On Racism: Learning to Speak and to Listen

The Next Right Thing

Emily P. Freeman

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2020

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode may seem a bit disjointed, last minute, and scattered. That’s because it is all of those things. But if we wait to speak out until we feel polished or impressive, I fear we’ll be silent for far too long. I confess that’s been true for me.

Sometimes our next right thing is to stumble forward together, not because we know exactly what we’re doing but for the sake of love and justice.

May we know when to speak up and when to stay silent. When we are silent, may it be because we are learning and listening and not because we are afraid.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Emily P. Freeman and welcome to the next rate thing.
0:05.7	This is a podcast about making decisions but also about making a life, and that couldn't
0:11.3	be more relevant for today's episode.
0:14.5	This will not be a typical episode of the podcast.
0:17.1	I had one scheduled and ready to go, but about 12 hours before it was scheduled to drop.
0:23.3	I realized releasing that episode today wasn't my next rate thing.
0:28.5	I'll post it next week, but for today, in this short episode, I want to say a few words
0:33.6	about the heartbreak, the anger, and the exhaustion happening in our country as a result of the
0:39.3	systemic racism that we see all around us and within us.
0:44.6	And then I want to stop saying words and continue the work of listening.
0:48.8	I'll be honest, my instinct, along with a lot of other people, especially white people,
0:55.2	is to ask, what can I do?
0:58.2	My instinct is not to ask, how have I contributed?
1:03.0	But the more I listen to our black brothers and sisters, the more this question comes to
1:07.6	the surface, I keep hearing our black friends say, could you listen to us?
1:13.1	Believe us?
1:14.5	Learn our stories?
1:16.1	Apologize to us?
1:18.8	At the invitation of Oshita Moore and otherwise black men and women, my next rate thing is to
1:24.0	say, I'm listening.
1:26.2	I believe you.
1:27.8	I'm learning.
	...

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