The Case of Integrity and Its Price (Ep28)

Empowerment Starts Here with Sherita Love (click here to listen).

Scroll down to access links and other resources mentioned in Episode 28- “The Case of the Integrity and Its Price.”

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted on Twitter by a likeminded friend in a private message.   She had a situation at her place of work and wanted to know my opinion.  There was a protest happening against a white supremacist who  had been invited to speak on campus.  Her friends had been telling her that she should not protest because that person should have a right to speak (something about the 1st amendment) and she wanted to know what would I do.  If I was at the college, would I participate in the protest?

First I said to her (because she asked for my opinion) that while it is true that people have the right to speak, it is also true that people have the right to protest.  And, if she and her friends felt compelled to protest, that is what they should do.

Second I said that I was not sure if I would show up at the protest.  Fighting power requires for individuals to know power, to do power and to be power.  When some people sacrifice their bodies, their home, and their character to protest inequities, well that is a form of being power that is all consuming.  Being power does not stop when you come home and close your doors to the public.  Living with the consequences, it is always there.  It is a different type of protest and it is one that does not always allow for the emotional or mental energy to then go out with others and do it power as an event.

My point of sharing this exchange and my reflection of it– the point about doing power as a lifestyle and not as an event–  is what today’s case is about with Sherita Love.   It is about what happens when your life becomes the place of protest impacting your body, your home and your reputation.

In this episode, you will learn how Sherita handled attacks on her character, her reputation, and her inside access to local change efforts happening in her city– all as the price paid for walking in her integrity.

Key Points Discussed:

• Entrepreneurship and innovation
• Tradeoffs for working in the K12 system/structure
• Consequences levied against young people for having entrepreneurial (non-conforming) dispositions
• Missing platforms for discussing equity work from the margins/ I-stories are usually treated as their stories—theirs as the “other”
• The othering of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
• Using one’s own life for the cause of liberty
• The safe black woman
• Accommodating and resisting : the moral delimma
• Operationalizing equity based organizations
• Black lives matter as rhetoric
• Individual effectiveness vs organizational effectiveness
• Critical literacies of blackness

Notable Names Mentioned:

• Michael Brown
• Alton Sterling
• Philando Castile
• Melissa Harris Perry

Resources and Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Black Facing –a personal essay (written by Angela Dye)

Sherita Love’s Podcast:  Expanded Conversations

Food Justice episode in Expanded Conversations

EduMatch podcast by Dr. Sarah Thomas

PhysEd podcast by Justin Schlieder and Jorge Rodrigues

Other  ESHpodcast Episodes Mentioned

Ep24- The Case of Learning and Moving (with the informant Justin Schlieder)

Ep25- The Case of Technology and Schooling from the Margins (with the informant Dr. Sarah Thomas)

Ep26- The Case of Taking a Knee in Math (with the informant Marian Dingle)

Ep31- The Case of the Academy and Women of Color (with the informant Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt)

Terms and Concepts Mentioned

• Black Lives Matter
• Entrepreneurship
• Education

The Full Link for the Episode…

http://eshpodcast.libsyn.com/ep28-the-case-of-integrity-and-its-price

Please visit our Episodes at a Glance page to get a full episode list for Seasons 1 and 2.