1 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: I'm Erica Alexander, and I'm Whitney down. Welcome to Reparations, 2 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: the big payback production of Color Farm Media, I Heart 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: Radio and the Black Effect Podcast Network. Step right up, pery, hurry, 4 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:27,480 Speaker 1: step right up. The show's about to begin. Wait, I'm 5 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: not ready, hard it's a trick question. No one is 6 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: ready for a discussion about institutional racism, at least no 7 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: one who's benefited from it institutional racism. Okay, Okay, I'm 8 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:43,320 Speaker 1: getting ready. I'm your friendly host and guide, Mr Tam Bowles. 9 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,760 Speaker 1: I'm here to spill all the freaky t and coming 10 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: to the stage. Put your hands together for the ever 11 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: lovely Mr. And to lock it all. Who is that? 12 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:56,120 Speaker 1: Who I am? I mean, I don't know what to say. 13 00:00:56,320 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 1: Don't worry. I'll be doing most of the label up 14 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 1: in this piece as usual, as we present the Freak Show. 15 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,840 Speaker 1: See Corporate American prophets and the stagger and wealth of 16 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:16,039 Speaker 1: America as a whole as the legacy of slavery. Yes, 17 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: it's the freak Show. See powerful educational institutions founded on 18 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: slave money. It's freaking slave money. Got it? Keep up? Son? 19 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: See eerie echoes of slavery and modern day labor practices. 20 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:36,440 Speaker 1: I'm talking about tipping. It's freaky, deeky Are you even 21 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: following me? So you're talking about a critical view of 22 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,119 Speaker 1: some key American institutions through the lens of contemporary racialized perspective, 23 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:48,640 Speaker 1: tracing through lines of slavery and the perverse and ongoing 24 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: control of black bodies all the way up to and 25 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: including the power structures of the present day. Wow, you 26 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 1: changed on me, baby, Just trying to keep the customer satisfied. 27 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:09,960 Speaker 1: Mr dam Bo, that's the spirit. Step right up, folks. 28 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: What's our first exhibit? Our first exhibit is truly truly freaky. 29 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: It concerns one of America's oldest educational institutions, located on 30 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:22,440 Speaker 1: the Potomac River in the beating heart of our fine 31 00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: nation's capital. Bill Clinton went to school there and actor 32 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:30,679 Speaker 1: Brodd Bradley Cooper did too. They're the lawyers. They've got 33 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: lots of lawyers. I'm talking about Georgetown University. Georgetown. I 34 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: had them in the final four, Yes, sir, Mr Interlockerta. 35 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,560 Speaker 1: They're famous and they're famously will endowed, if you know 36 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,520 Speaker 1: what I mean. Wait what but it wasn't always that 37 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:53,840 Speaker 1: way in there In lies to tell. For our first exhibit, 38 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,919 Speaker 1: we spoke to Georgetown professor Adam Rothman of the school's 39 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation. There's a couple 40 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: of ways of thinking about Georgetown's relationship to slavery, one 41 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:09,080 Speaker 1: over the long term, and then one having to do 42 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:13,080 Speaker 1: with an immediate moment in time. In the long term, 43 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:17,560 Speaker 1: Georgetown was founded by Catholic elite that derived its wealth 44 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:22,360 Speaker 1: and status from slavery. The original model for the university 45 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: was that the education of white boys and men would 46 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: actually be subsidized by slave labor on plantations in Maryland 47 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: that had been owned by the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits, 48 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: and Georgia itself was also a site of slave labor. 49 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: Enslave people worked on campus. Students actually brought slaves to 50 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: campus and hired them out to the university to pay 51 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 1: off their fees. University hired enslaved people from local owners 52 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 1: to do odd jobs around the university. So in a 53 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:55,640 Speaker 1: lot of ways, the university was really intricately tied to slavery. 54 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: But the real existential moment of connection comes in the 55 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: eighteen thirties. It turns out that the plantations that were 56 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:05,960 Speaker 1: run by the Jesuits were actually not profitable, and so 57 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,160 Speaker 1: for twenty years the Jesuits they had a debate really 58 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 1: about what to do about their human property. They owned 59 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: nearly three hundred people. The Jesuit leadership came to the 60 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:18,640 Speaker 1: conclusion that they should sell off virtually the entire community 61 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:21,279 Speaker 1: of people that they owned. So they did that in 62 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:25,280 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight. They sold two two people to two 63 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 1: buyers in Louisiana for a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, 64 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:31,280 Speaker 1: and they took the initial down payment from that sale 65 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:34,479 Speaker 1: of about two dollars, and they used it to pay 66 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:38,760 Speaker 1: off the crushing debt that the college had accrued without 67 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:42,239 Speaker 1: that sale, without the proceeds from the sale of those people, 68 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: you know, it's not clear that the university would have survived. 