I didn’t weigh as much as a shot put. this done, go back to the (Olympic) village and I did the first day, once. The first day is relative- prepare for tomorrow.’ ly easy, jumping events and sprints. But the last event, the 400-meters — wooh! — that was not “Bob, I guess he was somewhat excited, he fun. That was it,” Boston said. fouled twice. You only have three attempts to qualify. I said, ‘Bob, slow down man. All you When Boston was not making history, he was got to do is jump, you can do this blindfolded, witnessing it. in your sleep.’ When he fouled the second time I told him, ‘Bob, I’m leaving.’

During the 1968 Olympic Games Bob Beamon made his jaw-dropping long jump record of “He said, ‘don’t leave me.’ So we kind of sat 29-feet 2.5-inches which stood for 23 years. down, and I said just move your take-off a foot If Boston had just shrugged, that would have or so behind the board. You can do that easy. been an unspoken salute to what he saw possible years before.

“He did. But the jump he had, from behind the board, believe me, it was close to what he “I saw that coming, actually way back in 1965,’’ did for the Gold Medal, in my mind. I may Boston said. “We were in San Diego at the not have seen it coming, but I wasn’t surprised AAU Championships. We say this guy (Bea- when he did it.’’

Elton Alexander is a retired sports writer with over 40 years of experience who has covered major sports including college and professional football, baseball and basketball, professional golf, auto racing and the Olympics. He has worked at the Kansas City Star, Dayton Daily News, Detroit News and The Plain Dealer.

10 | codemmagazine.com

NOW ACCEPTING CASES INVOLVING: VALSARTAN

JUUL

TALC

HERNIA MESH

ROUND UP

book review

By Bradford Davy We know the racism that took the lives of Four Little Girls in Birmingham is the same racism that ravaged Emmett Till. We’re viscerally aware of the hate that burned down Greenwood and that the spark that set those buildings ablaze is the same one used to light the crosses that burned, and still burn, in towns across these United States.

Though we know this form of white supremacy, it may not be the one most proximate to our daily American experience. The more insidious forms of dominance and oppression in everyday life of black America are on full display in Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Race [2018].

In this powerful book, DiAngelo argues that framing heinous acts of terrorism as the only defining characteristic of racism mis-categorizes white supremacy into a good/bad binary. It suggests that racism can be propagated only by bad people, and that the act must be “intentional, malicious and based on a conscious dislike of someone because of race.”

We know this to be untrue. Why then is it so hard to communicate across racial lines that the more subtle transgressions, fueled by unavoidable implicit bias and socialization, are in fact racist and systemic?

In her unapologetic conversation with white America, DiAngelo, a white woman herself, describes common reactions to being confronted about non-violent racist behaviors and describes how these reactions work to reinforce white supremacy and protect white innocence. DiAngelo defines these reactions as White Fragility: “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves (anger, fear, guilt, argumentation, silence and optingout).”

I suspect most readers are familiar with these maneuvers, which manifest themselves in statements like “I don’t see color,” “focusing on race is what divides us,” “it’s not a race issue; it’s a class issue,” and “some people find offense in everything.” As FALL 2019 | 13

the author notes, these claims are typically followed by an emotional reaction of outrage or a search for absolution. DiAngelo details these response and others, detailing their impact even as she skillfully dismantles them. Most notably, she argues that these responses keep white America comfortable and unable to build the racial stamina required to truly grapple with problematic behavior.

Since DiAngelo makes plain that she is speaking to a white audience, it’s a fair question what a nonwhite reader can take from this work. I’d offer that at the very least, it provides a cathartic release and affirmation of the patterns of behavior we encounter living as people of color in a racialized world.

For practitioners of racial equity and inclusion, or those simply committed to working across racial lines to advance our society, it offers a concise playbook on how to counter the White Fragility you will inevitably face. On a personal note, it offered continued reflection on how the fairness of my black skin provides me privilege in the form of (fleeting) moments of refuge from racism; but never the escape from the mental battle and psychological weight of race in America.

Rather than simply recommending this book (which I emphatically do), I propose all Americans apply the unabating rigor and racial framing of DiAngelo’s work to everyday encounters, even the seemingly pure ones. For instance, when we were awestruck at the purity and innocence of a young black boy and a young white boy hugging in a video that went viral, we also recognized that too soon those boys will each be pushed to see the world and their respective places in it very differently.

White Fragility makes sure that we don’t forget that inescapable structural truth of our society: race is always in the room, even when it’s hugs and not bombs.

Bradford Davy is the Director of Regional Engagement at the Fund for Our Economic Future. He serves on the Board of Directors for the ACLU of Ohio and holds a MSc. in Urban Studies from the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

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“

The book is a cathartic release and affirmation of the patterns of behavior we encounter living as people of color in a racialized world.”

Love, Respect and Sex: A Love Letter to Men

Audacious Love Gentlemen:

While in town for the 2019 Essence Festival, a few girlfriends and I visited the rich and delightful Le Musee de fpc, A House Museum Honoring the Legacy of New Orleans’ Free People of Color. Amidst the photos of long-passed souls, precious historical artifacts, and intriguing articles of old, I found a poem only on paper framed on a back wall near the kitchen. Titled “ima’ take care of you,” the poem is credited to Molada. Having never heard of him, I wondered, “Who was Molada?”

A simple Google search indicated that “molada” is a Spanish word that means “quantity of color ground at once.” Molada is also a surname with historical records according to Ancestry.com. Perhaps someone will dig deeper.

{ }

My impression is that Molada was an enslaved African man who knew love, dreamt of physical freedom, possessed mental independence, and was hellbent on protecting his woman and children. His power and proclamation of liberty and blatant defiance moved me. Here are but the last three striking stanzas:

girl i beat the devil down in hell and do his wife in too they get in my way when i tryin’ to see bout you you my woman and that is that i ain’t waitin for no man to tell me who to love who to marry, what children i can keep

we go by night but, don’t get me wrong i walk straight ways out that there front out there i ain’t never took to bein’ owned no ways and a man cain’t own you unless you let em

so get ready we gon’ to find freedom and don’t you worry i take care of you

“ima’ take care of you” printed with permission from McKenna Museums, Le Musee de fpc; private collection of Mrs. Beverly Stanton McKenna and Dr. Dwight L. McKenna

Now that is love — fearless, adamant, audacious love. If Molada and his lady could embody and enact this type of love under the horrors of chattel slavery, how much more ought we who are indeed born free? Take not love for granted. Do not demean it. Our ancestors knew the invaluable nature of love, its expression, and the necessity of its pervasive and comprehensive expression.

May we love and love with abandon. We owe it to ourselves and our foremothers and forefathers.

Love & Light,

Leah

The Reverend Leah C. K. Lewis, J.D., D.Min. (ABD) is a 2005 graduate of Yale Divinity School and holds degrees from Howard University School of Law and Bowling Green State University. She is the author of Little Lumpy’s Book of Blessings.

