Thank you Heather! I'm an eighty-three year old white man who's been arguing this point since I was a teen. I listen to A's podcasts every Sunday. Time well spent. I just bought the book minutes ago.
Thanks Al for this great conversation with Heather. Your insight and wisdom are STILL missed in The Senate but I’m grateful you have a forum for serious topics.
Heather is spot on. When we help everybody then we help EVERYBODY, the collective. One huge problem we have now is that the Republican party is the party of "SELF" and no longer serves WE THE PEOPLE. Time for them to go.
This is the type of conversation we need more of in America! Too bad more on the "other side" will never listen. Should be required listening for all people in governing!
Your podcasts are food for my soul. I always feel I learn so much from your insightful interviews. You're so right, this one was the best one, until next week.
I don't know how I missed this episode. I was listening to today's podcast and you mentioned Ms. McGhee... Let's just say I have purchased her book, listened twice to your conversation, and feel empowered by her insight. The unforgivable mandated racism by our institutions shakes me to the core! I hate being so naive! My worry is I won't live long enough to see just how great we can be when we become truly color blind.
That was perfect going full circle with "we all do better when we all do better" (RIP Mr. Wellstone) from start to finish. And the mortgage factor - i'm a white, first-generation American of central European heritage in the western suburbs of Minneapolis and MY mortgage company was gouging me in the mid-80's - I didn't have the knowledge or chutzpah to argue it with anyone. Sold the house in the nick of time. Anyway, Mr. Franken and Ms. McGhee - thank you for all you do! You're positively inspiring.
I follow all of your podcasts, and they add a great joy to my Sunday mornings. I love the idea of reforming the filibuster to make more a true one. I will definitely check out Ms. McGhee's book. Ganesh Sitaraman has a terrific idea for how to detach the US Supreme Court from politics and make it better to able render non- partisan decisions. Fundamentally, trust in representative government is the same as trust in "We the People." The Reaganite message that government can't be trusted has hurt us all so badly. When we rediscover who "WE" really are -- and I think we're well along the way to doing that -- may we never forget the DEAD END that trumpist-republicanism led us to.
Exactly Al! 41 votes to continue a fililbuster. That'll make it what it was meant to be - to give the minority a VOICE, not the power to block majority action permanently in a "gentleman's agreement".
My first thought of the conversation is like ~ The woman claiming a child is hers ~ Then it is said cut the child in half ~ The real mother says no.. My thought to this is in any situation Their should be enough Love to go around with sympathy ~ empathy ~ without selfishness FOR ALL FOLKS ~ No matter their status... To Be Born ~ Live ~ Survive ~ Then DIE... ✨✨✨🙏🏽😞🙏🏽✨✨✨
A wonderful discussion. It's really easy to see how racism (and classism) is perpetuated by institutions (policy) when you bother to look. I guess many of us just aren't bothering to look.
One corner of my inner ring suburb is very affluent, and very white, but that's not the case in all corners. Still disproportionately white (Mid 80s), my corner has a much better mix of folks than the rich part of town. I'm rather happy about this. IMO, the more people of different stripes and traditions my kids grow up with, the less _other_ they'll view people who aren't our particular group.
I hope you all listen right to the end. The author put it so aptly when she says we are all on the same team. Middle class and poor folks struggle, there is no doubt. We struggle against a system that is stacked in favor of the oligarchy. The system, the oligarchy, is who we are competing against. And when we send in some of our team mates to play with mill stones around their necks it hurts the team. The oligarchs have convinced so many that our team mates are our opponents. Case in point: Republicans (the oligarchs) refused to pass the recovery act unanimously -- an act that the team wants by 75% -- and then to distract the team from the fact that the oligarchs don't want us to score this huge point they complain about Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. Republicans don't want our team to know that they just worked to prevent a huge score for our team.
I agree with what was said but another thing that is causing problems is the outsourcing and automating of decent jobs, which causes everyone to fight for diminishing resources.
