Speaker 1: I'm Erica Alexander and I'm Whitney Dow. Welcome to Reparations
Speaker 1: The Big Payback, a production of Color Farm Media, I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, and The Black Effect Podcast Network. Hey Whitney, Hello, Erica.
Speaker 1: Something I've always wanted to ask you. You've got one
Speaker 1: of those old time white boy last name first named Whitney.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean you can be like Dow Whitney
Speaker 1: instead of Whitney Dow. Well, you know, Eric, I do
Speaker 1: have a cousin named dal Whitney. You know, our family
Speaker 1: kind of just recycles their names over and over. Are
Speaker 1: you profiling me? No? No, No, it's just your name.
Speaker 1: I just think it's interesting. Yeah, interesting. I just think
Speaker 1: it's interesting. You know, that's like the ultimate you know,
Speaker 1: you're in trouble with a black woman when she says
Speaker 1: that thing. Yeah, okay, well how would you know? Not
Speaker 1: only have I been around Erica, I've been around you
Speaker 1: a lot. Okay, okay, Well, you know it just struck
Speaker 1: me that we're talking and about reparations and slavery and all.
Speaker 1: And you're from Massachusetts, right, and went to an Ivy
Speaker 1: League school, so yes, and well, in seventeen, another Massachusetts
Speaker 1: Ivy leaguer Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. Now that
Speaker 1: greatly strengthened the economic foundations of slavery in this country.
Speaker 1: And it was a paradox because the cotton gin, a
Speaker 1: labor saving device, helped make cotton profitable, vastly increasing the
Speaker 1: spread of slavery labor from Georgia all the way down
Speaker 1: to Texas, and preserving and prolonging slavery in the United
Speaker 1: States for another seventy years. Wait a minute, Erica, you
Speaker 1: know you can't put that on me. I'm not responsible
Speaker 1: for the cotton gin. Yeah no, no, yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what they all say. I just think it's interesting. Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 1: You know, I know you don't approve and by interesting, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: well you know, Erica Herman Melville, another New Englander, said
Speaker 1: I did not name myself wrong me not because I
Speaker 1: have a wicked name. Well that's a good one, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'd use it myself if my name was messed
Speaker 1: up like that. Yeah. Well, I don't think my name's
Speaker 1: messed up. But go on, thanks a lot. Look I
Speaker 1: share because I care saved by the bill. To night
Speaker 1: part two of our main event, the Heavyweight Bout. We've
Speaker 1: all been waiting for the epic battle between the Case
Speaker 1: four Reparations and the Case against Reparations. If you're just
Speaker 1: joining us, I'm your host, Eric Alexander. I've been here
Speaker 1: in historic Madison Square Garden since last week. Oh my dires,
Speaker 1: whoa to bring you all the thrilling round by round
Speaker 1: action in this colossal matchup? Joining me at ringside as
Speaker 1: color man Whitney, Dow Whitney. This has been a hell
Speaker 1: of a fight so far. Are it looks like the
Speaker 1: Case four Reparations is down for the count? It certainly does, Erica.
Speaker 1: But how we didn't see it because it was a
Speaker 1: spruce shot from a Congressman Mike Johnson blindsided his opponent,
Speaker 1: congress Woman's Jela Jackson Lee, when he revealed he had
Speaker 1: a black son. What are you talking about, willis? Yes,
Speaker 1: a black son. We took custody of Michael and made
Speaker 1: him part of our family twenty two years ago when
Speaker 1: we were just newlyweds and Michael was just fourteen and
Speaker 1: out on the streets and nowhere to go on a
Speaker 1: very dangerous path. Michael's grown now, he has his own
Speaker 1: young family. He turns thirty six years old next week.
Speaker 1: And he's a loving dad to four precious children of
Speaker 1: his own. God has been good to us, and he's
Speaker 1: a success story. I mentioned that today for one reason.
