This is From Woke to Work: The Anti-Racist Journey. Hosted by Kamala Avila-Salmon, she talks about what it means to go from a self-proclaimed ally to an effective anti-racist. Whether you’re an ally that’s ready to take action or a Black person looking for a place to direct all those ally questions, this is the podcast you’ll want to keep close at hand.

There's something missing about the way that we're talking about allyship. Kamala felt it more acutely than ever in the wake of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. In this moment, the biggest global awakening on racism and racial injustice in a generation, more and more white and non-black people started showing up declaring themselves “Anti-Racist”. What were they doing? What were they actually doing besides messages of concern to their black friends and turning your profile pictures Black? What actions were they taking?

Kamala started to get mad, but then she got curious. Did these newly “woke” allies know they needed to do things to bring about racial justice and equity? Did they know what to do? She put pen to paper and sketched out an anti-racism journey modeled after the traditional marketing funnel of how we get consumers from unaware to adopters of our product. 

Over the series of this podcast, Kamala will talk about that journey; how you can go from being woke (i.e. aware of racial inequity and injustice) to actually doing the work and eradicating it.

From Woke to Work was produced by Kamala Avila-Salmon in partnership with Julian Lewis and TJ Bonaventura at StudioPod. Edits were made by Nodalab. Our amazing artwork was designed by Tommy Gomez. And this fire track I’m speaking on was produced by Dave Can Trap.

A black square on Instagram doesn’t make you an anti-racist, but there is a path to follow. Welcome to From Woke to Work, the Anti-Racist Journey, a podcast created and hosted by Kamala Avila-Salmon, with the mission to make an impactful dent in people’s understand of how to actually combat racism. Whether you’re an ally ready to take action or a black person with a bunch of ally-related questions, this podcast will draw a clear path for you to follow towards true anti-racism.

We can all share a post and use a popular hashtag, but when it comes to taking action, what else are you doing? In the first episode of From Woke to Work, you’ll get to better know your host, Kamala, as she shares her experiences around racism and “woke” folks, what motivated her to start this podcast, and how she assembled her 6 step journey to true anti-racism with marketing principles. From awareness to action, you’ll learn about the steps you’ll be taking in order to become a true ally, and stop being your average performer. Listen now and reflect on the steps you may have missed to actually make an impact in a society where likes are overvalued, yet action is rarely taken.  

Jump straight into:

• (00:46) - Being “woke” is just as good as staring and doing nothing - “Did black death just run on a different news network that only black people got? I don't think so.”
• (04:23) - The 6 Step Anti-Racist Journey - “Knowledge is not action, only action is action, so let's get after it.”
• (09:51) - This journey is not about perfection, and it will never stop - “However exhausted you are by talking about racism, just think about how exhausted we are living with it.”

Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to follow Kamala on Instagram to learn more. Subscribe, rate and share this podcast so more people can find it, let’s spread the word!

From Woke to Work is a show produced and hosted by Kamala Avila-Salmon in partnership with Julian Lewis and TJ Bonaventura at StudioPod. Edited at Nodalab, art by Tommy Gómez, and music produced by davecantrap.

This year will be hard to forget, not only have we witnessed a pandemic unfold in front of our eyes, but also social movements that arise in the middle of chaos. The Black Lives Matter movement is especially highlighted, as unfortunate events triggered the rage of the already exhausted black community, who got the support of recently “woke” non-black allies. Awareness is just the first step of the anti-racism journey. On today’s episode, Kamala is joined by an inspiring leader, speaker and black woman, Jovian Zayne, to chat about the role of awareness around racism in the American society. Listen to the perspectives of these two women in this new episode, as they discuss what they are expecting from true allies to fight alongside the black community for the creation of a more just reality.

