We host a continuing series and pam discussion entitled panel race in america. We had one this summer at our main connecticut avenue location and it was incredible and we are excited to keep it going. It is coordinated by the great april ryan. [applause] she has a wonderful lineup of authors including joyann reid. [applause] Mary Francis Berry. [applause] davis jones weaver. And soon to be here wes moore. Politics and prose is honored to host this conversation as we are committed to tolerance and addressing the most pressing issue of our time. We are thankful to have this partnership and our shared common values to host such a special discussion. If you are watching this at home or in the rest of the store we welcome you to participate on twitter with racematters. Now, our coordinator here tonight, april ryan, is a White House Correspondent. She is the only black female reporter covering urban issues from the white house. [applause] this is a position she has held since the clinton era and on behalf of the American Urban Radio Networks and through her fabric of america news blog she delivers her reader ship and listeners to a quote unique urban and minority perspective in news. Her position as a White House Correspondent afforded her unusual insight into the racial issues and the political struggles of the nations last three president s. She can be seen daily on program like hard ball among many others. She is the author of the awardwinning book the presidency in black and white and her fourth coming book at mamas knee. Mothers in race and black and white. So if you will please join me in welcoming april ryan. [applause] can you hear me now . Okay. There we go good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy schedule during this Holiday Season to come and talk with us, to share with us, kind of in a cath cathartic moment. For many of us cathartic and for others a time of celebration. I am hearing the church out there. You know, it is almost like a preacher. Call and respond. But, you know, this is a very interesting time. It is a historic time. We have in the center of where everything is happening. Washington, d. C. January 20th at 12 01 p. M. 2017 there wile be a transition of power from number 44 to number 45. Okay. But literally we are less than a month away from what was the most historic election we have ever seen. Less than a month and we are still trying to figure out what is happening. So that is why we are here. Particularly when it comes to issues of difference. The other race. And as we try to grapple with what we dont know and the things that we do know and the things we have seen before i am going to give you an example of something. One of the reasons why we are here tonight. The southern poverty loss found an alarming pattern of hate crimes incidents that were immediately following the election. In the ten days after the november election, so ten days after what was the number . 860 and growing just ten days after. People wonder why are we talking about race and they say when you put the facts on the table you are race baiting but that is why we are here tonight. We are talking about an issue at the forefront and has been at the forefront since the beginning of this country and it is still here in 2016. Now, i also want to give you something. Immediately following the election i talked to chris darton, the former prosecutor in the oj simpson case. He is a black republican. He said this is a time of activism. We also heard recently welcome, wes moore. [applause] we also heard recently from billionaire africanamerican democrat bob johnson who says the time we need to find Common Ground. But this morning i talked to former naacp head and former maryland congressman who said both men are right. We are at a crossroads. How do we have parallel roads instead of being at the parallel roads . Tonight in the 90 minutes we have, we have experts here. People you know and people you trust to talk to us. We will open up the floor to you in a little bit. I want to introduce first a woman who needs no introduction. She is walking history herself. She said dont introduce me but i will. She said the only reason she came out tonight is because i asked her. And i thank you so much. Lets give Mary Francis Berry a big round of applause. [applause] not only has she served here as one of the most visible civil rights for gender inequality and justice in the nation she went abroad and fought against apartheid. She was allowed to speak after the death of Nelson Mandela and the South African government invited her to do that. She is also the author of the book, five dollars and a pork chop sandwich vote buying and the corruption of democracy which explains some campaign voter turnout activity are just another form of Voter Suppression. Isnt that something . You have to remember also she served as the chair person of the u. S. Civil rights commission. So we give a big round of applause to mary Frances Berry. Up next, i call her the dragon slayer. T she is the host of the daily a. M. And the author of fracture barack obama, the clintons, and the racial divide and the coeditor with dion in the upcoming book we are the changes we speak. Yes, the speeches of barack obama. Lets give her a round of applause. This was supposed to be the year of the woman and we have a womans advocate. It was supposed to be the year of the woman. Supposed to be [laughter] you know, sometimes to keep from crying you got to laugh; right . Without further ado, i want to introduce dr. Weaver, the author of the awardwinning book how exceptional black women lead and founder of the exceptional institute for women. You see her on tv regular and he is a regular guest host on various leading Television Programs to include tv 1, as well as tvs to the contrary. Lets give her a big round of applause. [applause] we have going to go down the road to baltimore. My hometown. With a gentlemen i saw on om with oprah winfry. We have stepping in hot cotton. I would like to introduce west moore who is a decorated army combat veteran, youth advocate and ceo of bridge edu which is focused on addressing the College Completion and placement by reinventing the freshman year of college and the author of two instant New York Times bestselling books. That is not an easy task. The books are call the other wes moore one name, two fates and the work. Lets give wes moore a big round of applause. [applause] all of you out there in the audience tonight, i want you to pull out your social media devices. I want you to go on the twitter or the facebook or the chat to snap. I dont know. Snapchat. I know what it is called. I want you to go on your device and i want you to tweet out. We are going to break twitter tonight. I