Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds
Looking for a fun, authentic podcast that helps you learn how to incorporate Multicultural Education? Are you stuck in finding inspiration for creating a more inclusive classroom community? This podcast is designed to help you get inspired by knowledgeable resources, tips, and insightful humor with educator Jebeh Edmunds.
Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds
Season 5 Episode #11: My Conversation with Author & Peace Activist Diana Oestreich
Have you ever witnessed the unfolding of a multicultural family's narrative through the lens of empathy and education? Diana Oestreich joins us to detail her remarkable journey from a predominantly white upbringing to championing diversity and equity, particularly in our education systems. As we navigate the nuances of her family life in Northern Minnesota, Diana shares the emotional and resilient stories of raising her two sons—one of whom was adopted from Ethiopia—and the challenges they face, including confronting racism in educational settings. This heartfelt exchange underscores the essential role of love, advocacy, and acknowledgment in crafting a supportive environment for all children.
When racism taints the innocence of education, what is the role of a parent, an educator, or a community member? We grapple with this question as Diana recounts painful instances where her younger son faced discrimination, and how the family rallied to protect and affirm his worth. Our dialogue brings to light the power of speaking up against injustice—how a simple act of intervention can be a beacon for change and support. Parents and educators alike are called upon to be fierce advocates for our children, creating respectful, safe spaces that celebrate diversity rather than merely tolerating it.
Wrapping up our conversation, we plunge into the transformative potential of personal stories to bridge divides and promote social justice. Diana's transformation from a soldier into a peacemaker echoes throughout our discussion, inspiring us to consider how we can all contribute to building a more inclusive and just society. We also touch upon the Waging Peace Project, an initiative close to my heart that fosters local acts of courage to spread joy and justice. As we close, we leave you with a reminder of the imperative to engage in conversations around race and identity in every household and how this paves the way for our children to thrive in a world that yearns for unity. Join us for this enlightening dialogue and learn how you can follow Diana's work and delve into her wisdom further.
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All right. So four, three, two. Welcome back to the cultural curriculum chat. I am so excited with who we have in the guest chair today. She is my heart-centered ball of sunshine friend. I was thinking over my morning coffee. I said, okay, mrs Diana Oestreich. She is equity, empathy, sunshine and social justice peacemaker all wrapped in one person and I'm so excited for you to meet her. I am just honored to have you with us today. Diana is a dear friend of mine and we're going to talk about you know what it's like having a multicultural family. They are an Ethiopian American family right here in the Northland, in Northern Minnesota, and you know, just bridging that gap of being that peacemaker and having those conversations that I really want our educators to know, especially our white educators when they are educating our black and brown children in our classrooms. So welcome Diana, so excited that you're here.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you so much for having me here and everybody who's listening like you are getting a gem in Jeba, like if I, every time she talks, I am like making notes and I'm like, yes, so if you ever, uh, get to see her in person, she'll give you the biggest hug and call you love, and if you get to learn from her, um, it's just a gift. So, jeba, thank you so much for educating us and bringing your whole self to this.
Speaker 1:Oh, and thank you too. You know, when Diane and I met, our sons are in high school and they were in a cross country race and our mutual friend introduced us and it's like we knew each other from another life. It was just like it was beyond the hey, how's it going? We're just running this race. It's like, okay, let's get to it, let's cut it, we're going to be friends for life. That's how it felt like when I met you. Yeah, oh, my goodness. So, diana, tell us a little bit about you, how you grew up and your family.
Speaker 2:Well, I grew up in a very small town. We definitely had more lakes than people and more pine trees than stoplights a small community of 8,000. But what has been really significant for how I see where I grew up is there is an African-American scholar and professor from Minnesota. He teaches at Macalester. His name is Mahmoud El-Kati. Anyways, I heard him speak once and he said there's no such thing as race and I'm a white lady. So I'm like writing these down. I'm like okay, and then he said we can't come from whiteness. He said we come from two places we can come from a land or we can come from a language. And that gave me a lens to look back at the people and the place where I grew up and the culture I grew up in. So I look back and I'm like, oh, I grew up in a small town and the land was Ojibwe land. That's where I grew up.
Speaker 2:I grew up around three different reservations, very much influenced by the indigenous stewardship and mentality of like why do we hunt and why do we do this? But the language that I grew up with was the language of whiteness. So, even though the land was indigenous, the language that I was taught to speak and to see was definitely the language of white supremacy. I didn't even meet my very first indigenous person until I think I was like in middle school and it was a very embarrassing story with me and my younger sisters. But we were from the land but we weren't trained or even told to see people who were leading us and were stewarding the land and were showing us how to take care of this place, because they were the original people who lived there. So that gave me a little bit of a lens.
Speaker 2:Sure, I liked where I grew up, but I also know I was told to see things that there was really no such thing as racism because slavery was in the past, that indigenous folks weren't the people who should be our police officers and the people in the courthouse running the city. Why? Because they know how to take care of things. They were, you know, in a different place because you know they.
Speaker 2:There was just all these stereotypes that I look back and I'm like that was the language I was taught from people I love, a place I love, but it was a self-supremacist language where we were what was right and this is how we see things. And it wasn't until I went to basic training at 18, where you actually meet people from Brooklyn, the Hollers, appalachia. You meet people and you're like, oh, I am just one tiny fish in a big pool and you don't even know that, until you meet people from all across the nation. And that's when you find out like, oh, it's just my teeny tiny culture, that we do it this way. When I went to basic training and met, you know, 500 people from all across the land who we all had different ideas, different faiths, different things, different like.
Speaker 1:Some people were like I don't wear socks and they're like we got to wear socks you know, just coming together is where I first saw where I came from through a different lens. This is how things are, this is how they should be, and he disrupted that mentality in you. And I feel like when we're talking about, you know anti-racist work, especially in education, you will get that disruption and what you do with that disruption is either you put your defenses up and go that's how it's going to be. I'm going to do this in my classroom because I've always done it and you know I started at this time, but I love that when you said that was a catalyst for you to see the land and the language. That's very, very powerful.
Speaker 2:And the people that were erased from the story yes, that the people that were erased. Yes, you know, when you have that majority culture, then you get to say what is and your stories dominate, and so it was really powerful for me to be able to reconnect to the folks that I had really been taught not to see and not to count, and not to value and not to value.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's powerful, because I feel that too, you know, especially with education nowadays, that we're trying to see what is the priority of who to see, who to push back, and a lot of groups from that disenfranchisement and marginalized communities are like we've been here and a lot in the show.
Speaker 1:I've always said we exist. We have been here and a lot in the show. I've always say we exist, we have been here. And when we do meet with each other as a community, I think educators need to be disruptive, to say, yes, we have all of these children in walks of life that you might not know their identity by face value, but you also have to teach that they are there and that they still exist. And a lot of educators that I know in, you know, in my tenure when I was in the classroom, was there were teachers that wanted to disrupt and dispel a lot of those myths and would take resources from other places to supplement. You know what was given to them and what's your advice to those educators that are trying to reach and find those resources to make sure it's balanced in the whole picture for their students.
Speaker 2:One of the best resources that I think has been helpful to me is the internet when you follow a different educator. So if you're a rural educator, follow an educator from the city. If you are from the city, follow an educator from like you know tribal lands. Like, if you're an educator up north, find somebody who is down South. Because when you get to hear from what they're teaching, how they're teaching it, and then you borrow, you get to see what they're talking about, and then you can use that resource. You don't have to create the wheel. The wheel, like you said, jeb, everybody's already here.
Speaker 2:It's just that we oftentimes are not in the same room together, and so one example of this is a while ago. They came out that Harriet Tubman was going to be honored by being on the $20 bill, and I thought, from my small cultural experience and the 20 people I know I was like, oh well, experience, and the 20 people I know I was like, oh well, that sounds great. But because I follow different folks in the African-American community, I heard they were like this is an abomination to Harriet Tubman. Her whole life was about refusing to allow people to be enslaved and sold for money. So to put her face on money. That is not the way to honor Harry Tubman.
