Mark your calendar – Addicted to Race live call-in show this Tuesday!
by Jen Chau and Carmen Van Kerckhove
Our next Addicted to Race live call-in show will happen this Tuesday, October 17 at 10 pm Eastern U.S. time. Make sure you mark your calendars!
We’ll be discussing the dangers of positive stereotypes. Why are we so quick to agree with positive stereotypes about our ethnic or racial group? How can we begin to see that these positive stereotypes exist at the expense of other groups? Are positive stereotypes just as harmful as negative stereotypes?
To listen, click here. On the day of the show there should be a play button, which if clicked will allow you to listen to the show, streaming live over the Web site.
To call in, just dial (347) 996-3958 or you can also IM us at AIM – our username is addictedpodcast.
If you’d like to receive an email reminder about the show, click here. You can select the reminder to go out anywhere from 5 minutes before the show or 24 hours before the show. We’re really excited and look forward to speaking with you all live! 
For those who can’t tune in for the live show, we will be recording the episode so you’ll be able to download and listen later on. To listen to a recording of last month’s live show, click here.
Addicted to Race is a podcast about America’s obsession with race. It’s co-hosted by Jen Chau and Carmen Van Kerckhove and is a production of New Demographic.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Ann wrote:
Jen, Carmen.
On your show in discussing the detriments of “positive stereotypes”, will you be discussing the “positive seterotypes ” of black women?
Not that I would expect there to be any, as much as white America and the world has maligned us black women with so many numerous epithets of derision.
But just wondering.
Posted 12 Oct 2006 at 10:29 pm ¶
Ann wrote:
Always have had trouble spelling that word “stereotype”.
Posted 12 Oct 2006 at 10:30 pm ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Hi Ann, I think one of the positive stereotypes of black women is the whole idea of the “strong black woman.” That’s something you hear over and over again, and it’s a concept very much embraced by black women themselves.
But as with all positive stereotypes, there’s a thin line between the positive and the negative. In this case, “strong” often becomes a euphemism for “loud” or “aggressive.” So depending on who’s using the term, it can take on different meanings. That’s one idea I’d definitely like to explore.
Posted 12 Oct 2006 at 11:03 pm ¶
Ann wrote:
Thanks, Carmen, I appreciate your answering my question.
But to be honest, the “strong black woman” stereotype is really a hateful slap in the face of black women.
Basically it says that you, black woman, are not human, not feminine, do not have feelings, do not cry, do not suffer, do not hurt, do not feel all the same pains that a woman of another race feels.
I have always hated the phrase.
Black women are no more stronger than anyone else out there. True, we had to be strong, what with white men raping us daily, to keep from raping their own women.
White women working us to death during slavery and segregation in their kitchens.
And especially with black women having to work to keep the black family together since the white race denied gainful employment to many well-qualified black men.
“Strong black woman”.
No thank you.
We black women are just like every other woman out there in the world. W e cry. We laugh. We love.
And we are not mules of the world.
But, thanks so much again for your response.
Posted 12 Oct 2006 at 11:15 pm ¶
Ann wrote:
Carmen.
“That’s one idea I’d definately like to explore.”
If you wish, you may use my question and my name in your broadcast of the show. I would like to hear other people’s viewpoints on the so-called myth of the “strong black woman”.
Posted 12 Oct 2006 at 11:44 pm ¶
merq wrote:
“But to be honest, the “strong black woman” stereotype is really a hateful slap in the face of black women.”
Hence the whole discussion of “positive stereotypes.”
“If you wish, you may use my question and my name in your broadcast of the show. “
Gee. really?
Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 7:48 am ¶
Ann wrote:
“Gee. really?”
And your point is …what?
Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 4:05 pm ¶
Ann wrote:
Carmen.
In my above post, I hope you did not take offense. My anger was directed to the positive/negative stereotype of black women supposedly being so strong that we are not considered human beings.
I would like for you to address how many people really despise the so-called positive stereotypes that are forced on them in your discussion Tuesday.
As far as I am concerned, so-called positive stereotypes force people into a box, and can demean, curtail and cripple them.
There is never anything positive about a stereotype when it disregards the humanity of an entire race of women.
And that is why I have nothing but contempt for that particular so-called “positive” stereotype.
Thanks.
Posted 14 Oct 2006 at 5:33 pm ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Ann, I didn’t take offense at all! I completely agree with you that positive stereotypes are just as limiting as negative stereotypes — that’s exactly why we want to cover this topic on the show!
Posted 15 Oct 2006 at 12:25 am ¶