Race, class, identity, privilege. These are topics and concepts that divide us, but what if we could start talking about them? Through conversation and stories that follow the themes of my book, White Picket Fences: Turning toward Love in a World Divided by Privilege, we are going to explore these hard topics in order to move together towards healing.
Show Notes:
White Picket Fences book
Resources: White Picket Fences discussion guides
David Bailey / Arrabon
Connect with me:
Thanks for listening!
Note: Transcript is generated using speech recognition software and does contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
1 (4s):
Hello friends. I'm Amy Julia Becker and I am here to announce new season of the love is stronger than fear podcast. If you've been listening along, we've been reading through the book of Philippians and now we are doing something pretty different because this season we are going to be taking a look at race, class, disability, and privilege, and we're going to do that through conversations and through stories. I wrote a book a couple of years ago called white picket fences, turning towards love in a world, divided by privilege.
1 (37s):
It's a story of my life of waking up to unearned, social advantages privilege in my own life. I wrote about having a child with a disability. Our daughter, penny has down syndrome and how having penny helped me to understand the harm of our social divisions and not just to understand that in my head, but to understand that in my heart and to want to respond. I understood the harm that everyone experiences because of social divisions of race and class and ability and all sorts of other things.
1 (1m 12s):
And I wanted not just to identify harm, but of course I wanted to be able to talk about possibilities for healing. I believe that if we face the pain and the hardship of our history, we can begin to experience healing. I also believe we need a lot of healing right now, and we're at a moment where a lot of people want to participate in acknowledging harm, reaching out for help and participating in healing.
1 (1m 46s):
So there's this word privilege. And it's a word that often brings up defensiveness, anger, shame, guilt. The word itself can be divisive. And that's kind of incredible. That one word can create so many big feelings, but I believe that our hopes and our dreams, our individual hopes and dreams, the ones we have for each other, they overlap more than they diverge more than they divide. If we can have honest conversations about all the divisions, the political divisions, the community, racial, ethnic, social divisions, the economic divisions.
1 (2m 25s):
I really believe that we can move together from shame to hope, from anger to peace and from fear to love. And if we can do that, then we can bring that hope, that peace, and that love out into our broken world. So this season, I'm going to have conversations about the themes of white picket fences. One chapter at a time, I'll get to talk with people who show up in the pages of the book. Like my friend, Pat Rayvon.
1 (2m 57s):
She changed my mind on how to talk with our kids about race and history and what books we should be reading together. I'll also be talking with people who I've met, just as a result of writing the book. People who've helped me better understand all of these issues, race, and class, and justice and healing. I'll talk to people of color. I'll talk to white people to parents, of kids with disabilities. People who have disabilities, men, women, and I hope these conversations will help us understand how we can embrace our common humanity so that we can celebrate our diverse gifts.
1 (3m 34s):
This season starts real soon. It starts on Tuesday with a great conversation with my friend, David Bailey, David directs a ministry called Aerobahn in Richmond, Virginia. That helps churches become reconciling communities. And you're going to get to hear us talk together about what that means and how it plays out and all sorts of other things like Confederate monuments and love and hope and healing. You can subscribe and get a new interview every week on Apple podcasts on Spotify, Stitcher, wherever you get your podcast.
1 (4m 10s):
And of course, I would say, please spread the word, talk with friends and family about the ideas that come up here. If you know of people who right now want to learn more about race and justice and privilege and the possibilities for healing, our social divisions, please share this podcast with them. Consider reading white picket fences together and talking about it. I've got discussion guides that are free. They're on my website, Amy, Julia becker.com under the resources section together, we can take small steps and together we can take small steps towards a world where love is stronger than fear.
1 (4m 49s):
I hope you'll join me.