Recently I was given the honor to participate in a live stream chat for New York Times Twitter in a discussion about white allies defending people of color against all kinds of aggressions like calling the police for doing regular everyday things.
LIVE NOW: The woman who filmed “BBQ Becky” joins @RachelSwarns and “Waking Up White” author Debby Irving for a disc… https://t.co/lBSLgIiKro
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 9, 2018
As most people already know, I filmed the video now dubbed #BBQBecky. Several journalists have noted to me recently that this viral video has started a new trend of people video recording white people who are doing what appears to be racially motivated acts like calling the police on black people who seem “out of place” to a White person who has a racial bias they may not even be aware of.
Host Rachel Swarns opens the stream with the narrative of hearing many stories about discrimination towards Black Americans and raises the question, what can White allies do to help in the future.
The other guest speaker is Debbie Irving, author of “Waking Up White.” Irving is an educator who has dedicated her life to understanding the underlying racial bias that many White people have and do not realize. You can see how dedicated Irving is to educating White people on their racial prejudices as she goes deep into how perspectives are formed from social learning to media.
Watch the full almost 24 of the live stream and get a fuller background story behind why I jump quickly to confront racism as well.
