We've talked a lot of bout community lately on the Swingset, and while we've specifically made the point that it's not enough to talk about diversity but to take action to seek it out, we've done a poor job of acknowledging that diversity includes diversity of racial background and we've contributed to a deafening silence around people of color in our communities.

We invited Ms Pomegranate and Mr BLK, two Baltimore, MD kink and sex educators, to join us to specifically discuss kink communities and and to discuss the experience of people of color in kink communities. Together, we hit what it can mean to feel ignored or erased when attempting to integrate into a community. We acknowledged that people of color have an extra threshold of acceptance. We discussed what makes communities safe, and what we can do to reach out and make communities feel safer to people of color and as a result, everyone. We discuss people who exploit safe spaces, and discuss what happens when an entire group takes a negative stereotype on behalf of a single bad actor. We touch on racial fetishes, assumptions surrounding them, and how without consent, racial fetishes dehumanize their targets, and how people can switch from fetish to racism as soon as they don't get what they're looking for.    

If you're attending Woodhull's Sexual Freedom Summit on August 6th, Mr BLK and Ms Pomegranate are presenting on Different Shades of Kink: Questions of Diversity in Sex Positive Lifestyles (#SFSShades) and giving rope demos throughout!

Leave us a comment on this post or at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 573-55-SWING (573-557-9464). Find Cooper on Twitter @CooperSBeckett, Dylan on Twitter @DylanTheThomas, and Ginger on twitter @GingerNTheProf.You can find the self-described wonder twins Ms Pomegranate and Mr BLK on twitter @BlkPomegranate and on their website www.theblackpomegranate.com.

Life on the Swingset takes over Desire 2016: Make Desire Great Again.

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Today's podcast featured music from Haywyre: Sculpted, from the Two Fold Pt. 1 Album, and from Stephen Walking: Claptrap, and from Noisestorm: This Feeling.

Cooper S Beckett Ginger Bentham Dylan Thomas