Jim Crow, Neoliberalism, And The Current Fascist Backlash Against Civil Rights Movements - SMN

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I think on of the arguments that was most successful about pulling me left was pointing out the ways that racial and economic justice can help make the whole of society better. Happier people, much safer cities, better economy, more innovation, and so on. Leaving so many people behind in the quest to better society and personal lives is a critical mistake that inevitably lead to problems like gangs and the recent riots, and if we want these problems to stop, we need to make life better for the people who feel like they have no options and have been treated as less than human by our current system.

👍︎︎ 59 👤︎︎ u/DuhChappers 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

Cody and the Some More News crew are indeed a reputable source and I enjoy their showdy.

👍︎︎ 48 👤︎︎ u/MostReputableSource 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

I literally never watch youtube videos that are this long, and I very rarely watch youtube at all. But I'm glad I watched this. Funny, informative, accurate.

👍︎︎ 33 👤︎︎ u/yarnwhore 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

Cody bang on correct. Racial injustice and capitalism go hand in hand

👍︎︎ 63 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

"How Fascism Works" is required reading. Added a few quality, necessary points to my understanding. One of which is the wholesale invention of a communism threat to scare people into supporting fascism. "Communism," especially Stalinist totalitarianism communism, has zero real possibility of coming to America which is why they need to frame things like medicine and housing as the step immediately prior to gulags in order to gin up support.

👍︎︎ 12 👤︎︎ u/brallipop 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

Cody is just socialist John Oliver. And i like it.

👍︎︎ 10 👤︎︎ u/OperatingOp11 📅︎︎ Oct 25 2020 🗫︎ replies

If anyone's interested in more on this topic and how racism and capitalism develop together I have this video on capitalism and white supremacy https://youtu.be/bBn2i52cucQ

