"Black Jobs" [Mini]
Trump's comment about immigrants "taking black jobs" isn't just misguided—it's harmful. Join us as we, Courtney Russell Jr. and Emily Browker, unpack the damaging implications of such statements on marginalized communities. From the recent...
Trump's comment about immigrants "taking black jobs" isn't just misguided—it's harmful. Join us as we, Courtney Russell Jr. and Emily Browker, unpack the damaging implications of such statements on marginalized communities. From the recent presidential debate to the deeper complexities of racially charged language, we express our frustrations and explore how these divisive comments perpetuate stereotypes and reinforce social hierarchies. Our conversation delves into the problematic nature of labeling activities or opportunities as racially exclusive, and how these labels further marginalize already vulnerable groups.
In this episode, we don't just stop at critiquing political rhetoric. We dive into the core issues of systemic racism versus individual prejudice, highlighting the distinction and why it's crucial to understand in today's sociopolitical climate. We examine whether within the current societal structures in the US, black and brown people cannot be racist due to their positionality within the system. Tune in for a nuanced and thought-provoking discussion as we challenge conventional narratives and reflect on the broader disappointments with both presidential candidates. Join us for this critical conversation and get a glimpse of our evolving podcast format that promises more frequent, candid dialogues alongside guest episodes.
(00:02:33) "Racial Dynamics in Political Discourse"
(00:04:58) Avoiding Racial Labels in Job Titles
(00:10:23) Racism: Systemic Oppression Over Personal Biases
(00:13:39) Racial Job Labeling Impacts on Stereotypes
00:00:03 - Courthney Russell Jr
I wouldn't say, oh, hiking is a white thing, or getting fair housing is a white thing that's making so that anyone else is either not good enough for that or they don't deserve that. It's further marginalized. And that's how I feel about those kind of comments, like, oh, you taking black jobs? Welcome, fam. This is Courtney Russell junior, and I'm here with my co host, Emily Braucher.
00:00:28 - Emily Braucher
Welcome to Humanize.
00:00:29 - Courthney Russell Jr
We are two Americans with totally different, different backgrounds and life experiences.
00:00:34 - Emily Braucher
We're coming together on this podcast to dive right at the heart of the three things that shut down tough conversations about race, culture, power, and ego.
00:00:43 - Courthney Russell Jr
The stories you are about to hear are meant to Humanize those deeply involved in social justice. Welcome to the work, y'all. Let's get it. Hey, what's going on, Humanized family? This is not the normal guest episode that we are used to doing and start something that's just me and Emily and go talk about things that are important to us, that are on our mind and just give you a window into our crazy selves. And then we talk about these issues and just go a little deeper than what we usually do. So hopefully you enjoy and just keep on giving you guys content that we can start these conversations up. So, Emily, let's go.
00:01:23 - Emily Braucher
Yeah. So that we're still gonna do our guest episodes, just so everyone knows, we're gonna be bringing them in on rotation, but we're hoping to do these smaller episodes a little bit more frequently, more casually, just kind of talk about, you know, talk about different things. We're not going to box ourselves into anything. One. The first thing I want to talk about is look, what's right in front of me is a little human eyes. Look at you. Airpod case here.
00:01:52 - Courthney Russell Jr
That's dope. I need to get y'all. Yeah, yeah, I know. I need to get that. I need to get that. Yes.
00:01:57 - Emily Braucher
And you have your Humanized sweatshirt. Just to, you know, if you guys want to go to our website, Humanizedpodcast.com, we have a merch store there, has some great stuff. But speaking of merch, which is kind of cracking me up right now, so I'm back on the east coast at this point, and I'm using my kids, my six year old's headphones for today's episode. And I'm also wearing my pearls. So we just like a 4 July walk. I could not be more east coast right now. Just feeling a little ridiculous. Usually.
00:02:33 - Courthney Russell Jr
Yes.
00:02:34 - Emily Braucher
Holding down the Colorado vibe, but yes. So, anyway. Anyway, this is what, you know, the week. So let's see, it is Thursday, today, Thursday, July 4. And we are coming out right after the debate that we had last week there. Yes, last week. Last week. So it was debate between our wonderful presidential candidates of Trump and then the incumbent Joe Biden. Little upsetting. Little upsetting on very, very many levels here in America. But I think in particular, Courtney, I'm really curious to just chat with you about this, is there was a comment made. So let me set the stage. When Trump was talking about the economy, in particular, about, quote, immigrants. Migration is a big thing for him. And he was talking about how the immigrants are coming over and taking black jobs. And so it's this black job comment that I would really love to kind of dissect today. And I can't say I watched the clip too many times because the whole thing kind of made me want to throw up in my mouth watching both of them. So, yeah, tell me your reactions to that.
00:04:07 - Courthney Russell Jr
First off, that, let me put this right away because people are listening. I'm not trying to be a huge asshole, but just a little, just a little bit. Both candidates were horrible. One was horrible because he was lying in our face, bold face, and the other one was nothing. He was doing his best, and it just didn't feel right as a representative of this country, you know? And so there was no candidate that I was psyched on. And when we specifically talked. So let's specifically talk about the black jobs comment.
