Why Are They So Angry?

Join Dr. Carol François and Kourtney Square, the aunt and niece duo, for Episode 4 of Why Are they So Angry? This episode, the first in a three-part series about systemic racism in America’s criminal justice system, examines the phenomenon in policing. Citing the extensive research from Radley Balko’s compendium of studies about systemic racism in the criminal justice system and harrowing encounters with police brutality as detailed in the Algiers Motel incident, the pair trace the long history of policing and over policing starting as far back as America’s Colonial times. The episode ends with recommendations for how listeners can confront systemic racism in their personal spheres of influence. Learn more about this dynamic team at the website www.whyaretheysoangry.com or follow them on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Citations:

Campaign Zero, https://www.joincampaignzero.org/

“Eight Can’t Wait Project”, https://8cantwait.org/

“Slave patrols: an early form of American policing, Chelsea Hansen, July 10, 2019, National Law Enforcement Museum, https://lawenforcementmuseum.org/2019/07/10/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Douglas A. Blackmon, Doubleday, 2008.

Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas, Sally Hadden, Harvard University Press, 2003.

“There’s Overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system is racist. Here’s the proof”, Radley Balko, Washington Post, June 10, 2020.

Join Dr. Carol François and Kourtney Square, the aunt and niece duo, for Episode 3 of Why Are they So Angry?, a look at systemic racism in education. Educating the general populace is a cornerstone of American society providing the foundation for an informed and knowledgeable electorate. For over 400 years, however, Black/African Americans have endured poor, inadequate, and substandard education. In this episode, you’ll hear about the heroic battle  Dr. George McLaurin waged to integrate Oklahoma University and how that battle ended. You’ll also hear  how some of the same inadequacies in public education from the Jim Crow era are still in various forms of existence in education today and how those inadequacies impede upward mobility for Black/African Americans.

Partial Citations:

“A teenager didn’t do her online schoolwork so a judge sent her to juvenile detention,” by Jodi S. Cohen, Pro Publica Illinois, July 14, 2020.

ACLU “Cops and no counselors: how the lack of school mental health is harming students”, https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/cops-and-no-counselors.

Reese, L. (2007, January 19) George W. McLaurin (1887-1968). Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mclaurin-george-w-1887-1968/.

“The education of Black children in the Jim Crow South”, Dr. Russell Brooker, Professor of Political Science America’s Black Holocaust Museum, Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Education of Blacks in the South: 1830-1938, James D. Anderson, The University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

The Education Trust, Jan. 9, 2020, “Inequities in Advanced Coursework”.

“School segregation is not a myth skeptics claim that concerns over racially divided schools are false alarms—but they’re missing the full picture,” Will Stancil, The Atlantic, March 2018.

Join Dr. Carol François and Kourtney Square, the aunt and niece duo, for Episode 2 of Why Are they So Angry? This episode focuses on how de jure segregation promulgated in federal, state, and local laws unconstitutionally barred Black/African Americans from owning homes and land. Being able to live in safe, secure housing and buy property to create generational wealth encapsulates the “American Dream”. Historically, for many Black/African Americans that dream has been a nightmare.  You will hear that the outcome of segregation resulted in land theft, deteriorating neighborhoods, and the current day wealth chasm between whites and Black/African Americans. The episode draws heavily on Richard Rothstein’s book The Color of Law: The Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America along with several recent studies and news articles about racial inequity in housing and real estate.

Partial Citations:

”A Look at Housing Inequality and Racism in America,” By: Dina Williams, Forbes Magazine, June 3, 2020.

“Black homeowners face discrimination in appraisals,” By Debra Kamin, New York Times, Published Aug. 25, 2020, Updated Aug. 27, 2020.

“Black Homeownership: The Role of Temporal Changes and Residential Segregation at the End of the 20th Century”, By: Lance Freeman, Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 86, No. 2 (JUNE 2005), pp. 403-426.

“Defending the Home: Ossian Sweet and the Struggle Against Segregation in 1920s Detroit”, Victoria W. Wolcott, OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 7, No. 4, African-American History (Summer, 1993), pp. 23-27.

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, By: Richard Rothstein, Liveright Publishing Company, 2017.

“The Trial of Henry Sweet: Clarence Darrow confronts the issues of the day”, By: James W. McElhaney, ABA Journal, Vol. 78, No. 7 (JULY 1992), pp. 73-74.

“University launches investigation after a Black professor was asked by campus security to prove she lived in her own house,” By Alaa Elassar, CNN, Wed August 26, 2020.

Join Carol François and Kourtney Square, the aunt and niece duo, as they kick off Episode 1 of Why Are they So Angry? Learn the differences among and between the terms bias, prejudice, bigotry, and racism as an introduction to understanding how systemic racism permeates every institution in America. The terms discussed in the episode are taken from the book Institutional Racism: A Primer On Theory and Strategies for Social Change, Second Edition, by Shirley Better. Carol quotes Ijeoma Oluo, “When we acknowledge racism as part of a system, instead of being limited to our ability to win over racists, we can instead focus on how our actions interact with systemic racism.” If you want to expand your knowledge of systemic racism visit the website www.whyaretheysoangry.com or take the course, Systemic Racism: See it, Say it, Confront it. 

Welcome to Why Are They So Angry?  Join Carol Francois and Kourtney Square as they take you through the looking glass to learn American history as you never learned it before. They'll help you understand why, when, and how the seeds of anger in the Black/African American community were sown so you can finally answer the question: why are they so angry? And once you know the answer, you’ll be empowered to clearly see systemic racism, say what it is, and confront it head on.