Redefining What it Means to be Racist

Photo by Brett Jordan

For this episode, I decided to do something a little bit different. There’s no guest for this one, it’s just me!

I wanted to record myself sharing my own thoughts and describing my own personal journey when it comes to three big ideas, three ideas I’ve decided to label as myths when it comes to understanding racism.

These are things I used to believe but don’t any longer, and these are things that I think previously limited not just my awareness of racism but also my ability to truly understand what it means to be antiracist, something I want to strive to be.

Here are some of the big ideas from the episode:

• 4:00 – I share the three myths.
• 7:15 – Equality and equity are not the same thing.
• 11:00 – There is no such thing as a race-neutral policy.
• 13:00 – I share why some people think requiring a driver’s license is a form of voter suppression.
• 19:30 – I share how Kendi defines “racist” and how I’ve adopted his definition.
• 25:30 – It only makes sense now to me that people of color can be racist.
• 29:00 – But, even though I think people of color can be racist, it is typically against other people of color!
• 35:00 – We should focus on policies that produce inequitable outcomes, not the behavior of individuals. And the same principle applies to the concerns of police brutality against people of color.
• 40:30 – I share about what it means to me to be brown and how people say Kamela Harris isn’t black, illustrating how our society is not colorblind.
• 42:45 – If we really want to be antiracist, we need a definition for racist. And it needs to be one that does not exclude ourselves.
• 48:00 – White people are not the only ones with power or ability to dismantle racism.
• 52:00 – I share my own thoughts about what it means to be antiracist and question what it looks like for me.

I hope you’ll give it a listen and find it interesting. And as always, I’d love to know what you think!