In today’s episode we are making a pause from our Deschooling Release Party Vol. 2. Akilah addresses anti-blackness and its consequences. These disruptive times are making us more aware and reflective, and we have so many reminders and invitations to be more present.
WHAT WE DISCUSS
In the summer of 2016 Akilah was starting Fare Of The Free Child, a podcast with the purpose of amplifying the underrepresented voices and unique concerns of Black people and other people of color, looking for viable alternatives to oppressive systems, ways to practice more self-directed ways. This was also a result of the communications that were happening when Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were lynched by the police.
Akilah shares her story about the first direct physical encounter with a violent police officer in her early teen years. This shows as a continuous pattern, Philando and Alton back in 2016, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020, history repeats itself. Akilah talks about how this gets her tired.
It’s in the collective, in the stories of the unheard, of the ancestral knowledge, that we can hold on and speak out, inspire change and demand that shit, too. Live into it despite attempts to dehumanize and colonize.
Mad Question-Askin’
What are some ways that you are being supported right now?
Where are some spaces or relationships that you are being supportive right now?
Akilah shares some episodes that she believes can be supportive right now:
Episode 74: What Does Raising Free People Mean?
Episode 86: Raising the Queer, Black, and Free
Episode 101: Togethering the Othered
Episode 102: Raising Free People, Raising Aware People
Episode 106 Racial Equity in SDE (Liberation and Education Summit Panel Chat)
Episode 109: Yolande on the Black, Queer, Feminist Approach to SDE
Episode 113: The Pleasure Series with Thea Monyeé
Episode 120: Alternatives to Toxic Whiteness
Episode 124: What is Confident Autonomy
Episode 134: Busting the Deschooling Myth
Episode 135: 3 Barriers to Raising Free People
Episode 132: The Real Reason Our Children Are “Not Enough”
LIBERATION WALK
- Organizations like Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund are organizing collective help for Atlanta’s BIPOC families affected by COVID-19 – Please donate.
- Here you can find Maleka, Melissa and Bria’s Deschooling Group.
- Deschooling: It’s A Thing!, an Eclectic Learning Network project, a global, monthly, virtual meetup for caregivers who are committed to explore ways to shift their parenting practices.
- Check out Akilah’s article, Fear of the Free Black Child – Alternatives to Fear-Based Parenting Amid Police Violence.
- Join our Facebook group.
- Pre-order Akilah’s book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work!
- This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp.com. In our Black and in broader BIPOC communities, self-care, community care, mental health care—the need and means to prioritizing these—are encouragingly increasing in conversation. Maybe you, yourself, have been thinking about what’s interfering with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals. BIPOC people are so interested in healing, that we are discerning the ways that therapy and mental health support needs decolonization so that it isn’t harmful and IS in fact effective for us. In Akilah’s search for that, she has found that s Betterhelp.com has been a great resource for her mental health. She was able to center her preferences and only choose from mental health professionals who, at base, wouldn’t seem to be in conflict or out of context for my particular beliefs and preferences. There is a broad range of expertise in the Betterhelp Counselor Network. Explore for yourself, and use this link Betterhelp.com because Fare of the Free Child Podcast subscribers have 10% off in their first month. #sponsored #verified
- Support the show at patreon.com/akilah
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