How does the conversation of racial discrimination begin between parents and children? In our home it began when I heard my oldest daughter say the phase “Team Dark Skin.” I have 4 beautiful daughters — all of which are smart, loving, caring and different shades of brown skin. And in that moment I realized in a house full of black people you can still experience racial discrimination and divide. I say to my brown-skinned child, “So, what does team dark skin mean?” She replies

The be_voiced Squad takes over Echoes on air! Squad members Lauren Harrison and Emily Truelove talk with Caleb de la Torre and Fatima Flores about effective and ineffective methods of protest and ways Gen Z is getting involved in protest movements. Find us at: iTunes - Click Here Google Play - Click Here Spotify - Click Here As mentioned on the podcast: Follow @TheFundForCollegeAuditions on Instagram Check out these additional articles: Some influencers spark backlash after

In this episode of on air with..., Janelle and Chris talk with Grace Talusan, author of The Body Papers, about her experiences traveling back to the Philippines and the journey to and importance of telling her story. Take a listen to find out why you should get your own copy. Find us at: iTunes - Click Here Google Play - Click Here Spotify - Click Here Get a copy of The Body Papers here Find out more about Grace by following her on the following: Grace's website Grace's Inst

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation was embattled in its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State … shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States … will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in

Editor's note: I wrote the beginning of this article for the blog a year ago. Due to scheduling, I never posted it. Since then, it's been sitting in a scrap pile of words that I call "My Vent Box." Sadly, with the death of Botham Jean, this is relevant again. We all know the problems. Discrimination. Inequality. Racism. Prejudice. Bias. Really, pick a word. It’s hard to turn on the news and not see these through the news stories. Whether it’s a politician saying he should be

I came out, publicly, a few years ago. Prior to my grand Facebook announcement, most of the people in my life already knew. Of the people that I interacted with on a regular basis, the people who were the last to know were my very Mormon parents. Although my mother had asked me point blank before if I was gay, I just wasn’t ready for a response that she wanted nothing to do with me. But, I lucked out. My very Mormon parents still love me no matter what and just want me to be

First, let me say I started writing this article after the Dove ad scandal. (Can you call it a scandal?) It's important that I highlight that because I'm only publishing it now after the H&M scandal. I waited because I knew there would be another time that this article would be relevant. Why? Because of Dove, Pepsi, Nivea. Ugh…the list could continue. H&M is just the new verse in the same song. And I gotta say: I'm not mad about it. I'm kind of "eh" about it. And that's simpl

The main reason I started The Echoes Blog was because I wanted us to share stories that might give us insight to how supremacy, prejudice, ignorance, untruths, and the dangers of inequality and disproportionate power run through the veins of our society and infect our humanity with hate and entitlement. Months ago I had this idea to ask my friends when they realized they were racially/ethnically different. I wondered if it was an event that revealed it to them or if it was ju

I struggled with what my first blog piece would be. There are so many topics to be discussed. But I thought it best to start with this question. Many groups yell about civil rights: about them being violated, or upheld, or non-existent. But do we really know what they are? Civil rights are defined as the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality. I am of the belief that many of the world’s problems could be solved by applying a childhood lesson that we o