(dramatic music) - Whoosh, this just in, breaking news, then some even more news, hot off the press, a piping
hot scoop for Cody's Showdy. Some boiling ice cream for you. Are you ready? Racism, is over? All right, that doesn't seem right. - White power! - This must be a typo, Oh, there it is, systemic racism is over. That's much better. That doesn't seem right either, I'm pretty sure I just saw and
am seeing a global pandemic disproportionately affect
the Black community and nationwide protests
following the police murder of an unarmed Black man. And also all the other police murders but it says it right here
on this piece of paper, so, where did we get this information? - Systemic racism does not exist. - Oh! Okay, it all makes sense now. We just did a recent
diversity of thought hire and so one of our writers is really into the Intellectual dark web, a group of smart, dangerous, brillianters. So this is just some person. Like you, and me, and
my quarantine roommate, Mr. Bonkers, he's my girlfriend. Anyway, this person, some guy, just said this really
incorrect thing out loud in front of a bunch of books
that probably have information that refutes what he's saying. And I won't attribute this
to lying or ignorance, but it is wrong, and it's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these Super Secret Smart
Society (beep) dip-(beep) helping people pretend
that racism doesn't exist. That history doesn't exist. But rule number one of American history is never underestimate the ability of racist ideas to perpetually
reinvent themselves for whole new generations by, not re-inventing themselves at all, but packaging themselves in
a brand spanking new form. So what is this brand spanking new form, you ask a two-dimensional
rendering of a news dude on your screen for a video that
was recorded a few days ago? Well this dude of news
hears you loud and clear. I see you, I mean not really, but that's what this immensely
long video is all about, because the sadistic
murder of George Floyd by police and the
disproportionate number of deaths from Covid-19 of Black
people are just the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to racism in society. Also this, - White power! - But 90% of that iceberg
is hidden from view. And though it is readily accessible and well known to many, there is an entire perversion of thought that is obscuring its visibility from a large portion of the population and if we don't call it out now it will continue to infect
the minds of young people, in front of books. And I don't want to have to
do this again in 50 years as I lie in my death pod. But if history is any indication, I will probably have to, so, whatever's martian for like and subscribe. Glormbp? Anyway, get comfortable, because things are about to
get really uncomfortable. (dramatic music) Now we are all aware of the racist ideas that run on an endless loop on Fox News like a bigoted version of Groundhog Day where every day you're like, will Laura Ingraham see her reflection? And you're like, of course she will, she's a Nazi, not a vampire. Anyway, the racism coming from Fox News is clearly a huge problem but the median age of the Fox
News viewer is 65 years old. What we at Cody's Showdy Incorporated are going to be examining today is where the younger population
is picking up on these ideas that we all hoped would
eventually die off with, well, if we're being real,
somebody's loved one. But it turns out that there
is an entire ecosystem of media figures that is
providing a whole new batch of young people with the
intellectual framework that underpins their
support for racist ideas and racist policies in America. One of the most instrumental influencers impacting impressionable
innocents over the past few years is a cluster of political
and social commentators that has been dubbed "The
Intellectual Dark Web", a group of people who are not particularly intellectual or dark, but we're fair and balanced
TMCR, (beep) dammit! So admittedly they are sometimes web. The prominent members of this network of gloomy intelligentsias range in political affiliation and include traditional
conservatives, libertarians, Never-Trumpers, Sometimes-Trumpers
and even some liberals, but they are all brought together by their hatred of political correctness, identity politics,
social justice warriors, and historical literacy. - Social justice you should
understand is actually evil. Social justice, when people
say it, is an actual evil, because any time you put a
modifier in front of a term that is inherently good, you turn it into a perversion of itself. - That's right, comrades! Ben Shapiro wants to cancel adjectives, adverbs and participle phrases! They are perversions! Because if you dare to put a modifier in front of
a term that is inherently good it makes it evil. So for instance, I think we can all agree
that a baby is good but if you were to say, that
is a cute baby, for example, well that would be a perversion that would make the
phrase "cute baby" evil. (baby screaming) But back to the issue at hand what do these cool kid's philosophers have to contribute to the
discussion of race in America? Let's start with, Dave, "The Left got a little too PC "so I changed all of my
opinions about the economy, social issues, systemic
racism, and history" Rubin. Does he have an explanation for his claim that systemic racism doesn't exist? - Systemic racism does not exist, there are no laws in America, meaning the system, doesn't
mean racism doesn't exist, racism exists, there are
people who are racist, and you should do everything you can to show them that their ideas are wrong and that you should not be judging someone based on their race, of course. But the idea that there
is systemic racism, meaning that there are laws in place that treat Black people differently, or asian people differently, or white people differently, simply doesn't exist. - Ah! Okay, I get it now. There are no laws that
treat people differently based on their race and that
is what systemic racism is. Isn't it? Isn't that the definition and
function of systemic racism? And are you actually claiming that there are no laws that treat people of different races, differently? In short, the answer is no to all of it, but we'll get back to those questions. For now, is there anything
else you'd like to add, Dave? - Now, that doesn't mean
that we can still do better on certain things, so for example, often Black people will
be incarcerated longer for simple crimes that if
a white person committed won't be, now that has to do with more with socio-economic reasoning, - Oh Dave! Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave! Immediately after stating that systemic racism doesn't exist, you cite a perfect example
of systemic racism, and then explain it away as having to do with
socio-economic reasoning, another example of systemic racism. I guess in Dave's mind, when you have two inter-related
aspects of systemic racism they sort of cancel each other out, you know how like if I were
to punch you in the face but then also kick you
in the balls or pussy, those two wrongs mean that
you can't get mad at me. It's simple math, go learn
math better, everybody! But of course, Dave made this argument before the recent murder of George Floyd and the ensuing protests. Surely these events would
change these guys' minds right? - And when it comes to conspiracy theory, everything can be explained by malevolent people behind the
scenes, pulling the strings, right, this is the sort of
anti-sematic conspiracy theories, or, by the way, the idea
of institutional racism that a bunch of white people
are sitting behind the scenes and deliberately attempting