Speaker 2:And I was like and so, whether you agree or not, if I was an educator actually I think we're all educators when we speak up in our daily life so, as I went about my day in my life, I when people I would bring this up and be like, hey, did you hear both? You're like, yeah, that's great. I was like, well, did you also hear that people think that to honor her would look this way? This is dishonoring to her. So, whether you do or not, I now had that two perspectives to bring into my own life and my own education. And my kids are on the dinner table.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, tell me more. You know about your two sons. They are just a joy. And Diana has a son adopted from Ethiopia and her son Bridger as well, is American. Son Bridger, as well, is American. What are your dinner conversations, like? You know, I mean I love your bio and you're like, yeah, you have really fun bad jokes and you're competitive with card games. But you know like, yeah, how is that dynamic?
Speaker 2:I think that my sons have been like they're swoony, Like they make me weak in the knees. I think they're just like the cats meow, I'm always like oh man look at that.
Speaker 1:Boy, mom, we get it.
Speaker 2:And at the same time, when most kids are going to kindergarten, that you know, it's usually a really exciting time for families and it's usually like really sweet you families, and it's usually really sweet your sweet little person leaves your house. Now they're going to kindergarten. You're like, oh my gosh. And for us it was a heartbreaking time Because before they went to school I would oftentimes they're barely a year apart and so I used to oftentimes I started dressing them the same. So they were.
Speaker 2:I buy two t-shirts because I didn't want my younger son to hear, as he was growing up, at the playground, oh are you your brother's friend? Like people would. Oftentimes when I'd have two babies in a stroller, they would ask me if this was a friend and I was like I was flabbergasted, I was like I don't get this. But I was aware that other people making that comment repetitively over my sweet little son as he grows up, like that wasn't okay with me, and so I started buying them matching t-shirts because, uh, science told us to do that so he would stop hearing that at the playground and we went out.
Speaker 2:But when he went to kindergarten he was in this cute little school. It had a greenhouse. We just kind of assumed it was just going to be great, right. And it didn't even take six weeks until he, a kid on the playground, called him the N-word and also made fun of his older brother for, I quote, having a blackie for a brother. It's supposed to be this really beautiful time where your two kids are just going to elementary school, getting on the bus together and like blocks and crayons, and our conversations around our dinner table and when they got off the bus that day were heartbreaking and it was so much bigger than them.
Speaker 2:But I'll tell you, jeb souls know, when they are being put in a place of less you might not understand the historical significance, but there is something powerful about that word and it's different than being called a big ugly jerk face oh yeah, oh yeah, doesn't carry so those are the conversations that we're having of you know one us needing to somehow walk him through and protect and restore and make his personality and his soul resilient.
Speaker 2:That says that's not about you, that's about them. And my older son to say, hey, you, you are always going to be standing up for your brother and you are always going to be going to bat for him and you are always going to be going to bat for him. And he always has. He's carried something on a little first grader's shoulders that not many kids do, and my little kindergarten carried something home from him on the bus that not many kids do.
Speaker 2:So when I look at adults or educators, I'm like listen, pony up, because they need you, like they need you to speak up and they need you to say it's not okay, like racism always been there. You just need to face it, just don't erase it, because you're erasing the value of our kids. And so what I most would tell educators, what I most could have used during those years, because it happened basically every year and and as parents, you acknowledge it, because I remember telling another mom at school we're waiting to pick her up what had happened and she's like oh, she's like Well, I said it's been really hard for my son to be here and she was like oh well, I don't think that kids see color, as I'm looking at her daughter next year wearing head-to-toe pink.
Speaker 2:And so I was like you don't think they have a preference for color right now. Like why does one thing make sense but the minute?
