Host and executive producer of the podcast holding with ebony. Kay williams. She is the first black castmate of the real housewives of new york, and shes here tonight to speak about her book, but im black. The good news about being black America Today in, her book, ebony, will offer her thoughts on the importance of celebrating the black experience in america. She highlights representation, historical knowledge as bedrocks leading a first class black life. She will also reflect on her own life and experiences. So you will better get to know the ebony that youve seen on tv. Williams writing is at turns entertaining and incredibly inspiring. After finishing this book, youll be reawakened to your own worth and. Understand the value of celebrating blackness, whether yours or others, as williams said in her infamous tagline. Ive had to work twice as for half as much, but im coming for everything. And she wont be satisfied until our people have unfettered access to everything right alongside her . She boldly proclaims that blackness is single, most misunderstood construct in america. And im betting black. Williams invites you to join her on the quest to show the world blackness really is. And now further ado, please welcome Ebony Williams to the stage. Thank you much for that incredible introduction. Good evening. It is so amazing to see yalls friendly faces. This is my very book event for bet on black. The very good news. Thank. The very good news about being black in America Today. And i have to say, im really happy that were starting in Baltimore Charm city. I was last here spring of year for the north Atlantic Regional conference for a little known called Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, inc. I see some stories in the house tonight. Yeah, listen, i really want to spend this time with you over the next hour giving you what you most want of this evening, which i would think is access inside information going the cover of the book going behind my experience broadly. You know, we are here to talk about bet on black in this second day. Yes. Second day of black history month, 2023. And we will talk about the book. Im going to start with telling you why this book and why this moment. I think thats important to address. But ultimately, this is going to be around your questions and my ability to really answer them deeply and intimately and this evening, that sounds good. Okay, great. So i bet on black and why this moment. First of all, i study well if anybody saw anybody see view this week. Okay. Yeah. So then you know that i am a proud graduate of uncchapel hill. Shout out to the tar heels and im a proud graduate with a major in black american studies and. As i said directly to the of florida who has decided to make it make it his business to really try to erase and annihilate and destroy the academic value and integrate of studying blackness in america. My god, this just could not a more precise right moment for this book. I have to say i did not anticipate running up in to this this horror that we find ourselves as a nation in this moment. I started off writing this book, but my god im certainly glad that i have created this curriculum a lot of ways on the back of bed on black, most you probably have your books already. Of course you buy them tonight. If you dont, ill sign them and well take some pictures. But at the back of this book, it was important me to include a resource guide because. What youre going to get in the pages of bet on black art, deep thoughts and conversation starters. But i really want you to go deeper. You know, this is not about accepting. I say everything i believe as you know, the start and end of these conversations. This is about taking my on black moves which are tangential blueprint, like steps to navigate what is to be a black person in America Today. But to take those nuggets, yall, and go deeper and go on your own journey or continue, im sure most of you have already long ago started this journey, but go deeper in your own personal journey of exploring and really redefining what your blackness is for yourself and for for those around. What i found is blackness is probably single, most misunderstood concept product in America Today. And again, to reference the florida governor, i was triggered behind backstage. I was watching the view before my segment and they played a clip of ron desantis saying that he was eradicating studies studies in the state of florida at the Higher Education level because he was he didnt want to be this zombie studies. The man said zombie studies. Yeah so if thats not demonizing blackness, if thats not an overt its not even thinly veiled at this point. Yall its over out in the open they play it in our face attempt to illegitimacy it legitimize what it is to be black and educated and qualified. And thats what we are in this nation. And thats why i wrote this book and i wanted to write right now because especially in the peak of coming, i cant even say on the heels off, brother Terry Nichols was just murdered, you know, weeks ago, as we put him to rest, just yesterday. So as we are still very much in the midst of trying to reckon and i have to say trying to reckon with what it is to be attacked daily in our homeland. And this is our homeland. I really did not want the moment to pass us, didnt want it to feel like brother floyd was murdered. We march, we protested. There was some level legislation and i have to say small level because the George Floyd Justice and police act is still outstanding and we have to get that done. And now were going to put a bow on it and we blackness next. We cant do it. I wont do it. So this book again is to make sure that in 2023 and beyond we keep these conversations top of my we keep the curiosity there, we keep the pressure and we do need to put some pressure. One of the things i say in the book all is we to be a bit more demanding as a people. I start chapter in the book. Youll with a historical quote of some sort. Some go as far back as frederick. Theres a lot of Frederick Douglass theres lot of James Baldwin, some contemporaries like denzel washington. I quote him with saying ease is a greater threat to greatness than hardship, ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship. And thats the chapter. And i go into that. But when i say we have to be more demanding as a black people in our nation and it is our nation im quoting Frederick Douglass, who says, power concedes nothing without a demand, and it never did and it never will. And off the heels of that assertion, which i know to be true, ive lived it and i know everybody in here it to be true because yall live it every day less demand, more. You know, if we really expect