5.4 Black Lives Matter: How Will You Respond?
First Name Basis Podcast
Jasmine Bradshaw
5 • 629 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2022
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the summer of 2020, author Veronica Chambers had what she calls an “aha moment.”
Born in Panama and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Veronica’s Afro-Latina heritage has always been very important to her, and she worked hard to make sure her then-12-year-old daughter felt the power of her “Black girl magic.”
But when protests were happening across the country and in their own city, Veronica realized she needed to be able to teach her daughter more about race, systemic racism and the role of protests.
Veronica’s recently published book, “Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter,” was born out of this desire to teach her own daughter.
“Call and Response” is just one of many projects Veronica has produced during her prolific writing career. She is the editor of Narrative Projects for The New York Times, a public speaker, and author and editor of more than a dozen books — which span a spectrum in subject from several about food to books for kids to helping influential people with their memoirs and more.
Veronica was gracious enough to join me for an interview for this week’s podcast — Season 5 Episode 4: “Blake Lives Matter: How Will You Respond?” In this interview, Veronica shares:
- Thoughts on how to talk to kids — all kids, not just Black children — about police
- What protesting looks like for different people and finding what it looks like for you and your family.
- Insights on how to avoid burnout.
- Using your skills and what you love to do to make a difference.
It was truly an honor to read “Call and Response:The Story of Black Lives Matter” and to have Veronica share her time and thoughts with me. I sure learned a lot and know you will too!
Bite-sized Black History is a program that empowers you to teach the little ones you love about brilliant Black Americans who have been largely overlooked by our history books. We featured 12 different people in Season 1 of the program and will feature 12 all new Black Americans in Season 2. And, if you missed Season 1, both seasons will be available for purchase.
Click here to be the first to receive the coupon code on Feb 1st when the program launches!
Articles, Studies, & Podcasts Referenced in the Episode
Books edited or written by Veronica Chambers
New York Times Learning Network “Lesson of the Day: ‘Black Surfers Reclaim Their Place on the Waves’”
For info about Bakers Against Racism, read this newsletter by Veronica Chambers
“13th” documentary available on Netflix
Veronica Chambers’ Instagram @vvchambers
Visit Veronica’s website for additional information, including booking her for speaking events.
“The End of Policing” by Alex S. Vitale
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
Song Credit: “Sleeper” by Steve Adams” and “Dive Down” by VYEN
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the First Name Basis podcast, Season 5, Episode 4, Black Lives Matter. |
| 0:06.7 | How will you respond? |
| 0:14.1 | Teaching our children to be inclusive and anti-racist starts with us within the sacred walls of our home. First-name basis is designed |
| 0:23.7 | to empower you with the confidence you need to be a leader in your family and a changemaker in |
| 0:29.0 | your community. Together, we will wrestle with hard questions and use the answers to create the |
| 0:35.2 | world we want, a world that reflects our values of inclusion, |
| 0:39.5 | compassion, and courage. I'm your host, Jasmine Bradshaw, and I am so excited to be on this journey |
| 0:47.1 | with you. Hello, First Name Basis fam. I am so glad you are here. Oh my goodness, do I have an amazing episode |
| 0:57.5 | for you today. This episode was kind of like a pinch me moment because I had the opportunity to talk to |
| 1:04.2 | a New York Times journalist named Veronica Chambers. She is, oh my gosh, she's so amazing. She's so impressive. She has done so |
| 1:15.0 | many cool things in her career and in her life, and I can't believe I got to talk to her. |
| 1:20.6 | I was like, is this, is this really my wife? Let me tell you a little bit about Veronica Chambers. |
| 1:26.9 | She is the editor of narrative projects, a team dedicated to starting up multi-layered series and packages at the Times. The Times, the New York Times! When she first started at the New York Times, she was the editor of past tense. This was a story team that published articles inspired by photography that the New York |
| 1:45.9 | Times discovered as they digitized their photo archives. So for her work at the Times, she has won |
| 1:51.7 | awards from the News Women's Club of New York and the Jane Adams Peace Association. Can you |
| 1:59.0 | even? She's so cool. Before she started at the times, she actually |
| 2:02.6 | wrote and edited several books and anthologies, which she still does. She's still a writer, |
| 2:07.9 | and that's what we're going to talk about today. So a few of her books that you might have heard of |
| 2:12.4 | are Mama's Girl, which is a critically acclaimed memoir that she wrote, but she's also written children's |
| 2:18.2 | books. She wrote a book called Shirley Chisholm is a verb. And I couldn't believe when I read this |
| 2:23.8 | part because I've actually read this book. She co-wrote, Yes, Chef with Marcus Samuson. Have you seen |
| 2:30.2 | Chops? Do you remember on Chopped? He is one of the celebrity chef judges and he has a restaurant |
... |
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