Ben Kawlsky-Grahek
“Someone needs to say this isn’t a normal thing.”
In this episode* we hear how our New White Guy went from being a comfy college student, to a victim of violence and then on to being an advocate for racial justice by protesting against a white supremacist religious group.
*Just a heads up, we discuss challenging topics here, especially around race. Some of the stories may be triggering for some folks to hear.
Ben enjoys life with his family in St. Paul, Minnesota where he also works for a Minneapolis Performance Media Marketing Firm.
His favorite food is: New Haven Pizza
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Background on the Asatru Folk Assembly.
More about what was happening in Murdock Minnesota where Ben showed up to protest.
What is Systemic Racism? Check out this short video series from Race Forward that shows how racism shows up in our lives across institutions and society.
Ben mentions how challenging it can be to talk about racial issues with those people closest to you. Here is a toolkit to help with talking about these challenging topics. It was created by SURJ: Standing Up for Racial Justice, a number of years back after Trump won election.
Ben references inequities in the justice system. This article by Radley Balko explores systemic racism in the criminal justice system.
Here’s a quote from the article:
“Of particular concern to some on the right is the term “systemic racism,” often wrongly interpreted as an accusation that everyone in the system is racist. In fact, systemic racism means almost the opposite. It means that we have systems and institutions that produce racially disparate outcomes, regardless of the intentions of the people who work within them.”