Yes, we used to manufacture and create jobs for the states and territories but now they go to other countries. Quality and people other than the upper 5% are losing because of it. This helps perpetuate the fear of other races/immigrants and loss of economic class that fuels racism.
Heather McGhee makes the point that "whites only" was not only the way non-whites were excluded from the middle class; it's how all of the middle class has been shrinking. In the 1940s and 1950s, the GI Bill was a big part of the creation of a middle class for whites. Non-whites were excluded but at least there was a working model of how to create a middle class. Today's GOP has talked us out of that model by telling us "Government only wants to take things away from you and give it brown and black people. You resent that, don't you? Oh my yes; government is the problem, isn't it, and so let's dismantle it." Today's politics of "whites only" is the politics of no middle class for anyone.
Coming to this podcast after Al plugged it in his chat with Stuart Stevens. Fantastic conversation. One can only imagine how incredible this nation would be if White America hadn't institutionalized its hatred of Black folk.
Regarding reparations; get some really good forensic accountants and look at the insanely wealthy people that came from “old money”. Chances are that they got wealthy on the backs of blacks. (Great title for a book, btw) Look at the workers that built the White House and the Capital building etc. (And damned great work too!) With the right forensic accountants you can find out who got wealthy on the sweat and blood of blacks. Then there’s the Chinese and the railroad game...whew boy? What a mess.
But wealthy white men (mostly) used fear of losing jobs to indoctrinate poor white men (mostly) to hate and use violence and fear tactics against African Americans especially in the south per KKK etc.
And Now wealty Non whites are enflaming folks against whites in revenge. And this is meant to be ok. Racism is Passive, when i accept your white bashing Im being racist, just like when another non-white remains silent as you white bash me. The lies of the rich are Using you to Ignore their power and their control. Stop being silent when yer being mistreated, No Matter your Nationality, join the human race and Realize we All struggle!
Not alot of wealthy whites in china, but folks dont wanna move there. Not alot of wealty whites in mexico, same story. Africa, same. India, same. Maybe Caucasians have reached some sort of Preferable system, first, i dunno because im human garbage-poor off the world. Things discovered, in this american experiment are Imperfect, truly. Unfair, yearp. The reality is Far worse than you can imagine, keep searching and youll find that the matrix is real and you Posess the way out, already.
Post script to previous comment: I recommend u ask on your show PDina, an African American woman, who can address the Markle interview and Markle's true mental health issue, which Markle is being so applauded for having obliquely ( ie NO WHO WHAT WHEN WHY) referred to. Give it a whirl Al, for the sake of democracy who's horn u love to toot but who you, like Piers, were brought down by because NO examination of the accusations made by the accuser was allowed. This is the real history repeating itself, NOT what Harry is plaintively referring to.( just google: PDina)
Each american needs Instruction about Both taking in a different nationality And Allowing all the Other factors one uses to see if one can trust the other. Someone that Gets that color isnt any Guarantee of good or bad Needs to imagine the challenge to those that color is That big deal. Probably we need a sort of grandfather education and patience.
