Joyful Facets of Identity: Get to Know Us and Our Backgrounds!
Cover image for the August 2023 episode of Diverse Joy with Dr. William T. L. Cox and Dr. Amber Nelson
Diverse Joy Podcast - Season 1, Episode 3
To start off, we explain that, even though we both have doctorates, we describe ourselves as “so-called experts” because diversity and inclusion topics are ever-evolving, and there’s always more to learn. Things bringing us joy this episode are Will’s visits to the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Bristol, Wisconsin and Amber learning to make her Italian grandmother’s recipe for long sauce.
Amber and Will pose for a promotional photo for an episode focused on their backgrounds and identities
Our discussion this episode focuses on our own identities and backgrounds, and we each share our stories of how we came to our career paths. As with many folks, our appearances aren’t complete indicators of our racial/ethnic identities — Amber discusses her Black and Italian heritage, and Will talks about being White and Hawaiian, as well as sharing his story about coming out as gay to his religious, Mormon family.
Then we reflect on our answers to the question "Is race a social construct?"
To work on our bias habit-breaking skills, we learn to watch out for Impression Justification as one way that biases can influence judgments and decision-making.
Our joyful recommendation is the delightfully diverse and absolutely hilarious TV show, Superstore.
In this episode, Amber shared Pamela Hays's model for organizing different facets of identity around the acronym ADDRESSING. It stands for
Age,
Disability (developmental)
Disability (acquired)
Religion
Ethnicity
Sexual orientation
Socioeconomic status
Indigenous group membership
Nationality, and
Gender
The episode can be found below, by following the podcast wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, RSSFeed, Amazon/Audible, Google Podcasts, or by subscribing to @BiasHabit on YouTube.
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