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Diversity was supposed to offer us respect and understanding. Yet somehow we ended up with so much resentment and confusion, so much division and discord, that for many, the project is ruined. The well of diversity has been poisoned. With a bit of effort and introspection, however, there is still great hope to pull off the impossible and unpoison the well and let diversity do the wonderful things it was supposed to do in the first place. Unpoisoning the Well, which is Part 4 of the four-part series Ourselves Among Others: The Extravagant Failure of Diversity in America and An Epic Plan to Make It Work, offers a game-changing plan to do exactly that. Drawing on real-world scenarios and offering a set of rules and guidelines that can be applied equally and fairly to ourselves and to others, this book concludes the series by offering an epic plan to reset diversity and push it in the direction it was always meant to go. Whether in the workplace or in the classroom, or in any place where diversity might be an issue, Unpoisoning the Well offers a constructive vision of how to recalibrate and re-craft diversity in productive and creative ways. Whether you are a business manager or a CEO, a new employee or a seasoned worker, a teacher or a student, this book offers something new for everyone in a field where almost nothing new has been offered in such a long time. Simply doing more and more of what we have been doing for so long, in the name of diversity and inclusion and equity, won't get us where we need to be. It isn't more diversity that we need. What we need is a better and different diversity, one that unpoisons the well, and one that works equally for all of us, whether among ourselves or among others.

Whether you are an undergraduate contemplating your next step in life, or a hard-working professional contemplating a career change, the decision to go to law school is not one to be taken lightly. Far too many people stumble into the decision to go to law school without having any real idea of what law school is all about or what kind of career might await them after they finish. Law can be a fascinating field of study and an exhilarating career path, but only if you know it is the right choice for you. So, how do you know if it is the right choice for you? That's where this book comes in to save the day. For those who are perplexed about law school, or for those who want to know more about what they are getting themselves into, this book is a step-by-step guide to everything you need to know about studying law and working as a legal professional. It doesn't just provide the essential information you need to make a well-informed decision about law school. It also offers up all sorts of life-lessons and insider information that you won't find in any other guide book about law school. Each chapter is written as a clear and concise answer to all of the most essential questions about law school and what you can do with a law degree. Everything you need to know about law school-the before, the during, and the after-lies within these pages, gleaned from years of experience in helping others make the most well-informed decision they can. Law school may not be for everyone, but if you're even just thinking about it or just aren't quite sure, then this is the book for you. It isn't just helpful, this book. It's epic, and legally so.

In spite of decades of diversity policy and practice, America is in many ways more divided than ever when it comes to issues of identity. Critics from the political left argue that we simply need more diversity to overcome the division, while critics from the political right argue that diversity has devolved into an unworkable set of unfair entitlements that are themselves the cause of the division. Understanding the Misunderstanding, the first part of the four-part series Ourselves Among Others: The Extravagant Failure of Diversity in America and An Epic Plan to Make It Work, explains the sources and causes of the social divide in America, and also shows how neither the political left nor the political right have understood the problem or offered meaningful solutions. As this book shows, the short answer is that we've been doing diversity wrong all along. What is needed is not more diversity, but rather a different diversity, one that works fairly and equally for all of us. According to the US Supreme Court, the primary function of diversity is to provide a "robust exchange of ideas" among different identity groups to facilitate the creation of an integrated American society. But rather than a robust exchange of ideas, we more often have rancorous shouting matches, or even worse, long periods of resentful silence. And rather than an integrated society, we have one that seems to be disintegrating right before our eyes. Understanding the Misunderstanding is a lively, accessible, and provocative read that speaks to both the political left and the political right. It says what needs to be said, what others have been afraid to say, and offers bold solutions for vexatious problems. Anyone with an interest in race relations, identity politics, social justice, or the current state of American democracy will want to read this book.

Although most people think first of politics when they think of diversity, history plays a surprisingly powerful and influential role in the creation of diversity as well. Identity is to a certain extent a narrative we tell about who we are and where we came from, and since diversity is primarily a group-based competitive process, group-based historical narratives become expressive claims to the spoils of diversity. This has lamentably created a debilitating sensitivity to any outside criticism of these group-based historical narratives, as any criticism is interpreted as a denial of all of part of the group's identity. Writing the Past Imperfect, which is Part 3 of the four-part series Ourselves Among Others: The Extravagant Failure of Diversity in America and An Epic Plan to Make It Work, shows how the rejection of critical perspectives on the past works to create a form of collective censorship in the present. Diversity is supposed to allow us to talk about and ask questions of our identities, in the hope of fostering inter-cultural understanding, but the excessive sensitivity toward the recounting of the past has made this all but impossible. The social justice component of diversity is supposed to offer a diversity that applies to and works for all of us equally, which in the case of identity-based historical narratives, would require equal scrutiny of and equally critical perspectives toward the writing of these historical narratives. But given that these historical narratives are used to stake a claim for diversity in the present, what has happened instead is a form of historical protectionism, in which identity-groups strive to put their narratives beyond question, offering criticism of other group-based histories while rejecting and deflecting criticism of their own. Writing the Past Imperfect argues that the only way for diversity to create equality and social justice in the present is to create an equally critical perspective on the past, not just our own past, but the pasts of others as well. Without the ability to ask questions of the many pasts that led us all to the present, we have no way to create mutual understanding. And without mutual understanding, we have only separation and division, the opposite of what diversity is supposed to provide.

