April 5, 2013
McClaurin with Shirlynn LaChapelle, MNBNA President 
MNBNA Website
This is an excerpt of a speech delivered at the first annual "Springing Towards Health Gala" of the Minnesota Black Nurses Association on March 9, 2013 at the Crowne Plaza Minneapolis North, Brooklyn Center.In 2000, I was part of an historic panel organized by the Congressional Black Caucus on Black Health. At the time, I was a Diplomacy Fellow at USAID just returning from a trip to South Africa. During that trip, one particular agency predicted the number of deaths that would be attributed to HIV-AIDS, and the thousands of Black South African children who would be left orphaned as a result.
McClaurin with Vusumuzi (L) & Nothando Zulu of Black Storytelling Alliance at MN Black Nursing Gala The numbers were staggering, and I felt tremendous empathy for South Africans, especially Black South Africans, who were the most affected. Little did I know that we would be facing our own HIV-AIDS epidemic in the United States; one that would disproportionately impact African Americans and Latinos, especially African American and Latino heterosexual women who have the fastest growing rate of contracting HIV-AIDs today. We were also celebrating the establishment of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. 
Read More McClaurin with her sister, Reece BellOriginal Post 21 March, 2013, Insight News
Posted In : Black Beauty & Health
April 5, 2013
Two score and ten years ago, a prophet named Dr. Martin Luther King stood before thousands of people—poor people, rich people, Black people, White people, people of different cultures, gay people, straight people, but mostly hopeful people—He stood before all of them at the Lincoln Memorial in our nation’s capital. This prophet, this “drum major for peace,” this “drum major for justice”, this “drum major for righteousness” as he sometimes referred to himself. He presented America a vision of hope. He gave us a dream on that fateful day in 1963; he gave us a dream in which he articulated his belief in a racial equality and social justice. In his own words:“ I have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”Read MoreOriginal Post: 21 January 2013, The Skanner
Posted In : Public Engagement
March 10, 2013
Irma McClaurin '69, Lucy Flower Vocational High School, West Side of Chicago (Photo credit: mcclaurin solutions)
In the summer of 1968, 140 students from inner city and rural America gathered at the Yale University Divinity School to participate in an educational experiment. White, Black, Puerto Rican, Indian American, and Asian American students, labeled by New Haven newspapers as "underachievers," were introduced to a "Great American Books" curriculum that included The American Constitution, Native Son, Antigone, and The Communist Manifesto. No one told them they weren't supposed to excel, and so they did.The group of 110 boys and 30 girls (the first women to attend Yale before it went co-ed) participated in "T" (therapy) discussion groups to tackle the messy topic and tensions of race and social justice following the largest period of civil unrest in America after the assassination of Martin Luther King. Safe within the walls of Yale's Divinity School, the YSHS students, encouraged by the staff, found their voices and the inspiration to succeed academically.Read MoreOriginal Post: 25 February 2013, Insight News
Posted by Insight News. Posted In : Policy Analysis
March 10, 2013
Dr. Irma McClaurin by fellmanstudio.com Dr. Kesho Scott (Grinnell College) by De Dudley The recent racist incident at Washburn High School of Minneapolis, in which a black doll was hung (lynched), is disturbing. We are living in the 21st century. And yet, not too long ago in 2003 Duluth, MN built a memorial to commemorate the unlawful and unjustified lynching of three young Black men in 1920. Despite this example of racial reconciliation, in 2008 an effigy of Presidential candidate Barrack Obama was found hanging from the Duluth memorial. Whether playing video games, watching movies set in the "wild" West, reading about suicide or violence in general, a reasonable child and adult knows that placing a noose around anything is no laughing matter. The "lynching" of a Black doll at Washburn High in Minneapolis, given Minnesota's recent history, is NOT a matter to be taken lightly or to gloss over as "kids will be kids" or "they had no idea how bad this was." Read MoreOriginal Posting: 25 February 2013, Insight News
Posted by Irma McClaurin, Kesho Scott. Posted In : Public Engagement
February 3, 2013
At
a recent networking event for women in Raleigh, I listened as a panel
of experienced women executives shared their experiences with the
audience. One question posed was about how non-profit and corporate
board members were recruited. One response stood out in my mind. The
speaker indicated that she often recruited board members by tapping into
her friends and colleagues. The answer affirmed a thesis of mine—there
exists in our society what I call the “ Rolodex of inequality,” and what
it produces is homogeneity or sameness.Read MoreOriginal Posting: 01 February 2013, Insight News
Posted In : Policy Analysis
January 26, 2013
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The three maxims in the title greet me each morning. They are kitchen magnets placed above my stove, meant to guide me on the attitude I should carry into my day and into life generally. I take them to mean: 1) do not overly complicate my life (with work, obligations, possessions, other people's problems, or needless drama); 2) find joy and fun in my daily routines; and 3) make time to be connected and deeply embrace the passions that arise from friendships, family, and special friends/partners/lovers. Read More Original posting: 05 Jan 2013, Insight News
Posted In : Black Beauty & Health