want you to tweet out racematters. What you put out there people are watching. We have a president elect who is very much on twitter. So lets break the twitter tonight. I want to start off with history. We have to start with history. From where we have come from to where we are today and where we could go going. Mary Frances Berry you have seen a lot. You have protested a lot for the rights of people. Can you talk about where we today at the crossroads and is there a chance the roads will be parallel . Well, the first thing i would say, and thanks for having me and i am so happy to see so many of you, but the first thing i would say is i am not as pessimistic as some people i know mainly because i think if you begin with the knowledge of facts it will make you more optimistic than otherwise. The facts are that if we were to turnout more black voters in the cities in the midwest, milwaukee, detroit, if we had turned out and in philadelphia and pittsburgh, if we had turned out more voters hillary could have won those states. We didnt turn them out in those states not because of Voter Suppression but because old fashion things that campaigns have been doing for years and i have been involved in and i know about and written about in five dollars and a pork chop sandwich vote buying and the corruption of democracy which is putting street money and having yard signs and giving out chicken boxes and pork chops and five dollars and motivating your people didnt happen because the money wasnt on the secrete. I know that because i talked to the people trying to get the campaigns to send them money so they can do the oldfashion thinks and persuade people face to face who didnt want to vote. Especially the young people who thought barack obama had not done much and she wasnt going to do much for them. That didnt happen. So i think if we put money on the street next time, which is what my book is about, that we can get turnout. It is all about turnout which is what the book is about. Now where we have been. We have of course had very tough times. The whole long history which i wont give you. Everybody knows. But in the last few years, most of us thought we reached a new millennial and things were going well and we had to just get hillary in office and we would take the next step and everything was going our way. It didnt happen. So where are we going so if i never get to say anything here tonight i will tell you. We have been here before. You may not remember but i do when Ronald Reagan got elected. This town was people were so sad. It was so somber when he got elected and when he got elected all these people came to town with their money and i remember they were quoting the woman who said you can never be too thin or too rich. They had all these parties and stuff going on. They came to town and the attorney general announced she was going to enforce the civil rights laws which was shocking. All kinds of terrible things happened. We had constructive engagement with the South Africanamerican government and apartheid was going to stay forever. He closed down programs for women in the wows. All kinds of bad, terrible things happen. And even though they happened the Supreme Court was disgusting in some of the decisions they handed down but people mobilized, they resisted, they organized, they got over their sadness and their mourning and picked themselves up and did what needed to be done and in the end we were able to make some gains even in a very terrible time. So i am not pessimistic. I am optimistic and dont say to me, as some people have, it couldnt have been as bad as it is now because reagan has the buildings named after him downtown and an air force named after him. He was a funny fellow. I liked talking to him. [laughter] but he was just as terrible or worse in many ways although he didnt use twitter. [laughter] so we have been there before. Lets pick ourselves up and move on. Lets pick ourselves up and move on. [applause] moderator records of wisdom. Lets go to joy. Joy, you talk to a lot of people all the time and that is what makes you so great because you are industry and find out what people are thinking. But is this necessarily more so about hillary versus trump or is it about our issues being on the table for either candidate . Which one is it . Thank you again for doing this. You can hear me; right . I think the way people are doing is depressed. I am spending a lot of time counseling others and some counseling myself. I feel like i have a new profession. I am not charging but it is what i have been doing. You saw a few things in this election. One of them, mary Frances Berry is right. It was a campaign that didnt feel they had to do the ontheground campaigning democrats were known for partly because they were using the barack obama model but unfortunately that only works for barack obama. In 2008, the Obama Campaign came along inventing a new model using data modeling, deep data dives meaning you can target not only a block but a household and you would know jane in the household is your voter but john is not. So you micro target jane and not john. They had these sophisticated modeling and dramatic fundraising advantage where they were able to reach in. I saw things in 08 i never saw before. Black folks throwing a bbq and everybody bringing a 100 to give the to campaign. I met people in their 50s and 60s who never gave a dollar to a campaign in their lives. You had this energy, sophisticated datadriven campaign and this charismatic candidate. People were voting and standing out in line for hours because of barack obama. I was telling this story earlier. There was a conference in washington, d. C. For state and local legislatures. One of the good news coming out of the campaign is democrats have discovered there are other things besides the presidency you should be fighting for as a political party; right . They suddenly discovered there are state legislatures and governorships and if you dont control the secretary of States Office you cant stop Voter Suppression . We actually need have to secretary of state office so they dont throw the black and brown people on provisional ballots and throw them in the trash . Democrats discovered they have to fight at the local level and that might be the good thing. They will get femapeople to try vote in midterm elections. But in 2008, people were lining up around the block to vote for barack obama. The line was going so fast. It was a fourpage ballot and there were state and local initiatives but people were not voting for that just coming out screaming obama. They didnt vote for anything else. People were not paying attention down ballot. With Hillary Clinton, you had the opposite. Jennifer grand was tweeting a couple days ago and i just saw it today in michigan there were 75,000 voters who voted everything on the ballot except president. So it was a reverse. People came out but felt they bought into i think the media pushed that both candidates were bad. Just bad in different ways. A lot of young voters whose minimum standard for president is obama so he is not good enough. My kids, the only president in their life is obama. Thank you they think that is what a president is. Jill steins vote add up to much more than Hillary Clintons missed margins. The three states she lost and shouldnt have lost, pennsylvania, wisconsin, and michigan, the combined total of Donald Trumps advantage was 107,000 votes. That is what . A few dozen blocks in washington, d. C. [inaudible conversations] right. 