Jump straight into:

• (0:46) - The perfect year for a pandemic and the sudden (yet awfully late) national realization of racial injustice - “White people finally looked up and realized all at once: Damn... This country is racist!”
• (10:32) - Awareness opens your eyes, now, open your mind to different narratives - “There is a persistent issue of police violence, specifically against communities of color and even more specifically against black people.”
• (22:03) - Accept uncomfortable truths to start important conversations - “There are ways to deepen your awareness that don't require fully unloading every question that you have about race on the next black person that you see.”
• (25:15) - How Black Lives Matter has empowered and raised the voices of an entire community - “The idea that it makes some people so incensed to hear those three words together is because it actually does call out all of American history.”
• (37:30) - The problem with forced diversity and black representation - “We need the conversation that happens after the change and the commitment that comes after it. That's a pretty important step in the process, but not the whole process.”
• (42:36 ) - Dealing with non-believers of a very evident problem - “It's such a beautiful time to try to be an anti-racist. Is popular, it is on trend, is accessible and available.”

Resources

• OnPurpose Movement
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram Kendi
• Share the Mic Now
• The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown
• Brené with Austin Channing Brown on I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
• Reese Whiterspoon’s conversation with Austin Channing Brown

It only took the video recording of the murder of a(nother) Black man to go viral for the entire world to realize the United States of America has a systemic racial issue. We wish we were joking. There is a… silver lining here though, America is now proudly “woke”, right? The thing is, to the affected communities, this awakening is a bit of a slap in the face, but hey, no hard feelings, if you’re willing to do the work to earn the title “ally” or “anti-racist”.

In today’s episode of From Woke to Work, Kamala is joined by Sherice Torres and Barbara Furlow-Smiles, two empowered leaders who live, eat and breathe being Diversity & Inclusion, to chat all about awareness and why it is just the tip of the iceberg in the anti-racist journey. With awareness, comes education. Just a little warning, it ain’t pretty. Future allies have to master the art of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, and build their resilience for real talk on race if they are truly committed to changing the world. Are you newly aware? Good! Now it is time for the real work! 

Jump straight into:

• (0:45) - Your collective awareness is not enough, so please listen closely -  “You should hold space for what you are feeling, but you need to focus on your Black colleagues, because while you are feeling it, they have been living it.”
• (13:52) - If you’re doing it for praise and recognition, you better just take a seat - “Allyship, just like sponsorship has to be earned. It's that bridge from awareness to action, what makes the difference in who truly is an ally or not.”
• (17:10)  - The role of educational learning as an entryway to authentic understanding - “At the end of the day, what we're trying to get is empathy. It's like ‘walk in my shoes!’.”
• (21:14) - On Search for Racial Equity - “The first step in anyone's entire racism journey is education. You have to educate yourself, it's not going to your black friend or your black colleague and asking them to share their experience.”
• (28:11) - More real talk, less sugar coating - “A lot of people don't want to hear the truth of their people, but we have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Resources

• Follow Sherice on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Barbara on Instagram
• The Search for Racial Equity 
• The 1619 Project 

Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to follow Kamala on Instagram to learn more. Subscribe, rate and share this podcast so more people can find it, let’s spread the word!

From Woke to Work is a show produced and hosted by Kamala Avila-Salmon in partnership with Julian Lewis and TJ Bonaventura at

In this episode of From Woke to Work, Kamala talks about sympathy and why it matters that on your way to actually taking action to reject a racist world order, you actually spend some time feeling bad. If the state-sanctioned death of your fellow citizens does not deeply disturb you, there is likely something else going on.

Listen as she unpacks sympathy with Crystal Marie, a Marketer and writer who has worked with major brands and who loves writing about everyone’s favorite uncomfortable topics: faith, politics, race, relationships, and current events.

Jump straight into:

(03:11) - Why having sympathy can change someone’s life - “It's one of those things that you want to believe that is just human nature”.

(09:58) - How do Crystal Marie processes the grief around anti-blackness - “I think someone said something about, black lives matter being so divisive. And I said, is it a bad divide though?”.

