Lake/Sumter AAUW's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, formed in 2018, was charged with supporting our branch commitment to DEI, enhancing members' awareness of diversity issues, and providing programming for members and guests to learn about other racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.

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Our committee does all that, and more.

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In 2019, DEI hosted a successful International Food Tasting and Dance Performance (our "member-servers" pictured above), which also served as a fundraiser for Tech Trek and college scholarships.

 

The Committee's plans were put on hold due to Covid. But we shifted into high gear after the murder of George Floyd, launched an online Racism Discussion Series focused on racism, which was free and open to members and non-memers alike. Discussion topics were: Racism 101, White Privilege, Anti-Racism, Implicit Bias, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Microaggressions, Confederate Monuments, Systemic Racism in Housing, Systemic Racism in Voting. All  discussion sessions were recorded and are available for viewing on our branch YouTube Channel, except the one on White Privilege, which is available here.

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2023-24 DEI Programs

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• Inclusion Infusion: We offer these 10-minutes segments at General Meetings, with an emphasis on race amity.
   

• Banned Books Reading Group: We launched this book discussion group during 2023-24 with Caste: The  Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. Our follow-up selection was How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith.

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• Diversity Movie Night: The committee hosted two film viewings/discussion during 2023-24. The first film was Driving While Black; the second was The Chinese Exclusion Act. 

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• Great Reads from the DEI Committee: The committee continued to submit recommendations for the column in the monthly newsletter. See the current newsletter as well as archived editions for books we have recommended in the past.

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The 2024-25 DEI Programs will be announced soon.

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Other Resources

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AAUW members now have a DEI Toolkit available to them on National AAUW's website. This resource contains information, ideas, and materials to help branches and State affiliates create DEI programming. And AAUW-Florida offers recordings of their Diversity Dialogues that other branches can also use in their DEI programming.

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