Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

In this week’s episode, we talk about the importance of affinity groups, which are spaces for people with shared identity to safely unpack dynamics around oppression. Though it may feel counter-intuitive, affinity spaces are actually important tools as we develop our liberatory consciousness. 

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com

Learn more about the Jews of Color Mishpacha Project at https://www.jocmishpacha.org/ 

Reflections/Discussion Questions:

1. Tracie and April begin discussing affinity spaces, particularly white affinity spaces to discuss dynamics around whiteness and racism. Have you been in these types, or other types, of affinity spaces? How was that experience? If these are new for you, what are your initial reactions?
2. April notes that affinity spaces are different from segregation, pointing out that we engage in affinity spaces all the time, for example, being in an all Jewish space. What affinity spaces do you find yourself in without realizing it? 
3. April explains the differences between a segregated space and an affinity space, hinging on oppressive dynamics and how they manifest or not. Segregation is inherently oppressive, while affinity spaces help to unpack oppressive dynamics. Do you understand the difference? Explain it in your own words.
4. Tracie uses the example of discussion antisemitic microaggressions at work and how Jewish and non-Jewish employees need specific spaces to discuss this. This is because affinity spaces help to prevent marginalized groups from being re-traumatized, like in explaining why antisemitism is harmful. How does this example illuminate the importance of these spaces? 
5. April reminds us that the oppressor group still may have been wounded somehow and affinity spaces allow dominant group members to be vulnerable. Why is this important? 
6. April talks about the evolution of interfaith affinity spaces and how they were originally created to discuss certain dynamics but then they were dissolved once they were no longer needed. How can this example serve as a model for the future? How is the experience of interfaith folks different from navigating racism (and it very much is)? 
7. April invites us to think about what other questions come up from this initial overview of affinity spaces. What other questions do you have? Submit them here! 

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

In this week’s episode April and Tracie reflect on Juneteenth and continue to think about how liberation from enslavement looked different for Jews and Black people. April also shares the ways in which the importance of rest from labour is an important lesson that resonated with her this Juneteenth. 

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/

Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com

Read more about April’s reflections on the sea never parting at Joyous Justice’s blog.

Listen to Season 2 episode 9: “The Sea Never Parted.” 

Listen to Season 2, Episode 7: “Exhaustion.” 

Read Vice’s report “Black People in the US Were Enslaved Well into the 1960s” 

Learn more about Watch Night.

See the Nap Ministry’s Juneteenth tweet about rest.

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

Ep 41 (S3E1): When You Overhear Microaggressions, Pt 2: Responding to a Question

One of our listeners posed an interesting question in response to a previous episode (39/Season 2, Episode 19: When You Overhear Microaggressions) asking, “What are good ways to respond when you hear racist microaggressions in general, not directed at anyone in particular or maybe the target is not around in that moment. I encounter this at work and don’t know how to respond.” April and Tracie share their own experiences and discuss strategies on how to respond. 

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/

Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com

Additional Resources:

Listen to Ep 39 (S2:E19): How Overhear Microaggressions here or watch the video version.

Learn more about Imani Chapman.

Read “Changing the World with Light AND Heat” by Itamar Goldminz. 

Learn more about Prof. Dolly Chung who created the model for the light and heat approaches to social change.

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

The feeling of being an outsider is an all too familiar one for most human beings. The experience of a Jewish person being made to feel an outsider in Jewish spaces is eloquently investigated by the Eli Talk by Rabbi Shais Rishon who goes by the moniker MaNishtana.

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/

Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com

Additional Resources:

Watch: MaNishtana’s Eli Talk: What Makes This Jew Different Than All Other Jews? Race, Difference, and Safety in Jewish Spaces