change in power structures and Systemic Systems and processes that work to subordinate our existence, to maintain us. And as a second very class of being a secondary class, being in our own country, it has to start with us demanding it, not asking it, not negotiating about it, demanding it. So thats a little bit about why i wrote book. Thats a little bit about why wrote the book right now. And now id like to open this up really, truly all for your questions. And again, dont feel like its got to come from the pages of the book, the books, but out just two days. I dont expect to have read the entire thing or any of it at all. Feel free to ask me about the view could add. I hosted the Breakfast Club the past two days, which was a lot of fun and also important work and an important space for the culture. You feel free to ask about anything, including many around that. You know, and just anything that you want to talk about in the culture, in the news headlines, whats going on with some of this legislation, whats going with the law, whats going on with social justice, any of it . And i will take your questions. And there are microphones. Thank you, my dear. Go ahead and make your way and yall can feel free because we want to keep it moving. Weve got some visitors here recording. Weve got some virtual as well. Shout out to yall in virtual please line if you will ask your questions and well do it that way. Yes, dear. Whats your name . Jamila. Hi, jamila hello, heavenly. Thank you so much for just even stating really quickly here. How being and black in america is a and i know im experiencing that in my own place of work im an educator and so i really do plan on taking your and hopefully adapting some ways for the children. Well yesterday you know the first africanamerican governor less moore was not out to and that. He stated in his speech that the word service was direct glee as a latin word. For in latin it means slavery. And he talked about basically this service is the only way that we are ever going to come up. And i know this to be the fact, but when we tie this into the government and we hear this language, what are some of your thoughts on, you know, making servant worker ship and, you know, a way of being in maryland so much so that it might even replace educators are qualified because were using mentors of teachers in the. Thats profound. Yes. So Servant Leadership is a value im sure that we all share. But i think whats important in what youre is that we dont ever want to get to a place where we are erasing and undermine, meaning the value of our educators. I mean, right. Like when i think about the aspects of liberation of people in america, we, which is really what this book is about bet on black is nothing if its not a an overt effort on my part and an invitation to all of to continue the of fully liberating and re humanizing black people in america. Because i suggest work has never been fully done. So if we start with that premise right. It going back to Douglass Douglass before became the great emancipator matter. Does anybody know what frederick was so little bit of a trick question. How he was a reader. He learned to read. He tricked his masters white son to teach him the alphabet. I bet you spell cat. The white boy would say its cat. Okay, well noted. Literally. This is how an enslaved piece of property chattel learned to read and pre emancipated america to socalled emancipated america when it was against the law and punishable by up to death. Thats how threatening an educated black person is in this country because an educated person is a black person who is not inclined to submit in a perpetual state of servitude. So i think this is really provocative. Ive never really unpacked this until moment, but i love it because what is sold to us as a bill goods of the kind of vote you wisdom that comes through service, and god knows i make a service to all mankind. Azikiwe absolutely. And that does not have to shall not be the end our position. So to me i think my short answer to you, if i can make it succinct, its about our positioning as black people in america not shrinking it, not reducing it. I think the effort since weve arrived on the shores since 1619 has been to exclude our positioning. Is that solely up servitude. But now the good news about black in America Today so we get to to to sit in full expansion and if we choose fast to to be the space in which we lead primarily amazing. And if we choose it to be academia and if we choose it to be executive, including the presidency of the United States, if we included to be judicious leadership. Shout out to the fantastic, historic and tangible down jackson on the Supreme Court of the United States of america. If we choose it to be. Ownership in business, ownership and finance ownership in land and property and real estate is something that is very germane to our liberation. Black people. You cannot be free if you dont anything. You can not be free if you dont own anything. Open chapter six. I think its called leverage with that statement. So i think its about rejecting anything that confines kind our positioning to one of servitude which can look like subordination and challenging systems and individuals and each other to expand. Thank you. Brilliant. Hello, darling. Hello. Your name, day journey. Day journey. You had. I like your. Is this pearls analyzed . Your jacket. Uh, i dont know what it is. I just thought it was cute. Its dazzling. Its giving thanks. Go to. My question was why bet on like when you were thinking of the title, what made you finally decide on that . Yeah, thats great. So let me start with my process of this book. I wrote a book in small imprint. It was released back in 2017 called pretty powerful appearance and success. And its a great book, very, you know, colorful glowing. But it was a very different process. So i knew at some point i into a place professionally and frankly just in my lived experience. You know ill be 40 in september. Which you know yeah i mean its obviously still relatively young but its also like you a little ive lived a little now like for real been through some things seasoned. Thank you, sis and so i. I felt, frankly, a responsibility, especially with the platforms i occupy right. Not everybody. The privilege of being on the Breakfast Club. Not everybody has the privilege of being on a bravo platform that has global reach as a first historic black housewife in the city of new york. Not everybody gets to be on the view and just, hey, whoopi, you know, so when you get that platform, i believe i have it in here responsible party to do work on the platform. So i knew i needed to write another book come on get to your question. I didnt