In the Student Center Ballroom on Thursday evening, Jordyne Blaise spoke about intersectionality and the non-linear model of leadership.
Blaise serves as the senior manager for diversity, inclusion and belonging at Articulate, Inc. Additionally, she is a writer, attorney and activist, who focuses her work on issues of social justice, especially work with black women and girls.
“[Intersectionality is the theory] that people at varying intersections of identity, particularly black women, suffer from systems of oppression operating at the same time,” Blaise said. “So they are suffering from racism, but they are also suffering from sexism.”
Blaise focused on the incorrect way in which students look at the path to leadership, where they see a linear path from being a student to having a career to being a leader.
“I cannot see the world the way that you do,” Blaise said to the crowd. “I did not have access to technology the way that you have. I trust and value your leadership, because it is your generation that will move us forward.”
Jordyne Blaise speaks during the Delta Emerge Speaker Series, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Auburn, Ala.
To Blaise, leadership does not only include a diverse group of people, it demands their inclusion. She said leadership exists at every stage of a person’s life and that they don’t have to wait for a degree or a prominent figure like her to stand up and do the right thing.
“You may be surprised to know that there are more CEOs named John than there are women CEOs in all Fortune 500 companies,” Blaise said. “Men named John make up 3 percent of the US population, and women make up 50.8 percent of the US population.”
If we limit our ideas of leadership to what we’ve been taught or what we assume about leadership, we could miss out on voices like Carrie Ann Lucas, a disability rights activist, or Marsha P. Johnson, an African American trans woman and leader during the Stonewall riots, Blaise said.
She said since many Americans do not have access to a college degree, those who do should use that privilege to empower others. Privileged people should leverage that power to change systems that exclude those without those privileges, she added.
“Real leadership requires putting yourself on the line,” Blaise said. “A lot of speak up so long that it is easy. A lot of us remain silent to the detriment of others. A lot of us don’t bother speaking up because someone else will do it for us. Leadership requires all of our efforts.”
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