Speaker 1: I personally know the challenge that he has faced early
Speaker 1: in his life. I have walked with him through discrimination
Speaker 1: that he had he's had to endure over the years,
Speaker 1: and the hurdles he's sometimes faced. I know all this,
Speaker 1: but God was I was with him. I asked Michael
Speaker 1: this weekend what he thinks about the idea of reparations
Speaker 1: and dig this wait for it, he says, his black
Speaker 1: sun is against reparations. Riddle me that. Well, no wonder,
Speaker 1: Sheila jackonally never saw that coming. That's certainly a new
Speaker 1: twist on the old I've got a black friend. The
Speaker 1: thing is a black son beats a black friend every time. Well,
Speaker 1: with tactics like that, the case four contenders must step
Speaker 1: up their gain. They'll need a hero, They'll need a
Speaker 1: fo Wait, hang on, though, hang on, who's this coming
Speaker 1: to the center of the ring. It's former New Orleans
Speaker 1: mayor Mark morel is the head of the Urban League
Speaker 1: and a champion in the High four. Reparations. Stop the count,
Speaker 1: Stop that count. Mark Mario has something to say. We
Speaker 1: have to keep a pressure all. Look, we have to
Speaker 1: define reparations. Some people want to define reparations as a
Speaker 1: give me a check bill. That's not reparations. Reparations could
Speaker 1: include that, And after all, let's be clear and honest.
Speaker 1: The United States has paid reparations before to Japanese who
Speaker 1: were interred in the camps, and there are other examples.
Speaker 1: So this is not a new radical revolutionary concept, the
Speaker 1: notion of reparations. It is a concept that this nation
Speaker 1: has resistant when it comes to those whose ancestors were
Speaker 1: enslaved for two hundred and fifty years, and in the
Speaker 1: case of many of us who grew up in the South,
Speaker 1: our ancestors lived under a system of American aparthei called
Speaker 1: segregation for another one hundred years. I can trace my
Speaker 1: family on my mother's side all the way back to
Speaker 1: the Whitney Plantation, which is now the Whitney Slave Museum
Speaker 1: in Saint John, the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. That particular plantation
Speaker 1: had some three hundred plus slaves. But the point of
Speaker 1: the matter is is that I think that there's energy
Speaker 1: in the house. We're gonna have to build the energy
Speaker 1: in the United States Senate. I think it's time to
Speaker 1: do this. There's an abundance of evidence which shows if
Speaker 1: you address economic disparities that the benefit for the nation
Speaker 1: would be that it would expand GDP by some three
Speaker 1: to five trillion. Well, that's on a base let's say
Speaker 1: six seventeen to nineteen trillion, which is a total size
Speaker 1: of the American economy. People said, well, how is that
Speaker 1: the case? Because you have people of color who have
Speaker 1: been held down and structural racism has eliminated their ability
Speaker 1: to work to their potential and to work to their
Speaker 1: complete ability to contribute to themselves, their families, and to society.
Speaker 1: And when you unleash that power, the benefits are going
Speaker 1: to be to them and their families, but also to
Speaker 1: society much more broaded. So I think that's why discussion
Speaker 1: around reparations and a discussion around racial justice has to
Speaker 1: also help people understand not just the history of what
Speaker 1: has happened in this nation since sixty nineteen, but also
Speaker 1: what is the vision for a nation that addresses the
Speaker 1: issues of racial justice, that repairs the breach of the
Speaker 1: last three hundred years. I mean, we have to articulate
Speaker 1: that vision, which I think is a positive vision well
Speaker 1: at the same time helping people understand the predicate. I
Speaker 1: think it requires significant public and private investment in infrastructure,
Speaker 1: in education, because black communities have been under invested in
Speaker 1: public and private investment has bypassed black communities in many cities.
Speaker 1: And it would involve investment in infrastructure, which includes investment
Speaker 1: in people because years and years of under investment. You know,
Speaker 1: when I was growing up in the worlds, you would
Speaker 1: see neighborhoods where the street was paid for six blocks
Speaker 1: and when all of a sudden it stopped, and then
Speaker 1: for the next five blocks the street was kind of
Speaker 1: like a little dirt road. And when you looked up
Speaker 1: and you said, why is it this way? Because this
Speaker 1: is where the white residents lived, and this is where
Speaker 1: the black neighborhood started. It's basically the same neighborhood divided
Speaker 1: this section black. This section, like this section had a playground.
