[laughter] you know what that means i received walkout storm the stage strategy in Southern California the blockade that prevented anyone from actually attending my talk. Students of color at nearby Pomona College and the fascist white supremacist ignorant of interlocking systems of domination that have the lethal conditions of which people are forced to live. So to have an audience still in its seat willing to listen is an unusual experience that may take me a while to get accustomed to. We have heard a lot of the crisis of free speech on College Campuses but not about the root cause, the victim apology rapidly spreading from academia to western culture American University is in the grips of the mass hysteria. Students actually believe they are victims of oppression and risk their lives from ambient racism and sexism it is impossible to overstate. And brown students of color occupy the president s office to complain about meeting academic expectations when we were so focused on staying alive at brown. At yale a mob of minority students had a highly respected sociologist surrounded kirsten screamed for three hours because his wife sent an email suggesting students could choose their own Halloween Costumes free from yales diversity bureaucracy among the shouts of shut the f up and i am censoring that, you are disgustin disgusting, directed at the mildmannered leftwing professor was a cry of we are dying. Then referring to the endangered status of yales minority students. My favorite came from princeton and in 2015 the black students chanted we are sick and tired of being sick and tired. [laughter] this phrase is first used a Civil Rights Activist who was beaten in the 19 fifties for trying to vote. Fannie lou hammer had qualms aplenty to be sick and tired and sick and tired but any princeton student green or purple or orange who thinks of himself as oppressed is in the grip of the terrible delusion to encumber him for the rest of his life. Perhaps you are thinking at least adults on campus try to give a firm grip on reality but to the contrary, the adults actively encourage the hysteria a massive it democracy bureaucracy to cultivating students the arcane species of selfinvolvement and preposterous forms of selfpity. Joined another reason for astronomical tuition . Look no further than the bureaucratic bloat. They look out psychodrama with the appreciative audience the vice provost of diversity and inclusion to use the occasion to expand dominion. Many campuses have created by his Response Teams modeled on active shooting Response Teams on the assumption discrimination is so rampant and lethal that the Defense Force is needed. Freshman orientation invariably feature tossed on toxic masculinity students are taught even the pastora the oppressors with the email his back on hispanic or gay and those metastasizing categories of gender the only way to escape being the oppressor is to become an ally. Those are associated with poor and those that are in a war zone on College Campuses and made allies. And my exaggerating . And then to remind students of the universitys paramount mission assigning guilt and innocence to the competitive totem pole of victimhood one featured a student allegedly pleading allowing people other than yourself to exist and a message directly to the white students and faculty this is not hyperbole they mean it literally. College president s are the worst offenders to encourage this delusional victim apology after the threehour expletive tirade against the yale sociologist the president actually thanked them making him part of the student body yale subsequently confirmed the Racial Justice prize until the most aggressive participants the dean of the Harvard Medical School recently removed the portraits of the greatest physician scientists from the Entrance Hall to school you can guess the reason they were all male. Looking at them but make harvards students uncomfortable and unsafe we can only wish these doctors luck in the operating room. Narcissistic identity politics has destroyed the Serious Department of social sciences in given a license for ignorance all they have to be told about the book is the melanin content and gonads of author to know if they can dismiss the contents is repugnant and not worth reading. Shakespeare, milton, plato have all been then mistreated by students who dont have the slightest clue about pericles, the renaissance or enlightenment a columbia it undergraduate with the core curriculum who is this mozart . [laughter] the superior white men and then to uphold the premise of White Supremacy and racism. No professor has ever defended our intellectual patrimony against the outbreaks of his dad eric know nothing without adding a qualification about respecting diversity. Academic identity politics are rapidly spreading throughout the culture at large every nonacademic institution no merit no matter how much meritocratic is vulnerable and that is the stem fields above all exhibit a in the cultures descent into mediocrity and thought control is the firing of computer engineer from google august 2017. He had read it carefully factbased memo to suggest the average career preferences of males and females may explain why there is not a 5050 gender parity at google and other tech firms the language he used to fire him was a direct import from academic victim apology the employees were hurting he said because he dared to challenge the reigning feminist orthodoxy so it followed his firing was even scarier. Recent branch of the nlrb upheld googles actions on the same victim grounds. The memo made the employees feel unsafe at work according to the nlrb associate general counsel. The memo constituted discrimination and sexual harassment. Consider what this means for science. Any evolutionary biologis biologist, psychologist or economist who studies the different risk preferences and appetite for competition around me males and females is now at risk of his job these branches of science could shut down completely no matter the findings are true. The thinking that got him fired is the dominant characteristic of our time and holds the absence of exact proportional representation of racial and ethnic and sexual groups of any institution by definition is discrimination. To suggest different groups of different capacities and skills and behaviors is not just taboo but get you fired. What im not optimistic about is White Americas ability to see past the fiction of africanamericans of latin people the demeaning images and that has as much to do with the lack of diversity , the education system, museum walls, literature, were and a toxic culture with people of color are concerned. In a lot of ways these diversity initiatives is like putting lipstick on a pig. To address something without the cancer of the culture. It is a bandaid that we have not even begun to deal with because i know i have been on the faculty at nyu going on 26 years and havent seen curricular changes in the sixties. Thats what all the College Protest were about. The lack of curriculum that address the history in this country that has a more realistic take so that White America could understand the complicity and the continuing inequality and racial injustice. Until