123: Cross-Racial Friendships with The Opt-In (Part I)

Dear White Women

We’re continuing our summer of action and diving deeper. And as we’re releasing this episode, we’re also in the midst of a summer that’s been filled with more friends and family and conversation and ability to BE TOGETHER in a way that we haven’t been able to be since March of 2020. #vaccines

It makes us think of friendship, community, and how much we learn from each other - not only through our similarities, which is how we often create friendships, but also our differences, which can be particularly true when we think about cross-racial friendships and communities.

Today we’re excited to have Kelly and Aurora from The Opt-In, two of our very favorites, to discuss community, cross-racial friendships, and so much more. What we love about these women is that they are real - real about the good parts of their friendships and identities, and also the tough parts. And because we loved them so much, we split our conversation with them into two parts. Part I is this episode. Part II - well, you’ll have to stay tuned. But it centers around what we can all do in terms of social activism and moving the needle - and spoiler alert, it starts from within.

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What to listen for:

• Who Kelly and Aurora are, and what community means to each of them
• How community can be hard to find for White people, and some of the ways in which that physically appears
• How we can create more inclusive communities for ourselves and our families
• The true strengths - and challenges - of cross-racial friendships

About Aurora:

Aurora Archer, an Afro-Latina, hustled up the corporate ladder to the executive suite, and yet still experienced the same implicit bias, microaggressions, and overt racism as her parents, who spent their lives working as domestic help while raising Aurora in Texas. After 25 years of marketing awards and promotions, Aurora realized there had to be a better way to use her talents without sacrificing her true self and health. She wisely identified the white supremacist cultural conditioning at the center of the problem, and Aurora set her sights on transforming our culture, from the inside out, one tough conversation at a time. In 2018, Aurora partnered with her white best friend Kelly Croce Sorg to form The Opt-In and continued the journey of intentionally supporting Kelly and their white podcast listeners, learning community, corporate clients, and others to learn with accountability the racial literacy, stamina, and introspective skills they need to help dismantle white supremacy within themselves and all aspects of their lives.

About Kelly:

Kelly Croce Sorg, an expert in white womanhood, grew up über-privileged as the daughter of an NBA team owner. Her father lived the rags-to-riches story of the white American Dream, and her mom, a homemaker, raised the kids while her dad focused on numerous entrepreneurial ventures. After college, Kelly’s adult life looked a lot like those of her white friends and family. Ask most white women her age, and they would tell you Kelly had it all yet she constantly sought self-improvement. It wasn’t until her bestie, Aurora Archer, gifted Kelly the book White Fragility she realized she wasn’t as “woke” as she thought she was, and after numerous heart-to-hearts with Aurora, Kelly opted in to examining her white identity as a way to claim her own humanity. She is now co-founder of The Opt-In, where she continues to learn while engaging in the uncomfortable, but necessary, conversations about race with her co-host Aurora, in what she calls a love letter to her white friends and family, advocating that they can all do better, herself included.

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