I must say I’m a bit surprised to not see more psychologically minded answers to what is a purely psychological question. Racism is a moment in an individual’s psychology. A large amount of money to “end racism” is as silly as a large amount of money to “end narcissism” or any psychological phenomena that, in the end, can only be arrived at by an individual’s own experience and desire for change. If one wanted to REDUCE the number of instances of racism (we will never end the judgments of the mind) the most effective approach would be to facilitate experiences that naturally challenge the thoughts and judgments category we call racism. I’ve seen studies and common sense shows that having interactions with others that are different is very effective at dismantling false conceptions of the other. $43M to facilitate group conversations with some kind of skilled leader/therapist/mediator could be done a gazillion times, anywhere, for very little money with each meeting. And yet if I scroll through MeetUp in my city I couldn’t find one place facilitating such connections, let alone the local university’s events calendar. I’ve always naturally sought out such interactions on my own but as far as I’ve seen there is no organization sweeping the nation doing such a thing. It’s true that a truly die hard racist wouldn’t engage in such an activity but there no amount of money would “fight racism” in this individual’s mind anyway. If the assumption is that most people are on average decent people if called forth to be so in the right environment/context, then a large sum of money could go a long way to facilitating countless experiences - the only thing that could potentially change someone’s psychology. Also I’m tired of the “fight” word - fight cancer, fight racism, why does everything need to be a battle? Especially when the solution to racism isn’t fighting at all but connecting. If someone put some of these kinds of conversations on YouTube they would take other people through the same journey. This would also be a good antidote to people disagreeing over stupid things on the internet in general.
I would use the money to initiate a class action suit against the elite proponents of policies resulting in the proliferation of high crime neighborhoods, low academic performance in K-12, and an activist media reinforcing woke sensibilities rather than facts. Needless to say, I would then have to immediately go into a witness protection program.
John, I'm curious as to why you would not take that money and implement your three suggested solutions from Woke Racism:
- Fight to end the war on drugs
- Make sure kids not from book-lined homes are taught to read with phonics
- Advocate vocational training for poor people and battle the idea that 'real' people go to college (you also made a plug for community college/trade schools)
What is stopping John from producing that movie? He is now nationally known, and I can't imagine that it would be that hard for him to raise the money for the film he proposes. I mean -- and I mean this seriously -- I bet Bill Ackman would pay for it.
Based on my experience many failures in the black community come from lack of parenting. The boarding school idea is interesting but would take a lot more than $43,000,000. There are many programs in place to try to replace the lack of parenting at home: Communities in Schools, mentoring, Boys and Girls Clubs but these reach a fraction of the children and five hours a week with a mentor cannot make up for nonexistent parenting. I’ve tried to think of ways you could make getting food stamps and welfare dependent on actually acting like a parent but haven’t thought of a way to make it work. My experience in industry is that the vast majority of people want to do well and some can’t figure out how to do it on their own and need help. People like to be on a winning team. So if getting aid was dependent on attending parenting classes with your children there might be is better chance for the children. Too many of the mothers weren’t parented so they have no idea how to do it. I have been in homes with three generations of women and none of them is acting like an adult. I think welfare is a major cause of poor parenting - you can get money for being irresponsible. I think we are incentivizing bad behavior which is not good for the child, parent, or society.
I would start a boarding school for poor black boys. The mission of the school would be to equip my boys with the tools to become real men. It would do this by instilling a strong moral character based on traditional western values woven throughout the curricula. I would teach them that the world is there for their taking, that in America anyone has the opportunity to achieve their dreams. I would point out successful black men - men that beat the odds and didn't let anyone or anything stop them from achieving their dreams. Men like Damon John, Barak Obama, Russel Simmons, Michael Jordan, Sean Combs - how did they succeed in spite of so called "white privilege" and "systematic racism"? Uncover the common traits and attributes of successful black men in all walks of life regardless of wealth and stature and develop ourselves into better men.
Classes in business, marketing, economics, woodworking, technology, mechanics, and the trades would be required as well. We'd also have a vigorous athletic program, focusing on leadership, teamwork, and sportsmanship, along with a great conditioning program. Upon graduation, graduates will know how to sweat a pipe and keep a set of books, make his bed, and recite the 10 Commandments. Graduates will be confident, independent, well-rounded men.
