Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to woke F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl, Danielle Moody recording from the Long Island Bunker.
Speaker 1: You know, I often say to you that you need
Speaker 1: to take a break so that you do not have
Speaker 1: a breakdown. And with all of the compacted crises that
Speaker 1: we are dealing with at this time and making the
Speaker 1: march to midterms, there never seems like the right time
Speaker 1: to take a break. But I say that you have
Speaker 1: to make that time. And so for me, dear friends
Speaker 1: here on woke F, I am going to be taking
Speaker 1: a much needed vacation so that I can rest and
Speaker 1: recharge as we head into what I believe is going
Speaker 1: to be one of the craziest falls we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: I have left you with eight amazing episodes that we
Speaker 1: have recorded back in twenty twenty one with some of
Speaker 1: the most thoughtful, engaging and insightful commentary that looks at
Speaker 1: our politics, our spiritual nature, our emotional well being, and
Speaker 1: a look inside frankly with some of the guests that
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Speaker 1: really excited to bring all of you across all the
Speaker 1: platforms that you listen to woke F daily on these
Speaker 1: episodes and these interviews that I think will be enticing
Speaker 1: to all of you. They hit on all of the
Speaker 1: major topics that we consistently discuss here on woke F,
Speaker 1: from racism to gender inequality, to police misconduct to wealth inequality,
Speaker 1: which my God, and the need and the need and
Speaker 1: the need upmost for spiritual connection and wellness practices that
Speaker 1: allow us to successfully maneuver all of the things that
Speaker 1: have been thrown at us over the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: And so, friends, while I will be out from the show,
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Speaker 1: Moody Underscore. I hope that you all enjoy these next
Speaker 1: fantastic episodes that we have. Do drop your thoughts in
Speaker 1: the comment section, do hit me up in the socials.
Speaker 1: Just don't draw my attention to anything that is terrible
Speaker 1: because I'm taking a break from the news. But dear friends,
Speaker 1: I really do hope that you enjoy these next eight
Speaker 1: episodes and I will see you with brand new episodes
Speaker 1: after Labor Day. Hey there, I want to tell you
Speaker 1: about another podcast I think you'll love. The Brown Girl's
Speaker 1: Guide to Politics, hosted by a Shanty Goehler, the president
Speaker 1: of Emerge BGG, is the one stop shop for women
Speaker 1: of color who want to hear and talk about the
Speaker 1: world of politics. Join a Shanty this season as she
Speaker 1: talks to incredible women of color who are changing the
Speaker 1: face of politics and tackling some of the most important
Speaker 1: issues facing the United States, from reproductive justice to voting rights,
Speaker 1: to climate change and more. Tune in every Tuesday wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. It's no secret that the news
Speaker 1: is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's The Bituation Room
Speaker 1: podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Erantini. For
Speaker 1: a lighter take on the heavy stuff. Each week, the
Speaker 1: Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts, and activists to
Speaker 1: break down the issues in a way that won't just
Speaker 1: leave you crying under a weighted blanket. Get the Bituation
Speaker 1: Room on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on YouTube
Speaker 1: and Twitch friends. I am so excited to welcome to
Speaker 1: Wika affadaily for the first time. Jim Freeman, civil rights
Speaker 1: lawyer and head of the University of Denver's Social Movement
Speaker 1: Support Lab and the author of Rich Thanks to Racism,
Speaker 1: How the ultra wealthy got rich off of Racial justice.
Speaker 1: Let me see, Jim, one of the things that really
Speaker 1: concern me as this pandemic has gone on is that
Speaker 1: we have seen how much disparity there is in the
Speaker 1: United States, like we have always known, right UM. But
Speaker 1: when you see who is essential, who is not, who
Speaker 1: is actually profiting off of this pandemic, and who needs
Speaker 1: the twelve hundred dollars that uh that were that was
Speaker 1: put together in the COVID nineteen relief plan that was
Speaker 1: just passed by UM and signed by the Biden administration.
