Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 1033 Scott Adams： Talking About Systemic Racism

00:00:00.160 Hey, everybody.

00:00:08.980 Come on in.

00:00:10.020 Come on.

00:00:11.400 Gather around.

00:00:13.580 Grab your containers.

00:00:15.820 You know what I'm talking about.

00:00:17.740 It's time for the best part of the day.

00:00:21.700 Yeah.

00:00:22.540 It's called Coffee with Scott Adams and you have come to the right place for that.

00:00:26.780 Let me tell you.

00:00:27.400 Oh, you're on a hike. Well, that's good for you. This is a perfect entertainment companion

00:00:36.660 for taking a hike. Look at that tree over there. Watch your step. It's like I'm right there with

00:00:43.860 you. All right, everybody, you know what you need to have a great day to get it off in the right

00:00:49.040 way. All you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank or chalice or stein, a canteen jug or a

00:00:53.200 glass, a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee. And join

00:01:01.420 me now for the dopamine hit of the day, the unparalleled pleasure. I usually say those

00:01:05.980 in the other order. It's called the simultaneous sip and it happens now. Go.

00:01:16.620 Do you know why I could never be an actor? Well, lots of reasons, but one of them.

00:01:23.200 I can't remember lines. My memory, the way my memory works is very different from other

00:01:31.520 people's. So I can't remember the exact order of anything. I'm a little bit dyslexic anyway.

00:01:37.960 So putting things in order is hard, but concepts I can remember forever, like a joke. If I hear

00:01:44.380 a joke, remember it forever. So I don't have a bad memory. I have a different memory. I can

00:01:50.000 remember concepts forever, but exact things like phone numbers, not a chance.

00:01:58.280 I've had a question that I've had for a long time and I feel like I got an answer yesterday.

00:02:04.320 It was on the question of what the anti-Trump people are really thinking, which might be

00:02:11.640 separate from what they're saying. Because you've wondered this too. For example,

00:02:15.200 when you heard the president's critics say that when he referred to the so-called shit hole 0.99

00:02:23.120 countries, that that was racist, right? And you heard that when he called the kneeling NFL 0.99

00:02:31.600 players, sons of bitches, you heard that that was racist as well. Now, if you're not an anti-Trumper, 0.99

00:02:40.360 did you not have the following question in your head, which is, do they mean that? Or is that just

00:02:47.700 a convenient attack because they can sort of turn it into an attack? Or do they really think that is

00:02:55.500 racist? Because I know that you don't. I know that it didn't hit me that way, but of course,

00:03:02.340 you know, maybe my filter is different. It doesn't mean it's not racist because it didn't,

00:03:06.380 it didn't hit any particular person that way. I'm just saying I had a question. Do they really

00:03:12.340 believe what they're saying? Or is it just politics? And I was listening to an interview

00:03:20.100 with Cornel West. You may know him. He's a professor somewhere. Harvard? Harvard professor,

00:03:29.360 I think. African-American man. If you don't know him, that's important to the story. And

00:03:35.600 a very good spokesperson just in general, because he's just really, he's just good at communicating

00:03:44.740 and he's verbally really gifted. So you think, okay, Cornel West, he's somebody who maybe helped

00:03:53.420 sort out this question. And it turns out he did, but somewhat accidentally. And it happened, I think

00:03:58.240 it was Bret Baier. I may have, for some reason I remember Cornel West, but I think it was Bret Baier

00:04:04.100 who was interviewing. And those two examples came up. So Cornel West brought up the shithole

00:04:09.060 countries and the SOBs. When he brought up the SOBs, I think it was Bret Baier who just added

00:04:18.860 a little professional context. He's really good at it, by the way, because the way he did

00:04:24.300 it was, yeah, it had to be Bret Baier. The way he did it was he just added the context. It

00:04:28.520 wasn't in any argumentative way. He said, well, you know, the context of the sons of bitches 1.00

00:04:35.520 was not specifically racial. And here's what Cornel West said. Because the whole point of 0.98

00:04:43.900 the SOB thing being racial is that it's obviously racial. That's the whole point, isn't it? 0.96

00:04:50.380 And here Bret Baier says, well, it's not, you know, there was no specific call out to race.

00:04:56.320 How did Cornel West answer that? And it was really interesting. He said it felt like it,

00:05:03.220 basically. And I'm paraphrasing. But what he said was that when he sees a black person,

00:05:10.340 Colin Kaepernick, included in the category of a sons of itch, he thinks of Colin's mother,

00:05:18.720 and he thinks of other black people, thinks of himself, thinks of maybe like his own son,

00:05:24.500 and he takes it personally. And I thought to myself, well, that's not exactly what people are

00:05:33.720 saying, is it? Because he said fairly clearly that no, it wasn't a racial statement, but it feels

00:05:41.620 like one. Because just the way he processed it was racial, even acknowledging that the president's

00:05:48.240 statement was not intended that way. Isn't that interesting? It's a clear intention. He's

00:05:53.900 clearly saying, there's no indication that the president meant it as a racial statement.

