MSNBC "Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell - Transcript Interview with Julián Castro

Interview

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Joining our discussion now is Julian Castro, the Former Secretary of

Housing and Urban Development in the Obama Administration. He is a Former

Mayor of San Antonio, Texas. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. I

want to get your reaction to this reporting in "The New York Times" today.

JULIAN CASTRO, FORMER SECRETARY OF HOUSING & URBAN DEVELOPMENT: Well, it`s

a blockbuster report. Eye opening, I think, for a lot of people. It`s -

what can you say? It is polling. It`s tragic. It`s infuriating. It is also,

Lawrence, for folks who are still wondering why so many people are out

there on the streets or have been out there over the last six weeks

protesting inequality in this country, this is a perfect example of what

people are talking about. We know that this is a result of so much

inequality, systemic racism inequality in housing and health care and job

opportunities in so many in walks of life that have led to these numbers.

It literally is the difference between life and death in these communities.

On top of that, as you showed there, one of the biggest ironies here is

that the community that have suffered the most have also been asked to do

the most. They have been the ones going and working in the fields as farm

workers, working at these meat packing plants that have outbreaks of

coronavirus. They`re fast food workers who are working for low wages and

bad benefits, grocery store workers. And so all around, it is a prime

example of the inequities that continue to haunt this nation. And the

important question now is what are we going to do about it? What are we

going to do about it? Not just the public health aspect but beyond this

time period, you know, in the next few weeks, what are we going to do about

this?

O`DONNELL: I want to go to some of the facts that the times uncovered to

specify just how difficult this is in these communities, especially the

difficulty in working at home, which is next to impossible. And so across

the country, 43% of Black and Latino workers are employed in service or

production jobs that for the most part, cannot be done remotely. Census

Data from 2018 shows only about 1 in 4 white workers held such jobs. And,

so, there are the numbers, right there on the safest thing you can do,

which is stay at home. That`s just not available to at least half of these

workers.

CASTRO: That`s right. I mean, I mean that is a stunning statistics, but it

relates to the plight of so many families out there disproportionately of

Black and Latino they don`t have the option. They don`t have the option of

staying home. They need to go to work if they`re going to get a paycheck.

They work in these industries that actually require them to be on site. And

that`s why I think that we need to do things like pass the heroes act,

offer direct rental assistance to people so they can hold on to their

housing. We need to do more in a robust way to provide a stronger safety

net during this coronavirus time period and going forward. It is also, I

think, a great demonstration of why we need universal healthcare. We need

to ensure that we close that digital divide. We need to ensure that we

raise the minimum wage and provide good benefits for people.

O`DONNELL: There is also a stunning report here in "The New York Times"

coverage about the density of residential arrangements. It says Latino

people are twice as likely to reside in a crowded dwelling less than 500

square feet per person as white people, according to the American housing

survey. And so there is real numbers on that residential density problem.

CASTRO: Well, absolutely. You have in the Latino community, the Black

community, a greater propensity to live in close quarters. A lot of folks

live in multifamily apartment buildings, high rises. They live in duplexes,

fourplexes. It is harder to isolate. It is harder to quarantine. It is

harder to stay safe from this virus. Again, this is the intersection of

race and of poverty, class inequality and racial inequality. And we see it

playing out in the worst possible way where the outcome are folks who are

passing away or, as many have noted, even if you don`t pass away from this

virus, you know, being or dealing with an illness that may affect you

permanently, also health care bills that are in the thousands or tens of

thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, this is crying for the

kind of leadership that will address these long-standing issues. It is also

sad that we have a president who is not even able to deal with the

immediate issues, much less willing to deal with the longer term issues.

O`DONNELL: Julian Castro, thank you very much for joining our discussion

again tonight. We really appreciate it.

CASTRO: Thank you, Lawrence.

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