👍︎︎ 9 👤︎︎ u/johntheduncan 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies
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(excited music) - Well, hello there. Some more news fanatics, enthusiasts, hobbyists, devotees, and aficionados. How was your weekend? Mine was well. My roommate slash ex life partner, Mr. Masky and I took a vacation to, I don't know the corner over there. It was really relaxing. Glad you could join us. As we rapidly approached the quote most important and simultaneously unquote stupidest presidential election of our lifetimes, it's worth taking a break from the 24-second news cycle and all the doom scrolling to try and better understand this moment in terms of its historic context. You know, try to see the forest for all the burning trees. When historians look back at 2020, what will they see? Will they see the worst year ever? Will they see the last good year we ever had? Will we learn the lessons of this terrible year and realize that we are all in this together and promote the ideals of a multiracial democracy that supports the fundamental needs of all of us? Or will we succumb to fascism or will we go through door number three and rejoice at the fact that politics is boring again? That things can just go back to normal and become complacent as we go back to brunch or as it should be called Lekfast. (excited music) This year has seen the devastating and heartbreaking murders of black people by the police. Like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the shooting of Jacob Blake. And so, so, so many others. And he failed response to a deadly pandemic that has made the impact of systemic racism painfully clear. One out of every thousand black people in this country has died from this virus. This disease has laid bare all of the inequalities in our society as the rich have become richer and the poor have become poorer during this pandemic. The good news, if there is any, is that this has led to the largest sustained protest movement in American history. A multiracial coalition calling for racial and economic justice. Calling for a foundational transformation of policing and our criminal legal system and a massive increase in our social safety net. And the bad news is this movement and moment has also spawned a racist and violent backlash. - This may be a lot of things, this moment we're living through, but it is definitely not about black lives. And remember that when they come for you and at this rate, they will. - So make no mistake. No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats America. - The 17-year-old now arrested following a horrifying attack in Kenosha captured on the cellphone video. The shooting happened during the third night of unrest there following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. - The actions of vigilantes like Kyle Rittenhouse - We're looking at all of it. That was an interesting situation. You saw the same tape as I saw. And he was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like, and he fell and then they very violently attacked him. And it was something that we're looking at right now and it's under investigation, but I guess he was in very big trouble. He would have been, he probably would have been killed but it's under, it's under investigation. - How shocked are we that 17 year olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would? - Cucker Tarlson, sorry, (beep) asks, how shocked are we that a 17-year-old crossed state lines armed with an assault rifle that he was legally too young to own, and went out and killed two protestors, after he Tucker McNear Swanson Carlson and his network obsessively fixated on the threat to the suburbs from BLM and Antifa terrorists spending hours displaying violent imagery in the month leading up to the shooting to represent these protests? Despite studies showing that 93% of the protests were entirely peaceful. Including messaging that running over protestors is okay and good, but somehow he doesn't feel compelled to ask the same question about why people might be protesting in the streets following a never-ending string of police killings, or the fact that the police used force in over 54% of the demonstrations in which they engaged. Because as we have noted on this show, these riots have largely been police riots and much of the looting comma violence that did take place has been in direct response to the violent and aggressive tactics of police. Including habitually committing literal war crimes against protestors. And despite the fact that the entire right-wing media apparatus, the Republican Party and the president of an entire country, this country, in fact, has been trying to scare the shit out of white people by claiming that BLM and Antifa terrorists are planning to destroy the suburbs. The truth is that the actual domestic terrorists are right-wing groups that have been specifically and intentionally encouraged by the president of a country, this country, like the extremist group in Michigan that it was recently busted for plotting to kidnap and or assassinate the democratic governor of the state via PT Cruiser. Which was followed by the president gleefully encouraging his rally crowd to chant lock her up, about the governor who was going to be kidnapped - A guy like Biden, and the Democrats wanna keep Michigan locked up, locked down and closed for business. No, it's so badly hurting you say. - [Crowd] Lock her up, lock her up, lock her up! And then I guess they said she was threatened. She's serious. And she blamed me. She blamed me. - And so, it's not surprising that we're seeing more and more fully armed militias, white supremacists and fascist street gangs showing up at protests for racial justice, ready to stand by. Or the people who have driven their cars into protestors 104 times since the protest began. Nor is it surprising that fundraising efforts for the Kenosha shooter have raised nearly a million dollars as of September 3rd, while the president brags about the extra judicial killing of Michael Reinoehl. The painful truth is that political violence in