B Roll,

Speaking of ethnic diversity, at the risk of repeating a past post, I just wanted to share a link with you. I don't know if you like world music (for lack of a better description.) KFAI is a true community-supported radio station here in MN. It carries some interesting international music programs (as well as another favorite --- "Crap from the Past.") Podcasts from recent shows are available, too.

http://www.kfai.org/station/schedule

Mstaggerlee

You wrote the following to me yesterday in response to my (repeated) criticism of The Thom Hartmann Show’s scarcity of guests who are people of color.

“mstaggerlee October 15th, 2009, 11:03 am

@B Roll – Do you think that there are thousands of people of color out there who are clamoring for a segment on the Thom Hartmann show, and that he turns them away? Do you even think that there are thousands of people of color who have HEARD of the Thom Hartmann show??”

Let me distill the meaning of your questions along with what you wrote to me when I raised the issue a few weeks ago.

To put your comments in perspective, I want to point out that about two-thirds of Americans identify as white. So I one third identify themselves as non-white or people of color. With a population of over 300 million people, approximately 100 million Americans are people of color. Demographic trends tell us that the part of the American population classified as people of color is growing both in number and as a percentage of the American population and some time around the middle of this century; white people will no longer be the majority of the population of the United States.

I’ve criticized Thom for an almost complete absence of people of color as guests on his show. A few weeks ago you wrote that you didn’t that as a problem. In other words, you don’t think that the views, experiences and feelings of around 100 million are essential to the progressive dialog. (even though they are among the most consistently progressive voters)

Yesterday, you asked me two questions (perhaps rhetorically).

You asked me if I thought there were thousands of people of color clamoring for a segment on The Thom Hartmann Show. Here’s my answer. I don’t know and I don’t care, but I can tell you that there are many people of color who have plenty to say that Thom and his audience can benefit from hearing.

Van Jones is one example. He’s intelligent, articulate, creative and funny. He’s been involved in many different social and political activities. Losing him as a member of the Obama Administration is a loss for progressives, this country and the world.

Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report has been an activist and commentator for decades. He isn’t limited to commenting on black issues. He does a weekly commentary that airs on one of the best programs on my local Pacifica Station. He’s an occasional guest on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and appears on panels on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. Thom speaks highly of both Amy and Laura and even had Laura fill in for him.

Ford made an appearance of sorts on Thom’s show. It was early in the presidential primary campaign. A white male caller tried to tell Thom about Ford and his critique that Barack Obama wasn’t as progressive as many people thought he was. Ford knew Obama for many years in Chicago. Thom got upset and dumped the call saying that anyone can do a political hit job. Thom probably doesn’t remember the call, but he’s been coming around to Ford's point of view.

Dolores Huerta is the sole living cofounder of the United Farm Workers Union that she founded along with Cesar Chavez and Philip Vera Cruz (a Philippino-American). Thom sometimes tells a story about Cesar Chavez to support his (Thom’s) position on immigration. I’ve asked Thom several times (on this blog) to have Huerta on as a guest to discuss the story and her position on immigration. Her position is very different from Thom’s; I’ve heard her discuss the issue and she points to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1985 which gave amnesty to around 3.5 million “illegal” immigrants as something she’s very proud of. So I’ve asked Thom to have Huerta on as a guest, but he never has.

Now think about it, Thom spent two days hanging out with a bunch of right wing nativist racists at an anti-immigration conference; these are some really vile people. But he can’t spare one segment for an American hero with a history of over 50 years of progressive activism. But don’t worry; Huerta is close to 8o years old. Her life hasn’t always been easy and she suffered a brutal beating by police that required emergency surgery to remove her spleen, so you never know when her health might take a turn for the worse. So if Thom is still on the air when Huerta passes, don’t be surprised if he solemnly gives her a tip of the hat and praises her for her decades of activism. But while she’s alive, he doesn’t seem to have much interest in this wise Latina.

You also asked if I “think that there are thousands of people of color who have HEARD of the Thom Hartmann show??” Do find it so hard to believe that there are? I think your question is more a display of annoyance than of clear thinking. Do the math. I’ve heard claims that Thom’s audience is between 3-4 million people. Let’s use the low 3 million figure. If only 0.5% of his audience was people of color that would be 15,000 people. Looking at it another way, since one-third (100 million) Americans are people of color, 15,000 people would only be 0.015% of them. Is that an improbable amount, or maybe you think they have absolutely no interests in politics.

