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The March, The Map, and the Med Schools · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Thousands marched in Selma and Montgomery over the weekend, calling
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: for action on voting rights.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: I don't know if this country deserves black people, but
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: That you need us.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: The US Supreme Court rejected Virginia's last appeal to withdraw
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: its congressional map.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: The voices of upwards to three million Virginians are at
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: this point being disregarded for procedural issues, and the.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Justice Department is going after medical schools for racial discrimination.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: Medical care is intimate, and people like to be cared
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: for by somebody who's like them.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, May eighteenth, from the Black Effects Podcast Network.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I'm Mimi Brown. This is Front page Plus today on
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the Monday Brief. What to watch this week From your
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: wallet to the gas pump. Stay with me. Black voters
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: are not way for the courts to save them. Over
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the weekend, thousands of people gathered in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to kick off what organizers are calling a sustained summer
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: of organizing, voter mobilization, civic education, and direct action leading
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: into the November midterms. The rally was called All Roads
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Lead to the South, and it came after a month
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of stunning setbacks for voting rights. The Supreme courts gutted
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the Voting Rights Act, Tennessee carved up Memphis, Alabama eliminated
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a black held seat, and Louisiana is redrawing its map.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Organizers say the answer to all of it was Saturday,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and across.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: These states, black people hold tremendous political power, social power,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: and capital. And when we deploy it in a targeted
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: way saying that we want our rights and we are
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: going to stand up together united in this moment, we
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: will be able to win.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: More than one hundred buses came in across the country.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Several thousand people gathered in Selma. They walked across the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Edmund Pettis Bridge, the same bridge where in nineteen sixty
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: five state troopers attacked civil rights marchers on bloody Sunday.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: All rights under attacked and I wanted to make sure
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: that my twelve year old got to experience what they
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: experienced in nineteen sixty eight.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: This is the closest will come to it.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, we shouldn't even have to be back here, but
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: we are back here.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Then in the afternoon, they reconvened in Montgomery for rally.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: We can not under state of Alabama.
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: They talk about my boat not gonna matter, but why
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: the hell are they working so hard.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: To take it away?
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: This is a civic cult call for who understand that
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: faith without works is dead.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: The march was the kickoff. The midterms are six months away,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and organizers say what happened Saturday was just the beginning
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of a summer push and they have hundreds of partner
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: organizations lined up for follow up events between now and November.
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: We will not be intimidated. We will not go back,
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: but we're not gonna you know, we're gonna accept these
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: things lying now. We're gonna rise up as a new movement.
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: Is say the civil rights movement has happened right now
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: and this is our Salma Montgomery, time to stand up
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: for our people.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration's response so far, at least publicly, has
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: been silenced. If you've been keeping score on how Democrats
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: plan to push back against all the redistricting battles happening
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: across the country, Alabama wasn't the only front this weekend.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: While organizers were marching in Selma and Montgomery, Virginia, Democrats
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: were fighting through the courts. On Friday, the US Supreme
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Court refused to revive a new congressional map that millions
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: of Virginia voters had already approved at the ballot box.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: The proposed map would have added up to four Democratic
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: leaning House seats, and it was seen as a counter
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to Republican led map changes we've been seeing in states
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: like Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana. But earlier this month, Virginia
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruled the process violated the state's constitution because
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: lawmakers finalized part of the amendment after early voting had
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: already started. Virginia's attorney general asked the US Supreme Court
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to step in. The Court said, no, Virginia lawmakers are
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: reacting to the decision.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: The voices of upwards of three million Virginians are at
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: this point being disregarded for procedural issues. I think we
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: are disappointed with non surprise in terms of the United
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: States Supreme Court decision, looking at their track record as
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: well as their composition. At this point, the justification behind
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: while we're doing what we're doing, I think has only
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: been further amplified by the actions in other states across
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the South to disenfranchised black voters.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: So now Virginia heads into the next election under the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: same congressional map it had already had no new districts,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: no at its seats, and no shift in the balance
