Deciding that your belief system will overflow into every aspect of your life, allows you to focus on what you have decided is important.
Born into a home upheld by justice and faith, Kenan worked towards a career in education. Driven by a passion for restoration and the justice he grew up desiring, Kenan has risen to a position of leadership within education equity.
Being surrounded by and in relationships with people who hold a different belief, values or come from a different culture, allows an opportunity to learn and rethink the way you work across lines of difference. As people are treated with love and feel a sense of belonging, they will be more comfortable when it comes to opening up, feeling connected, and allowing a culture of adult-to-adult communication in working spaces. Everyone has a story, and any place that’s worth itself will provide space for people to feel comfortable enough to share theirs.
We all take a little bit from everybody and every culture around us!
Notes
👓 Kenan’s cool red glasses. 01:38
👵🏾 Ohio boy who wants to make his grandmother proud: justice and being sacrificial for the overall good of society. 02:22
👦🏾 Having trust issues with local police from teenage years: awakening his blackness and becoming a president of Black United Students 06:02
🚓 Common issues African Americans have in interaction with police: the presumption of guilt. 08:53
📚 Becoming a voracious reader: working with kids in the YMCA. 14:20
🌞 Meeting his wife in Bible study classes: being in relationships with people who are different is an important process of learning. 16:37
💥 Ron met Kenan through his wife, Shanita: equity-driven leadership and work in Rethink. 19:00
😎 Rethinc as Wu-Tang Clan of education systems. 22:25
✌🏾 Love, justice, and belonging in the workplace: how to unpack love even with different backgrounds. 25:47
🥰 Love looks different in different ages of life: love is critical repentance and restoration. 29:39
👨🏾💼 Advocating for adult-to-adult communication in working space: create the conditions for safety in conversations and inclusion. 34:05
🎤 Kenan was rapping from a teenager: mixing rapping and his faith and values. 38:02
🤯 Believing in God means getting rid of your hip-hop CD collection: Kenan’s musical project Seriously 40:36
🎧 Do we value life or not: sharing questions about the consistency in our world. 43:41
💎 Kenan’s RONdering: Everybody samples - taking different pieces and mixing it well into the workplace, our lives, and DEI. 46:55
🎯 Providing spaces for people to feel comfortable, courageous, and safe to share their story. 50:36
✅ His projects: Rethinc podcast, DEI improvement and Kenan’s and Jonesy's album. 51:28
Links
DEI work with Rethink: www.rethinc.us
Music page: https://drum.io/kenanbishop
Music project: www.music.apple.com/us/album/seriously/1696603724
Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenomeron
Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomeron