181: How A Single Judge From Texas Controlled US Immigration Policy

You might be tired of hearing about the Supreme Court taking away people’s rights - but the process behind how SCOTUS does that is important, as depending on the results of the midterms, we may be seeing this more, and with a much wider scope. 


For example, do you know what SCOTUS did about immigration in July? And if your response was “Wait, what?” then this episode is for you. Tune in to hear about that decision (which stemmed from a Texas judicial challenge to the Biden administration), what that means for immigration policy in general, and how you can take action.

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180: What We Did To Native American Kids - Federal Boarding Schools

In our book, we talk about the federal boarding schools that were just for Native American children - and by boarding schools, we mean that the U.S. government rounded up Native children over the course of 150 years (!!), separated them from their parents and often took them hundreds of miles away… and often times, those kids never came home. 

If you haven’t heard that story (which is fairly common, given the erasure of the Native narrative in this country), this episode is for you, because without understanding this history, you won’t understand how we are where we are now with over 570 federally recognized Native American Nations within the United States - while most people we hear say they’re not sure they’ve ever spoken with a person of Native descent. 

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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179: Fancy Asians, Jungle Asians, and the Model Minority Myth


Have you ever been that kid who tugged at the corner of your eyes, pretending to be Asian, or maybe even mocked people of Asian descent?  In today’s episode, Sara shares the story of when a little neighborhood boy did that to her.  


Sure, there might be some sweeping generalizations you can make about Asian people - a lot tend to have dark hair, more almond-shaped eyes - but the truth is, in America, people who fall into the broad bucket of “Asian” have among the largest differences of all the large groupings like White, or Black, or Hispanic.  Asians are NOT all the same.


So today, we’ll discuss all the basic things you need to know about the model minority myth - NO we are not all good at math nor do we all play the violin - and what you can do differently to make sure you’re not that person.  
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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178: What is Qualified Immunity, Anyway?

In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, many of us heard the phrase “qualified immunity” for the first time in a new light - but what does the phrase even mean? And why is it so important when we think about police, driving (or existing) while Black, and civil rights in this country? We’ll talk about all of this in today’s episode, so we can help set some context for a major conversation happening in our country - one about abolition.

Listen in, and if you want 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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177: Why Reproductive Justice Is Also About Race - Especially If You’re Black

This episode was recorded before the Dobbs decision came out, but it highlights what we know to be true - there is a disparate impact on Black and brown women when it comes to reproductive justice in this country. And for all of you who have told us, “I’d really like to be friends with Black women, but I don’t understand their experiences,” you’ll want to listen extra carefully. 


This episode highlights all of the extra things that Black women go through when it comes to things that should be safe in our country for all women: pregnancy, childbirth, maternal mortality, and so much more. We hope you listen, and then take action in your own communities to protect the rights of all people with the capacity for pregnancy.

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176: Can I Say the N-word? Absolutely Not. Here’s Why.

One question that comes up frequently enough from White, or non-Black, people to cause us to write not only a whole chapter in our book trying to answer it, but also record this podcast episode, is short but impactful: “Can I say the N-word?” 


The short answer is no. Absolutely not. The longer answer? Listen to this episode to hear not only why you should never be saying the n-word, but also why it’s so important to educate our kids to never say it either.

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175: We’re Still Talking About Slavery - and You Should Be, Too

So our book, Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism is broken into three sections: On Being White in America; On Being Black in America; On Being a Non-Black Person of Color in America.  
And here’s the question we get when people see that structure: Why do we need to focus on the experiences of Black people in this country? 

In this episode, we tell you why - including sharing some things we all need to (re)learn, since it’s not all taught in our schools.

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174: Post Roe – Turning Rage Into Action

For the past 3+ years, we’ve been getting loud on this podcast, where our stated mission is to help White women use their privilege to uproot systemic racism without centering themselves in the process. This summer, we’ve been specifically focused on answering the question we often get, “what can we do to be more anti-racist?” and have been releasing bite-sized pieces of our work, especially with regard to our recent book, so that we can help White women and allies do this work.


Then, we got a gut punch last week in the form of the Dobbs v. Jackson opinion, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade and left the regulation of abortion access up to “elected officials of the states,” which set off a number of trigger laws and leaves abortion, and reproductive justice in general, in jeopardy for anyone who has a uterus, or any birthing person, in this country. 

So today, we are responding with our thoughts and suggestions.

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173: What to Say When You Hear “But All Lives Matter”

All Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter, and de-centering the White experience in these conversations. That’s what we’re discussing in today’s episode, because White people, you keep asking us what you can DO differently to be more anti-racist. And while we won’t offer a checklist, we do have an incredible, level-setting book Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism that you can buy to learn more!

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172: On Performative Allyship

White people, you keep asking us what you can DO differently to be more anti-racist.  So this summer, we’re answering that question in bite-sized ways.  This isn’t a checklist; this is simply a primer.  If you want more, go buy our book, Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism.


Today, we’re talking about what the real differences are between performative allyship and real allyship.  What does it take to actually be an ally, as opposed to just calling yourself one?  Listen in and share this episode with a friend you think might be able to talk with you about all of this! 

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171: On White Privilege

As biracial - Japanese and White - hosts of a long-running weekly podcast, we are very aware that, given how we look, we have, at times, benefited from White privilege.  We are also very clear that this is a privilege that Misasha’s Black husband will never once benefit from.


Today’s short episode dives into defining what White privilege is, explaining common misconceptions of the term, and what to do when we (or others) push back against accepting the truth about our privilege.  Listen in and share this episode with a friend you think might be able to talk with you about all of this! 

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170: On Being White

White people, you keep asking us what you can DO differently to be more anti-racist.  So this summer, we’re answering that question in bite-sized ways.  This isn’t a checklist; this is simply a primer.  If you want more, go buy our book, Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism.


Today, we’re hitting up some of the most common points of pushback or questions we get when we talk with White people.  Because let’s be honest - talking about race and racism is uncomfortable… for everyone.  Listen in and share this episode with a friend you think might be able to talk with you about all of this!

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169: Summer Kick-Off And AMA About Being Biracial

This summer, instead of spending 50-60 minutes sharing some of the most amazingly honest and thought provoking conversations that we’ve been personally privileged to have (the listen), or doing a deep dive into some part of our collective history that we may have never learned about in school (the learn), or sometimes getting up on our soapbox to get loud and angry about what’s going on in current events and what we can do about it (the act), we’re shaking things up a bit. (Don’t worry - we’ll definitely do all of those things in the fall…).

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168: The Overground Railroad with Candacy Tayor

Today we’re going to speak with Candacy Taylor about her carefully researched book about the Green Book, called the Overground Railroad (doesn’t the title alone make you want to hear more)? We not only discuss the immense hurdles and realities for Black people who were just trying to go somewhere by car, but we also discuss topics like sundown towns (you may be surprised to hear that you might be living in one, historically), how institutionalized racism appears through overpasses, and what we all can do to make change right now.

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