69 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,480 Speaker 1: And that's why I say that Georgetown owes its very 70 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:53,920 Speaker 1: existence to slavery. There are thousands of living descendants of 71 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 1: the g U two City two has also completely changed 72 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: the conversation about the meaning of this history because now 73 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:02,520 Speaker 1: we have a rual. We have people living today whose 74 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: own families were touched by this trauma of sale and 75 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: forced transportation to the Deep South, and their lives were 76 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: shaped by this experience in ways they didn't even know 77 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 1: before the revelations of this history came out. I mean, 78 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,800 Speaker 1: the descendant community itself had lots of ideas about how 79 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:25,640 Speaker 1: the university should reconcile with its history, and all of 80 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:29,039 Speaker 1: a sudden, the conversation was not just an internal conversation 81 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: of the university. There was an outside partner who had 82 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: been wronged who wanted to voice into conversation. So those 83 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: conversations have been going on for some time. There have 84 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 1: been some things that have gone on, like in April 85 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: of two thousand and seventeen, there was a big service 86 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: at Georgetown where both the president of Georgetown and the 87 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:48,360 Speaker 1: head of the North American Jesuits apologized in the presence 88 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,160 Speaker 1: of members of the descended community for their roles in 89 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: the history of slavery and in the trauma of the sale, 90 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,479 Speaker 1: the sin of the sale. That was the language they used. 91 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:00,880 Speaker 1: But since then, I think it's been slow owing. There 92 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: have been conversations between the university and Jesuit leadership and 93 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: leadership of the descentate community about how to move forward. 94 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: It's hard to wait for those conversations to play out. 95 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:17,560 Speaker 1: So last spring undergraduate students of Georgetown organized a student 96 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: referendum to enact a student fee, an activity fee of 97 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,520 Speaker 1: twenty seven and twenty cents a semester that would pay 98 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:28,360 Speaker 1: for a reconciliation fund to support programs it would benefit 99 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,320 Speaker 1: the G two two descent community. Was an amazing thing 100 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:34,400 Speaker 1: to watch on campus. In the end, the students voted 101 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:38,080 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly to support the student activity fee. It was the 102 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:41,720 Speaker 1: highest turnout for a student referendum in Georgetown's history, so 103 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 1: it was an overwhelming victory for the advocates for what 104 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: was effectively a novel scheme of reparations. The G two 105 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: two was sold for thousand dollars in eighteen thirty eight, 106 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:59,480 Speaker 1: which is the equivalent of about three million dollars in 107 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: today is money. The student proposal would have raised about 108 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:09,840 Speaker 1: four thousand dollars a semester, so in five years that 109 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:14,480 Speaker 1: fee would raise basically the equivalent of the amount of 110 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: the sale. But when we started talking numbers like that, 111 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:21,120 Speaker 1: that's where it gets tricky, both in terms of how 112 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: you actually calculate the present value of what enslaved people 113 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 1: contributed to Georgetown University, and beyond that, the question about 114 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:32,840 Speaker 1: whether you can actually put a price, whether you can 115 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 1: actually put any kind of number on the value of 116 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:40,720 Speaker 1: what is owed to the descendants of enslaved people. I 117 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: know members of the descendant community themselves who actually object 118 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:47,920 Speaker 1: to monetary reparations because they object the idea of putting 119 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:52,280 Speaker 1: a price on the value of their ancestors life and labor. 120 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:56,120 Speaker 1: I can't design the program of reparations myself as a 121 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:58,840 Speaker 1: white historian, but I can say, and this is I 122 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:00,480 Speaker 1: think what's happened in Georgia, and I and say, look, 123 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: here's the documentation of what actually happened. Think about this, 124 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:08,520 Speaker 1: reflect on it, and it might move you. So there 125 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:12,680 Speaker 1: are a lot of harms to slavery. The robbery of 126 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:15,160 Speaker 1: the fruits of people's labor was one of them, But 127 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:18,680 Speaker 1: another one was just the denial of history and the 128 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:23,080 Speaker 1: separation of families. We saw that in the sale. But 129 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:24,920 Speaker 1: one of the things that I think has happened with 130 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: the recovery of this history is that people have learned 131 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:32,880 Speaker 1: more about their own families and that psychic trauma of 132 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: the suppression of history that came with slavery, that at 133 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:39,599 Speaker 1: least has been pride apart a little bit, and that 134 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:42,320 Speaker 1: I think is by no means a full reparation by 135 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 1: any start of the imagination. But it's a step towards understanding, 136 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:51,640 Speaker 1: and I think that's important. Adam Rothman, Georgetown professor and 137 