We Must Talk About Race to Fix Economic Inequality

Demos President Heather McGhee and UC Berkeley Law Professor and author of Dog Whistle Politics Ian Haney López tell the story of how racism fuels economic inequality and what we can do about.

This video was produced in partnership by Demos and MoveOn.

[gertpacu]

Do you REALLY want to talk about race with FACTS or do you want to talk about race while leaving out facts? Those statistics on your site don't take into account the people that are causing those statistics. Would you like to hear why those statistics are the way they are or will you just call me racist when I do?

[Galland-MOS]

What's funny is, all their comments of associating color with this, or who do you think of with that, and these dog whistles, I never once thought of anyone by their color in any of these regards.
Hell, when I was growing up, I didn't see someone as Black, Hispanic, Gay, Lesbian, I saw them as who they were. I didn't and don't care about those things, if you are a good person in character and at heart, I will like you and think of you as who you are as an individual, it's always been as simple as that.
But despite personally thinking the idea of anyone being treated differently or worse for something as ridiculously superficial as skin color, sex, orientation, etc, because I'm white, my opinion doesn't matter as much, though I busted my ass for everything I have because my family was poor too, it's white privilege.
I am all for change, if something is broken we fix it. If people are not being treated equally, fairly and justly, we change it so everyone is treated the same.
My parents raised me and my brothers to look at everyone's differences as part of the spice of life, how wonderfully unique, individualized each and everyone of us was and how beautiful that is. Now we are fighting racism and discrimination with racism and discrimination. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. And then we have intersecionality...

[lmarodrigues]

So how do you explain inequality in predominantly white countries like Portugal?

[syxxvralrock]

I am glad that this video understands that solving 1 problem doesn't solve another. I still believe this video is really blindsided to the real issues at hand though. It isn't a 1 sided problem it's like a 6 sided problem. To give you an idea of what I mean. What was taken away from an African when they were put into slavery.

1. Freedom.
2. Equality.
3. Tradition.
4. Society.
5. Education
6. Land.

Some would argue that #6 many people in America don't have and that they never had to start off with. Many slaves did come here with but the rest were forbidden by their slave owners from having it. Now when we talk about black stereotypes you always hear the same thing, they are violent, incoherent, unable to produce anything etc even when many inventions were made by blacks who were in America.

The truth of the matter is all 6 are required to keep things going in a positive fashion and without any of these they can be abused for another person's position.

1. Freedom taken away by slavery was a step to take away everything else. When it was given back it didn't matter too much because everything else was gone.
2. Many families were split up so forget even equality within family but then figure that African Americans had to work wages that were actually less beneficial than being in slavery prior to release. Lol follow up with around 100 years of Jim Crow laws making it hard for people to vote for change in society...
3. Something lost when families were no longer allowed to teach their children how to read or write. Tradition often carries the good reasons for people to follow morality, work together, and strive as a people. Of course you see African Americans on the negative side of this spectrum as a result afterwards, as this was something they didn't have.
4. As talked about a little bit in #2 Society didn't favor black people and in the last maybe 20 years is improving but now is receiving backlash by people who've always had privilege but never knew it. Societal privilege is when you can live a regular life, aka talk to people, go to the grocery store, commute from point a to b without finding it dangerous to do so. Segregation is the name of the game and yeah another way to keep that from happening. Even when I was younger and to a lesser extent today I still see some store clerks get nervous when they see an African American, even if that person is a frequent, doesn't steal, and always pays. It's not a matter of relationships, it's a matter of race. Societal privilege then escalates because if a society sees you as dangerous even before you act, women aren't going to want to be around that unless you are rich or they [the woman] are not worth the time. This is why you see black women are doing fine compared to their male counterparts. Getting some pussy transcends color.
5. Education was taken away by the lack of the first. This included language and even financial things. A lot of times education for African Americans in school now is more of what 'not to do' rather than 'you can do this' with their freedom and free time and when it comes down to it, 'not to dos' are far less helpful. The positive things that you do will be a lot more fulfilling and time consuming than the time spent avoiding the things you shouldn't. Education also has a lot to do with punishment because we don't put people in jail just to give them a time-out hopefully but to also rehabilitate. But the reason why people are probably talking funny about jail when it comes to Africans is that it really doesn't seem like rehabilitation at all. It's probably due to the fact that it's a lot like high school, telling them what not to do when such limits probably brought them to do desperate acts in the first place. When I was in school I had to go out of the way and ask to be treated normally in such classes being an honor student and at some point I did retire from them because of it mostly being a waste of time. But you know what classes I wasn't given, that I pursued on my own? Ones about fiscal responsibility and what I can do once I achieve it. I saw very few Africans in those classes because most of them weren't really being made aware that once they leave school, the rules change by a lot.
6. "Not in my house." Is a great way to say that you're bound by someone else's rules while you're in their place of ownership. What's a better way to restrict someone then to take them from their own land, steal 5 of the things they had when they came here and then say, "Well you're free now, so make it on your own, while following our rules." afterwards? African Americans may have had no land here but I bet many slave families and survivors would've rather be dead than live with the indignity of being a slave. How is this relevant? Because death was the mercy many Native Americans were given when having to deal with the pigs that came over to America. They were also given land albeit a small portion compared to what they normally roamed on. Compare this to the slave blacks that made many plantations thrive and filled jobs that nobody wanted by force and were kept away from participating in the very same society that 'totally free'd them' 100 years ago while given no place to actually commune under their own laws. Hmm and when you compare the issues that Native Americans have to African Americans it's no wonder why they typically only have 1 or 2 of the many problems that African Americans face.

