True, lasting change for marginalized groups requires a “proximate leader,” someone who has a meaningful relationship with the group.
Vanessa Garrison and T. Morgan Dixon
"Black women in the United States face a health crisis. They are dying at higher rates than any other group from preventable diseases. About 82 percent of Black women are overweight and 137 Black women die of heart disease every day—more than from gun violence, smoking, and HIV/AIDS combined."
"Vanessa Garrison and T. Morgan Dixon set out to change this. The two are long-time friends who supported one another in building and sustaining a healthy lifestyle. Importantly, they come from the very community they are trying to help, enabling them to recognize both the challenges and assets Black women face when striving to get and stay healthy."
"Combining their backgrounds as educators and advocates, Dixon and Garrison created GirlTrek, an organization whose approach brings together physical activity, such as walking, with programs designed to help Black women reclaim their identities and rebuild their communities."
“'Solutions in the mainstream might focus on weight loss or looking good in skinny jeans without acknowledging the trauma that Black women hold in our bellies and bones, that has been embedded in our very DNA,' said Garrison in a May 19, 2017 TED Talk. 'The best advice from hospitals and doctors, the best medications from pharmaceutical companies . . . didn’t acknowledge systemic racism.'”
"Dixon and Garrison are examples of what we call a 'proximate leader,' someone who has a meaningful relationship with groups whose identity, experience, or community are systemically stereotyped, feared, dismissed, or marginalized. Being a proximate leader is about much more than being exposed to or studying a group of people and its struggles to overcome adversity. It’s about actually being a part of that group or being meaningfully guided by that group’s input, ideas, agendas, and assets."
Article: Effective Change Requires Proximate Leaders