Transcripts For CSPAN2 Texas Book Festival 20171106

The [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]. [inaudible conversations] welcome to the 22nd annual texas book festival. We appreciate you coming out for the authors and just in general great literature. A few housekeeping things, president of houston university. Just a reminder please silence your cell phones or turn them off. After that session here in our authors will be signing books in the book tend and book the booke for sale courtesy of book people. Remember when you buy a book, you support the author, the festival and independent bookstore and it is a Nonprofit Organization and its mission is to support lowincome schools in texas with author visits and donations like the leading rock Stars Program so your purchases go a very long way. And we have a book drive going on to help raise money to rebuild the library is affected by Hurricane Harvey and a donation of 15 at any register to buya a book for a student in the texas book festival and foundation will match with a book to rebuild the library affected by harvey. So today your investment can go a long way to buy books and supports many initiatives. I would like to introduce the authors this morning and as the University President of the black institution and the great equalizer it is a humbling and honoring experience to spend time with two women that have dedicated their professional lives for the social justice ant education. This nation as the historical icon angela davis professor of history and feminism at the university of california santa cruz but today we have an icon avin the midst of another change maker, angela j. Davis. [applause] angela is a scholar and phenomenal woman in her own right. Angela j. Davis is the professor at the university of Washington College of law and with a specific focus on racism in the criminal Justice System. Served as the Dc Public Defender Service where she began as a staff attorney representing adults and is the author of arbitrary justice and the prosecutor for what we are highlightingcu today, arrest prosecution. The broker or and from Harvard School of law then we have Carol Anderson at the studies at Emory University in atlanta georgia. Particularly the way that the domestic and International Policies affect the issue of race, justice and equality. She is the author of a book the United Nations and the struggle for human rights and the radicals from the naacp and the colonial liberation but today we are visiting the most recent work, the unspoken truth of the nations divided. [applause] professors anderson and davis are the recipients of too many awards and recognition for their writings, teachings and scholarships. Somewhat sad and, hopeful and stretch of the comfort zone so professor anderson, white rage coming out an oped that was the most shared for the Washington Post in 2014 and shortly after the nation launched ferguson and im going to quote you by the rage every one was so focused on the flames and policies and those are designed to undermine, undercut the achievement. Each major advancement that is tracked from the end of the civil war to the connection of barack obama results in what you have claimed white rage, cool systematic policies to the language of protecting democracy and keeping the nation safe. Can you share with us what motivated you to turn an oped into a novel and how you manage to emotionally the details of the lynching that youve detailed in youro book . Thank you for being here. I cant tell you how wonderful this is. To talk about ferguson is burningg up and theyre talking about in a moment, in the now. As a historian i set out to craftt to frame how we got here historically that was the first piece. They are so fabricated. Its one thatt is rooted in actual history and not missed so that we understand how we got here. That is a hard history. There is the massive policies that would emanate coming out of the Supreme Court and coming out of congress and coming out of state legislators that would undermine and undercut that advancement. You too can have the American Dream and generation after generation fighting for the American Dream and getting close to it and watching the policy is like Voter Suppression. You describe the black success as the white mans bogeyman. [laughter] you call it a quiet truth and until it was shattered with the Obama Presidency than white race seemed to go up in ways that havent been in decades and you mentioned the Voter Suppression. Has the truth shattered once again the aspiration. I think it is clear in multiple ways the Obama Presidency shattered so many of the ceilings and narratives that we ha have in america and theres a moment in november of 2008 there was a kind of euphoria coursing through the land that we finally crossed the racial rubicon and we had lifted this thing. Use all that although obama received a higher percentage of the vote than john kerry in 2004. Since 1964 in the passage of the civil rights act, the one where the federal government is now putting its power behind saying that africanamericans are actually citizens of the United States, and therefore have rights, since 1964, no democrat signed that since 1964, no democrat has won the majority of the vote in any president ial election and that includes barack obama. So, we are seeing is the backlash and rage that have led to the regime that is in power now because of massive Voter Suppression like we saw in North Carolina where the fourthar circuitou said they targeted africanamericans with nearly surgical precision so that is where we are a right now. The School Funding continues to plague the state including taxes. You touch on two examples in the book that are close to home, that would be the edgewood neighborhood and texas which was the war on drugs. Can you share a little bit what you talk about in the. I will talk about texas, since i am in texas. Remember we had brown 1954 and 1955, then we had massive resistance that was like over my dead body. So, we are still fighting to implement brown by the time we get into the early 1970s. There were two landmark decisions in the 70s that absolutely undercut around. One of them was the rodriguez decision coming out of san antonio t san antonio. They taxed their property at the highesthe level possible, the highest level possible. And because of that, what they were able to do is generate 20 per studen 28per student in ter. Taxing themselves at the highest level for the property because as we know, schools are funded via property tax. We also know the way the Public Policy has a lot to do with the value of the policy. Where the city chooses to put a landfill and chooses to have certain kinds of zoning and businesses. That kind of policy has a lot to do with property value. Meanwhile, in the Alamo Heights which is a predominantly white neighborhood that was wealthy, they didnt taxed themselves at the highest level and they managed to generate 307 per student, so the highest level 21. No, not anywhere near the highest level, 307. But parents and edgewood went all the way up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that there was s no right to educatin and that the disparity and funding didnt mean there would be a disparity in education. [laughter] i am just going to say you and i know they wouldnt have the child in the School District that could only generate 21 per capita. We know that there is a fundamental disparity that the Supreme Court ruled that they do not need to have equitable funding in order not to breach the amendment itself was due process and equality, equal protection under the law. But the decision was absolutely stunning for what is meant for the games because it was cut as a generational leader. The other piece, and i think this seguesti beautifully is the war on drugs. Towards the end of the Civil Rights Movement weve got 1964 i1964and the voting act of 1965. Richard nixon started talking law and order in the war on drugs and then w it came with te power during the Ronald Reagan years. When he launched the war on drugs, there was decline on the use in america so we need to be clear about the motivation here. The war on drugs was targeted on people who statistically used drugs at least. The war on drugs went crazy. 46 of the population was arrested for dealing drugs to this one man and officer named for the year. 38 people were convicted with sentences from 99 years for having i think it was 2 ounces of cocaine to 434 heres. Terrific prison sentences because one of the ways it worked was absolutely punitive. Then it started coming out some of the people he accused of selling couldnt have done it because they were like 300 miles away at a race cashing a check at the very moment when he said that they were being purchased and they had a video proof of that. And it was case after case. Then it turned out that there was absolutely no proof whatsoever. There were no fingerprints on the back of drugs o except his. There were no wires or witnesses, no passion or home of the people who had been locked up. There was just nothing but spoke of the drug kingpin. Then he said i did have evidence every timeid i had a drug purche i wrote it down on my leg. [laughter] so over an 18 month investigation you wrote from each purchase and happened to keep it there until you showered, we have a problem. But it was on the basis of his word that 50 of the adult male black population of texas had been incarcerated. 50 of all adults thrown under the jail and treated as drug dealing scumbags. So, here we see what the war on drugs. The way that it works is when you have a felony conviction, and you are stripped of so many of your rights coming out of the act in terms of housing andgh education. You are also stripped of your voting rights, so 25 of all africanamericans are not able to vote in florida because of that permanent for money disenfranchisement. This is what the war on drugs has done coming in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. Before we move to angela j. Davis for policing the black man, race i reese is such a dift and complex topic. I always told people looked at me odd, i wanted to know what has been the reaction is youve traveled around venetian . Some of the reaction has been the tree all like as you can imagine. I have had somebody tell me to put my crack pipe down and im like crack, why cant i be on meth. [laughter] and i had another say we need him in apartheid south africa they had it right, we need to walk you negro criminals away the way they did in the apartheid south africa. But on the other hand, and thats the hand i like, i have had so many people write to me saying im a 70yearold white man in st. Louis. I knew something was wrong, i just didnt know what it was. And some that said im a Police Officer in new york and i knew something wasnt quite right. I read white rage and now i understand. So that has been the response. The other people that are hungry to know how do we make the nation better and create a truly just and Humane Society . It is evidencebased is giving them the language. [applause] the brutal institution of slavery in the