FALL 2019 | 15

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A Best Friend

By Robert A. Douglas, Jr. I had just started the first draft of my maiden essay for CODE M when my cell phone rang. On the line was my best friend. He needed to talk, to unload. I listened.

There’s an oft-heard expression, “Count yourself lucky if you have as many friends as you have fingers on one hand.” I would add to that: having a best friend makes you super lucky.

We experience many types of relationships on our life journey. The primary ones are a given: parent, son, daughter, grandparents, … family.

Some are formal — husband, wife, mother-in-law, and so on. Others are selective, coming from a much larger pool of acquaintances in the various circles we traverse or engage: work, social, religious, the McDonald’s coffee groups, and the like.

All of these relationships serve a purpose and can have great meaning in and of themselves.

Some social relationships evolve over time into friendships: buddy, good buddy, friend, good friends. However, over a longer period of time and many testing circumstances, one or two of those friendships may evolve to a higher level. Eventually, one or two rise to the level of best friend, your BFF, your “homie.”

A best friend relationship has many characteristics. The main ones include trust, honesty, support, reliability, respect, a tested history and longevity. This rare connection allows for open sharing and communications about most anything, from the very trivial to the most serious.

Your best friend can challenge you and make you grow. Because he knows you so well, you can discuss a full range of topics that encompasses who you are, your evolution as a person, your strengths and weaknesses. He will also rescue you, if need be, from the crazy situations in which you may sometimes find yourself.

For me that no holds barred connection is the key. Someone who can pierce my ego and tell me what I need to hear without making me feel defensive. A best friend can tell you that you are wrong or making a bad decision or help you make a difficult decision. There is an objectivity that a best friend can bring that gives you a whole different perspective of you and your circumstances.

FALL 2019 | 17

Sometimes just having that best friend to listen without judgment can be the simplest and most effective mental health treatment available.

From a male perspective, one’s wife/partner might have a difficult time in this best friend role. The marital relationship is laden with emotion and the yin and yang of being together on a constant basis in the same environment, can be a challenge to objectivity. The spousal relationship is unique and has many values, but my observation suggests very few can tolerate the kind of honesty and openness that can happen with a best friend.

An ideal would be to have a partner who is also a friend and a best friend.

I’ve been fortunate to experience the mutual rewards of having and being a best friend for forty plus years. The friendship has withstood the test of time and distance.

We have a lot of shared values based on our common upbringing. Professionally and culturally, our paths have been similar. We’ve been mutually supportive with our challenges. In leadership roles, we found ourselves in rare air and having that “go-to” person can make all the difference in the world.

While a few differences and misunderstandings occurred along the way, they never seriously threatened our friendship. Our personality differences, I think, have enhanced our friendship. No matter when, where or what time it is, we know we can get valued opinions, understanding, straight talk, the right questions or a just a patient listening ear.

After I listened to my best friend unload what was on his mind, we talked about some other things; before long we were laughing, and he said he felt better.

May you be as fortunate as I — to have, and to be, a best friend.

Robert A. Douglas Jr. served as judge of the Youngstown [Ohio] Municipal Court from 1997 until he retired in 2012. A social worker before he was an attorney, he also served as Director of the Department of Human Services of Mahoning County, Ohio.

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By Herb Boyd Answering the phone from his home in Denver, Colorado, Ed Dwight, the renowned figurative sculptor, gave little indication of the outcome of his June trip to Fort Monroe, Virginia. He had asked me to call him after he returned from Virginia where he was among three other sculptors invited to submit their ideas for a national monument commemorating the landing of African captives at Port Comfort 400 years ago.

That Dwight, 85, with more than 125 memorials and monuments of iconic African Americans and historically significant events would have to compete is tantamount to asking Denzel Washington to audition for a role, or to have a Duke Ellington composition vetted before a performance, I suggested.

“Well, you have to understand that these various monuments are determined by boards, and I often have to compete against other artists,” Dwight replied.

“One of the questions they asked me was whether I would consider working with another sculptor. I deemed this a strange question to ask at the outset of my design presentation.”

Major Disappointments, Great Successes:

Pioneering Astronaut Ed Dwight Became a Renowned Sculptor 20 | codemmagazine.com

Dwight informed them that he was accustomed to working alone, but he might consider working with another sculptor, depending. After the four artists’ presentations were completed, Dwight was awarded the commission and selected to design and create the 400th Anniversary Landing Memorial.

Later, Dwight was again asked if he would consider working with another sculptor. Tutoring a neophyte was unacceptable, and as a result Dwight opted to step aside. If Dwight was disappointed by the ordeal, it did not register in his voice, and our conversation moved

was expressing himself as an artist, but Dwight’s desire to fly was always his number one dream. The dream intensified when he read that an African American pilot from Kansas City, Missouri had been shot down in Korea.

Even before he graduated college, he had begun trying to enter pilot trainComing of age in his native Kansas ing programs, submitting applications City, Kansas during the Depression, to aviation schools; on one occasion he Dwight spent his early years dreaming was rejected because “he was too short of flying airplanes. Although he and stuttered.” was only five feet four inches and barely over a hundred pounds, he “I officially entered the Air Force in distinguished himself as a half-back August 1953,” he recounted in his on the football field, as a track star, deeply engrossing self-published auand in 1951 he was a Golden Gloves tobiography, Soaring on the Wings of a Champion boxer. His athleticism may Dream. After years of success at varihave been inherited from his father, ous level of instruction and leadership, Dwight, Sr., an acclaimed baseball on November 4, 1961 he received offiplayer for the Kansas City Monarchs in cial Air Force correspondence inviting the Negro National League. “He spent him to apply to the Experimental Test a lot of time away from home, on the Pilot School at the Edwards Air Force road with the team,” Dwight recalled. Base in California, in preparation to enter training as the first Negro astroWhen he wasn’t active in sports, he naut in America. on to another subject. Over the long course of his adventurous life, he had known his share of having a major moment of success just beyond his reach, none more disheartening than being on the cusp of being the first black astronaut to travel in space.

But, as Dwight related in his book, there was one impregnable obstacle: Colonel Chuck Yeager, the famed pilot and commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School. Yeager adamantly opposed Dwight’s enrollment in the USAF Experimental Test Pilot School, at that time a prerequisite to astronaut training. Yeager believed there were more qualified white pilots that deserved the coveted slot. Yeager was also upset that Dwight’s candidacy had been facilitated through the Kennedy White House, without his knowledge or permission.

After Dwight completed the Experimental Test Pilot Class, finishing seventh in ranking out of seventeen white classmates, President Kennedy proclaimed Captain Ed Dwight to be “America’s First Negro Astronaut.”

Dwight was now in the national spotlight and on the front page of every major daily in the country, and around the world. His widest exposure came FALL 2019 | 21

President Kennedy proclaimed Captain Ed Dwight to be ‘America’s First Negro Astronaut.’ from being on the cover of the top magazines, and he was soon in the living room of Black America when he beamed from the cover of Ebony magazine. The celebrity unnerved Yeager but there was little he could do about it as Dwight received speaking engagements by the hundreds.

