[Paul:] Thirty minutes past the hour right now. And a Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced a state patrol trooper has been arrested and charged with felony murder. Twenty-seven-year- old Jacob Gordon Thompson was arrested Friday. He was fired after shooting Julian Roosevelt Lewis, a black man. This happened during an attempted traffic stop.
[Blackwell:] This happened on August 7th. And on Friday, Lewis's widow spoke during a vigil.
[Betty Lewis, Julian Lewis Widow:] My soul mate was gone. And I wish that on nobody. Nobody. That nobody feel the loneliness, won't be loved, you can't I couldn't cuddle with me. Not this one. It will not be swept under the rug. Not this one.
[Blackwell:] Well, the National Urban League has released the annual report on African-Americans and this year, listen, there is a global pandemic that's disproportionately affecting black people and nationwide protests calling for criminal and social justice reform. The state of black America 2020 unmasked says this in part, our reporting reveals that common denominator in the alarming and disproportionate ratio of black people left gasping for air in emergency rooms and at the hands of law enforcement centuries of systemic racism. Joining me now to talk about the report is president and CEO of the National Urban League, Marc Morial. Marc, welcome back.
[Marc Morial, Ceo, National Urban League:] Good morning, Victor. Thank you for having me.
[Blackwell:] So let me start here. You know, there is an old adage that outdates you and me that when white folks catch a cold black people get pneumonia and now we have a pandemic. And we know it was disproportionate and the impact and the pending recovery, I think what you reveal in this report is really striking.
[Morial:] Well, before COVID, our index showed that the status of African-Americans was 73 percent that of white. Post-COVID, in the COVID environment, we're dealing with three tsunamis. The tsunami of the COVID disease, the tsunami of the economy decline, and the tsunami of racial justice. This is what we're facing, and this is and this is what our report reveals. These declined are deep, as many as 40 percent of black businesses may not make it through this economic crisis. The black unemployment rate now, victor, is as high as it was during the Reagan recession. So it hasn't been this high since a Reagan recession of the early 1980s and if tips just a few points higher, we'll be at great depression levels. And what need I say to racial justice. You just reported on yet another shooting in Georgia of an unarmed black man. This is a crisis of significant dimensions and our report doesn't want to candy coat it or varnish it but call it out. We're facing a deep crisis, yes, as a nation and black Americans candidly are catching hell.
[Blackwell:] Let me bring you in on this conversation we've been having this morning about the postal service and the removal of boxes and what Democrats are accusing the president of interfering or at least trying to. What will be, what is expected to be the impact on those urban communities, black voters and Latino voters, let's say include them in the conversation?
[Morial:] Let's say this, Victor, the crisis we see with the post office is a manmade crisis, a crisis perhaps orchestrated by a single man, the president of the United States, to undermine, this is unprecedented in American history, it is so wrong that there is not a single or a scintilla of justification for what occurred. It is going to affect anyone across the board but the especially vulnerable for health and safety reasons, transportation reasons, reasons that they have to work on Election Day want to avail themselves of voting by mail, it could be devastating. Congress should step in. The courts should step in. And American democracy is on the line. The American people are not going to tolerate an election that is rigged because their access to the ballot box has been thwarted by candidate, the president of the United States, this is extremely outrageous. The other thing I would add, the good men and women of the postal service, the letter carriers, the postal workers who are hard working, they are delivering medicine, they're delivering credit cards, they're delivering checks, with few, few errors every day, should not have credibility undermined by these baseless and evidence-less attacks.
[Blackwell:] Yeah, you know, the virtue of the post office is that it touches everyone. They'll go to the far out rural location just as in the dense areas in the city. Marc Morial, presidentCEO of the National Urban League, thanks so much for your time.
[Morial:] Thanks for having me.
[Blackwell:] And I want to tweet out because I want people to read this thread that said the threat of racism is actually a national security issue. I think people should look into that and it is in the report. Marc Morial, good to have you.
[Morial:] The reports at NUL.org.
[Blackwell:] All right. Thank you, sir.
[Morial:] Thanks.
[Paul:] Definitely checking that out. So let me post this to you. If you like to swim in the ocean, our next guest says are you afraid to sharks because you don't need to be. That he parentally, he said, could be just like a family pet.
[Unidentified Female:] In fact, it's very much like your dog swimming up to give you a kiss. It's the same kind of creature.
[Paul:] People, you've got to convince me. We'll talk about it.