book and then comes the phenomenon of the unlawful killings of walter scott, etc. , etc. Are some of the names of the unarmed boys killed in recent years. This is not a new narrative as it is detailed. Your book has been described as relentlessly in formin informind disturbing. Can you tell us what was the trigger to write the book and what inspired you . Thanks to all of you for being here. I am honored to be here having a discussion with these women i admire so much, soan thank you. When i was approached and would attempt to contextualize these horrible awful killings you mentioned just some of them, really there is no issue that ie important to me than the issue of black and brown people in every step of the process, so i was eager to take on that project. I reached out to the people that i know are the fingers, writers, offers a. What we are attempting to do in this book is to talk about the issue in the broadest veto broadest sense. It inspired the book but then we begin to think about the issue in a broad sense about how they are treated in every step of the process all the way from thehe sentencing, and i think it is important to highlight what you mentioned and that is although the attention sort of focused on this issue i think when he was killed in 2012, and that spawned the black lives Better Movement which by the way is the important social Justice Movement ofia the day. [applause] this is an important social Justice Movementbe that should e taken seriouslyly by everyone. And i will say if you look throughout history when some of these killings have taken place, so it started in the social Justice Movement, but after m. Net hill, but i will say that they didnt start with tre, it started when we were brought here as slaves from 1619 through today from slavery to the lynchings in the century to the present day. The difference is today we are seeing it in technology, social media, cell phone cameras now have allowed us to actually witness these killings with our own eyes so we saw ari eric garr killed, he saw 12yearold playing in the park being murdered by the Police Officer but not one of those Police Officers has been held accountable to date. Many of them were never even charged. Terrence in oklahoma has his hands up in the air and we saw from the cam camera and the helicopter we saw him with his hands up chalking down she was found not guilty. Not one has been held accountable, so they shortly served but then we began to think about sort of how are they treated in the criminal Justice System in general, so this is the subtitle of the book arrest and imprisonment so there are essaysac about the arrest and racial profiling and pleasing and killing, this chapter is about prosecution, imprisonment and the law that was mentioned before and how they permit a lot of these things to happen so thats what we try to do is educate the public and hopefully inspire people to want to do something about it. The role of policing, that flushes out how they are pleased at every step like you said. There is another one making the bias explicit by Catherine Russell brown. Two examples of how just by existing, can you expound upon that . Thathe chapter from one of te nations top experts on criminal justice, these are issues ive been thinking about writing for years and i learned more about that, its why they are treated worse than black men if you will. And she lays it out so painfully quiet frankly and her chapter that just focusing on them and that their mere existence they are criminalized, so black boys are not allowed to be boys. Kids, because they are kids, they do stupid things. They joke around, and he can see itit in some kids that when blak boys play or do nothing just on the street corners, they can be doing nothing but Police Officerser see crime and they ae going to go over and put their hands on them and throw them on ground and humiliate them and of course anyone that is treated like that, if you were treated like that and doing nothing wrong with would be your response . You might fight back because you knew you were not doing anything wrong. But suddenly now they are assaulting a Police Officer and there is a crime so theres probable cause and i can arrest you. This is true for men and boys and it is a painful reality. You mentioned implicit bias. I dont know how many of you have heard this term but its something all of us in this room suffered from those views we have that are not even aware of. We are not even aware we are responding back that way. Jesse jackson, i dont know how many of you remember this, got in trouble because walking down the street in washington, d. C. He heard somebody behind him and turned around and was relieved when it was a white person. When people see black, they see crime. But when Police Officers are acting on their bias, it has often times deadly consequences. When you are treating people differently and you are not even aware that youre doing it but you are creating these disparities we have in thesp Justice System, that is where the problem lies. There are some people that are directly racist. Unfortunately the courts do not provide a run that he. Theres intentional discrimination. What do we do when we have people that are acting subconsciously into treating people of color unfairly we have to look beyond the Justice System because it doesnt provide the legal remedy for that intrinsic racism. In your survey of the book and many of your presentations the focus of the prosecutors and i heard you use the term discretionary so why dont we focus on the prosecutors . When i was many years ago, one of the things i found fascinating and infuriating it was how is it that the people that make these decisions, why do they have so much power and discretion and they were making the decisions that there seemed to be no way to hold them accountable . Its important and we should be paying close attention and hold them accountable, but Police Officers only have the power to bring a person to the courthouse door. They dont have theus power to charge a person. The prosecutor that makes the decision about whether this person will remain in the system and become entrenched in that system. If the a prosecutor decides whether that perso the person we charged with a crime and that the charge w will be in that decision as well as a pleabargaining decision on whether to offer a deal or plea bargain to the defendant, those decisions permit prosecutors to innocence control the criminal Justice System. They dont answer to anyone but their boss, the chief prosecutor, the judge has no control over that and the combination of the two decisions i should mention by the way, people think there are all these trials going on and everyone has the right to the jury trial if they are facing six months or more in prison, but if you watch tv and watch law and order that are on their and all these trials are going on, not so. Theres a lot of guilty plea is going on. 95 of all criminal cases are resolved by way of a guilty plea. People are pleading guilty and it would be fine if it were a fair process where they were doing it freely and voluntarily but that isnt the way the systemel works. Prosecutors can bring charges so easily. They have to meet a standard called probable cause. So they can pile on charges and bring as many charges as they want as long as they have aa probable cause and its so easy to make that standard. It is a lower standard than the proof beyond a reasonable doubt that they hav they have the tri. So, you can see how they can play along the charge is putting them at a disadvantage you can see how the defendant facing a long list of charges each of which might carry five to ten mandatory years in prison, even if an innocent person might plead guilty like what happened, they were innocent an and by the way for the happy ending to thie story of the naacp Educational Fund came in and freed them. That is good news after all of that horrible stuff happened. But innocent people, so he caused you f feel like if i go o trial and i get convicted i will spend the rest of my life going to prison. Its Risky Business and you do not know what a jury will do so maybe i will plead guilty to one. So they give a disadvantage and people feel compelled to plead guilty often times. If it were a fair process where the prosecutor opened up books anand they only drop the charges they should brin bring and peope were doing it voluntarily, that isnt the way that it works in the United States and the courtrooms across the country. Country. So i argue that we need to be paying close attention to the prosecutor. In every state except for the four in the district of columbia, the district attorneys as they are the state and local level are elected officials. Most people dont Pay Attention to that race. A lot o of times theres one person and they served for decades. I urge people Pay Attention to your race because these are the people that control the system. Ask questions about what they are dippin giving up what the ps are d and about how the policies are increasing the mass incarceration problem that we have in the United States with the highest incarceration rate in the world. Ask those questions. They will be shocked, they might faint. Ask them, because that is how we hold them accountable. This is a democracy and to whom the great power we hold them accountable. We havent done that when it comes to prosecutors, so that is why i focus on that and i urge people to Pay Attention to district attorney. We have a few minutes for questions from the audience. [applause] there is a microphone here if you have a question. The biggest shooting in history in las vegas and there was a comment about gun control of course, but my question is why hasnt anyone have a discussion about the rage after that, and that is what that event was all about, wasnt it . The way that im defining white rage isnt through the kind of violence that we are used to through charlottesville or the clan or even a mass shooting but through the very clinical policies that are coming out of the state legislatures and other School Boards where they are re drawing the voting districts to elude the power of so Many Americans where they are making choices about where the School Districts will be and will not be, that is the kind of rage im talking about. Asas a society we are drawn to e flames but we miss the candling. So, we even see las vegas but we are not paying attention to the way that they came to be and the impact of them and where they are racialized. So that is a very different kind ofof discussion. First, i want to mention we should give thanks to the Texas Observer. [applause] when i think about issues that affect africanamericans, hispanic americans, poor white people as well, i can think about some things regarding some that would make it better like for instance a 15dollar minimum wage to make it better economically for poor white people and africanamericans and hispanics that are overly represented and i think of other things like Voter Suppression that is a relatively news phenomenon since it was set free by the court overturning what was used. What