Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 374 ｜ Merrick Garland's Troubling Views on Gender and Equity

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable happy tuesday hope everyone is having a great week so far

00:00:14.220 if you are watching on youtube if we can get this side shot i have a new desk and i'm super

00:00:21.500 excited about it it's not a big deal to you guys and it makes absolutely no difference in your life

00:00:25.700 whatsoever but i have kind of been struggling with the little desk that i did have and now i get to

00:00:30.640 spread out and eventually i'm gonna have all of these papers in front of me like a mad professor

00:00:34.920 so i can be fully prepared to tell you everything that i want to tell you at once um okay that's all

00:00:41.580 i wanted to say about that thank you to those of you who watch on youtube if you don't subscribe

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00:01:06.520 five-star review would mean a lot to me if those are your true feelings so thank you so much for

00:01:12.240 listening and for watching today we are going to talk about uh the attorney general nominee

00:01:18.100 merrick garland and why is this important because justice is important and this is the enforcer

00:01:24.420 of justice in the united states and so we had bill barr um under president trump and towards the end of

00:01:32.320 trump's tenure towards the end of bill barr's tenure there uh there were some mixed feelings some mixed

00:01:38.740 reviews about bill barr from conservatives i think for the most part for a long time most conservatives

00:01:44.300 really liked bill barr and then towards the end people thought that he you know he was a grifter that

00:01:50.680 he betrayed donald trump you guys know i was i mean i am a bill barr stan i really liked so much of

00:01:58.060 what he did when he was attorney general but towards the end there people kind of got sour on him and now we

00:02:04.680 have merrick garland you probably remember the name merrick garland uh from his nomination by

00:02:12.260 president obama to the supreme court that did not go through the senate you might remember that whole

00:02:20.160 debacle with mitch mcconnell saying look we're not going to confirm a lifetime a lifetime appointment to

00:02:28.700 the supreme court with a lame duck president basically because this was after the 2016 election or

00:02:35.220 right before the 2016 election and so they wanted to put it off until um a republican president uh was

00:02:43.060 able to appoint his own nominee now merrick garland is not an extreme leftist i am not entirely disappointed

00:02:51.580 by this nomination uh by joe biden for attorney general i think there are many worse picks there were

00:02:59.440 some people that were saying uh that uh it could be stacey abrams there were some people that were

00:03:06.260 saying it could be andrew cuomo oh my goodness if you don't know why that would be a disaster please go

00:03:11.560 back and listen to yesterday's episode the interview that i did with janice dean about the corruption of 0.98

00:03:17.120 andrew cuomo but thankfully uh he has nominated someone who is not an extreme leftist and is is not an

00:03:25.740 extreme progressive still obviously not a conservative choice but also not the worst choice in

00:03:32.020 the world however the hearing yesterday was very troubling the things that he refused to say as the

00:03:38.680 enforcer of justice is the potential enforcer of justice if he is confirmed and he probably will be

00:03:43.820 confirmed uh were very troubling so the things that he said about racial equity the things that he said

00:03:49.600 or did not say also about racial equity and what he had to say about boys competing um in girl sports

00:03:57.840 and occupying what has traditionally been have traditionally been uh gender exclusive spaces and

00:04:06.020 so we're going to go through a couple of those things and again this matters because justice matters i

00:04:11.760 mean this affects people's everyday life and not just every person but especially the most vulnerable

00:04:17.060 people um and so it matters who the enforcer of justice is in this country it matters what their

00:04:23.660 beliefs are it matters what their beliefs are in regards to the law it matters what their world view

00:04:29.980 is and so that's what we're going to talk about mainly those two uh those two issues what he had to say

00:04:37.040 about racial equity and also what he had to say about gender and title nine and boys competing against girls so

00:04:44.540 let me back up a little bit and just give us a little bit of context uh what is the attorney general

00:04:50.060 i've kind of already said but the attorney general holds the power of attorney and representing a

00:04:54.820 government in all legal matters nominated by the president so mary garland was nominated by joe biden

00:05:01.340 confirmed by the u.s senate can be removed by the president at any time the attorney general can be

00:05:07.540 impeached and tried by congress if deemed necessary you guys know democrats control the senate

00:05:13.360 and um it is very likely that he is going to be confirmed also there are going to be republicans that

00:05:22.260 vote yes to confirm him as well and so i don't even think it's going to be very close i think that he

00:05:27.880 will be confirmed easily the attorney general prosecutes cases involving the government also gives

00:05:33.060 advice to the president and executive department uh when it is needed uh the attorney general is the

00:05:39.280 chief officer of the department of justice does does a few things enforces federal laws provides legal

