S8: Episode 5 - Braeden Anderson | Overcoming Racism
Updated: Dec 9, 2022
In this week’s episode of Overcomer's Podcast, we have the privilege of interviewing the author of “Black Resilience”. Black Resilience is the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement, carrying messages of empowerment and the blueprint for success.
In my interview with Braeden, we talked about his book and how the book addresses racism and the things that he did to overcome that kind of adversity.
He shared how he grew up and have to deal with racism as a student and as an individual.
He also talked about the prolonged impact of racism, which he believes is largely caused by learned helplessness. Learn helplessness is a term used to describe a mental illness that impacts people who have gone through trauma.
Braeden Anderson is an author, attorney, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Anderson wrote BLACK RESILIENCE - the Blueprint for Black Triumph in the Face of Racism, a groundbreaking book that provides a powerful strategy for Black success and empowerment in spite of bias.
To support the mission of BLACK RESILIENCE, Anderson founded the Black Resilience Foundation - a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black communities and the proliferation of positive ideas about Blackness.
Anderson is also an attorney at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., focusing primarily on the representation of financial institutions, investment advisers, public companies, and senior officers in connection with internal investigations. Prior to joining Kirkland, he was an attorney in New York City specializing in securities enforcement and regulatory matters at Sidley Austin LLP (the “Obama” firm). In addition to law practice, Anderson served as an adjunct professor of business law at Monroe College in the Bronx, and as the Chairman of the Corporate Law Section of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association. Anderson also played Division 1 college basketball for the Seton Hall Pirates where he won the Big East Conference Championship while attending law school.
Over the course of his journey, Anderson has overcome a series of socioeconomic and racial barriers, defied expectations, and conquered adversity. Parts of his story have been chronicled by Forbes, Law360, the New York Times, ABA Journal, NBC Sports, USA Today, CBC, ESPN, and others.
Listen to the full episode of the Overcomer’s Podcast to learn more about Braeden, how he overcome racism and how he became an inspiration, especially to the black community.
If you wish to connect with Braeden, visit her website at https://kbraedenanderson.com/, find him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kbraedenanderson/, Twitter at https://twitter.com/braedenandy or email him directly at kbanderson@sidley.com. You can also purchase her book at https://www.amazon.com/Black-Resilience-Blueprint-Triumph-Racism/dp/1637585071
For more of the Overcomer’s Podcast, check out our website at overcomers-podcast.com or listen to all of our podcasts on iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcasts.
12:15 - 19:26
Braeden believed that the prolonged impact of racism is largely caused by learned helplessness. Learn helplessness is a term used to describe a mental illness that impacts people who have gone through trauma. As someone who grew up homeless for a period of time and dealt with abuse in the home, this was something that Braeden’s a big battle against.
How do you maintain a mindset that, even despite all these things that keep happening to you that you didn't cause it? He believed he can do things to change it, even though it was not his fault. That is the secret, the biggest secret in the world is that you actually have.
20:23 - 23:42
Braeden said, What's hard is bias if you really get a break from every problem, right? Like before, you can come up with any sort of solution. You first have to figure out what bias is, it's somebody not having an accurate understanding of your identity. You have to have an intentional conversation with yourself to say, No, I'm not defined by that. And once I've created that definition, let's forget what like, just make something up. For me, it's easy for me to say I'm a lawyer and I'm going to become a lawyer.
40:16 - 45: 55
Braeden shared that he really thinks that this book should be the black Bible. His favorite book of all time is thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and it's completely helped him transform his life. Braeden thinks the biggest goal for this book would be for this to be widely, widely understood, and disseminated.
46:19 - 49: 31
His book BLACK RESILIENCE - the Blueprint for Black Triumph in the Face of Racism will be released in April, but you can preorder it now. Braeden thinks a lot of families are polarized, even just politically, he’s talking about political views between different people in a family. And it's really relevant in the spirit of the holidays to talk about that, you know, the conversation of bringing people together.