Speaker 1: The school they went to look better, had more facilities
Speaker 1: in the school that the black kids went to. And
Speaker 1: so you know, it is about investing in those things
Speaker 1: that help us build long term sustainability, and I think
Speaker 1: that that is important. We talk about reparations that people said, well,
Speaker 1: let's give everybody a check. Suppose you gave everybody a check,
Speaker 1: does that in and of itself change the structures that
Speaker 1: produced the results we have today. So the reason why
Speaker 1: I say that is not to say that compensation payment
Speaker 1: shouldn't be part of reparations, but that, to me, it
Speaker 1: doesn't go far enough. WHOA, that's the fight day. One
Speaker 1: minute you're on the ropes, next you're back in the fight.
Speaker 1: Maybe so Erica. But this next concerned citizen from Evanston,
Speaker 1: Illinois is in it to win it, fighting for the
Speaker 1: case against reparations. He's both a slugger and a ring tactician,
Speaker 1: and he comes with a fistful effects. Meet John Folly.
Speaker 1: When it came out that reparations were going to target
Speaker 1: a specific group of people, it just struck with as wrong.
Speaker 1: If somebody needs help, that helps shouldn't be dictated by
Speaker 1: someone's race, creed, color, color of their hair. If you
Speaker 1: need help, you should be color blind. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just as simple as that. Whether you're a hillbilly in
Speaker 1: West Virginia or whether you're here, if you need support,
Speaker 1: we're going to give you support as a society. And again,
Speaker 1: that support is not dictated by your skin color, race, creed, color, agenda,
Speaker 1: or whatever the case may be. This country has been
Speaker 1: through a lot of pain, you know, the civil rights movement.
Speaker 1: We've come a long way, and so to reopen these
Speaker 1: wounds just divides our community instead of uniting our community.
Speaker 1: And sometimes what we forget, which is what our media, sorry,
Speaker 1: and politicians, they spent a lot of time dividing us
Speaker 1: instead of uniting us. Because one thing, we all are
Speaker 1: in this room right now, we're all Americans. But if
Speaker 1: we look at slavery, Okay, slavery ended eighteen sixty five,
Speaker 1: the Civil rights movement came in a hundred years later.
Speaker 1: Essentially out of the Civil rights movement, there was housing reform.
Speaker 1: There were all sorts of laws that were passed to
Speaker 1: protect people against the ability to buy a home. So
Speaker 1: basically large part of these problems were solved over forty
Speaker 1: years ago, fifty years ago. So why are we coming
Speaker 1: back to this. So if you think about reparations, reparations, conceptually,
Speaker 1: it's for those that were victimized by slavery. So if
Speaker 1: there was going to be a time to make the
Speaker 1: reparations for the harm of slavery, I would argue that
Speaker 1: that should have been done, you know, in the late
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, now in the twenty one century. The reason
Speaker 1: why I'm speaking up is clearly this is wrong. Some
Speaker 1: poor family, wherever they may be, they need help, but
Speaker 1: we're not going to give them help because their skin color.
Speaker 1: It just struck me so morally wrong. And there's so
Speaker 1: many things that are done in the clandestine way. So
Speaker 1: you're gonna have this Latino family who needs help, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna say that this black family got more help,
Speaker 1: and then they're gonna turn around, and then they're going
Speaker 1: to find a lawyer, and then the whole thing is
Speaker 1: going to turn into a complete cluster where it could
Speaker 1: have been avoided. And that's the tragedy. I think everybody's
Speaker 1: life has a certain degree of burden. I think if
Speaker 1: you had Bill Gates here, he would have some burden.
