Jacob Ward's Warning | The DEI Debate is STUPID!
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, everyone.
Who is Jacob Ward and why is he on the Don Lemon channel?
I want to introduce you to someone who's new to the Don Lemon channel. Jacob Ward, a longtime journalist, NBC News, PBS, Al Jazeera, and much more. He is the founder of The Rip Current, a weekly look at technology and politics. He has covered racism and bias in the United States for years now and has a really interesting personal perspective on all of this DEI nonsense that I wanted to share his perspective with you. It's in his DNA because Jake's dad went from a childhood in India to the civil rights movement to being a historian of slavery. So it is a family thing for him. And I know you will enjoy his take and his content. Welcome to the Don Lemon channel, Jacob Ward.
The idea that we are somehow debating DEI is stupid. And it's not a debate. And you shouldn't let anyone drag you into debating it. But if you do, I want to share with you, if you get trapped in that conversation, I want to share with you an argument that I was taught many, many years ago that I think cuts right through it. Before I do that, though, I want to talk a little bit about how I, as a straight white dude, have come to a place of peace where with the notion that there is important work to be done in this country to compensate for years and years and years of discrimination, beginning with slavery and continuing into the present day. And I just think it is so weird to me to watch people who come from the same kind of privilege that I do claiming to have no
moral or ethical responsibility to account for that terrible past or in any way to help people who have been historically marginalized to get to the same place that people like me have. All of that has made me nuts. So here is how I got there. And it has to do in part with my dad. So my dad grew up in part in India. His dad worked for an American foundation over there and brought his family. And so my dad spent a big chunk of his childhood over there. And he said that the experience of doing that was a totally life-changing thing in part because he said he just very quickly realized that the coolest possible people, the people who are actually important to the culture and the politics and the future of that nation were not white people.
It was Indians. It was people who lived in that country. And for him, he felt, you know, he just sensed like it, you know, every, every where he went and everything he did, you know, the cool people were Indian and the white people were just kind of irrelevant, just visitors, tourists, really. And to have that for him be this formative part of his childhood was such a big deal because then when he came back to the United States, This was the early 60s. He suddenly is in this position where he's watching the civil rights movement unfold. And to him, he said he just couldn't believe that there was a systemic effort to discriminate against non-white people. That just to him was outrageous coming from the childhood that he had had.
He was like an extraterrestrial who had landed on Earth and just said, what is this? What's going on here? He spent a big chunk of his teens and his 20s as a result discriminating photographing civil rights demonstrations, and he went on to be a historian of slavery and colonialism. So, as you can imagine, growing up with a dad like that, he imparts to you, as a young white person, a very specific understanding that it is my responsibility, everybody with my background, our responsibility to help compensate, help account for, see clearly the horrible, horrible stuff that has happened in the past. And then you know, get to a place of peace about it such that you can see it clearly and push back against it.
And for him, you know, he says that the whole thing here is this notion that you really just have to feel the emotions of it because it feels emotionally difficult. It's complicated to feel how much my own family and families like mine had to do with keeping this terrible oppressive system, slavery, going. And at the same time, you have to be able to say, okay, even though I'm not personally connected to that, and in my life, I've tried to conduct myself in a better way than that, that doesn't mean that I'm not
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:00
2
Who is Jacob Ward and why is he on the Don Lemon channel?
0:00–4:39
3
Why does Jacob Ward call debating DEI 'stupid' and not a debate?
4:39–6:48
4
How did Jacob Ward’s family history shape his views on racism and DEI?
6:48–12:05
5
What life lessons did Jacob Ward’s father teach about responsibility and history?
12:05–15:26
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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