4 May 2019

A powerful history of Whiteness and race: 'Scene on Radio'

From The Podcast Hour, 12:15 pm on 4 May 2019
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Photo: Supplied

A white guy takes the idea of 'Whiteness' in modern US society and uses it to explore where our ideas about race come from, and what they mean today. In today's racially charged times, it sounds like a pretty bold (even foolhardy) move.

But John Biewen doesn't let the scale of the project, or its potential for controversy, put him off. Over 14 episodes of the series 'Seeing White' from the show 'Scene on Radio', the former public radio reporter turned academic enlists the help of some prominent historians, thinkers and writers, including his friend Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika who offers up some perspective from a Person of Colour, and calls out any of Biewen's cultural blind spots.

We play some early clips from episode 2 called 'How Race Was Made' and episode 3 of Seeing White called 'Made in America' from Scene On Radio presented by John Biewen from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.