Ken Scott Baron Podcast

From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, Democratic centrists complained that Jesse Jackson and his progressive allies were pushing the party too far left.Using the leverage of his Rainbow Coalition, Jackson pushed the party conventions to adopt more liberal stances than the nominees wanted. Now, some 40 years later, the racial and ideological split in the Democratic Party has been flipped on its head.White, well-educated liberals are the proponents of cultural and identity policies that often alienate swing middle-class voters. Black and other minority Democrats are a strong force for moderation.This results from the changing demographic characteristics of white Democrats, especially whites with college degrees, and the shifting focus of the liberal agenda from racial and economic equality to culture war issues.Black voters today are no longer on the party’s left flank. Since the late 1990s the share of white Democrats identifying as liberal roughly doubled, from about 30 percent to 61 percent, while Black Democrats moved only modestly.White voters without college make up about a quarter of the Democratic coalition. White college graduates are now more liberal across the board.Black Democrats are more religious and more traditional on cultural issues than white Democrats.The moral and cultural gulf between Black and white Democrats has grown steadily. Along similar lines, a 2022 American Enterprise Institute study found that white liberals favored “cutting some funding from police departments in your community and shifting it to social services” by 71 percent to 27 percent; Black voters were much more closely split, 53 percent to 44 percent; and Hispanic voters were opposed, with 40 percent for shifting funds to social services and 57 percent against doing so.White Democrats are significantly more likely than Black Democrats (52 percent vs. 26 percent) to believe that societal acceptance of gay, lesbian and bisexual people has not gone far enough.”These differences are part and parcel of a larger ideological shift among Democrats over the past 26 years.There are four major issues on which “Black voters have indeed become a moderating force compared with white liberals”:Crime: A 2024 American Enterprise Institute survey found that nonwhite working-class voters opposed reducing police budgets by a 30-point margin, while white liberal college graduates favored reducing police budgets by a 20-point margin.Patriotism: Some 62 percent of Asian Americans, 70 percent of Black Americans and 76 percent of Hispanic Americans said they were “proud to be an American,” compared with just 34 percent of progressive activists.Racial preferences: When asked if Black people should work their way up “without special favors,” white liberals were about 12 points less likely to agree than Black voters.The pro-affirmative action stance among many white liberals, in contrast to the moderate positions of Black Democrats, is striking.In an attempt to discern what might make skeptical voters consider choosing Democratic candidates. polls found that moving to the center on racial preferences in college admissions was the most electorally fruitful move Democrats could make and that doing so on racial preferences in government contracting was the second most important.The reversal of ideological positioning of white and minority Democrats is closely connected to the class conversion of the Democratic Party from the party of the working class to the party of well-educated whites.Today’s white Democratic voters are wealthier, more highly educated and more socially liberal. Meanwhile, the Black voters who make up the consistent base of the party have held steady while the rest of the coalition has shifted around them.At the same time, Erickson’s analysis points to a Democratic split with the so-called post-material wing dominated by white liberals and a Black-Hispanic minority wing more concerned with bread-and-butter issues:According to 2024 A.P. VoteCast Data, when asked to rank their level of concern on top issues in the 2024 election, white progressives expressed the most concern about “the effects of climate change,” at 75 percent, while nearly 70 percent of Black, Latino and white non college voters were most concerned about the cost of food and groceries.The racial, ideological and class alterations of the Democratic Party have created a damaging dynamic both internally and in competition with the Republican Party.The white working-class voters who favor Republicans are struggling economically but don’t feel that their struggles are given the same attention as racism and other cultural issues. They are a large group that feels disrespected, distrusts government and feels like their own economic challenges are being ignored.The ascendance within Democratic ranks of culturally liberal well-educated whites has, in turn, intensified tensions with Black, Hispanic and other minority Democrats, Sawhill wroteDemocrats, have a huge opportunity to unite the working class across racial lines, but to do so, I believe they will have to focus much more on inequalities of wealth and power, and put a stronger emphasis on economic issues such as work, wages and the cost of living while simultaneously embracing more mainstream or less-contentious cultural values in many areas.Over the last two decades, Democrats essentially have been trading working-class voters for white college grads.The nonwhite working class has emerged as a force for moderation in U.S. politics. They are leery of the left’s cultural agenda — open borders, permissive prosecutors, the obsession with identity politics and “equity.” They express higher levels of national pride and patriotism. And they aren’t agitating for the replacement of a market economy with democratic socialism.The problem for those who would like to shift power within the Democratic Party from liberal white elites to more moderate constituencies is that the white elites hold power and won’t give it up without a fight.They vote, donate and participate heavily in party organizations more than any other major bloc. They dominate or exert disproportionate influence among party activists, primary voters, campaign staffs, advocacy organizations, the media, nonprofit leadership and donor networks.It may well be that the internal power lies with those who are happy campers just where they are, and that the party as currently constructed cannot and will not dig itself out of the hole it’s in. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nabwmt.substack.com