response to movements for racial equality is nothing new in America. In fact, it's kind of our thing. And so while this moment in American history may appear to be particularly bleak because it is. It's also important to remember that literally every moment in American history, where we have started to make significant strides towards racial equality have been met by an aggressive racist backlash and a proactive reassertion of white supremacy which has relentlessly resulted in revised systems and policies and ideas that always seem to uniquely adapt to the specific nature and characteristics of the progress. And yet, while the particular adaptation and response is unique and tailor made for the moment, the result is always the same. The preservation of a racial hierarchy, a caste system based on race because when it comes to maintaining racism, America can be incredibly creative. (excited music) - Following the civil war for a brief time, America actually tried to advance racial equality. This is the era known as reconstruction. We pass the 13th amendment, which ended slavery unless you were incarcerated. The 14th amendment, which professed to grant equal protection under the law to all citizens, regardless of race and the 15th amendment which reported to grant voting rights to all citizens. Male citizens. President Ulysses S. Grant even sent out federal troops to secure and protect the voting rights of the freedman, which resulted in the very first black men being elected to the US Congress and Senate. Hiram Revels became the first black United States Senator in 1870, five years later, Blanch K. Bruce was elected to the Senate in Mississippi. But this period also included a major backlash. The OG domestic terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan formed an opposition to this racial progress and terrorized and murdered thousands of would be black voters, politicians, and those who supported them. And while Grant fought back and ultimately dismantled this first iteration of the KKK, don't worry, they'll be back. Following his presidency, the project of reconstruction was ultimately abandoned with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes. The first president to lose the popular vote and yet somehow win the presidency. And he did this through what became known as the Compromise of 1877, where Hayes agreed to cede control of the South to democratic governments and back away from attempts at federal intervention in the region. As well as place a southerner in his cabinet. In return, Democrats would not dispute Hayes' election and agreed to respect the civil rights of black citizens. But surprise! The Dixiecrats did not in fact, respect the civil rights of the newly freed black citizens. Instead, they created what has come to be known as the Jim Crow segregation era. A series of laws that continued to subjugate black people and uphold white supremacy. It was no longer illegal to enslave black people, unless of course they were incarcerated, but this new network of laws would explicitly limit their rights including the right to vote and ensure that they would remain second-class citizens. These laws would later be heavily studied by Nazi Germany and become the basis for the Nuremberg law that stripped Jews and others of their rights. America. Exporting fascism since before fascism. It would be nearly 100 years before we saw another black Senator in the United States. Consider the fact that Barack Obama was the fifth black us Senator in American history. Fifth. That's this hand. He started serving in 2005. And Kamala Harris is only the second black woman to ever serve in the Senate. That's two fingers. She began her term in 2017. In all of US history, there have been 1,984 total senators, 1,984, nearly 2000. And yet in all of US history, there have only been 10 senators. These two hands who have been black. And yet my best friend band mate, and favorite historian Ben Sha-P-Word thinks that. - Kamala Harris is not breaking any glass ceilings here because there was no glass ceiling. Hillary Clinton was last major party nomination won the popular vote. So we've already had a woman who won most popular votes in the presidential election. We've already had a two-term black president. So the notion that Kamala Harris faces unique obstacles is absolutely ridiculous. - That's right, folks. We already had a black. And a femoid has already shattered the glass ceiling. Which is why the last episode of this show was called why current president Hillary Clinton's climate change plan doesn't go far enough. And why the episode before that was called, why lowering the eligibility age of Medicare to 55 and implementing the public option is not enough and just helps the private insurance industry? And why we at Cody's Showdy felt like we could take a short break from the headlines and focus on the trend lines and is why we indulged in our epic trilogy about Baby Nut, which in alternate timeline retrospect was probably ill-advised. We lost a lot of subscribers. We are very sorry for that in that alternate timeline. Although I think Ben might actually be a little confused, here and always. But here because breaking news. Hillary Clinton is not in fact the president. That would of course be Joe Biden, apparently, but despite Ben's constant confusion about American history, the is that following our nation's abandonment of reconstruction in the 1870s, it would be nearly 100 years before a new civil rights movement took hold. Led by people like Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King along with the black power movement led by people like Malcolm X and Fred Hampton. These movements pressured president Lyndon Johnson to pass the Civil rights Act of 1964. And the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which effectively ended the Jim Crow era of explicit legal segregation. Progress but also backlash. Because all of these leaders I just mentioned were assassinated along with civil rights advocate and presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy. The backlash to