00:05:59.860 And yet, it offends him the same way. And the point being more about the, I guess, the carelessness

00:06:07.820 of the president's words that lead you to those feelings. So what about the shithole countries? 0.83

00:06:13.700 So Cornel West also explained that. He didn't say, did not say, the president says black countries 0.98

00:06:23.740 are bad, which is what you think they're saying, right? When people are criticizing him. 0.88

00:06:30.740 What I'd always heard was, oh, I get it. You think he was only talking about black countries,

00:06:36.420 so that sounds racist to you. I think he was talking about countries that are not producing, 0.80

00:06:41.440 you know, highly educated, experienced people who would immediately add to our economy, on

00:06:47.640 average, which sounded more economic to me. But Cornel West explained it. And again, I

00:06:55.380 have to paraphrase because I don't remember exact words. He explained it that when you call

00:07:00.960 a country that was, you know, even if one of those countries, and most of them were brown 0.92

00:07:06.020 in the black countries, I think, if you call them any kind of an insult, he just takes it 1.00

00:07:11.420 personally, because he has some connection in his mind, and in some cases, maybe in his

00:07:17.080 history to that country. So he takes it personally. That is really different, isn't it? Because in

00:07:25.060 both those examples, he was pretty explicitly acknowledging that he has no, no, he has no accusation

00:07:32.480 that the president intended it, or even had a racial thought. Isn't that interesting? He acknowledged

00:07:41.960 that two of his strongest examples of the president saying racist stuff has no indication in it that

00:07:50.620 the president meant it that way, or was thinking that way. I always thought that was the whole point,

00:07:57.160 is that he was thinking it that way and meant it that way. Wasn't that the whole point? But the moment

00:08:02.160 that Brett Baer just added that little bit of context, that's all it took. And here's what I

00:08:08.120 appreciated about that. I felt like that moved the ball a little bit. Like I felt like there was some

00:08:15.360 kind of little breakthrough I was having. So, you know, you need, and I had been confused for a long

00:08:22.720 time about this whole situation. Now, if you explain it to me as, this was offensive to me, and here are the

00:08:31.300 connections about why I felt it that way. I actually accept that completely. Completely. If what he's

00:08:39.560 saying is, this made me feel bad, and here are the reasons, and maybe if you were in this situation,

00:08:45.140 it would make you feel bad too, I think, yeah, maybe. I can see that. I don't have any, I wouldn't argue

00:08:51.480 with that at all. But if you go to the further things, say the president in his mind, which we're

00:08:57.480 reading from a distance, intended it to be racist, or revealed his inner racist side, well, that's just

00:09:03.640 crazy talk. But it turns out that Cornel West isn't saying that. I could actually work with,

00:09:11.560 completely, I mean, we could work with what Cornel West is saying. You know, can you modify

00:09:17.840 your language, so it's less offensive to people who's maybe experienced you don't have a full

00:09:24.320 appreciation for? To which I say, sure, sure, I would do that for anybody. Let's say you had a

00:09:31.420 bad experience with a, oh, you've been attacked by a rhinoceros in your youth, and I start telling

00:09:39.960 you a story about a rhinoceros, and you say, please, please, please, I know you're not doing this to hurt

00:09:45.120 me. But, you know, rhinoceros talk, it bothers me. And I just sort of take it personally that you

00:09:52.400 would even bring up this conversation. What would you do? Well, if you're a jerk, you keep talking

00:09:58.280 about rhinoceroses. Rhinoceri? Plural of rhinoceros. Don't know. So if you don't want to be a jerk, 1.00

00:10:09.460 you would immediately stop talking about rhinoceri, right? It has nothing to do with race. 0.99

00:10:17.360 How about just not being a jerk? Not, you know, not being a dick. That's exactly what I feel about 1.00

00:10:23.760 the statues. The people who are arguing that the Confederate statues are, well, technically,

00:10:30.180 they're history, and, you know, technically, they're not meant to be racist, and technically, 0.99

00:10:35.400 it's, you know, it wasn't put up for that purpose, and it's all bullshit. That's the, nobody cares. 0.98

00:10:43.680 Those statues are offensive. You don't get to tell them they shouldn't be offended. It's not up to you

00:10:51.080 to tell people what is offensive to them, right? If you put up a decoration in your house, and 40% of the

00:11:01.060 people who visited your house were deeply offended and told you so, my God, I'm really offended by

00:11:06.400 that, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be a Confederate thing. But if 40% of your guests who

00:11:12.380 you like and love and want to be friends with, their family, whatever, if 40% of them come into

00:11:17.220 your house and say, I'm, I'm offended by that, wouldn't you give it a thought to change your

00:11:24.040 decorations? I think you would. If you're a dick, you're going to argue that the person shouldn't be

00:11:31.080 offended. No, all 40% of the people I know, you really shouldn't be that way, so I'm just going 1.00

00:11:37.000 to keep my decorations, and I think you need to get over it. Well, you could do that. It's a free

00:11:41.200 country, right? And the 40% could hate you for it. It's a free country. But why? Why? It's a decoration.

00:11:49.240 You can't get rid of a decoration that's offending your family and your friends, 40% of them. I mean,

00:11:56.080 it's pretty reasonable, pretty reasonable to get rid of that thing. You also hear the argument

00:12:01.200 that something like 25% somewhere in that neighborhood of African American citizens are

00:12:09.520 in favor of keeping statues, the Confederate ones included. So is that an argument? Well, look at,

00:12:16.200 look at that. If 25% of them are okay with it, it's not about race. But that's not the point.

00:12:24.280 If 75% are deeply offended, it doesn't matter what it's about. It doesn't matter if it's about race.

00:12:32.200 It's deeply offensive. We can't get rid of something that's deeply offensive. Let's be reasonable.

00:12:38.240 If somebody says ISIS is also offended by statues. Here's my notes. Full Taliban. So yes, I'm completely 1.00

00:12:51.000 aware that if you allow people to get rid of statues only because they're offensive, that you would end

00:12:57.300 up getting rid of all your statues. Is that okay? Sure. Yeah, that's okay. Did you think I was going to be

00:13:06.960 against it? Nope. Nope. Not against it at all. I'm not wed to historical things if they're offensive.