How about the shop keepers have something like a NATO type system that when a racist asshole starts trouble you just call the “hotline” and all the business owners come to your store and deal with the problem. A panic button alert. All for one and one for all. Lol
As always Al, a very interesting podcast with a very well spoken guest BUT I'm going to interpose a different idea. THE idea is based on the Markle debacle which is occurring right now as we speak, that is, as you speak and I listen. I've noticed none of the comedians were willing to touch this Markle interview with a 10 ft pole and I wondered why? AND THEN IT came to me, duh, THEY DO NOT want to be called racist if they were to make a joke at the expense of the Markles. NOW if this is so, THIS is a VERY low Point in our democracy. As we all know, the fool was SO important to the king because the fool alone could speak truth to power and get away with it. THAT'S what our comedians are--the fools of the modern society-- and if they're afraid to speak-- which they are-- then we are in a very bad way. NOW I've been watching all the commentators in America & Britain and they're all saying-- poor, poor Miss Markle; oh poor poor Miss Markle. Obviously not meaning it in terms of her millions of dollars through marriage to her husband or the multimillion-dollar house with 16 bathrooms in SantaBarbara, my former home town til I, who did NOT hitch my star to a prince, was priced out. As for THEIR 16 bathrooms for themselves and baby, I could use JUST one of those bathrooms, but it's too full of shit--bullshit! There's a joke for you Al tho you're probably too scared to say-- the prince and princess have NO clothes. I call it like I see it and regarding this mess with Piers Morgan-- I don't hear any of y'all talking about about his denial of freedom of speech. AND AFTER the cancel culture of the left-- yes, Al, our dear beloved left-- got away with THAT, they pounced on Sharon Osbourn who SIMPLY said: I stand by my friend and that does NOT make me a racist, even if y'all think he's one. I woke in the middle of the night & looked online to see what she possibly could have apologized for. I read it & I called their company at 3am and I gave them a piece of my mind just as I am now doing. Sharon, as Piers, SIMPLY said, in a Democracy, everyone has a right to express their opinion . This subject is SO much MORE important than any of the subjects now being discussed because freedom of speech is the foundation of a democracy-- filibuster notwithstanding; zero-sum game notwithstanding-- and we need to address this head-on. AND as the comedians are afraid to, then we need people like you and Michael Moore to address this on their podcast. This B.S. interview given by a black woman to a "black" woman has created more race Division and rage than anything in modern times and yet NO one who has a platform is saying anything because they're afraid-- they are cowards. SO I'm asking you Al to man up and address this. I want to know WHO WHAT WHEN WHY and HOW. AND until those questions are answered, you will have a justification for what the people feel on the other side of the aisle and YOU WILL have made THAT possible by YOUR silence.
how can you say that racism isn’t american. it’s the origin story. racism against “indians” was first. the english people were racist against any non-english, like irish or scottish. the arrogance of english people in general is absolutely cartoon level absurd. they recently had to brexit from europe to avoid exposing their financial corruption. if you listen to churchill’s speech exhorting england to fight against the nazis, you will hear him say, out loud, publicly, that they were fighting for their homeland and their colonies. they were at the time conscripting soldiers from countries that they occupied militarily. i imagine it wasn’t easy for people in india to distinguish between english and nazi. even today they act like they belong in northern ireland. what is their problem. it should be easy to see that we’re just continuing in a long and ignominious tradition. it is who we are. we’re so good at racism, that we got bored and decided to attack our lgbtq citizens, women who want any control over their lives, and people that vote. i do not have a good feeling about our future.
Thank you Heather! I'm an eighty-three year old white man who's been arguing this point since I was a teen. I listen to A's podcasts every Sunday. Time well spent. I just bought the book minutes ago.
“We all do better, when we all do better.”
I would be proud to have this phrase on a grave stone.
Thanks Al for this great conversation with Heather. Your insight and wisdom are STILL missed in The Senate but I’m grateful you have a forum for serious topics.
Heather is brilliant and I wish her much success in her message awakening all of us! Ty for sharing her wisdom, courage and grit with us!
Heather is spot on. When we help everybody then we help EVERYBODY, the collective. One huge problem we have now is that the Republican party is the party of "SELF" and no longer serves WE THE PEOPLE. Time for them to go.
If the filibuster can be made to make sense, now THAT would be good government, you know, for a change.
YAY!!!!! Thank you Al and Heather!!!
I'm currently reading "The Sum of Us"!
Loved hearing the good news stories from Maine and Willmar! Warms my heart that there are good people. Great podcast, Heather and Al!
This is the type of conversation we need more of in America! Too bad more on the "other side" will never listen. Should be required listening for all people in governing!
This particular episode was excellent. Heather McGhee is awesome.
Heather McGhee's conversation on Al Franken's Pod Cast is "Spot On."
I'm going to read this book. What an eye-opener. Kudos to Ms. McGhee and Al for having her on.
Your podcasts are food for my soul.
I always feel I learn so much from your insightful interviews.