Speaker 1: What comes up for you when you think about the
Speaker 1: context of your book and how people have gotten rich
Speaker 1: off of racism, Like this is not just a oh
Speaker 1: like you say, this isn't just about educating people out
Speaker 1: of racism. This is a policy. Well, then there's there's
Speaker 1: a lot that comes up for me, as you might imagine. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly, you know the you know how the
Speaker 1: cashier at your local pharmacy is now recognized properly as
Speaker 1: an essential worker, but yet we've never felt it appropriate
Speaker 1: to pay that essential worker a living wage. Certainly that
Speaker 1: comes up for me. But you know, generally, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I think this is really an acceleration of
Speaker 1: a lot of the things I talk about in the
Speaker 1: book and and and what that really is is, you know,
Speaker 1: it's very exciting that there are a lot of people now,
Speaker 1: particularly after last summer, who started to recognize the urgency
Speaker 1: to end systemic racism. And it's very exciting that lots
Speaker 1: more people are joining this movement, joining these efforts. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the movement that's being built right now can
Speaker 1: can finally achieve that goal. But I wrote the book
Speaker 1: because there's very little understanding of what and who stands
Speaker 1: in the way of that. And it's a lot of
Speaker 1: these dynamics that you're talking about Right, because I wanted
Speaker 1: people to understand that the biggest reason why systemic racism
Speaker 1: persists is that these dynamics pre COVID and during COVID,
Speaker 1: which are so devastating for so many people of color
Speaker 1: and so many communities of color, are for a lot
Speaker 1: of large corporations and Wall Street banks enormously profitable. They
Speaker 1: are the biggest reason why we have these deeply unjust
Speaker 1: policies on the books, and they're also heavily invested in
Speaker 1: preserving and expanding racial inequities, which I refer to as
Speaker 1: as strategic racism. So the book is really intended to
Speaker 1: give people a roadmap of what it's going to take
Speaker 1: to truly dismantle systemic racism, because while it's very doable,
Speaker 1: there's still not enough people supporting racial justice efforts and
Speaker 1: far too many people opposing them. And as you say,
Speaker 1: a lot of those people are getting even more wealthy
Speaker 1: and more powerful as a results of this global pandemic.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're looking, you know. One of the things
Speaker 1: that come up for me is a recent headline Jeff
Speaker 1: Bezos right is now worth one hundred and forty three
Speaker 1: billion dollars, and in the headlines, right, are the workers
Speaker 1: that work in the Amazon factories, right, that have been
Speaker 1: working around the clock to ship us all our packages
Speaker 1: so that we could work from home, who don't have
Speaker 1: proper healthcare, who don't have the ability to sue their
Speaker 1: employer for unhealthy work environment. And yet he's the becoming
Speaker 1: the richest and richest and richest. I mean, he's going
Speaker 1: to probably reach at some point a trillion dollars in
Speaker 1: net worth, and yet the people that work for him
Speaker 1: can't afford to put food on the table. We see
Speaker 1: these stories and we kind of just shrug Jim about it,
Speaker 1: Like we get mad, and we're mad, and we're on
Speaker 1: social media for a day or two, and then we
Speaker 1: all go back to business as usual. How do you
Speaker 1: sustain you think the outrage and the attention where the
Speaker 1: tension needs to be due, which is that we have
Speaker 1: a very wrong sized capitalistic structure that is based on
Speaker 1: racism and injustice and ensuring that some people stay on
Speaker 1: the bottom while other people stay on the top. How
Speaker 1: do we sustain the attention and the outrage. Well, I
Speaker 1: think a big part of it, I mean, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1: I mean I think a big part of it is
Speaker 1: exposing the full circle of that injustice, right, because there
Speaker 1: are there are a lot of people who are starting
Speaker 1: to recognize the injustice of what of what you just said.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people who have for a
Speaker 1: long time, obviously, but more and more people are recognizing
Speaker 1: the injustice of what you just said. What I think
Speaker 1: people didn't have much understanding of is how not only
Speaker 1: are billionaires like that making a tremendous amount of money
Speaker 1: off of people who aren't being paid a living wage,
Speaker 1: who can pay for, you know, all the things that
Speaker 1: we should take as a given for you know, for
Speaker 1: meeting people's basic human needs. Not only are they doing that,
Speaker 1: they're then taking their money and reinvesting it in strategies
Speaker 1: to further oppress those people, right, and particularly communities of color.