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: of power. It's Monday, which means it's time for the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: front page Monday Brief. Every Monday, I give you a
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: quick look at three stories worth keeping your eye on
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: this week, the stuff that could hit your money, your schedule,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: your household, or just the conversations everybody's about to be having.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Here's what's on the radar this week. Some PlayStation users
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: could be getting paid. A federal court just gave preliminary
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: approval to a nearly eight million dollars settlement involving Sony.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: If you bought digital gain vouchers through the PlayStation store
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three, you could be
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: eligible for compensation, either through your PlayStation wallet or a
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: check in the mail. Gas prices are climbing again heading
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: into the summer travel season. The national average is now
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: above four dollars and fifty cents a gallon, With tensions
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: in the Middle East pushing oil prices higher, and despite
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: the US producing a ton of oil, the global market
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: still largely decides what you pay at the pump. So
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: this week, keep an eye out on anything involving Iran
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: oil or shipping routes overseas. The housing market is stuck
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: right now. There are way more homes sitting on in
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the market than serious buyers ready to purchase them. Mortgage
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: rates are still close to seven percent. Sellers do not
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: want to lower prices, and buyers are saying they simply
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: cannot afford what's out there. That's your Monday brief. Have
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: you ever wished your doctor looked a little more like you.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: If the answer is yes, this next story is why
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: that's getting a little harder. The Trump administration just opened
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: a new front in its fight against diversity and higher education.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: This time is not about who gets into college. It's
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: about who gets to become a doctor. The US Department
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: of Justice just sent a letter to Yale School of Medicine.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: The letter accused YELLE of illegally discriminating against applicants who
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: are not black or Hispanic. The same DOJ sent the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: same letter to the Medical School at UCLA. In both cases,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the Justice Department is pointing to differences and test scores
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: between admitted students at YEAS and UCLA white and Asian
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  Speaker 1: students who were admitted scored on average about five to
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  Speaker 1: seven points higher on the MCAT than black and Hispanic
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: students who were also admitted. The DOJ says though score
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: gaps are evidence that race is still influencing emissions decisions,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: but Yale and UCLA strongly disagree. Both schools say becoming
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a doctor should be about more than just one test,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and they maintain their admissions processes are rigorous, realistic, and legal.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: The twenty twenty three Supreme Court ruling and Students for
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Fear Admissions versus Harvard ended affirmative action and college admissions
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: schools across the country had to find new ways to
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: evaluate applicants without considering race directly. Most medical schools responded
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: by going holistic. That means they started looking at IMCAT
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: scores and interviews, work experience, community service, empathy, and whether
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: you can actually sit in a room with a sick
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: patient and explain what's going on. Some schools even adopted
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: a separate exam called Preview test to measure situational judgment,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and research has shown that patients who see doctors of
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the same race also have better health outcomes, better trust,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: better follow up, better information shared.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: As you know, there are different health outcomes for different communities,
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: for women, for men, for people with black, white, Hispanic challenge,
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: and what have you. Because medical care is intimate and
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: people like to be cared for by somebody who's liked them,
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: and with so few black doctors, many people think that
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: that's contributed to poor health outcomes, preventable diseases. And the
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: most stark stasistic is that black male life expectancy the
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: ultimate health is six years shorter than the rest of
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: the population.
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  Speaker 1: And that's been one of the central arguments for diversifying
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the physician workforce for decades. But here's where this gets concerning.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Since the twenty twenty three Harvard ruling, medical schools have
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: already seen less diversity. One study found the share of
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: underrepresented applicants emitted dropped from twenty four percent before the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: ruling to twenty percent after. The Trump administration's argument is
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: that medical schools using holistic emissions are using race as
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  Speaker 1: a hidden factor. The DJ has called the preview tests
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  Speaker 1: quote a proxy for race. If schools look at empathy
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: or community engagement and the result is more black or
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Hispanic doctors getting in the administration says that's discrimination too,
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  Speaker 1: which puts medical schools at an impossible position. That's your
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: front page. I'm me Me Brown. Follow me at Mimi
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Brown TV. This podcast was brought to you by The
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  Speaker 1: Black Effect Podcast Network