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Life & Times Transcript
05/09/06 Coverage of Town Hall Los Angeles speakers on Life and Times is made possible by a grant from the Boeing Company. Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Where do Blacks stand on the illegal immigration question? Are they losing jobs to undocumented workers? Anthony Cross>> If you go downtown or if you go to the airport and these hotels which are union jobs, the majority of the employees are Hispanic. The people who serve you, the people who carry your bags, the people who clean your rooms. Those are decent paying jobs that people will use. Val Zavala>> And then, Life and Times commentator, Cris Franco, looks at one of life's biggest tests. Those stories and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> They say illegal immigrants take jobs away from Americans and no one should be more sensitive to that than African American communities who have high unemployment rates. So would they be willing to join one of the more militant anti-immigrant groups? Well, recently they had their chance and Anne McDermott was there. Anne McDermott>> This was one reaction to the arrival of the Minutemen Project from Leimert Park. >> "KKK, go home!" Anne McDermott>> Leimert Park is a largely African American neighborhood south of downtown. The Minutemen Project is a group formed to beef up the border patrol's efforts to keep out or catch illegal immigrants. [Film Clip] Anne McDermott>> But this was no invasion by the Minutemen. On the contrary, they came to invite Blacks to join their fight against illegal immigration and Minutemen Project board member, Marvin Stewart, explained why. Marvin Stewart>> "We have a crisis in this nation here that prefers anybody else over the Black community in this nation who is not a citizen of this nation. You don't have no rights in this nation. You must get in the back of the line." Anne McDermott>> This was the kickoff of a cross-country caravan to Washington, D.C. to gain support for tougher border control. Some cheered, some jeered. >> "Out of our community!" Anne McDermott>> And then there were others like long-time Leimert Park resident, Anthony Cross, who isn't sure where he stands on the issue. He can see both sides. Anthony Cross>> I don't think you can go anywhere else, in any other country, and not be a citizen of that country, of that nation, and demand that you be given rights. But if we go a little deeper, there's a reason why this place is called Los Angeles, San Pedro, El Segundo Boulevard, Pico Boulevard. When we start talking about people going back home, we have to go a little deeper than the surface about what is truly illegal and what was taken from whom. Anne McDermott>> The Minutemen are more concerned with the here and now and see African Americans as natural allies. Their reasoning? Illegal immigrants take jobs away from Blacks and that should be an incentive, they say, for African Americans to join them in their efforts to stop the flow of illegals. But from the Black perspective, things are not that simple. Fred Booker>> They are hard-working people. Anne McDermott>> Over at Tolliver's Barbershop near the intersection of Florence and Normandie, there's a fair amount of sympathy for illegal immigrants and all the hard work they do. Fred Booker knows hard work. He was a sharecropper's son who worked the fields instead of going to school, so he didn't learn to read and write until he was fourteen years old. Now he's a lieutenant with the LAPD. Fred Booker>> Come on, I think any of us in this room here would gladly walk across if we were trying to provide for our families. We want a better life. Come on now, what do you expect them to do? Just stay there and look across the lines and say, "No, I'm not coming"? Lawrence Tolliver>> You're right because this is just a sad commentary of the state of Mexico. They're willing to die to get over here to work. Not die to get over here to find money on the ground, but to die to come do hard work. Fred Booker>> Absolutely. Lawrence Tolliver>> It's a sad commentary. I mean, you have to -- you know, your heart goes out to them that they'll sacrifice their lives to better their families. We all can relate to that. Fred Booker>> They're not coming to rob the banks. Lawrence Tolliver>> No. Fred Booker>> They're not coming to steal. They're coming to do hard work. Lawrence Tolliver>> Hard work. Anne McDermott>> And what do they say to the argument that undocumented immigrants do jobs most Americans, Blacks included, won't do? Lawrence Tolliver>> Them saying that they're doing jobs that no one else would want is not exactly factual. No one wants them at those wages. Anne McDermott>> Where you stand on illegal immigration is somewhat correlated to race. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center back in March, nearly twice as many Blacks as whites say they've had employment problems because of immigrants. Anthony Cross is concerned about that. Anthony Cross>> If you go downtown or if you go to the airport or these hotels which are union jobs, the majority of the employees are Hispanic. The people who serve you, the people who carry your bags, the people who clean your rooms. Those are decent paying jobs that people will use. Anne McDermott>> Author and commentator, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, says he too worries about unemployment. Recent figures show that Black joblessness is nearly twice the rate of whites. But Hutchinson is especially concerned when employers prefer hiring immigrants over Black teens. Earl Ofari Hutchinson>> There is a mindset on the part of some employers that young Blacks are not employable, that they make trouble, they're violent, probably have a criminal record. They're lazy, they're unstable, they're not going to make good employees. Part of that mindset says that Latino or Asian immigrants, both legal, but especially, illegal, will make good employees because these are the kinds of jobs they're happy to have. They're