White People Make Everything About Race

When we hear the word privilege, many of us envision a worry free life of sunshine and leisure, to many of us it implies coasting through life having our every need attended to. And, to most of us, it bears little resemblance to the daily challenges, worries, frustrations, and struggles that we know all too well.  Since the early days of colonial America, in order to maintain the capitalist system...

The Fifth Phantom of While Privilege is embedded deep within us, it is baked into our Sense of Self.  Those of us who are characterized and treated as white have the privilege of not thinking about race, how it impacts those around us, and the impact is has within us.  We are afforded the luxury of seeing ourselves as individuals, not as a part of a racialized group, and this creates the mental sp...

We can go about our day-to-day lives as people who are treated as white, and easily fail to recognize the subtle ways that bias and prejudice show up when others face it, when we unintentionally perpetrate it, and and when our own path may be cleared through its absence.  White privilege delivers us the assumption that we will be accepted wherever we may go, that we have a right to be wherever we...

Despite the bootstraps myth. We all rely on society’s systems and structures in some way to access opportunity. Our social systems — from health care to education to banking and transportation — are not natural or organic. The have been designed. And the design of those systems produces the outcomes that we get.  And, by any measure, the outcomes we see in today’s America are deeply out of step wi...

This episode we’re going to take a deep dive on the second of our Five Phantoms of White Privilege, and that phantom is the way that whiteness has been continually centered in the story of America. It’s the way whiteness is core to the story we tell about our world: past, present, and future.  This is about cultural representation, how it is controlled and how it shapes expectations, and then how...

For those of us who are identified as white, life appears to have less friction if we don’t acknowledge that privilege exists. But multiple forms of privilege and power are always present, in every situation and every interaction. Privilege is not binary. It is not yes or no. So let’s move beyond a simple definition of white privilege as the money that comes from mom and dad. Let’s start with inhe...

Since the fall of the Confederacy, maybe the most shocking and enduring example of national policy rooted in racial discrimination is the practice of government sponsored redlining.  I learned about redlining when I was 22, and it has forever changed the way I’ve viewed my community and our country.  For me it was the beginning of a deeper understanding of how place and opportunity have been racia...

In the Virginia Colony, a social and economic system centered on the elites was intentionally racialized to keep it that centered on the elites. Racial anxiety was manufactured and then it was stoked to keep people divided. Fast forward to the present day, and we continue to see the way this system is refreshed and reconfigured, and how it continues to keep the focus on individuals and not the bro...

White privilege. Does it exist? Is it a lie?  With the unfairness and rage many white people are feeling;  the broad legal and cultural attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion that are happening throughout the country; and with white nationalism and increasing support for white supremacy being normalized, in this season of White People Make Everything About Race, I want to talk about white pri...

Hi everyone and welcome to a preview of our new season of White People Make Everything About Race. This season is going to take a different format from last time. Last season I had some incredible guests who came on the pod to share their own stories of navigating whiteness and what it means for how we see the world and ourselves within it. Since then that world has continued to shift -- and so ha...

In our final episode of season 1, we welcome Dr. Joanna Shoffner Scott.  Joanna is an experienced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant with expertise in racial equity and she is the founder of Stamey Street Consulting Group.  Her specialty is getting organizations “unstuck” in their equity journey. In my experience working with Joanna, this means well meaning organizations turn to her when...

On this episode we are joined by Tema Okun.  If you’ve been involved in anti-racism, racial justice, or DEI circles, you’re probably familiar with some of her work, even if you don’t know her name. In our conversations we’ll touch on some of these.  When we speak about “The Article” we’re talking about The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture” article that she first wrote in 1999, and has si...

On this episode, we welcome McKay Chamberlain. As Principal Consultant at Adaptive Equity Solutions, McKay advises organizations and national policy networks on centering equity and inclusion in their organizational practices as they work to strengthen their commitment to racial justice.  Before becoming an organizational consultant, McKay served as the President and CEO of Kansas Action for Child...

On this episode we welcome Dr. Paula Dressel. Paula is the Vice President of JustPartners, Inc., and the former Director of Planning, Research, and Development at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Paula’s first career was as a Professor of Sociology and an administrator at Georgia State University in Atlanta.  Paula is an original member of the Race Matters Institute . Through the Race Matters Instit...

Welcome to the first episode of White People Make Everything About Race . In season one we’re going to be speaking with racial equity and justice practitioners, people who have had a direct focus on supporting and encouraging others to take a race informed approach to their work and how they show up in the world. This episode’s guest, Erin Heaney, is the Executive Director of Showing Up for Racial...

This is a pod reflecting on the year that has passed since the white supremacist massacre in Buffalo, NY.  It's by a white guy, primarily directed toward other people who are identified as white.  In the coming week you will likely, and rightly, see many articles, posts, videos, and more about this heavy anniversary.  If you have time for only one, I suggest you choose one by an author, creat...

Welcome to White People Make Everything About Race: a podcast for well-meaning white people trying to make sense of their own racial identity. See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com

This show asks the question: what does it mean to be well meaning and white in a society that has failed to fully address racial disparities? Like most people I know, I believe some pretty simple things about the way society should work. I believe that every person and every family, regardless or how they look, where they live, or what their starting point is, should have a fair chance at opportun...