"I have such a deeper appreciation for the punishment that black people received from their government for so long and the crass politics that perpetuated it."
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On Friday, I interviewed Bill Steigerwald, author of the brilliant new book, 30 Days a Black Man, an account of a white journalist's travels through the Jim Crow South in the 1940s while passing as African American (a dozen-plus years before Black Like Me).
A snippet from our conversation:
Steigerwald: [When you do historical research], you learn that nothing is new, everything was worse, and what you thought was simple or true was not. When you look back at '48 and you see this stuff, and Ray Sprigle's reporting, he was a reporter. When he heard guys in Atlanta say, "Oh, Atlanta's a great city for black people. Nothing ever happens here." Well, he went down the courthouse and dug up some records and he came up with three cases in the last two years where young black males, this sounds a little familiar, were shot dead by cops or trolley conductors who were armed at the time and were able to shoot anybody. They were shot dead and the defense was always, "Oh, I thought he was reaching for a gun or something. I shot him dead," and they all got off. I mean, you could take those examples and put them in the paper today and people would say, "Well, yeah."…
I have such a deeper appreciation for the punishment that black people received from their government for so long and the crass politics that perpetuated it.
Other recent podcasts include "Is the World Finally Ready for a Female-Orgasm Machine?," "Why The Republicans' 'Repeal and Replace' Bill Is Worse Than Obamacare," and "Steve Bannon vs. the Tea Party Libertarians." Each Monday, Reason mag Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward, Editor at Large Matt Welch, and I jaw about the latest developments in Washington and, far more important, everywhere else in America and the world. Click below to listen right now via Soundcloud to last week's episode (in which Features Article Peter Suderman filled in for Matt Welch):