Prevented anyone from actually attending my talk. Students of color at the nearby college and announced i was, quote, a fascist white supremacist trans for ignorant of the systems of domination that produced the conditions under which people are forced to live. To have an audience still in their seats going to listen is an unusual experience that may take me a while to get accustomed to. Now, we have been hearing a lot about the crisis of free speech and College Campuses. But not much about its root cause. The narcissistic technology in a word, the American University is in the grips of a mass hysteria. Students actually believe they are victims of oppression from racism and sexism the degree is impossible in the states. It complained about the expectations its staying alive after brown. They cursed and screamed at him for three hours because his wife had sent an email suggesting students could choose their own hollowing costumes from the administrations of the bureaucracy. Among the shouting of shut up, and im censoring this coming and you are disgusting that were directed at this mildmannered leftwing professor was a cry of me are dying. So, one of the rancher is referring to the status of the minority students. They chanted we are sick and tired of being sick and tired they had grounds of plenty for being sick and tired of being sick and tired but any princeton student i dont care if he is green, purple or orange who thinks of himself as oppressed is in the grips of eternal devotion but what encumber him for the rest of his life. Or perhaps you are thinking at least the adults on campus are trying to get a firm grip on reality, to the contrary they adults actively encourage the hysteria. The massive diversity is cultivating students ever more arcane thesis of the selfinvolvement and evermore preposterous forms of selfpity. Do you want another reason for astronomical . Look no further than this democratic vote. Students regularly act out of psychodramas of oppression with the audience of the diversity, Equity Diversity and inclusion who used the occasion to expand. Many campuses have created by s. Response teams presumably active shooter Response Teams on the assumption that the discrimination is so rampant and lethal but the Rapid Defense force is needed. Freshman orientations feature seminars and toxic masculinity and white privilege. Students are taught that they are either the oppressed were the oppressors. If you were not any of the 116 and still metastasizing categories of gender, the only way that you could escape being an oppressor is by becoming an ally. The thinking is they are literally in a war zone of College Campuses and need allies from the Opposing Side to survive. Am i exaggerating, i am not. Uc Berkeley Division of Equity Inclusion hung their banners reminding students of the universitys paramount mission assigning guilt and innocence in the competitive totem pole of victimhood. One featured a student and hispanic male student allegedly pleading allow people other than yourself to exist. A message directed to the white students and faculty. This is not hyperbole. They mean it literally. College president s are the worst of them are set encouraging is delusional pathology. After the threehour expletive tirade against the sociologists, their president actually thanked them for making him proud. They subsequently convert the Racial Justice prize on two of the most aggressive participan participants. The dean of the Harvard Medical School removed the portraits of its greatest physician scientists from the Entrance Hall to the school. You can guess the reason. They are all male and looking on them would make the students feel uncomfortable and unsafe. We can only wish these doctors walk in the operating room. The narcissistic identity politics has destroyed the pursuit of knowledge throughout the humanities and most of the social scientists. Students are being given a license for ignorance. All they need to be told about their book is the content and the gonads of its author. To know whether they can dismiss its content as thoroughly repugnant and not worth reading. Shakespeare, milton, plato have all been demonstrated by students that do not have the slightest clue about the renaissance or the enlightenme enlightenment. A columbia undergraduate went about the beleaguered core curriculum, quote, who is this mozart, the superior white men . It upholds the premise is of racism. No professor has ever defended our intellectual patrimony against such shameful outbreaks of ecstatic know nothing without having a qualification about respecting diversity. Academic identity politics are now rapidly spreading throughout the culture at large. Every nonacademic institution, no matter how previously melodramatic is now vulnerable and that means above all exhibit a in the identity driven mediocrity and thought control is the firing of computer engineer from google in august of 2017. Hed written a carefully reasoned factbased memo suggesting the average career preferences of males and females that may explain why there is not a 50 50 gender parity at google anandgoogle and other fi. The language the ceos used was a direct import from the academic etymology. The google employees were herding because he damaged the orthodoxy. What followed the firing was even scarier. Its the same fix some grounds. The memo had made the employees feel unsafe at work according to the associate general counsel. It does constitute discrimination and sexual harassment. Consider for