How My Blackness Influences My Logic, Epistemology, and Axiology

• In Event: Me-Search and We-Search: Using Qualitative Research to Develop Scholarly Voice

Abstract

My scholarship is anchored in the work of Meyerson (2001) who calls attention to tempered radicals. Meyerson (2001) states, “tempered radicals are people who want to succeed in their organizations yet want to live by their values or identities, even if they are somehow at odds with the dominant culture of their organization. Tempered radicals want to fit in, and they want to retain what makes them different. They want to rock the boat, and they want to stay in it” (p. xi). My intellectual ontology, as a Black man navigating historically white racialized environments, positions my Blackness at the epicenter of how I understand. As such, my prospective is often in a state of flux as I am trying to make meaning of how my Blackness influences my logic, epistemology, and axiology.
As a critical qualitative researcher, I am constantly pushing my thinking to “rock the boat” in order to better understand Black educational environments. While I “rock the boat” I also have a calling “to stay in it” as I believe true qualitative research pushes change to happen from within oppressive environments. My body of work is broadly anchored in storytelling, but directly connects to my lived experiences. As such, my scholarship reflects my personal mesearch, the experiences of Black people as wesearch, and external investigations as research (Douglas, 2017). Collectively, these “searches” lead my work as I seek to unpack the challenges associated with racialized experiences in the academy.

Author

• Jesse Randall Ford, University of North Carolina - Greensboro