really know how to it. So like probably most of yall in here my phone and my little memos, my little note section, that is my best friend. So literally yall for like a year and a half, i would just if i had a if i felt moved by something, i would just make a note almost do wish. I bought my phone so you guys could see just the litany and the variation where my mind was for the two years and then when i started putting everything, the piece about ownership the piece. I had the blessed experience to go to rwanda last year last spring and somebody said, you know, i didnt fully confess ignorance here. I knew very little about the genocide in rwanda, where you know, a Million People were slaughtered uttered by one another. I in 90 days and the whoopsy in the two sioux. And they killed each other. And it was awful. And then now today not i think theyre only 26 years past it. Not very far. Its illegal to even ask the distinctive if someone is a hutu or a tutsi and they abide by it and they live side by side where one generation ago your grandmother murdered, my mother, or vice versa. And so my cohort, i were like, its amazing that ill do this. But frankly why . Why you so to sit in with one another after such brutality. And that man said to me, because it is in the best interest of rwanda. And i said, thats thats amazing. I said, what if our what if america what if america said that are going to disavow antiblackness, the antisemitism, the homophobia, the transphobia, the islamic phobia, but for no other that its in the best interest of america. Right. Its amazing. And so some of those were the things. So i put it all together. That was the through line of my thinking globally, locally, politically financially, like when i looked at all the academically personally professor, really, when i looked at all the elements and i was like, what is the common factor here . It is an innate, consistent, unapologetic, unmovable, nonnegotiable betting on the blackness, and particularly nowhere in the world and ive had some decent travels. Nowhere in the world is it more important us to have a finite, clear and accurate of blackness than in the United States of america. Because is one of the most perverted elements of identity on. This land in anything else. Msa with you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On paying here. Hello. My name is steve. My question to you is, what was your experience like being the first black on the housewives of new york . What that experience like and being in that kind of space with those women that have not been around black people and that close proximity of that mix. Yeah, well, certainly not ones werent operating in servitude. Right . Right. So i detail it in Chapter Three because i know that that is germane to the expectation of someone occupying my platform to address it directly. And trust me, i do. The chapter is called disruption apropos. And what do want to share this with you . I did not go on to contrary to popular and contrary to kind of public afterthought. I didnt go on the show. I didnt go on the platform to disrupt my disruption became, a byproduct of hostility that i endured not told oddly unexpectedly because i was a day, one season, one episode one rhony watcher. Unlike many in the culture, but i, i was so i knew a bit but i kind of didnt believe. Remember i was cast right before the racial reckonings of brother floyd summer of 2020. And i guess even i even i had a little of naive going on what i really thought. She shall not be named. And the. One would italys in that moment where it seemed like even the most narrow minded couple sheltered unaware or among us were curious. And what i couldnt believe as that these women werent curious around my experience was like in the same city that they live in as a black woman. And here is where you know, not just bravo, but all of these like reality tv shows try to control for this. Well, what if we make a really pretty what if we make her a little bit light skinned . What we make her really educated and really well dressed. A birkin just like them. And it didnt help all. And it didnt help all. And that by my understanding of blackness being the single most misunderstood in america, because matter the window dressing nomad, somebody said this recently, you cant accomplish your way out of misconceptions. Willful misconceptions of blackness. You cant earn your way out of it. You cant i mean, shout out to meghan markle, who learned the hard way. You cant even white proximate yourself out of it. Yeah, yeah. So what the experience like. It started off as an expose one of curiosity and frankly i just want to get to my what . Like why would i a woman with my positioning do a show like that . Its very simple. The work that i do in the way that i do it, yall are the if you think about it, yall showed up on a thursday night to a library. God bless you. I mean, there were my whole heart. But what that tells me is that youre hungry for the engagement. Youre hungry for the knowledge, youre hungry for the how, the why. Youre excited about the possibility our nation reaching at least the tip, its promise to humanity and equality for all. And you the great exception. So the work that i do is not for the masses. The work that i do is is is kind of niche its its got a cult following of sorts. And unfortunately my for our nation this this small incredible niche wont be enough to implement change that i want to see for nation its got to be more global its got be more widespread. Right. And so where are the people that i want to reach . Theyre watching housewives. Thats, you know, i mean, like its because people are like. Oh, well, youre great on the view. Yeah, i know. I know. I know that. Love the view. I love being at that table. Well, you were great on cable news. I killed it on cnn, msnbc. That audience is already plugged in. That is already engaged. This work in some way, shape, form, fashion. I need to reach that are sitting around watching love and hip, but i cant wrap show shout out to the great jeremy mob but thats my friend so my only my only access that audience that world that would rather tune of this work to the peril of our nation and their own humanity was to get on. So thats why i did the show. So i entered the platform with that intention and that curiosity and just a wonder i didnt know how was going to go, yall. I thought frankly, i didnt know they were going to be so cheap. I didnt think my cash trip going to be salem, massachusetts. I thought id have a little fun to have some glamor, but none of that happened. Thats okay. But when i ran up against the hostility, when i ran up against the full stop, we arent even going to try make the tiniest