Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Slocum.
Hi Steve, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I had the incredible opportunity of living in Kazakhstan for five years right after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1992. I was serving as a Christian missionary with my (now ex-) wife and three children. We learned the language of the indigenous Kazakh people and spent our days being immersed in their lovely culture of hospitality, generosity, and kindness. They called themselves “a humble people.” And they were Muslims. We grew to love them deeply.
My time in Kazakhstan would change me forever. Over time I give up the notion that I needed to convert Muslims and began to focus on being a good friend to Muslims. Four years after we returned to the states, 9/11 happened. Like everyone else, I was shocked and confused. For the next two decades, I watched as my Muslim friends were surveilled, renditioned, misportrayed in movies and on the news, and not surprisingly, were frequent victims of hate crimes.
With the open Islamophobic rhetoric that was a major part of the 2016 presidential campaign, I felt it was time to speak up. I wrote my book, Why Do They Hate Us? Making Peace with the Muslim World, to clear up common misconceptions about Muslims and Islam and to tell the story of the Muslim mainstream, some of which I had experienced while living in Kazakhstan. The book was named a top book of 2019 by two major national reviewers and won a Benjamin Franklin Awards silver medal.
I also founded my nonprofit, SalaamUSA.org. We had a bunch of events that brought Muslims and non-Muslims together for meaningful interaction. My book tour and nonprofit work were gaining momentum and I was being invited to speak all over the world. It all came to a crashing halt with the international pandemic lockdown.
With everyone else, I watched the horrifying video imagery of the murder of George Floyd. It became clear to me like never before that our society has issues with more than just Muslims. I used Covid downtime to reconfigure SalaamUSA to do equity and inclusion work across the spectrum of human diversity in San Diego. We now feature a groundbreaking program called Real Friends, Real Community that brings highly diverse groups together for meaningful connection around the telling of our stories. Our prototype groups have demonstrated that it is possible for loving community to exist in a highly diverse group on the basis of our common humanity.
Currently, I’m doing research on the science of human groups in order to learn how to do this work more productively. I plan to write a book about this work. I speak at conferences and to organizations about (innovative approaches for creating cultures where diversity is celebrated, and where equity and inclusion are the norms) this work.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It was definitely a life-defining struggle to let go of my deeply held religious worldview. It took many years and fundamentally affected my psychology, not to mention, required me to create a whole new life and a whole new support network outside of the religious community.
I expected more obstacles and challenges in bringing Muslims and non-Muslims together, but I found both groups surprisingly receptive. It was very refreshing!
In the work of bringing highly diverse groups of people together for our Real Friends, Real Community groups, I’m finding it difficult to find people who are willing to be part of our groups. People are busy, and this is so far outside of our biological programming… I also find that members of marginalized demographics have concern about whether meeting with members of the majority/dominant demographic is a safe space for them.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
For 30+ years, I worked as an engineer in the aircraft design arena. I retired early in 2016 to look after my aging parents and during that time, wrote my book and founded my nonprofit. In the nonprofit sphere, I consider myself a social architect. I’m most proud of all the people we have brought together and the barriers that have been broken down in the process.
What sets me apart is my disruptive work to change culture. Our work of bringing highly diverse groups together for meaningful connection around the telling of our stories is truly groundbreaking. What also sets this work apart is our use of science to inform it. The starting point is the recognition that human brilliance has created a world where we can be anywhere in a day, connect with anyone virtually in a moment, and where we all simultaneously share and interact on a universe of information. We have created a truly global society. I am digging into the science around groups – microbiology, wildlife biology, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, etc. – to better understand the human urge to form groups so we can find ways to help our species adapt to the global society that we have created.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
1. Get a copy of my book, Why Do They Hate Us? Making Peace with the Muslim World and leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
2. Visit my website, steveslocum.com, and sign up to receive my newsletter. I’ll be writing about my research about the biology of groups and about our social experiments, which will be the building blocks of my next book.
3. Visit SalaamUSA.org and click on the Real Friends menu item and sign up to learn more about joining one of our groups.
4. Ask your organization to invite me to talk about what they can do to create an inclusive and equitable culture that celebrates diversity within their organization.
Contact Info:
- Email: steve@salaamusa.org
- Website: steveslocum.com, SalaamUSA.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steveslocumauthor
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/steveslocumaut1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCun4yZpC9EcPkoU1X1-o9Pw
