Beyond Solidarity: How White People Can Become Anti-Racist

This hour, we talk about the role white people play in anti-racist work, and how we can all talk with young people about anti-racism.

You’ll hear from John Biewen, audio program director at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He’s also the host and producer of Scene On Radio, a podcast that tells stories exploring human experience and American society. The second season of that series is called “Seeing White”. Through 14 episodes, it explores America’s deep history of white supremacy. Biewen, who is white, and his co-host and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika, Assistant Professor at Rutgers University’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies, who is Black, talk about the manufacturing of the concept of race and the purpose of whiteness.

The latest season of Scene on Radio just wrapped this week, and it’s called “The Land That Never Has Been Yet” (The title is from the Langston Huges poem, “Let America Be America Again”), and it examines the ways in which the United States grapples with the democratic experiment.

Later, we hear from Amber Coleman-Mortley, who is the Director of Social Engagement at iCivics, Inc., a nonpartisan, civic education, gaming and classroom resource. On her blog, Mom Of All Capes, she writes and podcasts about practical strategies parents can use in edtech, civics, and social emotional development.

One of her recent episodes was centered around having family discussions about racism, why parents and educators should talk about race, and they share tips to help get these conversations started. She joins me to talk about things to keep in mind as we talk with children about anti-racism.

Finally, hear my conversations with parents and their children at a recent Black Lives Matter rally in Hartford.

GUESTS:

• John Biewen is the audio program director at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He’s also the host and producer of Scene On Radio, a podcast that tells stories exploring human experience and American society. His latest series is “The Land That Never Has Been Yet”
• Drew John Ladd is a Connecticut-based writer and public speaker whose work largely focuses on dismantling racism
• Amber Coleman-Mortley is the Director of Social Engagement at iCivics, Inc., a nonpartisan, civic education, gaming and classroom resource. On her blog, Mom Of All Capes, she writes and podcasts about practical strategies parents can use in edtech, civics, and social emotional development

Photo credit: Jumana Dakkur / Pexels.com 

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