Speaker 2:it makes sense, it's not suitable and they have to face something in their school. Now, kids don't love purple and pink and have a preference Like come on now, exactly. Could have been really helpful is if the teachers would have just acknowledged it and then asked what can we do for a child like I'm not super into the punishment system, like obviously a kid who's doing that stuff. It's been handed down to them from their family. I'm not gonna change a family system who thinks that those words are okay, but we can make sure our kids are valued and they know that they're normal in the classroom and that behavior from that other kid is not.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think we have to create a community of identity that says we treat our classmates with love and respect. We say that and you're part of the we, so come over here and leave those words outside.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, I mean it is. You feel it and I feel like I'm tearing up because when you as a child, you never forget what you wore, you never forget what happened to you on the playground and it sticks with you and I'm just, I commend you for you know how you and your husband raise your children, to know we protect each other no matter what, we go to bat for each other no matter what. But telling your Ethiopian son that you see him, you didn't diminish him even in kindergarten to the point of saying, oh, that's how it is. You're like, no, that's not okay, I see you, I love you. And when we talk about families and how families come from all walks of life, it pains you. When someone looks at your two beautiful children and go, oh, is that his friend? Like in the stroller, like you think we just hanging out for buddies. There's no Uber for friends, you know, especially in the stroller. You know what I mean. So it's like, come on. And the fact that you had to dress your children up in twin shirts so they could know that they're siblings. That's not too long ago. And how people still would like get shocked when I would share that type of story with my two biracial kids and I was called the nanny so many times at the playground Like no, I'm not just here babysitting like this, this is my child. So I feel that when you share that with our audience, thank you for that, because it's so vulnerable to share and I know things bring up when you say those words. So thank you for being open and honest with us.
Speaker 1:But as educators this is not an anomaly. We have our kids of all walks of life on that same playground kindergarten, ninth grade, 10th grade, 12th grade that are coming home with their mom's eyes, crying tears of what happened to them. And as a parent, I understand and I feel how frustrating it can be when you step up and advocate for your child. That harm has been done and the first thing that teacher would say is oh, are you sure? Or why didn't they come to me first? And I'm saying you know, as a parent of a kid of color, and I know you understand this it's gotten to that point where your child has been saying it. Your child has gone to the adult. Your child has told a friend Now they've checked all those boxes of what the procedures are supposed to be. Now they come to the parent and the parent is now that mama bear or the papa bear saying no, this is go time.
Speaker 1:My kid has done all the things that you said, that was in our handbook to say, and now I'm coming to you as the adult you need to see me as the adult to say what can we do to make this behavior no longer welcomed? When we say we tolerate, I feel like it still gives that supremacist a pass like, okay, you won't tolerate it in this space, so you can tolerate it here, right, or you can tolerate it here. And so when you say it's not welcome here and as that parent, to say I'm standing up for my child because nobody else is going to, we need to say wow, I hear you loud and clear, diana. What can we do to make it right so your child feels that they're valued and that they're safe and that they are respected? You know that, I think, is very powerful.
Speaker 1:Another thing I really want you to and thank you for sharing those tips of acknowledging when harm has been done. I really love seeing your work. You know, friends, if you haven't seen Diana, she is just peacemaker, social activist and just all around really stepping up and having those uncomfortable conversations with folks. I really want us to understand when we are talking about it. You're going to be uncomfortable. I always say in my work you got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I love, diana, how you have those uncomfortable conversations with folks where you talk from your intention and with heart. Can you give us a good example of when we are talking about race and racism, you know, in education or even in the community, how do you have those uncomfortable conversations with folks?
Speaker 2:I think it. I think there's so many different ways to do it, but the most powerful one. If you remember nothing from this podcast, just please, please, write this down, put this in your pocket, don't do anything else. I say Just this one thing. And the most powerful thing you can ever do when you see something is say, hey, stop that bullying. Research that, like all the elementary schools were doing, that, like 90% of bullying moments end within 60 seconds.
Speaker 2:If a single bystander, a single person, will go from silent to uttering those three words, those are not courageous words, those are not fighting words, those are not anything, but what those words do. And when we have the courage to go from bystander which is like, oh, I, like I don't exactly know what is right or wrong, but I know something right now, I know that this person is being demeaned, I know that there's something wrong happening to this human being next to me. Even though I'm not an expert, I just know that I would never want someone to do this to me or say this to me. So what happens is when we acknowledge something instead of avoiding it, I feel like that is the game changer. That is the entrance to the conversation. That is number one.
