Deciding that your belief system will overflow into every aspect of your life, allows you to focus on what you have decided is important.
Born into a home upheld by justice and faith, Kenan worked towards a career in education. Driven by a passion for restoration and the justice he grew up desiring, Kenan has risen to a position of leadership within education equity.
Being surrounded by and in relationships with people who hold a different belief, values or come from a different culture, allows an opportunity to learn and rethink the way you work across lines of difference. As people are treated with love and feel a sense of belonging, they will be more comfortable when it comes to opening up, feeling connected, and allowing a culture of adult-to-adult communication in working spaces. Everyone has a story, and any place that’s worth itself will provide space for people to feel comfortable enough to share theirs.
We all take a little bit from everybody and every culture around us!
Notes👓 Kenan’s cool red glasses.
01:38👵🏾 Ohio boy who wants to make his grandmother proud: justice and being sacrificial for the overall good of society.
02:22👦🏾 Having trust issues with local police from teenage years: awakening his blackness and becoming a president of Black United Students
06:02🚓 Common issues African Americans have in interaction with police: the presumption of guilt.
08:53📚 Becoming a voracious reader: working with kids in the YMCA.
14:20🌞 Meeting his wife in Bible study classes: being in relationships with people who are different is an important process of learning.
16:37💥 Ron met Kenan through his wife, Shanita: equity-driven leadership and work in Rethink.
19:00😎 Rethinc as Wu-Tang Clan of education systems.
22:25✌🏾 Love, justice, and belonging in the workplace: how to unpack love even with different backgrounds.
25:47🥰 Love looks different in different ages of life: love is critical repentance and restoration.
29:39👨🏾💼 Advocating for adult-to-adult communication in working space: create the conditions for safety in conversations and inclusion.
34:05🎤 Kenan was rapping from a teenager: mixing rapping and his faith and values.
38:02🤯 Believing in God means getting rid of your hip-hop CD collection: Kenan’s musical project Seriously
40:36🎧 Do we value life or not: sharing questions about the consistency in our world.
43:41💎 Kenan’s RONdering: Everybody samples - taking different pieces and mixing it well into the workplace, our lives, and DEI.
46:55🎯 Providing spaces for people to feel comfortable, courageous, and safe to share their story.
50:36✅ His projects: Rethinc podcast, DEI improvement and Kenan’s and Jonesy's album.
51:28
Episode 19
