104 - Racism in Roller Derby: Don't Pass the Star

We need to address racism in ourselves and in our teams and leagues. Don't juke around it. Break through the wall. It's a harder path and can be really uncomfortable at times, but we can come out stronger on the other side. Do the work.

In this episode, I talk about the broader meaning of words we have heard for decades. We can't go further in our pursuit of Anti-Racism in roller derby and our lives until we understand more about what these words mean. I'll be sharing a couple examples of what this looks like in roller derby and want to give a trigger warning in advance for any BIPOC who don't have the space to deal with that right now. I believe changing our systems and way of thinking about racism has to take place before we can go on a mission of recruitment for people of color to join our leagues. We can’t bring them in until we take some meaningful steps to make our house better before we invite people over. There are cracks in the foundation and we’ve been throwing a rug over it and not noticing they exist. Then I’ll go over some examples of how to approach meaningful interactions to help correct these problematic situations one on one. How do we talk to someone when they say something racially problematic? And how can we receive this information graciously when we make a mistake ourselves? Let's hold each other accountable and move forward together.

Please share with me what books YOU are currently reading by contacting the podcast by any method below. :-)

Edited to add link to article/1st chapter of book: https://www.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2017/06/30/no-i-wont-stop-saying-white-supremacy/

Link to where you can buy today's source material "White Fragility" by Robin DiAngelo from Black-Owned Book Retailers: https://robindiangelo.com/

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