40,000 more black people voting in philadelphia and milwaukee and detroit and she wins. So you had a failure of imagination because the clinton team had the obama people and model and they were using the data and saying by the data we should not lose wisconsin so we dont have to send hillary to wisconsin. We cant lose philly because they have this percentage of White College degree voters. We have data showing we can win the way obama did but you dont have obama. For a lot of reasons, Hillary Clintons campaign didnt do that. We had a media that was incredibly hostile and open to any story which depicts her as a criminal. A lot of my kids age voters saw her as a criminal. You have to understand the way hillary was perceived among even voters of color was she was a criminal. When they went into the voting booth, if they showed up, their attitude was she is not good enough for me and i will Vote Third Party or not at all. You had a lack of awareness around hyperaware democrats. But a lack of history of where we are been before. The idea every time we had reconstruction we had a backlash. Reconstruction after the civil war you get the red shirts. You have Lyndon Johnson creating positive racial chains and then you get nixon and reagan and this deepening divide among white americans saying enough enough enough of giving things to them. I want things for me. Too much focus on black people and repel. You have obama and the same thing. A backlash where a lot of white america, trump voters average salary is 70,000 a year. They are not the broke white americans. There are enough who say enough focus on lgbtq, enough with the transpeople, enough talking about safe spaces, enough talking about liberalism, and black lives matter, too much of this liberal american tinkering with the culture. We want back the culture we can connect with which is the 50s. Hillary clinton won the early voting in florida and is swamped by voters on election day with and without college degrees. It was a failure of imagination on the part of the Clinton Campaign not understanding without obama you cannot run an Obama Campaign. You have to show up and campaign and door to door. Number two a failure of imagination among Young Americans that dont understand if you want to be john lewis you better have Bobby Kennedy in the Justice Department. Okay. So if you think that john lewis good luck. This is what you are facing a hostile Justice Department bearing down on you. Failure of imagination is what cost democrats this election. But the good news is i think democrats are going to go in and have something to fight. They will have to fight like hell to save medicare from being privatized, like hell to save the social networks from being ripped away. They will have to fight like hell and it is good to make democrats fight. Moderator we talk about the Obama Coalition but where were the women . There was a good setup for the women to revolt. What happened . The women were there. If you look at the turnout the women were there. But there was a huge dynamic across race. Once again we saw that overwhelming black women voted for the democrat candidate. About 94 . But even though there was a woman at the top of the ticket still white women did not vote democratic. It is very interesting to me this is a situation where the Democratic Party, year after year after year, to me they invest millions upon millions trying to get out the suburban white woman voter. Every year they call her something different. One year she is the soccer mom and next year something else. But it is white suburban voters and every year they vote republican. The reality is obama did not carry white people. He didnt just lose white men he also lost white women. So to think at this point they might be able to change just because they had a woman at the top of the ticket once again it was selfdeception. It was not good strategy. So instead of investing in those demographics they know come out time and time again faithfully for this party they invested in an area that did not actually show up on election day. And one more thing regarding Voter Suppression particularly relating to florida. If you look at florida, for example, florida is one of those states where they have appointments that last an entire lifetime. You have to make an appeal specifically to the governor to push it back. There are two Million People in florida who cannot vote unless they appeal to the governor to change that. That is more than enough to have carried that state for hillary. When you think about the hurdles. You have the felony disinfran ch disinfranchisement and other games playing and people on the rolls that are dead but it takes time for that stuff to trickle off. You have the lies that were perforated around the issue of people not being qualified to vote and therefore people buy into the this. But the bottom line is this is year and years of investment and strategy on the right to suppress the black vote and voters of color because lets get really. Republicans understand they are loosing a demographic battle. Their strategy is not to actually go out and play in the marketplace of ideas and try to convince people. Their goal is to attract millions of people that can not vote and attract the demographics and unfortunately it worked. This time it worked. Until the Democratic Party understand you have to invest in a ground and state politics. You have to push back. This is the first president ial election coming on the heels of the gutting of the voting rights. You had this belief in data. You had this belief in somehow this white woman voter would, you know, buck the trend and detroit the Democratic Party. You did not fund black organizations that have a long history and knowledge about how to get out on the ground vote. Instead, you voted these other you invest in other organizations that are not as good and as a result, you have the result we have. We are stuck with an incompetent, misogyny, racist