George Floyd, Racism, and Protests in America⎢English Lesson

59,598 views ・ 2020-06-09

Rachel's English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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If you live in the US or you follow the news on the US, undoubtedly you’ve seen that
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Americans are protesting all across the country in response to the death of George Floyd at
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the hands of a Minnesota police officer.
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And as a non-native speaker of English, perhaps you’re seeing a slew of new terms.
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What is the difference between a protest, a riot, and looting, for example.
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Today we’re going to go over some terms that you’ll be seeing in the news cycle
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about the current events in America.
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We’ll talk about different kinds of racism and the ‘ism’ suffix.
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Stick with me.
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I did have another “Learn English with Movies” video planned for today, but we’ll just
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push that to next week.
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George Floyd was 46 years old when he was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill.
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What does counterfeit mean?
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It simply means fake.
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You’ll notice that Americans will usually drop the first T there because it comes after
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an N.
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This is true of words like ‘internet’ and ‘interview’ as well.
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Counterfeit, counterfeit.
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On May 25, a group of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota apprehended him and took a series
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of actions that violated the policies of their police department.
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We’re going to talk about the words ‘policy and police’ in a moment.
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One officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes, which killed him, in broad daylight,
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with witnesses taking video, with George Floyd saying, “I can’t breathe”, with witnesses
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saying “he can’t breathe”.
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And so in news stories about what has happened and what is happening, you might see the phrases
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‘excessive force’ or ‘police brutality’.
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But first let’s talk about the words ‘police’ and ‘policy’.
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They both come from the Greek word ‘polis’.
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Polis, I’m probably not saying that completely right, but it’s the Greek word which means
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a city-state, citizenship, a group of people all governed by the same government.
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‘Police’, we have second syllable stress, first vowel is a schwa.
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Police.
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Policy, we have first syllable stress, and the vowel is the AH as in FATHER vowel.
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Police, policy.
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Only one letter is different, but the pronunciation is quite different.
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Police, policy.
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A policy is a course of action adopted by a government of a governing body.
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So you might have heard the term foreign policy – each President puts his or her own spin
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on foreign policy.
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In the case of the Minnesota police department, it’s the course of action, the steps, the
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rules of how to do things, when on duty.
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The policy.
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You might also see this at work: what is your sick leave policy, that means what are the
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rules about when or how long a worker can take off when they’re sick.
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Or, I was late for a dentist appointment the other day and I called ahead, and I said,
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“what is your late policy?”
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That is, how late can I still show up and see the dentist.
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Other related words with this root: politics, metropolis, which is a large city, or metropolitan,
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a characteristic of a metropolis, especially in culture, sophistication, accepting a wide
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variety of people and ideas.
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She became very metropolitan after moving to New York City.
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Police force has two different meanings.
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It can mean the group of officers all working for the same unit, a city, a county, for example.
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She’s a member of the Philadelphia police force.
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But it also means force, action, to get somebody to do something, physically.
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How do you force them?
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Police force.
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So when an officer is arresting a citizen, what kind of force is needed?
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Maybe no force at all.
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Or maybe the citizen struggles or resists and the officer uses some force.
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Was it appropriate force or was it excessive force?
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Excessive meaning more than you need.
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Excessive force, in the case of George Floyd.
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The officer did not need to kneel on his neck for eight minutes to make the arrest, but
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did.
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And this is the definition of police brutality.
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When officers use excessive force against a citizen.
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And this actually doesn’t have to be physical force against a person.
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It can be verbal harassment, it can be property damage.
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So this brings us to the outrage of many of the citizens of the United States, myself
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included.
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And we’ll get to the protests in a moment, but first I want to say that I am disabling
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comments for this video as you have probably already found.
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Why?
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Social media comment sections can be a place where our worst selves come out.
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We can become very polarized.
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Polarized means sharply divided.
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And I’ve decided for myself that I don’t want to police the comments of the video.
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Here I’m using the word ‘police’ as a verb, meaning to regulate or control.
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If people get really nasty with each other in comments, which has happened before, I
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don’t want to get in there and decide if some people have crossed the line, that means
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go too far, like with negativity or insults.
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There are lots of places where you can read about happened, what is happening, and commentary
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on that.
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There are lots of places where you can go leave your comments.
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And I do encourage you to take in different media, different voices discussing what’s
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happening in the US.
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I think expanding our perspective is extremely important right now.
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So many Americans are very angry.
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And one of the ways that Americans can express this is through protest.
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The right to do this was established in the first amendment, here’s a quote: “the
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right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress
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of grievances.”
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To gather to let it be known, we don’t like the ways this is being done.
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And so in the days since May 25th there have been protests against policing policies and
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racism.
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We’ll talk about racism in a minute.
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Large groups of people are gathering, marching, holding signs, chanting.
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And some of those protests have ended in destruction.
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So a riot is different from a protest in that it’s when a group turns violent.
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Burning things for example.
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And then looting is when people break into storefronts and steal what’s there.
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And right now, both riots and looting are happening in addition to the peaceful, emotionally
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charged protests.
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The amount of people looting, or causing destruction, is much smaller than the groups that are peacefully
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protesting.
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And, at least in Philadelphia, where I live, the rioting has largely subsided though the
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protests continue.
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This is due in part to a curfew.
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A curfew is a time at which you must be inside.
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Lots of teenagers have curfews imposed on them by their parents, but occasionally a
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city will have an issue where it will issue a curfew where it asks all citizens to remain
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at home after a certain hour.
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For us, that’s 6pm right now.
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These protests and riots are bringing to the forefront of the American conversation the
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deep hurt and wrongs caused by racism.
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There was a study done on the use of police force against black people in Minneapolis
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over the last five years, and it was found that police force against black people was
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used seven times more than police force against white people.
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Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of
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a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior, that racial differences
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produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.
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A white supremacist is a person who believes that the white race is inherently superior
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to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races.
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Now, the policy and doctrines of the United States of America state that all men (and
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women) are created equal.
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But due to racism and systemic racism, that’s not how life plays out.
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Systemic racism is also known as institutional racism.
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What is it?
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It’s different than individual racism, which is easier to see and understand.
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A quote from “Black Power, the politics of Liberation” gives two examples to show
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the difference between individual racism and institutional racism.
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This is a quote:
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“When white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children, that is an act
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of individual racism, widely deplored by most segments of the society.
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But when in that same city – Birmingham, Alabama – five hundred black babies die
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each year because of the lack of proper food, shelter and medical facilities, and thousands
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more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of
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conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community, that is a function of
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institutional racism.”
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The ‘ism’ suffix is used to create a noun showing an action or practice, principles,
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doctrines.
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We have racism, ageism, sexism, ableism.
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These all mean discrimination against.
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Against older people, women, and discrimination in favor of able-bodied people.
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But not all ‘isms’ mean discrimination.
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You have baptism, a practice in the Christian church of sprinkling water on, or immersing
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someone in water, symbolizing purification and admission into the Christian church.
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You have activism – the action of campaigning to bring about political or social change.
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There are over 800 words in English with the –ism suffix.
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But the one most prominent in American conversation right now is racism, and how as a nation we
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can recognize it, understand it, and grow to a place beyond it.
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Next week we will continue our summer mission of learning English with movies, and the movie
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we’ll be looking at is A Star is Born.
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Lady Gaga is going to help you understand how Americans use reductions and linking in
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a way that can help you understand Americans better, and also be more easily understood
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when you’re speaking English.
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Thank you all so much for joining me here, I love teaching you English.
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I make new videos every Tuesday and I invite you to subscribe, we’d love to have you
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as a part of our community.
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That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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