"Leader" a word that is being used and misused in every conference, platform, meeting and place especially for millennials. Millennials are called the "Change Makers", "Social Leader" and people who will change the world. To me this is very scary. I have been in the US for a year now and been to so many gathering, workshops, and conferences where millennials interested in social issues and non-profit sector gather to discuss the world's most urgent issues.
The majority of these places try to bring diverse groups to reflect different backgrounds. However, from what I noticed so far the majority of these international conferences' design reflect one, mainly white and male dominated, perception of the issues people in conflict areas and developing countries are suffering from. This results in guiding millennials' thinking to unconsciously conform to what already exists. I will be sharing some of these observation in the following paragraphs.
Leadership and what it means?
In a room, sixty millennials who identify themselves are "social leaders" were discussing what does leadership mean and who presents an example of great leaders. This was a room of people from different backgrounds, religions, gender, sexual orientation, countries, and cultures who share how each one of them are fighting for social issues back home and fighting for the rights of women and other marginalized people. However, it was shocking for me how those who position themselves as human right defenders, social issues change makers, global citizens, failed to mention the name of one female leaders when asked about examples of leaders.
In this room, the presenters failed to mention one female leader when giving us examples. Steve Jobs was named a great leader despite the reports about Apple's involvement of child labour and horrendous working conditions in China. Three people consider Hitler as great leader, which in itself is very scary for me not as a Muslim woman only but as a human being. As a Palestinian, living in Gaza, who witnessed three wars, a siege and under continued occupation, I know how painful it means to be subjected to daily oppression and ethical cleansing. Therefore, hearing someone naming Hitler, someone who oppressed a whole nation and committed massacres toward Jews, people with disabilities and Christians, as a great leader makes me feel unsafe and concerned for the social issues, those people claim to defend.
In another space of young leaders, when asked to paint a picture of a future leader in a group discussion, suggestion of describing a disabled or LGBTQ person was met with scorns because this will make people uncomfortable. Failing to mention female, transgender, disabled and minority leaders, and failing to be inclusive and disruptive in these global platforms reflect a deeper issue that related to power dynamic and type of people, mainly white men, who are making the decisions globally related to all life fields. Consequently, images and examples of corporate and political definitions of leadership are the first things that pop up in the minds when examples are required.
Another observation, if we assume and accepted the term, is related to how a person become a leader. Where does a person's leadership journey in the social issues environment come from? It is fundamental to notice that each person has their own experiences but can we accept the career path as the leadership journey? From what I noticed there is almost unanimity among the majority on mixing leadership journey with career path. Those millennials talk about work assignment and jobs when describing what made them leaders; painting performing their tasks and job description as heroic behaviors without acknowledging the high compensation and salary received when working in conflict areas for example.
What adds the complexity of this issue is reflecting on how people get to be part of these social issues. Millennials in places with high unemployment rate and conflict areas look for economic security which can be achieve by accepting any job that pays well. There is no real choice in determining the jobs you want to pursue and finding your passion job is not the case for so many people. If one's achievement is related to his/her career, which progressed due to educational and social status, can we claim that our career made us what we describe as the "Social Leaders" or "Change Agent"; words thrown nonchalantly.
In my opinion, leadership in social issues is not something that reflect my career path, it might help one's leadership journey but the two terms are not the same. Social leadership is Indivisible; one can't fight for the rights of one minority group, claiming to be the protector and the banner holder while dehumanize other groups. One can't be blame minorities for their current situations without deeply understanding the systems which contributed to the status quo. Most certainly leadership in social issues are not one that ends with the death of the person but stay alive as long as the issue exist.
Social issues and injustice is complicated and we should not claim our full understanding of them if we are not willing to dig deeper nor form empathy with social issues other than the ones we care about. However, the most important point here is our responsibility as millennial goes beyond happy claiming that we are leader to critically reviewing what does the word and the whole system entails. It should extend to speaking up loud and clear against our own prejudices, and the systems that oppress other people around the world. We should never claim to be social leaders if we are afraid of making people uncomfortable when we want to highlight racism, homophobia, injustice, xenophobia, oppression and human right abuses. If you want to be disruptive and change maker don't allow the word to own you, stand up and redefine it.