Courageous Leadership Across Difference, Discord, and Distance
What do ice and racial equity have in common?
I recently participated in a “Courageous Leadership Across Difference, Discord, and Distance” workshop where facilitator Dr. Georgette Ledgister, or Dr. Jojo as she goes by, quickly connected the dots in an “ice-breaking” exercise. Prior to the workshop, all participants were asked to have ice available to us. At the start of the workshop, Dr. Jojo asked us to hold the ice in our hands and see how long we could hold it before it began to hurt. Needless to say, many of us tapped out quickly.
Once the laughter and numbness wore off, Dr. Jojo drew the parallels: that discomfort was something some of us could easily avoid, but for anyone deemed “other” by society, discomfort is something they face constantly when navigating spaces that were not made for their inclusion.
As a part of its mission to mobilize a diverse community of leaders to build the movement for global health equity, Global Health Corps (GHC) is committed to making space for difficult conversations in service of fostering leaders with empathy, resilience, and cultural humility. More to the point, to achieve racial equity, leaders across sectors must understand and practice anti-racism.
As a new staff member at GHC, I have appreciated the care and attention my teammates dedicate to intentionally creating space for reflection and growth. And as a white woman, I was very humbled by the opportunity to participate in a workshop inviting me to reflect on how to keep doing better.
During the workshop, Dr. Jojo frequently drew on ancestral wisdom to educate us. The first of two lessons was derived from the meaning of the Zulu word ubuntu or “I am because we are.” We were asked to reflect on what this concept means to us as it pertains to ourselves, our communities, and our work at GHC and beyond.
Admittedly, being born and raised in the United States, “community” isn’t a value that was ingrained in me early on. Instead, it’s one I’ve been actively striving to incorporate into all facets of my life. I was starkly reminded of the individualism I was taught to prioritize as I listened to the members of my breakout group, all of whom were from various African countries, speak about how ubuntu was a value they were raised with. The lesson of ubuntu, as it pertains to racial equity, is that one should not have to experience something first hand in order for them to care about how it impacts their fellow humans. This type of empathy and care for the community at the leadership levels necessary for creating a more equitable world.
The second lesson we learned was a Luba proverb that when translated means, “When you’re caught in the rain, go ahead and urinate on yourself.” Similar to the opening exercise with the ice, at first glance, it might be difficult to understand why this proverb is significant to the work of becoming a courageous leader, but as broke out groups reconvened, the lesson became clearer.
Inconvenience is something that at a minuscule level, like having to pee on oneself in the middle of a rainstorm, might seem harmless. However, when weaponized, inconvenience can turn deadly, especially through the mechanism of white supremacy. Dr. Jojo intentionally evoked a specific example for the purpose of this workshop: Amy Cooper.
Amy Cooper is a white woman in New York City who violated one of the rules of a particular part of Central Park that is dedicated to bird watching activities — dogs must be kept on their leash. Christian Cooper, a Black man who was in the park bird watching, approached her and asked her to put her dog back on the leash. Amy Cooper’s response revealed that she felt deeply inconvenienced by someone whom she, either consciously or subconsciously, felt was beneath her. In response, she chooses to weaponize her whiteness by calling the police to falsely claim that “a Black man was attacking her.” An interaction that could have very quickly ended Christian Cooper’s life all began with an inconvenience. A video of these events surfaced, joining the ranks of many clips of white women calling the police on Black people with the intention of getting them harmed or killed.
“Hatred begins when there is contact with no fellowship.”
-Howard Thurman
Dr. Jojo explained how we’ve gotten to this point in society where more of us are finally breaching these types of conversations and, for those of us who are white, starting to take responsibility for our roles in upholding white supremacy. Beginning in the 1950s and into the 1960s, in the United States, there was an era of “tolerance” that Black people and people of color existed. That tolerance was met with a great deal of violent resistance. Since then, in the United States, we’ve been through phases of affirmative action, diversity, and inclusion (where we’re currently at as a society). True equity can’t be achieved by simply giving people a seat at the table; we have to truly shift power dynamics and create a meaningful sense of belonging at that table.
Participating in this workshop with GHC alumni from Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, and the United States, offered me, a white, American woman who is a new member of this global community, a completely different vantage point than what I’m used to. While the United States is steeped in its legacy of white supremacy, African countries across the continent are reckoning with the effects of colonialism as well as their own nuanced dynamics of race, class, nationality, and more. Regardless of our origins, this workshop served as a humbling refresher on why racial equity work is fundamental to leadership development. The equitable systems we hope to create demand our own transformation as part of the work to get there.
Bailey Borchardt is a graduate of City College of New York’s Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership. She is a Communications Associate at Global Health Corps and resides in New York City.
Global Health Corps (GHC) is a leadership development organization building the next generation of health equity leaders around the world. All GHC fellows, partners, and supporters are united in a common belief: health is a human right. There is a role for everyone in the movement for health equity. To learn more, visit our website and connect with us on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook.
