[un]phased podcast

This week on [un]phased, Shaunna and Lisa open our eyes to privilege. Privilege exists in many forms, but it is invisible to those who have it. The insidious nature of privilege is a result of systems built by people who wish to maintain power for specific groups. Thus, those systems do not support the needs of all, benefitting some and not others. Privilege is also contextual; our intersecting identities may grant us privilege in some circumstances, and take it away in others.

Acknowledging the ways in which we have identity privilege in our lives is not easy. It requires introspection, and the ability to sit in the discomfort of realizing where our privileges lie. But in doing so, we can start to create spaces with those who experience marginalization as a result of the privileges each of us holds. With a little humility, we can pull the proverbial curtain back and name the power at play.

Find the “Equality vs Equity” cycling infographic at https://fullframeinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/RWJF_bikes_equality_equity_PURPLE.jpg

This week on [un]phased Shaunna and Lisa are joined by a very special guest, Colonel Yvonne Spencer. Colonel Spencer is the first ever African American woman commander of the 819th Red Horse Squadron of the United States Air Force. She is also a multi-time Ironman finisher, triathlon coach, and founder of the Fast Chix Triathlon Club.

Together with Colonel Spencer, Shaunna and Lisa discuss the importance of addressing a person by their proper name and title -- until they give permission otherwise. Calling a person by their proper name and title is important; it shows respect and acknowledges them for who they are and what they have achieved. Conversely, choosing not to use someone’s title is disrespectful, especially when you don’t know the person. The intentional dropping of a person’s title is often used as a tool of oppression. It is a method by which those with power attempt to put someone (back) in their (perceived) place.

Shaunna, Lisa, and Colonel Spencer also talk about the importance of representation, and why it matters in both leadership and sport. If we never see anyone who looks like us participating in activities we are curious about, we may never realise those activities are achievable and accessible to us. Colonel Spencer highlights why having diversity in leadership positions, or “fresh eyes” as they say in the Air Force, is important to allow for greater representation of all groups in the places where decisions are made.

Shaunna and Lisa also give us an update on their micro-allyship challenge from last week. Send in your questions, comments, or micro-allyship examples to [email protected]

This week on [un]phased, Shaunna and Lisa are asking listeners to choose to see the unpleasant truth -- that systemic racism and injustice exist in our society, whether you feel it or not.

When we think about systemic racism in the United States, an analogy that comes to mind is from the movie The Matrix. In the movie, Morpheus offered Neo the choice between the red pill or the blue pill. The red pill revealed the unpleasant truth, while the blue pill would allow Neo to remain in blissful ignorance of the control the Matrix has over his life.

Shaunna contends that there have been many red pills offered to White people throughout U.S. history. One of the most recent was the filmed murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a captive audience during a world pandemic, many White people began to wake up to some unpleasant truths. Given the difficulty of talking about racism, antiracism, and systemic disenfranchisement, Shaunna fears that some White people may mimic her youngest son Kendrick and climb right back into bed, even after a long slumber.

Ignorance is bliss and ignorance is easy. But, once our eyes have been opened, there’s no way to “unsee” racial injustice. Lisa suggests that turning one’s head is complicit behavior. If we decide to go back to sleep, we have now turned a corner to willful ignorance, which is treacherous at best. Ignoring racism, sexism, ableism and other oppressive systems is certainly easier for those who have privileged social identities, but it makes us complicit in the marginalization and discrimination of others. Is complicity really a better option than facing the realities and pain of racism and other isms in our society? Shaunna and Lisa argue that it isn’t.

This week’s episode is dedicated to the memory of one of our sheroes, the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who passed away on September 18, 2020. We govern our lives and activism by one of RBG's many profound quotes: "Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time." We extend our sincerest condolences to RBG's family, friends, and supporters.

In episode four, Shaunna and Lisa discuss the differences between dismantling and demolishing systemic “isms”. Sometimes it’s hard to know if you should demolish a broken system or dismantle it brick by brick. Different situations call for different approaches. Shaunna and Lisa discuss what it means to dismantle instead of demolish, what systemic racism really means and how you can use questioning as a form of micro-allyship.

Important points:

- What is systemic racism? Beliefs baked into a system favoring and elevating one group (white people) over another (BIPOC).

- Systemic racism exists if you have to change the system to eliminate racist policies (e.g. a law that supports a company’s ability to destroy sacred indigenous caves)

- How easy it is to rationalize away systemic problems. For example, accepting something because “it’s always been that way” is really just systemic bias.

- What is micro-allyship? The small things you do to call out oppression, rather than calling out people. Asking probing questions, inviting someone to notice their own bias, and calling someone in starts the process of dismantling “isms”.

- How can we continue to interrupt oppressive behavior and what do those interruptions look like over time?

- Listen to the end to get action items to take into your life this week!

This week on the show Shaunna and Lisa discuss what it means to take up (too much) space. This is particularly important for folks with privileged identities to think about as they can, and often do, take up too much of it in places they don’t belong. This conversation comes in the wake of a George Washington University white associate professor’s disclosure in a Medium article she portrayed herself as an Afro-Caribbean woman (and North African, and Afro-Latinx, among others) for her entire career. By assuming this false identity, she took up space in a place where she should not have, and took away from the experiences of those who actually do belong in the black community. It was an act of white violence and betrayal. Shaunna and Lisa discuss the violence of her actions and the pain that remains. Although they may be less overt, we can face similar situations in our friend groups or triathlon clubs where a person with a privileged social identity is causing harm. In these situations, it is important we center the feelings and perspectives of those who have been hurt by these actions and collectively turn our backs to the people who are taking up too much space. In doing so, we can stand for the collective values of a group that does not tolerate oppression or violence, and work to keep those causing harm from dominating the narrative.

Read more about the reaction to this deception at:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-layered-deceptions-of-jessica-krug-the-black-studies-professor-who-hid-that-she-is-white

https://history.columbian.gwu.edu/our-statement-jessica-krug?fbclid=IwAR0FHdCrRdSdoNW79ZLMlerGa0h-icb7_fL35eRNw9iggxRuo1mn6WOEYi4

Today we are tackling the phenomenon of Nice White Triathletes. While these individuals may be well-intended, Shaunna and Lisa explain why just being “nice” is not enough to disrupt systemic racism in endurance sport, and in society as a whole. Niceness does not exempt us from dismantling racism. We learn how we can start to acknowledge racism, so we can see it as more than just white sheets, slurs, and bad behaviour. The fight for inclusion needs more than just nice people; it needs disruptors and loud voices standing up. As the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis said, Shaunna and Lisa encourage triathletes and endurance athletes to get into “good trouble, necessary trouble” in order to move toward meaningful change.

Welcome to [un]PHASED, an unabashed podcast designed to help you grapple with the reality of racism, sexism, ableism and many other hard-to-discuss issues affecting endurance sports, triathlon, and our lives. This is our inaugural episode in which our hosts Dr. Shaunna Payne Gold & Dr. Lisa Ingarfield speak to a live audience about staying upright in the face of resistance to change, and how jumping in at the deep end may not be the best approach to learning. We need a phased approach. But we also must be unfazed in our approach to facing these challenging issues. Shaunna and Lisa explain why it is important to start from the bottom to gain the proper language and understanding of the historical context of racism in our society before we can tackle the big issues. We are all swimming in the metaphorical “river” of a system that was built to benefit some and marginalize others, and it is time to start naming this system, so we can resist it.