a moment what this ruling means for science. Any evolutionary biologist, psychologist or economist who studies the different risk preferences and appetite for Competition Among males and females is now at risk of his job. No matter that the findings are true. The thinking is now the dominick characteristic of the various racial ethnic and sexual groups in any institution is by definition a result of discrimination. To suggest the different groups of different capacities, cultures, skills and behaviors that explained the lack of representation is not just taboo, but it will get you fir fired. That was offered Heather Mcdonald from 2018. Next as we continu continued top books about race in america journalism professor pamela and her presentation she examines whether diversity programs are working in the areas of entertainment, academia and corporate america. What i am not optimistic about his white americas ability to see past the fiction africanamerican and the centuriesold demeaning images of people and how that has to do with a lack of diversity. Whats on the walls, what is in the literature. We are in a toxic culture where people of color are concerned and so in a lot of ways its like putting lipstick on a pig. Its like youre tryin you are o address something that without addressing the cancer of the culture. As you said, its putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound. We havent even begun to deal with it because i know ive been on the faculty for going on 26 years. I havent seen the curriculum changes the way that one would expect. Thats what all of those protests were about, the faculty of color. Understanding this complicity and continuing inequality and the continuing racial injustice. Im told that happens, im optimistic it can be done but im less optimistic about the will to do it. The other amazing part of this book that is a little bit separate from the industry is about these three fields academia, journalism and entertainment. And what came across to me so strongly that i emailed her like 11 00 at night to go, these are the fields that are representing the world. And i thought about the movement where would we solve the last couple of years is the men who are being accused or some of the men, a lot of them were in journalism, they were political journalists, they were telling the story of Henry Clinton in 2016, and matt lauer and halperin, Harvey Weinstein actually gave money but these men are telling us their stories and the same is true in that the people of coloofpeople of colorh academia, journalism and entertainment it has just pushed this narrative. Much of my work, you know because you know me, its concerned with portrayals because i think the portrayal you can draw a Straight Line from these demeaning portrayals to a Trayvon Martin to the Police Pulling over someone and they end up dead, just innocent people. Last week someone in their home, people in their home. So you know, these people think of it is jus as just a show, a a book. Its like no, it has real life consequences for the whole race of people. So, all of my work somehow kind of confronts the media portrayal, portrayal of literature because they have these devastating consequences for people of color. Weve paid attention in the last few years but i think that we should pay more attention to how the slave trade built the major universities especially the ivy league and i that they are starting to pay more attention and thats great. But when you think about it, its just like i dont mean to sound naive, but the more i think about it its like that is part of whats going on, and you also have all these academics getting back into the 18, early 20th, not just early, charles murray, you know, almost to the present. But these people embedded in academia about the peddling of White Supremacy. They wil will look at a booke this or scholars of color that want to look at that and connect the dots. It has everything to do with it. Even the narratives, then have the University President s gone before their student faculty body and said they have been complicit for centuries. Almost no one. Everyone wants a simple solution to the problem they all want to drive by diversity is maybe like five minutes. Quick, tell us what it is. How do we do it, write it down. Its not that simple. The American Experience is multilayered, complicated and people want to look at someone like me and say youve made it, where is your problem. My problem is i know many people look like we dont get the opportunity. People much brighter, better writers, scholars who didnt get to have the kind of opportunity that ive had a hand so it has not ended. People thought we are post race, remember. Now its like no one is saying anything anymore. We want to celebrate and stick the flag in the ground and say victory, we won the Civil Rights Movement. Its over. We elected barack obama. We had reconstruction, then the ku klux klan and the Civil Rights Movement, then we had reagan and the backlash to that. We have been in these cycles forever. Two steps forward, one step back, i go back and forth. How much do you feel like electing barack obama brought Us Donald Trump lacks i think very strongly we are in a backlash to barack obama just as we did the backlash to reconstruction seeing the black governors and senators and congressmen. People were not having that. Had you epidemic and now we are living through something similar to that again. You are watching the tv on cspan2 with a look of books of race in america. Now