The Family Ties Podcast - True Crime Podcast Series

Systemic Racism - What Are the Roles of Power Structures & Race?

August 05, 2020 Kelley Richey Season 1 Episode 11
The Family Ties Podcast - True Crime Podcast Series
Systemic Racism - What Are the Roles of Power Structures & Race?
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, Kelley and Julia continue their discussion on race and the power structures that keep the United States gridlocked and in constant clashes with authority.  The sisters break down the defining traits of systemic oppression of people of color while coming to terms with the fact that they have also unknowingly been benefiting from these structures, and sharing their research on how everyone can start pushing back against these rigged and archaic power structures. 

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Julia Avery :

The Family Ties podcast is a fresh and new series created and curated by two sisters, myself, Julia Avery and my sister Kelly Richie. on opposite sides of the United States. We want to share our journey of staying connected through the weekly discussion of topics that both affect and inspire us. These topics range from arts and entertainment, inspirational women, and role models science, global issues, psychology, life experiences, pet peeves, etc. Distance may keep us apart, but the family ties creates the perfect backdrop to remain connected, challenged and always learning.

Unknown Speaker :

Hi, welcome back to the family ties podcast. My name is Julia Avery and this is my co host and sister

Unknown Speaker :

Kelly Kelly, Richie hi everybody you know at some point I'll come up with a really cool intro like saying like every get their socks on you ready buckled in? I don't know

Unknown Speaker :

all about safety guys. Yeah. Safety first

Unknown Speaker :

guess phrases when you hear it you're like it's so simple you know I should really come up with on but whenever you try to it just sounds like so contrived. Sounds like you're trying real hard and that's like now my intro might be slightly better than what's his name from behind the bastards. Robert Evans. I think I'm, I'm like, kind of on the cusp. They're good for you. High five, high five. High five. Okay.

Unknown Speaker :

That was a little delayed Julia.

Unknown Speaker :

Try matching that audio up.

Unknown Speaker :

Okay, we're children. All right. So we have been tackling all of the kind of subtopics within racism the past couple of weeks, very relevant time. And it's, I mean, technically, it's always been irrelevant, but it's been brought to the forefront. So it's something we cannot ignore and kind of glossed over. So kaeleen, I thought it was super important to kind of delve into all of the specifics behind what drives racism, mostly in America, because it runs deep. It runs deep here that and the way that we understand what systematic racism is because I think a lot of people are unclear as to what that entails. Right? So a couple weeks ago, we were tackling you know, kind of what white privilege was. And then another one, we addressed the specifics about law enforcement and this week, we want to kind of delve in

Unknown Speaker :

To what systematic racism is, we hear that term thrown out a lot, but there are a lot of people like Kelly just said that don't really understand what that is. So we're going to cover that today and hopefully remove the wool from your eyes. Yeah, and did I say systemic or systematic? Because I feel a little dyslexic today. Um, I don't know. I know I heard systematic because that's what I knew it was okay. So all right, I may have said systemic, but those are both applicable.

Unknown Speaker :

Do you ever like replace words that are setting correctly because you know what they're actually supposed to be? Because you're already assuming what's gonna be said? Yeah, kind of like words that are placed incorrectly on a sign or something misspelled or put out of place, but your mind puts it together because you know what it's supposed to say. I think that horrible when an old boss of yours says don't

Unknown Speaker :

Take things so personally and then you just sit there and laugh because they have no clue.

Unknown Speaker :

That's as bad as me.

Unknown Speaker :

Wow. Okay then so let's just kind of dive in real quick to what we've been doing this week. Julia, have you been watching anything interesting listening to anything that you want to recommend? Okay, so my favorite one of my favorites is Childish Gambino. So he had come out with that this is America song. Couple years ago. So relevant. Yeah. I love to watch guava. I think it's guava Island. No, I heard mixed reviews on that. And I just haven't gotten to it yet. Because Carol, my watch list is so long. I'm sorry. I keep adding stuff.

Unknown Speaker :

But then you keep watching. Like stuff that you think I recommended that I actually didn't recommend it. So that's not my fault.

Unknown Speaker :

boson guys. I Kelly had recommended what was the show's name? 100 humans. Yeah. So I did, I was trying to finish some other stuff that I was already watching. So I finished it and then I was looking for that and what pops up on Netflix is the 100. And I thought that's what she was talking about, because in the same conversation that she recommended that show we had been talking about like a post apocalyptic kind of thing where, you know, people were supposed to try to survive this radiation or something like that. And I was like, Okay, this is it.