the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s was the literal murder of the leaders of these movements, which perhaps puts our recent debates about cancel culture into a little bit of perspective. I don't know maybe, but of course, it didn't end there. The Republican candidate for president in this era, Richard Nixon deploy a political tactic which has come to be known as the Southern Strategy. And while right wing grifter, Candace Owens may claim that. - So we have the audacity to think for themselves and become educated about our history and the myth of things like the Southern Switch and the Southern Strategy which never happened. - The Southern Strategy very much did happen. Nixon's chief strategist Lee Atwater has admitted as much. The Southern Strategy and the new laws and the ideology that it led to were a direct response to the victories of the civil rights movement. It was theoretically no longer illegal to explicitly discriminate against the black people. So all of the vocabulary and the policies had to become implicit. This new paradigm accelerated the era of rhetorical dog whistles and racist code words. The Nixon campaign of 1968 responded to the protest for racial justice that were taking place at the time by calling for law and order. Does that sound familiar? And the policies that developed in this new era were even more insidious. When Nixon became president, he declared drug abuse public enemy number one. Former Nixon domestic policy, chief John Ehrlichman revealed that the war on drugs was created as a political tool to fight blacks and hippies who opposed the war in Vietnam. "We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." This strategy of using racially coded language and the implementation of supposed race neutral policies designed to specifically appeal to white voters who wanted to maintain their privileged status in society would later be perfected by y Ronald "Mommy" Reagan who ushered in a new ideology which would serve to maintain the racial cast system. Neoliberalism. This obsession with austerity, which sorry to tell all of you, JC39 stans, actually started to gain traction under the presidency of Jimmy Carter ultimately resulted in policies that decimated the social safety net and essentially cemented the racial inequality that had been created as a result of slavery and Jim Crow laws. And since the investments that would be necessary to address racial inequality were in effect forbidden, it prevented meaningful progress from being made. These policies were justified by the ideology of neoliberalism. If you're poor, it's your fault. Government is the problem. Assistance to address poverty just creates a culture of dependency. Let the markets figure it out. These bootstrap best ideas were sold to the public through fear-mongering about crime and crack babies in order to expand the war on drugs and mass incarceration. And the racializing of government safety net programs like the myth of welfare Queens and the strapping young bucks buying T-bone steaks with food stamps was used to rationalize the cuts to our social safety net. These messages were used as a way to convince a large percentage of white people that the general concept of government assistance is synonymous with giving black people an unfair and undeserved advantage over them. And it was insidiously deployed as a political weapon to obscure the fact that their primary goal was to vastly increase the advantages of corporations and the rich and powerful. Of course it was all a big con job. America's a big con job. That's history. The very construction of race and by extension, racism, in America developed as a way to justify free labor, also known as slavery to increase the profits of the ruling class. So the tactic of tricking a bunch of white people to believe that their advantage in society was under threat in order to perpetuate a system that was created to benefit the wealthy worked yet again. And after 20 out of 24 years of Republican power, the Democrats of this era relented. Something they love to do. They cried uncle and found a third way to win elections again. By triangulating progressive policies and Reagan era austerity coupled with catering to the interests of the rich, essentially the white flag was raised and the new paradigm and default setting of American politics became the basic ideas of neoliberalism and tough on crime policies. In the same way that our country operated under a system of Jim Crow laws that enforced a racial hierarchy for 90 plus years following reconstruction our country has operated under a systemically racist and neoliberal mass incarceration template for the past 50 years as a response to the victories of the civil rights movement. This also happens to be the same era that a certain Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has operated under. In fact, he has been one of the major contributors to many of the problems we are facing right now. Which brings us back to what is happening today. Where the movement for black lives is calling for an end to the war on drugs, the over-policing of their neighborhoods and mass incarceration. There was a call for re-imagining public safety which would include massive investments in affordable housing, healthcare, and education that would effectively end the current neoliberal paradigm. The system that has maintained the racial cast system in America is being challenged in a way that it hasn't since the 1960s. But as predicted, there is a backlash. And this time, the threat is not Jim Crow segregation or neoliberalism and mass incarceration. It's, no graphic. Okay, well, it's fascism. Fascism is the thing. - Fascism is a cult of the leader who promises national restoration in the face of supposed threats by leftist, radicals, minorities, and immigrants. He promises only he can save us - This is ohilosopher Jason Stanley. Author of the book How Fascism Works. Stanley argues that there are 10 pillars of fascism. And while it is worthwhile to note that Trumpism happens to check the boxes of all 10 of Stanley's pillars of fascism, and the Trump