bit of space for this incredible black woman. Thats when it became a protest and thats what i write about in chapter. What started as an open minded, open experience turned into a full out protest because what you will and thats when douglass shows up right. You those women for a lot of reasons and i do want to be full scoped here that those my fellow cast mates held all the power. Why, yes. Yes. Also longevity on the show also. Low tenure in age and capacity so they were the power holders. I get that. I even had some level of deference to that upon the first few episodes of taping. But once you show me youre willing to negotiate with me around creating space for me i lived experience as a real of new york city who happens be the historic first black woman cast in the space. Now we have to go to war. Now i have to be demanding of space and my occupancy, my positioning, and i will not play your black sidekick. I will not do it. I will not do what the Kelly Kapowski lisa turtle days are done. Theyre done as much as they expected to default to that subordinate position of sidekick because thats what generations of us have had to do in predominantly white spaces. Thats exactly what im not going to do. And thats back to the good news about being black in America Today, because who came before me were because Hattie Mcdaniel was sidekick. I gave main energy and is that clean for me . And thats thats the importance of knowing your history. Thats the like i can name the names. You cant play with me when it comes to who i am as a black in this nation, because i know what, i know, actually, i know more about your history as a white woman in america than could ever know about your own. So you cant tell me anything. Blackness, because i know it. And thats why the first chapter of the book is called accuracy. To start this work, we have to start from an accurate premise. And thats what the census doesnt want. Hence the undoing. I ask your question. Yeah. Hello. Hi. My name. Names temple. Temple. I kind of have a two part question for one, if you could say in about one or two sentences was the main message that you want people to take from your book and to you talk about how you use your platform in specific ways, get the goals that you want to reach. So in future, how do you plan on continuing when to use your platform as you grow . Okay, whats part one . The the book is a reframing everything that we James Baldwin said, spent a long time having to throw up everything that was fed to him about who he was as a black man and who he was as a queer black man in america. Bet on black good news about being black in America Today is to help with your regurgitation. I wrote this book to help some of us who have to throw up some things that fed to us from infancy, some in classrooms some in our own homes, some on playgrounds, some on college campuses, some in the workplace. Right. So bet on black is a regurgitation and then it is also a meal a big main sides and dessert bread its a meal. I wrote this book to feed us about accuracy and actuality of cache, our panache our brilliance, our vulnerability, our strength, our trauma and our truth. Thats what the book is. Part two how do i intend to my platform and really spiritual gifts . Im a believer and i believe god has given me certain spiritual gifts to permeate spaces that were not designed, me or us, and i believe of myself, be a bit of a trojan horse in way. So i plan to continue to be where im not wanted and make change. And i cant tell you how because that would spoil it. But its coming. Thank you. Hello, dear. Hello, ms. Williams. My name is brian berrys. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet. My question is, in what way could we as black people ask for more . I know you alluded that earlier in the segment. So i just wanted to know what your idea was on that. Yes. So is it in big ways . In small ways, brian, im gonna give you an example. Lets go sound petty but its im serious. I dont move on sidewalks. Oh, i dont know we dont get sloppy all laugh because you know exactly im talking about im not moving on the sidewalk, maam. You see me i see you. Time for for difference in that space, the time there was actual statute, there were quired me to step off the sidewalk. That required me to not make eye contact with you because. That was the assignment of my positioning as a black person in america. That statute is expired, maam. Its sir. You see me . See you. If you dont move were colliding. So thats just one way. Like, i just i just insist upon it. Im just going to take the space and then theres all the way guys see on tv like yesterday the view you know i you know they theres an expectation and by the way, those ladies are wonderful. Those producers fantastic. Im a friend to the show now. I dont know that i could have gotten away with that on episode one, but if you saw the episode, youll see me. She asked me a question in the normal format of any talk show is that you get a question and you give an answer. The person that asked you the question. But thank says i needed to do than that that particular day at the table. So i literally produce my own self. I was like, well, im sorry, wheres your camera . Ron desantis let me . Let me, let me let you know a few things that you dont know or want to act like you dont know. So thats kind of just a, im going to demand to be fully centered and maximize. Yes, i got 4 minutes on air. Here go. Yeah. So just i guess i would say its a lot about you just deciding and again, big way small. We dont have to be every day. Everybody will have to be loud on tv or is insistent is on tv. But just by figure out what it is for you and then decide it and then act on it and and divorce. If this does require few things because im talking, you know, real big and it sounds like a lot of bravado before you can do any. It is big nor you have to divorce yourself from white comfort. You have to divorce yourself from the broader consensus of. Black approval almost out one just one more time. Youve also got divorce yourself from the broader consensus of black approval cause sometimes it be your own people right. So housewives, for example. I did what i did because. Thats what i needed to do for my god. Thats a thats a god assignment. I was i had a lot of us the Comment Section she didnt the assignment she cant the mood she ruined my good time maam maam, im not here and placed in this positioning for your good time. Im here for the broader liberation of my people, maam. Im actually here for the broader liberation. You, although you dont even know it. So those are some the ways. So you got to divorce yourself from the white comfort. You got to divorce yourself from the broader