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Social Justice - A Conversation
Unknown Speaker 0:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in pay you envy studios on Public Radio, K, u and v. 91.5. Hi, I'm Charles Stanton. I'm on the faculty of the Honors College at UNLV and the Boyd School of Law.
Unknown Speaker 0:18
I'm Ilana weatherald. I'm a third year law student and welcome to social justice, social
Unknown Speaker 0:22
justice, the conversation and conversation.
Unknown Speaker 0:31
Well, good evening, everybody. And Happy Thursday. Again, I'm joined by Professor Charles Stanton, as always, this is Lana weatherald. And tonight, of course, I think we should begin with unfortunately, what it seems like we almost always begin our show with there's another mass shooting. The details on this one are a little bit different. This, this is a transgender individual who was the perpetrator of this crime. This happened in a Christian school. We have six total victims here, three of which were children, three of which were adults. I think there's very little left to say that the professor and I haven't already said, but it is remissed if we don't honor these victims, and at least speak about the just abhorrent tragedies that seem to keep reoccurring and reoccurring in our country. And so with that, I'm going to pass it over to the professor. Yes,
Unknown Speaker 1:23
thank you, Lana. Good evening, everybody. What troubled me, I become like a broken record. What troubled me in assessing this carnage that happened in Nashville, Tennessee, is when the Republican senators and congresspeople were approached about that this was another mass shooting, that there needs to be some kind of conversation, at least a conversation about how we can in some way, create a limit on high powered weaponry for our citizens. You could tell when they spoke to people in the House of Representatives, and particularly Lindsey Graham in the Senate, the complete disinterest in any kind of workable reform of the gun laws. Deep these people are owned, lock stock and barrel, body, mind and soul by the gun lobby, by the donor class by the people who guarantee them reelection term after term, because they fund them to the to the hilt. And unless you have a similar organization or fundraising operation, you have no chance to to get elected. It's people like Charles Grassley, basically, who have been there for decades. And they just have no interest in doing anything. So what you're seeing now, basically, in our government, is you're seeing two governments, you're seeing the ostensible government, which is the president and and part of the Congress that is trying to make some kind of, of reform. So children do not keep getting massacred. It was very interesting in watching the coverage of the of this mass murder was a Mrs. Beasley who, as they were winding up the press conference, confronted all the reporters. And basically, she she told the truth that we all know but was rarely expressed so powerfully. And she said, you know, she says, We're gonna keep doing this. She says, I was at Highland Park, I and my son are almost killed. And I'm visiting family down here and was and was starting out again, with what the same, the same playbook. And I don't know what has happened to our country, that these issues are met just with disinterest when you have children and innocent people being killed. These are the same people who were always inveighing against a woman's right to choose.
Unknown Speaker 4:36
Well, this is all Yeah, it's all connected professor in my mind. You saw a i and I do do not remember the senators name. And you know what, I'm not even going to give them the airtime of giving his name but he said something so abhorrent, and God awful, he was asked about it. And he said, You know what, if this was your daughter and his response to the reporter was I homeschool my children? Well, this is part of it. They want to you they want normal everyday people to be so scared send their child to public school that mom's got to stay home, keep women out of the workforce and keep them at home because then they can't go to school where they get shocked. I really think that all plays a role. I think it's all interconnected. And I think what Mrs. Beasley said is 100%, right, this will keep happening. I don't believe as long as the NRA is in existence, that politicians will stop taking NRA money. I think this will continue to happen. This will continue the only thing that I think will change this, and I want to be careful with how I word this because what happened was so god awful, and I don't. The year I'm seeing now sort of a call, because this shooter was transgender, for transgender people to be sort of cut away from access to rifles just from the Republican Party in general. But but it does cause me to, to wonder, what if, who the Republican Party deems and undesirable this is going to be minorities, women, even children, but especially, especially lately, people in the LGBT community, if they all were legally carrying firearms, and they all of a sudden were the people fighting for gun rights. I'm talking gay people, black people and women, all of a sudden were the people that were the big proponents of gun control. My guess is the change tunes with the tune changes within the Republican Party, I believe that there is going to be some fear stoked within that old guard within that old white male guard. If the people they don't want have to have guns start having guns. And I know that that's kind of a crazy call to action, right? Go get strapped if you're a you know, a minority, but that scares the heck out of them. The idea that they could then use those weapons in the same way all those crazy white men do would would be fear stoking. So I don't I don't wonder if there's something to be thought of, for our mean, sort of the people in this country that have faced the most depression? I don't know. Yeah, food for thought, ya