More trouble loomed for Dwight, and not only from Yeager. It resulted from Dwight’s bad decision after meeting a beautiful young woman during one of his speaking engagements. After several weeks in her company, she claimed to be pregnant and demanded either that he marry her or give her $10,000.

She told him if he didn’t comply, she would go public and ruin his astronaut dream.

A chapter in Dwight’s book references this episode as “the beginning of the end.” Among the fabrications: she told a reporter from Ebony that Dwight had accused President Johnson of racial discrimination. Later this accusation would be embellished in a falsehood-filled Dwight dossier aimed at making him persona non grata to any government agency.

Among the more preposterous claims: Dwight’s alleged status as a Black Panther Party leader, and his tutoring of gang members about how-to-blow-up Air Force bases.

In May 1966, Dwight went to the flight line on a normal Flight Test mission, where his young African American crew chief told him “two men dressed in black suits” had approached him the day before and asked what would it take to fix my plane so it would fail in flight, … money or more stripes on his arm? Deathly afraid, the young man teared up, saying he “didn’t know what to do.” Dwight told him to do nothing; he would take care of it.

Dwight returned to his office and resigned from the military after serving 14 years. “I drove through the gate at Holloman AFB in New Mexico,” Dwight remembered, “and left my military career behind. I headed north for Denver, Colorado.

As I watched the fighter jets take off, twist and turn as they proceeded with their test missions, I had a sinking feeling of complete and total loss.”

Captain Ed Dwight in the early days, and on the cover of his self-published book, Soaring on the Wings of a Dream.

22 | codemmagazine.com

This feeling was only temporary for the ever resilient Dwight, and with the prospect of a job at IBM and a renewed relationship with Barbara Curtis, a childhood sweetheart, he was ready for a new beginning, one that would take him on a veritable rollercoaster of jobs, ventures, and missed opportunities.

Thanks to Colorado’s first black Lt. Governor, Dwight’s art talent was brought to the attention of state senator George Brown, who talked him into creating a sculpture for the State Capitol, along with several memorials.

well-received by the white community but not by his own people. “For some reason they rejected me, I guess figuring I wasn’t credentialed enough, hadn’t paid enough dues,” he mused.

In his book he compared this rejection to how he was ostracized by the “Black Operatives in Washington who did not support him” when he had been selected as the first black astronaut. “Where is the love in our community?” he asked rhetorically.

But instead of executing the eight sculptures for the State of Colorado project, Dwight became enthralled with a far grander project: capturing the great contributions of Blacks to America. He created some 50 bronze sculptures depicting every aspect of One place where the love abounded the Black experience imaginable. for him was his mother, Georgia Anthony Baker Dwight, to whom he dedWhen he first began devoting full icated his book. “To this day I recall time to sculpture, Dwight said he was her words that still ring in my ear. ‘Son,

you can do anything in this world you want to do.’ She would always add ‘… but you have to be prepared.’

“Mom’s caveat for preparation stuck, so no matter what I did or will do today, I never engage unless I am prepared for the pitfalls, and able to exert as much control as possible over what I am trying to do.”

Ed Dwight never became the first African American astronaut to walk in space, but through his remarkable memorials and monuments he has left indelible marks all over this country so that we might soar on the wings of his art.

Herb Boyd is an award-winning author and journalist who has published a number of books and countless articles for national magazines and newspapers. His most recent book is Black Detroit—A People’s History of Self-Determination (Amistad, 2017), which has received several awards, including a finalist for an NAACP Image Award.

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a new

Fabulous Five

NBA’s Inclusion Crusaders Work to Change the Business of the Game than doubled between 2014 and 2017, rising from $634 million to more than $1.3 Smart enterprises are beginning to un- billion. derstand that incorporating diversity and inclusion (D&I) as fundamental values in Those numbers are continuing to rise, their business models can have a direct ef- where even small market teams have an estimated franchise value of at least $1.2 fect on the bottom line. billion, while the New York Knicks are In our changing global climate, where in- worth an astounding $4 billion. formation, images and culture are all increasingly transferable at ever-increasing The NBA generated somewhere north of speeds — and in a world where millions $8 billion in revenue during the 2017-18 of dollars move even faster — the Nation- season. While that figure places it well beal Basketball Association stands out as an hind both the NFL and MLB, a number of industry leader in the new realities of the factors position basketball to become perhaps the most international of sports. The 21st century. game travels well; its basics pretty simple There are currently 122 teams in the four to understand. Equipment and uniform major professional sports based primarily demands are pretty light, and there are in the United States, including Major only five players on each side at one time.

League Baseball (MLB), the National Moreover, the league draws the best playFootball League (NFL), and the National ers from around the world, and they often return home every few years to head their Hockey League, alongside the NBA. country’s Olympic squads.

Only four of these teams have a C-suite or senior executive whose portfolio is fo- NBA brass clearly have a plan to capitalize on the game’s international appeal. As cused on equity, inclusion, and diversity. the game becomes more international, All four teams are NBA members: the and cross cultural — see the Euro step — Atlanta Hawks, the Brooklyn Nets, the teams will have to become more culturally Dallas Mavericks, and the Cleveland competent off the court as well as on. Eight Cavaliers. Additionally, the league itself, billion dollars gives the league’s franchisclearly understanding this is the wave of es the wherewithal to hire topflight talent the future, has its own C-suite executive, in the front office just as they do on the Oris Stuart, who serves as Chief Diversity field of play. We spoke with all five of these & Inclusion Officer, and teams like the senior D&I executives — the NBA’s Oris Portland Trail Blazers and the Sacramento Stuart, the Hawks’ Nzinga Shaw, the Nets’ Kings have also designated a point person Maurice Stinnett, Gail O’Bannon with the Mavs, and Kevin Clayton with the Cavs — primarily responsible for D&I. to get an understanding of who they are, According to the website statista.com, the what they do, how they do it, and why they average franchise value in the NBA more do it.

By R. T. Andrews

FALL 2019 | 25

One result of Edelman and Shaw’s work led the Hawks to create the position of Chief Diversity Officer. But it was only later, when Shaw saw an ad for the position in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, that she first thought about applying for the position.

Clearly, Shaw’s work for Edelman made her privy to some of the Hawks dysfunction. Notwithstanding all the havoc surrounding the League, Shaw sensed there was upside to the job. She had previously worked in human resources for both the New York Yankees and the NFL, perhaps realizing that these kinds of problems offered opportunity. After long talks with her mentors, she took the job.

The Hawks' Nzinga Shaw, left, has helped to initiate citywide conversations aimed at creating a more inclusive Atlanta.

Nzinga Shaw was the pioneer C-suite D&I executive in the NBA, joining the Hawks in December 2014.