black consensus and approval. You let them with their comfort or discomfort and you do you. Thats it. All right. Thank you. Whats up, love . How you doing, ms. Williams my name is robin smith and im from morgan state. Excellent. I have. I was. Morgans in the building. I have a yeah, i have a two part question about education and are police reform. Yes my first question is, do you think memphis indicting the first black i mean, indicting the five memphis black officers so quickly was with for accountability within the Police Department and setting the bar or was selfimposed. I think two things can be true at the same time. So thats this one. Lets just like really honest and look at the elements. You got a black city in memphis so that theres that youve got a black female police chief new to role theres that and make no mistakes about it policing is politics policing is politics then youve got five officers who killed a man a black man. Theyre all black. So now some things become easier, right . Some things now become easier to do. Those five black officers is as horrific and inhumane as their behavior was. They dont get the usual we see with the Derek Chauvin because they dont get the protection of whiteness. So their quick apprehension, their quick indictment, their quick all happens more swiftly because they dont have that extra layer. Oprah now they got some blue protection because they are law enforcement, but aint got their white protection. So it does more quickly. Ill tell you this, baldwin says, ryan, just kept his soul, but god, lee baldwin says, if you have to call the police on me, he says, i dont want you to the police on me. Let me be clear. Please dont do that. But if youre going to please call the white ones. Thats what he said. Because if you call them black ones, theyre going to do as n. W. A. Would say, show out. So yall, we noticed if you know your accuracy and thats why we start the book that way your question letter. Yeah. So to education desantis is doubling down on his ban on africanamericans. Do you think its the history that theyre theyre trying to protect or Critical Thinking from the black community . I think its absolutely the history is the Critical Thinking. Theyre also trying prevent the shifting positioning. Right. Its a stay in your place. I mean, we need to just say it. I think like that. The first thing is, who do you think you are who do you think you are advance placement like lets talk about it like really, really were talking about here advanced placement history all know what ap classes are here year thursday night the library so yall. Yeah we already know situation most people dont know what that is, right . Thats an advanced placement high School Secondary class work that equates you for college credit. So now youre already literally going into collegiate experience on a whole different academic trajectory, a pre professional trajectory on a different level and. What do those classes historically look like . Because i mean, im old. Ap, european history, ap western ap this that asian studies. I even we even had ap womens. So you mean to tell me that we could have a because because now we about the kind of like intra humanities and will legitimize the study of women as we should and we want to in the same breath de that of blackness. Its an overt attempt to tell , stay in your place, dont get beside yourself. Because if we start letting happen, what is possible and i do think a lot of this is a reaction to the audacity of our nation electing barack obama. I really do. I really think there was a deep threat lodged at the twice election of a black man in america, even a biracial one again, because i talk about colorism in book, im not scared and nothing because we talk about we got to right. We cant talk about right we cant talk the fact that some of the greatest change makers in black america have enormous white proximity, most of them are biracial. We cant talk about that. So kamala harris, love you sis, are you in that . But for your white proximity and the innate comfort you, allow White America to feel. Am i a on new york . But for mine we have to be honest, yall and when were honest about that now we can really work strategically. Did you have a third part to your question . Okay. You touched on colorism. Oh, lets do it within the franchise of housewives of anywhere such as potomac. And so in colorism has been a huge topic because wendy okafor, shes of brown skin. Yeah wendy also i knew wendy she housewives right sweet yeah so shes dealing aggression and being called when shes asserting herself in a situation where she feels like she has to defend herself. But it feels like the women of the lighter get the pass because they feel more threatened because. It comes off as more brown skin or darker skin. People are more aggressive and light skinned people are more passive. So what you just describe is as old as matthews day as my. Would say nothing ever bad must be gone. It must be gone. It is is a construct as old as because its the same exact construct construct rather of basic white supremacy. Were moving the spectrum. Thats all were doing. Dont get its just like you talk about fives five officers love the work of the oppressor, the work of whites is not exclusively done by white people. Absolutely. You know what i mean . So what we see play out in that scenario, whether aware or not, because i dont know the votes women like that would i do know is i see in real time the few times i have watched it because its to watch. Right . Theres the vicarious pain no matter where you fall personally on the color spectrum, there is something traumatizing about watching us do that to one another. For, you know, shake is darker because it gets worse. Because it gets worse and because you suffer under the delusion like a lot talk about this in the book, you suffer under the of white proximate one at times and those like me included that that proximity is a permanent condition when we all know its a condition. And so all that means is and i talk about this is, you know, i do this with my work on with black and jewish relations. Im very specific when i talk about american as white presenting jewish people. Just got white like in the in america. No, thats thats fact. Thats very true. So when you really know the real situation, when you look at these, you know, like skinned, proximate black. I am from louisiana, a originally southeast louisiana. There was a whole caste system of creole folks of color that were allowed similar to what you have in south africa, where you have an intermediate class, where we allow you certain privileges, but others you can be treated better than the normal blacks, but certainly