to harm Black people. All right if you're making that argument, you're an idiot. - Oh, hey! You're back with a great
point, Ben "My Hero" Shapiro. I expect you're watching, Ben, because I know that you
watched my video about you, and I know you desperately
want to be in a band with me. But according to Ben, institutional racism is
actually a conspiracy theory because as we all know, when people talk about systemic racism or institutional racism, they are talking about
a bunch of white people, behind the scenes, in a room, plotting. Pulling the strings to
deliberately harm Black people, puppeteers! Oh hey look! It's my other quarantine
roommate Mr. Strawman. Good to see you again. I love you. I love you too. Gross. Okay, so, Ben tells us
that systemic racism is a conspiracy theory, and Dave tells us that it doesn't exist. Of course this begs the question, if systemic racism,
under Dave's definition, ended in the 1960s with the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which by the way was recently
gutted by the Supreme Court and also like, imagine an apartheid state granting a group civil
rights and then being like, we did it! But if we did indeed did it, why does there still
remain so much inequality between white people and Black people? Any thoughts Ben? - Because it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with culture. - Now for context, Ben is answering a question about the cause of wealth inequality between white people and Black people, and Ben's response is that it has nothing to do with race, aka racism, and everything to do with culture. Please continue Ben. - You explain to me why Black kids aren't graduating high school? Explain that one to me. Explain to me why Black
kids are shooting each other in rates significantly higher than whites are shooting each other, explain to me why 13% of the population is responsible for 50% of the murder, explain to me why the number of Blacks, Black kids, in prison,
not for innocent reasons, not for walking down the street and getting pulled into
a prison, is so high? Explain, if it has nothing
to do with culture, explain to me why the
single motherhood rate in the Black community
jumped from 20% to 70% in the same course of time
that the Civil Rights Movement, had made such tremendous strides. Is America more racist
now, than it was in 1960? And if it is, please explain
to me how that happened? - So, let's put aside the
fact that graduation rates, homicide rates, and rates
of single motherhood are all results of wealth inequality and that there is tons of evidence that Black people are put in jail for the same crimes as white people at significantly higher
rates, but whatever! Let's see this argument through. As Ben would say, "Let's say". - And let's say, and
let's say, and let's say, let's say the, let's say, and let's say. - That the reason Black people on average have 10 times less
wealth than white people is not because of the cumulative
impact of systemic racism but actually because of Black culture and how it doesn't value
education and is violent, and doesn't have family values. By the way, all very new arguments that have never been made before, and are not a part of a long legacy of explaining racial outcomes
by creating racist ideas that justify racist policies which in turn perpetuate
racial inequality, because, after all, as Ben asks, is America more racist
today than it was in 1960? Now, we'll get back to that question too. But for now, let's continue down
this racist rabbit hole, and follow this, white rabbit, and see where it leads us. Yay. But also huzzah. So, if Black culture is to blame, what created that culture? Surely a singular culture for
an entire group of people, which every Black person shares was not created in a vacuum? I mean you're not suggesting
that it's some sort of an innate genetic quality, are you? - [Sam] People don't don't
wanna hear that intelligence is a real thing, and that some people have
more of it than others. They don't wanna hear that
IQ tests really measure it. They don't wanna hear the
differences in IQ matter, because they're highly predictive of differential success in life. And not just for things
like educational attainment, and wealth, but for things like out of wedlock birth and mortality. People don't wanna hear
that a persons intelligence is in large measured
due to his or her genes. And there seems to be very
little we can do environmentally to increase a persons
intelligence, even in childhood. It's not that the
environment doesn't matter, but genes appear to be
50 to 80% of the story. People don't want to hear this. And they certainly don't
want to hear that average IQ differs across races and ethnic groups. - No Sam, I think a lot of
people do want to hear that and that's the problem. But let's leave that alone for now, and how living thought
experiment Sam Harris fits into this whole grid
of grimy good grade getters, and continue to pull this thread on the sweater of racial obliviousness. (dramatic music) Yes I would like to destroy this sweater. So far, we know that systemic
racism does not exist because there are no specific
laws that favor one race over the other, and that the reason racial
inequality still persists is because of Black culture,
and Black intelligence. But what about white privilege? Surely that must play some
role in racial inequality? - I wanna talk about intersectionality and white privilege a bit. (crowd laughing) - Oh goodie, Jordan, "Lobsters show us why
human hierarchies exist "also therefore they're good" Peterson. Glad you could join the party. Also sorry for your recent challenges, I hope you get better, and yet I'm grateful that
you've been MIA as of late, during all of this situation. Nevertheless, your ideas and
words are still influential, so here we are. Now notice that laughter from
the crowd when he said that. I mean, you must be getting ready to tell a really hilarious joke, Jordan! For context, the specific
list that Peterson is about to reference comes from an essay written by Peggy McIntosh about the everyday advantages
that she experiences because she is white. - Okay, so here's her white
privilege list, some of it, there's like 50 things. I can, if I wish, arrange to
be in the company of people of my race most of the time. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in
an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live. That's actually a wealth
thing, by the way. - Oh, a wealth thing, by the way? - Is that white privilege? Or is that like majority privilege? It's the same truth, you go to China, you're Chinese, it's the
same truth if you're Chinese? Does the majority privilege? And if it's majority privileges, like isn't that just part of
living within your culture? So, let's say you live in your culture. You're privileged as
member of that culture. Well obviously, that's
what the culture is for. That's what it's for. - So in a rant about how
white privilege isn't real, you state that culture is
for providing privileges to the members of the culture. But, what? What definition of culture
are you looking at? Culture isn't for anything. Also he slips this in, - Why would you bother
building the damn thing if it didn't accrue benefits to you? - You see, America was built
on the backs of white people. Anyway, go on doctor. - But now you might say, well one of the consequences that it accrues fewer benefits to those who aren't in the culture? Yeah, but you can't immediately
associate that with race. - That's literally what
you just did, but go on. - It certainly could be wealth. - Wealth you say? - So white privilege, well the other thing you might notice is that to attribute to the
individuals of a community, the attributes of that community on the basis of their racial
