My Awakening Journey
Greetings
My name is Joe and I am the creator and host of My Awakening Podcast. Nineteen episodes have now been published since June 2020 and can be heard at MyAwakeningPodcast.com or most podcast apps. Our tagline is “Conversations about America’s racial issues.” As an older white male I used to think that America's racial issues were someone else's problem. Have you ever had that thought? God prompted my awakening journey in 2012, when the murder of Trayvon Martin pierced my privileged white male bubble. Since 2012 I have focused on building relationships with several new Black friends, starting with a few folks at my church. Beginning with these new relationships and through extensive reading and research I have learned much about America's longstanding systemic racism.
Then in 2020 this podcast was born, also divinely inspired, as a way to share my journey with listeners and to help close the gap in understanding and belief of the lived experiences of our fellow Black community members. Through building a mostly White listener base and featuring Black guests it is my heart’s desire to help close this gap for myself and our listeners. It seems that a White host sharing with mostly White listeners may have a chance to change hearts and pierce other folk's bubble along the way. Using a friendly, unscripted, conversational approach with my guests, I will continue exploring many systemic racism issues including inequities in housing, education, criminal justice, voting rights, healthcare, and much more. My awakening journey continues but now includes sharing it with others through My Awakening Podcast and its companion website. Here are some important truths continuing to highlight the purpose for this podcast:
- America’s diversity continues to increase while White America decreases as a percentage of our population.
- Most White Americans have no Black friends, thus no reference to the lived experiences they have.
- America continues to struggle with longstanding systemic racism issues exacerbated by politics seemingly driven by White America’s fear of losing their privileged position as the majority.
- Systemic racism continues to affect Black Americans traumatically and too often fatally, particularly since they makeup 14% of our population.
- This continuing racial inequity is unlikely to be reduced or eliminated unless us White majority begins engaging anti-racist efforts more vigorously. Us White Americans must become part of the solution for our still segregated nation to ultimately deliver "Liberty and Justice for All".
I am committed personally and through this podcast to helping close this gap in understanding and inviting others to join me as we learn more about our Black neighbors lives and their experiences in our communities. Only through better understanding can we hope to reduce the longstanding systemic racism that so dramatically affects our Black neighbors.
Please join me at MyAwakeningPodcast.com and I would love for you to engage directly in our podcast by using our new Start Recording feature directly below our logo on our website. Thank you for listening!