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Jason Kim and his father were once very close, but drifted apart after the family came to the United States from Korea. They drifted even further after Jason came out to his parents as gay. But after a health crisis, Jason and his father try to reckon with the silence between them. This week, a story about a family's hopes, dreams, and obligations, brought to us by the dope folks at WNYC's Nancy podcast.

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Key topics:

Block Chain for Social Justice

Resilient Wellness

Black female entrepreneurship

Racial and economic trauma

Diversity, Equity  and Inclusion in the Block Chain world

 

Daisy Ozim who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Lagos, Nigeria, is the founder Resilient Wellness, a co operatively owned healthcare system that provides holistic medicine and health education to marginalized and underserved communities.

 

She's also the director of Blockchain for Social Justice that uses Block Chain technology to uplift marginalized communities and eliminate poverty and close the wealth gap.

 

Daisy says it important to talk about race because racism is one of the biggest issues that we're facing in society as a whole.  It’s also important for us to talk about race because we cannot heal or address racism and  all of its manifestations if we don't have a conversation about it.

 

Her organization Block Chain for social justice is a collaborative organization and that focuses in three key areas,

• Block Chain developer training. Daisy helps people of color and people in lower income communities become block chain developers because they can make $250,000 to $400,000 a year

 

• Education and access that results in creativity

 

• Equity in the Block Chain community

 

Block chain technology can be used for social justice and to help low income and people of color or it can be used to further nefarious goals that hurt people of color.

 

She wants to ensure that people of color can generate wealth and protect themselves from economic trauma like the Black Wall Street Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Her public health work helps people physically, mentally and emotionally heal from racial trauma and internalized racism

 

Guest: Daisy Ozim

[caption id="attachment_965" align="alignleft" width="150"] Daisy Ozim[/caption]

 

Meet one of the people caught up in the Trump Administration's hard-line stance on immigration: Javier Zamora. He was living in the US legally under Temporary Protected Status but when the White House threatened to take it away, Javier went back to El Salvador to apply for a new visa. He didn't know if he'd ever return to the US, his home of nearly twenty years.

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This week, we're uncovering the stories behind three American Anthems. First, we hear from two musical greats about their respective versions of "Fight the Power." Next, we learned about the transformation of the children's choir staple, "This Little Light of Mine." Finally, we took a trip down "Whittier Blvd."

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Dr. Nika White

 

Dr.Nika White a thought leader in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion talks with me about race in South Carolina and her earliest memories of racism as an African-American woman. This is a very powerful discussion with real solutions.

 

Keypoints:

 

In order to have a meaningful conversation on race, across race, we need to be focused on cultural competence as opposed to being  “politically correct.” The emphasis on “political correctness,” hampers openness, listening to each other and can be a barrier to conversations on race and other differences.

 

There more kinds of privilege that need to be acknowledged and recognized. When privilege is not recognized, it can lead to bias, assumptions and biased behavior. At different times, different privileges are more prominent and have a more profound impact on people’s lives.

 

The point of talking about privilege is not to create shame or guilt but to have greater clarity in the conversation on race and foster more inclusion. Privilege is about the cards we are dealt that give people an automatic advantage in certain situations. Once we recognize our areas of privilege we can use those privileges to ensure equity and inclusion for everyone.

 

Diversity has a lot of layers beyond race; age, sexual orientation, socio-economics, etc. that need to be included in the conversation. For some people it’s easier if we begin by talking about the other dimensions and then talk about race.  Everyone must be included. If we don’t address issues of privilege we will not be able to stop racism.

 

White men can play a key role in change and creating opportunities for everyone else. There are great people of all backgrounds working in the diversity, equity and inclusion realm. It’s not just people of color doing it.

 

Nika shares a story of being in a meeting when a white man tried to shut her down. Another white man spoke up in support of her. Don’t wait for people who are the targets of biased behavior to say something. Speak up right away. We all need to play a role in building equitable workplaces and communities.

 

When people don’t see a problem when there is bias, they are perpetuating the problem.

 

[caption id="attachment_950" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Nika White[/caption]

Spit into a tube and get in touch with your ancestors! Or not. This week we're revisiting a conversation about DNA, and what it tells us about who we are.

