Staff Picks: Nice White Parents
| by Mike Roy
Joffee-Walt, Chana. 2020 “Nice White Parents.” Podcast. New York Times & Serial Productions. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html.
The five part podcast “Nice White Parents” released in the summer of 2020 examines white supremacy, systemic racism, and segregation through the story of a single public school in Brooklyn, New York. In telling this story of white parents taking over what was previously a deeply segregated school, the reporter Chana Joffee-Walt provides not only dozens of cringe-worthy moments of wealthy white people causing harm through their cluelessness, but also a way to see in concrete ways how power in our society operates to sustain inequality. While I found the first four episodes to be deeply disturbing and disquieting, the final episode ends on a hopeful note, providing an alternative path to school and societal reform that centers the voices, needs, and hopes of non-white people.
Get it:
- Listen to it through the New York Times or where ever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc).
- Tip: Listen to Nice White Parents, then discuss in a group!
Keep watching the library news blog for Staff Picks. And later this fall, we’ll share a new anti-racism library guide with even more recommendations.
Media Contact
Mike Roy is the Dean of Libraries at Middlebury.