never as good as the whites. And why do they allow is the same reason white presenting are now some level of white identity. Its numbers if they need them with the population shift, they wouldnt have them. Yes. So that thats all i can tell you is i had these conversations authentically with my friends that are still confused about light skinned privilege and the ness of it and the way it shifts depending on where you in the world or the country or the city you know whatever light skinned, privileged someone like me might have in a place like north, trust me. Go to opelousas, louisiana youre going to get treated real, real quick. And when you and i say that, but in jest, but not in jest, because it shows you the feebleness, the fragility of humanity. So when you really, really sit with that, my hope is that that becomes the invitation to better thank you. Thank great questions. Yes. Look, my name is jordan and, also from morgan as well. All right. So for me, i love it. I love the i love yall are my favorite people to talk to. I love the college mind. So my question isnt really about politics. Its more of as educated black woman. What something you would tell us morgan students that are here like whats our focus on want to use our abilities at the best of at best way that we can and to also bet our community with it. Well, i actually think those of you coming out of morgan and most of the hbo skews are at a large advantage. But i also want to talk about some of what want you to expect when you leave the beautiful kind of mecca that is established on a black campus. So what you get to see every day is what a world would look like if expectations. People that look like us were high. That is the expectation everybody, every doctor, soandso, soandso, they all look like us. The you know, the buildings are named people that look like us. There is a theres a normalcy to blackness as we know it be as we know it to actually be. And then you walk outside the gates of these elite black that again, were to me really the entry points of black liberation all the way tuskegee like you know yall know, right . And then you walk into an america of today that broadly speaking, treats yall and us. The exception. So that would be my advice. My advice is soak it up, soak it up, sop it up like a biscuit. See if you can store it. Im very serious. Youre going to need it. Youre going to be. I had the blessed opportunity to give commencement at Benedict College last spring to their graduates, a small historically college in columbia, south carolina. And my speech was about them being qualified because theyre going to leave School Feeling qualified. They got their bachelors or a masters or a ph. D. And, you know, dr. And they hood it and they ski tweed and hopped all across the stage and graduate and it was amazing. And theyre going to come into a world where predominant they will be presumed to be unqualified died for no other reason than their blackness. So that would be my advice is to to to remember who you are remember who morgan has you to be as educated, confident qualified black man to do any all things your gift can be of service to to you and those around you and handle it. Handle it just you guys remember who you are, brah. Thank you. Hi. Hello, ms. Williams im another student from Morgan State University. Right . Name is jeffrey white. Hi, jeff i a question that i had for was, as a black woman with a large social platform trying to make change in a way that most people dont want, how did you deal with, i guess, some of the negative energy you received on the things that you were doing . Yeah, thats honest. I write about this, the book as well. You know, listen, they say dont read the comments section. You try not to, but every now and then you get suckered into it. It hurts more for my own people. It hurts much more for my own people. I talked about this on Breakfast Club while i was filming ronnie. I was taken aback by. The criticism from those who looked like me, those who felt vicarious. I think they felt vicarious shame because they saw a reflection of they choose not to do at work. What they choose to ignore what they choose to accommodate, what they choose to cosign in terms of their own subordinate option. And how dare i hold up a mirror to that coconspirator ship to your own and up their tv watching that. That was painful. So ill tell you the truth about what i did and also in the book, of course, Chapter Three, i had two therapies all at the same time. So ive always been a proponent of Mental Health and therapy, and thats just, you know, my gym. But im also a businesswoman. So im now going to do is set up in my therapist. They out of my pocket and my whole hour around rony trauma so do do do do do nbcu peacock yeah you know this is this is this and given this, this is really, really traumatic for me you all did a horrific of curating a safe environment for me emotionally and clearly, as youve probably read from the press, from the other black people, they even worked on that set so many jobs to come out of pocket and hire me a supplemental Mental Health specialist on your dime to help me deal with just the rona of it all. So that was my therapy for it. Thank you. I love you. Great my name is mac garvin. Mackenzie. People call me mac just for context. Ill tell you a little bit about myself. I am a lawyer and i am the chief of staff of the Mayors Office of employment development. And i am also a model, a local fashion influencer. So i wrote down my question. People find that to be a very strange dichotomy. There are many scholarly articles about intersection ality and about the unique obstacles faced as being a black woman in a position of leadership. And i know that you stated earlier that youve evolved since your last pretty powerful, but do you still hold the belief that being pretty comes at the expense being taken seriously and that being pretty and being capable are mutually exclusive. So actually, have you read pretty powerful . I havent. Okay. So your quote is right. It misses the first part. Okay. Pretty rejects the notions that i then everything you just said and so can you talk about how beauty i think everyone can agree youre beautiful has impacted your leadership and can you give any advice to the women here who want to express their esthetic who want to express their gender identity . Yes. But also want to be in positions of leadership. Absolutely. But first of all, literally, that is pretty powerful. Truly, truly encourage you with your positioning and dualities to read. I think youll find it very valuable, pretty as a passport. Pretty is a passport. It gets people like to be around pretty. The data supports that pretty pretty