Speaker 2:I think the most powerful thing is when somebody knows that somebody is willing to step in and say that's not okay. Because, as a victim, the worst thing is not that somebody is doing something awful, it's all the people not saying anything like. That's what is really demoralizing, that is what is more painful, that is what feels like you aren't worthy, that you don't belong, because somebody is letting you get thrown under the bus like so I think the number one thing you can always remember is going from silent to saying something, because when we address that this isn't okay and whether it's because it's racist or because it's violent, all of the ways that this is wrong if we don't have a start line, then we'll never get to the finish line. So the start line is that we commit. When I see something racist or I see something unjust, I will say something, whether it's my friend, whether it's a fellow educator, because I'm telling you, jeb, the stuff that people say out loud they are saying with friends in the break room on blast.
Speaker 2:So, the most powerful thing you can do is just commit to when you see something you will say. I will say those three words no matter what, no matter how scared I am, no matter if I think I'm going to get blowback, no matter if like whatever, because that's what restores the hope of the person who is being treated that way. That's how they kind of know they're worthy of somebody saying something.
Speaker 1:And that you have their back. You don't have to know them from Adam, but just when you said, hey, stop that. I mean even with a child, like they jump, like oh what you know, that's the thing that turns it to that person going wow, thank you, thank you, and you can say something and acknowledging that harm has been done.
Speaker 2:You can have the conversation next or you can just keep walking down the grocery aisle. But I remember hearing a whole bunch of extremely loud white men in a coffee shop and they were saying the worst demeaning, racist things so loud and I was like you know what, if I could be a 90 year old grandma with a big purse that walks by and says shame on you, stop that, I would have done it. But I was too scared to say something that day because I was worried that they would like yell at me because there's like six of them and one of me. But I also thought if I had the guts to say hey, stop that in front of the whole coffee shop, I know they would think twice the next time they said these things in public. They'd kind of be like, oh man, kind of sucked last time somebody called me out. So the power of if I would have said something, I know they would have thought twice about doing it again. You know, yes.
Speaker 1:I love that, I love that, and it's simple.
Speaker 2:No-transcript nervous to say it, but like there's something in me because I was a soldier and I saw violence. So I just I'm like man, this stuff is real and it's there and it and it's violent. It's violence against our bodies, our souls. Violence is the enemy. People are our sacred responsibility. So, no matter what, I oftentimes feel like I have to say something. But when I do, I typically am nervous and I'm like you know, oh, my gosh, you know people are going to looking at it too, but I didn't know why nobody was saying this wasn't okay, you know. So when one person says hey, stop that. It emboldens everybody else to know yes, I knew it and like that was racist, it wasn't okay. And somebody says something, now it confirms yes, I know it when I see it and I racist, it wasn't okay. And somebody says something, now it confirms yes, I know it when I see it and I know it's not okay.
Speaker 2:So it empowers the next person to step up and own their responsibility as a community member to say something that's it, the responsibility as a community member to say something.
Speaker 1:Because we've been in spaces where I've been a target of hateful things and nobody said anything and some of them you know a lot of them were friends and acquaintances. It's like wow, now I really see you when somebody is capable of a stranger or even a friend. You know an acquaintance that said something and you don't step up and say hey, stop that. Or oh, that made me uncomfortable. I can only imagine how Jebe felt. That's when I see you. We're not just friends, we're friendly. Because that friend card is gone, it's diminished because when I really needed you to help out and speak up because I always say to folks even you know, when I'm doing trainings or educating you know other teachers is I can save myself. So that whole I don't want to be a white savior is just an excuse, but to say hey, stop that. That's a person who's got my back. That's the person that looks at me and go, you got this, jeb, and I'll say you know what, thank you, I do have this, but you know what, thank you for saying something too. And then I will take action of how I feel most comfortable, and maybe that action is Diana, okay, let's get out of this coffee shop because they're not making me feel safe either. Or it's like okay, diana, and another thing, I got my purse, let's hold it up and go. Okay, you know, I will take that latte to go and I will not patronize here anymore, because if you are allowing that space to have people to feel comfortable and confident to spread this vitriol, I don't feel culturally safe in that place anymore. I won't go and I will tell my friends don't go there, even if you don't look like me to say, yeah, this is not a vibe that I want to patronize anymore. Oh, I love this.
