Xavier Ramey can be described as innovative, impactful, and well-informed on the issues that affect communities of color. As the CEO of Justice Informed LLC., a social impact consulting firm based in Chicago, Ramey provides strategic social impact guidance to multi-billion dollar businesses, advises Fortune 500 executives, and leads Masterclasses to top-ranked graduate programs in business and executive communications. The dynamic Maywood-Proviso Rotary Club member was recently interviewed by Arika Linton in an online news article featured in TBT NEWS (Truth Be Told News). 

Xavier Ramey is an award-winning social strategist, noted public speaker, and conflict mediator. Combining his background in economics, extensive management & social impact experience, and direct action campaigning in the Black Lives Matter movement, Xavier leads a company that brings a wealth of experience and network to clients seeking catalyzed strategies for inclusion, philanthropy, CSR, and community engagement. Xavier has consulted with institutions across the world on their DEI and has delivered keynotes across the world, including on the TedX stage as well as audiences of 20,000 people alongside world leaders on the topic of global equity.

Xavier served as the lead of the Social Innovation and Philanthropy strategy in the University of Chicago's Office of Civic Engagement, managed multi-million dollar philanthropic portfolios to stimulate employment through the United Way of Metro Chicago, & worked as a nonprofit Director of Development in Chicago’s North Lawndale community. Xavier is a founding member of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, an artist-activist organization committed to addressing state and police violence against people of color.

He is a board member of Young Chicago Authors, the Chicago Center for Arts and Technology, and a member of the Rotary Club of Maywood-Proviso in Rotary International. Xavier recently talked with the Chicago Defender about the power of the millennial perspective and what it means to be a catalyst for change:

Arika Linton/CD: What is the misconception that comes with leading an organization as a millennial of color?
Xavier: We aren’t bosses, we are leaders. Bosses take the first cut, leaders take the first hit. However, I am very sensitive to the challenges and needs of my millennial peers working in industries with tiny margins and high costs. My ask is that people be more sensitive to the needs of leaders of color, rather than comparing them or shaming them for not producing what Whiteness has been shown to more likely produce in terms of financial revenues and profits. People are working with a little to care for a lot.

Arika Linton/CD: What can you share regarding your company’s mission and impact?
Xavier: Our mission at Justice Informed is to “change the face of expertise” to inform the social impact consulting sector by leveraging the definitions, needs, ambitions, and ideals of people who hold minoritized or marginalized identities. Growing a powerful team of consultants, ensuring they have meaningful compensation and professional opportunities, and ensuring the pace of social change moves at the speed of our ambitions rather than the speed of the fears of people who are racial, gender, or otherwise fragile is our mission at JI.

Arika Linton/CD: Why is it important that your actions are backed by your words?
Xavier: My father, Paul Ramey, was a west side Precinct Captain, community organizer, and entrepreneur who also led a social impact consulting firm before he passed away. He used to tell me that you’re not truly from a city unless they see you walking that city and that you’re not from a neighborhood unless they see you walking that neighborhood. I believe that the embodiment of social justice and social impact is far more important than just valuing social change. Words matter. People who want the outcome of racial equity don’t necessarily believe in the pace many Black and Brown people are fighting for. We need people, especially allies, who believe something enough that they do something about what is happening to all of us.

Arika Linton/CD: What is your hope for Black men that operate at executive levels?
Xavier: I think that Black men are in a very interesting, but challenging position. We are wrapped up in dealing with the challenges of racial and economic inequity, while navigating historical expectations for financial and cultural production, in a space where gender and sexuality are continually being considered. Increasingly, the conversation around safe and empowered Black masculinity and what it means to be a Black man in America is one that is nebulous at best.

Our colleagues, partners, friends, and the media assume what should/could/might bring us joy. But there is a little collective conversation that meaningfully includes us. And so given that struggle and that lack of definition and ownership over their very identity, I would say that for Black men in America my hope is that they step into the powerful work of imagining and self-defining who they are and what we need to be for this next age. We must create what Black maleness means for ourselves, our communities, and our companies in the future. And this includes not just cisgender heterosexual Black men. This specifically includes queer and trans-Black men as well. ~ - Content Curated By MG Media