Speaker 1: And most of the time that's done in secret. It's
Speaker 1: not done in public view. Like they're not passing all
Speaker 1: these criminal justice policies with their name on it, right,
Speaker 1: They're not passing all these immigration policies with their name
Speaker 1: on it. Right. They're doing this mostly in secret through
Speaker 1: organizations like ALEC American Legislative Exchange Council, And so they're
Speaker 1: making money off of us, or they're taking the money
Speaker 1: that we give to them for the products that we
Speaker 1: need to survive, and then they're using that to make
Speaker 1: our lives harder on the back end. So I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of strategies and tactics that we need
Speaker 1: to employ to to, like you say, sustain the outrage.
Speaker 1: What I hope that this book contribute was shedding some
Speaker 1: light on what that looks like and how that contributes
Speaker 1: to systemic racism in particular. You know, in your book
Speaker 1: Rich Thanks to Racism, you look at three particular areas
Speaker 1: of focus. You look at our education system, criminal justice,
Speaker 1: and immigration. Walk me through those three and why those
Speaker 1: three were chosen, as I mean, obviously they should be.
Speaker 1: I talk about this unwoke a of all the time
Speaker 1: as a former educator. I say that there is no
Speaker 1: better mechanism to support the consistency of white supremacy without
Speaker 1: the public education system, Without us telling kids who is important,
Speaker 1: who is not, who is worth studying, who is not,
Speaker 1: what is considered classic literature, what is not right. We
Speaker 1: are purposefully educating under the guys that racism will die
Speaker 1: out with generations. And if that were the case, it
Speaker 1: would have died out hundreds of years ago. So why
Speaker 1: did you look at these particular areas and what do
Speaker 1: they show us about how racism is exacerbated and how
Speaker 1: the ultra wealthier profiting off of it in these particular areas.
Speaker 1: I focused on those three areas in particular because you know,
Speaker 1: there may not be a more significant racial justice issue
Speaker 1: in the US right now than the massive overinvestment in
Speaker 1: the criminalization of people of color, alongside the dramatic underinvestment
Speaker 1: in the systems and strategies that would create healthier, safer,
Speaker 1: and more equitable communities nationwide. Right So, on those three issues,
Speaker 1: you know, we've dramatically expanded the criminal justice system, made
Speaker 1: it the catch all solution for an enormous variety of
Speaker 1: public health and safety issues, and particularly within black and
Speaker 1: brown communities. Then we took that same coach, that same
Speaker 1: destructive and ineffective tough on crime approach, and we exported
Speaker 1: it to the immigration enforcement system while implementing a variety
Speaker 1: of cruel and discriminatory policies targeted undocumented folks. And then meanwhile,
Speaker 1: like you say, we have never in the entire history
Speaker 1: of our country been willing to create a truly equitable
Speaker 1: education system. We've never been willing to put youth of
Speaker 1: color on equal footing with white youth. So the harm
Speaker 1: caused by each of those within communities of color is astronomical.
Speaker 1: But what they also share in common is that the
Speaker 1: ultra wealthy are heavily invested in maintaining and even exacerbating
Speaker 1: those inequities. So if you follow the money behind all
Speaker 1: the public policies that create those systems, what you soon
Speaker 1: find is that you wind up coming back to the
Speaker 1: network that the Koch brothers created of billionaires and multi
Speaker 1: millionaires who are investing in those systems. You find organizations
Speaker 1: like ALEC with large corporations and Wall Street banks that are,
Speaker 1: like I said, pushing these policies, usually secretively, and those
Speaker 1: two groups in particular have made huge investments in think
Speaker 1: tanks and advocacy organizations and media outlets that have been very,
Speaker 1: very successful in advancing that that agenda. But then what
Speaker 1: I also want to do is breakdown why, like what's
Speaker 1: the strategy behind it? And I obviously spill a lot
Speaker 1: of ink about this in the book, but the short
Speaker 1: answer is because it's all those things are economically advantageous
Speaker 1: for them, you know, they I refer to them as
Speaker 1: racism profiteers. They make money off of mass incarceration through
Speaker 1: the prison industrial complex and those dynamics, but a variety
Speaker 1: of others too that before writing book I wasn't even
Speaker 1: aware of. They also make money off immigrant attention. They
Speaker 1: make money off of school privatization. That's one layer. But
Speaker 1: another layer is they pay less in taxes when we
Speaker 1: as a society choose to dehumanize people rather than meeting
Speaker 1: their basic human needs, which is a big part of
Speaker 1: all those systems. And I would also say that systemic
Speaker 1: racism is extremely effective at controlling us, at dividing us,
Speaker 1: at causing us not to recognize our common interests. So
Speaker 1: all of those dynamics help them maintain their political and
Speaker 1: economic power. You know, it's so depressing because the reality
Speaker 1: is is that none of this is shocking or surprising.