man in the white house for the next four years. I agree with most of what youve said but let me say word about white women. Make enough money to go out and get decent job and start a family so that white women are some. Island unto. Thes out there, and that the way theyre talked be in terms of womens rights and the stuff i support. But you got to think about the connections and Networks Just as we, as black women, think about our children and husbands and father and everybody else so do white women. So you have to take into account the whole set of circumstances. The only other thing i want to say is that im as against Voter Suppression as anybody in the world, and as far as giving money to all new organizations to fight that and im on the board of them, but i dont want i dont want to forget that it caused us to lose directionv if the listen to what they said and think about all of the places where there wasnt even an issue and figure out what to do next and i agree about any profit. Ive been going around telling people we ought to put someone on the ballot. Anybody that has an office ought to put somebody on the ballot and try to get them there. Put thats what the republicans did. They started with the lowesth te office they could find. But again, i just wanted to say white women do had relatives. Before we go we were just talking about the data lets look at this. Mirrored with the numbers 2012. Hillary clinton had a 5 million votes less than barack obama. I think it is catching up. Its not as much. I had been calling this a shadow. It was like it. Identifying more with the past president than with her own husband. It wasnt that they didnt get enough votes. Its where she got the votes. She runs up her score in coastal states that she literally spent more time trying to win arizona and trying to win wisconsin. At the end of the day if you feel so confident that you think youre going to win and you pick tim kane as a governing pick the data has gotten you it could be dangerous. Im the nerdiest person in thedi world. But th but the data fooled us all. We have the assumptions about it. Who uses a landline now . Use n when they call you they call you on your landline. Let me ask you this. How many of you have a landline how many of you did not answer the phone if you see that you dont know the number . There you go. Se cell they had tried to use cell phones now. The reality is also that. Oppose as opposed to the wrought number the likely voter model is taking their own assumption assumptions and then using it to massage where to put the percentages. The assumption that white women would see a white woman running and see it as an opportunity to place themselves was the assumption people made. The idea that white voters caused the grievance it was substantially different. Dont you think its a wilder effect two. A lot of the trump people said they didnt tell you because there was so much they did not admit it. Thank you. I like the interactive crowd. A what they were saying about hillary kim planing in the wrong places it was like that song looking for love in all f the wrong places. Wilde we really sought in place was the number of people who claimed that they were undecided right before the election. On the date before election day the number of people is hovering around three to 5 . The selection the number was hovering around 12 to 15 . Undece those folks were not undecided. Llster t thats where you saw it come into effect. The National Polls were not wrong. Is natio they said Hillary Clinton would win. She won by exactly two points. The polls that were wrong for the statewide polls. D you h yet the huge undecided. People were not admitted that they were in the undecided camp were trump or jill stein or gary johnson voters. Gary joh they were admitting. I think it was just trump voters. , you are every person. You been grassroots and you are at the highest of heights now. T with that, what did you hear on the ground. Gras you are still in the community. And then today we will deal with that today. The issue of walter scott. What do we do now after january 20 when it comes to policing. But what were you hearing instill hearing. I think about the africanamerican voter turnout and if you look at the africanamerican goes directly to the point. Its about the percentage of people who voted in this past election was 23 percent. Wasnt so much about the transient nature of the white working class. N come the level of disillusioning about the political system as a whole is real. Rom yo and this is going from younger folks to folks that were in the 40s and 50s and 60ss just who work there was nothing about the system that works for me. Er the i remember the day after the primary i was in indianapolis. I have to get it over for my hotel. And i get an ever and it comesti up and we just start talking. He tells me about this. I said hows it going. He said i got laid off from my job i tried to find an new job. I said hows it going. Im actually making more money with than i was in my other job site guess its okay. The first thing he said waslifen im a lifelong democrat a lifelong democrat. And then he talks about how hee transferred in voted for trump. And so when i get to the question of why he decided to dd vote for trump he gave up a bunch of Different Reasons that frankly 90 of them were incorrect but these are things he just kept repeating to himself. Theres some he said three times and when he says he is not owned by anybody, exactly. He this is his narrative. Anybod its plain and has head that hes not owned by anybody. Part of the thing that i wasarig hearing them not just the super driver in indianapolis but from the folks in baltimore is a frustration that the system is almost intentionally not working for them. Everything in every Major Institution has now beent triggered against it. You people that were going to school and take it out takingre out mounds of debt. They were not finishing. The people who look at the media and say every time he stepped into a microphone this person is an trustworthy. People feel like the larger institutions they are now working for them. We talk about baldwin. I know were going to talk about policing in a second and i can wait for that one. I had been very heavy on the police performance. I remember talking about this with a friend of mine. Everything that happened. U get next time you get a chance to get to a computer i want you to youtube his arrest again. Ive seen it like a hundred times. The free continue to get mad continue and do a favor. E grays youtube his arrest again. He said his arrest is all over you too. An hour before he was in a coma. An hou but next time you look at that video, to look at freddy and a look at