Listen in and Paul discuss the activities of the past few days in a troubled America

TRANSCRIPT: 2Guys_P&C Racism_050120

[00:00:00] Two Guys Open: [00:00:00] This is the two guys talkin' Fresno podcast. The podcast with two guys talking about Fresno. Your hosts are Craig Scharton, a lifelong Fresno who loves his community, even though it drives him bonkers 

and Paul Swearengin, a transplant Fresnan, who's lived in Fresno for more years than he hasn't and he wouldn't live anywhere else. It's time 

for two guys to talk. Fresno. Here's Craig and Paul on the two guys talking 

Fresno podcast, 

Craig Scharton: [00:00:29] Smooth Operator!

Paul Swearengin: [00:00:34] we should call it the shirt. Two old guys trying to manage technology. 

 Let's do the show. 

Craig Scharton: [00:00:39] All right. So 

Paul Swearengin: [00:00:42] yeah. 

Craig Scharton: [00:00:44] What a week it's been, do 

Paul Swearengin: [00:00:46] we have anything to talk about? 

Craig Scharton: [00:00:48] yeah, the entire world looks like it is coming apart at the scenes. 

Paul Swearengin: [00:00:53] And I wonder if that's true or if just our reactions to everything are coming apart at the seams. [00:01:00]

Craig Scharton: [00:01:00] Yeah. Well, I don't know that we are boys in a real, a unifying place for all of this to begin. 

Paul Swearengin: [00:01:07] Well, the good news is we have a unifying president who will bring us all together in a very calm, calculated thought through way.

Oh, is that, is that not the, not the case? Yeah. How about that? How about looting and shooting is where you go on the night as president of the United States as is this is going on 

and like I said, a very calming influence at the top of it all. In our country. And so we're all good. 

Craig Scharton: [00:01:35] Yeah. Well, so, what kind of reflection have you been doing over the last week? 

Paul Swearengin: [00:01:40] I've been reflecting on for quite some time on what is my role in systemic racism in America?

have, have I done everything I can to be aware of where I'm a part of it aware of where I can, can engage to be a part of [00:02:00] ending it. And so I woke up really after the event at Miguel res his apartment. And said, okay. I, I, I can't be silent about issues that are so heavy on my heart. And then when I saw the George Floyd video, I was just like, okay, I, I have to do everything in my power to end this because this is a mindset.

What I see there. And, and I think we, we, if we give ourselves the break of saying, well, that was a bad cop, doing a bad thing with three bad cops around him. I give myself permission to not question where I am and where we are as a culture. And it may very well be that that's a seriously racist cop that had his neck on his is me on George Ford's neck.

But I think as much, he's probably a product of a system in our country that sort of tells [00:03:00] ourselves there is a group of people that are a little different than the rest of us. And when dealing with. Those people, we have to deal with them differently. And I don't think, I think many of us would say overtly, we don't do that.

I, you know, the, I have black friends, I have Hispanic friends. I'm good to them. They're just people to me, but there's. There's something in our system that sort of says, there's a group of people who are just a little bit diffe...