Unknown Speaker :

I've had four seasons deep into this show, and then find out it should not

Unknown Speaker :

be recommended and the whole time I was like, Kelly's gonna be so proud.

Unknown Speaker :

Appreciate you, listening to me. Well, I would say

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Throw everything off of your list for the moment and do yourself a favor

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and watch

Unknown Speaker :

random acts of flyness on HBO. It's a it's hard to describe but this Writer Director Producer named Terence Nance is the master mind behind the project the show about the beauty and ugliness of contemporary American Life. Using a fluid stream of conscious approach, Nance explores cultural idioms such as like patriarchy, white supremacy, sensuality, there's like little vignettes, that kind of interconnect, but it was it was so beautiful and I only got through the first episode, but that's something I would highly recommend for your Black Lives Matter watch list and then I will have several more on here but I'm going to only suggest one more and it's a Netflix show trigger warning with Killer Mike I love Killer Mike from the jewels he uses his fame to serve as an activist hoping to bring light to confront

Unknown Speaker :

important issues like ones that impact the black community specifically so Killer Mike, whose real name is Michael render examines cultural taboos, and allows viewers to examine the what ifs. And you know what, why not that limit how people operate in the world. So it's super great. Give it a shot. All right. So while you You gave everybody something to kind of listen to and watch watch lists. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I have two actresses that I don't see praised enough for their work. And I think they're phenomenal. Oh, for my watch list. Dear White People. It's on Netflix. It's good. But the actors check out. I think it's Tati. Is that how you pronounce it? Kelly? Yeah. Tati, Gabrielle. She played prudence Blackwood on the chilling Adventures of Sabrina and she plays Gaia on the 100

Unknown Speaker :

Not the show. I recommend it to you, but I get it. Right, right. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker :

And then, uh, Dina Porter. She is great at playing like these extreme characters, Indra on the 100.

Unknown Speaker :

Oh, but she's also played on True Blood. She was Tara's mom. Oh, she said like everything. And then she was also on American Horror Story. Yep, I remember that. So she's great at playing these really random kind of extreme personality errors. Yeah. And I just think she's great. Yeah, she is really good. Nice job, Julie. Yeah. All right. Yeah, you've got some facts for us, Kelly. So we're discussing systematic. Well, this is systemic. So I'm just gonna go systemic because maybe that's what I said that first time. I don't know.

Unknown Speaker :

Am I right?

Unknown Speaker :

Are you wrong? Are you writing? Am I wrong? I don't know. Again, I

Unknown Speaker :

forgot about it. So what is systemic racism? I found this article we of course like to quote from articles where people who are way smarter than us dive into topics and make it a lot clearer than we can. But Nydia Yancey Bragg from USA Today wrote something called what a systemic racism here's what it means and how you can help dismantle it. This is not about one incident says and double acp president Derek Johnson. This is about the systemic and pervasive nature of racism in this nation that must be addressed. He defines the systemic racism as a structural institutional racism that is consistent with systems and structures that have procedures or processes that disadvantages American African Americans. Glenn Harris, who's the president of race forward and publisher of color lines to find it as the complex interaction of culture, policy and institutions that holds in place

Unknown Speaker :

See outcomes we see in our lives then it's also described as something that systemic racism creates disparities and many success indicators including wealth, the criminal justice system, employment, housing, health care, politics and education. That's just a basic kind of overlook of what it is is something that regardless of if you are or are not racist, these systems are in place within our government and our social structures, that disenfranchises and disadvantages African Americans that's essentially what that means. And it's been going on for forever so to me Yeah, this kind of breaks down into deeply embedded Yes, so deeply embedded and not accidentally and not without very strategic planning. It is definitely systems put into place to keep them from succeeding and these things to me jump out is like the key issues like they said, are with housing gerrymandering voter suppression, but

Unknown Speaker :