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:58,959 Speaker 1: Twitter ninja, what's our next exhibit? Would that be? Exhibit be? Actually, 138 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:03,720 Speaker 1: that would be Exhibit D D for Desmond Meade. He's 139 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: a voting rights activists who led the successful fight to 140 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:10,959 Speaker 1: pass Florida Amendment for a two thousand eighteen initiative that 141 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,520 Speaker 1: restored voting rights to over one point four million Floridians 142 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 1: with previous felony convictions. He's one of Time magazines one 143 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:23,439 Speaker 1: hundred most influential people in two thousand nineteen. That's pretty 144 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:27,600 Speaker 1: freaky right there. What's truly freaky, though, is how hard 145 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:31,200 Speaker 1: the Republicans, including the Santists the governor, are pushing back. 146 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,600 Speaker 1: It's because they recognize the policing and control of black 147 00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:37,559 Speaker 1: bodies into prison and out of prison. The denial of 148 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:42,320 Speaker 1: full citizenship after prison is a building block of white supremacy, 149 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:45,880 Speaker 1: and white supremacy will not give up without a fight. 150 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 1: White supremacy is the freak show. Freaking deacon told you 151 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:54,880 Speaker 1: when I was convicted of a felony offense I lost 152 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:58,319 Speaker 1: my civil rights, which meant I lost the right to vote, 153 00:09:58,679 --> 00:10:00,679 Speaker 1: the right to serve on the are, the right to 154 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:04,160 Speaker 1: run for office. And then there are other collateral consequences 155 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,600 Speaker 1: that are associated with the laws of civil rights. When 156 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:10,959 Speaker 1: we passed Amendment forward, amendment for debt with with the 157 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: right to vote, and so when we passed the memor 158 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:16,439 Speaker 1: for I got to write the vote back right, but 159 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: my civil rights was haven't been restored. And so what 160 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 1: that meant was that even though I got the right 161 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 1: to vote back, and even though I graduated from law 162 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:28,439 Speaker 1: school with a law degree right and I made the 163 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:32,000 Speaker 1: deans list my last year, I still can't practice law 164 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:35,360 Speaker 1: because I can't apply to the Florida Bar to take 165 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,840 Speaker 1: the bar exam until my civil rights have been restored. 166 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:41,160 Speaker 1: What that means is, even though I've had a very 167 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:45,800 Speaker 1: successful career, I can't even buy or rent a home 168 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:48,840 Speaker 1: in a lot of places in Florida because my civil 169 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:51,719 Speaker 1: rights has not been restored. And so the restoration of 170 00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:56,000 Speaker 1: civil rights impact employment opportunities as well in the housing opportunities. 171 00:10:56,679 --> 00:11:01,520 Speaker 1: And so what this policy changed their was allowed people 172 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:05,400 Speaker 1: to have their civil rights restored along with their voting rights. 173 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:08,079 Speaker 1: Even though it's all like a package deal now, and 174 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:12,960 Speaker 1: folks now have more opportunities to buy and rent homes, 175 00:11:13,240 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: They have more opportunities to get occupational licenses, get a 176 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:20,000 Speaker 1: much better paying job, and be able to provide for 177 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: their families. So let me tell you, and that is 178 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:25,440 Speaker 1: impacting every one at the one point for a million 179 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:28,520 Speaker 1: that benefited from the passing of Amendment four have an 180 00:11:28,559 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 1: opportunity to have their civil rights restored. I am so 181 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 1: grateful that God has chosen me to be a part 182 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:39,320 Speaker 1: of this process to make that happen, and I'm honored. 183 00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:42,719 Speaker 1: You know, one of the stories that I like to 184 00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:46,599 Speaker 1: tell is one day slave master awakens and here that 185 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: wait a minute, those same people who you didn't think 186 00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:53,560 Speaker 1: was even a whole of a man and families you've 187 00:11:53,679 --> 00:11:57,600 Speaker 1: destroyed and murdered and eaten the flesh off their bone, though, 188 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:01,199 Speaker 1: famed people that you spent on them, now have just 189 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: as much right as you do. And not only do 190 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:06,520 Speaker 1: they have the same rights as you do, they started 191 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:10,160 Speaker 1: exercising those rights. And the same people that you had 192 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:13,320 Speaker 1: your foot on their neck for more than eight minutes 193 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:17,320 Speaker 1: of forty six seconds are now becoming judges and sheriffs 194 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,920 Speaker 1: and congressmens and having authority over you, and that was 195 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:25,880 Speaker 1: a scary sight. And so mass incarceration was the fallback 196 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:28,640 Speaker 1: to where it Okay, well, why don't we create these 197 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:32,760 Speaker 1: laws that would criminalize things that newly freed slaves would do. 198 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: In doing so, then we're able to grab them and 199 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:39,600 Speaker 1: arrest them and convict them. And while we convict them, 200 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: we're gonna strip them away of this new right that 201 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: they have to vote right then to serve on jury 202 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: and and to run for office. And then we're gonna 203 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:50,679 Speaker 1: take them and we're gonna throw them back into the 204 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:53,320 Speaker 1: cage that reminds them of the ships that they were 205 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:56,360 Speaker 1: brought over from when we brought them over from Africa. 