February 27, 2023 • 32 mins
On today's episode of "One More Thing", Host Ramses Ja discusses his thoughts on what it really means when someone says "They Don't See Race".
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
That this is the Black Information Network Daily podcast, and
I am your host, Rams's Jah. And sometimes the amount
of stories that make their way to us means that
we simply can't cover everything that comes our way. But
from time to time, a story just stays with me
and I feel compelled to share it with you and
give you my thoughts. And now one more thing. Okay,
(00:36):
So the other day I was with a partner of mine.
We're looking at some real estate and the realtor came out,
great guy. UM let me describe him to He's probably
in his mid to late fifties, um, white, and he's
(01:02):
a realtor. He deals with real estate and affluent neighborhoods.
And we were looking at a relatively speaking expensive piece
of property and uh, he said that he grew up
in that neighborhood and he now sells property in that neighborhood.
(01:25):
He knows the neighborhood very well. On and on and
I We're like, great, you know, this is a guy
to be talking to. And you know, he asked a
little bit about what we did for work, and then
you know, my partner answered him. It's like, all you know,
I'm in software and I do you know this. Then
and the third, you know, and then I says, oh,
you know, serial entrepreneur. I own some businesses, you know,
(01:49):
I do this. Then in the third and you know,
I have a little radio show I do and uh,
you know, I do a podcast for iHeart. And he's like,
oh wow, tell me about your radio show. Tell me
about your podcast, And of course I told him a
little bit about it. You know, we do with social
justice issues and you know, things like this, and then
of course we cover events that are important to black
(02:14):
people in this country, not unlike a univision and how
they cover things they're significant to our Hispanic brothers and sisters.
And then he said something that was very interesting hearing
(02:35):
it at this point in my life. Something I've heard
quite a bit, you know, throughout all my forty years
of living on this planet, and something I'm sure you've
heard as well. He says, you know, the normal stuff.
Oh man, I love it. You know, I do believe
black lives matter, and of course I believe all lives matter.
You know, followed it up real quick, which let me
know where he stood. For those that that don't know,
(03:01):
the affirmation black lives matter is one that exists to
prop up and affirm that black lives are valuable. It
in no way diminishes the value of anyone else's life.
It is a statement in and of itself. You know,
(03:24):
the comparison is often made, you know, when people do
a breast cancer walk, they're not saying other types of
cancer don't don't matter, right, But you know, he felt
the need to follow his black lives matter statement up
with all lives matter, right all right? Man? Cool? You
know some people they just don't get it. The information
(03:44):
doesn't follow to their ears, or if it does, they
just are not in a position to hear it. Their
reality doesn't allow for them to receive anything else, especially
someone who grew up as privileged as this man. Bear
in mind, I'm from Compton, California, and i was born
in the eighties, so you know, I've seen it. But
(04:09):
then he said something else. You know, he did his
whole thing, tried his best to kind of suggest that
he was, you know, standing with us, and you know,
he understood what we were dealing with, and he sympathized
and so forth, And of course we knew that he
did not he was saying that because you know, there's
(04:30):
potentially a sale on the line for him, and so
he hit the talking points without kind of abandoning his
what what I would guess, our conservative views. You know,
he meant it. He was in attempting to find some
common grounds, some commonality, but you know, also trying to
(04:53):
again support us and what it is that you know,
I'm I stand for, while again not abandoning is his
personal viewpoints of politics and so forth. And then he
said something, you know, as he floundered about trying to
figure out what language was necessary in that moment to
(05:14):
convince us to you know, do business with him, while
you know, finally getting off a conversation I'm sure he's
been sitting on for a few years, he said, I
don't see color. And that's the statement that I want
to talk about today. I don't see color. I would
(05:42):
guess that everybody who has said that actually does see color.
They're trying to say that they don't allow color to
shape their decision making or you know whatever, and they're
trying to suggest that somehow, because they don't see color,
(06:06):
that the country has moved past you know, it's it's
origin story because of the fact that we've elected, you know,
a black president and you know, all this sort of stuff,
and no one in their circle sees color either, no
one in their family sees color, and they weren't raised
(06:28):
that way, and blah blah blah, and so the racism
that we are experiencing as black and brown people in
this country is imaginary. And so, um, I don't see color. Now,
(06:51):
if you know someone who said this, I'm sure you
know what they meant. And if you yourself are the
sort of person that says I see color, congratulations on
not seeing race. Right, But society sees race. We know
(07:11):
it's an artificial construct, we know that it's only skin deep,
but society sees it, and outcomes are very much shaped
by it. You know, there's this conversation, oh, you know,
my family never owned slaves, sure, but a slave economy
flowed through every level of society. And so whether or
(07:35):
not you had slaves, you benefited from slavery. If your
parents or you're sorry, you're great great grandparents or whatever
had a job that was well paying and afforded them
the opportunity to own land and whatever, you know, allowed
them the framework, societal framework to pull themselves up by
(08:00):
their bootstraps. A not insignificant amount of money that flowed
into their pockets even came about because of a slave economy.