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

1. April and Tracie focus their conversation on MaNishtana’s Eli Talk which you can view at the link above. Watch it yourself, what were your initial reactions and takeaways. 
2. Tracie shares about her own experiences with being shut out or didn’t feel a full sense of belonging within their own Jewish community. When have you felt this similar feeling in reaction to gate-keeping? What are the microsoms of this similar to what Tracie describes in Baltimore between German and Russian Jews. 
3. April speaks to the root causes of this gatekeeping, including it as a reaction to intergenerational trauma around antisemitism. What do you think about this? How could this have served us  in the past but not in our current moment? 
4. Another potential root that April and Tracie discuss is that we may have some internalized antisemitism and that we can’t love our neighbor as ourselves if we truly don’t love ourselves in the context of White Supremacy Capitalism. What are the ways in which you may have internalized antisemitism? 
5. April asks what would it feel like if we got the healing we need and just enjoy and savory the diversity of our religion and our community? What would it feel like to you? What would that look like? 
6. April brings up MaNishtana’s point that we are a global people were originally 12 tribes that originated from Africa and West Asia, and now with globalization, we are a diasporic people made up of new types of tribes. April invites you to practice this thinking and framework to help bring ease to the antiracism work you are doing. How can you practice with this framework? How can you build this lens in a deeper way? 

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

Way back in episode 2, April and Tracie spoke about better alternatives to some of the micro-aggressive things white-identified Jews often say to Jews of Color. So what happens if you overhear someone else trot out a micro-aggressive question or comment? What can you do? What should you do? How can you interrupt the oppression without falling into saviorism? April and Tracie dig in to this question and offer some strategies for both disrupting the oppression and supporting the person on the receiving end of it. 

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/

Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com

Additional resources:
You can read more about what not to say to a Jew of Color in this Kveller article.
Go back and listen to April and Tracie’s conversation in episode 2

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW

April and Tracie take the time to unpack a phrase that often comes up when Jews Talk Racial Justice: "white supremacy." The phrase has entered the lexicon of individual antiracists and movements alike, but what exactly does it mean? April and Tracie define the term, investigate the discomfort it can generate, and riff on the ways in which discussing "white supremacy culture" may be a way to reclaim agency and power.

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com

Resources:
Baratunde Thurston's TED Talk
Tracie's 18 Days Exploring Racial Justice
More about Critical Race Theory
Read more about bell hooks from the bell hooks institute
Explore the life and impact of Audre Lorde
Racial Equity Tools
Jane Elliot's famous question to white folks
Characteristics of white supremacy culture as defined by Jewish scholar Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones (again, in a more visual presentation).
Another clear explanation of white supremacy and its history of violence, by Betita Martinez.
Robin DiAngelo unpacks the good/bad binary in this article
Amadou Diallo was an unarmed 23-year-old Black man who was shot over 40 times (19 bullets struck him) by New York City police officers in February 1999.
Learn more about Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist who has spent 40 years in jail after a trial that supporters claim was shoddy at best and unconstitutional at worst.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. April notes that different folks have different relationships to the term “white supremacy.” What’s your relationship to it? When did you f

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW
As the election season concludes, Tracie asks April for advice on working through the negative emotions that sometimes accompany justice work. The two friends unpack the ways we've been taught to associate anger or rage with justice work (and anxiety with intelligence), and April shares suggestions for achieving the positive effects of BOTH feeling your feelings AND cultivating joy and presence.

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director and Tracie is a senior partner: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at bmoreincremental.com

Resources for further learning:
Thich Naht Hanh on Dealing with Strong Emotions
Rabbi David Jaffe's book Changing the World from the Inside Out

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

How have you been emotionally during this intense election season? How have you been balancing rage and anger with joy? 

1. April shares some of the healing modalities that she has cultivated. What healing modalities have you developed to get you to the other side of tough emotions and to move you towards what you want in the world? 
   
   
2. We learn from April that anger and other “negative” emotions can help us clarify what we want. How might tough emotions and experiences pave a path forward towards your goals and a better world? Can you think of an instance when you’ve had this mindset?
   
   
3. In April’s practice, her anger is always honored and sacred. How do you honor your anger and hold it sacred? What do you do or tell yourself in these moments?
   
   
4. When do you find it easier to cultivate joy or relaxation while experiencing tense emotions? When do you find it more difficult?
   
   
5. April and Tracie bring up relaxation, curiosity, wonder, comfort, release, and relief among positive emotions like joy. Which ones resonate most with you and in which situations? Why?
   
   
6. Tracie pointed out that the phrase “It shouldn’t have happened” is not useful in tough moments. How does the language you use to shape how you navigate tough realities? How might it better shape the direction you’re going in?

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW
Even more than other episodes, you'll find yourself eavesdropping on this conversation. April and Tracie unpack the deep and intergenerational effects of shared trauma and oppression, and the ways either/or and hierarchical thinking can get in the way of healing.

