“I’m looking forward to letting Black women know what life is like in Paris.”
SAN BERNARDINO CALIF. Katherine Dameron, a multi-certified leadership and motivational coach whose client roster has included the likes of 3M, Pfizer, and Herman Miller, is coming to San Bernardino for Black History Month to give a series of talks about living as an expatriate in Paris.
“I’m looking forward to letting Black women know what life is like in Paris,” said. Dameron, “and I am happy to repeat what Richard Wright once said, ‘There is more freedom in one block of Paris than all of the United States for a Black man.'”
Dameron was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and moved to Paris when she was young to study the French language and culture and was welcomed by the locals. She found that racism does exist there, but it is a very different kind. In Paris, “American Blacks are at the top of the racial hierarchy,” said Dameron.
The French have demonstrated over and over again their love for American Blacks. The wild success of Miles Davis on tour there is one famous example. “And my own experiences there is another,” said Dameron.
The history of American Blacks finding respect and admiration in Paris goes back to Thomas Jefferson’s consort Sally Hemmings. Josephine Baker became Europe’s first superstar in the 1920s there. In modern times, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Beauford Delaney all found a receptive audience in France.
The Dameron family 1965 in E. St. Louis, IL. Barbara, Carl T., Crystal (baby), Denise, Carl, and Kathleen. “We we integrators,” said Katheleen Dameron.
“American Blacks have come to Paris to feel safe, feel recognized, develop their talents, eat, work and love as they desire…to thrive!” said Dameron. “I have two loves: Paris and the country of my birth.”
“I want to share my experiences with Black women and let them know how they, too, can experience the kind of welcoming that I have had and perhaps inspire them to go for a visit themselves. That’s why I have prepared a 45-minute presentation that I will be happy to deliver to any group that would care to hear what I have to say,” said Dameron.
Bookings can be made by calling Carl Dameron at (909) 534-9500.
About Kathleen Dameron
Kathleen’s strong facilitation skills and her highly flexible approach enable her to facilitate large groups or provide one-on-one coaching, as the client’s needs dictate. In addition to her specialty in multicultural and multilingual situations, she is also experienced in designing and delivering experiential-based, professionally targeted interventions, e.g., leadership development, organizational development, and increasing multicultural skills.
Representative clients include 3M, AGF, Alcan, Axe, Rio-Tinto, Aerospatiale, BNP Paribas, Faurecia, CDA (No.1 in ski resorts), Delphi, Essilor, Herman Miller, Lima grain, LVMH (Louis Vuitton) MBDA, Pfizer, PSA (makers of Peugeot & Citroen automobiles), Thales, Thomson Multimedia, Tyco Electronics, and Veolia. Kathleen teaches at ESSEC (leading French business school) in the Executive MBA program, MG, and the Maître en Stratégieat des Affaires Internationales (MS SIAI), as well as programs specifically designed for individual companies.
Kathleen, born and raised in America, has dual American and French nationality. She was trained at American and French universities in both Cross-Cultural Studies & Communications and Social and Economic Administration. She trains, facilitates, and coaches in English, French, and Spanish.
How to Foster Inclusion, Diversity & Empowerment in the Workplace
Perhaps the #1 driver of success today, in BOTH the public and private sectors (worldwide), is knowing how to foster INCLUSION and EMPOWERMENT in the workplace. Kathleen Dameron is a leading authority in knowing how to nurture large, medium, and small organizations alike in realizing this objective. She remains on the cutting edge of this process by reaching out to organizations to secure input from people like yourself that allows her to tailor her counsel (as a trainer, coach and facilitator) to the collective needs of organizations like yours. Toward this end, will you kindly take a few moments to respond to this brief questionnaire?
“In media partnership with @janeunchainednews, JIVINITI presents yet another powerful “Connecting The Dots ⭕️” – a monthly show that brings together voices across communities, specifically of Women of Color, who are experts in various fields such as Lifestyle Medicine, Planetary Health, Climate & Food Justice, Animal Rights, Women’s Empowerment, Civil Rights – from everywhere in the world including & especially the Global South.
