What Do You Mean By That?

Latest Episodes:

188: The Thread Collectors Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

Have you ever had your eyes glaze over when someone hands you a history textbook or walks you through a museum full of facts and dates? But then you hate yourself because you are smart and yet don't feel like you *know* things? I've been that person (it's Sara here) - which is why I'm absolutely thrilled to share this conversation with the authors of a fabulous historical fiction novel that taught me SO MUCH about American history and the Civil War in particular. We learned so much in reading this book, in particular about experiences that were never taught in school, or were glossed over in favor of a simpler narrative.

The book is The Thread Collectors - go get it from our Bookshop.org page for the Dear White Women podcast - and it was written by two friends, a Black woman, and a White Jewish woman. Think about how much weight there is just in that partnership alone.

This conversation takes us deep into belonging, the lessons we learn from history that are SO relevant today, and the hope we all still have for where we can go from here.

What to listen for:

Where the authors, who weave a graceful tale of hope through war, find inspiration and hope today
How the authors' own family histories inspired their characters, writing, and perspectives
The authors explain their opening epigraph, "If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from," how they selected the stories and histories they featured, and why understanding this history is relevant to where we are in society now
What it was like, and what it took, for a Black woman and a White Jewish woman to write a novel together about the Civil War

About the book: THE THREAD COLLECTORS is set in 1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier, and a brilliant musician. Meanwhile, in New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. Between abolitionist meetings, Lily rolls bandages and crafts quilts with her sewing circle for other soldiers too, hoping for their safe return home. But when months go by without word from her husband, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him. As the two women risk everything for love and freedom during a brutal Civil War, their paths converge in New Orleans, where an unexpected encounter leads them to discover that even the most delicate threads have the capacity to save us.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: ALYSON RICHMAN is the USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of several historical novels, including The Velvet Hours, The Garden of Letters, and The Lost Wife, which is currently in development for a major motion picture. Alyson graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in art history and Japanese studies. She is an accomplished painter and her novels combine her deep love of art, historical research, and travel. Alyson's novels have been published in twenty-five languages and have reached bestseller lists both in the United States and abroad. She lives on Long Island with her husband and two children, where she is currently at work on her next novel. Find her on Instagram, @alysonrichman.

SHAUNNA J. EDWARDS has a BA in literature from Harvard College and a JD from NYU School of Law. A former corporate lawyer, she now works in diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is a native Louisianian, raised in New Orleans, and currently lives in Harlem with her husband. The Thread Collectors is her first novel. Find her on Instagram, @shaunnajedwards.

187: The Case for Physical Education In Every School Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

When you think of physical education, or PE, or gym class - what do you remember? Probably the physical side of it, like jump rope or pull-ups or dodgeball or kickball. But what blew our mind in today's conversation is all of the seemingly invisible, yet intentional, ways PE class teaches us about social interactions, our own capabilities, deconstructing perfectionism, and more - and frighteningly, how so many schools in the US now don't mandate PE, as it's a class that's having to fight for its right to exist in the education system.

As we kick off the new 2022-2023 school year, listen to what we'll be missing out on in our next generation if we don't start thinking about what and how we teach our children.

What to listen for:

Why PE is important - especially when it goes beyond the measurements and into being a social laboratory
How resistance shows up in physical education, and how to address it
Helping children navigate the difficult or uncomfortable conversations that play out in spaces of play
The privilege Sherri feels of being a Black American woman living in Europe

About Sherri: Sherri Spelic teaches elementary physical education at an international school in Vienna, Austria. She has written extensively on topics related to education, identity, and power and among other things publishes a monthly social justice newsletter for educators: Bending The Arc. Check out her book of essays, Care At The Core or find her on Twitter @edifiedlistener.

Feed title: From A Slight Change of Plans: Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges

Feed description:

I'm sharing a special episode from another podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, from Pushkin Industries. In this preview, civil rights icon Ruby Bridges shares what it was like to be the first African-American student to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana in 1960. Ruby was just six years old at the time, and it would be years before she fully appreciated her role in advancing civil rights in America. Hear the full episode, and more from A Slight Change of Plans.

186: Reaganomics, Student Debt Relief, and Racism Are All Linked Sep 27, 2022

Show notes

Nothing to kick off this next episode like a fiery title, right? But in case it makes you question whether you'll hit play, please know that this isn't your typical economics podcast, nor is it going to be so dry that you turn this off 5 minutes into listening.

That said, it IS crucial for you to listen if you want to understand how policies that were made now 40 years ago are still directly affecting us to this day – plus, it gives you a sense of just how important it is to consider who our representatives are, and how you're going to vote in the midterm elections coming up in 2022.

So buckle up - economics may never have been so interesting.

What to listen for:

Our cyclical history: power being consolidated in the hands of a few rich White folks, and then being redistributed, and then consolidated again
Challenging the myth of the cowboy who was painted as a hardworking White man who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone to work out his own future
The clearly racist things President Reagan said and believed - and how that played into his (in)famous economic policies
The dissolution of social safety nets, and how that plays into the recent student debt relief - and society's reactions - from the Biden administration

For more on the GI Bill, listen to Episode 88: Fighting Both Hitler and Jim Crow: Honor Our BIPOC Veterans

185: Democrats used to be Republicans - WHAT? Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

The 2022 Republican Party would have never been able to back Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate - except for one tiny detail: Lincoln was a Republican, and espoused the original beliefs of the Republican Party (down to the anti-slavery, committed to equality part).

