118. How to Have Antiracist Conversations
"Anti-racist conversations are not conversations just for people of the global majority. It's for everyone. We're all impacted by racism. So we all have a role to play," says Dr. Roxy Manning.
In this episode, Alejandra Siroka delves into the transformative world of anti-racist dialogues with her guest, Dr. Roxy Manning. An authority in both communication and anti-racism, Dr. Manning highlights the profound impact of anti-racist conversations at personal, interpersonal, and societal levels. Drawing from her experiences as an Afro-Caribbean immigrant, she offers a poignant reflection on her journey navigating the challenges of identity and belonging. With great candor, she discusses her experience of recognizing and unlearning unhelpful patterns of behavior and rejecting compartmentalization behaviors and beliefs within ethnic groups and gender that were influencing her. Shifting into a discussion of creating positive peace through anti-racist conversations, Dr. Manning shares 4 dialogues that can be a part of a healing journey: a solution dialogue, a dialogue to be heard, a dialogue for understanding and a dialogue for healing. For listeners interested in learning more about these complex concepts, Dr. Manning's books, "How to Have Anti-Racist Conversations" and "The Anti-Racist Heart", come highly recommended.
Quotes:
• "I had to learn how to find my own value and hold it up in the face of almost continuous messages that it shouldn't be there, that it didn't exist." (08:22 | Dr. Roxy Manning)
• "I realized I couldn't do it on my own, because I kept running into these roadblocks where I would judge myself." (15:39 | Dr. Roxy Manning)
• “It's such a weird catch-22 because I would always feel strange when I would tell people like, I love giving to people. It's joyful for me, but I don't trust anybody wants to give to me, right? Like it's got to be a burden. It's like, how do I expect you to think that I'm giving freely if I can't accept what you're offering me freely?”
• “What do we mean by anti-racist? And I always use the definition that I love from Ibram Kendi, Dr. Ibram Kendi. And he says, like, a racist is somebody who does something, who takes an action that has a negative impact, a negative impact on one group. And an anti-racist is somebody who's taking actions that are meant to restore equity between groups. And so when I think about an anti-racist conversation, it's the kind of conversations that we need in order to move towards actions that will restore equity to a situation.” (17:38 | Dr. Roxy Manning)
• "Positive peace says, peace happens when everybody's needs are being met." (22:12 | Dr. Roxy Manning)
• “If we have like a white-only group or a Black-only group, isn't that racist? No, this is exactly the place where you get to practice and have those conversations and admit that you don't know something without causing harm." (39:06 | Dr. Roxy Manning)
Links
Connect with Roxy Manning:
To visit Roxy Manning's website: roxannemanning.com
To purchase How to Have Antiracist Conversations book: antiracistconversations.com
To work with Alejandra, visit: www.languagealchemy.com/workwithme
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Podcast Music composed by Gary Lapow: open.spotify.com/artist/1HlMhcNfKIELxYil5mVqD
