YouSaid · the spoken record

Randall Kennedy

lines on the record: 168
first: 2023-05-24
most recent: 2023-05-24
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yes, yes. I think that in 2016, my father would have said. All of you people who are talking about I don't know what's happened to America and how could this have happened and you know No. I think my father would have said this is America being America. And what has happened is that America has been Put off kilter. By a black family being in the White House, it is deranged millions of white people, and now this is coming home to Roost. So I think my father would have absolutely said in 2016, I told you so.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. I did. And I didn't, I never, what would my father have said? My father would have been delighted. My father would have been happy about his election. I do think though I do think that my father would have said, I'm happy that Barack Obama has been elected. Hold on to your seats Let's see how the white people respond.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He certainly did, and he thought that the line, my father did not. My father had passed away before Obama was elected. I would have loved to have talked with my dad.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“His view was A, the United States was born as a white man's country. It's going to remain a white man's country. And that's the way it is. He was thoroughly pessimistic.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, Abraham Blink was thoroughly pessimistic. He believed he was anti-slavery. But he did not believe that blacks and whites would be able to share the United States together, and he was always very interested therefore in colonization. Even after the even during the Civil War he was interested in, you know, maybe all black people be interested in maybe going to Panama? Would they be interested in going someplace else? You know, Lincoln was aware of how racist white people were, including himself. And he did not think that black people and white people would be able to share the United States. Now there's the black nationalist tradition. You mentioned Malcolm Maxwell before Malcolm X, you know, Marcus Garvey My father was a thoroughgoing pessimist.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Terrible in that way, but he did understand that slavery was horrible. He did not want, but he did not want to free the slaves for a variety of reasons. But one reason was because he thought that it would be impossible to have a society in which blacks and whites. We're equal neighbors. He was thoroughly pessimistic. Another pessimist, Alexis de Tocqueville. Thoroughly pessimistic. So who were some of the other pessimists? Abraham Lincoln. Pessimistic. That's why he was so interested in colonization. He basically said, you know, I don't like slavery, but blacks and whites are not going to be able to share the United States. Maybe the best we can do is just, you know, put blacks, ship blacks someplace else.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, ideologically, I mean, it is. It's the more interesting camp because in the pessimistic camp, you have, I mean, if I was going to list some of my pessimists. Pessimist number one, Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson, the author, you know, principal author, Declaration of Independence, he was also the author of Notes on the State of Virginia. And he said in Notes on the State of Virginia, basically we shall not overcome. He talked, he said, you know, the black people. Will always know that That their forebears were enslaved. And they will always be resentful of that, always be aggrieved by that. Jefferson did not think that we would ever have in the United States a multiracial democracy. He was very critical of slavery. Now he was a hypocrite. He had slaves. He sold slaves.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've been in the optimistic camp with respect to my view of American race relations. The optimistic camp, that was the camp, that's the camp that believes we shall overcome. That's Martin Luther King's camp. I mean, Martin Luther King, you know, Martin Luther King, you know, hours before he's killed, I've been to the mountaintop. I might not get there with you, but I've glimpsed the promised land, that optimism. Frederick Douglass would be in that tradition. There would be other people, wonderful, good people who would be in that tradition”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there's something to that as you were speaking. I was immediately thinking of the person who most jumped to mine was the great Frederick Douglass. So, I mean, here you have a person who, in my view, is one of the great people in the history of the world. And one of the things that ironically enabled him to become one of the great people of the world, he was born into slavery. His overcoming was the very thing that, in a sense, made him this larger-than-life figure. And I think there's something to you. I will say this because a minute ago you mentioned optimism and pessimism. Say in the last Few years. My feeling about the United States And it's changed in a somber way. For most of my life, I For most of my life”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Political ideology. If the texture of skin is the same, it'll then be, well, You know, you wear these sorts of clothes. You speak in this sort of way. You believe this, whereas I believe that. I mean, it seems like a human ingenuity is such they will, humans will find some way of distinguishing themselves, and then they seem to want to embellish the distinction. It's not just a distinction. It's not just you believe this and I believe this. Okay, that makes world interesting. You know, let's talk about what you believe and what I believe. No. It's usually associated with you believe this, I believe this, of course, my belief is superior to your belief. And I want to put you down. And now we're headed towards war.