184: DEAR WHITE WOMEN - Do The Work, with W. Kamau Bell

184: Do The Work, with W. Kamau Bell

Someone very smart sent me an article just today that talks about the role of humor when we deal with stressful situations/anxiety-creating moments. And on that front: have any of you (and in this moment, I think we’re specifically talking to White people) ever felt weighed down by how heavy anti-racism work can be? You maybe noticed that sometimes we’re pretty serious on this show…

A huge hello and welcome to author Kate Schatz - author, activist, educator, and queer feminist mama who’s been talking, writing, and teaching about race, gender, social justice, and equity for many years. She’s also an incredible person who wrote a blurb in support of our book and showed up IN PERSON to host our Dear White Women book launch tour in San Francisco!

So what do you all think about listening to about 15 minutes of one of the funniest activist-comedians out there today - hearing how HE, a funny guy, might explain what might be great for White women to do in this work, how to process how tired we all are, and what crocheting has to do with it.

What to listen for:

Why understanding the history of the United States is important to understanding where we are today

What Kamau Bell would tell White women on the whole - including how if we had the same energy for anti-racism that we had for coordinating our kids' summer camps, we would be there by the end of the summer, maybe?
There’s no issue of oppression in this country that hurts White people that doesn’t connect back to really really hurting the Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, and Latinx populations
Kate’s thoughts on what people can start doing immediately after buying the workbook

W. KAMAU BELL is a dad, husband, and comedian. He directed and executive-produced the four-part Showtime documentary We Need To Talk About Cosby, which premiered at Sundance. He famously met with the KKK on his Emmy-Award-winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, where he serves as host and executive producer. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CBS Mornings, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Comedy Central, HBO, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, WTF with Marc Maron, The Breakfast Club, and This American Life. He has two stand-up comedy specials, Private School Negro (Netflix) and Semi-Prominent Negro (Showtime). Kamau’s writing has been featured in Time, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN.com, Salon, and The LA Review of Books. Kamau’s first book has an easy-to-remember title, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. He is the ACLU Artist Ambassador for Racial Justice and serves on the board of directors of Donors Choose and the advisory board of Hollaback! Along with Kate Schatz, he’s the co-author of Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book. For more information, please visit: http://www.wkamaubell.com/, or follow W. Kamau on Twitter here and Instagram here.

For more, go buy our book, Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, and make sure you’re following this podcast for more!

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