Affirmative action and DEI have become lightning rods in today’s culture wars, but how much do we really know about where they came from and why they exist? In this episode, Sergio breaks down the long history of systemic racism in America, from slavery and Jim Crow to redlining and modern hiring bias. You’ll learn what affirmative action actually is, what DEI really means, and how both have shaped access, opportunity, and fairness for everyone not just a few. This isn’t about guilt. It’s about awareness. Because when you understand the history, you start to see the patterns. And once you see them, you can’t unsee them.

1.Intro
2. America's Original Construction Project
3. The Evolution of Inequality
4. Who's Really Getting the Handout?
5. Before Affirmative Action, There Was Just...Discrimination
6. DEI for Dummies: The Part They Never Told You

Sources & References:
• Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2004). Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w9873

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). EEOC history: 1964–1969. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. https://www.eeoc.gov/history/eeoc-history-1964-1969

• National Park Service. (n.d.). Equal Pay Act of 1963. U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.nps.gov/articles/equal-pay-act.htm

• Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, 413 U.S. 376 (1973). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Press_Co._v._Pittsburgh_Commission_on_Human_Relations

• University of Washington. (n.d.). Racial restrictive covenants: Enforcing neighborhood segregation in Seattle. Civil Rights & Labor History Consortium. https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/covenants_report.htm

• Jones-Correa, M. (2000). Origins and diffusion of racial restrictive covenants. Political Science Quarterly, 115(4), 541–568. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2657609

• Urban Institute. (2023). Addressing the legacies of historical redlining. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/Addressing%20the%20Legacies%20of%20Historical%20Redlining.pdf

• Nardone, A., Casey, J. A., Morello-Frosch, R., Mujahid, M., Balmes, J., & Thakur, N. (2020). Associations between historical residential redlining and current age-adjusted rates of emergency department visits due to asthma across eight cities in California. The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(1), e24–e31. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9901820/

• Pager, D., Western, B., & Bonikowski, B. (2009). Discrimination in a low-wage labor market: A field experiment. American Sociological Review, 74(5), 777–799. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2915472/

• Corrigan v. Buckley, 271 U.S. 323 (1926). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrigan_v._Buckley

• ADA National Network. “Timeline of the Americans with Disabilities Act.” adata.org. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://adata.org/ada-timeline

• Administration for Community Living. “Origins of the ADA.” acl.gov. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://acl.gov/ada/origins-of-the-ada

• U.S. Department of Justice. “Introduction to the Americans with Disabilities Act.” ada.gov. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.ada.gov/topics/intro-to-ada/

• Section508.gov. “IT Accessibility Laws and Policies.” section508.gov. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.section508.gov/manage/laws-and-policies/

• BrownGold. “DEI & A: The Effect of Donald Trump’s DEI Executive Order on Accessibility.” browngold.com. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://browngold.com/blog/dei-a-the-effect-of-donald-trumps-dei-executive-order-on-accessibility/

• Wikipedia. “Architectural Barriers Act of 1968.” Wikipedia.org. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_Barriers_Act_of_1968

• Michigan State University Libraries. “Advancing Accessibility: A Timeline.” lib.msu.edu. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://lib.msu.edu/exhibits/advancing-accessibility/timeline

• Duane Morris LLP. “ADA Considerations for Neurodiversity Hiring Programs.” duanemorris.com. August 3, 2023. https://www.duanemorris.com/articles/ada_considerations_for_neurodiversity_hiring_programs_0803.html

• Autism Spectrum News. “Neurodiversity Hiring Programs: A Path to Employment.” autismspectrumnews.org. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://autismspectrumnews.org/neurodiversity-hiring-programs-a-path-to-employment/

• Institute for Diversity Certification. “What Does It Mean to Provide Reasonable Workplace Accommodations for Your Neurodiverse Employees?” diversitycertification.org. Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.diversitycertification.org/deia-matters-blog/what-does-it-mean-to-provide-reasonable-workplace-accommodations-for-your-neurodiverse-employees
• Katznelson, I. (2005). When affirmative action was white: An untold history of racial inequality in twentieth-century America. W. W. Norton & Company. (See summary: History & Policy).

• Onkst, D. H. (1998). “’First a negro… incidentally a veteran’: Black World War II veterans and the G.I. Bill of Rights in the Deep South, 1944–1948.” Journal of Social History, 32(3), 517–543.

• Blakemore, E. (2019; updated 2025). “How the GI Bill’s promise was denied to a million Black WWII veterans.” History.com. https://www.history.com/articles/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits.