🌱Kathleen Dameron is a powerful African-American woman leader based in Paris with more than 30 years’ experience coaching, facilitating, and training within multinational companies in French, English and Spanish. Kathleen works with corporations that want to transform their cultural diversity into a competitive advantage. Check out her work at https://kathleendameron.com/
🌱Julie Wayne is an amazing White-Caucasian woman leader currently also living in France and has very consciously embraced multi-cultural multi-racial team contexts. She has worked in India for more than twenty years and is an economist by education, a photographer by profession and an environmental and vegan activist by passion. Check out her work with @jeeva_bhavana
Jiviniti presents Connection the dots: What’s Racial Literacy Got to do with Effective Leadership?
“In media partnership with @janeunchainednews, JIVINITI presents yet another powerful “Connecting The Dots ⭕️” – a monthly show that brings together voices across communities, specifically of Women of Color, who are experts in various fields such as Lifestyle Medicine, Planetary Health, Climate & Food Justice, Animal Rights, Women’s Empowerment, Civil Rights – from everywhere in the world including & especially the Global South.
🙌🏽Our LIVE! Facebook broadcast on Friday, July 16th at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern features two #powerful and #inspiring women who will talk about, “What’s Racial Literacy got to do with Effective Leadership?”
🌱Kathleen Dameron is a powerful African-American woman leader based in Paris with more than 30 years’ experience coaching, facilitating, and training within multinational companies in French, English and Spanish. Kathleen works with corporations that want to transform their cultural diversity into a competitive advantage. Check out her work at https://kathleendameron.com/
🌱Julie Wayne is an amazing White-Caucasian woman leader currently also living in France and has very consciously embraced multi-cultural multi-racial team contexts. She has worked in India for more than twenty years and is an economist by education, a photographer by profession and an environmental and vegan activist by passion. Check out her work with @jeeva_bhavana
✨ Join us for the Connecting the Dots show on the JaneUnchainedNews Network live on Facebook on July 16th at 11 AM EST and 8:00 am PT.
We are also on Spotify as a podcast by the same name!
“The past weeks have been very traumatizing for African-Americans because it’s Derek Chauvin, who is supposed to be on trial, and yet they were talking about the victim’s life,” saidInternational Diversity ExpertKathleen Dameron.
(San Bernardino, Calif.) Black Americans celebrated this week’s three guilty verdicts in the Derek Chauvin murder trial, hopeful that Minnesota jury’s votes to convict the former policeman for killing George Floyd signal a new era in American justice.
In previous cases of Black people killed by police, it was rare for an officer to be charged with any crime, let alone convicted of murder. And in most cases, the Black victims were scapegoated as though they were to blame for their own murders, explained International Diversity Expert Kathleen Dameron, a Black American.
“As soon as the jury convicted Chauvin of murder, there was an enormous sigh of relief in the African-American community,” she said.
“The trial has been hard to watch. It was very traumatizing for African-Americans because it’s Derek Chauvin, who was supposed to be on trial, and yet they were talking about the victim’s life,” said Dameron, a corporate diversity trainer withoffices in San Bernardino and Paris.
“Why did they have to talk about George Floyd’s life? Why did they have to talk about his health? He was not the perpetrator, and yet the defense argument was that he was inherently not worthy of living because he may have done this,or he may have done that.”
Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted of second-degree unintentional felony murder, third degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter for pinning Floyd’s neck to the ground for 9½ minutes while Floyd pleaded, “I can’t breathe.”
Floyd’s death was filmed by horrified bystanders, who repeatedly told police that Floyd was no longer moving and pleaded with them to check his pulse and resuscitate him, according to court documents.
Video of the incident led outraged viewers to rally against racism and police brutality throughout the United States and Europe.
Dameron said the way police violently responded to protests following Floyd’s death, and the convoluted jury-selection process made people question the U.S legal system and America’s commitment to justice.
“And the image of George Floyd being crushed by someone with a smirk on his face, that was seen literally around the world,” she noted.
Acquittals would have further traumatized Black people, said Dameron, who has more than 30 years’ experience training American, European and Asian executives worldwide.
“If the jury had acquitted the cop, it would have been absolutely devastating for what’s left of the legal system in the United States, because we have so much footage of George Floyd coming out of the convenience store, standing handcuffed, not resisting. We have pictures and videos of what happened from the front, from the side, from the back. You have so many people trying to point out that the man’s life is in danger and he’s not dangerous.”
