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Part One:
We talk about civics education with Richard Kahlenberg, Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation. Our nation is failing to teach young people about how our government works, how our democracy cannot function properly if people aren’t motivated to participate, get active, and vote. Likewise, if we fail to learn the truth about what has occurred throughout history — and the causes of particular events — then we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.
Part Two:
We discuss the exponential rise of white nationalism with Arthur Jipson, Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at the University of Dayton. We note the racist underpinnings of this phenomenon, as well as some of its causes.
The elites and reactionaries convince average folks to focus on their own identities – through the prism of race and culture – and to view anyone else as the enemy, who “doesn’t belong.” The huge number of people who work hard but can barely make ends meet — people who live paycheck to paycheck, just one unexpected car repair or medical bill away from economic disaster — are constantly afraid that they are not in control of their lives. And they’re right. But demagogues divert our attention away from the true causes of our plight. They tell us instead that we’re threatened by “those people” — anyone who looks different from ourselves: immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+, Muslims and Jews, and poor people generally.
We must change the conversation, and help everyone focus on our world as it is – and take action to improve it — and not look backward trying to remember a happy and secure past that never existed.