You're so right,
this one was the best one, until next week.
Listen on a podcast app & fast fwd if you're going to complain about commercials. Let's talk about things that really matter instead.
We absolutely need to reform school funding. Basing it on property taxes is an awful way of doing things.
The schools are local and state government run but need federal funding to low income/low population areas.
That was one of your GREATEST podcasts. Thank you!
I don't know how I missed this episode. I was listening to today's podcast and you mentioned Ms. McGhee...
Let's just say I have purchased her book, listened twice to your conversation, and feel empowered by her insight.
The unforgivable mandated racism by our institutions shakes me to the core! I hate being so naive!
My worry is I won't live long enough to see just how great we can be when we become truly color blind.
Great guest. Great information. Woke me up to prejudice I had and didn't realize . Thank you
Sums us up in america perfectly.
I put the book on my Amazon wish list. Next pay day!
That was perfect going full circle with "we all do better when we all do better" (RIP Mr. Wellstone) from start to finish. And the mortgage factor - i'm a white, first-generation American of central European heritage in the western suburbs of Minneapolis and MY mortgage company was gouging me in the mid-80's - I didn't have the knowledge or chutzpah to argue it with anyone. Sold the house in the nick of time. Anyway, Mr. Franken and Ms. McGhee - thank you for all you do! You're positively inspiring.
Thank you for posting this podcast .
I follow all of your podcasts, and they add a great joy to my Sunday mornings. I love the idea of reforming the filibuster to make more a true one. I will definitely check out Ms. McGhee's book.
Ganesh Sitaraman has a terrific idea for how to detach the US Supreme Court from politics and make it better to able render non- partisan decisions.
Fundamentally, trust in representative government is the same as trust in "We the People." The Reaganite message that government can't be trusted has hurt us all so badly. When we rediscover who "WE" really are -- and I think we're well along the way to doing that -- may we never forget the DEAD END that trumpist-republicanism led us to.
Wonderful discussion.
Exactly Al! 41 votes to continue a fililbuster. That'll make it what it was meant to be - to give the minority a VOICE, not the power to block majority action permanently in a "gentleman's agreement".
My first thought of the conversation is
like ~ The woman claiming a child is
hers ~ Then it is said cut the child in
half ~ The real mother says no..
My thought to this is in any situation
Their should be enough Love to go around
with sympathy ~ empathy ~ without selfishness
FOR ALL FOLKS ~ No matter their status...
To Be Born ~ Live ~ Survive ~ Then DIE...
✨✨✨🙏🏽😞🙏🏽✨✨✨
A wonderful discussion. It's really easy to see how racism (and classism) is perpetuated by institutions (policy) when you bother to look. I guess many of us just aren't bothering to look.
One corner of my inner ring suburb is very affluent, and very white, but that's not the case in all corners. Still disproportionately white (Mid 80s), my corner has a much better mix of folks than the rich part of town. I'm rather happy about this. IMO, the more people of different stripes and traditions my kids grow up with, the less _other_ they'll view people who aren't our particular group.
I hope you all listen right to the end. The author put it so aptly when she says we are all on the same team. Middle class and poor folks struggle, there is no doubt. We struggle against a system that is stacked in favor of the oligarchy. The system, the oligarchy, is who we are competing against. And when we send in some of our team mates to play with mill stones around their necks it hurts the team. The oligarchs have convinced so many that our team mates are our opponents. Case in point: Republicans (the oligarchs) refused to pass the recovery act unanimously -- an act that the team wants by 75% -- and then to distract the team from the fact that the oligarchs don't want us to score this huge point they complain about Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. Republicans don't want our team to know that they just worked to prevent a huge score for our team.
Bravo!
I agree with what was said but another thing that is causing problems is the outsourcing and automating of decent jobs, which causes everyone to fight for diminishing resources.
Yes, we used to manufacture and create jobs for the states and territories but now they go to other countries. Quality and people other than the upper 5% are losing because of it. This helps perpetuate the fear of other races/immigrants and loss of economic class that fuels racism.
