Meet Our Co-Hosts
SooJin Pate, PhD (she, her, hers)
I am an Asian American woman, born in Seoul, raised by white people in southern Minnesota, educated in the liberatory and decolonizing classrooms of an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities), and mama of a mixed-Black daughter who is fully African American and fully Korean American. I’m here because I want to create a better world for my daughter, to be sure, but also to build a better world for both present and future generations. I’m here because I want to normalize conversations around race, racism, and white supremacy. I’m here because I want to build a community of antiracist parents and caretakers who can rely on each other for sustenance and laughter, for support and guidance as we experiment and hone our antiracist parenting/caretaking skills.
Quote2LiveBy: “We...need to become fluent in each others’ histories... We would have to unlearn an impulse that allows mythologies about each other to replace knowing about one another. We would need to cultivate a way of knowing in which we direct our social, cultural, psychic, and spiritually marked attention on each other. We cannot afford to cease yearning for each others’ company.” ~Jacqui Alexander
Mantra: “Nothing about us is for us without us.” ~Slogan by South African disability justice activists
Hannah Carney, M.Ed (she, her, hers)
I am a white woman and a Mama of two boys (until they tell me otherwise). I was raised in a very white, middle class, suburban neighborhood attending white schools - both public and private. Growing up, I wasn’t taught our country’s true history. Like most of us, I learned a white-washed version of U.S. history from the perspective of the white colonizers. After college was the first time I was really exposed to any type of curriculum around gender, religious beliefs, race, marital status, ethnicity, parental status, age, education, physical and mental ability, income, sexual orientation, occupation, language, geographic location and other ways we identify socially. My commitment to antiracist parenting/caretaking is driven by my desire to give my kids the knowledge and tools they already need to understand what is happening around them, as well as the support to disrupt and transform the policies, norms, and structures that favor some groups while oppressing others. I’m here to connect with and learn from other parents and caretakers and share my own experiences related to antiracist parenting/caretaking. My hope is that as more and more parents and caretakers engage, we will raise a generation of antiracist leaders together.
Quote2LiveBy: "Antiracism is becoming a better human to other humans." ~Austin Channing Brown
Mantra: Just keep being awesome.