She is one of the cofounders of the black lives matter and she is a leading voice on contemporary race issues, civilrights, and police reform. She also launched the black futures lab, an organization that works with advocacy groups to promote policies that support black communities. Her first book, the purpose of power, was released today. Alicia, thank you so much for joining me and congratulations on your book. Alicia thank you so much for having me, it is great to join you today. Robin i wanted to start with a point that you make in your book which is the importance of controlling the narrative and not allowing your story to be lost to cultural amnesia. With those things in mind, what was it that sparked the idea for you to sit down and write what is really a memoir at your ripe young age . [laughter] alicia you know, i was skeptical of trying to write a memoir. And i think you are right that there is still a lot of life left. To me, part of why i was inspired to write this book is ive been organizing in black communities for 20 years. I never really took a break to step back and really parse out what are some of the key lessons that are necessary in order to keep moving this Movement Forward . We are in the middle of the most important election cycle in a generation. This is the second time now that our movement is really being used as a political football in a contest that is going to have impact on the lives of millions of americans. For me, this was an opportunity to zoom out, really invest in culling some of the lessons ive learned and things ive been unlearning that i think make a successful and Effective Movement. Every day, somebody asks me how they can get involved or how i keep going and i wanted to put all that into one place so it could be a toolkit for folks to take with them on this journey of making the country better for everyone. And what i hope is this book can inspire people who have been involved for a long time, are certainly politically acute and politically active, but are feeling cynical about our chances, and i want to have it be accessible to people who are just now looking around and saying, how did we get here and how do we get out of this . That its really what the book is about and that is what inspired me to write it. Robin one of the things i find so intriguing about the book is that often when we Start Talking about leaders of movements, those who inspire others to act that they can get flattened out, they can become very twodimensional. You really sort of give people at least a sense of the threedimensional person that you are. I was fascinated to know that you really sort of grew up in the bay area in tiburon in marin county. And that you went to predominantly white high schools, that you really are steeped in sociology and anthropology. Im curious how all of those things have merged to set of shape the kind of activist that you have eventually become. Alicia that is a great question. In zooming out a little bit and reflecting on what i think makes an Effective Movement for the 21st century and beyond, i had to actually start with reflecting for myself on how it was that i became active and what kept me active. It is true, i think i did have a pretty unique experience of growing up in a relatively wealthy community for part of my life mostly around white people. In reflection, i realized that growing up even though my experience was very unique, i think a lot of people can relate to it. I often am one of a few black people in a place, i often felt alone and isolated, i felt that the things were happening to me , the things i was experiencing were only happening to me and that nobody else can relate. But the fact of the matter is that once i found a community of people who may be did not have exactly the same experience as me, but certainly could relate to feeling alone and feeling isolated and looking for people that they could connect with, that that is actually where power lies. If we take that to look at what is happening in this country right now, i think the same is true. There are a lot of people who feel like they are the only ones dealing with the things they are dealing with. The trick is that we have to figure out how to bring people together who have common experiences and acts together for change with what we agree on. A experience, placing it in historical and political context, i hoped would help others place themselves in this moment reflect on what was shaping them and will continues to shape them and find people like them who want to see change and have them come together to create a plan and execute it. Certainly, it has to grow bigger than us and it has to be something that is adopted by everyone. Robin one of the things that is so fascinating is your ability to take things that were personal or that happened specifically to you, and to also be able to see the ways in which your experience might have been unique and also universal. That is leading me to this anecdote that you tell in your book, you are 17, you are in high school, you are with a friend and you encounter a Police Officer when the two of you are smoking a little pot, and i wasnt sure how the story was going to end. You actually end up having a relatively positive encounter with this Police Officer. And yet, you could take that in sort of detail the ways in which your experience informed the way that you also understood the criminal Justice System. Im wondering if you could talk a little bit about that . Alicia absolutely, it is one of my favorite passages in the book so thank you for highlighting it. The fact that he started out by saying you werent sure how the story was going to end is actually pretty telling about our criminal Justice System and frankly, when it comes to black communities in this country, too often the way that the story ends is not the way that mine ended. It usually ends in death or jail and prison. That is the problem. The systems like a criminal system were designed to function