• Heller School, Brandeis University. (2023). “Not all WWII veterans benefited equally from the GI Bill” (impact report). https://heller.brandeis.edu/news/items/releases/2023/impact-report-gi-bill.html.

• Perea, J. F. (2014). [Law review article on GI Bill and race]. University of Pittsburgh Law Review (available as PDF).

• NBER working paper(s). (2024–2025). “Quantifying Racial Discrimination in the 1944 GI Bill” (authors and links in NBER repository).
 

Women make up half the population, but their rights have always been treated like a special request. In this episode we dive into the real history of women’s rights in America: from forced sterilizations and credit card restrictions to the myth of the 19th Amendment being a universal win. We exposes how progress has always come with an asterisk and why women’s rights are the ultimate test of any democracy.

1. The Original Setup: Eve, the Apple, and the Birth of Blame
2. Votes for Some: The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage
3. Rights on Paper, Fights in Practice: A Tour Through Women’s History
4. The Mother of Gynecology - and the Daughters Who Paid the Price
5. Sterilized and Silenced: When Reproductive Rights Were’t Yours
6. ’Til Regret Do us Part: Marriage, Divorce and the Trap of Forever

Music by Loghan Longoria
Follow us on instagram: Sergio Novoa My Limited View Pod

Resources & References

The Bible & Eve
• Augustine, On the Good of Marriage — Early church writings framing women as morally weaker.
• Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women — One of the first texts blaming Eve for humanity’s downfall.

Women’s Suffrage
• National Archives: 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Library of Congress: Frederick Douglass’s support at Seneca Falls, 1848.
• Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States.

Voting Rights & Racial Exclusion
• U.S. Department of Justice: Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (National Archives).
• Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.

Workplace & Economic Rights
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Equal Pay Act of 1963
• U.S. Department of Labor: Civil Rights Act Title VII
• U.S. Department of Education: Title IX Overview
• Federal Reserve: History of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act
• Congressional Research Service: Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988.

Reproductive Rights
• Supreme Court: Roe v. Wade (1973).
• Congressional Record: The Hyde Amendment (1976).
• Supreme Court: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022).

Medicine & Exploitation
• Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid.
• Journal of Medical Ethics: Reproductive Surgery and the Enslaved Body: The Case of J. Marion Sims.

Forced Sterilization
• Supreme Court: Buck v. Bell (1927).
• Paul Lombardo, Three Generations, No Imbeciles.
• Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body.
• Alexandra Minna Stern, Eugenic Nation.
• Madrigal v. Quilligan case (Los Angeles, 1978).
• Jane Lawrence, “The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women,” American Indian Quarterly (2000).

Marriage, Divorce & Domestic Rights
• California Family Law Act of 1969 — first no-fault divorce law.
• Andrew Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage.
• U.S. Department of Justice: Violence Against Women Act of 1994.

Ever wonder where your federal tax dollars go? Spoiler: it’s probably not your neighborhood. In this episode, we follow the money and it leads straight to states that take more than they give, complain the loudest, and somehow still get to make the rules.

1. Intro
2. Who's paying the bills?
3. Who's making the rules?
4. The cost of compromise
5. What needs to change?
6. So what do we do?
7. Closing

Music by Loghan Longoria
Follow us on instagram: Sergio Novoa and My Limited View Pod

Resources & References

• USAFacts: Which States Contribute the Most and Least to Federal Revenue
• Rockefeller Institute of Government: Giving or Getting? Balance of Payments by State
• MarketWatch: Why Are Red States Fighting Federal Budget Cuts?
• The Conversation: Blue States Send Billions More to Washington Than They Get Back
• Pew Charitable Trusts: Federal Spending in the States Interactive Tool
• Rockefeller Institute of Government: https://rockinst.org/issue-area/giving-or-getting
• USAFacts – Federal Revenue vs Spending by State: https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-contribute-the-most-and-least-to-federal-revenue
• The Conversation – Tax Contributions by State: https://theconversation.com/blue-state-bailouts-some-states-like-new-york-send-billions-more-to-federal-government-than-they-get-back-137950
• Brookings Institution – The Wealth of Cities vs Rural America: https://www.brookings.edu/research/city-and-metropolitan-income-inequality-data-update/
• Pew Research – Federal Spending by State: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-visualizations/2022/federal-spending-in-the-states
• Federal Taxes: Who Pays in vs. Who Gets Back Rockefeller Institute of Government – rockinst.org
• Pew Charitable Trusts – pewtrusts.org
• Medicaid Expansion and Costs Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) – kff.org
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – cbpp.org
• Gun Trafficking Into Blue States ATF Firearms Trace Data – atf.gov
• Chicago PD Crime Gun Reports – home.chicagopolice.org
• EPA Good Neighbor Rule – epa.gov
• Court filings via PacerMonitor – pacermonitor.com
• Guttmacher Institute – guttmacher.org
• Planned Parenthood – plannedparenthood.org
• U.S. Constitution – archives.gov
• Electoral College Info – archives.gov/electoral-college
• National Popular Vote Interstate Compact – nationalpopularvote.com
• Library of Congress – loc.gov
• Brookings Institution – brookings.edu
• Annenberg Public Policy Center – annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org