Speaker 1: It is it's just a matter of connecting the dots,
Speaker 1: you know. A couple of um Like a year or
Speaker 1: so ago, we had the president and CEO of Color
Speaker 1: of Change on and Color of Change was very instrumental
Speaker 1: in unearthing although the things that ALEC had been doing
Speaker 1: right basically taking the black and brown communities money by
Speaker 1: day right, and then voting and then creating legislation that
Speaker 1: would upend our lives at night. That's that is their
Speaker 1: m O. And but when you bring these things to
Speaker 1: the forefront, I feel like the conversation that we continue
Speaker 1: to have is trying to shame the it's your shame
Speaker 1: Republicans into doing the right thing. We try to appeal
Speaker 1: to their moral character. Shouldn't we do more? Right? We
Speaker 1: are the eleventh wealthiest nation in the world, and yet
Speaker 1: our poverty levels in the and the issues that affect
Speaker 1: our country look similar to those that are in developing nations, right,
Speaker 1: and so we know then that it isn't about money
Speaker 1: or access to money. It is about a choice. And
Speaker 1: so given that fact that we know that you're making
Speaker 1: profit off of people's back, which is the whole premise
Speaker 1: of your book, how do we stop it? What is
Speaker 1: the What is if the incentive isn't, oh, we're going
Speaker 1: to give you tax breaks if you keep your businesses here,
Speaker 1: or we're going to try and you know, give you
Speaker 1: these breaks. Because Republicans still believe in some type of
Speaker 1: trickle down when there isn't a desire for there to
Speaker 1: be a trickle down. There never was, which is why
Speaker 1: after thirty years, we haven't seen a trickle down. So
Speaker 1: what do we do here? Because the naming and the
Speaker 1: and the shaming is important, right, recognizing you can't fix
Speaker 1: something unless you actually see the problem. But the reality
Speaker 1: is many people like yourself see the problem, articulate the problem,
Speaker 1: and yet still here we are. Yeah, you're right. I
Speaker 1: mean the I think trying to expose those issues, like
Speaker 1: you say, is it's part of you know, popular education,
Speaker 1: just letting folks know what's going on with with their
Speaker 1: money and with the politics that affect their lives, but
Speaker 1: ultimately solving it is, which is really, you know, the
Speaker 1: only purpose of writing book. I'm a civil rights lawyer.
Speaker 1: I'm interested, and I support social movements. My interest is
Speaker 1: in getting more people involved, and so what I really
Speaker 1: wanted to say was that, you know, if you actually
Speaker 1: break down that agenda and the power behind it. You know,
Speaker 1: for a long time, I thought as a civility, So
Speaker 1: I thought I was working against ignorance. That's what I thought.
Speaker 1: I thought if I educated enough people, then then people's
Speaker 1: best intentions would come out and we would solve all
Speaker 1: these issues. And turns out I was the one who
Speaker 1: was deeply ignorant early on in my career, and now
Speaker 1: you know, I've recognized that the only there's only one
Speaker 1: source of political power that is comparable to that of
Speaker 1: organized wealth, and that's the power of organized people. Right.
Speaker 1: I think ultimately it's going to require stronger multiracial mass
Speaker 1: movements to dismantle systemic racism and create a society that's
Speaker 1: far more attentive to the well being of all its people.
