Speaker 1: Welcome to woke F with me Danielle Moody. This week
Speaker 1: has been extremely rough as we watch events unfolding out
Speaker 1: of Minnesota and now Indianapolis amidst what has been a
Speaker 1: bloody return to normalcy. It turns out that normal in
Speaker 1: America means mass shootings, racist hate crimes, and extradicial killings
Speaker 1: of young black people by killer white cops. This does
Speaker 1: not happen by accident or coincidence. This is how our
Speaker 1: country was designed. This week on woke F Daily, I
Speaker 1: was joined by Jim Freeman, author of Rich Thanks to Racism,
Speaker 1: a new book in which he talks about America's uber
Speaker 1: wealthy and how they have profited off of our racist
Speaker 1: institutions and continue to do so on a historic scale
Speaker 1: during a global health pandemic infused with renewed uprisings for
Speaker 1: racial justice. We talked for half an hour about how
Speaker 1: for profit racism persists in the education, criminal justice, and
Speaker 1: immigration systems. If you want to hear the full in
Speaker 1: depth conversation, head over to Patreon dot com slash woke AF.
Speaker 1: In his book, Jim talks about the concept of strategic racism,
Speaker 1: the idea that racial inequities are baked into our systems
Speaker 1: by design in order to make the wealthy even wealthier.
Speaker 1: I asked Jim to talk about how the fight for
Speaker 1: racial justice isn't just about educating people, but directly challenging
Speaker 1: our institutions that uphold and profit from racism. It's very
Speaker 1: exciting that there are a lot of people now, particularly
Speaker 1: after last summer, who started to recognize the urgency to
Speaker 1: end systemic racism. And it's very exciting that lots more
Speaker 1: 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: finally achieve that goal. But I wrote the book because
Speaker 1: there's very little understanding of what and who stands in
Speaker 1: the way of that, and it's a lot of these
Speaker 1: dynamics that you're talking about, right because I wanted people
Speaker 1: to understand that the biggest reason why systemic racism persists
Speaker 1: is that these dynamics pre COVID and during COVID, which
Speaker 1: are so devastating for so many people of color and
Speaker 1: so many communities of color, are for a lot of
Speaker 1: large corporations and Wall Street banks enormously profitable. They are
Speaker 1: the biggest reason why we have these deeply unjust policies
Speaker 1: on the books, and they're also heavily invested in preserving
Speaker 1: and expanding racial inequities, which I refer to as strategic racism.
Speaker 1: So the book is really intended to give people a
Speaker 1: roadmap of what it's going to take to truly dismantle
Speaker 1: systemic racism, because while it's very doable, there's still not
Speaker 1: enough people supporting racial justice efforts and far too many
Speaker 1: people opposing them. And as you say, a lot of
Speaker 1: those people are getting even more wealthy and more powerful
Speaker 1: as a results of this global pandemic. I mean, we're looking.
Speaker 1: One of the things that come up for me is
Speaker 1: a recent headline Jeff Bezos, right, is now worth one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty three billion dollars. And in the headlines, right,
Speaker 1: are the workers that work in the Amazon factories, right,
Speaker 1: that have been working around the clock to ship us
Speaker 1: all our packages so that we could work from home,
Speaker 1: who don't have proper healthcare, who don't have the ability
Speaker 1: to sue their employer for unhealthy work environment. And yet
Speaker 1: he's becoming the richest and richest and richest. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's going to probably reach at some point a trillion
Speaker 1: dollars in net worth, and yet the people that work
Speaker 1: for him can't afford to put food on the table.
Speaker 1: We see these stories and we kind of just shrug
Speaker 1: Jim about it, like we get mad, and we're mad,
Speaker 1: and we're on social media for a day or two,
Speaker 1: and then we all go back to business as usual.
Speaker 1: How do you sustain you think the outrage and the
Speaker 1: attention where the attention needs to be due, which is
Speaker 1: that we have a very wrong sized capitalistic structure that
Speaker 1: is based on racism and injustice and ensuring that some
Speaker 1: people stay on the bottom while other people stay on
Speaker 1: the top. How do we sustain the attention and the outrage. Well,
Speaker 1: I think a big part of it, I mean, you're
Speaker 1: absolutely right. I mean I think a big part of
Speaker 1: it is exposing the full circle of that injustice, right,
Speaker 1: because 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't pay for, you know, all the things that
Speaker 1: we take as given for meeting people's basic human needs.