206 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:58,640 Speaker 1: And then when we get ready, we could take them 207 00:12:58,679 --> 00:13:02,960 Speaker 1: out of those cages and take outsource them as prison labor, 208 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,319 Speaker 1: right back into the same fields in which they was 209 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:09,720 Speaker 1: liberated from. And then for those that were not able 210 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:12,960 Speaker 1: to capture like that, we're gonna use the same folks 211 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 1: that are once called slave patrols that but they have 212 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:20,520 Speaker 1: evolved into what police right, We're gonna use those same 213 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:25,840 Speaker 1: folks to exact state sanctioned violence to intimidate and threaten 214 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:28,360 Speaker 1: and the rest who we can, and kill who we can, 215 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 1: and hang who we can, and burn who we can. 216 00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:35,600 Speaker 1: To drive home a point that you do not deserve 217 00:13:35,679 --> 00:13:37,760 Speaker 1: to be treated with dignity and respect, that you are 218 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:41,640 Speaker 1: underneath us, and you will not participate in our elections. 219 00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:44,560 Speaker 1: You would not have a say in how this country 220 00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:48,400 Speaker 1: is ran because you're not equal. The driving force was 221 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:52,400 Speaker 1: the combining of slave patrols, which is police, with our 222 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: incarceration and judicial system, and together you have a system 223 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,280 Speaker 1: that not only terrorized you on the streets, but it 224 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:05,720 Speaker 1: is designed to capture you and incarceraate you, and enslave 225 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: you in prison. You know, even though the private prison 226 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:13,800 Speaker 1: industry is a small portion of its prison industrial complex system, 227 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:19,160 Speaker 1: what we do recognize is that there is an ecosystem 228 00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:23,720 Speaker 1: that profits off of the bondage of people of color. 229 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,840 Speaker 1: You see it an immigration attention, and of course you 230 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:29,880 Speaker 1: see it in our criminal legal system. The wealth that's 231 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:34,000 Speaker 1: in this country is directly related to the profit that 232 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:37,800 Speaker 1: was made off of the backs of our ancestors that 233 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:42,520 Speaker 1: was stolen from Africa. So how do we get folks 234 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:48,880 Speaker 1: to understand that reparations is not robbing Peter to pay Paul. 235 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:53,680 Speaker 1: Reparations is writing in the justice that would end up 236 00:14:53,800 --> 00:15:02,440 Speaker 1: benefiting all parties involved, say Mr Tambo, Yes, Mr Interlocker, 237 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:07,040 Speaker 1: I'm beginning to get the impression that reparations is about 238 00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:11,240 Speaker 1: far more than just slavery. Go on that, in fact, 239 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:15,960 Speaker 1: reparations might have to cover a whole network of structures 240 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:21,040 Speaker 1: of inequality and repression embedded in the American experiment from 241 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:25,359 Speaker 1: the beginning to ensure the second class status of Black Americans. 242 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:30,400 Speaker 1: It's slavery, yes, but it's also the electoral college. It's 243 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:34,960 Speaker 1: red lining from Jim Crone beyond George Floyd and Brianna Taylor. 244 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,080 Speaker 1: It's like, I don't even know you anymore, but you're 245 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:42,440 Speaker 1: not wrong. Here's son, let me sing it to you. 246 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:56,520 Speaker 1: De Ray sism and the White side prim c deep 247 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 1: in resting from me Dinapolis down to Memphis to the see. 248 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:12,680 Speaker 1: That's where my people here races institutions down on our 249 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:19,920 Speaker 1: backs or rais or you get vote if you don't 250 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 1: pay the poll tax or spill my name bakes l 251 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:32,040 Speaker 1: to tem Us where we can't go no matter what 252 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:39,800 Speaker 1: we pay. All time sleep patrols become fo That's the 253 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:52,680 Speaker 1: American way. Do read Sisamander, whites up, primsy everybody. Everybody know. Oh, 254 00:16:54,080 --> 00:17:14,160 Speaker 1: that's America's defining legacy. It's hard. Who ha step back 255 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:26,560 Speaker 1: beyond sne Oh, who's next. Our next exhibit is an 256 00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:30,600 Speaker 1: interview with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson. Lee represented the fine people 257 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:35,679 Speaker 1: of the Texas eighteenth. Since you know her, you love her, 258 00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:37,760 Speaker 1: and she's been on the front lines of the fight 259 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,960 Speaker 1: for reparations, she too has something to say about the 260 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,440 Speaker 1: pushback against recognizing slavery and discrimination and the damage done 261 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:50,399 Speaker 1: to black people in America since sixteen nineteen, and against 262 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:55,160 Speaker 1: the search for an implementation of remedies. This is becoming 263 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:58,720 Speaker 1: like a theme, the perversity of the fight against justice. 264 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:04,920 Speaker 1: The freaky is real, the free is real. Slavery was 265 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:08,639 Speaker 1: eliminated in eighteen sixty five around the passes of the 266 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:11,800 Speaker 1: thirteenth Amendment. So people think that's history. That's a long 267 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:15,159 Speaker 1: time ago, and why are we still talking about it. 268 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,440 Speaker 1: The attitude is get over it. And so I think 269 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: it's important to restate some of those very pointed facts 270 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:27,240 Speaker 1: of brutality in the inhumanity of slavery. Slaves were not people, 271 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 1: they were not counted as one human being. What did 272 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:37,040 Speaker 1: it do to the African American family, male female? Psychologically? 