Speaker 1: Because the solutions to the issues, the policy issues that
Speaker 1: I talk about in the book, they're not complicated. They
Speaker 1: you know, folks of color in the communities most directly
Speaker 1: impacted by these issues have been saying the stuff for
Speaker 1: a very long time. The problem is is not the
Speaker 1: ideas or you know, the folks were supporting. The problem
Speaker 1: isn't the opposition. So we need to build strong enough
Speaker 1: movements to implement those those solutions. And like you say, also,
Speaker 1: we have to be able to get to the point
Speaker 1: where we can make a collective demand the ultrawealthy as
Speaker 1: a group that they stop advancing strategic racism and not
Speaker 1: only do that, but support the effort to dismantle the
Speaker 1: systems that perpetuate racial inequity and that lead to profits
Speaker 1: for them, and they either do that or we find
Speaker 1: other solutions that limit their powers so that the rest
Speaker 1: of us can do it. But you know, my other
Speaker 1: question is where is the incentive to limit their power
Speaker 1: when in fact they're the ones that are funding the
Speaker 1: packs right of the members of the members of Congress
Speaker 1: who vote against their constituent's best interests as a way
Speaker 1: to fill their coffers. And so it's there there is
Speaker 1: the understanding that we need this collective movement, and we
Speaker 1: know that we've been working on that. We've been telling
Speaker 1: people you need to vote, you need to vote in masks,
Speaker 1: they show up, they do it. Historic numbers. Now we
Speaker 1: see a historic number of voter suppression pieces of legislation
Speaker 1: that are being offered up in over forty states across
Speaker 1: this country. And so while we see the power is
Speaker 1: actually in the people, right, but we see that the
Speaker 1: people and their ability to utilize that power is being
Speaker 1: dead ended by a political party. And so it's you
Speaker 1: have this information, you know what will stop it. I
Speaker 1: guess my feeling is that we're headed towards a powder
Speaker 1: keg moment in America right like, where there are so
Speaker 1: many ills and so many problems and we're pointing at
Speaker 1: the ultra rich, and we're saying you're a root of
Speaker 1: a lot of these problems. Money is a root of
Speaker 1: a lot of these problems. How do we how do
Speaker 1: we move forward if the masses are being silenced? Right,
Speaker 1: if communities of color continue to be surveiled in a
Speaker 1: way that doesn't allow us to exercise our vote and
Speaker 1: our power to stop to stop this, because just to
Speaker 1: say that you need to do better, Bezos, you need
Speaker 1: to do better Murdock, and this, that and the other,
Speaker 1: they're not going to Yeah, you're right, I mean they
Speaker 1: have um. Currently they have no incentive to stop what
Speaker 1: they're doing. Um. They don't UM. And we haven't created
Speaker 1: that incentive for them. And so you know, I so
Speaker 1: it's not enough, um, just to educate ourselves and and
Speaker 1: vote better. Yeah. And you know one thing I argue
Speaker 1: for in the book is um um more of what
Speaker 1: we might call participatory democracy. Right. If if our version
Speaker 1: of democracy is just you know, voting every two years,
Speaker 1: every four years and then tuning out and and appealing
Speaker 1: to the benevolent paternalism of those who are in office,
Speaker 1: then we are going to be sorely disappointed by what
Speaker 1: comes out of it. So what I what I suggest
Speaker 1: is is folks finding other ways to get involved in
Speaker 1: a more consistent basis far more often. And you know that.
