The Dig: Two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal

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Jacobin

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4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fifty years ago, a mainstream group of high-profile Americans declared the following: "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer’s disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American. This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed. Choice is still possible. Our principal task is to define that choice and to press for a national resolution." The Kerner Commission, established by President Johnson, embodied left liberalism at its most bold and idealistic. But that vision of radical reform was eviscerated by the American war on Vietnam, the rise of neoliberalism and the modern conservative movement, and liberal triangulation that reached its apotheosis under Bill Clinton.

Dan talks to Vanessa A. Bee, a consumer protection lawyer in D.C. and a social media editor for Current Affairs magazine, about her New York magazine essay on the subject: nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/how-we-can-get-a-more-equal-union.html.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and access our new weekly newsletter.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our supporters on Patreon and by Verso Books which has loads of great left-wing titles perfect for dig listeners like you.
0:12.0	One that you might like is Police, a field guide by David
0:16.4	Quarea and Tyler Wall. It doesn't take firsthand experience to learn the meaning of pain
0:21.6	compliance or rough ride.
0:24.0	Police, a field guide, is an illustrated handbook
0:28.0	to the methods, mythologies, and history
0:31.0	that animate today's police. It is a survival manual for
0:35.4	encounters with cops and police logic. Whether it arrives in the shape of
0:39.9	officer friendly, tasers, curfews, noncompliance, or reformist discourses about so-called
0:47.8	bad apples.
0:49.8	In a series of short chapters, each focusing on a single term, such as the beat, order, badge, throw down
0:56.2	weapon, and much more, authors David Correa and Tyler Wall present a guide that reinvents and demystifies the language of policing
1:06.1	in order to better prepare activists and anyone with an open mind on one of the key issues
1:11.8	of our time, police brutality.
1:15.0	In doing so, they begin to chart a future free of this violence and of police.
1:21.0	Police, a field guide by David Correa and Tyler Wall.
1:25.0	Out now from Jacobin magazine. My name is Daniel Denver and
1:40.8	I'm broadcasting from Providence, Rhode Island.
1:44.0	50 years ago, a rather mainstream group of high-profile Americans declared the following.
1:52.0	Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal.
2:00.0	Reaction to last summer's disorders has quickened the movement and deep in the division.
2:06.0	Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life.
	...

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