The Grand Commencement with Melissa Muganzo

MESSAGE ME HERE!What a joy to spend time with our guest for this episode. Melissa Muganzo is an entertainer, entrepreneur, educator, and media producer based in Sacramento, California. She's a professor at Sacramento State, the founder of Mindy's Kitchen, a professional actress, and an award-winning entrepreneur and social justice documentarian. She was also raised inside a very particular kind of not-enoughness: not West Indian enough, not Afro-Latina enough, not Kenyan enough, and — according to plenty of people around her — not Black enough either.This conversation goes everywhere. Melissa walks me through a childhood shaped by a Seventh-day Adventist mother, a Kenyan father with an entirely different spiritual inheritance, and the quiet math of a kid figuring out what it takes to be seen as good. They talk about what happens when the answer to every question you ask is "you just have to believe," and what it costs to keep editing your hair, your voice, your major, your whole life to keep the approval coming.They also talk about the body — Melissa's affirmation that your body has been showing up for you the entire time you've been mean to it, and the therapist's line about what you're really saying when you criticize the features you inherited. I share what I have learned about vertical and horizontal morality and Melissa offers the frame of "the good girl". If you've ever wondered which parts of yourself you're still editing to make other people comfortable, this episode is for you.CONNECT WITH MELISSAMindy's Kitchen:Website: www.mindyskitchen.comInstagram: @mindyskitchen_caLinkedIn: Mindy's Kitchen of CaliforniaMuganzo Entertainment:Website: www.muganzoentertainment.comInstagram: @muganzoentertainmentLinkedIn: Melissa MuganzoAlso Mentioned:Vertical vs. Horizontal Morality: Why It Matters for the Workplace TodayIf this is your first time with OTC, check out  EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!Our True Colors is powered by The Culture Crucible. Go to THE HUB to learn more!Consider joining the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association!