Slavery was, in fact, the majority of slave slave produced
products or exports or those sorts of things made up
(08:22):
the majority of the United States economy. Is this is
a documented of course, and I'm sure you know that already.
But you know, for those people that say that they
don't see race, I want to charge you with a
thought experiment. So allow me to paint a picture. Someone
(08:48):
that I'm a big fan of. His name is Brian Stevenson.
I've talked about him on the show before and talked
about him on all my shows. He's a very inspirational
person to me. He's the subject of the movie Just Caused,
starring Michael B. Jordan. He once said something, and I
believe it was a ted talk of his, that was effectively,
(09:14):
wealth shapes outcomes more than culpability when it comes to
the criminal justice system in the United States of America,
and that we have a criminal justice system that treats
you better if you are rich and guilty then if
you are poor and innocent. Now, notice I did not
(09:37):
say black and white. Wealth is what we're talking about.
So again, follow me on my thought experiment beyond the
criminal justice system. Wealth absolutely shapes educational outcomes. We know
that because we know how education is paid for public
(09:58):
education in this country. It's paid for through property taxes,
and those with the property are taxed on that property,
and that those taxes go into funding the schools. So
if the property taxes are higher because the neighborhood is
(10:20):
more affluent, then the schools have more resources. And in
poorer neighborhoods you're not talking about race, poorer neighborhoods, there's
less money to go into education. Let's talk representation, because
(10:45):
well shapes representation as well. You know, lobbyists and big
donors and so forth and so on, all these campaign
donations and so forth, that represents corporate interests. You know this,
You know, the closest we've ever seen to anything that
really reflects common folks interests in recent history is Bernie Sanders.
(11:17):
That's not to say that people didn't donate to the
previous administration. That's not to say that people didn't donate
to Obama. But Bernie Sanders was a person who was
very much in touch with common folks, and he staunchly
refused to accept donations from companies that might try to
(11:39):
influence his decision making upon being elected. So those are
just a few, but suffice as to say that nearly
every level of society wealth shape's outcomes. Okay, so some
(12:04):
people who are a bit calloused, some people who are
a bit disconnected from the realities that we all live
in and with, might say, well, you know, this is
a land of opportunity. If you don't like being poor,
then don't be poor. Do something about it, work hard, right,
(12:28):
and I will admit that there's something to that. There
are opportunities to work and to make money and to
make a difference. And again we're not talking about race.
We're just talking about the opportunities right now. But the
(12:52):
fact is that those opportunities are not available to everyone. Okay,
so let's examine why some people are poor. Okay, Well,
first and foremost intelligence. You know, not everybody is born
with the same cognitive capacities and intellectual fortitude, right, that
(13:21):
is not evenly distributed. Okay, we're all born with five
fingers on each hand and five well most of us,
but you get what I'm saying, are born with you know,
two arms, two legs. You know, these things are standard issue.
A reasonable amount of intelligence, sure, but an intelligence that
(13:49):
translates to money making opportunities in this modern capitalistic society.
Not everybody is born with that, okay, So why else
would some people be poor or not affluent. Maybe they're
(14:11):
medical conditions. We were just talking about that. You know.
Some people were born with different physical conditions, we'll say,
and some people end up with different medical issues throughout
their life that prevent them from engaging fully in the
(14:34):
economy and taking full advantage of this quote unquote land
of opportunity. All right, So what else why are some
people poor? Well? The government, you know, I did a
recent episode where I was talking about the black codes
(14:55):
in the South right after the Civil War, and then
of course following the Black hoodes there was Jim Crowe,
and then following Jim Crowe, there was redlining and a
failure to properly disperse the g I do. And there
was of course environmental racism. That's a real thing that
(15:20):
affects land values, property values. There's land theft. There's a
ton of that in history, Policing over policing, unfair criminal
justice outcomes, the War on drugs, and on and on
(15:42):
now again I'm not talking about black people talking about
why some people could be poor. We're talking about the government.
And everything that I've mentioned here was government sanctioned, government backed,
So the government could definitely play a role in why
some people are poor. Why else could some people be poor? Well?
(16:03):
Maybe values. That's not to say that there are people
that value being poor, but maybe there are people who
do not necessarily value being rich. As long as they
have enough, they're fine. I know plenty of people like this.
They just want a simple life where they can spend
time with their family and go on a couple of
(16:24):
trips every so often, and that's it. What are they
going to do with a third car? What are they
going to do with a second rolex? You know, it
just doesn't make any sense for them. You know, having
enough is more than sufficient. You know, they think it's
insane to have more than what you could possibly need
(16:45):
for what There's altruistic sort of people, these people that
love to give and want to share and want to
do work and they volunteer and they feed the homeless
and that sort of thing. Wealth means very little to them.
They get their wealth in a different way, right, So
their values do not reflect those of a capitalist. And
(17:14):
that's fair, kay. But you know, relatively speaking, it would
be considered poor, Tom, if you're comparing them to the
folks in the neighborhood that I was, you know, visiting
when I was looking at the real estate. So so
what does that mean? What does it mean to be poor?
Is it? Dad? I mean that's for you to decide.
(17:41):
Some people would say yes, it just I guess it
depends on their values. Some people, of course, would say no,
it's not a crime. It's not a sin. Right, And
if you're the sort of person that thinks, no, it's
not a crime to be poor, I want you to
keep that energy, okay, because we're gonna talk about what
it means to be poor. So let's start. Being poor
(18:05):
means that your life is going to be expensive. Crazy, right,
But if you've ever paid an overdraft fee, we've ever
paid a late fee, If you do not have the
ability to buy and bulk, if any number of things
(18:30):
happens to you and you are not able to respond
to it in a timely manner, or indeed in an
appropriate manner fiscally speaking, then you are effectively taxed on it.
As we know, the richest people in this country are
not taxed even by the government, at least not to
(18:51):
the same degree that poor people are. And this is
all under the guys that somehow these rich folks are
in some way more productive of their job creators. You know.
It's it's framed in a way to make these billionaires
look really good, you know. But um, you know, because
(19:15):
it's framed that way doesn't mean that that's the whole truth.
The fact is is that a lot of times billionaires
hoard wealth and keep wealth from flowing through society the
way that it could, the way that it should. We
saw this in the pandemic. We saw this in two
thousand and eight when black people lost a significant amount
of wealth because our real estate was lost. And you know,
(19:45):
as you know, there are many other bad things that
happen in two poor people. I'll spare you the list,
But I'm assuming that you're reasonable people who live in
the same society and subscribe to the same reality as
the vast majority of us. It might be the stretch,
but if you're listening to the show, the assumption has
(20:06):
to be that you are there and you recognize that
bad things more often than not, or disproportionately happen to
poor people. So let's interject here that a lot of
poor people are black, a lot of poor people are white. Right,
(20:29):
but if we go by the numbers, there's a disproportionate
amount of poor people that are black. And now you
might start to see the direction I'm going in. A
disproportionate number of people are poor people are Native Hispanic,
you know. And so now that we have some wys,
(20:55):
we can start to dissect us a little bit. You know,
something that I think is interesting is that there was
a lyric by by Tupac where he said, um, instead
of a war on poverty, they have a war on drugs,
so the police can bother me. All right, that's wild.
(21:19):
And you know when we're talking about crack and a
war on drugs and this sort of stuff, you know
what comes to mind, you know, ghettos and black people
all smoked out and that sort of stuff. A war
on drugs, right when we're talking about Fenton All and
all this sort of stuff. There's no war. People don't
go to jail for that, you know, not not like
black people did disproportionately. Right, Drugs, they're drugs. But uh,
(21:52):
you know what else is crazy too, is that, um,
doctor King was a person who who obviously stood up
for black people, you know, is famous. I have a
dream speech little black boys and little white girls, you know,
sitting down at a table together. You know, that's that's
the way that we are remembering doctor King these days.
(22:14):
But many of you may know that Doctor King really
came under heat in his final days before he was assassinated,
moving in a direction that included poor white people, because
in his assessment of the country, poor people were being
(22:38):
taken advantage of. And there's a much stronger case to
be made when you're talking about poor people than white people, because,
as we know, the company or sorry, the country rather
is or I guess company. It could be either or,
but this country tends to be very apathetic, very lethargic
(23:01):
in the response to black people saying what's wrong. So, um,
let's move on. Now we've been spending some time talking
about poverty. Poverty alone doesn't explain black underrepresentation in politics,
(23:21):
nor does it explain black overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.
So poverty alone doesn't do that, but it certainly addresses
much of what ails a significant amount of people in
this country. And an even more significant amount of black people.
(23:42):
So something to think about. You know, again, wealth more
often than not shapes outcomes. I love that statement. So
one of the things we haven't talked about is, you know,
for people that say, you know, I don't see color,
I wasn't raised that way. My family wasn't raised that way.
(24:03):
You know, I come from a Christian background or otherwise
a religious background. Right, you don't see color. We're all
the same in God's eyes. Okay, So for those with
religious backgrounds that don't see color, maybe you see poverty. Okay,
So my question to you is do the poor deserve
(24:27):
to be overlooked? How about this? Do the deities you
worship do they live as rich people? Did they live
as rich people? Or do they walk with poor people?
Did they help poor people? Again? Do poor people deserve
(24:50):
to be overlooked? Since you don't see color, but clearly
you can see that wealth is shaping out comes as
we've outlined today. All right, so maybe you're not religious, Um,
how about this? Do you really honestly believe that wealth
(25:14):
is the most accurate measure of a man or a woman.
Do you know of any rich people who are bad?
I'm sure, you can think of a ton people that
take advantage of our people, people that exploit sick, people
(25:37):
who commit atrocities against minorities. Now think of think of
a good person. Think of the best people you know
from history. Okay, doctor King, we talked about him. How
about Gandhi to move it beyond that, or a mother Teresa.
(26:00):
You recall ever hearing any of these people is being rich?
So again, do poor people deserve to be overlooked since
you don't see color? Since we're all the same. So
(26:23):
maybe it's easier for you to approach these issues if
we make it about dollars and cents. You know, if
if it is difficult for you to see this as
a black and white issue because of the society that
(26:48):
you've been raised in not allowing you to fully develop
your you're empathetic instincts and your capacity to relate to
those of us who are more millionated, then maybe this
(27:12):
is a more convenient way for you to access that
part of your humanity. I wouldn't blame you, because you know,
we're even black people are taught, we're raised in a
society that teaches us to hate black people, hate ourselves.
So I wouldn't be mad at you if that's how
(27:32):
you were raised. But you know, I'm just trying to
give you an alternative equation to get to the same answer.
So for again, those people like the realtor that I
met who says, you know, we're all the same and
why aren't we talking and you know, whatever he was saying, honestly,
(27:52):
it was just nonsense. But you know, the people, right,
the people that don't believe that there's a war on
black people. They they think black people are imagining everything
and and there's no war against Mexican people. It's just
the illegal ones. And they think that you know, Native
(28:16):
people are they need to figure out their own communities
and they've been given land and whatever their arguments are,
some of these people don't even engage in these arguments.
For people that overlook all that stuff, you can still
clearly see that there's an invisible war on poor people.
(28:42):
So let's talk about these poor people. Okay, Let's say
these people live in the ghetto, right, and you know,
(29:03):
these people have you know, a criminal background, and they
are they didn't go to Ivy League school and their
public school maybe even drop out, no college, you know,
not a lot in the way of job prospects. So
maybe they're underemployed or unemployed. You know, maybe these people
(29:27):
turn to criminal activity to make money. Maybe they sell drugs,
maybe they you know whatever. Who knows now is the
person you imagined in your thoughts scenario? Does that person
have a color? It doesn't matter if they do or not,
(29:54):
but I'd imagine they do. And if they do, and
I think that you see color, whatever color it is,
and now that you can see color through the lens
of wealth, maybe this is a battle you can join
(30:16):
in and help us fight. There's nothing I've talked about
today that is not easily accessible online. If you don't
trust online sources, there's libraries full of books that talk
about this. I'm not talking about anything that's to modern day.
You know, this is you can find it in any library.
(30:39):
And if you really do think that the world can
be a better place from your perhaps privileged perspective, I
think you could take a day and and you know,
dig into these words and search everything to know that
(31:01):
I'm telling you the truth, learn that truth for yourself,
and then walk that path. And I think that's a
great place to start. So as always, i'd love to
hear your thoughts, so you can reach out to me
(31:24):
using the red microphone talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app.
Of course, you can hit me on all social media
at Ramsy's Job. Do you see color? Let me know
and until you do piece. This has been a production
of the Black Information Network. Today's show is produced by
(31:47):
Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts you'd like to share, use
the red microphone talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app.
While you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download
all of our episodes. I'm your host Ramsey's Job on
all social media. Join us tomorrow as we share our
news with our voice from our perspective right here on
the Black Information Network Daily Podcast
That this is the Black Information Network Daily podcast, and
I am your host, Rams's Jah. And sometimes the amount
of stories that make their way to us means that
we simply can't cover everything that comes our way. But
from time to time, a story just stays with me
and I feel compelled to share it with you and
give you my thoughts. And now one more thing. Okay,
(00:36):
So the other day I was with a partner of mine.
We're looking at some real estate and the realtor came out,
great guy. UM let me describe him to He's probably
in his mid to late fifties, um, white, and he's
(01:02):
a realtor. He deals with real estate and affluent neighborhoods.
And we were looking at a relatively speaking expensive piece
of property and uh, he said that he grew up
in that neighborhood and he now sells property in that neighborhood.
(01:25):
He knows the neighborhood very well. On and on and
I We're like, great, you know, this is a guy
to be talking to. And you know, he asked a
little bit about what we did for work, and then
you know, my partner answered him. It's like, all you know,
I'm in software and I do you know this. Then
and the third, you know, and then I says, oh,
you know, serial entrepreneur. I own some businesses, you know,
(01:49):
I do this. Then in the third and you know,
I have a little radio show I do and uh,
you know, I do a podcast for iHeart. And he's like,
oh wow, tell me about your radio show. Tell me
about your podcast, And of course I told him a
little bit about it. You know, we do with social
justice issues and you know, things like this, and then
of course we cover events that are important to black
(02:14):
people in this country, not unlike a univision and how
they cover things they're significant to our Hispanic brothers and sisters.
And then he said something that was very interesting hearing
(02:35):
it at this point in my life. Something I've heard
quite a bit, you know, throughout all my forty years
of living on this planet, and something I'm sure you've
heard as well. He says, you know, the normal stuff.
Oh man, I love it. You know, I do believe
black lives matter, and of course I believe all lives matter.
You know, followed it up real quick, which let me
know where he stood. For those that that don't know,
(03:01):
the affirmation black lives matter is one that exists to
prop up and affirm that black lives are valuable. It
in no way diminishes the value of anyone else's life.
It is a statement in and of itself. You know,
(03:24):
the comparison is often made, you know, when people do
a breast cancer walk, they're not saying other types of
cancer don't don't matter, right, But you know, he felt
the need to follow his black lives matter statement up
with all lives matter, right all right? Man? Cool? You
know some people they just don't get it. The information
(03:44):
doesn't follow to their ears, or if it does, they
just are not in a position to hear it. Their
reality doesn't allow for them to receive anything else, especially
someone who grew up as privileged as this man. Bear
in mind, I'm from Compton, California, and i was born
in the eighties, so you know, I've seen it. But
(04:09):
then he said something else. You know, he did his
whole thing, tried his best to kind of suggest that
he was, you know, standing with us, and you know,
he understood what we were dealing with, and he sympathized
and so forth, And of course we knew that he
did not he was saying that because you know, there's
(04:30):
potentially a sale on the line for him, and so
he hit the talking points without kind of abandoning his
what what I would guess, our conservative views. You know,
he meant it. He was in attempting to find some
common grounds, some commonality, but you know, also trying to
(04:53):
again support us and what it is that you know,
I'm I stand for, while again not abandoning is his
personal viewpoints of politics and so forth. And then he
said something, you know, as he floundered about trying to
figure out what language was necessary in that moment to
(05:14):
convince us to you know, do business with him, while
you know, finally getting off a conversation I'm sure he's
been sitting on for a few years, he said, I
don't see color. And that's the statement that I want
to talk about today. I don't see color. I would
(05:42):
guess that everybody who has said that actually does see color.
They're trying to say that they don't allow color to
shape their decision making or you know whatever, and they're
trying to suggest that somehow, because they don't see color,
(06:06):
that the country has moved past you know, it's it's
origin story because of the fact that we've elected, you know,
a black president and you know, all this sort of stuff,
and no one in their circle sees color either, no
one in their family sees color, and they weren't raised
(06:28):
that way, and blah blah blah, and so the racism
that we are experiencing as black and brown people in
this country is imaginary. And so, um, I don't see color. Now,
(06:51):
if you know someone who said this, I'm sure you
know what they meant. And if you yourself are the
sort of person that says I see color, congratulations on
not seeing race. Right, But society sees race. We know
(07:11):
it's an artificial construct, we know that it's only skin deep,
but society sees it, and outcomes are very much shaped
by it. You know, there's this conversation, oh, you know,
my family never owned slaves, sure, but a slave economy
flowed through every level of society. And so whether or
(07:35):
not you had slaves, you benefited from slavery. If your
parents or you're sorry, you're great great grandparents or whatever
had a job that was well paying and afforded them
the opportunity to own land and whatever, you know, allowed
them the framework, societal framework to pull themselves up by
(08:00):
their bootstraps. A not insignificant amount of money that flowed
into their pockets even came about because of a slave economy.
Slavery was, in fact, the majority of slave slave produced
products or exports or those sorts of things made up
(08:22):
the majority of the United States economy. Is this is
a documented of course, and I'm sure you know that already.
But you know, for those people that say that they
don't see race, I want to charge you with a
thought experiment. So allow me to paint a picture. Someone
(08:48):
that I'm a big fan of. His name is Brian Stevenson.
I've talked about him on the show before and talked
about him on all my shows. He's a very inspirational
person to me. He's the subject of the movie Just Caused,
starring Michael B. Jordan. He once said something, and I
believe it was a ted talk of his, that was effectively,
(09:14):
wealth shapes outcomes more than culpability when it comes to
the criminal justice system in the United States of America,
and that we have a criminal justice system that treats
you better if you are rich and guilty then if
you are poor and innocent. Now, notice I did not
(09:37):
say black and white. Wealth is what we're talking about.
So again, follow me on my thought experiment beyond the
criminal justice system. Wealth absolutely shapes educational outcomes. We know
that because we know how education is paid for public
(09:58):
education in this country. It's paid for through property taxes,
and those with the property are taxed on that property,
and that those taxes go into funding the schools. So
if the property taxes are higher because the neighborhood is
(10:20):
more affluent, then the schools have more resources. And in
poorer neighborhoods you're not talking about race, poorer neighborhoods, there's
less money to go into education. Let's talk representation, because
(10:45):
well shapes representation as well. You know, lobbyists and big
donors and so forth and so on, all these campaign
donations and so forth, that represents corporate interests. You know this,
You know, the closest we've ever seen to anything that
really reflects common folks interests in recent history is Bernie Sanders.
(11:17):
That's not to say that people didn't donate to the
previous administration. That's not to say that people didn't donate
to Obama. But Bernie Sanders was a person who was
very much in touch with common folks, and he staunchly
refused to accept donations from companies that might try to
(11:39):
influence his decision making upon being elected. So those are
just a few, but suffice as to say that nearly
every level of society wealth shape's outcomes. Okay, so some
(12:04):
people who are a bit calloused, some people who are
a bit disconnected from the realities that we all live
in and with, might say, well, you know, this is
a land of opportunity. If you don't like being poor,
then don't be poor. Do something about it, work hard, right,
(12:28):
and I will admit that there's something to that. There
are opportunities to work and to make money and to
make a difference. And again we're not talking about race.
We're just talking about the opportunities right now. But the
(12:52):
fact is that those opportunities are not available to everyone. Okay,
so let's examine why some people are poor. Okay, Well,
first and foremost intelligence. You know, not everybody is born
with the same cognitive capacities and intellectual fortitude, right, that
(13:21):
is not evenly distributed. Okay, we're all born with five
fingers on each hand and five well most of us,
but you get what I'm saying, are born with you know,
two arms, two legs. You know, these things are standard issue.
A reasonable amount of intelligence, sure, but an intelligence that
(13:49):
translates to money making opportunities in this modern capitalistic society.
Not everybody is born with that, okay, So why else
would some people be poor or not affluent. Maybe they're
(14:11):
medical conditions. We were just talking about that. You know.
Some people were born with different physical conditions, we'll say,
and some people end up with different medical issues throughout
their life that prevent them from engaging fully in the
(14:34):
economy and taking full advantage of this quote unquote land
of opportunity. All right, So what else why are some
people poor? Well? The government, you know, I did a
recent episode where I was talking about the black codes
(14:55):
in the South right after the Civil War, and then
of course following the Black hoodes there was Jim Crowe,
and then following Jim Crowe, there was redlining and a
failure to properly disperse the g I do. And there
was of course environmental racism. That's a real thing that
(15:20):
affects land values, property values. There's land theft. There's a
ton of that in history, Policing over policing, unfair criminal
justice outcomes, the War on drugs, and on and on
(15:42):
now again I'm not talking about black people talking about
why some people could be poor. We're talking about the government.
And everything that I've mentioned here was government sanctioned, government backed,
So the government could definitely play a role in why
some people are poor. Why else could some people be poor? Well?
