09/20/2022 MASHPEE INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY COMMITTEE Minutes

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y, Nash IncCusion and Diversity Committee _w...w.ww.w._........ ....�...._.�..�..........w�._................................�w......_.., ........... 16 Great Neck Road North Mashpee, MA 02649 Ms. Stevenson said it was a teachable moment without accusations. She stated even without social media, it was a hurtful thing to the Tribe, it just was, rightly or wrongly. When we look at bias, it can occur both ways. The Tribe has been lied to or mistreated for so long, and she thought the whole thing was teachable. She thanked Mr. Cotton for his time and hopes that something good came out of that. Even without the social media it would've been taken in a hurtful way by the Tribe. Everyone who spoke, including allies, kept referring to optics. Looking deeper into unconscious bias, a significant point was when the Tribal Chair came and pointed to his Tribe members, but people also said allies too. It can go the other way, there could be a group of white people who aren't supportive, but there are those people who do support, regardless of their color or representation. Ms. Kent commented about coming back from that incident, how it looked, and it got her thinking about the very purpose of this Committee: belonging and respect by all persons. She is taking a business law course and coincidentally the topic of this week was ethics. She wanted to share what she learned and how it translates to her work and the work of this Committee. They discussed the importance of ethical leadership and how employees take cues from their leadership team. Talking about ethical decision making is meaningless if its leaders do not set the right standards, as they must apply these same standards to themselves if set forth for others. With the special election coming up, she was offended with one of the candidates after watching the candidate forum using buzzwords like inclusion, as it did not make sense in its true definition. Such efforts are nothing if they don't set the same ethical standards to this town. For example, the recent changing of the title Selectman to Select Board. Her daughter has personally experienced bullying and it's dangerous when this kind of scenario happens in the leadership when it seems like a few leaders are going against a fellow leader. It's all about the optics. You are saying to Mashpee residents it is okay to bully. Ethics is explained as fairness, justness, rightness, and wrongness of action. It's a branch of philosophy focusing on morality and moral principles. This incident put a great split in residents and tainted the efforts of this Committee in trying to bring everyone together. Ms. Stevenson reiterated what we do has a purpose to contribute and address what is going on around us. We do have issues when we are talking about diversity and dealing with gender and women in high positions. She wrote another letter to the editor that is coming out Friday, talking about women in leadership and how we add diversity by adding competent women. She tried to keep it factual in terms of numbers and to consider diversity when making decisions to elect or nominate.