My Interviews with Transformative Leaders
8 Pages Posted: 27 Nov 2015
Date Written: April 9, 2015
Abstract
This analysis of interviews with three transformative leaders finds that African-American intellectuals can be change makers when they embrace oppositional cultural practice. These interviewees, as evidenced by their narratives, implicitly address how they subvert the oppression that being among the ‘talented tenth’ exerts upon them in academic and legal structures and institutions. The act of this outward and inward self-criticism brings about a spiritual transformation that provides space to create and innovate new realities for communities seeking social justice. Oppositional cultural practice both frees the African-American intellectual and frees the communities they serve. It is “a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.”
Keywords: Law, Leadership, Spirituality, Spiritual, Transformation, Social Justice, Social Transformation
JEL Classification: D70
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation