The Case of Social Change from the Margins (Ep35)

Empowerment Starts Here with Angela Dye (the host), in a solo episode (click here to listen).

Scroll down to access links and other resources mentioned in Episode 35- “The Case of Social Change from the Margins.”

Kimberle’ Crenshaw is noted for her work around intersectionality.  A derivative of this work has been to define intersectionality as having multiple identities.  While I believe that is part of what Crenshaw was framing with intersectionality, I believe the ultimate point of her work was to disclose and reveal what happens when you have multiple access points to powerlessness.  It is here at the intersection of powerlessness that thriving is reduced to surviving… that being whole and human becomes a pursuit and not an occupation.

This is the point of this episode.  When you have multiple access points to powerlessness, the work of social change can seem impossible—even secondary to the work of survival.  But nonetheless, there are those of us fighting for our wholeness, fighting for our humanness, while trying to pursue a vision for a better tomorrow for us all.  That is what I mean when I say being power.  In the close out of each episode you hear me say, “Power: Know it, do it, be it.”  Those of us doing social change from the margins have to be the thing we envision even though the social structural world is stacked in a way that denies us of our basic power to be.  Yet, we come back and attempt to do it anyway.

Today’s episode will compliment my efforts in Ep00, Ep17, and Ep34 where I talk metacognitively about this project. In other words, I talk about the ESHpodcast project as an observer of it— not just the host of it– hoping that each time I get closer to its core value.

Please listen as I tackle issues of surviving and thriving in the margins all while trying to pursue a mission for social change.  I believe this is my most important solo episode to date and am pleased to have had the time and authentic interactions with you in order to get here.

Key Points Discussed:

• Subjectivity and objectification
• Intersectionality/ Kimberle Crenshaw
• Essentialism/Greg McKeon
• Racist, Sexism, and Capitalism/bell hooks
• Schooling as a right/schooling as a privilege/schooling in the margins
• Surviving versus thriving

Resources and Links Mentioned in this Episode:

• Living My Life as an Essentialist (Essay)
• Black Facing (Essay)
• Empowerment Framework (Theory of Practice)

Terms and Concepts:

Essentialism; capitalism; racism; sexism; intersectionality; Kimberly Crenshaw; Greg McKeon; empowerment; education/schooling

Other Episodes Mentioned:

Ep00-Power, Social Change and Disrupting Margins

Ep03-The Case of Allyship in Context (w/Chris Thinnes)

Ep15- The Case of Healing, Surving and Thriving

Ep17- The Case of Power and Season 1

Ep26- The Case of Taking a Knee in Math (w/Marian Dingle)

Ep28- The Case of Integrity and Its Price (w/Sherita Love)

Ep33-  The Case of Self and the Resistance

Ep36- The Case of Low-income Black Fathers (w/Dr. Vibe)

Mistakes/Corrections:

This episode reveals the darker side to social change work (especially when you are doing so from the margins); however, it is not all doomsday.  This is not a mistake in as much as it is an admission that this episode was treated through a single lens.  Continue to follow us in this project as you will see the opportunities for social change and the advantages of pursuing this work!

Please feel free to let me if you catch any  mistakes that I might have missed.  Thanks!!

The Full Link for the Episode…

http://eshpodcast.libsyn.com/the-case-of-social-change-from-the-margins

Please visit our Episodes at a Glance page to get a full episode list for Seasons 1, 2 and 3.