stumps me is the shootings of young black men by usually white Police Officers. And i am kind of stumped by what we do aboutut that. I dont know how to get to a solution about that. Its against the law to shoot people. Let me lift that question i hear. People ask what can they do. So how do we respond to what can we do . One of the things of us are talking about is that we have to fully engage in this democracy. We must hold our elected officials accountable. Too often, we are rolled into complacency by the soundbite. On la law and order and tough on crime. Its not enough. You have the police who lied about how they killed a 12yearold boy and when the video is out there you see in fact they shot him dead within two seconds of rolling around him, so at a bare minimum, you have obstruction of justice and nothing happens. We have to hold these officials accountable. So, who is appointing the police chief . Who is appointing they said theres really somethingro wrong with the parents. It seems like they are trying to get paid. So when they are looking at grieving parents and you dont even allow them to grieve but in fact they are demanding justice and you are casting aspersions just seeing them as trying to make a buck off of their dead son, that man needs to be voted out. [applause] i still believe in this thing called democracy an democracy ao messy right now. I want to Say Something about cough killing. The law permits Police Officers to use deadly force in a wide range of circumstances. In a series of Supreme Court cases there is a reasonableness standard and when they say they are in fear even if it isnt reasonable to us it permits them and its a problem. So what do we do about it . There are some in a lot of different ways but mayors upon police chiefs, we go to for mayors and so many refuse to charge the Police Officers who killed when they could easily have done so on the cause and people would start to Pay Attention so that is what we need to do is become engaged. The protests that have been going on in the movement, that is important, too. We need people protesting, legislating, litigating. I tell people this everybody cant do everything that everybody can do something. So do that and you are making a difference. My question has to do with the police that have been so oppressive for so long. Are you aware of any local efforts in the United States or elsewhere where people are working to reduce the budget and find other ways of maintaining order and protecting the community other than relying on a militarized police . There are people out there in the community saying we dont have to turn to the police for everything and the sad thing is because they treat people so badly they dont want to turn to the police. But in the interest of time i will say that there are in various communities individuals who are looking not to be vigilantes and take them into their own hands but to try to address issues in ways that do not involve people being put in the criminal Justice System. They cant find the rest of the people accountable for things. Theres a lot of work to begin down, but we need more. Thank you for being here. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] youve been listening to professors and offers angela davis and Carol Anderson. In just a few minutes we will be back with more coverage of the 22nd annual texask book festival in [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] is i was trying to figure out my life as an astronaut. All these 24 years working with nasa that identity is gone. I moved back home to be with my dad, and he is now gone. So that was a moment of trying to dig deep and understand the purpose of why i am here. Ive been told its the most important days of your life the day that you were born and the day you figured out why, what was our purpose. Then i was told by my editor in the buck it isnt a mark twain reference. But figuring that out, and all of us figuring out why we are here and help change our plan is for the positive thats why i wrote this book its the generic you will share your story, it is the Family Community not giving up and be believing i grew up not even knowing what it was but i was living it every day with piano lessons and building bicycles and all these Different Things. One of the things that is going to help us as a civilization is when we realized that we are really on a small blue marble together, technically working together as one civilization granted we do not always see this happening everyday, but from the Vantage Point of the international spaceti station, when i look out over virginia and i see my hometown from his face it is only 240 miles up the distance from dc to new york. Going around the planet every 90 minutes, seeing the sun rise and set at 345 minutes. During this way was having these moments where im flyingre over virginia in five minutes later over paris where one of my crewmates is looking down my mom is probably eating down there. In a couple of minutes it shows you how connected we are as a people. Then fy15 over afghanistan and looking down and seeing how beautiful it is knowing what is happening all these places and all this going on but from that Vantage Point it is simply stunning. Im going to tri am going to trl signed up. If you get an opportunity whatever the experience you have to get to see this it fundamentally changes you as a person to make you want to do better when you see a planet from that Vantage Point. Good morning. Today . You this is the famous gail. Its great to hear your voice. Thank you for your work and the discussion youre having around thisn whole issue as you and i both know, every german during this time. Go if he wanted to buy bread you have to have a card so it wasnt really a matter of choice. I would love for you to talk about, and you touched upon this briefly, the binary choices. Where i live here in northern carolina and in the bay area there is a growing population of people that call themselves progressives and it seems that term has been hijacked to the point where it is at the exclusion its progression towards the notion of yes we are making Society Better and progressing but its to include everything except god as the focal point and centrality issue and most important things in our lives and i would love to hear you talk about how progressives are almost coopting and hijacking what it means to be alive and working in gods kingdom. Before we hear from him tell us about yourself. My grandfather was also in the German Military as one of those who was in the german w resistance comes as a german officer as were many in his family. Another relative and uncle was also in the german conspiracy against hitler and another was the german ambassador to russia and the architect of the pack. All of them were found guilty of treason when the famous plot failed and they were executed so thesey things are near and dear to my heart and i just thank eric for exposing these things. There were some brave germans. The t sad truth is germany has been paying this notion of guilt for so long and you are right you can never get past that. I was going to say if he didntf say himself his family are heroes. They gave their lives to defeat from the inside. So they are heroes mentioned in mymy book and many people literally gaveav their lives and were tortured into these were people from the inside which brings us to the larger question of progressives in the area. When people take to the streets and violence and the Democratic Party is effectively hijacked by people on the left, you are going to have problems. We have had and continue to have some people on the democratic sidec in america and i have to Say Something has happened. It seems the anger that grows on this tells you something. Even if you didnt agree with Martin Luther king jr. , the nonviolence would give you pause to say theres something there. These people look so humble and noble and dignified. When you have people behaving like animals even if you agree with them, you are disinclined from supporting them because you do not approve of what they are doing. Theres a lot of people today that are just angry and looking for an excuse to break something and know i can smash a columbus statue or Something Like c that and nobody is going to prosecute me it is troubling to me. Ive been incredibly grieved by the New York Times in the last year or so. They printed an article the other day in effect excusinged e violence as defensive and people that are willing to fight if necessary that is ranked 1 cents. This is not going to lead to a better or a safer america. I think that we have to be fair. Anybody that would come condemn along these lines, we are in a bad spot, and if people on the left do not stand up and good journalists dont emerge to do this job, we are in big trouble. We depend on journalists to do this job. Went. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] hello robo to our panel we have three great offers to give us a taste of their books to have bait indepth conversation on the border but before that just a couple of points the 22nd in annual texas book festival thanks for coming out. So please silence your phones. Authors will be signing books and the main tent they are for sale you support the author and though local independentt bookstore. The mission is to support lowincome schools ahead to fund grants for libraries hurt by Hurricane Harvey. We are also running a book drive to rebuild the librarys. Donate 15 to buy a book and the texas book festival and the foundation will match your donation. One book three books. I with Border Security and i will be your moderator today. Author of bloodlines how the rookie fbi agent goes on assignment to track down a moneylaundering scheme the author of texas blood from seven generations to give you a history with their experience. And the author of faraway brothers to immigrantimmigrant s that come to rue the unitedl states to avoid the violence in their home country and the story of what happens to them when they get here. [applause] so to kickoff the discussion. End then and then further worse security at the border talking about people and drugs coming from the borders. So what are a the biggest misconceptions and how can they be addressed . Your family has been here seven generations. [laughter] it is hard to know where to begin when National Politicians talk about the border they have an idea it is a lawyer and batted is simple but actually if you spent any time it is a region. It isnt a river but it is communities of both sides of International Boundaries that have go back and put over hundreds of years so they talk about it cutting off the border with a wall just in terms of geographical fantasy youd have to go down highway 90 and tuesdays that type of structure but the idea that the border region is a were sold. D in some sense is similar second talk about that more but on the u. S. Side, is completely safe bible just leave it there. This is the complexity of how to describe the border because of one side you have the conflict we have talked about for years but then you have the safest