The US occupation of California and the American West begins in 1850. It's the first priority to seize political and territorial control from local indigenous and Mexican populations. And what happens is a campaign of genocide, where vigilantes and militant troops deliver heads to local courthouses. That genocide is really the bedrock of California history.
MacArthur fellow and UCLA professor, Kelly Lytle Hernández, joins Adam to explain how explictly racist policies of the past created the incarceration and immigration systems we still have today.
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