But even if there were no people of color in Thom’s audience, I believe that Thom and his white listeners would benefit tremendously by having the opportunity hear about the experiences and thinking of people of color. They’re one-third of our population.

People of color have different experiences from whites in our society. Because of that they see our society very differently. Don’t you think it’s important for progressive whites to be aware of the thoughts of the one-third of our country that isn’t white (and we have to remember that there are a variety of trends of thinking in these 100 million people).

Part of politics is the art of making coalitions. There are over 300 million people in this country. Two-thirds are white, the majority of whom lean conservative. One-third are people of color, the large majority of whom lean progressive. Who should progressive whites seek to form coalitions with? If it makes sense for white progressives to work with progressives of color, doesn’t it make sense to know what they’re thinking? Why would they want to work with white progressives if white progressive don’t care what they think? This shouldn’t be hard to figure out.

Are you, like Thom, an advocate of single-payer health insurance? H.R. 676 the United States National Health Insurance Act, is a bill to bring single-payer to the United States. John Conyers has been fighting for that for years. Who would you ally with, John Conyers or Max Baucus?

Are you opposed, as Thom Hartmann is, to Obama’s policies in Afghanistan? Barbara Lee has introduced a bill to prohibit funding to send more troops to Afghanistan. She also was the only member of either house to vote against giving Bush extraordinary powers after the 9/11 attacks. Who do you want to ally with, Barbara Lee or Joe Lieberman?

I fear that this lack of interest in and refusal to reach out to the non-white 100 million residents of our country may cause the loss of our country to the forces of the extreme right. I know that one of the factors that allowed the Proposition 8 to pass in California, denying same sex couples the right to marry, was the margin it won by in black and Latino communities. Even taking into account that homophobia and religion are strong in these communities, the support for Prop 8 in these communities could have been mitigated had the opponents of Prop 8 taken their case to these communities. They didn’t, but supporters of Prop 8 devoted a lot of energy and resources toward black and Latino voters and that’s where they found their winning margin.

These are some of the reasons that I feel the lack of people of color on the show is an issue worth raising over and over until Thom understands or I’m just not around any more. I find it disheartening that my calls for a more inclusive guest list has received almost zero support from people I know to be decent and progressive. It discouraging that Thom Hartmann and his listeners would think that progressive radio should be a “whites only” club.

If I was writing this to Thom, I’d put it very simply. Thom, the lack of ethnic diversity in the guests you invite to be on your program is un-American. The fact that your audience doesn’t understand the value of inclusiveness lays to a large degree at your feet. They look to you for understanding and as an example.

I hope this makes sense to someone.

Mstaggerlee,

A lot of discussion has bubbled up over Medicare reimbursement rates since we discussed the subject on the blog yesterday. MN Sen. Amy Klobuchar talked about the issue on The Rachel Maddow Show last night and on The Morning Meeting this a.m. Here she also talked about Medicare for all:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#33344034

Football may not be "real life," but sometimes unwelcome reality does intrude into it. Take, for example, the desire of Rush Limbaugh to join into an ownership group that is proposing to purchase the currently awful St. Louis Rams organization. To counter skepticism as to his psychological fitness for the job, Limbaugh embarked on a “charm” offensive, telling a television interviewer that he was really just an “entertainer,” that he is “surprised” that people take him seriously, and “clarified” his comment on wishing the country to fail under Obama. He also claimed that he experienced a brief sensation of pride that the country had elected its first black president, but this quickly subsided in favor of his responsibility to “entertain” his audience, for ratings. Nice try, Rush.

While the idea that he might take a bath losing some of his soft-earned money has a certain heartwarming quality to it, it seems unlikely to occur for the moment, since a few NFL owners have already voiced their intention to vote “no” to an ownership group that includes Limbaugh (owners had rejected suitors like Larry Flint in the past) and doubtless Limbaugh would be a public relations headache for Roger Goodell; it is easy to imagine him inciting near mutinous behavior for racially-insensitive commentary concerning the black players on his team from his bully radio pulpit.

