Directors of the upcoming biopic of Black jazz singer Nina Simone created a stir in the Black online community when they cast biracial actress Zoe Saldana. There are people who are offended about this choice.

While some would argue that “Black is Black,” many more are raising a protest against “whitewashing,” a frequent Hollywood tactic to appeal a higher-paying white moviegoer demographic.

Watch the clip below.

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Her book, “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” is about Blacks’ emigration from the South between 1915 and 1970 to escape a “mercurial” caste system of color that threatened violence daily. “An African American was lynched every four days,” Wilkerson said. “That was the price of maintaining the caste system.”

Wilkerson talked about how the migration of Blacks was much like the migration of Europeans, Asians and Latinos to the U.S. — the journey was about freedom to express and to build on their talents.

“It is about the very thing that propelled all of our forebears, one way or another — across the Atlantic in steerage, or across the Rio Grande, or across the Pacific Ocean. It’s the very thing that binds all of us together. We all have so much more in common that we’ve been led to believe, because, ultimately, somebody in all of our backgrounds had to do what the people in this book did,” Wilkerson says.

“That is really what diversity is all about, building on innate talents that are within us all and making the most of everybody who’s in our organizations,” she says. “The cost of holding people down and not allowing them to flourish hurts the world.”

For more information about upcoming diversity events, please visit www.DiversityInc.com/events.

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Last year, on Martin Luther King Day, more than 6,400 Kaiser Permanente employees and physicians worked on projects in close to 100 community sites across the country, serving approximately 17,925 people. Captured in this video, Kaiser Permanente volunteers provided valuable services throughout the nation in honor of Dr. King’s legacy.

On Martin Luther King Day this year, as in years past, Kaiser Permanente’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, George Halvorson, along with Bernard Tyson, president and chief operating officer, and Jack Cochran, MD, executive director of The Permanente Federation, are distributing hundreds of coats to people in need at City Team Ministries in Oakland. City Team Ministries provides hot meals and safe shelter to Oakland’s underserved populations. The organization also provides medical care to the needy, operates a recovery program, provides clothing for disadvantaged families, and offers recreational and spiritual programs for children.

“For more than 65 years, Kaiser Permanente has had a rich history of service that is at the heart of our mission to improve the lives of our members and the communities we serve,” said Raymond J. Baxter, PhD, senior vice president, Community Benefit, Research and Healthy Policy for Kaiser Permanente. “Today, one of the biggest challenges facing the nation is the economy. By committing to a day of service, Kaiser Permanente will help serve thousands of people who are in need. The most important part of this work is remembering to serve our communities throughout the year, not just on this National Day of Service.”

In addition to the coat drive in Oakland, Kaiser Permanente employees and physicians will volunteer at service sites in communities throughout the nine states, and the District of Columbia, that Kaiser Permanente serves. Among the projects are:

.    In San Jose, Calif., Kaiser Permanente volunteers will help Ocala Middle School create a new and improved school culture with anti-bullying, health and fitness messages. Volunteers will work on various projects including interior painting in the locker rooms, cafeteria and library, exterior painting of the school building, painting a mural, building new planter beds in the school’s educational garden, and planting native California plants around the school.

.    In Oregon, Kaiser Permanente employees are teaming up with the Oregon Food Bank to sort and repackage food. The Oregon Food Bank recovers food from farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, individuals and government sources and distributes it to 20 regional food banks across Oregon.

.    Kaiser Permanente employees in Colorado are working with the PROJECT for Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment to sort medical supplies, paint warehouse walls, build shelving and organize biomedical equipment.

.    In Southern California, Kaiser Permanente employees are providing health screenings during the San Gabriel Valley NAACP’s Martin Luther King Day Informational Fair held at the West Covina Civic Center.

.    Kaiser Permanente employees in Hawaii are teaming up with Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Centers, Inc., a homeless shelter founded in 1986, to paint the exterior of the emergency and transitional shelters and housing units throughout the center’s 5-acre campus.

.    In Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., Kaiser Permanente employees in partnership with the United Way of the National Capital Area, are teaming up to provide free health screenings.

.    In Ohio, Kaiser Permanente employees are partnering with Haven of Rest, an organization dedicated to providing palliative care, caregiver support and bereavement services throughout Northern Ohio. Volunteers will sort donated clothing and help serve meals to shelter residents.

.    Employees in Georgia are teaming up with Hosea Feed The Hungry and Homeless, founded in 1971. An international aid organization, Hosea Feed The Hungry and Homeless aims to rescue, restore and re-stabilize at-risk and homeless individuals and families so they can thrive and become self-sufficient. Kaiser Permanente employees will be hosting a dinner at the Georgia International Convention Center.

For more about Kaiser Permanente’s efforts in the community year-round, visit: kp.org/communitybenefit.     

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We serve approximately 8.9 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.

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You’ll find that out—and more—if you are lucky enough to talk to Dr. Jacklyn Chisholm, vice president of planning and external affairs for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (Rock Hall) in Cleveland. This position, which she’s held since 2005, lets her combine her unique background as a cultural anthropologist, her love of music and her need to give back to her community.

Dr. Chisholm is proud to emphasize the music’s—and the nonprofit Rock Hall’s—strong connection to the African-American community.

In the 1960s, white disc jockey Alan Freed was in Cleveland and wanted to expand his rhythm-and-blues show to get more white appeal. He was looking for a new name, “and that’s how ‘rock and roll’ was born,” she says.

A native Clevelander, she worked in higher education (most recently at Case Western Reserve University) for 16 years but wanted to do something else.

“I’m a spiritual person and I was praying about the where,” she recalls.

A mentor told her that the Rock Hall wanted to create a position to increase community involvement, and the fit was just right. Dr. Chisholm has been instrumental in the Rock Hall’s continuous efforts to help both the Greater Cleveland area and the global community through educational programs for children, music therapy and merchandise for nonprofits, to name a few of the efforts.

“We average over 400,000 people in a year from 50 states and 100 countries. Our economic impact in the 15 years we’ve been around is $1.6 billion,” she says.

For the Cleveland community in particular, the augmentation to local arts programs is important because of decreases in state funding. They even teach a financial-literacy class, sponsored by KeyBank (one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies) in which students are the tour managers for a rock band.

She relates on a personal level to adult learners, first-generation college students and low-income students who need a chance. She was one of three daughters of a single mother who constantly struggled to have enough money. “My mother kept emphasizing education, education, education. That was the way out,” she recalls.

For Dr. Chisholm, music is also critical to expanding horizons. “Music is a language we speak. From the African-American perspective, a lot of people are angry about the history that they know about white artists covering songs and making lots of money. What they don’t understand is that the museum celebrates music of all kinds and definitely includes the African-American perspective. Come and see that we celebrate it every day here.”

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