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Reverend Dr. Alex Gee on Being a Black Leader in Madison
This season of Black Oxygen is about care and collective care — and this conversation is a candid look at what it actually costs, and takes, to lead as a Black person in a city like Madison. Angela sits down with Reverend Dr. Alex Gee, who has raised roughly $70 million over 30 years, built multiple organizations, and is still, in his words, only ever invited onto the "Community Relations" committee — never Finance, never HR, never the chair. Alex traces his leadership back to his mother, Verlene Gee, a single mom and pioneering social worker who taught him to advocate boldly, hold boundaries, and never fear telling the truth. From there, the conversation moves through the specific weight of being labeled a "Black leader" instead of simply a leader, the discipline of "protecting his ears to protect his voice," the unspoken tensions Black leaders navigate in majority-white institutions, and how all of it shaped his vision for the Center for Black Excellence and Culture — a space built from 700 community voices, designed to let Black leaders and residents finally feel at home in Madison. In This Episode 00:00 — Welcome and introduction of Reverend Dr. Alex Gee 00:35 — What brought Alex to Wisconsin and what keeps him here — his mother's 1970 move to Madison and enrollment in UW's brand-new African American Studies Department, the root of the family's roots in the city 07:10 — Leadership lessons from caregiving: becoming his mother's advocate, learning to say "no" to doctors, and the boundaries that let him lead at home and at work 14:30 — What his mother, a pioneering social worker, modeled about community leadership — advocacy, boldness, and going "to the mat" for people with no one else in their corner 20:56 — Finding and keeping his own voice, and the 1983 UW classroom moment when his mother challenged a professor on white privilege in front of his classmates 28:06 — Being a Black leader in Madison, unpacked: raising $70 million and never once being asked to serve on a finance, HR, or budget committee — only "Community Relations"; the decision to call himself "a leader who's Black" instead of a "Black leader" 31:00 — Protecting his ears to protect his voice: on being called a slur by someone in his own community, and choosing not to let outside noise dictate his focus 33:00 — Criticism as a signal, not a setback — why pushback from both Black and white Madisonians is often proof a leader is doing something new 35:00 — The double duty of "super leadership": a decade spent building pathways for non-Black allies through Justified Anger, and why he's now turning his focus toward strengthening the Black community directly 37:00 — Naming the unspoken dynamics — including tensions with white women in leadership — that Madison rarely discusses openly, and why he says it's "killing Black people" 38:07 — The origin story of the Center for Black Excellence and Culture — a childhood dream, 700 community listening-session voices, and building something that isn't a museum or a cultural center but a place to belong 48:13 — Alex's 10-year vision: recruiting and retaining Black professionals as an economic strategy for the whole region, and the question he's asked funders since 2000 that no one has ever been able to answer 59:35 — What's on the Center's playlist (and what's — or isn't — on Alex's) 1:01:45 — Where to learn more and how to get involved Leadership Takeaways Redefine the label before it defines you. Alex chose to describe himself as "a leader who's Black" rather than a "Black leader" — a shift that broadened what rooms and questions he had access to. Protect your ears to protect your voice. He deliberately limits how much criticism and noise he takes in, so it doesn't erode his ability to lead clearly. Treat criticism as a signal. Pushback, in his experience, often means you're doing something new enough to matter — not that you're doing something wrong. Build your own tables. After decades of being kept off finance and budget committees, Alex stopped waiting for a seat and built the Center for Black Excellence and Culture instead. Name what's unspoken. He points directly at dynamics — like tokenism on nonprofit boards, or unresolved tension between Black professionals and white supervisors — that many leaders privately navigate but rarely say out loud.
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