People We Look Up to for Everyday Inspiration

The last year has been relentless, in every sense. At every turn, we all faced a new challenge that has reshaped our fundamental outlook on life.

Our continuous navigation through the ever present COVID-19 isolation has provided us with more time to learn, reflect and acquire a new understanding of the significance of Black History Month, as well as see how far we’ve come and the amount of work that still lies ahead. This year, we were brought back to ONE of 2020’s most transformative events: The Black Lives Matter movement.

At Third Wunder, we had an open and honest discussion about the events unfolding. While there was a lot to say, we felt it was more important than ever to listen to those speaking and expressing what they were going through. To give them the space to tell their story, and if anything, to amplify their voices by sharing those stories. Not just stories of injustices that satiate our doom scrolling, but stories of everyday Black people in our community, of their success, and stories of Black excellence.

While the general tradition of Black History Month is to reflect on Black figures of the past, this year, the team had another chat about 2020, and decided to amplify more recent stories of the Black folks we admire and connected with. Here are our choices.

Marques Brownlee

Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) is a popular American YouTuber who’s known for posting tech-focused videos on his channel MKBHD, which has over 13 million subscribers. Although he started his YouTube channel in high school, it was only after graduating Stevens Institute of Technology that his channel really took off, being featured on sites like Forbes and Time Magazine. Today, he reviews everything from the latest smart technology to new innovations like Tesla’s Cybertruck and Boston Dynamics’ Robot Dog, and has interviewed the likes of Elon Musk, Bill Gates and President Obama.

Rachel Cargle

Rachel Cargle is a powerhouse activist and lecturer who has built a philanthropic enterprise by publicly calling out bullshit in white feminist circles. She doesn’t shy away from sensitive topics, and speaks frequently and openly about black lives, bodies, and experiences with the grace, love, and rage these subjects deserve. She gained popularity and notoriety during the Women’s March movement in 2017 for her commentary on the importance (and lack of) intersectionality in feminist circles, and channeled her viral success into further unpacking the rampant issues within feminist discourse and racial politics.

(Un)learning how to set boundaries, push buttons, and show up.

Rachel’s approach is unapologetic—some might even say uncomfortable, but she argues that the discomfort is the point. She uses her social platform to speak directly to white fragility with a lot of tough love, often calling out both public figures and personal connections in laughable, contemptible, but always teachable moments. Her core message is a call to arms for radical empathy, and a firm rejection of platitudes. She is not here to entertain, she is not here to empower, she is here to educate.

“Here’s how you can show up, […] Knowledge plus empathy plus action. If you take any one away, you’re performing.”
Rachel Cargle, “Race 101” lecture at American University

As a subscriber to Rachel’s Great Unlearn project, I’ve learned (and unlearned) so much about how to work on my own biases and internalized racism, and I’ve become an ardent cheerleader of her other initiatives, like the Loveland Foundation (a therapy fund and program committed to providing young black women with access to a comprehensive list of culturally competent mental health services) and Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre (an innovative literary centre designed to amplify and celebrate marginalized voices). This month, check her Instagram for daily accountability prompts in her learning resource series, “Black History is American History.”

Liz

Janelle Monáe

Janelle Monáe (she/they) is one of the most unique and powerful artists of my generation. She’s vibrant, unapologetically queer, and understands how important her platform is as an Award-winning artist. She uses every aspect of her artistic expression to continue dialogue around race, sexuality, gender, and has been a huge inspiration for me for years.

Inspired by authenticity

“As a human, as an android, as somebody who has felt othered in this society — I speak up for myself, and for folks that I feel like look like me that may not have the platform. It’s just about sharing the mic.”
Monáe in an interview for Variety

Janelle has always been an inspiration when it comes to being authentic and genuine, not only with yourself, but with others. She comes off as a true empath who cares deeply about self-expression and connection with others, and I think we can all stand to channel that kind of energy.

Everything she does is connected to a message, even down to her clothes. For years she only wore black and white (particularly suits) to pay homage to her working-class background, while also symbolizing her refusal to conform to norms. Her music, although typically high-energy, is often accompanied by powerful, emotional visuals that contextualize the upbeat tune most would write off as pop, and Cold War is a perfect example of that.

If you haven’t already, watch the emotional sci-fi film for her album Dirty Computer. You’ll thank me later.

Marissa

Phil Carpenter

Phil Carpenter is a visual storytelling guru. He’s been a successful freelance photojournalist for over 20 years, a video journalist for Global News for more than 4, and has won several awards for his inspiring work in an otherwise white-dominated industry.

Visual storytelling that inspires in more ways than one

Many of his photos celebrate Montreal’s beautiful and diverse culture in a way that captures humanity in its purest form. What I like most about his work is that it encourages thought, discussion, and sometimes insights into real change, whether it’s exposing the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti or shifting the way we think of beauty and female identity through a photo essay of Canadian women who’ve survived breast cancer and show off their mastectomy scars to prove it.

Phil also happens to be my former photojournalism teacher and is responsible for reigniting my passion for telling stories through visual mediums. Not only was he (and still is) the only teacher of colour in Concordia University’s Journalism Department, but he’s also the only teacher I’ve had who teaches through experience instead of from a book, which is what budding journalists need more of!

Jenna

Mary Jackson

Mary Jackson was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer at NASA. In 1951, when she was hired by NASA’s predecessor agency, the NACA, she was the first and one of the only black female aeronautical engineers in the field.

Paving the way for women of colour in science

Throughout her career, she fought apartheid and gender discrimination; however, during that time, her choice meant going against social rules. Her success at overcoming the obstacles has set precedence not just for Black people, but all minorities.

There’s a movie about her called Hidden Figures (which coincidentally, is played by Janelle Monae). One of the greatest scenes in the entire movie is when Mary went to the evening class after she finally got permission from the court after all the hard work. Upon entering the room, the male professor was shocked and stared at her for a long time, until he opened his mouth and said, “This course does not seem to be designed for women. I still don’t know how to teach women…” And Mary replied with, “I think, probably it’s the same as teaching men.”

Kyle

A/Prof. Nada Hamad

Dr Nada Hamad, haematologist at Sydney's St. Vincent's Hospital, photographed by Matthew Abbott — Dr Nada Hamad, haematologist at Sydney’s St. Vincent’s Hospital, photographed by Matthew Abbott

A/Prof. Nada Hamad is a bone marrow transplant (BMT) and cell therapy hematologist and director of haematology clinical trials at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, and president of the Australia & New Zealand Transplant & Cellular Therapies (ANZTCT) society. She’s also an adjunct associate professor at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia.

She has a passion for gender equity, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of medicine to improve clinical research and both patient and clinician experiences. A/Prof. Nada Hamad was recently featured in Vogue Australia for her contributions on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19, and is the current Lancet Haematology Journal equity and diversity column lead..

BHM: People We Look Up to for Everyday Inspiration

Marques Brownlee

Rachel Cargle

(Un)learning how to set boundaries, push buttons, and show up.

Janelle Monáe

Inspired by authenticity

Phil Carpenter

Visual storytelling that inspires in more ways than one

Mary Jackson

Paving the way for women of colour in science

A/Prof. Nada Hamad

Mohamed Hamad

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