that happens, i am optimistic it can be done but less optimistic with the will to do it. The other amazing part of the book that is separate from the industry that is from these three fields, academia and journalism and entertainment so what came across so strongly i emailed that 11 00 oclock a few nights ago, these are the fields representing. And i thought about the Metoo Movement where the men that were being accused were in journalism and political journalist telling the story of Hillary Clinton at 2016, matt lauer, Harvey Weinstein gave money to Hillary Clinton but they are telling us our stories and its worse for people of color. Academia,journat push this narrative. Right. Much of my work is concerned with portrayals. You can draw a Straight Line to the trade on margin and the Police Pulling over someone and they end up dead. Innocent people last week someone in their home. So people think of it is just a show or a movie or a book but no comment has real life consequences for a whole race of people. So it confronts those implications of the media portrayals of literature with real life devastating consequences. We paid attention the last few years we should pay more attention to how the slave trade builds major universities not just the ivy league but there is more attention paid but the more i think about it, that is part of what is going on. You also have all the academics going back to the 19th and 20th through the present but those embedded in academia were the peddling of White Supremacy. They the guide book like this are those that look at the past to connect the dots. Move on. What does that have to do with anything . Are you kidding me cracks it has everything to do with that. Even the narrative. Even the University President s for the student faculty body that we have been complicit for centuries. The way we have told the story of america of africanamerican africanamericans, native americans, who was doing that . Host almost no one. Everyone wants a simple solution to the problem there is no quick fix that they all went driveby diversity. They want something really quick i did an interview on bloomberg today maybe five minutes. Quick quick quick. Its not that simple. The American Experience is multilayered, complicate multilayered, complicated, peope went to look at someone like me and say you made it. What is your problem . My problem is i know people that look like me dont get the opportunity. Much brighter, better writers, scholars, who didnt get you have the opportunity that i have had. That hasnt ended. Is just two and a half years ag ago. Everyone is telling us post race. [laughter] and now everyone says no. Nobody says that anymore. But we never were. So for every achievement we went to celebrate and stick the flag in the ground and to say we won. The Civil Rights Movement, we elected barack obama, its over. We had reconstruction and then the kkk, Civil Rights Movement, reagan, the backlas backlash, we have been in these cycles forever. Two steps forward one step back or two steps backwards one step forward. How much do you feel like electing obama and trump . I feel very strongly we are living in the backlash to barack obama just as we did two reconstruction with black governors and senators and congressmen. People were not having that. So now we are living through something similar. It is america. I think there is a tendency to view black history of what whites have done to blacks. There are various reasons why groups want to keep that alive but it is more than that. Yes racism still exist. I dont know any reasonable person who would argue otherwise or to see america have vanquished in my lifetime. But i do think black history is more than that and the question that is more relevant is what can be done with racism in the face of racism . That is a relevant story to tell today which is the message to give to the young people. My fear is by perpetuating the notion its all about racis racism, you send the wrong message to the next generation. If the police are out to get yo you, you send a cat out the door with that message i thank you are helping that child. Have you felt that threat . I have been called names and followed around department stores, pulled over by police for no reason. You talk about that in detail. I was doing an internship in the early nineties that usa today in washington dc staying with relatives and i was on the sports desk. We didnt leave work until the baseball games on the west coast were over it was late at night on the east coast i was driving to and from my uncles house. And i had my car which had new york plates driving in dc sometime after midnight and i hear the sirens blaring in the Police Pulling over and order me out of the car at gunpoint and push me to the ground and then set a fit the description of seven they were after with outofstate plates. What we thinking . I was terrified. I got back into the car after they left they were is gone as quickly as they came after i was not the right person just sitting there shaking i remember thinking it was standard and i cannot get it out of gear because i was shaking so bad and it was terrifying. Making National Headlines three black men 16 years old 36 years ago indicative of murder but they were just released from jail. What does that say about the criminal Justice System . Its not perfect you would be hardpressed to find a person of my age who hasnt experienced the things that i have experienced. The criminal Justice System is an improvement and it still not perfect but i would caution to say they are typical or that the reason so many blacks were involved is because it is a racist system per se. And often times the racial makeup of prisons and jails but we dont talk about the racial makeup the people who perpetrate crimes and we dont have one discussion without the other so as it is and continues to be i still think they are our behavioral differences among groups that lead to some being overrepresented in that system and others underrepresented. The first title please stop helping us. That is a look back at the Great Society programs under nixon and others. What is the track record . They were put in place to help the black poor in particular. Housing programs, expansions of minimum wage laws. So what has worked, what hasnt, and why . That is what i was attempting to do with the book spirit the second book black power . I had a little bit on this but that book is essentially of the track record to use political power to advance economically which is the strategy of the Civil Rights Movement since the time of king. If we can integrate Political Institutions everything will take care of itself. We just have to take success to do that. If you look back at the eighties with major black cities, los angeles and washington dcs that have black mayors. In addition a black police chief and School Superintendents but if you look at the track record of the poor and marion various washington dc or newark new jersey or detroit in the seventies, under these black regimes the poor became even more impoverished. I dont think that track record is a good one thats not to say blacks should disengage because we have seen black regression under white mayors