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Social Justice Origin Stories

Storytelling, reflections, educational resources, and conversations on what moves us to work for equity, social justice, and collective liberation. A growing community.

Social Justice Origin Stories

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Social Justice Origin Stories

Storytelling, reflections, educational resources, and conversations on what moves us to work for equity, social justice, and collective liberation. A growing community.

Social Justice Origin Stories

Storytelling, reflections, educational resources, and conversations on what moves us to work for equity, social justice, and collective liberation. A growing community.

  • Stories
  • Pathways
    • Personal Journeys
    • Organizational Histories
    • Educational Segments
    • Weaving Our Voices
      • The Justice We Imagine
      • Take This With You
      • For Those Who’ll Come After
      • In Community: The Voices of Social Justice Origin Stories
    • Community Voices
    • Design Decisions
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Stories
  • Pathways
    • Personal Journeys
    • Organizational Histories
    • Educational Segments
    • Weaving Our Voices
      • The Justice We Imagine
      • Take This With You
      • For Those Who’ll Come After
      • In Community: The Voices of Social Justice Origin Stories
    • Community Voices
    • Design Decisions
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Support Social Justice Origin Stories on Patreon
  • Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel!
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Organizational Histories

A More HUMAN Approach to Truth-Telling & Building Community: Becoming The Quiet Rebel with Tracie Jae

By Relando Thompkins-Jones
October 15, 2025

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“This trauma that we experience is a shared trauma. You cannot inflict the amount of harm on people, or be descendants of people who have inflicted that amount of harm on people, without that trauma having a through-line in your body as well. 

My father has an expression: “You can’t grow a pine tree from a cactus seed”, which basically just means whatever is in you is what’s coming out. And in America, we have been trying to grow pine trees with cactus seeds for a long time…..If we’re not honest about how we got here, and why so many people are still left behind…there is more to the story, no matter who told it to you. And you should stay curious about what else is missing from the story.”

—Tracie Jae

Tracie Jae, human culture strategist and educator, describes how her family both shielded her from and prepared her to engage with racial injustice, and shares about the breadcrumbs that helped her to learn that racism shouldn’t be normal. She tells the story of the birth of her identity as The Quiet Rebel, and breaks down her more HUMAN (Honest, Urgent, Meaningful, Accountable, Nuanced)  approach to equity conversations and explains why real social change starts with addressing harm, embracing difference, and staying curious about the stories missing from the narratives we’re told about ourselves and the world around us.  

Meet Tracie

In business and in life, Tracie Jae is The Quiet Rebel. Her work in the world is creating incremental and organic shifts to the status quo. She believes that grace-filled and authentic conversations are essential to fostering greater understanding, building trust and peaceful coexistence. In her work, she centers humans, celebrates differences and honors lived experiences. The expertise of her proprietary approach is based on evidence-based practices in clinical and cognitive psychology, communications research, and focusing on what makes us fully human, at both our best and worst.

Her current frameworks include 100 Voices Guided Conversations and A More HUMAN Approach™. 100 Voices Dialogue on Race and Culture is the central focus for the PhD Thesis of Dr. Megan Ratcliffe, Saybrook University. In her thesis, Dr. Ratcliffe shares the power of 100 Voices as an entry point for organizations seeking to have difficult conversations.

Tracie holds a BA in Business Management and MA in Strategic Communication and Leadership. Her commitment to service spans nearly three decades of volunteerism and vocation in Houston’s non-profit sector.

Now that her three daughters have matured to adulthood, she delights in hot coffee, bubble meditation and any opportunity to #feedthehappy.

Tracie names her parents, her sister, and three daughters, Harriet Tubman, James Baldwin,Isabel Wilkerson, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks, as guiding influences.

Connect with Tracie

You can connect with Tracie on LinkedIn, on Instagram @thequietrebelllc, and through her website: thequietrebel.org.

More From Tracie

“This version of the business began from a desire to build on conversations I’d held in faith communities – through the lens of race and justice. It also builds on nearly a decade of other entrepreneurial endeavors with questions at the core. I want people who love their work to love where they work; and for all humans to exist in communities where they are safe, seen and welcome.

We offer “A More HUMAN Approach” to coexisting in community. We began with a simple focus on honest, grace-filled conversation and have evolved to proprietary frameworks which give tangible practice for more HUMAN decisions. I realized that I needed to shift the offerings because I was leaving too many experiences where people asked “what can I do?”

I hope listeners will know that the problems we face are both historical and present, and the only path forward includes telling the full story.”

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Social Justice Origin Stories is produced, edited, and hosted by Relando Thompkins-Jones

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Tracie Jae
Author

Relando Thompkins-Jones

I'm a macro social worker, social justice educator, strategist, and storyteller who leverages media and education to advance equity and social justice within people, organizations, and communities. I started Social Justice Origin Stories because I believe in the power of storytelling and making our experiences accessible to others, because I believe in the liberatory effects of social justice education, to support justice-seekers in finding community and feeling less alone given the relentlessness of oppressive systems, and to be a resource of support and reflection for those who are thinking through how they could best contribute to the work. We need all who can, to do what they can.

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Storytelling, reflections, educational resources, and conversations on what moves us to work for equity, social justice, and collective liberation. A growing community.

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