It is said advertising but it is sort of ralph that is why negative wordofmouth a pattern occurring right through our time. [applause] this is the fifth installment of the race in america series. Lot of places dont have a vision this is a bookstore that has set the tone to talk about such a sensitive issue of race yes were authors we have dealt with this and written about it. But to think enough of this series to come and cover it dealt with this kind of people in this kind of room so thank you for being here tonight with this installment feel at home and come to the microphone so be civil and we will cancer a want to introduce this great panel then we will get into the discussion and someone that i have such respect for and adoration is. Caller former head of the civilrights commission is she has a list of things she has been in jail for fighting and the list goes on and on but is also an author called 5 in the pork chops in which and she has a new book coming out. [applause] then we have avis jones and activist and also the offer of paul exceptional black author lead. [applause] then we have Wesley Lowery they can kill us all. [applause] now you and to introduce the president from Bennett College as well was the author of are we better off . That is to she is an author and economist in we are about to talk about activism. [applause] these two ladies i remember watching them speaking for us when we didnt have voices. Those of us that no at a time what does surely say . [inaudible] so i want to start off with something that changed for me while we were driving in tonight as an activist or entertainers said right after the election he said this is the great time. I said why . And i chuckled. He reflected back when there is great pain there is radical activism for change. So acute a few weeks later recalled Harry Belafonte he said and not too happy when i unseeing there is not the activism that i anticipate or the pain that i thought he is remember in the 50s him the 60s with the Civilrights Movement so what is happening now . So we have an author here that history teaches us to resist so here today is Harry Belafonte light. He is always right but what i talk about in this book that i think is important at this hour i had no plan to write this book but it was time for this one of the movements in the past where people have organized to resist president s rejection or trying to take action that oppose their values. And we uphold i do the history if i was involved as most of them and be one in the case of a lot of them so it is possible to win if you organize properly like the Free South Africa Movement that you were involved in like the vietnam war which not only was i in the movement as a student i pretended i was a correspondent in went to vietnam covering the war one summer. Later we found out Richard Nixon stopped that Peace Process so the point is during the time of the president s when they start doing things you dont like looking at obama in south dakota we love him but he had to be pressured to get him to do something about the treaty so the point is there have been movements of people because merging is important not just come to rallies but with the civil disobedience and other ways to get things to change i think the marches are great keep up their spirits ago to some of the town halls to listen to people but we need more than what we have had in the issue is what counts. O. K. Lets say trump. But but the office of fellow contract in compliance not having the budget for the Environmental Justice and Justice Department and what is happening so all of these things that affect people we just down the last making policy the center of the movement we dont just get together because we dont like trompe. [laughter] now we are post obama era what does that look like a to you and reuter the issues that should be on the table . The mcfadyen know anyone that i admire more than an Mary Frances Berry. [applause] i adore her so i thought if i would be on the panel with her. [laughter] is all about Mary Frances Berry. The key for the word you have done natalie with this series but also speaking to the power. Soc john spicer did put his rags in the bag and go away. [laughter] also first congratulations so i am really excited but sometimes i feel like a body blow mac. [laughter] i was a critic i would say barack obama comeback the we are not better off obama as a tremendous president and hardly constrained and any number of ways if you look at africanamerican people it did not substantially improve until the last year of his administration that recession was not his fault set up with bad economic failure but. [laughter] and abbas been told to act academic stop being funny. [laughter] we are not better off so with Mary Frances Berry we spend too much time talking better now, a cheek has been wasted on dont hold audience. But what we know is this a victory for 45. Called his name. It was the victory for predatory capitalism. Those who had to struggle with clinton or that the interco or that man. It is about extracting every penny of surplus value. There are many ways people that are advising you when your pensions to follow a certain rule. That meehan says that ought not to do that most americans dont get pensions any more anyway. President obama pass the executive order if you have a federal contacting miss be paid when that man is reconsidering that over time talking about how you got paid overtime. If you make more than 24,000 you are considered an executive employee. But then that means you cannot get overtime. President obama put together a regulation that says into you earn 44,000 but that man says note we do not want that. Maybe we should raise that of little bit. And therefore not being paid overtime when to say we can talk about how odious that man is but that is fine. But in any case as odious as he is it is the issue they were structured. You have to kind of capitalism british jury and compassionate. But imagine and a wolf government is the dentist with yet compassionate capitalism so will canady to everything up and to do things like provide health care. Even with you should do is raise the minimum wage. One and then to make it more challenging. So lets not forget what is being done with education. Because she did not know any better. [laughter] so that is another story. But a brings thatll hold new in leighton and. So lets talk about love this woman making 30,000 a year. Is she out there marching . A couple of women in lansing it in d. C. And london . I have to say that we did see a historic day following the inauguration that was impractical and powerful to say there has been a bit of a struggle to maintain momentum when their luck at what is going on in the cat web baltimore to has done so with spee and equity to we have very potter finance in the house . Harry potter fans in the house . [laughter] so in terms of pay inequity. He changed a regulation of obama put in place to show how they pete how they pay people by race and gender that is how pay inequity thrives. Snowmaking freetowns now well suffer even more. That there has been the calibration of strategy