communities year after year some sometimes i feel bad because in so that i worry that i feel bad image is much more than that. And that is complete folly. And with the economy and a the culture. So it is disappointing the washington but in terms of the immigration that persistent idea that and thats a factor and sometimes with american emigrants which are of the hour rise. Because not what is here but what is going on in the country. The voter is a concept and immigration that we feet of and this is what is happening in the home country. When you have those history cut off after thousands of years those who are fleeing those scenarios find another way to get here. So the idea of mitigating immigration at the border is not irrational because it has to be much more long before they get to though wall. And the unaccompanied minors coming from Central America is very real. So with that t reality if washington makes it look like . We really have to look at this as a refugee situation. Were to have that Asylum Program more except refugees. So i think that is important to frame that in that way. So if you try to curb immigration that is irrational but if we make the june people like criminals is a strategic move in a negative light so after reporting on this side work at a school and i can say thats theyre not trying to bring them here theyre fleeing the of a criminal actors for girl. Of the Getting Started in the United States. The rise with the u. S. Exports with the National Policy and what has fueled the crisis. I think it is important with a much larger historical context. Y is and plenty of material evidence of that. And when i go into in my book is important to realize the border is opportunistic that current mania of the border has nothing to do with the border. Nothing to do with the immigration. It is not attempt to have the people out but to divide those who were already here. En with that fbi agent into the Money Laundering scheme is also investigating then he runs into her at a park and then to think and working really hard on the case and then is behind him the whole way he thinks she is following him in keeping an eye on the veer and he pulls into hisnt driveway he fully expects her to get out but she keeps driving and pulls in to the driveway two houses away. Their neighbors. To the point roger was making they have been together for so long so what impact does that have . And is specifically in that case with the drug trade . That resonated in for these agents to go down to the border but then that those that say it is a lawless place in people are decapitated but then they come to realize is a tightknit community they start to enjoy that but then he realizes the families go back and forth across the river all the time they do nazi thatha division. So he was quite surprised this woman he tried to find the disappearance was his neighbor but it is very i sad because they never do find the man. Of course, one of many that have happened. And the lot of families are suffering because of that. And those that are on both sides of the validity. Isnt moving throat of border . The lease with the border communities in what government is for and what they can do. No one that i know of the border takes it very seriously. Maybe water to people but they think it is absurd and ridiculous and they are outraged by the obstacles put in front of them. We also have to recognize that violence is largely driven by supply and demand that we have created. With that constant enforcing immigration at the border with the home countries in that larger political context misses the point. Talking to the Border Patrol or the executives you will hear again and again that a real solution to whatever problem of the border is comprehensive Immigration Reform for those that want and need to get to the United States whether refugees or seeking employment is the solution at the comprehensive level. So that Border Police they shouldnt be thought of as military can focus on real criminals and not refugees. But online friday letter sent by the state department by a Homeland Security that those in america with that temporary protected status that could live hereie temporarily they know lombardy negative. So that is the road for them to be deported so talk about why did they come here . This is the situation for a lott of kids of they were sent back . Thatha announcement came as a surprise but it was a surprising move because you are targeting people who have been here going through legal channels so they can work or send their kids to school so it is a misguided focus and terms of the administration the young men that i write about are identical twins their get married to start the young family in tandem with us civil war and then the war comes to an end and then there the import from the United States and then it is a direct result of the civil war that the young men had come to the United States to flee the civil war United States was supporting so that cycle of what is happening now has to do with the many choices and intervention that our government has made over the decades so it is right after the civil war came to a close that the opportunistic time but then there rise in tandem of the gains gangs so one of the brothers is on the wrong side and passed to flee almost overnight but then his younger twin is really close he leaves quickly but then they figure out because the twin brother looks exactly like his brother so he had to go. These are separate journeys they cross the border but it is their story trying to figure out when they cross into the United States fleeing their traumatic violence but also encountering violence along the way so how do they say and build a life that have 14,000 off debts in less than a year then it is 22,000 there required to go to school but they have no lawyer so how they make it as the june people so much more experience but at the same way how did they at the age of 17 manage . One thing that struck me about the twins through a nofault of their own is just reversed to illustrate the point there is noti getting away from this. So to open the road for the deportation hundreds of thousands of people are in a similar situation. When you strip somebody of the legal means to be here and r make a living your incentivizing them especially if they are scared to go back that incentivizes them to stay here and then make money through illegal means. One of the interesting it your book with these historical anecdotes was during the civil war the Texas Legislature set up front your organizations from the native american raid so that struck me as the parallel to these malicious protecting the border so i wonder you see any parallel to what they are reporting with the is bigger story lines . We always think of the border with mexico but until pretty late in this century people didnt realize it but they didnt realize there is another political entity that was the defect commanche vampireou because taxes resisted sending the men in other parts of the south because they needed to protect the western border from the commanche raids. The border fell back 100 miles actually. Neighbor called the texas guard. My greatgrandfather was part of that. I dont think theres a strong analogy between that and those to put on fatigues and allowed to shoot each other while trying to protect the border. But the civil war situation is very different because that gets to the larger question what is it exactly people are so afraid of what feeds this obsession . Is a bundle of issues it is hard to unpacked but it is the failure of American Society to deal with that long war and genocide that is tied up with the mexican obsession because that war in the southwest the mexican war in that bloody campaign against the plains indians historically is all tied up together i cannot give linear prove but it is a return of the oppressed. You are all working journalists. With the border it immigration stories of diego you have this story to put into a bigger idea . I had been struggling for some time of what is happening in in mexico right now. The cartel that that change thege face of a conflict they started at the beginning of this century so they militarized bed drug war in the Mexican Government responded in kind to put the army in the streets so they really changed the nature of a conflict and this was the first time in the trial were those founding members was intensified he was head of the moneylaundering operation and because he lived outside of dallas lois seemed like a good way of a detective story of this conflict in mexico with the kidnapping the gentleman who is a very wealthy Business Owner kidnapped and forced to go to oklahoma to buy a horse at the auction that had a completely different element. I have been writing on the border for some time but it is hard sometimes to get people to Pay Attention to what is happening down there. Here is the way a compelling true crime you detective story. So that was my thinking in expanding this story into a book. And i have been have those unaccompanied minors that come into the United States without papers or parents but i was covering that at the end of 2012 i wrote one fourth of the magazine did it was us situation that i finish the story been put it to bed so why did another story of unaccompanied minors in the agricultural system that i had more questions about act is this what a book is we were so b fascinated . Led then simultaneously i work parttime add a book i helped to start in Oakland California and one day i was closing on my article in math teacher walked into my office said really need to do something about all these kids that have court dates with no lawyers i was like what . So while i was reporting on this so 60 were unaccompanied minors so now onequarter of our students so that was a situation where it was us split personality where they converged so they highlighted that as another opportunity to write a book. I could not do as much magazine work because i was too close so there was the number of threads in my book having to do with my familys migration and with me trying to understand that ranching culture that i grew up in at least in that part of texas thatd is in serious decline but that specific border part there is asp chapter on Border Security and surveillance and that actually makes sense. So it is a very long digression but it goes to thee heart that for me i moved away after i graduated school traveling homelike concede of militarization of the border but it was so shocking to see what was happening with the surveillance or the checkpoints, the drones and all of the surveillance activities. So i decided i needed to understand the bader a projection thought they were doing and adding a massive surveillance net on to the general population and what i came to believe i was so outraged by a the implications of this is pushed me into the blocks so then i put in the other material. But to do give you the of the nail conclusion i realized the border region has become massive surveillance of the american population. The thing to do with the board. Border this says though way of a laboratory