00:13:19.960 Now, the Taliban, of course, were more about getting rid of everything. Now, I think where this statue thing 0.57

00:13:25.780 is going to go, and it seems obvious where this will go, I think you're going to have people tearing down

00:13:31.880 African-American statues eventually. You'll have people saying, oh, well, if that one offends you,

00:13:38.380 I'm offended by Martin Luther King. So you're going to get some kind of troll response. Yeah,

00:13:46.380 that's probably where it'll all end up. But here's the thing. The Taliban are pretty much,

00:13:53.180 you know, there's no exception, blah, blah, blah. I've got to get rid of everything.

00:13:56.000 But getting rid of the statues of slave owners, that doesn't feel like going too far to me.

00:14:04.620 And frankly, I don't care where it ends up. I'm in favor of Juneteenth as a national holiday.

00:14:12.420 But I would at least want to give some consideration to the following branding. Juneteenth,

00:14:19.940 that could be the name of it. That's a historical name, and that's good. But maybe in addition to that,

00:14:26.000 it feels like Independence Day version 2.0, doesn't it? You know, in software version 1.0 is,

00:14:33.620 well, it works, but it's got a lot of bugs. It's sort of version 2.0 that you've got a good chance

00:14:40.560 of getting a good product, because they've worked through all the bugs. And, you know, the July 4th

00:14:46.920 Independence Day was allegedly, you know, a day of freedom, but not so much, right? If you were black, 1.00

00:14:55.880 it wasn't your Independence Day, which is the whole point. So it feels like it was Independence

00:15:00.880 Day version 2.0 was Juneteenth. You don't have to brand it that way, but it just feels that way,

00:15:06.700 that that was the upgrade. That's when we finally started getting it closer to right. Still

00:15:11.880 not completely right, but a lot closer. Mike Pence continues to impress me with his ability to avoid

00:15:26.120 causing trouble. I've said this a bunch of times. I'm not a giant fan of Mike Pence. I don't think he

00:15:33.640 should be president. Like he doesn't, doesn't quite fit for me as president. But as a vice president,

00:15:40.340 I could not have more respect for the way the man is handling his job as a vice president. I mean,

00:15:47.960 it's really tremendous. And again, it's the dog that doesn't bark, right? It's the problems he's not

00:15:52.980 causing. He is really good at avoiding problems. And he was, he was lured into this trap yesterday in

00:16:02.860 some kind of a press conference in which they were trying to get him to do a public gaffe on the

00:16:09.720 Black Lives Matter thing. So the trick, of course, is to try to get any prominent Republican

00:16:14.100 to, to make them say the words Black Lives Matter in public. And of course, Democrat, you know,

00:16:22.260 and of course, Republicans want to say some version of all lives matter. And then that's the trap so

00:16:28.440 that people can say, ah, ah, ah, you're not willing to say the words Black Lives Matter? Racist,

00:16:33.900 obviously racist. Now it's an obvious trap. Mike Pence knows it's a trap. And then he walks right into 0.99

00:16:41.760 it. All right. So I just told you, wait, Mike Pence is really good at avoiding traps. And he walked

00:16:50.280 right into this. He walked right into it. But here's how he got out. And of course, the news doesn't,

00:16:59.660 doesn't like to focus on, you know, the way he got out. So you have to read the story to find out his

00:17:06.940 actual wording and stuff. But it's kind of impressive the way he did it. And I want to, so here's the setup.

00:17:14.440 So he was asked the question, and he gave some generic response. But he didn't say yes or no.

00:17:20.240 And he didn't use the words Black Lives Matter. So the next press person follows up, I guess it was

00:17:25.940 anchor Brian Taft. And he goes, forgive me for pressing you on this, sir, he says to Pence. But I will

00:17:33.820 note, you did not say these words, quote, Black Lives Matter. Don't you hate this dick? He's such a 1.00

00:17:40.820 dick, this reporter, because there's no, there's no news value in this whatsoever. He's not even 1.00

00:17:46.920 pretending there's news value in this. He's just trying to trap the president, the vice president

00:17:53.380 in public. I mean, it's just such a dick move. And he goes, people are saying, of course, all lives 0.99

00:18:00.480 matter. But to say the words is an acknowledgement that black lives also matter at a time in this

00:18:07.180 country when it appears that there's a segment of our society that doesn't agree. Does it? Does it

00:18:13.700 seem like there's a fucking segment of this society that doesn't agree that black lives matter? Really? 1.00

00:18:21.380 Really? Can you show me one fucking person who would say that? I've never even met a racist who 1.00

00:18:27.860 would say black lives don't matter. Like literally, nobody. Yeah, there's a segment of the country.

00:18:34.060 They're hiding pretty well. Because I mean, literally, even racists don't say that anybody

00:18:41.380 doesn't matter. Like that's just on nobody's mind. All right. Here is Mike Pence's quite impressive

00:18:51.600 response to that. He goes, quote, Well, I don't accept the fact, Brian. Now, here's the first thing

00:18:58.880 that Pence does first. He calls him by his first name. He's just so friendly. Right? It's a small

00:19:04.980 thing. But I don't think Trump does it. Right? Pence is just so smooth. He goes, Well, I don't accept

00:19:12.240 the fact, Brian. So he doesn't call the lie. He doesn't say he's a jerk. He doesn't call the call

00:19:17.920 him a dick like I just did. He goes, Well, I don't accept the fact, Brian, that there's a segment of 0.98

00:19:24.520 American society that disagrees in the preciousness and importance of every human life.

00:19:31.840 Oh, wow. That is so good. I mean, you don't you don't really realize how good it is until you see

00:19:39.480 what didn't happen, which is it didn't cause a problem. Pence said, And it's one of the reasons

00:19:46.400 why, as we advance important reforms in law enforcement, as we look for ways to strengthen

00:19:52.160 and improve our public safety in our cities, that we're not going to stop there.