The NBA was undergoing deep strife over the unprecedented racial tensions set in motion by the release in April 2014 of an audiotape of Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling speaking disparagingly about black people. Two weeks later, NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling from the league for life, fined him $2.5 million, and initiated proceedings to force Sterling to sell the team.

Fallout from the incident engulfed the Atlanta Hawks majority stockholder as well as team General Manager Danny Ferry, as investigations revealed the franchise’s own unhealthy state around racial attitudes.

When the Hawks’ crisis erupted publicly, Shaw was working for Edelman, the Chicago-based global communications giant, as head of human resources for the southeast region that included Atlanta; she also directed the firm’s D&I practice.

She was working on an assignment with an Edelman client – the law firm of Alston & Bird – when its lawyers were tapped by the Hawks to conduct an internal investigation into the team’s issues. Edelman and Shaw’s roles suddenly shifted and expanded to include crisis counseling around the impending racial crisis.

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Working with a new ownership group that includes former NBA superstar Grant Hill as team vice chairman, Nzinga has clearly made a difference in the team’s environment. Her focus has been threefold. First on her list was fostering internal engagement, what she calls “the human capital experience.” She looks at places outside the sports world to create programs and platforms that work inside the building and make the arena a healthy and comfortable place to be for all its employees.

A second area of focus has been the fan experience. She works to ensure that the fans who come to the games feel welcome. She says part of her job is the “curating of experiences.” Thus, the team has found ways to sponsor and celebrate the LGBTQ community, veterans with PTSD, marginalized boys of color, and people with autism. The Hawks have even built a sensory inclusion room — equipped with squeeze balls, special padding and other items — to accommodate those for whom the sounds and stresses that accompany crowds of 15 or 20 thousand people might prove troublesome.

Nzinga doesn’t focus on hard metrics in measuring her work. Her focus is on people, not data points. She says, “I see people as stories of journeys of love, triumph, fear. …The work is not about selling tickets. It’s about having an impact on lives, about using our platform to improve lives.”

That may sound a bit too touchy-feely, but Nzinga applies a real-world approach to her work. She says the NFL’s situation with Colin Kaepernick “should have led to immediate discourse and dialogue and could have resulted in an easy solution. Kaepernick wanted to speak

out on social justice.…Corporate entities should talk about these disparities more.” The NFL didn’t, she implied, because its virtually all male white power structure inhibited its consideration of critical matters even where they have clear financial impact.

Nzinga sees the NBA as “the transparent leader in sports…

It’s a lot more open.” The significance of this leadership should not be underestimated given the extent to which the culture of the sports industry is shaping the world, even as the world impacts the business of sports.

Stuart, 54, joined the league in June 2015, about a year after the Sterling and Hawks’ crises, and six months after Nzinga started with Atlanta. Oris sees his role as making sure that every team appreciates the criticality of D&I, and to provide all 30 teams with both oversight and support as they navigate D&I issues.

Stuart got his early professional training as an undergrad electrical engineering major, subsequently earning an MBA from Duke to go along with his BSEE from the University of Virginia. His career path moved naturally into consulting, where he began to analyze client operations. He says he was introduced to D&I “by accident” but quickly came to see it as a way to change how a company could deal more effectively with its employees, its customers, and its supply chain. He has since become an advocate for how D&I provides support to decision makers, enhancing an organization’s cultural facility and fostering a global mindset.

The symbiotic nature of sports and culture leads quite naturally to the third focal point of Nzinga’s diversity and inclusion work: external engagement. She was instrumental in initiating the MOSAIC program — Model of Shaping Atlanta through Inclusive Conversations — which convened more than 300 influential Atlanta residents to network on the roles that sports leaders play in diversity. She has also taken the lead in building a pipeline of minority vendors Armed with this insight, Stuart eventually became CEO of able to service all aspects of the team’s operations and those Global Novations LLC, which, according to global giant of its State Farm Arena.

Korn Ferry, provided services to companies in more than 40 countries, including more than half of the Fortune 100 Nzinga’s work was core to the Hawks team winning the organizations. Korn Ferry acquired Global Novations in NBA Inclusion Leadership Award, which recognizes the 2012, acknowledging that “Cultural dexterity is one of the organization’s commitment to inclusion as a key business most important leadership characteristics in global execustrategy. The award, given as part of the NBA Team Sales tives.” and Marketing 2019 Awards, recognized the Hawks’ innovative, inspirational and impactful programming.

In spite of this background, Stuart said his biggest surprise upon joining the NBA was a pleasant one: seeing how much attention diversity now commands both inside and outside the league. The market and the NBA’s business partners are paying attention, he notes.

Stuart arrived at his new job with a sense that D&I were ingrained in the NBA culture at a certain level, but that the League had, starting from the top with Commissioner Adam Silver, a “purposeful intent to make this a mission critical role.” Thus, his biggest challenge is to sustain momentum and purpose.

Stuart’s solution is to share best practices regularly and to set ambitious goals. Over the next five years he wants to see more women in executive and leadership roles [womwas in Ireland, some 25 miles en currently make up 40% of the league HQ]; an increase north of Belfast, when we first spoke on the phone. The call in underrepresented minorities; a dramatic increase in the kept dropping until his top-flight support staff figured out amount spent with diverse suppliers to expand economic a clever fix; all the while Stuart remained unflappable and inclusion; and an increase in the number of teams with repleasant. sources dedicated to D&I. continued on page 29

Oris Stuart

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Maurice Stinnett joined Stuart as an ally in this work

when he became the first African American male hired by an NBA team to work as a senior executive in the diversity and inclusion space. In fact, Stuart was a part of the hiring process that brought Stinnett from the world of academia last year to become Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion and Culture for BSE Global, parent company of the Brooklyn Nets.

Stinnett, who holds a doctorate in education [Urban Education and Leadership] came to the Nets last year from Ohio, where he had spent the previous three years, first as dean of students at Central State University, a historically black university, and then as a Vice President and Chief of Diversity at Cleveland State University.

The 36-year-old Stinnett sees himself as part of the vanguard. He expects that over the next ten years at least half of the NBA teams will have a C-Suite officer in the D&I space. If he is accurate, many of his future colleagues will likely try to follow the aggressive way Stinnett dove in with the Nets, a franchise he said was already strong on D&I at the ownership level when he arrived, but needed a targeted approach to realize that commitment in senior roles and throughout the League.

Stinnett hit the ground running, devoting the first year to conducting an organizational assessment and establishing a framework for growth. He interviewed more than 200 employees, conducted a third-party anonymous cultural assessment, and established a Diversity Council. He fostered the creation of seven employee resource groups [ERGs]. He recruited senior leaders as champions of each business group. He foresees a time when a senior manager’s performance in the D&I space will become a part of their evaluation for promotions and bonuses.

Like Nzinga with the Hawks, Stinnett is not driven solely by metrics. He sees numerical representation as easy to increase. Stinnett believes that a healthy and diverse culture can have a positive impact on employee comfort and retention and decrease the turnover rate. He is also working, like his counterparts, to extend the team’s community engagement by building quality relationships with an increased number of diverse partners, connecting to the Brooklyn school district, and joining the NY-NJ Minority Supplier Development Council as a means to grow supplier diversity.