(16:03):
Maybe values. That's not to say that there are people
that value being poor, but maybe there are people who
do not necessarily value being rich. As long as they
have enough, they're fine. I know plenty of people like this.
They just want a simple life where they can spend
time with their family and go on a couple of
(16:24):
trips every so often, and that's it. What are they
going to do with a third car? What are they
going to do with a second rolex? You know, it
just doesn't make any sense for them. You know, having
enough is more than sufficient. You know, they think it's
insane to have more than what you could possibly need
(16:45):
for what There's altruistic sort of people, these people that
love to give and want to share and want to
do work and they volunteer and they feed the homeless
and that sort of thing. Wealth means very little to them.
They get their wealth in a different way, right, So
their values do not reflect those of a capitalist. And
(17:14):
that's fair, kay. But you know, relatively speaking, it would
be considered poor, Tom, if you're comparing them to the
folks in the neighborhood that I was, you know, visiting
when I was looking at the real estate. So so
what does that mean? What does it mean to be poor?
Is it? Dad? I mean that's for you to decide.
(17:41):
Some people would say yes, it just I guess it
depends on their values. Some people, of course, would say no,
it's not a crime. It's not a sin. Right, And
if you're the sort of person that thinks, no, it's
not a crime to be poor, I want you to
keep that energy, okay, because we're gonna talk about what
it means to be poor. So let's start. Being poor
(18:05):
means that your life is going to be expensive. Crazy, right,
But if you've ever paid an overdraft fee, we've ever
paid a late fee, If you do not have the
ability to buy and bulk, if any number of things
(18:30):
happens to you and you are not able to respond
to it in a timely manner, or indeed in an
appropriate manner fiscally speaking, then you are effectively taxed on it.
As we know, the richest people in this country are
not taxed even by the government, at least not to
(18:51):
the same degree that poor people are. And this is
all under the guys that somehow these rich folks are
in some way more productive of their job creators. You know.
It's it's framed in a way to make these billionaires
look really good, you know. But um, you know, because
(19:15):
it's framed that way doesn't mean that that's the whole truth.
The fact is is that a lot of times billionaires
hoard wealth and keep wealth from flowing through society the
way that it could, the way that it should. We
saw this in the pandemic. We saw this in two
thousand and eight when black people lost a significant amount
of wealth because our real estate was lost. And you know,
(19:45):
as you know, there are many other bad things that
happen in two poor people. I'll spare you the list,
But I'm assuming that you're reasonable people who live in
the same society and subscribe to the same reality as
the vast majority of us. It might be the stretch,
but if you're listening to the show, the assumption has
(20:06):
to be that you are there and you recognize that
bad things more often than not, or disproportionately happen to
poor people. So let's interject here that a lot of
poor people are black, a lot of poor people are white. Right,
(20:29):
but if we go by the numbers, there's a disproportionate
amount of poor people that are black. And now you
might start to see the direction I'm going in. A
disproportionate number of people are poor people are Native Hispanic,
you know. And so now that we have some wys,
(20:55):
we can start to dissect us a little bit. You know,
something that I think is interesting is that there was
a lyric by by Tupac where he said, um, instead
of a war on poverty, they have a war on drugs,
so the police can bother me. All right, that's wild.
(21:19):
And you know when we're talking about crack and a
war on drugs and this sort of stuff, you know
what comes to mind, you know, ghettos and black people
all smoked out and that sort of stuff. A war
on drugs, right when we're talking about Fenton All and
all this sort of stuff. There's no war. People don't
go to jail for that, you know, not not like
black people did disproportionately. Right, Drugs, they're drugs. But uh,
(21:52):
you know what else is crazy too, is that, um,
doctor King was a person who who obviously stood up
for black people, you know, is famous. I have a
dream speech little black boys and little white girls, you know,
sitting down at a table together. You know, that's that's
the way that we are remembering doctor King these days.
(22:14):
But many of you may know that Doctor King really
came under heat in his final days before he was assassinated,
moving in a direction that included poor white people, because
in his assessment of the country, poor people were being
(22:38):
taken advantage of. And there's a much stronger case to
be made when you're talking about poor people than white people, because,
as we know, the company or sorry, the country rather
is or I guess company. It could be either or,
but this country tends to be very apathetic, very lethargic
(23:01):
in the response to black people saying what's wrong. So, um,
let's move on. Now we've been spending some time talking
about poverty. Poverty alone doesn't explain black underrepresentation in politics,
(23:21):
nor does it explain black overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.
