Culture

Check Out The ABC’s Exciting New Podcast About Race

"This is the podcast Australia needs right now."

by Matilda Dixon-Smith  1 June 2017
ABC podcast

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ABC Radio has just launched a brand-new podcast to its growing audio network: It’s Not A Race. The podcast, which Aunty calls “barrier-breaking” is hosted by Beverley Wang, the executive producer of RN Drive, and will focus on race relations in Australia.

“This is the podcast Australia needs right now,” said Wang, who is Taiwanese-Canadian*.

The first episode, ‘Hey Hey It’s Time To Talk About Blackface!’ (oh boy, what a title) centres on Australia’s bizarre obsession with blackface, following on from the notorious blackface performance on the 2009 revival of Hey Hey It’s Saturday. The episode feature’s NITV’s Allan Clark (who notoriously faced off against The Project‘s Steve Price on the subject), Associate Professor Maryrose Casey, and Cope Street’s Bjorn Stewart (who went viral for his blackface parody last year).

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Future episodes will incorporate experiences from a number of commentators who can provide insight into the state of race relations in Australia.

“Race, racism and difference are part of everyday life,” Wang said in a statement about the launch. “We need the tools to acknowledge and talk about these subjects, especially if they’re out of our comfort zone. We also need spaces for people of colour to share their stories and experiences on their own terms. It’s Not A Race aims to talk it all out with humour and frankness.”



It’s Not A Race will also be reaching out to the public and audiences for comment throughout the course of the podcast’s broadcast period. Wang and the team at ABC Radio are keen to hear from the community about their experiences, anecdotes and accounts of race and identity in Australia. You can contact the podcast via email at [email protected] or via the hashtag #notarace on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Considering in-depth discussions on race is something the Australian public generally tends to avoid, many people are thrilled by the opportunity to engage in discourse about the state of race relations in our local and national communities.

Upcoming episodes of the podcast will feature Stan Grant, Alice Pung, Robin DiAngelo and Faustina Agolley. This is definitely a positive step in the right direction for Australia’s conversation on race, and an exciting bit of content for you lot to get inside yer earballs.

The first two episodes are out now. You can listen via all good podcast apps now

*This article originally mistakenly reported that Wang is Thai-Canadian, not Taiwanese-Canadian. We sincerely apologise for the error.