Healing Race

What happens when college freshman roommates, friends of 25 years - one black, one white - have their first conversation about race? When Todd asked Andre about having their first conversation about race and recording it to make it public, Andre said to himself 'what can I say that isn't being said already by others?' But then he thought, "When a person comes to you heart in hand and ready to listen, you rise and speak YOUR truth." Andre realized he wasn't a person in the news cycle. He was a real person holding the key to opening a heart… As you’ll see, Andre and Todd don’t agree about everything and there are some tense moments in their conversation. But they lay it all out on the table, without fear of judgment, knowing that they are imperfect people having a conversation about a complicated topic, and they will make missteps. Andre and Todd share their experiences and beliefs when it comes to race knowing that they don’t know the whole story about race in this country… and can’t speak for all black people or all white people. They know they don't have all “the answers,” but they do have the willingness to listen and explore… as they have a real-deal, don’t filter what you think conversation about race. So what does a first conversation about race look like? Watch this first episode of Healing Race now to find out... To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com    

In this video, Andre and Todd reflect on their conversation in the first episode, discussing the parallels between Black and Jewish histories of discrimination and hate and how they think about those histories when it comes to our country today. Andre asks Todd about times when he’s felt fears for his own safety and relate his stories to his experience as a Black man in this country. Andre also gives us greater insight into what was behind the emotions he felt when he shared the fears he has for his safety. So let’s move to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Andre and Todd discuss their different views on the threat of racial violence, whether anyone is capable of being pushed to violence, what’s behind the caution that Andre brings to Black-white relationships, and how canceling each other’s views and experiences impedes our ability to have open, honest conversations about race. They then follow with two videos where they reflect on this episode’s conversation, including their reactions to the racially motivated Buffalo shooting. So let’s get to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Andre reflects on how the threat of racial discrimination and violence has impacted him and his relationships and the walls that our racial challenges can lead us to put up between each other. They also talk about whether the focus on racial stories in today’s media is a net good or net bad for society and race relations, discussing both its upsides and downsides. So let’s get to that conversation now, starting first with a clip from the previous episode that triggered the conversation. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Todd and Andre react to the racially motivated Buffalo shooting at Tops supermarket. Andre shares the impact that public racially motivated deaths have on him and others in the Black community and how important to him it is to heed the wisdom passed down through generations of his and other Black families about how to respond to the threat of racial violence and discrimination. At the same time, they also discuss the question, “Have times changed enough from when that wisdom was developed to mean that it should be applied differently today?” So let’s move to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Andre asks Todd what it was like to grow up white, and Todd reflects on the role that race played in his upbringing, also sharing a story about the first time he experienced a racial conflict. They also discuss what leads us to identify with a race. In previous episodes, you could see how Todd and Andre think approach the issue of race in our country very differently. In our upcoming episodes, they turn the clock back to explore how their different upbringings laid the groundwork for their different approaches to race relations. So let’s get to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Todd and Andre continue their conversation about the role of racial identity in our country’s racial challenges. How strongly do white Americans identify with being white? Are the motivations for white Americans to identify as white the same as and as strong as the motivations for Black Americans to identify as Black? Should we want white Americans to identify more with their whiteness? What would the effects of that be? Let’s move to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Andre and Todd discuss whether the strong focus on race in our country and the demand by some that white people own their whiteness when it comes to racial issues can lead to backlash among some whites that increases their identification with the white identity and their feeling of being in conflict with non-white groups. They also discuss the role of mainstream and social media and whether the way that the black community is portrayed can heighten white Americans’ feelings that the black community is a threat. How strongly do whites identify with their race? Let’s move to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

"WHEN TWO ENEMIES ARE TALKING, THEY'RE NOT FIGHTING." Healing Race is excited to release this special bonus episode from a partner podcast, Village SquareCast, a podcast about the things your mother told you not to discuss in polite company - politics, race and religion. When Daryl Davis was ten, he didn’t understand hate yet. But then he was the only black scout in a parade to honor Paul Revere’s ride to Concord, when he began getting hit by bottles. It was then that he formed a question in his mind that he’s spent much of a lifetime answering: “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?” Failing to find his answer in books and history, as an adult and an accomplished musician, he realized who better to ask than a member of an organization formed around the premise—the KKK. So began our guest’s extraordinary story, in which a black man befriended over 200 KKK members, starting with a grand wizard. We’ll learn how his improbable, impossible, openhearted journey can light our way. Musician and Race Reconciliator Daryl Davis, has single-handedly been the impetus for over two hundred White supremacists to renounce their ideology and turn their lives around. As a Black man, Daryl has attended more Ku Klux Klan rallies than most White people and certainly most Blacks — short of being on the wrong end of a rope. His true-life encounters with Grand Dragons, Imperial Wizards, neo-Nazi Commanders are detailed in his documentary Accidental Courtesy, and his riveting first book Klan-Destine Relationships. Daryl tours around the country and around the world performing musical concerts and giving lectures on race reconciliation, inspiring both racists and non-racists to redirect their positions toward working together to truly make America the greatest country it can be.

