Our Dirty Laundry

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This is our first Local Laundry minisode and we're starting in Atlanta. With heavy and very angry hearts, we discuss the latest act of white-male-supremacist-terrorism and murder in Atlanta last week and why we need to educate ourselves and watch our reactions to the news coming out of this latest incident of AAPI hate crimes. Then Katy teaches us about the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906. We've mentioned it before, and we will keep getting deeper into this framing of "protecting white women virtue" leading to horrific violence and crimes against minorities. This is one truly awful example of that nonsense. 

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The 19th Amendment passed in 1920, but, as one of the few things we probably do remember from history class, that definitely wasn’t the end of the fight for voting rights. And although we learned the names of the prominent women of the suffrage movement (leaving out their racism and classism, of course), we didn’t hear much about the actions of white women in the years after suffrage “won.” In this episode, we discuss where white women got involved in the movement against voter suppression, where they didn’t, and why both were problematic. There were some efforts to be more inclusive of Black women in parts of this effort, but the old white woman habits of capitulating to white supremacy were still around. We’re not shocked anymore, but we’re still disgusted. 

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The whole world is talking about it, so you better bet we have something to say! We break down the royal racism Dirty Britches style.  We discuss how you can't win in a system built on your oppression no matter how well you seem to do, why Kate can and should speak up (even though we know she won't), and how Sharon Osbourne pulled out all of the white lady tropes for her cringe-fest breakdown on The Talk. Plus, is it a brooch or a broach, and why the hell does anyone wear them anyway? There's a whole lot of dirty britches in Britain. Guess the American apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 

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In our last episode, we discussed Carrie Chapman Catt and her (blatantly racist) leadership in finally passing the 19th amendment. Today, we interview a current and former student at Iowa State University, involved in activism to rename a building on ISU campus named after Catt. The conversation, however, reaches far beyond Iowa and Catt herself. Wesley Harris and Allan Nosworthy gift us their experience and knowledge in community building, collective leadership and lifelong activism. We were honored to talk to them and inspired by their work. 

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It's Women's History month and in this minisode we are honoring and learning about the first female Chief of the Cherokee nation, Wilma Mankiller. Shout out to Myisha T. Hill and her awesome group, Check Your Privilege, for putting her on our radar. We highly encourage you to follow @ckyourprivilege on Instagram and sign up for Myisha's amazing courses to advance your anti-racism journey. We get awe-inspired by the incredible journey of Mankiller and her community strengthening and building work and then we contrast it with super-buzzkill and current South Dakota governor Kristi Noem. If Mankiller is our inspiration for good and worthy work, Noem is the cautionary tale of modern day white lady fuckery. So listen up today, and then keep learning and uplifting the stories of Brown, Black, Asian, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, trans, and differently-abled women and femmes throughout this month and always!

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We cross the virtual finish line to the 19th Amendment...but, in an ending that will surprise no one by this point, the women we all learned about in history class got to the end of this race by tripping their fellow runners and erasing the contributions of those who paved the way for this eventual, partial victory. We learn you can't trust anniversaries penned by white women, and that it's about damn time to rewrite history. 

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Taking a deeper dive into the dirty laundry basket of Jane Swisshelm. Often venerated in history as a feminist and abolitionist, Jane was also a down and dirty racist. Her anti-Native American writings and beliefs are frankly nauseating. Katy teaches us about the US-Dakota war in 1862 and Swisshelm's response and her continued demonization of Native people even as she worked for women's rights and the abolition of slavery. Jane deserves her spot in history, but not as a hero, rather a study of human contradiction and how we all should reflect on our own behaviors and beliefs. Even when good contributions are made, if damage is not acknowledged, let alone redressed, it lurks and it rots. Dirty. Laundry. 

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We take our discussion of suffrage to the end of the 19th century! It might take us as long to discuss this topic as it took to actually get the 19th amendment passed.  Main takeaway from this episode: whyte women really don't get intersectionality. (Listen, I had to google it when I first heard the term - I suggest you do the same). But basically, we took our one-issue concern -- get the vote -- and said a big "sorry, maybe later" to basically every other concern out there, but especially to the topic of racism. Before anyone gets apologetic about "well, that's the way it was back then..." Stop. Stop right there. As you will learn, these women knew what they were doing. They had a choice to make and they made the wrong one. It's a choice we are still dealing with, over 120 years later.

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Alright Chris Harrison, we know what you're going to say, "Do the woke police have to ruin everything?" Well, yep, sorry, Goldilocks sucks and we're here to tell you why. The stories we tell matter and we need to be better at taking a critical lens to the values they impart - implicitly or explicitly. They stick in the subconscious part of your brain, and the next thing you know, you're grabbing someone's breast when you come out of anesthesia. (Just listen, it all comes together.)

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We are honored to talk to Sally Roesch Wagner: author, professor and activist. A renowned historian of the suffrage movement,  at first glance she looks like your sweet, soft-spoken grandma - but only if your grandma also has an FBI file and drops f-bombs! Come gather some wisdom and gain a friend. SRW is a fierce delight!