Let's just kind of go through a few of these, Julie and I want to kind of discuss like a little overview of that. So where healthcare is concerned, we can kind of pick up there, there are some really great resources on Wikipedia that kind of go through little facts about each of these hot button issues. So they said that Wikipedia says there's a great deal of research into inequalities in health care. In 2003, the Institute of Medical released a report showing that race and ethnicity were significantly associated with the quality of health care received even after controlling for socio economic factors such as access to care. In some cases, these inequalities are a result of income and a lack of health insurance, a barrier to receiving services. So here's where it breaks down. Here's the important thing to know almost two thirds 62% of Hispanic adults aged 19 to 64. were uninsured at some point during the past year, or rate more than tripled that of working age white adults which is 20% versus the 62%. Once

Unknown Speaker :

Third of working age black adults, more than 6 million people were also uninsured or experienced a gap in coverage. During the year blacks had the most problems with medical debt with 31% of black adults aged 18 to 64 reporting past due medical debt versus 23% of whites and 24% of Hispanics. So breaking that down even further, just the institutional racism affecting Minority Health is directly through health related policies as well as through factors indirectly so this article says that, for example, racial segregation disproportionately exposed black communities to chemical substances that just lead paint respiratory irritants such as diesel fumes, crowding litter and noise. So racial minority groups who have a disadvantage status and education and employment are more likely to be uninsured significantly and Peet's them from accessing preventative diagnostic or therapeutic health services. So on top of all these other issues,

Unknown Speaker :

Like we had Jerry rigged this or we have actually rigged this machine to completely fail them at every step. And it's hard for me to figure out exactly which step comes first is the fact that they can't get great housing. I mean, Julie, do you feel like there's a particular place that this begins? It's hard to pinpoint. It's, it's so it's so many places, it's hard to pinpoint where to start first, but she mentioned housing, I found this site on business insider.com. They have all of these charts. I'll share the link to this in the blog post summary for this episode. There are just too many charts to go over right now. But they're so good, kind of just really giving you a visualization of this disparities between race in America. One of their charts I want to mention with housing is says when they try to get financing from banks, black mortgage applicants were more likely to be denied loans and aspiring homeowners of other races. Another one. That's the share of black

Unknown Speaker :

households that own their homes is lower than other racial groups, lower incomes and higher rates of poverty combined with difficulties in getting mortgage approval and mean that homeownership rates for black Americans remain low and the Coronavirus has really exasperated the lack of health care for them as well. I think one thing that's good to kind of remember is okay, so it's hard we don't have time to go through like historical like play by play when in the 1950s You know, when they were handing out housing, housing loans like candy to to white adults in segregated neighborhoods and pretty much relegating them to like these unwanted parts of their communities continuing that structure, but a lot making it to where they couldn't get loans for better housing. It's like it boils down to job opportunities. Housing, so once you're already kind of kept from you aren't on the same playing field from from the beginning. You're starting like you gave that analogy of the race. You're

Unknown Speaker :

Starting way further back with more hurdles, you know, like imagine like a poor runner like starting at the back of the line and being the only one having to jump hurdles and you know, climb over shit and everybody else gets to the end and feels like they're exhausted. But it's like a look at this guy's working as hard out. Yeah, it's the same thing with wage gap says the wage gap between races also interacts with a gender wage gap between men and women. So white men 100% with 55.6 k is the average. Then you've got behind them Asian women at 97% of that salary 53.9 K and then white women 80% 44.6 K and then Black women 66% at 36.7 K and finally Hispanic women at 58% 32.1 K. So the wage gap is definitely a huge part of that as well. In addition to just job opportunities and being profiled

Unknown Speaker :

You know, how do you prove that when you know you're interviewing for a job? How do you prove that the employer was profiling you, which is the reason you didn't get the job? Mm hmm. And that goes into affirmative action, which is a whole other topic in here within this. But going back to housing just the article says that a structural racism prevents or makes it more challenging for people of color to participate in society and in the economy. So while structural racism manifests itself in what appears to be separate institutions, Harris emphasizes that factors like housing insecurity, the racial wealth gap, you just mentioned education and policing are intimately connected. So these are all that's why I'm having trouble like unprepped slickness is because it is also built and knotted. It's it's like trying to untangle like a piece of string, a knot of the first part, you know, money drives everything opportunities, opportunities. Yeah, and

Unknown Speaker :