women get higher more taller men get hired more they make more. Thats what it is. But i live in a oh, because youre tall. Okay. Okay. Thats very so thats what i mean when i say pretty as a passport, it gets you into a space generally itll never keep you there though. And in pretty much like any other privilege makes you an immediate threat to those around you so what becomes challenging is the navigation of the pretty power and it is and im just pretty just a euphemism i dont have to be a anybody aint got to be halle berry it could like say it could be tall, honest, it could be complex. And we all know everybody likes game person. Im pretty so. You know whatever you know it could be whatever it whatever thing you possess that Greater Society deemed to be of higher value than those around you whatever that is, that becomes a passport of entry. Now your ability to maintain it and maximize it. I do think is largely up to you. How do you play it how do you play your hand for me . I always maximum benefit of the privilege and the access, but then i also knew mac, the presumption of someone that looks, like me being in the space i know took you got let me just be real real with you you need to know what people think of you based off of your esthetic you cannot play this game called life being at all about those narratives. So you need to okay im a walking theyre going to look theyre going to see oh, shes skinny oh, shes beautiful. Oh well she models on the side. So i mean, she cant really be right in her brief like posed to all that. I mean, she cant really be taken dead, but whatever, you know. And then that, that then you can combat it. So because i knew this started in law school, this started me arguing on two moot court teams. I talk about this in the book. You know, they thought that i was playing because i because im fly i dress like i good. Thats what it is always have borne pretty gon die pretty okay im look im not Walking Around looking to mess for you and just kind of be feel silly, but but kind a real and yet because i knew that i knew my had to be exceptional it wasnt even going to be good enough for me to just be a good student mac i had to be would. I became, which was one of the first black women to lead loyolas National Moot Court team. And i led us to a championship. I had, i had to go. I mean, im im going to be the keynote at our boss in week. You know, i had to i have to i have to be the black woman on the beat like have to kill it at a different level. And one could argue i should operating at that level right. I think because if if not whats all the the pretty whats what is the for if im not going to convert it, i keep we are coming up on super bowl ill give you a quick football reference. Anybody can look up on a turnover anybody could up on a fumble and catch. Can you convert can you put the points on the. Because if you put six on the board or seven, dont worry about it. Thank you. Hi. I just absolutely love you. I guess like everyone in this room i have following you since the news, the podcast just the podcast just holding court. I love your instagram. Just everything. Everything. Thank you. I bought my book yesterday. If i see youve been waiting. Have up everything. If i wasnt too so tired would have been. Finish is so good. What do you think so far . To piggyback off of what you were just even saying in my blackness im the complete and total because the blood of harriet runs through my veins and every other black person in here and i dont specifically have a question but i just want to thank thank you thank you for being on a legitimately i use this living in and expressing your blackness in every arena you show up in. Thank you and as far as the book. Yes, i would. As far as the book, i just love that you have given these been on black moves. Moves. Yeah. Because just one that resonated with me so far is always i mean always expand your and thats it in a nutshell i mean like you say were here the library so apparently you know, we love to expand our consciousness but that is just it. Yeah its like you know you have to be aware of who you are, who you are and show up as authentically. Yeah. All day, day. And then the other was i lost my place. But it was about just creating rituals. Yeah, blackness and in different arenas, just especially all these students. My son is graduate in may for Morgan State University to see. His name is jabari thompson. Hes graduating from the strategic program. Excellent. So anyway, but my husband, michael thompson, i we intentionally yeah. Taught our parents i mean his name is jabari thats it. And hes and swahili we intentionally gave the name we intentionally had the books we interned we had to develop things around their blackness they had rights of rites of passage not rites of passage program. You know they went through a rites of passage. My daughter also at 13, we had to search for this. Yeah. You know, didnt live in africa, but we read and took them through a program because wanted to continue to seek the consciousness. I want to speak to that specifically because. That is yall you again yall probably are doing. This because youre on target but you you know im really you must especially my mother did the same thing i talk about it length in the book. You know it was always black dolls of all white and picked up a white. She whip. Yes. Just. And then like again, funny enough, but like doll test, like, you know. But yall probably know what the doll test is, right . That theres a reason that even black children gravitate towards white dolls because the around whiteness is so powerfully pure and good and wholesome. Thank you says and the narratives around blackness are so what bad, dumb, fast, easy, violent. And so the work that you and your husband have done in are continuing do. Its not to me not optional, especially when you keep up this and to say it isnt the only one please know that this is happening at local and state and has been for years. So when you know you cant trust any i think kind of system is white centric which are all systems essentially right that are external for sure. Malcolm says only a fool would let his oppressor teachers children you know and dont get me wrong you know go to school soak it up but i think its its mandatory in todays america mandatory because we have the access and we live in the internet age. To me, theres no excuses to create and enforce a supplemental curriculum that centers blackness. My mother did the same thing. And that is part of i know thats why i am i am. And this part of me ive been since i was seven. Like you, could not tell me anything about being little black girl named ebony to your point and people to teach you dont look