00:04:50 - Emily Braucher
Yeah.
00:04:51 - Courthney Russell Jr
Yeah. And so, like when he said it was Biden that said or Trump that says something about black jobs, correct?
00:04:57 - Emily Braucher
Trump.
00:04:58 - Courthney Russell Jr
Trump, right. Yes. And so when Trump said black jobs, I know what he was trying to say. It just obviously comes across very out of touch. It comes across as if he doesn't understand that there's not such thing as a black job. It's just a job that people have to take a lot of times who aren't in a socioeconomic class, who don't have connections, who aren't, who have been disenfranchised. And so there are not such thing as a black anything. It's just things that are, that are given to not given are just allowed easier for individuals who are not of a certain socioeconomic class. And so it just rings clear for me, like when people say, oh, you're acting really black or you're acting white or you're doing this or you're doing that. When you put a race on anything, you make it seem less than, even if you're trying to make it seem as though it's good or bad, because it just can be. Now, I'm not saying be colorblind, but I'm saying when you're using race as a descriptor for an inanimate thing. So if I saw you run down the street, I said, yo, Emily, that's a white woman right there. That's not. You're a white woman. I see you. I appreciate you, but I wouldn't say, oh, hiking is a white thing, you know, because education is a white thing, or getting fair housing is a white thing that's making so that anyone else is either not good enough for that or they don't deserve that. It's further marginalized. And that's how I feel about those kind of comments, like, oh, you're taking the black jobs.
00:06:45 - Emily Braucher
But I'm hearing you say, the second that you bring in race, and of course, we are us centric here in our thinking, you're bringing in a power dynamic to whatever you're talking about, there's a social hierarchy that we're trying to disrupt, saying, like, okay, now you're talking about inclusion or exclusion or looking down upon. So in this situation, taking race as the descriptor of a certain category of jobs in it, that. That's the problematic piece. It's not. It's not problematic to speak of the. The jobs that he was trying to point to. Right. Of, like, you know, jobs that you might not need an education, that you might be able to just walk in without much training beforehand. Yeah. You might not even need to speak the language. Things like that. Like that.
00:07:41 - Courthney Russell Jr
Well, say that then.
00:07:43 - Emily Braucher
Say that. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:07:47 - Courthney Russell Jr
Because it just comes across very. I mean, with colorism the way it is, you know, a lot of individuals would look as someone as dark as myself and automatically view me as a suspect, an enemy, less than. Because of the darkness of my skin, you know? And so when someone says, oh, that's a black thing. Oh, my God, you gotta speak more white. It's like giving power to individuals who are already powerful, you know? And so I felt a cringe when I heard that, because, again, it's showing that we need, as we try to turn the corner in this country, individuals will always try to hold on to that power, either because they're closest to what traditionally is powerful or they are the powerful and they don't want to lose it. And so I just think we have to. Because words matter. That's why both of them, it was a bad debate because one was lying and one wasn't. I mean, it is what it is wasn't using words correctly.
00:09:00 - Emily Braucher
Yeah, he was jet lagged and he was sick and he was not in his best.
00:09:04 - Courthney Russell Jr
Yeah.
00:09:05 - Emily Braucher
If, you know, painting him in the most positive way we can. We're going to get back to the episode in just a moment, but we wanted to give a quick shout out to our supporters on Patreon, as well as our supporters who have bought our merch from our website. Our podcast is principally sustained and propelled by listeners like you, and we wanted to make sure you knew how to get on that train. So to support us on Patreon, please go to the Patreon page page and look up the Humanized podcast. There we have some exclusive content that we haven't released, the wider public, as well as ways to engage with the community. And if you want to check out some of the Humanized merch, the t shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and different things, go to our website, theHumanizedpodcast.com, and select shop at the top. And all of that support that we receive financially goes directly to our amazing editing team and making sure we're bringing you the highest quality content you can get. Thank you. And let's go back to the episode. Do you feel like the black jobs comment was racist?
00:10:16 - Courthney Russell Jr
No, I think it was insensitive.
00:10:21 - Emily Braucher
Talk to me about the difference of those.
00:10:23 - Courthney Russell Jr
You see, we, as a people, love to throw around racist and prejudice as if they're both the same. You know, I think a person cannot be racist. A system can. It's just easy to say the person is racist, but I think the system that individuals profit from is a racist system. And white people are. We all, as people can be prejudiced. But that's why a black person can't be racist, because we are already black and brown people can't be racist because of the positionality that we hold and in the system. You know what I'm saying?
00:11:03 - Emily Braucher
Interesting.
00:11:04 - Courthney Russell Jr
So if the system was different. Yeah, we could be racist.
00:11:08 - Emily Braucher
Yeah.
00:11:08 - Courthney Russell Jr
You know, so let's talk about the US. In the US, I feel. And we can push back on this. I feel like black and brown people cannot be racist, but we can be prejudiced.
