Be Better Today

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 67) – Racial Justice: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Today’s show notes are a near-verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

Welcome to the Be Better Today quickcast, I’m your host, Pete.

Today’s quote is a deep, candid look at how it is difficult to find the right phrasing when talking about race and racism, especially in the United States, because of the total destruction it entails. The quote comes from author Ta-Nehisi Coates who said:

“But all our phrasing—race relations, racial chasm, racial justice, racial profiling, white privilege, even white supremacy—serves to obscure that racism is a visceral experience, that it dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscle, extracts organs, cracks bones, breaks teeth. You must never look away from this. You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regressions all land, with great violence, upon the body.”

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

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The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 66) – Racial Justice: Chris Rock

Today’s show notes are a near-verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

Welcome to the Be Better Today quickcast, I’m your host, Pete.

Today’s quote on racial justice comes from actor and comedian, Chris Rock. Mr. Rock’s take uses vivid imagery with his trademark wit to get his point across. And I quote:

“We treat racism in this country like it’s a style that America went through. Like flared legs and lava lamps. Oh, that crazy thing we did. We were hanging black people. We treat it like a fad instead of a disease that eradicates millions of people. You’ve got to get in a lab, and study it, and see its origins, and see what it’s immune to and what breaks it down.”

That is something to think about.

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

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SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 65) – Racial Justice: Ibram X. Kendi

Today’s show notes are a near-verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

Welcome to the Be Better Today quickcast, I’m your host, Pete.

Thinking about racial justice can be uncomfortable. The usual narrative around racial justice must change – and change is also uncomfortable.

One voice that is rising with new perspectives around racism is that of Ibram X. Kendi. Mr. Kendi offers up a different perspective with this quote from an article in The Undefeated:

“We have been taught that ignorance and hate lead to racist ideas, lead to racist policies. If the fundamental problem is ignorance and hate, then your solutions are going to be focused on education, and love and persuasion. But of course [Stamped from the Beginning] shows that the actual foundation of racism is not ignorance and hate, but self-interest, particularly economic and political and cultural.”

That is something to think about.

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

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SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 64) – Racial Justice: Barack Obama

Today’s show notes are a near-verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

Welcome to the Be Better Today quickcast, I’m your host, Pete.

Today’s quote on racial justice comes from the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. Here he is helping to put context around the phrase and movement of Black Live Matter. He says:

“It’s important for us to also understand that the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ simply refers to the notion that there’s a specific vulnerability for African Americans that needs to be addressed. It’s not meant to suggest that other lives don’t matter. It’s to suggest that other folks aren’t experiencing this particular vulnerability.”

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

That Wine Pod

FatMan Chronicles

SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 63) – Racial Justice: James Baldwin

Today’s show notes are a near-verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

Welcome to the Be Better Today quickcast, I’m your host, Pete.

We continue our path of exploring racial justice quotes. Today, we listen to the words of American novelist and activist, James Baldwin, who wrote:

“Well, if one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected—those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most! —and listens to their testimony. Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person—ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it. It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

That Wine Pod

FatMan Chronicles

SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 62) – Racial Justice: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today’s show notes are a near-verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

Welcome to the Be Better Today quickcast, I’m your host, Pete.

Every day this week I have thought about the great Martin Luther King, Jr. And every day I have thought about his famous, groundbreaking, and ever-relevant “I Have a Dream” speech.

Today, I want to read two excerpts as reminders that the work we must do is difficult and necessary, and that hope for a better future rings as true today as it did on August 23, 1963.

The first quote says:

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

And the second quote says:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

With that, I say, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

That Wine Pod

FatMan Chronicles

SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 61) – Racial Justice: Sally Kohn

Today’s show notes are a verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

Today’s topic is about the role of white people in racial and social justice. To explore this aspect, we turn to a quote from political commentator and community organizer, Sally Kohn, who said:

“I think racial justice - and addressing the sick and enduring legacy of structural racism - remains one of the greatest challenges of our time, and one that's particularly important for more and more white people to speak up about.”

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

That Wine Pod

FatMan Chronicles

SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 60) – Racial Justice: Ijeoma Oluo

Today’s show notes are a verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

Today’s quote on racial justice is a modern take on the subject. It is important to bring the concept of being an anti-racist into the discussion.

To do this, we turn to New York Times best-selling author, Ijeoma Oluo, who said:

“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.”

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

That Wine Pod

FatMan Chronicles

SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 59) – Racial Justice: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today’s show notes are a nearly verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

As we said in previous episodes, this week’s quotes on racial justice will largely stand on their own. There is nothing we can offer to enhance these powerful words.

Today, we return to the greatest voice in civil rights of all-time, Martin Luther King, Jr., who said:

"With patient and firm determination we will press on until every valley of despair is exalted to new peaks of hope, until every mountain of pride and irrationality is made low by the leveling process of humility and compassion; until the rough places of injustice are transformed into a smooth plane of equality of opportunity, and until the crooked places of prejudice are transformed by the straightening process of bright-eyed wisdom."

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

That Wine Pod

FatMan Chronicles

SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved

Episode Notes

Be Better Today (Season 2, Episode 58) – Racial Justice: Michelle Alexander

Today’s show notes are a nearly verbatim transcript because we believe the subject warrants it.

We continue our examination of racial justice quotes today. As stated previously, I will refrain from any opinion or insights, letting the quote speak for itself.

Today’s quote comes from writer and civil rights activist, Michelle Alexander, who said:

“The fate of millions of people – indeed the future of the black community itself – may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society.”

Now, let’s get out there and #bebettertoday!

Be sure to check out The No Fear Project on Facebook.

This episode’s sponsor:

Anchor

Check out our other podcasts:

The No Fear Project

That Wine Pod

FatMan Chronicles

SUPPORT the Be Better Today podcast through The No Fear Project on Patreon!

The Be Better Today podcast, The No Fear Project, and Paragon Media are committed to helping those with mental illness get help and to defeating the stigma. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or suicide, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline for help now at 800-273-8255. Remember, you are not alone.

Be Better Today is a production of Paragon Media.

Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved