white people, black music and liberation

“i just want the best person for the job.” it sounds fair. many of us have said some version of it. but what’s beneath the surface when we say it? the groups that feel most sure of themselves aren’t always the ones getting it right, and that leaves a question worth sitting with: what are we giving up when we go for the easy choice?

further reading:
Katherine Phillips, Gregory Northcraft, and Margaret Neale (2006), Surface Level Diversity and Decision Making in Groups: https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/academics-research/research/detail/2006/surface-level-diversity-and-decision-making-in-groups-when/?p=1

Samuel Sommers (2006), On Racial Diversity and Group Decision Making: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2006/04/diverse-jury

Ashley Jardina, White Identity Politics: https://polisci.duke.edu/books/white-identity-politics-cambridge-studies-public-opinion-and-political-psychology http://whitepeopleblackmusic.com/

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

what makes us want to believe a calm, polished articulate black man making the case for color blindness? it’s not about statistics. it’s what is says about us: the numbers we reach for, the programs running underneath, and a resentment many white people carry without ever naming it. what would it take to look there instead?
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http://whitepeopleblackmusic.com/

coleman hughes, in his own words

• a case for color blindness (ted talk, 2023): https://www.ted.com/talks/coleman_hughes_a_case_for_color_blindness
• black american culture and the racial wealth gap (quillette, 2018): https://quillette.com/2018/07/19/black-american-culture-and-the-racial-wealth-gap/

the statistics

• the auto and jewelry categories shine with opportunity among black women (nielsen, 2017): https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2017/the-auto-and-jewelry-categories-shine-with-opportunity-among-black-women/
  correction: nielsen found black women 113 percent more likely to say they plan to buy a luxury car, not “slightly” more likely as i said. it’s still a purchase intent survey, not a measure of financial responsibility.
• are emily and greg more employable than lakisha and jamal? bertrand and mullainathan (2004): https://www.nber.org/papers/w9873
• what we get wrong about closing the racial wealth gap, samuel dubois cook center (2018): https://samuelduboiscookcenter.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/what-we-get-wrong.pdf
• conspicuous consumption and race, charles, hurst, and roussanov (quarterly journal of economics, 2009): https://www.nber.org/papers/w13392

why messages persuade

• walster, aronson, and abrahams, “on increasing the persuasiveness of a low prestige communicator,” journal of experimental social psychology (1966)

amplification

• a black voice in the echo chamber, rafia zakaria (popula, 2018): https://popula.com/2018/08/08/a-black-voice-in-the-echo-chamber/

racial resentment

• racial resentment in the political mind, darren w. davis and david c. wilson (2021): https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo124039550.html
• interview with davis and wilson (new books network): https://newbooksnetwork.com/racial-resentment-in-the-political-mind
• divided by color, donald r. kinder and lynn m. sanders (1996): https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo3620441.html
• the racial resentment scale, including the survey statements quoted in the episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_resentment_scale

keep going

• my grandmother’s hands, resmaa menakem: https://www.harvard.com/book/978194209447

being white today: a roadmap for a positive antiracist life, shelly tochluk and christine saxman (in the episode i called it “white like me,” which is a different book): https://www.uuabookstore.org/Being-White-Today-P19697.aspx

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

"I'm going to play this music anyway, and I don't care what they think." that used to be my line. it felt like courage. it was actually privilege, the kind nobody was ever going to stop. this is about zooming out, seeing the water we swim in, and finding a kind of peace that doesn't need anyone's permission.

whitening of african dance - part 1
whitening of african dance - part 2

http://whitepeopleblackmusic.com/

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

can a policy be race based even when race never appears on the page? this episode of scene on radio traces a long line of policies like that, from the headright system to the fha and the gi bill, each one built to benefit white families. if you've ever doubted race based policy, give this one a listen and notice what it stirs up.

original show notes below:

— from Scene on Radio

When it comes to U.S. government programs and support earmarked for the benefit of particular racial groups, history is clear. White folks have received most of the goodies.

By John Biewen, with Deena Hayes-Greene of the Racial Equity Institute and recurring series partner Chenjerai Kumanyika.

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

can a policy be race based even when race never appears on the page? this episode of scene on radio traces a long line of policies like that, from the headright system to the fha and the gi bill, each one built to benefit white families. if you've ever doubted race based policy, give this one a listen and notice what it stirs up.

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

some part of you are can go invisible to almost everyone you meet. for most of my life i took that to mean that i didn't really fit in. this is the episode that turned me around on that. Sarah Lotus Garrett talks about owning your multiracial story in a way that cracked something open in me, and if you hold more than one identity, i think it might do the same for you. give it a listen right after mine. original show notes below:

— from Embodied

When Anita moved away to college, she experienced a big shift in her biracial identity. Turns out that the questions that emerged for her are ones that many mixed young adults still ponder today ...15 years later. She meets two college seniors and they talk through navigating everything from "Where do I belong?" to "How do I date?" Plus she hears wisdom from a life coach who helps mixed adults tell new stories about identity.
Meet the guests:
- Adiah Siler, a senior at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, explains how moving out of her small town to go to college allowed her opportunities to explore her Blackness and has influenced her journey as a mixed race person
- Claire Gallagher, a senior at the University of Michigan, shares her own experiences growing up as a mixed race person and brings up some of the anxieties she's had about her identity, especially since attending a predominantly white college
- Sarah Lotus Garrett, a certified life and goal fulfillment coach, emphasizes the confidence and healing that being a part of a mixed race community can bring
Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform
Follow Embodied on Instagram 
Leave a message for Embodied
Please note: This episode originally aired July 14, 2023.
Updates: Adiah Siler is currently working on her MFA at the University of Iowa in the Writers’ Workshop.
Dig deeper:
Sarah’s program for mixed adults
Claire’s piece on the fetishization of mixed race identities
Adiah’s piece on being a mixed teen

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

let's say you, like me, hold multiple identities: is the white privilege conversation still relevant? for most of my life, i saw myself as Arab. even though i mostly got treated as white. my own liberation didn't happen until I finally took accountability for that. if you're mixed or white passing and you know that impulse to look away from privilege, this one is for you, habibi.

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

this is an investigative piece on the vinyl reissue market, and it might be some of the best reporting I've heard in this space. Afropop Worldwide's Morgan Greenstreet lets label owners, DJs, and artists speak for themselves, and the nuances of the story come through because of it. I've seen artists recorded in Mali who didn't get their fair shake, and this episode sits inside that complexity instead of flattening it. if you collect African vinyl, or you care about how power and colonialism show up inside the music industry, this one's worth your time.
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⋄ original show notes ⋄

— from Afropop Worldwide

The golden age of vinyl records is long past in Africa, but the market for rare and reissued African vinyl outside the continent has been growing steadily since the early 2000s. DJs and collectors have turned an obsession with rare records and forgotten gems from Cape Town to Tangiers into an international reissue and compilation industry, led by record labels such as Soundway, Strut and Analog Africa. This program explores some of the complex and shifting dynamics of neocolonialism, cultural ownership and audience in the African vinyl market. We’ll hear stories from label owners, DJs and artists, touching on controversies around Nigerian disco funk reissues, new career opportunities for sometimes-obscure African artists, the unique vinyl culture in South Africa, and much more.

Produced by Morgan Greenstreet and Alejandro Van Zandt-Escobar, with Nenim Iwebuke.
APWW #749

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

this is an investigative piece on the vinyl reissue market, and it might be some of the best reporting I've heard in this space. Afropop Worldwide's Morgan Greenstreet lets label owners, DJs, and artists speak for themselves, and the nuances of the story come through because of it. I've seen artists recorded in Mali who didn't get their fair shake, and this episode sits inside that complexity instead of flattening it. if you collect African vinyl, or you care about how power and colonialism show up inside the music industry, this one's worth your time.

http://whitepeopleblackmusic.com/

white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶

the prisoner was created by and stars patrick mcgoohan. it is one of the strangest, most psychedelic, most uncompromising pieces of television ever made. and it ends with a reveal that caused a near riot in britain and sent mcgoohan into hiding in the mountains for two weeks.
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the most obvious layer of racism is the external one. the structures, the history, the systems. and that layer is real and it matters. but there is another layer underneath it. the programming that was installed so early, and reinforced so consistently, that it stopped feeling like programming at all. it just feels like intuition. like just the way things are. that is the layer this episode is about.
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white people, black music, and liberation is an independent podcast exploring race, music, and what it means to move from *programming* into liberation. 
.
have a thought, a question, or a story of your own? reach out at [email protected] 
.
follow the journey at whitepeopleblackmusic.com
✶