Welcome to Say Anything

Dear Listener,

I began the year knowing that I wanted to focus on racial inequity in D.C. I remember arriving in D.C. expecting to find the mecca of black excellence. While that I was certainly a part of my experience, I was also constantly confronted with homelessness, joblessness, and deteriorating housing, which all seemed to disproportionately burden black people. Once known as the Chocolate City, America’s capital represents a microcosm of the nation’s growing race divide. Racial disparities in wealth are at historic highs in the United States, and the racial divide in D.C. is no exception to the rule. Gentrification, mass incarceration, and a struggling school system have all contributed to an obvious lack of racial equity. I wanted to use the opportunity to explore issues of race and work out my own ideas about my own experience as a woman of color in D.C.

In most ways, my experience is disparate from that of the native washingtonian. My background looks like a more like the transient D.C. yuppy than someone who grew up east of the Anacostia River. For one, I was attending one of the most prestigious schools in America. My savings, merit scholarship and fellowship meant that taking a part of the opportunities that D.C. has to offer were never a question. I was in the room with policy makers, and I was taking part in conversations about the future of D.C.

My pedigree implied that I belonged in the rooms; yet, I often felt like a stranger. Something felt off about talking about what I had always framed as “black issues” with a room full of non-black people, and it felt strange to talk about a community I knew little about. After a year of living in D.C., I had barely ventured outside of NW D.C. This series of interviews was a chance to remedy this feeling.

I wanted a space to explore themes of race, equality, and the lived experiences of historically marginalized groups. What does social justice looked like when refracted through the prism of racial equity? I wanted to space to accessible to large audiences, but with little input from anyone else besides myself and the interviewee. Above all, I wanted to provide a space where the men and women experience these inequalities, injustices, and microaggressions to speak these experiences with their own words

I conducted 5 interviews with residents of D.C. The participants ranged in gender, age, occupation, religion, and ethnicity. The common theme was that they all identified as black and live in the greater D.C. area.

Entering into my second year of McCourt, I had a greater understanding of policy processes and how, as a policy maker, I might begin to innovate and implement fairer practices, but I still yearned for something more. Still feeling like a newcomer to the city, I wanted to know more about D.C. outside of the confines of policy. The word “community engagement” pops up frequently in these types of conversations; the phrase simply refers to the relationship built between an organization and the work they perform within the surrounding community. Community engagement can mean a lot or very little. For me, it meant listening. While I met some of my interviewees through policy work, I met others through friendly, chance encounters at coffee shops and bars. Others were recommended through friends and acquaintances. One interviewee I met at DIY punk show.

Sometimes it seemed like they portrayed a vision of DC that was growing and shrinking at the same time. Condominiums and new office buildings are a clear indication of economic growth, but opportunity seems to be disappearing for DC residents of color. D.C. is no longer a black city, but is it even a city for black people at all? At some point, all of the participants expressed some sort of frustration with the current system. While racism may not be overt, it still affected their lives in perceptible ways. Still, despite my insistence of the theme of racism and racial equity in D.C., there was no monolithic narrative for me to summarize. And I think that’s the point. There is no panacea for racism because racism is one of the most insidious problems faced by our country. The podcast isn’t an attempt to answer any questions, but a chance to get more stories from people of color out into the world.

Enjoy,

Raisa Johnson