Homes, education, being able to afford education and etc. Money is really a driving factor on how people feel stable, like they have opportunity. What gives people drive to continue to succeed. I know that when, when I am suffering financially, everything else about my life kind of suffers as well. It's a huge part of like my psyche and my financial well being. So maybe if we tackle that wage gap if we tackle the minimum wage, how people get paid equitably, and start to alleviate the aspect of that financial disparity. I think that would be a good starting point, because then we'll be able to start to move into tackling the education specifics, the housing specifics, but if we give people a better chance with being paid fairly, and being on the same playing field financially, I think it really sets

Unknown Speaker :

up for but here's the thing is there are some people that I know who feel like affirmative action at this point is kind of not I wouldn't say destructive, but it's a, it's not the greatest idea because people take advantage of it. And the person or people I've talked to have indicated that they feel like it should be purely based on how qualified the person is for the job. And I get that. And I believe that idea that we should all start off on the same playing field. It's a great idea, and I wish it were a thing. But the reason affirmative action exists is because it never was an even playing field. It was a system put in place because people are not fair. People do not just hire out of someone's ability to do a job well, just inability. It's also a past job performance, which people get overlooked for and don't get to put on the resume because they don't get the job because racial profiling or they don't have the education because they couldn't afford it right. So go

Unknown Speaker :

back. I'm gonna just reel myself in here. But going back to housing so Harris use the example of housing to talk about how a disproportionate number of people of color are homeless or lack housing security in part due to the legacy of redlining, which I hadn't been terribly familiar with until it took my African American Studies class A few years back, black people make up nearly half of the homeless population despite making up only 13% Julia of the population. That's insane. So just think about how small of a number that is. redlining refers to the system used by banks and the real estate industry in the 20th century to determine which neighborhoods would get loans to buy homes and neighborhoods where people of color lived outlined in red ink were deemed the riskiest to invest in redlining basically meant it was fundamentally impossible for black and brown people to get loans. Harris said it was an act of way of enforcing segregation, and that is obvious. That's not an exaggeration. That's exactly what happened. This practice prevented black families

Unknown Speaker :

From amassing and maintaining wealth in the same way that white families could. So the playing field has never been even even to this day. And we cannot ignore that. And so it's not just about everybody having the same opportunities. This goes further than that this goes further to we have to dismantle what we have put into place because it's going to continue to disenfranchise these people. Exactly. And it creates these mental health issues. Like it generates depression and people acting out of desperation. And people who the system's been so complicated that they don't have the resources and they don't know what to do anymore and end up homeless. Well, just like our native our Native American communities who live in third world conditions. It's like we have two groups of people, not just one we've disenfranchised and stolen and pillaged and plundered from more than just one group of color and

Unknown Speaker :

We continue to make their lives worse. And it's crazy how recent that actually was. We like to talk about things as if they happen so long ago, but our country is so young that happened. So recently, if you talk about the whole element of history is right around the corner, it just happened. And we haven't sure things have changed. Our like technologies evolved social aspects have evolved, but

Unknown Speaker :

it wasn't that long ago, and we did not reform everything. It's like we want to clap our hands and congratulate ourselves for taking one step forward. When you actually zoom out. We we actually have like, 1000 more miles to go, like, don't be prematurely excited over that one step. Okay. All right. Yeah, we got a ways to go. So going back to the wealth one more time, the net worth of a typical white family is 171,000

Unknown Speaker :

Boy, I wish that was my typical white family.

Unknown Speaker :

And it's nearly 10 times greater than that of a black family 10 times greater, which is about 17,000. That is horrifying. So and that's according to the Federal Reserve's 2016 survey of consumer finances. So that's pretty recent. So redlining ended up being banned in 1968. But the areas deemed hazardous by the Federal homeowners loan Corporation from 1935 to 39, are still much more likely than other areas to be home to lower income minority residents. And that was a 2018 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found the only other thing I want to say about redlining is to remember Michael Bloomberg, Trulia do I remember so I I don't have any specific memories. When I hear that name. An angry trigger comes up. I don't maybe I'm locked out. There were several people running for the Democratic nomination that are

Unknown Speaker :

thought oh my god I cannot I just cannot and Michael Bloomberg was one of those oh yes total piece of shit. Oh yeah, sorry took me a second rich rich motherfucker that was gonna pay people until even even once his campaign ended and then he like broke his promise and you know didn't so he wants blamed the end of redlining for 2008 housing collapse, so he missed it, he missed the good old days basically redlining the system, that system is set up in a way that structurally drives a continuous outcome of disinvestment and therefore disproportionate outcomes, Harris said and at its worst, these most heinous outcomes over policing result ultimately, in the loss of life. This analysis can be applied to like voting rights, employment, health disparities, blah, blah, blah, on and on. So did you want to give us your more info on income there are so many points on here, like I keep scrolling there's another chart and another chart and another chart another chart.