“He’s on the ground, handcuffed with two policemen on his body. Where is the danger? Where is the need to kill him?”
Before the verdicts, there was a “high level of anxiousness in the Black community around a possible acquittal despite world-wide witnessing and condemnation of the murder,” Dameron explained.
“That’s because of the U.S. track record of acquitting police despite live video footage since the Rodney King beating,” she said.
Many Americans and citizens of many countries, as well as Black people who protested against police killing Black people with impunity, are both surprised and pleased at the verdicts.
“George Floyd’s life cannot be restored, but at least the cop who killed him is being held responsible this time. Let’s hope the guilty verdicts are just the beginning of justice for Black people in America, and not a unique occurrence” she said.
The Dameron family 1965 in E. St. Louis, IL. Barbara, Carl T., Crystal (baby), Denise, Carl and Kathleen. “We we integrators,” said Katheleen Dameron.
“When you look at the history of redlining, the history of denying Black people and Native Americans the right to housing, this is a significant step in saying, ‘Yes, we did do wrong,’ and when you do someone wrong, you apologize and you make amends,” Dameron said. “That is the beginning of the healing process.”
(Paris, France). A Chicago suburb recently became the first city in the United States to agree to pay Black residents reparations for slavery and past discriminatory policies and practices.
That decision shows that some communities are beginning to recognize and acknowledge the harm caused by America’s systemic racism, an expert on race relations said.
“It’s a historic decision to do this, and we’re hoping that this is the beginning of people being able to open their minds, open their eyes to what’s happened in the past and the consequences today,” said Kathleen Dameron, an internationally recognized cross-cultural trainer.
The City Council of Evanston, Illinois, recently voted to distribute $400,000 in housing assistance and mortgage relief to eligible Black households. The city will provide $25,000 for down payments on houses or property, home repairs, and interest or late penalties on property in Evanston.
To qualify, residents must either have lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or be a direct descendant of a black Evanston resident from that time. Those who experienced housing discrimination in Evanston after 1969 are also eligible.
The $400,000 comes from a $10 million reparations fund created in 2019 using tax money from the city’s recreational marijuana program.
“When you look at the history of redlining, the history of denying Black people and Native Americans the right to housing, this is a significant step in saying, ‘Yes, we did do wrong,’ and when you do someone wrong, you apologize and you make amends,” Dameron said. “That is the beginning of the healing process.”
Even though $25,000 is not enough to pay for a house, paying reparations is still important for the city, said Dameron, a Black American now living in Paris.
“It’s not reparations in the sense of, ‘We denied you a house, so we’re going to give you a house now,’ but it is acknowledgement of the damage done, of the impact on the generations of that damage,” Dameron said. “It recognizes and it acknowledges that we did harm consciously, in policy, in law and in practice and we’re seeking to recognize it and to make amends.”
Dameron said that getting national reparations or getting some areas to agree to reparations is still a difficult process.
“One of the problems we have is that there are some people in the United States – and this happens consistently across the United States – they would rather close the swimming pool and have no swimming pool in the community than to have Blacks have access to the swimming pool, so as desegregation started throughout the South, public swimming pools disappeared, public parks disappeared,” she said.
“Some people thought, “I’d rather have nothing than have Back people share in this,” she said.
“That mentality makes it extraordinarily difficult to say, ‘We did you wrong. As human beings, we did not give you a fair environment. We persecuted you. We banned you. We burned your houses down and we killed people.’ ”
So even though Evanston is making amends and recognizing and acknowledging that they caused harm, “that acknowledgement is still difficult for many Americans to make,” Dameron noted.
Dameron is currently leading a series of seminars on “Healing the Collective Trauma of Racism.” In her sessions, she helps participants recognize the difference between interpersonal and institutional racism.
Participants build a feeling of community and energy to create social justice.
To introduce people to her sessions, she is offering a free, self-paced, one-hour course. You can learn more by going to www.KathleenDameron.com
“I understand people’s anger at being told to be less white,” said internationally recognized cross-cultural trainer Kathleen Dameron. “Be less white. What are the qualities?