for the domestic application of military techniques developed in the dirty wars in central asia coming home and it isnt just on the border. And it is already happening. That pushed me to do a book about it. We have 15 minutes for question. I saw your book been perennial of very bad boy. [laughter] [inaudible] he became an advocate you grew epo of the of the order ru a good advocate for the border . [laughter] i have to leave that up to other people i am glad you mentioned olmstead then maybe the best program in texas i have ever read. He was on assignment for our the New York Times. Is of and cultural polemic running up to the civil war against slavery with that sociological analysis that paribas of the texas character so you should read it. But i have to leave several other people to judge. Took up the intercept or he is the editor. To having written these books would destroy the journalist a missing about the border . I will not give you that. [laughter] i am not telling you. Broad terms. Stories that have been reported not getting enough attention so i will pledge my employer there is a company that has deployed scanners and every county in texas collecting the biometric df fight feeding into a private company. The net that has been dropped on california and new mexico and arizona and texas is disturbing. Based on the comment that he made yesterday so the penetration into the u. S. And to experience and with the governors or other officials to come here. And i will plug another reporter was done a phenomenal job to uncover these amazingg cases dealing with the former governor those that have laundered massive amounts of cash and he has done a phenomenal job and just to trace the exodus of the politicians from mexico the treasury and with that system living in san antonio and houston and that is broke with those Paradise Papers we will see some of that so that did just break im looking for digging into that. Is super important because people think why should we care . We should because we are doing business with them mexico is the biggest trade partner so liberally does play into the government and to were doing business with. Thanks for your information i work with unaccompanied minors and the big concern but with Traumatic Stress disorder especially in unaccompanied minors also other families i feel that with that situation and then i have another question all the more of what theirr requirements are because they feel like a lot of them dont feel they go to school but they are forced so what we really dont know about. With that part of that question that is the user friendly and Detention Centers the u. S. Government does have the alternative think it is not good for young people to be in detention since 08. 4 with them but in the of response of the older brother who was 24 years old scraping the live together but that requirement is the sponsor has to care for them and to enroll them in school and get them to court on time that is the requirement but of course, to go to court their terrified and they are not provided attorneys and the is provided an attorney from the government they have the right but that cost quite a bit of money so yes absolutely postTraumatic Stress obviously those communities they are leaving in Central America are terrorized there is a war on youth from all sides as the police are targeting for recruitment the vast majority ofd death our young people and the police are also targeting of the indian person would be a gangster there is an actual law which means a congregation of more than two young people on the streets could be grounds for an arrest. So the Mental Health needs are evidence and did so the hope that infrastructure is like one on one there be so how did they provide there be to 100 kids . So really talking about there be for 40000 so you a can contact me and i can give you resources but we rely on afterschool programs maybe not one on one the day are buildingld up a the resilience. Before you jump in time for one or two more questions. With this incredible with his research and reporting to you experience censorship trying to publish a story . But the reason i stay so long at the Texas Observer is they let me do whatever i want. [laughter] you cannot ask for anything better. So fortunately i have never had that experience so every writer has the challenge of getting editors interested in your story and a different times it has been difficult to sell a story about the border and unfortunately right now it is really easy. Team of Staff Writers right now that i cannot assai enoughs stories on the subject. So it is a security threat. So with the mexican journalist or northern mexico that is something i have had to learn how to navigate over the years. It depends what is going on at the time you have to talk to local people from the area to find out what the report is so that has been a challenge so where i have done most of my work and that is a complete total change. And one as the most dire country afford journalist. It is honduras now. It with that old form of censorship. Is to do that reporting on the ground. Is similar in two parts of iraq. That is all the time we have had for today. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]. [inaudible conversations] fellow. Welcome to the 22nd annual texas book festival. Thank you for coming out in support of our offers, the festival in great literature. First off a reminder to silence yoursu cell phone. Okay, so today we are here to talk about violated exposing the Sexual Assault crisis by Paula Lavigne and mark schlabach. They will beal signing books courtesy of the people but there are rumors that they are all gone and have sold out today. When you buy a book at the festivafestival coming to suppoe author, the festival and the independent bookstores. Bookstores. The festival is a Nonprofit Organization and its mission is to support lowincome schools in texas with visiting book donations with the reading rock Stars Program and funded grants for libraries in texas. Your purchase today makes a difference. The texas book festival is also running a book drive this weekend to help raise money to rebuild libraries affected by Hurricane Harvey. If you donate for a reading student at texas book festival and foundation will match the foundation with a book to rebuild the library affected. One book equal three. You are funding many important initiatives. Thank you. My name is Jessica Luther and the author of College Football and the politics of rape. With my partner dan sullivan. Im joined today and very excited about this by Paula Lavigne, and espn Investigative Reporter working primarily for outside the lines on television and online. Shes experienced in covering several topics and is a specialist in Data Journalism and statistics and trains colleagues in the databases and investigative techniques. She worked as a reporter at the dallas morning news, the Des Moines Register and the news tribune in tacoma washington. From the university of nebraska lincoln. To her right is mark schlabach. Through his work with espn hes a regular contributor to espn tv and radio programming such as outside the lines and College Football lines, you might have heard of some of those. He worked as a College Football Investigative Reporter for the Washington Post and atlanta journalconstitution. His work has appeared in espn magazine and numerous other magazines and papers. Hes been honored by the associated press, Football Writers Association of america, the Film Festival and other organizations for his writing and reporting. Thank you for being here. [applause] so, we have about 45 minutes. Im lucky to be a moderator so the first 30 or 35 minutes then we loaded u will open up to thee qanda at the end. Im going to start with the hardest when the first. For those that are new to the baylor story and only heard bits and pieces, can you tell us the major points about the last few years . [laughter] espn became interested in the story because of jessicas stories about a Football Player who transferred to baylor from boise state university. He had off field issues there. He had checked himself into a Mental Institution a couple of times and was dismissed from teatheteam and then all of a sun showed up at baylor on scholarship and then he was accused of raping a female soccer player. So thats kind of how we first got interested. I went to waco and spent a week there, did a couple stories and then paula came in and there was a second player, kevin elliott, who had previously been convicted of Sexual Assault, and then she went back and found that he had been accused by three other women of Sexual Assault and they havent done much to s address it. I will let her pick it up from there. One of the things we started talking to some of the women who had reported he either raped or physically assaulted them and it was through those interviews we found that there were a lot of problems. The university was addressing this and what they were in for not doing to help these women and tha to that story than sortf spark a protest on campus, there was a candlelight vigil and more and more women started coming out and we continued digging into what had previously. Espn exposed a number of other cases that had never been made public including an alleged gang rape of a young woman a few years earlier that was never properly handled by baylor. A number of Domestic Assault cases. At the same time we were putting the stories out and making public these allegations that have never been before. The university was doing its own investigation, and all of this came to a head in may of 2016, when the universitys investigation done by the long term hamilton was finished and came out with a finding of fact that basically said acrosstheboard, the universitd had failed in its handling of Sexual Assault cases, and specifically the Athletic Department, more specifically the Football Program, and as a result of that, they fired the head coach and demoted the president ken starr and put Athletic Director mike on voluntary leave shortly after that. At that point, we kind of thought the story was somewhat coming to an end, with but there have been a lawsuit filed by one of the women in a case. We soon learned after that but it was really only the beginning. Fastforward to today and i think weve had ten h lawsuits filed to read a few of them have been settled. The ncaa is still investigating the big 12, the Texas Rangers with investigating the District Attorneys Office was investigating. They were being monitored by the accrediting agency and the just still in a lot of cases pending today as are a member of the lawsuits. En three players were facing criminal trials in the future and a conviction was overturned by the Appeals Court and texas Supreme Court is going to hear the case. Theres another player chargedd with felony, right . He ended up pleading to a lesser crime. You are keeping up with so much. You mentioned so much attention about what happened to baylor has been focused on the Football Team and rightly so. The stuff that has come out about what happene happened to n thand even theathletics