Unknown Speaker :

And I think it's just going to be more effective. Just share this on the website. People check it out because I could spend the whole episode just going through this whole article with a chart. Let's move along to one other thing. I found this really great chunk on affirmative action and institutional racism on Wikipedia. It says Professor James M. Jones postulates three major types of racism. So let's break it down a little bit further. So there's personally mediated, internalized and institutionalized personally mediated racism includes the deliberate specific social attitudes to racially prejudiced action, so bigoted differential assumptions about abilities, motives, behaviors towards others, the intentions of others, and according to their race, this is like your internal prejudices like oh, all black people are lazy like that, like stuff that you would hear from your grandparents. Yeah. So that's your internalized or actually know personally mediated

Unknown Speaker :

So when she says personally or he says personally mediated it means you this is your personal narrative that you are perpetuating. So then discrimination the differential actions and behaviors towards others according to their race. So stereotyping commission and omission, disrespect, suspicion, devaluation and dehumanization, that is all part of that racially prejudice personally mediated those are things that you would associate with that and then there's internalized racism. So it's the acceptance by intrinsic worth internalized racism is the acceptance by members of the racially stigmatized people have negative perceptions about their own abilities and intrinsic worth characterized by low self esteem and low esteem of others like them. This racism can be manifested through embracing whiteness, in example, stratification by skin color in non white communities, self devaluation, racial slurs, nicknames rejection of ancestral culture, etc. and

Unknown Speaker :

resignation, helplessness and hopelessness dropping out of school failing to vote, engaging in health risk practices, etc. The ripple effect is incredible. Yeah. And then we already went through what systemic and that type of racism is. So it's like you have the two where it's like you are a white person. And these are the thoughts that you perpetuate, you hear and you buy into, and you perpetually feed that whereas the internalized is someone a person of color, who starts to devalue themselves and others like them because of slurs they hear on a daily basis. That's just that I wish so badly that there was a social experiment done in which the roles were reversed. I like I wish that was possible where like literally anything that had applied to white people would be reversed and and see how people respond then but I you know what the thing about it is that I

Unknown Speaker :

still see, even through that people still being blind to the fact that it's a racial issue, and that it's a personal attack and said, I think it'd be hard to teach lessons to people who already think they're such victims. I mean, the white victimhood that's a different topic for another day, you know, I'm writing that down, we need to talk about that.

Unknown Speaker :

Poor me, poor me, I work so hard, I deserve all these extra benefits. So the other things that we just don't have a lot of time to dive into, are going to be more stats on employment or education unless Julia, you have stats that you want to discuss on those two, but just I mean, we kind of covered the fact that employment is not a fair playing field and then education, which I'm not super familiar with public schools. I just know that they have less opportunities for good schools, less funding, and they in turn, I don't think are encouraged to reach

Unknown Speaker :

for college and big careers, it's like they're kind of taught to either be someone who's super into sports like we like to push them in that direction sports or music, because we we like them as entertainment to capitalize on that. And how fucked up is that anyways, so for the educational opportunities one of the charts on here says a study by the Department of Education show that in 2013 black high school students were only a bit more than half as likely as white students to have an advanced placement or international bathroom. Kelly I'm I'm gonna try that word and what?

Unknown Speaker :

bachelor What? Oh, wow, I'm so unintelligent. Holy shit.

Unknown Speaker :

Back salaria

Unknown Speaker :

ACC a LAUR ea te

Unknown Speaker :

I think I don't pass. Okay. All right. APS

Unknown Speaker :

slash IB credit

Unknown Speaker :

for math Sacha laureate. Oh, Kelly. That's right. I can't see the word but that's how it sounds in my mind.

Unknown Speaker :

So bad

Unknown Speaker :

pronunciation. Listen. Oh, that's what I love about you, Juliet. I mean, I love so many things. That's one of my favorites. Okay.