exactly in that way. What happens is that there are rules in every sector of our society that essentially are rigged against our communities. They either overpopulate us in prisons and jails across the nation, or they track us into academic tracks that dont provide for success in a particular economic context, there are so many ways in which it is not just personalities or goodwill that shape the lives of our communities, but it is policies and practices that continue to feed an unhealthy pattern of black people being disproportionately impacted, almost the most severely by the disparities in our society. In my case i was sitting in a bmw 325i with a child prodigy who was blond haired and blue eyed and the address on my license reflected a wealthy community. And certainly if all of those things had not aligned, my situation would have been very, very different. And that is what im trying to lift up here, is that these systems and these rules, its not a function of individual people, its not a function of good or bad people, it is actually a function of systems that are designed intentionally decriminalize and punish black people and people of color, especially in relationship to the criminal system. Robin i just want to interrupt for a quick second because its also particularly notable that come the violation in this story had to do with marijuana which is something that is so contentious in terms of who uses it but also who is criminalized for using it. That was another part of this that was really striking. Can you explain what was going on in the car . Guest sure. First let me say that the context of this is that i was in a car being a kid at 17 years old, and we had said we were doing homework but really we were sitting in our car and smoking weed. This was a point in the nighttime and there we were, just being kids and doing what kids do. In the book i actually talk about the fact that i was raised in the era of the war on drugs where there was disproportionate sentencing for crack cocaine versus powdered cocaine and how that impacted black communities. That is an example of a rigged rule. In this case you are absolutely right when we are talking about marijuana. Its really an extension of that pattern of criminalizing behaviors and certainly attaching those behaviors to particular communities. What we know is that white people and black people smoke marijuana at the same rate, but of course, when we look at the criminal system and we look at who is he punished for that, there is a huge disproportionate impact on black communities, meaning black people are punished more often and more severely for smoking weed than white people are. That is also an example of a rigged rule. What i tried to do in the book here is use my own story to also talk about how not only are there disparities, but also what can influence or impact those disparities. To me, a system should work equally for everyone, the same rules should be applied to everyone. What i found in that particular case was that the same rules were not being applied to me. That had to do with race, but it certainly very much also had to do with class and gender. Had i been a young black man in that car, i would have been treated incredibly differently than i was. And had i been with another black person, also another black man, we would have been treated differently than we were. And thats not how our system should work and that is why we build movements. We build movements to level playing field, we build movements to transform the way that power operates, and in the case of this movement, we build movements to make sure that punishment is not an economy. That we should hold people accountable when harm is caused, but at the same time, we shouldnt make punishment and economy the way it is now. Robin one of the great things about the book is that you put so much of the movement into context and you define a lot of the verbiage will we talk about movements. You discuss those leaders who sort of came after that and so much protest against racial injustice, being within the church. Can you talk a little bit about how now that the movement is considered a black lives Matter Movement speaks to these times and to this generation in a way that is very specific, but is also part of that ongoing transformation of what movement s have to do . Alicia all movements are rooted in time, place, and conditions. For the last period of civil rights, and there were many, the last that we experience prior to this one was actually very much rooted in the black church and leaders came out of black churches and ended up being the brokers and negotiators of power. Also, very much men were given a privileged place inside of movements, how people looked and how they showed up was also determined by the strategy for those movements which was essentially just to be a little bit crass about it, that if we look good, if we look like we deserve respect, if we look like we deserve dignity, we will achieve it. Todays movements, and not just black lives matter but if you look in the crime and justice movement, if you look in the Economic Justice movement, all of these movements i think worked differently than they would have 10 years ago, 20 years ago, even 50 or 60 years ago. That is because our time, place, and conditions have changed. No longer is it considered acceptable to not have women in leadership. Certainly, women are still deeply underrepresented in all positions of power, but now people are asking questions about why. That is a different set of political conditions than those who were dealing with 60 years ago where it was expected that women were not in positions of power and nobody questioned why. The point that i want to make here and the point that i make in the book is that it is important for us to not harken back to a time that no longer reflects the conditions of our society. Frankly, it was those movements of 50 and 60 years ago that pave the way for leadership to look so