273 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:40,200 Speaker 1: What did it do to them so so logically? Where 274 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:42,720 Speaker 1: did they wind up living? What did it mean when 275 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:46,399 Speaker 1: they couldn't buy housing? How did they feel? What did 276 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,159 Speaker 1: it generate? Did it generate mass and conservation? What did 277 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: it do to them economically? Why was the wealth gap 278 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:57,520 Speaker 1: so huge even though there were success stories? What did 279 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:01,399 Speaker 1: do with them politically? What did it do to them scientifically? 280 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:04,800 Speaker 1: When there was a rage in the nineteen sixties that 281 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:09,480 Speaker 1: assessed that African Americans were inferior, that's why they couldn't 282 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:12,480 Speaker 1: do anything. They couldn't accomplish anything because they were inferior, 283 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:15,480 Speaker 1: not because the laws of the land, which were clearly 284 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:20,639 Speaker 1: part of the isolating and targeting of African Americans. They 285 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:27,080 Speaker 1: didn't get anything to pile away, to es, grow, to deposit, 286 00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:31,119 Speaker 1: anywhere to pass on. But the ongoing effects of the 287 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:37,280 Speaker 1: institution of slavery and its legacy of persistent systematic structures 288 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:41,920 Speaker 1: of discrimination on living African Americans and society in the 289 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: United States. What is the qualitative and quantitative number that 290 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:52,200 Speaker 1: you put on touring in fifty years of free labor 291 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:58,680 Speaker 1: with no workman's cop no insurance, no pension, which literally 292 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:04,800 Speaker 1: helped build the economic genius and giantness of America. So 293 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:08,320 Speaker 1: if we look in that manner, I think that the 294 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:12,720 Speaker 1: truth will just be so real that you would have 295 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:17,440 Speaker 1: to look to reparations. You lift one boat, you lift 296 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,960 Speaker 1: all boats. You lift boats in America, in urban pockets, 297 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:25,400 Speaker 1: in rural pockets. Then you lift America. The economy gets excited. 298 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,640 Speaker 1: Can people see that? Can they see if I lift 299 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:31,639 Speaker 1: this boat, then this boat over here live. Because firstly, 300 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:33,080 Speaker 1: there are too many people in the United States that 301 00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:37,119 Speaker 1: live in poverty period, but we are African Americans are 302 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 1: the bulk of that poverty. So there was disparate treatment, 303 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:48,720 Speaker 1: disparate access, disparate outcomes. And for that reason, I think 304 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: if there is an understanding of that pain and how 305 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:58,680 Speaker 1: it translated, if people just quietly reflect, then fear will 306 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:02,600 Speaker 1: move quickly away, because then the reality of the pain 307 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: will come forward and people will ask in collective voices, 308 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,560 Speaker 1: how can we resolve this? Where is a reconciliation? Where 309 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:15,120 Speaker 1: is the easing of the pain. So reparations is to fairly, 310 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:23,400 Speaker 1: calmly seek reconciliation over those painful years, more than two 311 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:27,639 Speaker 1: centuries of pain and brutality, and to address it in 312 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,320 Speaker 1: the twenty one century and then I think it's a 313 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:35,640 Speaker 1: question of money. And my answer to that is there 314 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:39,959 Speaker 1: are a myriad of solutions. Let us start the journey 315 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:44,680 Speaker 1: so that the academicians and groups that have are advocating 316 00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:48,280 Speaker 1: for many different answers, they can all be heard, and 317 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:50,919 Speaker 1: maybe as we hear them, it will be very simple 318 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:57,760 Speaker 1: to find a way to address the response. Have you 319 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,480 Speaker 1: ever heard the saying behind every great fortune there is 320 00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:06,040 Speaker 1: a green crime. Yes, I read it in The Godfather. Well, 321 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:09,879 Speaker 1: the French author Balzac said it, and a Frenchman would know. 322 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:12,520 Speaker 1: And when it comes to the riches of America, ain't 323 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:16,600 Speaker 1: it the truth? Ain't it the truth? One woman has 324 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:21,399 Speaker 1: made a regular specialty of linking various blue chip blue 325 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:25,440 Speaker 1: chip I say, Lincoln blue chip corporations and their fortunes 326 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:29,359 Speaker 1: to the slave trade. Her work and documenting that ETNA 327 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:34,320 Speaker 1: Insurance had written insurance policies on enslaved Africans. Oh, boy, 328 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:37,359 Speaker 1: I think I see where this is going exactly with 329 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:42,360 Speaker 1: the slaveholders as beneficiaries, led to ETNA making a twenty 330 00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,680 Speaker 1: million dollar payment to the African American community. This was 331 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:49,320 Speaker 1: the first reparations court victory in American history. In two 332 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:55,159 Speaker 1: thousand six, Deadria Farmer Pelman good woman, Yes, indeed she 333 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:58,760 Speaker 1: is very good woman. Now look, boy, I saved a 334 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:08,760 Speaker 1: good story for our last exhibit. Did you ever wonder 335 00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:12,240 