Unknown Speaker :

So for all subjects, the difference between those getting AP credits, or IB credits, yeah was 40% for white versus 23% for blacks, and then it's specifically between math and science. for math. You've got 17% of whites and 6% Black 16% white and 8% white at Black for science and then the share of both white and black Americans with college degrees has increased dramatically over the last half century.

Unknown Speaker :

But there's still a gap. The pipeline is part of the problem if you were black children go to schools with robust resources in math and science classes in high school, and there will be fewer students who have the support and credentials to go to college. Wait, say that again. For every student enrolled, the average non white school district receives $2,226, less than a white school district or white school districts receive about $150 less per student and the national average and it just assaulted itself yet, they're still receiving nearly 1500 more than poor white non white school districts. So it's not even just by individual kids. They're also targeting school districts and really disadvantaging the children in those districts from succeeding and by not funding them properly. Well, let's just even let's talk about something that's I'm going off script here, but talk about something that's super poignant, something very important right now, just imagine right now.

Unknown Speaker :

Were in a year that's important for so many big elections and even local elections. And historically, we have been disenfranchising Blackfeet people from voting by making it harder for them to reach polling places and harder for them to register. And I think it's just so purposeful and it's so heinous. And recently the whole debacle in Atlanta, Georgia, or even just in Georgia, over how long the lines were, and how they had closed down polling sites and and made it to where people had to travel further. And it's like, they know a lot of people in the black community either use public transportation or don't have vehicles at all or I mean, especially in city areas where that you know, you can rely on public transportation much better than just you know, getting around in your own car and we've made it so difficult for them to register Trump doesn't want anybody voting by mail because he knows more people will vote there is pretty much no question.

Unknown Speaker :

That will actually it's been studied and debunked that mail in ballots is a bad way to go and that there's a lot of fraud that way. I mean, Colorado at this point functions mainly by mail and votes and it works really well. You have just as much of a chance of fraud by using technology that can be hacked. Well, and then do you also think that it's a huge accident that you have places like Atlanta where people are lined up for hours before they can vote and Coronavirus has disproportionately hit the African American community which is another thing that we just discussed about health care and how they are definitely Minority Health is directly impacted more by these diseases disproportionately because of their ability to get care and preventative care or diagnostic care what all of that because we at every turn, we have made it impossible for them to live a life without just I mean pull. I don't even for basic yeah

Unknown Speaker :

And then here's another thing I heard that was just staggering. So we were still talking about voter voter issues, and suppression. But just also consider the fact that we have made these communities we've kind of given them given them no option. But to live in these low income neighborhoods where they have to drive miles. Same thing for the indigenous tribes, you know, they have to drive miles to get to a basic grocery store, and the only ones are on site or nearby are going to be like your seven elevens and stuff where items, regular items are marked up even more. So they're paying more for less because that's what's close by and convenient. And we are continuing to push that narrative to where that's the options that they have. But then in our nice community here in Colorado, so like I live on the street next to a street called montview. So I'm in this little sandwich pocket area of this older neighborhood, but on one side, you have the

Unknown Speaker :

gentrified, really new nice neighborhoods coming up, and they have their brand new school, they have all the signs in the streets that say, you know, slow down children play here. But then and then you know, the speeding cameras to make sure that a little white children stay safe. But then on the other side of me, is a lot of poor low income neighborhoods and including mine and I have to drive further to get to the King soopers than the people who live in Stapleton because it's just right there for them. It's so much nicer. It's the on the left side of me the rough side of the neighborhood. There's a really terrible Walmart marketplace, always something going down there. Someone's always getting kicked out. And it's super stressful. So I have to drive further to go to the nice gentrified grocery store over here where you know, these rich people get to shop. I'm paying less over here on the gentrified side than I am over here to get the same basic needs even though that's closer, these things are all part of that institutional system that we are talking about it being so embedded that sometimes we don't even see it.

Unknown Speaker :

Same as with the liquor shops in, in these small communities, they have like no access to a real grocery store, but there's a liquor store on every corner. I feel like that's a direct slap in the face. It's not an accident. No, it definitely keeps people in a cycle. And not only mental cycle but behavioral as well. And stereotypes are created through this type of system, the way it's set up, because crime is usually driven by desperation and frustration with a system burnout poor and I'm going to mention two primarily like white communities. So in West Virginia, and then in the, like the Appalachian side of the country in Kentucky, you have these communities that are also disenfranchised because their coal industries have disappeared or are disappearing, because we need to move away from coal but we need to create jobs in other ways. You know, Bernie's told us a lot of ways and how we could do that to improve the infrastructure.

