WEBVTT - Connecting Racism and Public Health 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.920 Greetings and welcome to woke f with me Danielle Moody. 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.680 Over a year ago, at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.400 there were many who were saying that COVID nineteen could 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.720 be a great equalizer in theory, it is an unknown 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.240 disease that could infect anyone, and our approach to confronting 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.640 this virus could transcend the inequities in our society. Now, however, 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.720 after that long troubled year, we can see that that 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.440 was not the case. COVID nineteen was actually further exposing 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.839 the deep inequality we are living through on a daily basis. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.040 This week on woke f Daily, I was proud to 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.000 be joined by several professionals who were able to connect 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.919 the dots between race and public health, not just our 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.200 medical health, but our overall well being as a society 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.280 and folks, we're not doing that. Great to hear these 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:01.200 full conversations. As always, check out woke Daily on Patreon 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.160 at patreon dot com, slash will gay app. For just 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.119 five dollars, you can hear hundreds of shows, with five 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.880 brand new podcasts going up every single week. For now, 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.040 let's jump into my conversation with the doctor Tarika Barrett, 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.800 CEO of Girls Who Code, an organization dedicated to closing 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.720 the wide gender gap in the tech industry. She's talking 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.440 about the coronavirus pandemic and how it has made the 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.319 gender and racial gap in tech more obvious than it 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:31.080 has ever been. COVID has really laid bare the inequities 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.080 that so many of our girls and our women, especially 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.039 our girls and women of color, are facing, both in 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.200 school and in the workplace. You know, as a lifelong 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.720 educator and equity advocate, and as someone who's helped lead 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:47.120 Girls who Code now for the past five years. As 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:50.960 challenging as this past year has been with the layers 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:54.600 of inequity, I also feel energized to build on this 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:59.240 incredible foundation that Rushma has laid to close this widening 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.080 gender gap in tech. You know, as you pointed out, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.840 a space that is typically you know, white, male dominated, 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.960 and we have worked so hard over close to nine 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.800 years now to build this incredible movement of girls and 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.920 women who now see a path forward in tech. And 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.240 as CEO stepping into this seat, it is my job 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.320 to harness that movement and really expand and extend the 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.240 pipeline so that more girls and women, especially girls and 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.799 women of color, have opportunity. And you know, it means 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.959 tangible things like tripling the number of after school clubs 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.440 that we launch over the next few years. It also 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.840 means launching workforce development programs and mentorship programs so that 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.160 our young women know that we're going to support them 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.960 as they move into the workforce. We know that as 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.600 bad as things are now, tech is still going to 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.440 be central to the job markets recovery, and we can't 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.239 have our girls and women, especially our girls and women 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:59.280 of color, being left out when these opportunities present. So 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.960 this moment is dire, it is urgent, and as I 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.040 step into this seat, I want to make sure that 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:07.680 are most marginalized girls, the ones who've dropped out of 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.360 remote learning opportunities, that we are paying attention to them 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.800 and supporting them, you know, in our work moving forward. 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:16.920 You know, let's talk about that for a minute, the 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:22.080 fact that young girls are dropping out of learning. You know, 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:28.279 UNICEF estimates that we're looking at roughly twenty million secondary 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:33.679 school age girls around the glow around twenty million dropping 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.960 out of school because of the pandemic. We hear reports 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.440 in the United States with at least two million women 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:46.960 dropping out of the workforce because of the pandemic. Why 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.000 do you think that this is affecting girls and women 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.720 more so than it is any other demographic And what 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.880 is Girls who Code doing in order to stemmy the 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:04.080 to stop it from happening, or at least bring attention 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.480 to the fact that it is happening. Yeah, Danielle, I'm 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.400 so grateful for that question. You know, if we think 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.720 about it, our girls and young women are the caregivers. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.280 They're the ones who are often turned to in families 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.560 to support, to take care of siblings, to take care 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.599 of parents. It's also connected to the culture shift that 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.600 Girls who Code has been so committed to changing. We 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:29.800 know that when you think about a computer program or 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.159 a coder, you don't think of a girl. They're often 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:37.000 not encouraged by parents, by peers, by teachers. Our education 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.599 system doesn't it's not set up to funnel them into 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.280 these opportunities. So in this moment, I find that our 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.719 girls and young women are the burden bearers. They're the 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.479 ones who are spoking in and doing all of this work. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.320 And we know what's happening to young women with children 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.960 they've had to step out of the workforce to support families. 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.240 AT Girls who Code, the way that we think about 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.680 this urgent issue is to me make sure that all 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.120 the programming that we design and that we've launched contemplates 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.960 the needs and challenges that our girls are facing. So, 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.960 for example, we would run typically a seven week summer 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.720 immersion program. We shifted that with COVID to a two 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.400 week program. We surveyed our girls. We checked on what 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.520 they needed. Were they taking care of loved ones, did 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.640 they have to do, you know, get earned money on 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.240 the side, Did they have a computer? Did they have 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.160 access to internet? We have to make sure that we 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.840 are asking our girls what they need, but that we 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.839 are also planting seeds of hope and remembering that as 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.159 much as we're talking about learning loss in one breath 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.240 and disengagement and marginalization, we know that our girls are 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.000 going to be the key to what gets transformed in 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.160 this world. You know, passionate, ambitious and diverse young women 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.640 are going to change our workforce. So we have to 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.440 continue to invest in them, and so AT Girls who Code, 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.840 our programming is very much designed to support them in 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.440 spite of the bird that they're facing in this moment 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:05.320 with COVID. You know, we oftentimes you don't deal with 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.680 things until we're in crisis, and the reality is, you know, 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.440 I was just speaking with New York City MARYL candidate 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:16.480 Maya Wiley, and in our conversation talking about New York 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.839 City Public Schools, who you and I both worked for 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.360 at one time, the largest school district in the country, 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.679 I said to her, you know, we knew years ago 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.880 that these communities didn't have broadband. We knew years ago 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.760 that they didn't have the access to technology, let alone 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.200 the devices that we're going to set them up for 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.240 where we are now with remote learning, But we did nothing. 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:45.040 You know, we continue to create pandemic on top of crises, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.480 on top of pandemic on top of crisis, as if 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.760 we're layering some type of lasagna, and the reality is 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.839 that we have the tools right and the awareness to 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.360 fix it. Why don't we tackle these things on the 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:01.000 front end. You think at such a question you had 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:06.360 me when you said a lasagna nothing to do with Danielle. 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.960 I mean, that is an important question, but I would 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:13.080 say that very often. You know, inequity is complex, and 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.679 you know, people deal with what's in front of them. 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.880 When you think about this digital divide that you've said 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.240 has been here forever. That is true. We've always known it, 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.720 but we decide to pay attention to other the gaps 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.600 in schools or other things. And now we're recognizing, like, oh, 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.040 we wonder why our black and brown kids were never 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.240 succeeding in school when they would go home and they 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.880 couldn't Google search up the answer to their homework, just 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.640 like these kids who had access to high speed internet. 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.640 So it's really laid bare the inequities in a really 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.280 stark way. I'm hopeful though that the steps that are 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.080 being taken now to level the playing field. I think 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.280 it's something like over a third of you know, black 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.840 and Latino students don't have access to computers, you know, 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.760 and high speed internet, and we know that twelve million 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:06.360 students don't have access to high speed internet overall. This 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.240 is the moment to not only sort of bridge that gap, 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.040 but go a step further. We have to take the 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.960 learnings that are positive in this moment around blended learning 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.240 and digital learning and the ways in which some kids 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.960 have been given some different kinds of engagement and opportunity, 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.840 and we have to build on that and do even more. 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.920 I wish I knew why folks didn't act on some 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.920 of these things. But let's be honest. Racism is real inequity, 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.280 and very often it becomes a hierarchy of needs, and 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.960 it's a messed up hierarchy. It shouldn't be you know this. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.280 Instead of that, I would say access to high speed 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.040 internet is a human right. You cannot succeed in society 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.520 without it, and so I'm hopeful that it's a complete 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:53.600 paradigm shift that we're looking at moving forward. It's true 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:56.720 that we've been facing multiple social pandemic so long before 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.640 we were hit by COVID nineteen. The lack of internet 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:03.120 and access has been an issue facing millions of people 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:06.120 of color across the country for years. We have no 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.840 choice but to address and remedy these issues, especially as 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.760 we expect more people to transition to a lifestyle of 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.760 working from home. Another pandemic we've been facing for decades 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.920 is the vulnerability of healthcare to all Americans. After a 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.000 year of living through an unprecedented public health crisis, we 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.440 are still fighting to make sure everyone can get the 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.959 care that they need. Doctor Abdul Lsayed wrote the book 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.920 on Medicare for All. Literally, it's entitled Medicare for All, 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.679 a Citizen's Guide. So he joined me to break down 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.319 the systemic forces that are blocking healthcare progress in this country. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:47.760 Let's talk about why polling shows most Americans are for 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:50.400 Medicare for all, and yet the people that we put 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:55.000 in control of our Congress are not. Where's the disconnect here? Well, 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:59.120 the industry spends a tremendous amount of money making sure 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.960 that that's the case. Last year alone, the health insurance 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.880 industry spent one hundred and fifty two million dollars lobbying 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.600 across eight hundred and forty five lobbyists. That's nearly two 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.400 lobbyists per member of Congress. To make sure that that 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.640 disconnect exists. They spent one hundred and twenty million dollars 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.440 in addition to one hundred and fifty two electioneering, so 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.559 giving money through their pack to politicians. And then that 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.520 doesn't include all of the money that they spend disinforming 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.880 the public on the airwaves, which has reframed this issue 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.000 rather than being about providing every single person a good, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.400 a tangible good, real insurance that doesn't come with the 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:39.280 same kind of out of pocket costs that doesn't leave 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.040 them when they turn twenty six, or get married or 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.640 get divorced, or get a job or lose a job. Rather, 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.480 they're framing this about the loss of quote unquote choice 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:48.600 or the fact that it's going to cost. You know, 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.120 they say more than more than we can afford, despite 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.280 the fact that we spend eighteen percent of all the 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.920 money in our economy on healthcare in the current system, 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:58.920 So you know, there's a lot of money being spent 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.120 to shape public opinion and in particular, to shape the 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.280 opinions of politicians. You know what's funny is that when 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:11.360 we talk about the fact that Republicans continued battle against 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.200 Medicare for all, is this idea that it is a 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.720 loss of choice, right, that Americans deserve freedom, and yet 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:22.760 millions of Americans are tied to jobs they hate and 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.839 don't want to be in because of the fact that 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.880 there is no other opportunity and no other actual choice 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.760 for them to have in order for them to get healthcare. 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:37.280 I know many people that are locked into jobs because 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.280 what is the alternative? And so I think that it's 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:44.400 really interesting to me that it's consistently the mantra of 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.840 the right to talk about choice and to talk about 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.840 freedom while robbing the American people of both. That's right, Daniel, 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:52.679 I'll tell you this. You know, when you think about 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:57.040 what a choice is, it is the ability to, regardless 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.640 of your circumstances, be able to select what you would 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.400 like to do, when you would like to do it, 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.640 how you'd like to do it. And you know, the 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:06.440 choice that they tell us that we should be so 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.040 excited to have is about the choice between different corporate 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:15.199 bureaucracies that charge some difference in an allocation of money 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:19.000 that always has them finishing up on top, right, based 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.000 on where you work and what your employer has told you, 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:25.320 your choice is. So, you know, we get our insurance 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.719 through my wife, who's a psychiatrist at the university here, 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:32.439 and she gets to choose quote unquote between a few 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.480 different corporations who charge a few different rates, some in 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:38.959 quote unquote premium, and premium is which you pay every 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.280 two weeks or every month, some in quote unquote deductible, 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.959 another opaque term, which is the paywall that exists before 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.000 you actually get the healthcare you already paid for in 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.439 your premium, and then some amount of copay or coinsurance, 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:53.480 which is what you pay to get, you know, basic 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.720 care at the point of care. And I mean, honestly, 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.160 I'm a physician who wrote a whole book on the 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.280 healthcare system. My wife is a physician, and every time 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.280 we have to make this quote unquote choice, we got 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.320 to pull out a whole actuarial table to figure out 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.160 how likely it is that me at thirty six, her 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.360 at thirty four are gonna get really sick, our daughter 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.520 at three is gonna get sick, or that she's gonna 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:14.839 have a baby, which is probably the highest cost thing 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.880 that happens conditional on us staying healthy. So all of 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:19.600 that is to say that that's no choice at all. 