wall street journal columnist from the monthly Interview Program in depth in december 2019 with his views on the subject. I think there is a tendency to view black history writ large as the history of what whites have done to blacks. And there are various reasons why various groups want to keep that narrative of life. But in the end i think it is more than that. Yes, racism still exists. I do not know any reasonable person who would argue otherwise. Nor do i expect to see america vanquished of racism. I do think that black history is more than that and for me the question, the more relevant question is what can be done in the face of whatever racism still exists. What was done in the past in the face of racism. And i think that is a relevant story today and the message to give to the younger people today. My fear is by perpetuating the notion that its about victimization, its all about racism, or you sending the wrong message right into the next generation. Why a try in the school of the teachers and tests are racist and the police are out to get you. You send a kid out the door with that sort of message and i dont think that youre helping the child. Have you felt the sting of racism . Absolutely. Absolutely. Ive experienced it and ive been called names, ive been followed around Department Stores and have been pulled over by police. What happened and where were you . Guest i was getting an internship in the early 90s and early usa today and i was on the sports desk. I was driving to and from the headquarters. I have my car that had new york plates, although i was driving in dc. I was driving home one evening after work probably early sometime after midnight and i heard sirens blaring and the police pulled me over and ordered me out of the car at gunpoint, face away from the collar and all the rest and said i fit the description of someone they were after. Host what were you thinking . Guest i was terrified. I remember getting back in the car after i left because they seem to be gone as quickly as they came after they realized i wasnt the right person. Just sitting in my car shaking i remember i had the standard and i couldnt get it out of gear my hand was shaking so vigorously. Host three blechman 16yearsold at the time, years ago convicted of a murder that they did not commit and they were just released from jail. What does that tell you about americas criminal Justice System . Guest that it is not perfect. And i think you would be hard pressed to find the criminal Justice System is an improvement over what it used to be. Its still not perfect but i would caution against taking these examples and saying they are typical. Host versus exceptions are exasperation. Guest or the reason so many blacks are involved in the Justice System is that is a racist system per se. I do not see a lot of evidence for that. We have discussions about to say the racial makeup of prisons and jails, but we dont talk about the racial makeup of people who perpetrate crimes in this country. I dont think that you can really have one discussion without the other. So, imperfect as the criminal Justice System is, has been and continues to be, i still think that there are behavioral differences among the groups that lead to some being overrepresented in that system and others. Host the title of three of your books, the first one please stop helping us. What is the message . Guest that was a look back at the Great Society program put in place under Lyndon Johnson and expanded under nixon and others. I wanted to say what is the track record . These were put in place to help welfare programs, housing programs, expansions of minimum wage laws and so forth. I wanted to look back and say what has worked, what happened and why and i was attempting to do that with this book. Host your other book, wholesome black power . Guest it is essentially about the track record of using political power to edit int adve group economically which has essentially been the strategy of the Civil Rights Movement since the time of king. The issue there was if we can integrate political institutio institutions, the economics, Everything Else will take care of itself we just need to get our own people in place. And the Civil Rights Movement had acquitted of success in doing that. By the early 1980s you had major black cities in the u. S. Los angeles got the wachovia, washington, d. C. And so forth that had black mayors. In addition to that, you had Police Chiefs and fire commissioners and School Superintendents and so forth. But if you look at Marion Barrys washington, d. C. In the 1980s or 1990s or detroit in the 1970s, under these regimes you had the poor becoming even more impoverished. Thats not to say they shouldnt disengage in the process because what we are told it is essential between the political power and black economic progress that has since proven to be as strong as some people hoped it would be. Host generally speaking have these programs helped or hurt . Guest by and large, they have hurt. The way that i explain it with the underprivileged need of any race or ethnicity as a sort of Self Development that has to occur. Its not something that lends itself to political solutions. These are cultural changes that need to take place. Economists refer to as human capital, attitudes and behaviors and habits that need to develop in the group in order to rise in america its what we have seen happen to other groups in this country. And to the extent that the Government Program interferes with that i think its doing