2 episodes
Whitewashed *Now With Milk!
-
- Arts
Meaningful progress is never easy, especially when it has to come from within. After the murder of George Floyd, our small Dallas based production company knew we needed to do things differently. We spent years making things for ourselves only to further our own friends and careers. Now, we’re gearing up to be actively anti-racist in all the things we create, imbuing equity into our process, telling diverse stories that include more people, and taking the burden of access of our collaborators/audience. WHITEWASHED is our documentation from being a shitty company doing nothing about injustice, to being a storytelling organization living the change we want to see.In this podcast, you are going to hear our journey with hard, uncomfortable conversations in brave spaces for growth. You’re going to hear how we come to the decisions we make about what work gets released, by who, and why. You’ll hear us connect with fellow community members and artists making work for social change.
-
Whitewashed Episode 2: F*cking Censoring Ourselves
In this episode, we tackle censorship. Censorship is a tough topic as it affects everyone on a deeply personal level. It has been used by white people to quiet BIPOC and those who don’t have power’s voices to create an environment where oppressed people have to choose their words wisely or risk offending white people. This facilitates a rift between employees, friends, and even other family members when talking about issues like racism, systematic racism, civil rights, microaggressions and so much more. This rift is present everywhere, even, as we found out, in our company.
From our first episode, there were arguments between Nioaka and Bryan whether to censor themselves or be fully candid about their feelings as BIPOC members on the issues that are important to them. We released the episode without the censorship, but this leads to an even bigger discussion.
We also have Hayden, a white member of our group, and Joseph, a white-passing BIPOC member, listen to the line in its context and get their honest reactions to it. We take a deep dive into their reactions and how BIPOC members should be allowed to be just as candid as white members. -
Whitewashed I : Unpacking Our White Organization, Now With Milk
In this episode, Nioaka Banuelos sits down with another producer & founder in Now With Milk, Bryan Oliveira, to talk about the history of the company and how we've fallen short at integrating diversity.
Joseph House, a fellow founder and company member, talks about how difficult it can be to share power and preconceived feelings around losing voice.
Nioaka and Bryan go on to talk about the steps Now With Milk is taking to be actively anti-racist as a creative company.