Jelani Cobb on the Kerner Report, an Unheeded Warning about the Consequences of Racism

Jelani Cobb on the Kerner Report, an Unheeded Warning about the Consequences of Racism

In 1967, in the wake of a violent uprising in Detroit, President Lyndon B. Johnson assembled the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders to investigate what had happened. This seemed futile: another panel to investigate yet another uprising. “A lot of people felt that way—‘We don’t need more studies, nothing’s going to come out of that commission,’ ” Fred Harris, a former senator from Oklahoma and the commission’s last surviving member, tells Jelani Cobb. But the conclusions were not typical at all. In the final analysis, known as the Kerner Report, the commission named white racism—no euphemisms—as the root cause of unrest in the United States, and said that the country was “moving toward two societies, one Black, one White—separate and unequal.” The report called for sweeping changes and investments in jobs, housing, policing, and more; the recommendations went so far beyond Johnson’s anti-poverty programs of the nineteen-sixties that the President shelved the report and refused to meet with his own commission. The Kerner Report, Cobb says, was “an unheeded warning,” as America still struggles today to acknowledge the reality of systemic racism.  Jelani Cobb co-edited and wrote the introduction to “The Essential Kerner Commission Report,” which was published this year.

Avsnitt(150)

Keeping Score: A Year Inside a Divided Brooklyn High School

Keeping Score: A Year Inside a Divided Brooklyn High School

Nearly seventy years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, our public schools effectively remain segregated. And, by some measures, New York City has the most segregated system in the countr...

12 Sep 202247min

How Will Liz Truss Govern a Britain in Crisis?

How Will Liz Truss Govern a Britain in Crisis?

This week, Liz Truss became the United Kingdom’s newest Prime Minister. She comes into office following a string of scandals in the Conservative Party under her predecessor, Boris Johnson, and faces a...

8 Sep 202226min

Jill Lepore on Why Biden Is No F.D.R.

Jill Lepore on Why Biden Is No F.D.R.

Joe Biden has had a remarkable reversal of fortune this summer. He signed three bi-partisan bills, and the Inflation Reduction Act, a multi-billion-dollar combination of climate and healthcare legisla...

1 Sep 202230min

The Risk of a New American Civil War

The Risk of a New American Civil War

Since the F.B.I. raid on former President Donald Trump’s home, Mar-A-Lago, the phrases “civil war” and “lock and load” have trended on right-wing social media. The F.B.I. and the Department of Homelan...

31 Aug 202225min

Could Engaging the Taliban Help Afghan Women?

Could Engaging the Taliban Help Afghan Women?

This August marks the one year anniversary of American military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s swift return to power in Kabul. It has been an excruciating year for the war-torn nation, ...

25 Aug 202223min

What’s Driving Black Candidates to the Republican Party?

What’s Driving Black Candidates to the Republican Party?

The Republican Party is clearly no place for Black activism as most of us know it. Members of the Party inveigh against what they call critical race theory, and oppose efforts to redress racial discri...

22 Aug 202218min

Uncovering Biden Family Secrets

Uncovering Biden Family Secrets

President Joe Biden’s political talents are inseparable from his folksy persona. In speeches, he emphasizes his modest upbringing and quotes aphorisms from his car-salesman father about dignity and ho...

18 Aug 202236min

Is the Historic Climate Bill Enough to Save the Planet?

Is the Historic Climate Bill Enough to Save the Planet?

Last week, after more than a year of drama and deal-cutting, the Senate passed a complicated piece of legislation called the Inflation Reduction Act. Its name notwithstanding,  it’s being celebrated a...

15 Aug 202219min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

aftonbladet-krim
svenska-fall
p3-krim
rss-krimstad
blenda-2
flashback-forever
politiken
rss-sanning-konsekvens
aftonbladet-daily
rss-vad-fan-hande
motiv
grans
rss-krimreportrarna
spar
svd-ledarredaktionen
dagens-eko
rss-frandfors-horna
rss-flodet
olyckan-inifran
rss-klubbland-en-podd-mest-om-frolunda