more harm than good and what a lot of these programs did was to interfere with that development. And that is it. But with bill clintons forms in the 19 nineties. But not entirely. It was ben franklin who said democracy is like tools and a ham voting on what you have for lunch. You dont have to be a Rocket Scientist but liberty is making sure the land is well on to protest the vote. So to have the young lambs and communities of color be able to protest the vote to give them the information with the intellect and diplomacy to protest the school to prison pipeline. Protest the racist jim crow laws scanned your ground, Voter Suppression , environmental racism that would find the children in southcentral los angeles have one third of the lung capacity of those grant on growing up in santa monica. That they are well armed to protest the Prison Industrial Complex where minorities go to prison and they are concerned about losing constitutional rights. Especially women of color you have to worry about losing your reproductive rights. Just as late as 2014 in the state of california, it was unearthed there a black women and Hispanic Women being coerced into forced sterilizations and it was all done legally in just as late as 2017 not a judge but judges that were handing out sentences to black men literary saying we will reduce your sentence by ten years on a 12 your sentence if you agree to be sterilized. Genocide literally and figuratively we are talking. So it is those things where you see the law itself is the instrument they are using to kill us. The second thing that inspired me to write this book, the three that stand out is the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown and ferguson when the people refuse to remain silent and sweep his death under the rug. Because they saw with their own eyes he put his hands up. The police still shot him anyway. And these young people had daily protest and i remember specifically the National Guard being out there and this young brother who had no fear Assault Rifles pointed at him and went up to him the nose touching the Assault Rifle and he told the them, go ahead and kill me now while all the cameras are watching. You will kill us anyway. So to see how you are killing us so kill me now with the cameras. That was riveting and stayed in my mind so much i wouldnt have been thinking with that young brother was saying and it is true its important the world sees how they are killing us. Not just High Profile Police shooting cases more poignantl poignantly, killing us in courtrooms all over america every day. Just go sit in the back of the courtroom and watch how they administer injustice and you those fact patterns to little black and brown kids those with a slap on the wrist and then they are allowed to live out the rest of their lives to fulfill their destinies to achieve the American Dream but yet the little black and brown children often times take into the corner of the courtroom fingerprinted of the trumped up felony conviction once you have that it is lifechanging especially a poor person of color and america. You have to wear that felony conviction like a cross on your back the rest of your life Everybody Knows you cannot vote or serve on the jury but thats just the tip of the iceberg if you have a felony conviction. Everything you could try to do to make a legitimate living it is taken away from you if you try to go to college they will not let you get the pell grant or federal loans or get a legitimate job if you have a felony conviction you cant get a certification to be a teacher you cant be certification to be a nurse or sisters who want to be beauticians but that felony conviction they cannot do that if you are a Real Estate Agent you cannot get a certification it goes on and on. In the city of atlanta anybody feels they have to do this but even women performing in strip clubs you can get a certification to do that. Like they are pushing you back into a life of crime have to pay probation finds it is a vicious cycle and most young people who take that felony conviction say if i go to court looking at a jury of anything that my peers and telling me i can get five or 15 years so they say you take this and get two years of probation they have no idea what they have just done to plant that felony conviction. In fact in many states i have learned if you are a convicted felon and spend any time in prison you cant even get Life Insurance you are the walking dead so to get this criminal Justice System even though they try to have no redeemable qualities to society we still believe in you and thank you are the best we still know god has a plan for your life because understand plates like florida and tennessee one out of 45 black men are convicted and this is with the states across the country and experts suggest if this trend continues in the next 25 years it is one out of every three black men in america convicted felons the last thing i will say is this open season to legalize genocide of colored people is an extension of what the great paul robison did 1951 at the time he was the most famous africanamerican in the world along with w eb the boy graduating from harvard with a phd and founder of naacp going to the United Nations convention in paris france and this is in the aftermath of world war ii with the wartorn countries filing petitions of the atrocities of what they are suffering but these black leaders charged genocide against the government against the killing of negro people in america based on the