So how did we get from Lincoln's Republican Party to today's Trump political base?

Who were the Whigs?

What do we mean when we say Southern Democrats?

Why does this cycle of money and power keep reappearing on the political stage, over and over again?

If those are some of the questions you have - or even if those are questions you've never thought of asking yourself, but you realize that somewhere, someone made some changes to how we define political parties in this country, and it's important to understand just how far the 2022 Republican party is from those original Republican ideals - then this is the episode for you.

It's like US History all over again, except more engaging, more relevant, and it includes stuff you'll actually remember… hopefully long enough to go vote.

What to listen for:

What the two original American political parties were (hint: Republican wasn't one of them)
Why the Republican Party was formed, and the two ideals that held it together
How the Republican Party and Democrat Party switched ideologies over time, but how it was really Truman and Johnson, two Southern Democrat Presidents, who pushed that ideological change through their pro-civil rights stances (which weren't even that extreme at times)
What we can do with this information from a practical perspective: go vote, and get loud.

184: Do the Work with W. Kamau Bell Sep 13, 2022

Show notes

Someone very smart sent me an article just today that talks about the role of humor when we deal with stressful situations/anxiety-creating moments. And on that front: have any of you (and in this moment, I think we're specifically talking to White people) ever felt weighed down by how heavy anti-racism work can be? You maybe noticed that sometimes we're pretty serious on this show…

Though I'm a serious, overthinking person sometimes, in real life I'm goofy and I actually make fun of myself quite a lot, texting photos of myself in awful workout outfits to you, you have the driest sense of humor of all the people I know except for your husband like we're not that dry.

So what do you all think about listening to about 15 minutes of one of the funniest activist-comedians out there today - hearing how HE, a funny guy, might explain what might be great for White women to do in this work, how to process how tired we all are, and what crocheting has to do with it.

What to listen for:

Why understanding the history of the United States is important to understanding where we are today
What Kamau Bell would tell White women on the whole - including how if we had the same energy for anti-racism that we had for coordinating our kids' summer camps, we would be there by the end of the summer, maybe?
There's no issue of oppression in this country that hurts White people that doesn't connect back to really really hurting the Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, and Latinx populations

W. KAMAU BELL is a dad, husband, and comedian. He directed and executive-produced the four-part Showtime documentary We Need To Talk About Cosby, which premiered at Sundance. He famously met with the KKK on his Emmy-Award-winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, where he serves as host and executive producer. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CBS Mornings, MSNBC's Morning Joe, Comedy Central, HBO, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, WTF with Marc Maron, The Breakfast Club, and This American Life. He has two stand-up comedy specials, Private School Negro (Netflix) and Semi-Prominent Negro (Showtime). Kamau's writing has been featured in Time, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN.com, Salon, and The LA Review of Books. Kamau's first book has an easy-to-remember title, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. He is the ACLU Artist Ambassador for Racial Justice and serves on the board of directors of Donors Choose and the advisory board of Hollaback! Along with Kate Schatz, he's the co-author of Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book. For more information, please visit: http://www.wkamaubell.com/, or follow W. Kamau on Twitter here and Instagram here.

183: Do the Work, with Kate Schatz Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

In all of this anti-racism work, have you ever had a time when the fear of making a mistake kept you from speaking up? It's not every day we get to interview a NYT bestselling author who's willing to share how she's made mistakes so that you know we ALL mess up from time to time.

A huge hello and welcome to author Kate Schatz - author, activist, educator, and queer feminist mama who's been talking, writing, and teaching about race, gender, social justice, and equity for many years. She's also an incredible person who wrote a blurb in support of our book and showed up IN PERSON to host our Dear White Women book launch tour in San Francisco!

If you've got kids, go buy her Rad Women book series, and now, go buy the workbook she co-authored with next week's guest, Kamau Bell - it's called Do the work: An AntiRacist Activity Book. Which I just found in the library too! But it's much better to buy your own copy so you can write all throughout it. Listen in to learn about what she's hearing from White women, what sorts of mistakes she's made - especially White women, listen up, we all make mistakes! So get over it and GO DO THE WORK - and listen to how you can use this workbook in your own life.

What to listen for:

What pushbacks Kate hears from White women
Some mistakes Kate has made in "the work" of anti-racism
Why it was important to include dialogue between the co-authors in each section of the book
Kate's thoughts on what people can start doing immediately after buying the workbook

KATE SCHATZ is an author, activist, educator, and queer feminist mama who's been talking, writing and teaching about race, gender, social justice, and equity for many years. She's the New York Times-bestselling author of the "Rad Women" book series, (Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide, Rad Girls Can, and Rad American History A-Z), and her book of fiction Rid of Me: A Story is part of the cult-favorite 33 ⅓ series. Along with W. Kamau Bell, she's the co-author of Do the Work: An AntiRacist Activity Book. For more information, please visit: https://www.kateschatz.com/, or follow Kate on Twitter here and Instagram here.

