Lets Talk Race | POF93

Let’s talk about race…we have to.  We ALL have to.  Stories of racial inequality and systemic racism permeate the news headlines.  We can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist.  I have been so ignorant to this topic.  As a white woman, I didn’t know what white privilege was and that I have it.  I am honoured to talk about this important subject with two incredible women, Fern Johnson and Marlene Fine, who have written the book, Let’s Talk Race, a Guide for White People.  In their book, they talk about their journey to adopt children that lead them to adopt two black boys.  Both Fern and Marlene are accomplished professors, researchers and authors in the areas of communication, race, gender, cultural language diversity and multiculturalism. Because of their backgrounds, they thought they were up to the task of raising two African American boys, and although they were, there was still a lot they needed to learn. In this episode we talk about: How language communicates race and racism How we need to understand and learn black history and have empathy for black experiences. How to talk with your children about race and interracial adoption Fern and Marlene’s book, Let’s Talk Race – a Guide for White People is available anywhere books are sold. For a free copy of their guide, Tips for Communicating Race and Racial Identity, follow this link: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AqxowX5Jqw4HgdhRhzXLdENw2dcrDQ?e=mZGyYK   About Fern Johnson and Marlene Fine Fern L. Johnson is a native Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, which is a suburb of Minneapolis. She attended the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities for her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees and received a M.A. degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Throughout her teaching and research career, her interests have focused on the relationship of language and communication to society and culture, with emphasis on cultural and language diversity in the U.S. and how language channels and shapes our beliefs, values, and attitudes.  Johnson is the author of Speaking Culturally—Language Diversity in the United States (Sage) and Imaging in Advertising—Verbal and Visual Codes of Commerce (Routledge) plus numerous articles and book chapters. She and Marlene Fine co-authored The Interracial Adoption Adoption—Creating a Family Across Race (Jessica Kingsley), which grew out of their experience as white parents of adopted African American children. Prior to her Ph.D. work, Johnson taught at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. After the Ph.D., she moved to Massachusetts as a faculty member in the Communication department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where she also served as  Deputy Provost. After 13 years at UMass, she was appointed Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Following her years in administration at Clark, she was a full time professor of English and Director of the Interdisciplinary Communication and Culture Program. Johnson’s interest in how race, ethnicity, and gender impact communication reaches back to her undergraduate studies when she was first introduced to linguistic research on African American language structure and history. In graduate school, she deepened her knowledge of sociolinguistics and also became engaged in newly developing inquiry into how culture shapes language to conform to a male-female binary, and how that communication binary leads to judgments about language users. As the U.S. became increasingly diverse and languages other than English reshaped the national language landscape, Johnson’s work explored the implications of a multilingual society for education and public policy both in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to her teaching and research, Johnson has conducted seminars and workshops...