Why Awareness is Not Enough w/ Barbara Furlow-Smiles & Sherice Torres

From Woke to Work: The Anti-Racist Journey

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 StudioPod. Edited at Nodalab, art by Tommy Gómez, and music produced by davecantrap.