Listen better to get more love.On Valentine’s Day we all are talking about LOVE.In order to feel more loved by others, you must begin by making them feel loved by you. And becoming a better listener is one of the most powerful ways to do that.Many of us think we’re pretty good listeners, but really, we’re mostly just waiting for our turn to speak. So learned people recommend adopting a “listening to learn” mind set. Basically, shift your focus from responding to understanding.We all know that feeling, when someone is so curious about you, like they just can’t wait for you to share your story. Their eyes are shining. They’re leaning in.”That kind of genuine, focused listening is rare, and quite powerful.When someone feels deeply seen, valued, and understood by you, they become more willing, motivated, and even eager to do the same for you.But becoming a better listener takes practice. Some simple best practices: Don’t interrupt, and don’t offer advice unless the person you’re talking to asks for it.And ask follow-up questions like “Tell me more”. Focus on one relationship at a time. It might be someone you’re already close with, like a partner or a parent or it could be a colleague you’d like to get to know better.Romantic relationships aren’t the only place to get that feeling of being loved, nor is feeling loved confined to just a few close relationships.Giving and receiving love function together like a seesaw: You lift a person up with the weight of your curiosity and attentiveness — and they do the same in turn so it can really become a two-way street.But, know when to throw in the towel.If the other person gives you zilch in return those are signs this isn’t the right relationship to invest a lot of effort and energy inThere are questions like: Does this person seem to “get” me on some level, or at least show an interest in doing so? When I’ve shared struggles or imperfections, have they been curious and listened enthusiastically?Feeling loved is not out of your control. Practice all of this on Valentine’s Day. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nabwmt.substack.com

Phones and WhistlesRecent events in Minneapolis led to protests and community responses. Much of what’s been reported involves how residents have used phones and whistles as tools during confrontations with federal immigration enforcement.The right to assemble, protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, guarantees the right of the people to peaceably gather, protest, and associate for lawful, public, or private purposes without government interference.It applies to public spaces and protects against actions that violate freedom of speech, though it is subject to reasonable, content-neutral restrictions on time, place, and manner.In recent weeks, the streets of Minneapolis have echoed with the shrill blasts of whistles, the constant buzz of cellphones recording and communicating, and the honking of car horns — an auditory backdrop to simmering tensions around federal immigration enforcement actions in the city.Phones as Witness and NetworkCellphones have become indispensable tools for Minneapolis residents mobilizing in response to heightened U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity. Teams of community members actively document enforcement actions with video, sending footage in real time to local and national audiences.This real-time documentation serves a dual purpose. First, it acts as evidence and oversight, ensuring that interactions between federal agents and civilians are visible beyond the immediate scene. Second, the presence of phones and cameras tends to draw larger crowds of observers — a tactic some see as a deterrent to potential misconduct.Whistles as Alert SystemsWhistles — simple, loud, and highly portable — have taken on outsized symbolic and practical importance in Minneapolis. Residents have adopted them as alert systems to signal approaching immigration enforcement, with different patterns of whistle blasts conveying different meanings:Short, sharp blasts indicate that federal agents are approaching or present nearby. Longer, sustained whistles can signal that someone is being detained or that help is needed.These audible signals spread quickly through neighborhoods, prompting residents to come outside to observe, record, assist, or bear witness. In some cases, the blasts have summoned neighbors within minutes, creating spontaneous gatherings of observers and improvised legal observers.The Soundscape of ProtestThe combination of whistles, phone alerts, and video documentation has reshaped the nature of protest and community defense. Rather than centralized demonstrations, the emphasis has been on decentralized rapid responses: a way of signaling across phone networks that something is happening somewhere in the city. This is a choreography of civic resistance, in which sound — from whistles, shouts, and horns — drives movement and response.A New Auditory PoliticsIn Minneapolis today, phones and whistles represent evolving forms of civic engagement, ways for people to support one another, bear witness, and assert community presence in the face of federal enforcement actions that many view as intimidating or destabilizing.Whether seen as grassroots solidarity tactics or sources of controversy, these sound-based methods have become defining features of the city’s current moment — a reminder that in urban conflict, even the simplest signals can carry profound social meaning.Here at the NABWMT we have a proud history of peaceful protest and fighting injustice. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nabwmt.substack.com