and congressmen emplacement. But to say this connection why is essential between black political power and economic progress has not proven to be as strong as people hoped it would be. Have these help or her africanamericans . By and large they have hurt in a way that i explained it that with the underprivileged need of any race or ethnicity but its not something that lends itself to those Political Solutions they are cultural changes that need to take place. Economists refer to it as human capital, behaviors, habits that need to develop in a group and that is what we have seen happen to other groups in this country. To the extent a Government Program interferes it will do more harm than good. Monef the child around her has were going to stop sending you the money. You can imagine the sort of perverse incentive that were put in place in programs like that. Most we saw going on. I think we have corrected some of this with the bill clintons welfare reform in the 1990s. But not entirely. I still think there is still a little legacy factor here. And those author and columnist jason riley. Up next in our look at authors regarding race in america pretty civil rights attorney ben property book festival for muster focuses on race in the criminal Justice System. It was ben franklin who said, democracy is like two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. [laughter]. You have a Rocket Scientist to know how that boat is going to go. But he said, liberty is making sure that lamb is well armed to protest that votes. And so with open season, i endeavored to help the young lambs and communities of color, be able to protest about to give them information that armed them with intellect and diplomacy to abate able to protest the school to prison pipeline. To protest the racist jim crow laws like sandy brown, to be able to protest, voter suppression. Be well armed to protest environmental racism that would find the children in South Central los angeles and 83rd of the lung capacity of children growing up in santa monica california. Make sure these young people are will armed to protest the Prison Industrial Complex were my minorities, who go to prison often have people are concerned about losing their Constitutional Rights pretty clear when you are a minority, especially women of color, you also has to worry about losing your reproductive rights. The latest 2014, in the state of california, it was unearthed that there were black women and Hispanic Women clean the worst into forced sterilizations it was all done legally. And just as latest 2017, you had not a judge but judges who were handing out sentences to black men literally saying, we will reduce your sentence by ten years on a 12 year sentence if you would agree to be sterilized. This is genocide literally and figuratively that we are talking. So is those things where you see the law itself theres supposed to protect us, be the very instrument that theyre using to kill us. The second thing that really inspired me to write this book, and there are many of them but these are the three that stand out. In the aftermath of the killing of michael brown, and ferguson missouri when the young people refuse to remain silent. They refuse to let them sweep his death under the rug. Many saw with their own eyes, they put his hands up. In the police still shot him anyway. These young people, or having daily protest i remember specifically, the national guard, and his young brother had a fair pretty heather assault rifles pointed at him and he walked straight up to them. Almost with his nose touching the tip of the assault rifle, and he told them to go ahead and coming up. While all of these cameras are watching. You all are going to kill us anyway. Its important, to let the world and see how you are killing us. So camino. It was riveting to be. Stayed in my mind it so much, i went to bed thinking about what that young brother was saying and it was true. It is important that the world sees out there killing us. And not just how they are killing us in these highprofile Police Shooting cases, but more poignantly, how they are killing us in courtrooms, all over america everyday. You dont have to take been crossword for it. Discusses in the back of the courtroom and watch how they are administering justice pretty using the white kid, is even common and theres some patterns to little black and brown gets pretty but yet you see the white kids can stop the rest pretty there give up the courtroom allowed to live out the rest of their lives and third destinies that god had for them and achieved the american dream. Yet these little black and brown children often times are taken to the corner of the courtroom, they are fingerprinted and handicapped they were convicted of a trump of felony conviction. Once you have that felony conviction, it is life changing especially if you are a poor person of color in america. And you have to wear that felony conviction like across the back for the rest of your entire life and Everybody Knows about where you cant vote or cannot survive the jury. You cant serve in the military. But those are just the tip of the iceberg. When you have a felony conviction everything that you can try to do to make a legitimate living, now that you have the conviction felon, and is taken away from you. Youre trying to go to college, it wont let you get the federalist with it if you are felony of conviction pretty trying to get a legitimate job. If youve got a southern convention, you cant get a certification pretty can get a certification be a teacher. You cant get a certification to get a nurse pretty cant get one to the mason. Sisters who want to be beauticians, they have a felony conviction, they cannot get a certification to do that. If you are a real estate agent, you cannot get certification. And it goes on and on. In fact, i found out in the city of atlanta. God forbid anybody would feel like they have to do this but even women who are performing in strip clubs, if youre for convicted, you cant get a certification to do that right is almost acute are being pushed back into a life of crime because every month, you have to a these probation finds a mandatory drug testing fees. And it is just a vicious cycle. Once you are in that system. Most young people who take that felony conviction from these two people are saying, if i go to court, i am looking at this jury of innocent with my peers they are telling me that i can get five 15 years. So they say we take this felony and you just get two years of probation. He said but they have no idea. They have no idea what they have just on when they have played into that felony conviction. And in fact, in many states, i have learned that if youre convicted felon, and you spent any time in prison, you cannot even get life insurance. It is like you are the walking dead. He just not giving you the death certificate yet. So what we try to do is this discriminatory criminal Justice System and say, even though they are trying to define you as having no redeemable qualities to society, we still believe in you. We still think that you are the best that we can also find for our community. We still know that god has done for your life. Because understand states like florida