00:05:45.420 counsel in federal cases interprets the laws that govern executive departments heads federal jails and

00:05:51.560 penal institutions examines alleged violations of federal laws among some other things um the attorney

00:05:58.580 general and the president they've got an interesting relationship you might remember when barack obama said

00:06:04.980 that eric holder was his wingman and that was a scandalous thing to say it's not supposed to

00:06:09.280 be that way one quote that people liked that merrick garland said yesterday that he is representing the

00:06:14.400 united states he's not representing the president and i think bill barr felt the same way but a lot of

00:06:19.800 democrats didn't see it that way they thought that he was just a show for the president well eric holder

00:06:24.180 was a was a show for president obama and actually let me correct myself it wasn't barack obama who

00:06:30.340 called eric holder his wingman it was eric holder who called himself barack obama's wingman and that

00:06:35.680 was a problem that is a stark difference from what we heard from merrick garland who said look i'm not

00:06:40.280 representing the president i'm representing the united states and that is good like that is something

00:06:44.060 that we want to hear that's something that we want to see because we want to see as we've talked

00:06:48.440 about so many times um the importance of impartial justice we want to see someone who views the

00:06:54.380 interpretation of the law the enforcement of the law impartially um this is a quote uh this is uh

00:07:01.060 this is a quote about the relationship between the attorney general and the president one of the

00:07:05.560 greatest challenges is the ability for the attorney general to balance his obligations to abide by the

00:07:10.520 constitution with the pressure of politics in the white house attorney general uh edward bates once

00:07:15.700 said the office i hold is not properly political but strictly legal and it is my duty above all other

00:07:20.980 ministers of state to uphold the law and to resist all encroachments from whatever quarter of mere will

00:07:27.220 and power so uh they have to try to kind of wade through the politics of each decision or wade through

00:07:34.540 the politics surrounding each law these are not policymakers they're not supposed to be political

00:07:39.640 they're not actually supposed to be biased towards the president even though they were nominated

00:07:43.700 and can be fired by the president but they are supposed to remain impartial in interpretations and

00:07:50.120 enforcement of the law and merit garland of course is promising to do that of course all nominees are

00:07:57.160 going to promise to do that in these hearings but he probably is not as extreme as some appointments

00:08:03.300 some nominees could have been so he's a longtime judge he was nominated to the dc circuit court of

00:08:09.080 appeals in 1997 by then president bill clinton in 2016 after justice scalia's death president obama like

00:08:16.540 we said earlier nominated him to fill uh to fill the seat but then senate majority leader mitch mcconnell

00:08:22.580 declined to give garland a hearing we've talked about the difference between that and then the

00:08:28.140 nomination and confirmation of amy coney barrett we did that on an episode several months ago when all

00:08:34.100 of that was happening uh biden has stated that merrick's mandate as attorney general would be to renew

00:08:39.160 the agency's commitment to civil rights and to combat domestic extremism so all already we're kind of

00:08:44.940 getting that political language and you're kind of giving him a political task because we have to ask

00:08:50.180 ourselves like what does civil rights mean to joe biden and what does domestic extremism mean to joe biden

00:08:57.520 of course most people would agree civil rights is good domestic extremism is bad but we've already seen

00:09:03.620 the politicization of these kinds of terms to mean something that is strictly political and strictly partisan

00:09:09.680 and actually not impartial and so that should worry us um a little bit when we hear something like that

00:09:15.880 from joe biden uh just a little bit more background about merrick garland while he was at the justice

00:09:21.680 department garland supervised the investigation into the 1995 oklahoma city bombing and so he said this in

00:09:27.860 his opening statement that he is committed to uh he is committed to prosecuting and going after the people

00:09:34.380 who stormed the capitol in combating domestic extremism again i think one reason why people

00:09:40.680 are having a tough time with that is not because they believe that the people who stormed the capitol

00:09:45.260 shouldn't be prosecuted because of course they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law

00:09:49.480 the question is what does it look like to combat extremism is that going to be censorship of speech what

00:09:55.360 is going to be included uh under the category of extremism is it going to be true extremism or is it just

00:10:01.520 going to be views that someone arbitrarily says will one day lead to extremism and that's a problem

00:10:07.500 like is supporting president trump going to be linked to extremism when millions and millions and

00:10:12.000 millions of people who voted for him have no extremist bone in their body and have never done

00:10:16.340 anything in the way of extremism so people are worried about political bias when it comes to things

00:10:21.200 like this not that anyone is actually against battling domestic extremism because that's someone that

00:10:26.440 benefits something that benefits uh every law abiding person people on the right are saying

