you know what defines the modern race
debate it's flipping past racism into
modern anti-racism while being blinded
do how they've just come full circle
back to where they started when that
happens someone like Ben Shapiro who
Advocates a colorblind worldview is just
seen as dismissive and Blinded By His
White Privilege I want you to watch this
Timeless interaction that catapulted Ben
into the spotlight a few years ago
because these few minutes demonstrate
exactly where we're going wrong in our
conversations around race and America
according to Pew research the net worth
of white families in 2013 was 141,000
for black families it was 11,000 even
less than the 19,000 it was in 2007
according to Economist Edward wolf of
the University of New York excluding
vehicles and other durables the median
black family worth is just
$1,700 while 40% of black families have
zero or negative wealth white family
worth in terms of uh Financial worth is
69 times more than that of black
families given this disparity how can
you argue that racism is not a driving
factor in income
inequality because it has nothing to do
with race and everything to do with
culture and when you have a culture that
doesn't and when and when you know what
explain to me you explain to me why
black kids aren't graduating high school
you explain that one to me explain to me
why black kids are shooting each other
in rates significantly higher than
whites are shooting each other explain
to me 13% of the population is
responsible for 50% of the murder
explain to me why the why the number of
blacks black kids in prison not for
innocent reasons not for walking down
the street and getting pulled into a
prison is so high explain if it has
nothing to do with culture explain to me
why the single motherhood rate in the
black community jumped from 20% to 70%
in the same course of time that the
civil rights movement has made such
tremendous strides is America more
racist now than it was in 1960 and if it
is please explain to me how that
happened so what do I think those riots
are I think thepra it I think they're
Thugs and I think if you really want to
make a difference thur Good Marshall who
grew up just two blocks from there did
such a thing who was a contemporary of
Martin Luther King I I look at the
Baltimore uprisings as more than just
riots right I hate the idea when you say
Thugs and riots right white people Riot
as well when y'all win Super Bowls two
years in a row y'all get off the hook
don't make it seem like it's just
Baltimore getting upset I feel the
frustration of what's happening in the
community and I think it's a symptom the
the uprisings are a symptom of a
pressure that's been un addressed for
too long I'm offended by the language of
Uprising applied to people who are
breaking into other black people's
stores and looting them uh this is not
this is a lack of values and people who
people who are destroying private
property destroying cop cars in an
uprising against what exactly against
the black police chief against a mostly
minority police force against the black
mayor against the black president
against the black attorney general
against the entirely against a city
council that that is nine of 15 are
black and all 15 are elected Democrats
what is the uprising against what is it
seeking to achieve I still don't see
what exactly the the the riots are
seeking to achieve bottom line is it it
all could be boiled down to just act
like a mench act like a human being
honestly it's not a useful it's not
useful to Riot it's not useful to break
things it's not useful to throw rocks at
people the idea that we're supposed to
correlate your level of outrage with a
certain level of justification in other
words the more outraged you are and the
more Angry you are the more Justified
you must be is absolute nonsense does
anyone else see a weird normalization of
that in modern America where looting and
riots are almost given a pass if there's
a certain kind of political tinge to
them and when it comes to organizations
like BLM the Baltimore uprisings were
one of the manifestations of this idea
however the word Uprising is a euphemism
because even a cursory glance at the
statistics reveals how these riots back
in 2015 were only a Prelude to what we
would see next in 2020 of the sever
veral hundreds of businesses damaged and
nearly $9 million worth of property lost
to vandalism a vast majority were
actually black owned businesses who were
given no recompense for being caught up
amongst the riots not just that over 160
police officers were injured in what
were two weeks of the most intense
racial tensions in the country triggered
by the passing of 25-year-old Freddy
gray in police custody there's no
subject or grievance in modern day
America that justifies taking inoc
people's lives and livelihood from them
and especially not violent vandalism
that can be hijacked by people using
crowd cover to Rob and steel knowing
they'll likely be let off the hook but
that's only one aspect of the race
debate concentrated around individual
incidents what's truly breeding
resentment in modern America is the
conflation between inequity and
Injustice in simple terms there's people
today standing at the finish line of the
race of life and screaming Injustice
when not everybody reaches it at the
same time in this race every obstacle
along the way every struggle and every
standard that people have to meet starts
to be misconstrued as oppressive and
racist in fact that's where the term
institutional racism comes from in the
first place and what happens when you
popularize this resentful idea and drill
it into the minds of millions of people
you'll leave them no other choice than
to tear down the entire institutions
that they've been told are racist the
result of that is they see every truly
colorblind system that stops short of it
as standing to protect the status quo
instead of helping tear down and rebuild
it Ben Shapiro himself made this truth
abundantly clear after the recent Saga
around former Harvard president Claudine
gay writing on X and I quote this is the
essence of Dei the accusation that
colorblind systems are in fact racist if
the outcome of those systems is bad for
victimized groups thus plagiarism
standards SATs Free Speech property
rights it's all racist when there is no
evidence of racism it's probably not
racism when there is actual evidence of
racism it's probably racism and the fact
that everybody jumps from there's
inequality and therefore there is
inequity just because there's inequality
does not mean there was inequity but
there has to be racism you can't be you
can't say no
racism no no no no no no I'm just saying
that I don't know which animal I maybe
maybe we're talking about dogs or
something I'm talking about human beings
and I'm like human beings are most
likely going to have racial prejudices
I'm just so sorry
I I I'm just so sorry I I don't know I I
I don't come from I don't come I come I
come from I come from planet Earth
Charles I just I want to ask a question
so your default your default is that
when there is no evidence racism is the
deciding factor that is no no no I was
not saying that I'm just saying that uh
that you're going to have sexist you're
going to have racist you're going to
have all this stuff I mean I'm just
saying that I agree it exists but the
problem that I'm seeing and this is the