Speaker 1: Not only are they doing that, they're then taking their
Speaker 1: money and reinvesting it in strategies to further oppress those people, right,
Speaker 1: and particularly communities of color. And most of the time
Speaker 1: that's done in secret. It's not done in public view.
Speaker 1: Like they're not passing all these criminal justice policies with
Speaker 1: their name on it, right, They're not passing all these
Speaker 1: immigration policies with their name on it. Right. They're doing
Speaker 1: this mostly in secret through organizations like ALEC, the American
Speaker 1: Legislative Exchange Counsel, And so they're making money off of us,
Speaker 1: or they're taking the money that we give to them
Speaker 1: for the products that we need to survive, and then
Speaker 1: they're using that to make our lives harder on the
Speaker 1: back end. So I think there's a lot of strategies
Speaker 1: and tactics that we need to employ to, like you say,
Speaker 1: sustain the outrage. What I hope that this book contribute
Speaker 1: was shedding some light on what that looks like and
Speaker 1: how that contributes to systemic racism. In particular, you know
Speaker 1: in your book, Rich thanks to you look at three
Speaker 1: particular areas of focus. You look at our education system,
Speaker 1: criminal justice, and immigration. Walk me through those three and
Speaker 1: why those three were chosen, as I mean, obviously they
Speaker 1: should be. I talk about this unwoke a of all
Speaker 1: the time as a former educator. I say that there
Speaker 1: is no better mechanism to support the consistency of white
Speaker 1: supremacy without the public education system, without us telling kids
Speaker 1: who is important, who is not, who is worth studying,
Speaker 1: who is not, what is considered classic literature, what is
Speaker 1: not right. We are purposefully educating under the guise that
Speaker 1: racism will die out with generations. And if that were
Speaker 1: the case, it would have died out hundreds of years ago.
Speaker 1: So why did you look at these particular areas and
Speaker 1: what do they show us about how racism is exacerbated
Speaker 1: and how the ultra wealthier profiting off of it in
Speaker 1: these particular areas. I focused on those three areas in
Speaker 1: particular because you know, there may not be a more
Speaker 1: significant racial justice issue in the US right now than
Speaker 1: the massive overinvestment in the criminalization of people of color,
Speaker 1: alongside the dramatic underinvestment in the systems and strategies that
Speaker 1: would create healthier, safer, and more equitable communities nationwide. Right, So,
Speaker 1: on those three issues, you know, we've dramatically expanded the
Speaker 1: criminal justice system, made it the catch all solution for
Speaker 1: an enormous variety of public health and safety issues, and
Speaker 1: particularly within black and brown communities. Then we took that
Speaker 1: same approach, that same destructive and ineffective tough on crime approach,
Speaker 1: and we exported it to the immigration enforcement system while
Speaker 1: implementing a variety of cruel and discriminatory policies targeted undocumented folks.
Speaker 1: And they, meanwhile, like you say, We've never in the
Speaker 1: entire history of our country been willing to create a
Speaker 1: truly equitable education system. We've never been willing to put
Speaker 1: youth of color on equal footing with white youth. So
Speaker 1: the harm caused by each of those within communities of
Speaker 1: color is astronomical. But what they also share in common
Speaker 1: is that the ultra wealthy are heavily invested in maintaining
Speaker 1: and even exacerbating those inequities. So if you follow the
Speaker 1: money behind all the public policies that create those systems,
Speaker 1: what you soon find is that you wind up coming
Speaker 1: back to the network that the Koch Brothers created of
Speaker 1: billionaires and multimillionaires who are investing in those systems. You
Speaker 1: find organizations like ALEC with large corporations and Wall Street
Speaker 1: banks that are, like I said, pushing these policies, usually secretively,
Speaker 1: and those two groups in particular have made huge investments
Speaker 1: in think tanks and advocacy organizations and media outlets that
Speaker 1: have been very, very successful in advancing that agenda. But
Speaker 1: then what I also want to do is break down why,
Speaker 1: like what's the strategy behind it? And I obviously spill
Speaker 1: a lot of ink about this in the book, but
Speaker 1: the short answer is because it's all those things are
Speaker 1: economically advantageous for them. I refer to them as racism profiteers.
Speaker 1: They make money off of mass incarceration through the prison
Speaker 1: industrial complex and those dynamics, but a variety of others
Speaker 1: too that before writing book I wasn't even aware of.