identity is called racism. That's what racism is. There's no other way of defining it. - And here Peterson plays
a clever, or ignorant, I can't decide which, rhetorical trick. No one would argue that
attributing a characteristic to an individual based on their race, while not the only way to define it, is not some form of racism. But the concept of white privilege is not ascribing immutable characteristics to individuals based on their race. It is commentating on how a person's race influences their
relationship with society. For example, in 1860, you
could pretty safely assume that a white person was not enslaved. This would not be a racist assumption, and would also be a pretty
good example of white privilege at that time in our history,
when we did the slave stuff. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Where were we? Oh yes. So not only does white
privilege not exist, but this concept is actually
racist against white people! Anyone else share that view? - So white people privilege
is a myth and a lie and should be completely destroyed, it's ruder than racism. (crowd applauding) It is a racist idea. - White privilege isn't reality, it's a cowardly way, a chicken
way, to blame someone else for your failures to live up to decent responsible standards. - Ben! It's good to see you again,
all the time, every time. I miss you. And hey! It's also Charlie Kirk! Are you part of the Nerds
of Nefarious Netting? I mean with comments like that, I'm sure you'll get in soon! They love idiots and liars. But to be fair and
balanced, Charlie is right. White privilege is rooted in racism. Good point, Charlie Kirk. Okay, so according to the social-order of sullen smarty-pants wearers, white privilege is a myth
and a lie, and racist, and racial inequality could not possibly be related to white privilege. But lucky for us, David Rubin knows exactly where this
violent, lazy culture that doesn't value family
or education comes from. - But if you think about this, if you think about the worst
places in the United States for Black people to live
in terms of economics, in terms of shootings, it's Chicago, it's Ferguson, it's Atlanta. It's these places that
have been run by democrats almost exclusively for 80 years. Yet the democrats keep saying
we're for Black people. So it's sort of like
saying, I'm a progressive, I'm for progressive, it sounds good. Well I'm for Black people,
everyone's for Black, you know unless you're a true racist, you're for Black people in
the same way you should be for everybody else. So, they've tricked you into thinking, I mean Chicago, I would guess someone should
check the numbers on this, but I'm gonna guess about 50 to 80 people, Black people, were shot in
Chicago this past weekend. Weekend! You never hear about that because it's mostly Black-on-Black crime. Well if the democrats are so
good at fixing these problems, why is it that in their cities, it's always, always the worst, and it's because they
create these incentives that are actually disincentives, and if you give people things, it becomes very hard to not
want those things anymore. - It's the left! They created a victim mentality and a culture of dependency by giving Black people free stuff. Uncle Sugar gave Black
people goodies, like welfare, and food stamps and Obama-Phones. Now, I'm not suggesting
that systemic racism is not a bi-partisan problem. It clearly is. Recent events have made
this abundantly clear. If it was not already abundantly clear. But is the problem with the left that they give away too much
free stuff to Black people? Not only that but that they can't even govern their own
communities properly, is that the problem? Ben? - Flint is governed by minorities, I mean the folks, the mayor of Flint was Black at the time, the folks were involved
in the Flint Water Crisis, were of minority descent, it wasn't white people cramming
down a situation on Flint. By the way, they're all democrats. - That's right folks,
it was Black democrats that created the Flint Water Crisis and poisoned their own community. It's not like an Emergency
Manager, Ed Kurtz, incidentally a white guy, appointed by Republican
Governor Rick Snyder, also, a white guy, who was given the power
to completely circumvent the democratically elected
mayor and city council, made the decision to
change Flint's water supply to the Flint River without implementing the anti-corrosion
treatment that was necessary to prevent the acidic water
from corroding the lead pipes in the city and thus
irreparably poisoning thousands of residents, is it? Yes, it is, Ben. But I'm getting off track here. Where were we? Oh yes, free stuff, given to Black people by the left to create a
culture of dependency. This country has given so much
free stuff to Black people! You have any examples of this Dave? - And I can give you, I know that anticdotal stuff
is isn't always the best way, but I can give you one very good example. My sister lives on the Upper
West Side in New York City, it's a nice area, she pays
a ton to live in a nice area with a doorman building in New York City. A good portion of her building, I think it might be
50% is rent subsidized, meaning that they're keeping rents low for certain people of certain
ethnicities to live there. - Wait a minute, I thought you just said that there are no laws that
treat people of different races or ethnicities differently, Dave. Weird. Also weird, 'cause they
don't subsidize rent for people of other ethnicities. They subsidize rent for poor people. Wonder what that's about. Anyway, again, I'm
getting ahead of myself. I'm sorry, it's easy to get lost in the marketplace of ideas. A lot of impulse buys, ya know? So now we have assessed
their interpretation of the causes of racial inequality. The reason Black people
suffer from inequality is because of their culture, a culture created by the left, who redistribute our
hard earned tax dollars to these indolent, undeserving,
food stamp hoarding, not very hardworking people. So how do we fix it? I mean, surely a group as
intellectual as the dark web has a solution. - So what do you as an
individual Black person do to change your life? And I don't think it's helpful and in fact I think it's
actually quite hurtful to spend an enormous
amount of time talking about the legacy of
discrimination and racism, instead of talking about
what can you do right now to fix your problem? - If you get intersectional enough, one of the things that happens
is that you break the groups all the way down to the
level of the individual. - We should, we should want
equal laws for everybody and then within that, that is what empowers you as an individual to go out and get what's yours. - [Sam] That the punchline here is that everyone has to be
treated as an individual. - Okay. There it is. So according to the web
of dark intellectuals, the only solution is to treat
everyone as individuals, by the way, as we, the
dark intellectual web, say this, we will continue to talk about the deficiencies of Black culture, the racial IQ gap, Black-on-Black crime, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But it's just like MLK said bro, judge me by the content
of my character man. Not by the yada, yada, yada, yada. These guys love this quote. And I wonder if there's another, more relevant quote of
his they should read. But it doesn't actually
sound so bad does it? I mean of course we
want everyone to see us, and treat us, as individuals, and judge us by the
content of our character, not the yada, yada, yada, yada,
yada, yada, yada and so on. So what's the problem News Dude, you ask? Well, before we take this
argument apart, point-by-point, let's briefly summarize
the deceitful grift that is catching so many young people today in its Intellectual Dark Web. First, they erroneously