Speaker 1: God only knows what it would be. But he's got
Speaker 1: a burden. Everyone has a burden. It's how you handle
Speaker 1: the burden. So there is the someone told me that
Speaker 1: they're not gonna hire me because I'm not Jewish. Do
Speaker 1: I sit there and say I'm gonna just roll over
Speaker 1: and die, or do I sit there say fine, I'll
Speaker 1: just find something else, you know, different times and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. There's all sorts of nice jokes about having
Speaker 1: red hair and freckles and stuff like that. You know,
Speaker 1: you develop a thick skinning and move on. And so
Speaker 1: I truly don't feel that there was, at least I
Speaker 1: gues me for myself, you know, privilege, absolutely enough. My
Speaker 1: life wouldn't have been any different if I was black,
Speaker 1: because it's the core of who you are, you know,
Speaker 1: underneath it orders, it's what forms you and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So whether I'm a Hispanic Black Asian, underneath all, it's
Speaker 1: the character of who I am is who I am,
Speaker 1: you know, quirks and all. And by the way, we
Speaker 1: all have our quirks. We've seen what I called the ugly,
Speaker 1: dark and awful side of American society. We showed up
Speaker 1: at the Capitol, the intolerance, hatred, the fealty to white
Speaker 1: supremacy as an operating principle for the country, versus this
Speaker 1: idea that this nation is multi cultural, multi religious, multi orientation,
Speaker 1: and that is undergraded by notions of justice and equity.
Speaker 1: Because you're a white male, we're not going to give
Speaker 1: your family help. We're going to ignore the Hispanic family
Speaker 1: were ignore the Asian family, but we're gonna get help
Speaker 1: to this black family. But all four of them need help,
Speaker 1: you know. I went to school in the South, the
Speaker 1: elementary school, I went to, the middle school I went
Speaker 1: to in the high school I went to. I was
Speaker 1: one of the first African American students to go to
Speaker 1: all three of those schools. And I remember being indoctrinated
Speaker 1: with the lost Cause narrative, the idea that the South
Speaker 1: waged the Civil War for the principle of states rights
Speaker 1: and that it was a war against the Northern aggression,
Speaker 1: not that it was a war to defense slavery. So
Speaker 1: in many respects, the narratives that many have learned have
Speaker 1: contributed to, if you will, the racial injustice we see
Speaker 1: in public policy even to this very day. And that's
Speaker 1: part of this conversation. So I don't believe in white privilege,
Speaker 1: Asian privilege, Hispanning privilege, but there is parental privilege. A
Speaker 1: child that is raised by a mom and a dad
Speaker 1: is just gonna have a statistically better outcome. While at
Speaker 1: the same time, I'm always a believer in the vision
Speaker 1: for the future. What's the vision for the future. What
Speaker 1: can the nation become if these challenges are a dressed.
Speaker 1: We have to remain vocal. We have to remain energized.
Speaker 1: We have to make sure that our demands and our
Speaker 1: needs remain at the forefront. We all have to remain
Speaker 1: woke and in a continuous visible demand for the things
Speaker 1: we want. This fight has more twist and turns than
Speaker 1: a safety pin. Who's ahead and the count are these
Speaker 1: punches landing? Who will emerge victorious? To find out? We
Speaker 1: asked the man in the street, any form of reparation,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, definitely z owed to the black community
Speaker 1: and people of color in general. It's gonna take a
Speaker 1: while for people to maybe come around and figure out
Speaker 1: what's the right in appropriate way to approach it. Whether
Speaker 1: it's literally money, whether it's education, whether it's actual housing, food,
Speaker 1: you name it. We need to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to allocate those resources to the people who need it
Speaker 1: the most. For it's because they brought a white people
Speaker 1: here as slaves. They have to build of America. Without them,
Speaker 1: America would himself being the way it is to be.
