Elie Mystal Retorts (He Asked!): ‘BradCast’ 3/18/2022

It’s NICOLE SANDLER back as today’s guest host on the BradCast. [Audio link to full show is below.]

My guest today is ELIE MYSTAL, Justice Correspondent for The Nation, and author of the new book, Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution.

Elie’s point is quite logical. He says that Constitution was written by a bunch of white men for white men. He was not only not who they meant when they wrote ‘All men are created equal’ as that document specifies that men who had the same melanin in their skin as he has are considered to be 3/5 of a person. And women? Well, we didn’t count at all apparently (and still don’t, as it’s 2022 and we still don’t have an amendment proclaiming us equal!)

He says his goal was to “expose what the Constitution looks like from the vantage of a person it was designed to ignore,” and that he does.

As for the idea that the Amendments fixed the problems in that flawed document, Elie points out that the Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments, were what the video gamer community would call a ‘day one patch.’ They were demanded in order to get the votes needed to pass. But they were written by the same white guys who wrote the original, who he says “didn’t think they were actually necessary but did it to placate political interests.”

As is always the case with Elie, it was a fascinating, energetic conversation.

In the last segment, I introduce you to Tanya. She and her husband own the Friends Forever Hostel in Kyiv, Ukraine. I met her on Feb 28, when I called in my quest to find a Ukrainian citizen to talk to who spoke decent English.

We’ve been ‘talking’ ever since over the Telegram app, and have become friends, thousands of miles and a world apart. I find it easier to wrap my head around worrying about a specific person than the 43 million+ population of Ukraine. I share her odyssey with you. And for one person, a happy ‘intermission,’ as this tragedy is far from over…

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