Vox, 2021, 20:01… Education in the United States is supposed to be meritocratic, meaning a student’s achievement is measured solely by their efforts. But how do class and privilege affect opportunity, and does everyone really get the same shot? Glad You Asked host Fabiola Cineas explores how the myth of meritocracy perpetuates racism while keeping the American dream achievable only for a privileged few.
Vox, 2021, 22:08… Housing policy in the United States has a long history of deepening segregation. Redlining, exclusionary lending, and targeted zoning laws have all played a role in isolating minority populations while simultaneously privileging white residents. Glad You Asked host Lee Adams wants to know how this happened, and what effect residential segregation has on your future.
Inside Edition, 2021, 4:45… Many Asian Americans were angered when “The Mahjong Line” went viral for their pricey mahjong sets, which some are calling cultural appropriation. “[It’s] this ownership and profiteering from Asian culture that white America loves to do,” Andrew Ti, of the podcast “Yo, Is This Racist?” told Inside Edition Digital. The founders have since apologized, but is that enough? Inside Edition’s Johanna Li explains.
Vice News, 2020, 11:07… Alzo Slade participates in an “Emotional Emancipation Circle,” an Afrocentric support group created by the Community Healing Network and the Association of Black Psychologists. It’s a safe space for Black people to share personal experiences with racism and to process racial trauma.
Broadly, 2019, 13:22... With a large number of Asian artists breaking into the hip hop scene, the conversation surrounding cultural appropriation has become more common. Model Salem Mitchell sits down with local LA rapper, Hollei Day to discuss Asians in Hip Hop, and the female rapper’s views on cultural appropriation. We explore the fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange.
Adam Ruins Everything, 2019, 4:44… Americans subscribe to the individualistic fantasy that hard work results in success, and the “American Dream” can loosely be interpreted as climbing the social ladder. Sociologists call that (upward) social mobility, a concept describing how individuals can change their socioeconomic status. While mobility is possible in open class systems, increasing structural inequalities are making this ever more difficult in the United States.
Vice News, 2019, 7:02… Mzu Lembeni runs one of the many tour companies that takes tourists into Cape Town’s townships, impoverished areas that were first created when the Apartheid government forced nonwhites to live in segregated areas. On his tour, tourists can walk right into people’s homes, drink homemade liquor, play with children at a local school, and take as many pictures as they like. For some people, this sounds like exploitation. But Lembeni, who grew up in a township himself, disagrees. “If there was no poverty ... I'll do the township tour, because [of] the culture,” Lembeni says. “I don't sell the poverty, I sell the culture.”
Beme News, 2018, 10:16… Prisoners in Soledad, California are turning to an unlikely source — feminism — to understand the behaviors that may have landed them behind bars. Contessa visits with Richard Edmond Vargas who is working with his fellow inmates to challenge the idea of what it means to “be a man.”
The New York Times, 2018, 2:38… In this satirical infomercial, the comedian and actress Niecy Nash plays the inventor of a new hotline, 1-844-WYT-FEAR. The video advertises a phone service for white people to call when they can’t cope with black people living their lives near them. It’s a real phone number we created so that fearful whites can call it for advice, about their racism.
Al Jazeera, 2019, 2:25… More and more minority neighbourhoods in US cities are becoming what healthcare experts call "pharmacy deserts". From Oregon on the west coast to Baltimore on the east, local drug stores are closing up shop in low-income and minority neighbourhoods. The decisions may be based on profitability, but with the widening scope of services pharmacies offer in the United States - like physicals, immunisations, drug counselling, sexually transmitted infection screening and other laboratory testing - residents of poor neighbourhoods struggle to access an increasingly important part of the national healthcare system. Al Jazeera's John Hendren reports from Chicago.
Broadly, 2018, 10:41… Broadly visits the first adult fat camp that focuses on celebrating bodies instead of changing or shaming them. Women from around the country gathered at Fat Camp in Henderson, North Carolina for a weekend of outdoor activities like swimming, campfires, and pool parties in a judgement-free space. For many of them, the experience among other fat women was a transformative step in their journeys towards self-love.
