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In the early 1970s, Forest Hills, Queens, became a national symbol of white, middle class resistance to integration. Instead of public schools, this fight was over public housing. A fight that got so intense the press called it "The Battle of Forest Hills." How did a famously liberal neighborhood become a hotbed of reaction and backlash? And how did a small group of angry homeowners change housing policy for the entire country?

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In this conversation on race, I’m joined by Michael Fosberg. Michael is a writer, actor and activist on issues of race. He is also a Black man who didn’t know he was Black until he was in his mid-thirties when his Armenian mother and white Swedish step-father got divorced. That’s when he went on his journey to find his biological father. Until then, Michael thought he was white.

Listen to this fascinating conversation and hear the story of Michael Fosberg.

Key topics:

[6:27] How he found his father and then found out his biological father was Black.

[15:31] Growing up in a diverse area and thinking he was one of two white people on the basketball team.

[17:13] Why Michael’s mother didn’t tell him he was Black.

[20:27] His lifelong connection to Black people and African-American culture and sudden understanding of why he had that connection.

[31:21] What it’s like for him, knowing he is Black but growing up with white privilege and how his skin color still gives him that privilege.

[41:35] Responding to people who say they are colorblind.

[46:28] Michael Fosberg answers the question of what to do about racism.

Guest Bio

Chicago native Michael Fosberg has been working to create a national dialogue on race and identity since 2001 when he launched his one-man autobiographical play Incognito. The author-activist has used the unique presentation, along with engaging interactive training sessions and speeches, to embrace diversity in an effort to change corporate and organization cultures.

He has been a frequent guest in the national media speaking as an expert on race and identity issues. His travels have taken him across the country facilitating meaningful conversations at educational institutions, corporations, government agencies and military bases. His highly praised memoir; Incognito: An American Odyssey of Race and Self Discovery was published in 2011 and his newest book, Nobody Wants to Talk About It: Race, Identity, and the Difficulty in Forging Meaningful Conversations addresses his efforts to provoke conversations about race over the past fifteen years.

Contact info: info@incognitotheplay.com

 

Host Bio

Simma Lieberman, The Inclusionist helps leaders create inclusive cultures. She is a consultant, speaker and facilitator and the host of the podcast, “Everyday Conversations on Race for Everyday People.”
Contact Simma@SimmaLieberman.com
Go to www.simmalieberman.com and www.raceconvo.com for more information
Simma is a member of and inspired by the global organization IAC (Inclusion Allies Coalition) 

Utang na loob is the Filipino concept of an eternal debt to others, be it family or friends, who do a favor for you. It goes back to pre-colonial times in the Philippines, and can pass from one generation to another. And some Filipino-Americans want to do away with utang all together, especially when it butts up against "American" values of independence and self-reliance. On this week's episode, we break down this "debt of the inner soul" — and discover a surprising side to this value.

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School District 28 in Queens, N.Y., has a Northside and a Southside. To put it simply, the Southside is Black and the farther north you go, the fewer Black people you see. But it wasn't always like this. Once the home to two revolutionary experiments in integrated housing, the Southside of the district served as a beacon of interracial cooperation. So what happened between then and now?

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Deepa Purushothaman joins me in this conversation on race to talk about the racism, isolation, and trauma many women of color experience in corporate America.

What is it like for a woman of color to get promoted up to the executive suite and still have to deal with microaggressions, blatant racism, and trivialization? What is it like to be the only person of color in your school and to hear people say how much they hate you? What is it like as a woman of color to constantly have to prove your accomplishments while white people are never questioned?

Hear the answers to these questions in this episode with Deepa Purushotaman as she shares her experiences and those of other women of color in the workforce.

Key Topics:

[2:30] Growing up as the only Indian-American in her school in an almost all-white town.

[4:35] First experience with racism and speaking out at the age of eight

[7:30] The trauma of racism and its effect on physical and mental health.