Genetic researchers were seeking children for an ambitious, federally funded project to track brain development — a study that they told families could yield invaluable discoveries about DNA’s impact on behavior and disease.They also promised that the children’s sensitive data would be closely guarded in the decade-long study, which got underway in 2015.The scientists did not keep it safe.A group of fringe researchers thwarted safeguards at the National Institutes of Health and gained access to data from thousands of children. The researchers have used it to produce at least 16 papers purporting to find biological evidence for differences in intelligence between races, ranking ethnicities by I.Q. scores and suggesting Black people earn less because they are not very smart.Mainstream geneticists have rejected their work as biased and unscientific. Yet by relying on genetic and other personal data from the prominent project, known as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, the researchers gave their theories credence.Members of the research group were ineligible to obtain data from the ABCD project. But one of them gained access through an American professor who was already being investigated by the N.I.H. over his handling of another child brain study.Their papers have provided fodder for racist posts on social media and white nationalist message boards that have been viewed millions of times. Some of the papers are cited by A.I. bots like ChatGPT and Grok in response to queries about race and intelligence. On the social media platform X, Grok has referred users to the research more than two dozen times this month alone.The science is faulty, but it’s being used to advance an unethical agenda.”The misuse of the children’s data has validated longstanding concerns that hundreds of thousands of Americans’ genetic information held by the N.I.H. could fall into the wrong hands.Critics say the N.I.H. has failed to address the risks that the data, even with personally identifiable details removed, could be misused in unethical research, for commercial purposes or by foreign adversaries.In dozens of cases, the N.I.H. suspended researchers’ access and demanded that compromised data be destroyed, but the agency relies heavily on good-faith pledges of compliance.The misuse of the data for so-called race science is not the only example of a security failure involving the ABCD Study.There has been no official public accounting of how the N.I.H. lost control of the children’s genetic information.When Elon Musk invited X users last June to post politically incorrect “divisive facts” on the social network, a so called researcher replied with a criticism of affirmative action and said white people had bigger brains than Black people.The conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza said on X in 2023 that studies showed that Black people, “who are the rock-solid base of the Democratic Party, have the lowest IQ of any ethnic group.” As evidence, he reposted another chart based on ABCD data about American 10-year-olds.Scientists said the unauthorized use of the data underscored the need for stronger controls. Several families in the ABCD Study said in interviews that they were not told about the misuse of the information and never would have agreed to participate had they known it could be used to promote racial division.There needs to be an acknowledgment that there are bad-faith researchers.But the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog, reported last April that the N.I.H. did not have the resources to properly monitor all the downloads of genetic data and “may be missing violations that go unreported by researchers.”Data from the projects has generated hundreds of papers on, among other things, the effects of social media on mental health, genetic links to addiction and the causes of sleep disorders.In a 2023 paper, a researcher tried to rank the intelligence of children across ethnic groups. But the sample size for the vast majority of groups was far too small to draw meaningful conclusions.Mankind Quarterly, a journal known for pushing race science. A researcher studied penis sizes by race and once looked for correlations between intelligence and first names, concluding that people with “non-western Muslim names” had lower I.Q.s.This runs counter to the scientific consensus that any correlation between a complex trait like intelligence and genes, let alone social constructs like race, is not the same as causation.Research has found that the environment in which people are raised can affect their cognitive abilities. In the United States, for example, any serious analysis must consider how Black people endured centuries of slavery and racial discrimination and how they today face disproportionately high poverty rates and a lack of quality education and health care.A Substack article last April asserted that Black people’s supposed lack of intelligence was the source of the racial income gap.While some scientists have pushed the N.I.H. to limit how sensitive genetic data can be used in research, there is little indication the administration agrees — and there are signs it is moving in the opposite direction. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nabwmt.substack.com

As I read Cross’s book, “All White People live in Racism.” This seemed uncomfortable to me as a white person, but I grew up in the UK where the perception is that the Brits are liberal. However, the country has emerged from a colonial past but racism is evident there.In Johnson’s book, he attended a Catholic school initially and history was taught from a revisionist perspective, and Johnson even took part in pageantry glorifying the heroes of the revolution who often were slave owners. As Cross points out, race is an evolving social idea crated to legitimize racial inequality and protect white advantage.I emigrated to the US in 1971 as a 25 year old and 14 years before Johnson was born, my knowledge of US history was minimal. I was “bathed” in the students of the University of California’s anti war and the peace movement and began my career in science in (partial} understanding of the colorism of US history.Johnson, years later as he changed to a Black school, undergoes the transformation from this whitewashing to an honest reckoning of his Black History.The Eurocentric view of white privilege is all pervasive, whether you are white, Black or Brown. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nabwmt.substack.com

