The Laverne Cox Show

We get way more from our ancestors than our height, nose or personality. We absorb life lessons that have been passed down from generation to generation. But what if those life lessons were first learned while trying to survive slavery? What if those skills are now more harmful than helpful and we don’t even know what we’re doing? Psychologist, social worker, researcher and teacher Dr. Joy DeGruy explains how descendants of slaves are more connected to their ancestors than they realize. But simple awareness can heal. // 

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal. // 

As always, stay in the love. // 

References:

Dr. Joy DeGruy 10-Week Course:

(https://www.joydegruy.com/online-course)

Georgia Daycare Accused of Racism After 'Making Black Kids Wait to Eat'

(https://www.newsweek.com/georgia-daycare-accused-racism-after-making-black-kids-wait-eat-1583051)

San Francisco Supervisor Trolls ‘Karens’ Who Call Cops on People of Color for No Reason With ‘CAREN Act’

(https://www.thedailybeast.com/san-francisco-supervisor-trolls-karens-who-call-police-on-people-of-color-for-no-reason-with-caren-act)

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Laverne, like many of us, struggles with self-criticism. She says it comes from a place of trying to protect herself, but in reality, it can be more debilitating than helpful. Dr. Kristin Neff is a professor and a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research. In this episode, she gives us tools to be more kind to ourselves—- which does not mean being easy on ourselves. Dr. Kristin Neff recently released a book entitled Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive. Using concepts from Buddhism and informed by her research, she has a message for all of us about how being kind is not always about being nice. //

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal. //

As always, stay in the love. //

References:

Kristin Neff’s Website (https://self-compassion.org/)

Kristin Neff's Books (https://www.amazon.com/Kristin-Neff/e/B004DM0CVS)

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Warning: Please be aware this episode discusses targeted violence and may be triggering for some, particularly those in the LGBTQ+ community.

If you can understand the cause of something, you can fix it, right? Don’t treat the symptoms; treat the disease. Laverne talks with award-winning forensic psychologist Dr. Karen Franklin about why transgender people, especially women, are so often targeted in violent hate crimes; the role of religion; and if offender reform is possible. What is the psychology of the person who attacks, or even kills, someone just for being trans or gay or gender nonconforming? Fear is a powerful force and the sources of fear are far and wide. Fear is in our human nature as a survival tool and fear is nurtured by people in power. Now, how do we end the violence? //

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal. //

As always, stay in the love. //

Resources:

Forensic Psychologist Dr. Karen Franklin: (https://www.karenfranklin.com/resources/violence-against-transgender-people/) //

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives: (https://www.amazon.com/57-Bus-Story-Teenagers-Changed/dp/0374303231) //

Vawnet.org - an online resource library of gender-based violence: (https://vawnet.org/sc/serving-trans-and-non-binary-survivors-domestic-and-sexual-violence/violence-against-trans-and) //

National Center for Transgender Equality: (https://transequality.org/issues/resources/responding-hate-crimes-community-resource-manual)

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What are your dating preferences? Do you prefer a certain ethnicity or race over another? What does it mean to have this sort of preference and where does it come from? Sociologist and social worker Sarah Adeyinka-Skold's latest research involved interviewing Black women about the unique difficulties they experience dating on and offline. In this episode, she and Laverne breakdown how the structures of white supremacy and patriarchy imprint themselves onto our dating habits. //

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal. //

As always, stay in the love.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Cornel West, renowned professor and philosopher, and one of the greatest American orators alive speaks with Laverne about what it means to be a love warrior. “Justice is what love looks like in public just like tenderness is what love feels like in private,” is a Cornel West quote that Laverne repeats so often people mistakenly attribute it to her. In this conversation they discuss the resiliency of the Black spirit, how to hold our institutions accountable, and how to be a wounded healer instead of a joy crusher. //

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal. //

As always, stay in the love. //

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Laverne visits with one of her idols and sources of inspiration Tracey ‘Africa’ Norman to talk about her dramatic career in fashion in the 70s and 80s. Norman became a trailblazer when she was chosen as the first Black woman on a box of Clairol hair color in 1975. This was momentous for the entire Black community. It was also momentous for the transgender community, but nobody knew it then. Tracey had been assigned male at birth. She came up in the days of secrecy, but she’s open now and finally sharing her historic story. //

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal. //

As always, stay in the love.

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Dr. Wendy Walsh, psychologist, author, radio and podcast host, explains just how important our first three years on earth are to the relationships we have over the rest of our lives. There’s this thing called Attachment Theory and it’s based on what happened to us as tiny little beings (thanks, Mom and Dad). As always, there’s hope. Regardless of your personal circumstances, there are definitely ways to rise above! //

Dr. Wendy Walsh is the author of three books on love and is the writer and host of the podcast Mating Matters. She also hosts a live radio show in Los Angeles (KFIAM 640) all about relationships. //

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dating as a trans woman can be complicated, frustrating and even dangerous. Longtime friend, actress and writer Jen Richards, joins Laverne for a very candid truth-only conversation. Together they dish on what they have learned over the years, like why some men are attracted to trans women and why so many men have a hard time being honest about their attraction. Of course they go deep, and Jen shares what she thinks is the biggest kept secret about trans women, opens up about why she thought she could never be loved, and then shares her amazing news. Get the tissues. //

You might know Jen Richards from her Emmy nominated short series, Her Story. You can also see her in the HBO series, Mrs. Fletcher, and in the Netflix documentary Disclosure, which was executive produced by Laverne. Currently she can be seen on the CBS primetime thriller Clarice. //

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In this powerful episode, Laverne talks with Richard Rothstein, the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Rothstein breaks down how the government implemented housing policies in order to segregate Black people primarily in the 1930s and 50s. Though many decades ago, the effects are as present as ever in the education gap, income gap, wealth gap, and “slums.” As violations of the Constitution, it is a requirement to correct past injustices. //

INFO:

New Movement to Redress Racial Segregation

Email to Get Involved: [email protected] //

Richard Rothstein is a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. //

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laverne speaks with Kevin Allred, author, scholar, speaker, who came on the pop culture radar when he started teaching a university course on Beyonce back in 2010. It’s called Politicizing Beyonce, with a syllabus composed entirely of black feminist writers. It’s his mission to facilitate conversations that disrupt America’s racist and heterocentrist status quo by studying America through the eyes of female Black artists and intellectuals, like Beyonce. He draws connections through history and asks us to take a different perspective. His class has been adapted into a best-selling book, Ain’t I a Diva, available at The Feminist Press. //

Kevin Allred’s Twitter

Kevin’s Website

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