Creating conversation when and where it’s needed
Veronica Smith educates and facilitates conversations with “everyday people” while addressing complex and controversial issues that the masses expect the government to find solutions for.
Smith, who is also the author of When Communities Disappear, draws from her decades-long experience in community development policy and local politics and passion for addressing the scandalous history of the United States and the intersection of economic equity and perceived justice today.
Ordinary People. Complex Issues. Uncomfortable Conversations.
Redefining Reparations
Are we wasting our time? (Full show available upon request.)
The Economics of Reparations
A purely economic perspective. (Full show available upon request.)
What Is the Uncomfortable Couch Exactly?
The Format
The Uncomfortable Couch Conversation Series was created to provide a forum where diverse perspectives on socioeconomic and sociopolitical topics are shared. We explore topics such as Reparations, Slavery, and Gentrification in the context of the challenges that we see in communities today. Guests exchange beliefs, ideas, and opinions on historic inequities after a brief educational trip down memory lane via a live, in-person discussion to a house audience.
The Focus
The focus is on bridging misunderstanding and pivoting perspectives of everyday people in society under the notion that we can all be advocates and change agents for equity – economic, political, and social. It begins with an understanding of how we got here, and the willingness to have uncomfortable conversations on things that we unconsciously draw conclusions on that we don’t have lived experience or a sound understanding of.
The Point
Smith believes that everyday people must understand their role in mastering their own communities as opposed to letting government and politicians master it for them. As uncomfortable as this statement may sound, it’s the uncomfortable truth. In the words of Booker T. Washington, “There is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don’t want the patient to get well because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.”