problem with the general conversation is
that there's no solution in simply
saying there's racism out there how does
that solve anything and when when you
talk about there's institutional racism
what does that mean show me a law that
is racist in intent and we will agree
show me a police officer who commits a
racist act like we saw in South Carolina
right where a police officer shot a
black man running away and it was
obviously unjustified and I will agree
but you need the the the idea that you
can craft a narrative based on no racism
because it just must be somewhere out
there in The Ether that doesn't solve
problems for anybody and creates more
problems for people because now they
grow up in a in a millu and an
environment where they are told that
every obstacle they face is from some
shadowy nameless faceless group who's
out to get them simply because of the
color of their skin they'll never
succeed in that
environment you know the the weirdest
thing is that actually in the in the
black home as I experienced it really um
there is no discussion of of racism
racism actually a discussion that you
actually come out and you face in in the
public because it's a real thing that
you have to actually expect I mean if
you if you're silly and you're foolish
if you don't if if you don't really
think that that's going to be there and
encountered in the real world I'm sorry
this is just a fact of life but if I'm
at home and having dinner uh with my
father or whatever we don't go oh my God
this Society is so racist as I'm eating
my steak and you know what I mean oh
goodness gracious oh I can't bear it my
black skin causing I mean no we don't we
don't talk like that actually we don't
talk like that we talk about my God Aunt
what's her name oh my God she's got to
take some pills cuz she's off the
register I mean I mean it's just like
this is these are the conversations we
have at home we don't have these kinds
of conversations that we're having right
now at least my childhood we didn't have
them and I'm watching the people I knew
growing up in the black neighborhood I
didn't hear anybody really talking about
race when we were at the dinner table I
mean it just didn't really pop up unless
it was an issue was on television but
mostly it was about family and and
regular life and that anecdote is what
should inform him on the larger debate
the burden of evidence is not on the
person asking for it but on the person
asserting that society and institutions
are structurally and irredeemably racist
the existence of racism is not the
default starting point and when you pair
that with a complete willingness to
fight against a racist incident if it is
articulated into a case for it that's
how you root out the scourge of racist
ideas from every nook and corner of
society Ben Shapiro is great at this
because the demand for the specificity
in the institutional racism debate is
often enough to disarm most such
accusations and you often realize the
idea is just a crutch it's critical to
separate the racism debate into the past
vers today because of course things like
segregation different property rights
and Jim Crow Laws of the past were a
major institutional obstacle for many
minority groups in the country but in a
society that has gone farther than any
other to make amends for it even to the
point of overcorrection it is individual
action that empowers you above any
unnamed institution or invisible
structure even more so than that the
instance on seeeing a race element in
every inequity or Injustice can actually
undo many of the strides we've made to
come this far it pits races against each
other reignites bigotries of the past
and lands us back to swear one every
time that's why individualizing and
particularizing racist incidents is very
critical but I disagree I have to tell
you even in my culture there is an
underlying racism and I know that the
panel today and especially what's going
on in America we're talking about white
on black but you cannot I cannot wake up
in the morning and not think about you
know interculture racism okay I'm not
Mexican enough why because I'm
articulate and because I have straight
hair and I can wear high heels I don't
have a tattoo on my neck yes there is a
huge problem with racism no matter if
you're light-skinned or dark skinned
absolutely there is interculture racism
it's absolutely underlying and why you
may not talk about it your grandmother
will have the favorite grandkid if she's
the lightest one with a good hair that
becomes the favorite grandkid in our
culture and that's you know
unfortunately even within our own
culture cult we tend to look upon you
know the color of each other's skin and
how much education we have and if my
uncle has done time in jail which you
know he has then he becomes more Mexican
than I am what is up with that I mean
it's sad but it's true it's absolutely
true it's like I can't eat spicy picante
sauce so I'm not Mexican enough you know
it it's true you know in every culture
whether it's Asian you know black
Mexican there is while you may not have
grown up talking about it over your you
know uh uh tea and toast I mean in my
family if you're not a doctor or a
lawyer you're not Jewish you're not
Jewish enough that part is true this
entire time I've been trying to think
about your initial question about
disparities are they automatically tied
to race and at first I think all of us
were stumped because we were trying to
think of the instances I I do agree that
they are separate that they don't
necessarily correlate within itself
there are disparities NAACP we are the
experts inside of the nation of bringing
in the racial lens for all of the work
no they're not necessarily going hand
inand or they're not necessarily tied to
each other that's how I would answer it
no they don't have to go together my job
as a civil rights attorney is to be able
to make you see race at every given
opportunity but no it's not present in
each and every single disparity two your
second what are the standards what are
the standards of the difference I mean
you said that you want people to see
race in every sing when do you decide
something racist has occurred because if
you have just a statistical disparity
has has an act of racism automatically
occurred that was David's basic question
I think the answer to that question is
intent racial Injustice when it's done
intentionally makes everyone in modern
America firmly stand on the side of the
victim but that doesn't mean that racist
intent can simply be assumed by looking
at one-dimensional statistics and the
inequalities we see that's done more to
turn away people than get them on our
side on top of that assuming bad intent
also sees the worst in people often on
the basis of racist itself only serving
to fuel more racism that's why the
charge of racism today has become a
smear that can be thrown around at
anyone without understanding the true
weight of this accusation kind of like
the boy who cried wolf it desentized
people to the charge and eventually does
more to harm the social justice caused
and help it in the end it's all about
establishing the right starting point of
the debate and agreeing on what is the
default on this issue recognizing that
America in 2024 is vastly different from
America of the 18 unds is the beginning
of a more productive race conversation