When Özlem Cekic became the first Muslim MP in the Danish Parliament, her email inbox was hit with a deluge of hate mail and threats, and her gut reaction was to delete every abusive message. But eventually, she decided to take a risk. She started replying and inviting the senders to meet and engage in dialogue over coffee. And with time, understanding, and patience, she began to make a difference, both in the lives of those who hated her before even meeting her, and in her own life. She’s chronicled that experience – and what she’s learned from it – in Overcoming Hate Through Dialogue: Confronting Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry with Understanding – And Coffee. Eric Martin, author of Your Leadership Moment: Democratizing Leadership in the Age of Authoritarianism, joins her to talk about it; coffee is optional.
In Conversation: On Confronting Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry
In Conversation: On Confronting Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry
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Eric R. Martin
Eric R. Martin is a speaker, writer and teacher on the themes of leadership, change, and the evolution of humanity’s relationship to “our home planet.” He founded and leads Adaptive Change Advisors (ACA), whose mission is to put leadership tools that drive change into the hands of anyone who seeks meaningful outcomes. Martin has been published in Fast Company, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Environmental Leader. In Your Leadership Moment: Democratizing Leadership in an Age of Authoritarianism (Mango) Martin provides a framework for adaptive leadership to life for both novices and advanced leadership drawn on his extensive personal research, travel, conversations, and reflections. The author’s quest to democratize leadership has taken him around the world. Through poignant stories of both success and failure, Your Leadership Moment teaches what’s possible when people discover the capacity and courage to lead regardless of identity, history, or access to power and financial capital.
Özlem Cekic
Özlem Cekic was born in Turkey in 1976. She lived in Finland for two years while her parents worked as caretakers/cleaners at the Turkish Embassy in Helsinki, and later moved to Denmark. From 2007 to 2015 Cekic served in the Danish parliament as one of the first female politicians with a Muslim immigrant background. After her election, her email inbox was inundated with hate mail and threats, and her initial reaction was to delete and ignore each abusive message. But eventually, she decided to take a risk and started replying to each message, inviting the senders to meet and engage in dialogue over coffee. The resulting productive, bridge-building conversations were inspiring. Her Dialogue Coffee Ted Talk has had over a million viewers. In Overcoming Hate Through Dialogue (Mango) Cekic discusses her philosophy and method. The Danish publication Journalisten noted that “This brilliant and well-researched book ought to be required reading for anyone interested in conflict resolution; it gives nuance to an otherwise stale-mated debate.”