(15:23) - About Tamir Rice’s murder - “My immediate thought was maybe I heard the story wrong. Maybe I'm missing some key information. Maybe the story is being painted in an exaggerated, like yellow journalism type way”.

(23:43) - On Social Media and how unsympathetic people can be - “How can you, as an ally leveraging sympathy, think about how you can create space for a black person in your life to take a mental break?”.

(29:14) - Push others on reflecting about white supremacy - “It's the frame of, how would you feel if this thing happened to your child? Or to someone that you know, someone in your life.”

(33:12) - If you approach your friends for help, do it without creating emotional weight - “How dare you to hold this banner of care? When, when someone that, you know, came to you and had a very polite conversation with you about it, and it didn't matter”.

(40:35) - FAQ (Frequently Ally Questions): Why is it wrong to say “All Lives Matter”? - “First off, there's no such thing as a blue life because you can take a uniform off. My husband, my son, myself... I can't take off my Brown skin”

Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to follow Kamala on Instagram to learn more. Subscribe, rate and share this podcast so more people can find it, let’s spread the word!

From Woke to Work is a show produced and hosted by Kamala Avila-Salmon in partnership with Julian Lewis and TJ Bonaventura at StudioPod. Edited at Nodalab, art by Tommy Gomez, and music produced by davecantrap.

On this week's episode, Kamala invited two mentors of hers, Jason White and Amani Duncan, to join her today to talk about the limits of sympathy and why aspiring allies and anti-racists need to go much further than that to actually drive change.

As marketing execs, both Jason and Amani know the power of stories to spark awareness and elicit emotion. The tragic and unjust murders of Black people from Trayvon Martin to Tamir Rice to Breonna Taylor to Sandra Bland and of course, George Floyd, have done a lot to build awareness of racial injustice and even elicit sympathy from non-Black people around the world. However, there is a danger that these feelings of sympathy can end up amounting to nothing unless actual action is taken as a result of these feelings.

Jump straight into:

(01:12) - Is sympathy enough? - “Feelings are not meant to be a substitute for taking action, they are meant to fuel you for taking the right action.”

(04:31) - 2020’s racism awareness and “checking on your black friends calls” - “The perception that white people have of me is that I'm not affected that I'm not like them, so I don't need to be checked up on.”

(15:12) - How to support your friends and not bring them more burden! - “I just rather not get a phone call, I rather you educate yourself, become a part of the conversations, take action”.

(24:10) - What are “white tears” and why the term is so uncomfortable for all - “What these tears create is, is a false centre of where the resources need to go”.

(34:00) - From sympathy to solidarity - “I think it starts with just what we're doing right now is just like, we have to call out that critical moment ”.

(40:36) - How speaking up proves that you care! - “Teach people the way you want to be treated. So we're not gonna allow people to get a pass on this, but we also have to figure out how to bring people into the conversation”.

(53:53) - The FAQ (Frequent Ally Question): What should an ally do when they have a friend who is in the opposite pole of the conversation? - “ You might lose some friends here and there, they might go away for a while and they might come back because they want to do better and be better”.

Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to follow Kamala on Instagram to learn more. Subscribe, rate and share this podcast so more people can find it, let’s spread the word!

From Woke to Work is a show produced and hosted by Kamala Avila-Salmon in partnership with Julian Lewis and TJ Bonaventura at StudioPod. Edited at Nodalab, art by Tommy Gomez, and music produced by davecantrap.

In this week’s episode Kamala zeros in on empathy because it is a critical stop on the journey to ensuring any plans we make to address racism going forward are grounded on an understanding of our shared humanity. Anti-Black racism is not a Black people problem, it is a White supremacy problem. Until non-Black, and especially White people, see the problem as theirs to solve, we can’t make progress. Where sympathy is to share in the sorrow of another, empathy is to feel the sorrow of another as if it were your own while being conscious of the fact that this is a thought experiment. You still know you have your own shoes that you walk in but you mentally or emotionally, envision what it would be like to walk in the shoes of another. It brings us closer to those who may be very different from us. 

