This is an interview conducted by Megan Marini. Megan helps high-achievers, who know that there is untapped potential within, face what holds them back and bring their mind/body back into balance, so that they can operate at peak performance. Below is Megan's unedited version of her interview! And for more on Megan's podcast or coaching head over to our HQ: www.meganmarini.com
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LET’S FIND A BETTER BALANCE BETWEEN SAVING THIS COUNTRY FROM SEDITION AND ANOTHER CIVIL WAR AND ALLOWING PEOPLE TO SPEAK THEIR WARPED MINDS So many people these days are expert on everything. Climate change. Epidemiology. And yes, constitutional law. Author and lawyer Jeffrey Kass digs into what types of speech are kosher and what types of speech are not protected by the First Amendment. As America recovers from the attack on the Capitol, Kass picks apart the balance we need to strike between allowing people to say dumb or even racist things against not allowing speech that is designed to encourage violence and insurrection.
BLACK LIVES MATTER, VERSION 20.21 This essay uses the Netflix show The Good Place as the backdrop for discussing how our society likes to present itself as The Good Place when, for far too many people of color, it can often be a bad place. Rather than point fingers, Author Jeffrey Kass asks readers to just practice empathy and hear what types of things hurt and ail much of the Black community. To listen to others’ pain. To understand why people embrace Black Lives Matter.
STORMING OF U.S. CAPITOL IS THE FINAL WARNING Extremism is on the rise at a rapid pace. It’s reminiscent of the militias back in the 1990s. But we know what happened then. It rose so much that it eventually led to Timothy McVeigh and others bombing the Oklahoma City Building. The anger and disdain in 2021 parallels that dark time in American history. This essay is the warning to learn from our past and not return to domestic terrorism.
VACCINATING AGAINST UNCONSCIOUS BIAS Diversity trainer and author Jeffrey Kass has developed a method for ending racial strife with a method he calls End Racial Distancing. It involves creating space in our after 5:00 p.m. spaces and more intimate spaces in life for people who are different than ourselves. We can’t possibly learn and respect each other on a deeper level if we don’t start integrating our homes. If we don’t end racial distancing. This is the key to ending unconscious bias that plagues so many of us.
TIME FOR EUROPE TO PAY FOR THEIR RACIST SINS The focus has always been on America for its racism and slavery past. But Europe seems to get a free pass even though it was Spain, England, the Netherlands and others who traded and profited from the slaves. The Europeans used their wealth to build their countries and shipped the slaves to the U.S. instead of to Europe. This essay advocates for holding European countries partly responsible for fixing the problems that still plague America from this evil part of history. Activist Jeffrey Kass gives us a refresher course on the African slave trade that helped build Europe.
THE FAILED AMERICAN MELTING POT EXPERIMENT The story of Chanukah has nothing to do with gifts. It’s the story of the Jewish nation in the land of Israel living at the hands of Macedonian rulers. But unlike other abusers of the Jews, these rulers just wanted the Jews to assimilate. To blend in. To become part of the majority. This essay uses the backdrop of the Chanukah story as a guide for us not using the idea of us all melting into one type to achieve national success Author Jeffrey Kass advocates instead we appreciate and celebrate our own and others’ differences rather than melt them away.
MARGINALIZED GROUPS AREN’T RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL SINS OF THEIR MEMBERS When a white man shoots up a Vegas nightclub or guns people down in Florida, there’s nobody calling on other whites to condemn them on behalf of the white people. But for some reason, when some member of a minority group, whether it be a Black man, a Jew or a Muslim, we look these groups to issue broad condemnations. As if the bad person committed the crime or heinous act in the name of all people who look or worship like him. This essay explores why this double standard isn’t fair.
NOW TIME TO GET RADICAL ON RACE People involved in fighting for racial justice are dancing in the street after the defeat of Donald Trump. Indeed, there was much to be concerned about under his presidency. The election is over now, and author Jeffrey Kass in this essay reminds us that racism didn’t start in the last four years and we can’t let our guard down just because Biden-Harris won. Kass gives real solutions to tackling are centuries old issues,
When the Ohio State Buckeyes put the word “Equality” on the back of their helmets to start the COVID-19 reduced 2020 football season, thousands took to Facebook and Twitter to express their outrage. “How dare they mix politics and football.” “Their ruining college football.” And other similar less PG statements. This essay breaks down how we have devolved into a society where even the word “Equality” triggers people into fear and anger.