Speaker 1: They also make money off immigrant attention. They make money
Speaker 1: off of school privatization. That's one layer, But another layer
Speaker 1: is they pay less in taxes when we as a
Speaker 1: society choose to dehumanize people rather than meeting their basic
Speaker 1: human needs, which is a big part of all those systems,
Speaker 1: and I would also say that systemic racism is extremely
Speaker 1: effective at controlling us, at dividing us, at causing us
Speaker 1: not to recognize our common interests. So all of those
Speaker 1: dynamics help them maintain their political and economic power in
Speaker 1: troubled times like these, it is important to know how
Speaker 1: to relax, unwind, and take a breath. Easy to say
Speaker 1: those things, but much harder to put them into practice
Speaker 1: in our lives. So I went to the best expert
Speaker 1: I know. My mother, Shirley Newton, is the owner of
Speaker 1: Essence of Yoga studio in New York, and after years
Speaker 1: of being on the air, she finally agreed to join
Speaker 1: me to share her wisdom with the woke AF family.
Speaker 1: Even ten minutes of my mother's many nuggets should be
Speaker 1: enough to inspire and enlighten you. But as always, if
Speaker 1: you want to hear every minute of our extensive chat,
Speaker 1: and I highly recommend that you do, please check out
Speaker 1: our Feel Good Friday Conversation on woke af Daily's Patreon.
Speaker 1: Five dollars get you five new shows a week and
Speaker 1: access to hundreds of existing shows, including this one at
Speaker 1: patreon dot com slash woke af For now, here's my
Speaker 1: mother Shirley Newton getting started by talking about how we
Speaker 1: need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I think that
Speaker 1: a lot of people and you tell me if this
Speaker 1: is true with the students that you've seen throughout the years,
Speaker 1: which is that people are afraid think of their authentic
Speaker 1: selves and people are afraid of quiet. I know that
Speaker 1: I was before the pandemic. You used to tell me
Speaker 1: that I was on a hamster wheel all the time
Speaker 1: and that I needed I needed to stop doing such
Speaker 1: aggressive cardio and really needed to breathe and sit. Why
Speaker 1: do you think that people are afraid of the quiet?
Speaker 1: And what do you say to people who are afraid
Speaker 1: of the quiet? So what do we do when we're afraid?
Speaker 1: We try to run away and physically run away, emotionally runaway,
Speaker 1: spiritually run away because we don't want to face what
Speaker 1: the quiet is going to bring to us. So, when
Speaker 1: you're in a yoga class or one of the most
Speaker 1: challenging poses I find for students is say Shavasna, which
Speaker 1: is the rest pose. When you have to lay there
Speaker 1: for five or ten minutes in stillness. It becomes really
Speaker 1: uncomfortable for some students because when you sit there there's
Speaker 1: no place for you to go. You have to be still.
Speaker 1: And when the stillness comes, then like everything reveals itself
Speaker 1: to you. Maybe you are dealing with something and you
Speaker 1: really do not want to face it, but when you're
Speaker 1: still with yourself on your yoga mat, it reveals itself
Speaker 1: to h to you. There's no place for you to run,
Speaker 1: so you have to face it. So it's important, and
Speaker 1: I say to my students, it's important when you're in
Speaker 1: a pose and you're starting to feel a little bit
Speaker 1: of discomfort, as long as you're not feeling pain, but
Speaker 1: it's discomfort. And what I qual it, I put little
Speaker 1: words on it. I qual it heighten awareness. When your
Speaker 1: awareness of the sensations in your body is heightened, sit
Speaker 1: in it. Feel it because you're going to learn this
Speaker 1: technique on your yoga mat that you don't get out
Speaker 1: of her pose just because I'm feeling some burning sensation here,
Speaker 1: not pain. If you're feeling pain, get out of it,
Speaker 1: that's important. But when you're feeling that discomfort, sit in
Speaker 1: it because this is where you're going to learn the
Speaker 1: tools on your yoga mat to take in your daily life.
Speaker 1: So when you're feeling uncomfortable in an uncomfortable situation with
Speaker 1: a cowork or the family member, set face set because
Speaker 1: it communicate. It's really important because it's hard. Yeah, hard
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it just means which hard do you want
Speaker 1: to deal with? Ignoring your feelings is hard too, because
Speaker 1: it's going to manifest someplace else. Yes, So ask yourself,
Speaker 1: which of the heart do I want to deal with?
Speaker 1: Do I want to deal with the hard communication and
Speaker 1: the hard sensations that I'm feeling right now in my
Speaker 1: muscles so that I can build strength and release physical toxicity.
Speaker 1: Do I want to deal with that hard? Or do
Speaker 1: I just want to run away and be a hamster
Speaker 1: on on that wheel with no tools to help me.