the Police Officers look at Everything Else. Look at the homes in the background look at the buildings in the neighborhood look at the fact that the video was taken and 9 17 in the morning and how may people are just standing around. Theyre not on their way to work there not on their way to school they are standing there with cell phones taking pictures. The point is this if we are willing to be honest and address structural in equities we can never just simply go around and ask for a vote. Thats thats not going to be enough. The frustration that they feel about a certain individual is well past that. Its people who fundamentally believe that the system has been built against them. Its ironic that we can build up a whole development in five years but my neighborhood has looked the same way since rights in the 60s. E in the when they go through the unrest that weve seen you cant tell the difference. They look the same. I feel like the frustration that people felt when we were looking at things like voter turnout we could have fundamentally changed the selection and it would not had even been closed have to increase voter turnout. We as a party have to be very clear. Making sure that these people who feel completely forgotten that we do for them. They feel like this is a situation. Can i Say Something about what you said. The Democratic Party isrd regarded and i know you guys multiply this but around the country when you travel out to other areas they think what we would call the Democratic Party does represent working people anymore the party is a party is what the Democratic Party is. What i said about having to do street money the reason we have to do that is because people dont believe that the system is what to do anything. Enteye y the irony is that Neither Party represents the working class. One m you guys are exactly right. For a lot of the error that was made by the court or is that for a lot of people in places like this a lot of people who work in the business what you call flyover country. A lot of people around theer country is a height of about to think that you have the time and the space in your life to think about wanting to have a woman president. The time in the ledger to think about the abstract notions that is more important than summary think that much more important to head prayer in school. Out bringing christianity backol into the schools is way more important than having a woman in the white house. Atic par they are the party that seemed to have the ledger over the course of the last eight years to go after you topic cultural ideas that to them are from the christian norm. Or a l for a lot of americans how to have at the time to be thinking more about that than about my factory jobs. Youre worried about having all of these nick issues first. The official one a lot of americans saw those things isat off the script from what they thought democrats should beou paid. Dont ask me to find a way to make this idea of universal human rights and civil rights an issue that comes outside a lot of people dont think its important. If your neighborhood ever does get changed it would be that. I dont know how much you make. He now lives in a very nice neighborhood. If i could say one thing. We also have something in the selection which is russianin involvement. Level ier they didnt hack the machine. What they had been doing allll over europe they had played this game in every single western european country. They been successful so far arte into. To they go to traditional voters same as here. And they said your problem and not having factory work is because of the immigrants. They are destroying your way of life. They have this idea. It was alarming. Some other stuff that was performing way better than anything we were writing in the media stories that Hillary Clinton was running a childs ring but these stories were like white the view american has gone off with the Russian Point of view with the Russian Point of view in the news. And interfering in the actual information flow. Ike they know donald trump is the window to do what is happening in all of these movements. Donald trump is amassing a cabinet for a more billionaires since the 20s we are going back not to the 50s but to the 20s. In theyre not primarily interested. Liveab in making sure they are fired up. Youre st you are still bringing in theit elite. With the super rich and they want to privatize everything. I was say dont say why do they not vote their interest they do they vote with their interests are at the time. So now we have talked about the democrats and now lets focus in on the republicans r because come january you have a white house that is republican. You have a senate that is republican. And then the next 20 to 30 years will be leading conservative. A manda if he has a mandate he does not had the vast majority of the vote. Hillary clinton did. How do people who are concerned about their rights when he says things like lester holts and ask him how will you heal the divide. How do you deal with thatt issue have he also deal with the issue of aca. Tens of millions of people who were trying to include people in the Lgbt Community who are going through the transit gender process who may now had one part done. They dont know about the other part be done. How do we navigate these waters with the new administration and the different mentality thats coming in to washington. All of the organizations that are supposed to do the litigation had to be ready to start going to the lower courts sometimes its great that there are state courts are that are not under their control but the lower federal courts thats what theyve done before. People the other is for people to engage and organize and direct action. What they want more than anything else is order. If you can make this order you can slow them up and stop them from doing what theyre doing. You have to be willing to make this order. It is an essential agreement in agreed and ingredient ofpolii politics. Instead of mourning. That is not a strategy. In in you should be organized and if you have the courage in the strength in the well to engage and organize protest you should do it. The whole first and second administration. O slow t if the slow these people up and that too will help. Law andr before we go i want to come back to the law and order issue. Its right on the table. E. Toda today in the news i want you guys to think of your questions not only that i want you to blow the twitter up and break the twitter. Race matters. I am reading them. Lon order today we saw a miss trial in the walter scott case. That gentleman gave the video to the family evidence even when it looked like the Police Officer tried to change the seed then you had