Reynolds, i am the Current National ambassador for young peoples literature. Coming to you from my home in washington dc im currently in my office where i do all my work you can see the books behind me. Im also the author of stamped racism, antiracism, and you. I should say on the coauthor of the book. It came about because there is a wonderful great scholar named biebers candy, abhe published a book in 2016 called stamped from the beginning a history of racism and policies he won the National Book award, we met at the National Book award and it was then that ab shortly after that he asked me to somehow translate all this work. He had over 600 pages of scholarship about history he wanted to figure out a way for that book to be translated into something for young ayounger people. After some prodding i eventually said yes and decided to tackle it. The purpose behind it is to make sure this information is as accessible as possible so we can arm ourselves with information creating new vocabulary and hopefully began to push the line and move the needle as it pertains to race in america. I think creativity comes to play when it comes to the telling of abwe live in a world where young people are hyper simulated. Thats not necessarily a new thing anymore. Theres the internet, social media, video games, youtube, all sorts of things to come i want to distract, but to engage young people. As a writer we have to figure out how to not fight against those things because we are going to lose that fight. Our job is to meet them where they are and create hyper assimilation even in the pages the book. You have to figure out how to tap into the psyche of young people and the best way to tap into the psyche is tap into the language. I think its the way we say things that determine how we engage with the kids around us. The way we say things will create the tether that brings about the trust that they have for the person that is speaking, especially if that person is an adult, most especially if that person is talking about something they normally would not be interested in. I was not a child interested in history, especially reading a history book, especially if that book reminded me anything of school or textbooks or class. My job was to subvert all those expectations to let them know that this not only can be cool but it can be written in a way that is familiar and conversational and still also has extraordinary bearing upon your life in terms of just making sure you have the information necessary to make this world a better place like so many young people actually want to do anyway. The history has to be spoken about in the conversation because ultimately thats what it is. Conversation is the volleying of back and forth of ideas. We pose an idea and you and i go back and forth flushing out with that idea is. Talking about if we agree or disagree, adding onto that idea. I think history should be the same way because its an ever evolving thing. The thing that happened happen but the danger and thinking of history as only the things that had happened is to put history and the things of the past in a vacuum, which can a note ab and the truth is, our present time is an conversation with the past. Our present time is also an conversation with the future. As a matter of fact, the past is an conversation with the future. There is this constant interplay between where we are today, where we are going, and where we been. And the volleying of ideas and the evolution of those ideas back and forth is basically ab if we are doing it right and living examined lives. Which is what we are encouraging. History living in a bubble is dangerous because what it allows us to believe is that there is no work to be done. It allows us to believe that what happened in the past s, stayed in the past, but we all know thats not true. Especially those of us living any sort of marginalized lives in this country. For me i want to bump the bubble, bus the bubble that history apparently lives in and say, its not that history lives in this bubble, history as perennial. Think of history as an ongoing training and any given time we are on that train in different cars but its being like we are on different trains and history is one train on the present as a separate train and the future is a separate train abwere all insane trains just different cars. History might be in the car behind us we might be in this car and maybe theres something in the car ahead of us but its still one singular train. Any part of that train goes down, all the train goes down. Its best we examine every civil part of the train to make sure the train keeps moving forward so we can determine whats the best way to get to whatever destination we are trying to get to. But to pretend like the back of the train doesnt exist is dangerous. If we actually want the train to function. We have to acknowledge that the engine, we have to acknowledge the caboose, we have to acknowledge every part of that train even if there are parts of the train that get a little mucky and clunky and ugly and oily, its still the train that we are on. Thats the way i look at this conversation. From the very beginning of the book i really was fascinated by gomez athis is a man whose name we do not hear, i had never heard before. It was a portuguese scribe who was the man responsible for telling the story of how the portuguese went into north africa, enslaved the north africans and told the story of how what made them different than the other European Countries enslaving people that made them different with the that they were doing it for specific reasons they were doing it to give the marsh people christianity and to save their souls and to civilize them. All the narrative that ended up becoming the main narrative of the enslavement of africans who came to america. I was fascinated by this person that because he was a part of the actual slave trade because he technically wasnt, he technically wasnt like boots on the ground. But what he was was the man who wrote the story and spun the story and peripherally to the narrative to other parts of europe where it would eventually become the narrative that would justify enslavement of millions of African People in north america. The reason i think its fascinating is because i work in literature, i tell stories, i recognize the power of media, the power of literature, the power of language, the power of story and how that story that he told set forth one of the most tragic and complicated systems that the world has ever seen. So what exactly is my role as a storyteller . And furthermore, what exactly is the power of the stowing retailer going forward. I also was fascinated by Thomas Jefferson. We all know the story of Thomas Jefferson, or at least we know to exhibit. To look at Thomas Jefferson as a man who was full of contradiction, a man