Dr. Akilah Cadet

If you don’t already know her, let me introduce you to Dr. Akilah Cadet out of Oakland, CA. She is a true visionary, a leader, and a strong powerful black woman who is ready to rock your world and take you as far as you are willing to lean into a harmonious and joyful future.

Dr. Akilah Cadet's is an anti-racist educator. She hosts The Change Cadet podcast and facilitates difficult conversations around white supremacy, power & privilege, and anti-racism in the workplace (and otherwise). She has ready and available on her website a number of webinars about how to be an ally and do the work for us white folk, and how to reconnect to joy for those who come up against racism and oppression everyday of their lives. She does executive and group coaching workshops that bring all of us right up against the edge of our comfort zones, challenging us to make the consistent and conscious efforts to change for the betterment of our collective future. She shows up, everyday, reminding us and demanding us to do the same. I suggest we all heed her words if we are to grow, change, and make true progress as a collective.

There is no denying the deeply twisted nature of racist policy and it’s relevance in our American institutions and culture. The fight for equality over the last several centuries is not over; far from it! And in order to make true progress from here we have to start by taking a good hard look at ourselves, finding the places within us that house beliefs that fuel these issues, and begin to dismantle them. We have to take responsibility for all of it. Dr. Cadet is ten steps ahead of us, providing a framework in as much variety as we need to make this happen. We just need to show the *&^% up!

It’s going to take every single one of us to give our best and whole-hearted effort to dismantle the systems that hurt our black and brown communities. It is time, now more than ever, for the un-oppressed white population to fight, to change, and to do the work (as Dr. Cadet says) and create more safe spaces for those who bear the pain of centuries of oppression to heal and reconnect to their joy, Dr. Cadet included.

Can you imagine what it might feel like to live in a world that doesn’t protect you? Honor you? Respect you? Even worse, can you imagine a world that is designed to hurt you, get rid of you, and oppress you? Can you imagine having your innocence and joy of childhood interrupted by the reality that you will struggle more and might die because of the color of your skin? No. I can’t either. And what a privilege that is. So now what?

Dr. Akilah Cadet fights the good fight from the heart. She fights from the place where oppression weighs heaviest; directly on her. She fights under the thumb of racist institutions, American culture, and systemic oppression. She fights with a kind of strength I cannot even fathom, yet our blood and bones are made the same. She inspires me to do the work needed to make the world a better place, holding the bar high as hell from a place of oppression that I’ll never have to feel. Against all odds, she stretches herself for the greater vision. For you. For me. For all of us. She stares these triggering and infuriating systemic issues right in the face, educating and speaking with grace, and has made it her life’s work to dismantle white supremacy and reconnect black and brown people to their true essence and their innate sense of joy. She does this through her work. She does this by example.

Dr. Akilah Cadet is making waves. She is making this world better one word, one conversation, one day at a time. Her commitment both inspires me and gives me so much hope. Spread her word today and we will find ourselves in a brighter and more harmonious tomorrow.

I thank her. I honor her. I love her with my whole heart.

Join me. For more information, go to ChangeCadet.com and do the work.

"Keep being amazing" - Dr. Akilah Cadet