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.880 It's a completely opaque and is conditioned by an employer 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.360 in the first place, and is dressed up in all 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.840 of this language that's really really hard to penetrate. The 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:30.760 choice that I want is what doctor I see, what 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:34.240 hospital wh I go to? And that choice right the 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.400 number one gatekeeper on that choice is the insurance industry 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.240 itself telling you who you can see. And you know why, 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.959 because they've negotiated a bunch of sweetheart deals with various 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.960 providers that they have reimbursement relationships with and so they 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.199 want you to stay within that network of providers with 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.040 whom they've negotiated sweetheart deals. So if you dare stray 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.480 outside of the sweetheart deal that that insurance corporation is negotiated, 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.160 then you're going to feel the financial penalty of that, 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.160 so that their CEO can continue to make tens of 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:03.760 millions of dollars a year, denying you the care you 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.680 already paid for. You know, I don't want to lose 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.240 part of the reality here. So one is just the 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.080 corporate greed, right, and you unpack that often when you 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:19.120 come on wok F. The other piece of it is racism. Right. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:23.080 We know that the countries that in fact do pay 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:28.080 for their citizens healthcare are more or less homogeneous, right, 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:31.840 Like we know that everybody looks alike. So there are 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:36.280 countries that have universal basic income, fine, because everybody looks 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.520 the same, praise the same, what have you. We can't 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.600 decouple race from this, and so how do we have 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:49.680 what is a very real conversation about the two evils 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:53.640 that are driving the most disparities in this country, which 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:58.280 is capitalism, right, this extractive principle of capitalism and the 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.280 idea that everything is built on a pyramid, which means 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:03.760 that the only way that the pyramid survives is if 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:08.040 people are on the bottom right. And then racism, which 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:12.240 has created this stereotype and this ideology that has prefaced 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.080 on the fact that people of color are less deserving 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.400 right of other people, and so white folks will go 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.200 ahead and cut their nose to spite their face as 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:23.840 healthcare is presented to them. No, no, no, we don't 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:25.680 want it because we don't want the people down the 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.720 street to have it. So how do how do we 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:33.440 reconcile these things? How do we have this conversation while 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.960 advocating for what is necessary in order to make America 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.280 well and not just well enough that you're addicted to 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.200 pharmaceuticals and what have you. But actually, well, yeah, thank 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.120 you for saying that, Danielle. Look, I actually got a 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:50.320 piece coming out about the biggest obstacles in the way 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:52.440 of medicare for all on Racism is definitely one of them. 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:54.360 In what I thought it was a fantastic book, Heather 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:59.280 McGee really dissects the way that racism has been leveraged 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.840 against the well being of all of us because of 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.920 this zeroum kind of thinking. But I honestly think the 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:07.720 way that we do it is to call it out right, 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.880 because what happens is that you've got really powerful people 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:15.160 in these corporations that recognize that the best single way 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.320 to deny people access to a set of services that 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.360 they need and deserve is to divide them such that 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.760 they cannot build the power to actually be able to 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.200 engage that. And even worse is that you turn one 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:30.680 group of them so inextricably against another that rather than 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.640 fight to actually beget a set of public goods that 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.160 benefits everyone, they will fight to actually deny it. And 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.640 that is the circumstance that we have at this point. 