00:19:59.880 That's a really good answer. That is such a good answer. It's friendly. It's noncompetitive.

00:20:06.260 It doesn't really it. He simply, instead of arguing with the point, he makes a defense of the human

00:20:15.660 population. The same as I did. He just defended the population and said, I don't think there's

00:20:21.240 somebody out there who thinks that all life isn't precious. And I thought to myself, I don't know if

00:20:26.560 I've ever heard that. Have you? Have you heard a national politician on this topic? Not just say

00:20:35.000 whether racism exists, system systemic racism exists, you're sort of arguing about the the racism over

00:20:41.800 here. But Pence took it all the way back to root cause, right? And he said, I don't believe there's a

00:20:48.180 segment of the society who thinks all lives are not precious. And I thought to myself,

00:20:53.500 I've never met anybody who didn't think that. Have you? I've never met anybody who didn't think a

00:21:00.140 life was precious. So Mike Pence, man, he just nails it. And it's like, he's like a silent assassin.

00:21:10.320 Because it just doesn't really get the attention. Because that's the way he plays it. He plays it

00:21:15.160 without, like, he's like the high, the, he's like the high board diver, who does the perfect dive,

00:21:23.660 and it doesn't doesn't leave a ripple in the water. He just goes, whoop, slices into the water. And you

00:21:28.980 go, did Mike Pence dive into the water? Because I don't see a ripple. How do you do that? All right.

00:21:34.760 So in my ongoing effort to get canceled, I tweeted today that systemic racism is a manipulation term

00:21:49.700 which I reject. Now, of course, I accept that black lives matter. Of course. Now, just so that I can 0.85

00:21:58.000 be part of the conversation without distraction, I always like to tack that on first. Because if you

00:22:03.500 say it directly, and you say it first, and I would recommend my technique, comma, of course,

00:22:10.480 because if you don't add the of course, you leave, you leave some suggestion that maybe you just

00:22:17.040 arrived at that opinion or something. It's like, well, yesterday, I wasn't so sure. But today? Yeah,

00:22:22.560 now that I think about it, black lives matter. So comma, of course, I like to add that to eliminate, 1.00

00:22:29.320 what are we even talking about? Like, why would you even ask me that dumb fuck question? 1.00

00:22:33.040 Of course. But here's my problem with systemic racism, as a phrase. In my views, racism is 1.00

00:22:46.700 universal and pervasive, and it's in all things everywhere, wherever there are humans. So since

00:22:53.840 humans are pattern recognition machines, but they're not good at it, they're subject to confirmation

00:22:58.480 bias. They don't have the full story most of the time, we just don't. So wherever there are humans, 0.56

00:23:05.960 there is something like bias, you could call it racism, but there's always bias. And so the fact

00:23:14.060 that it also exists in systems doesn't add as much to your understanding as you would hope. So the first

00:23:20.200 problem with systemic racism, as a phrase is that it's a manipulation phrase. It's a phrase of influence.

00:23:26.740 It's a phrase of persuasion, which is different from a solution oriented description. So I've been

00:23:36.020 pushing back on that phrase, because my problem with it is it doesn't suggest solutions. And in fact,

00:23:42.260 it kind of makes you look away from where they might be. So it is a very subtle manipulation,

00:23:49.540 because it suggests the solution where it really shouldn't. So in other words, it moves you past the

00:23:58.020 sail into where you should be looking for a solution. But you really need to be back on the

00:24:03.080 sail, you need you need to be looking a little deeper. That's my problem with it. Let me let me say

00:24:07.760 more about that. The problem is that if you say there's systemic racism, the second part of that

00:24:16.380 usually is that it's a ripple effect from slavery. Now, I don't believe there's anybody who would argue

00:24:22.480 that the legacy of slavery did not have a ripple effect, a strong one into the future and the current

00:24:30.900 that disadvantages or has disadvantaged the black community. There's nobody who argues that, right? 0.91

00:24:39.140 You know, that the legacy of slavery, because what was it? Chappelle who was saying that his great,

00:24:46.580 great, I forget how many greats, but somebody that he knew in his lifetime, I think, you know,

00:24:54.340 came from slavery. So it wasn't that long ago. So it's not that hard to imagine. In fact,

00:24:58.780 it's obvious that there's an economic ripple effect. But here's my problem with framing it that way.

00:25:06.420 Let's say you got two kids. One has an unlucky history. And now he's a poor kid today. He has

00:25:15.020 all the disadvantages of poor kids today. Now, none of this was his fault. He had nothing to do with

00:25:22.000 the his grandfather's, you know, he wasn't even born. He had nothing to do with choices they made.

00:25:28.640 He just ended up here. Then there's another kid, also an unlucky history. But let's say it's a different

00:25:34.580 kind, different kind of unlucky history. But he wasn't there. The kid wasn't even born. It's people who

00:25:42.620 came before him and did other things. And now he's a poor kid. Now you got two poor kids. Which one, which

00:25:50.120 one gets the reparations? Which one gets the reparations? Because here's the thing. It doesn't

00:26:01.380 matter why you got there. And the systemic racism argument, it's got lots of features to it. But

00:26:07.880 one of the main features is that it implies a solution. And that is persuasion. Because the

00:26:15.920 solution is implied in the framing of the situation. If you were to frame it differently,

00:26:22.180 your solution would look different. Here's how you would frame it differently. If you were

00:26:26.680 solution oriented, you would say, does it matter how these kids got here? What's the difference how

00:26:32.680 they got here? Like, I wasn't, I wasn't a slave owner. I didn't cause this kid to be poor. I had

00:26:40.840 nothing to do with it. It doesn't matter that his parents were, you know, drug addicts and 0.78

00:26:46.600 grandparents were criminals or whatever happened. It had nothing to do with this kid. This kid was