Speaker 1: Any time I see the famous about those slaves they
Speaker 1: brought here, it's break my hat. They think blacks are
Speaker 1: loos human beings I think black Americans to African Americans,
Speaker 1: they in lots in America. Personally, I am in favor
Speaker 1: of preparations and the form of investment into communities of
Speaker 1: people who are you descended to been directly impacted by
Speaker 1: things like jim pro or slavery before. I think that
Speaker 1: it would be more impactful in the long term to
Speaker 1: invest in the commun enertees, into the education, in the infrastructure,
Speaker 1: and those communities. Of course, I'm for it. Why shouldn't
Speaker 1: we pay back after we hurt somebody, doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: many years ago it is. I support reparations because as
Speaker 1: a society, whether it's federal or state or local government
Speaker 1: or other critical institutions educational, healthcare, and more, we have
Speaker 1: created a situation where there are massive, massive racial and
Speaker 1: equities and health and safety and wealth and education and more. Therefore,
Speaker 1: we have responsibility to repair that damage. That's what reparations
Speaker 1: is all about. I've got a feeling in these final
Speaker 1: rounds of this fight are going to be the toughest,
Speaker 1: no kidding. Our next spider in the case for reparations
Speaker 1: is none other than a battler, a rumbler, and a
Speaker 1: true heavyweight. He's a rapper, a tireless activist, and a
Speaker 1: proud driver of a nineteen nine Chevy and Paula all
Speaker 1: the way from Atlanta, g A. It's killer my I
Speaker 1: think that the federal government absolutely owes us something or
Speaker 1: why because in sixteen nineteen you brought us here. So
Speaker 1: I believe based on that that there is a formula
Speaker 1: in which the federal government does owe us something, and
Speaker 1: that includes money private companies that benefited off stocks and buns.
Speaker 1: Because after the Civil War, even though the people who
Speaker 1: were promised something by Fielding or the fifteen by General Sherman,
Speaker 1: even though they didn't get ship, many landowners were under
Speaker 1: ridden for the property they lost. And the property was
Speaker 1: human beings who look like me. And because so when
Speaker 1: you look at reparations, I think everything that has touched
Speaker 1: us in a way that profited from us and we
Speaker 1: did not owes us. So that's the mixture of federal government.
Speaker 1: And that would be cash payment in my opinion, that
Speaker 1: would be land grants and land lottery. That would be
Speaker 1: an exemption from taxation. That would be a forgiveness of
Speaker 1: loans and debts that are federally subsidized. That would be
Speaker 1: given us every opportunity to gain equal footing, to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the opportunity of being Americans. It's the same
Speaker 1: thing that was done for the colonies after they broke
Speaker 1: from Britain. It's the same thing that was done for
Speaker 1: the immigrant population that was asked to come here and
Speaker 1: settle the Midwest and West. So my question becomes why
Speaker 1: everybody except us and everybody should pay who profited from it.
Speaker 1: According to the Angelo Project that studies America's original center
Speaker 1: slavery from six nine forward, right we are old, over
Speaker 1: fifteen trillion dollars would probably come out. According to Bob Johnson,
Speaker 1: and even my you know, my former drug dealer mathematics
Speaker 1: would come out between three and thou thousand dollars. Let
Speaker 1: me tell black folks on sidey South, Dad, ain't no money.
Speaker 1: I want people to understand that besides the cash payment
Speaker 1: which you you should get in your deserve not only
Speaker 1: a reparations to cash payout. They need to be long
Speaker 1: term and systemic, purposeful systems and organizations set up that
Speaker 1: puts for the first time black people who were brought
Speaker 1: here His beast and shadow on a pathway to having
Speaker 1: their full rights in prible to just recognized and enjoy
Speaker 1: now people outside the Afriman community that say things like
Speaker 1: I wasn't a slave onner, you benefit from what your
Speaker 1: grandparents got. I have benefited because my grandfather got the
Speaker 1: g I bill when black soldiers who were turned from
Speaker 1: World War two could not get the g I p
Speaker 1: I've benefited because at the time there were factors in
Speaker 1: Mississippi they paid white workers. Even though they were underpaying
Speaker 1: the white workers, they paid them more than the black
Speaker 1: So what I need poor and working class white people
Speaker 1: understand that if they have to treat us fairy. So
Speaker 1: when Mitchell, I don't say that was a hundred fifty
Speaker 1: years ago, mit you seventy five. That was two minches ago.
Speaker 1: So you could die, come back live again. And that's
Speaker 1: how cooch slavery is. Mitch. You know, double me your ass.
