White People Make Everything About Race White People Make Everything About Race

In our final episode of season 1, we welcome Dr. Joanna Shoffner Scott. 

Joanna is an experienced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant with expertise in racial equity and she is the founder of Stamey Street Consulting Group. 
Her specialty is getting organizations “unstuck” in their equity journey. In my experience working with Joanna, this means well meaning organizations turn to her when they are trying to get started or they are having trouble turning the corner to get to real change.

With her organizational focus, we’ll talk quite a bit on this episode about race in the workplace. Fittingly enough Joanna has podcast by the same name, which you can find at raceintheworkplacepod.com. 

That podcast is focused on DEI practitioners. It’s full of tactical, practical, and actionable advice, as well as insights from other practitioners, and a good helping of emotional support for navigating equity work. 

If you have ever heard the trailer for the White People Make Everything About Race podcast, you’ve heard me say that everyone faces challenges, but not everyone’s challenges are the same. That phrase is one that I learned directly from Joanna. 

It’s one of the reasons I enjoy working with her: her ability to go deep into the structures and constructs that perpetuate racial inequity, but then to also make things very concrete and relatable to people’s everyday experiences, and to do it with empathy and understanding.

Just like the edge where personal meets professional, the edge where systems meet self is a difficult and sticky place to be. 

Hopefully this interview will help get you a little unstuck.


See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/podcast

On this episode we are joined by Tema Okun. 

If you’ve been involved in anti-racism, racial justice, or DEI circles, you’re probably familiar with some of her work, even if you don’t know her name. In our conversations we’ll touch on some of these. 
When we speak about “The Article” we’re talking about The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture” article that she first wrote in 1999, and has since reinterpreted as a website that you can find at whitesupremacyculture.info. 
When we speak about her book, we’re discussing “The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching about Race and Racism to People Who Don't Want to Know”. 
When we speak about “the Ladder”, we’re referencing the ladder of empowerment from white people, which she describes in her 2006 article “From White Racist to White Anti-Racist the life-long journey.” She’ll also mention the corollary piece developed with her colleagues at DismantlingRacism (or drWorks) for people of color. 
However, Tema’s humility is both apparent and telling.  As she speaks to her own growth and ongoing development, the underlying context of what really matters and what should be important through the lens of her values continues to shine through. 
See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/podcast

On this episode, we welcome Annie McKay.

As Principal Consultant at Adaptive Equity Solutions, Annie advises organizations and national policy networks on centering equity and inclusion in their organizational practices as they work to strengthen their commitment to racial justice. 
Before becoming an organizational consultant, Annie served as the President and CEO of Kansas Action for Children (KAC), the executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth and a former Rockwood Leadership Fellow, Sunflower Foundation Advocacy Fellow, and was appointed to the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and the Governor’s Education Council.
Throughout our conversation, Annie will touch on many turning points in approaching their work, and how not even racial equity, but just racial awareness can be a struggle for both individuals and organizations. 

We’ll talk about breaking through or moving beyond the shame and guilt that this can surface, and instead working toward a place of productive and supportive action. 
See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/podcast

On this episode we welcome Dr. Paula Dressel.

Paula is the Vice President of JustPartners, Inc., and the former Director of Planning, Research, and Development at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Paula’s first career was as a Professor of Sociology and an administrator at Georgia State University in Atlanta. 

Paula is an original member of the Race Matters Institute. Through the Race Matters Institute, she has teamed for more than 15 years to help advance the racial equity aspirations of organizations and networks across the United States.

In this episode she’ll share some insight on her phrase that racial equity is urgent life long work. 

She’ll speak the continual development of her own racial identity and how she  has tapped into both her own experiences as well as a wide array of external resources.
See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/podcast

Welcome to the first episode of White People Make Everything About Race.

In season one we’re going to be speaking with racial equity and justice practitioners, people who have had a direct focus on supporting and encouraging others to take a race informed approach to their work and how they show up in the world.

This episode’s guest, Erin Heaney, is the Executive Director of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), organizing in majority-white communities to bring millions of white people into multi-racial movement. 

You’ll hear Erin talk about her own growth and development and you’ll also get a chance to hear her speak about the network of over 150 local groups that SURJ has developed and how predominantly white poor and working class, even and particularly in rural and Southern communities are critical to racial justice. 

She’ll also touch on how overlapping systems of racism and oppression have intentionally divided people from each other and their own self interests, and even their ability to form meaningful relationships.



See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/podcast

This is a pod reflecting on the year that has passed since the white supremacist massacre in Buffalo, NY. 

It's by a white guy, primarily directed toward other people who are identified as white. 

In the coming week you will likely, and rightly, see many articles, posts, videos, and more about this heavy anniversary. 

If you have time for only one, I suggest you choose one by an author, creator, or host that is Black or African-American whose community was directly targeted and impacted. 

If, after hearing from folks whose voices should remain in the foreground, you are still wondering how to live into your values in the face of encroaching white supremacy, please listen in.
See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/podcast