Cork duo tackle racism in The Mum Mind Podcast

For Bethan O’Riordan and Stef McSherry, founders of The Mum Mind podcast, the war in the Middle East and the rise in hatred and intolerance got them thinking about the power of community.

“We’ve been watching all of this happen over the past year or so, and it led us to think ‘what can we do?’,” says Bethan.

With The Mum Mind podcast we try to build a community and to help parents day to day, and we thought, maybe we can use the podcast to educate and inform parents about racism and hatred.

Bethan and Stef devised a three-part series - Talking Racism With Children - focusing on tackling racism and giving parents the insights and tools they need to have constructive conversations with their children around race.

“Race and diversity are relatively new here in Ireland, but it’s a changing society. When issues arise, they tend to happen in pre-school and school, so we thought, let’s help parents to talk about it before the issues arise, at home,” says Stef.

To ensure the podcast series was speaking authentically about issues of race, diversity and intolerance, Bethan and Stef knew they needed help.

“We are two white women and our understanding of racism is limited. So we reached out to our Instagram following, asking for feedback on the series, and we were heartened to see that people were interested.

“We were also delighted to hear from our guest for our first episode - Leanne, a mom of three mixed race children - who could speak directly about their experience.”

The goal with the Talking Racism With Children series is to give parents the tools to see the difference between their own and their children’s prejudice, to challenge racial stereotypes, to answer their children’s questions in a thoughtful way, and to share tips for raising kids who embrace diversity and inclusion.

“We have to remember that kids don’t see things the same way adults do,” explains Stef.

The podcast’s second guest is Emer O’Neill, a diversity and inclusion expert as well as being a teacher, a TV presenter and author of the children’s book Same But Different.

“Emer has a wonderful way of explaining things. Sometimes we can be afraid to talk about people’s differences, thinking we shouldn’t mention them, but Emer advises us to ‘see my difference’, ‘see my colour’,” says Bethan.

Treating people differently because of their race is racism; it’s othering. It is difficult to talk about this, but we should. And it’s so much better to have these conversations when our children are younger.

“There are so many levels we’re looking at, but it comes down to giving people equal rights. And to make sure that we are raising children that don’t believe that fitting in means othering other people,” says Stef.

As well as interviews with women who detail their first-hand experience and knowledge, the series also highlights resources to help parents stay mindful of their own biases - something that surprised Bethan and Stef, who thought they were already anti-racist.

As they prepped for and delivered the podcast, they learned that terms like ‘white privilege’ are easier to say than confronting ‘my own racism’.

“I was working with a client, who was a woman with mixed race children, and she told me I was being ‘colour blind’. At the time I thought ‘how could I be?’ but I looked deeper and realised there was an unconscious bias there,” says Bethan.

For the pair, they’ve realised that it’s OK to ask the questions, as long as the motivation is genuine - to educate or inform yourself.

“It’s about getting the right information, but to do that you need to ask the right people, and that’s what we’re doing with this podcast,” says Stef.

The podcast was launched to coincide with Black History Month in Ireland, which was first held in Cork back in 2010.

Since the launch of the three-part series tackling racism, Stef says they’ve had positive feedback.

“We heard from one woman who said the podcast ‘means a lot. 

It helps to see that I’m not alone. The conversations you’re having on the podcast are necessary’.

Psychotherapist Bethan, who specialises in parenting, and Stef, who is a toddler behaviour and activities expert, have a combined 40 years’ experience supporting children and families.

Their goal with this series, and their podcast in general, is to “let parents know they’re not alone, they’re not doing it wrong, and there’s no perfect parent”.

From their work, the pair could see that parents were struggling and looking for simple ‘real’ advice on how to help their children. The podcast offers support, information and practical strategies for change, with a dash of humour and fun.

The Mum Mind podcast, including the three-part series - Talking Racism With Children - is available on all networks, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Acast.