Friday's Five 🖐🏼 #141
Happy Friday's Five,
Just like many people out there this week, I tried as much as possible to listen and learn.
What I'm reading
'White Fragility' by Robin DiAngelo is one of the books I've seen recommended most this week by people of color and I am not fully done reading it but I've already learned a lot about challenging racism and better understand "'white fragility', a reaction in which white people feel attacked or offended when the topic of racism arises." Read more about the book here.
What I'm listening
The 1619 Project is an interactive and multi-media project by The New York Times Magazine that explores the beginnings of the institution of slavery in the US all the way back to the first vessel that traded Africans into slavery in the state of Virginia 400 years ago. In these five podcast episodes, NY Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones re-examines the legacy of slavery in America and helps understand the origins of many of today's realities and tensions. Listen to it here.
What I'm watching
'When They See Us', directed by Ava DuVernay, is a 4-part Netflix miniseries and is based on the events of the 1989 'Central Park Jogger' case that led to the arrest and wrongful conviction of 5 young African-Americans who spent 7-13 years in prison before being released. I've shared this one before and re-sharing now because it's an important story to be heard. This event, by the way, led Trump to place a full-page ad in a newspaper calling for the death penalty in this case.
What I'm thinking about
"Though white fragility is triggered by discomfort and anxiety, it is born of superiority and entitlement. White fragility is not a weakness per se. In fact, it is a powerful means of white racial control and the protection of the white advantage." – from the book 'White Fragility' by Robin DiAngelo
What else?!
With Role Models, our goal is to make female role models more visible and audible. We've interviewed and learned from the experience from women of color on the podcast and I want to use the opportunity of this week's edition to re-share the links to their episodes: Janina Kugel (former Chief Human Resources Officer at Siemens), Hadnet Tesfai (DJane, moderator, presenter), Aminata Touré (politician with the Greens), Niddal Salah-Eldin (deputy Editor in Chief dpa), Esra Karakaya (journalist), Joy Denalane (musician and singer), Sawsan Chebli (Berlin state minister), Kübra Gümüşay (author and activist), Sara Nuru (social entrepreneur), Düzen Tekkal (war reporter and human rights activist).
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
David
P.S.: If you enjoy reading this, your best friend might too – thanks for sharing: tinyletter.com/davidnoel
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