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:41.920 And you know, I hate to say it, but I 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.160 feel like the Republican Party and so much of the 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.320 base has hit this sort of peak white identity politics 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.360 where now ideology has fully decoupled from the conversation. There 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.480 is no Republican policy ideology anymore. You know, we were 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:58.520 debating a one point nine trillion dollars COVID relief package 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.480 and Republicans were in the corner talking about doctor Seusan, 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.000 mister potato head, come on, And so you know, we're 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.200 at this moment now where they don't even have to 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:08.600 talk about policy ideology anymore, because at this point it 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.120 has just become about this sort of white idnated politics 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.760 and the weaponization of that in our public space. And 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.119 so you know, we've got to call it out. And 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.360 I think what I've found. You know, I can't paid 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:20.960 for governor in Michigan, and I had a lot of 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.080 conversations with folks who don't see this the world the 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:24.600 same way that I do. And you know, I was 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:29.400 campaigning as the former health commissioner for the country's largest 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.480 majority black and poorest city in the country in Detroit. 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:35.760 And you know when I when I sit down with folks, 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:37.720 i'd say, look, you know, I get it. My name 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:39.640 is Abdurrahman. Right, if you say the whole thing, it's 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.600 abdual to you, and you're not primed to agree with me. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:43.840 But I'm just going to say a couple of things, 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:45.800 and I want you to nod your head. If this 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.119 is your experience. You pay a tremendous amount of money 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.520 in health insurance. You don't know where that goes. And 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.639 if you or a loved one gets sick, what's going 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:55.840 to happen is they're going to send you an additional 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.359 bill on top of what you already paid, which is 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:00.880 going to send your financial circumstances in a tail spin. 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.480 All that money you were saving, whether it was to 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.200 send your kid to college or to take them on 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.320 a nice little vacation, that's gone because someone had the 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.840 audacity to get sick. And that's if you're insured. And 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:15.800 if you're not insured, right, what you're seeing is that 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.440 you've got to reapply and reapply to get on Medicaid, 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.080 and they're trying to cut and cut and cut those services. 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.680 And if you're in rural Michigan right, your experience is 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:25.640 that even if you have healthcare, you're driving an hour 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.240 to two hours because the closest hospital shut down a 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:31.280 couple of years ago because it couldn't make ends meet, 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:33.880 because too many folks in your community are either uninsured 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:35.960 or on Medicaid, and so the reimbursements are too low. 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:37.960 And you got folks. By the end of everybody's nodding 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.439 their head, and I said, listen, that is the same story. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.520 Whether we are here in rural Michigan or we are 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.439 in Detroit. It is the same exact story. And the 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.640 fact is is that none of you all have heard 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:50.920 one another tell the story, because you all have been 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.960 too busy, right, We've been too busy being told right 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.560 that the reason you don't have is because they have. Well, 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:58.560 I'll tell you what they don't have and you don't have. 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:01.480 And the only way that we take this on is 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:03.760 that we all come together and decide that all of 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.200 us ought to have. And the system that is keeping 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.440 us from having right is making tens of millions of dollars. 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.000 Seventy percent of the market share in health insurance in 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.160 Michigan is Blue Cross Blue Shield in Michigan. And guess 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.840 what their CEO made nineteen million bucks last year. They 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.520 were the most profitable that they've ever been in the 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:22.000 midst of a pandemic. That's all fifteen million people kicked 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.480 off of their health insurance. This system is fundamentally broken. 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.919 It has become fundamentally a tool of extraction, and it 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:36.159 doesn't serve the purpose that it's supposed to serve. White 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.840 identity politics. That is what is behind the minority rule, 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.960 emotional apartheid government we have in this country. Right now, 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:45.879 I got mine, but you can't have yours. We cannot 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.600 afford to continue down that path, and it's crusaders like 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.960 doctor Terka Barrett and doctor Abdullah L. Sayed, who are 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:53.960 putting in the work to alter our course for a 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.840 better tomorrow. There are so many more amazing guests on 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.840 wokef Daily this week, like doctor Kyless, Story Out, Emily's List, 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.000 President Stephanie Shriach, and doctor Yaba blay So. To hear 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.359 from them and my bevy of woke a F guests 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.680 and contributors, head over to patreon dot com slash woke 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.280 AF and subscribe. You can't put a price on the 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.080 value of getting woke, but five dollars is pretty low. 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.360 And as always, share, Share, Share this podcast with your 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.240 family and friends. Spread the word of wokeness with the 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.200 people you love. Power to the people and to all 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.359 the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.