Speaker 1: why we tip restaurant workers? You mean, instead of giving 336 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:15,520 Speaker 1: them a fair wage? Right? You catching on? But do 337 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:17,920 Speaker 1: you think it's because they won't it that way? And 338 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:22,000 Speaker 1: did you ever notice that the the dog or the 339 00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:24,640 Speaker 1: skin color of the staff gets What if I told 340 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,680 Speaker 1: you that tipping in restaurants in this country is like 341 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: the electoral college, just one more legacy of slavery. Here's 342 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:36,119 Speaker 1: activist Sorrow Jaroman to tell us how it is. The 343 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,960 Speaker 1: restaurant industry has become the nation's second largest and absolute 344 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,120 Speaker 1: fastest growing private sector employers, and yet despite the industry 345 00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:49,280 Speaker 1: size and its growth, it has been for decades the 346 00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:53,240 Speaker 1: absolute lowest paying employer in the United States of America, 347 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,480 Speaker 1: which is bad for a country to have the largest 348 00:23:56,560 --> 00:24:00,760 Speaker 1: and fastest growing industry be the lowest paying industry. And 349 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:03,680 Speaker 1: that fact is due to the money power and influence 350 00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,520 Speaker 1: of a trade lobby called the National Restaurant Association. We 351 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,399 Speaker 1: call it the Other n r A. The Other n 352 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,800 Speaker 1: r A s history does actually go all the way 353 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:18,320 Speaker 1: back to emancipation, the restaurant lobby and one other industry, 354 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:21,840 Speaker 1: the Pullman train company, wanted the right to hire newly 355 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:26,160 Speaker 1: freed slaves black people and continue to not pay them 356 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:31,000 Speaker 1: for their labor and instead have them rely entirely on 357 00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,119 Speaker 1: this new idea that had just come from England or 358 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,800 Speaker 1: from Europe at the time, called tipping, and so at Emancipation, 359 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,200 Speaker 1: tipping was mutated from being an extra or a bonus 360 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:45,560 Speaker 1: on top of a wage to becoming the wage itself. 361 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:49,480 Speaker 1: And we started with a zero dollar wage for tipped 362 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:54,480 Speaker 1: workers at Emancipation that became law in night when everybody 363 00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,520 Speaker 1: got the right to a federal minimum wage for the 364 00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:59,200 Speaker 1: first time as part of the new Deal, except for 365 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,520 Speaker 1: groups of black workers, farm workers, domestic workers, and tipped 366 00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,399 Speaker 1: restaurant workers who are told, you get a zero dollar 367 00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:08,800 Speaker 1: wage as long as tips bring you to the full 368 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,920 Speaker 1: minimum wage. And we went from zero and ninety eight 369 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,399 Speaker 1: all the way up to the incredible two dollars and 370 00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:19,360 Speaker 1: thirteen cents an hour, which is the current federal minimum 371 00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:21,920 Speaker 1: wage for tipped workers in the United States of America. 372 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,359 Speaker 1: And as I said at the beginning, that is not 373 00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:27,200 Speaker 1: the wage for a tiny sliver of the American workforce. 374 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:32,320 Speaker 1: It's the wage for the nation's largest private sector employer, 375 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:36,679 Speaker 1: largest private sector employer of women, largest private sector employer 376 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:39,919 Speaker 1: of people of color, largest employer of immigrants, largest employer 377 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:45,560 Speaker 1: formally incarcerated individuals, largest employer period gets away with legally 378 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,600 Speaker 1: paying its workers two dollars an hour at the federal 379 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,920 Speaker 1: level and under five dollars an hour in four out 380 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:55,840 Speaker 1: of five states, all because of this legacy of slavery 381 00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:00,440 Speaker 1: and the ongoing power of this trade lobby. So the 382 00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:06,879 Speaker 1: restaurant industry is notoriously racially segregated. Workers of color in 383 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,520 Speaker 1: our industry are segregated into lower paying segments of the industry. 384 00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:15,400 Speaker 1: There in casual restaurants and fast food restaurants rather than 385 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,920 Speaker 1: fine dining, and even in fine dining, they tend to 386 00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 1: be bussers and runners and kitchen staff as opposed to 387 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:27,000 Speaker 1: fine dining servers and bartenders. Now, on top of that, 388 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,000 Speaker 1: if workers of color make it the rare exceptions where 389 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: they make it to be servers and bartenders in fine 390 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:38,399 Speaker 1: dining restaurants, there is irrefutable data that they earn less 391 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:43,080 Speaker 1: in tips because of customer bias. There is now mountains 392 00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:46,840 Speaker 1: of evidence that tipping is not correlated with the quality 393 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,879 Speaker 1: of the service. Tipping is a reflection of all of 394 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:54,879 Speaker 1: America's biases from the inception of America, and what it 395 00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:58,119 Speaker 1: is correlated with is the race and gender of the server, 396 00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:02,200 Speaker 1: her eye color, her skin color, her hair color, her 397 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,960 Speaker 1: hair texture, her breast size, whether she's willing to touch 398 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:09,840 Speaker 1: the customer or be touched. And so that segregation of 399 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:13,920 Speaker 1: workers of color into back of house versus front of house, 400 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:18,920 Speaker 1: which