00:11:19 - Emily Braucher
Yeah. Yeah. So, like, if we were to apply racist in that comment, what can be captured in black jobs? What I'm. What's coming to mind to me is, like, if we trace the connotation back to when there was a black job, as in slavery, that was one black job that led into Jim Crow, which led into segregation, which led into redlining and all these things, that systemic racism that was built into the system and is morphed. And now we have mass incarceration that could be argued that that is leading to black and brown people taking a proportionately higher number of those jobs that he's referencing, but not, certainly, I don't have that number in front of me. I can't validate if that's true or not. Actually, I don't know, because white poverty is a huge, huge problem in our country. So that's where the racist undertones kind of comes in for me. But I get what you're saying, that that in itself is not inherently a racist comment.
00:12:33 - Courthney Russell Jr
When we said this before, and I mean, people have argued with me that I don't think Trump is racist. Right. Because you have to love something enough or, you know, to be racist. I think, like, when you have the system of the KKK, right, those individuals love being white and love supremacy in such a way that they love it. They will die for that. Trump doesn't really. I don't feel like he really cares enough. I think he's out of touch. I think he's insensitive. I think he's misogynistic. I think he has a huge Napoleon compass, and he's trying to hold on to power in whatever way that happens. He needs to be powerful. But he doesn't have enough love for a system that's in place to say, like, oh, yeah, he's racist.
00:13:26 - Emily Braucher
Yeah, yeah.
00:13:27 - Courthney Russell Jr
I think he loves power.
00:13:29 - Emily Braucher
He's, like, too spineless to racist.
00:13:32 - Courthney Russell Jr
Yeah. Yes, exactly.
00:13:33 - Emily Braucher
He's just going, whatever position is appropriate to get him more power.
00:13:38 - Courthney Russell Jr
Yeah.
00:13:39 - Emily Braucher
Do you think that there's ever a situation where it's useful? I know that there are times where making generalizations about a group is useful in order, because we can't talk about people individually all the time. Do you feel like there's ever. Is there a situation you can think of where it would be useful to be talking like, black jobs, latino jobs, white jobs, or is that in it just a never useful thing?
00:14:07 - Courthney Russell Jr
Honestly, on the top of my head, I can't think of a useful time to label something as a black, white, hispanic job. You know, I can't think of that. Generalizations have. Are used in our brain for safety. You know, like, to make quick split decisions. Like, if I walked into a burning bush and I was a fireman and I saw you as a mother and I saw white symbols of a white child, I would assume that I just found your child. You know what I mean? Like, those generalizations and assumptions sometimes are beneficial. However, when you have, like, a job or a position or an activity to deem it as a white or black thing, that's problematic to me.
00:14:59 - Emily Braucher
Yeah.
00:15:00 - Courthney Russell Jr
Like, poverty. Oh, just like you saying, like, weed is a black drug now you're making it. So if we're Colorado, from what I've seen, more white people smoke weed crazy.
00:15:12 - Emily Braucher
Yeah.
00:15:13 - Courthney Russell Jr
Right. And so now that weed is legal, is it still a black thing?
00:15:21 - Emily Braucher
Mm hmm. Yeah.
00:15:23 - Courthney Russell Jr
You see what I'm saying? So, like, yeah, you can't. You. Is this problematic? Do that? Because then you start to change it, and then it shows the lack of or the height of oppression. Because when. When weed was illegal and it was a black thing, there's jails filled with individuals because of that. Now it's a. It's. It's legal. It's fed as if it's federally legal. Right. Not quite by states. I mean, it's shipped by states. Yeah. So it's legal in that way. And decriminalized now is not so much a black thing. So are you saying if the label of black is on, it is bad, and if the label is white is on, it is a good thing? And so that's what.
00:16:08 - Emily Braucher
Super problematic.
00:16:10 - Courthney Russell Jr
Yeah, it's problematic. Yeah.
00:16:11 - Emily Braucher
Yeah, totally. Well, if we're gonna, like, stick with our thing to do a short episode, that means that's it.
00:16:19 - Courthney Russell Jr
I told you. I told you.
00:16:20 - Emily Braucher
I'm not used to. Hey, I'm used to, like, strapping in, getting my hot cocoa.
00:16:27 - Courthney Russell Jr
Yeah, exactly.
00:16:29 - Emily Braucher
So. All right. But we're going to do this. We're going to be back next week with more thoughts.
00:16:36 - Courthney Russell Jr
More thoughts.
00:16:37 - Emily Braucher
The country never slows down, so we won't either.
00:16:41 - Courthney Russell Jr
Yo, I am so thankful for you. Appreciate it. Was a great idea, and I look forward to next week. See what we can do, and we can talk about it.
00:16:48 - Emily Braucher
All right, see you soon.
00:16:49 - Courthney Russell Jr
All right, peace.
00:16:55 - Emily Braucher
Thanks for joining us on this episode of Human Eyes. Please remember to like and subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss an episode. Join us on Instagram or Facebook to continue this conversation at theHumanizepodcast.
00:17:07 - Courthney Russell Jr
Let us know if you want to learn more about the professional trainings we offer, and, of course, tune in next time as we continue the work. Thank you and much love.