right now. Very scared months january 20 rolls around because the federal government is trying trying to help make progress in this case. What do you anticipate from your reporting. What happens for racial profiling. I think these are the other things that are so short sighted. People who went to talk to the white house. E hous one of the things that you can see happened it will discusset whether or not to the the Police Officer can provoke you and then kill you. That case will go to a Supreme Court that George W Bush will fill out. Im sorry donald trump. If he would like to come back and be our president i would welcome him with open arms. I never thought i would ever say that. Sh, we m you can paste in the white house. We will probably hear about a this. Ill the fleeing felon rule. You should be able to do what he did. Ld you cant kill someone just because theyre running from you. By the way the prosecutor who actually tried this case is a right wing conservative republican. The vast majority that isde making this decision is democrats. They have primary they are overwhelming. As was the case with the prosecutor in ferguson you generally need to try to control who is in the District Attorneys Office if even one have a chance of having ae, prosecution. What you had is a system wherea its already highly unlikely that anyone will bring a case against a Police Officer who kills you or someone you loves or care about. And which is a secret proceeding in which they can act as a defense attorney inside the grand jury room and still let the officer off and then did nothing for do nothing for you or your loved ones. And now you have the other issue for civic participation which is called the jury itself. Even when you get a prosecutor willing to prosecute for a case that goes to trial in the instance of Mister Slater you had 12 jurors 11 white and one black. One decides to hang the jury. Why were they able to do thatuln it was the reverse of the zimmerman case. One was overwhelmed by the other jurors when she wanted to hold him accountable. She tells a story in her book about the trim on mountain Tremont Martin case. A, most people i know try to avoid jury service. If we dont have jurors that are representative when theres only one person of color they get overwhelmed there is an effect that happens is called groupthink. And in a case where you have an 11 to one white to black ratio on a jury i did not believe he would be convicted anyway. But the fact is it is much more able to hold their ground inside the jury room one white juror among ten others is able to stand up to the pressure of the majority. D agai and would not budge. Coou as this woman who was a woman of color could not hold her grants because she was alone. Even putting two jurors of color together had been shown to change the outcome. I have a friend that was a juror and one of the cases where the Bush Administration attempted to prosecuted a group of men call them terrorists. They would stand outside and practice karate. Most of them had been deported. That actually resulted in a hung jury. That was because of the jury had more than one person of color on them who could stand together and say it was wrong. I think what we learned Going Forward is that because he is can it decide the Supreme Court most prosecutors dont get primaries so theyre not weighing in on what kind of decisions they make. The only thing left now for americans who care about this issue is get on juries they have multiple races. They have a good instance there. Think about running for some of these District Attorney positions. And decide who those das are. We have to look at for people who are progressive you are only have the fight at the local level. Everything she said was correct. But saying this its missing that most of the judges in these cases are elected. Dont even pay any attention who theyre it volunteering for as a jump because they decide these kiss cases these cases. Ive tried to say this to miami when you hear ive said tote black lives matter people, too that one of these cases is happening and theyre the video and we all see and it we all think, wow, now were going to get them this time. No, youre not. And to you ought to keep protesting. The court says the Prosecutor Says or somebody in the government says at the local level, wearing going to take we have got it all. Dont believe them. Just keep on protesting. They want order. They want you to shut up and go home. Protest endlessly. Dont stop. When they say the prosecutor is going to make the decision like the woman in baltimore they catch hell for doing that. The Prosecutor Says they will prosecu prosecute dont go home then. Keep on protesting. When the Justice Department, i dont care whose Justice Department, obamas or trumps or somebody else, says we will send someone to investigate and we will give you a report. We will investigate this thoroughly so now you can go home. Dont go home. They are not going to do anything either. The system is gamed not to do anything unless you make enough noise and make people uncomfortable and just keep on staying out there. That is unfortunate and shouldnt be the case. It is hard to be a protester. It is hard to be an activist. You sacrifice so much in your life. But if you really care dont believe the lies that people tell you. Stay with it until you see an endgame actually happening. Dont forget the politics, though. In the case of mosely will the people of baltimore reward her by showing up to her election or let her go down . The last union with any power they are coming for her. In the mcdonald case it was thrown out and that is the right thing to happen if you care about black lives matter. These people come up for election. You can make them change their behavior by making them believe that is consequences for their behavior. The man who did the brown case, the last time he did it was a black woman and no one would give her a dollar. That sheriff clark guy who had four people die in his jail is a democrat and he is coming up for a primary in 2018. What are you, voters, going to do about it . If you are happy leave him there. But if you dont like this these guys and from mary Frances Berrys perspective we need to see you. You have to be seen and visible because it will force the media to Pay Attention. And very quick. All that is absolutely right. Here is the other thing we have to do. We have to make sure we are not just focused on the Accountability Measures of Police Officer. We need to focus on who is becoming a Police Officer in the first place. Here is what we mean by this. How Police Officers recruit, how Police Officers retain, how Police Officers hold each other accountable is a matter as we. This is where elections