Happy New Year! My Top 7 blogs of 2021

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This is now one of my blog traditions! Every year for the past several around New Year’s, I share my top 7 most read blogs of the year. It is really fun to go back and pull my website stats to see what people read the most. And for the first time ever, all of the top blogs were published before this year, and people found them via google search.

Quick stats about his year’s list:
• Five of the 7 dealt with some general aspect of diversity
• Two of the 7 dealt with diversity within sports
• For four of the 7, I had a collaborator assisting me with the content

Here are the seven most read of 2021, starting with number 7 and working up to number one. At the bottom I will give an honorable mention to the top blog published in 2021

7) This year’s number 7 was written in 2019 – a book review titled A new fantastic book in inclusive leadership: “How to be an Inclusive Leader” by Jennifer Brown. I often use industry leading consultant Jennifer Brown’s material when I teach about inclusive leadership.

6) A guest blog written in 2018 by my cousin Brandon, who has a masters degree in social work and now works in the Federal Prison System – Five Misconceptions about Atheists from my Experience: A guest blog by Brandon Garrick.

5) “Five Things Never to Say to Hispanic People” is a companion piece to this year’s number one blog, guest written by my part-time bilingual consultant on staff, Elsa Maria Jimenez Salgado. It probably hit the top 7 list for the first time since people could link to it from the top blog.

4) My fourth most popular blog was also 2019’s number 4, but it did not make the list last year – “Three Wonderful Recent Examples of Diversity and Sports,” in which I provide short summaries with links about an NFL football player with one hand, an WNBA player who is a new mother with her wife, and a college track star who overcame a harsh abusive upbringing in Africa.

3) I received excellent assistance from local activist and Muslim woman Zainab Baloch for the third most read blog (with over 2,000 hits) and published in 2018, “Five Things To Never Say To a Muslim.”

2) Last year’s number one is now number 2. With over 4,500 hits across the two blogs were 2018’s Seven More Fabulous Out Gay Men of Figure Skating (and One Bisexual Woman) and my 2016 personal labor of love which included several personal photos that I took, “Seven Fabulous Out Gay Men of Figure Skating.” With 2022 being an Oympic year, I plan to write my third installment of this series in January.

1) With the growing number and visibility of Hispanic Americans, Number 2 for the previous three years now made it to number 1 in 2021 with over 6,500 hits! “Seven Misconceptions or Stereotypes of Hispanic People”, a guest piece written in 2016 by my part-time bilingual consultant on staff, Elsa Maria Jimenez Salgado.

Since none of the few dozen blogs I wrote in 2021 made it into the top seven, I will give honorable mention to the top 2021-written blog, a book review – A Diversity Book Truly for EVERYONE – “Empowering Differences” by Ashley T. Brundage.

I wish all of my faithful readers a happy and hopefully COVID-free 2022.

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Supporting a dozen (actually more) non-profits!

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My major philanthropic work in the Kimer-Kamba Center in Kenya

I am a solopreneur diversity and career development consultant and trainer, and 2021 has been my best year ever. I truly believe that when a business succeeds, even a small micro-business like mine, I should give back to the community.

When I went back and looked at my financials, I saw that I contributed to over a dozen various and diverse nonprofits throughout 2021 in addition to continuing to give 5% of my gross billings to my community development work in Mtito Andei, Kenya.

So below is a quick summary of the various non profits I was proud to support in 2021 with links to the organization or a past blog I have published about them. Please do explore the links!

GROUP 1 – LGBTQ+ Diversity. Naturally since one of my core areas of expertise with my training and consulting is LGBTQ+ diversity, several organizations are in this arena
• The advocacy organization EqualityNC which helps assure equity and equality for all LGBTQ+ people in North Carolina
• Gay Sons and Mothers. I have recently been elected to the board of directors of this organization with the mission to collect, curate, celebrate, and preserve narratives that educate, inspire, and bring hope to audiences about the significance of this emotional bond. Earlier this year I published an interview I had with their founder Rick Miller.
• Qnotes, which is the bi-weekly LGBTQ+ printed and online newspaper for the LGBTQ community in North an South Carolina.
• The Trans Justice Funding Project, which I highlight in my 2021 blog about taking action on the Transgender Day of Visibility.
• Naturally the LGBTQIA Center at Georgia Tech, of which I am a proud graduate. FYI I was Georgia Tech’s LGBTQIA alumni of the year in 2018.
• And locally, the LGBT Center of Raleigh.

The North Carolina Councils of Churches brings people to faith to together to address societal wrongs like racism, islamophobia and homophobia

GROUP 2 – Organizations with a focus on racial justice equity
• I continue to provide financial support both personally and through my business to the North Carolina Council of Churches. I have served on their board for two decades and am currently on their racial equity committee
• As a long time figure skating fan and now adult skater myself, the FSDIA – Figure Skating Diversity and Inclusion Alliance.

I applaud and support US Figure Skating’s fund to support figure skaters of color.

• In addition, I have supported US Figure Skating’s Mabel Fairbanks Skatingly Yours Fund, which financially assists and supports the training and development of promising Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) figure skaters with the goal of helping them realize and achieve their maximum athletic potential.
• The Justice Theater Project, (link to my most recent blog about them) whose mission is to produce compelling theater experiences that create community dialogue and give voice to social concerns.

Bridge II Sports provides many opportunities for people of all ages and disabilities to participate in sports

GROUP 3 – Serving people with disabilities
• Bridge II Sports, a wonderful local NC organization that provides adapted sports programs for people with physical disabilities, both youth and adults.
• Theater Breaking Through Barriers, a New York City based theater which produces shows featuring actors with a wide range of disabilities.

GROUP 4 – General philanthropic work. Since I do have clients in the state of Texas, I made donations to emergency food organizations in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas following their February deep freeze and power crisis.

Perhaps you can join me in supporting one or more of these worthy organizations in 2022!