ellisconversations's podcast

In this episode, the hosts discuss why general protocols and algorithms aimed at COVID-19 have the potential to negatively impact healthcare outcomes in uninsured and under-insured communities of color. Myths about Black physical characteristics persist, even among medical students: Black skin is thicker; Blacks are more tolerant of pain; Blacks have stronger immune systems.  As medical triage bec...

In this episode, the hosts discuss the critical role which subjective observations play during initial encounters with law enforcement.  Combined with legal rules which allow officers to "tailor" testimony, this subjectivity has had negative impacts on groups perceived as suspects, and caused tensions between police and minority communities. A violent first encounter for a young black man - https:...

In this episode, the hosts discuss the critical role which subjective observations play during initial encounters with law enforcement.  Combined with legal rules which allow officers to "tailor" testimony, this subjectivity has had negative impacts on groups perceived as suspects, and caused tensions between police and minority communities. A violent first encounter for a young black man - https:...

In this episode, the hosts discuss the critical role which subjective observations play during initial encounters with law enforcement.  Combined with legal rules which allow officers to "tailor" testimony, this subjectivity has had negative impacts on groups perceived as suspects, and caused tensions between police and minority communities. A violent first encounter for a young black man - https:...

Photo by Matt Popovich on Unsplash EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, the hosts begin a series of discussions on the Criminal Justice System. This introduction looks at the historical, philosophical, and societal factors which combine to tip the scales at multiple stages. From arrest to post-conviction, poor and minority individuals find it hard to avoid being dragged in – and even harder to escape....

EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, the hosts discuss the aftermath of the Supreme Court's Shelby County case (which gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act) and what policies and practices pose a present and future danger to the fundamental right to vote - voter roll purges, voter ID laws, false narratives of voter fraud. A FEW KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE   To download the transcript,  CLICK H...

Image above from LBJ Presidential Library EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, the hosts discuss the continuing struggle to make the right to vote meaningful for Black Americans. The Voting Rights Act provides a solid legal foundation for access to the ballot, but barriers such as racial gerrymandering and other voter dilution schemes continue to pose obstacles to full participation in the political p...

  EPISODE SUMMARY Violence, intimidation, and murder were not enough. In this episode, the hosts discuss how southern states used legal structures post Reconstruction to nullify rights embodied in the Fifteenth Amendment. White primaries, poll taxes, literacy tests, and other "legal" policies worked to virtually eliminate Black Americans from the voting rolls. A FEW KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE...

EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, the hosts discuss the pre- and post-Civil War resistance to granting empowerment at the ballot box, both in the North and the South; ranging from legal restrictions and social animus to intimidation, violence and murder. A FEW KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE To download the transcript,  CLICK HERE LINKS IN THIS EPISODE CLICK HERE TO LEAVE FEEDBACK Follow Ellis Conv...

Photo by Nadine Shaabana EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, the hosts explore how historical incidents of violence against Black communities (such as the Tulsa and Rosewood massacres) are lost, minimized, or sanitized when the narrative is controlled by persons who place less value on the lives of people in those communities. A FEW KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE The realities of eugenics and massac...

In this episode, the hosts discuss how beliefs that certain groups are inferior and less desirable components of the American Dream fostered the Eugenics movement in the U.S.; justified legal support for slavery, Jim Crow,  and forced sterilization; and influenced U.S. policies on immigration, government programs, and criminal law enforcement. https://ellisconversations.tumblr.com

 In this episode, the hosts discuss how racial profiling increases contact with law enforcement and the possibility of incarceration, thus causing harm to the social, psychological, and economic interest of targeted communities. Specific examples include a manhunt in Oneonta, New York, and the Bloomberg Administration's Stop and Frisk policy.

Poverty, race, and suspect classifications: The hosts begin conversations about how non-racial classifications or even classifications neutral on their face, can have negative impacts on discernible groups; how the courts have taken a hands-off approach; and why this approach deprives individuals in those groups of the equal protection of the laws.

EPISODE SUMMARY Fifty years after the Kerner Commission warned that we were heading toward two separate and unequal nations, America's cities remain largely segregated. In this episode, the hosts discuss how federal and local governments encouraged, supported, and mandated race-conscious programs and policies that hindered efforts at integration. A FEW KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE Housing and s...

The conversation in this episode explores how a transactional approach can affect outcomes. Pointing to court decisions and events in the news, the hosts raise questions concerning the values that decision makers bring to an issue. When transactions are made for the "greater good," the truth is that the solution to the equation depends on who pays the consequences.

In this podcast, Jamil Ellis talks with his father, retired Federal Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis, about the historical role of law in shaping the societal structures which act as barriers to attaining the American dream. They discuss why "legal" is not a synonym for "moral" and why law, a prime actor in creating the problems, can and should be a part of the solution. Join them as they talk about...