Speaker 1: How do you deal and stress? We all know how
Speaker 1: stress reads havoc on your immune system, and that's what
Speaker 1: we're all trying to do to reduce the stress hormones.
Speaker 1: So sleep is another key important part of our wellbeing
Speaker 1: and our wellness. So sleep, movement, movement, and I think
Speaker 1: it is so underestimated about movement, physical movement, mental movement,
Speaker 1: spiritual movement really important because if we don't move our
Speaker 1: physical body, all the systems eventually starts breaking down. So
Speaker 1: you're either going to pay attention take care of your
Speaker 1: wellness so that if you don't, you know, you will
Speaker 1: be forced to take care of your illnets or your illness.
Speaker 1: So take the time, make time to take care of
Speaker 1: your wellness so you're not forced to take care to
Speaker 1: make time for or illness. And there's a quote out
Speaker 1: there like that, it's really really important that we move
Speaker 1: and there is no perfection in yoga. There's no perfect
Speaker 1: pose because there's always another level, so we're all. I
Speaker 1: approach my practice and I share this with my students,
Speaker 1: always approach my practice as a beginner, so that you
Speaker 1: have this open space that you can just receive because
Speaker 1: there's so much for us to learn about ourselves, and
Speaker 1: we may get stuck and those energetic layers and you know,
Speaker 1: sit and examine and assess why am I stuck here?
Speaker 1: What lessons do I need to learn so that I
Speaker 1: can move on. One of the things mom is I
Speaker 1: think that for me, and I always offered this on
Speaker 1: the show. I've been sharing more so of my journey
Speaker 1: into wellness right into fullness over the past year, and
Speaker 1: I think that for a lot of ambitious people, you
Speaker 1: get sucked into what we refer to as grind culture
Speaker 1: right where you are just continually grinding. We talk about
Speaker 1: the hamster wheel, where you're continually moving. But when you're
Speaker 1: talking about movement, you're talking about purposeful, connected, mindful movement
Speaker 1: as opposed to just busying yourself with moving. So I
Speaker 1: just want you to talk about just a little bit
Speaker 1: of the difference between moving to be busy and mindful movement. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so moving to be busy, it's like trying to use
Speaker 1: that constant. My calendar is full. I don't have time
Speaker 1: for this. I don't have time to take care of myself.
Speaker 1: So everyone has to work, and you know, because you
Speaker 1: work to make the money so that you can take
Speaker 1: the yoga class or whatever. Right well, unless you're but
Speaker 1: there's a thing called balance, and you can't have a
Speaker 1: take a look at your calendar and if there's no
Speaker 1: empty spaces there, then something is missing. Our whole life
Speaker 1: is built around balance. So one of the things I
Speaker 1: was having a conversation with the students because we have
Speaker 1: a twenty one day challenge of yoga going on right now,
Speaker 1: and I say to them, ask yourself, if you're saying
Speaker 1: that I can't do this because I don't have time,
Speaker 1: I can't go to a yoga class. I can't take
Speaker 1: care of myself because I don't have time. If you
Speaker 1: approach it with that mindset, you're setting yourself up for failure.
Speaker 1: You have to approach your well being as I must
Speaker 1: make time for wellness, must make time to take care
Speaker 1: for myself, not if I have time, I will unroll
Speaker 1: my map and take a yoga class. It is something
Speaker 1: that you must approach that I will make time for,
Speaker 1: not because I'll do it because I have time. You
Speaker 1: have to create the time. And another important thing I
Speaker 1: say to my students also think about this for just
Speaker 1: ask yourself with the challenge that we're doing, close your
Speaker 1: eyes here for a moment. And I did this in
Speaker 1: class last night, and ask yourself. Have I worked for
Speaker 1: someone for twenty one days out of any given month
Speaker 1: in my whole life? Have I ever done that? And
Speaker 1: I said, just sit for a moment and just ponder
Speaker 1: on that. Have I worked for corporation? Have I worked
Speaker 1: for someone else for twenty one days in any given
Speaker 1: month out of my lifetime? And they all everyone had
Speaker 1: a smile, and I said, now ask yourself. Think if
Speaker 1: you're being your whole being here as a corporation. And
Speaker 1: you are the CEO of this corporation, and you want
Speaker 1: to have a sustainable corporation, right, a sustain a lifestyle
Speaker 1: to get through all the different stages of your life.