Unknown Speaker 6:59
know, it's interesting and like, and the man one of the congressmen was saying, well, he says, It's not the gun, it's just evil. Okay? There's always going to be evil people, right? And this person that committed this crime. This person was was mostly mentally disturbed. There were all kinds of warning signs that this person should not have had a gun. Now, how this person wound up with seven weapons? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 7:33
from what I've seen online, it appears that the FBI was even aware of this individual. And I don't know if she was on a watch list or what have you. But it certainly seems that the FBI was aware of this individual. So it just you wonder, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 7:44
yeah. I don't know. But But clearly, and what's interesting, which, which I didn't know, apparently, regarding background checks, in some states, there, there are provisions, there's like a, if you go into sales, like a gun store, and you want to buy a weapon, and there's a three day waiting period, right? Because they have to, you know, go over your record. In some states. If it's three days expires, without the background check being completed, you automatically get
Unknown Speaker 8:24
the benefit of the doubt, and you get the gun,
Unknown Speaker 8:27
you get the gun. So that's another craziness. You know, but But it's, it's what I was seeing and watching the reports on it was a disinterest and an indifference
Unknown Speaker 8:43
and the only interest I thought I saw was in vilifying her sexuality and her gender and vilifying the idea for being a trans woman. And so I think what I want to do, because we've talked about the same gun safety stuff over and over and over again, and I don't think we're going to see change, as long as the NRA is existence is I want to make sure that we are going in this show trying to protect the violence that I believe will ensue on trans people because of this. I've already seen the rhetoric, I've already seen the vitriol that people are holding, because of this person being trans and saying it's an attack on Christianity. It's an LGBT attack on Christianity. I mean, that's very much the kind of narratives I'm seeing pushed by the Republican Party. I just want to be careful that on this show, I let everybody know that I you know, do not do not believe that this had anything to do with the gender or sexuality of this individual and had to do with evil in their heart, right.
Unknown Speaker 9:29
This was a person who, who wasn't mostly troubled, right, exactly. What what what stood out to me also, is that you had this woman who was talking to the press about what had happened. And then And then, you had on Tuesday, you had the man who was the chaplain of the Senate, who was he's a person of color. He was a Rear Admiral in the Navy for many years and he He became the chaplain for the Senate, basically calling out the Senate, which I have never heard before ever, in my knowledge of, you know, how things work visa vie people who were, you know, ministers or rabbis in that context, saying, basically that the time is over. He says, you know, he says prayer is great, it's great to pray, it's great to deliberate, but at a certain point, you have to move forward, you have to act. And he says, this kind of like, I don't know, like it just like a static atmosphere, there were basically, there's a whole bunch of issues that should be being debated and evaluated, and they're just off the table. And this is even this is even with the Democrats having a narrow majority, when you had the Democratic majority in the House, it was still that way. Right? And you can't get you can't get any kind of consensus. And that and that, you know, that those attitudes, you know, move on to to the issue, which is not, you know, the murder of innocent people, but how we take care of our poor, oh,
Unknown Speaker 11:17
that is the murder of innocent people. Make no mistake about it. What
Unknown Speaker 11:21
was with in a different way, of course, was Medicaid. So now basically,
Unknown Speaker 11:27
I think that's a great segue know how we treat Medicaid is the murder of innocent people. So
Unknown Speaker 11:31
So now, there are 40 states that have expanded Medicaid. And in Mississippi now, and nine other states, there's a certain weird dynamic going one of the government, the government, the federal government, has with all the rest of the states worked out a plan, where basically, they can expand Medicaid, right can get aid to all these people who are needy. And the government will pick up 90% of the cost. So that so that all that's left for the States to provide is the other 10%. So we see in the case of Mississippi now, where they turn down the money, they don't want the money. So I asked myself,
Unknown Speaker 12:26
one of the poorest states in the union. Yeah, yeah. The one of the usual
Unknown Speaker 12:29
suspects, right, Arkansas, Mississippi, yeah. I'm saying myself, Well, why would they do that? Why would they do? Why would they be making a decision like that? And I'm only forced to reach one conclusion. Now, I may I may be wrong, and I may be speaking at a turn could have been the racial composition of that, of the poor in their state would would that could that possibly be a reason? Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, there doesn't seem to be any other reason for it.
