>> Please email GINNY JACKSON if you would like to share a podcast
Alice’s Podcast Selection:
Black Oxygen: Season 5, Episode 1: Host Angela Russell’s Conversation with Myra McNair
Why did you choose this podcast and why this episode specifically?
Black Oxygen focuses on Black people in Madison and other parts of Wisconsin, and is hosted by the brilliant and talented Angela Russell, the Chief Diversity Officer, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at CUNA Mutual Group. This particular episode addresses the current state we are in with COVID, grief and loss. Myra McNair speaks about mental health and addresses the fact that this rush to “back to normal” carries differential impact on communities. I really appreciated the in-depth look at Black grief and the offering of resources that supports one’s mental health and well-being. Black Oxygen has also become a dose of “audible armor” that helps me survive all the spaces and places that weren’t designed for me.
How does this podcast relate to your work?
I can relate almost every episode of Black Oxygen to my work. I usually find myself jotting down quotes when I listen. Because of the current racial climate, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me, as a person of color, to do EDI work on a predominantly white campus. In 2020, the nation chanted “Black Lives Matter.” Now it’s 2022, it feels like the nation is seeking to destroy anything that mentions Black lives by broadening and demonizing the term Critical Race Theory. The tides turned at a neck-breaking speed.