00:10:32.800 things like this senator john cornyn a republican from texas says that he intends to vote for garland

00:10:38.120 and said that he is quote a fundamentally decent human being senator chuck grassley said uh on monday to

00:10:45.020 garland i just want to say i like you i respect you and i think you are a good pick for the job but i have

00:10:48.880 a lot of questions about how you are going to run the department of justice and i would say that that is

00:10:54.380 that kind of deference that kind of respect that kind of hey i like you as a person but i disagree

00:10:59.920 with you on on certain things you just don't see that kind of treatment coming from democrats when it

00:11:06.480 has to do when it's republican nominee it's like you certainly didn't see that with uh judge kavanaugh

00:11:11.500 then judge kavanaugh you didn't see that with amy coney barrett you don't see that you didn't see that

00:11:15.940 with bill barr you don't see that uh with republican nominees it's always this person is going to bring

00:11:21.820 in the handmaid's tale and is going to bring in the apocalypse and the end to civil rights in 0.60

00:11:26.420 america and so we have to treat them like the enemy that they are um we're just playing on two different

00:11:31.300 playing fields whereas republicans have a different view in general that okay i disagree with this

00:11:36.640 person on policy but if they show themselves to be basically decent then i'm not going to go after

00:11:42.780 them as if they are my arch nemesis i'm saying that in general i'm not saying that no republicans go

00:11:49.360 you know after unfair attacks or ad hominem attacks but in general the right and the left

00:11:55.000 democrats and republicans in congress have two very different views and different approaches

00:11:59.220 to nominees that are nominated by the president of a different party the left uh is saying things like

00:12:07.720 this senator dick durbin democrat from illinois there have been few moments in history where the

00:12:14.620 role of attorney general and the occupant of that post have mattered more um more than 150 former

00:12:21.660 justice department officials have written to congress supporting garland's nomination including

00:12:25.380 former attorneys general loretta lynch michael mucasey and alberto gonzalez along with 61 former

00:12:32.940 federal judges other backers include two sons of former attorney general edward levi so you've got a

00:12:39.720 lot of democrats a lot of people on the left a lot of people in the justice system who support him

00:12:43.700 now depending on where you are in the political spectrum you could see that as a bad thing because

00:12:47.720 you could maybe believe that he is a swamp rat or he is part of the establishment and that the

00:12:52.680 establishment is against the people and so that might make you a little uncomfortable if you are

00:12:58.220 anti-establishment and if you're worried about the growth of the swamp you could see him as just

00:13:03.400 another swamp creature uh the hill writes about merit garland's judicial record despite nearly two

00:13:09.800 decades on an appeals court garland's record still presents questions about how he'd vote on hot

00:13:14.880 button issues including abortion gay rights and the death penalty should he be confirmed obama said

00:13:21.280 that he was a centrist now if obama said he was a centrist that probably means that he leads leans to

00:13:26.760 the left and so there are a lot of different questions on where he stands on things like the second

00:13:31.380 amendment even where he stands on the first amendment where he stands on abortion uh in 2015

00:13:37.600 priest for life sued the department of health and human services challenge challenging the affordable

00:13:43.180 care acts birth control mandate the dc court of appeals cited with the administration the obama

00:13:48.580 administration ruling that priest for life's religious rights were not burdened by having to opt

00:13:53.120 out of the contraception mandate after priest for life asked for a review of the case garland cited

00:13:58.660 with the majority denying a rehearing of the case he never gave a reason for why he decided that

00:14:03.900 and so that just is one indication of where he will probably land when it comes to abortion now let's

00:14:11.160 talk about a couple highlights from uh from his hearings yesterday i want to play you this clip

00:14:17.340 between senator john kennedy republican from louisiana and merit garland um in a question about biological men

00:14:25.380 competing in female sports i just want to know what you believe allowing biological males to compete

00:14:31.940 in an all-female sport deprives women of the opportunity to participate fully and fairly in sports 1.00

00:14:40.120 and is fundamentally unfair to female athletes this is a very difficult societal question that you're

00:14:47.880 asking here i know what what underlies i know but you're going to be attorney general well but i may

00:14:53.680 not be the one who has to make policy decisions like that but it's not that i'm adverse to it look i think

00:14:58.220 every human being should be treated with dignity and respect so he said that's a difficult question

00:15:06.440 which is just fascinating when you take a step back and you think and you think about that statement

00:15:13.340 at no other point in history before the past i would say even just two to three years maybe maybe five

00:15:21.400 years if i'm being generous would that ever have been considered a difficult question it's not a difficult

