On Risk-takers…
Risk-takers are the folks who speak up about the racist transphobic bullshit in their all cis-white (and ashy) departmental meetings.
Risk-takers are the staff/faculty who show up to protest with their students.
Risk-takers are the folks expressing their discontent when violent decisions are being made on campus.
Risk-takers are the students that sit in all white classes, and call out the racist professors and racist pedagogy.
Risk-takers truly empower the marginalized students around them.
Risk-takers are usually the people that have the most to lose, and no safety nets.
Risk-takers are hated, and are at the forefront of in-person and on-line attacks.
Risk-takers are passed up for promotion.
Risk-takers are not invited to decision tables, because their words and ideas are feared.
Risk-takers are deemed not fun (by colleagues and friends). Mostly, because they are constantly considering how to manage the integrity of the spaces they enter.
Risk-takers usually DO NOT HAVE TENURE.
Risk-takers, by any means necessary, will be fired or let go.
Risk-takers are labeled emotional and nonsensical.
Risk-takers are fuckin’ lonely, and isolated. White supremacy does its job.
We do not take care of our risk-takers. We leave them out to dry. We have a habit of doing just enough to say we’re doing something, while still allowing status quo to live- and that’s higher education at its best.
TAKE CARE OF THE RISK-TAKERS IN YOUR LIFE- and do what you must to become a risk-taker yourself.
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This is the work of Cody Charles; claiming my work does not make me selfish or ego-driven, instead radical and in solidarity with the folk who came before me and have been betrayed by history books and storytellers. Historically, their words have been stolen and reworked without consent. This is the work of Cody Charles. Please discuss, share, and cite properly.
Bio:
Cody Charles is the author of Getting To Know Rosa Lee: An Overdue Conversation With My Mother, Black Joy, We Deserve It, The Night The Moonlight Caught My Eye: Not a Review but a Testimony on the Film Moonlight, 5 Tips For White Folks, As They Engage Jordan Peele’s Get Out. (No Spoilers), A Letter to Black Greeks Who Happen to be Black and Queer, Student Affairs is a Sham, 19 Types of Higher Education Professionals, and What Growing Up Black And Poor Taught Me About Resiliency. Join him for more conversation on Twitter (@_codykeith_) and Facebook (Follow Cody Charles). Please visit his blog, Reclaiming Anger, to learn more about him.
