WEBVTT

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- Are you looking for a new
neighborhood to live in?

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Then come on down to Redlining Realty.

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Sanctioned by the U.S. government.

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(bell chime)

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There's depressed infrastructure,

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underfunded schools,

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no white people!

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They're all in the suburbs.

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Heck, we'll even throw in free shoes!

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Now doesn't that sound nice?

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Call Redlining Realty today,
and we'll get you a house built

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on the most American foundation of all,

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racism.

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Today's baggage, redlining.

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Before we get into this
BS policy called redlining

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that created housing segregation
and pretty much jacked up

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the American dream for black folks,

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let's take it back to the 1930s.

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America is in the thick
of the Great Depression,

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and y'all, it was bad.

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Around one fifth of the
country was unemployed,

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and nearly everyone was dirt poor.

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Along comes FDR with his New Deal,

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dude was trying to revitalize
the American economy

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which created what we now
call the middle-class.

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But not so fast-

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FDR's New Deal would
cement racial inequality

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in America for generations to come,

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and birth two programs that
enforced housing segregation.

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The Public Works Administration

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and the Home Owner's Loan Corporation,

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known today as the Federal
Housing Administration.

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The PWA created affordable housing

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and surprise, surprise the agency created

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separate public housing
for black and white folks,

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greatly segregating cities.

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Now let's talk about the
Federal Housing Administration.

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The FHA created low interest mortgages

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to build homes across the country.

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This agency actually built
the suburbs as we know it.

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They basically said,

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"Hey banks, if someone
applies for a mortgage,

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go ahead, build them a house,

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even if they don't pay it back,

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we'll still guarantee a loan.

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Unless they're black."

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The FHA's manual literally prohibited

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the occupancy of properties
except by the race

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for which they are intended.

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But before we go any further,

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let me call in a friend
to break down the legacy

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of redlining.

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The world renowned, wypipologist,

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from The Root, Michael Harriot.

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- What's up?

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- He's a nerd IRL. He's
earned a masters degree

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in macroeconomics, and even taught "Race

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as an Economic Construct"
to some college kids.

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What's good?

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- Felice, what's going on?

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Good to see you and these
unpack that streets.

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- How are these racist-ass-racist
government policies

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tie into what we now call redlining?

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- The term came about because
the federal government,

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Uncle Sam 'nem, created color-coded maps

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that told banks where they
could give out housing loans.

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The green sections, were a go,

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whereas the red sections,

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typically where black people
lived, were deemed too risky.

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Even well off black neighborhoods

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like Sugar Hill in Harlem,

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where black people like Zora Neale Hurston

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and Duke Ellington lived,
were off limits to banks.

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Aside from financial barriers,

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there were actual physical barriers

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to prevent black people from
living in white neighborhoods.

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In the early 1940s there
was a six foot high wall

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in Detroit, because, redlining,
and it's still there today.

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The Fair Housing Act put an
end to redlining in 1968,

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but we know it ain't going down like that.

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Banks across the country have been caught

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using redlining maps as recently as 2015.

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And get this, most redlined areas

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are still low income, black
and brown neighborhoods.

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- So, FDR's New Deal
pretty much screwed over

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generations of black folks to come?

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How else has redlining
impacted black folks?

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- There's plenty, but 3 really stick out:

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Wealth, education and criminal justice.

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First, let's talk about wealth.

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For y'all who don't know,

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home ownership is the
primary driver of wealth,

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and who has a harder time getting homes?

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- Black people?

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- Bingo.

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Even when home ownership is an option,

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homes in black neighborhoods

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are on average, valued around 25% lower

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than homes in white neighborhoods.

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This is the case across the board,

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even if the homes and
neighborhoods are similar.

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- So off the bat, homes
in black neighborhoods

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are less valuable?

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- Yup, and the plot thickens.

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People in redlined neighborhoods,

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pay higher insurance premiums,

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they also pay higher interest rates,

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and are denied mortgages more often.

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- Hold up, we get a lot
of our school funding

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through local property taxes.

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I bet that redlining
impacts education too.

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How does that all work?

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- Let me ask the genius who
can answer that question.

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- Yes Michael, I am a genius.

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- No, not you. I mean Nikole Hannah-Jones.

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She's the recipient of the
MacArthur Genius Grant,

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and knows education like
the back of her hand.

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See, I can get her up on
our special genius hotline.

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Funny how I don't see
your name on the list.

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(phone rings)

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Nikole, tell our girl how redlining

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has impacted education.

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- We get most of our school funding

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through local property tax.

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That meant that black
cities cannot produce

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as much money as white suburbs

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which can tax either very low
rate on high property tax.

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And so you see vast disparities

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between how suburban schools that serve

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lots of white kids are funded,

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and urban schools that serve

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lots of black and Latino kids are funded.

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And that all goes back to
the legacy of redlining.

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- Wow, did the Fair
Housing Act help at all?

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- Once, redlining and
discrimination and lending

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and housing became illegal in 1968,

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we didn't rejigger all
of the property values

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that had been directly
related to redlining

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which put a premium on white communities

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and put a much lower property value rate

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on black communities,

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it's not like we started from scratch

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and equalized all of
these property values,

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we just continued to
watch white communities

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accumulate more and more wealth,

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and black communities be deprived.

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And of course, that's gonna impact

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how schools can be funded.

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- Are there any places
where we can really see

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the effects of redlining on education?

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- One place where you can
really see this play out,

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probably in the most oppressive way

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would be the city of Detroit.

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Home to the most unequal

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school funding border in the country,

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and that's the border
between Grosse Pointe

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which is very, very wealthy

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and almost entirely white,

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which borders right on Detroit.

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The schools in Detroit are falling apart,

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and the schools in Grosse Pointe,

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one of them has marble floors.

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- Thanks Nikole.

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- That was a lot.

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- The cycle doesn't end there.

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Redlining, education and criminal justice

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are all related.

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Let me take you on a trip to
one of my favorite cities.

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Baltimore.

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Here is the original 1937
redlining map of Baltimore.

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Even though blacks and
whites used illegal drugs

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at about the same rates,

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black people are three times
more likely to be arrested.

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And where do you think they
go to fight this war on drugs?

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- I've seen "The Wire,"
they go to the hood.

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- See the red areas on the map?

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That's the forbidden
neighborhoods, remember?

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Now let's look at this
data of marijuana arrests

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between Jan. 2013 and Oct. 2014.

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Here are the heroin arrests,

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and the crack arrests-

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drugs arrests and poverty
are almost exclusively

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contained in the redlined areas.

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Isn't that remarkable?

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- You pronounced racist wrong.

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- And getting out of
jail ain't any easier.

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In Maryland, 13 of the 15 zip codes

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with the highest bails are in Baltimore's

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redlined neighborhoods.

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- Damn.

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- Yeah, so, basically redlining created

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poor neighborhoods, which
led to underfunded schools,

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more poverty and more
black people in prison.

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- Let me guess, and the cycle continues?

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- Like a dog chasing its tail.

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- So, the hood ain't the 'hood

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because black people made it the 'hood,

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rather it was intentionally created

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by the government to oppress black people

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through a federal policy that
would adversely impact them

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for generations to come.

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- Precisely.

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And there's more but
that's all we have time for

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in this here video.

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Almost every quantifiable
indicator of white supremacy

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all lead back to the government

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sanctioned policy of redlining.

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- Michael, you just ruined my whole day.

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This is the last time I
invite you to this show.

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Bye, Michael.

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(laughs)

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Maybe we could just do

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- We shouldn't even look at each other

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when we do it we should just go

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- Okay, we could do that one