Popularity vs Personal Development

During a rich conversation about decolonization and global solidarity between Thenjiwe McHarris and Clelia Rodríguez, Thenjiwe makes a must-hear observation about the relationship between one’s popularity and one’s personal development. Thenjiwe remarks:

Popularity without…if your popular gains outpace your own development, your own understanding, your own depth and deepening, it will be co-opted. And it will become something that will be used against you as opposed to what’s in service of you [and] what your community needs and the earth needs.

What a word. What a hauntingly illuminating word.