Just Tea Sundays by Come Abide Here

The great Fredrick Douglass was asked to give the Fourth of July oration at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall on July 5, 1852.

Noting the paradox of being an escaped slave asked to speak of freedom when he, himself could be returned to enslavement, he asked the question, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?”

Douglass’s question introduced a scathing indictment of the hypocrisy that defined the character of the United States as it declared liberty and justice for all while engaged in the massive crime against humanity of enslaving African people and their descendants (not to mention dispossessing indigenous peoples of their lands, liberties, and lives).

On September 22, 1862, just over 10 years later, President Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation that declared enslaved people in the Confederacy to be free as of January 1, 1863.

Enslaved people in Texas were not informed of their free status until June 19, 1865 when Union troops rode into Galveston Bay, Texas and delivered the news. The enslaved people of Texas were the last to know that they were finally free. This day became known and celebrated as Juneteenth in African American communities.

In June, 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Juneteenth finally came to national prominence in the United States. Nearly 170 years after Fredrick Douglass asked the powerful question, what is the Fourth of July to the American slave, we ask the question, what is Juneteenth to the American White person?

Our guest is Graham Salinger. Graham is a mediator, coach, and restorative justice practitioner who founded Salinger Coaching Solutions. His goal as a coach is to empower managers and their teams in the face of challenges impacting their work culture, morale, and performance.

Graham has run programs for juvenile offenders and school-based restorative justice projects as well as for public and private sector groups such as members of the Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity volunteers, and city employees.

He also sits on the board of a foundation working to strengthen opportunities for women and children in Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda through education, farming and small businesses capacity building.

Graham has a BA in Political Science and an MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution.

We welcome you to Come Abide Here. Come Hungry/Leave Transformed.

Today we are delighted to welcome our guest, Emily Roh, to Just Lunch Live.

Emily is an antiracist coach and facilitator, and she brings 15+ years of experience in education and human development to her work.

As the founder of My Invisible Knapsack, LLC. Emily focuses on helping individuals and organizations heal from internalized white supremacy and reconnect to their humanity.

Emily is known for being empathic, highly intuitive, and deeply reflective, and strives to embody her values of compassion, authenticity, courage, and integrity.

On today’s show, Emily will share with us how she was inspired to start her practice, how she coaches her clients to heal from internalized white supremacy, and we’ll even get a demonstration as she coaches Bathabile on the show! You’ve got to see this.

You can learn more and contact Emily at myinvisibleknapsack dot com.

We invite you to Come Abide Here. Come Hungry/Leave Transformed.

My Invisible Knapsack – Antiracist Coaching and Consulting Services https://myinvisibleknapsack.com/

Please join us to observe the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.

We’re going to talk about Racial Intelligence for White people and how it is necessary if we are to keep up the passion for racial transformation on a societal scale that flourished in the wake of his death.

We invite you to Come Abide Here. Come Hungry/Leave Transformed.

If you have trouble understanding the “systemic” in systemic racism, (or just want to know more about it) be sure to join us for this show. Today we are thrilled to welcome the legal scholar and professor emerita of law Beverly Moran. Professor Moran is a leading tax scholar, winner of numerous awards, and author of numerous publications who joined Vanderbilt Law School’s faculty in 2001. She is the first African-American woman to be granted tenure at the law school. She also was a professor of sociology at Vanderbilt.

Tax day just passed for most people in the United States so we thought this would be a great opportunity to talk about how the U.S. Tax Code is not only a way to achieve social engineering but also serves to strengthen structural racism. Our conversation will help to expose the “structure” in structural racism, that part of racism in the United States that many White people often struggle to see and understand. Come Abide Here. Come Hungry/Leave Transformed.

We are so excited! Today’s topic is based on a question from a viewer. We love getting questions from our viewers so please send us a message with any question that you have.

We meet many well-meaning people who want to express their desire to rise above prejudice and embrace people who are different from themselves.

One of the ways many White people try to do that is by saying, “I don’t see color”. But for many People of Color, there is a visceral negative reaction to hearing that.

Today we talk about what it actually means to many People of Color when you say, “I don’t see color” and we suggest ways to express solidarity that are more inclusive and affirming.

In this episode of Just Lunch Live we address 5 reasons why White People celebrate when BIPOC “overcome” racist barriers and what that actually means. We will tell you why we have put “overcome” in quotation marks and discuss what White people can do instead. Come Abide Here. Come Hungry/Leave Transformed.

The moment that news of a verdict in Derek Chauvin’s trial for killing George Floyd broke will be seared in the memories of millions of people around the world. For just over an hour millions were joined in a combination of hope and dread of the outcome.

The experience of waiting for the verdict gives White people a glimpse into the experience of waiting for justice that People of Color in general and Black people in particular have done for centuries in the United States. It is that bated-breath feeling of anxiety and trepidation seasoned with a dash of hope against a systemic pattern not-guilty verdicts.

People of Color endure repeated blows to expectations of fairness, justice, and a balancing of power that are inherent in the collective psyche of the People of the United States. That collective ongoing experience of violence, and the perpetual experience of being wronged that accompanies it, inflicts chronic communal trauma that results in substantive and substantial damage to people marginalized according to race. It also makes brutes of those who benefit from it.

And yet there is one thing People of Color most certainly are not expected or allowed to be: Angry.

On April 14, 2021, Charles M. Blow, an opinion columnist for the New York Times, wrote in a piece titled “Rage Is the Only Language I Have Left”:

“A society that treats this much Black death at the hands of the state as collateral damage in a just war on crime has no decorum to project. That society is savage. . . . I’m sure that pain and trauma are present in me, but I’m choosing to subjugate their import. Rage has ascended to my position of primacy. America scoffed and was unmoved when, for years, we spoke out of our pain. So be it. Now, rage is the only language I have left.”

What are the long-term effects of having to suppress rage in the face of violence that cloaks itself in truth and righteousness? Why is the verdict not enough? Corregan Brown returns to examine these questions with us.

The collective pain that many communities are experiencing in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and Derek Chauvin’s trial for committing it provides a chance to reveal and give honor to the place and function of religion, faith, and the church in Black communities.

Today Corregan Brown will join Bathabile to talk about what the Black church has meant to Black folk in times of trouble, historically and in the present day. Corregan is a technologist, blogger, and an occasional musician, poet, and pundit. He writes about race, politics, faith, and current events.

He grew up at the edges of the Black church, spent some time in Reformed Calvinist theology, and now makes his way down a rocky path that occasionally shows signs pointing toward Jesus.

Our special guest today is Dr. Chris Pernell. Bathabile got her first dose of the COVID vaccine yesterday but not without some trepidation. While many people in general feel nervous about getting the vaccine, for many Black people the prospect is downright frightening.

Experiences of medical racism in the United States and elsewhere in the world have left many Black people and other people of color wondering whether they can truly trust the scientific community and the medical system.

From enslaved Black women being used as medical guinea pigs to develop the field of gynecology to the Tuskegee studies and the birth control studies in Puerto Rico, to the Mississippi Appendectomy and the HeLa scandal, to everyday indignities at the hands of White doctors with strange prejudices, no wonder faith in the medical system is troubled in many BIPOC communities.

Join us to gain clarity on the issue, understand why the COVID vaccine is safe and necessary, and to learn how you can contribute to making a difference. Come Abide Here. Come Hungry/Leave Transformed.

What are your Black friends hiding from you about their experiences with race and racism? Join us today as we touch on 5 things your Black friends are probably not telling you about racism and how you can use your awareness to make things better.