(2016/09/27) Systemic forces and how to fight them (Racism)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2016
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Edition #1045
Today we look at the systemically racist systems of policing currently in place in our country and the protest movement that continues to rise up against it, including Colin Kaepernick and the growing movement of support around him
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Show Notes
Ch. 1: Opening Theme: A Fond Farewell - From a Basement On the Hill
Ch. 2: Act 1: Deadly force in black and white - @Making_Contact - Air Date: 2-17-15
Ch. 3: Song 1: Oh, Freedom - Shirley Verrett
Ch. 4: Act 2: Recorded proof of racially-targeted policing - The Benjamin Dixon Show (@TheBpDShow) - Air Date 7-13-16
Ch. 5: Song 2: America - Neil Diamond
Ch. 6: Act 3: Racist & Illegal Justice Department Slams Baltimore Police for Targeting Black Residents - @DemocracyNow - Air Date 08-11-16
Ch. 7: Song 3: This Land is Not Our Land - Utah Phillips
Ch. 8: Act 4: How media gets it wrong on protests against police violence - CounterSpin (@FAIRmediawatch) - Air Date 9-23-16
Ch. 9: Song 4: House of Cards Main Title Theme - Jeff Beal
Ch. 10: Act 5: Dave Zirin breaks down the Colin @Kaepernick7 protest - Start Making Sense from @TheNation - Air Date 9-14-16
Ch. 11: Song 5: American Land - Bruce Springsteen
Ch. 13: Song 6: Rockin' In the Free World - Neil Young
Ch. 14: Act 7: Choice words on the anthem protesters and their detractors - @EdgeofSports - w Dave Zirin - Air Date 9-14-16
Ch. 15: Song 7: John Adams theme song - HBO
Ch. 16: Act 8: Tell Your Legislators to Sign the “Pledge to Preserve & Protect Our Lives” via @NAACP #StayWokeandVote
Ch. 17: Song 8: We Didn't Start the Fire - Billy Joel
Ch. 18: Act 9: Can the American Flag Survive Colin @Kaepernick7? - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 09-03-16
Voicemails
Ch. 19: Thoughts from working at the Sacred Stone Camp - Nick from Colorado
Voicemail Music: Loud Pipes - Classics
Ch. 20: Final comments on the OTHER pipeline protest going on in Big Bend (Defendbigbend.org)
Closing Music: Here We Are - Everyone's in Everyone
TAKE ACTION
Send the NAACP's "Pledge to Preserve and Protect Our Lives to your legislators and candidates
Read the "NAACP's Statement on Fatal Shooting of Terence Crutcher During Police Encounter in Tulsa, OK"
Get involved with the NAACP's #StayWokeandVote campaign and use the hashtag on Twitter
EDUCATE YOURSELF
"NAACP releases list of demands in response to Charlotte shooting" (WRAL.com)
"If you don't understand Black Lives Matter after Terence Crutcher's death, you never will" (Vox.com)
"How two police shootings of black men sent Tulsa and Charlotte in different directions" (LA Times)
"Tulsa police chief on fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher: 'There was no gun'" (Tulsaworld.com)
"Colin Kaepernick explains why he sat during the national anthem" (NFL.com)
"#VeteransforKaepernick: Veterans Stand in Solidarity with Colin Kaepernick" (The Root)
Written by BOTL social media/activism director Amanda Hoffman
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's not the killing of Terrence Crutcher or of Keith Scott alone that sends people into the street. |
| 0:06.5 | It's the existence of ongoing, everyday, state sanctioned, unpunished lethal violence against black men, women, and children in a country with an unbroken history of it. |
| 0:18.2 | This program is made possible by the members and donors to the show. To support the work we do and get members' only bonus content, please visit the Contribute tab at BestOfTheLifetime.com. |
| 0:31.2 | Now, welcome to the award-winning BestOfTheLifetime podcast with Cups today from Making Contact, The Benjamin Dixon Show, Democracy Now, Counter-Spin, Start Making Sense from the Nation magazine, Politically Reactive, Edge of Sports Radio, and The Young Turks. |
| 0:46.2 | And the music in today's show are just a few of my suggestions for new national anthems maybe that have slightly less racist origins. |
| 0:58.2 | The investigative journalism outlet, ProPublica, set out to analyze the data on hundreds of such cases for signs of racial disparity. |
| 1:07.2 | Their startling findings were released in the report, Deadly Force in Black and White. |
| 1:12.2 | Just from looking at the raw numbers, the rate for black young males, black Canadian males was just astronomical, especially in the most recent years. |
| 1:22.2 | That's Ryan Gabrielson. In fact, he and his colleagues found that the risk of being killed by the police was 21 times greater for black males than their white counterparts. |
| 1:32.2 | How did they get to that conclusion? It starts with something called the Supplementary Homicide Report. |
| 1:38.2 | Supplementary Homicide Report is in total, it's a database of all homicides known to law enforcement every single year. |
| 1:48.2 | And in those homicides is a subset categorized as felons killed by police. |
| 1:53.2 | And those are what law enforcement say are their justified homicides. |
| 1:57.2 | And it's a, you know, woefully incomplete record set in that, you know, it maybe has probably half of all these homicides that actually take place in each year. |
| 2:10.2 | But despite the issues with the data, Gabrielson says it still shows something that many campaigners have said for years that young black males are disproportionately killed by police. |
| 2:21.2 | And it also tells us something about how the justification for those homicides has changed. |
| 2:27.2 | Is there was a really dramatic shift that started or in the mid 1980s? |
| 2:33.2 | Up until then, Gabrielson says law enforcement gave all kinds of reasons as justification for killing someone. |
| 2:40.2 | A lot of times it was, they caught the person, the commission of a crime, about a third of the time though, it was, they said that the perpetrator or the felons as they categorize it was resisting or fleeing arrest. |
| 2:58.2 | But something happened that would change all that. |
| 3:01.2 | In 1985, the US Supreme Court instituted sort of its first rules or limitations on when law enforcement can use deadly force. |
| 3:12.2 | The decision came in a case called Tennessee versus Ghana. |
... |
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