((PKG)) PROTESTS – ANALYSIS
((Banner: A Moment Long in Coming))
((Reporter/Camera: Deepak Dobhal))
((Additional Camera: June Soh, Jeff Swicord, Chris Simkins))
((Map: Washington DC))
((Main character: 1 male))
((NATS))
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
Wow. You know, I've been here several times. I live here and I
don't think I've ever stood at this spot of “I Have a Dream”
speech. August 28, 1963. “I Have a Dream”, Martin Luther King
Jr. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Wow.
We still have that dream. That's what we're still fighting for - jobs
and freedom.
African-Americans in this country are frustrated, absolutely
frustrated. The cruelty that was on display, [George] Floyd….and
being kneeled into and that police officer’s knee behind his neck
suffocating him. And we’re watching his death. Juxtaposed
against years and years of similar protests really showed that we
haven't moved all that far away from those moments. And so
people are just frustrated. They said, “My father had to deal with
this. My mother had to deal with it. My great-grandmother had to
deal with it. And it's still upon us. When will it end?”
((NATS))
((Banner: The death of George Floyd led to widespread protests
across the US))
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
Protests in 2020 is different in this regard. You had a major
health crisis in COVID. The places in which black people are
dying at a higher rate are places with lower housing quality, are
places with higher unemployment, higher incidence of racial
discrimination in the job market, higher levels of discrimination in
the housing market, all of these factors that policy created. Policy
made black communities more vulnerable to the spread of
COVID. And that's been made obvious. And so this moment has
just punctuated the role that structural inequality plays in our life.
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
The median of wealth of white Americans is $170,000. The
median wealth for black American is $17,000, so a tenth of white
American.
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
Unemployment rate has always been double for blacks than for
whites. Black communities see the 23 billion dollars less in
school funding. Blacks are pulled over two-and-a-half to three
times more in communities by police. They understand these
numbers. They feel the numbers. They live these numbers.
These are not just academic figures. There's tears behind every
single statistic.
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
I did a study that looked at housing prices in black majority
neighborhoods and compared those to neighborhoods where
those share of the black population was less than one percent.
And what I found simply astound. We controlled for education.
We controlled for crime. We controlled for walkability, meaning
that we had an apples-to-apples comparison between a black
home, a home in a black neighborhood and a home in a white
neighborhood. And homes in black neighborhoods were
devalued, undervalued by 23 percent, about $48,000 per home.
Accumulatively that's a $156 billion in lost equity. What people
don't realize, that's the money that people use to start businesses,
to send their kids to college. It's used for municipalities to finance
education and to improve infrastructure. It's all the resources that
people use to lift themselves up. But that money is extracted
because of the perceptions of the neighborhood.
((NATS))
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
For me, this is not an academic exercise. I've been there, I
understand it. I grew up in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, a small,
black municipality.
((Stills Courtesy: Andre Perry))
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
My father was incarcerated and he was murdered in prison.
When I was born, my mother gave me to this older woman, Elsie
Boyd, and I was informally adopted. My brother, my older brother
at the time, came along with me. My younger brother eventually
came. We grew up very poor, we shared clothes.
When I look at my yearbook, I stopped counting on the number of
folks that have gone to prison or jail. I say I got lucky because
there are lots of people smarter, more driven, but they made a
mistake and one mistake in the black community can mean a
complete downfall for the rest of your lifetime. I feel that pain. I
feel the pain. And it's real. It's, you feel it. It takes years off our
lives.
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
Structural racism is so baked into policy that it takes years, if not
decades, of investing in anti-racist policy and structure while
removing old policies with that racist frame. It takes years of that.
It's not going to come about with a few pieces of legislation during
a historic period of time as it did with the Civil Rights legislation in
the 60s. Yes, those are major milestones and we made some
advancements. But you see how long it is taking for those pieces
of legislation to take hold. It takes a consistent commitment to
anti-racist legislation and investments in black people, if we're
going to see a true change.
((Banner: A Moment Long in Coming))
((Reporter/Camera: Deepak Dobhal))
((Additional Camera: June Soh, Jeff Swicord, Chris Simkins))
((Map: Washington DC))
((Main character: 1 male))
((NATS))
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
Wow. You know, I've been here several times. I live here and I
don't think I've ever stood at this spot of “I Have a Dream”
speech. August 28, 1963. “I Have a Dream”, Martin Luther King
Jr. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Wow.
We still have that dream. That's what we're still fighting for - jobs
and freedom.
African-Americans in this country are frustrated, absolutely
frustrated. The cruelty that was on display, [George] Floyd….and
being kneeled into and that police officer’s knee behind his neck
suffocating him. And we’re watching his death. Juxtaposed
against years and years of similar protests really showed that we
haven't moved all that far away from those moments. And so
people are just frustrated. They said, “My father had to deal with
this. My mother had to deal with it. My great-grandmother had to
deal with it. And it's still upon us. When will it end?”
((NATS))
((Banner: The death of George Floyd led to widespread protests
across the US))
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
Protests in 2020 is different in this regard. You had a major
health crisis in COVID. The places in which black people are
dying at a higher rate are places with lower housing quality, are
places with higher unemployment, higher incidence of racial
discrimination in the job market, higher levels of discrimination in
the housing market, all of these factors that policy created. Policy
made black communities more vulnerable to the spread of
COVID. And that's been made obvious. And so this moment has
just punctuated the role that structural inequality plays in our life.
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
The median of wealth of white Americans is $170,000. The
median wealth for black American is $17,000, so a tenth of white
American.
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
Unemployment rate has always been double for blacks than for
whites. Black communities see the 23 billion dollars less in
school funding. Blacks are pulled over two-and-a-half to three
times more in communities by police. They understand these
numbers. They feel the numbers. They live these numbers.
These are not just academic figures. There's tears behind every
single statistic.
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
I did a study that looked at housing prices in black majority
neighborhoods and compared those to neighborhoods where
those share of the black population was less than one percent.
And what I found simply astound. We controlled for education.
We controlled for crime. We controlled for walkability, meaning
that we had an apples-to-apples comparison between a black
home, a home in a black neighborhood and a home in a white
neighborhood. And homes in black neighborhoods were
devalued, undervalued by 23 percent, about $48,000 per home.
Accumulatively that's a $156 billion in lost equity. What people
don't realize, that's the money that people use to start businesses,
to send their kids to college. It's used for municipalities to finance
education and to improve infrastructure. It's all the resources that
people use to lift themselves up. But that money is extracted
because of the perceptions of the neighborhood.
((NATS))
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
For me, this is not an academic exercise. I've been there, I
understand it. I grew up in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, a small,
black municipality.
((Stills Courtesy: Andre Perry))
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
My father was incarcerated and he was murdered in prison.
When I was born, my mother gave me to this older woman, Elsie
Boyd, and I was informally adopted. My brother, my older brother
at the time, came along with me. My younger brother eventually
came. We grew up very poor, we shared clothes.
When I look at my yearbook, I stopped counting on the number of
folks that have gone to prison or jail. I say I got lucky because
there are lots of people smarter, more driven, but they made a
mistake and one mistake in the black community can mean a
complete downfall for the rest of your lifetime. I feel that pain. I
feel the pain. And it's real. It's, you feel it. It takes years off our
lives.
((Andre Perry, Fellow – Metropolitan Policy Program,
Brookings Institution))
Structural racism is so baked into policy that it takes years, if not
decades, of investing in anti-racist policy and structure while
removing old policies with that racist frame. It takes years of that.
It's not going to come about with a few pieces of legislation during
a historic period of time as it did with the Civil Rights legislation in
the 60s. Yes, those are major milestones and we made some
advancements. But you see how long it is taking for those pieces
of legislation to take hold. It takes a consistent commitment to
anti-racist legislation and investments in black people, if we're
going to see a true change.