00:26:52.860 just born. It's all they did. They were just born. Which one is the favored one? Which one do we want

00:26:59.700 to put our attention on? I would, I would say that it would be unambiguously racist to say that the one

00:27:08.260 who came from a specific kind of history gets more help, whatever that looks like, reparations,

00:27:15.300 I don't know, funding in the government, whatever that looks like. That would be purely racist to say

00:27:21.160 that this person had one kind of history that got him to this situation, this had another kind,

00:27:26.680 and oh, coincidentally, all the ones that are like this are the same color. That is racist by definition. 0.64

00:27:32.880 So systemic racism, I don't know if it was created for this purpose, but it has the quality

00:27:39.300 of making you think past the details all the way to the solution. It's, if you, if you don't study

00:27:46.180 persuasion, it's not as obvious that it's a persuasion term and not a descriptive term. So

00:27:52.980 let me say this. Those who say there is systemic racism, I say to you, you're thinking small.

00:28:00.380 There is universal racism. To imagine that it's systemic limits it to, well, it's in some situations.

00:28:09.680 It's not in some situations. It's in every situation in which there are people. It doesn't, if you replaced

00:28:15.960 your system today with a new system, it would be just as racist because all the people in it are racist

00:28:22.960 and it doesn't matter who they are. We are pattern recognition machines, but we're not good at it.

00:28:29.740 So we're biased about everything all the time, right? It's just, it's just the human condition.

00:28:36.060 We try to overcome it with laws and rules and we tweak them and we fix them and we study them

00:28:41.840 and we try to use our higher sense of reason for those who have a religious upbringing, maybe a higher

00:28:47.740 moral sense. But we can, we can fight pretty hard to overcome our biases, but we can't get rid of them.

00:28:55.340 So let's, let's be realistic about what can and cannot happen.

00:28:58.980 And I think we're just better off if we say, you know, God, I'm just, I'm just so biased.

00:29:04.140 You know, you've seen this several times, haven't you? How many, how many African-American people

00:29:12.060 have you heard in your personal life or in the media say something like this?

00:29:18.200 I prefer the racists who are just, tell me they're racists. The ones who bother me are the suburban soccer

00:29:25.700 mom who pretends she's not, but is, right? How many black people have you heard say that 0.98

00:29:33.700 either in public or privately to you? It's fairly common, right? It's like, I can deal with honesty.

00:29:41.660 I can deal with honesty. It's actually simple to deal with. Oh, you've got this feeling. Well,

00:29:48.020 you know, good for you. I'll, I'll go over here because I'd rather be with people who don't feel

00:29:52.740 like that. Or, or how about you're an idiot, Bob? How about Bob? You're an idiot because you're a bigot and 1.00

00:30:03.320 I've got a PhD. So, you know, that's great for you, Bob, being a bigot. How's your, how's your GED? 1.00

00:30:15.060 Because I got a PhD, you know, imagining there's a black guy talking to Bob. So you should be able to 1.00

00:30:21.880 just, just laugh about it and kind of deal with it as a human condition that you're trying as hard

00:30:28.780 as you can to use your better senses to overcome. But as soon as you start saying, well, I don't have

00:30:35.720 any racism. I'm a, I'm a good suburban mom. Well, what do you do with that? Right? What do you do with

00:30:41.360 that? If you can't talk about it, call it out and joke about it, complain about it, do something about

00:30:47.860 it, try something, do something different. You know, you're tying yourself in knots.

00:30:53.360 So, um, there's my stand. Um, and I will even go further. You want me to take it to full

00:31:02.100 cancellation? Here it goes. Full cancellation for Scott. Possibly the last time you'll ever

00:31:10.460 experience coffee with Scott Adams, unless I'm hiding somewhere in the, um, victim, no, not

00:31:18.360 the victim, the, the witness protection program. Here it comes. I think it's child abuse to tell a

00:31:27.160 young person there is systemic racism. I think it's child abuse to tell young black kids or any kids 0.93

00:31:37.520 that there's systemic racism, even if there is. Now, if you're going to argue, but Scott, 0.63

00:31:44.540 there is systemic racism. I'm not arguing that you can call it whatever you want. I've already

00:31:50.480 said it's universal. Universal is much bigger than your little complaint about systemic.

00:31:57.400 You know, if you're going to go small, go small, but you know, that's on you. I'm going big. I'm

00:32:03.760 saying everybody's a racist all the time in every system. All the time. You're saying there's this

00:32:09.140 little systemic racism thing. That's a component of that. And okay, but I'd rather see the big

00:32:14.340 picture, not the small picture. Here's my point. We have science, which seems to clearly indicate

00:32:20.700 that people respond to other people's expectations. We know, for example, that if you do an experiment

00:32:30.000 in which you randomly choose small kids and you say, Hey, you small kids, you're the gifted ones.

00:32:34.880 You're the smart ones and we're going to put you in a special class. Randomly chosen. They are not

00:32:40.860 the smart ones. Literally randomly chosen. Track them from a year. Their grades will be better.

00:32:48.200 It's pretty consistent. It can be reproduced. You tell kids they're smart. They act smart.

00:32:55.760 They rise to their expectations. You tell kids that they're not smart and they will lower

00:33:04.720 to that expectation. Kids need to be told what they can and can't do. And you tell them. You tell

00:33:13.320 them directly. You tell them indirectly, but they're hearing it. What can I do? What does a kid know?

00:33:19.680 Kid doesn't know what they can do. Doesn't know what they'll someday be able to do. They have no idea

00:33:24.240 until they can do it. So I would say that telling kids that there is systemic racism and there's this

00:33:31.300 this hard to describe force. You know, imagine you're a kid. You don't quite know what all of it

00:33:36.980 even means. If you tell them that, you're telling them your life will, you know, is going to be

00:33:42.780 suppressed. You've got this force working against you. Now, again, if you're just joining me,

00:33:49.680 I'm not saying whether the racism will hold people back or not. Obviously, it's a negative.