who went back and forth between knowing that slavery was wrong but not being willing to stand on its ethic because of his need for money and understanding that slavery with abto see them teeter back and forth the entire life between doing the right thing and living the wrong thing between knowing slavery was wrong but owning slaves. He represents what i think a lot of us feel a lot of people, a lot of human beings. Not necessarily in the sense of the ownership of humans, of course not that. In the sense of grappling with ones morality up against the realities of a countrys economic system. All of those have a situation where do i do the thing that is right or do i do the thing that is prosperous. And can there be prosperity without ethics . If so, how dangerous is that . To see him do this dance was a fascinating thing. Actually what i will say is all the black women in the book, whether ida b wells, whether a athe great angela davis, i think there is something about the history of black women in america that has gone on the on song abi dont know if theres a more antiracist group are historically in this country then black women. Ethic its time to get there due. The reason we are all working so hard is that we believe just maybe theres a chance that things can change. I spoke to the great writer james nick gregory. He was quoting a writer and famous journalist Pete Hamill Brooklyn journalist pete hamill. He said hamill always said skepticism is healthy but cynicism is a very dangerous thing. When he said that to me, it struck me because i think hes right. Im skeptical, dont get me wrong, i am skeptical. And for good reason. My life, my familys lives, the lives of my friends, ive earned the right to be a bit skeptical but im not cynical, im not a cynic i believe that we can do better and that we will do better that we can change, furthermore, im around children all the time and when you are around young people like me eliminates the possibility of cynicism because young people remind you everything all day that they actually want the world to be a better place. In the midst of them being adolescent, in the midst of all the teenage shenanigans at the core of who they are is a generation of people fighting for equity they want the world to be fair. Almost to a fault. But its that nacve to say up against the irreverence of youth that actually might make something happen. They dont have the same scholar i have are that a lot of us have when you get past a certain age, they still believe the world can be good. They still believe human things can change and that we can see each other as each other and not as separate things. There is something about the young people, this new generation, this new crop coming up that energizes me, that sort of swells me with a certain kind of pride and excitement and i will do everything i can to fight on their behalf, to shut down all the naysayers who talk terribly about them added to stand beside them, not in front of them, to stand beside them to help guide them along their way and maybe even stand behind them to give a little nudge when they feel discouraged. And thats it. I talked to my mother the other day, she 75 years old. My mother was at the march on washington, all those years ago. And was a part of that movement and to hear my 75yearold mother say, i wont say a bad word about these kids, im proud of them for being in the street, im proud of them for raising their voices. And proud of them for screaming and shouting and making a mess of things. Thats the only way to change is for you to get in the way. I think what we would look at history its always young people, this is in tradition for all human relations. When i say revolution everybody gets scared and worried, it just means drastic change like time to take a hard left. I think all change has always come from young people, young people who dont have to worry about hangups and jobs and families and mortgages and this that and the third step is like im young, im ready to shake the table and i have the stamina that a 40yearold just doesnt have any more. There is something about that thats wonderful. Heres the thing that i think about more than anything is that we have to make sure, and they have to make sure and we have to make sure we help to guide and mold them a certain way because the internet, as powerful of a tool as it is, it is a powerful tool, theyve used it expertly but the internet will convince you that half love is whole love. It will convince you that action is pushing a few buttons or making an interesting statement, taking a few pictures and im not saying those things are in action im just saying thats not whole action. I think what i want young people to continue, they are doing it, what i want them contained in you to do is to make their presence known physically. To get clear, this is a dangerous thing to say because the issue with this is, how do we do this safely. How do we make sure. I think there are those of us like myself who have to show up and make sure they have and understand the necessary tools and the history of protests, make sure they have the necessary things. These are very real practical things. Is not all being led by emotion. Im talking about practical things for young people who want to make their voices heard. These are the completed conversations and the very sort of now conversations we need to be having with young people who are in the midst of protests. Necessary protests. I want to make sure they are not just led by adolescent emotion. And innocent and honest and raw emotion but also being led from a place of logic and a place of critical thought and analysis and they are not too young to have all those things. They contain multitudes and i believe that. We have to make sure we are spending them up at the information and the tools so they go out there and know how to handle themselves. The most creative thing, the most brilliant thing america ever made was america. That was sort of the fever pitch of creativity was the making of the country. What im hoping now is that we are on the precipice of another brilliant innovation and that innovation is going to basically be the reformation of a lot of our systems, the acknowledgment of a lot of our harms and wounds, this is a very different kind of ingenuity. And ingenuity that it takes the same kind of courage and fortitude and moxie that it took for america to be made in the first place, despite how complicated the making of the country was. Now we are at a place its like, how do we remake the country . How do we improve on the model . I think people are a little nervous about it but i think a lot of us are like, its time for the 400 year experiment to be edited. To be updated. First draft got us here, now its time for a rewrite. Its time for recast. That can be painful like anybody who writes