Episode 022 – Candice Bailey | The 3/5 Clause and Dismantling Racism

On the 22nd episode of Shit We Don’t Talk About, Candice Bailey joins us to disrupt the narrative about race and racism in the US today. She is an advocate against police brutality, and justice, systemic oppression, and racism.

The one thing that’s been apparent the last four years and certainly in the last year is that shit has to start at home. It will take a grassroots effort to change the narrative that is dominated by the mainstream media and social networking sites. We can no longer avoid uncomfortable conversations and need to acknowledge that white supremacy exists on multiple levels, has existed since the founding of our country, can’t be denied, and it can’t be wished away.

Three takeaways from this episode of the Shit We Don’t Talk About podcast:

1. The root of our issue is that within our country’s founding documents, anyone with melanin in their skin is considered three-fifths of a human being. So we should be talking about what it means to be three-fifths of a human and what that means to you as a white person or as a person of color.
2. America has done a great job throughout its history of putting band-aids on bullet wounds. When you put a bandaid on a bullet wound without removing the bullet, left alone it infects the whole body, and we need to stop asking why that wound doesn’t heal.
3. When we’re talking about the three P’s of white power, we’re talking about Plantation, Penitentiary, and Pharma. These three elements are the evolution of white supremacy, where the penitentiary becomes the plantation and Big Pharma is the slave master.

Candice’s advice to white people would be “Listen a lot to people of color, black people. Listen to what they’re telling you. And don’t be on the defensive. Just absorb some of it and take it home with you and unpack that with your family. And when someone says ‘I’m not racist’, challenge that and say, ‘How are you not racist? Help me to understand what do you do that works against racism every day? Or what do you do that makes you believe that you’re not?’” 

Asking these types of questions is just the type of grassroots, ground-level conversations that need to be had in order to disrupt the current narrative regarding race and injustice in America.

You can connect with Candice here: 

Website: www.lighthouselove.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lightcarrier13

Twitter: @candiACTION