00:15:26.980 question it's a no-brainer that of course biological men being fundamentally biologically physically

00:15:33.520 different than women and superior stronger in most regards than women should not be competing against 1.00

00:15:40.880 women in sports because that's unfair to women women just do not have the physical ability to be able 1.00

00:15:47.220 to compete against athletic men that is a fact that it's not misogynistic that's not sexist that's just how

00:15:53.780 god made us we have lower bone density we have lower anaerobic and aerobic lung capacity we have

00:16:00.640 less muscle mass our brains work differently everything about us a lot of things about us i shouldn't say

00:16:08.780 everything but a lot of things about us are are different they're they uh do not provide for fair

00:16:16.080 competition or an even playing field in any way and so when merrick garland says that we need to treat

00:16:21.380 everyone with dignity and respect my question is well what about girls like is it dignified and 1.00

00:16:26.600 respectful to force girls to share a locker room or a bathroom with biological males there was this

00:16:32.520 report that's coming um out of palm springs and it's about a naked man that was showering in a

00:16:40.220 women's locker room leaving them traumatized here's what the report said a group of water polo players 0.93

00:16:45.640 from palm springs high school have gone public after they say they after they say they recently

00:16:51.040 encountered a naked man showering in the women's locker room area leaving them traumatized christine

00:16:56.300 foster a parent of a 17 year old senior on the team told kesq that her daughter and two teammates saw

00:17:02.780 the person as they entered the locker room after practice uh which took place at the palm springs swim

00:17:08.260 center which is operated by the city according to the report coaches confronted the person who told them

00:17:13.840 they were in the locker room because they identified as female so this article is using

00:17:20.000 they as this person's uh the pronouns police were called but did not pursue a case the city of palm

00:17:26.880 springs has now offered a temporary solution that will see the installation of a unisex shower near the

00:17:32.100 locker rooms at the swim center of course that is not going to solve that's not going to solve the

00:17:37.960 problem here because if someone if a man who says that he identifies as a woman

00:17:41.880 wants to truly be a woman and live life as a woman he is going to want to go into the woman's bathroom 1.00

00:17:47.660 even at the expense of young girls who don't want to shower next to a biological man and what i am

00:17:54.860 hearing is that that is bigoted that it's wrong for teenage girls to not want to shower by a naked man

00:18:02.220 just because he identifies as a woman i mean that's insane we have reached surely this is the peak of 0.98

00:18:07.880 insanity like surely right surely we can't get past this and so if merrick garland wants to talk about

00:18:13.940 the dignity and respect of people then that should also include women that should also include women

00:18:19.900 who deserve an even playing field when it comes to sports who deserve uh sex protected spaces when it 0.98

00:18:27.400 comes to bathrooms when it comes to locker rooms when it comes to prisons places in which women are 1.00

00:18:34.140 vulnerable um but that would require us to look at to look at human biology and to look at nature

00:18:41.920 and to look at the physical distinctions between men and women and that wrecks transgender ideology

00:18:48.960 if you are reading brave new world with us uh you will recall uh that science is manipulated and

00:18:59.720 science is seen as something that is enemy an enemy to ideology science is seen as something

00:19:05.100 that is very dangerous and has to actually be manipulated nature is something that has to be

00:19:12.040 manipulated has to be hidden has to be engineered in order to uh go after ideological aims and that's

00:19:20.640 certainly what we see with this kind of ideology and that's troubling when you think about justice and

00:19:26.400 the law being enforced if we want to treat everyone with dignity and respect you can treat transgender

00:19:31.900 people with dignity and respect absolutely and i think that we should and people who struggle with

00:19:37.000 gender dysphoria we should understand that those feelings are real for those who are truly diagnosed

00:19:42.040 with gender dysphoria they feel discomfort in their body we can show all the compassion all the dignity

00:19:47.340 all the respect in the world to those people but not at the expense of the safety of women and girls

00:19:54.320 and the fairness of women and girls to be able to compete on an even playing field and so it troubles

00:19:59.960 me that merrick garland uh was unable to answer this as obviously as he should have now i understand he's

00:20:07.100 in a hard position because you've got an entire political party in that room who actually believes

00:20:11.680 that it's totally fine for men to be able to go into women's locker rooms and to take showers next to

00:20:17.820 young girls no matter how uh no matter how humiliated no matter how traumatized those young girls may be

00:20:24.320 they would have i mean their ideology requires this uh for them not to have any problem whatsoever with

00:20:31.900 a grown man in a city bathroom or city building like this one in palm springs who identifies as a

00:20:38.180 woman hasn't had any surgery or anything like that but identifies as a woman going in and taking a shower 0.64