Unknown Speaker 13:02
100%, you know, because, you know, if they are receiving adequate medical medical care, which we know strong Medicaid policies equal, stronger medical care, right. And we know that more doctors are willing to practice when they know they are getting paid at the end of the day. So you see, then well, then these people don't have these comorbidities, they're not dying, if they get COVID. Well, they all of a sudden can afford their life saving cancer treatment or that. So of course, of course, because then they become active members of society that are then not held down by some debilitating both physically and financially disease, which I'm sure I would venture to guess Mississippi has the highest rates of obesity, the highest rates of heart disease have highest I would I would venture to guess that that's all true. So I think that 100% They want to keep them poor, keep them on healthy, Keep them down and do not allow for social mobility, which good health does, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 13:50
And who has all the other, all the other nine states that have same usual suspects? People have very bad health outcomes. It reminds me a lot of what was going on during the AIDS crisis. Yes, you know, where basically, it was immoral, or amoral, that these people were sick because they were involved in activities that were against the laws of God, what God ever rather you want to say. And so for a number of years, nothing was done as far as research or development or anything. And the disease basically had a 10 year Headstart. When you see the film Philadelphia, that actually, in many ways, has has echoes today, where there's this judgment of people it's like in certain states where they want to deny they want to deny health care to transgender children. That's the most ludicrous thing I ever heard of. It's a child. It's an illness and illness is an illness, your job and society and not just as a Physician, but as somebody who's an administrator or a leader is to is to be involved in the care of people who are sick, sickness and illness does not have a race, it does not have a color. It has it is a matter of scientific principles and healthcare principles. And it's amazing how these people have really taken over in the States with all this crazy stuff. I mean, that I mean, that's just that's just part of it. And then, and then the books are the other part of it. Right? Where not just in Florida, but certainly mostly in house in Florida, where all these books are being taken off. And I didn't know this till till last night, I was watching the news that in a number of the cases where the books have been taken off the shelf in various school districts viewed, they weren't reviewed. And it was one complaint. So somehow, if we presume that most people were okay with it, one person based on
Unknown Speaker 16:04
this system, yeah, bog it down with reviews and keep books and those books may come back on the shelf, but it may be 10 years before they come back on the shelf and they go through some whatever, quote unquote independent review will process BS I'm sure. But that's going to be the reality of it is that it is going to be one loon one absolute lunatic who's going to bombard the system with just for those of you who do not know and are not keeping up to date on Ron DeSantis is banned on books and movies in Florida, Ruby Bridges, the Disney movie was the most recent ban in Florida. If anybody can point out to me where Ruby Bridges were to somehow infiltrate the youth to believe in whatever they think we believe in a please let me know. I just it's so beyond me. It is so beyond me. Well, they
Unknown Speaker 16:45
don't. What they don't want is they don't want the history taught. I mean, that's really the bottom line. And all these things are all the things that went on in the history of our country, whether it's Ruby Bridges, or whether it's Rosa Parks, or whether it's James Meredith or Medgar, Evers or whatever it is, but the crazy thing about it is, you know, that the society a country doesn't progress, unless, unless you, you confront those things that you've done. I mean, even in a country like Germany, which had a
Unknown Speaker 17:25
mandate, mandatory, it's mandatory education about the Holocaust.
