Episode 16: Race, Reparations, and American (In)Justice (with Damani McDole)
Very Bad Wizards
Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
4.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2013
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For those who thought our most uncomfortable topics were behind us, on this episode we are joined by David's childhood friend Damani McDole [facebook.com] to discuss several potentially offensive topics surrounding race and justice in America, such as slavery, reparations, affirmative action, and the use of the N-word. When Damani mounts an economic and moral defense for reparations for the descendants of slaves, David prefers to point to the difficulties in deciding who gets paid ( someone who's 1/16th descended from slaves? Jamaican-Americans? African immigrants?) and who should be responsible for paying (only people whose descendants benefitted from slavery? all non-slave descended taxpayers?). Tamler proposes (taking a note from Lenny Bruce) that if we use the N-word often enough it will lose its sting, and decides to practice what he preaches. And Damani reveals a surprising theory about race and geography (surprising for a Black man, at least) that leaves Tamler awkwardly speechless.
For those who are visually inclined: here's a one-minute set of behind-the-scenes clips from our Google+ Hangout:
Links
- Nigger [wikipedia.org]
- Leonardo DiCaprio bleeds for his role in Django Unchained [cinemablend.com]
- Lenny Bruce- Are there any niggers here tonight? [youtube.com]
- 60-year old white man slaps Black baby [thesmokinggun.com]
- The truth about 40 Acres and a Mule [theroot.com]
- The "great migration" of American Blacks out of the South [inmotionaame.org]
- 1811 Louisiana Slave Rebellion [theroot.com]
- Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle on Iconoclasts [sundancechannel.com]
- Bonus: Dave Chappelle imagines reparations [youtube.com]
Special Guest: Joseph Damani McDole.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Very bad wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad and psychologist Dave Pizarro |
| 0:05.9 | having an informal discussion about issues and signs and ethics, |
| 0:09.3 | please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say |
| 0:13.6 | and knowing my dad some very inappropriate jokes. |
| 0:17.1 | You see, white people have names like Lenny |
| 0:43.5 | I'm a very good man. |
| 0:45.5 | Good man. |
| 0:47.5 | Good man. |
| 0:49.5 | They think we're boss. |
| 0:51.5 | And with no one brains in your ass. |
| 0:53.5 | Maybe our attention. |
| 0:55.5 | To my man. |
| 0:57.5 | To anybody can have a brain. |
| 1:01.5 | You're a very bad man. |
| 1:05.5 | I'm a very good man. |
| 1:07.5 | Just a very bad wizard. |
| 1:11.5 | Welcome to a very bad wizard. |
| 1:13.5 | I can't do this anymore. |
| 1:15.5 | Welcome to a very bad wizard. |
| 1:17.5 | I'm Tamo Savers from the University of Houston. |
| 1:19.5 | And I'm David Pizarra from Cornell University. |
| 1:21.5 | Growing up the son of a huge plantation on a Mississippi |
... |
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