00:20:43.940 next to a 13 year old girl i mean they can't say that they have any problem with that because their

00:20:49.980 ideology says that trans women are women and so if you truly believe that then why would you have a 1.00

00:20:57.260 problem with something like that but for all sane people for all the people who still have our heads

00:21:03.480 screwed on hopefully for merrick garland like you can see the problem with that i mean that is in line

00:21:08.620 with assault forcing a young girl to stand next to a naked man in a locker room or in a bathroom or

00:21:16.880 uh in a shower space or in a prison or in a women's protection shelter and it troubles me that merrick

00:21:25.360 garland um is apparently on the fence on that and says that that is um that's a debatable and a difficult

00:21:33.380 question it's not a difficult question it's not a difficult question and if we were still in the land

00:21:40.000 of the same uh we would all be laughing at anyone who said that that was a difficult question

00:21:45.460 uh this is from theblaze.com uh chris pandolfo he says as attorney general garland will be the

00:21:52.640 attorney for the government in controversies where people sue in discrimination cases so if a girl

00:21:57.380 sues the school for letting boys play her sport presumably garland will argue in favor

00:22:01.820 um of the government's position on this which biden has made clear uh that boys should be able to

00:22:08.020 compete against girls in sports and so that's why in this regard his nomination and confirmation

00:22:14.720 matters that's why his view on this matters um and so unfortunately you're not getting a champion

00:22:20.600 for women and girls in merrick garland even though i think that he has some other good characteristics

00:22:24.740 you're not going to find him on the right side of that issue unfortunately and there's another issue

00:22:31.140 that i think he happens to just be confused about and that is the issue of equity and so we're going

00:22:36.040 to wade into some controversial waters we're going to talk about his exchange with tom cotton and why

00:22:40.900 he doesn't really understand what equity means and why we have to make sure that we understand what

00:22:45.920 equity means um it's not just equality under the law it's not just impartial treatment as we want it

00:22:51.740 to mean um it actually means something else and we need to make sure that we are uh very clear about

00:22:57.140 that so we understand how merrick garland how the attorney general will represent and enforce the law

00:23:02.740 when it comes to so-called racial equity all right now i want to talk about equity and uh tom cotton

00:23:15.500 and his exchange with merrick garland about this subject uh yes i think discrimination is morally

00:23:22.120 wrong absolutely you're aware that president biden has signed an executive order stating that his

00:23:26.500 administration will affirmatively advance racial equity not racial equality but racial equity

00:23:32.240 yes and i i read uh read the opening of that executive order which defines equity as the fair and

00:23:40.180 impartial treatment of every person uh without regard to their status so it's very important for us to

00:23:47.980 distinguish what equity actually what equity actually is because it does sound good i said something

00:23:55.020 about it on twitter a lot of people got mad they said that i misunderstand that someone that someone

00:24:00.340 must have hurt me because i don't understand equity i would actually posit that these people don't

00:24:05.040 understand equity and that they have just accepted a term that sounds good to them and have never

00:24:10.080 actually asked themselves what it means or what it looks like in practice um this is not equality before

00:24:15.360 the law i think traditionally it's meant uh being treated equally in the eyes of the law but once you

00:24:20.840 understand critical race theory and understand where this term um is being developed and and being

00:24:27.400 redefined and how it is being redefined you understand that equity actually means something

00:24:32.180 very different when progressives use it um equity is critical race speak for ensuring some people are

00:24:38.060 treated differently given preferential treatment to try to ensure that they end up in the same place

00:24:42.800 as other people now where am i getting this idea i'm getting this idea from people like ibram x kindy

00:24:47.600 and other critical race theorists like him racial equity is giving a certain kind of treatment to

00:24:53.280 non-white groups to try to ensure that they end up in the same place as white groups so to try to close 0.99

00:24:59.300 the outcome gaps between the two groups um kamala harris she put out a video i think it was the day

00:25:05.760 before the election uh where she said that equity means everyone ending up in the same place so it's not

00:25:13.760 just people starting out in the same place it's not just people being given equal opportunity but equity

00:25:18.760 according to kamala harris and other people who have her worldview is everyone ending up in the same

00:25:24.980 place and so critical race theorists mean that you have to give certain treatment towards one group that

00:25:31.820 they would say has been historically oppressed in order to lift them up you have to hold back another

00:25:36.400 group um so that you can make sure that everyone ends up uh the same of course there is a flaw to this

00:25:45.080 theory because of a few reasons it's based on the assumption uh that non-white people do not already

00:25:52.440 receive equal treatment under the law there are currently no laws on the books today that explicitly