DEFAMATION AND DISTRACTION Too often people, particularly on the far left, are so quick to lump the Jews and Israel in with every colonial conquest the world has seen. They do this in the stated name of advocating for Palestinians. This essay dives into why this is counter-productive and actually doesn’t help the Palestinian cause. Author and activist Jeffrey Kass reminds us that the Jews have a 3,000 year connection to the land of Israel and didn’t colonialize anything. Recognizing rather than canceling the Jewish indigenous connection to that land will allow us to practice intellectual honesty and then actually address where the Jewish state has failed the Palestinians.
This essay comes just after the death of Supreme Court and social justice giant Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The abortion debate is often the first thing one thinks of when we talk about the Supreme Court. Author Jeffrey Kass uses this backdrop to help us reflect on what the sanctity of life must truly mean for all living, walking, breathing people. That we can’t simply focus on an unborn baby and then ignore the quality of a person’s life after birth. Justice Ginsburg spent her life fighting for equality for women and it’s a great example for us to recalibrate our energy.
HUMANIZING HUMANS ONE MEAL AT A TIME One of the biggest reasons we have so much disconnect in America is that Black and White folks aren’t taking time to get to know each other on a personal level. This essay advocates for starting with a meal. Not politics. Not issues. Not solutions. Just breaking bread with someone. We often talk over people who are different than ourselves. Like two ships passing in the night with so much lack of understanding of the other. It’s too easy to react to a news story or a traumatic event about another group if we haven’t taken the time to know people from that group on a deeper level. It all starts with a meal, argues author Jeffrey Kass in this essay.
THE ROADMAP OUT. A JEWISH PERSPECTIVE Unsplash Photo Credit: [email protected] People often ask what can I do to help end systemic racism and injustices. There are many layers to this, but Kass delves into why mindfully supporting Black-owned businesses is one important step in the path to real progress. He uses the backdrop of the Jewish experience coming to America and how they used support for their businesses to move up the American ladder.
WHY WE SHOULD SUPPORT SPORTS STARS TAKING A STANCE NBA players decided to cancel games and refuse to play in the wake of racial strife and more police killing of unarmed Black men and women. Author Jeffrey Kass explores why we should support these players and their standing up for their brothers and sisters. Why in this country we want to support and encourage peaceful and verbal protest and change. We can’t take away voice and then simultaneously expect people not to try other methods of change. Thank you LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and company for standing up for Black and Brown people. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on the left or right, society has reached a difficult place where we no longer can have real conversations without one side demeaning and canceling the other side. The disagree with me or you’re an idiot manner we deal with each other is having horrific consequences for society. Cancel culture has reached the boiling point. So much so that people with varying opinions that cross the political spectrum—the good ole independent thinking people—no longer have a place. This essay dives into why this problem needs to be addressed immediately. Sending In The Federal Troops: Solution or Accelerant For More Violence? At one point, the U.S. contemplated sending in federal troops to stop violence in our most dangerous cities. South side of Chicago one of them. But what policymakers don’t understand is that our problems with crime will never be solved with more military style weapons and more police. It’s time to think long term. Mass investment in education, in training and other programs that uplift instead of jail people is our only path forward.
Author Jeffrey Kass takes his three kids (now teenagers) on vacation every year. In recent years, that has involved trips overseas. But because his kids are Jewish and wear yarmulkes (Jewish head coverings) he often requires them to wear ballcaps because of the dangers Jews face in Europe and other places.
During COVID-19, he had to take them somewhere in the U.S., so they went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for hiking, bike riding, tubing, ATVing and the like. He was reminded that as much as our country suffers from so many xenophobic ills, his kids didn’t have to wear baseball hats in the U.S. Kass uses this story has a backdrop for how we can end systemic racism in the U.S. The case for reparations for slavery has been discussed and re-discussed for generations. But it’s usually pro-reparations with vague details versus anti-reparations with no recognition of the havoc America caused to so many families. This essay by race expert Jeffrey Kass discusses tangible ideas for administering a reparations program aimed at actually repairing rather than just compensating.
Virtually every group seems to be quick to harshly criticize other groups and slow to criticize their own. When Black folks give the likes of Farrakhan and Jesse a free pass, it wasn’t because of their anti-Semitism, it was because they stood up for Black folks.
When Jews defend Israel and Netanyahu at all costs, it isn’t because Israel, like every country, does things that are wrong. It’s because the world has always gone after the Jews and Israel is the one place that defends Jews. Still, this essay is a call for a reexamination of what Author Jeffrey Kass calls “ethnic narccisism.” |
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