I Can't Breathe: Surviving the Dual Pandemics of Racism and Covid-19 w/ Louis Woods
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 629 Ratings
🗓️ 29 June 2020
⏱️ 120 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Americans grapple with the devastation wrought by the dual pandemics of racism and Covid-19, it is critically important to understand the vast racial disparities Covid-19 has exposed within the African American community (specifically), but communities of color (generally). The legacies of housing policies sponsoring residential segregation, and the associated racial gaps in wealth, educational achievement, health inequities, and lethal police encounters resonate nationally, but global white supremacy and migration patterns have contributed to powerful displays of international solidarity.
In this episode, Dr. Louis Woods speaks with experts in multiple fields to examine how the sudden shock of the Covid-19 pandemic has illuminated the centuries-old pandemic of racism in western culture, and particularly in the United States. Sociologist Dr. Tony Brown discusses underlying health disparities. Dr. Terah Venzant Chambers describes educational funding discrepancies contributing to racial achievement gaps. Dr. Sharita Jacobs-Thompson explores the invaluable contribution her co-taught "History of Policing" class has made to DC Metropolitan veteran officers and police cadets. Dr. Michelle Stevens examines the link between PTSD and trauma in the black community and emphasizes the critical importance of self-care. Dr. Glenn Chambers provides international contexts to the global protest movement associated with murder of George Floyd. Dr. Louis Woods then concludes with an analysis of historical housing policy and the generational impacts witnessed today.
It took the world stopping, for a critical mass of white Americans to hear, in many instances for the first time, the legitimate outcries of police brutality made generationally by African Americans. This podcast episode provides a holistic exploration to the tragedies that made this latest iteration of white police terror both a national and an international movement.
This episode is part of RTN's Pass The Mic Project. This episode was recorded by, and remains the property of, Dr. Louis Woods.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I give my daddy a pot of love bill |
| 0:11.0 | And a glass of a lay, Lord, I give him beer than a glass of mail. |
| 0:21.6 | I told him this time tomorrow I'd be laying in the county jail. |
| 0:40.3 | I mean the county tale. |
| 0:43.3 | Hello, Rhodes Now listeners. |
| 0:47.3 | My name is Dr. Lewis Woods. |
| 0:49.3 | I'm an associate professor and director of Africanist Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. I've known |
| 0:55.3 | Dr. Ben Sawyer for several years now, and a couple of weeks ago, he approached me with the idea of |
| 1:01.7 | me potentially hosting a podcast on the racial and health crisis that we're experiencing in the |
| 1:09.4 | country today. And I was initially a little reticent |
| 1:12.7 | to accept the opportunity because I wasn't sure that I had enough to say myself. I don't have |
| 1:19.1 | all the answers. And while I am an expert, I realized that this was bigger than me. And so part of |
| 1:25.5 | what I wanted to do was to consult friends and colleagues about this |
| 1:30.5 | moment, people who are smarter than me. And so I agreed to accept the invitation. And I think it's an |
| 1:35.5 | excellent opportunity, right? The world is listening for sure. Let me first start by saying that |
| 1:39.9 | this is not a bash on police. My grandfather was a was a NYPD. It was a World War II veteran and ended up |
| 1:48.1 | after coming home from from the war serving in the Navy, used the GI Bill partially to get a |
| 1:53.9 | bachelor's degree in 1950, master's degree in 1952 from NYU. And the best job he could get in New York |
| 1:59.6 | in the early 1950s as an African-American |
| 2:02.0 | was to become a police officer. So his partner had a high school diploma. He had a master's |
| 2:08.0 | degree. And so my grandfather joined the force in 1953, moved up the ranks. By 1962, |
| 2:14.6 | he got a second master's degree from City College. His thesis was essentially about the importance of a civilian complaint review board. |
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