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Alexandria 0:07: Hi everyone, and welcome to my brand new podcast, and brainchild, Interrupting Racism. Allow me to introduce myself.
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Alexandria 0:20: My name is Alexandria Joesica Smalls. I’m Black and Latina. I’m an actor, writer of poetry, essays, plays, and screenplays. I’m also a director, educator, and activist. Depending on how you met me, and where and at what point in my life you may have met me, you may know me as Alexandria, Alex, Alexa, Joesy, Joe, the list goes on. It’ll vary. When I invite my guests, you may hear them call me any variety of these names. So I just thought I’d mention it.
I have a Theater degree from Borough of Manhattan Community College, as well as a degree in Drama and Africana Studies, with a focus on Prison Studies from Vassar College– which people often get confused to think that I somehow support prisons and want to work with them, or in them and that’s just not the case. Really, it was the study of the North American history from the inception of this country through until the present existence of the Prison Industrial Complex and Mass Incarceration. Africana Studies is a multi-disciplinary major that incorporated history, Political Science, Sociology, Women’s Studies, American Studies, Education– just to name a few. And that was the way we were able to broaden the view and approach we had on topics.
Throughout my studies, I’ve come to fangirl so many amazing thinkers like Beverly Daniel Tatum, Cheryl Harris, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Brittney Cooper, I could go on and on. And I will. In each episode, as me my guests will give you a book, film, documentary, or album that we love and recommend for all my listeners.
Alexandria 2:00: So what do I want to talk about? I’m not just here to disseminate information you can get in a degree program, that’s not what I’m here to do. My goal is to interrupt the status quo of racism and white supremacy by talking about whatever the *bleep* I see fit. Mostly, it’ll be about topics that are strongly or loosely related to racism, white supremacy, social injustices and inequities, and my and other people’s experiences with them. I will highlight Black excellence, how we thrive, despite the institutions that are against our progress. And pretty much, I will bring my perspective and that of my guests to the forefront by way of fun, and fruitful conversation. I kept having all these amazing convos, in and out of the classroom and now in my everyday life. I have the same kinds of inspiring and insightful conversations with some of the brightest and dopest people I know. I often catch myself saying “We need a podcast”! So I figured it was time to get moving on.
You should know that the lens by which I see the world, my framework, is rooted in Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory or CRT, is a theoretical framework in the social sciences that examines society and culture as they relate to categorizations of race, law, and power. It is loosely unified by two common themes. Firstly, that white supremacy exists and exhibits power maintained over time. And in particular, that the law plays a role in this process. Secondly, that transforming the relationship between law and racial power, as well as achieving racial emancipation and anti subordination more broadly–are possible. Critical Race Theory is not only used in law but in the fields of Education, Political Science, Sociology, Ethnic Studies, American Studies– It’s a valuable framework across the board. Some of the most prominent scholars to this work are Derrick Bell, Patricia Williams, Richard Delgado Kimberly Williams Crenshaw Amara Phyllis Jones and Mario Matsuda. That’s the overview that I grabbed from Wikipedia which is usually not my number one source to name things. However, I thought their definition most closely matched my own view.
My location as a citizen of the United States, my understanding of all things I speak about are influenced by the history of the United States of America which was built on genocide, slavery, greed, white supremacy, and racism. There are various ways for people to define racism, but the definition that I use is one I became familiar with from Beverly Daniel Tatum, which is that, “racism is a system of advantage, based on race” in her book, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?.
Alexandria 4:48: So this brings me to one of the first segments on the show, which is the Recommendation of the Week.
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Alexandria 5:33: This week’s Recommendation of the Week is none other than the one I just mentioned. Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum PhD. I’m just gonna leave the description that I was able to find about the book online, when you go to purchase it. “Walk into any racially mixed High School, and you will see Black, white, Asian, and Latinx students clustered in their own groups. Is this self segregation of problems to address or coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we’re serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully Revised Edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America”. Also called “An unusually sensitive work about the racial barriers that still divide us in so many areas of life” by Jonathan Kozol.
So she mentioned that everyone has prejudice, that just comes with being a human. But racism is prejudice plus power–which most of us know that whiteness is power and therefore, BIPOC. that is Black, Indigenous and all people of color are incapable of being racist. There is no such thing as “reverse racism”. So again, everyone has prejudice, but unfortunately there’s no financial or otherwise power granted to people of color, as a whole. So we are only capable of having prejudice.
That’s my Recommendation of the Week. Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?”. If you’re new to this topic on race in America, or you’re really just starting to understand it all for the first time, I think this is a great place to start. If you’re more familiar with these topics, you’ve probably heard of this book before. But if you haven’t, I certainly recommend it. There aren’t too many new concepts but I think Dr Tatum does an amazing job of laying things out for us. If you do get a chance to read it, let me know what you think. I’ll leave information on how to contact me at the end of this episode.
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Alexandria 7:53: So that’s what I got for you. If you like what you heard and think this podcast may be your cup of tea, I hope to see you back on the interwebs. You can check out the first official episode of this podcast coming soon to wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for tuning in. You can follow Interrupting Racism on Instagram with the handle, @interruptingracismpodcast or email me at interruptingracismpodcast@gmail.com. Make sure you follow, or subscribe, or whatever the function looks like on your podcast streaming service so you make sure you’re first to know when a new episode lands and don’t miss out on any of the conversations interrupting racism.
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Interrupting Racism Podcast 