While I’m on the subject of football, I want to take the opportunity here to disparage Fox Sports radio commentator Lincoln Kennedy (yeah, that’s his real name) for unfairly disparaging my favorite football player last weekend, since he is too cowardly to have an e-mail address so people can respond to his whiny comments. Why does the league kiss Brett Favre’s fundament? Because, unlike you, he has been the NFL’s most consistently marketable commodity for nearly 20 years; he’s not a dull automaton on the field like Manning or Brady. He’s a “prima donna” because he can’t make-up his mind if he wants to come back? How many of you out there keep telling yourselves you want to quit your job, but just can’t bring yourselves to do it because you don’t know how to do anything else? Not a “team player” because he doesn’t show-up for training camp? For a guy who has started a record 274 straight games through pain and injuries, and still plays at a high level, why begrudge him a few more weeks to heal his aging body if it means it can help the team win? And anyone who watches Favre on the field knows he’s the ultimate team player; no one who takes as much pleasure in his teammates’ success can be called “selfish." It seems to be what motivates the anti-Favre element is pure envy; he's Brett, and their not.

Now, Favre, please don’t throw more than two picks against that Raven’s defense this Sunday.

mstaggerlee-

I do not believe the reason for Medicare reimbursement rates being set the way they are has much to do with the efficiency of the Mayo. If I'm not mistaken these rates were determined a long time ago and were actually related to rental/real estate /cost of living type calculations made in the sixties. We in the mid-west are fairly used to being short changed when it comes to federal dollars. Minnesota has traditionally been more generous in providing a social safety net until recently when Gov. Pawlenty began to single-handedly reverse this tradition. (Reductions to "Minnesota Cares" Program.) The Senate Finance Committee's bill apparently fails to give credit and in fact even works against those states which have been more responsible in covering its citizens health care needs. That this Baucus Bill has "fairness" problems should surprise no rational person, after all the insurance industry dictated the terms.

@Quark - Not so much, really - It's just another way that the Rethugs distort the facts to fit their talking points. In reality, the people of MN are likely in MUCH BETTER shape because of their health system's efficiency.

mstaggerlee,

Yes, I understand that. However, our efficiency has worked to our disadvantage.

Thom

I think you’re dancing on thin ice when you discuss race on your program, especially when you take a position of diminishing the magnitude of the importance of racism in our society and replacing it with a non-racial class frame. The nearly all white guest list of your show also undermines your credibility on this issue. Some people say that Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week, but I’m starting to think that the three hours of the Thom Hartmann Show might actually deserve that title. I’ve raised this issue on this board for close to a year now and it doesn’t seem to have troubled you or your staff.

We’re half way through the tenth month of this year. I doubt that you could list 10 people of color who have been on your show so far this year unless you want to include Ravi Batra.

As for whether the issue is one of class or race, in this country there’s a very high correlation between the two, with blacks and Latinos having far higher levels of poverty than whites.

But income/wealth isn’t the only measure. The majority of those incarcerated in our jails and prisons are people of color even though whites are still a large majority of people in this country. People of color are underrepresented in our colleges and universities. I’ve heard experts in the field of education say that our schools are more segregated today than during the days of the civil rights movement, with public schools in some areas being almost exclusively non-white and the white kids in private schools. Yesterday I heard that there were three fatal police shooting in the last week in the black and Latino communities near where I live. How often do you hear of whites being killed by police? There are numerous examples of how race correlates with class in our society and how race can diminish the benefits of class in our society.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard whites callers to “progressive” radio shows express the belief that our society has moved past racism. Your position isn’t that extreme but seems like a shade of that argument.

P.S.: I really recommend that you watch GRITtv. You’d be surprised how many people of color Laura Flanders has as guests on her show and she only has one hour a day.

This person is the true face and person of 95% of our population.

One of the reasons I oppose troop increase in Afghanistan centers on my belief that we cannot win in Afghanistan. We will be so hungry for a victory somewhere that the true face of our country will accept screwball ideas. You can read this one.

http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=300

It's a lovely thought, Brian.

Any suggestions regarding how we get the teabaggers on board with it?

we need to create a new American renaissance upholding the legacies of Emerson Thoreau and Whitman. my mentor Dr. Daisaku Ikeda stated using a phrase popular among transcendentalist, "for people to develop a self culture- one that people stay true to their deepest commitments and that transforms the very core of being." what flowers from this self culture is not the fragile ,forlorn bud of the smaller self but the majestic blossom of the larger self- with its boundless capacity for empathy and understanding" lets create a new American renaissance of intellectual sharing and poetic friendship.