like ebony well that would that would depend on what think an ebony looks like tell me talk to me you know my ability to challenge people their ms. Assignments blackness started early because i had an accurate understanding because of that work that yall are talking about so thats very important thank you thank you. Yes, sir. You doing . Hi, miss ebony. Where do you go to school . Im just playing. Go ahead. You would never guess so. Yes, im, you know. So my question was hearing you talk about, like, how much that you hope this book to achieve, how far do you hope for it to reach and like do you hope that this has like a long term footprint in liberation, 1,000 overall . Ill be tangible. I this book to change lives i this book to be mandatory reading in schools. I want this book to be mandatory readings in high colleges. I want i want to do a ive already talked to my publisher. We want to do who is a black woman . Shout out to christian trotman of the very few black women leading in a Top Five International publishing house. Her imprint is called legacy lit. I want this book to have legacy, dear. I want to do a young adult version. I want to do a childrens version that just takes the same beat on black moves, the same concepts, the same supplemental curriculum that we outline and apply it. For 5 to 10, 12 to 17. And then the people can read the big one. Yeah. Thats, thats, thats my hope and reach. Global global and after bet on black young edition and childrens. I want to do the good news about being black in the world today. I intentionally and because we were on the fence because, you know, like i said, ive gotten the privilege to do some global travel, seen what it is to be, you know, at a really interesting in rwanda because in rwanda when i was telling these beautiful young black who lived in an orphanage, they are literally still orphaned from the genocide that tunneys beautiful little black girls. How important it was for me as a black woman to do this work and they sort giggling because, they watch, i laugh in it and i said, you said, youre black. Thats funny. Mm hmm. And i had to sit with that because, again, in my 40 years, i dont know anything but being a black woman. But we know their race is a social right. So in their social norm. I was outside of their construction of blackness. And that really effort me to be honest it really challenged me. And then when i was headed home from rwanda, i had a pit stop in turkey, in istanbul and they were kind of like just i just blended in there was, you know, almost like i was a local. And then when i got to jfk was real black as ebony again. And, you know welcome home,. And thats in a day. Thats 24 hours of an entire racial arc in a day. I really want to get into black in the world. Thank. Thank you. I love am the Vice President of the black girl club. I have a question. Is. Thank you. Im so glad youre here. Thank you so much for supporting the my daughter is a freshman at morgan. Yeah. You dont even look like you are old to have no daughter. Thats a freshman. Okay. Amazing. So i have a question. No one that you will want a real housewives new york. I am a new york native, but i pay taxes and i pay taxes. Baltimore. How would you encourage sisterhood in a black community . You dealt with the other, you know. Yeah. How would you encourage that. Ill speak to it directly. I in chapter four. Yeah. Chapter four, which is council. So these notions that pit us against each other as women speak to that specifically. And we get we know we get that honest. It comes from the same place that pits us against one another as black people. It comes from a space of scarcity thinking. It comes from a place of theres not room. So if you adopt a which is what did a number on us in chattel slavery that was the only room for one, maybe one or two of you can get trained in shoemaking. One or two of you can get brought to the house to cook and you want you special. But those notions are on their face, antiblack. And i say plainly in the book, we bought our cellular nature is black. People are communal people. We are communal at our core. So these are these kind of socially functions of isolation and know crab and bread, whatever we want to call it, being out just only for yourself and know that theyre only going to promote to black people this year. So you know what . You to do. You know, theres only been so many black men available since, you know you got to do. Theyre scarcity notions and guess what the best part is . Theyre lies. Theyre lies is also a7 abundant god, he told me theres plenty. Thats how i function. So my spirit of sisterhood, whether its through a. K. A or whether its through, you know, im not a member of them, but i do lot of work with the junior league, whether its through, i mentor with girl scouts, whatever it is. Sisterhood and community. For me are essential because i believe theres enough. I believe theres plenty. And i believe that im not even i believe you. All my lived experience now tells im a better woman, im a better black person, im a better a. K. A. I know im going to be a better mother as i go on my ivf journey fall. Its true. Im a better teacher and a better student and know that still, both because the women who surround me so thats that thats just that on that thank you. I love your hair here. I remember his books the. Yes. Thank you for your post. That was great. Thank you. No problem. Im a brooklyn native. Okay, shout out. You set out to be okay . Yes i just got one question. Whats your call to action to black people, to to. I have so many, but im a kind of it direct to you because you asked a direct question. You deserve a direct answer. I, i call black people to fully accept the premise that we can and i think we should. Blackness in every space occupy take all of who we are every where we go. And they just do it. Thats really my call to action since know it sounds simple just do it just wag it out just just walk with it you know brian out theres no plan is no lie is lie tip you tell you to talk if ten toes in. Yeah ten toes down ten toes down ten toes in the deep end no more kitty pool no more four feet, ten toes down ten feet yeah in. Thank you. Got that. Welcome. Back. Thank you so much, abilene k williams for joining us tonight. And thank you to the hearing and speech for providing accessibility for tonights events. And thank to our audience both virtual and in person. And a reminder that our bookselling partner, urban reads ebonys book for sale in the lobby and she will be doing a signing thank you. Thank you all so much for coming out. Stay safe. Ill see you outside. Thank yodgeon go blue luke is an author and an Emmy Award Winning journalist who served as an n