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Reconstructing Inclusion S2E11: Why Ending Race is the Future of Antiracism: Dr. Sheena Mason's Breakthrough Approach to Race/ism
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In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Sheena Mason, author of "The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Race is the Future of Antiracism," for a conversation that challenged everything I thought I knew about racial justice. Sheena presents her revolutionary "Togetherness Wayfinder" framework—a practical roadmap beyond traditional antiracist thinking toward what she calls "raceless antiracism."
This isn't just academic theory. It's a fundamental reimagining of how we approach inclusion, justice, and human liberation that could transform organizations, communities, and individual relationships.
🔥 Standout Quotes:
"The fiction of race is the dehumanizing apparatus that gets attached to human beings that then allows us to be broken into false hierarchies. And in that way, it's a thoroughly pernicious category and a thoroughly pernicious practice." [00:13:00]
"In that shift, the idea is I'm centering the human right. I'm recentering the human. A person, right? A human who gets racialized as... I'm highlighting the external factors that exists in a particular context." [00:17:30]
"To my mind, racelessness is synonymous with limitlessness and there are two ways that limits get placed onto us. We internalize limits and then place limitations on ourselves." [00:57:00]
About Our Guest:
Dr. Sheena Michele Mason is an influential scholar, educator, and advocate for antirace/ism. As an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Oneonta, she has dedicated her career to dismantling racism through innovative approaches.
Sheena holds a Ph.D. in English with distinction from Howard University, specializing in African American, American, and Caribbean Literatures. She is the innovator of the "Togetherness Wayfinder" approach and has authored significant works including "The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Race is the Future of Antiracism" (2024) and "Theory of Racelessness: A Case for Philosophies of Antirace(ism)" (2022).
Resources Mentioned:
"The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Race is the Future of Antiracism" by Dr. Sheena Mason
The Togetherness Wayfinder framework
Time Stamps:
[00:07:00] - Introduction to Dr. Sheena Mason and her work
[00:11:00] - Her journey from trauma to literature as liberation and life's mission
[00:13:00] - Core thesis: Race as a "dehumanizing apparatus" that creates false hierarchies
[00:17:30] - Revolutionary language: From "Black person" to "person racialized as Black"
[00:20:30] - The Scooby Doo metaphor: How race masks five real categories
[00:23:00] - Creolization theory and the controversy over the new Pope's race
[00:28:00] - Deconstructing crime statistics and racialized data collection
[00:32:00] - Shocking reality: Only 3% of people racialized as Black commit violent crimes
[00:43:00] - Historical analysis: Why reconstruction of race has failed since Douglass
[00:48:00] - Centering whiteness in the abolition conversation
[00:52:00] - Why reform-based antiracism feels "safe" to those in power
[00:57:00] - Vision of raceless futures: "Racelessness is synonymous with limitlessness"
[01:00:00] - Parenting without racial categories and creating new possibilities
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