define systemic racism and white privilege and
then proceed to destroy an argument that no one was
ever making in the first place. By doing this they create a scenario where you can't possibly assign the cause of racial inequality in our society to systemic racism or white privilege because they have just seemingly disproved these concepts entirely. So this leaves no other
explanation for the existence of racial inequality other than, that it must be a result of an inequality in Black people themselves. Their culture, their IQ, their
decision making capacity, and of course all the free stuff they get from the lefty government
we definitely have, which creates a culture of dependency. Now you are in a position where you have been insidiously convinced that Black people are inherently not equal to white people in some fundamental way. At this point you only have one out without seeming like an overt racist. And that is to say that
you don't see race at all, you're colorblind man and you just treat
everyone as individuals. And the mechanism that
holds this all together is the dissemination of the racist ideas that uphold this perverted philosophy. If you've traveled this
far, congratulations, you have now been turned into a racist, either an active racist,
or a passive racist, but a racist nonetheless. Ibram X Kendi, author of
"Stamped from the Beginning" and "How to be an Antiracist", perfectly describes this dynamic. - [Chris] What post-racial
ideas say to people, to everyday people is, basically racist policy no longer exist. And it says that to people in
a nation of racial inequity, in a nation of racial segregation. And so then it causes the
individual to be like, okay why does all of these
inequities and disparities exist? If it's not racist policy,
if it's not racial terror, then it must be something wrong with a particular racial group. - So, let's try to un-turn you, shall we? We'll start with the original assertion from David Rubin that
systemic racism doesn't exist because there are no laws that
favor one race over another. The first question to ask is, is that what systemic racism is? Laws that explicitly favor
one race over another? No, of course not. In fact many scholars define
racism itself, as a system. For starters, there is the
fact that many of the laws that make racial discrimination
illegal are often broken and not well enforced. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, reminder, recently gutted
by the supreme court, granted certain protections in an attempt to make sure that Black
people were able to exercise their right to vote, including a pre-clearance provision, which would have likely prevented the recent debacle in Georgia. Just because something is illegal doesn't mean it doesn't still happen. States across the
country have enacted laws that courts have eventually found to be racially discriminatory, but often those laws aren't overturned until years of legal battles, long after the intended effect
has already had the result of disenfranchising Black voters. The impact of these policies
that include voter suppression and racist gerrymandering is evident in states like North Carolina, one of three states in 2018 where the GOP lost the popular vote, but somehow still
managed to win a majority in the State House of Representatives. You know the same way
our racist president won through the verifiably racist and undemocratic electoral college system. Now second, laws don't
need to mention race at all to be oppressive towards Black people. The Constitution doesn't
even use the word slave until the 13th amendment, the one that freed enslaved people. And before that, it's not
like we didn't have a system of slavery in this country. It's like a law needs to use the N-Word for Dave and this grubby group of geeks to consider it to be a
part of systemic racism. There have been many laws since the 1960s that have specifically
disadvantaged Black people without explicitly
referencing race at all. This country is very good at doing that. It's like our superpower. Consider the fact that for decades there was a 100 to one
sentencing disparity between crack-cocaine and powder-cocaine, despite the fact that they are both made from essentially the same substance and the dangers and addiction
levels are incredibly similar. You know what was different? Black people were more
likely to get arrested and incarcerated for using
crack than white people, despite equal use. In 2010, the Fair Sentencing
Act changed this disparity, but the ratio is still 18 to one. So, thanks Joe Biden? In fact, as David himself
inexplicably noted, immediately following his rejection of the existence of systemic racism, the war on drugs puts Black people in jail at far higher rates for
non-violent drug crimes, despite the fact that white
people and Black people use and sell drugs at the same rates. Also, thanks Joe Biden, for being better than Donald Trump. You did it, congratulations. You just, you hopped over that bar. And as with many components
of systemic racism, the negative impact of laws like these on people's lives are
compounded by other racist laws. Getting swept up into the
criminal justice system for a non-violent drug crime can mean that you lose your right to vote, and that you have to check
a box on a job application indicating that you are a felon. And you can be barred from
certain government services like public housing. But as Dave says, "that has to do with more
socio-economic reasoning". So let's talk about those
socio-economic reasons Dave. Because, as I mentioned laws that explicitly favor
one race over another is not the definition of systemic racism. Systems are comprised of many
components, not just laws. For example, there are policies that govern everything from your workplace to local municipalities, all the way up to the federal government, that are not laws, but are very much a part of
systemic racism in America and greatly impact the
socio-economic status of Black people. For example, the system of wealth accumulation has created perhaps the
most persistent, insidious and consequential legacy when it comes to the
history of systemic racism in this country, resulting in a staggering disparity between white people and Black people. But is it, as Ben Shapiro claims, because of Black culture? No, but let's first consider the fact that the majority of the wealth that people accumulate
over their lifetimes comes from two places,
inheritance and home ownership. Considering Black people were
enslaved for over 200 years, meaning they were not
paid for their labor, and then lived under Jim
Crow segregation laws for the next 90 years, I would say that it has been
pretty hard for Black people to accumulate wealth via
inheritance under those conditions. And this is not ancient history, I mean there are people alive today whose parents were enslaved. So how about home ownership? Well, let's listen to
what Richard Rothstein, author of a book, "The Color of Law" has to say about the way housing policy has been implemented in this country. - And the reason there's
another federal program, run by the Federal Housing Administration that subsidized the
movement of white families out of central cities
into single family homes in the suburbs that
were exclusively white. So the federal government, guaranteed loans to mass
production builders, the most famous example
perhaps is Levittown, Levitt could never have
assembled the capital to build 17000 homes for which he had no buyers. He got loans guaranteed
by the federal government on explicit condition, explicit condition, I wanna emphasize that, that no homes be sold to African-Americans and that every home in the development had to have a clause in
