2024-02-08
1 小时 3 分钟You know, we can treat difference and marginalize it, or we can embrace difference and allow ourselves to see and experience a full breadth of the human experience instead of one narrow, normative aspect.
So my guest today, Blair Imani, she grew up in a house where sitting quiet in the face of any level of injustice was just not an option.
Whether it was advocating for the needs of a sibling or standing up to right or wrong in her community.
Her parents set a powerful example and invited Blair to always rise to the challenge.
And that's exactly what she has done.
But along the way, Blair has also discovered there are different ways to make a difference, and we each need to figure out how to take up the mantle of change while also honoring our unique circumstances and needs.
And that includes acknowledging our own very personal, psychological and physical well being.
And building on this realization.
Over time, Blair transitioned from organizing and activism on the ground to focus on education, but in a way that only she could do, harnessing the power and the reach, the interactivity and visual impact of social media by creating these short and punchy and informative and entertaining bursts of wisdom and inspiration.
She calls her smarter in second series, which at this point has even become a bit of a movement.
Now a writer, mental health advocate, award winning educator, and historian living at the intersections of black and queer and muslim identity, Blair is the best selling author of read this to get smarter, making our way Home, and modern herstory.
Her scholarship spans intersectionality, gender studies, race and racism, sociology and United States history, and she has presented at Oxford and Stanford and Harvard, serves on the board of directors for the Teigen and Sarah foundation, and has been featured in the New York Times and tons of other outlets.
So excited to share this best of conversation with you.
Hello, I'm Jonathan Fields and this is good life project.
You, from what I understand, grew up in Pasadena, and while you have been in different places, it's someplace that you seem to have returned to later in life.
Okay, so people can't see your face, but I just saw your face and there was a look.
It's like Pasadena.
It's so funny, me being 18 and moving across the country to the south coast, as I like to call it, the Gulf coast, to go to Louisiana State University.
At that moment in my life, I never, ever, ever thought I would return back home and then living in a few different places.
Washington, DC.