00:33:55.460 I'm not arguing that it exists or doesn't exist or it's bad. So that's not even part of the

00:34:02.120 conversation. The conversation is strategy. That whether it exists or doesn't exist, what

00:34:08.900 do you tell the kid? All right. How about this? You've got some horrible problem in your life.

00:34:17.580 You're an adult. It's just like a horrible problem. Do you tell a small kid? No, no. It doesn't matter

00:34:24.580 if it's true. There are things you tell kids and there are things you just don't tell kids.

00:34:30.680 It doesn't matter if it's true. That's not how you manage children because they don't have,

00:34:36.160 you know, obviously developed brains. So if you raise a kid to think that racism is going to hold

00:34:43.200 them back, do you get the same result as if you raise them to say, oh, racism's everywhere.

00:34:50.620 You're going to slice through that like it didn't exist. Which one of them gets you a better result

00:34:57.260 overall? Every kid is different, but overall, it's not even close. And we know this. We know it

00:35:03.640 completely. We know that telling somebody that they will be held back will hold them back. And we know

00:35:13.340 that telling people that they are not, they're not limited by the problems in life. The problems are

00:35:19.600 real, but you're not limited by them. There's nothing that makes that have to affect you. In fact,

00:35:26.020 the existence of racism necessarily creates strategic advantages. Necessarily. All right. Let me say more

00:35:37.880 about that. If racism did not exist, could a black person walk into any fortune 500 company and be 0.93

00:35:45.460 almost guaranteed a job so long as they have basic qualifications that are, you know, comparable to

00:35:51.380 other people applying for the job? No, they couldn't. They could not. If racism did not exist, could a poor

00:35:59.680 black kid be pretty much guaranteed a college scholarship so long as they get good enough grades? 0.59

00:36:05.580 Probably not. Probably not. So if you are a poor, poor black kid born into a family that says, look,

00:36:14.700 here's the deal. Racism is everywhere. You're not going to be able to fix that. But here's the cool 0.98

00:36:23.000 part. Because racism is everywhere, it opens up these, you know, lesser, but still perfectly acceptable,

00:36:30.580 you know, lesser in terms of number channels for you to succeed. And it's basically it's a super

00:36:36.360 highway. You know, get out of get out of the forest, walk over the super highway that says free

00:36:43.640 college, and you you're going to get a good job. And your life is going to look pretty good. Just walk

00:36:51.140 over here. Here's the strategy that works. Over there, there's a strategy that doesn't work. Does racism

00:36:57.440 exist? Yeah, it's everywhere. Won't affect you a bit. I mean, it'll affect you in your social life and

00:37:07.180 how you feel about things. It'll affect you that way. It's not going to stop your income. It's not

00:37:12.280 going to stop you from getting married. Not going to stop you from having a good life. Not going to

00:37:15.660 stop you from buying a house. Maybe there'll be a little discrimination. It's everywhere. So, you know,

00:37:21.740 maybe you get turned down for an apartment and you don't know why. Yeah, that's going to happen

00:37:26.000 because racism is everywhere. But is there another apartment? Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't like there was one

00:37:32.180 apartment. It's not like it's not like there you would be turned down so many times that you couldn't

00:37:37.640 get a place. You probably hardly notice it. So imagine if you will, the two approaches to a kid.

00:37:46.000 Yes, this thing will hold you back or no. You have strategies that will slice through it like it

00:37:51.580 didn't exist. And in fact, you can use it like judo. You can take the energy of it and use it in your

00:37:58.120 advantage. One of them is child abuse and one of them is good mentoring. Let me ask you this.

00:38:08.060 First, you're an employer. Two candidates come in for a job. One of them believes that systemic racism

00:38:17.220 exists and has been a big problem in their life. One of them believes that racism exists everywhere.

00:38:24.580 It's just everywhere. But that this candidate, he or she, has good strategies to overcome it or slice

00:38:34.560 through it. Which one do you hire? Do you hire someone who believes that they're under the yoke of systemic

00:38:41.760 racism and then you bring them into your company? How's that going to work out? How's that going to work

00:38:47.040 out for you as an employer? Nothing to do with being black. Nothing to do with being black. It's not a race 0.85

00:38:54.360 question. If you bring me an employee who believes the system is screwing them, I don't want to be anywhere

00:39:03.900 near that employee. That employee is going to sue you. They're already primed. They're primed for it.

00:39:11.820 Do you think confirmation bias will stop working the day you hire this person? No. The person who

00:39:19.100 believes that systemic racism is sort of an organizing model of their world is going to see it

00:39:27.300 everywhere. And they're telling you. They're telling you directly, I believe there is systemic racism. So sure

00:39:34.020 they're going to see it. They're going to see it where it exists and also where it doesn't. And not because

00:39:41.680 they're black, not because anything. They're just people. The human condition is that confirmation bias affects all

00:39:50.500 of us all the time. You're not immune from it. Nobody is. So if you have somebody who has a framework in

00:39:56.900 their head, then they should expect that confirmation bias will fill in the framework and you're basically

00:40:03.680 just asking yourself to get sued down the road. So keep that in mind if you go looking for a job. I don't

00:40:11.900 think you want anything on your social media history that says you believe systemic racism is holding you

00:40:19.480 back. Now, if you were a white person and you said systemic racism is bad, it probably wouldn't hurt you

00:40:26.260 for a job interview. It might help you, right? I mean, maybe if you had a person of color who was

00:40:31.440 interviewing you, they'd look at that and say, oh, there's an open-minded person. I'll hire them. But if

00:40:37.020 you're black and you come into a job interview with a black employer, how about this? It's a black 1.00

00:40:45.100 hiring manager and a black candidate. And one of the candidates, actually, let's say all three of

00:40:52.440 them are black, just to keep it easy. Two black candidates and one black hiring manager. And one 0.88

00:40:59.840 of the candidates says systemic racism is a problem in their life. And the other one says, well, racism's

00:41:06.480 everywhere, but it's not bothering me. You know, who do you hire? I mean, it's a no-brainer. All right.

