About the presenter
Saxophonist/singer/songwriter Susan Goodman is an award-winning recording artist whose lyrics are informed by her training in bias-based bullying and Holocaust-Genocide education, combining her passions for arts-in-education and social justice. She has been speaking out on bias to young people through her music-based school assembly program Stand Up! Speak Out! for well over a decade, opening ears and minds of even the savviest listeners of all ages. She has also developed a new, unique, multi-media presentation for professional and community groups. Stand Up! Speak Out! on Implicit Bias & Microaggressions in the Workplace
Susan is also an active volunteer with PFLAG NYC Safe Schools Program, speaking to hundreds of students throughout the city each year Along with being a parent, playing music, and dancing salsa, making a difference is her bliss.
Why I do this work...
I grew up white, straight, and middle class, with all the privilege that brings.
But as a kid, I had a speech impediment. So every time I opened my mouth, I was marked as being different from the other kids. And they never let me forget it. Also, mine was the only Jewish family in the school and I grew up hearing a steady stream of anti-Semitic jokes and comments. I also knew a lot of my relatives died in the Holocaust. So even as a very young child, I had a strong sense of justice and great empathy for anyone who experienced prejudice of any kind.
As an adult, I married outside the faith– at which point half of my relatives began excluding me, and later my children, from all of their family events. I have dozens of cousins I'll never know. My kids will never know their kids. So I think my passion for this issue comes from having experienced bias and exclusion from both outside and inside my own family.
I have been a professional musician most of my adult life. But when I returned to school in my 40's it was not to study music, but to study anything relating to social justice, including several law classes, Holocaust-Genocide Education, and African American Studies. It was during that time that I started writing and recording songs about bias and the bystander issue.
The year I spent doing migrant outreach work gave me the opportunity to see up close the struggles of people who risked their lives to better provide for their families, doing some of the most dangerous work on the planet, putting very inexpensive food on our tables tAlthough they contribute in so many ways, many immigrants in our country are demonized and negatively stereotyped.
If it were not for the cameras in the cell phones we now carry, many of us (white people) could continue to be unaware of how bias impacts the everyday lives of people of color. But racial bias in policing is now too well-documented for anyone to ignore. And studies continue to emerge confirming that racial bias begins in pre-school.
We need to make a conscious effort-- across all of our institutions, schools and workplaces-- to decrease biases of all kinds, around race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, accent, body type, able-ness.
I am grateful for the scientists whose research has confirmed that we all have implicit-- or unconscious-- bias. Their findings confirm that implicit bias influences us all, including the best-educated, most powerful decision-makers across our institutions. It impacts where people live, where they go to school, how severely students are disciplined, who gets hired for which jobs, quality of healthcare, even life expectancy.
We can pass legislation outlawing explicitly biased policies. But we can't outlaw implicit bias. We can only endlessly educate it away.
Stand Up! Speak Out! is how I am doing my small part. I believe music can help open ears, minds and hearts.
This is why I do what I do.
Thank you for your interest and for all that you do!
Saxophonist/singer/songwriter Susan Goodman is an award-winning recording artist whose lyrics are informed by her training in bias-based bullying and Holocaust-Genocide education, combining her passions for arts-in-education and social justice. She has been speaking out on bias to young people through her music-based school assembly program Stand Up! Speak Out! for well over a decade, opening ears and minds of even the savviest listeners of all ages. She has also developed a new, unique, multi-media presentation for professional and community groups. Stand Up! Speak Out! on Implicit Bias & Microaggressions in the Workplace
Susan is also an active volunteer with PFLAG NYC Safe Schools Program, speaking to hundreds of students throughout the city each year Along with being a parent, playing music, and dancing salsa, making a difference is her bliss.
Why I do this work...
I grew up white, straight, and middle class, with all the privilege that brings.
But as a kid, I had a speech impediment. So every time I opened my mouth, I was marked as being different from the other kids. And they never let me forget it. Also, mine was the only Jewish family in the school and I grew up hearing a steady stream of anti-Semitic jokes and comments. I also knew a lot of my relatives died in the Holocaust. So even as a very young child, I had a strong sense of justice and great empathy for anyone who experienced prejudice of any kind.
As an adult, I married outside the faith– at which point half of my relatives began excluding me, and later my children, from all of their family events. I have dozens of cousins I'll never know. My kids will never know their kids. So I think my passion for this issue comes from having experienced bias and exclusion from both outside and inside my own family.
I have been a professional musician most of my adult life. But when I returned to school in my 40's it was not to study music, but to study anything relating to social justice, including several law classes, Holocaust-Genocide Education, and African American Studies. It was during that time that I started writing and recording songs about bias and the bystander issue.
The year I spent doing migrant outreach work gave me the opportunity to see up close the struggles of people who risked their lives to better provide for their families, doing some of the most dangerous work on the planet, putting very inexpensive food on our tables tAlthough they contribute in so many ways, many immigrants in our country are demonized and negatively stereotyped.
If it were not for the cameras in the cell phones we now carry, many of us (white people) could continue to be unaware of how bias impacts the everyday lives of people of color. But racial bias in policing is now too well-documented for anyone to ignore. And studies continue to emerge confirming that racial bias begins in pre-school.
We need to make a conscious effort-- across all of our institutions, schools and workplaces-- to decrease biases of all kinds, around race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, accent, body type, able-ness.
I am grateful for the scientists whose research has confirmed that we all have implicit-- or unconscious-- bias. Their findings confirm that implicit bias influences us all, including the best-educated, most powerful decision-makers across our institutions. It impacts where people live, where they go to school, how severely students are disciplined, who gets hired for which jobs, quality of healthcare, even life expectancy.
We can pass legislation outlawing explicitly biased policies. But we can't outlaw implicit bias. We can only endlessly educate it away.
Stand Up! Speak Out! is how I am doing my small part. I believe music can help open ears, minds and hearts.
This is why I do what I do.
Thank you for your interest and for all that you do!