Unknown Speaker :

But nobody's listening to Bernie, we're more interested in what Trump's having to say. That is mind boggling. So you have these communities who are disenfranchised, they are extremely poor. They're very rural their shops, it's kind of similar. They have plenty of liquor nearby, but they have such a meth problem. And it's a substance abuse problem that people are so depressed over their lot in life and feel like there are no options for them. So they stay where they're at, in these toxic communities and toxic families and with no opportunities. It's like they they've already signed their own death warrants. And people don't like to say, Oh, well, it's their choice. That's a form of oppression. It's more subtle, but that is same form of oppression where you're in an environment where it's kind of your bread in that environment. And the four basics it's so difficult just to just to have the basic same needs as everybody else met and

Unknown Speaker :

People don't think of it enough in the fact that it really impacts people's decision making people's mental health. And that drives decision making. And it's not that they're not capable of leaving moving to somewhere better, to be more successful, to be happier, whatever. But when you're bred in such an environment, it is so difficult to disconnect from that. And it's so hard for people to see when they haven't experienced that themselves, we'll just remember the conversation of or just the whole concept of nature versus nurture. And if you are raised in an environment where your parents are disenfranchised, your dad's lost his job. You're getting all this information from these adults who are telling you how the world is and how what you have to do to survive. And I don't think that we're always empowering parents to help their children in the best way in these circumstances. So if you're a very strong minded person who is like you, no, no, you're gonna

Unknown Speaker :

To get out of this, and I'm going to make sure you are or someone who just accepts their lot in life, and they just want to exist and and just live, maybe they're divided this tired, then you've got people that are just tired because they've tried. But the system has made it so difficult that after a while, it's like they don't feel like they're empowered to make that change they want. And I mean, that can poison your mind. So take that example and then just consider we're going into something else here. It's so difficult because talking about like the the court system. So let's talk about juvenile court. First. That article I found says that a federal investigation initiated before the 2014 Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, found faults with a treatment given youth in the justice system in St. Louis County, the Justice Department following a 20 month investigation based on 33,000 cases over three years reported that black youths were treated more harshly than whites and then

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Low Income youths, regardless of race, were deprived of their basic constitutional rights. youth who encountered law enforcement got little or no chance to challenge detention or get any help from lawyers. So it is this system that we're making that we've made that nobody is getting a fair shake. So I want people to stop talking about like, well, we should all get equal opportunities and whoever is good for this position or good for that should be hired. We have to dismantle these systems, because if we just try and play by that suggestion, there's no such thing as actually being fair in your assessment. This is the opposite of fair, every single thing that we've talked about. It is like purposefully, intentionally meant to pretty much take a knock at the knees like take someone out by the kneecaps before they even get started. It's like it's starting with the you making sure that we have already got them into the system and that's our one of the many

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crimes we continue to perpetuate. So then just jumping up to criminal convictions article says that although approximately two thirds of crack cocaine users are white, two thirds, guys, two thirds, they're white or Hispanic. A large percentage of people convicted of possession of crack cocaine in federal courts in 1994 were black. So in 1994 84.5% of the defendants convicted of crack cocaine possession were black, while 10% 10.3% were white and 5.2 were Hispanic possession of powder cocaine was more racially mixed with 57 of the offenders being white and 26% black and 15%, Hispanic. I mean, I think essentially what I'm trying to say is for offenses across the board, black people get punished more harshly for every crime on the books, even when it's something that is staggeringly more of a white problem than a black problem. We're just prep

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to just see them as criminals, and lowlifes without, you know, looking harder at ourselves. And I think when you're incarcerating black males At this rate, we already talked about black incarceration rates a couple of weeks ago. But actually, our next episode is focusing on incarceration rates, oh, racist, and we're talking about it again. But just to consider, like a lot of people are talking about how studies show that this is actually not as much the case as we thought, but the absence of male black male fathers in the lives of their children being a really negative impact on how they grow and how, you know, they grew up to be the whole nature versus nurture, nurture thing we have separated their families and and you know, Hispanic families since the dawn of time since we could do it. And that is us doing that, not them well. And here's the thing about what what I think about a lot is with stereotypes, I feel like by creating stereotypes

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And embedding them in the system and using that to profile people and judge people. I feel like that just actually

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Penny Are you upset about all this?

