Episode

5/20 The Cash Value of Racism w/ Tracie McMillan

May 20, 2024

Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Tracie McMillan, editor at Capitol & Main covering worker organizing, to discuss her recent book The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism in America.  First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Benny Gantz’s split with Netanyahu over Israel’s war strategy, the death of multiple Iranian officials, Julian Assange’s right to appeal extradition, Michael Cohen’s testimony, Justice Alito’s partisanship, gun control in the US, Giuliani’s legal woes, and Disneyland unionization, before parsing through the ICC’s recent issuing of warrants for various Israeli and Hamas leaders and officials, such as Bibi Netanyahu and Yahya Sinwar. Tracie McMillan then joins, as she dives right into this idea of a “White bonus,” and how centuries of institutionalized White Supremacy in the US – even if largely reformed today – created lasting biases that privilege White folks without explicit (or socially-recognized) benefits based on race. After stepping back to explore how her personal experience exposed her to these concepts, seeing the benefit of the doubt she, as a White woman, was consistently given in an employment context, McMillan, Sam, and Emma explore where these “submerged” benefits lie, such as the tax breaks and employment opportunities offered to middle and upper-class families that have privileged from generations of White Supremacy, and how they shone through even in McMillan’s non-elite upbringing. Next, McMillan walks us through the examples she uses in her work, tackling how the ingrained “white bonus” of society helped bolster the upbringing of various middle-class Mississippi white kids, providing them pathways to social mobility and rescuing them from the trappings of the carceral state in ways Black kids would not be privy to, before wrapping up by reflecting on the need to emphasize widespread solidarity in the battle for material rectification, particularly in the US where racism continues to be a central inhibitor to social programs.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma watch a dissociative and pained Biden applaud a call for a permanent ceasefire at Morehouse’s graduation, discuss the facade of the 2-state solution that Biden (and many others) use to defend Israel’s apartheid regime, and unpack Israel’s ongoing attacks on aid trucks by citizens and settlers. Rudy Giuliani gets a surprise 80th birthday gift, AIPAC is NOT sending their best, and Donald Trump continues his 8-year tradition of crowd-size compensation. Anchorage’s right-wing candidate for Mayor tackles the problem of “woke,” as his opponent explores pointless policies around infrastructure and corruption, and Mike Lindell and Steve Bannon take on Minnesota’s new Sharia state flag.

Check out Tracie’s book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250619426/thewhitebonus

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