For diversity scholars who have considered activism when scholarship isn’t enough!

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-08-2017-0170
• Published date: 19 August 2019
• Pages: 668-675
• Date: 19 August 2019
• Author: Oscar Holmes IV
• Subject Matter: Hr & organizational behaviour,Employment law

For diversity scholars who have

considered activism when

scholarship isn’t enough!

Oscar Holmes IV

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden, New Jersey, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The paper is the abridged text of the author’s opening keynote address given on June 28, 2017 at

the 10th Annual Equality Diversity Inclusion Conference hosted at Brunel University (London, UK). The

conference theme was Borders. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach –The address was given orally accompanied with slides that included

pictures and quotes of referenced authors and works, websites, memes and various civil rights events. The

address interwove personal experiences, published research, social movement strategies and current events

and social issues. A brief question and answer period followed the address.

Findings –The address made the case that while scholarship is important, diversity scholars need to do

more than publish scholarship but also engage in activism. In fact, the author argued that history has

informed us that scholarship has never been enough to produce significant civil rights advancements.

Originality/value –Toward this end, the author provides three action steps that diversity scholars can take

to engage in activism that produces results: translate research for the general public; partner with activist

groups, and call out respectability politics and false equivalencies.

Keywords Activism, Identity, Scholarship, Borders, Systemic oppression

Paper type Viewpoint

For those of you who are knowledgeable about African-American art forms, you likely

immediately recognized the title of my talk, “For diversity scholars who have considered

activism when scholarship isn’t enough”is derived from Ntozake Shange’s critically

acclaimed choreopoem entitled For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the

Rainbow is Enuf which premiered on Broadway in 1976. This amazing play consisted

of 20 separate poems that are accompanied by dances and music and powerfully delivered

by seven black women who are only identified by the colors they wear as Lady in Red, Lady

in Blue, Lady in Purple, Yellow, Brown, Green and Orange. Partially inspired by events in

Shange’s own life, For Colored Girls tell complex stories of black women’s sources of love

and hate, happiness and sadness, hope and despair and their triumphs and tragedies. The

play’s takeaway message is that despite all of the trials and tribulations that this world

presents, black women, through their collective and spiritual ties, are enough. And this

message of inspiration and this message of resilience have served as the intellectual

foundation for a number of works since then that has recognized our community’s collective

sufficiency, but have also called out the very real limitations that we face.

For example, for her book Sister Citizen, the Wake Forest University Professor and

former MSNBC Anchor, Melissa Harris-Perry (2011) “For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered

Politics When Being Strong Isn’t Enough”extols the strength of black women, but

recognizes that under the weight of oppressive stereotypes and systems that their strength

alone is not enough, that we also need to do the hard work in changing political systems

through political participation. And CNN Political Commentator and former White House

aide, Keith Boykin (2012) entitled his book, For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide

When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough, tackled the dissonance that so many people

experience as the rainbow signifies peace and pride but the reality of the multitude of

systemic issues that people of color face within and outside the LGBTQ communities are so

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 38 No. 6, 2019

pp. 668-675

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-08-2017-0170

Received 23 August 2017

Revised 9 October 2017

Accepted 2 January 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

668

EDI

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