00:41:18.080 Let's see. The other thing that systemic racism does is that it forces you to look in one place for

00:41:27.400 solutions, doesn't it? So what do Republicans say is the problem with the black community? I'm not a

00:41:35.960 Republican, so I'm just summarizing those views. I think most of them would say that if you get the

00:41:42.320 family unit right, then other things work out. I feel that's a little simplistic. All right. So I'm

00:41:50.580 not on board with the strong family unit is the secret to success, because I think that only works

00:41:58.540 for some people in some situations. And when it does, it works great. I'm very jealous of anybody who can,

00:42:04.500 you know, make the strong family unit work. So it makes sense that people who have made it work

00:42:11.500 for themselves and their friends, they would say, hey, this worked for us. You should try it. I just

00:42:17.860 don't think it translates into every situation. So maybe you need something better. But here's the

00:42:23.820 thing. If you say systemic racism is the organizing thing that you're working on,

00:42:31.500 where do you look for your solutions? At the system, right? If you think that systemic racism

00:42:40.940 is the problem, you would look at the systems. Because it manipulates you to look past the question

00:42:50.540 of where the problem is, and where's the best place to fix it. It makes you think past that to,

00:42:55.660 oh, which systems are we working on? Right? So that's why it's manipulative. And it's a persuasion

00:43:02.380 term. It's not a helpful term. It's not a problem solving term. It's a political term that's intended

00:43:08.660 to get your emotions up. And to, I don't know if it's intended, but it makes you look in the wrong

00:43:15.240 place. And what I say by the wrong place is one place in particular. Maybe it's not the wrong place.

00:43:22.300 It's just, it forces you to look in one place. I would rather say, what could you do with,

00:43:28.860 let's say, schools and families and early education and stuff? Because wouldn't you say

00:43:34.940 that by the time the kid is 18, it doesn't matter what the other systems are doing, he's in trouble?

00:43:42.420 If the entire problem is caused by the time the kid graduates high school or drops out of high school,

00:43:49.440 if all of the problems are baked into that person by that point, in other words, they didn't get the

00:43:55.280 education. And then, you know, they've got a jail record or whatever it is, they're on drugs. Of

00:44:01.080 course, that's going to ripple into the future. There's nothing you could do fixing the system

00:44:05.560 that's going to fix any of that. So I feel that calling it systemic racism makes you look away from

00:44:13.460 the first 18 years of life, even though the school is a system, but you don't see people talk about

00:44:18.980 that as much, right? School's a system. Your early family life's a system. But that's not what they're

00:44:25.840 talking about, is it? You know, of course, the schools are worse in the inner cities. And I do think that

00:44:32.120 needs to be fixed. But systemic racism makes you look in the wrong place. That said, as I said before,

00:44:40.640 the one place it just stands out is in the justice system. It really, really stands out there. And I

00:44:47.260 think that if you say, hey, the justice system is creating these unequal outcomes, what do we do

00:44:53.020 about that? I would say, oh, that's worth looking into. Nobody wants unequal outcomes. There's nobody

00:45:00.060 has that as an objective. So if you say we're not, we're not getting equal outcomes. In theory,

00:45:06.400 you have every white person in the world on your side on day one. Hey, look at this, unequal outcomes.

00:45:12.840 What white person says, oh, that's the way I wanted it. I wanted it to be unequal outcomes. Nobody,

00:45:18.680 nobody, zero people have that opinion. So if there's a statistical measurable problem,

00:45:26.640 yeah, you got all the help in the world fixing that. And I've suggested, for example,

00:45:30.000 that if you have unequal outcomes in the justice system, then maybe there was a way to anonymize

00:45:37.160 the information that the judge used, give that to some independent people who can't tell the race

00:45:43.240 or ethnicity of the person involved, and just have them see, hey, wait a minute, this decision is

00:45:47.980 in a line with the average, even considering all the extenuating circumstances and the prison record of

00:45:57.900 the person, et cetera, then maybe you could get rid of racism if some way you could anonymize it and

00:46:03.840 have an external people, you know, bring things back to the norm. So there are lots of ways to deal

00:46:11.960 with problems with your system, and I'm all for it. But calling it systemic racism as a unifying

00:46:21.180 principle is misleading, and ultimately racist, actually, you know, unintentionally.

00:46:30.860 All right. I feel like it's just a broken record on all these topics.

00:46:40.400 Unequal inputs create unequal outcomes, someone says. Yes, that's true. But unequal systems would do

00:46:48.240 that as well. Somebody said, did Hotep Jesus block me? If so, why? The answer is no. He made a public

00:46:57.300 joke about blocking me, which you should have recognized as a joke. I did see him blocking

00:47:04.320 people for not being smart enough to know it was a joke. So I guess you're lucky you got away without

00:47:09.720 getting blocked. So now, Hotep Jesus and I have no reason that either of us would block either of us.

00:47:21.780 Predictions for Tulsa today. Well, let me tell you. Let me answer that by telling you my experience last

00:47:29.780 night. So last night, I went to dinner at a restaurant in my town for the first time. Yeah,

00:47:40.960 in my town for the first time. And remember early on in the pandemic, I was suggesting that the

00:47:49.260 restaurants that could would close the street so that they could move their seating into the street.

