Since I revealed my top ten favorite blogs in my previous post, I decided I would utilize those in order to start off my first week of blogging on ProgressiveU. Beginning with my absolute favorite: Racialicious. Carmen Van Kerckhove, who writes and edits the blog, is the co-founder of New Demographic, an anti-racist training company. She posts articles, links, and her own opinions about contemporary issues dealing with race in the media.
Last semester I took a Cross-Cultural Journalism class, which really opened my eyes to the various negative portrayals of people of a different race, gender, disability, or sexual orientation in the media. Focusing solely on race, Racialicious digs deep into discussion on the latest topics in pop culture, forcing you to look at everyday events from an often overlooked perspective. I recommend it to everyone who wishes to be a culturally aware individual.
On top of blogging for Racialicious, Carmen is joined each week by an intriguing co-host for her weekly podcast called Addicted to Race, which brings a voice to her blog as well as reader/listener feedback to spark more conversation on issues of race. I am a bit behind on the podcasts, so I will start with the January 16th episode.
For Episode 55, Carmen was joined by Jae Ran Kim, a South Korean born woman who was transracially adopted and raised in the United States. Her blog is called Harlow’s Monkey, which deals with transracial and transnational adoption. She also contributes to Anti-Racist Parent and Kimchi Mamas.
A main topic of discussion during this podcast episode dealt with racism and white supremacy. Carmen thinks they are not one in the same. Jae Ran agrees:
“I think that when you only look at racism as being on the level of say, you know, the extremist views or white supremacy, then you’re really kind of giving everybody else an excuse to not look at their own internal racism because then everything else just seems like nothing in comparison.”
Carmen agrees, posing the question: “Who determines what is racist? At what point is that line drawn?”
It’s coming down to merely terms of use. The traditional definition of racism no longer applies in 21st century America. There is a new subtler form of racism, which an article that I had to read yesterday for my Cross-Cultural Psychology class touches upon. Written by Barbara Trepagnier, the article is entitled Deconstructing Categories: The Exposure of Silent Racism, but it only covers the beginning of what needs to be a developing conversation. So I urge you to look further into this notion of silent racism if you haven’t yet, and let me know if you discover any worthy resources.
The rest of the podcast covered wideranging topics, including reclaiming one’s heritage, Oprah on inner-city kids, and the Toys R Us immigration controversy. Please check out Racialicious and Addicted to Race and let me know what you think!
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