In this fascinating conversation on race, John Blake, the CNN reporter who covers race, religion and politics shares his experiences and thoughts on race. You definitely want to hear this episode of ”Everyday Conversations on Race.”
Race has always been an important issue to John Blake. He shares his experience as a biracial young man growing up in West Baltimore where the Freddy Gray riots occurred, and where The Wire was filmed.
Regarding Governor Northam of Virginia, and the issue of Blackface, John refers to Lyndon Johnson and Abraham Lincoln who had racist histories, but later did great things for Black people., “Some of our best friends have been racist,” he wrote in a recent article.
“Thinking about Lincoln and Johnson,” he states “made me ask whether we want someone who works for Black people who has made mistakes that we can talk to, or someone who is able to successfully hide their racism and do nothing.”
He said that social media will destroy people over one wrong statement and there’s no redemption. “We fixate on other people but not how we all have issues of race. Even I do,” he admits.
We talk about the myth that if there all you need to get rid of racism, is more intermarriage and biracial children.
Listen now if you want to know
- why you can still be racist even if you have people of color in your family or a Black best friend
- what’s whitesplaining and how some white people try to tell Black people what racism
- why John Blake was accused of mansplaining by his wife
- how reporting on gang activity in Los Angeles affected his thinking on race and systems
- what he thinks of Rachel Dolezal
- why we need new ways and language of talking about racism
- actions we can take to look at ourselves, further the conversation on race, and stop racism