apologists have made arguments like well, it's not like we have concentration camps or ethnic cleansing or secret police pulling people off the street despite the fact that predictably, all those things are now happening. We are going to focus on just a couple of Stanley's pillars of fascism for the moment. Because if you are still not convinced that Trump is a fascist, or at the very least represents American fascism to a T, feel free to check out the other videos we've done on this topic. But to recap, here's a short summary from our last episode. Fascism goes through phases from ideology to full fledged regime. Is characterized by Pelon genetic ultra nationalism, anti globalism, or rejection of feminism and socialism and homosexuality and Marxism and cultural Marxism and obsession with conspiracy theories, a fear of the other, a creation of in-groups and out-groups to be rejected from the ingroup and obsession with heroism and violence and machismo in a weaponry, a collection of syncretistic intellectuals complaining about liberal academia and Cami's a death cult led by a charismatic male leader in the form of an ideologically inconsistent and unprincipled opportunist who plays on emotions and fears and popular trends do further a dictatorship against the left. On this popular enthusiasm due to a crisis of capitalism and ineffective, liberal governance and political gridlock. Via uneasy Alliance with conservative elites creating images and traditions and language unique to each country and leader and people. That's the basics. Handsome guy, get some sleep. And so in retrospect, clearly there are a lot of reasons why our nation was primed for the rise of fascism in 2016. Which included the white majority spheres of losing their privileged status to rapidly shifting demographic changes occurring in our country. And it's worth noting that the increased size and scope of the Black Lives Matter movement right now is as much a response to the rise of fascism. As the fascist backlash is a response to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. A feedback loop. A snake eating its own other snake. No more analogies, I'm sorry. Just, I think it is important that we take a moment to examine why fascism is the logical response to this moment in American history. Because the terrible truth is America will do everything it can to maintain capitalism and its racial caste system. And the ideas that support the current structure that has maintained and administered this intentional inequality for so long is at risk of breaking apart. Because if national debt and budget deficits are such a huge concern, why did we suddenly have trillions of dollars available to prop up the largest corporations and super wealthy? If poverty and financial hardship is result of personal failings, why are so many people suffering financially through no fault of their own? And why do we all expect the government which is supposedly the enemy to now help us? And the systemic racism is a myth and a lie. Why is a virus that is supposed to be the great equalizer instead killing more black people than anyone else in any other group? Could it be that all of these ideas were all bold face lies? Yes. And as more and more people in this country recognize these lies more and more people are saying this, it becomes harder and harder to hold on to power through a system where theoretically, at least, the people actually have a say in the matter. Which is why these fascists are actively trying to undermine democracy itself and literally steal this election. The backlash we are confronting today threatens to fundamentally redefine the alleged foundational ideals of American democracy. The number one pillar of fascism on Stanley's list is described as a mythic past. A great mythic past which the leader hearkens back to. You know, MAGA. so while racial justice advocates are calling for a better understanding of how the racism and systemic and legal discrimination of our past affects the lives of black people today, Donald Trump is threatening to withhold funding for schools that discuss the 1619 project and is directing all federal agencies to cancel all training programs on critical race theory or white privilege calling these ideas anti-American propaganda. By the way, critical race theory draws from the ideas of infamous anti Americans like Martin Luther King, Jr. And Frederick Douglas, a guy who is being recognized more and more and espouses wacky ideas like race is a social construct and institutionalized racism exists. And perhaps most importantly, what if it didn't? Also like if anti-racism ideas equal anti-American ideas, that kind of implies that pro-racism would be pro-American. So I guess, good job Trump, you accidentally nailed it. Trump is now calling for a patriotic education to defend history from the left and his partner in crime Attorney General Bill Barr has been suggesting that federal prosecutors should charge protestors with sedition. A crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. This is all modern day book burning. The goal here is to dismiss and deny our nation's history of racism and create a new mythic past. And to accomplish this task, these fascists and their enablers will use another tactic from Stanley's pillars of fascism. Victimhood. Stanley argues that in fascism, the dominant group are the greatest victims. - Right now, being a Republican and specifically being a Trump supporter is probably the most dangerous and the most disrespected, the most stereotype against thing in America. - I am greeted with a hostile press. The likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse. - I think we live in a tremendously racist society towards white people. And yes, there is racism towards black people, there's racism towards Chinese people, but it is overwhelmingly at this point in society, towards white people. - That is how irrational the white hatred is on the left. It is analogous to the antisemitism that pervaded Europe. - By using this tactic, these neofascist have convinced their audience that any effort to address