[10:29] The importance of women of color getting together, sharing their experiences, and helping to heal each other.

[13:14] Letting go of feeling responsible for your “whole group” or race.

[16:22] Coming to terms with burnout from microaggressions, trying to fit in, and feeling alone. How Deepa began organizing dinners with other senior women of color across the country to heal together.

[31:00] How to practice scenarios as an ally, and speak up as a woman of color. Know what to say and take care of yourself and be able to express pain. How not to feel responsible for other people’s reactions.

[41:27] Address systems and structures that have never included women of color.

[44:51] How losing everything and having to go on public assistance was a turning point for Deepa Purushothaman and intensified her consciousness and empathy.

[48:08] Issues of colorism and why some Asian women are uncomfortable talking to Black women about race.

[51:52] While there are differences amongst women of color, there are also similarities that need to be addressed together. 

 

Deepa Purushothaman Bio

Many women of color have scars from climbing the corporate ladder. Sixty percent of WOC feel their companies are not properly prepared to handle racist incidents in the workplace – it’s time to eliminate those incidents by creating unbiased and accountable corporate cultures.

As the first Indian woman to become a partner at Deloitte, Deepa Purushothaman experienced isolation and burnout firsthand. And then came the overt workplace harassment. Her new book, THE FIRST, THE FEW, THE ONLY: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America (March 1, 2022, Harper Business), lays the groundwork for how other women of color can redefine success on their own terms. It's the book she says she needed when launching her own career.

Contact Info:
https://www.deepapuru.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepapuru

 

Simma Lieberman, The Inclusionist helps leaders create inclusive cultures. She is a consultant, speaker and facilitator and the host of the podcast, “Everyday Conversations on Race for Everyday People.”
Contact Simma@SimmaLieberman.com
Go to www.simmalieberman.com and www.raceconvo.com for more information
Simma is a member of and inspired by the global organization IAC (Inclusion Allies Coalition) https://inclusioncoalition.info

In 2019, a school district in Queens N.Y., one of the most diverse places on the planet, is selected to go through the process of creating something unexpected: a diversity plan. Why would the school district need such a plan and why were some parents so adamantly opposed?

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Coming soon to the Code Switch feed: School Colors, a limited-run series about how race, class and power shape American cities and schools. Hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman take us to Queens, N.Y. – often touted as the most racially diverse place in the world. In 2019, a Queens school district announced that they were chosen to get a "diversity plan." One reaction from local parents? Outrage.

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Karen Hunter, journalist and host of the Karen Hunter Show on Sirius XM and Daniel Stedman, founder of the New Ed-Tech platform Pressto, join me in this conversation on race. They share how Black students in the US and the African diaspora, and other low income and young people of color are using Pressto to create their own newspapers and zines. This is one solution for young people to express their views and share real experiences with race, culture and diversity instead of consuming false information from biased media.

 

You’ll hear how Karen had to confront her white editor at the Daily News about racial bias in their coverage of police shootings and how she convinced him to change his perspective.

 

Key topics: 

• Real news gathering has been replaced by algorithms and public opinion presented as fake facts. That includes how gaslighting, misinformation, and disinformation take the place of actual fact gathering, particularly in issues around race and racism.

• How Pressto gives young people hope and inspiration to be seen and heard, like how Daniela Fraser took out her phone and documented the murder of George Floyd.

• What does it mean to be white? Karen Hunter asks why people identify as white and foster the system of white supremacy. She talks about race as a social construct, and why she wants to dismantle the construct of race.

• Hunter’s experience as a Black journalist with the Daily News when Amadou Diallo was murdered by police in his vestibule and how her editor wanted to glorify the police without knowing what happened. After she  asked her editor if that could happen in a rich white neighborhood, he allowed her to address the issues of racism. She talks about the murder of Eleanor Bumpurs, Sean Bell and others who were killed by police because they were Black

• Why Pressto can help young people of color and other kids be future journalists who get the truth out and share their stories.

