Dr. Taylor Cummings

And the other ones I still have critiques for, but the one I landed on just for the purpose of the scope of the study was really interrogating what it means to have a sense of belonging.

And so in educational psychology, they define belonging as having psychological membership.

to an institution of some sort.

And I was like, well, what does it mean for us to have a psychological membership to these oppressive institutions?

And so that's where we get into what it means to like be successful navigating professional or corporate or even just academic settings where you have to really

ascribe to the values of white supremacy or white narcissism, as folks are saying online, but really understanding you have to subscribe to these values in order to be successful.

And so the biggest rejects of our society, the folks who end up locked up, the folks who end up on the streets, they're rejecting, they're actively rejecting this.

So they do not belong, right?

And so I was really starting to understand this idea of belonging and external validation and how we have been socialized and programmed that when everyone's clapping,

You're good.

You know, when the claps stop, you're no longer really wanted anymore.

And what that does to your self-esteem, what that does to your identity.

And so just understanding that through the lens of my own life, I did an unearthing, a deep excavation of my educational history.

My mother, she kept all of my records.

Mind you, I started in one year old class at La Petite Academy.

So I've been, you know, indoctrinated forever.

Shout out to La Petite.

All my kids went to La Petite Academy.

That's so cool.

That's so funny.