“I have a lot of empathy for people being told to be less white,” she said. “I know it hurts. As a Black child and as a grown-up, I have been told to be less Black, straighten your hair, dress to look like a nice corporate person. I can understand how being told to be less white hits you in your identity, because I was told be less Black.”
(Paris, France) Americans should not get upset over reports saying Coca-Cola was asking its employees to “be less white” as part of its mandatory diversity training.
“I understand people’s anger at being told to be less white,” said internationally recognized cross-cultural trainer Kathleen Dameron. “Be less white. What are the qualities?
“Be less oppressive. Where’s the problem? Listen more. What’s the problem? Be less defensive. where’s the problem?” she asked. “But people get upset the minute they hear, ‘Be less white,’ because it hits them in their identity. It hurts and they reject it.”
Dameron said it might be more effective to say, “We’re asking you to create a JEDI society, to create Justice, Equality, Dignity and Inclusion.”
The training course at the center of the Coca-Cola backlash was titled “Confronting Racism.” It advised whites to listen more and be less oppressive, less arrogant, less certain, less defensive and less ignorant,” according to the New York Post.
Coca-Cola denies that it was part of their required training.
“That’s not the point,” said Dameron, who has more than 30 years’ experience training American, European and Asian executives worldwide but is not involved in the disputed training.
“Coca-Cola should have said, ‘We are committed to a fair, equal workplace environment,’” she explained. “It’s not corporate training that makes workplaces fair. It’s offering equal pay and equal opportunities for hiring and advancement regardless of race or gender. That’s how you change.”
Dameron understands why the issue triggered some people’s emotions.
The Dameron family 1965 in E. St. Louis, IL. Barbara, Carl T., Crystal (baby), Denise, Carl and Kathleen. “We we integrators”
“I have a lot of empathy for people being told to be less white,” she said. “I know it hurts. As a Black child and as a grown-up, I have been told to be less Black, straighten your hair, dress to look like a nice corporate person. I can understand how being told to be less white hits you in your identity, because I was told be less Black.”
Dameron is currently leading a series of seminars on “Healing the Collective Trauma of Racism.” In her sessions, she helps participants recognize the difference between interpersonal and institutional racism and build a feeling of community and energy.
To introduce people to her sessions, she is offering a free, self-paced, one-hour course. You can learn more by going to www.KathleenDameron.com
Kathleen Dameron, American in Paris, Healing the Collective Trauma of Racism
“In our collective trauma, we still choose not to see our history, our past acts and our current blind eye to injustice. Even as a Christian nation, we still do not pay attention to the well-being of other human beings,” said Kathleen Dameron, American in Paris
(Paris, France) Internationally recognized Cross-cultural Trainer Kathleen Dameron is launching a series of seminars titled, “Healing the Collective Trauma of Racism” as a way to help Americans recognize and move beyond the systemic racism that has plagued society for hundreds of years.
The importance of her sessions became clear when angry white insurrectionists invaded the United States Capitol carrying Confederate flags on Jan. 6. The insurrectionists were cheered by then-President Donald Trump, who openly supported white supremacists throughout his presidency.
His lies about the election being stolen were a blatant effort to disenfranchise the millions of black voters who voted against him.
“The insurrectionists were so convinced of their impunity, that they took selfies of themselves and then posted them on social media,” Dameron said.
With the horror of that day still fresh in people’s minds, Dameron said it’s time to work toward healing the collective trauma of racism.
“The times, they are a-changing,” she said, quoting Bob Dylan’s iconic song. “We have a perfect window of opportunity. We need to work with whites not to feel ashamed, but to open their hearts so they can recognize how cold and cruel and undemocratic they have been toward their fellow human beings…. and themselves.”
Dameron’s seminars are ongoing, and sessions focus on everything from enslavement and Jim Crow laws to targeted policing and mass incarceration of black people and people of color.
In her seminars, Dameron will help participants understand the difference between interpersonal and institutional racism, guiding them to build a feeling of community and healing energy.
Before starting her sessions, she is offering a free, self-paced, one-hour course “First Steps” so each one can build their Racial Literacy. You can enroll by going to www.KathleenDameron.com or clicking on the following Web link:
“We will take time over six weeks, then six months, to explore the impact of racism in the United States,” Dameron said. “We will take time to open our eyes, our minds and our hearts. “We will start our individual action, looking at what’s very local around us. And in community, we will walk together toward larger and more impactful actions.”
