Leading While Black

Through conversations and deep attention to the lived experience of leaders, Torrance Jones explores the intersectionality of these three worlds--Black, Christian, and leader--and inspires Black Christians to lead from the context of all that they are.

This book is intended to highlight a phenomenon that occurs daily in the lives of Black leaders who serve in leadership positions in predominantly White organizations. Those individuals are evaluated and critiqued with the normal metrics of leadership, but they are also subjected to an additional set of expectations and challenges that do not apply to their White counterparts. The challenges highlighted in this book – regardless of industry or whether in the public or private sector – are the result of systemic racism that commenced in 1619 and remains alive today. The historical and on-going dehumanization of Black people, and the public policies and laws that have sustained it, have been responsible for the creation and maintenance of contemporary racism and its many manifestations.

Challenges, Hard Truths and Effective Strategies for African American Leaders Author and Retired US Army Sergeant Major Matt Drayton is back with another "While Black" Title "Leading While Black". Matt once again turns the negative connotations associated with the "while black" phrase and turns it on its head. Leadership or the lack thereof are the primary causes of most of the world's troubles. From Financial crisis to pandemics, environmental concerns and corruption, and the political chaos in America and abroad, leadership plays a crucial part in everything that influences our way of life. Matt's leadership journey took him from a poor troubled youth to multiple distinguished careers. Matt candidly shares his struggles, triumphs and lessons learned from his many travels around the world and his relations with government, corporate and foreign leaders. Leading While Black was written to help African American leaders better understand the challenges they face and provide them strategies to help them better navigate through their leadership journeys and succeed. Matt had tremendous access to and worked for many great leaders (corporate and military) over the years. Those corporate, military and government careers allowed him to learn from leaders from many backgrounds and ethnicities. Matt had personal access to senior Military, Government and Corporate leaders that many of his African American peers and subordinates did not have access to. They shared information, leadership strategies and experiences with Matt that changed his life. That is why Matt is uniquely qualified to write about black leadership. Matt Drayton draws from decades as an African American leader in the Military, Corporate, DoD Civilian, and Non-Profit sectors to provide candid, thought provoking, and essential advice and strategies for leadership success. Many of the lessons and strategies in this book applies to anyone in leadership positions regardless of race or gender.

The American workplace exhibits a growing imbalance when it comes to human identity. Leaders are frequently defined in the absence of their critical social identifiers, but the exclusion of these identifiers is a mistake and ignores essential physical, cultural, and spiritual realities. Their exclusion is especially problematic for leaders of the Black identity and the Christian faith. Color-blind ideology harms people of color, while religion-blind systems damage people of faith, and both are especially problematic for individuals who reckon with both realities. Rather than abandoning an individual's social identities, the ones we choose and the ones we do not, Leading While Black draws on the lived experiences of executive-level leaders of the Christian faith and Black identity, and offers a testament to the power of a living God in the social fabric of public life. Instead of ignoring the narrative arc of social identities and the weight they carry when considering an individual's conception of leadership, Torrance Jones leans into the value of those identities and asserts their integral importance for Black leaders and for those who work with and for Black voices. The reality of those who live with the experience of being Black and Christian in the workplace matters for the grand narrative of leadership in the United States. Through conversations and deep attention to the lived experience of leaders, Torrance Jones explores the intersectionality of these two worlds--Black and Christian--and inspires readers to lead from the context of all that they are.

What does it mean to lead while Black in America? How do Black educators lead for equity to ensure a quality academic experience for Black children when calls for equality are routinely discredited in our post-racial context? Through this book, Floyd Cobb passionately and honestly draws from his personal and professional experiences to describe his path to accepting the harsh realities of being an equity-minded Black leader in K-12 schools. Offered through the performance of autoethnography, Cobb highlights and gives voice to the often-unacknowledged vulnerability of equity-minded Black leaders who work in suburban contexts. Using the era of the Obama presidency as the backdrop for this work, Cobb illuminates the challenges and complexities of advocating for marginalized children who come from a shared racial heritage in a society that far too often are reluctant to accept such efforts. Through Leading While Black, emerging and aspiring Black leaders will be reminded that they are not alone in their struggles, but must nonetheless persist if we are to do our part in making education a better experience for our children.

This volume brings together leading scholars in urban education to focus on inner city matters, specifically as they relate to educational research, theory, policy, and practice. Each chapter provides perspectives on the history and evolving nature of urban education, the current education landscape, and helps chart an all-important direction for future work and needs. The Handbook addresses seven areas that capture the breadth and depth of available knowledge in urban education: (1) Psychology, Health and Human Development, (2) Sociological Perspectives, (3) Families and Communities, (4) Teacher Education and Special Education, (5) Leadership, Administration and Leaders, (6) Curriculum & Instruction, and (7) Policy and Reform.

"Farming While Black is the first comprehensive "how to" guide for aspiring African-heritage growers to reclaim their dignity as agriculturists and for all farmers to understand the distinct, technical contributions of African-heritage people to sustainable agriculture. At Soul Fire Farm, author Leah Penniman co-created the Black and Latino Farmers Immersion (BLFI) program as a container for new farmers to share growing skills in a culturally relevant and supportive environment led by people of color. Farming While Black organizes and expands upon the curriculum of the BLFI to provide readers with a concise guide to all aspects of small-scale farming, from business planning to preserving the harvest. Throughout the chapters Penniman uplifts the wisdom of the African diasporic farmers and activists whose work informs the techniques described--from whole farm planning, soil fertility, seed selection, and agroecology, to using whole foods in culturally appropriate recipes, sharing stories of ancestors, and tools for healing from the trauma associated with slavery and economic exploitation on the land. Woven throughout the book is the story of Soul Fire Farm, a national leader in the food justice movement." --

Moore reevaluates the role of this black elite by examining how their self-interest interacted with the needs of the black community in Washington, D.C., the center of black society at the turn of the century."--BOOK JACKET.