Lisa Birnbach and Professor Jennifer Taub
Welcome to the Colliseum My guest this week is Professor Jennifer Taub, author of Big Dirty Money, and a professor of law at Western New England School of Law.
Friends, Romans, Countryman, it’s your scribe, William Shakespeare’s birthday.
As friends and I were talking the other day, we believe that Shakespeare should survive any purge of “dead white male writers” that is currently happening as many school curricula reform to adapt to Critical Race Theory and teaching through Anti-Racist lenses.
Yes, we will be discussing race today. We should be talking about race every day and trying to understand how we can make our world more equitable and fair. The Derek Chauvin trial has ratcheted it up – the systemic racism that is woven into the fabric of our flag and our society can no longer be ignored.
Similarly but on a smaller scale, is the tumult of news and opinions surrounding the private schools in New York and elsewhere, who have all signed up for a re-education program that favors diversity, inclusion, and equity. People seem to be losing their minds over it. I recognize that these are the problems of the top 10%, but that school world was the one in which I was raised and the one in which I raised my own #Exhibits™.
You would think the sky fell. Letters of protest from faculty, administrators, and parents were either sent to the press or made public and there seem to be two sides, who – in the tradition of our politics were shockingly divided. I don’t know too many people who have kids that young, but to simplify the debate: There are many who appreciate the new direction of the curriculum, which is to learn about race and how white people have oppressed people of color throughout history. It is both academic – the story of marginalized populations – and it is personal – what have you done? – that makes kids think, and sometimes say to their parents, things that upset wealthy white people without whom these schools could not survive.
The other side says, you are force-feeding this ethos to my kids and they’re not reading To Kill a Mockingbird anymore. What happened to the education we were promised? And who are these people you’ve hired to transform our academy to a BLM school?
It’s ugly. Of course there is a welter of misunderstanding on both sides. And, as my stepdaughter pointed out, this is the first year! There are a lot of kinks to work out! Give it a little time! Maybe schools can modify the curriculum without metaphorical bloodshed. Maybe parents should trust the schools to make some good decisions. Just making billions in your hedge fund doesn’t mean you are a pedagogical genius.
The point is, white people, including children, need to understand the ways we make assumptions and belittle Black people. That’s just fundamental.
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Before Jennifer Taub joins us, these are my five things that make life better.
1. The Derek Chauvin verdict. It had to be. America witnessed the murder of Floyd George on all our screens. The “blue wall” of cops, who almost never in history have “turned” on a fellow cop did just that. The jury rendered its decision: guilty on all counts. Which doesn’t bring George Floyd back, but begins to make the police in this country more accountable.
Darnella Frazier
2. Darnella Frazier, the 17 year old who used her cell phone to film the murder. Perhaps calling her the “heroine” of this case is inappropriate, but if she hadn’t filmed the cops’ brutality, there would have been no path to justice. I heard her interviewed, and of course, she still suffers mightily from the experience, feeling guilty that she didn’t do more, didn’t intervene. But of course she did plenty.
3. Since Joe Biden became president, 85 MILLION Americans have been fully vaccinated. Think about where we were a year ago. We only could hope a vaccine would be developed some day. And now, if you’re 16 or older, you can be protected against Covid-19. I think it’s grand.
4. I can see! I can see! My eye doctor, Marc Rosenblatt prescribed new contact lenses for me (they are bifocal, somehow), and I don’t need reading glasses anymore! Whoa! Just whoa! Thank you Marc!
5. This tableau vivant, which was sent to me by my dear friend, Kelly Curtis. (In college, some friends and I invented a game called “Art Impressions” in which we tried to do this more or less without props or proper drapery. My specialty was “Death of Marat” by Jacques-Louis David.
Jennifer Taub’s 5 Things:
1. Coffee
2. Her puppy
3. Poetry
4. Friendship
5. Sunlight
More About Jennifer Taub:
Professor at Western New England School of Law
BIG DIRTY MONEY: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime
By Jennifer Taub
Twitter: @jentaub
Instagram: @taubjen
Website iwww.jennifertaub.com.
Will Smith hosts this look at the evolving, often lethal, fight for equal rights in America through the lens of the US Constitution's 14th Amendment. AMEND: The Fight For America
The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC. My team is Shpresa Oruci, Michael Porte, Sam Haft and Boco Haft.The Field in NYC.