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a huge problem. I don't, you know, I mean, I'm not going to pretend that I know enough. To grapple in a satisfactory way with such a question? I mean, to really grapple with that question, one really has to have a A very broad knowledge base in which they can make comparisons. I mean, the world's a big place. Now, from the little bit I know about the world, I read, I read as much as I can. I'm a very privileged character. I mean, I live in a university. So I'm reading constantly and listening constantly. From what I gather, the problem of divided societies is a problem that is worldwide. There's, you know, and it seems as though human ingenuity is such that humans will find something to divide over. You know, it might be texture of hair. It might be complexion of skin politically.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we're all likely to ask ourselves, hmm, do we want to pay this tax? Whereas if we focus simply on the Muslims and allow the Muslims to be the only ones who are sort of paying the tax. We will force that on them. Same in the black person, white person, 25 years old, walking down the street Do we want to impose a racial tax on the black 25 year old? Some people would say yes. I say that's a mistake. Black people aren't stupid. They know that they're paying this tax. It is a violation of, it seems to me, the rules that we ought to want to have. I say spread the costs, make the police deal with everybody The same And don't allow a situation to develop in which a group of people can accurately say. We are paying more of a cost than these other people over here.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On the other hand, you could say no. We want a society in which people do not have to grapple with prejudice on the basis of their religion or on the basis of their race. And to deal with that, we are going to demand, we're going to demand that agents of the state Act towards people in the same way. And so if that means that Everybody getting on the airplane before they get on the airplane has to Open up their luggage. And it slows things down. But everybody has to open up their luggage. I would prefer that. Over a system in which we focus on people who are Muslim. And one of the reasons, and I'm going to bring this back to the racial thing, one of the reasons why I want to insist upon that. Is because if we all have to open up our luggage. What that means is we're all paying a tax for more security.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wasn't so long, you know, 9 11 wasn't all that long ago. It was a while ago, but it wasn't all that long ago. This very issue came up with the respect to the profiling of Muslims. And there were some people who said, well, geez, in the aftermath of 9-11, profiling of Muslims makes sense. You know, no hard feelings, but the 11 people who were on those planes were all Muslims. Now, there is a rationale. You could just simply say it's not prejudice. It's not animus. It's not invidious. It's just the facts take us this way. Well, the facts never take us this way. There are facts, and then there is our choice of how we want to respond to those facts. Now, you could respond by saying, well, we perceive Muslims to be more likely to do bad things on an airliner. You could respond in that way.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Under those circumstances, what do I say? Should the police officer therefore allowed to take action vis- ⁇-vis the black person as against the white person. My answer is no. I'm fully willing to concede. Let's concede for the point of discussion that there is more risk. There might be there might be. But Reasons of constructing the sort of society I want We should not empower agents of the state. To act towards certain people in a way that's adverse to them. Try to break this down in a little different way. Let's go back to... Let's talk about what happens when you want to get on an airplane.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some people would say, you know what, under those circumstances, it's okay for the police officer to give two looks at the black person and only one look at the white person. Why? Because the statistics tell us that the black 25-year-old, there's much more risk of that person acting in unlawful way. If you take a look at, you know, crime statistics and ask the question. With respect to homicide, with respect to robbery, with respect to various crimes, is there a difference between the white 25-year-old and the black 25-year-old with respect to certain crimes? The answer is in certain places, the answer is, yeah, there is a difference. And there is a greater risk that the black 25-year-old has engaged in various forms of criminality. I'm not, you know, that, okay.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“know most police officers don't act against anyone wholly on the basis of race you could have the most racist police officer and that that police officer is not going to act adversely against the 90 year old black woman walking down the street with a cane okay so it's always so you know if you define racial profiling that way you're getting rid of the issue the issue is the proper issue is this Should the police be able to act against someone? Taking race into account as a factor. So let's imagine that a black person who's 25 years old is walking down the street right next to a white person who's 25 years old.