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director and Tracie is a senior partner: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at bmoreincremental.com

Resources mentioned:
adrienne maree brown: http://adriennemareebrown.net/
Deray McKesson: https://deray.com/
Joy DeGruy: https://www.joydegruy.com/

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

All of our episodes have closed captioning.
Click here to access the audio version and transcript on Buzzsprout.

1. Tracie kicks off the episode by talking about the “Oppression Olympics” where different experiences of oppression are compared hierarchically. How does this idea of the “Oppression Olympics” sit with you? When are times you’ve played along or seen it happen and how does this make you feel? 
2. Tracie and April continuously are mindful of the times in which they perpetuate “either/or” thinking, which white supremacy culture requires and instead switch to a both/and mindset, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of a complex world. What are the ways in which “either/or'' thinking manifest in my life and impact my decisions? 
3. April reflects on the different reactions to antisemtic and racist attacks in each community respectively and what gets lifted up in that reaction. Keeping April’s thoughts in mind, when acts of anti-semitism and racism arise, how do I react? How do I process it?
4. Tracie and April discuss the ways in which antisemitism and racism are linked and interconnected within white supremacy. Think about how you would express this in your own words? How would you explain this to someone else? What do you need to learn more about to better articulate this link? 
5. What are the gaps in my knowledge as it relates to the history of chattel slvery in the United States, the history of the global Jewish diaspora, and other marginalized groups? 
6. April imagines if social workers had stepped in and pointed out the behaviors that a targeted group (ex Jewish people) developed in an oppressive, traumatic environment in order to survive, but in our present, no longer serve to protect us. What are some of those behaviors, both for your community (Jewish, Black, and/or otherwise)?
7. The pod

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW
April and Tracie discuss Robin DiAngelo's book, White Fragility. They unpack some of the courage and vulnerability it takes to both give and receive feedback around racism, and imagine a world in which it is safe to do both.

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director and Tracie is a senior partner: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at bmoreincremental.com

RESOURCES MENTIONED ON THE SHOW
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo: https://www.robindiangelo.com/publications/

DARVO as a pattern of gaslighting in response to allegations of abuse was originally introduced by Jennifer J. Freyd, Ph.D.: https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html

Brené Brown's podcast, Unlocking Us explores the importance of vulnerability: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/introducing-unlocking-us/

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Tracie begins the episode describing what white fragility is. If you are White, can you think of a time when you’ve reacted in this way? Moving forward, what do you intend to do differently if in a similar situation? If you are a person of color who has witnessed white fragility, how was it similar and different to what Tracie is describing? 
   
   
2. Tracie shared a story offered by Robin DiAngelo in which Robin received feedback from a Black colleague. In reflecting on this story, Tracie and April reflect on how vulnerable it is to both give and receive feedback. How do I react when I receive feedback? How do I give it? What power dynamics may be at play that I don’t realize in that interaction? 
   
   
3. Tracie mentions that Robin DiAngelo no longer has a Twitter presence and has faced criticism for her book, about which you can read here. Linguist John McWhorter, while he finds DiAngelo is well-intentioned, describes how he feels that her proscriptions she offers are actually racist themselves and do not respect the resilience of Black people. How does his analysis land with you? How can we both be aware of white fragility and take concrete, anti-racist actions in our institution to advance equity and justice? 
   
   
4. April describes in depth the internal questioning that she, as a Black woman, goes through when engaging in conversations with White folks and what their reaction might be to her. How can White folks do better at creating environments that alleviate these fears? 
   
   
5. April and T

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

Why do we sometimes find ourselves arguing over whose pain is the worst? What effect does that competition, also known as Oppression Olympics, have on us? How can we find an alternative to the very real impulse to argue? April and Tracie dig into these questions and more.

Heads Up! We are taking some time off in the month of May 2021. You'll be able to enjoy reprises of our favorite episodes every Thursday in May. New content will resume in June.

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director and Tracie is a senior partner: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at bmoreincremental.com

Resources mentioned:
April's blog post for Lilith Magazine, When Jewish Space Laser Jokes Help the Enemy

Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ)
HowToFightAntisemitism.com
IfNotNow
Bend The Arc

Cherie Brown on the intersection of racism and antisemitism.

Our previous conversation about Oppression Olympics.

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?