and tennessee, one out of every five black men, are convicted felons. In these statistics are very similar in many states across the country. An expert suggests that if this trend continues in the next 25 years, it will be one out of every three black men in america. Who are convicted felons. The last thing that i will say is this pretty i know we have a lot of questions to get to. Overseeing the legalized genocide of color people in many ways is an extension of what the great hall robison, dan in 1951 at the time he was the most famous africanamerican in the world. Along with debbie to voice, it was the first africanamerican to graduate from harvard with a phd in one of the founders of the and wa cp and other black leaders, they went to the United Nations convention in paris, france and this is in the aftermath of world war ii when all of the war target countries are filing petitions of the atrocities and the abuse that they are suffering under the genocide, entrant convention and definition were these black leaders charged, we charge genocide, against the government for the killing of negro people in america. And they base this on the daily killings, and raping some black people in the 1840s. And they had case after case. They said we are using your definition. United nations that act with intent to destroy and in part, hold a group based on National Ethnic racial or religious identity. That is what they are doing to us in america. And they in conclusion they said, the United States government is either compasses with art responsible for creating a genocidal situation to negro people. And so when you think about the fact the black man on the makeup the most, 7 percent of the population in america, but yes we make above most 50 percent of the population represented on death row. It is creating a genocidal situation breadwinning think about in nursery school, in kindergarten, uc black children are being suspended and expelled almost 721, the white children i scratch my head to the sacred book could a child do to beat expelled from kindergarten. But it is so ironic that those percentages of what they are doing to the Nursery Schools and kindergartens are very consistent with the statistics of the incarceration of black and brown people in the penal system in america. So we hope to hold a mirror to americas face of this book. Instead, american we can do better. America, we have the lessons of Martin Luther king who said, it is hypocritical are you to be the standard there in the world and seek injustice and evil and look the other way. Being financial in the face of injustice, in and of itself, is injustice. And i conclude by just off in the part of the hypocrisy is everywhere. When you think about the number of black and brown people, in presence for selling marijuana, i just finished a case in the criminal phase of it where mcgregor, the white policewoman, was convicted of killing his unarmed black man and eating ice cream on his couch and she only got ten years in prison. I think about all of those people who did not kill anybody. It was just selling weed and trying to make money so they can pay the bills. And now that the United States government has in many instances, legalized marijuana. They are now selling weed, making money, to pay the bills but when we do that, we are in prison so, in his book they made the case that america, youre not allowed to make profit off of selling marijuana until you let all of the black and brown people and other people sitting in prison, for selling marijuana out of prison. [applause]. Because that is what we mean when we talk about equal justice under the law. We all are american citizens. And we all are entitled to expect america to not just recite the preamble to the declaration of independence. But to act like they believe it. All of the programs you have been watching can be viewed in their entirety on a website, booktv. Org. Actively continue with our look at Author Program about race in america, Vernon Robinson discusses blacks in the Republican Party. He appeared as he spans washington journal this past march. The gop occupied the moral high ground. And then incredibly, Herbert Hoover threw them away he decided he really wanted the Republican Party in the staf so. He really segregated the white house and john hope franklin, cites him as the pivotal guy who started the exodus from the Republican Party for black american. However, he had some help. And that was, at the same time, my parents and 6 million other individuals left the south. And, they were no voters in the north in the midwest and west. In the fdr book said, hey we cannot sell the Democratic Party because these individuals from the sales of the Democratic Party. And the south is the party of slavery. Etc. So they watched a Public Relations campaign. So fdr and his wife were doing the same things republicans used to do. Meeting with black leaders in making sure there is a prominent black papers at the time. Eleanor was hosting either the wives of prominent black man or prominent black women in their own rights. He got 37, were not sure exactly and 32 but gallup started falling 35 in at 76 percent of the black vote and 36. However, black individuals did not self identify as a majority democrat until 48 with truman. So essentially, the short version of the book is republicans dropped the ball in the conservative movement got the ball. And were not enforcing Civil Rights Act he sees me, not enforcing the 15th amendment. Not supporting the Civil Rights Act. And so, in other words, bill buckley was more concerned about the polish Shipyard Workers voting and free elections behind the iron curtain and he was like when parents in the 40s and 50s and 60s. And in the book youve read the following quote british donald trump was 20 or 30 percent of the black vote, he will have taken a major step towards reestablishing the nearly unbreakable alliance, blackberries and have the Republican Party for more than 70 years after the assassination of abraham lincoln. However, to do so he must end of division that is existed between republicans and black americans since 1964. So my question, how to get there. First of all, republicans hate to admit that having once had the moral high ground, lost it. As a precursor to talking about regaining the moral high ground, a range of issues including the wife, School Choice, jobs, will wages going up, and the performance of the economy. Securing the border, defending the Second Amendment and criminal justice reform. The second thing that has to happen, the super fact, at least three of them that will broadcast those messages to black radio. The Truck Campaign is committed to doing so. I believe. I went to talk to them and finally, the big question is what will Republican Party do because the Republican Party has not asked for the business. In 70 years. This created a vacuum with olympus consent anything about republicans and have quite vote democratic because republicans want to kill your mama and your dog. That isolation has essentially destroyed the brand which is why we say that the president can turn that year strategy on its head. So himself personally, and not the gop. In order to get the 20 percent. In a meeting with