59 min
Juneteenth and the Persistent Economic Racial Divide Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen
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- Politics
Though it is finally a federal holiday, a lot of people still don’t really know about Juneteenth. It was the day in 1865 when formerly enslaved people learned of the Emancipation Proclamation. But what kind of freedom was it then and where is it today? At least 44 states have passed or proposed legislation to prohibit teaching about structural racism, and books are being banned from school libraries in record numbers. Our guest Jessicah Pierre of the Institute for Policy Studies looks at some issues most whites would rather avoid. She argues that instead of social programs being a handout to black people, “slavery was a handout to white people.” How far have we come, really?
Though it is finally a federal holiday, a lot of people still don’t really know about Juneteenth. It was the day in 1865 when formerly enslaved people learned of the Emancipation Proclamation. But what kind of freedom was it then and where is it today? At least 44 states have passed or proposed legislation to prohibit teaching about structural racism, and books are being banned from school libraries in record numbers. Our guest Jessicah Pierre of the Institute for Policy Studies looks at some issues most whites would rather avoid. She argues that instead of social programs being a handout to black people, “slavery was a handout to white people.” How far have we come, really?
59 min