1 hr 33 min
Ep. 3: Conversation with Cortney Ritsema Hanging Question Marks
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- Society & Culture
This episode is a conversation with Cortney Ritsema. (Twitter: @CRitsem)
Cortney is my neighbor—and more importantly an activist, a mother, a clinical psychologist, and more. In this episode, we talk about political activism, Cortney's work over a decade ago as a counselor at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors," and finally the reopening of Chicago Public Schools in the fall.
If you want to jump around, here is a brief overview of our conversation with approximate begin times.
6:40 – Our conversation begins. We discuss how we met and Cortney's activism, including her work with the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns.
17:00 – We begin discussing Cortney's previous work as a therapist at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors"—immigrant children who are in the United States unlawfully.
57:40 – The conversation turns to how Chicago Public Schools is dealing with the COVID pandemic and CPS's plans for virtual instruction this fall.
1:22:00 – Mostly a rant about the economy and politics (for people who are into that sort of thing). You get to hear me butcher the GINI index (I spell it "ginny" in the episode) and basically confuse it with the happiness index. (See Wikipedia article on the Gini coefficient/index here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient; and info on the World and Happiness Report 2020: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/)
Things to Check Out (shared by Cortney):
Raise your Hand Illinois (https://www.ilraiseyourhand.org/) is a coalition of parents, educator's, and community members that engages, informs and empowers parents to protect and strengthen public education for all children in Chicago and Illinois, eliminate inequities in public schools, and work at the grassroots for the public good that is public education.
Here is the video that Cortney references in the episode. In the video, she talks about her experience working as a therapist at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors": https://www.facebook.com/LaVillitaSolidaridad/videos/2600880970169863/?extid=vSFifFqJ7RJKmbDS&d=null&vh=e
Becoming Better Beckys (https://www.facebook.com/groups/273580743477751/?ref=share) is a Facebook group that Cortney started 2 years ago. It's an online forum for white women who are ready to acknowledge their own aspects of "Beckyness" and begin to do the very difficult, but necessary work of addressing issues of white privilege, racism, and white supremacy.
Music for this episode: Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld
Episode art: Photograph by yours truly.
This episode is a conversation with Cortney Ritsema. (Twitter: @CRitsem)
Cortney is my neighbor—and more importantly an activist, a mother, a clinical psychologist, and more. In this episode, we talk about political activism, Cortney's work over a decade ago as a counselor at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors," and finally the reopening of Chicago Public Schools in the fall.
If you want to jump around, here is a brief overview of our conversation with approximate begin times.
6:40 – Our conversation begins. We discuss how we met and Cortney's activism, including her work with the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns.
17:00 – We begin discussing Cortney's previous work as a therapist at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors"—immigrant children who are in the United States unlawfully.
57:40 – The conversation turns to how Chicago Public Schools is dealing with the COVID pandemic and CPS's plans for virtual instruction this fall.
1:22:00 – Mostly a rant about the economy and politics (for people who are into that sort of thing). You get to hear me butcher the GINI index (I spell it "ginny" in the episode) and basically confuse it with the happiness index. (See Wikipedia article on the Gini coefficient/index here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient; and info on the World and Happiness Report 2020: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/)
Things to Check Out (shared by Cortney):
Raise your Hand Illinois (https://www.ilraiseyourhand.org/) is a coalition of parents, educator's, and community members that engages, informs and empowers parents to protect and strengthen public education for all children in Chicago and Illinois, eliminate inequities in public schools, and work at the grassroots for the public good that is public education.
Here is the video that Cortney references in the episode. In the video, she talks about her experience working as a therapist at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors": https://www.facebook.com/LaVillitaSolidaridad/videos/2600880970169863/?extid=vSFifFqJ7RJKmbDS&d=null&vh=e
Becoming Better Beckys (https://www.facebook.com/groups/273580743477751/?ref=share) is a Facebook group that Cortney started 2 years ago. It's an online forum for white women who are ready to acknowledge their own aspects of "Beckyness" and begin to do the very difficult, but necessary work of addressing issues of white privilege, racism, and white supremacy.
Music for this episode: Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld
Episode art: Photograph by yours truly.
1 hr 33 min