Homophobia and racism is typically not evident in kids, unless they learn these actions for parents. Chris Crass’s book “White Fragility” understands that this in some white people is a product of the “Great Replacement Theory” in which the majority suppresses the minority because they fear being overtaken.In “All Boys Aren’t Blue” George Johnson is subjected to bullying as a child. His mannerisms were viewed as those of a f**. As a redheaded boy I was bullied for my hair difference in my predominately white school. This small variation in hair color in no way equals the racism endured by Black boys. But if you are “other” you can be targeted.There was a concept developed after the vicious slaying of. Mathew Shepard, that in the gay experience “It gets better” and a wait and see attitude is a good idea. This is nowadays patently untrue as the two books demonstrate.George was bullied and was protected by his close Black family and had to learn to for himself later. Cross’s book exhort’s white people to learn the skills to continuously question racism and by inference homophobia.The current political situation demands our vigilance as things don’t necessarily get better. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nabwmt.substack.com

I am doing my podcast here in Maui, Hawaii and enjoying my vacation and trying to relax. But I am drifting in my cis gender white privilege and decided to look at the history of this state.For many Americans, Hawaii lies in a hazy ether between statehood, colony, and exotic getaway. Despite their vacations to here, continental Americans know little about the cultures or histories of its Native people.The US government brought it into focus when war came over the horizon. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s speech following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.At the time, Hawaii was not a US state. It was illegally annexed territory: a military outpost, arms depot, and training site taken from Hawaiian hands in 1898.This was the culmination of nearly two centuries of foreigners, especially whites interference and meddling, beginning with Captain Cook’s arrival. These developments showered wealth on a small, plantation elite, who required a docile land with docile people for extractive agriculture.Their wish was granted by the United States military in 1893. In what President Grover Cleveland called “an act of war,” a cadre of businessmen and armed militiamen led an insurrection against Queen Lili‘uokalani, quickly setting up the all-white “Provisional Government of Hawai‘i” and demanding that Washington annex the islands to the United States.The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom is unusual in that land theft and dispossession had all been accomplished without the usual bothersome wars and costly colonial administration.Hawai‘i was a proving ground for American imperialism, a precursor of what would befall other small islands and atolls which stood in the way of American imperial ambition. After World War II, the US turbocharged its military base building project around the world, with a particular eye to the Pacific. In the process, many Indigenous peoples were displaced from their ancestral homelands and prevented from ever returning.Throughout the Second World War and its aftermath, Hawaii was under martial law for seven years, during which time over 600,000 acres of land was confiscated, civil rights were held in abeyance, and a general atmosphere of military intimidation reigned.Hawaii is also a tourist colony. Historically, its economy rested on whaling, then sandalwood logging, and later pineapple and sugarcane production. Today, it’s tourism that comprises the largest single source of private capital for Hawai‘i’s economy.Sovereign debt makes matters worse. That most of the world’s island nations are both formerly colonized and deeply indebted is no coincidence. As the colonial project took off in the 17th century, imperial powers devoured small archipelagos the world over in the race for global hegemony. Islands were hoarded as both strategic military outposts (bases and depots) and sites for resource extraction (plantations and markets). After years of plunder and repression, a relationship of dependency between colonizer and colonized took hold, however massive a resistance Natives put up.With 1.7 million tourists visiting the Kuwaii each year, even non-extractive activities like scuba diving and surfing tend to disrupt the local flora and fauna as well as traditional fishing practices.Tourism dollars tend to not benefit locals, who work at big hotels, attractions, and sites but get paid a pittance. Locals generally get the pocket change spent on souvenirs, locally grown produce, or small-scale guided-tour outfits.Hawai‘i is a beautiful place—there’s no doubt about it—but when the myths about “paradise” fall away, it’s hard to ignore the horrors that finally shrink-wrapped the islands into a tourist-friendly venue: two centuries of bayonets, bombardments, and subjection; missionaries hacking away at Hawaiian culture and philosophy; sugarcane plantation owners ravaging the soil; and the US military and real estate speculators despoiling the land. Tourism, it appears, is only the latest iteration of the devouring of Hawai‘i.As I sit here I have to be reminded of my need to return to the mainland an continue to work on making a better world for all and especially for the people at the margins. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nabwmt.substack.com