Immigration. It’s a topic that ignites passion, confusion, and often division. These days, the word “immigrant” can split a room in half and not always politely. 

But here’s the truth: whether documented or undocumented, immigrants have always been part of the American story. They’ve built railroads, harvested crops, launched companies, cared for families—not just their own—and they’ve done all this while paying billions in taxes.

1. Immigration
2. Nation of immigrants
3. Timeline of immigration policy
4. Who benefits from all these immigration reforms?
5. Today's undocumented labor.
6. How the US benefited from immigrants.
7. How to Fix it?

Want to adopt my foster puppy? Contact Angel City Pitts

Catch me at the Laugh Factory Covina
Sunday, July 20, 2025 at 7:00 pm
Get your tickets HERE

Music by Loghan Longoria
Follow us on instagram: Sergio Novoa My Limited View Pod

References:
Center for American Progress
“The Economic Benefits of Passing the Dream and Promise Act” (2021)
➤ Shows legalization of undocumented immigrants could increase U.S. GDP by $1.7 trillion over 10 years.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/economic-benefits-passing-dream-promise-act/

Pew Research Center
“Facts on U.S. Immigrants” (2024)
➤ Provides updated estimates of the undocumented population (~10.5 million) and their demographics.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/11/02/5-facts-about-u-s-immigrants/

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)
“Undocumented Immigrants’ State & Local Tax Contributions” (2017)
➤ Shows undocumented immigrants contribute over $11 billion in state and local taxes.
https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-state-local-tax-contributions-2/

U.S. Department of Labor – National Agricultural Workers Survey
➤ Indicates 50–70% of farmworkers are undocumented.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/national-agricultural-workers-survey

Migration Policy Institute
“Immigrant Health-Care Workers in the United States” (2021)
➤ Foreign-born workers represent a significant portion of U.S. doctors, nurses, and STEM professionals.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigrant-health-care-workers-united-states

Department of Homeland Security – Entry/Exit Overstay Report (2020)
➤ Most new undocumented immigrants are visa overstays, not border crossers.
https://www.dhs.gov/publication/entryexit-overstay-report

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
➤ Explains employment-based green card quotas (140,000 annually including dependents).
https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers

National Foundation for American Policy
“Immigrant Entrepreneurs and U.S. Billion-Dollar Companies” (2022)
➤ Immigrants founded over 55% of billion-dollar U.S. startups.
https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Immigrant-Founders-of-Billion-Dollar-Companies.NFAP-Policy-Brief.July-2022.pdf

Congressional Research Service (CRS)
“U.S. Immigration Policy: Chart Book of Key Trends” (Updated 2023)
➤ Offers a comprehensive overview of immigration policy history and trends.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42988

U.S. Department of Justice – Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)
➤ Reports on immigration court backlog, which exceeds 1 million cases.
https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1412106/download

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
“Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service” (1954)
➤ Official report documenting the scale of Operation Wetback and the number of deportations.
https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/historic-annual-reports

Library of Congress – U.S. Immigration Legislation Online
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act)
➤ Details the legal framework that criminalized unauthorized entry and enabled mass deportations.
https://guides.loc.gov/immigration-legislation

Smithsonian Institution – National Museum of American History
“Operation Wetback: A Tragic History of Deportation”
➤ Overview of Operation Wetback and its social/humanitarian consequences.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/operation-wetback

University of Texas Press – Kelly Lytle Hernández
“Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol” (2010)
➤ Deep dive into the history and racial motivations behind U.S. immigration enforcement, including Operation Wetback.
https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292718592/

PBS – Latino Americans Documentary Series
Episode: “Prejudice and Pride”
➤ Includes firsthand accounts of deportations and family separations under Operation Wetback.
https://www.pbs.org/latino-americans/en/episode-guide/

Migration Policy Institute
“Immigration Enforcement in the United States: The Rise of a Formidable Machinery” (2013)
➤ Provides historical context and data for enforcement policies including Operation Wetback.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigration-enforcement-united-states-rise-formidable-machinery