daily killing of black people in the 19 forties with case after case and said we are using your definition United Nations that accident intent in whole or in part based on National Ethnic or religious identity. Thats what they are doing to us in america. In conclusion they say the United States government is complicit or responsible for creating a genocidal situation to negro people. If you think about the fact black men only make up 7 percent of the population in america but we make up almost 50 percent of the population on death row that is a genocidal situation. And Nursery School and kindergarten black children are suspended and expelled almost seven one from white children and i scratch my head what could a child due to be expelled from kindergarten . It is so ironic that those percentages of what they do from Nursing School is consistent with the statistics of incarceration of black and brown people in the penal system in america. We hope to hold america to say we can do better america the have to follow the lessons of mlk to say it is hypocritical for you to be the standardbearer in the world to see injustice and evil to be neutral in the face of injustice in and of itself is injustice. I conclude to offer the point that hypocrisy is everywhere. Think of black and brown people languishing in prisons for selling marijuana i just finished a book in the criminal phase the white policewoman was convicted of killing this unarmed black man for eating i. C. E. Cream on his couch and i think all those people that didnt kill anybody just selling weed to make money to pay their bills and now the United States government in many instances has legalized marijuana now making money to pay their bills but when we did that, we are in prison so we make the case america, you are not allowed to make profit off of selling marijuana and tell you that all the black and brown people. [applause] and others out of prison. Because that is what we mean talking about equal justice under the law and were all entitled to expect america not just recite the preamble to the declaration of independence. Gop occupy the moral high ground for 71 years and incredibly Herbert Hoover through that away wanted a republican white party in the south and John Hope Franklin cites him as the pivotal guy who started the exodus from the Republican Party for black american. But he had some help and at the same time my parents and 6 million other individuals left the south and they said we cannot do that but these individuals from the south know that as the party of segregation so they wanted a Public Relations campaign so fdr was doing the same things republicans used to do eleanor was hosting the lives of prominent black men or women that gallup started to pull that 35 or 76 percent of the black vote however black individuals do not self identify so essentially the short version of the book is republicans dropped the ball the conservative movement dropped the ball to not enforce the Civil Rights Act or the 15th amendment and not supporting the Civil Rights Act. In other words bill buckley was more concerned about the Shipyard Workers than my mother and grandmother jump on voting and we elections. If donald trump wins 20 or 30 percent of the black vote he has taken a major step to reestablish the Unbreakable Alliance black americans had for more than 70 years after the assassination of lincoln but to do so it must be for the nation with republicans and black americans since 1964. How do you get there . Republicans need to admit they once had the moral high ground but they lost it as a precursor to talk about me gaining the moral high ground on issues life, school chart on School Choice wages going up and the performance on the economy and with the criminal Justice Reform. The second thing that has to happen that will broadcast that message through urban contemporary radio the Trump Campaign is committed to doing so i believe in finally what will the Republican Party do that has created a vacuum vote democratic isolation has story the brand which is why we say the president can turn fdr strategy unattended but not the gop to get the 20 percent. Last month the president said one of the moments of the campaign to say what have you got to lose . And was told the right thing to do the president told the reporters that was one of the most significant moments in the 2016 campaign. I think it was a significant moment because the gop has not asked black voters for their support the president was actively campaigning for that support with that statement is certainly spending 10 million during the super bowl touting his record with criminal Justice Reform now i believe one of the women he pardoned is now running for congress for john lewis his seat. From back in january black americans deeply pessimistic with the country under trump. Making a stark appeal to black americans when he asked what have you got to you lose . Three years later they are rendering their verdict with a deeply pessimistic assessment of their plays with the leader of an overwhelming majority. The findings come from a poll of africanamericans nationwide whether their children will have a fair shot to succeed in the believe that white americans do not fully appreciate the discrimination like people experience and to offer a view about their community as a whole and then to limit the president. And so many things im surprised the Washington Post hasnt run headline coronavirus runs wild there are a number of polls that show the president is in