different in our movement. It has also pave the way for us to reimagine what movements can look like and how they can function in a way that they would not have been able to 50 or 60 years ago. That is why they build movements then. As we project forward, i do think it is important for us to be mindful of always searching for the next Martin Luther king jr. But frankly, i think Leadership Today looks more like laverne cox or angelica ross. It is more aptly reflecting the diversity and complexity of our community and that complexity being visible was hardfought and certainly a worthy achievement of movements prior to us. Now we have to bring that forward into the next generation. Host before we go to some questions that we have in the audience, i wanted to also ask you a little bit about the election which is coming up in 12 days, i think, something around there. The idea of having to deal with the powers that be, whoever those powers might be. Sort of choosing who you align yourself with. Sometimes those things can be at odds. I know you discussed this a little bit in a conversation that you have recently with the rapper ice cube and it is the idea of who do you align yourself with versus have you versus how do you achieve your goals in the halls of power . How are you feeling about the election these days . Alicia you know, today, on this tuesday, im feeling motivated and inspired. I mean, look. This is going to be one of the most consequential elections in a generation and what i know is that already, millions of people are voting and have voted and from what i understand, the election will have the highest turnout in the history of this nation. That inspires me and makes me hopeful because i think what it indicates is that people are paying attention and people are taking that protest to the polls. That is important because elections are an organizing terrain that too many movements leave on the table. What i always say, and i get this from my mom, anything you leave on the table, you are leaving for someone else to eat. And most likely someone who is being opportunistic is going to take what you have left and try to use it for their own agenda. The way that i feel about this election is we need to get through it and we need to do what weve got to do. I dropped off my mailin ballot yesterday, i demanded my sticker, i was so proud of it. I was like, i am making time to do this. And there are black women like me across this nation that are doing exactly the same thing, trying to hold their families together, trying to make sure that they can keep a job, keep a roof over their head and trying to make sure theyre going to be a part of the political process. I think black folks across the nation are saying no more decisions should be made about us without us. With that being said, i talk a lot in the book about how voting can be a movement but i also talk about some of the failures of both parties to address adequately the concerns that our communities have. My organization, the black futures lab, we work to make black communitys powerful and politics, we conducted the Largest Survey of black people in america in 155 years. We learned a lot about the things important to black folks, we developed the black agenda for 2020. 60,000 black voters have signed on for that agenda and they are using it as they are making decisions up and down the ballot. The most important part of the process was that we heard most frequently that nobody ever asks us what we care about, what we experience every day, and what we want to see for you jerk and that does not bode well for a vibrant, functioning democracy. Weve got work to do, we have to keep pushing these parties to make sure they are not just using us symbolically but that there is justice in relationship to the agenda that they will be organized around, not just for four years, but indefinitely. Robin one of the first questions, and by the way, i should say that these questions are coming from a group that was invited that is a Diverse Group of professional women in tech, sales, marketing and other industries, and one of the first questions is from Patricia Mccluskey of new york. And it gets to the idea that elections matter. What do you see as the impact of the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court . Guest oo, this is a big one. I will try to keep it short so we can get to the rest of them. It would be devastating. What it means is that they would be a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, and not just conservative liberal or republican, democrat, but extreme conservative which is basically the administration that is running this country right now. She has incredibly extreme views about women, about lgbt people, about black folks, and she would be making decisions in the highest court in the land. That is a huge consequence. The second consequence i think is that frankly, im somebody who supports having more women on the Supreme Court, i want more women, i want more people of color, i want more black folks, i what more immigrants. I want the Supreme Court to reflect the diversity of this nation but i think that her nomination or her eventual nomination would mean a successful nomination would mean that we would have representation without substance, and that we cannot afford. When Clarence Thomas was appointed, it had devastating effects on racial equality in this country just because he was a black man does not mean that he was in support of ending racial discrimination. I think what we have seen from Amy Coney Barretts legacy is that she is not interested in ending discrimination against women. Ending discrimination against communities that have been left out and left behind. That has extreme consequences because frankly, people will tout that there are more women on the Supreme Court, but they will not look into the decisions they are making in relationship to our communities, and that does not benefit any of us. Alicia robin one of the other