the Network Anchors last month on the president talked about one of the moments in the 26 team campaign. And when she told africanamerican voters, when do you have to lose pretty easily was criticized by his Campaign Staffers but he felt like it was the right thing to do. The president told the reporters that he thought it was one of the most significant moments in the 2016 campaign. Do you agree. I do think it was a specific moment in American History or lease this part of American History because the gop has not asked black voters for the support. The president was actively campaigning for black support with that statement. And with the digital as he was running. And certainly spend 10 million during the super bowl touting his record on her with criminal justice reform. I believe there is now, one of the women that he pardoned, is now running for congress in the john lewis seat. In georgia. This is from the Washington Post back in january. The headlights black americans deeply pessimistic of the country under trump. President trump made a appeal to black america during the 2016 election pretty yes, what do you have to lose pretty black americas 30 years later have rendered their verdict on this presidency with the deeply pessimistic assessment of the place in the u. S. Under a leader by an overwhelming majority as racist. As a full of African Americans nationwide which revealed whether their children will have a fair shot to succeed in the belief that White Americans do not fully appreciate discrimination about people experience are personally about their lives. Black markets today, offer a bleaker view of other community as a whole. They also expressed the determination to try to limit the president to a single term in office. There are so many things freedom supplies Washington Post does not run headline it runs wild, women was affected. It there are a number of polls that show that the president isnt strikingly of that 20 percent necessary to win in the swing states. I was a School Choice lawyer. But i was always questioning whether School Choice and Educational Opportunity would ever translate in support of the polls because essentially, republicans were expanding Political Capital and the principal beneficiary were democrats. Etc. It was answered in florida. 18 percent of africanamerican women, 100,000, three times the martian victory. They voted not by race for the black candidate or not by party for the day were cut candidate but voted for elected him on the School Choice issue on the governorship in florida. So there was harris. Dari go. And i said, black voters overwhelmingly support the democrats, trump with only 15 percent. 50 percent, you win the entire. Maybe even virginia. That is a questionable number with the start number and the pole, and again, most polls do not have a big enough sample size in other words, the margin of error of black voters is larger than the entire population. He said that 31 percent of black males, would support the president against a generic democrat pretty and other. About job approval or something other than voter intention and they asked the voter intentional questions of the harris poll. There are number of other polls and 49 percent of africanamericans approving of the president s economic nonperformance. There polls that have a majority of africanamericans saying that they believe they will be better off at the end of the Trump Administration that they work at the end of the Obama Administration. Across the board, and a metric is that you want to talk about, for instance, at this point in the Obama Administration pretty black on the plunger with three times higher than it is today. And so, i believe at least 20 percent of black folks will not buy into this ridiculous narrative where folks say, trumps a racist. Over 69 years of his life, he was headed by the entire civil rights establishment. There and really, jackson, giving him awards. In one case the same award for courage on civil rights as rosa parks and mohamed alike on the same day. If you need believe, that he magically became a racist at when he was 70 or he just appointed a black start to be the chief of staff, the Top Air Force officer of the United States air force. For the first time. For, you can believe that he must run against Hillary Clinton and bees are pretty which is why everybody is saying hes a racist bring. Youre watching book tv, on cspan2. Television for serious readers. Looking at programs that deal with the issue of race and america. Next is American University professor and bioethicist. They appear to the texas book festival in october of 2019. I have historically try to avoid the term racism and racist because people in this country interpreted very differently. Studies show that white you will one way and blacks viewed another way. But, i had reversed up in this book because i came to understand that the term is actually key to understanding what is transpiring keep. And fortunately, language is trotting a schism pretty we often read newspapers and medical reports and elsewhere, about social economic factors. And the poverty factors. And lack of education. All of these things, make people more vulnerable we are told to environmental toxicity. In his race. Poverty is certainly a risk factor. But race is a much stronger race and factor. Studies have shown that africanamericans with incomes of 50000 a year, are more exposed to toxins than whites. A clear indication that were talking about not economics, were talking about race predict and we have to be frank and open in discussing these things. Otherwise it will continue to smaller interservice. And theyre going to impede in communication. And impede solutions. Large part of my book, was sort of interrogating the common terms that we used to describe the way race and racism operate. And so i am thinking, where do i begin. Probably to terms that i think many Racial Justice reformers and activists have abused in the last 50 years have been sort of distinguishing between what people call convert an overt racism. As anybody heard that. And so the more i sort of thought about that sort of construct of covert racism. You will make the case that over the last 60 years and racism has become more covert pretty anybody for that. And what i sort of make the case about in my book is that that is basically not true. And what is actually happened, as we have been using 1960s glasses to understand racism in the 21st century. So then we wonder why we cannot see it or even imagined that his converse. We also imagine that the policy is racist if the policymaker is say exclude a particular racial group. As opposed to defining a policy is racist base, on the outcome. And so we were to fundamentally define a policy is racist based on its outcome, and we can easily see racist policies. If we were to recognize that what we are seeing racial inequity and injustice, we are saying racism. Then clearly racism would be extremely overt. So i actually dont use those terms overt and covert because main racism is very averse. If you know how to see it. Just as a followup to that. Is there one term that you hear people use a lot that you really wish like, every time you inherit you think, can you vanish