Unknown Speaker 17:28
Yeah, it's mandatory. And there are probably, you know, wish, in the United States, because Holocaust study has, you know, greatly expanded in many places where they have people who, you know, will be the survivors or people who were experts were our, our, our children, probably have more of a knowledge and understanding of what happened with the Holocaust than the generation prior than the generation prior and and probably a lot more than what happened racially in our country. Because you look at a lot of the curriculum as I have in a lot of these schools. And it's an it's a non starter. They don't want to be slowly taught. It's basically talk about it. And I think what that does, ultimately, is basically, it removes from the conversation, a whole group of people whose flight and whose sufferings nobody wants to deal with, and that the, the, the, the, the social construct of our country is basically based on that is based on, you know, the whole issue of reparations or the whole issue of affirmative action. You don't need affirmative action. You don't need reparations, you don't need fairness, and hiring or any of those things. If you posit the idea, that basically, there really wasn't discrimination that that truly happened. There wasn't the racism, that that that the slave masters were benevolent. All these mythologies that you put forward. So that when people say, well, we should have the social program, does not everybody was equal. Now they had a good thing. It's like, what what was what had Ben Carson Say? Said the slaves came here for opportunity? Well, yeah, I mean, I think that's right. It's mind bending. It's
Unknown Speaker 19:29
absolutely I just, and I wish we could come up with a better, better solutions than just sort of complaining about it. But I hear you, I just think, I don't know. I think it starts with institutional reform. That'll never happen as long as the people that have vested interest in making sure it never happens, stay in power. And I think when we start teaching CRT when we start teaching things about but when we start even offering the idea of reparations or equal hiring, right, I think me and you and I've talked about it on the show before It just changes the composition of what people have expected as normal, you come into the workplace, and then your boss may very well be a black woman, you walk into the room, you walk into school, and then your teacher could very well be a trans man or you walk in. And I think it's that sort of idea that things are changing. And you may not see people that used to be subordinates could now be in charge. AI is frightening, I think just frightening to the powers that be for lack of a better term. So I think so much of that stems from a just almost jealousy of what now people were able to achieve that they couldn't, that it isn't just the white man's world anymore. And maybe jealousy isn't the right word. But it's fear of what that could be. Because they don't know what the results of a woman in power could be, or the results of a black man in power. They don't know. So I think, yeah, I think maybe it's, it's, it is bringing more diverse bodies in and letting everybody know, it's okay. It's okay. Everything's fine if things are more diverse, but what if there's so much vitriol there to begin with? Would that ever change anything hard to know?
Unknown Speaker 20:57
Well, essentially, you it's interesting that you say that, Lana, because in the investigations of Trump, both in the Georgia investigation with finally Willis and the investigation by the New York District Attorney, if I can't imagine any, any racial context at all, if both of those prosecutors were white, right, it's clear that it's clear that the race card has been thrown into this thing, for reasons that really belies the underlying facts, which are overwhelming. And essentially, it's interesting, they had one Glenn Kirschner the other night, he was talking about, you know, all this hate that's been thrown at these two people, the black men and the black woman. But really, none of that none of their work would really be necessary, as Glenn Kirschner said, if the Justice Department had really done what they were supposed to do, from the beginning, and now we're going on going on to year three here with this thing, and they're bringing a guy I mean, you know, the guys, that seems like a good man, Jack Smith, they're bringing some guy in from the Netherlands, right? Oh, why? Because they can't because they can't get anybody here to do what they need to do. So they so they bring him out, basically, and he's supposed to make everything right. But it's it's really ludicrous. It's really ludicrous.
Unknown Speaker 22:30
You know, and I, you know, I see now that they're holding the jury till April 7, I think there's going to be a recess in the, in the case in New York. So we'll see what happens there. But I think we all need to be wary man, Trump is on a roll. He has taken every interview he could possibly take. He is on every channel, he's hitting the ground. I mean, and I'm not you know, obviously President Biden's got a lot on his plate and a lot to be doing but man Oh, man, is this guy everywhere all at once talk about that. Right? It's just, I think he's trying to overshadow what is going on behind the scenes in New York and Georgia by being as loud and as as rambunctious as he possibly can. And we should all take note of what's going on here. It's a lot of political posturing. Look at me, look at me, don't look at what's going on behind closed doors. So I think it's especially in the next coming weeks. And as the jury continues to deliberate after this recess, we will see more and more of that guy on our screen, and he will be more and more charming and the spray tan will be more and more even. I'm telling you right now. I mean, he's gonna go on a tirade in the coming weeks. And I think it's working. I mean, I'm certainly I'm not someone that subscribes to right wing media, but I can't help but see him everywhere on my screen. So I watch out.
