Why I Refuse to Compromise with Oppressive Structures and People for Even one more Moment

This is an intense time to be an educator. This is an intense time to be someone who cares about social justice and addressing systemic inequalities. I believe I speak for many when I say it has taken time and energy to process the evils that surround us under President Donald Trump. Yes, I said “evils,” and that is exactly what I meant to say, and I will provide a few examples: •

Standing by Senate candidates Roy Moore, an alleged sexual predator, and Cindy Hyde–Smith, who “joked” she would attend “a public hanging” if invited by a supporter, despite running for office against a black man in a state well–known for its history with lynching (Hayes, 2018b; Shear & Blinder, 2017).

I could fill the rest of this editorial with more examples. Each example could represent its own set of important issues for our fields to tackle. But I will stop here. Even just these behaviors and actions would be more than enough to spark my outrage. I refuse to accept these things as the new normal. I refuse to think, as educators, scholars, and professionals with deep expertise around adult learning and development, that we cannot address the ignorance that so often accompanies support for these policies and actions. Accordingly, the past few years have changed me as a person, a teacher, and a scholar. I no longer identify as merely “critical.” I refuse to compromise, consciously or unconsciously, with oppressive structures and people for even one more moment. I have been pushed too far, too many times. And so, I am radical.

I want to be clear: I do not mean that I am radical in the way that word can and will undoubtedly be twisted. I am radical because I believe in acceptance, inclusion, resistance, and advocacy—all terms that have been radicalized by Trump's agenda. I am radical because I will always prioritize minority, underrepresented, and vulnerable people over the comfort of those who do them harm. And I know that I am far from the first Adult Education (AE) or Human Resource Development (HRD) scholar to declare myself radical for these reasons. But I am doing so now, in writing, with the full belief and expectation that I will not be the last.

Some will wonder, why are these issues for our field? McLean and McLean (2001) offered the following definition for the field of HRD:

Human resource development is any process or activity that, either initially or over the long term, has the potential to develop adults’ work–based knowledge, expertise, productivity and satisfaction, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organization, community, nation or, ultimately, the whole of humanity. (p. 322)

Last year, in a Perspectives essay for Human Resource Development International, I posed the question: “who are we harming by not taking a stand?” (Collins, 2018, p. 6). I also offered an answer: “we are harming those who are already vulnerable, under–represented, and the most in need of our support, encouragement, development, and elevation” (p. 6). Finally, I proposed a solution: “[Change] will require seeing contemporary social and political issues for what they are – deeply impactful on organizations, workplaces, and the individuals who occupy those spaces” (p. 6). I am asking other AE and HRD scholars to do just that, even if it is challenging—imagine a world where our disciplines have actively mobilized toward addressing pressing societal issues and injustices. Here are a few questions I am thinking about: •

What is the role of AE and HRD when it is revealed that beloved public figures or organizational leaders have unsavory past or present histories as participants in racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression and discrimination?

I firmly believe that these are the kinds of questions that will take our disciplines into the future, make us relevant to a wider audience of people, and ultimately create lasting change. This is a research agenda for the future of our fields. At both the 2018 Academy of HRD conference in Richmond, Virginia, and the 2019 Academy of HRD conference in Louisville, Kentucky, I was approached by several doctoral students from universities across the country who told me that they wished more people in the field chose to take the kinds of stances that I am willing to take or examine the issues I am willing to examine. I hold that it is my responsibility to these young scholars to bare my radical self without apology so that they are free to do the same. If we create spaces where marginality can be leveraged as power, we will get back to the roots of our disciplines—societal transformation and progress. We can sit back and argue the merits of transformative learning and the measures of employee engagement all day long, but if people are not safe, accepted, and respected in our society, communities, and organizations, none of that matters.

As Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate, famously said: “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” (Wiesel, 1986, para. 8). Will you join me in leveraging Adult Education and Human Resource Development to take sides and make a better world?