like one term or one phrase about racism, from peoples vocabulary. What would it be. If. Not racist. [laughter]. [applause]. Im hearing people say im not racist and then youre just about ready to hear the most racist racist thing ever. One thing that is also interesting about both of these books. I think is something that you will enjoy reading them is the way the both of these authors really balance is really great analysis of languages and terms, racist policies. And in corporate racism. In a personal experience. It matters how each individual is experiencing this kind of discrimination and also the generational effects of this kind of discrimination. So im wondering both of you can speak about, just using the typical genre and talking about racism. Period, he often talk about her offer and is from communities that have experienced racism. And your book is a memoir of your selfdiscovery. Why is it important to include this kind of personal or individual stories and talking about such a structural issue. Summa talking about race is always difficult in part because of the reactions. So why people, many people feel shame. Anything that might imply shame. Thats a hurdle to overcome and find that it helps sometimes to help people by having them share and express i have had actually surprised me and i hope to bring everyone along with me on that journey. Black people will find it validating a hope understandably am talking about and whites hope will see it for what to do this in a way more clearly than a just pointed my finger at them and say you are racist and heres why. So when i grew up on army bases abroad, and in hudson new york, me and my friends played outside. And we get different experiences. My cousins were all living in these buildings. And almost everybody in either asthma pretty quietly have asthma. I had no i did when i got older, i realized that building is across street from a bus depot. And pre 1970s, everything. And causing asthma. So then when i point out, and i know the tent bus people, in harlem, people can see clearly, will hear we have a racist retribution. Thats my hope. I should say that i did not really want to use a personal narrative. I am very private. My family is very private. Some of them are here. If you like im a. I have so many family members in texas. It also, it is very difficult to write about yourself at least it is for me. When i realized from a very early on in sort of conceiving of this book, was distinguished but is most fundamental way that they racist from someone who has tried striving to be antiracist, existence with the construct of the nile in confession that the heartbeat of racism has always been denial. In the heartbeat of insight racism, has always been confession. In other words the moment someone is racist is charged with saying or doing something that is racist, their responses well in the least racist person you have ever interviewed. And the lease racist person you have ever encountered. Im actually the least racist person anywhere in the world. [laughter]. And thats right i just at the black folks who just voted math place that you will the dog to live in. [laughter]. [applause]. Said that denial is essential just as you have people who deny the policies are racist, and people are dying deny their they are racist. But what is fundamental to being insight racist is narrowing that we were born and raised in this society and trained in their interest to be racist. And recognizing that prevent their fight admitting, and confessing two times in which we have actually said that there is something wrong with the people of this racial group. We work not part of the struggles against racist policies and power. So for me it felt like i had a model that. It felt like i had the right tape confessional. I had to mitten both times i said they was something wrong with black people in order for people to open up to be willing to say the same things. We have two more Author Programs remaining in our look at books about race in america. First president University Professor robert george, and harvard University Professor cornell west appeared on our monthly Author Program in depth. Cornel west, you write we live in one of the darkest moments in American History, a bleak time of spiritual blackouts and imperial millstones. Yes spiritual, the relative eclipse of decency and honor. We have normalized mendacity which is to see that we have made it lives in normal weight of life lies, and weve naturalized criminality and hate crimes, look as if they are natural. Eb zone strikes are wall street elites. It and predatory of lending, market manipulation. None of them go to jail pretty can be so many different ways in which a few peoples humanity is violated. What we need is a call for prophetic fight back. Because in a moment of spiritual blackouts, is not just a political issue. It is a moral and spiritual issue as well. Its only by example, we need young people to say, look for the conservative brother, aggressive brother, still have loved. Still have respect pretty willing to fight. Willing to disagree. Not an abstract by example. They want to see some of that they dont just want to hear it why because, right now the dominant is suppressing the american empire. Smartness smartness smartness predict how many times, have you seen this on Television Pretty obvious obvious obvious. Obviously this is like that. That is a word for the in crowd to show that they are part of the smart product. We dont believe in smartness and this isolation. We believe in wisdom. Ands smartness is tied to riches. Donald trump believes in smartness and richness. Hes assigned in symptom in society is idolized smartness and richness. We want to take about bombs. And barack obama dropped bombs his last year. He got the Nobel Peace Prize. Like five times the drone strikes. He had a 506 but hes one of the Nobel Peace Prize winner three what is happened is respectable can hide and conceal what real substance is pretty this is what breaks through ideology. It is moral ands marital substance that is deeper than any political ideologies. And then in this introduction, we are and catastrophic times. A logical, nuclear catastrophe. More catastrophe, survival of the slickest in the smartness. And then theres also economic catastrophe. Top three individuals in america, to the bottom 160, three have equivalent to 50 percent of the citizens. This is grotesque. This looks like the louis the 14th times. But now of course now, we need to tighten the benefits for the poor. When did you do to the least of these you do unto us. The orphan, the widows, the fatherless of them of of the for the immigrant. Muslim from the duke of the black, the indigenous people, the gay alessi and lesbians thats a moral and spiritual orientation. So this book is about 25 years after. And i wrote this book in 93 and times are now bleaker. I agree with the basic thrust of it. We disagree on some of the inequality in itself is bad. I think the problem is not market economy. I believe in the market economy. But it lifted millions of people about out of poverty. My critique is that we have traded in a true market economy, and a pony capitalism. Her big and powerful firms can use governments. To