TonyTidbit: A Black Executive Perspective

What Americans Really Think About Race

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Description

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Episode Audio Link: https://podcast.ablackexec.com/episode/what-americans-really-think-about-race

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Quick Summary

What do Americans really think about race when they are free to speak honestly? In this episode of A Black Executive Perspective Podcast, host Tony Tidbit explores the unspoken, uncomfortable, and deeply human realities of race and identity in America through the lens of Michelle Norris’s Our Hidden Conversations. Drawing from hundreds of thousands of anonymous reflections, this conversation invites listeners to listen without defensiveness and reflect without judgment.

Recorded at WNHU 88.7 FM at the University of New Haven, the episode examines how race, privilege, gender, sexuality, and class intersect in everyday life and why understanding these perspectives is essential to building empathy and meaningful dialogue.

What You’ll Learn

  1. Why many Americans avoid honest conversations about race
  2. How anonymous reflections reveal fear, bias, curiosity, and hope
  3. The role identity plays beyond race, including gender and sexuality
  4. Why listening without rebuttal is a critical leadership skill
  5. How empathy creates pathways toward inclusion and understanding

Tools, Frameworks, or Strategies Mentioned

  1. The LESS Framework: Learn, Empathy, Share, Stop
  2. Six-word storytelling as a reflection tool
  3. Intersectional analysis of race, gender, and identity

Closing Insight / Call to Action

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

This episode challenges listeners to listen more deeply, reflect more honestly, and practice LESS every day to help reduce racism, sexism, and discrimination in our communities and workplaces.

Subscribe, rate, and share this episode to continue the conversation.

▶︎ Episode Highlights

05:00 – Why Americans struggle to talk openly about race

09:00 – The origin of the six-word postcard project

15:00 – Adoption, identity, and racial assumptions

23:00 – White privilege and generational perspectives

32:00 – Weekly Spotlight on gender, power, and societal expectations

41:00 – The LESS framework for action and accountability

🔗 Resources

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