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Hold on.

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Penny she has spoken. Oh, yeah, she just wanted to give her two cents on the topic. Go ahead.

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good thoughts, good thoughts Penny really deep. She's wise, she's

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I think that having these stereotypes we actually perpetuate the stereotype. Do you know what I mean? Like when people are putting a box and you judge them by that box, even if they didn't fit in it before now that they're judged by that they kind of conform to it almost like if you tell somebody that they're awful and that they're worthless, and they're going to be a criminal someday even if they started out as just like any Tell that to them, from the point of them being a kid. They're they're going to

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internalize that, like internalized racism, right? And, and you know what they might, they might just act out someday because it's embedded in their psyche now that that's who I am, I'm a criminal. This is who I am a heart or whatever, whatever this stereotype is, I feel like stereotypes are the death of assault. Like, you know, it's separate so many people and and only separates them. But they're only true because we keep feeding into it. And I hope I'm making sense. You are and that's a nice way to kind of close it out. Because our the last point we kind of wanted to make was how can we address this? How can we fix this and that's what this whole Black Lives Matter movement is about and the article I've been referencing, I've kind of gone back and forth between Wikipedia and then that USA article. But the USA article once again says that both Johnson and Harris who I quoted earlier say that not enough progress has been made in the fight against systemic racism, john

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And outlines three steps people can take to address the systemic racism, we must acknowledge that racism actually exists, get involved with organizations that are fighting it. And finally elected leaders and policymakers who won't reinforce or support structural racist policies. Guys vote I don't care if you don't have a car, you will can ask for a ride. I want to make sure that I put myself out there on a voting day and make sure that if people need a ride to the polling place, I want to provide it it is so important. It is our duty and racism is not a partisan issue. We need to stop making it partisan. It's a question of morality. So I will link this in the summary but there's a they also provide in this article 100 ways you can take action against racism right now. But Harris says that individuals doing personal work to understand systemic racism is necessary yet it's so not efficient or sufficient. He urged those wanting to enact change to join the protests in the streets and to demand fundamental change from institutions in their own lives. So it requires

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To move beyond reform, he says articulate clearly that the current system is not working. So let's just have an idea. Yeah. Okay. So I feel like Uber should partner with a volunteer system when it comes to voting voting seasons voting date and have you get a free ride to your polling place, right. Only polling place. Right. And that's that. I think that's great. If you can use that promo code. Yeah. I actually thought about that for like, a few years ago during the Bernie I mean, imagine circulating that ad wise and people knowing that, you know, they use Uber, a lot of people. It's so easy, and you don't even have to know somebody with a car. Just use a promo code, get a free ride. Yeah, I love it. I think that's great, too. And from the polling place, you want to get a call voted. Now we leave you here.

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I think that's a great, great idea. So guys, give us your suggestions, your thoughts post

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on you know the summary for this episode and or shoot us a message and Julia can provide where you can do all of those things. You can go to our website, www dot the family ties podcast.com. Hey,

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guys, I may try and leave Penny's barks in there. She was just trying to protect the household. So I feel like I don't want to like drown out her. Her words. You know, she's be heard too. She has a voice. She has a voice. But it was great talking with you can Julia Yeah, I learned. You know, I think the whole point of this is for us to learn more each time. Yeah. And I learned new things, you know, while researching. It's not just that we're trying to spit facts at you. It's like we're learning this too. So it's not coming from not everything is coming from our own heads. And now I want to use the better words of others. Yeah, but I kind of went on a tangent about voting or pressure.

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But a lot of what we talked about is opinion based, but our opinions are based on the facts that we've researched and tried to present and, and I learned a lot, actually as well. So like, I already know that racism is an issue, but as we delve into the specifics, it broadens my whole idea on the subject. I'm like, oh, whoa, it's even worse than I thought. And I thought it was awful.

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So yeah, I'm learning something new every time. Yeah, I love it. Absolutely. Well, you guys be well be safe. Watch interesting things, listen to interesting things and send us your suggestions. We really would like to hear from you guys. So yeah, yeah. Join the family. Join the family. Have a good rest of the bye bye