become a big deal. Police chiefs are appointed by the mayor they serve under. Police chiefs are appointed by the elected officials put into the office. We have to make sure we are putting elected officials in positions like mayor and city council who are Holding Police chiefs accountable for their training of their people, for their recruitment of their people because the best way to keep accountability on when these tragedies happen, as they seem to be repeatedly happening, is make sure we can decrease the time they have to happen in the first place. That is part of the responsibility of Law Enforcement and themselves. Law enforcement cant just have the corporate pushing on them. It has to happen internally and the people in charge of that are appointed by people we elect. An issue that has to come up with the mayor election and City Council Election is issues of accountab accountable and how you will hold the chief accountable for the recruitment and training of the people that wear that uniform. I think that is hundred percent deadon. The challenge we have is the Police Culture is rotten. I am just going to say it. It is rotten to the core. I am so tired of hearing but all police men are not bad. But if 99 of the police men dont say anything when you see the one percent acting a fool all of them are bad in my eyes. You have to prove to me you deserve that badge by not looking the other way when you see someone else abuse power that results in loss of life. This accountability thing is huge for me. I have a son right here. 20 years old. He was 16 when trayvon was killed. 18 when mike brown was killed. I see what happens in the streets. Just like those white women i have other interests, too. My son. The men in my life. And the women in my life. Me look at sandra bland. What i am saying here is we have seen a system that is corrupt to the core. And until Police Officers start going to jail, until they start going to jail, nothing will ever change. My challenge is that now that we are having this shift in administration and we have someone coming into office and he shall not be named. I have yet to call him by the pword. Harry potter people out here, be specific. This is a family show. He has already said he wants to be a law and order candidate. Many of us that have memories that dont have to go back too far we know exactly what that means. That means cracking heads, a very dangerous thing particularly to black people. Racial profiling. He is someone that wants to move forward with stop and driving despite the fact it is frisk unconstitutional and doesnt work. This is someone talking about putting lethal policies against my son and many of you sitting here today. This is nothing that is theoretical. They are literal life and death issues. And if i can say one more thing. Yes, joy. And remember, if you are a democrat you have to get your party courage. The hearings to seek Jefferson Sessions as the attorney general of the United States are coming up. What will the democrats in the senate do if they think there is no consequence for it they will give in and let him be seated. What will you do to ensure your senator asks tough questions of sessions voting record. And one last thing, in some of these state legislatures Pay Attention to your local state legislatures and state reps. There are bills that are being floated that would seal those cellphone videos and would seal the dashcam videos that have made some of these cases go public. You are able to obtain the dashcam video and video from when they do not cover or drop off, right . There are moves underway pushed by Police Unions to seal them and make it so the public cannot get them. Moderator hot conversations. Are you enjoying the conversation . We have to thank politics and prose. At this time, i am going to my friends, if it were not for politics and prose we would not be here to discuss this critical issue postmortem on the 2016 election. I was looking on facebook, a friend said postmortem is an appropriate word. At this time we will go to questions and we will go to our friends at politics and prose. Lets give them a big round of applause. [applause] we have a couple questions off twitter and then we will go to the audience because you have a lot to say. We have had people watching on Facebook Live and we have had people tweeting their questions at us. So the people who are watching across the country have things they wanted to ask. What we will do is have questions in the audience and then some questions from the internet as well. So we will go backwards and forward. Can you hear me okay . All right. So question here from chelsea cunningham. Can policies be part of ending jury segregation and eventually becoming unconstitutional. A what . Jury segregation. Jury segregation means segregation by law as it was before say, brown was decided and that the Law Enforcement. And it is already illegal but it doesnt help. That is because defect segregation that occurs. Most schools in the country are segregated. Most schools that white kids attend the vast majority. Most black and latino kids attend their majority but we dont call it segregation because it is not under law. We call it racial isolation. Dont use the word segregation. It is the same thing but it sounds better. I am just acclimated not segregat segregated. So it is illegal already. Donald trump is bringing in another one of his privatizing friends to secretary of education and her things are privatizing and Charter Schools. A lot of people pulled their kids out of schools in the south to get around desegregation. A funny thing might happen if she gives out millions in coupons and vouchers. And on the Charter School side, it is a segregation within the black community. Slicing off kids in africanamerican communities and also communities of color putting them in forprofit charters which are Public Schools but pull the dollars away and siphon off the kids that are successful and leave behind the kids with disabilities. And the housing discrimination and he has lived in a house so no, a project in detroit and a house in baltimore and lived in a mansion in florida he is leaving to come to washington if confirmed by the senate. At this time we are going to ask all of you with questions to raise your hand and thank you for allowing us to have civil conversations. So we have the mic going around. Yes . Make it short and we will have short answers as well. Short questions and short questions. Go ahead, you have the mic. Joy, i am looking at you and i think the tv media especially deserves some blame for the election of donald trump. Yourself exempted. You are great. But people like your colleague helped create trump. You trying to start trouble joy cannot