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Episode 14: Motherhood

Just a few days after Mother’s Day, we had the distinct honor of bringing in a very special guest on the Dialectic Peoples podcast – my wonderful mother, Roxanne Lewis. It’s a beautiful, honest and personal conversation about how my own upbringing by my mother and her mother – two strong and loving women who worked very hard to raise me, take care of me, and turn me into the man I am today. We talked about the trials of raising a child as a single mother, keeping family close despite great physical distance and spiritual differences. As you’ll hear, Roxanne is diligent, kind, forgiving and wise woman.

Mom, thank you for joining us on this episode, but more importanly, thank everything you’ve done for me. You are an amazing mother and grandmother. We love you always.


I would like to dedicate this episode to the memory of my maternal grandmother, Marilyn Lewis, raised both my mother and me as a single mom. She was an unbelievably patient, generous, compassionate and faithful woman.

I would also like to dedicate this episode to the memory of my paternal grandfather, Alfred Middleton, who was the hero I needed him to be when I needed him most.

– Brandon

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Episode 6: Language and Power

In this episode, we discuss the definition, importance of language, and the power it holds over our lives.

We also take a look at some of the direct effects of negative, and discriminatory language policies within the Danish educational sector, and the consequences of said laws on ethnic minorities in Danish society. 

         Correction

  • One of the criteria for a residential area to be classified as a Ghetto and included on the “ghettolist” is that over 50% (not 30% as mentioned on the episode) of the residents are of non western nationality or heritage. 
  • The category, non-western heritage, includes descendants of immigrants, which means you can be a Danish citizen, and still be included in the statistics as one of non-western heritage. 

        Note:

        Non-western is a very problematic category/term, which is discriminative                    in itself and used for discriminatory purposes.

Links

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Jim Cummins, Professor working on language development and literacy development of learners of English as an additional language

Jim Cummins

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr.Phil fields of interest: Linguistic human rights, minority education, language and power, links between biodiversity and linguistic diversity, multilingualism, language policy, global (subtractive) spread of English, integration, ethnicity, racisms (including linguicism, linguistically argued racism), gender issues.

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas

Effects of Busing on Test Scores and the Wellbeing of Bilingual Pupils: Resources Matter by Anna Piil Damm, Helena Skyt Nielsen, Elena Mattana and Benedicte Rouland.

Effects of Busing on Test Scores and the Wellbeing of Bilingual Pupils

Policy proposal of the Ghettolaw

Policy proposal of the Ghettolaw

“Stigmatised, marginalised: life inside Denmark’s official ghettos” article in The Guardian by Emma Graham-Harrison and Janus Engel Rasmussen in Copenhagen.

“Stigmatised, marginalised: life inside Denmark’s official ghettos