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so first thing we need to do, and here we get back to the early part of our conversation because we focus so much on the first part of our Here we have another word, profiling. Question, what is racial profiling? Now, here we have, you know, in the weeds. We have people talking past one another. I've been in conversations with police officers in debates, and we talk past one another because we are defining racial profiling very differently. If you ask, I've been in conversations with police officers and they say, oh, I'm totally against racial profiling. And I say, well, you know, sir, what do you mean by racial profiling? And here's what they say. Racial profiling is when police officers act against somebody wholly on the basis of race. That gets rid of the issue.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I spent a lot of hours with very smart people trying to understand the law, very difficult. So here we expect people to understand the law at the same time that they are grappling with people, some of whom are violent. That's very difficult. I respect police officers. And I said we need police officers. You did not hear me say, by the way. So let's get down to brass tacks. You did not hear me say defund the police, did you? In fact, to the contrary, I said defund actually, I want more funds for the police. I want to hold them accountable. I understand the difficulty of their job. I respect. The police. I want people to respect the police. I also want the police to respect the police. Civilians and demand that they do. I am not a police abolitionist. Far from it. Far from it. Again, we need good policing.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can I just interject? Remember a few moments ago. I mean, if I were in charge of things, if I were in charge of things, I'd pay More. In fact, much more. Than they receive. I do police have a very difficult job, extraordinarily difficult job. I mean, for one thing, you know, sort of maintaining the law. The law, that's a very complicated thing, the law. That's not an easy thing. I mean, I teach law”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When some conservatives, by the way, not all conservatives, not all conservatives, there's some conservatives who have stuck and appropriately so to their guns and had said, A, we need to make sure that the police stay in their lane. We need to make sure that the police do not overstep constitutional bounds. We need to insist on transparency. There are some conservatives who have taken that line, and I salute them, but there are a lot of conservatives, and I would say Heather McDonald is one of them, who all of a sudden become just, you know, totally uncritical status when they're talking about the police.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And are the enemies of transparency? Why is it that you want to prevent the citizenry from knowing that officer so-and-so has, you know, there have been ten incidents in the last year in which citizens have complained about Office or so-and-so? Don't you think that the citizenry ought to know that? Why is it that you want to keep that under wraps? So overreach, transparency, the tendency or the problem of governmental agent corruption. Why is it that those sorts of things Are forgotten about.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Why is it that you somehow forget that when you're talking about the police You're talking about the police, you're never, you seem to be unaware of this tendency that is so much in your consciousness and other places. But now when you're talking about the police, you make it seem as though other people are being paranoid. When they talk about the danger of overreach, we need to be very careful. about the danger of overreach. Another thing with respect to the police, what do conservatives? Transparency in government You're right. You're absolutely right. We need transparency in government. So why is it that so often when we're talking about policing? Why is it that conservatives actually embrace police unions?”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was in one debate with her. And one of the things that I said is it was a debate that was sponsored by the Federalist Society, conservative legal group. Conservative law students at Harvard Law School. We had a she made a presentation and they asked me to respond. And one of the things that I said was When we're talking about the police, um... Disappointed with the Some of my conservative colleagues, and I would consider her to be one of my conservative colleagues. Because what are the sort of the The important precepts. Of conservatives One very important precept of conservatives limited government limited government. What did conservatives talk about the tendency of government to overreach itself and governmental agents to overreach themselves? And I say you're right. You're right.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They should be given the importance of what they do. They should have more respect, more prestige, more money. With all of that, they should be held accountable. And the way things are now, they're not held accountable. And every day we see the consequences in our newspapers or just, you know, talking with people.