is eerily reminiscent of the way in which slaves 401 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:23,800 Speaker 1: on plantations or even in reconstruction, people of color were 402 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:27,399 Speaker 1: treated and differentiated. And then on top of that, the 403 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,639 Speaker 1: differential in the way people are tipped. All of that 404 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,520 Speaker 1: results in a five dollar per hour wage gap between 405 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:39,280 Speaker 1: black women and white men in our industry. That differential 406 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:44,359 Speaker 1: creates generational poverty depending on where you live in forty 407 00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:47,640 Speaker 1: three states in the United States, so most likely wherever 408 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,720 Speaker 1: you go out to eat, every time you tip in 409 00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:55,040 Speaker 1: a restaurant, every worker that you are interacting with is 410 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,000 Speaker 1: being paid less than the minimum wage because you are 411 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 1: tipping them. It actually is the employer the legal permission 412 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:05,200 Speaker 1: to pay the person less because you tip them. The 413 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:10,640 Speaker 1: sub minimum wage exacerbates the inequality and it forces all 414 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:13,440 Speaker 1: of these folks to live off of tips. The fact 415 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,359 Speaker 1: that people of color earn less in tips even when 416 00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:19,520 Speaker 1: they have the same positions, it is a reflection of 417 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,960 Speaker 1: still deep seated racism in the United States. Even when 418 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,680 Speaker 1: workers of color make it to higher paid positions, they 419 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:30,879 Speaker 1: cannot earn the same in tips because of this racism, 420 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:35,480 Speaker 1: and so racism doesn't pay off. Playing into customer racism 421 00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:39,520 Speaker 1: doesn't help, and paying people to dollars also doesn't help 422 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:42,200 Speaker 1: you in the long run. What does help you is 423 00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:46,720 Speaker 1: increased mobility for people of color that diversifies your clientele 424 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:49,520 Speaker 1: base and paying people a wage that allows them to 425 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,880 Speaker 1: stay in the restaurant and hone their craft. These are 426 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,040 Speaker 1: not jobs job or they don't have to be a 427 00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,760 Speaker 1: lot of people in this industry take great pride in 428 00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:02,640 Speaker 1: this work. They can sider themselves to be skilled professionals. 429 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:05,920 Speaker 1: The only reason why these skilled occupations are not seen 430 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,760 Speaker 1: as professions is the way they are treated and paid. 431 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,600 Speaker 1: And we need to see them as skilled professions if 432 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:15,680 Speaker 1: we want to both break the apartheid and raise all 433 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:24,000 Speaker 1: of these jobs to be living wage professions. Well, Whitney, 434 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:26,600 Speaker 1: did you ever think you'd be talking like fog Horn 435 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:34,440 Speaker 1: Leghorn about the Freaky Dickie show of corporate institutionalized racism Erica. 436 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:36,400 Speaker 1: You know, I never thought that i'd be in a 437 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:41,000 Speaker 1: minstrel show voluntarily, So this is definitely a new experience 438 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 1: for me. You know what, You not many white men 439 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,360 Speaker 1: have this on their resume anymore. I mean, justin Trudeau. 440 00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:49,720 Speaker 1: The come on, let's be real. There's some people who 441 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,320 Speaker 1: have done it, and you're doing it for a good cause. 442 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:54,920 Speaker 1: You did a great job, you're a great sport about it. 443 00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 1: So you're thinking I should put this on my resume 444 00:29:56,920 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 1: for which job? Are you thinking them? And apply to? 445 00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,200 Speaker 1: Not think you should? Absolutely, if I were you, I'd 446 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: put it at the top. I'm just glad you didn't 447 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:05,520 Speaker 1: ask me to sing. You know I had did that 448 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:08,479 Speaker 1: for you next time. You can't get out of all 449 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:10,960 Speaker 1: of it. But really we were talking about something that's 450 00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 1: very important for people to understand that they had to 451 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:17,800 Speaker 1: twist it and mangle it and deform it in order 452 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,719 Speaker 1: for it to grow as institutions, and they did. They 453 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:26,600 Speaker 1: created all sorts of heinous policies and legislation because they 454 00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:30,120 Speaker 1: could create black people as the freak show. You know 455 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:32,760 Speaker 1: what's interesting actually, Erica for me doing this is that 456 00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:36,920 Speaker 1: it was so uncomfortable for me to actually do a 457 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:39,920 Speaker 1: minstrel show with you both. The experience of doing it 458 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:44,200 Speaker 1: was like out there, but also then that realization it's 459 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,160 Speaker 1: kind of like the leading into owning it being a 460 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:49,480 Speaker 1: white person, they we always want to push a Sykee 461 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:51,360 Speaker 1: that's not me, that history is not me, that's not 462 00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 1: related to me, And then when you actually embody it 463 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,600 Speaker 1: an inhabitant, it kind of like drives something home that yeah, 464 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:00,400 Speaker 1: it actually is me. It is my legacy. And sometimes 465 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:02,640 Speaker 1: I feel like, oh, well, are we letting white people 466 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:05,440 Speaker 1: off the hook because they're able to like tiptoe away 