racial inequality is by very definition going to further harm the lives and status of white people. While the system ushered in by Reagan convinced the white people that the playing field was level and racism was a thing of the past. The new system that is taking hold is convincing white people that actually, they are at a distinct disadvantage. And the inevitable consequences of buying into this fascist ideology are extremely severe. And not just in the obvious ways like fascism is bad. And yet our alternative to this, terrifying outcome. It's not great. We are in a situation where we are either going to descend deeper into fascism, very, very, not good, folks. Or run the risk of maintaining the status quo. Also not good folks. Many people are saying this. Not nearly as bad as fascism, but not good, not nearly good enough. Joe Biden may not publicly celebrate sending a death squad to extra judicially murder a suspected criminal but he will respond to nationwide calls to defund the police by proposing the exact opposite solution. Which is pretty in line with how he's contributed to neo-liberalism his whole career. We know that Trump will continue to tear this country apart with the devastating consequences. But we also know that it is likely that the Biden administration will hashtag resist the structural reforms that are necessary to address racial and economic inequality. There a very real risk that a Biden administration will attempt to placate and pacify the movement by offering up symbolic gestures at the expense of the structural changes that are necessary. The solution to racial inequality is not appointing a LatinX woman to head up ICE, it's to abolish ICE altogether. It is possible. And perhaps probable that a Biden administration could be the political equivalent of posting a black square on Instagram. Make no mistake. Trump and his fascism must be repudiated and defeated. And he's far worse and far more dangerous than Joe Biden and his insufficient proposals. But the Biden philosophy of trying to compromise with the fascist enablers and racist in the Republican party which inevitably perpetuates political gridlock and ineffectual governance is part of the reason that fascism was able to rise in the first place. And regardless of who was in power, billion dollar corporations like Pepsi Co. will continue to try and appease us by discontinuing racist brands like Aunt Jemima while they spend millions of dollars lobbying against public health efforts that disproportionately impact the black community. So how do we stop this? How do we neutralize the most powerful political weapon in American history, racism? And disable a tactic that has been used throughout our history to protect the interests of the wealthy, by convincing a large percentage of white people in our country that addressing racial inequality will somehow negatively affect their lives. Well, we can start by telling the truth. - Racism is bad for white people too. - This is Heather McGhee. The former president of the progressive think tank, Demos You may remember her from this clip from C-Span. - I was hoping that your guests can help me change my mind about some things. I'm a white male and I am prejudice. I have these different fears and I don't want my fears to come true, you know. So I try to avoid that. And I come off as being prejudice, right? But I just have fears. I don't like to be forced to like people. I like to be led to like people through example and what can I do to change? To be a better American? - Following this exchange, Heather McGee actually met with the caller in person. A man named Gary. And over the years, the two became friends. - And Gary would tell you that I've taught him a lot about systemic racism in America and public policy. But I learned a lot from Gary too. And the biggest lesson for me has been that Gary's prejudice has caused him to suffer. Fear anxiety, isolation. And it's made me rethink many of the economic problems I've been focusing on my entire career. I wondered is it possible that our society's racism has likewise been backfiring on the very same people set up to benefit from privilege? - The cost of fear and anxiety can be devastating to people are dead because of Kyle Rittenhouse's fear and anxiety. And Rittenhouse himself is now facing murder charges. But also think about what a racist person is missing out on. There are 42 million black people in the United States. That's a lot of people you could be friends with. Play video games with. Share life's precious, beautiful moments with. Or even (beep). And if you are a lower class white person, at the bottom of the top tier of the racial caste system, who has absorbed our society's message that white people are superior to black people and deserve a privileged status in society as a result. You're being set up for constant disappointment. Because in the course of your life, you will see many, many examples of members of this supposedly inferior race and or culture excel in ways that you are not excelling. For many lower class white people, it doesn't look like a privilege to them. This could have something to do with the fact that over recent years, there's been a surge of deaths within the undereducated white working class population. Largely due to what authors Anne Case and Angus Deaton call Deaths of Despair. Deaths from alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide. Wouldn't it be nice to let go of that burden and beyond the emotional and psychological costs of racism to white people, there are incredibly significant material costs. Study after study has shown that when white people think that a government program helps a lot of black people or other people of color, they're more likely to oppose it. This is why we can't have nice things. And while a disproportionate number of black people benefit from social safety net programs, because, you know systemic racism makes black people more likely to be poor and live in areas of concentrated poverty with fewer options for upward mobility. The majority of the people that participate in these