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and that's why police officers are very important. I recognize, I mean, I know police officers. They have a very difficult job, a very important job. Very important. Again, remember what I talked about, under protection. I want the police to protect me. I want the police to protect me from the rapist, the robber. So the police I'm with the police. We need good policing. But we need good policing. And for good policing, we need accountability. And one of the scandals, one of the just absolute scandals of American law is the extent to which the police are not held accountable. It's absolutely remarkable. The degree to which American law fails to properly hold police accountable. They have an important job, a difficult job. I want them to be very well paid. As far as I'm concerned, we should be police should make more money”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The policeman or the police person. Is the person walking down the street with a gun? And if you think about the way in which the law The extent to which the police are authorized To use their force, the police have extraordinary authority. You're driving your car and you're speeding. Police can arrest you right then and there and take you to jail. That's an extraordinary power”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you ask yourself Who are the state agents? That are most Consequential The police I mean you walking down the street, what other agents have guns on them? What other agents are authorized by the law? To shoot you under certain circumstances. It's the police. The police are the most consequential agents of the state that most people interact with.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And notice I didn't say, you know, I didn't say Birmingham, Alabama. I didn't say Atlanta, Georgia, I didn't say Tallahassee, Florida, I didn't say, you know, the Deep South. I didn't say Montana. I didn't say Idaho. New York City. cosmopolitan place metropolis in New York City the police were challenged with respect to their policies a judge wrote a very lengthy opinion and the facts were rolled out and the facts were really quite horrifying There were black men who had been stopped many, many times. It wasn't just once. Over and over and over again. Circumstances in which they ought not have been stopped. And this has real consequences. It doesn't just show up here, though, of course. It also shows up in other places with respect to the administration of justice. And we still have a big problem. Now, you mentioned the police.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's so hard to disentangle because you're absolutely right. The young man, let's suppose that the story ends quote well. He's going to go and he's going to be talking with his friends, and he's going to say, let me tell you what just happened to me. And his friends are going to say, Oh, yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Let me tell you what happened to me. And for two hours, this goes on. The anger, the feeling of humiliation, the feeling of agri- It's disseminated And that's part of what we have. But that's not, you know, that's an important part of what we have. But it's even worse than that because then you ask the question, you know, what about... Things we do know. I know this from my teaching. This was brought up There was a lawsuit in New York City.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then the cop, having heard that, then says something bad. You know, after five minutes, what do you have? You have an altercation on your hand. And I felt that. And that is part. And you're absolutely right. That's not written down. It doesn't get to court. It's there. But it's an important part of street life. It's an informal part of street”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You might answer in a certain sort of way. You're not going to give the cop the benefit of the doubt and basically think, well, you know, policeman is just, you know, asking me this, you know, probably just trying to make the neighborhood safe. Well, if that's your feeling, you know, a policeman's just asking me this, trying to make the neighborhood safe. Well, officer, the reason why I'm here is such and such. And, you know, thanks for your service. That's one response. Another response is I'm not going to tell you anything. Know, I'm not going to tell you anything. I know that you don't mean me any. I know that you don't mean me any good. I'm not going to tell you anything. Am I free to leave?”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The level of animus the level of unfriendliness that was pouring off the police, they didn't say anything. Nope, they didn't detain. They didn't say anything. It was palpable. I could feel the attitude that was being. Being directed at the young black men. And the thing is, see, the thing is, It's not as if this doesn't matter. It matters because the way I saw it, these young black men knew they felt. Contempt that the police were shedding, and this was going to have a consequence. The consequence it was going to have is let's imagine that the police did say, excuse me, what are you up to? Now, if you have been feeling this contempt, If you feel like the officer who is asking this question doesn't like you, doesn't know anything about you but just doesn't like you on sight.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yep. Yep. So I tell you, this really came home to me. Several years ago, I was in New York City And it was at a time when There was a lot of discussion over the. Stop and frisk basically, you know, racial profiling on the street. I was walking. I was in Harlem. Walking down the street. Frankly, the police weren't bothering me. I'm just walking, the police weren't bothering me, but, you know, I'm of a certain age. I did notice, though, I was looking at the police. The way that the police attitude had to do with body posture, it had to do with, that's right, who got a second look. It had to, I noticed, I'm walking down the street. I'm walking in Harlem. There are white people in the street. Most of the people, though, were black. Some Hispanic? The level of contempt.