The session in which we explore the history of blackface. We talk about its origins, how it developed over time, and why it’s offensive. Blackface brings up a very disrespectful, demeaning racist societal history. We learned how insidiously such things were a part of our upbringing and it’s part of the racism we are rooting out and working against.
Representation in Sports
Who comes first to your mind when you think about African American tennis players? There are several we all know now including Serena and Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens, and Frances Tiafoe to name a few. Many people think first of Arthur Ashe who was the only Black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. But it was Althea Gibson, the tennis legend, who broke the racial barrier in the sport as the first ever African American to win a Grand Slam title. She was an amazing athlete and in this session we highlight her accomplishments as we consider the importance of representation, acknowledgment, and appreciation in sports, as in all things.
RedLining
We begin our 3rd season journey into learning and uncovering as much as we can about our truthful past with RedLining – a practice that purposely maintained segregation through discrimination in lending. We discuss its racist history, how it promoted both segregation and the wealth gap, and the continued forms it takes even today.
A couple of books we mentioned to learn more about RedLining:
Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
NationalFairHousing.org
Education Whitewash
Just us Shrinks having an After Hours discussion about the lack of actual American History in our prior education – trying to come to terms with our whitewashed understanding of so many things, on so many levels.
One View From the Ground
The session in which we speak once again with Nurah Muhammad (shrinksonthird.com/actionism-sister-nurah-muhammad), who lives and works in Camden, NJ. For this session we reached out to get Sister Nurah’s take on the changes in the Camden Police Department, recently touted as a successful model of community policing. She offered her perspective on what’s working, what isn’t, and what still needs improvement.
Hope Springs Eternal
As we bring our 2nd year of podcasting to a close and begin a new ‘season’ we think about hope and try to find it to begin our 3rd year. In this session we explore hopefulness: where we look for and find it, how we highlight it, and how to share it. It’s been a rough year – we’re hopeful the next one will be better.
Politics in Therapy
The session in which we discuss the increasing amount that political thoughts and concerns have permeated therapy sessions since 2016. In the past, politics did not enter therapy in the same ways that it seems to now. In this session, we talk about politics in therapy and how it has changed the way we manage our therapeutic relationships.
Health Psychology
The session in which we speak with Dr. Phil Fizur, a clinical psychologist in the department of Behavioral Medicine at Cooper University Healthcare in Camden, NJ. Dr. Fizur’s day-to-day work involves patient care at Cooper’s Urban Health Institute, focusing on providing healthcare to Camden’s underserved populations. In addition, since the pandemic hit, he is also dealing with the traumatic impact of COVID19 on patients and providers.
Loneliness
We haven’t been in person together in almost 6 months now and the title of this Shrinks After Hours episode perhaps, in part, reflects that fact. Loneliness is experienced very differently by different people and in this particular episode we were reflecting upon that with Allison Gibbs, LCSW, of Therapy Concierge, LLC.
Dreams and Nightmares
Not too many bonuses in 2020 but here’s one! We talked to Director of the Philadelphia Storytelling Project, Mark Lyons, on this week’s main episode. He mentioned a book he helped to edit and translate by a young woman who fled alone to the United States when she was 14. In this bonus episode, Mark reads a powerful excerpt from the book, Dreams and Nightmares/Sueños y Pesadillas by Liliana Velásquez.