Finally...a good one. For a change. ;)
Al Franken- He's good enough, he's smart enough, he's just a little too handsy!
Heather McGhee makes the point that "whites only" was not only the way non-whites were excluded from the middle class; it's how all of the middle class has been shrinking. In the 1940s and 1950s, the GI Bill was a big part of the creation of a middle class for whites. Non-whites were excluded but at least there was a working model of how to create a middle class. Today's GOP has talked us out of that model by telling us "Government only wants to take things away from you and give it brown and black people. You resent that, don't you? Oh my yes; government is the problem, isn't it, and so let's dismantle it." Today's politics of "whites only" is the politics of no middle class for anyone.
This message is obvious, but the greed and hatred in this country will eventually destroy us all if we do not come together.
Coming to this podcast after Al plugged it in his chat with Stuart Stevens. Fantastic conversation. One can only imagine how incredible this nation would be if White America hadn't institutionalized its hatred of Black folk.
AL FRANKEN FOR INDEPENDENT PRESIDENT 2024!!!
I MISSD YA BUDDY.....ur needed more den eva.....
Heather makes great points - legacy racism CREATES an anti-government stance that makes classism worse, makes incompetent government.
What makes America Great!!!is it's diversity.
Regarding reparations; get some really good forensic accountants and look at the insanely wealthy people that came from “old money”. Chances are that they got wealthy on the backs of blacks. (Great title for a book, btw) Look at the workers that built the White House and the Capital building etc. (And damned great work too!) With the right forensic accountants you can find out who got wealthy on the sweat and blood of blacks. Then there’s the Chinese and the railroad game...whew boy? What a mess.
The GOP's apparent cowardice is endangering our democracy and our lives. We should try to understand why. This podcast helps.
WE. the people in order to make a more perfect union
More people should listen to what Morgan Freeman says about racism.
What there is NO racism in America ?.. White Supremacists narrative, that's the American way.
@@marklawrence6176 Oh, Morgan Freeman is a white supremacist is he? Idiot.
GOP stands for Goodness Opposition Party
SB1 is high priority. Must pass.
Why don't we ever discuss black racism that exists...., please explain.
Wealthy whites not poor whites. We were written out of the constitution with the electoral college.
But wealthy white men (mostly) used fear of losing jobs to indoctrinate poor white men (mostly) to hate and use violence and fear tactics against African Americans especially in the south per KKK etc.
And Now wealty Non whites are enflaming folks against whites in revenge. And this is meant to be ok. Racism is Passive, when i accept your white bashing Im being racist, just like when another non-white remains silent as you white bash me.
The lies of the rich are Using you to Ignore their power and their control. Stop being silent when yer being mistreated, No Matter your Nationality, join the human race and Realize we All struggle!
Not alot of wealthy whites in china, but folks dont wanna move there. Not alot of wealty whites in mexico, same story. Africa, same. India, same. Maybe Caucasians have reached some sort of Preferable system, first, i dunno because im human garbage-poor off the world.
Things discovered, in this american experiment are Imperfect, truly. Unfair, yearp. The reality is Far worse than you can imagine, keep searching and youll find that the matrix is real and you Posess the way out, already.
For a change....
Post script to previous comment:
I recommend u ask on your show PDina, an African American woman, who can address the Markle interview and Markle's true mental health issue, which Markle is being so applauded for having obliquely ( ie NO WHO WHAT WHEN WHY) referred to. Give it a whirl Al, for the sake of democracy who's horn u love to toot but who you, like Piers, were brought down by because NO examination of the accusations made by the accuser was allowed. This is the real history repeating itself, NOT what Harry is plaintively referring to.( just google:
PDina)
Each american needs Instruction about Both taking in a different nationality And Allowing all the Other factors one uses to see if one can trust the other.
Someone that Gets that color isnt any Guarantee of good or bad Needs to imagine the challenge to those that color is That big deal. Probably we need a sort of grandfather education and patience.