Unknown Speaker 23:41
Well, they cover him. Yeah, you know, it's like CNN. See, CNN has a lot to do with getting him elected. Oh, for sure. Because because Jeff Zucker was connected to Trump. He was connected when he was working at NBC with the apprentice, and he gave him quadrupole time of any of the other candidates, and they legitimatize they legitimatize them. And as they legitimatize him, he legitimatize the racism, the misogyny, all these other things, it's quite possible that he said the quiet part out loud, and now you have a whole bunch of people who are who were laying low for many eons. And then he opened up the box, and they all come out and then Stuart Stevens, the Republican known to Republican major domo, who was involved going back to Nixon and everything. He says it's race. He says, he says, that's all it is. He says that when you cut it down to the to the bare essentials, it's race and it's, it's people who don't believe that women should have any voice or anything they want. They want a they want a male oriented, white oriented of ideology, where they control the roost. And it came
Unknown Speaker 25:05
at the perfect time it came at the perfect time because the tides were turning. Yeah, you know, who were who were the two dem noms. It was a black man and a white woman. The tides were turning when the Trump sort of kept coming. So I came at the perfect time couldn't have been any better than affirmative at you were starting to see more more people of color and more women in these spaces. And yeah, well answered the call, answered the call Wyatt call? Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 25:30
think I think also, they were able to sell the idea that how could a black man like Barack Obama be in charge of the country, we can't allow this, this can't be et cetera, et cetera. And it just it just grew from there. It just grew from there. And the President, our President, Joe Biden, you know, well intentioned mama attention, man. But Joe Biden is not the kind of force that you that you need to meet a force like this. You need somebody who, you know, and
Unknown Speaker 26:05
the Democratic Party doesn't have that person. They don't have it. And I am so terrified that he will win again, and he will win in a landslide, that
Unknown Speaker 26:13
when you say we don't have that we know of that. We know. There may be people there may be people out there who, you know, could be up to the challenge. But again, it's a matter of as we were talking earlier, tonight, it's a matter of money. You know, you have to You're talking about a minimum of a billion dollars. It's crazy, but that's what it is. Because the people who would support Trump and support his ideology, big money, it's big money, big money. It's it's you know, it's, it's, it's, it's Warren Buffett, and not that he's backing Trump, but it's Warren Buffett kind of money. Yeah, it's, it's an ideology. It's an ideology that says that, you know, as I've said it before, and I'll say it again, he had a rough year, you know, and you know, I feel bad for him, he's got always worth $100 billion, or whatever it's worth, and he controls firewood and major corporations. But it's what it is, is basically it's a lack of, of either understanding or denying how the vast majority of people live. Yep. And it's, it's a lack of feeling any kind of social obligation to those people who are your neighbor or their Yep, that you bid with with that wealth, and all the things that you have, watch what you could do to make things better for everybody. And it doesn't seem to actuate in them. No, they don't seem they don't seem to be interested. It's going to be very interesting, because there's going to be, you know, the testimony of Mr. Schultz, who was the founder of Starbucks, and his his track record, Visa be treating employees and everything, you know, Amazon's and other one, you know, and they don't care though, et Cie. They don't care. And I think a lot of people have lost faith in the American dream, because of it because of it, basically.
Unknown Speaker 28:19
All right. So we hate to end the squad, we always seem to end the shows on such a sour note. But we do want to go ahead and plug our show for next week, which is going to be mostly women focused. We're going to try to have a conversation a lot more about women and surrounding women's rights. And we'll be sure to touch on some of whatever has happened in the future. For the past week, we do want to just remind everybody that on ABC at 9pm. Tonight, there's going to be a David Moyer special. Oh, this is actually going to be tomorrow Friday night. Pardon me. So we thank you all for listening in again. We always take email requested w e t h e l one@unlv.nevada.edu. And we'll see you all next week. Thank you for listening to our show. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at weather one that's w e t h e l one@nevada.unlv.edu. Or to contact Professor Charles Stanton, contact him at CHA R L E S That's Charles dot Stanton s t a n t o n@unlv.edu CNN axon
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