Man Crush Monday

My Man Crush Monday today is Dr. Eddie Moore.

I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Moore present this workshop at a conference last year:

The N!gga(er) Word: Is There a Message in The Madness?
Who is allowed to say the N!igga (er) word? What do we do/say when N!gga (er) is said in our classrooms, hallways, practice fields, dinner table, cafeterias and resident halls? Ignoring the N!gga (er) word is not an option anymore – You can hear N!gga everywhere in the 21st century.

Participants are challenged to examine their personal/professional histories with N!gga (er), when and/or how they first heard N!gga (er) and pictures/feelings associated with the word. The workshop encourages all people, but specifically young people/future leaders, to consider the ramifications of casual or uniformed usage of a powerful and troublesome word.*

Here is an educational clip that Dr. Moore provides on his website:

I grew up in the deep South, and of course I heard derogatory words about black people, but they weren’t used in our house. My mother considered that particular word dehumanizing and we weren’t allowed to use it. I haven’t ever used it, and you’ll notice that I haven’t even written it – that’s how strong my ingrained inhibition is. To be fair, there are derogatory words generally directed towards other groups that I cannot bring myself to use, either.  So, Dr.Moore’s workshop wasn’t an easy one for me to attend, but it was extremely valuable in terms of understanding the issues surrounding derogatory terms – what they are and why we use or avoid them.

If your organization needs a dynamic speaker/presenter that will make your attendees really think about the issues at hand, look no further. This is your guy.

TMCN