Speaker 1: So my great grandparents share crop about acres. Acres benefited,
Speaker 1: my grandmother benefited me. But because of that, my grandmother
Speaker 1: was able to have any education. Because of that, she
Speaker 1: was able moved to Atlanta by her first piece of land,
Speaker 1: which we see her own. Why don't you want to
Speaker 1: give black folks that chance, give us our fucking land
Speaker 1: which we were promised by Sherman's or the Field fifteen
Speaker 1: when he left black people to die drowned in the creek.
Speaker 1: We were promised that give us what the funk we
Speaker 1: were promised, and watch how much better this entire country happen.
Speaker 1: So I just challenged people to understand that this is
Speaker 1: not about taking from you because you ain't the government,
Speaker 1: you don't have enough money to pay us. This is
Speaker 1: not about taking from you because you're not the private
Speaker 1: corporations that profited from us being a stock in a bun.
Speaker 1: What this is is a reckoning of the evil and
Speaker 1: the original sin America did because they enslaved people who
Speaker 1: look like our black ass right, and now it's just
Speaker 1: time to get that core straight. And I guarantee you,
Speaker 1: the better the economy is in the African American community,
Speaker 1: the better the overall economy. So fight forward. Won't reparations.
Speaker 1: We deserve it. One day they're gonna come. We just
Speaker 1: might be older, dead, but I think we can, we must,
Speaker 1: we will. I have a lot of confidence in black people.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of confidence in this country because
Speaker 1: we built it for the same reason your granddad who
Speaker 1: worked at the Ford Company. Like Forward Trucks because he
Speaker 1: knows his hands when in the building the Ford truck,
Speaker 1: You're not gonna shave me for like in America, because
Speaker 1: I helped build it and I'm not going nowhel And
Speaker 1: I think black people need to take the mentality. If
Speaker 1: we do, you know, we'll see more brown towns pop up.
Speaker 1: And if we fifty cent of the South, there's no
Speaker 1: reason we shouldn't own fifty five percent of the South.
Speaker 1: So black people with the cornerstone, with the foundation, let's
Speaker 1: see ourselves that way, let's move act and operate that way.
Speaker 1: And I think we'll see systemic change within our life family. Wow,
Speaker 1: that was powerful Erica. It sure was Whitney. They don't
Speaker 1: call him killer for nothing. He's up against a man
Speaker 1: who calls himself a race realist and a separatist. He's
Speaker 1: a South far from the great state of Virginia. In
Speaker 1: for the case against reparations, give it up for Jared Taylor. Well,
Speaker 1: I certainly do not propose that reparations be paid for slavery.
Speaker 1: There's no person alive who was a slave, and there's
Speaker 1: no person alive who was a slaveholder. If you were
Speaker 1: going to make some kind of naturally tailored solution where
Speaker 1: by those who worst slaves would be compensated by people
Speaker 1: who had held him the slaves. Presumably you would track
Speaker 1: down the descendants of slaveholders today and also the descendants
Speaker 1: of those slaves and work out something between those parties.
Speaker 1: But there is no legal theory whatsoever to seek compensation
Speaker 1: for an act that took place between private parties many
Speaker 1: years ago, in some cases hundred two hundred three years ago.
Speaker 1: And as you know the President that many people calling
Speaker 1: for reparations point to, which is to say, the payments
Speaker 1: by the federal government to the Asians who in the
Speaker 1: camps during the Second World War that was made while
Speaker 1: those people were still alive. The payments did not extend
Speaker 1: to the children of those people. So you could argue
Speaker 1: by that standard that the statute of limitations is finished
Speaker 1: in the United States. In fact, you could argue that
Speaker 1: American blacks are the richest, most long lived blacks, not
Speaker 1: only in the world but in the history of the more,
Speaker 1: you could also make the argument that Zor O'Neil hursted
Speaker 1: me the black foot. She said, slavery is the price
Speaker 1: I paid for civilization. In other words, she was in
Speaker 1: effect grateful for the fact that her ancestors brought to
Speaker 1: the United States, and she grew up in the United
Speaker 1: States rather than in Africa compared to Africa. For example,
Speaker 1: life expectancy of American blacks, although it's shorter than that
Speaker 1: of American plates, is ten years higher than the average
Speaker 1: life expectancy in Africa. And so if you want to
Speaker 1: look at it on strictly a cost benefit basis, the
Speaker 1: descendants of slaves living in the United States today are,
Speaker 1: on a material basis, is vastly better off than if
Speaker 1: their ancestors had stayed in Africa. And the idea that
Speaker 1: blacks are somehow, hundreds of years later mentally shackled by
Speaker 1: the fact that they came as enslaved people makes no
Speaker 1: sense at all. The blacks living here today were born here,
Speaker 1: their ancestors were born here, and somehow there's some sort
Speaker 1: of hereditary mental paralysis that comes in the fact that
Speaker 1: her ancestors were enslaved. That makes no sense at all.