novels for a living you know to cut out something is a painful thing when you love that part of the story. You loved that language you are able to come up with. You love the moment of genius you thought you had in that moment but then you look at it years later and realized it doesnt hold up. Doubts got to be stricken from the text edits, getting on painful but necessary to make the story the best version of itself. When i think of american ingenuity, im thinking now its time for an edit, a bold red mark to edit. The key is abthe kids are more than ready to insert their part of this narrative and put some edit marks of the page. History is an interesting thing because of the way we talk about history, engage with history and outside of ourselves, outside of our bodies. We intellectualize it. Memory is something that exists on the inside of our body. It literally is attached to our psyche, it affects the way that we move around the world on a daytoday, minute by minute, hour by hour basis. I can recall my childhood the teachings of my mother, things of that nature. Those teachings my mother scolding me at 14 years old, keeps me from doing things i know are wrong at 36 because its embedded in my body. Its linked in my coating. We talk about memory and we talk about a prime example especially with ais thinking about language. How do we change the conversation around language when it comes to race because the language attaches itself to our new memories, psyches and coding. Wendy stock think about something being not racist and start thinking about how we can be more antiracist, the simple shift in language changes the way that we move around the world. It changes the way that it engages people around us. Gives us a new language and with new language comes culture because language is the cornerstone of culture. We change language, we change culture. Thats the way it works. If we are being honest about it. We can change language and use that language to cheat. Language to either exclude or include. We can sort of manipulate language negatively but what we are asking is that we use this new vocabulary, this new lexicon to basically build upon a culture add shift it with the shifting of the language. Instead of saying like, im not racist, or i dont want to be racist, we abyou work to be antiracist so that you have to be active. Antiracism and the actions you make as a person striving for antiracism it attaches to your memory and then you move forward at every time you see something that doesnt feel right, goes against what you know to be racist, goes against what you know to be antiracist, your memory and your psyche will kick itself on and he will know that this requires an antiracist action. Action. Its no different than antibodies when it comes to viruses. Talk about this all the time. The reason we inject antibodies into the body, which is basically doled version of the active virus, is because we need your cells, you are productive cells in your body to recognize when the virus has come to activate themselves and attack the virus before it attacks you. What we are saying is, which means, the body has memory. Your cells will memorize what the antibodies, the doled version of the virus, it will memorize what that virus is so that when a live version of the virus comes and it will say, i recognize let me turn myself on and kill the virus. What we are saying is, what if you were to take in information in the same way. What if we change our language and dialogues and conversations and actions in the same way so that the moment that racism enters the body, its almost always abyou cant always see it. The moment that racism enters your space, enters your body, the antibodies of antiracism attack at because it remembers what it looks like what it sounds like, what it feels like, what smells like, it remembers it, it attacks it before turns you into something you do not want to be. Something to think about. Memory is very very very important. Its a different way to think about history. Its a way to think about history as something intrinsic, not just as a something that exists outside of ourselves. The racism of america is woven into the fibers of the country and i know we dont like to talk about it but racism is woven into the fibers in the code of america. Its woven into our system, our policies, our laws. Its much bigger than a you and me thing than a persontoperson thing, it exists on a macro level at a systemic level. That being said, you and i still have spots abilities to treat each other as human beings, in order to do that, one must strive to what antiracism, antiracism is not a place you can get to, its not a destination, no one will ever actually make it there. The point is, fight toward it, work toward it, continue to evolve there for the way that we look at it and study it and fight against it has to evolve with it, the language will continue to change, we will continue to learn. If we are on this process and journey to learn forever, then the world will be a better place. It literally comes down to that. If i can wake up every day and say i want to be more antiracist, i want to look at human beings because of who they are and what they are, and thats it nothing extra, no tags. They come from here and speak the language, but they are black, but they are brown, all the things, no im going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt so abthat means they deserve the right to life and freedom and liberty and the equity, all those things. I think we can do that everything will day then we will be all right but we gotta make sure we focus on the micro and the macro will. The micro is you and i everyday interactions but the macro is making sure we change our Government Systems and fight for that, fight to shift the system and the laws on the policies that have been written as racist from the onset and the history is what gives us the power to ab booktv in prime time starts now, first Eric Jay Dolin from the history of hurricanes that have impacted the United States and then npr maria you know how sub shares her thoughts on current immigration issues and her personal story as an american immigrant. Also tonight, donald trump junior offers his thoughts on what he calls liberal privilege former cia director john brennan talks about his life and career. Former second Lady Lynn Cheney chronicles the leadership of four of the first five president s who all hailed from the state of virginia. Find the complete Television Schedule at booktv. Org or consult your program guide. Now, a history of hurricanes that have hit the United States. Greetings everyone, we have the distinct pleasure of welcoming our two guests today, jack davis and the author of our lead book today Eric Jay Dolin. Author of a furious sky the fivehundredyear history of americas hurricanes. Its a timely