In this episode, Andre shares what it was like to move from a home life surrounded by a largely Black community, where he was one of many, to an academic and professional life, where he was one of few, largely surrounded by and having his success very much depend on white relationships. Andre and Todd were freshman roommates when he made that transition to being one of few, and they reflect on how their experiences adapting to a new college environment differed, and how their backgrounds helped shape those differences. So let’s get to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Todd and Andre discuss the challenges that Black Americans face as they aspire to create the careers and relationships they desire, and how those challenges impact the kind of Black person they can be. In a world where career success depends on the social relationships you develop with people who have influence and networks of opportunity, what pressures exist for members of the Black community to adapt the way they present themselves to the world? Let’s get to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Andre and Todd discuss the question, “How much do different cultural ways of living based on race create barriers between Black and white Americans and matter in our world today? Do all people have to learn to follow society’s norms in similar ways, or are Black people affected in a unique, particular way? What role do stereotypes about Black people and Black culture play in our need to adapt to those norms? Let’s get to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Todd asks Andre if he would ideally like to live in a world where we don’t identify ourselves with the color of our skin. Should we want to live in a world where the groups we identify with are not based on our color, and what are the challenges in getting there? As part of responding to Todd’s question, Andre shares why he think it’s important and what motivates many members of the black community to identify with the Black identity. So let’s get to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

In this episode, Todd and Andre discuss whether a kind of psychology of ownership - where white people feel a right to black lives and what they produce - has endured from the time when black people were the property of white people… and if it has, how prevalent is it currently? How can we actually tell if a white person harbors this kind of psychology of ownership, or if behaviors that might look like racial prejudice - or even racial superiority - come from other motivations? The conversation you’re about to hear arose from Andre and Todd discussing whether the killing of George Floyd would lead to an enduring movement or would only be a moment. Is there psychological resistance to letting these moments become movements? Let’s get to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

Andre and Todd discuss whether there is a pervasive need, a shared psychology, among White Americans for Black Americans to stay in “their place” and occupy lesser roles in society. With whites having controlled power throughout the course of U.S. history, have they made, and do they continue to make, deliberate choices to sustain racial inequities? Are white reactions to Black Americans defying black stereotypes a sign that they resist black advancement or just a product of what they’ve been socialized to expect of black people? Let’s get to that conversation. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

Andre and Todd ask… Does the perpetuation of racial inequities reflect an attempt among a large number of white Americans to deliberately shut out Black Americans from equal opportunity, or is it more a product of white Americans passively being advantaged from historical injustices? Or is it neither - are there no systemic issues, past or present, that continue to play a role in today’s racial inequities? Let’s get to that conversation. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com  

Todd and Andre discuss the role that racial biases, made by everyday Americans, can play in the differences in opportunity and support that white and black Americans experience across their lifetimes. Do white Americans have a moral responsibility to work against the ways that society benefits them, on average, relative to black Americans? And does not doing so reflect an inner belief among whites that they deserve those benefits more than blacks… or perhaps at least make them “active” supporters of racial inequities? Let’s get to that conversation. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com 

Todd and Andre discuss the White Lives Matter phenomenon. What makes some people feel the need to state that White Lives Matter? And what motivates some prominent Black Americans to promote White Lives Matter? Andre and Todd also discuss the upsides and downsides of taking a more universal approach - not based on racial identity - to solving social issues… and whether focusing on race can increase racial conflict. So let’s get to that conversation. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com 

Andre and Todd continue discussing White Lives Matter. Does the Black Lives Matter movement create an environment that has white people feeling like their lives - or perhaps their views - don’t matter? In focusing on Black Lives does Black Lives Matter run counter to the goal that everyone has a right to a thriving life… or is it a necessary step to that goal? And how would people’s views on these questions change if they spent more time in each other’s shoes? Todd and Andre talk about racial experiences, racial trust, and more. Let’s get to that conversation. Enjoy…

In previous episodes, Todd and Andre shed light on their different upbringings and the role that race played in those upbringings. In this episode, Andre asks Todd when he first became aware of systemic bias against members of the black community, and Todd shares the first time he heard someone in his social network express support for discriminatory practices as well as the first time he saw firsthand how people from different races and ethnicities can experience very different living conditions in their neighborhoods. They also discuss whether a desire for psychological safety makes white Americans not want to think about or engage on issues of race and the risks more generally of not discussing and dealing with issues that we simply can’t avoid. So let’s get to that conversation now. Enjoy… To be a guest on Healing Race, email us at guests@HealingRaceShow.com To suggest a topic for Healing Race, email us at topics@HealingRaceShow.com