Open Notes

Issue 03 - Professor Rhonda Magee

The Waveform is a newsletter from me, Lee Schneider, the lead producer and founder of Red Cup Agency. When I have a new show to launch, or new episodes that I think you’ll like, I’ll drop you a note. So let’s get to it.

This week’s episode of The Glo Podcast is a deep conversation about race with Professor Rhonda Magee, author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice.

The conversation goes live on Sunday, 21 March. (Subscribe in Apple Podcasts so you don't miss it.) It weaves together activism, how to be an anti-racist, and mindfulness practices. They talk about how being “colorblind” denies race and bring in Professor Magee’s “color-insight” approach as a better path to understanding.

Professor Magee’s words resonated for me, as they may for you, because they are necessary. In the last year, systemic racism was exposed as never before in my experience. George Floyd’s murder by police, to name one murder among many, showed many of us what systemic racism looked like. In the aftermath, the protests that lit up cities and towns showed how bad things were for people of color and how easily white people could turn away from the troubles.

That’s the thing for me. How being white meant “this doesn’t matter for me in my everyday life, so it’s not my problem.”

No matter where you might place the blame for racism or how you might find solutions, Professor Magee will help you address what to do next.

She talks about how to do the work we need to do on ourselves. Her methods are spiritual, involving meditation and self-reflection. To do this, we have to confront pain, but meditation — well, that could work, right? Her intelligence and compassion give me hope. So I hope you’ll listen and get some hope, too.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, at Glo.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the past few months, I’ve read White Fragility, How to Be an Anti-Racist, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and I’m reading Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I don’t claim any special virtue by sharing these titles, just showing some of the journey I’m on. Hearing Professor Magee speak the words helped connect the dots for me.

Thanks for reading. See you next time on The Waveform.

Lee


Red Cup Agency. Podcast Production.

Working with teams large and small, I take podcasts from the glimmer of an idea into production and distribution.

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