We need to talk about whiteness podcast

Ep 53: Whiteness and healing - Amartey Golding is a multifaceted contemporary artist whose work centers on themes of humanity, healing and identity. His new touring Solo Show at the V&A 'Bring Me To Heal' looks to the restorative work undertaken by Rasta (and many other) communities dealing with intergenerational trauma and in a radical shift, applies these same techniques of context, accountability and compassion to the White British experience. He joins me to talk proximity to whiteness, white trauma and how his faith influences his approach to healing.

Ep 52: Whiteness and Black Consciousness - Lewis R. Gordon is an Afro-Jewish philosopher, political thinker, educator, and musician, & Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at UCONN-Storrs in the United States. Author of several books, he joins me to talk about Black consciousness, whiteness as narcissism, radical love, and his latest book “Fear of Black Consciousness”.

Ep51: Whiteness and the curriculum - Ben Mearhart is a former joint- headteacher and the senior lead for Education Standards at The Black Curriculum, a social enterprise that aims to deliver black British history across the UK by providing a curriculum and free resources for schools to teach students about Black history. He joins me to talk about getting 'comfortable' talking about race, countering white narratives and the challenges in forging a more relevant curriculum for the new gen.

Ep50 - Whiteness and air pollution: Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is a BreatheLife Ambassador and founder of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation, based in London. Rosamund became a clean air advocate after her 9-year-old daughter, Ella, died in 2013 from a rare and severe form of asthma. Rosamund spent several years campaigning for a second coroner's inquest into Ella's death to determine whether it was linked to air pollution. In a landmark decision in December 2020, the coroner ruled that it was. Ella is now the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on her death certificate. Rosamund is a teacher in schools and lecturer at universities. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association and was named among You Magazine's 21 Most Extraordinary Women of 2021, British Vogue's 25 Extraordinary Women of 2021, The Times' Green Power List 2021 and BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour's Power List 2020. She joins me to talk about why we don't all breath the same air and honouring Ella's legacy in challenging the toxicity we don't see.

Ep49: Whiteness and colourism - Dr Dionne Taylor is a Senior lecturer at Birmingham City University where she teaches Sociology and Black studies and is the MA Black Studies Course leader. Dionne’s research looks at the lived experiences of young Black British women’s interpretation and engagement with representations of Black womanhood and she was recently in conversation with Little Mix’s Leigh- Anne Pinnock for her BBC documentary “Colourism and Me”. She joins me to discuss the roots of colourism, representations of blackness - and whiteness, and THAT Little Mix controversy....

Ep 48: Whiteness in Art - Adelaide Damoah is a British-Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist, who uses investigative practices spanning painting, performance, collage, image transfer and photographic processes, to interrogate colonialism, spirituality and intersectional feminism.

Since her debut exhibition ‘Black Brits’ in 2006, she has exhibited in shows nationally and internationally from Lagos to Cannes. She is a founding member of the Black British Female artist (BBFA) Collective and a co-founder of the Intersectional Feminist (INFEMS) Art Collective, and in 2019, she became the first black artist to be appointed an academician of the Royal West of England Academy (RWA). She joins me to talk whiteness in art, who curates what gets appreciated and her body as a canvas.

Note: This episode was recorded in June 2021 so some events are now in the past.

Ep 47: Whiteness and refugees - Hameed Amiri fled Aghfanistan as a child, seeking refuge in the UK. As an adult, he has dedicated much of his work to raising awareness around the plight of refugees. He is the author of the recently published autobiographical book “The Boy With Two Hearts”, which is partly a homage to his brother Hussein, but also to the NHS, which provided Hussein with vital treatment. The book was featured on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week and has since been turned into a play which recently opened in Cardiff, Wales. He joins me to talk British whiteness, the refugee label and how NHS workers helped him reconnect with his trust in humanity, following his struggle with PTSD.

Ep 47: Whiteness and Brick Lane - Dr. Fatima Rajina is a Legacy in Action Research Fellow at the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University. She is a former Research Assistant at the Institute of Criminology, at the University of Cambridge looking at police and counter-terrorism and has taught at SOAS and Kingston University, London. She is a co-founder of the ‘radical’ Bangladeshi campaign group ‘Nijjor Manush’ which is part of the Save Brick Lane Campaign, a coalition opposing the construction of a corporate office building in the heart of London’s Brick Lane. She joins me talk whiteness and gentrification, radical action and being Muslim in a post 9/11 world.

Ep 46: Whiteness and the 'Orient' - An award-winning broadcaster and journalist who anchors the UK's Channel 4 News, Fatima Manji is best known for breaking stories with a global impact. She's also recognised as one of the first UK news anchors to wear a headscarf. She’s the author of the recently released “Hidden Heritage: Rediscovering Britain’s lost love of the Orient” and joins me to talk whiteness in journalism, belonging and Britishness and why she thinks the Kew Gardens mosque needs to be resurrected.

Ep 45: Whiteness and hip hop – Prof Tricia Rose is often referred to as the world’s foremost academic on Hip hop. Her ground-breaking book on the emergence of hip hop culture, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America went on to define what is now an entire field of study.

She joins me to discuss how whiteness reduces hip hop to entertainment, whether some music just isn’t for ‘white’ ears and that line, between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation.