JR: It’s ever more apparent that we need to listen to the voices who are directly impacted by race, inequality and oppression. Speaking to the team behind the Race Reflections’ AT WORK podcast, we find out more about the need for conversations around racial justice and equality.

RRAW: From the very first episode, we have dived deeply into topics such as racial trauma, joy as a form of resistance and the psychological framework of race-based traumatic stress. More recently we have discussed the concepts of scapegoating and aversive racism whilst also addressing topical issues such as the mistreatment of the Black players in the England team after the Euro 2020 Final. Racial trauma in the workplace is an issue not often reflected upon.

JR: What’s the story – how and why was the podcast started?

RRAW: Race Reflections is a fast-growing social enterprise dedicated to tackling inequality, injustice and oppression in society. We provide this through various activities including organisational consultancy, training, community engagement and content creation. Founder and Head Disruptor, Guilaine Kinouani – author of Living While Black – decided to introduce a podcast that addresses the psychological impact of racism and racial trauma in the daily lived experience of black people.

JR: Like any podcast with a social message it’s important that the listener engages and seeks to do more in the space:

RRAW: Race Reflections’ AT WORK brings the same engaging, stimulating and supportive content found on our membership platform, but in a free audible form. We hope that this podcast provides a place of sanctuary.

We talk about issues concerning Black people but also speak to issues that include people of colour generally and people marginalised in other ways. Tuning in provides you with an opportunity for reflection and exploration for and with people that want to be active participants in the conversation for change.

JR: What more can we all do?

RRAW: Visit our website: racereflections.co.uk – you will find a variety of membership options. Spreading the word and the link to a podcast episode that you enjoyed is also appreciated! We love to hear from our listeners and your ideas for future episodes can be submitted to contact@racereflections.co.uk.

‘AT WORK’, as the name suggests, focuses on inequality, injustice, and oppression AT WORK and is solution-focused. What more can we all do? Acknowledge our complicity and recognise that it’s important to think beyond interpersonal issues, considering cultural and structural issues as well to promote the well-being of staff of colour and marginalised people in our communities.

We have several exciting changes in the upcoming months as we begin to welcome different voices and perspectives to the podcast. We will be inviting exciting speakers including artists and authors from marginalised groups to add to our discussions; covering topics like the success of Black pound day, ‘taking up space’ as a black person in a social setting, and employment barriers across different industries.

Listen to Race Reflections’ AT WORK on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast apps. For press enquiries, contact: dionne@racereflections.co.uk. To find out more, visit: racereflections.co.uk.

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Allow me to be clear: this is a highly successful, beautifully produced and well-researched podcast that does not need or seek our recommendation. And frankly, it would be lazy and thoughtless of me to simply drop the suggestion you listen to a two year old podcast on the topic of anti-racist activism as though that were enough.

It’s not enough.

The topics that Ms. Eddo-Lodge covers are important and relevant, but they were always important and relevant. The show may seem particularly poignant today, even though it was released in early 2018, but that only serves to highlight how late so many of us are to the table. As the programme once again climbs the podcasting charts, Reni commented via her Twitter account that a large podcasting company she and her team had pitched to once called it “broccoli”.

I have no idea what kind of vegetable this podcast would be (and frankly I love broccoli) but I do know it is a stunning piece of audio. Before we even get the chance to dive into the discussion and context, we are first confronted with incredible production quality and an opening sequence I will not likely forget any time soon. Opening credits and theme music are often overlooked in podcasting, and producer Renay Richardson sets about giving the listener a British history lesson in racism right from the moment you press play.

Over the course of the series, each topic brings us new guests, experts in their fields and participants from moments in anti-racist (and some wholly racist) moments of a nation’s history. Both host and producer offer the listener not only context and shape the takeaway of each discussion, but allow them to breathe – not so that we may relax, but in order to make us uncomfortable. There are moments when the last lines of an interview seem to hang in the air and the hair on the back of my neck stood as I waited for the catharsis of correction or rescission. Neither came – and that is the reality of the discussion of racism.

The concept that anyone ever called About Race “broccoli” is mind-boggling. Discussions of race and activism are not some unappealing item on our plate that we have no choice but to take in if we want to grow big and strong. A quality podcast is one that is created to either inform or entertain, but deftly uses its own medium as a tool to tell the story. About Race offers layers, not only in the language of the speakers, but in removing the visuals – and what we as listeners must confront about ourselves and our own deeply learned racism when Reni casually mentions the race of the person to whom she is speaking.

About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge is not recommended, it is required. You can find out more about the team of Black creators behind the podcast on the show’s website, and you can listen to all nine episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

The post REVIEW // About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge appeared first on POD BIBLE.