Speaker 1: It is completely unfair for them to expect the United
Speaker 1: States government to make payments to them, and that's the
Speaker 1: form that almost all proposals for compensation or reparations take.
Speaker 1: The federal government never owned a single slave slavery was
Speaker 1: a private practice. If private individuals the United States think
Speaker 1: that black people will own some sort of compensation, then
Speaker 1: by all means reach into their own pockets and make
Speaker 1: those payments. But somehow to punish all tax payers or
Speaker 1: something for which they had absolutely no responsibility to me
Speaker 1: is completely wrong. I think that if you turned around
Speaker 1: and you said, Okay, white people, your taxes are going
Speaker 1: to go up because we're going to tax you more
Speaker 1: because we're going to give money to blacks, do you
Speaker 1: think that would improve lace relations from the United States.
Speaker 1: On the one hand, you will never get an answer
Speaker 1: from black people saying yes, okay, finally we've been made whole.
Speaker 1: The black reaction will invariably be the isn't unlough? And
Speaker 1: what do you think the white reaction is going to be?
Speaker 1: Poor whites in particular, and you're actually gonna be paid
Speaker 1: to the children of Block and Michelle Obama because they're
Speaker 1: descended from slaves. How do you think white people or
Speaker 1: other people, Hispanics, Asians, anybody else who feel absolutely no
Speaker 1: personal involved in slavery, no sense of responsibility for it,
Speaker 1: is that going to help raise relations in the United States?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. It will only make them worse. You can
Speaker 1: go back to believe It's nineteen sixty five. Lyndon Johnson
Speaker 1: gave the commencement address at Howard University and he says, look,
Speaker 1: what we need is equality of results. We can't just
Speaker 1: have the quality of opportunity. And since then there have
Speaker 1: been compensatory programs in the form of racial conferences for blacks.
Speaker 1: Is it somehow the legacy of slavery that keeps blacks proof? No,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can make that argument. Georgia the
Speaker 1: state out living. In the first seven years George existed,
Speaker 1: slavery didn't exist. But after origins, South South Carolinians and
Speaker 1: other Southern colonies like making money. They were like ship
Speaker 1: we get in this slavery game, get us some Niggers.
Speaker 1: Much of this was economic, so everybody wasn't racist, but
Speaker 1: economically it made sense to be. There is probably some impact.
Speaker 1: I think it would be difficult to argue that the
Speaker 1: effect has been zero. However, if you argue that the
Speaker 1: problem is some sort of structural light supremacy in the
Speaker 1: United States, it's difficult to argue why some of these
Speaker 1: other non white groups are doing so much better than lives.
Speaker 1: If the United States are somehow structurally set up to
Speaker 1: advantage plates over people who are non white. It's certainly
Speaker 1: not working very well. At some point, the descendant of
Speaker 1: someone that was brought here in sixteen nineteen deserves to
Speaker 1: steer this raggedy as chill through these trouble waters. That
Speaker 1: is an element of reparation that is long deserved. If
Speaker 1: you have to go back and find people who got
Speaker 1: the short end of the stick, you're welcome to do so.