departml alarming, but hamilton found it was so much bigger than that. Can youou talk about what other parts of the university, maybe the board of regents or other entities in the university that deserves more scrutiny . It is a good point to make. A lot of attention at deservedly so was on the Football Team and Athletic Department, there was such a bigger problem that it went a lot of who was handling this itit was handled y the affairs and the Upper Administration and they found and the Police Department, the Baylor Police Department Found a lot of victim blaming, and we were told there was an interview with the former police chief where a woman that had reported the rape was told dont you think you shouldnt have been out that late, just sort of comments about implying that you put yourself in this situation. There were a number of women that recounted similar conversations especially when it came to alcohol violation. One aspect is a huge component in fact its the Worlds Largest Baptist University and drinking, youre supposed to be over 21, its not allowed. There were a lot of women who said they would come to the Judicial Affairs to report a rape and the officer was far more interested in the fact that they had been drinking. There were women who were afraid to come forward because they knew if they came forward to the Judicial Affairs and said they were raped they would get in trouble for having had alcohol so they didnt even report these things. There were a number of findingsw from the Pepper Hamilton law firm, but the whole aspect of the culture of ignoring these assaults or having a system that deterred by mena from coming forward was present at all of the university. You mentioned the border regions. At the very topop compared to those that are responsible for making sure theres someone in place to handle these and that they are sending theth right message. One of the things that has been played out is that they didnt even have a title ixx coordinatr until 2014 when the government require that they have one as far back as 2011. To sum up what she said, it was systematic across the campus. A lot of the attentionon was on the Football Program because the Football Program with any university it is the most highprofile. Espn was reporting on it s as it was getting a lot of attention. There was a tennis player accused of Sexual Assault and it was a campuswide academic in a nationwide epidemic. But the pp failed, the president s office field, Athletic Department failed. It was just acrosstheboard to begin not with a story about the baylor but the book and you sort of touch on this but i would like to hear more with you guys about why you decided to start there and the role that religion has played with both what happened before and maybe even the reaction that happened happened the mother of one of the women who testified on the Sexual Assault case had come down to texas to talk to her and her daughter wondering things that the book and said she was at church that day and there was a particular passage she wanted to tell me about. She said it seemed to ring true with everything that was happening and from the second book of samuel and i cant remember the name but it was basically one of king davids fathers by one of the sons or stepsons and the whole story does by the end of the story it talks about how a david ignored her cries for help, long story. Obviously, if the bible. [laughter] but the fall of david because he didnt address this properly ano it created this issue to the family. I knew right then that this was exactly how we needed to start this because it is a great bible passage forbl the story and we e talking about a university where religion played a. Role in what had happened and had a negative role at that. This is an investigative book and you have so many sources. Its amazing all that is marshaled here. How did you do this, bring all this information and people together and the narrative and how did the two of you Work Together to do this . It was a collaborative effort. I dont work well with others for the most part. [laughter] by workflow with paula. I talked her into writing the book and she did a lot of the heavy lifting, she dealt with the female victims because i thought it would be easier for her to talk to them. Shes really good at what she does. You have to understand in texas to file and open records request for a crimina criminal record td detail these incidents, you cant just send a request and say give me joe smith arrest record. You have to ask for the specific incident. So she had to file an open records request for every assault, basically any act over a tenyear perio ten year perioh it up with the database against baylors football roster. That was her database reporting and shes one of the best there is in o giving back. We had already been reporting on the story and obviously i think we sold the book may be in october so we have been on the story august or september, we been on it for a year or so of reporting had been done but then for the next three months probably we sat down in midjanuary and started writing because i had to get to the postseason. That is my day job and she was working on other stuff as well. I think the manuscript was due and eight to tenen weeks probab. They asked for 8,000 i think we sent 126,000 that was only because i drove to omaha nebraska and took away the computer. [laughter] she said weve got this interface and i said no we are 40,000 over already. The toughest part is that it was obviously something people didnt want tole talk about. Ive said this everywhere weve spoken if it wasnt for these courageous women, the story never gets out into the book never gets written. [applause] in california we met with Jasmine Hernando is who is they hear when in the beginning was the first young lady to come out and said he used my name and the report and a lawsuit and that really encouraged a lot of other women to come forward and say what happened to them while they were enrolled in baylor, and that changed the entire dynamic. Absolutely. Okay, so baylor is currently one of the football season under the new head coach. This is his first year. Yesterday was actually their first win. So, mark, what do you think is the longterm health of the program, and more than that, will not justify airing of the former head coach, but also the current struggle with other programs do you think . We were there last summer. The baylor hired matt from temple university, who is a really good guy and good football coach. His father was a baptist preacher in new york city near times square, so i think he understands the culture of baylor. He understood what he was getting into. I think from a football standpoint it was probably a lot worse than hed realized going in. But anytime there is a coaching change, theres going to be a transition obviously. This one was completely different because a lot of the players who were there were no longer there. A lot of recruits bailed on him that i think longterm it will be the right thing. They instituted a lot of policies to address this. Theres a lot of Educational Programs in place to prevent this from happening in the future. The same thing with the higher from missouri. So his citizen the right place. It is a struggle this year but nothing long term. Three, four, five year rebuild probably. I think nationally it has made a difference. Minnesota had an issue last december before the bowl games where some players had been accused of raping a cheerleader and the players were dismissed and the coach was ultimately fired for things he said in support of the players, so i think the message is getting across that its still happening. I think there are a number of universities and programs who like they dont want to be the next baylor, but at the same time every time wet say this, thereve been some things that happen that makes you believe the message is getting out there, you still see things happening at other schools where you shake your head and youre like could you not have handled that better or make a different decision . Is still a lack of transparency with a lot of the schools and dealing with problems like this. This story is so much bigger. Its like the perfect example of a a larger issue within College Football. Youve actually written about this and other schools use your work repeatedly. What should wem learn from baylr that can help us understand what is going on in the College Football system at large . I think one of the things you see everywhere is, well, two things, one, you see a lot of them come in with a sense of entitlement that they had been told since they were in junior high or high school that they are the best and they will have every door open for them and god rules do not apply to them. I think the other thing you see is a number of coaches who feel like they just want to deal with the axis and does. Its not affecting their onfield performance, they want to leave it to someone else and you simply cannot do that. If you are the head coach of a program you have to deal with everything. You have to make this a priority. And i think you see some coaches that are doingri that and you start to see the message that they need to be the ones at the front lines of this. Theres so much education for the women, do this, dont do this, stay with your friends come and go out, dont drink too much. I think what needs to be done is sendnd a message to the men dont rape women. [applause] and if you see something happening [inaudible] building on that, this is a book about College Football, but its also about campus Sexual Assault, which is a much bigger topic and one that we have been focusing on student activists and weve been talking about for the last six, seven years. Under the current president ial administration and secretary off education under federal guidelines for how to handle reports of gender violence on campuses are changing. Can you tell us a little bit about how they are changing and what potentia the potential impf this couldot be . With the current secretary did is basically rescinded pretty much everything the Obama Administration put in place. Puttingti more of an emphasis on the schools to deal with the problems faster and provide certain resources to the women and so forth. A lot of that, shes had this in her history, being more on the side of the mostly young men whove been accused of this and the confidenc contents about the process. So some of what we are seeing changed with the rescinding of the guideline there is a lower standard of evidence, im sorry, higher standard of evidence. Previously it was a preponderance of evidence. Now it is sort of clear and convincing. So you have beyond a reasonable doubt is what you need for a criminal case, preponderance of evidence you are 51 sure so now you are sort of at a 75, which is higher. Theres criticism of that and now there is no deadline by which you have to complete an investigation. One of my biggest issues with what she has put out there is one of her impetus for rescinding these is while the policies have not worked. Its hard to say the policies havent