For Dr. Stinnett, whose intent is “to build a culture so that people can thrive,” the approach must be proactive. Don’t look only at the players, he says, 82% of whom are diverse by his count. Recognize instead that some teams have zero people of color in upper management in a sport whose global consumers are increasingly nonwhite.

Stinnett expects a team’s efforts in the D&I space will translate to its marketing and ticket sales.

FALL 2019 | 29

Kevin Clayton agrees with Stinnett about those bottom line issues.

Hailing from a background steeped in corporate culture, Clayton sees a direct correlation between doing good and doing well. It’s a lesson he learned from John Pepper, the retired CEO of marketing colossus Procter & Gamble: diversity is not just a moral imperative. To be sustained in the business world it must be leveraged as a corporate asset.

Clayton is the newest member of the D&I Fab Five, joining the Cleveland Cavaliers in April as Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion & Engagement. He is in accord with Nzinga and Maurice: diversity is not counting people; it’s creating an environment where people count. He extends the principle, however, to include a critical corollary: what’s sustainable is what advances the mission.

In many ways, Kevin comes to diversity and inclusion work uniquely equipped. He grew up in an all-black Cleveland neighborhood before his parents moved to an affluent, mostly white, adjacent suburb, where he participated in a voluntary bussing program aimed at increasing integration. Sam Jones, part of those incomparable Boston Celtics championship teams in the Red Auerbach-Bill Russell era, is his uncle. Kevin went to an HBCU after high school as a more or less typical jock, but transferred to a Division III school back in Ohio, graduating with a dual major in business and psychology.

He joined P&G right after graduation and quickly became a top performer in that upor-out organization. By age 26, he had lived and worked around the country, and was heading a $300 million division of the company. He left five years later to start his own consulting company, based in Orlando, Florida, capitalizing on his business acumen, including an appreciation of how to leverage diverse markets. Even as he built successful business models utilizing diversity, he kept his eyes on the economics, because, as he says, “that’s what’s sustainable.” Eventually he moved on to the Russell Corporation (Russell Athletic, Spalding, Brooks and Bike Athletic) a former client, where he developed their diversity practice an operational asset and profit center. He stayed five years until they were bought out by a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary.

Along the way, Kevin deepened his understanding of the impact that the social determinants of health have on underserved populations and how a healthy environment is one where people can bring their whole selves to work. It was an awareness that he cultivated and expanded through subsequent employment with the American Cancer Society and the U.S. Tennis Association. He was chief diversity officer for the USTA from 2009-2012. He sees tennis as both global sport and global business, noting that the U.S. Open grosses more than $270 million in revenue during the two-week tournament.

Prior to joining the Cavs, Kevin did what he describes as “the best work of his career,” three years at Bon Secours Mercy Hospital. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Bon Secours is the fifth largest Catholic hospital in the U.S. and the nation’s twelfth largest overall, growing during his tenure from 33,000 employees to 60,000 employees. Kevin might still be with Mercy if not for the Cavs’ drawn out courtship of him. The chance to return home and be near one of his four adult daughters weighed heavily in his decision to come home.

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Kevin’s initial approach with the Cavaliers has been much like Stinnett’s with the Nets: gather information via internal and external focus groups, engage broadly, ask ques-

tions, perform an environmental scan to learn phasis on inclusion and how the organization sees itself and how it is per- diversity. She oversaw ceived by others. the establishment of ERGs for women, parClayton has leveraged his network to facilitate his ents, black employees, immersion and that of the Cavs into the commu- and employees under nity. He was instrumental in ensuring that the Ur- 30. She has worked on a ban League of Greater Cleveland become the first women’s agenda, talent community group to host an event at the newly acquisition and retenrenovated Rocket Mortgage Field House [former- tion, supplier diversity, ly known as Quicken Loans Arena, or “the Q” for new sponsor recruitment short]. With an increased full-time internal and and much more, all with external focus, the Cavs have extended their com- an eye towards impacting mitment to diversity, inclusion and community the bottom line, improvengagement as a core organizational priority. ing customer relations, and enhancing the team’s Kevin is quick to identify equity as the desired community reputation. outcome of his work. To that extent he is focused on the Cavs’ supply chain, organizational culture, Gail grew up on the Ft. Sill Army base in Lawton, and programming fan experiences that are com- Oklahoma, a life experience that will no doubt munity relevant and eschew gimmickry for sub- come in handy as she masters her new field. She expresses excitement at the opportunity to learn stance. and lead that she has been given, and what she knows what it’s describes as “the potential positive impact of like to work in a place with little diversity at the diversity and inclusion.” top. Prior to new Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynthia “Cynt” Marshall’s arrival, there were no women in As we spoke separately with each of these senior leaders, it was apparent that they mutually supleadership positions. port and respect one another. They share best Gail is simultaneously both the longest tenured practices as a matter of course. Their success is member of the Fab Five and the least experi- likely to spawn similar positions at other teams enced in D&I. She began her career with the Mavs throughout the league as they each work to help in 2002 as a temp part-time account executive, their teams do well by doing good. working her way up to group sales director by 2015, the position she held until she was tapped It is easy to imagine enhanced roles for the Fab in May 2018 as the team’s first Vice President for Five and their future counterparts in the not too distant future. For the League and its teams, many Diversity and Inclusion. of which include several international players It has been a whirlwind for her since then, learn- — in 2017 the League could boast of 113 intering on the job. Fortunately, both her boss, SVP of national players from 41 different countries — HR Tarsha LaCour, and CEO Marshall, as former cultural competency is a must, both internally as senior directors of HR for AT&T, are well-versed well as commercially. It may not be long before in D&I. Additionally, Mavs’ CEO Marshall was the absence of a C-Suite level executive skilled Chief Diversity Officer at AT&T. So not only does in the D&I space and immersed in all aspects of Gail have hands-on tutors, she has the assurance a team’s critical public interactions will be seen of her bosses’ unwavering commitment to the as worse than double dribbling in overtime of a playoff game. cause as a business strategy.

Gail O’Bannon

Gail began with the Mavs’ 100 Day Plan focused R. T. Andrews is the managing editor of on transforming the Mavs’ culture with an em- CODE M magazine.

FALL 2019 | 31

HOW I SEE IT:

Diversity and Inclusion Offer Corporate America Opportunity to Do the Right Thing and Grow the Bottom Line

By Gino McGowens Diversity and inclusion should be more than a phrase to be thrown around at cocktail parties. Diversity and inclusion should be more than a wish list for companies both large and small. Diversity and inclusion have to mean as much to the people running the company as it does to the people working there.

