Listeners Talk Back

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MICHEL MARTIN, host:

And now, it's time for Back Talk, where we lift the curtain on conversations happening on the Tell Me More blog, and get a chance to hear from you. Douglas Hopper, our web producer joins me in the studio. Hey, Douglas, what is up?

DOUGLAS HOPPER: Hey, Michel. well first off, we got dozens of messages about your conversation with Atlanta Judge, Marvin Arrington. A couple of weeks ago, he asked the white people in his courtroom to step out, so he could talk to African-American defendants about their behavior. Here he is.

Judge MARVIN ARRINGTON (Atlanta): And I just simply said to them, you need to govern yourself accordingly, you need to get in school, you need to learn a trade, you learn how to do something that is constructive, so that you can be a better youth.

HOPPER: Well, did he do the right thing? Some listeners said, absolutely. Here is a listener that applauded the judge.

Unidentified Person: I do not know him, but I want to tell him, and tell the world, he did what was necessary, and right, and God will bless him, and the people that he spoke to will hear, not all of them, but they will definitely change.

HOPPER: But there were those who disagreed. Here's a listener who thought there was no need to even debate about the question of whether Judge Arrington did the right thing.

Unidentified Person: If it had not been a white judge that kicked the black people out, you all wouldn't have been having a polite conversation with him. You would have been castigated him and you would have had experts on there talking about what sort of devil he was. That is a terrible double standard, if it was OK for the black judge to do it, it is not OK for the white judge to do it and that is not cool.

MARTIN: Now, I hope you will forgive me, but I have to push back a little bit on this. I believe and I hope that I am polite to everybody on this program. I do not think we would be castigating any of these guests, because that is not what we do, but I take your point that you wish that I had, or that somebody had, but we thank you for that comment, and really thanks to everybody who offered comments. Put us on speed dial. And I hear there is also some talk about the segment we did about the documentary on natural causes, which looked at the possibility that the stress of racism and poverty can take a toll on one's physical health.

HOPPER: Yes, that story really touched a nerve for some listeners. Some thought the premise was ridiculous. Actually, Stanley Cobb was one of them. He wrote in saying people need to take responsibility for themselves. Here is what he said, the people who put this phone series together might better serve the communities in question by implementing diets, or distributing food coupons, instead of coming up with ridiculous instances of racism.

MARTIN: Did anybody take a different view?

HOPPER: Definitely, we got quite a few comments from listeners who thought it was totally on point, and they were grateful to hear the connection being made between racism and health. (Unintelligible) who happens to download our podcasts from New Delhi, India said it goes far beyond mental stress. It is also about what is at the grocery store.

Unidentified Caller: Fast, fried, and processed food are cheap and easy, while healthier foods are costlier, and harder to come by and time consuming to prepare. Race and class matters, and this is systematic.

MARTIN: All right, (unintelligible), thank you for that, and thank you for tuning in all the way in New Delhi. We love it.

HOPPER: All right, that is it for today, but the comments are already coming in about our roundtable, about how the media has reported on race, and the way that it has factored into the presidential campaign, so stay tuned for that next week.

MARTIN: Oh, thank you, Douglas.

HOPPER: Thank you.

MARTIN: We appreciate all of your comments and insights. If you want to get in the mix, visit nrp.org/tellmemore. You can also call our comment line at 202-842-3522. Again, that is 202-842-3522 and blog it out.

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