Speaker 1: And really what I'm arguing for in the book is
Speaker 1: people powered organizations, you know, building strong mass organizations. In
Speaker 1: this work, it's the difference between winning and losing, right,
Speaker 1: between having a powerful organized force pushing for change and
Speaker 1: merely having a large number of isolated voices in the wilderness. Right,
Speaker 1: there can be a million protesters out in the streets
Speaker 1: yelling about various injustices. But if those million folks are
Speaker 1: a million atomized individuals, then whatever impact is created by
Speaker 1: their actions will quickly dissipate. We'll be back to business
Speaker 1: as usual before long. But if those million protesters are
Speaker 1: members of organizations that can start to build off of
Speaker 1: the momentum created by that protest and channel it into
Speaker 1: positive social change, then we can start to collectively shift
Speaker 1: a needle. So I give I only offer two action
Speaker 1: steps in the book. UM. One is supporting UM grassroots
Speaker 1: racial justice organizations that are that already exist. UM. There's
Speaker 1: hundreds of them out there in every state. UM. They're
Speaker 1: usually severely underresourced relative to their opposition in the fights
Speaker 1: UM that they're taking on and have been taking on
Speaker 1: for a very long time. UM. So they need financial
Speaker 1: donations and they need you know, every other kind of
Speaker 1: support UM that folks can offer as well. And the
Speaker 1: other thing I say is that we should be creating
Speaker 1: what I call community equity assemblies in every community in
Speaker 1: the US. Which so what does that look like, Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's UM. Initially it can be very informal,
Speaker 1: you know, just groups of people coming together to talk
Speaker 1: about equity issues and their issues, talk about systemic racism
Speaker 1: and other um, you know, other UM equity issues and
Speaker 1: and just to learn about it and and start to
Speaker 1: think about how you can address it locally. It could
Speaker 1: be just a few people, doesn't have to be a
Speaker 1: formal body, but UM. And by the way, you know,
Speaker 1: little groups like that create enormous change around the country
Speaker 1: every day. I'm fortunate enough to you know, to work
Speaker 1: with a lot of them. But over time, you start
Speaker 1: building in more people, bringing in more people rather UM
Speaker 1: and UM, and start getting more involved in local political
Speaker 1: processes or state political processes. All of a sudden, UM,
Speaker 1: we can start shifting things very very quickly. We can
Speaker 1: we can have um folks um getting a much bigger
Speaker 1: seat at the table when it comes to budget decisions,
Speaker 1: when it comes to policy decisions, And it really doesn't
Speaker 1: take um that many people or that much time for
Speaker 1: um UM for all of a sudden things to change
Speaker 1: pretty dramatically once we start shining a light on equity
Speaker 1: issues and we have people who are educating themselves about
Speaker 1: these issues in a in a national level and an
Speaker 1: international level, but also in very very local level who
Speaker 1: are building together and taking ownership over those things. And
Speaker 1: that is that can be transformative. And it's also, by
Speaker 1: the way, what the ultra wealthy probably fear the most.
Speaker 1: Well last question for you is this just going back
Speaker 1: to the pandemic and what it has illuminated, especially for
Speaker 1: folks who are not steeped in this work in the
Speaker 1: way that you are, is that we have been relying
Speaker 1: on the benevolence of billionaires and millionaires essentially to do
Speaker 1: the work that our government has not. When it's done well,
Speaker 1: we're looking at the Bill Gates is of the world
Speaker 1: and the Warren buffets and who is trying to reinvest
Speaker 1: into community right or spend down their wealth When we
Speaker 1: look at it in the bad way. Right, We're looking
Speaker 1: at the Murdocks and the Koch brothers right well one
Speaker 1: of them now, who have been using their money and
Speaker 1: their power and their influence for bad How do we
Speaker 1: move from this space where they wield so much power
Speaker 1: to be able to decide do I want to be
Speaker 1: charitable today or do I want to be greedy tomorrow? Right? Like,
Speaker 1: we know, my question really is about how if you
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to work inside of our government. Now
Speaker 1: we have a new administration, we have one that actually
Speaker 1: believes in equity. What are some of the steps that
Speaker 1: they can take at this moment where we are moving
Speaker 1: away from the philanthropic community to save us and we're
Speaker 1: looking back at our government institutions and agencies that were
Speaker 1: created to do just that. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I do think we have to be careful about even
Speaker 1: giving them too much credit for the so called good
Speaker 1: things that they do, because you know, as you say
Speaker 1: in the book, I write a devote a chapter to
Speaker 1: education and specifically the school privatization movement and the you know,
Speaker 1: while somebody like Bill Gates has gotten a lot of
Speaker 1: positive press over the years for his investments in charter schools,
Speaker 1: what hasn't really been exposed is that the Koch brothers
Speaker 1: and their network were investing heavily in a lot of
Speaker 1: the same organizations as Bill Gates. And and I you
Speaker 1: know what I what I say in the book is
Speaker 1: that I don't think Bill Gates's intentions were bad, but
Speaker 1: I do think that what he has done has been very,
Speaker 1: very destructive in ways that hasn't gotten enough to attention.