00:25:58.640 discriminate against non-white people period there is no legalized discrimination against minority

00:26:04.660 groups in the united states in 2021 so in order to prove as critical race theorists believe that racism

00:26:11.960 in america is nonetheless still systemic and that therefore the system must be changed in order to

00:26:17.740 make things fair and quote equitable for everyone activists then like ibromax kindy have to point to

00:26:24.240 disparities between groups to then prove that the system that is in place its laws its function is still

00:26:30.220 racist because as ibromax kindy argues regardless of a policy's intent if it allows for or creates

00:26:38.200 gaps between racial groups it is in fact racist so to be anti-racist he posits to achieve so-called

00:26:46.660 equity which means to make sure there are no longer any gaps between white americans and black or brown

00:26:52.760 americans it's not enough just to have equal treatment under the law but the system much must actually

00:26:58.140 be be tilted and changed in the direction of those who have been historically oppressed black americans in

00:27:04.820 order to rectify the past wrongs against them that supposedly are causing the outcome gaps today i hope

00:27:11.980 you're following so to summarize uh the critical race theory argument is america is pervasively racist

00:27:17.900 it's white supremacist that is the reason for the gaps and for example high school graduation rates

00:27:23.700 income crime rates home ownership etc between white and black americans these gaps prove the white

00:27:30.020 supremacist system and that has been historically and unceasingly rigged against black and brown americans

00:27:37.380 and in order to right this wrong in order to not just be not racist which would mean treating everyone

00:27:42.820 equally what we traditionally understand equity to be but to be anti-racist to achieve new fangled uh racial equity

00:27:51.900 there must be different treatment of whites and non-whites in for example admissions hiring processes

00:27:57.540 perhaps sentencing uh even curriculum as we've seen in so-called equitable math courses in which

00:28:03.660 non-white students are told that finding the right answer to math problems is unnecessary in order to

00:28:09.000 help them pass math classes and close that success gap and if that sounds bigoted if that sounds

00:28:14.900 ridiculous if that sounds absurd to you that's because it is that is the soft bigotry of low expectations

00:28:20.900 and if all of that um sounds like it is based on a faulty premise that's because it is and the faulty

00:28:28.080 premise is that disparities between two groups is due to discrimination and injustice when that's not

00:28:34.660 automatically and always and unconditionally necessarily true we've talked about this many

00:28:39.940 times on this podcast as thomas soul writes about in his book discrimination and disparities and quest for

00:28:45.200 cosmic justice there's two different books disparities do not automatically prove discrimination

00:28:50.880 and assuming they do actually causes us to miss the variety of other factors that could be coming

00:28:57.380 into play that cause one group for example to have higher uh employment or higher graduation rates

00:29:03.340 and so once we realize this we very easily dismantle the entire argument that the playing field has to be

00:29:11.020 tipped in favor of one group and out of favor or in disfavor of another group in order to close gaps and

00:29:17.060 achieve so-called newfangled equity which is kamala harris said means everyone ending up in the same

00:29:23.560 place thomas soul says this in the 2015 article equality before the law is a fundamental value in a

00:29:30.020 decent society but equality of treatment in no way guarantees equality of outcomes on the contrary

00:29:37.160 equality of treatment makes equality of outcomes unlikely since virtually nobody is equal to somebody else

00:29:44.340 in a whole range of skills and capabilities required in real life when it comes to performance the same

00:29:50.140 man may not even be equal to himself on different days much less a different periods of his life so soul

00:29:56.580 is saying that everyone being treated equally under the law is necessary it's good i agree with that

00:30:02.140 obviously anywhere that we see that's not happening we do have an obligation to say something that would be

00:30:07.560 a definition of injustice especially according to god's word god hates partiality he hates the playing

00:30:14.080 field to be tipped in the direction of one group or another he wants everyone to be treated impartially

00:30:19.860 under the law he reiterates that in both the old and the new testament but equal outcomes is never

00:30:27.000 guaranteed and it's not something that we can fairly guarantee we shouldn't try to guarantee it because

00:30:32.260 people are different if two uh if two siblings from the same family same background same parents same

00:30:38.760 education same upbringing same socioeconomic status if two siblings end up in different places in

00:30:44.880 different stations in life how in the world is it possible for a third party the government to

00:30:49.660 guarantee that people from entirely different backgrounds with totally different talents and

00:30:54.060 interests and choices and dna end up in the same place you can't you cannot guarantee that unless you are

00:31:00.500 constantly tipping the playing field in one direction or another in order to try to make sure no one

00:31:05.900 succeeds more than anyone else in order to create this so-called equity everyone ending up in the same place