There is an old saying, “diversity is being invited to the dance; inclusion is being asked to dance.” As an individual who has worked in corporate America for over 30 years, my career has taken me from Cincinnati to Los Angeles and now back to Cincinnati. I have seen companies embrace D&I and I have seen companies that merely give it lip service. Thirty years ago, people rarely talked about diversity and inclusion. I am not sure if the phrase even existed.

cinnati. I worked with a potential client for over a month, designing a solution that was potentially going to save his company a significant amount of money every month. We had multiple conference calls, exchanged numerous emails and were at the point where they were ready to sign the five-year contract.

I sensed something was awry when I took the documents to the client’s office for signing. It was our first time meeting face-toface. His entire demeanor changed as soon as I walked into his office. He told me he needed more time to make a decision and that he would contact me later, even though we had agreed to terms prior to my arrival.

I returned to the office dumbfounded. When I told a colleague, also an African American, One of my first managers told me that, “peo- he simply said, “Welcome back to Ohio.” ple buy from people that they like and trust.”

If you were a black man trying to make it I have no proof that the contract was put on in corporate America there were few people the shelf because the white fellow I had been who looked like you. There were even fewer negotiating with did not want to deal with a who were in positions of power to make the black account exec. But he never took any of final decision on whether to hire you or pur- my calls again. chase your goods and services.

Diversity and inclusion must be intentionMy corporate career started with the Xerox al to be effective. The mandate has to come Corporation, a company well known for be- from the top. And it has to be ingrained in ing diverse in both their workforce and man- the fabric of an organization. agement team. The corporate environment in Los Angeles was better suited to embrace Being diverse helps the bottom line. Being diversity than Ohio’s. Now that I’m back in diverse can open up organizations to a difOhio I can attest that the environment has ferent audience they may never have seen improved, albeit not nearly enough to say or worked with before. Being diverse and that everyone has an equal opportunity. inclusive is the right thing to do, both financially and spiritually. Once companies emA few years ago, I was a technical account brace diversity this could literally change the executive at a Fortune 500 company in Cin- world.

Gino McGowens has worked for more than 30 years with such corporate leaders as Xerox, AT&T, Pacific Bell and Verizon, holding various leadership positions of increasing responsibilities. In 2016 he formed The Herring Group, LLC, a Cincinnati-based consulting company focused on diversity, inclusion, and marketing.

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@codemcigar Code M Cigars 28 | codemmagazine.com

#Man Codes: DIVERSITY “We are all different, which is great because we are all unique.

Without diversity life would be very boring.”

– Catherine Pulsifer “A lot of different flowers make a bouquet.” – Muslim Origin “Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?”

– Desmond Tutu “There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.”

– Isaac Asimov “Diversity is the magic. It is the first manifestation, the first beginning of the differentiation of a thing and of simple identity.

The greater the diversity, the greater the perfection.”

– Thomas Berry “We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.

Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”

– Jimmy Carter “What the world needs most is openness: Open hearts, open doors, open eyes, open minds, open ears, open souls.”

– Robert Muller “Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”

– Albert Einstein “Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven.”

– Yiddish Proverb “Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.”

– William Sloane Coffin “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

– Mark Twain “A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.”

– Frank Zappa “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ” – Galations 3:28 (NIV) FALL 2019 | 35

The Chronicles of Aspirations:

Chevan Baker

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By Richard McDonough Chevan Baker, a young man building a tech business, is one of a five-man team who invented a device that may eventually lead to many people with diabetes being able to avoid amputations. Their invention is the Diabetic Mat Thermometer Device.

Additionally, Chevan and a childhood friend, Terrell Clark, have founded 1Place4tech, an internet-based business providing three primary services to small businesses: website design and development, mobile app design and development, and content and brand management.

They have clients throughout the Midwest, as well as around the US. Chevan’s journey as an inventor and now an entrepreneur has been supported by strong mentors, including his parents. His father served in the US Air Force and worked for years in finance, while his mother worked in a hospital.

“My parents explained how important it was that they controlled their destiny,” Chevan says. “You invest in yourself first. You save money to put aside for future growth. This left a profound impact on me.”

a senior capstone project. “We were tasked with solving a problem using existing software, hardware, or a combination of both.”

He and the four other members of the team (Jordan Barber, Jann Butler, Fred Harris, and Dr. Gordon Skelton) focused on diabetes, an issue close to home for each team member – one of the major concerns being the rate of amputation faced by those with the disease. The team was to present a working product at the end of their second semester. The result was the Diabetic Mat Thermometer Device.

The mat is designed to measure the temperature of each foot. “It has been found that a subject’s lower extremity temperature correlates well with blood flow where a decrease in blood flow relates to a decrease in temperature of a subject’s foot,” details the patent application for the device. “For example, a drop of four degrees Fahrenheit from a baseline temperature in one or both feet of a subject may indicate a period of decreased blood flow that could cause tissue damage complications for the subject’s lower extremities if not acted upon.” continued on page 39

Education was also one of the things instilled in Chevan as a child. “My father told me that I didn’t necessarily need to go on to pursue receiving my own MBA. His view was that business schools generally teach theory and that there is no set rule book to shine in business anywhere because it’s mostly on-the-job learning.”

Those words turned out to be prophetic as Chevan learned in his last year at Jackson State University. He was one of the students in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science who participated in

You invest in yourself first.

You save money to put aside for future growth.

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“People with diabetes comprise approximately 5% of the population, but account for 50% of all non-traumatic lower extremity amputations,” noted the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2001. According to Melanie Miller, Senior Research Specialist at the Amputee Coalition, approximately “900,000 people are living with limb loss related to vascular diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes” in the United States.

The need to help people with diabetes has been – and is – critical in the US and throughout the world. That number is anticipated to grow to more than 1. 6 million Americans by 2050, according to Estimating the Prevalence of Limb Loss in the United States: 2005 to 2050, a research report written

by Dr. Kathryn Ziegler-Graham, Dr. Ellen MacKenzie, Patti L. Ephraim, Dr. Thomas G. Travison, and Dr. Ron Brookmeyer.

The team’s presentation of the Diabetic Mat Thermometer Device to the review board of engineers was well received.

Shortly thereafter, the team was put in contact with the Public Relations Department of Jackson State University.

“The diabetic mat is in development,” says Chevan. “We had multiple options, but we chose the university joint venture route and our patent application is pending.”

Starting A Business Chevan and his business partner Terrell Clark both grew up knowing that they wanted to eventually open their own tech business.

Chevan explains, “I made the decision to move back in with my parents in Kansas City after earning my [Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering] degree from Jackson State University. My parents advised me to come back to According to the United States Centers for Disease Con- Kansas City to minimize costs. Many of my peers made diftrol and Prevention, there is a substantially higher risk for ferent decisions. Many decided to buy a house or rent a very diabetes among Americans with certain racial and ethnic nice apartment. Many have substantial student debt. Most backgrounds, including individuals with Native American, are putting themselves even deeper into debt by buying new Alaskan Native, African American, and Hispanic Ameri- cars and through their use of credit cards.” can heritage. (Graph courtesy of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

“I chose to save money to establish a business by not going continued on page 41

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is a substantially higher risk for diabetes among Americans with certain racial and ethnic backgrounds, including individuals with Native American, Alaskan Native, African American, and Hispanic American heritage. (Graph courtesy of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

FALL 2019 | 39

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My father taught me was that the way to generate wealth is not by how much money you earn, but how much money you keep. further into debt,” Chevan says. “My father taught me the difference between a need and a want. One of the other things my father taught me was that the way to generate wealth is not by how much money you earn, but how much money you keep.”

