Episode 4: Intersectionality in Conflicts With Guest Otisa Eads

I am so excited to share with you a conversation I had with Otisa Eads for episode four!

Our conversation is largely about how conflicts are influenced by intersectionality, a concept that refers to the ways in which race, gender, class, ability, and other social locations interact, especially within inequitable systems and societies.

We cover many topics, including:

• What social locations are, and why it can be helpful to reflect on and discuss them

• What violence really is, and the personal and social costs of “peace keeping”

• How stereotypes and social expectations can impact how conflicts are handled

• Ways to communicate in order to invite transparency and also ensure choice

• How noticing capacity can help us make compassionate choices and honor choices others make

• How having awareness of and compassion for ourselves prepares us to be in relationship, including as a third-party to others’ conflicts

As always, feel free to leave a comment to let me know your thoughts, and if you appreciate this episode please share it with others. (You could leave me a tip if you wish too.)

Additional resources (including ones mentioned in this episode):

• Connect with Otisa Eads on Instagram and/or LinkedIn

• More about the concept of intersectionality from Forbes and BBC

• Free worksheet for considering your own social locations on my Patreon

• Best descriptions I’ve seen of class experiences, from Resource Generation

• Speech that references “negative peace” given by Martin Luther King Jr. when he received the Nobel Peace Prize

• How to Have Antiracist Conversations by Roxy Manning

• The Radical Implications of Staying within Capacity and You’re Not a Bad Person: How Facing Privilege Can Be Liberating, both by Miki Kashtan

• From Sarah Peyton: What are Unconscious Contracts and How to Work With Them

• Article about Resmaa Menakem’s concept of “invited reps” and a recording about it from On Being