regulate competitors off the field. In big firms can afford the price of regulation. Sometimes, they know that the small upstart competitors cannot predict when it comes to economic equality, i do not mind, and think injustice can meet and economic inequality. I have a school, equality and dignity. The equality of the declaration of independence. We are all of the week will work but i have chosen a career as an academic. And there was a high paying field. I could have gone to law school, i wouldve made love or couldve gone to Business School and made a lot more money than that. And generally i always work for people who make more money than me. So i dont have any problem with as long as it is fair. I dont have problem with people having eaten a lot more money, my worry is not for equality of economic equality. My sore opportunity. We are losing two considerable loss the prospects of upward mobility for our fellow citizens. I woke u army close to mythis wy where i grew up. Because they are feeling the effects of being neglected. Of being left behind economically, culturally, they feel without bigotry are prejudiced. But certainly on the basis of their own experiences as if there is a cultural elite, a wealthy powerful cultural elite has only interest in mind. Not the interest of working people in places like central appalachia and who have nothing but contempt for the value of people in central appalachia. Those were trump voters pretty so not one of these guys who condemns trump voters. Not a fan of donald trump. Ill give him credit for some good things that he spent. But also criticize him from the things that he sent braided but think is a mistake to imagine that the supporters of donald trump are just racist. They have legitimate remittances which nobody in either party responded to. And donald trump reached out to them. Whether they were wise, to look to him, thats another debate. I have debated that with mike relatives. In west virginia. But he noticed that people were forgotten and left behind. They were held in contempt. And he benefited. Cornell west, do you agree with what he saying about the trump voters. He is a slice of them who are in fact racist and sexist and most of judaism homophobic. But that doesnt exhaust the whole group. There is a racist slice. Just a slice. It. They come from. Inaudible. But theres also a slice of trump voters outvoted from ernie and had voted for obama. So you have to keep track of what diversity, if you never want to downplay the role of this vicious legacy of White Supremacy in the country. This note that about it. You cant allow it to be the only thing that you see. Black intellectual these days, when all you can see is White Supremacy. Its always linked to something else. Links to predatory capitalism pretty plain to slavery and jim crow and patriarchy. And homophobia and also linked to empire. Even at black white soldiers come together and go to the philippines and treat the philippines like they are cockroaches. And they were americans predict because you have an now pretty to have to be very honest and telling the truth. Whether or not brother robbie and i, we can tell the truth of who they are. They are henry of jail flight. Many were suffering under the roof policy center barack obama. That top 1 percent, 95 percent of income growth. I find that to be morally grotesque. I dont agree with economic equality. I want to focus on poverty. A lot of focus on. Inaudible. To poverty is a fact. Weve been trying to do that. Ive tried to do it with barack obama. The Democratic Party has had no concern about poor people. And tied to afford mobility for the potential middle class when it comes to working people who report for people not working. It had very little to say other than the movement of healthcare. Thats a Market Driven Healthcare Program. Establish by mitt romney. The mormon brother. But is not known for being on the cutting edge for fighting against poverty. But he summing the Republican Party did decent things for the healthcare. And thats for the Healthcare Program comes from. We want to be very honest about that. Let us try to tell the truth about both parties. Deeply narrow when it comes to these issues of poverty. There is pressure on the Republican Party. Legacy of martin came refresher the Democratic Party. We conclude our books with race in america. The reality is, the election of the 45th president brought White Supremacy out of the shadow. And that means that while that said, and that they are clearly involved in a lot of ways, allow more people could step to find their way to fight in the hope is that more people to figure out, since identified the ways they are already fighting because sometimes the day after the election, that was how he thought. But the hope is that people will identify the way they are already fighting and also linked to see what else they can do. Just to add on, i think the one thing that we want to come out of this focus that we want to save the White Supremacy. A lot of people say racial or racist. Racially charged. It thats just racist. And also that is White Supremacy. But for us because we wrote that the racial, we see these words all of the time. And we have a working definition but for many people who dont do this, work, is shocking. And is very White Supremacy rather than racism is because we really want to talk about the systemic under guarding system. Really talk about it doesnt system that can be vanquished. A lot of times racism is consider to be interpersonal. People will say i listen to him and he was not racist. And i say okay thanks. But why supremacy is a particular system and you can pretty down and can work in resistant. And not be the whole thing. One of the things in the book that you mentioned love and laughter. It you to court and there the black is one of the important tools of war. Another one is loving yourself is a revolutionary act. Can you talk a little bit more about that. A lot of time we dont think of love or black when we talk about white supremacist. So first of all, its really important because number one, to be human, you need joy and laughter. Even in the worst possible situation, you need to actually enjoy something. I dont believe we wouldve survived is people who didnt have a sense of humor. So theres a particular part in the book that we talk about in the humor chapter. It is from of brother jordan anderson, in the civil war. And in that letter he talks about how his old master invited him back to the plantation to come and work there. He wrote back and he said dear mr. , thank you for the letter. You shot me twice, thats okay. We will consider coming back if you consider giving us what we have earned already and give a nest the interest that it has accrued. Then he talks about, restorations and tank labor. And then he goes back to the slight dangerous humor. He said my wife mandy is concerned. So is this the most like passive aggressive hilarious pieces of history that have seen. I love the brother. Jordan anderson buried. Speaking of our humerus chapter. One of our contributors are here. [applause]. As you say, we have an entire chapter of her love. Or the whole point of this book is that we think people think about