striking range of that 20 percent necessary to win in the swing states. I was a School Choice warrior but questioning if Educational Opportunity School Choice whatever translate in support at the polls because republicans were spending Political Capital so that was answered in florida were 18 percent of africanamerican voted not by race for the black candidate or by party for the democratic candidate and then to elect him on the School Choice issue. There was a poll six weeks ago that black voters overwhelmingly support the democrat trump is only 15 percent. With that you win the entire south maybe even virginia. And again most dont have a big enough sample size of black voters to be larger than the entire population so 31 percent of black males support the president against generic democrat but others talk about job approval or something other than voter intention from when they ask that question other polls have had 49 percent of africanamericans approving of the Job Performance and polls that have a majority of africanamericans saying they believe they would be better off at the end of the Trump Administration and acrosstheboard of any metric you want to talk about with black unemployment was three times higher than it is today. I believe at least 20 percent will not buy into this ridiculous narrative of trumps away suspect for 69 years he was vetted by the entire Civil Rights Organization and giving the same award for her courage as rosa parks and mohammed ali on the same day. Either he magically became a racist suddenly or just appointed black officer at the chief of staff and to the United States air force for the first time but everybody says hes a racist now. I have historically tried to avoid the term racism and racist because studies have shown so it impedes communication but i half to reverse that because they come to understand its key to what is transpiring. That shroud reality of racism thats often in newspapers of economic factors and all these things to make people more vulnerable to that toxicity. It is not true. It is race. Race is a stronger risk factor that studies have shown africanamericans incomes at 50000 per year are more exposed to toxins than whites who make 10000 per year. So we have to be frank and open to discussing these things otherwise that will be the shape of what we are talking about the dps from crafting solutions. A large part of my book was interrogating the common terms we need to describe the way race and racism operates in this country so im thinking where do i begin . So where many Racial Justice performers and activist have been distinguishing between what people call covert and overt racism so the more i thought about that construct of covert racism and people make the case racism has become more covert, so i make the case in my book that that is basically not true. And we have been using 1960 classes so then we wonder why we cannot see it. We also imagine a policy is racist if the policymaker intends to exclude a particular racial group and then based on its outcome. People to fundamentally define a policy is racist then you can easily see racist policies. If we are to recognize to see racial inequity and justice , we see racism then clearly to be extremely overt but we dont use those terms because racism is very overt. As a followup is there one term you hear people use a lot . So one term or one phrase about racism . Not racist. [laughter] [applause] im not racist but. Thats the most racist they ever. [laughter] going back to that what is interesting about the book is the way both authors balance the grade analysis of languages in terms of policies of corporate racism and the experience of it. And how each individual is experiencing this discrimination and the generational effects. So im wondering if you can speak to that particular genre talking about racism . And with those communities that experience fired mental racism and with your self discovery and these different ideas so why is it important to include personal and individual stories. Its always difficult because of the reaction. They feel shame not only on their part but if they identify thats hurdle to begin over when you identify with people so to help people that understand my understanding of racism so that complexity and i hope to bring along everyone with me on that journey i hope they find it validating and i hope they see it for what it is and more clearly then to point my finger and say you are racist. When i grew up on army bases in new york i feel like we had different experiences on my cousins all live in a 30 Story Building almost everybody i knew had asthma i had no idea what that was but living across the street from a bus depot belching everything and causing asthma so i point out of nine out of ten best depots were located in harlem it was more effective and that was my hope. I am very private my families very private with so many family members in texas and it is very difficult and at least it is for me. And that it were distinguish from someone who is striving for the construct that the heartbeat racism has been denial that has been confession so it is charge was saying or doing something that is racist that is one of the least racist person youve interviewed the lease races you have encountered. [laughter] the least racist anywhere in the world. [laughter] and thats after i said black baltimore is a last place you want to visit. [applause] [laughter] so that denial is essential and those who deny their ideas are racist but where it