• How Daniel Stedman created the EdTech software Pressto, because he was inspired to make learning fun for kids and spark them to be journalists of the future.

• The importance of diversity of ideas and bringing Pressto to the African Diaspora including Jamaica and Canada.

• Karen asks Daniel Stedman about what it means to be white, if he sees himself as white. Daniel talks about his strong identification about his Jewish culture and what it means to be white.

• The fact that the Nazi Nuremberg laws crafted their strategy from the Jim Crow laws in the US.

Listen to the episode with Karen Hunter and Daniel Stedman to hear about the future of journalism, dismantling systemic racism and other bias in the media and how white people can use and share the privilege they have to take actions against racism. 

Guest Bios

Daniel Stedman is the CEO & Founder of Pressto, a tool that makes learning to write fun for kids and easy for teachers. Previously, Daniel was the Founder of Northside Media (acquired), the parent company to Northside Festival, Taste Talks, SummerScreen and Brooklyn Magazine. He has spoken at CES, Orange Institute and SXSW and has been featured in the NY Times, New York Magazine, New York Observer, Huffington Post, and more. Daniel is a published children's book author and award-winning film director.

Karen Hunter is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, professor, publisher and “change agent,” according to Essence magazine, which named her one of the “Woke100” of 2018. She was also selected to the 2020 Ebony magazine’s Power 100 List. As a writer, Karen has coauthored eight New York Times bestsellers. As CEO of Karen Hunter Publishing, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, she published more than 35 books, including No. 1 NYT bestseller True You by pop icon Janet Jackson, as well as bestsellers with Kris Jenner and E. Lynn Harris. Karen has been named one of the 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in America by industry bible Talkers Magazine every year since 2015. A New Jersey native, a Drew University graduate, Karen has been a full-time professor and Distinguished Lecturer in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College in New York City since 2004. In 2020, during the pandemic, Karen launched Knarrative, which is home to the largest Africana Studies classroom in the world.

 

Simma Lieberman, The Inclusionist helps leaders create inclusive cultures. She is a consultant, speaker and facilitator and the host of the podcast, “Everyday Conversations on Race for Everyday People.”
Contact Simma@SimmaLieberman.com
Go to www.simmalieberman.com and www.raceconvo.com for more information
Simma is a member of and inspired by the global organization IAC (Inclusion Allies Coalition) 

Some call it a riot. Some call it an uprising. Many Korean Americans simply call it "Sai-i-gu" (literally, 4-2-9.) But no matter what you call it, it's clear to many that April 29, 1992 made a fundamental mark on the city of Los Angeles. Now, 30 years later, we're talking to Steph Cha and John Cho — two authors whose books both center around that fateful time.

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How can anything be more important than what's happening right now? That's the question a woman named Evelyn Wang is pondering right before she is thrust into a surreal, sci-fi multiverse, in the movie "Everything Everywhere All At Once." On the other side — googly eyes, talking rocks, people with hot dog hands — and an exploration of the dynamics between three generations in a Chinese immigrant family.

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In the 70s and 80s, Fashion Fair was an iconic cosmetics company designed to create makeup for Black women of all shades. This is the story of that company's meteoric rise, its slow decline, and the two women who think they can resurrect it once more.

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What do you do when all your options for school kind of suck? That was the question some folks on the Standing Rock Reservation found themselves asking a couple of years ago. Young people were being harassed in public schools, and adults were worried that their kids weren't learning important tenets of Lakota culture. So finally, a group of educators and parents decided to start a brand new school, unlike any others in the region.

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In this Conversation on Race, John Blake, senior writer, and producer at CNN talks about anti-racist white men who grew up in racist families. They were surrounded by racism in their environment and grew up in red states, yet they chose a different path. Listen in to hear some of the stories and find out the factors that influenced their thinking and actions.

We also talk about the epidemic and potential cures for the fear that many white people have about Black men in public spaces.

