Can you talk about the racial wealth gap and
how it needs to be addressed?
You know, in a lot of ways, irrespective of
the president, I love the line that FDR had
when he was responding to progressives, as
you allude to: “Make me do it.”
And that’s what social movements are for.
So, November 4th, I love that Bernie Sanders
said, “We will be right back out there.
We will make Biden do it.”
But, you know, first and foremost, Donald
Trump needs to get removed to the office.
That has to be a priority.
And then, after that, I agree, we should make
them do it.
And as it relates to the racial wealth gap
— you know, I’m glad you brought that
up — the New Deal and the postwar policies
are largely responsible for the racial wealth
gap that exists today.
Ira Katznelson, in his aptly titled book When
Affirmative Action Was White, describes how
policy, by design and implementation, was
racist, even though it was universal.
So, for example, if you have Social Security
and the Wagner Act excluding domestic and
agricultural workers, whom at the time 70%
of Black women working were in those fields
— I’m sorry, 90%, not 70% — and for
Black men, it was over half, that was, by
design, racist.
And then, when you have a Jim Crow infrastructure
implementing the policies without federal
oversight, that is, by implementation, racist.
So, today, what AOC was talking about in her
eloquent, beautiful, inspiring one minute,
although she took a little longer than one
minute, was an economic rights frame, but
not just an economic rights frame, an economic
rights frame grounded in justice, that is
actively antiracist, actively anti-sexist
— that’s the evolution — and an economic
rights platform that’s not passive, but,
by design and implementation, ensuring that
all groups, regardless of identity, are included.
And speaking of economic rights, you have
favored the enactment of a federal jobs guarantee,
which many critics say that’s pie in the
sky.
But you point that there’s been historical
precedent to that in the Humphrey-Hawkins
Act.
If you could talk about that and also about
your support of baby bonds, and what exactly
that would mean?
Yeah.
So, the federal job guarantee, I think the
best precedent is the New Deal itself — the
WPA, the CCC.
A lot of our infrastructure in our country
today, whether it’s art, whether it’s
big monuments of art, highways, bridges, etc.,
universities — you know, I’m from Brooklyn.
Go to Brooklyn College and look at all the
buildings that were erected as part of the
WPA that are still relevant today.
There’s a project called the Living New
Deal that goes beyond our physical infrastructure
and gives personal narratives about the ways
in which people’s lives were transformed
as a result of the New Deal.
And in speaking with Senator Sanders, you
know, I was pitching the federal job guarantee,
and in our conversation, he had a great response.
He’s like, “Yeah, that’s all great about
what the New Deal did in the past for America,
but I like the framing of reimagining the
future that we want and deserve.”
And that’s the point.
To me, you know, we put bounds on our imagination
of what we can do, but we can invest in the
infrastructure that’s not only physical,
but a care infrastructure, and, as you cited
earlier — I don’t know if it was you,
Juan, or Amy — but a Green New Deal, where
we could ensure that our economy is resilient
to the climate catastrophes and calamities
that are coming up in the future.
In essence, we could offer a guaranteed job
to anyone who desires to work towards building
our physical, human infrastructure, and eliminate
the threat of unemployment for existing workers.
We know that if you are — you know, I give
this example: If you are a waitress putting
up with sexual harassment on a daily basis,
you have less agency if the employer can threaten
you with taking that job away, and then you’re
not able to feed your children.
That should be eliminated.
We should have better bargaining powers so
that workers aren’t completely at the whim
of their employer, so that they have a viable
alternative with a living wage, with good
working conditions.
And we can do this.
We can do this, and there’s a need, because
we can just look at this pandemic and see
that our public health infrastructure wasn’t
ready.
There’s lots of work that can be created,
and people on local levels will know better
what their community needs.
So, that’s the case for a federal job guarantee.