Speaker 1: And it's also contributed to somebody like Charles Cooke advancing
Speaker 1: a radical school voucher agenda that has taken hold in
Speaker 1: lots in lots of places around the country. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's a major voucher bills right now in Florida. And
Speaker 1: so I think we have to be I think we
Speaker 1: have to be very careful about the enormous influence of
Speaker 1: extreme wealth in all aspects, regardless of whether we think
Speaker 1: it's you know, positive in one case or negative in another.
Speaker 1: But I would what I would say is that is
Speaker 1: that we need to in all aspects of these issues
Speaker 1: that I talk about, we need to get back to
Speaker 1: aligning our systems with the values and needs of the
Speaker 1: people who are directly impacted. So you may think somebody
Speaker 1: may you know, one of your listeners may think it's
Speaker 1: a great idea to put a bunch of money into
Speaker 1: charter schools. Fine, but if that money is not being
Speaker 1: put in their neighborhood but in somebody else's neighborhood in
Speaker 1: a way that is not responsive to that community's history,
Speaker 1: that communities needs, that community's perspectives, then I would say
Speaker 1: that that's, you know, unequivocally wrong. And since it's almost
Speaker 1: always black and brown communities that that's happening to, I
Speaker 1: would also say that that's racist. So if we are,
Speaker 1: if we're going to fix these problems, then we need
Speaker 1: to start structuring our systems so that you know, we're
Speaker 1: not making decisions about how black communities should be policed, right,
Speaker 1: Those communities should be able should have the right to
Speaker 1: self determination around those decisions. We're not making decisions about
Speaker 1: how we're going to close down public schools and open
Speaker 1: up a bunch of schools in black and brown communities.
Speaker 1: We're going to involve those folks in the decision. Right,
Speaker 1: how do we address the education debt that we owe
Speaker 1: to you through generations of neglect and under investment, Right, So, um,
Speaker 1: I think that's the biggest step that this administration and
Speaker 1: state governments and local governments around the country could make
Speaker 1: is Now, we're going to start partnering with you, We're
Speaker 1: going to start listening to you, and we're going to
Speaker 1: start utilizing our public investments in ways that are addressing
Speaker 1: equity issues head on. It's not sort of an ancillary
Speaker 1: benefit of some universalized investment strategy. Now our priority is
Speaker 1: going to be repairing the harm and creating an equitable society.
Speaker 1: We've never done that at any level of government now everywhere,
Speaker 1: and so that's where I think that's where I think
Speaker 1: we have to move to. Yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 1: that we have to move to having the will as well.
Speaker 1: I think that the great thing about your about your
Speaker 1: book is that it shows us very clearly in these
Speaker 1: three issue areas that we have been working in, and
Speaker 1: we have seen the problems become bigger and bigger and
Speaker 1: bigger with our criminal justice system, with our education system,
Speaker 1: and we're saying to ourselves, you know, we're in the
Speaker 1: midst of this pandemic, and millions of kids didn't even
Speaker 1: have access to broadband, don't have computers at home. But
Speaker 1: we knew this a decade ago, right, And so when
Speaker 1: we think about the things that are a necessity in
Speaker 1: this country for living out your American dream, whatever that is.
Speaker 1: It's like the basics are not being met, and you know,
Speaker 1: we have to look at who is actually to blame
Speaker 1: for that, rather than becoming these crabs in a barrel
Speaker 1: that are fighting amongst ourselves for scraps when there are
Speaker 1: people that are literally eating high off the hog, literally
Speaker 1: working and living off of our backs. I thank you
Speaker 1: so much for one taking the time to join willk F.
Speaker 1: But for this book, friends, the book is titled rich
Speaker 1: thanks to Racism. How the ultra wealthy profit from racial injustice. Jim,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming, and I hope that
Speaker 1: you'll join us again because this is a heavy weighty
Speaker 1: issue that I don't think that we pay enough attention to.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Danielle. I was great being with
Speaker 1: you as always, dear friends. Power to the people and
Speaker 1: to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke
Speaker 1: as fuck. See after Labor Day.