MY MY MY!!!! This is your host Tre Borden, and I don’t know about you but after the last few days, weeks, months and years of so much upheaval and ridiculousness, culminating with last night’s nail-biter of an election, I AM TIRED. So many of us have been working tirelessly fighting against racism and inequity, and meanwhile have had to do whatever possible to provide safe environments for our families and communities during a global pandemic.

We have created an episode to give you a taste of what meditation and healing looks like alongside some instruction on how to create a practice for yourself. We are so fortunate to have two amazing women of color who are creating more visibility for Black people in the healing industry and who are promoting wellness within the BIPOC communities.

Leah Barros and Jazmin Hicks are going to take you through a healing session to relieve stress, reconnect and restore balance as we recuperate from one of the most stressful periods in modern history. They will also provide information on wellness practices and how to build capacity in your life for your own healing and emotional and spiritual vitality.

For much of this podcast we’ve been focusing on elevating the voices of BIPOC and progressive leaders who understand the daunting but worthwhile task of striving for an equitable society. Given our limited time and resources, and the near constant battle against exhaustion and dismay, it is justifiable to focus one’s energy on the people who already understand what needs to be done and leave the people on the other side or who couldn’t care less one way or another to their own devices. It is also unfair for BIPOC people, who for so long have shouldered more than their share of the burden in the fight for racial equality to have to endure convincing white people why this is a vital priority for our society.

That all being said, we just experienced an election which was a referendum on the direction our country was headed under Trump, and a bewildering 77 million+ people for four more years of his leadership despite all we’ve seen during this administration. The overwhelming majority of those people are white, and in fact the majority of white people voted for what can arguably be called an unprecedented regression into a divisive, racist and anti-equality America the likes of which we hoped not to see again.

What to do? While it is tempting to write those people off as lost causes who don’t deserve our time, it is very difficult to imagine a country or a world that has embraced the changes many of us consider essential while so many of us continue to ignore and fight against an appropriate recognition of these issues. Going further, if we want to create a world without racism it is simply impossible to do this without white people being at the center of this transformation. It is very difficult to admit, but there needs to be a significant and successful effort to bring people together, across a seemingly uncrossable chasm of mistrust and disdain, if we have any hope of seeing a better world.

To discuss this we invited Aja Davis and Molly Ola Pinney, co founders of the Facebook group White People Doing Something. The interracial couple began the group to engage white people in productive conversations around race and engagement after the George Floyd murder, and it has grown into a very robust group of 40,000 doing daily actions around engaging white people in difficult conversations and giving them the tools to create change in their communities. They discuss their philosophy with host Tre Borden in this week’s episode that gives us some food for thought about the many approaches that are necessary to create a world where racism does not exist.

Guests:

• Qween Amor - Activist, Performance Artist, Nurse
• Omega Chuckii - Training and Outreach Manager, Oakland LGBT Center
• Ebony Harper - Advocate, Philanthropy Consultant, Activist

It is so important to use this platform to center voices and perspectives that don’t get nearly the focus and visibility they deserve especially those who represent communities under attack. Fewer communities are more threatened or marginalized than the Transgender community. Despite huge strides in cultural visibility via shows like POSE and prominent trans activists entertainers and even politicians in recent years, Trans people are still the most likely group to encounter violence and the least likely to receive justice. When you talk about Trans people of color at the intersection of a racist and transphobic society, it is even grimmer. Despite judicial victories at the Supreme Court and recent legislation in California, the Trump administration’s assault on Trans people and the newly minted conservative majority on the Supreme Court make clear many of these gains are fragile and in peril.

But that is not the whole story. Trans people are some of the strongest, most generous, most hilarious and aware people there are, and I think it is a fitting time to give them the floor to explain how they are interpreting the world right now. Qween Amor, Omega Chuckii, and Ebony Harper represent the best of activism, indomitability, humor and the knowledge of real shit that allows people to take care of themselves and others. This is the best episode we have produced, and I encourage you to listen to the ENTIRE EPISODE and get your life.