00:31:12.400 what thomas soul calls impossible cosmic justice and trying to ensure that everyone is constantly in the

00:31:20.620 same place despite their interests despite their choices despite what path they take is impossible outside of

00:31:27.520 tyranny uh thomas soul argues elsewhere that you'll notice every attempt at equal outcomes ends in what he calls

00:31:34.600 equality downward it is impossible to force people upward and to keep them there it is only possible to force people

00:31:40.680 downward um an example of this is san diego schools getting rid of the traditional grading scale

00:31:46.600 everyone is then held to a lower standard rather uh than giving the struggling students the tools to reach the

00:31:54.580 higher standard uh the the problem with this is let me give you another example so if everyone today

00:32:00.780 just had zero dollars they had zero dollars we didn't have any property to our name and the government

00:32:05.200 then gave everyone thirty thousand dollars and then said do what you will by next year we would have

00:32:11.400 millionaires and we would have people who are broken in debt so what would you then have to do to

00:32:17.060 rectify this gap and make everything even again you would have to take money from the people who have money

00:32:22.020 and give it to the people that don't have money and you would constantly be having to do this

00:32:26.540 uh until everyone was the same over and over and over again people's circumstances are different their

00:32:33.720 choices are different so trying to force everyone to end up in the same place this new definition of

00:32:38.880 equity requires unequal treatment because the state is going to have to continually punish those who get

00:32:44.740 too far ahead and they'll justify it by saying all disparities are actually due to discrimination and

00:32:50.480 therefore disparities must be closed to achieve so-called equity the reality is what we know about

00:32:57.780 human nature what we know about people what we know about societies these things have been studied for

00:33:03.400 a very long time we know that fatherhood family faith all of these things have a much bigger impact

00:33:08.760 in the united states in 2021 on where a child ends up in life than probably any other factor

00:33:15.220 so every study shows us that the child who grows up in a family with a mom and a dad has a lower chance

00:33:21.500 of dropping out of high school getting pregnant as a teenager being depressed or suicidal turning to

00:33:26.160 drugs or becoming incarcerated as a teen than the child who grows up uh with a single mom for example

00:33:31.920 that's not bashing single moms moms are awesome whether they're single moms or whether they're stay-at-home 1.00

00:33:36.760 moms or whatever you know mom you are moms are amazing i'm not trying to bash that or denigrate that in

00:33:42.460 any way but that's what the studies show that fathers matter moms also matter kids of two parent homes 1.00

00:33:48.660 are likely statistically to avoid poverty to avoid teen pregnancy to avoid teen incarceration at a higher

00:33:57.600 rate at least than those who are in a single parent home we know that the two of the best uh ways to avoid 1.00

00:34:03.680 prolonged poverty according to the brookings institute is graduating from high school and waiting until after

00:34:09.400 you get married to have kids i know that's not how life goes for a lot of people and they end up um

00:34:15.700 great and and fine and okay and that is good and i know that's not easy for a lot of people i'm not

00:34:21.340 trying to say that it is uh but again that's what the studies show that's what the statistics show that

00:34:27.300 these are the the most uh most sure ways to be able to avoid prolonged poverty my point is that if we assume

00:34:37.180 that all disparities then are just due to discrimination they're just due to an unfair

00:34:41.900 system or racism we miss other more pressing factors at play and then we end up offering the

00:34:48.600 wrong solutions because we've diagnosed the wrong problem we end up bringing the government uh into

00:34:53.600 situations where the government really doesn't uh it can't help it doesn't have the resources to be

00:34:59.800 able to rectify these wrongs when we don't even bother to look at some of the other issues going on

00:35:05.040 that need our attention people are going to continue to suffer that doesn't mean that racism doesn't

00:35:11.480 exist that doesn't mean that some gaps aren't due to discrimination or that discrimination in 2021 in

00:35:17.620 america is impossible or that it should be ignored where it does happen but i am saying that the aims of

00:35:23.600 anti-racist racial equity are very often misguided because they're driven by critical race theory which

00:35:29.660 asserts america is pervasively systemically racist and white supremacist and that this uh must be

00:35:35.900 rectified by the government to achieve justice and it's just not true as we've talked about to make

00:35:44.280 the argument to make that particular argument you have to conveniently leave out that asian americans

00:35:49.560 enjoy the highest median income the lowest unemployment rates the lowest crime rates highest college

00:35:55.820 graduation rates lowest rate of single parent households asian have the asians have the lowest

00:36:00.800 uh denial rates for mortgage loans in the country and so if this were truly just a white supremacist

