Episode 3: One Drop
Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order
MS NOW
4.8 β’ 1.4K Ratings
ποΈ 8 December 2025
β±οΈ 54 minutes
ποΈ Recording | iTunes | RSS
π§ΎοΈ Download transcript
Summary
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| 0:00.0 | The old Southern Pacific Train Depot in San Jose, California. |
| 0:11.0 | Today it's a busy commuter rail station, Cal train and Amtrak, thousands of commuters every day. |
| 0:18.9 | Imagine this same spot in the early morning hours of May 29, 1942. There are hundreds of |
| 0:27.4 | families from San Jose standing here uneasily. They're not sure what to expect. They've been |
| 0:34.2 | ordered to report here at the train station, to line up here, so the U.S. |
| 0:39.6 | government can load them onto trains. |
| 0:43.6 | Among them is a rowdy, happy, very high-spirited, 10-year-old boy named Norman. |
| 0:50.3 | For a 10-11-year-old kid, this was, oh boy, an overnight train ride, a long train ride. |
| 0:59.1 | Norman's in the fifth grade. He's born and raised in San Jose. It's the only place he's ever |
| 1:03.9 | lived. This Friday morning, when he and his family report to the train station, it feels to him |
| 1:09.9 | almost like an adventure. |
| 1:11.7 | There was some excitement about getting on a train and going somewhere, and it's like |
| 1:16.4 | you've never been on a train before. |
| 1:18.9 | That's Norman's son, David, who now himself lives in San Jose. |
| 1:24.6 | Despite dad talking about it as an adventure, I got to believe that he was picking up on the anxiety |
| 1:31.1 | and the fear from his sisters, his brother, and his parents. |
| 1:37.0 | In the weeks leading up to this day, |
| 1:39.8 | Norman's parents had been forced to sell off |
| 1:42.4 | basically everything they owned, nearly all the family's possessions. |
| 1:47.1 | They had to give away their dog. |
| 1:49.4 | There was a lot of stuff they had to get rid of. |
| 1:52.1 | One was a car that they had sort of bought fairly recently, |
... |
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