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can show itself in who gets the look. Black persons, you know, walking down the street or running down the street. White person's walking down the street or running down the street. What happens with respect to the police? Let's suppose that, you know, who gets the second look Who is followed? Who is detained for a moment?”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Protect equal protection. I underline protection of the law. So that was a big theme of race crime in the law. Now second thing, second, and this is a thing that gets most attention. And it's important, I think, that the underprotection story does not get enough attention, but then there's a second story. The second story is that black people have historically and still today Black people are subjects of invidious racial discrimination when it comes to police action. So, you know. Walking down the street. Walking down the street. You have a black person who's, let's say, 20 years old. You have a white person who's 20 years old. Let's make the men. Both just walking down the street And question. Attitude of the police towards these two. Attitude is a complicated thing, it can show itself in various ways, it can show itself in a look.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Many places, the main complaint was we don't have police protection. You know, when things happen to us. When our When our businesses are encroached upon by robbers, when our businesses are robbed. When we're assaulted, Nothing happens. The police protect white people, they don't protect us. Under protection. Our society right now, if you take a look at the statistics. Who is most liable to be raped, robbed the victim of assault? What have you? Black people. I mean, and it's not even close. Under protection. So that's one way in which the administration of criminal justice harms black people by not doing what government is supposed to do, which is protect us. Fourteenth Amendment.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In 1890, there was probably, I would say, there was probably on average a lynching every day in the United States, well over 300 lynchings. It goes down. That was the case in the 1890s, probably the first decade of the 20th century. And then it starts going down. What was lynching about? Lynching was about black people being executed. Outside the law The legal system do anything about that? Answer no. Show me, show me cases in which people were prosecuted criminally. for engaging in lynching. You come up in most places with a null set. Black people suffered the underprotection of the law. Do black people still suffer the underprotection of the law? The answer is yes. People talk about the Kerner Commission report 1968. Black people were ass with respect to the police. What's your main complaint”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In the locales where most black people resided, namely the slave states, And a lot of those areas question was there a crime called the murder of a black person Answer for a long period, the answer was no Might have been a tort, you know, so if a white person killed the slave, killed a slave, that person could be sued. Because they had injured the property of another and would have to pay money for that. But had they committed a crime? Answer no. In the antebellum period were black women protected against the crime of rape. In most states the answer was no. There was no such crime. Let's go to after. You know, slavery is abolished, thank God. Slavery is abolished. Then let's see, you know, what happens? So we hear lynching, lynching. From eighteen ninety until, let's say 1930.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Time flies. Time flies Unfortunately Unfortunately, The impetus behind that book. That book was Propelled By a sense that with respect to the administration of criminal justice, African Americans Or feel deeply aggrieved and they feel deeply aggrieved with good reason And they feel deeply aggrieved with good reason in at least two dimensions. On the one hand On the one hand African Americans suffer from under protection. And in fact, in that book, the central theme of that book was that black Americans suffer from underprotection. If you take a look at the broad trajectory of American history, Ask yourself. In what way have black Americans been Most oppressed. Take a look at the antebellum period. Period before the abolition of slavery. Before the abolition of slavery”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Dimensions of critical race theory. So I've been a critic of certain features of critical race theory. I have applauded certain features of critical race theory. You know, critical race theory, you know, there's some aspects of it that I think have been useful. There's some aspects of it that I think have been profoundly wrong at it. So that's where I am. And I certainly above all against any efforts to remove it from the intellectual universe. It is a part of our intellectual universe. People ought to know about it and people ought to debate it and people ought to be free to make up their minds to conclude what they will. About the strengths and weaknesses of critical race theory.