Join us this week as we explore the context of the capitol riots, the need for an honest discussion about white identity, and why it is important to challenge white supremacist values within society.
Episode transcription and links can be found here.
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Miranda: We're baaaaack! Noelle and I are so excited to be here for season two with all of you. There's been so much that's occurred over the past couple months while we were away. There was an election like none of us have seen before. A new president, thank goodness. And then, there was the insurrection at the Capitol, which exposed what many of us already knew, that white supremacy is still very much alive and strong in this country.
Noelle: Yeah. Originally, when we started this podcast, we had a vision of taking all things social justice into account and talking about all those different topics, and actually our plans for season two were to start moving into gender and sexuality-based equity and justice work, but when that capital riot occurred and we realized there's still so much more that needs to be unpacked in terms of violent extremism in America, we just figured we need to continue doing this work for now. You know, what we usually see as a nation is hype around these situations like this and then ultimately, silence. [...] And so, you know, there's this tendency, there's this comfort in just forgetting and not talking about it. And so, you know, we even had national leaders, right? Calling for us to just move on for the sake of unity and we just… we call bullshit on that.
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History is experienced personally, but it is also socially constructed. The idea of white washing history is nothing new. We talk about slavery, America’s original sin, as if we are accepting our past. However, what isn’t accurately discussed and remembered is how every failed attempt at controlling the racial divide leads to more savvy ways of accomplishing what slavery and black codes attempted to accomplish - white domination.
CNN commentator Van Jones came up with the term "whitelash" to describe why he felt Americans elected Donald Trump as president. This term should trigger us to remember our undeniable past: that anytime there is significant racial progress in America it’s inevitably followed by white backlash, or “whitelash” which stems from this need to maintain white political power and domination in this country.
And unfortunately, this need isn't letting up anytime soon.
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Tune in over the next few weeks as we explore radical beliefs, the ecology of extremism and the impacts of domestic terrorism in America.
And don't forget to like, subscribe and review our podcast, and to stay up to date, be sure to follow us on Instagram @the_unpackedproject.
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