One of the teaching techniques used by Chevan’s father was to take Chevan and his two siblings – when they were small children – to a local dollar store. “He would explain to us that while everything in the store was $1.00 each, it would cost more than $1.00 to actually purchase any one product.

That’s how we learned about sales tax. We had to calculate the amount of sale tax in our head for the items we wanted to purchase. We then had to make sure we had enough money to buy the products we had selected.”

The upshot is that Chevan and Terrell self-funded 1Place4tech. “Both Terrell and I each put in our own money to fund our venture,” confirms Chevan. “I was encouraged by my father to start my own business. He started his own business after his years in the military and fifteen years working in finance at American Century Investments. Both my mother and father self-funded my father’s business.”

have their websites updated. We could solve that problem.”

Much of their work is to refine and re-touch existing websites for clients. “Sometimes, we do a simple refresh of an existing site, while other projects involve a complete redesign.”

1Place4tech is in its second year of operation. Their business is still modest in size. “We’re still growing,” Chevan says. “We also purchased the rights to another website – somethingtolaughat.com.”

Leadership Techniques The leadership style espoused by Chevan includes responsibility and compassion.

“One of the people I learned from was Dr. James Renick, a former Provost at Jackson State University,” says Chevan. “He taught me how to blend together responsibility and kindness … that we all had a responsibility to work together.”

Overall, Chevan details that he lives by three key policies:

To start their business, Chevan and Terrell determined that ONE: Strive to increase your network by making yourself small businesses would be their target audience for their visible. services. “We got lists of as many small businesses in the Kansas City area as we could find. And then we contacted TWO: Never settle. If you know what you want, don’t listen the small businesses directly.” In some cases, the men also to your self-doubt or doubt from others. contacted small businesses using LinkedIn. THREE: Remember, there is more than one way to get to ten Sometimes, both men would directly walk into businesses – your ultimate goals. and offer their services. They also attended social events for professionals, including the First Fridays events in Kansas “There are infinite possibilities to get to ten,” explains City. The direct approach worked.

Chevan. “You can achieve this by adding 1 + 9, 7+ 3, or 9.999 + .001, and so on. Never give up on your goals.”

“We found that some businesses were looking for tech help right away,” Chevan clarifies. “A number of small business- Chevan is another individual who has shown that aspiraes explained a difficulty that they were having was the lack tions are not only goals to strive for, aspirations are also atof response time from their current web developers. Small tainable. With hard work, dedication and education, Chebusinesses – because they were small – would have to wait to van has shown that success is possible.

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Daddying –

The Great Equalizer

By Allan Shedlin It was no real surprise that the aspirations, joys, challenges, worries, and frustrations expressed by dads from Ghana, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, and the United States who participated in my discussion group echoed those I’ve heard so many other times from almost 200 fathers and grandfathers from 20 countries. During more than two decades of interviewing dads across the entire socioeconomic spectrum, a wide variety of ethnic groups, and ranging in age from 16-104, I’ve learned that daddying is the great equalizer.

Daddying is a term I coined 25 years ago to describe the ongoing process and commitment that occurs where fatherhood and nurturance converge – it is distinct from fathering which describes a one-time biological act that requires no greater commitment than a shot of DNA. During hundreds of listening hours, one-on-one and in small fatherhood groups, I’ve learned that dads are not only willing to talk about daddying but are eager to do so. Speaking from their perspectives as fathers and grandfathers, as sons and grandsons, as uncles, big brothers and fatherly figures, when questions are posed and it is clear that they have an attentive and eager listener, dads speak eloquently from their hearts. Once they get started, it often feels as if a finger has been released from an emotional dike and they pour out feelings and thoughts that have long sought to be released and shared.

The men who have shared their thoughts with me spoke a lot more about the kind of father they did not want to be rather than the one they did want to be. The heart-wrenching expressions of daddy yearning far outnumbered those of the joys. The soulful sadness was often what came to mind first; the joys often needed a prompt to be expressed.

I could find that discussed its importance to fathers and adult male development – this is an area that could benefit from greater attention.

Now the research supporting the benefits for child development of such involvement seems everywhere and includes the benefits to families and communities.

The research documents that father absence is a factor in 60-95 percent of all negative outcomes among youth – including school dropouts, drug use, teen pregnancy, crimes and violent acts, jail or prison time, depression, and suicides. Research also documents that when fathers are positively engaged in the lives of their children, infants experience better attachments, children develop stronger language and social skills, enjoy school more, get higher grades, participate in more extracurricular activities, are less likely to repeat a grade, experience fewer behavioral problems, and delay sexual activity.

And, as noted above, perhaps least well-appreciated: when fathers are positively engaged with their children, the fathers are also enriched by broadened perspectives on issues, situations and possibilities.

The research clearly substantiates that fathers matter to kids, kids matter to fathers, and families and communities are far better off when fathers and kids are positively involved in each other’s lives.

With the plethora of research now available, I sometimes worry that our increased reliance and focus on it, tends to diminish and undervalue the essence of daddying. Daddying, after all, is a matter of the heart. One hundred percent of the men I interviewed believed that it enriched their lives.

As we think more about the kind of father we each want, or want to be — or want for our daughters When I first started writing about daddying there and sons — here are some of the most useful things was little research readily available to substantiate I learned from the men, as well as from my own exthe importance of positive father involvement to periences as a son, grandson, dad, granddad, and child well-being. And there was almost none that lifelong educator: 42 | codemmagazine.com

• There is no such thing as a “perfect dad.”

tenderizing effect on men that also enables our hearts to expand.

• Being the kind of dad we want to be is within our own control — for the most part, most of us have an opportunity to write our own daddying script.

• Although there may be a different emphasis or intensity between different socioeconomic or ethnic groups, the challenges and joys of fatherhood are universal – they cut across all groups and generations.

• There is a reciprocity of joy for fathers and kids alike when daddying Being a dad is more than just who you succeeds – children and youth feel loved and dads are nourished by their are, it’s what you do. You can become a father by accident but you can benurturing. come a daddy only by intention. Ev• Being there, really being there, is ery day is a new opportunity to be a the single most desired and import- dad, and I encourage all fathers and ant daddying quality. men who play fatherly roles to just do • Being an involved dad has a positive it and “DADDY UP!” Allan is, first and foremost, a dad, granddad, and founder of the DADvocacy Consulting Group. He’s also a former teacher, adjunct professor, school principal, writer for the popular and professional press, and advisor to the US Secretary of Education (Reagan), state education superintendents, and White House Office of Faith-based & Neighborhood Partnerships (Obama). Previously, he founded the National Elementary School Center, REEL FATHERS, and the NM Alliance for Fathers & Families. He earned his MA in Elementary Education and Special Education from Columbia University Teachers College.