worked when so many never even got to the point that they were implementing the policies. So,ri i dont think its fair to criticize the system as itit was because in many cases, clearly baylor is one example, but there are many. Theres the current policy. I think there were probably some things that needed to be done on the due process side but what you are seeing right now is a huge pendulums shaf shaft and ts a lot of men and women who reported Sexual Assaults and feel like they are now going to have their rights and their needs diminished. I think one of the things people dont realize it is a federal law and it is not as much about proving if he or she did it or not, its about taking care of the victim to help them stay in school and like jasmine and her man dennis, when her mother called the Counseling Center they were basically told your problems are too serious, we can help you. When they called Academic Affairs to get assistance and stuff like that because she was falling behind in her classes as she was having to go to the Police Department to talk to detectives, they told herer mother, is a tremendou tremendof htremendous companyplane fell os head, we couldnt help you. There was another victim who havee to recount the details of herto Sexual Assault to 18, 26 people before she could moveeo r class to get away from her alleged perpetrator. Theres another one when she talketalked of Pepper Hamilton attorneys, she could only do if she was lying on the floor in a fetal position. So there are other issues at play with title ix other than proving whether or not somebody did or not. I agreed, the case at Florida State the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who was accused of Sexual Assault and the title ix processal there was the United States Supreme Court justice, one of the most respected lawyers and judges in the state who oversaw it. Telling a 22yearold victim and most of these across the country lawyers are not allowed to talk to you they can advise their clients but they cannot speak during the hearings. In ahe lot of cases you determie whether or not somebody sexually assaulted somebody and whether or not a young man or woman has been accused of it is great to get kicked out of school, so i think there are changes that need to be made. Thats a great point. I could see the civil rights law. Thats the point is to uphold civil rights. We had a senior president on the record tell us, i think it was on the record [laughter] we will find out. Until this stuff cam came upt the baylor come he thought the title ix was the wall that required him to have as many female scholarships as male scholarships in sports, and that was the onliwas the only thing s responsible for. Its innd the book. This is the Senior Vice President of baylor. The only thing i thought that mattered as i had enough scholarships to give to girls as i did the boys. That tells you where they were at. Where a lot of people were, really, before 2011. And in fairness, and weve said this everywhere, this is not an issue that and i wouldnt even make this point and i try to make this the baylor people, this is not an issue that was only a baylor problem. It is a problem across the country on every campus in america. The baylor got a pretty good spotlight. Theres been good reporting recently on a middle school. There is a case in san antonio involving a local high school Football Players and a bunch of them were arrested for Sexual Assault and title ix applies to them,li too. Ihe know someone that writes on College Football and sexual sexl assault sometimes it makes people mad, a lot of times, all the time, what has the response been for you guys and especially from the baylor people, what has it been like . I feel like we have had a pretty good response. I feel like theres been a lot of people who read the book and realized how heavy it was on the stories of women and speaking to marks point about showing how this is really affecting these women and their lives and their needs for services and resources, itas was heavy on tht and i think theres a lot of people that appreciate us getting these women a voice to go beyond the 140 characters of social media on this issue and really tell people this is what its like to be in the situation, this is what it is like to come forward and report on something and have the university basically turned you down flat. So i think we got a good reception on that. I can remember when she said the first story with one of the women anden s it was such graphc details of her assault. I called her and said can we put this in the book . It is so graphic that young women wanted it in there. She wanted it in there because she wanted people to know what she went through and what these other women went through. That is unbelievable to me. All of my friends whove read it and family members whove read it and other people have told me in doses. Take it i have to set it down and then come back. It is a hard read. But its an important read. Violence rattan out of it and its also written in the point where thereve been studies about how often Sexual Violence and gender violence is written or no one does anything for anyone. For a lot of people its the first time they are taking in these kind of stories in that number. Last question for me, so if you want to ask questions, theres a microphone because we are on tv. What did you there is so much in your book. What do you hope the takeaways . What is one thing you hope people get out of the story, what would that be . Oneet thing people get out of reading this is how complex this is and how difficult it is for these women to go through this. Theres so much victim blaming and misunderstanding of how these things happen and what the repercussions are. I have two teenage daughters. I tell my wife i read about two weeks before they go to college. Were doing an npr interview in dallas woman said i draw my daughter offer college for the first time and then i came home and read your book and now i want to come back and get on. I hope its educational. I hope the victim blaming stops i would do a better job of educating ourselves that no means no, thats most important thing. We have about 15 minutes. Thank you for the bright in the book. [inaudible] ive written a lot of tuition checks and see your book was hard to pick up and hard to put down. But id like to know if you could send more about accountability. I know accountability with the administration on the processes and whatnot. What really concerns me is all this happens, this culture i believe is at the doorstep of the board of regents. [applause] when i see this is not being unanimous i feel like the entire Community Needs to know who knew about the stuff and when did they know it, and what did they do about it. Im wondering if you have an opinion about whether full accountability will take place at the board of regents . I have heard that many times over the past year in urine have. Its a fair question. The board of regents runs university and theoretically are supposed to be hiring the people in charge of title ix and in charge of making sure the safeguards are there for training, response. Ive been reporting on Higher Education for a long time, ive never come across more tightlipped board. Partly what you get with a private university. When you agree to be part of the system you go in with the understanding is a private school. Theres been pressure, and deservedly so for the board to have more input and be more transparent. Youre starting to see that. And a lot of people are pleased that its not more open. Specifically targeted at baylor. Theres some turnover. This point the one who could hold the board of regents accountable have to be the parents sending their kids there. Because in the system with a private school is really the only official accountability they have. Theres a number of pending lawsuits i may be some deposition that will bring people to the table. I think there will be some disclosures and race and discovery in those cases. The people asked us if all see the Pepper Hamilton report . There is no such report. Theres a lot of attorneys working notes whether or not a judge will force bae 38 turn that over will have to see, on accountability it goes beyond star in our the board of regents the sole purpose is to oversee the university and they will tell you the university wasnt being operated correctly. Was the investigation throwing complete . We do not have access to the powerpoint. We were told what was in it we wrote about that extensively in the book. As mark said, unless a saddle be something we see come out in the lawsuit. At that point people will determine if its an exhaustive examination of what happened. Sexual assault is a crime, rape is a crime. Explain to me why there were not reports of police . In a perfect world, the woman who come forward to report will be told of their options to report this to the Campus Police are see the police, but they do have the right, if a woman does not want to report she has the right to go to the Title Ix Office and get it handled that way. Theres people who criticize that because they feel like that results in underreporting unless publicity of crimes, again, ideally through the title ix process people who are talking to that young woman would also let them know the routes they can take through the criminal Justice System as well. So one is for your civil rights and access to your Education One is the legal system. You can choose if your student which of those two you will enter into. What we found at baylor was a lot of the women the incidents happened off campus and they would go to Baylor Police i would say we cant help you were not responsible for what happens off campus, even the 75 of the students live off campus. Thank you. Before asked my question the name was flipping me. Ive been following this case fairly closely since i first started reading about a couple years ago. As a fan of it and conference rival as his own issue with institutional arrogance and coverup. Ive been hesitant to tread too heavily. You said on several occasions that the system failed. However, in my reading im curious was that the system failed to tragically but innocent manner, or was it a deliberate coverup on behalf of the university . I think its a little bit of both. Think people there whod been there since the 1950s and were not properly trained, they are not equipped socially or professionally to deal with issues like this. We talked with the former chief of staff for the president star who said when she was put in charged with title ix and found Educational Programs and materials if they mention the words rape or sex they can use and because of the religious foundation of baylor. Think its a little bit of both. What what are you referring to. Im not wearing harry now. There plenty of their own issues. They all do. When he mentioned baylor about this culture and reminded me of Brigham Young university, do you have any advice for University Administrators on how to examine policy . [inaudible] one thing can be helpful what baylor has started to do is get outside consultant to come