It's not 1 or 2 problems. It's a set of 6 or so with subsets of problems within each category why the majority of African Americans are the way they are. I am saying this as a person who is part African American, part Native American, and part Caucasian in even parts. Many of the bad things African Americans do are part of an adopted society of 'survival' where you do anything to live to the next day. And guess what, race doesn't matter as far as poverty is considered. People will do illegal acts more often if they in poverty. I know nobody likes that but when socializing with 'those people who used to be slaves' is considered as a negative thing for a long time, getting a job where you aren't seen as any less was hard to do for a VERY LONG TIME so guess what, it just proved that doing wrong to survive was more efficient, and it stuck.



The first African American patents were allowed around 1791 look at the first person listed in this article of another 10 blacks who invented shit in America...

Of which, IBM computers is the second thing listed. Aka African Americans also helped create the very device you are talking shit on.

White supremacists are annoying because it's like they are kissing their own ass even as the complain about the shit that comes out of it. White supremacy is the reason why you have violent African Americans. And for those people whom you claim are mostly rubbish you still have a decent proportion of your achievements and successes in recent history that were largely impacted by their involvement. Do yourself a favor and stop being evil and stupid that way the next time you go to the toilet to sniff your own shit you can be a little bit less repulsed by the fact that it came from you.

[craigfox]

A lot of the hateful commentators are not even talking about the video's content. Evidence does not matter to them, their racism is a belief.

[Deoliver]

I hope this goes viral - it is a video everyone should see and send to others.

[petermascari]

Wow, some great actors! It's wierd that I'm Caucasian and don't get any special treatment! Race has nothing to do with the issue. The issue is people's wrotten hearts, greed and insecurities, and trust me I've dealt with those people from every color so get out of here with your liberal righteous claims trying to degrade every conservative! Every person is responsible for where their path takes them in life and I know it's difficult for most Americans to take responsibility for that or any responsibility! America is one of the only countries any race can be successful! Nuff said!

[stevenwiederholt]

With Apologizes to Mary McCarthy. Everything in this video is a lie. Including And & The.
The only question is Do they know they are lying or are they really this ignorant?

[cybtb]

Canada does not have this history or system, and is far more multicultural and socialist, and blacks are still far behind all groups except natives. Unfortunately as there can be no alternative discussions in public like the role of fatherless households (70% in the US) I suspect things are not going to change anytime soon, which makes me sad.

[terryriley]

There's a reason we're divided. As long as we're looking over our shoulders at one another, the guillotines won't come out.