Kathleen Dameron is an American based in Paris with more than 30 years’ experience coaching, facilitating, and training within multinational companies in French, English and Spanish.
Through KD Conseil, her French consultancy, she coached coach American, European and Asian executives all over the world, helping organizations transform their cultural diversity into a competitive advantage.
Moving beyond America’s systemic racism and even getting some Americans to recognize that it exists will not be easy.
Dameron noted the ongoing drumbeat against Black Lives Matter and the false equivalency of BLM and the violent insurrectionists heard daily on conservative news programs. It is important to listen to different drumbeats.
But her seminars are one step toward healing the collective trauma of racism.
“In our collective trauma, we still choose not to see our history, our past acts and our current blind eye to injustice. Even as a Christian nation, we still do not pay attention to the well-being of other human beings.
“We need to talk often and softly with humor and enthusiasm and begin our transformative journeys,” she said.
Kathleen Dameron, president and founder of KD Conseil, works to build international partnerships with companies that are going through cultural changes.
(Paris, France) Weathering the storm of an international recession is not an easy task. However, for international businesses, one thing has remained constant in good, as well as bad times, a competent multinational and multi-ethnic team. The ability to sustain effective cross-cultural communications is a crucial skill required for international business success in today’s global economy.
For the past 21 years, KD Conseil has played a key role in facilitating this skill. Launched by Kathleen Dameron in 1992, KD Conseil improves the intercultural communications skills between the corporate offices and the executive management teams who work in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.
Dameron, based in Paris, France, says “KD Conseil is strategically situated both geographically, as well as for business cultures in most industries and Fortune 500 companies. We know how to meet the demands and needs of our clients in an international business center for multinational corporations.”
“I truly adore the city of Paris. The companies here have very strong business connections with the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia,” said Dameron. “It’s easy to travel from Paris all around Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”
Bridging corporate cultures for more than twenty years, Kathleen Dameron founded KD Conseil to stimulate multicultural competency.
Dameron explains that some of the key challenges faced by companies working across national and corporate environments are born out of cultural differences. It is those differences in cultures that can also create the building blocks to success.
“If an organization works with other cultures, I help them make it possible for senior managers, experts and employees to work together with greater efficiency and comfort,” said Dameron. “There is a joy that comes from working in an intercultural surrounding, discovery of different ways of succeeding, new and tried solutions to issues, as well as the pain of differences in attitudes and ways of working. My role is to help individuals, teams and organizations understand and appreciate those differences, thus developing a more harmonious working environment.”
Standing the test of time, KD Conseil has developed quality relationships with clients, generating customer referrals, which have enabled her business to grow even in difficult economic times for businesses globally.
“I believe that one of the keys to our success during this economic hardship is our ability to guide clients through different interventions,” said Dameron. “For instance, we develop intervention materials that assist in increasing multicultural competencies or adjusting to an organizational change. The goal is for our clients to keep their employees motivated and improve performance and that has a positive affect on their bottom-line.”
However, Dameron points out that KD Conseil’s affect should not be measured solely by quantity and direct immediate contribution to the bottom-line. In fact, she informs that the best contribution comes when her company is embraced as a partner on a strategic journey to understand and implement cultural change.
This enables her to implement the best evaluation measurements, reviewing what has changed over a six-month period.
With the growth of the global economy, Dameron notes that her industry has likewise expanded. Others are finding their way to play a role in assisting businesses to adapt and adjust multicultural working environments on an international level.
“This is an exciting time for the multicultural training industry,” said Dameron. “20 years ago, I had to explain what multicultural intervention was all about. Today all of the corporate leaders I speak to say they are engaged in some sort of multicultural professional activity.”
Dameron says the key is to go beyond merely giving a catalogue listing of “dos and don’ts.” KD Conseil delivers facilitators who develop strategies to increase individual, team and overall organizational multicultural competence.
“Keeping abreast of what is happening in the business world, as well as taking the time to interview managers and business leaders is key to any successful intervention,” said Dameron. “However, investing in your client by listening, to develop their skills and vision, that is what allows you to create leading edge impact intervention processes.”