is fundamental to be antiracist is that we were born and raised in society and to recognize that and to confess the time in which we a said there is something wrong with the Racial Movement and not part of the struggle of racist policies and power but i felt like we have to model that and admit both times for people to open up. Cornell west you write we live in one of the darkest moments of american history, a time of spiritual blackout. Yes. To say that to make a normal way of life and to naturalize criminality to look as if they are natural. Zone strikes or wall street or predatory lending or market manipulation. So many different ways to be violated. Because in a moment of spiritual blackout is not just a political issue but a moral and spiritual issue and led only by example to say the conservative brother still have love and respect, willing to fight and disagree not in the abstract but by example. Why . Because the leo neighbor also craft that is smartness how many times do you hear the work on television it is obvious. Obvious. Obviously. Thats a word from the in crowd to show they are the smart crowd we dont believe in smartness in isolation but wisdom at the deepest level. There is no accident donald trump refuted the smartest and the richest in the room that he assigned a symptom to society that has idolized smartness and richness. And then dropping the bombs in the last year. Five times as many drone strikes. He has 506 and wins the Nobel Peace Prize so the spectacle can hide and can conceal with the spirituality this is the ideology it is moral and spiritual substance and the ideology. So we are and catastrophic times and survival of the sickest in the smartest and also economic catastrophe and then to the bottom of 160 million . 50 percent of fellow citizens this looks like louis the 14t 14th. And now well to do tightening benefits for the poor what you do unto us the poor in the immigrant the jews, black, indigenous, gay and lesbian, a spiritual orientation so where are we 25 years after . I agree with the basic thrust but we disagree on that inequality in itself i think our problem is not the market economy my critique is we traded in a free market economy to use Big Government to regulate competitors off the field and sometimes welcome that because of those upstart competitors sector. With economic equality with that economic inequality i dont have as a goal the quality of the declaration of independence but i have chosen a career as an academic i couldve gone to law school make a lot more money or Business School and made a lot more many than that so i dont have any problem as long as it is fair to just people having a lot more many with other people but it is the equality but for opportunity not equality as we have that considerable extent lost those prospects of upward mobility. I remain close to people my parents are there my High School Friends this is donald trump. Why . Because they are feeling the effects of being neglected and left behind economically, culturall economically, culturally, bigoty your prejudice but certainly on their basis with the cultural elite that has only its own interest in mind not just places like central appellation with nothing but contempt for those values of people those were trump voters im not one of these guys that condemns trump voters im not a fan of donald trump and i wasnt from the beginning he has done good things but also bad things but its a mistake to imagine that those supporters are racist and bigoted and horrible people they have legitimate grievances that Neither Party responded to and donald trump reached out to them whether they were wise to look to him we can debate that i have debated that with my relatives in West Virginia but most people were forgotten and left behind. Host do you agree and with what he says that the current voter . That is a diverse lot that are as you know for they can racist and misogynist and homophobic but that doesnt exhaust the whole group. They come from the altar right. [laughter] but there is also those that voted for bernie and obama so to keep track of that diversity you never want to downplay the precisely because it is so vicious you cannot allow it to be the only thing that you see what the other black intellectuals and now you can see that it is always linked to Something Else or predatory capitalism or patriarchy or homophobia and also empire. Black and white soldiers come together and then treat the philippines like cockroaches so you have to be very honest to tell the truth i say tell the truth of who the trump photos are they are heterogeneous suffering under neoliberal policies under barack obama the top 1 percent got 95 percent of the Income Growth i find that to be morally grotesque i dont agree for wholesale economic equality but i want to focus on poverty. That you make sure that poverty is attacked im trying to do with brock obama and the others the Democratic Party had no major concern about poor people tied to upward mobility when it comes to people who have very little to say rather than movement on healthcare coming out of the industry and mitt romney that he is somebody in the Republican Party did decent things with healthcare thats where it comes from to be honest about that. Let us try to tell the truth deeply narrow when it comes to these issues and then to put pressure on the Republican Party and on the Democratic Party. The election of the White Supremacy to come out of the shadows and that means that they are emboldened in a lot of ways