Welcome to Bri Books, today we’ll be discussing Franchesca Ramsey’s book, ‘Well That Escalated Quickly’ with Odochi (Ode) of The Five Fifths podcast. You can follow along with the conversation on Instagram and Twitter using #BriBooks. Subscribe to newsletter at bribookspod.com/newesletter.
- 1:07 - What’s Five Fifths Podcast?
- 1:20 - The Three Fifths Compromise dates back to 1787, a compromise reached among State delegates. It decided how would slaves be counted as part of the population. In 1787, the US was trying to determine how a state's population would affect taxation and legislative representation. The “solution” was to count three out of every five slaves as a person, to give the south more electoral votes than if the slaves had been ignored, but fewer than if the slaves had been counted equally. It was in the interest of slave owners and landowners to three out of every five slaves as a person.
- 4:00 - “The Five Fifths podcast is basically showing that every person on this Earth is five-fifths, they’re all whole. Nobody’s humanity can be quantified.” - Ode
- 4:42 - Who is Franchesca Ramsey? In 2011, when “Shit Girls Say” took off on YouTube, Franchesca created her own iteration, “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls.”
- 5:50 - How Ode’s predominately white private school experience relates to Franchesca’s “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls”
- 7:08 - What took us from fans of Francesca’s YouTube work, to being fans of her writing
- 7:45 - Ode: “Seeing her on her own platform, as a dark-skinned woman who looks like me, I felt like she was very relatable.”
- 10:30 - In the book, Francesca traces her YouTube success trajectory. I really loved that Franchesca dindt’ shy away from the reality that it takes a long time to accumulate traction. She’d made over a hundred videos BEFORE “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls.” It’s not lost on Franchesca that the quality and caliber of work speaks for itself when the time comes.
- 13:20 - After “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls,” Franchesca was offered a book deal. But she didn’t jump on that opportunity, because she was setting herself UP for greatness instead of jumping ON whatever came her way.
- 15:50 - Discussing the chapter “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? It’s Lena Dunham.”
- 20:15 - Discussion of “Call Out” culture versus “Calling In”
- 20:42 - According to EverydayFeminism.com, the goal of “Calling out” is publically pointing out that someone is being problematic or downright wrong. However, “calling in” aims to get someone to change their problematic behavior.”
- 21:50 - Ode on the problems of call-out culture. “The way that someone responds to a callout should determine how we respond to them. Once you learn something is offensive to a group of people, you have to change your language.”
- 22:40 - Our favorite “Self-Care” rituals and our “Activist Lent” a la Franchesca Ramsey
- 23:20 - Ode’s self-care is being around people with great energy, and going to therapy (shoutout to her therapist, whom she found on https://www.therapyforblackgirls.com)
- 24:40 - Ode’s “Activist Lent” is deep-dive reporting on deaths of black LGBTQ people
- 27:40 - Brionna’s self-care is mani-pedis at The Nail Boutique in Brooklyn. Shoutout to Mola’s Nail Boutique!
- 28:45 - Brionna’s “Activist Lent” is indulging in luxury YouTubers
Connect with Odochi: The Five Fifths Media Patreon, Instagram, Facebook, Spreaker
You can follow along with the conversation on Instagram and Twitter using #BriBooks. Subscribe to newsletter at bribookspod.com/newesletter.