00:36:08.160 society that punishes people who are not white or punishes it or punishes immigrants or is a system

00:36:14.760 that is set up to only allow white people to succeed you're going to have to answer uh for why 0.52

00:36:20.920 asian americans even immigrant asian americans are typically more successful across a variety of

00:36:26.260 factors than white americans are but of course that is inconvenient to the critical race theory

00:36:31.840 narrative in uh that seeks to uh find racial equity through contriving a variety of factors so that

00:36:40.340 everyone ends up in the same place by um you know by getting rid of white supremacy that they claim

00:36:48.260 is uh systemic and so this matters this matters when we're talking about the enforcement of justice

00:36:56.080 this matters when we're talking about the enforcement of the law and i'm not sure that merrick garland

00:37:01.100 is totally woke enough to be able to understand how the definition of equity has changed we all agree with

00:37:07.720 the definition of equity that says people should be treated impartially people should be treated fairly

00:37:12.780 that we should all get equal treatment the problem is what this actually looks like like do you

00:37:18.120 believe that affirmative action is a form of equity do you believe that some traditionally quote

00:37:23.280 privileged groups like white americans or asian americans need to be discriminated against

00:37:28.300 in order to achieve equity in order to achieve equality well that's going to be a problem because a lot of

00:37:33.940 people don't agree with that and rightly so if we just agree in enforcing the law and treating everyone 1.00

00:37:40.100 equally that i'm completely on board with that and anywhere that's not happening we should absolutely

00:37:45.920 call out uncover and we should fix i am 100 on board with that but if by equity you mean tilting the

00:37:53.280 playing field continually in certain directions until everyone ends up in the same place well then

00:37:58.280 i have a problem with that because you don't understand human nature you don't understand what

00:38:02.720 the real problems are and you don't understand what the real goal is the goal should not be that

00:38:06.560 everyone ends up in the same place but that everyone is provided um with as much opportunity as

00:38:12.500 possible to be able to achieve the things that they want to believe or want to achieve and that

00:38:17.340 they are able to achieve that is not guaranteed that people are going to end up in the same place at

00:38:21.620 all there's still going to be gaps between individuals that's just how things are everyone

00:38:26.740 is different as we have already discussed and so um i think that's something that we need to watch

00:38:31.720 out for we already know that the biden administration um is fixated on critical race theory they have

00:38:37.920 undone anything that um the that president trump tried to do in getting rid of critical race theory

00:38:44.400 and tax funded agencies um and certainly we have seen the kind of critical race language coming out

00:38:51.960 of his administration and i think that we can't expect this kind of tilting of the playing field in

00:38:58.360 the hopes of making sure everyone ends up in the same place of course that's always been the goal of

00:39:02.880 communism and socialism as well and it just it doesn't end well it doesn't end well

00:39:07.340 and so those are the things that i think that we need to uh look out for like i said this matters

00:39:13.300 because justice matters because truth matters because the rule of law matters i am not entirely

00:39:18.460 terrified by this pick for attorney general i do think that he will do the bidding of the democrats

00:39:23.580 i do think that he is left-leaning ideologically and so there are things to conservatives that we should

00:39:29.360 uh that we should certainly care about um but i'm glad it's not andrew cuomo i'm glad it's not

00:39:35.540 stacy abrams i'm glad it's not a whole host of very radical people that he could have picked um

00:39:41.520 you know he is closer to the center than some nominees certainly or potential nominees could

00:39:47.420 have been and so it's not the it's not the worst news in the world and i kind of i wish all of his

00:39:54.120 nominees were like this and fit into this category unfortunately um unfortunately they don't so he will

00:40:00.120 get confirmed but we need to pay attention we need to make sure that we're looking out for some of

00:40:04.500 these issues that as conservatives and particularly as conservative christians we are concerned about

00:40:09.840 all right that's all i got today tomorrow we are going to talk about ravi zacharias we are going to

00:40:15.040 talk about carl lintz we are going to talk about some other christian leaders i think max lucado as well

00:40:21.960 who a lot of people a lot of people are disappointed in um in uh quite a few of our christian leaders

00:40:29.220 right now and so we're going to take a look at some of these uh so-called you know scandals and

00:40:34.180 some of them really are scandals and we're going to look at some of this controversy and we're going

00:40:38.340 to talk about how we work through this from a biblical perspective and how christians should

00:40:43.340 think about it so we'll be back here tomorrow with all of that i'll see you guys then

00:40:47.380 you

00:40:52.340 you

00:40:56.340 you

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - February 23, 2021

Ep 374 ｜ Merrick Garland's Troubling Views on Gender and Equity

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