It's a small long-term solution that will take years to bear real fruit, but 10 years from now we'll be asking the same damned question if we don't start doing instead of talking. As my father used to say to me more than I'd like to admit, more paw work, less jaw work.
I would like though, someone to define racism. My understanding is that Racism's evil twin brothers Subjection and Genocide were always lurking close by. I don't see any evidence of that in America on any scale. What was once called bigotry and prejudice is now called racism, in my opinion anyway.
Despite what I am sure will be eyerolls from Marek I am lucky that I went to the vort this evening since I was able to look at "Gems from the Netivas Shalom". This explanation was in the book. The NS wants to know why Moses needed to be given 3 signs for the Jewish people besides the obvious reason that he has too little self-confidence to accept the mission. Says the NS, the Jewish people are worried that since they have descended to the 49th level of impurity in Egypt (let us just say there are hundreds of years of this idea by the time it gets to him), they don't have enough merit to be redeemed and have not stayed long enough in Egypt in the first place. But they also worry that even if the Jewish people are entirely righteous Egypt is under the control of such a dark spiritual force that it is too strong for them. So Moses has to turn the waters of the Nile symbolizing the Egyptian spiritual powers to blood to show that this is not true. AFAIK there are no professional Afropessimists involved in 1966. The fight is about what kind of soul force can overcome a hundred years of broken promises when it seems that merit will be recognized and white people will acknowledge having a common goal with Black people.
See https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071334/ and https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071334/reviews . This is movie Claudine from 1974 with Diane Carroll and James Earl Jones. It shows how ridiculous LBJ Great Society rules are tearing apart black families and how reasonable black people need to try to work around the rules. Senator Moynihan described this problem, too.
"John Lewis: Good Trouble" got made and it was entirely sympathetic to Lewis in that fight, but that was for CNN, not a Hollywood movie.
John's movie would run into discourse trouble at this minute because it would portray the end of the old Black-Jewish civil rights alliance and that might launch more takes than the idea that Black Power was counterproductive for Black people, a completely uncontroversial idea when Taylor Branch espoused it in the 1990s.
First of all, I would figure out what is the number one cause of racism. I would say it is crime.
In 2022 there were approximately 10,000 black homicide victims. Far and away greater than any other racial or ethnic group. Let's start by cutting this by 90% in one year.
How? Let's use the El Salvador model. Instead of an ankle monitor for carjacking someone. You get 10 years of nose to culo in your boxers on a concrete slab.
Therapy will consist 55 minutes of you, your therapist, and a rubber hose.
Robbery, rape and murder? Get the rope.
We have nothing to lose but another 10,000 dead guys who no one wants to talk about.
Thanks for this episode. I pray that John’s movie idea becomes a reality. At some point we are going to need to deal with the reality that the power elites want us segregated and ignorant of each other. That ignorance allows the lies to take root and if repeated enough, those lies can become “truth”. One such issue is that we allow false victims to represent fact, which stifles the traction of our learning to truly see that God has made us different to see Him more clearly. Instead of celebrating those differences in a meritocracy that values character over all other attributes of the individual, we are taught to base our hate on those differences That is what Satan wants. Let’s reject the push to hate and embrace the call understand and flourish. However and whomever spends the $43M. Please keep the discussion going as I know many like me yearn to live together in objective truth. Not in hate or mistrust
I like the movie idea also. More impact and more reach. The scholarship has largely been done by many over the last few decades. It's a question of putting what we know to work.
Public television has produced a documentary, "The cost of inheritance "on the issue of reparations for African Americans, directed by Yoruba Richen. Covers "systemic inequities and modern day racial wealth gap. Funded by the usual legacy philanthropists: Ford, Hewlett, Rockefeller MacArthur.To be aired January 8.
How is it that immigrants, new to English, and limited education, and little help from the government, provided for their family and the father even left a small inheritance to three daughters when he died at 92
Spend the money on black development (schools like the one in Harlem developed by Roland Fryer) and not on “research” into racism. Solve the root problem. Don’t research the symptoms!