For this discussion, Kamala is joined by Fay Johnson, an ethical behavior change and human-centered design expert, and Chia-Lin Simmons, a successful tech serial entrepreneur. Fay founded Deliberate Discourse in 2015 in response to the ongoing violence against black people in America. Deliberate is an intentional, guided experience that allows people, and especially non-Black people, to engage in deep conversations about racism in America. Chia-Lin is the CEO / Co-Founder of LookyLoo and Co-Founder of Orange Bridge Ventures; most relevant to our discussion today is her personal journey as an outspoken advocate and ally for the Black community, in her professional and personal life.

Jump straight into:

(00:45) - A brief context around empathy and racism in the United States - “Anti-black racism is not a black people problem, it is a white supremacy problem.”

(04:56) - How everyone has the right (and obligation) to stand up against racial justice - “I remember feeling in my body that very visceral response that I needed to do something. A dear friend of mine, Stephanie, said: ‘You will for sure screw it up, but you should do it anyway because the work needs to be done. Just get going and stop questioning herself about being perfect.’”

(16:40) - The importance of empathy and why it is so crucial in the Anti-Racist Journey - “Having that kind of empathy and imagining being in those shoes has really allowed people to help do the bridge into having those conversations in the United States.”

(26:34) - How conscious conversations can fight polarization and what racism in the business ecosystem looks like - “People may not be aware of the number of walls and privileges that essentially are structured for white people and against people of color.”

(37:10) - How power and privilege prevent people from accessing empathy - “Maybe it's time for some of us to take a step back and put other people forward, because we need to hear their voices.”

(44:41) - How to cultivate empathy through “bridging” - “If we are really committed to being good leaders, a good skill to learn would be paying attention to the signals that you're getting from people when they do raise the topic.”

Resources

Deliberate Discourse

LookyLoo

Connect with Fay

Connect with Chia-Lin

Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to follow

Empathy is what inspired host, Kamala Avila-Salmon to put The Anti-Racist together; more specifically, it was the LIMITS of empathy that inspired her. While empathy is very important, and for many it feels good, it will not by itself free us from established patterns of shock, outrage, protest, and then complacency. On this episode, Kamala connects with her dear and brilliant friend, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein to address why empathy is not enough.

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. A particle cosmologist by training, she is a dark matter theorist and also conducts research in Black feminist science, technology, and society studies. She is also one of under 100 Black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics. She is an outspoken and inspiring voice on issues of race, gender, queer identity, and decolonizing science, and basically how Kamala decides if I’m on the right side of most important social justice topics of the day.

Jump straight into:

(00:45) - How sympathy is not really empathy, and the racist past and present inside the scientific community - “We can’t afford to rest on our laurels and assume that change will just magically flow from this fount of feelings.”

(08:51) - Feelings are not actions: How NOT to reach out to your black friends - “It’s actually anti-work. You're basically asking them to perform emotional labor to be there with you as you process your feelings.”

(23:02) - Whiteness and racism: On conversations around white skin privilege - “A lot of people don't want to talk about whiteness, but it’s still operating between two people, even if you think you're on the same page.”

(27:23) - How empathy can turn into white empiricism - “What a strange thought! A movement for black people without black people. What is that?!”

(32:09) - The Frequent Ally Question: How to do the work without either burdening or excluding black people? - “ You're not obligated to read everything, but you're obligated to do something.”

Resources

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Preorder The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Wenstein

Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to follow Kamala on Instagram to learn more. Subscribe, rate and share this podcast so more people can find it, let’s spread the word!

From Woke to Work is a show produced and hosted by Kamala Avila-Salmon in partnership with Julian Lewis and TJ Bonaventura at StudioPod. Edited at Nodalab, art by Tommy Gomez, and music produced by davecantrap.