programs are white. According to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities in 2014, 6.2 million working age white people were lifted above the poverty line by government safety net programs compared to 2.8 million black people. In 2015, over 40% of food stamp recipients were white. And in 2016, white people made up 43% of Medicaid recipients. I hope you get my point. A large number of white people oppose policies that help lots of white people. Why is that? Heather McGee tells the story of the Oak Park pool in Montgomery, Alabama. One of the many public amenities funded by tax dollars in the era of the new deal. Yet this public good suffered a tragic fate as a function of the backlash to the end of segregation. - It was the meeting place for the town, except the Oak Park pool, though it was funded by all of Montgomery Citizens was for whites only. When a federal court finally deemed this unconstitutional, the reaction of the town council was swift. Effective January 1st, 1959. They decided they would drain the public pool rather than let black families swim too. - This is a good metaphor for how racism is bad for everyone. A metaphor that also actually happened. It's true that white people have a privileged status in the racial caste system, but that privilege is only in comparison to the subjective group and the efforts to maintain this dynamic, hold everyone down. No one can enjoy the Oak Park pool any longer. Not even Joe Biden or as good friend, Corn Pop. But by contrast, striving for racial equality actually improves the lives of everybody. Consider the fact that the Freedmen's Bureau, established during reconstruction to help the formerly enslaved people following the civil war established a public school system that served both black and white children and would lay the foundation for public education in the former Confederate States. Or consider how title nine of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has also protected the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community. Most of whom were white. Just think about how overhauling our policing system reforming our criminal legal system ending mass incarceration, expanding our social safety net and investing in the housing, healthcare, education and general welfare of all of our citizens would benefit everyone today, including white people. The truth is that the best way to address racial inequality is with a progressive agenda. And the best way to implement a progressive agenda that helps everyone is by creating a multiracial coalition, dedicated to dismantling systemic racism and economic inequality. Eradicating systemic racism would be the right thing to do even if it didn't help white people. But the fact that it does kind of makes it a pretty easy decision, right? But I'm less interested in placing the blame on everyday white people, per se, since as we've just illustrated, many of them are also the victims of our racist system. I'd rather put the blame where it belongs. On the producers of the racist ideas that divide Americans in order to protect their capital. They are the ones who benefit from the system while everyone else suffers. And thankfully, millions of white people are realizing this and are understanding the nature and impact of this country's legacy of racial injustice and have joined the movement for black lives and economic justice. So there is some reason to hope. And it is perhaps an indication of this movement success that Joe Biden who has been firmly planted in the current system of mass incarceration and neoliberalism has been pressured to acknowledge that some of his previous policies were mistakes. The victories of the civil rights movement weren't marked by the election of LBJ. They were defined by how the movement was able to exert the necessary pressure to force him to act in meaningful ways. And though this journey will be long and hard and require persistence, the alternative is much, much worse. The alternative is full-blown mask off fascism. And the best weapon we have to oppose that right now and hopefully make this country less fertile soil for fascism to rise again in the future is democracy. While that is still a viable option. And I really don't wanna be doing another video in four years, pleading with you to vote for John Delaney over Tucker Carlson. So step one, get rid of Trump and his fascism. And step two is to bully Biden and to not let the less obvious, less mask off problems that led us to Trump slip through. Because even if we are able to succeed in getting rid of the disgusting monster that is Donald, I have to flush the toilet 15 times, Trump. We need to stay in the fight and stay in the streets socially distanced of course, with, you know, with your mask on, 'cause the, the global pandemic that's killed over 220,000 people and counting. And the current president strategy to win is to say that his opponent wants to listen to scientists. So I don't know. See ya. (excited music) I'm losing. All right. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the part where I say like and subscribe the video and to the channel. And leave a comment if you want. We've got a patreon.com/somemorenews. We've got a podcast called Even More News. We've got I don't know, merch, probably, we've got like and subscribe the video and the channel. We've got like and subscribe.
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Views: 496,872
Rating: 4.9243684 out of 5
Keywords: George Floyd, breonna taylor, racism, systemic racism, donald trump, richard nixon, neoliberalism, neoliberalism explained, Tucker Carlson, Fascism, civil rights, civil rights movement, southern strategy, jim crow, reconstruction, some more news, news, more news, cody johnston, civil rights act of 1964, ku klux klan, kkk, fascists, trumpism, right wing, extremist groups, michigan, michigan kidnapping, michigan kidnapping governor, kyle rittenhouse
Id: RKgyOOU8moc
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 38min 49sec (2329 seconds)
Published: Sat Oct 24 2020
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