Twisted Storytellers: Learning About Race

Lucia Wylie-Eggert remembers when she didn’t know what race meant.


From the live stage in Detroit to earbuds everywhere, WDET presents Season 2 of the Twisted Storytellers Podcast. The podcast features a diverse cast of Detroit area storytellers who performed live at The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History to sold-out audiences.  They tell uproariously funny, real-life stories about how our families and diverse cultures shape our experience.

In episode five, Lucia Wylie-Eggert tells a story about a specific moment in elementary school when she was forced to learn about racial identity in the United States.

During a history lesson, Wylie-Eggert’s teacher conducted an exercise intended to teach the class about “plantation history.”

Wylie-Eggert remembers her teacher telling the white and black students to split up and go to opposite sides of the classroom.

“We looked at her confused,” says Wylie-Eggert. “We didn’t know where to go.”

“At the end of class our teacher did not explain what happened and we went to recess and we were mad at each other,” she remembers.

Curated from the wildly popular Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers show, each episode is hosted by Detroit’s Satori Shakoor. Shakoor is the founder of The Secret Society of Twisted Story Tellers. She is also a former Parliament-Funkadelic singer, stand-up comedian and Moth Mainstage Storyteller.   

Subscribe to the entire season wherever podcasts are available. Click above to listen.

 


A production of WDET Detroit 101.9 FM

 

 

Twisted Storytellers is produced by WDET 101.9 FM and sponsored by the MGM Grand Detroit.

 

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