and electing more women to office. And i think that is good but you need the year ended the inning to infiltrate this system. But we still need those people in the streets to do pressure to do the right thing. Does simple way that is put this is the essential ingredient that we forget. Everybody wants you to vote for them. In a when you say activism we saw a young people take to the streets with the new civil rights when we saw black boys and black girls cheering from the streets and north charleston. Back and british. With an ad activism with 100 days. What is going on . Dont get it twisted. And that we want the people that were killed by the police. Shot and killed by the police. In his bid is not freddie grey birse somebody who died. Naysay that to say that these factors at had mobilized. So in 2012 George Zimmerman is acquitted. With a and then 2014 you have John Crawford is and gardner we saw tens of thousands of people in the streets across the country had a moment that is all we could focus on. So the people in the communities and then to work on easier. So that attention rework playing so last year in 2016 it was invaluable for the last half of the year. Why does nobody care . With the Fact Checking of that story so then readjust that story a little bit but the reality of this moment but then those that i think with the organization is true across the number of issues. We are unprepared for the reality after the election. Those people were expecting to be pressuring a democratic president when they believe they were dealing with someone that they could keep pushing some of day were invited into the white house so there is this idea so the endorsed Bernie Sanders at the very least the read me dealing with sympathetic to their causes with the president and the attorney general to say a fundamentally changed how they do what they do. That is why it is very important that is why we have to understand those opportunities is when you have a the president so the best movements that we succeeded is when we went up against some people think reagan is the great hero but he was all. Awful. And the timid person but that is what he was a bunch of lawyers just quit their jobs they had nothing else to do because they would not enforce anything did people went up against him. But we organized it and then with at antiapartheid movement. But we were persistent in reorganized with this strategy. And somebody it is hard to win. In with what he said and put all their eggs in the basket. Do not be seduced. Somebody applaud that. [laughter] is to have politics without protest. That is the history of frederick douglass. [laughter] but what is needed with every movement did they say we cannot do anything any more. Thinking about those who killed those they were acquitted. In that it is terribly frustrating. And unless you keep up pressure rubber co but the factor is it requires persistence and a lot of time to lose strategizing about Different Things that you do and because the media will follow you everybody said thatll nation was fixated than people said oh hell. So they also need new people to come in on the campuses to do other stuff. Putin then we hate trump and russia then in fact, i am more concerned about north korea. So then they needed new energy to get involved in to keep it going racism is not going away. If you think of the Free South Africa Movement they want to make south africa at governor will convert that i did was around investment but it was say proposition and from those of doing business with south africa mezzo to make it ungovernable. So that issue of the imagination that did not have any power. And then to make an ungovernable. This sow with those individuals say called the eye and a son of protest the and then go fisticuffs. To basically take this and make it ungovernable. And i am speaking to young folks because i dont care if a man colter speaks some where we are not scared of that scarecrow but with that amount of energy i want people to be very cognizant shut her down. Now with the secretary of education that just was not acceptable we have to basically deal with how you make something of ungovernable. But they definitely made the statement. So again race in america at. There is so much on the table right now covering the white house 20 years ago where there is persistence. And going back prebelafonte. The other is a differ move on the other side. It is heritage and the nra. Here is one of the Biggest Challenges those organizations are large the 501 c 3 typically it is a handful of foundations there needs to be more direct funding from the people that our nimble and focusing on those things i think that is huge. Honestly they are shellshocked. There is so much happening in one time. They know how to focus their energy. Should refocus on education . Is like fiver six things coming down the pike. So the biggest way is to focus on one thing and then to create change going against the destruction with so many Different Things are threatened is so many different ways that is structured and powerful in the way to knock them down in domino form . So whatever resources that we have it is difficult to the impact will. So Many Organizations to so many things so stator made into the health stuff. Read you just have the health people. I dont mean to restrict them but people have to work on these organizations. What interested me was looking at the endowment and the t harvard there is about 10 of them if you add up all that h pc you we have 1 getting great major tax benefit why should these universities get the best for those two were interested behalf to continue the work in the Economic Policy institute. But they do the work at their best able to do because it will require a massive resistance that the of American Medical Association i would call at making america sick again. And thats how they would oppose this. So how duty to an elephant . And with the bite size pieces there is another way to do it to pick the issue and to mobilize around that issue. So if you win on the issue issue, they see if you can win. And we beat them on that we were trying to get the civilrights reformation act that was bad decisions on gender and race and Everything Else the we could not get it passed. The white house said up to say if they could mobilize they can mobilize the people around this. So focusing on one issue in the other is for others to stay in their late but there are two ways to do it. Would you comment on the interlining reason that these policies are fostered in each of these departments with the structures in those procedures are decimated . So could you comment on the underlying policy . To free up space some. And to put that in the economic language it is a big piece it is about freeing up capitalism from regulatory constraints that is the bottom line. With us epa whether it is the office of federal contract end compliance dealing with the language of health care with the goal to deregulate that is all it is about to maximize profits it requires in equality so who will be at the bottom or at the top . So this is clearing the land for capital december capitalism