questions that we have is from the united kingdom. What can white women due to be helpful and respectful allies . Alicia i say this a lot in the book, it is important for people to be active. Not on other peoples behalf, but because it makes the world better for you. One of the things that we have to be willing to do is not only make new mistakes, but not be afraid of making them. When it comes to white women in particular who are trying to be active in the process of racial justice, often, people get deterred because they dont want to make mistakes, they dont want to do the wrong thing or say the wrong thing and that keeps them from doing anything at all. If what we saw in 2016 was any indicator, we need white women to do a lot of work with each other. Not for black people and not for other people, but for the sake of making sure that white women can be a healthy, thriving constituency in this country. That means it is going to take work to be able to join together with others who are being left out and left behind. First things first, get to work. Second thing, as you are doing that work, dont be afraid to make mistakes, because you will. Dont let those mistakes deter you from doing better and being better each time over. Host we probably have time for two more questions. This one is from california. How can we shift the conversation from what can we do in reaction to what is happening to how do we proactively address the root cause of what is happening . Alicia great question. The first thing we have to do is understand the root. I am somebody who has spent years studying the roots of the problems that we face in our society every single day. Because of the stories that we are told both through pop culture which is how i got a lot of my politics, but also through our schools and our education systems, so much of the stories about why things function the way that they do our distorted and they are, frankly, skewed. The reason for that is that they help preserve the status quo. For example, i talk in the book about the stories that keep us in the same places that we are, whether it be stories about pink is for girls and blue is for boys, or whether it be stories about this movement. There are so many stories that we internalize on our own that skew the actual root causes of what we are facing and dealing with. The first step is to actually get educated and you can do that by being part of the movement. The second thing is to keep spreading the gospel everywhere that we possibly can. This administration traffics in lies and disinformation and misinformation, and these days, lies spread faster than the truth, so we have to do our part to make sure that we are upholding Accurate Information and that we are also challenging those who would distort and lie in order to keep our and to move their own agenda. Those agendas are not agendas of the majority and we have to fight to make sure that it ends today. Robin i think this is probably our last question, we will see. How do you address racism within your own household . I dont think it is specifically your household, but ones household. Alicia racism infects every part of our society. It infects our laws, our culture. It is everywhere. It is as pervasive as the air that we breathe. The first thing that is important is to identify where it exists and how it able to continue to operate. I dont know exactly what you are dealing with in your household and i can say that one of the most pervasive barriers to addressing racism anywhere is the notion that race is about personality as opposed to about policy and politics. Thats how we adopt the stories about each other that actually keep us divided rather than bringing us together. First things first is to identify where is it happening, and what is allowing it to persist . What are the stories that you continue to tell that allow for racism to pervade, and what are the rules that lock it in place . And then we have to do the hard work of not just dismantling the rules, not just dismantling stories, but replacing them with new stories and new rules that keep it from flourishing again. Thats the hard work and that of the work that we are going to continue to be doing, i think, for at least another generation. We have a lot more work to do and it starts with each of us. Robin i think that is a lovely note to end on, that it starts with all of us. Thank you very much, and i just want to add, do not miss upcoming programs at Washington Post live. The series continues on wednesday, october 21 at 2 00 for a discussion about the future of expression in the u. S. Featuring robert zimmer, he is the president of the university of chicago. As well as a conversation with former cia director john brennan about his new book, and that is on thursday, october 22, at 9 30 in the morning. Again, thank you so much for joining us and have a great rest of your day. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] Moore Campaign 2020 coverage coming up in just under half an hour with Vice President mike pence headed back to his home state of indiana for a rally at 4 30 p. M. Eastern. Aine Republican SenateSusan Collins debates her challengers today. This is a live look at Belmont University and nashville, the site of tonights second president ial debate between donald trump and joe biden. On the listen live cspan radio app and go to andan. Org debates for live ondemand streaming. From are just weeks away election day. To hearh cspan ,resident trump and joe biden and watch debates in some of the hottest contested house and senate races. Campaign 2020 coverage every day on cspan, cspan. Org, or listen on the cspan radio app. Your place for an unfiltered view of politics. The contenders, about the men who ran for the presidency but lost, and changed little changed political history. Tonight, billionaire businessman ross perot. Tonight at 8 00 p. M. On American History tv on cspan3. Joining us now is scott hodge, the president of the Tax Foundation and here