In this episode, I had the special honor of welcoming Tema Okun to the podcast to talk about her personal journey in education, her evolution as an antiracist scholar under the mentorship of the late Dr. Kenneth Jones, the publishing of her widely used article, "White Supremacy Culture", the need for white educators to transition from performative ally to active co-conspirator, and much more! To learn more about Tema's work, you can visit the White Supremacy Culture website at whitesupremacyculture.info or you can follow her on Instagram (@okuntema) and Twitter (@TemaOkun).
BIO: Tema Okun has spent over 30 years working with and for organizations, schools, and community-based institutions as a trainer, facilitator, and coach focused on issues of racial justice and equity. Dr. Okun currently co-leads the Teaching for Equity Fellows Program at Duke University, which works with faculty seeking to develop stronger skills both teaching about race and racism and across lines of race, class, and gender. She was a member of the Educational Leadership faculty at National Louis University in Chicago and has taught undergraduate, master's, and doctoral level students in educational leadership and education. She is the author of the award-winning The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race and Racism to People Who Don't Want to Know (2010, IAP) and the widely used article White Supremacy Culture. She publishes regularly on the pedagogy of racial and social justice. Tema is a participant in the Living School for Action and Contemplation and a member of the Bhumisphara Sangha under the leadership of Lama Rod Owens. She is an artist, a poet, and a writer. She lives in Durham, NC where she is fortunate to reside among beloved community. Her current project is deepening her ability to love her neighbor as herself. She is finding the instruction easy and the follow through challenging, given how we live in a culture that is afraid to help us do either or both.