the deed prohibiting resale to African-Americans. - The white Americans who were given government backed mortgages for homes under this policy paid less per month to own a home than what Black Americans paid
for rent in public housing during this period. Those homes have since increased in value, netting those families two to
three hundred thousand dollars of added wealth. So is the racial wealth
gap really a result of Black culture? - African-American income on average is about 60% of white income. African-American wealth is five to seven percent of white wealth. Most families in this
country gain their wealth through housing equity. This enormous difference
between 60% income ratio and five percent wealth ratio, is almost entirely attributable
to unconstitutional, federal housing policy that was practiced in the 1930's, 40's and into the 50's. So the wealth gap, I
think, is attributable to this residential segregation. It is obvious that a huge part of the racial wealth gap can be attributed to the federally
sanctioned housing policies of this country, which included redlining, a means by which loans were explicitly and intentionally denied to individuals in Black redlined neighborhoods and where state backed
restrictive covenants denied Black people
the opportunity to move into wealthier white neighborhoods. And so not only were Black
people not able to inherit wealth from their parents and grandparents, who were enslaved, but they were denied the opportunity to build wealth for themselves. It wasn't until 1977 that discrimination in lending for housing was outlawed. This meant that Black
people were relegated into living in areas of
highly concentrated poverty with elevated levels of
pollution due to their proximity to freeways and toxic facilities which caused lower life expectancy and a lack of access to upward mobility. And insidiously, the
racist segregation policies that created this concentrated poverty also led to over-policing, which led to mass incarceration, which led to the loss of political power, which meant that these communities were not equipped with the political power to oppose the creation of big polluters, which led to even further
loss of property values, which led to less funding for education, which led to, which led to,
which led to, which led to. So given this, it's not that surprising that one in seven white families
today are millionaires, compared to one in fifty Black families. Or that while single white women between the ages of 36 to 49 have a median net worth of $42000 dollars, and single Black women
in this same age range have a median net worth of five dollars. As Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the 1619 project, recently noted on the Ezra Klein show, - [Nikole] What the census data shows is that actually
lower-income white Americans have more wealth than
middle-class Black Americans. And lower-income white Americans live in wealthier neighborhoods than middle-income Black Americans. - This is all so weird! It's almost as if the racial inequality we see in this country is
not caused by Black culture but by some sort of system, some sort of system that
seems to involve race somehow that gave white people some sort of, I don't wanna call it privilege, but I do, 'cause that's what it is. So, remember when Jordan Peterson said, "It's not white privilege, it's wealth." Well it turns out that
wealth is a white privilege. A government subsidized white privilege and an important component
to systemic racism that aggregates and
grows over generations. So, you see Ben, it doesn't really matter if we are more or less racist today than than we were in 1960 because the inequities of
our past collect interest. This is all so perplexing! I thought all the free stuff that created this culture of dependency was given to Black people? I mean, that's why they're so lazy right? I mean, all the free
stuff incentivizes them to just be welfare queens
and live off of Uncle Sugar. Right? But then, could it be that this free stuff from the government has actually
been given to white people? Well, Doy Hickey, the Homestead
Act first enacted in 1862, literally gave away 10% of
all land in the United States almost exclusively to white people. It is estimated that nearly
46 million people living today can trace their wealth back to this act. Around this same time
slavery was abolished and yet the formerly enslaved got nothing. Not even their 40 acres and a mule. When social security was enacted to provide a safety net for the elderly two industries were curiously
omitted from these benefits, agricultural workers
and domestic servants, coincidentally occupations dominated by Black, Mexican, and Asian workers. The Wagner Act gave workers
the right to create unions and the right to exclude Black
people from those unions. Which, they did, they did do that. (dramatic music) So, according to their logic it's actually white people that should have a culture of dependency. And in a way we do, we have a dependency on whiteness or what famed sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois dubbed the psychological
wages of whiteness. After all, as doctor Jordan
Balthazar Peterson has told us, - That's what the culture is for. That's what it's for. - I love how ferociously ignorant doctor Jordan Bumblebee Peterson is about how he just made an
argument for the existence of white privilege in this comment. As I already stated culture
is not for anything. But the social construction
of whiteness surely is. But, news dude, judge me by
the content of the character, not by the, you know? Clearly the history of this nation has not judged Black people by the, ya know? Now I'm not saying that
there are not white people in this country who are suffering
or experiencing poverty, there clearly are. And we should do a whole
lot more to help them and, you know, poor people, as a society. It's also true, that often poor whites become the collateral
damage of racist policies like the war on drugs and
that throughout our history politicians and corporate interests have stoked the flames of racism to prevent the forming
of multiracial coalitions built on shared economic interests in order to maintain their power. In fact, the creation of
American Anti-Black racism stems from this dynamic and time and time again we see that white people opt to maintain their privileged
whiteness despite the fact that it is often not in
their interest to do so. - [Interviewee] When they don't
expand Medicare in the South and the former confederates states, when we don't have universal healthcare despite the fact that every other country who looks like us has it, when we have the lowest
rate of union membership, when we have the stingiest maternal leave, the stingiest social safety net, period, is because poll after poll shows if white Americans think
that a lot of Black people will benefit from a social
program, they oppose it. - And so politicians use this to essentially trick
white people into voting against their own self-interests. So, which groups are weaponizing
identity politics again? The truth is that the notions that we should just be colorblind and treat everyone as individuals are often codewords for
unfettered capitalism. You know, just live and let live man, just like do whatever. These ideas are used as a Trojan horse for rolling back regulations and reducing the role of
government in our lives, aka gutting the social safety net at the expense of the vulnerable and to the benefit of
the rich and powerful. It completely ignores the central role that history has played in
the fortunes of individuals that have been born into groups that have been unjustly