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In the latitude that it gives to what they call hate speech or the latitude that it gives to what they would view as racist beliefs. Some of the people who associate themselves with critical race theory think that racist beliefs ought to be expunged with the aid of state power if need be. Well, I'm against that. I think we are at a moment, an ironic moment in which actually it's the right wing that has embraced some of the ideas that were championed by some of the people who call themselves critical race theorists. They say, oh, we ought to expunge hate speech. Well, the right wing. Saying this critical race theory. That's hate speech. So let's expunge it. And so again, I've been very outspoken in my criticism of some of the illiberal”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Am I saying that everything is peachy keen and all right? No. The United States is still, to a very large extent, still a pigmentocracy. But that doesn't mean that a lot hasn't changed. A lot has. So I disagree with certain tenets of critical race theory and have been very outspoken in my disagreement. There's another one, by the way, I need to mention because we've talked so much in our discussion about freedom of speech, freedom to teach, freedom of listening. Another big problem that I've had with some of the people who Talk of themselves as critical race theory people has to do with their attitude towards freedom, freedom of speech. Some critical race theory people think that the American legal system is wrong.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Almost, you know, I don't know, some of them would even say neo slavery. Well, I think that's ridiculous. The Second Reconstruction changed a lot. And as for neo-slavery, neo-slavery, what are you talking about? A black American was president of the United States between the years 2008 and 2016. I mean, what are we talking about here? There's been a tremendous change, and I think people ought to understand that now.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That would be governed according to the dictates of white supremacy. Derek Bell, who was a colleague of mine and a friend of mine, took that position. He talked about the permanence of racism in American life, and he took the position that the various changes that had been wrought in American life were really mainly cosmetic. They didn't amount to a whole lot. I mean, Derek Bell took the position, you know, the Second Reconstruction, the civil rights movement. Well, yeah, it made changes, but at the end of the day, black people were still, you know, after the Second Reconstruction, were still in a position of”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But then they also took on some other propositions with which I was in very strong disagreement. So I think it's perfectly fine to say that racism is a force in American life that is deeper, more pervasive, more stubborn, more resilient than I think people often understand often perceive. But then some of the folks in critical race theory Push further One of the propositions that some of the people in critical race theory took was the proposition that America was doomed. Always be a country”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was insufficient. They would say that the racial policies of a person like my old boss, their good marshal, the liberal racial policies were insufficient to grapple fully with the pervasiveness and the depth and intensity of American racism. Their basic claim, and I think, by the way, was a good claim. Their basic claim was that American racism is more central, more deeply embedded in American life than most people perceived, including liberals. And I think there was a lot of strength to that proposition.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He would be associated with people like Derek Bell. It would be associated with people like Kimberly Crenshaw, people like Charles Lawrence, people like Richard Delgado, people like Mary Matsuda. And these are folks who held Embraced a couple of, you know, they articulated a couple of propositions. One of their propositions was that Race policy”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's terrible. And it's one of the most frightening things that has happened in American life in recent memory. So that's the first thing I want to say about so-called critical race theory. Now, I'll say something. I'm going to take the quotation marks off of the term critical race theory. Critical race theory is a sort of a, you could have a nice conversation about actually what it is. One way of viewing it is to say that, well, critical race theory is a community of ideas that comes from a community of people, the community of people would be people In legal academia in the Know the period 1988 starting and probably the middle of the 1980s.”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they've created this boogeyman and they've created it and they've done a very good job of creating the boogeyman and they have mobilized sufficient public support such that there are a number of states that have passed laws prohibiting the teaching of so-called critical race theory. Now the first thing I want to say about this is that this campaign, these laws, these various policies telling teachers don't teach this and don't teach that and you can't use this book. You can't use that book. This is a frightening encroachment. On freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to learn, freedom to listen, freedom to read”
2023-05-24 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #379 – Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source