Why Sympathy is Not Enough w/ Jason White & Amani Duncan

From Woke to Work: The Anti-Racist Journey

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”.

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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.