Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

As a white, able bodied person I’ve experienced significant privilege in my life and in my work in the outdoors. As a queer person and a survivor of sexual assault I’ve also experienced identity based stress and trauma. In my work through the PSI and for other organizations I strive to offer brave spaces for instruction and learning especially when people are different than me. I am also on my own learning journey about how to do this, and I make mistakes. This page is intended as an expression of my commitment to the work that makes conversations about equity and oppression an explicit part of paddlesport instruction, as well as day-to-day living. 

Why JEDI?

Indigenous Peoples and People of Color constitute a majority of our global population but do not experience access to a majority of resources. Specifically in the US, I have access to the wealth required to invest in paddle sports as recreation and as a career. I have access to land and waterways that historically belonged to Indigenous Peoples and are now owned by Euro-American settler colonists or by local, state or federal governments. I believe that Indigenous People and People of Color deserve access to resources and opportunities. I believe that we have all lost something when equitable multiculturalism is lost. Finally, if people of the global majority do not have access, ability and desire to invest in places like rivers and wilderness areas, we as a global sommunity will slowly lose these resources that contribute to our individual health, our population health and our ecological health.

Jordan Taylor, he/they (why pronouns?)

What does this look like in PSI paddlesport instruction?

You will notice my commitment to JEDI work in paddlesport instruction in some or all of the following:

During Introductions you might be asked to state the pronouns you are using today when also giving your name, where you are from and what color your lightsaber is (Star Wars reference!). This is an acknowledgement that our gender as we experience it might be different than how we look. By inviting that acknowledgement of gender, it helps us avoid incorrect assumptions about one another. It also implies that other non-dominant identities can expect some effort at proactive inclusion. Finally, for people who have gender expansive identities, we can experience what is called “gender euphoria” when our non dominant/non binary gender identity is recognized in a positive light.

During introductions you will be asked what your goals are, and if you have any physical/medical limitations that might affect your participation. You will be invited to say something about what effective instruction and coaching looks like for you. It is my hope that this creates an environment that is welcoming of feedback about my instruction, coaching and facilitation, including if I am mistakenly instructing in a way that causes identity based stress. The ways that I experience privilege create cultural blindspots, and I welcome your perspective in highlighting these so that I can better serve you or others in meeting paddlesport goals.

While setting out course expectations you will notice that I outline pitfalls in several kinds of humor and other social interactions. I also outline how you can expect me to respond to humor or other social interactions that are harmful or exclusive especially based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ability (this is not a complete list).

When deciding what courses to take, and during your course, you can expect support identifying your actual skill level and how that might differ from your perceived skill level. In particular I have a deep curiosity about the phenomenon of “imposter’s syndrome” and how it affects athletic and instructional performance. This and other identity based dynamics are welcome topics of conversation related to your sense of yourself as a boater, especially if you are a woman, are queer, are transgender, are black or brown, are an indigenous person and yes, also if you are a white, wealthy, straight, cis-gender man.

I believe that the paddlesport industry is missing out on a cultural richness based on who participates and who instructs. If you are a member of a non-dominant identity group, I am deeply interested in your perspective on instruction, and instructor development and training.

You will notice below I have posted a “reading list”. These are texts I’ve read, documentaries I’ve watched and training I’ve received relating to JEDI work. Rather than thinking of this as my anti-oppression credentials please think of this as invitations to question me, to hold me/us accountable, to assist me, our industry, our people in building a truly multicultural future. Please also consider them invitations for additional suggested learning based on your lived experience or on additional resources that might benefit my work. Please also see my “Resources” page for more external links.

Trainings/Service:

Racial Equity Institute Stage 1 workshop, 

NAIS People of Color Conference,

National Outdoor Leadership School, Cultural Competency Seminar

(at Sandy Spring Friends School): 

Co-Clerk, Upper School Diversity Committee, 

attending member, All School Diversity Committee, 

Nominating Committee for Student Diversity Leadership Conference.

Resources:

Meg John Barker, Queer: A Graphic History

Charles River Editors series: Ute, Navajo, Apache, Nez Perce

Sondra Jones Being and Becoming Ute, 

Francisco Cantu, The Line Becomes a River

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Alicia Elliot, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Dr. Ibram X Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, & How to be an Anti-Racist

Robin DiAngelo White Fragility, 

bell hooks Teaching to Transgress, 

Beverly Daniel Tatum Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?,

 Angela Reyes " Appropriation of African American slang by Asian American youth", 

Marian Wright Edelman Lanterns, 

Julie Lythcott-Haims Real American. 

Lisa Delpit “Other People's Children.”

Carol Anderson, White Rage

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow (led to my grad thesis on the evolution of the modern penitentiary and its architectural relationship to schools and museums)

Tema Okun, “White Supremacy Culture-Dismantling Racism”

William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness…”

Various titles by Octavia Butler, Cixin Liu (sci fi by non-white authors)

Internet reading, research and discussion on Trauma Informed Care, and Trauma Informed Education.

Claude Steele, Whistling Vivaldi

Glen Whitman, Neuroteach (belonging mindset, effect of identity threat on the learning brain)

(documentaries) Ava DuVernay, Thirteenth, How They See Us

(documentary) Michelle Obama, Becoming

(podcast series) Scene on Radio:

Season 2 Seeing White,

Season 3 Men,

Season 4 The Land that Never Has Been Yet (on race, class and false democracy in USA)

(podcast) Codeswitch