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My guests were in this episode are Paoi Eulalia and Alessandra Stevens from MXD Magazine.

MXD Magazine is a publication that celebrates LGBTQ People of Color (POCs), non-conformists, and allies. Both Paoi and Alessandra are Filipino-American but represent different genders and generations.

 

One of their objectives is to fight racism masked as sexual preference, among other façades. Too often LGBTQ people of color are either objectified as exotic sexual objects or are totally invisible. We discuss the different ways LGBTQ people are seen as sex objects and not as real people.

 

MXD Magazine aims to celebrate and bring LGBTQ people of color deal with issues that concern them.

 

It’s still all too common that LGBTQ people are presented in the media as all white men. Not only are people of color in general missing from the conversation but also Transgender people who are most often targets of violence and discrimination are discounted.

 

Within the LGB community there is still a lack of education, bias and transphobia.  MXD Magazine is all-inclusive and features several people who are transgender. The magazine is still in its infant stages and most of the articles and features are male focused but by bringing in Alessandra and other women they hope to change that.

 

We discuss how the right therapy and therapists can make a difference in people’s lives for self-acceptance, internalized homophobia and transphobia.  Both Alessandra and Paoi see the importance of increasing the amount of LGBTQ therapists who are people of color and eliminating the stigma that some people still have regarding therapy. They each share their own experiences as to how therapy has helped each of them become the healthy emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

 

We agree that there needs to be more attention paid to intersectionality in the LGBTQ community in order to have the conversation on race and other differences. No one is just one identity, or just LGBTQ.  People are from different cultures, generations, religions, races, etc.  Those multiple identities can create commonalities and connections if we are willing to look at them. No conversation on race, gender identity, or sexual orientation can be meaningful without understanding intersectionality.

 

Resources mentioned in this episode

www.MXD.com

Paoi Eulalia   Publisher@MXDMagazine.com

 

www.RaceConvo.com

www.simmslieberman.com

@theinclusionist

Simma@sSimmaLieberman.com

A professor at the University of Texas San Antonio designed a college course based around episodes of the Code Switch podcast! In it, her students learned how to have tough conversations about race and identity, using Shereen and Gene as an example. But after an incident on campus involving the police made national news, their theoretical classroom discussions stopped being polite and started getting real.

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In our Season Three finale, co-hosts Celeste Headlee and John Biewen talk about where American culture goes from here, sexism-wise. And we hear from scholar Melvin Konner, who argues that we are in fact witnessing—and bringing about—“the end of male supremacy.”

Music by Alex Weston, and by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine.
Music and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

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We checked in with authors, poets and great literary minds to see what books they think everyone should read this holiday season.

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Reporter Julia Simon tells us about a radical miners' union in Birmingham, Alabama. It laid the foundation for civil rights organizers in the South, and holds lessons for the future of labor.

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LeRon Barton is a widely published author on race, mass incarceration and dating. He is    40 years old and African-American.

 

Key topics on the show are:

• The importance of white people having conversations on race with each other.
• What white people and other people can do to be allies
• When people not in the target group need to speak out against racist or inappropriate comments and when they need to not speak for people of color or members of a group being targeted
• Why too many white people are afraid to have a conversation about race with people different than them
• Times when Black people don’t speak up because they don’t want to be seen as the angry Black person , so they water their comments down
• How Obama had to walk a fine line when showing emotions
• Simma and LeRon disagree about Obama as a president
• Why we need more cross-race conversations about race that discuss solutions and not just talk
• LeRon and Simma disagree about South Carolina. LeRon thinks there is nothing good about South Carolina and Simma says that she spoke at a diversity conference in South Carolina and met great people. Also, South Carolina has had a lot of civil rights activism and you can’t put down everyone in a whole state. Can a whole state be racist? Simma says no.
• Solutions to racist monuments- should they be taken down, put in a museum or destroyed?
• How to handle the dangers of being Black in America today, and in particular being a Black man. LeRon wrote an article- on “Staying Alive While Black.”
• Is stand your ground and open carry only for white people?

 

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Host John Biewen dips into the world of sports talk radio, where guys talk not just about sports but also about how to be a man in twenty-first-century America. What John finds is more complicated than he expected, with revelations both encouraging and sobering. With co-host Celeste Headlee and experts David Nylund and Terry Real.  

