“Seeing White” is a fourteen-part series that is part of the Scene On podcast. Initially airing between February and August of 2017, John Biewen, along with regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika and an array of leading scholars, deeply explore questions of racism, on both individual and systemic levels. Issues like police shootings of unarmed African Americans, acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists, the renewed embrace of undisguised white-identity politics, and racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring — all of these things feel new, but in truth, it’s all part of an older story. Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for? Bonus: John Biewen is from Mankato, MN, which makes listening along feel that much closer to home.
Note: this podcast is available at the link above, and it is also available on Apple Podcasts and a wide variety of other podcast sources.
Just Mercy — Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson tells the story of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office he founded in Montgomery, Alabama. The book presents several of their cases and the work they have done to challenge death penalty convictions, and the practice of sentencing children to die in prison. Stevenson illustrates how our justice system can too often be used to perpetuate racial injustice, and his story also serves as a powerful reminder that a small group of dedicated people can bring about positive changes. Learn more at justmercy.eji.org.
1619: New York Times — Nikole Hannah-Jones
1619: a podcast from the New York Times, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, January 23, 2020
Four hundred years ago, in August 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed. “1619,” a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, examines the long shadow of that fateful moment.
Note: this podcast is available at the link above, and it is also available on Apple Podcasts and a wide variety of other podcast sources.
The Case for Reparations — Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Case for Reparations, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, June 2014, in The Atlantic
This article outlines the history of racial oppression in the US, and the resulting economic consequences that have affected Black communities for decades. Coates describes how a national discussion about economic reparations would also lead us through a reckoning of our country’s history and ongoing racial disparities.
13th — Ava DuVernay
13th — Ava DuVernay, Netflix, 2016
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.
Note: this documentary is available with a Netflix subscription, and it is currently available on YouTube and through Ava DuVernay’s website for free.