182: What Can I Do to Be More Anti-racist? The Not-a-Checklist Checklist Aug 30, 2022

Show notes

Over the last 3.5 years, we've had this weekly podcast (now on episode 182!), we've written a book (Dear White Women: Let's Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism), and we've spoken with many different people at many different organizations. Meaning, we've heard and learned a lot of things.

With a few exceptions, our sense is that people *want* to be seen as good people; they say they *want* to be more anti-racist. But despite their best intentions, some things get in the way of you actually *doing* something to make positive change: You don't feel like you know enough, you don't want to make a mistake, and so you don't feel like you know what to actually do.

So this episode is meant as a kick in the pants at the end of our summer of action, to give you a LOT of ideas. Listen through and if something sparks your interest or speaks to you, write it down; remember it; come back to it and DO it.

Listen for tips on what you can do at your kitchen table, your workplace, the voting booth, with your money, at your kids' schools if you have kids, and more.

And then the best thing you can do? Share this episode with a friend - and let us know what you think!

Related episodes:

Episode 139: Vote for Humanity

181: How A Single Judge from Texas Controlled US Immigration Policy Aug 23, 2022

Show notes

You might be tired of hearing about the Supreme Court taking away people's rights - but the process behind how SCOTUS does that is important, as depending on the results of the midterms, we may be seeing this more, and with a much wider scope.

For example, do you know what SCOTUS did about immigration in July? And if your response was "Wait, what?" then this episode is for you. Tune in to hear about that decision (which stemmed from a Texas judicial challenge to the Biden administration), what that means for immigration policy in general, and how you can take action.

What to listen for:

That the Executive Branch (i.e. President) is meant to control immigration policy - and how people who were mad at the Biden administration's shift in policy got back at him by suing and letting a Texas judge curtail their ability to direct their Department of Homeland Security staff
How SCOTUS's decision goes against decades of precedent around immigration policy in our country, which balances enforcement with mercy
What you can do about this - including learning the history of our immigration policy; voting; telling people about what SCOTUS is doing ahead of the decision in 2023; supporting organizations that do the work at the border to uphold humanitarian efforts.

Related Episodes:

Episode 36: The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend - about Miller

Episode 27: Recognizing the Humanity in Everyone - about Hispanic Heritage Month and immigration

180: What We Did To Native American Kids - Federal Boarding Schools Aug 16, 2022

Show notes

In our book, we talk about the federal boarding schools that were just for Native American children - and by boarding schools, we mean that the U.S. government rounded up Native children over the course of 150 years (!!), separated them from their parents and often took them hundreds of miles away… and often times, those kids never came home.

If you haven't heard that story (which is fairly common, given the erasure of the Native narrative in this country), this episode is for you, because without understanding this history, you won't understand how we are where we are now with over 570 federally recognized Native American Nations within the United States - while most people we hear say they're not sure they've ever spoken with a person of Native descent.

For more, go buy our book, Dear White Women: Let's Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, and make sure you're following this podcast for more!

What to listen for:

How last year, Deb Haaland, who is the first Native American woman to hold a Cabinet office position in the US government (she's Secretary of the Interior), commissioned the first ever report on the Federal Indian Boarding School System
How the government coerced Native families into sending their kids (it really wasn't a choice), and the (horrific) conditions the children experienced in the schools - including the discovery of many unmarked graves
What questions have yet to be answered, what you can do about sharing history like this including in your kid's schools, how you can respect the Native lands you currently live on, and participate in reparations.

Click here for the full report.

Listen to our episode with Crystal Echohawk here.

179: Fancy Asians, Jungle Asians, and the Model Minority Myth Aug 09, 2022

Show notes

Have you ever been that kid who tugged at the corner of your eyes, pretending to be Asian, or maybe even mocked people of Asian descent? In today's episode, Sara shares the story of when a little neighborhood boy did that to her.

Sure, there might be some sweeping generalizations you can make about Asian people - a lot tend to have dark hair, more almond-shaped eyes - but the truth is, in America, people who fall into the broad bucket of "Asian" have among the largest differences of all the large groupings like White, or Black, or Hispanic. Asians are NOT all the same.

So today, we'll discuss all the basic things you need to know about the model minority myth - NO we are not all good at math nor do we all play the violin - and what you can do differently to make sure you're not that person.

For more, go buy our book, Dear White Women: Let's Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, and make sure you're following this podcast for more!

What to listen for:

When and how the concept of a model minority was created
The things that are wrong about the model minority myth
Three things you can do differently: catch yourself if you make assumptions about Asian people; don't ask "where are you really from?" and know why that's not okay; learn more about the many different narratives of Asian countries and people.

Related episodes:

Episode 107: We have a White accountability problem

Episode 112: Asians at (Public) School, with Alan Mak

Episode 113: Anti-Asian Racism Ain't New, People

Episode 115: Asians at Work, with Jerry Won