that people find ways to fight that wants to identify the race but the day after the election its how we saw that the hope is that people identify and also to see what else they can do. The one thing to come out of this to end the taboo to say White Supremacy but racial and thats just racist. And to say that is White Supremacy. And we hear active issues us all the time. And many people who dont do this kind of work because we really want to talk about the systemic the underbelly of the system and have a particular system that is considered to be interpersonal . That you can break it down and do some work and then one said that loving yourself is a revolutionary act. Talk about that. Because number one to be human even in the worst possible situation you need to enjoy a. I dont know if we wouldve survived as people so there is a particular part in the book that we talk about and is for brother Jordan Anderson and in that letter he talks about how his old master invited him back to the plantation to come and work there and said thank you for the invitation and say you shot me twice. Thats okay. We will consider coming back if you consider giving us of the earned already and the interest it has accrued. And then clearly talking about reparations and then to go back to polite and dangerous humor and so then to say that passiveaggressive pieces of history that i have seen so i love brother jordan in that sense so one of the whole plains of the book to think about resistance is to organize but theres so much more that goes into it and i dont know about all of you that but finding love for myself is subverting the system because as a woman that i am ugly and unlovable and will never find a partner that we say all the time i was just talking to the editor who said her editor talks about why black women dont get married and we cant thrive if we dont reach across the aisle. And to tell you that im not enough all the time. So to talk about finding the beauty in this and how the love for our children. That they are lovable. We talk about the book and brokenness were people of activism. I think it is very basic because of a lot of the work that has been done from 1861 there is a lot of discussion for people of this generation. And they are a lot more active. So it is a down. From when i was a teenager now im 44. In and those issues to talk about sometime ago and then to disseminate those messages. That is important are talking about Police Violence all the time. In that chapter that advocate. And the willingness to come straight to solutions and reading a statistic and that they stop reading books. And then to start a book club for young boys but bringing them together and what he saw with this profile and to read about mlk. I just want to play football in the backyard and and then to see a problem and then to be an activist. But it is a real form of resistance. And you have so many different examples and its different for people to get involved to think of ella baker to do something and the importance of how the small acts make a difference waiting for that charismatic leader to show the way. There was one that you were talking about and you use that as a metaphor for White Supremacy spent the governments metaphor and that it could be celebratory so for instance to work with other people and number two and then worry about the safety and number three then somebody says if you dont have too much pride like i did then uk get up past and another great thing and then you come right back around. So this idea of double dutch that is because im the black girl from West Philadelphia but i cannot double dutch there is a little bit of shame. [laughter]. Its like a 12 step program. [laughter] that is the essential part of culture when i was growing up and then the last part is with vitality. I walked down the street to see with no shoes on and then there is something there that is a reassurance and that is an art. Wine more a question before we open this up and for everyone to weigh in on the topic. But one thing i want to new wet white people can do about White Supremacy. The first thing i think and to invite White Supremacy you are not helping us its not that the system that we all labor under. Remember that. Dont ask black were people of color to do emotional labor for you. There are lots books of the tradition posting this in different ways rather than asking a black woman to do that with you. That we didnt want to have that conversation that the only thing you have to worry about and the courageous. And then to perpetuate the system and there is an Organization Called surge and white people and white people for them and buy them and thats where we should go. And people think that it antiracist and by saying. That i dont see color to see black or white or green or purple that this idea to convince children thats the best way they can function and not be racist. If you say you dont see color then thats not a good thing. Thats not fighting White Supremacy. So then i remember my classmates to wear black so then the girl with the hair this way. With the hair this wa. Relevant guest hosts interviewing top nonfiction authors about their latest works. All after words programs are available as podcasts. This host i am so happy and thrilled to be here with you today for your buck, educated. I have to tell you this is one of the most extraordinary memoirs ive ever read so im honored to be with you here today to talk about it. I was blown away reading it for a second time actually even