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The Pathology of Privilege
Racism, White Denial & the Costs of Inequality
Transcript
MEDIA EDUCATION FOUNDATION | www.MEDIAED.org
This transcript may be reproduced for educational, non-profit uses only. © 2008
http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/137/transcript_137.pdf
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What does it say about our culture and the politicians, the choices we’ve been given for
leader of the so-called free world, that none of these candidates sees fit to mention, as
they talk about health care, which is a subject they do talk about with some regularity,
what does it say that none of them mention the research that was published in the
American Journal of Public Health in 2004, which had looked at ten years of excess
mortality data for African Americans, from 1991-2000, looking at the number of black folks who had died above and beyond the number that would have died, but for their
blackness, in effect, and the social and economic conditions that ascribe and essentially
adhere to blackness in this country? And what they found in this study, which received almost no media attention again, published in an academic journal, not read by theaverage American, not read by political candidates, read by doctors and people who
research the health care industry, but that’s about it. This study found that between
1991 and 2000, there were almost one million black people in this country who died who
would not have died had they merely been white and had the average health care
quality and access of the typical white person in this country, had they been living in
neighborhoods, like white neighborhoods, in which the levels of exposure to toxicity had
been as low as it is in the typical white neighborhood, as opposed to excess exposure to
toxics, pollutants, etc. in black and brown spaces. Almost one million excess dead
people, in this case black folks, who wouldn’t have died had the system of health care
access and exposure to toxins been equal between white folks and black folks. How is a
million dead black people not news? You see, if James Bird gets dragged to death
behind a truck in Jasper, Texas, you will hear about that and well you should. If one
individual is the victim of a vicious hate crime, you will hear about that and well you
should. But if nearly one million people die, not because of bigotry, not because of
hatred, not because of some white supremacy organization, but because of systemic
and institutionalized injustice, you will not hear anything.
How is it not news, and why are no candidates mentioning, that according to the
department of justice, in a study released in 2004, black and Latino males are three
times more likely than white males to have their cars stopped and searched for drugs –
even though white males are four and half times more likely to actually have drugs on
us on the occasion when we are stopped. Now think about that. Because that suggests
racial profiling is not just racist. That is redundant. But it is also pretty stupid-ass law
enforcement. Or is it? Because I guess it is only stupid if you think the war on drugs is
actually to get drugs off the street. Because if that were the purpose, putting aside that
whether or not we ought to deal with a medical and a health problem known as drug
addiction with war metaphors in the first place – different lecture for a different night.
Even if we assume that that is a good policy, let us be clear that that is not what we’re
fighting. We are not fighting a war on drugs because the first rule of any war is to go
where the enemy is, and if the white folks are the ones with the drugs in the car and the
black and brown folks are the ones that are getting stopped, the people fighting this war
are either supremely stupid or just have really bad short term memory. Like they keep
forgetting, “Oh damn, I pulled over another guy named Martinez! Gar! I keep forgetting.
It’s white people. It’s white people. Damn it! I got to write a note, and put it on the
dashboard. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Maybe that’s it, you know. Or maybe
it’s something else.
I do training with law enforcement. Not a hell of a lot, for reasons you can probably
guess. And I ask law enforcement officers, “What is the first thing you think when you
see a young black or Latino male driving a nice car in your neighborhood?” And they all, without fail and exception, will say, “Drug dealer.” I then ask them, “What’s the first thing
you think when you see a young white male, same age, driving the same type of car, in
that same community?” And they will say without exception, without hesitation, without
fail, “Spoiled little rich kid. Daddy probably bought him a car.” Keep in mind we have
been together for about 90 seconds of the workshop at this point. We have about 2
hours left, and they just outed themselves as racists. Because what they have just said
is that they are making snap judgments on the basis of only color that work to the
detriment of people of color and the benefit of white people. We still have two hours to
go so you know it’s going to be fun from that point forward. These are people sworn in
to protect and to serve. It’s right there on the car. Right there on the side of the car, and
in the first 90 seconds they are acknowledging this racial bias. How is this not an issue?
How is it not an issue that according to that justice department report, while black and
brown folk are having their wheel wells ripped apart on the side of the road, their trunks
splayed open, their dashboards ripped apart, all in the search for drugs that aren’t even
there, white people like me – notice I said ‘like me’ because I am not trying to tell you
anything about me that you don’t need to know, and for which the statue of limitations
has not yet expired, are driving by the road block with a trunk full of weed, and we’re just
waving. Because we are not suspected, therefore we are not detected. Therefore we
are not punished. How is that not an issue?
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Heartbreaking reality freshwest. I am ashamed of our country for our history. Privilege, what a dirty souless word.
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