010 - "Can I touch your hair?" is a question a lot of African-Americans hear at some point in their life. The question seems so innocent, so innocuous, but is it? Co-hosts Randy Bonser and Mel Turner explore the layered meaning behind this simple question and explain how touching someone's hair harkens back to when Black people were treated as animals or circus acts, and they point out the uncomfortable power dynamic the question brings up. We also feature special guest Dr. Ange...
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010 - "Can I touch your hair?" is a question a lot of African-Americans hear at some point in their life. The question seems so innocent, so innocuous, but is it? Co-hosts Randy Bonser and Mel Turner explore the layered meaning behind this simple question and explain how touching someone's hair harkens back to when Black people were treated as animals or circus acts, and they point out the uncomfortable power dynamic the question brings up. We also feature special guest Dr. Ange...
#002 - Ah, the 1980s, the "golden age of race relations" - if you were white! In this episode, Mel and Randy discuss how the phrase comes across to African Americans when a frustrated white person says, "Why can't we just go back to the way things were?" Using this phrase reveals that we majority folk have not always known -- or cared -- what was happening to people of color during eras we thought were peaceful or prosperous. For example, in Randy's native Metro Detroit, the 80s ...
The White People's Guide to Insensitive Speech
010 - "Can I touch your hair?" is a question a lot of African-Americans hear at some point in their life. The question seems so innocent, so innocuous, but is it? Co-hosts Randy Bonser and Mel Turner explore the layered meaning behind this simple question and explain how touching someone's hair harkens back to when Black people were treated as animals or circus acts, and they point out the uncomfortable power dynamic the question brings up. We also feature special guest Dr. Ange...