In Search of Unconditional Love:

By V. Billione Frē

5 ways loving myself shaped my love for others I haven’t quite grasped the concept of unconditional love. The capacity to love despite the circumstances seems so unrealistic and impractical to me. However, I understand why others do. Love is a force of positive emotion that bestows upon its object intense warmth, kindness, and at times, desire, but it isn’t easily defined.

I’ve spent my entire life offering love, but it hasn’t always been met with reciprocity. I’ve simply loved for the sake of loving.

Thus, love is something I welcome when it’s there and long for, when it isn’t. What is love, though?

Love shows up for me in many ways. I love my home, my pet, and possessions. I love my family, and friends, and humanity as a whole. I love the idea of having afternoon tea with a great book, maybe a pastry. However, what I’ve wanted most throughout my life has been a romantic partner to share my life and love with. I associate my happiness with this aspect of love, which has eluded me.

haps, I’d understand unconditional love if the idea of self-love was clearer. Do I love myself? How do I know? How does self-love relate to my love of others?

Many times, over the years, I’ve explored these questions on social media in an attempt to gain understanding. Unfortunately, I’ve been mostly met with idealistic and romanticized responses. One person commented, “Unconditional love is simply to love someone for all that they are, and all they are not.” Others described the love between parent and child, for religious deities, and the love they share with their pets as examples of unconditional love. I understood the responses, but didn’t feel closer to understanding unconditional love.

As I delved deeper, someone replied “Perhaps, to understand it, you first have to experience it.” Had I never experienced unconditional love? Something began to click for me. Then, another person replied, “I think the mistake people make I’ve fallen in love many times — each is they believe that love is more of an seemingly real at the moment, then sub- emotion than an action.” That comment sequently a lapse in judgment, in hind- set my brain waves on fire, and reminded sight. In my twenties, I traded sex for me of something I read years prior. In his love. In my thirties, self-worth for love, 1956 book, The Art of Loving, German and now in my forties, love has become social psychologist Erich Fromm wrote, this elusive inconvenience I’d gladly trade “If an individual is able to love producfor chocolate, or whiskey. I’ve drunk tively, he loves himself, too; if he can love away many sorrows regarding love, to the only others, he cannot love at all.” point of giving up on it all together.

It sounds as if love is first expressed Others have said, “Stop looking for love, for ourselves, then extended to others. and let it find you,” or “You’re looking for This doesn’t exactly tell us what love is. love in all the wrong places,” and we’ve After a quick Google search, perusing all heard the notorious “If you don’t love Wikipedia, and referring to multiple yourself, how can you love someone dictionaries at the library, a common else?” It seems logical that my love for definition of love is “an intense feeling of others begins with love for myself. Per- deep affection.” continued on page 47 FALL 2019 | 45

However, in a 2016 Time.com article, “We are defining love the wrong way,” Rabbi David Wolpe suggests that love isn’t just about what one feels: it causes one to act. “We would have a healthier conception of love if we understood that love, like parenting or friendship, is a feeling that expresses itself in action. What we really feel is reflected in what we do,” Wolpe wrote. If love is an emotion expressed through action, what am I doing, as a practitioner of love, to show myself that I love myself, thereby authentically loving others? In the years since I began this quest to truly understand love, I’ve developed five ways to gauge my love for myself, and craft healthier ways of approaching love with others.

1)

FEED MY MIND. From reading, to engaging in thought-provoking conversation, I fill my mind with nutrition that fortifies my thinking, and boosts my emotional intelligence. I visit a therapist weekly so that I have help working through problematic behaviors and self-defeating thought patterns. This helps me by tapping into the wisdom I have that is sometimes restricted by negative thoughts about myself. What do you do regularly to take care of your mind?

CARE FOR MY BODY. Whether it be bathing reg2)

ularly, or engaging in physical activity, taking care of my body has become an effective way to express love for myself.

This is the only body I will have, and I need it to last for the rest of my life. I also strive to get enough sleep, explore healthy meals to prepare, and make drinking water a priority. What does taking care of your body look like for you?

BALANCE MY ESSENCE. What some call their 3)

spirit, or soul, I call my essence. It’s that intangible, metaphysical part of my being that connects me to the Universe.

Through meditation, prayer, or chanting, I tap into my essence in an effort to balance my karma and release stress. I sometimes sip tea, burn incense, or play music to enhance the experience. This allows my vibration to align with my reality, and welcome balance into my life. How is balance a priority in your life?

priority if attaining a sense of self-love is a goal. Self-love is an investment and requires comparable amounts of time as maintaining other relationships do. I’ve found it helpful to schedule time for such practices. I set aside 15 to 30 minutes per day to engage in each of these practices. Many of us offer employers 8 to 10 hours of our sweat equity; how much more fulfilled would we be over time if we dedicated a fraction of that to loving ourselves?

DOCUMENT MY JOURNEY. I take notes and 5)

journal chronically! I write everything down. I frequently jot things down in apps like Google Keep or Evernote, then transfer them to my more than 40 notebooks and journals.

Each one is dedicated to a separate topic. I use them to sort out my thoughts and document works in progress. I periodically refer back to what I write to measure my growth.

For 2019, I began keeping a regular gratitude journal where I write daily entries of what I’m grateful for or want to manifest in my life. I’ve posted these daily affirmations on Facebook to share positivity, as well as be held accountable for the energy I put out into the world. In what ways do you include others in your self-love journey?

These notes are not a prescription to anyone, but a description of how I use the knowledge I’ve acquired in my love journey. Love, much like life, is an expedition of trial and error, losses and lessons, and practice toward perfection. One of the lessons I’ve learned in this process of understanding self-love, and exploring unconditional love is if I don’t make myself a priority, no one else will. I’ve also learned that loving myself doesn’t deprive others of love.

Because I love myself, others can trust that the love I hold for them is sincere.

“We learn to love by the way that we live. The love we get, and the love that we give.” Those are lines from a poem titled “Breathe” that I wrote to help me learn to never give up on my dreams. It expresses how our relationships to and with others serve as ways to test out love. Since writing that poem, love has become a personal revolution. I find that the only revolution is love, and I vow to extend love to others

SET BOUNDARIES. In such a busy world, out of the sincere and unconditional love I hold for myself. attending to my mind, body, and essence has to be a Love, and be well.

4)

V. Billione Frē (pronounced bill-LEE-ahn frEE) is a queer, black speaker, writer, and performance poet who uses his writing to heal. A native of Detroit, Victor has been featured in various publications, including the Detroit Free Press, Michigan Citizen, and Thrive Global. His writing focuses on using creative expression to heal from trauma, and eliminating stigma associated with mental illness.

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