Speaker 1: So if you do, if your corporation is not sustainable,
Speaker 1: then what will your life be. So you go to work,
Speaker 1: to work for someone else corporation so their business is sustainable,
Speaker 1: but you must do that for yourself. You have yourself
Speaker 1: a priority. You are the CEO of this corporation. Your physical,
Speaker 1: your emotional, and your spiritual being is your corporation. You
Speaker 1: are the CEO, and you must allow this corporation to
Speaker 1: be sustainable, treat it well so it's sustainable through all
Speaker 1: the stages of your life, when your twenties, your thirties,
Speaker 1: your forties, your fifties, your sixthies, like cheese in So
Speaker 1: you know, I think that that's so important, and it's
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've learned most from you,
Speaker 1: so many different lessons obviously throughout like my entire life,
Speaker 1: but making yourself a priority. And I will tell people
Speaker 1: a story about the fact that I used to grow
Speaker 1: up eating dinner at eight or nine o'clock at night
Speaker 1: because and people were like, well come over for sleepovers
Speaker 1: and be like, why y'all eating dinner at nine o'clock
Speaker 1: at night? And it was because my mother was a
Speaker 1: teaching a spin class or our step class, or you know,
Speaker 1: she needed to go to the gym after her work day,
Speaker 1: and so that's what she did. And it was always recognizing.
Speaker 1: And I think that I'm going to ask you to
Speaker 1: say this especially for caregivers, for parents who either have
Speaker 1: children or they are carrying caretakers for their elderly parents.
Speaker 1: You know, you always made yourself a priority so that
Speaker 1: Nicole and I could grow up seeing ourselves as a priority.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are still stuck in martyrdom where
Speaker 1: they feel like they have to sacrifice themselves for their
Speaker 1: kids or for their parents. So can you speak to
Speaker 1: that about like the importance of making yourself a priority
Speaker 1: even when you have kids and elderly parents, both of
Speaker 1: which you have found yourself. You know in that you
Speaker 1: cared for you know, my grandparents, You cared for Nicole
Speaker 1: and I and like and other stranger friends and things
Speaker 1: like that. How did you manage that? So, Daniel, you
Speaker 1: know how mother has all these sayings, all of them
Speaker 1: that I share with my students and I share with
Speaker 1: my family. Remember this, you cannot pour from an empty
Speaker 1: cop Okay we say it on woke app and I
Speaker 1: credit you all the time. Another analogy that you can use.
Speaker 1: And I say this to my students that I keep
Speaker 1: saying that because this is what I do is to
Speaker 1: help people understand the importance of their well being. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that we should realize, like when
Speaker 1: you're caring for your family and you're getting you, you
Speaker 1: will have some inappropriate outbursts or you're just lashing out
Speaker 1: at the kids or your spouse or your partner or
Speaker 1: family member and they're looking at you. Where's this coming from?
Speaker 1: And I will tell you a little secret. That is
Speaker 1: coming from built up resentment. Because you have given so
Speaker 1: much of yourself and you have not taken anything back.
Speaker 1: So it is really important to refill your cup. I
Speaker 1: say to my students, think of this like every Friday morning,
Speaker 1: I do a restorative your class and I call it
Speaker 1: this is a class that you come back to to
Speaker 1: redeposit in the ATM machine. Because think of your being,
Speaker 1: like everyone is taking your taking withdrawing from your ATM machine,
Speaker 1: the physical being, the well being, your spiritual being, your
Speaker 1: emotional being. You give it to your job, to your
Speaker 1: family members, and your friends, and they keep depleting you
Speaker 1: all week of that energy. When do you take the
Speaker 1: time to make a redeposit in your bag? And that
Speaker 1: is what the resort of yoga class is all about
Speaker 1: on a Friday morning, is redepositing in your energy bang
Speaker 1: so that you can pour from that cup that's fall.
Speaker 1: You cannot pour from an empty cup. I've been repeating
Speaker 1: that saying from my mother to my woke A family
Speaker 1: a lot this week as we deal with so many tragic,
Speaker 1: unnecessary stories of violence and death unfolding. It's okay to
Speaker 1: not be okay, it's okay not to watch all the videos,
Speaker 1: read all the stories. You need to take time to
Speaker 1: fill your cup. So this weekend or whenever you have
Speaker 1: the time after you're listening to this, please take time
Speaker 1: to take proper care of yourself physically, mentally, spiritually. You
Speaker 1: need it and you deserve it. If you like today's conversations,
Speaker 1: I do hope to see you in the comments and
Speaker 1: DM's over at woke AF Daily's patreon at patreon dot
Speaker 1: com slash woke AF. Until the next time you hear
Speaker 1: my voice power to the people and to all the
Speaker 1: people power. Get woke and stay woke as fuck.