Music by Alex Weston, and by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine. Music and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. 

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On this episode, we're hanging out with pups. First, is Kat's anxious dog Samson really just a little beagle bigot? Then, the author Bronwen Dickey and the political scientist Michael Tesler explain how the pitbull transformed from America's most beloved sidekick to a doggo non grata.

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Gene and Shereen talk to poet Denice Frohman, percussionist Bobby Sanabria, chef Marcus Samuelsson and comedian Ashley Nicole Black at Harlem's World Famous Apollo Theater in New York City.

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Precious Stroud- founder or the Black Female Project.org

 

Precious Stroud- Gen X Black Woman from Berkeley

Importance of story telling in communications

 

Important to talk about race because everything is racialized. She says race impacts everything in her life.

 

Impacts how society was set up. If someone believes another person is inferior based on color of skin, they won’t promote that person.

 

Economics doesn’t impact how long Black people live but it’s the result of racism.

 

She has been a friend with people from different races and backgrounds since she was in elementary school.

 

Her first experience with racism that she remembers was people not wanting to sit next to her little sister at Marine World because of how dark her sister was.

 

Jim Crow was not that long ago. Her great grandmother was first generation born free. Coping skills for being Black in the US were passed down and Precious has had to unlearn some of the fears for survival sake that she internalized.

 

She is working on just being herself instead of having to feel like she needs to take care of “white women,” so she will be accepted.

 

Precious started the Black Female Project to help Black females tell the truth about their experiences in the workplace. She always felt pressure to navigate and code-switch at work, which took its toll on her stress level and health.

 

She was hired at her last job for her talent and creativity, and then was told she wasn’t

“measuring up,”  and didn’t meet “their standards.” This is very common issue for Black women who are told they speak up too much, don’t fit in, or not meeting expectations.  In addition,  she later found out she was paid less than a white man at the same level.

 

It’s also common for Black people in organizations to not get feedback about their work, or areas for improvement until they get fired. When they ask why they didn’t get feedback before, their manager told them that they didn’t want to be seen as racist.

 

The Black Female project celebrates Black females in the workplace and to have them share their stories. Racism in the workplace contributes to autoimmune diseases and hair loss. Sharing their stories has been healing for all the women who participated. It is in-person, online and ongoing.

 

It’s important for Black females to speak up about racism and inequality.

 

Prccious talks about the myth of the “angry Black woman,” and how Black women are stereotyped that way any time they show emotion, disagree or speak up for themselves.

 

Her project is continues to grow. They are also starting the Black Teacher’s Project.

 

Check out BlackFemaleProject.org

 

Writer Ben James and his wife Oona are raising their sons in a progressive and “queer-friendly” New England town. They actively encourage the boys to be themselves, never mind those traditional gender norms around “masculinity” and “femininity.” All was well. Until the elder son, Huck, went to sixth grade. Story by Ben James, with hosts Celeste Headlee and John Biewen, and psychologist Terrence Real.

Music by Alex Weston, Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, Blue Dot Sessions, and Kevin MacLeod. Music and production help from Joe Augustine at Narrative Music.

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The news item about the shooting was bare: one man shot another 17 times in a dispute over drugs. The actual story — of a family that feared for its safety but who couldn't rely on the police for help — was far more complicated.

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Jada Imani, an Oakland, CA-based  MC, hip-hop artist, workshop facilitator, and founder of the Tatu Vision movement, is dedicated to helping co-create regenerative communities through her performing event production and hosting, healing practice, and coalition-building with communities of poets, Hip-Hop aficionados, entrepreneurs and Permaculture practitioners. She was born in Belleville, Illinois and spent half of her childhood in Illinois and Missouri.

Jada believes we are all influenced by race, and she thinks of leveraging her unique position of being from a mixed-race background to bring Black and White together.

Apart from sharing about Tatu vision activities, Jada shares her favorite cultural music mashups. Talking about Hip-hop culture, she points out the difference between a true hip-hop soul and gimmicky people. Disrespect to the hip-hop culture by such people brings a lot of disappointment to Jada.

Since childhood, Jada has loved music and gets inspired from every genre. She shares about how she uses music and performing to bring people together across race and make everyone feel included.

