boost: Seeing White — A Podcast About US Racism

[jesse_the_k]

I’ve just finished the Seeing White podcast. It’s fourteen 30 minutes episodes that examine how the identity and power of Whiteness was created in the U.S. It’s great. I learned so much! The episodes are around 30 minutes long, with contributions from historians, artists, community activists. It’s not about making me feel bad as a white person: it’s about helping me understand how deeply chattel slavery is still present in our society, in our laws, in our distribution of wealth and power.

The fundamental takeaways are:

• Racism is not about individuals, or especially about how we feel.
• Racism is a structural issue.
• The negative stereotypes that surround us are not the cause of racism, but the result. By claiming black people are less important and less human, the US has justified 400 years of slavery, exclusion and murder.
• Whiteness serves a function in the US. Over the last 400 years, our laws have repeatedly refined what "white" means to control who has power.

There’s a complete transcript for each episode, as well as links to supplemental readings.

Unfortunately, it’s a little tricky to grab the audio. The easiest way to listen is through the producer’s link, sceneonradio.org/seeing-white. It’s the second season of a four-year program called Scene on Radio. Search for "seeing white" in your podcasting app, and you’ll see it listed as Season 2, episodes 1 - 14.

Episode 1 in Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Comments

[cynthia1960]

Thank you.

[runpunkrun]

Thanks for sharing your thoughtful review!

[juniperphoenix]

I saw your post on my Network page and am going to give this a listen. Thanks for the rec!

Cool!

[jesse_the_k]

I’d love to hear your thoughts — positive or negative or ... — when you have a chance.