Speaker 1: There's an infinite number of things, but this kind of
Speaker 1: thing is not going to sit well on people who
Speaker 1: have absolutely no part in that, and feel no obligation
Speaker 1: to make those people hold. Is it right that we
Speaker 1: got so many handicapps playing in US? Know it won right?
Speaker 1: Tiger wool has had to play as some substandard golfing
Speaker 1: places it one right. The two girls from Confident, we
Speaker 1: got dumb ass questions when they will learn to play tenants?
Speaker 1: But boy, once they called on, look at how we forbat.
Speaker 1: What are the penalties for being black the United States?
Speaker 1: It's impossible to calculate them. And yes, there are some
Speaker 1: cases in which a black person a black sounding resume
Speaker 1: does not get called back as often, But there are many,
Speaker 1: many cases that we know about in which a black
Speaker 1: person who is applying for job or which who was
Speaker 1: certainly applying to university gets preference over a white or
Speaker 1: particularly over an Asian. So black people, especially black people
Speaker 1: with distendants of thold that are brought four would explained,
Speaker 1: we need to see ourselves as the start of what's next,
Speaker 1: and need the end of what has happened. Boom, did
Speaker 1: you see that Killer Mike wore him out? This was
Speaker 1: a heavyweight in action. He was clear and concise, He
Speaker 1: brought the energy from the ancestors, and he was throwing hammers. Baby,
Speaker 1: he sure was, Erica. He was throwing hammers. And Jared
Speaker 1: Taylor's race realism was just a covert way of saying
Speaker 1: this country is for whites only. It certainly couldn't stand
Speaker 1: up to Killer Mike's attack, and Killer Mike showed him
Speaker 1: it's way too late for all that. Now. I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, Whitney, but that was a clear knockout
Speaker 1: for the case four reparations. Boom, I agree that was
Speaker 1: amazing Killer Mike threw down. But but wait a minute, Erica,
Speaker 1: we have a ruling from the judges. The judges are
Speaker 1: declaring it a tie, a tie. It seems like the
Speaker 1: fixes in what are you talking about? You heard it, Whitney,
Speaker 1: you heard you even said so Killer Mike was the
Speaker 1: clear winner, Yes, but they're calling it a tie. The
Speaker 1: case against reparations is the reigning champion and the contender
Speaker 1: doesn't take a belt and a tied score. You need
Speaker 1: to win by decision or buy a knockout or knockout.
Speaker 1: Why not? Are you kidding? I guess we're just not
Speaker 1: there yet. Next time on reparations, the big payback. When
Speaker 1: I was running for president, I did talk about reparations
Speaker 1: because if you look at American politics and there's something
Speaker 1: that you don't understand, it does not seem to make sense.
Speaker 1: The answers race. It's not being spoken about, but it's
Speaker 1: the colonel behind the apparent inconsistency, the apparent craziness. And
Speaker 1: so I look at the need for everyone in America,
Speaker 1: particularly white people. I mean, let's face it, this was
Speaker 1: a system of racism and discrimination that is conceived of
Speaker 1: and executed by white people that is continued for centuries,
Speaker 1: and for us to move on, it's absolutely essential so
Speaker 1: that we could have honest conversations about how to proceed
Speaker 1: in a just fashion. It's important to retell the story
Speaker 1: for everyone, specifically for white people who have benefited from
Speaker 1: this system and executed it. And it's not enough just
Speaker 1: to retell the story. Actions have to be taken. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about what it will take to repair the damage,
Speaker 1: to address the injustice. This podcast is produced by Eric Alexander,
Speaker 1: Bennar Noon and Whitney Dow. The executive producers are Charlemagne
Speaker 1: the God and Dolly s. Bishop. The Supervising Producer is
Speaker 1: Nicole Childers and the lead producer is Devin Madock Robins.
Speaker 1: The producer writer is Serice Castle and the Associate producer
Speaker 1: is Kevin Fan with additional research support provided by Nile Blast.
Speaker 1: This episode was written by Tony Purrier. Original music by
Speaker 1: d J D t P Reparations. The Big Payback is
Speaker 1: a production of color Farm Media, I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: The Black Effect Podcast Network in association with best Case Studios.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.