Background Briefing: June 1, 2021

On By gram

 

The 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the Persisting Wealth Gap Between Blacks and Whites

We begin with President Biden’s visit to Tulsa, Oklahoma today to honor the victims of the 1921 race massacre of hundreds of African Americans 100 years ago. In addressing the deliberate attack on black prosperity with the burning and looting by a white mob of what was called the Black Wall Street, Biden addressed the wealth gap between African Americans and Whites in this country and offered a number of plans to invest in and revitalize black communities. Joining us is William Darity, the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics at Duke University and co-author of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century. We discuss his new report at Duke University, “The Tulsa Massacre, Racism and the Black-White Wealth Gap” and the programs offered by the Biden administration to address the injustice and inequality that persists. We also look into reparations, which in the case of the three survivors Biden met with today, might come too late since they are aged 107, 106 and 100. 

 

The Texas Walkout and the Need for the House and Senate to Pass HR 1 and SB1

Then we assess the effectiveness of the walkout of the Texas legislature by Democratic lawmakers and what Democrats can do to stop the implementation of state laws suppressing the votes of Democrats which also allow for the counting and certification of electoral results by partisan Republicans. Matt Angle, who directs the Texas Democratic Trust and the Lone Star Project, a Political Action Committee that aims to be an aggressive “fact-checker” on the Republican Party at a state and national level, joins us to discuss how Democrats have to focus on where the votes are, in the House and Senate, then pass laws there to protect American democracy and reverse authoritarianism.

 

An Urgent Call From 100 Experts on Democracy to Defend American Democracy Before it is Too Late

Then finally Steven Levitsky, a Professor of Government at Harvard University and author with Daniel Ziblatt of How Democracies Die, joins us. We discuss the open letter at the New America Foundation he and 100 other experts on democracy signed, “Statement of Concern: The Threat to American Democracy and the Need for National Voting and Election Administration Standards” and how American democracy is heading towards a point of no return unless the American people wake up before they find themselves in a Republican-run dictatorship.