These old Republicans are going to be voted out or just be leaving soon. Let's hope the younger guys aren't all like Hawley, Gaetz and Jordan. 🙄
You played yourself? I love that title.
How about the shop keepers have something like a NATO type system that when a racist asshole starts trouble you just call the “hotline” and all the business owners come to your store and deal with the problem. A panic button alert. All for one and one for all. Lol
As always Al, a very interesting podcast with a very well spoken guest BUT I'm going to interpose a different idea. THE idea is based on the Markle debacle which is occurring right now as we speak, that is, as you speak and I listen. I've noticed none of the comedians were willing to touch this Markle interview with a 10 ft pole and I wondered why? AND THEN IT came to me, duh, THEY DO NOT want to be called racist if they were to make a joke at the expense of the Markles. NOW if this is so, THIS is a VERY low Point in our democracy. As we all know, the fool was SO important to the king because the fool alone could speak truth to power and get away with it. THAT'S what our comedians are--the fools of the modern society-- and if they're afraid to speak-- which they are-- then we are in a very bad way. NOW I've been watching all the commentators in America & Britain and they're all saying-- poor, poor Miss Markle; oh poor poor Miss Markle. Obviously not meaning it in terms of her millions of dollars through marriage to her husband or the multimillion-dollar house with 16 bathrooms in SantaBarbara, my former home town til I, who did NOT hitch my star to a prince, was priced out. As for THEIR 16 bathrooms for themselves and baby, I could use JUST one of those bathrooms, but it's too full of shit--bullshit! There's a joke for you Al tho you're probably too scared to say-- the prince and princess have NO clothes. I call it like I see it and regarding this mess with Piers Morgan-- I don't hear any of y'all talking about about his denial of freedom of speech. AND AFTER the cancel culture of the left-- yes, Al, our dear beloved left-- got away with THAT, they pounced on Sharon Osbourn who SIMPLY said: I stand by my friend and that does NOT make me a racist, even if y'all think he's one. I woke in the middle of the night & looked online to see what she possibly could have apologized for. I read it & I called their company at 3am and I gave them a piece of my mind just as I am now doing. Sharon, as Piers, SIMPLY said, in a Democracy, everyone has a right to express their opinion .
This subject is SO much MORE important than any of the subjects now being discussed because freedom of speech is the foundation of a democracy-- filibuster notwithstanding; zero-sum game notwithstanding-- and we need to address this head-on. AND as the comedians are afraid to, then we need people like you and Michael Moore to address this on their podcast. This B.S. interview given by a black woman to a "black" woman has created more race Division and rage than anything in modern times and yet NO one who has a platform is saying anything because they're afraid-- they are cowards. SO I'm asking you Al to man up and address this. I want to know WHO WHAT WHEN WHY and HOW. AND until those questions are answered, you will have a justification for what the people feel on the other side of the aisle and YOU WILL have made THAT possible by YOUR silence.
Heather McGee is her name
Piers Morgan should have stayed seated and discussed it instead of walking off. He chose to do that. Unprofessional.
@@myneallmyne0 they are not referring to Ms McGhee in this but Markle and Winfrey.
THERE are races so there must be isms .
how can you say that racism isn’t american. it’s the origin story. racism against “indians” was first. the english people were racist against any non-english, like irish or scottish. the arrogance of english people in general is absolutely cartoon level absurd. they recently had to brexit from europe to avoid exposing their financial corruption. if you listen to churchill’s speech exhorting england to fight against the nazis, you will hear him say, out loud, publicly, that they were fighting for their homeland and their colonies. they were at the time conscripting soldiers from countries that they occupied militarily. i imagine it wasn’t easy for people in india to distinguish between english and nazi. even today they act like they belong in northern ireland. what is their problem. it should be easy to see that we’re just continuing in a long and ignominious tradition. it is who we are. we’re so good at racism, that we got bored and decided to attack our lgbtq citizens, women who want any control over their lives, and people that vote. i do not have a good feeling about our future.