Speaker 1:So, diana, yes, I have to tell you and my guests, yes, diana is a combat Iraq veteran and she is on a mission, y'all, to wage peace of all walks of life. And I bought her memoir Waging Peace and I tell you I read it, I cried, I dog-eared it. It's just so good of walking you through her memories of the Iraq War as a young, early 20s soldier, just graduated from college. We're the same age and what I love about your book and I want you to give us a little taste. I always say give us a sizzle, not the steak, because I want people to buy this book is how you interpersonally met with these Iraq women and not knowing the language and the barrier, but having that deep cross-cultural connection I want us all to have. So share us a little bit about your book and your Waging Peace project.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I will tell people that most people read it in like two or three days because they just have to find out what happens next. So I will tell you, read this book, because the most powerful thing about my experience and getting to share it is that when you come from a majority culture which we all do like, if you come from your family, everybody's telling you what we think and what we think the world should be and who is somebody who we want to be more like and who are people who we distrust. That you know. We don't really want them to go to school with our kids or we don't really want them to be in the neighborhood, you know. So I think the most powerful thing is at 23, which we all know. You're a baby at 23, like any beliefs you have has been handed to you, but you really haven't had any experience yourself or to test these things.
Speaker 2:So I went into the war with all these beliefs a lot of majority culture, god, guns and country, you know. And then I get there and all of a sudden I see the people at the other end of my gun and I'm like, oh, like in a minute and you'll have to read how these major transformations and epic cliffhangers happened. But what happened was I saw the person at the other end of my gun and I was like, oh, wait a second. Like you know, when you have those moments where you're like I don't know how, but like God just kind of gives you the thing that was always true, that was right in front of your face, that you couldn't ever see. But I was like like we're part of the same team. I was like this person she wants to stay alive, just like me. She has kids, she wants to get home and we're really part, we're connected with this family of 8 billion.
Speaker 2:And I saw a woman who chose to trust me before I trusted her, and she chose to live this wild, dangerous love and connection, even on a battlefield. It is not courageous. Everybody has a gun, everyone's shooting everybody. This is not a courageous thing to do. But what this woman did changed my world, like changed my world and I realized I was like. She is braver than anybody. I know she is living out loud in a place that tries to scare you, to give away your soul by doing violence, and so she, all of a sudden, I thought I was one person and all of a sudden I see this woman and she like welcomes me into her home, acts like my life is just as valuable as hers and her kids. And all of a sudden I'm like, oh my gosh, I had been handed these things but this wasn't who I was. Gosh, I had been handed these things but this wasn't who I was. And that's when I knew I was like, oh my gosh, I'm a soldier but I am built to be a peacemaker.
Speaker 2:And so ever since then it gave me this permission to include everybody in my jurisdiction to love. So all the people that I've been kind of brought up and my faith told me like not to notice. If they have problems it's their problem. And all of a sudden, everybody, if they raise their hand and said, hey, we need help or hey, violence is done, I was like, I'm there, two kids, graham crackers, juice bag, we're there. And so I started meeting all these people who before just weren't like I really couldn't see them because I wasn't told to value their pain or their concerns, or even like their experience, you know, or their kids. And so now everybody's in my jurisdiction to love. And now I knew that building up the world was the best thing I could ever teach my kids.
Speaker 1:That's the legacy.
Speaker 2:That's the power of them. If you determine that you're going to have the freedom not to harm another person, I'm like, no matter what, I'm like. That's the freedom that people ultimately think we're fighting wars for, like. That is a soul freedom you'll never get.
Speaker 2:And so I started to bring my kids in the community, and they started finding out not to be scared about the tragedies, the shootings, the this, the that, but they found that community always shows up for each other, that we light candles, that we step towards each other, and that's what showed them that they are part of our community, that we're like, we need them to show up, and that they can count on us, that they're builders and not breakers, and I think that that is, then, the most powerful thing and the thing that gives me joy.