treated by society. You can start to see why this solution of just treating everyone as individuals particularly in the
arena of public policy, is problematic, considering
that the history of this nation has not
treated people as individuals. Perhaps, history matters. - [Ezra] I have not criticized you, and I continue to not, for having the conversation. I've criticized you for
having the conversation without dealing with and separating it out and thinking through the
context and the weight of American history on it, not the weight of American history-
- The weight of American history is
completely irrelevant to- - [Ezra] No it can't possibly
be irrelevant on some of it, even you admit it's environmental. - [Sam] The only thing that is relevant, so yes, but that part of the
conversation has been had. You don't have to talk, you don't have to talk about slavery, you don't have to talk about the specific
injustices in the a past to have a conversation about
the environmental factors that very likely keep people back. - No Sam! You absolutely do have to
talk about those things. Because beside the fact that the quote, unquote racial IQ gap has significantly narrowed
in the amount of time that could not possibly be
ascribed to genetic factors, the fact is the entire enterprise of attempting to study the
genetics of race and intelligence is built on a foundation of bull(beep). Because, and I don't
think I've said this yet, but race is not real. It is a social construct. We made it up, like money. There is no genetic or
biological legitimacy to the concept of race whatsoever. There is more genetic
diversity within racial groups than between them. A Black person could be
more genetically similar to a white person than
to another Black person. There is more genetic
diversity with Black people than any other racial
group because, you know, we all came from Africa. Originally, we, we're all Africans. We spent a majority of
our time on this planet on this one continent. We should be proud of
our African Heritage. And even if you insist on making some sort of racial distinction, according to ancestry.com the average African American has about 30% European ancestry, you know, 'cause the, partially the rape of enslaved people, looking at you Thomas Jefferson, you founding father of America, you. And then add on top of that
the other layer of bull(beep) to this debate that the
very concept of intelligence is completely subjective
and breathtakingly complex and the idea that we could
come up with a single test and number to accurately measure it or proclaim to understand its significance or be able to quantify it on
a genetic level is absurd. There is no gene for intelligence. And so the endeavor of seeking out and comparing the genetic factors involved in intelligence to groups that are not
genetically defined, but socially constructed, is by very definition an
invalid scientific endeavor. It rests on entirely unscientific notions about the nature of race and intelligence. The fact is that the
only aim of this project is to reinforce the notion that there is something inherently and innately inferior about Black people. As Ezra Klein states,
throughout our history, - [Ezra] European descended white men, of scientific mind, looked around them, looked at the society they saw, looked at the outcomes people
had in the society they saw, looked at the science pulled
from those outcomes, right? And it was called science back then too. And said, you know what? What we are seeing here is a result of innate differences between the races. - So let's pause for a moment, and consider how this web
of intellectual dark's could be so thoroughly
and embarrassingly wrong about race in America. Now to be clear, these guys don't all universally share the same views on every issue. That's the appeal of the
Association of The Clever Guys. Sam Harris would not claim that systemic racism doesn't exist at all, and even Jordan Peterson has acknowledged that it's a factor that
contributes to inequality. - One of the factors, one
of many, many factors. - So while Sam Harris, a prominent atheist and
self-proclaimed liberal, may seem like an unlikely member
of this Brainy Bleak Batch, he is also part of the problem and has thrown in his lot with
his right wing reactionaries because it turns out they
have a lot in common. For starters, they all
share a disdain for the left and their supposed suppression
of a free exchange of ideas. Sam believes that the left has deemed it not okay to talk about anything to do with race and gender yet when it comes to
the issue of reparations he thinks we should wait a couple years before we have that conversation. - [Sam] I am totally open-minded
on the reparations issue but talk about another way
to lose to Trump, right? I mean this is, let's wait two years before we have this conversation. - And the truth is, they
all share the broad strokes of the same explanation
for racial inequality, that the cause of racial inequality is in large measure due to
the innate characteristics of Black people, their genetics, and their culture, and that the solution to this problem is for society to become colorblind. And for Black people to, you know, pick themselves up by their bootstraps. A thing that is possible. These basic ideas are not new, but the most recent configuration
of this fundamental error in reasoning which has
equipped a generation of young people with the rationale to justify racial inequality and racist policies with racist ideas. And/or the racist ideas to
serve as a justification for racial inequality and racist policies. Take your pick. So, when you consider the level of crime in the Black population, if you were Sam Harris, you might conclude that this is evidence of a cultural problem. - [Sam] At minimum we
have a cultural problem that has to be solved. And, only the black community
can really solve it. I mean this is something, like the, and on some level
understanding the origins even if we knew that the
origin of the problem was white racism. We have slavery, we have Jim Crow and then we have a direct
line of falling dominoes to the problem of inner-city
violence for Black teenagers. Let's just say that was true, that still doesn't tell
you what the remedy is now. How do you get people to
live different lives now? And to value their lives? - So, according to Sam, even if the origins of
violence in the Black community lie in our history of
racism and racist policies, now it's just up to those violent Blacks to change their culture. Might I humbly suggest
that perhaps we try things like investing in Black communities, funding public education or housing, or public health, or
ending the war on drugs before we bolster the claim
that an extreme minority of violent offenders in a
population of 42 million people in this country is an indicator that this community has
the cultural problem of not valuing their lives? The truth is that this
grid of grimy geniuses fall very neatly into a
long legacy of white people who have explained away racial inequality, justified by all sorts
of scientific theories and racist ideas about Black
genetics and Black culture in order to perpetuate racist policies, which maintains the status
quo of Black inequality, while anointing white people
with privilege in society. And, interestingly, the racist ideas always
seem to perfectly adapt to the particular inequality
and racist policy of the time. Thomas Jefferson stated that "Never yet could I find that a Black "had uttered a thought above
the level of plain narration". This racist idea served the function of justifying the brutality of slavery. And when Ben Shapiro says the following, well just take a listen. - Well New York City now wants to shut down these highly gifted programs, specifically on the basis of the lie that New York City's schools are being divided not