One of the unfortunate by-products of our current approach to diversity has been the creation of an enclave society. Since the benefits of diversity are apportioned by group identity, diversity encourages us to find our own group and then "stick with our own kind." The result is inter-group rivalry and a deeply-divided society, one based on separate enclaves of identity that rarely if ever interact. If diversity is supposed to provide a way for us to understand each other, then the rise of an enclave society is perhaps the central example of the extravagant failure of diversity in America. Liberating the Enclave, which is Part 2 of the four-part series Ourselves Among Others: The Extravagant Failure of Diversity in America and An Epic Plan to Make It Work, offers a critical tour of several of these enclaves and also provides a different version of diversity that helps lead us out of our enclaves rather than, as we currently have it, sheltering within them. Diversity is the most important social issue of our time. The rise of identity-based enclaves represents the biggest threat to the success of diversity, since those enclaves in essence institutionalize the divisions that exist along the fault-lines of things like race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and so other forms of identity. Diversity is supposed to create an understanding of others that tears down the walls that divide us. What we have instead is a diversity that builds ever stronger and ever higher walls between the enclaves that separate us. Liberating the Enclave presents an unflinching look at the construction of these enclaves and the divisive politics that created them and that they in turn have exacerbated and entrenched. This is a book that breaks through the silence and breaks down the walls. Getting diversity right and creating a social justice that works for us all will not be an easy task, but this book has the grit and ambition to show how it is possible and how to get it done right.

A journalist from New York is plunged into a crisis of faith after he is accused of "embellishing" his stories and taking certain liberties with the truth. He decides to head West to invent a new life for himself, but on the long drive to Los Angeles, the fabled City of Angels, he is forced to make an unexpected stop in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he comes across a street-theater group rehearsing in a local bar. What he doesn't know in that moment is that this seemingly random encounter will change his life forever. The leader of the street-theater group is Maria, who is everything the journalist is not. Faith comes easily and effortlessly to Maria. She trusts strangers, she trusts her intuition, and she believes that all things happen for a reason. Maria remains defiantly positive in a world of negative things. She has a subtle charisma and an enchanting grit that draw in those around her, and when she invites the journalist to join them, he is surprised at how easily he accepts the invitation, almost as if it were against his will. He is entranced by Maria's ways. He wants to see and experience the world as Maria sees it, to believe that there is an inherent goodness in all things, but struggles to find the courage and conviction to do so. Under Maria's direction, the group's theatrical performances become increasingly dramatic, and at one point they end up inciting a riot during a show at a church festival. They are subsequently pursued around New Mexico by the self-styled high priest of the law, Sheriff Lex, who wants to make an example of them and stamp out any hint of rebellion in his well-ordered, law-abiding world. During this cat-and-mouse game of pursuit, Maria and the group are helped and guided by a quirkily diverse cast of characters. A continuous stream of Native American priests and elders offer them shelter and protection on native lands. Then there is Andrew, a Croatian priest raised in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, as well as Khalil, a Muslim imam from a local Islamic center who supports their struggle, and Harinder, a bhangra-loving Sikh who adopts their cause as his own. The drama comes to a head when the group is finally cornered by Sheriff Lex in the high desert just outside of Taos and they declare sanctuary in an abandoned church. A standoff ensues, opening the question of which force should prevail in the world-the law of order, as demanded by Sheriff Lex, or the law of love, as offered by Maria. The Cedars of Lebanon is a novel not just about belief, but about the eternal struggle to believe. This is a novel that shows in its own unique way that meaningful life would be impossible without some sort of faith, even if that faith consists only in the act of learning to trust others, or to offer unconditional kindness in a world that seems relentlessly unkind. Above all else, The Cedars of Lebanon shows how a life plagued by doubt and uncertainty is really an incomplete life, and celebrates the bravado it takes to live life to its fullest and to appreciate the gifts that life has to offer, no matter how small they may be. The Cedars of Lebanon tells a story like no other, seen through they eyes of those who, each in their own way, are forever asking questions and forever searching for answers.