Speaker 2:So I created this local project called the Waging Peace Project, where we activate justice and instill joy by committing acts of courage right where we live. So this can be small, this can be big, but I realized like we are all meant to like live out our purpose and our joy, and it's all connected to peace. So it's been an incredible gift to get to do, and I hear stories from people all across the country who are joining in or inviting me to speak here, or we go to schools we do like all over the place. I think people are starved to get an invitation to do something positive.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's it. And I am so happy that you are leading the charge, hon, with your positivity, because I tell you, you know how you crafted in, you know it's simple, it's in your own community or worldwide or whatever you see fit, but that human to human connection, I love that. Builders and not breakers, that's all what we're meant to be here for. And, oh, thank you. And where can they find your work? Because you know she is an author and a podcaster too, and a keynote speaker and all the things. I mean. Like I'm just hanging on to your tale of greatness because you are just going to shine in your work of activism.
Speaker 2:I've had.
Speaker 2:I've gotten to team up with Dr Bernice King with the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta this year, and I've gotten to team up with groups in Appalachia who want to learn about social justice.
Speaker 2:I've gotten to just be part of things that I think always fill me with hope, and so follow me at Instagram is Diana Ostrich, but I'm always offering people one practical, local way that you can show up and then one global thing, because I think that we, you know, action is the antidote to despair.
Speaker 2:So, especially right now, we need to know that our hearts are breaking for the big things happening and for our own sake, I think we need to take one action in our community so that we can stay, we can hold on to our hope, and it also shows that kids are resilient when we give them actions during chaotic, hard times.
Speaker 2:So follow me on Instagram so you'll get, but also go to my website, dianostrikecom, and I send out once a month a practical newsletter dripping with hope, so there'll be stories of hope and then there'll be one or two action steps and, as always, um, there's a podcast where I find some peacemakers in wild places, like a poet from Brooklyn or a rapper from LA or a mom from Indiana, but I'm like they are totally waging peace in their own way and I think when we get to notice those stories, that's what shows us and connects us to this multicultural community, that make us more alive and more connected and your show is so chef's kiss, because I'm just sitting there hanging on every word of your guests and you two talking and I'm just so proud of you and I'm so blessed and honored to have you as a friend.
Speaker 1:I'm so she does, you know you fill my cup. You know. Anytime I need inspiration, it's Diana and I do. Girl, I read your book twice. I'm just like you know in how you write. You, like I said, you get enveloped with your story and you see these transformations in the people that you encounter and it's so powerful and I just know 23-year-old Diana is proud of you. Know for Diana, because I know we're the same age, we don't need to put it out there. But yes, you know, we're just so proud and thank you for coming on this show with all of your gems and wisdom and I love your strategies of sharing who you are in your lived experience as a mom, a you know combat vet. Thank you again for your service and continuing to serve our community and our nation with your peace activism. I really, like I said, I'm so happy that you're on my show.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for letting me come and be with your listeners today and thank you for educating. I think it always takes one person to stand up there and say, guys, we can do it better, join me. So I have loved getting to learn from you. I'm grateful that you are advocating in our community so that our my white son needs to be equipped with, so that he can be a builder, and it's also what my black son needs, so they're not two separate ends of the coin. I'm like no, this is what we both need to be healthy and to be justice makers and fully alive to be healthy and to be justice makers and fully alive. So I think it's equally valuable to your family if you're a white majority culture family or if you're a family that is multiracial. I'm like it is just as important for your kids to be part of this, for their mental health, for their resiliency, for their identity. Like equip them and they will fly.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is so important and every dinner table needs to have these conversations, not just our families, but all families. And thank you for reiterating that Diana and I will have Diana's in all of her information. Where you can find her book, where you can follow her and her website in the show notes. And thanks again, listeners, fellow educators and community members for listening to the cultural curriculum chat. I'll see you here same time next week, bye, bye.