I must say I’m a bit surprised to not see more psychologically minded answers to what is a purely psychological question. Racism is a moment in an individual’s psychology. A large amount of money to “end racism” is as silly as a large amount of money to “end narcissism” or any psychological phenomena that, in the end, can only be arrived at by an individual’s own experience and desire for change. If one wanted to REDUCE the number of instances of racism (we will never end the judgments of the mind) the most effective approach would be to facilitate experiences that naturally challenge the thoughts and judgments category we call racism. I’ve seen studies and common sense shows that having interactions with others that are different is very effective at dismantling false conceptions of the other. $43M to facilitate group conversations with some kind of skilled leader/therapist/mediator could be done a gazillion times, anywhere, for very little money with each meeting. And yet if I scroll through MeetUp in my city I couldn’t find one place facilitating such connections, let alone the local university’s events calendar. I’ve always naturally sought out such interactions on my own but as far as I’ve seen there is no organization sweeping the nation doing such a thing. It’s true that a truly die hard racist wouldn’t engage in such an activity but there no amount of money would “fight racism” in this individual’s mind anyway. If the assumption is that most people are on average decent people if called forth to be so in the right environment/context, then a large sum of money could go a long way to facilitating countless experiences - the only thing that could potentially change someone’s psychology. Also I’m tired of the “fight” word - fight cancer, fight racism, why does everything need to be a battle? Especially when the solution to racism isn’t fighting at all but connecting. If someone put some of these kinds of conversations on YouTube they would take other people through the same journey. This would also be a good antidote to people disagreeing over stupid things on the internet in general.
I would use the money to initiate a class action suit against the elite proponents of policies resulting in the proliferation of high crime neighborhoods, low academic performance in K-12, and an activist media reinforcing woke sensibilities rather than facts. Needless to say, I would then have to immediately go into a witness protection program.
John, I'm curious as to why you would not take that money and implement your three suggested solutions from Woke Racism:
- Fight to end the war on drugs
- Make sure kids not from book-lined homes are taught to read with phonics
- Advocate vocational training for poor people and battle the idea that 'real' people go to college (you also made a plug for community college/trade schools)
What is stopping John from producing that movie? He is now nationally known, and I can't imagine that it would be that hard for him to raise the money for the film he proposes. I mean -- and I mean this seriously -- I bet Bill Ackman would pay for it.
Based on my experience many failures in the black community come from lack of parenting. The boarding school idea is interesting but would take a lot more than $43,000,000. There are many programs in place to try to replace the lack of parenting at home: Communities in Schools, mentoring, Boys and Girls Clubs but these reach a fraction of the children and five hours a week with a mentor cannot make up for nonexistent parenting. I’ve tried to think of ways you could make getting food stamps and welfare dependent on actually acting like a parent but haven’t thought of a way to make it work. My experience in industry is that the vast majority of people want to do well and some can’t figure out how to do it on their own and need help. People like to be on a winning team. So if getting aid was dependent on attending parenting classes with your children there might be is better chance for the children. Too many of the mothers weren’t parented so they have no idea how to do it. I have been in homes with three generations of women and none of them is acting like an adult. I think welfare is a major cause of poor parenting - you can get money for being irresponsible. I think we are incentivizing bad behavior which is not good for the child, parent, or society.
I would start a boarding school for poor black boys. The mission of the school would be to equip my boys with the tools to become real men. It would do this by instilling a strong moral character based on traditional western values woven throughout the curricula. I would teach them that the world is there for their taking, that in America anyone has the opportunity to achieve their dreams. I would point out successful black men - men that beat the odds and didn't let anyone or anything stop them from achieving their dreams. Men like Damon John, Barak Obama, Russel Simmons, Michael Jordan, Sean Combs - how did they succeed in spite of so called "white privilege" and "systematic racism"? Uncover the common traits and attributes of successful black men in all walks of life regardless of wealth and stature and develop ourselves into better men.
Classes in business, marketing, economics, woodworking, technology, mechanics, and the trades would be required as well. We'd also have a vigorous athletic program, focusing on leadership, teamwork, and sportsmanship, along with a great conditioning program. Upon graduation, graduates will know how to sweat a pipe and keep a set of books, make his bed, and recite the 10 Commandments. Graduates will be confident, independent, well-rounded men.
