Episode One

As I’ve said in the descriptions of the videos, this episode was originally a project for my social problems class at Ivy Tech in Bloomington, IN. We were challenged to find our assigned problem within the community. My group’s problem was gay and civil rights. I thought that finding any kind of problem with gay and civil rights was impossible. I’m a biracial woman with a white husband (whom I’m openly affectionate with) and I’ve never experienced any problems in my 20 some years of living here. I knew Helen and Carol from when I volunteered at BloomingOUT. I asked them if they had any experiences they could share and they said yes. I don’t know what I was expecting when I sat down with them but they provided experiences and answers that blew my mind. I really learned a lot from those two interviews. What really shocked me was the discrimination they felt at Indiana University, the same institution that is credited for town’s liberal atmosphere.

The show kind of evolved in a direction I didn’t start out with. Bloomington is a great town. My husband and I have talked about when I replace Oprah in talk show ratings and he’s blowing every gamer’s mind with his awesome games, that we would move to Bloomington and set up our bases there, maybe in the same building. As much I love this town, it does have some problems. Every place does. I wanted to show that we do have our problems but then after talking with these two women, it seems that the discrimination is not the main problem. It’s the belief from the townspeople that our town is immune from it. In our class, a lawyer and NAACP member Guy Loftman came in talked to us about a report that group he was a part of called Monroe County Racial Justice Task Force. They did a report on discrimination in the courts in Monroe County. I won’t go into full details about the report but there is one thing they found that stuck with me. They found that whites spent on average about 2 days in jail before making bail. For Blacks the average was 47 days. I want you to take this episode as a call to action. Even if you live in Bloomington (or a town with a similar atmosphere) know that you have this problem and it’s worse for you because it’s silent.

I wanted my first episode to be about weight loss but due to school and interviews canceling on me that didn’t happen. I’m happy that this is my first episode and I’m excited for the others that to come. This week I’ll be filming interviews with a personal trainer in training friend of mine, Derrick English. He’s going to share is struggles with weight loss then put me through a, what he promises, brutal work out. We’ll see how I survive. Then I’ll be talking with a Registered Dietitian Karen Valentine to talk about good food choices, how to read labels and to eat healthy without spending a lot of money. Then I’m going speak with Karen, the owner of Delilah’s Pet Shop about her shop, where her animals come from and proper pet care. I’m in talks right now with Rachel’s Café to host a free concert for episode I’m calling “The Battle of The Bands”. It’ll some local bands around town. They’ll play and I’ll do a behind the music style of interview. I think it’ll be a lot of fun. I’ll pass along more info when that develops. I’m also trying to feature restaurants, local comedians and other local businesses. So definitely stick around. The Aimee Stanton Show is just getting started!