00:47:54.940 And it would be, you know, just outdoor seating for the summer, at least, you know, until the weather

00:47:59.840 changes, it might work. Now, I suggested that to the, you know, one of the leading restaurateurs in my

00:48:07.760 town, friend of mine. And I think he took it to the town. But in any case, last night, Main Street was

00:48:14.560 blocked off. And going forward, I think, I don't know if it's every weekend, might be it might only be weekends,

00:48:21.060 I'm not sure yet. But so it, and it went to an eight in the middle of Main Street. So the tables

00:48:29.380 were spaced out. Now, here is my experience. I don't think that more than one in three people

00:48:37.520 had masks on last night. It was a crowd situation. Because even though the restaurant thought it was

00:48:46.740 extending its table seating into the street, that's not what the public thought.

00:48:53.620 So when it when you imagine this, you say to yourself, Oh, that sounds pretty good. There'd be

00:48:58.760 seats outside, the weather's great, the weather was perfect. Seats in the street, but it's a really

00:49:04.580 nice street, you know, it's perfect seating, really. And you think and you imagine it, you're like, Oh,

00:49:09.860 we're all sitting at our tables with lots of distance. That sounds very pleasant. But it turns

00:49:16.840 out that the residents who were not there to eat, of which there are many just walking about,

00:49:22.860 decided that it was a street fair, a street fair, meaning that crowds of people were in and among the

00:49:31.120 tables. And the table I was at was right next to some bros, some white bros, you know, some 20

00:49:38.700 somethings who talked to loudly when their friends come by. You know what that is, right? Here's

00:49:43.720 here is a 40 something when their friend comes by unexpectedly. Hey, Bob, I haven't seen you in a

00:49:50.280 while. All right. Now here's the 20 year old bro. When he sees his friend, he hasn't seen in a while.

00:49:55.860 And then his friend sees him and goes, and they both shout as hard as they can. But they try to get

00:50:09.000 the deep, the deep manly shouts. And it becomes this whole like simian, you know, ape like situation 0.98

00:50:19.720 where they're all trying to be louder and more aggressive and slapping each other harder and

00:50:24.340 hugging each other harder and shaking hands hard and, you know, establishing their territory and

00:50:30.020 trying to elf up and stuff. So as a result, you know, there were four of the bros right next to

00:50:38.420 us and they were really loud. And then their friends come over. Now their friends are standing around

00:50:43.460 the table and starting to crowd our table. And they're really, really loud. And then another group

00:50:49.660 of their friends come. And the next thing I'm in, I'm basically, you know, right on the edge of a

00:50:56.720 large group of large men who are effectively, none of them have masks, zero masks in the entire group.

00:51:05.240 None of them were quarantining together. And they all just came to this one table. So there was like,

00:51:11.960 now there were a million different contacts all represented at the table right next to me.

00:51:16.620 And they were all shouting drunk. I don't know if they're all drunk, but they're all,

00:51:22.200 they were shouting like drunks. And it just went on for like 40 minutes. Now, was I exposed

00:51:31.460 to the coronavirus? Yes. Yes, I was. And I thought about what do you do in this situation? Because I

00:51:41.080 should have walked out, right? I mean, for safety reasons, I should have just walked out.

00:51:44.740 But I didn't want to penalize the restaurant. And I didn't want to pay and not eat. I mean,

00:51:52.420 the whole point was I wanted to go eat. So my personal restaurant experience was completely ruined

00:51:57.300 by loud bros who were trying to kill me because they didn't have any risk. Now, the young people

00:52:05.120 didn't really have any risk. But they didn't give a fuck that I did, let me tell you. And there was 0.99

00:52:10.600 one older guy that was with the younger guys. And he was like, Hey, don't touch me, don't touch me.

00:52:15.460 But he didn't have a mask on either. So he's probably dead. We'll never see him again. That

00:52:20.500 guy died. Anyway, the point is, what I witnessed last night was almost complete destruction

00:52:29.460 of the medical recommendations. And I don't know how much of that was unique to the situation.

00:52:37.320 But I kind of feel like it wasn't unique. And while Trump supporters might be really good at wearing

00:52:45.020 masks, because I imagine they'll probably be handing them out at the, I'd be real surprised if there are

00:52:51.260 not, you know, mega face masks, although that would be a terrible idea, because then people would wear them 0.99

00:52:57.080 in public later, and then they'd get their ass kicked. So I hope they don't have those unless 0.98

00:53:02.360 they're generic. But it could be, I don't know, I so first of all, I think that nobody's, nobody's

00:53:10.860 taking it seriously in California, at least in my area. And by the way, the police, the police were there.

00:53:18.060 So, you know, California, you're supposed to have a face mask as of the other day, you're supposed to

00:53:23.640 have a face mask in these crowded public areas all the time. The police were right in the middle of

00:53:30.360 that crowded area and were not enforcing anything, nor do I think they could have. So I'm not blaming

00:53:36.580 them. I don't think they had really an option to do anything. The entire street was filled with

00:53:41.380 maskless people. There were two cops. What could they do? So you assume the risk. That is correct.

00:53:50.820 You do assume the risk. What do you call a gathering of bros? A bunch of 20-something white 0.82

00:53:58.780 guys who talk too loud, and you know they like sports. Young guys don't care. It's rampant. Yeah, 0.60

00:54:09.200 I would say that young males certainly are not going to be wearing masks.

00:54:19.840 I'm looking at your comments, so similar. All right, that's it for today, and I will talk

00:54:24.960 to you tomorrow.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - June 20, 2020

Episode 1033 Scott Adams： Talking About Systemic Racism

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript