‘We may all be weathering the same storm, but we are not in the same boat…’
‘The real tragedy would be if I allowed myself to become a disbeliever of what I know and hold to be the inherent beauty and greatness of all mankind.’
The story we feature today talks about racial discrimination, racial injustice and the power of discriminatory discourses in the time of the pandemic.
STORY
Today we hear Maddy’s own voice, from Abohemian, as she narrates her story.
DISCUSSION
This episode was not easy to record. We both felt incredulous, outraged and utterly powerless to hear Magdalene’s account of direct experience of racial discrimination.
We discuss what we can do about stopping racial discrimination and in fact discrimination of any sort from taking place in the future.
We take our lead from Reni Eddo-Lodge’s recent advice in her amazing podcast – About Race. She asks us to delve deeply into the question and ask ourselves what is within our capacity to do to stop racial discrimination and injustice from happening.
Here’s a thought: we can influence discourse. We can make sure that certain ways of referring to people, places, actions are simply inaccessible, not to be used.
We discuss this, and more, in today’s episode on racial discrimination.
We are so grateful to Maddy for sharing her experience with us.
RECOMMENDATION
Follow Magdalene on Instagram, read her words and stay a while. Subscribe to her newsletter, talking about those things we seldom talk about, here.
We love About Race for education against racism.
We enjoyed watching this film, which talks about the difficulties in forgiving unfair acts done to us.
N. B. There will be more recommendations coming up in the next edition of the newsletter, subscribe and you can receive them all.
THANK YOU, MADDY, FOR TELLING YOUR STORY OF 2020 ON THE PODCAST.
Series 3 of My Beautiful Stories podcast offers a space for YOUR STORIES to be heard. You can listen to the first story from our audience here.
The second story on the podcast can be found here.
This is the third story on the podcast.
The fourth story can be found here.
And here you can find the fifth.
This is where you’ll find story seven.
Share your stories of 2020 with us and let’s create a safe space where to keep a memento of what 2020 really was like – the beauty, the humanity, the heartbreak.
We invite a diversity of voices to join us in telling the stories of 2020.
If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please do share with other people, please write a review or a rating.
Join us in the conversation @storisse.
This episode left me in tears. The ongoing injustice, overall bigotry, racism, intolerance,… it’s all too human and therefore even more painful to behold or experience. Civilization seems to be a very thin layer of varnish, masking what truly dwells within.
Thank you for sharing, Alex.
Sending love xx
Thank you for your kind words, Nanhe. We both felt deeply moved, too… And the more we read, watch, learn, the more we realise how much we didn’t know, even though we thought we did… how deeply entrenched it all is… and how impossible it is to bear all this hurt. Thank you again for your comment. Alex x
[…] Episode 9 in Season 3 of “My Beautiful Stories” is on […]
Dear Maddy,
Once again, thank you so much for gifting us this precious story. Thank you for also publishing it on your blog, and thus making sure its life continues. I am sure this is making a difference. Thank you, again. Alex and Pawel