It's a small long-term solution that will take years to bear real fruit, but 10 years from now we'll be asking the same damned question if we don't start doing instead of talking. As my father used to say to me more than I'd like to admit, more paw work, less jaw work.
I would like though, someone to define racism. My understanding is that Racism's evil twin brothers Subjection and Genocide were always lurking close by. I don't see any evidence of that in America on any scale. What was once called bigotry and prejudice is now called racism, in my opinion anyway.
Despite what I am sure will be eyerolls from Marek I am lucky that I went to the vort this evening since I was able to look at "Gems from the Netivas Shalom". This explanation was in the book. The NS wants to know why Moses needed to be given 3 signs for the Jewish people besides the obvious reason that he has too little self-confidence to accept the mission. Says the NS, the Jewish people are worried that since they have descended to the 49th level of impurity in Egypt (let us just say there are hundreds of years of this idea by the time it gets to him), they don't have enough merit to be redeemed and have not stayed long enough in Egypt in the first place. But they also worry that even if the Jewish people are entirely righteous Egypt is under the control of such a dark spiritual force that it is too strong for them. So Moses has to turn the waters of the Nile symbolizing the Egyptian spiritual powers to blood to show that this is not true. AFAIK there are no professional Afropessimists involved in 1966. The fight is about what kind of soul force can overcome a hundred years of broken promises when it seems that merit will be recognized and white people will acknowledge having a common goal with Black people.
See https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071334/ and https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071334/reviews . This is movie Claudine from 1974 with Diane Carroll and James Earl Jones. It shows how ridiculous LBJ Great Society rules are tearing apart black families and how reasonable black people need to try to work around the rules. Senator Moynihan described this problem, too.
I want this film. And I want John to clarify for Glenn the difference between John and I and John and me. 😁🎄🧐
"John Lewis: Good Trouble" got made and it was entirely sympathetic to Lewis in that fight, but that was for CNN, not a Hollywood movie.
John's movie would run into discourse trouble at this minute because it would portray the end of the old Black-Jewish civil rights alliance and that might launch more takes than the idea that Black Power was counterproductive for Black people, a completely uncontroversial idea when Taylor Branch espoused it in the 1990s.
First of all, I would figure out what is the number one cause of racism. I would say it is crime.
In 2022 there were approximately 10,000 black homicide victims. Far and away greater than any other racial or ethnic group. Let's start by cutting this by 90% in one year.
How? Let's use the El Salvador model. Instead of an ankle monitor for carjacking someone. You get 10 years of nose to culo in your boxers on a concrete slab.
Therapy will consist 55 minutes of you, your therapist, and a rubber hose.
Robbery, rape and murder? Get the rope.
We have nothing to lose but another 10,000 dead guys who no one wants to talk about.
Thanks for this episode. I pray that John’s movie idea becomes a reality. At some point we are going to need to deal with the reality that the power elites want us segregated and ignorant of each other. That ignorance allows the lies to take root and if repeated enough, those lies can become “truth”. One such issue is that we allow false victims to represent fact, which stifles the traction of our learning to truly see that God has made us different to see Him more clearly. Instead of celebrating those differences in a meritocracy that values character over all other attributes of the individual, we are taught to base our hate on those differences That is what Satan wants. Let’s reject the push to hate and embrace the call understand and flourish. However and whomever spends the $43M. Please keep the discussion going as I know many like me yearn to live together in objective truth. Not in hate or mistrust
I like the movie idea also. More impact and more reach. The scholarship has largely been done by many over the last few decades. It's a question of putting what we know to work.
Public television has produced a documentary, "The cost of inheritance "on the issue of reparations for African Americans, directed by Yoruba Richen. Covers "systemic inequities and modern day racial wealth gap. Funded by the usual legacy philanthropists: Ford, Hewlett, Rockefeller MacArthur.To be aired January 8.
How is it that immigrants, new to English, and limited education, and little help from the government, provided for their family and the father even left a small inheritance to three daughters when he died at 92
i would fund phonics programs to make sure kids could read. imagine if the 10’s of billions for green energy went to that goal .
Spend the money on black development (schools like the one in Harlem developed by Roland Fryer) and not on “research” into racism. Solve the root problem. Don’t research the symptoms!