Peace educator, Dr. David Ragland, joins Konda Mason for deep truth-telling, exploring the heart-level spiritual change needed for true reparations and transformation of a racist system.
David Ragland, PhD, is the co-founder and co-director of the Truth Telling Project and director of the Grassroots Reparations Campaign. An educator, thought-leader, human rights, racial justice, and anti-war advocate; Georgetown University’s Advocacy Lab included his research as part of the most important research on advocacy in the past 40 years. Dr. Ragland was recently inducted into the MLK Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College, and has served as the Sr. Bayard Rustin Fellow at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and as a Board Member for the Peace and Justice Studies Association.
In this podcast, Konda and Dr. Raglan mention a key resource for learning about reparations. Please visit: Reparations4Slavery.com
Feminism: A Nature of Nurture
Welcoming Dr. David Ragland to the Brown Rice Hour, Konda begins the show with honest inquiry into the comfort foods and family life he experienced growing up. Explaining how bits of patriarchy and misogyny were chipped away by his mother teaching him how to truly nurture, Dr. Ragland shares how he came to be such a prominent and effective feminist through life lessons learned alongside powerful, nurturing women.
“Mothering work is men’s work as well. It’s necessary for men to nurture, to be part of unraveling misogyny.” – Dr. David Ragland
Dive into the swaddling arms of the Divine Mother’s nurture, as motherhood and spirituality come together, on Ep. 76 of the BHNN Guest Podcast
Truth Telling: Racism, Colonial Logic, & Reparations (14:34)
Illuminating how anti-Blackness, homophobia, and misogyny reflect colonial logic, Konda and Dr. Ragland explore how the ideology of male-dominated whiteness was perpetuated through the racist patriarchy of Western society. Sharing personal stories, Dr. Ragland recounts uprooting these internalized societal imprints within his own being, so he could effectively offer advocacy work like his Truth Telling Project, an online learning platform and truth commission for reparations, ending violence, and amplifying BIPOC voices.
“We look at reparations as amending this historic gap that goes to the very core of who we are. Slavery didn’t just happen—it continued, it’s ongoing. It continued in policing, in the incarceration system… At some very core levels, this country has given up morality for economic progress.” – Dr. David Ragland
For more Konda, open yourself to deep truth-telling surrounding land, race, money, and spirit, on Ep. 3 of the Brown Rice Hour
Heart-Level Change: Reparations, Spirituality, & Transformation (29:13)
What does a repaired world look like? After highlighting the spiritual and historical significance of reparations, Dr. Ragland shares the United Nations definition of reparation, involving: education, culture-shifting, mental and spiritual healing, restitution, and guarantees of non-repeat. What does it take for this to happen? Internally, it takes a change in heart; externally, a transformation of law; and holistically, an evolution of spirit and truth-telling.
“The key to getting towards understanding reparation, is that reparation has to be embodied, literally within your body, within your heart. It’s the Donella Meadows saying, that the most effective way to make transformation in any system is to change the mindset that created the system.” – Konda Mason
Explore anti-racism as a spiritual practice that can heal the planet from the inside out, on Ep. 21 of Sufi Heart
Images via David Ragland and KonstantinV9