This week on the Huskie Conversation Café, your host J Pappas (they/them) is joined by Northern Illinois University associate professor and author of White Fatigue: Rethinking Resistance for Social Justice, Dr. Joe Flynn (he/him/his).

In the first of two episodes of this interview, J and Joe discuss how early racialized experiences impacted his adult perspective, the process of writing a book and curriculum development, and the surprisingly positive experience of writing a book on this topic at this moment in history.

On White Fatigue:
“White Fatigue: Rethinking Resistance for Social Justice explores how what passes for multicultural education in schools is often promotion of human relations and tolerance rather than a sustained critical examination of how race and racism shape social, political, economic, and educational opportunities for various groups, both historically and currently. Simultaneously, our nation’s social mores have changed over time and millions of White Americans find racism morally reprehensible. This book illustrates that despite that shift, it is not uncommon to experience White Americans―in classrooms and other spaces―struggling to understand how racism functions. White fatigue is an idea that helps explain and differentiate this struggle for better understanding among White folks who feel racism is wrong but do not yet have an understanding of how racism functions. White Fatigue ultimately argues that if we are to advance our national conversation on race, educators must be willing to define reactions to conversations about race with more nuances, lest we alienate potential allies, accomplices, and leaders in the fight against racial injustice.” -Peter Lang Publishers

Register before April 9th for the Hateful Things Exhibit at the NIU Pick Museum: Hateful Things exhibit at the Pick Museum - Northern Illinois University (niu.edu)

Find White Fatigue: Rethinking Resistance for Social Justice here: White Fatigue (peterlang.com)

Find other programming from Academic Diversity Equity, and Inclusion here: https://go.niu.edu/sjeregistration

Register for a CODE workshop here: https://www.niu.edu/diversity/education-training/code-workshops/index.shtml

Music:
Many thanks to Kevin MacLeod for the use of his music as the intro and outro of this podcast.

Werq Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/