Former South Carolina State Representative and current CNN talking head Bakari Sellers joined HBO’s Bill Maher on Friday’s edition of Real Time, but unfortunately for him, his anti-American race baiting ran into The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, who succinctly dismantled his arguments. Sellers had no response except to say, “I don't know what he just said.”
Shapiro and Sellers were going back and forth over “systemic racism” and the state of America in 2024 versus previous decades when Shapiro asserted, “If I were to say to you, as a Jew, that the experience of Jews in the United States today is worse than the experience of Jews in Europe in 1939, I would be stating accurately. It’s not true and it’s also not true to say that the experience of black people in America in 2024 is worse, on a general level, than the experience of black men in 1954 in Alabama. It’s just crazy.”
Sellers was not thrilled with the argument, “I think that’s genuinely intellectually dishonest because when we go through the litany of not just – imagine, so for example, one of my major political issues is African American female mortality, right, if you want to talk about structural racism. Did you know, I'm sure you do, black women are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women?”
That does not prove anything about racism or America, as Shapiro interrupted to point out, “That's also true in Europe, by the way.”
After Sellers wondered what Europe had to do with anything, Shapiro educated him on how data analysis is supposed to work, “I know, but the problem is you have to have a control.”
Following some crosstalk, Sellers wondered what Shapiro’s explanation for the discrepancy is, “And so tell me why that is.”
Shapiro replied, “Okay, the answer is because black people in the United States have a lower household income, median household income, which means they typically go to worse hospitals.”
Again, Sellers wasn’t happy, “I would call bullshit because it actually crosses socioeconomic lines, so you could be my wife, who almost died during childbirth, you could be Serena Williams, who almost died during childbirth.”
Shapiro then turned the tables on Sellers and asked him, “So, what's your answer? White doctors are racist?”
Sellers replied, “No, but there, actually, is implicit bias in our health care delivery system and there have been medical studies that show people respond to the pain of black women differently than they respond to the pain of white women. That literally is a fact and so I am trying to help both of you all understand that sometimes there are systems in place –"
Shapiro countered, “So, that, for example, would have nothing to do with the rates of say, pregnant obesity by various communities. There are many, many confounds when it comes to these particular issues and unless you remove the statistical confounds, you end up trying to blame vague, shadowy figures like implicit bias, which are innately, insanely difficult, if not impossible, to measure.”
A stupefied Sellers could only muster, “I don't know what he just said.”
Let us try to help Sellers out. There is more to a person than just their race. For example, personal choices, such as their diet, impact healthcare outcomes. Additionally, implicit bias is virtually impossible to prove because, by definition, it is unconscious. Finally, those studies Sellers likes to cite have all sorts of problems with them, leading implicit bias to end up being just another conspiracy theory that says denial of the accusation is proof the accusation is true.
Here is a transcript for the July 12 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
7/12/2024
10:34 PM ET
BEN SHAPIRO: If I were to say to you, as a Jew, that the experience of Jews in the United States today is worse than the experience of Jews in Europe in 1939, I would be stating accurately—
BAKARI SELLERS: Correct.
SHAPIRO: It’s not true and it’s also not true to say that the experience of black people in America in 2024 is worse, on a general level, than the experience of black men in 1954 in Alabama. It’s just crazy.
SELLERS: But, I mean, I think that’s also, I also think that’s easily intellectually dishonest and that’s my problem with, I think that’s genuinely intellectually dishonest because when we go through the litany of not just – imagine, so for example, one of my major political issues is African American female mortality, right, if you want to talk about structural racism. Did you know, I'm sure you do, black women are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women?
BEN SHAPIRO: That's also true in Europe, by the way.
SELLERS: But, we’re talking about the United States of America.
SHAPIRO: I know, but the problem is you have to have a control.
SELLERS: We do have a control.
SHAPIRO: No, a statistical control.
SELLERS: And so tell me why that is.
SHAPIRO: Okay, the answer is because black people in the United States have a lower household income, median household income, which means they typically go to worse hospitals.
SELLERS: But that’s—I would call bullshit because it actually crosses socioeconomic lines, so you could be my wife, who almost died during childbirth, you could be Serena Williams, who almost died during childbirth.
SHAPIRO: So, what's your answer?
SELLERS: Because actually—
SHAPIRO: White doctors are racist?
SELLERS: No, but there, actually, is implicit bias in our health care delivery system and there have been medical studies that show people respond to the pain of black women differently than they respond to the pain of white women.
BILL MAHER: I believe that.
SELLERS: That literally is a fact and so I am trying to help both of you all understand that sometimes there are systems in place –
SHAPIRO: So, that, for example, would have nothing to do with the rates of say, pregnant obesity by various communities. There are many, many confounds when it comes to these particular issues and unless you remove the statistical confounds, you end up trying to blame vague, shadowy figures like implicit bias, which are innately, insanely difficult, if not impossible to measure.
SELLERS: I don't know what he just said.