in and talked about how to do the programs but it is a fine line. If you are a religious institution you want to be beholden by your moral and ethical code. Its a tough line to walk. Nice to be clear when reporting crimes that there needs to be some amnesty. I think that happened in texas. There was a law that would require that. So there are other entities that can step in and make sure their systems that the school has to follow even though they are religious institutions. Thank you. There is a fringe segment of the fan base who severally writing a book has were antichristian. Methodist insured to adjust to it school. I was seven books with the duck dynasty guys. The only thing better than the was really writing and reporting to save the longhorn network. [laughter] seems like a long way around to do that. In the Public School system the student has to go through an anti bullying in the Cyber Bullying Citizenship Program and sign that they been schooled in what bullying means in every aspect and what that looks like online and being responsible where for a fraction doesnt incur they cant claim ignorance. The lack of education at the ceo level, the coaches in the student level and he had an issue with the Duke Lacrosse Team and no is there something going on at the school level that either the freshman orientation classes and Athletic Department that this is what Sexual Assault is, this is what it looks like, it will not be tolerated theres no longer, i didnt know, is there anything like that going on . I need to make sure my children are protected as well. One of the most Amazing Things i heard was after the fact when they brought someone to baylor and when she said was talking to the Football Player spoken sentence she said if a woman cannot consent the player told her because nobody had told him that before. Thats insanity. We can blame the board of trustees and kim starr, but there also has to be some personal accountability and we have to do a better job raise our kids to. Under title ix you have to do preventative education and what that looks like can often be like one video when they get there is freshman. The other thing i remember someone told me was for a lot of the students coming out of texas going into a conservative culture is the first time someone has talked about sex and said dont rape someone what is the context of that . Get norther education and then what they get is a negative version so that education is is different. Earlier there announcing Different Things coming from baylor, their withholding millions of dollars of Television Money waiting to see that baylor changes. When questioned about it bob said over the past 25 years theres been a series of athletic scandals and we want to see real change. He mentioned an association, theyve cleared baylor, the new president is issuing press releases and posturing. What do you see as the mechanism . I agree that others have had problems but what is the prospect to fix this . Some of us dont see any change occurring. Its a big good point. The ncaa has been criticized for a lot in the big 12 so pending the department of education its hard to say whether ill be a finding of what that will be. Baylor made a commitment along with putting up these findings they would you like a hundred five Different Things to implement their done them all according to them. Know anything things are going in the right direction theres a lawsuit filed by a woman who said she was assaulted i think it was the spring technically after these things wouldve been implemented. So that makes you think theres two sides to every story. Her obviously for one woman the system wasnt working and i got to the point where she was angry enough to file a lawsuit. I would love to know what the experience has been of the one who have come forward and reported assaults and what that looks like. Thats what it comes down to. I like to know what the climate is on campus for the women who are there and if theyre seen anything different happening at the parties are among their friends. This can be the only way youll tell theres been real change may. We are at a time. Thank you for your questions. You will be signing books so if you have questions you can find them where they will be signing. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] that wraps up the coverage of the texas book festival in austin. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies is brought to by your cable or satellite provider. I want to talk about the future of technology. The portion starts in an unexpected place. His born with Cerebral Palsy and writes about your early struggles. It has totally changed her outlook on the world, technology in your life. Walk us through that. When i was 29 years old his book has shapes a lot of who i am today especially one of the harder parts of reading the book to go back and reflect on it in more concrete terms as to what he has taught me. As a 29yearold with my wife and the only children of our parents. When sin was about to be born it was exciting only looking forward to him in the nursery being ready. And how quickly can she get back to her work as an architect. The night he was born everything change. He was born with severe pain damage. I struggled with it. I struggled for multiple years because none of the well laid out plans for my as a midlevel or entrylevel engineer at microsoft, where out of the window and we needed to recalibrate. For a long time i wonder why it happened to us. Only by watching my wife who after recovering from the csection was driving up and down the bridges to get him to therapies and give him the best shot. Thats what got me out of my stupor and i said, but why is a father have to do. Over the years weve been blessed in this community. Whether the childrens hospital, the community that we have around us when the connections. In the role of technology weve gone through many hardships, medical surgeries and even one that i remember one day i was waiting for him to come out of surgery and then the equipment around me saying youll do better work in just gave me the feeling of understanding the responsibility of a platform company, thats one thing very unique about microsoft. Ran every power grid, hospital, critical part of our society and economy. We need to take that responsibility seriously. How has it changed your views on the acceptability of technology and how people can access the power of innovation . My personal life has been a great influence on the importance of accessibility. One thing im seen inside of microsoft is this universal design and accessibility as a real driver of true innovation. One of the apps we launched uses the cutting edge ai in the cloud. Gives anybody with visual impairment the capability to see. Angela mills is a coworker of mine who i worked with early on and was told me a story of how she can go into microsoft, in order with confidence because she can see the food and read the menu. We have braille readers and what have you, but she wants to walk in knowing thats the right one, not barge into something and she can do that now. She can fully participate. This is an app called cna ai. You can hold it up to the world and it identifies people until see the approximate age. Its really cool. Are going to try to make it more extensible, its awesome. It gives people more empowerment who need it. Similarly loaded with learning tools. A very passionate group who said we have Amazing Technology around reading which with a i can change the outcomes with kids with dyslexia. Anyone can start reading faster, better. Steve gleason came and said we do for a patient who has the ability who as i gaze but all the other muscles cant be moved, can they be communicate . So i gaze is the mechanism. I feel one thing thats been unlocked is the fundamental recognition that its not just about accessibility as a two technology. We think of it as this is something you do as, is something you do on top of building the product. The reality is, one thing that is true at some point in her life we all will need some help with some sense. Theyll be the universal truth. We need to design products so it can help everybody. The beauteous is not a topdown thing. Its much more but they dont end with just one week, takes life after that. We have a Long Distance to cover. But what quintana can mean for accessibility, what makes reality can mean. I think it will make it a better ai company, better Everything Company by focusing in this area. You can watch this Program Online booktv. Org. Is a look at some of the current bestselling books. Top in the list is kate dawsons report of an environmental disaster that hit london in december 1952. At the same time serial killer was on the loose. Chris talks about punching a successful business. Next, russianamerican journalist reports on the generation of russians who came of age during the regime. Alan jacobs advice on structuring the process and, how to think. A look at the bestselling books continues with bestselling biographer, leonardo da vinci. Then, opera bush hager and jenna bush talk about their book. [inaudible] wrapping up our look at the bestselling nonfiction books according to book people bookstore is vacationland. Some of these authors have or will be appearing a book tv. Watch in our website, booktv. O booktv. Org. I have the great honor and privilege of just meeting clarence who was arrested in 1987 and wrongfully convicted in 1988 of Sexual Assault. He was sentenced to 48 years based on the victims dream. In 1995 the Court Ordered dna to be tested, moses of fellow prisoners raised 1000 to have the dna tested. Denver please package the evidence including the rape kit, close some bedsheets and sealed it in a box marked do not destroy. The police then permanently destroyed the evidence. A judge ruled the mistake was that grounds for new trial. 2013 he received a letter from another prisoner admitting to the crime. He was one of the people who the victim originally identified in 1987 as a possible attacker. Elsie jackson, got this. Yet. Here is in the same detention facility and was doing a double life sentence for a double rape of a mother and her 9yearold daughter who lived a mile and a half away from the first romans home. The blood type attack that of elsie jackson. The denver District Attorneys Office did not interview him until 18 months after the confession became public. They have fought to prevent clarence from a new trial. A colorado judge vacated the convictions and ordered the dna. To the retry the case or drop the charges. Clarence was released in december 2015 but the denver da has decided to retry him. He was found not guilty on all counts in november 2016. Can we please give a big hand took clarence moses. Welcome. You can watch this other programs online booktv. Org. The tvs monthly in Depth Program with michael lewis. The soloists have written many books most recently the undoing project, friendship that changed our minds. You are the author of more than a dozen bestselling books. What makes a good story in your mind . Guest no formula. The question you asked me, ive never really asked