by academic performance but based on race. Well, maybe the alternative is that Black and Hispanic
kids are not doing as well on the test to get
in to the gifted programs. - That's right Ben! It's not that schools
are more segregated today than they were in the late 1960s because of racist policies that relegated so many Black people into
areas of concentrated poverty and denied Black people the ability to accumulate wealth which has resulted in their children being undereducated in a public school system that is largely and inexplicably funded by property taxes, it's just, it's because they're
not doing well on the tests. You know, because of their culture. And their dumb IQs. Judge me by my test score man, not by the something of my et cetera. This racist idea is being used as a way to justify the inequality of education in this country. So I guess it's time for
a quick segment called "If you're poor your schools
are considerably worse, "how (beep) stupid and evil
is that, what the (beep)." To re-iterate, public
schools are largely funded by property taxes. The higher the value of the
homes in a given neighborhood, the more revenue from
property taxes a neighborhood is able to collect for their schools. Not only have Black people
been historically banned from purchasing homes
in white neighborhoods, but the homes in majority
Black neighborhoods have been de-valued specifically because they were majority Black areas. And I don't have the data, but I would venture to
guess that the bake sales and car washes in wealthier
majority white communities probably tend to raise a
bit more money than they do in the systemically impoverished
majority Black communities in this country. As a result, today school
districts where the majority of students enrolled
are students of color, receive $23 billion less
in education funding than predominantly white school districts, despite serving the
same number of students. If that's not systemic racism, I don't know what is. There's no law that explicitly says schools where a majority
of students are Black shall be funded less than schools with majority white populations. And yet it is not a coincidence that that is the case. So, yeah, I guess this concludes our segment of "If you're poor your schools
are considerably worse, "how (beep) stupid and evil
is that, what the (beep)." The legacy of racist laws from the past, and the impact of the
systemic racism of today snowball over time. The policies that gave white people wealth swell and expand from one
generation to the next. The laws that denied Black
people opportunities spread, and infect nearly every aspect of life. And this dynamic is supported
by the dissemination of racist myths. We are all familiar with
the current tropes of Blacks are lazy, Blacks
are violent and so on. But throughout our history the impact of racist
policies have been justified by the creation of new and absurd ideas. In the early 1970s a Johnson era policy with the goal of increasing
Black home ownership was taken over by the
Nixon Administration. And it did not go well. The program was quickly exploited by the predatory actions of banks, speculators and real estate agents who were bribing FHA
appraisers behind the scenes in order to inflate the values of housing in order to line their
pockets with this new influx of cash from the federal government. In order to pull off this heist they took advantage of
low income Black people who qualified for the program by placing them into substandard, and often condemned housing,
not fit for human habitation, leaving these families with
homes that were falling apart, but with no resources to
make the necessary repairs. When this comes out it
becomes a major scandal making the front page news in
every major city in America. But then something
interesting starts to happen to the narrative. This is how Keeanga-Yamahtta
Taylor, author of the book, "Race for Profit", describes
what happened next. - [Keeanga-Yamahtta] The focus
almost immediately shifts to the program participants and the conditions of the house. Are those because Black
women don't actually know how to keep a clean house? You know, which of
course is richly ironic, because many of these
congressman had Black women cleaning their own homes. This becomes a central part of the story, and the role of the banks, the role of the real estate industry, kind of began to fade into the background. - And yet, somehow this
system of sinister smarties tries to pretend that this
history doesn't matter, like the world just started yesterday. We're all just individuals, my man. If you aren't able to
succeed in this free country well that is on you, man. I mean, sure, there were
racist people, back in the day, but systemic racism today? That doesn't exist. And so as Sam Harris often likes to do, let's do a thought experiment in a segment that we'll
call "The American Race". Let's imagine that the
path for different races to succeed in America was a literal race. More precisely, a relay race, from one generation to the next over the course of 400 years. For the purposes of this segment we'll use the popular
video game Mario Kart as an analogy, fun! Fun. In this analogy the Blacks
will be represented by Luigi and the whites will be
represented by Mario. These characters were
picked totally at random. 100% randomly picked. Okay let's do this. The American Race! On your marks, get set, go! Mario's off to an amazing start, he's taking away the land
from native shy guys, giving them capes infected
with small pox, nice move! Mario is speeding fast
around the tracks folks! But hey! Luigi doesn't seem to be going anywhere because he's locked in chains, that's weird, for a race. When is he gonna get
off the starting block? It looks like he's gonna be stuck there for about 250 years. I don't know folks, is it just me or does it look
like Luigi has a small brain? Science says yes! Whoa! Princess Peach just signed the
emancipation proclamushroom and Luigi is off to the races. Mario may have a 250 year head start but Luigi is finally in the race folks. Uh-oh, it's the Ku Klux
Klan, tough break for Luigi. He just got lynched! But hey! Mario just got some free
land from the kingdom through the Let's-A-Go-Stead Act and he has increased his lead and passed the baton to his son, who will inherit his wealth. Unfortunately Luigi's son is
inheriting his father's debt to the man who formerly
enslaved his family and must now turn over his entire harvest through a system called sharecropping. I don't know if it's culture or genetics but one thing is for sure, Luigi is just lazy! But good news for Mario
and his descendants, that free land from the
government is growing in wealth and he has widened his lead over Luigi, what a hard worker, folks! Uh-oh, it's the Great Depression. Both contestants are struggling. How will this race turn out? Oh wowee, Mario gets a huge boost! Because of new deal programs,
but mostly his merit. Luigi on the other hand well he's just an inferior racer. Oh no! It's the Goombas! Luigi, we need you! Help us win this war, we
promise we'll be nice. Thanks Mario, you won the war. Here is a house, and a free
education, and prosperity. Wowee! You are winning this race
because you are just so fast. Oh hey Luigi, you a, what's that? You want a house? (laughing) College? (laughing) Luigi, I mean, sure. But whoa, Mario is killing it right now and widening his lead! And Luigi, well he lost a long time ago. Hey, hey, hey okay Luigi, you want some rights, fine! I guess you can, you know, vote. And I guess you don't have to drink from a different water fountain. But I'd really prefer it if you did. But you don't have to but I'd really prefer if you did. Okay, I'm getting kind freaked out here. Luigi is starting to gain