Key topics:

[5:11] How Matt Hawn, a white teacher in Tennessee became an anti-racist and then was fired for talking about racism to his students. Why white Pastor Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe from Arkansas founded a multi-cultural church in Decatur, Georgia, where he was an outspoken anti-racist.

[9:54] The gradual change from racist beliefs to anti-racism. How do some people get trapped by their own identity?

[11:21] White people need other white people who are anti-racist and have made a difference

[13:07] The transformational power of meeting people from a different race and building relationships

[16:35] The power of ordinary people to create change

[17:26] Why change often comes from pressure at the bottom

[18:33] The Epidemic of white fear of Black people in public spaces

[39:33] Internalizing stereotypes and internalized racism

[40:58] How John Blake let go of hostility towards white people after meeting his white mother.

[45:15] Creating spaces for people of different races and cultures to interact and change.

Guest Bio
John Blake is an award-winning journalist at CNN.com, the online site for CNN and an author. He has been honored by the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Academy of Religion, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Religion Communicators Council and with the GLAAD Media Award. He was most recently the winner of the 2019 Sigma Delta Chi awards for Excellence in Journalism for his online columns on race and politics. His 2020 essay, “There’s One Epidemic We May Never Find a Cure For: Fear of Black Men in Public Spaces,” was recently selected by Bustle Digital Group as one of the 11 best essays on racism and police violence. The other authors on that list included Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram X. Kendi, and Roxane Gay. Blake’s book, “Children of the Movement,” was a finalist for the 2005 NAACP Image Awards in the Outstanding Literary Work Non-Fiction category and a finalist for the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards. He has spoken at high schools, colleges, symposiums and in documentaries about topics such as race, religion and politics. Blake is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and a graduate of Howard University.

Simma Lieberman, The Inclusionist helps leaders create inclusive cultures. She is a consultant, speaker and facilitator and the host of the podcast, “Everyday Conversations on Race for Everyday People.”

Contact Simma@SimmaLieberman.com

Go to www.simmalieberman.com and www.raceconvo.com for more information

Simma is a member of and inspired by the global organization IAC (Inclusion Allies Coalition) https://inclusioncoalition.info

Lindy Hop is a dance that was born in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s — created and performed by African Americans in segregated clubs and dance halls. But today, one of the world's most vibrant Lindy Hop communities is in Sweden. So what happens when a Black American wants to learn the art form that she first encountered at the hands of her great-grandmother?

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It is probably the most radioactive word in the English language. At the same time, the N-word is kind of everywhere: books, movies, music, comedy (not to mention the mouths of people who use it frequently, whether as a slur or a term of endearment.) So on this episode, we're talking about what makes the word unique — and how the rules about its use line up with other words.

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In this conversation on race, I’m joined by my colleagues from the Brain Trust of the Shift Network R.A.C.E Project.

Rev. Doctor Aliah Majon, the Chief Inclusion Officer of the Shift Network enlisted Mike Alexander and me to join her in the R.A.C.E Project.

Aliah shares her experience as a Black woman who grew up in Detroit, how race and racism impacted her growing up, how she dropped out of high school, and then how she went on to get a double Ph.D.

Mike Alexander talks about his experience as a Black police officer who went on to become a police chief and shares stories of how he dealt with the racism he encountered.

Kapiolani Laronal shares her experience as an indigenous woman from Hawaii and the racism she has encountered in predominantly white schools.

 

Key topics:

[7:12] The R.A.C.E project and our role in making the world a better place. Our focus is on what we can do to dismantle racism, and the role that mind, body, spirit plays in individual change.

[11:08] Mike Alexander, former Police Chief and now acting Police Chief in Texas talks about the importance of creating psychological safety when talking about race and racism with people.

[23:23] How Mike has learned to self-regulate when he is confronted by racism and specific issues in the police department.

Racism on the part of police officers, and the impact it had on him.