Talking about her experience of racism, her light skin attracts a lot of attention and has experienced painful comments from Black and White people.

According to Jada, a lot of millennials are more sensitive and interested in growth and liberation. But there is still hatred and racism among some of the young generations, most probably the effect of acquiring this hatred from their previous generation. Many of the white supremacists are millennials.

Jada says it most important to focus on your growth, peace, and love but also don’t avoid the crucial matters like racism!! It needs to be solved.

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Howard Ross and Tracy Brown- Experts on race, belonging, and all aspects of diversity and inclusion for over 25 years.
Howard is a white Jewish man and a baby boomer and Tracy is an African-American woman and a baby boomer.
Most people want to feel like they belong to something greater than themselves and being part of an environment where they can feel supported and connected.
Tracy started cross-race dinners where people talk about race, make new connections and new friends.
Tracy has facilitated dialogues about race and race relations in corporations where people were afraid to talk about race with each other.
She saw people drop their fear of each other and collaborate more.
Howard discusses the need for people who are in dominant groups to learn, understand and support people from non-dominant groups.
There are ways to have the conversation and make a difference without shame, blame and attacking people. That doesn’t make any positive changes.

Why people are afraid to talk about race

People of color are worried about repercussions in the work environment and in other environments if they speak up.
White people are afraid of saying the “wrong thing.”
Tracy asks, “do you want to be a diversity cop or diversity coach?”
While there are times someone might have to be a “diversity cop,” but we you really want change and transformation you need be a “Diversity coach.”
Howard Ross,”In organizations my job in diversity and inclusion is to be a facilitator, and not an advocate.” In his life outside of work, he is an advocate but if he’s an advocate in the corporate environment, he won’t be able to help facilitate change.”

At what point should someone be fired and at what point should they be educated?

Howard supports free speech. He asks, ”What is the intent? Do they just not know, it’s a one time incident that is not systemic. However, there are the incidents that happen over and over and need to be stopped.
There is a difference between what happened with Megyn Kelly and Juan Williams.
The Juan Williams incident was an example of extreme political correctness. He should not have been fired.
Tracy Brown,” Zero tolerance is inappropriate. It takes away opportunity for change, learning and increased understanding.

Key points:

• Recognize and share your blind spots- like when you become aware of your own bias or other people point out a bias to you.
• Know why this is important to you personally
• Seek solutions instead of just complaining about problems
• When you fire someone there is no way to hold them accountable for their behavior and they will take their behavior somewhere else. There is no one who will force them to behave differently.”
• White people don’t think about race all of the time, but people of color are always having to deal with racism and bias at different levels.
• No matter who we are, we can all say the wrong thing at different times.
• Be aware of the impact your words and actions have on other people. It’s really offensive when white people put their hands on Black people’s hair.
• As experts on diversity and inclusion, we have to be aware of how we “correct” or call attention to someone behavior that might be inappropriate
• Allow people to change and redeem themselves when possible
• Take time to listen and understand other people’s lived experience who are different than you
• Learn about privilege. Having privilege doesn’t make you a bad person but you need to understand what they means. White people don’t have to tell their kids to be careful when they’re driving and what to do when they are stopped by cops
• There are subtle ways that antisemitism shows up even when it’s not overt
• We have to learn and share the history of other ethnic and racial groups
• The conversation on race has to go beyond Black and White.
• Why it has mostly been black and white
• Because it has been the most prevalent
• No one is just one identity
• We are all intersections, race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
• Too often there is a misconception that all people of color have the same dynamic when dealing with race
• There is also a lack of understanding that not all Black people have the same experience
• A black person from Africa from an upper-class background doesn’t have the same trauma or history as someone who is African American and dealing with post traumatic slave syndrome
• When you fire someone there is no way to hold them accountable for their behavior and they will take their behavior somewhere else. There is no one who will force them to behave differently.”
• White supremacy, racism, anti-Semitism has been normalized and spread by the political climate and people at the highest levels
• Are we going to choose evil and hate, or are going to build a country of love and acceptance. We choose love, acceptance and responsibility and need everyone who feels the same way

[caption id="attachment_899" align="alignleft" width="150"] Tracy Brown[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_900" align="alignleft" width="150"] Howard Ross[/caption]