467 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:07,160 Speaker 1: from it as opposed to owning it. So I felt 468 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:08,840 Speaker 1: that was kind of the experience for me and doing this. 469 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,520 Speaker 1: It's like, I can't tiptoe away from a minstrel show. Again, 470 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,200 Speaker 1: we're living in a minstrel show if you can take 471 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,560 Speaker 1: away the entertainment and the black face. But the black 472 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:25,120 Speaker 1: face was meant to activate white persons, the exaggerated version 473 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,440 Speaker 1: that they thought blackness was. You know, if you think 474 00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:32,640 Speaker 1: about it, black people were Africans learned English from white people, 475 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:34,840 Speaker 1: so if they were talking like that, which they weren't, 476 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 1: they have been talking like the people who taught them English. 477 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,440 Speaker 1: The other thing is that it was meant to be absurd, 478 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,600 Speaker 1: and you know we we did it sort of quick ends, 479 00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,280 Speaker 1: you know, like an entertainment thing. But they did it 480 00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:50,600 Speaker 1: often to make them seem lazy and shiftless. I was 481 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:55,160 Speaker 1: got going to ways and black people were never lazy 482 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:57,280 Speaker 1: and slift shiftless. If we were, we got beat, we 483 00:31:57,360 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 1: got killed. So I think one of the biggest lie 484 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:04,520 Speaker 1: was to create this type of minstrelsy. And to this 485 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,640 Speaker 1: day you hear a lot of people go, what about 486 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,160 Speaker 1: their work ethic they're not used to working and who 487 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,760 Speaker 1: they think built America? Are they crazy? Who they think 488 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 1: takes the late bus and the early bus in the morning, 489 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,160 Speaker 1: not just black people people of color. We are taking 490 00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:22,840 Speaker 1: care of their children, wiping their butts when they get 491 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:27,400 Speaker 1: old and are dying. And we are also the doctors 492 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,760 Speaker 1: and the scientists. So now it can't be denied that 493 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:37,080 Speaker 1: we are in every available space in America. And yet 494 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:42,600 Speaker 1: these things are so inside of the zeitgeist, whether we 495 00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:45,480 Speaker 1: see them or not, they still exist. Well, I'm looking 496 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:52,960 Speaker 1: forward to next week. Awesome, next time on reparations, the 497 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,000 Speaker 1: big payback. The cases for and against reparations do get 498 00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:00,760 Speaker 1: out in the boxing ring. Will you in reparations? I 499 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,720 Speaker 1: think everything that has touched us in a way that 500 00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:07,320 Speaker 1: profited from us and we did not owes us. You 501 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:12,160 Speaker 1: don't owe me shit. All you owe me is respect 502 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:17,000 Speaker 1: and opportunity. Not only are reparations of cash payout, they 503 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 1: need to be long term and systemic, purposeful systems and 504 00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,880 Speaker 1: organizations set up that puts black people who were brought 505 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,160 Speaker 1: here his beast and shadow on a pathway to having 506 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:30,960 Speaker 1: their full rights in prible to just recognized and enjoy. 507 00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:35,200 Speaker 1: We gotta stop playing the victim. Well, this happened during slavery, 508 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: so this is why this is still having them today 509 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:40,000 Speaker 1: or why you're not you know and blah blah blah. 510 00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,760 Speaker 1: But no, those things have changed at some point. The 511 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:48,480 Speaker 1: descending of someone that was brought here in sixteen nineteen 512 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:53,160 Speaker 1: deserves to steer this raggedy as chip through these trouble water. 513 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:58,280 Speaker 1: That is an element of reparations that is long deserved. 514 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,920 Speaker 1: We want to talk about rep racing again. It's real. 515 00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:05,840 Speaker 1: So we need to get in live because the Indians 516 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:10,200 Speaker 1: deserved reparation before we do because they were enslaved too. 517 00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,480 Speaker 1: What doc is is a reckoning of the evil and 518 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,600 Speaker 1: the original scene that America did. They enslaved people look 519 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:25,719 Speaker 1: like our black Head. This podcast is produced by Eric Alexander, 520 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:29,719 Speaker 1: Ben Arnon and Whitney Dow. The executive producers are Charlomagne 521 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:33,160 Speaker 1: the God and Dolly s. Bishop. The Supervising producer is 522 00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,400 Speaker 1: Nicole Childers and the lead producer is Devin Mattock Robins. 523 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: The producer writer is Sis Castle and the associate producers 524 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:43,880 Speaker 1: Kevin Famm, with additional research support provided by Nile Blast. 525 00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,920 Speaker 1: The White Supremacy Swanny songs written by Tony Purrier, piano 526 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,319 Speaker 1: by Robert Turner and vocal arrangement by Sir R. Brown Alexander. 527 00:34:51,800 --> 00:35:01,680 Speaker 1: Original music by dj D t P Reparations. The Big 528 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:04,640 Speaker 1: Payback is a production of color Farm Media, I Heart 529 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:08,480 Speaker 1: Radio and The Black Effect Podcast Network in association with 530 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,280 Speaker 1: Best Case Studios. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, 531 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:16,560 Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever 532 00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:18,000 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.