resistances they think about organizing and making signs of being on the picket lines. Theres so much more that goes into it. I dont know about yall but there have been days especially when i was younger when finding love for myself, was hard. As a woman, as a black person, i am ugly. Im unlovable. But i will never find a partner. All these things that we see in media all of the time. I was literally just talking to an editor that sent her editor, wanted to do stories about why a black woman get married. About why we cant drive. And why we need to thrive. They believe i am not enough all of the time. So we have essays and hear the talk about finding the beauty in yourself and how that looks like. We think about how our love for our children molds us. And how we make a difference in the way that we raise them and we get to them before the system gets to them. We tell them they are loved. We hear a lot about weakness pretty can you talk alone but about that as well. But it looks like in terms of their activism in younger people. I think the phenomenon is most interesting. I think it is fantastic. I feel like because of a lot of the work as has been done, from the 1960s on, there is a lot of social justice. A lot of right to passage. A lot of discussion for young people of this generation. It seems like people of this generation are a lot more active. They are willing, is down. I think for particular kind of activism and that was when i was a teenager. 4440 did you turn around and see younger people actually calling out the issues that we are trying to talk about read and to also have the tools to widely disseminate the messages and widely recruit folks. I think thats really important i also think that again theres the sort of lowell, and meet to people who would talk about the violence all of the time. Now you have a thousand people who talk about police violence. I think thats very important. Some in the chapter that is about children and people who advocate for them did the profile people who have found ways to be activists. In the way they start it was their willingness to create solutions so we have one little boy is these and he read a statistic that said voice of often stop reading books. And he said im going to do something about that. So he started book club for human voice and not only was it just about him but bringing them together to read this where they some themselves reflected. In one of them he says in his profile, most of the stuff that you say is not fiction. Its cool to read about them okay. I just want to read a book about somebody like me. Somebody likes to play football. This trying not to be previous school. Like. [laughter]. Hey just wanted to be able to see himself. I love that he did something about it. That was his way of being an activist. It is a very real form. Thats my thought was one of the strengths of the book that units many different examples and while there was seriousness in there too. There were different everyday ways the people could get involved. That made me think of ella baker know she was encouraged everyday people to do something. And from where you are, and the importance of how small act to make a difference. And not necessarily waiting for charismatic leader to show the way. There is one interesting party, youre talking about bubblegum. [laughter]. And tread you use that as a metaphor for White Supremacy. Was in the final chapter. Someday we will all be free. The idea of it is that bubble him can actually be and for instance you have to work with other people, and number two, the people actually have to worry about your safety because the ones turning could suck you in the face pretty number three if you cant doubt theres a thing that you could be the baby doll. He didnt have too much pride like i did, it would be able to like get attacked and some of your for jumping. And if you mess up, then three of their people sterner for other people turn, the newcomer background. Sort of like a clean slate. So this idea double duds, its an idea but also supposed to be too, because im a black gal from west philadelphia. I cant jump double duds. So theres a lot of shame in that. [laughter]. It sounds like a 12 step program. It. It is. Essential part of culture when i was growing up is that, in the last part is, double duds is about vitality. Ive walked down the street in brooklyn insane women in suits with no shoes on jumping double duds with girls. There is something there is like a reinsurance. And its also an art. Its about supply up within the book for you to read. Its a metaphor. I have one more question before we open it up because its a wonderful opportunity for us to engage with each other and for everyone to weigh in on the topic. One can white people do about White Supremacy and what all of us can do about White Supremacy. The first thing you think you have to do is realize that in fighting White Supremacy, youre not helping us pretty it does not make you an ally to fight White Supremacy. Because it is a system that we all labor under. You have to remember that. Second thing is dont ask black or other people of color to do emotional or other labor for you read lots of books at the tradition who post this topics in different ways in different angles. In google, rather than asking a black woman to do that for you. Another thing is to be courageous. Very often we hear people say that they didnt want to have the conversation so they didnt want to do anything. So im here to tell you, the only thing that you have to worry about, we are worried about other things. Be courageous. Talking to yourself and looking at the way you protect the system and a privilege that you take from it. I think the last thing is Business Organization called search and showing up for Racial Justice. Is why people gathering with white people. It is by them and for them and all about working towards relationships together. And thats where you should go. Stop teaching children colorblindness. People think that it is in tight races. White supremacists by saying, were all the same inside. Or i dont see color. Ross another variety is it doesnt matter if youre black white green or purple. Theres never greener approval. But this idea of trying to flatten, and also to say or avoid the conversation that convince children thats the best that they can function. Is ultimately its an eraser. Thats not a good thing. Does not make us feel good. So theres one last thing i want to say. The girls prep school. I remember my classmates did not ever want to say even the word black. So there were like three black girls in my class. And probably 28 or so. So if they wanted to say, the girl with the hair this way. Okay whos thats pretty said the girl with the uniform, like him well and there was a human the black girl. And thats what colorblindness does to you. An actual is a taboo but actually makes it wrong to actually Say Something that is perfectly beautiful which is black. You can watch all of the programs youve seen here and many other author discussions about race in America Online apple tv. Org braided active the archives by using the search box at the top of the page. Search race and books. Tv continues now on cspan2. Television for serious readers