[38:07] The importance of working with young people to dismantle the systemic racism embedded in the US throughout history 

[48:31] The work that Aliah has done with police departments around diversity, inclusion, equity, and race.

The importance of being curious and willing to learn and change.

Guests Bio

Rev. Dr. Aliah (she/her) is an evolutionary and racial healing champion who believes that we are meant to be engines of evolution. Her methodologies are informed by firsthand experience growing up in the inner city of Detroit and losing her only child to suicide, as well as three decades serving as a corporate trainer, facilitator, and educational consultant.

Mike Alexander earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. He earned a master's degree in Organizational Leadership from Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas. Mike has over 40 years in law enforcement which began as a Correctional Officer and Deputy Sheriff at the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

Simma Lieberman, The Inclusionist help leaders create inclusive cultures. She is a consultant, speaker and facilitator and the host of the podcast, "Everyday Conversations on Race for Everyday People." 

Contact Simma@SimmaLieberman.com 

Go to www.simmalieberman.com and www.raceconvo.com for more information

Simma is a member of and inspired by the global organization IAC (Inclusion Allies Coalition) https://inclusioncoalition.info 

 

This week marks the one year anniversary of a deadly shooting spree in Atlanta, where eight people were killed. Six of those people were Asian American. That violence came after Asian American organizers had been trying, for months, to sound the alarm over a dramatic spike in reports of anti-Asian racism.

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Gene Demby and comedian Hari Kondabolu are both new fathers, and they're both learning to raise kids who will have very different identities and upbringings than their own. It's left both of them reflecting on some big questions: How will they teach their children about race? What are the elements of their childhoods that they want to pass on? And what, exactly, is a father anyway?

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Figure skating has always been about flair and drama. But what happens on the ice is nothing compared to what goes on behind the scenes. This week, with the help of our friends at the Blind Landing podcast, we're telling the story of Mabel Fairbanks. Fairbanks was a Black and Seminole figure skater who spent her career training figure skaters of color — while navigating the complicated racial and social dynamics that characterized the sport.

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In this conversation on race, I’m joined by Jerry Fu. Jerry is a conflict resolution coach who helps Asian American leaders advance in their career and life journey. He's also a pharmacist. Jerry started coaching in 2017 to help other Asian American professionals deal with the conflicts they encounter at work with their culture and within themselves.

 

Key topics:

[1:33] Jerry Fu’s journey from being a pharmacist to becoming a coach for Asian-American leaders in  conflict resolution.

 

 

[8:35] How early in his career and life, Jerry was conflict-averse and had to become more assertive in every aspect of his life.

 

[10:53] Why he thinks it’s important to talk about race.

 

[12:00] Jerry’s comments and thoughts about the increase in attacks against Asian-Americans. He shares several times in his life when he was targeted for being Asian-American.

 

[22:23] Anti-Chinese sentiment and the fact that Asians are being attacked in different ways and blamed for Covid in the US.

 

[28:13] How he helps Asian-American leaders deal with conflict and his thoughts on the source of conflict aversion

 

[31:08] Fighting the stereotype of Asians as the “model minority.”

 

[33:00] What non-Asians need to know about Asian people

 

[34:03] The importance of recognizing that there is not just one Asian culture but there are different countries and cultures in Asia

 

[35:56] Stereotypes amongst Asian people towards other Asian cultures

 

Guest Bio

Jerry is a conflict resolution coach who helps Asian-American leaders advance in their career and life journeys. Having taken on several pharmacy leadership roles, Jerry started coaching in 2017 to help other Asian-American professionals deal with the conflict they encounter at work, with their culture, and within themselves.  

 

Prior to starting his coaching business, Jerry served as a pharmacist and began facilitating leadership workshops in 2012. Today, Jerry offers a range of coaching services, which includes individual coaching, group workshops, and keynote presentations. He has appeared on over seventy podcasts and plans to appear in plenty more. To learn more, you can visit https://www.adaptingleaders.com.