Karen Attiyah and Paul Krugman:
....Attiah: I am. I'm getting a lot of sad expressions of support. In fact, right before I got on with you, Paul, literally an hour before, Barack Obama tweeted in my defense.
Krugman: Oh, my.
Attiah: Which is just so mind boggling to me because the last political column I was allowed to write for the Post was a critique of Barack Obama. I said, Barack Obama is not your emotional support president. Because, there are a lot of people who are like, “Where's Obama? Is he going to come speak for us? Is going to come?”
And I just said, “You guys, you know, in terms of our immigration situation, I mean, Obama's record is beyond.” There's a lot to criticize there. The current head of ICE deported so many people Obama gave him a medal. So I was trying to make the point that not only is Obama not going to sort of save you, but here's an administration that helped pave the way. Were there masked ICE folks? Did the optics look like this? Absolutely not. But you're seeing the sort of infrastructure built for mass deportations and children testifying for themselves with entire families being locked up.
So I wrote that piece, and a lot of people weren't happy. The Obama folks reached out and they said, “We like your headline. Cool headline. But here are points that we disagree with.” But it was respectful. It was an email. They were like, “Hey, stay in touch.” I was pretty constructively harsh on the guy, obviously. And here he is now tweeting in my defense. And I was the last black columnist left at the Washington Post.
Krugman: I didn't know that.
Attiah: I was it. I was the last full time staff black columnist on the opinion section in Washington, DC, which for the majority of its history has been majority black. I'm still sitting with the implications, the symbolism, the whatever you want to call it of the entire opinion section. And again, opinion journalists being able to speak their minds about the truth, about race, about all of that. So, the first black president tweeting in support of the last black columnist at the Washington Post. I mean, for one thing, it’s an example of how things should be. We should be able to criticize power, and power should be able to respond to us in humane ways, regardless of the party. In an ideal world.
But we're in a situation now where criticizing the president or criticizing whoever they've appointed as the King will destroy your career, will threaten your airwave license. Like, “We will sue you into oblivion. We will destroy you.” I mean, this is not cancel culture. This is annihilation culture....
paulkrugman.substack.com
Transcript below the video |