So poverty alone doesn't do that, but it certainly addresses
much of what ails a significant amount of people in
this country. And an even more significant amount of black people.
(23:42):
So something to think about. You know, again, wealth more
often than not shapes outcomes. I love that statement. So
one of the things we haven't talked about is, you know,
for people that say, you know, I don't see color,
I wasn't raised that way. My family wasn't raised that way.
(24:03):
You know, I come from a Christian background or otherwise
a religious background. Right, you don't see color. We're all
the same in God's eyes. Okay, So for those with
religious backgrounds that don't see color, maybe you see poverty. Okay,
So my question to you is do the poor deserve
(24:27):
to be overlooked? How about this? Do the deities you
worship do they live as rich people? Did they live
as rich people? Or do they walk with poor people?
Did they help poor people? Again? Do poor people deserve
(24:50):
to be overlooked? Since you don't see color, but clearly
you can see that wealth is shaping out comes as
we've outlined today. All right, so maybe you're not religious, Um,
how about this? Do you really honestly believe that wealth
(25:14):
is the most accurate measure of a man or a woman.
Do you know of any rich people who are bad?
I'm sure, you can think of a ton people that
take advantage of our people, people that exploit sick, people
(25:37):
who commit atrocities against minorities. Now think of think of
a good person. Think of the best people you know
from history. Okay, doctor King, we talked about him. How
about Gandhi to move it beyond that, or a mother Teresa.
(26:00):
You recall ever hearing any of these people is being rich?
So again, do poor people deserve to be overlooked since
you don't see color? Since we're all the same. So
(26:23):
maybe it's easier for you to approach these issues if
we make it about dollars and cents. You know, if
if it is difficult for you to see this as
a black and white issue because of the society that
(26:48):
you've been raised in not allowing you to fully develop
your you're empathetic instincts and your capacity to relate to
those of us who are more millionated, then maybe this
(27:12):
is a more convenient way for you to access that
part of your humanity. I wouldn't blame you, because you know,
we're even black people are taught, we're raised in a
society that teaches us to hate black people, hate ourselves.
So I wouldn't be mad at you if that's how
(27:32):
you were raised. But you know, I'm just trying to
give you an alternative equation to get to the same answer.
So for again, those people like the realtor that I
met who says, you know, we're all the same and
why aren't we talking and you know, whatever he was saying, honestly,
(27:52):
it was just nonsense. But you know, the people, right,
the people that don't believe that there's a war on
black people. They they think black people are imagining everything
and and there's no war against Mexican people. It's just
the illegal ones. And they think that you know, Native
(28:16):
people are they need to figure out their own communities
and they've been given land and whatever their arguments are,
some of these people don't even engage in these arguments.
For people that overlook all that stuff, you can still
clearly see that there's an invisible war on poor people.
(28:42):
So let's talk about these poor people. Okay, Let's say
these people live in the ghetto, right, and you know,
(29:03):
these people have you know, a criminal background, and they
are they didn't go to Ivy League school and their
public school maybe even drop out, no college, you know,
not a lot in the way of job prospects. So
maybe they're underemployed or unemployed. You know, maybe these people
(29:27):
turn to criminal activity to make money. Maybe they sell drugs,
maybe they you know whatever. Who knows now is the
person you imagined in your thoughts scenario? Does that person
have a color? It doesn't matter if they do or not,
(29:54):
but I'd imagine they do. And if they do, and
I think that you see color, whatever color it is,
and now that you can see color through the lens
of wealth, maybe this is a battle you can join
(30:16):
in and help us fight. There's nothing I've talked about
today that is not easily accessible online. If you don't
trust online sources, there's libraries full of books that talk
about this. I'm not talking about anything that's to modern day.
You know, this is you can find it in any library.
(30:39):
And if you really do think that the world can
be a better place from your perhaps privileged perspective, I
think you could take a day and and you know,
dig into these words and search everything to know that
(31:01):
I'm telling you the truth, learn that truth for yourself,
and then walk that path. And I think that's a
great place to start. So as always, i'd love to
hear your thoughts, so you can reach out to me
(31:24):
using the red microphone talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app.
Of course, you can hit me on all social media
at Ramsy's Job. Do you see color? Let me know
and until you do piece. This has been a production
of the Black Information Network. Today's show is produced by
(31:47):
Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts you'd like to share, use
the red microphone talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app.
While you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download
all of our episodes. I'm your host Ramsey's Job on
all social media. Join us tomorrow as we share our
news with our voice from our perspective right here on
the Black Information Network Daily Podcast
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.