a little bit on Mario, he must be cheating. Oh thank God, and the CIA, it's crack! Luigi is on crack! Lock him up, folks! Throw away the key! Phew! Meanwhile it looks like
Mario got an item box with cocaine in it! What fun he must be having! Whoa! What a burst of speed you
got from your bonus cocaine! Mario is going way fast and passing on even more wealth to his children! What a virtuous man, who earned everything he
has through his hard work. And, what a disappointment Luigi has been. He got caught with those
drugs, abandoned his family. I guess that's what happens
when you have no family values. What's that Luigi? I'm sorry, we don't handout coins to undeserving welfare princesses. Mario earned everything he has because he was just so fast! I can't help it if you're
just super super slow, Luigi. I mean, a birdo is president, so as far as I'm concerned, let's just forget about the past, okay? And start the race, now! Wow, Luigi why are you so far behind? You must just be slow
and violent, and dumb. And I can't believe you
are being soooo unfair to Mario who just wants
everyone to be treated equally. Uh-oh, Luigi just got Covid-19 guess he couldn't grasp the
concept of social distancing probably because of his low IQ. Wow! Surprise surprise! Mario wins! And will always win. Because he is the best and fastest and Luigi is just
genetically, and culturally, and innately slower, and dumber, and he just makes such bad decisions. And this is why Mario will always win and Luigi will always lose. What a good race. (upbeat music) So, is the solution really to just treat everyone as individuals? Well yeah of course. And no, obviously not. On a person-to-person level, sure. But, from a public policy perspective, no. Because if you could wave a magic wand and erase racism from the hearts of every single person in America you would still have systemic
racism and the effects of it. Getting rid of individual racists doesn't change the racial wealth gap, or the disparities in life
expectancy, or education. In fact adopting a colorblind policy just codifies and cements the inequality that has been generated by
systemic racism over generations. It makes it a permanent
fixture of society. You can have racism without racists. In fact, that's the name of a book written by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. You know, there are actually
a lot of books written about the history of racism in America. Like, thousands of books. And I would strongly suggest
that the certified members of the Dunces of Darkness
read one of these books, maybe two. Because this history is not unknowable. Most of the ideas and
concepts in this video are from these books
because I'm not that smart. But other people are. And I haven't even had a chance to get into countless other
examples of systemic racism, like the health impact of the constant and persistent anxiety
inflicted by racism, the disproportionate
mortality rates of Black women in pregnancy and child birth, the racist ideas doctors
have regarding the degree to which Black people can feel pain, racism in hiring, racism in
school disciplinary actions, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Like, I've barely even
referenced racial terror and racist violence, like the fact that the KKK, the OG terrorist organization, has murdered an estimated 100000 people throughout our history. The truth is that it would take me, like, 400 years to describe
our country's history of systemic racism and white supremacy. But recent events have
illuminated its impact. Is it surprising that Black Americans are more likely to
contract the Coronavirus? Considering they are
less likely to have a job that they can do from home, more likely to be an essential worker, more likely to have to
take public transportation to get to that job and more likely to live in a
multi generational household? Not only that but the Trump administration has enacted a policy to deny relief loans to business owners with criminal records and so unless you haven't
been watching this video and decided to randomly skip to the end, I think you know precisely who that policy will
disproportionately impact. (dramatic music) Nope! Is it any surprise that
Black Americans are dying at three times the rate of
white Americans from COVID-19? When we know that Black Americans are more likely to live in food deserts, live in polluted areas, and disproportionately suffer
from the co-morbidities associated with death from Covid-19? So get ready for the racist ideas that justify this racial inequity. I predict that we will start hearing newly invented racist myths about how Black people enjoy
coughing in each other's faces or don't wash their hands, or, oh, there it is! Right on cue! And so, I will conclude this
marathon of a youtube video by asking this, is the answer to addressing
racial inequality to ignore our history and its impact and instead be colorblind in our policies and judge people by the
content of their character? Just like MLK said man, should we just tell
Black people in America to pull themselves up by their bootstraps? - America freed the slaves in 1863 through the emancipation
proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. But gave the slaves no land or nothing in reality
and as a matter of fact to get started on. At the same time, America
was giving away millions of acres of land in the
West and the Midwest. Which meant that that was a willingness to give the white peasants
from Europe an economic base. And yet it refused to give its
black peasants from Africa, who came here involuntarily in chains, and had worked free for 244 years. Any kind of economic base, and so emancipation for the Negro was really freedom to hunger. It was freedom to the
winds and rains of heaven. It was freedom without food
to eat or land to cultivate and therefore it was freedom and famine at the same time. And when white Americans tell the Negro to lift himself by his own bootstraps, they don't look over the legacy
of slavery and segregation. Now, I believe we ought to do all we can and seek to lift ourselves
by our own bootstraps but it's a cruel jest
to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself
by his own bootstraps. And many Negros, by the
thousands and millions, have been left bootless as a result of all of these years of oppression and as a result of a society that deliberately made his color a stigma and something worthless and degrading. - Okay, Marty. Counterpoint... Strawman, anything? (dramatic music) Oh, oh, oh, okay. Na-ah. Woo! Hey, thanks for watching that entire video which I know you did and if you did and liked it make sure to like it on the video and subscribe to the channel. And the comments can be nice or mean. I don't care. Do like this new bit, where the pages are blank but also the pencil is empty? Ha, ha, ha, ha. Also we we have a podcast called Even More News in The Patreon.
Honestly, this has gotta be one of the most brilliant takedowns of the reactionary systemic-racism-denying crap out there.
The first video was taken down for a little bit. This is the reupload, its working for me as of right now.
I can barely watch the clips of Ben Shapiro, they're just so bad
I'm a simple man. I see Cody, I watch the Showdy
The Showdy has hit a new high point with this one folks.
comments aren’t exaggerating. this was excellent.
This quote really stood out for me...
The inequalities of our past collect interest
Codys best showdy in quite a while now, maybe even his best showdy.
Cody’s content gets better the more his mental state degrades in isolation, great vid!