going to show up on time, they're not going to cause any trouble, they're not going to talk back, they're not going to be discipline problems, they're not going to be violent problems. Anne McDermott>> What's clear is that the nonviolent marches by hundreds of thousands of Latinos have made an impression on the African American community. Fred Booker>> I don't think a lot of people expected them to be so peaceful. Lawrence Tolliver>> I didn't. Not that many. And they learned. They got rid of those Mexican flags because that was a slap in the face to the American citizens to see them walking with a Mexican flag. Then the comment was, "If you love Mexico so much, why are you here? Go back to Mexico." Anne McDermott>> But clearly, they don't want to go. They want to be in the face of America and, in getting there, more and more immigrant leaders are likening their struggle to the Black civil rights movement. Some African Americans see that as a compliment, but some find it somewhat troubling, saying that you can hardly compare the two experiences. For one thing, slaves were forced to come to this country. But in the meantime, as the struggles of the immigrants capture much of America's imagination, what about the continuing struggles of African Americans? Earl Ofari Hutchinson>> Will the interests of African Americans, whether we're talking about in the political arena, whether we're talking about the service arena, or just attention in general on the needs and problems of particularly poor Black communities, will they get lost in the shuffle? Anne McDermott>> Do you think that will happen? Earl Ofari Hutchinson>> I think it's already happening. Anne McDermott>> Back at Tolliver's where the humor can be as sharp as the razors, they had yet another take on the issue. Lawrence Tolliver>> On the day of the marches, the freeways were so clear, the city was so easy to get around, some people were saying, "Well, wait a minute. If I have to pay more for my tomatoes and have the freeways clear, I might pay." Anne McDermott>> But nobody was joking around over at the Minutemen caravan. If the goal was to recruit African Americans for the cause, it wasn't clear they'd succeeded as most of the faces in the vans and campers were white like Scott Small, the Tehachapi resident who's taking his family with him on the caravan. Scott Small>> My wife and I decided this was real important to us right now and we have a lot of people over in Iraq doing their jobs and we thought that we need to do our job here at home. Anne McDermott>> And off they went, hoping to gather supporters over the next three thousand miles. But winning the alliance of African Americans won't be easy because Blacks, like the rest of the country, find themselves divided over the benefits and drawbacks of illegal immigrants. I'm Anne McDermott for Life and Times. Val Zavala>> And now for these Life and Times story updates. You may recall last month when we told you about the controversy surrounding the high school exit exam. State law requires that all students in California pass the exam before they can graduate, but failure rates in poor areas are high. In fact, in the LAUSD, failure rates are highest in seven schools that also have the fewest credentialed teachers. An estimated five thousand LAUSD students will not be able to graduate this year -- or will they? Well, now a judge is expected to rule in favor of a lawsuit filed on behalf of disadvantaged students, most of them Spanish-speaking. If the ruling is finalized, students who did not pass the exit exam will still be allowed to graduate. But State School Superintendent, Jack O'Connell, says the exit exam has made students work harder and get extra help and he says he'll appeal the decision if necessary. The judge says his final ruling will be handed down this Friday. And last January, we told you about a controversial day labor site in Burbank. As part of the opening of a new Home Depot, Burbank required Home Depot to build a small facility where workers could gather and be hired for temporary jobs. Well, now the United States Congress is considering a bill that would prohibit other cities from doing what Burbank did. The sponsors of the bill say that requiring such hiring sites makes a mockery of immigration laws. The prohibition would be part of federal immigration reform if and when it passes. And finally, we've been following the development of plans for Orange County's Great Park. The park would be built on the site of the old El Toro Marine Base. Now originally the city of Irvine had placed control of this major project in the hands of a group of private developers, but now the city is taking back control and using the private developers as advisers only. Critics say that, by taking control, the city and taxpayers assume financial risk if there are cost overruns. But supporters say that the three hundred eighty million dollar park project is too important not to be controlled by the Irvine City Council. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> It's a fundamental question. Is drug addiction a choice or a disease? And what does the latest research, including genetic research, have to say about that? Dr. Nora Volkow is a leading expert on drug addictions and the brain. She's Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is part of the NIH. I met her at the Meridian Hotel in Los Angeles where she was a guest speaker of Town Hall Los Angeles. People, the American public in general, when it comes to addicts and addiction, often want to blame the addict. It's a character flaw, they're weak, they don't have the power to control themselves. What has your research found? Is it a matter of free will or is it a disease? Dr. Nora Volkow>> Well, what happens is, what generates free will? Free will is a product of the way that your brain functions. There are certain areas of the brain that allow you to understand the process and to choose to do it or not. If those areas are destructed or damaged, your ability to exert free will is going to be affected also. What research has shown is that exposure to drugs appears to damage these areas of the brain that are involved in the process of free will. So when we say someone has very poor free will, as if that were our choice, is like someone that cannot breath properly because they're lungs are not functioning. The areas of the brain responsible for free will have been damaged by the effect of drugs. Val Zavala>> Now there's a tremendous amount of genetic research being done today, a lot of advances. What does it show about an individual's propensity or predisposition to being an addict? Dr. Nora Volkow>> We've known for many years that children that were born in families where there was a high incidence of addiction are much more likely to become addicted. This recognized that addictions have strong character ability components and that genes play an extraordinarily important role in forming ability. Val Zavala>> Not just their environment? Dr. Nora Volkow>> There is the issue of genes and environment. You can have the genes that make you responsible, but if you do not have the drugs, you will not become addicted. We've also come to recognize that certain environments, particularly those that are full of stress, are much more likely to facilitate the transition of taking drugs and addiction. What we are doing right now from the research perspective is trying to understand what are those genes that are making you vulnerable to taking drugs. We're asking importantly what are those genes that maybe have protection against taking drugs. Val Zavala>> But there are some people who have genes who are genetically predisposed to become addicts? Is that correct? Dr. Nora Volkow>> That is the belief, that there are people that are more vulnerable. I don't like to use the predetermined word because no one is really predetermined. Where in terms of addiction, you may have greater or less vulnerability, but that does not mean predetermination. That's where interventions can be very important because you can in fact interfere with that projectory to becoming addictive if you do a good environmental intervention. Val Zavala>> One of the experiments you've been involved with dealt with chimpanzees who were given a drug or given access to a drug under certain conditions? Dr. Nora Volkow>> There was a very interesting story done by a group at Wake Forest University led by Michael Nadir. What they were doing was actually trying to understand what are the effects of social character in terms of the biochemistry of the brain. What they showed was those animals that were dominant, the monkeys, had a higher concentration of a protein that we know is very important in regulating the vulnerability of taking drugs whereas the primates had a much lower concentration of these drugs -- Val Zavala>> -- and a lower concentration means they're more inclined or less -- Dr. Nora Volkow>> -- yes, a lower concentration means being associated with choice in animals and humans to give you a higher probability to take drugs. Lo and behold, they found that these animals with the low levels of this protein were the ones that were more likely to abuse cocaine. Val Zavala>> To themselves. Dr. Nora Volkow>> Yes. Val Zavala>> So what does that imply about human conditions? That people who are, what, subordinate or -- Dr. Nora Volkow>> -- but wait a second, this is a primate and primates only have one social structure whereas we as humans have multiple social environments. You can be a dominant at work, but you can be a subordinate at home or vice versa. You can be a subordinate at work, but be a dominant in your community. The element, and you create a system that can create a sense of well-being and allow you to develop as an individual without the stressors that come by being a subordinate. Val Zavala>> Psychiatrists in the United States, when they have someone walk through your door and they're an addict, the chances of private insurance covering their treatment is, what, nil, very, very little? Dr. Nora Volkow>> It's low. Some private insurance pays for it, but most of them will not. Val Zavala>> And why is that? Dr. Nora Volkow>> Because there is stigma in the process of drug addiction. Drug addiction is considered by many a lifestyle choice, not a disease. That's number one. There's another element that is used by insurance companies not to pay for the treatment of addiction, and they say it doesn't work. Yet treatment works. Val Zavala>> Well, a lot of treatment doesn't work. There's a tremendous amount of relapse. Dr. Nora Volkow>> But the fact there's a relapse does not mean that it does not work. It means drug addiction is a chronic disease which means that you have to have continuous care. It's the same as other diseases. The rates of relapse with drug addiction is not different from that of hypertension or asthma. Val Zavala>> Really? Dr. Nora Volkow>> But in the case of hypertension or asthma, when you relapse, no one questions the fact that the treatment doesn't work. You just basically may shift to another medication. In the case of drug addiction, a person maybe has done very, very well for two years. Then they relapse and everybody says that it didn't work. Of course, it worked. Here you have a person that was taking a drug and now he's able to stay clean for two years. A stressor may have happened in their lives and they relapse. So you bring them back to treatment, an acute stage of treatment, and allow them then to continue with some aftercare that will help them stay clean for, again, as long as you can do it. Val Zavala>> So what do you think would be a more enlightened approach as a society, as a medical community, to the problem of addiction whether it be alcohol or drugs? Dr. Nora Volkow>> A more enlightened approach, in your words, would be for society to really incorporate the concept of drug addiction as a disease of the brain. Not to say, yes, drug addiction is a disease of the brain -- but. But to really incorporate it and treat it like any other disease. If drug addiction were to be considered a medical disease, many of these issues will be removed which will allow the person to feel free and not feel that shame of speaking up and saying, "I have a problem. I need help" and go seek help. Val Zavala>> Dr. Volkow, thank you so much for your work and your thoughts on this. Dr. Nora Volkow>> You're welcome. Val Zavala>> Dr. Nora Volkow was a guest of Town Hall Los Angeles. If you'd like more information on future speakers and events, you can go to their website at townhall-la.org. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> Every year, hundreds of thousands of college-bound high school students take the SATs. Well, at least, they hope they're college-bound, and that's what makes the SATs so terrifying. But there's help out there from Life and Times commentator, Cris Franco. Cris Franco>> The most important test facing most high school seniors, besides a post-prom early pregnancy test, is the dreaded SATs. It's a test which dictates what college you'll attend, which in turn decides your earnings potential, which decides whether you'll get basic cable or HBO and whether you'll buy the small or the Venti at Starbucks, which decides how wired you'll be and how hard you'll work, which decides how much money you'll make, which decides what neighborhood you'll move into and how good your area schools will be, which dictates if your kids will be prepared to take their dreaded SATs -- whew! In today's test-happy educational system, everything a student does starting with his first work of preschool macaroni art is all merely part of his preparation for taking the almighty SAT. SAT stands for the Scholastic Assessment Test and it's a long test. Oh, we're talking real long, like Ken Burns long, with a running time of almost four hours. It's a three-part mental marathon measuring your critical reading, writing and math. Each segment is worth up to eight hundred points with a total possible score of twenty-four hundred. You know, the test has changed a lot since I took it. Then there were only two sections and now the antonym section has been eliminated. I mean, I love the antonym section. You know, the opposite of hydrated is parched, arid or -- vanilla. Supposedly, antonyms made the SAT culturally biased and, for me, it was biased, but not because of the antonym section, but because the test starts with you filling in all these dots with your name using a number two pencil. I as a minority, Latino, Hispanic, Chicano, Mexican American Raza person of color, my name is longer than most people: Cristobal Emilio Franco-Bulgura de la Nina la Pinta'y Santa Maria. So by the time I'd fill in my name, I wasn't ready to start the test. I needed a break, plus another number two pencil. Today so much emphasis is put on the student's SAT score that entire industries have emerged, promising higher scores to those who purchase workbooks, study guides, online courses, sample tests, private tutors and pricey college board coaching classes. Not being one to miss the gravy train, I myself am now marketing Cris Franco's "I'm Going to Ace the SAT Kit". It's got everything you need to get a perfect score of twenty-four hundred or lower when you take advantage of the many special items in this attractive box. You get two packs of my super brain food snacks scientifically formulated to improve your concentration, memory and promotes brain expansion. It's like encephalitis, only better. You're going to love the taste of my Academia Nuts and Crani-Yums because higher fiber could mean higher test scores. Also, the night before the test, you're going to want to pop one of these Ambien-SATs. Unique sleeping agents will ensure that the night before the biggest exam of your life is the deepest, most restful sleep of your life. Ambien-SATs. You won't be dreaming when you see how high your score is. And just in case the Ambien-SATs works too well, here's SA-Green-T. Drink one hot cup in the morning and you'll feel SATerrific. The distinctive blend of green tea will unlock all the knowledge of the Far East. Your math skills will multiply because you're alert, very alert, and able to hold that number two pencil for those crucial four hours. Be sure to drink it from a strong porcelain cup, not a paper cup. It eats through paper. So here's what you get. You get the Ambien-SATs. You get the brain snacks, the Academia Nuts and you get the Crani-Yums and you also get the SA-Green-T. But because this is PBS, I'm going to give you infinitely more. Order today and you'll also get the SAT-shirt. It's micro-blend that's one hundred percent cotton, twenty-four hundred SAT. Wear it the morning of the big one and you'll score big. No sweat. Is there more? Yes. If you buy the Cris Franco's "I'm Going to Ace my SAT Kit", on the morning of your SATs, the most crucial dawn of your day, you'll be awakened by this clock with my face and the sound of me telling you that today you're going to ace the SATs, and you will. You will because you're also getting this signed picture of me applauding your perfect score, or lower, and congratulating you on a job well done. Amigos, realizing that every point on your SATs will forever impact your lifelong earnings, you think that this cornucopia of SAT treasures would be worth a hundred, two hundred or three hundred thousand dollars, right? Well, it is, but because this is PBS, I'm going to throw in one more item. This CD set of songs guaranteed to improve your SAT vocabulary. It's improving my vocabulary already. It's got catchy tunes. Can't you just feel your vocabulary soar rising? You're certain to score big if you buy my kit today. And the greatest thing about the SAT kit is that, after you get into college, no one will ever ask you or care what your SAT score is. It's like it magically disappears. But until then, who wants to buy a bag of my Academia Nuts? Val Zavala>> Sounds great, Cris. So what did you score on your SATs? And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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