Reimagining & Redesigning Democracy with Merle McGee
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About the Episode
Antionette D. Carroll welcomes Merle McGee to the Reimagining & Redesigning podcast, where they discuss the importance of authentic connection, humanity, and humility, especially in conferences and professional spaces. Merle shares personal insights on her journey to reimagine and redesign the world, emphasizing her family's legacy of fighting for equity and her experiences in suburban New Jersey, where she witnessed racial disparities in education. She reflects on her own history of activism and the need to reimagine a world where everyone has access to their full humanity.
The conversation turns to the importance of education, the work of ancestors, and the systemic roots of white supremacy and anti-Black racism. Merle highlights the common threads of oppression and the hidden norms that shape societal views and the treatment of individuals. They discuss the importance of understanding how people are institutions and the need to transform oneself to transform the world. Merle shares her work at Everyday Democracy, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and addressing the root causes of inequality.
They discuss the idea of equity in action, emphasizing the need to understand what equity means and how to dismantle oppressive systems while building systems of equity and justice. Merle uses the analogy of "pointing a building," where bricks are replaced one by one to reconstruct the building without tearing it down. The conversation emphasizes the need to hold the "both...and" of dismantling and building, with an understanding that oppression doesn't necessarily lead to oppression but requires careful unpacking and reimagining to create a more just society or institution. The dialogue concludes with a reflection on the importance of inspirational building and the possibilities of creating a more just society.
About Our Guest:
Merle McGee is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Everyday Democracy. Merle brings over 25 years’ experience in non-profit settings fighting alongside historically marginalized and excluded communities for dignity and racial, gender, and economic justice. Before joining Everyday Democracy in May 2022, Merle served as Chief Equity and Engagement Officer at Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, where she led organizational transformation through community engagement initiatives and by conceiving and implementing Reviving Radical, an initiative to reckon with the organization’s history and build accountable relationships with communities of color.
Prior to her work at Planned Parenthood, Merle served as Chief Program Officer at YWCA of the City of New York and taught non-profit consulting and Race and Identity in Organizations at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. Merle earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from the New School. She is also co-facilitator and leader with the Anti-Racist Alliance and the co-founder of the BIPOC Project, an antiracist collective committed to building solidarity among people of color. Merle received the inaugural Planned Parenthood Federation A.P.P.L.E Justice award for Reviving Radical and was named City & State’s 50 over Fifty Influential New Yorker in 2021.
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