call out her colleagues but can other people. Okay. My question is it is makeup time now. What should the media do to report the lies, etc, of a Trump Presidency . Very briefly. My friend and colleague at the other network cnn wrote a great piece this week saying you cannot cover trump as if he is a normal politician. If he is lying, just say he is lying. A lot of media people are coming around to understanding you cannot pretend this is a politician. What he is doing is getting around the requirement to actually have a dialogue with the press by tweeting knowing that everything he says we are going to report unfiltered. The media has to be tougher on him. A lie is a lie. I dont think we should allow folks to come on and spew propganda and Fact Checking it. There are terrific journalists that are doing real work and support them because that kind of journalism cost money. Tv media wise, less free airtime would be a good thing and being tougher on him. If i were the media, owned the whole media, i would say if you want to talk to us come on our network because you cannot call us, tweet us, and we will not report that. I think if the media all took the Chris Wallace position. I think it is important for the media and the media is trying to figure out what to do here. It is difficult to cover somebody this bizarre and this unconventional and they are trying to figure out how to tell you what he is doing without reading every tweet. It is difficult. That is historic. Even going after saturday night live. Why does he care so much about that . He was on the show a couple months ago. That is the crazy thing. We were running after the tweets last week the tweet about the flag burning. He was responding to fox. It is anything president ial i am going to have to follow and that would be watching tweets. It is real. It is what is happening right now. Yes, maam . I have two points. Fbi that approved the body cam we are not safe at all with the fbi. Regular civilians whoever. The second point is i am frustrated because i am tired of people who have money telling people like me and in my neighborhood we need to do something when you are sitting up there, you have the money and you can really make a difference and people like us, the worker people, reduce us and we could lose our jobs. You know . It is really hard when they say get out there and protest. I have a family. I have a daughter and son and having a baby next week. I have other things i need to do but i still do what i need to do. I protest and say my things but i am confidant one day i will go to my job and have my job clipped because i protest. The most Successful Campaign in this nation was the Civil Rights Movement and everyone has taken that blueprint from the lgbtq community, to the hispanic community, to the womens rights community, all communities, and we have dropped the blueprint. So if you dont protest, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Mary Frances Berry was absolutely right. She has been there, done it, has the tshirt, washed it and wearing it again. I am not trying to be fun aechlt i have seen it. If it is consistent and persistent and in mass you get the ear of Administration Officials and maybe even the president of the United States. So it is real. What she is saying is true. I have seen it. I have been at the white house for 20 years and those who make the biggest noise and keep going and keep going get the attention and they are heard. You raised an important and real point. I get it. I think what is important also is that we are able to broad e our movement to include a large amount of people. Look what happened with the dakota pipeline. Why dont know what will happen with the newest administration but the reason it halted today is because you had thousands and thousands of people coming out and say no, no more. So they were able to expand it beyond that specific native American Community and they were able to include thousands of people from around the United States and that is what needs to happen in these circumstances. And we should not put too much of a burden on you if you cannot stand it. All of the movements i have been in and protests and going to jail and suffering and Everything Else was for people who couldnt and were doing all they could. Nobody tried to put on more than they could stand. I am not asking you to do what you cant do. I am just saying for people who can do rather than what i have been hearing the last few weeks with people complaining and crying and i went to a meeting up in someplace and i had to listen people talk for hours about how bad they felt. How bad i feel and cry. I am saying get up off your donothing stool and do something. Keep doing it consistently and persistently. I see a lady with two books. We are selling books. All the authors are selling books after this event is over. And i see my book. Fracture, pork chop and the president. The pork chop sandwich. Yes, maam . My question is how do we focus on enlightning our people . Enlightening compared to what happened in the 30s in europe with the rise of the facist and the nazis because the American Public is historically illiterate. How do we focus on this . I think for me how i would start is it i dont need my job to educate about the virtues of the africanamericans in the country. These elections have consequences. The truth is i know everyone was all up in arms when folks like steve bannon was asked to be a student advisor to the pelect. This man was his campaign chairman. He is not a new face to donald trump. He was selected to be the person in charge of his campaign. No one should be shocked this man is asked to be a Senior Advisor when this man wins. Part of the things we have to do. I thought your poem was so beautiful and the idea we have been here before. Right . And granted, i am not trying to the 80s were horrible for us. Even when folks say it was bad, no, listen. I came up in baltimore in the 80s and that was bad times for us. Bad times for us. We are still feeling the implications of the 80s in our communities. Here is the thing. I think part of the education isnt so much about how we are educating this administration about our virtues and joys but i think part of it is educating ourselves. I think part of it is helping people understand our own people and that no one has to i dont need verification and nor do i need any type of satisfaction from anyone else. I come from the blood of tubman, from the blood of marshall, from the blood of hughes. I know in who i am that i am special. Part of collectively what we have to do isnt so much about educating other people about us but we have to make sure we understand ourselves who we are and what we come from and what we can do. We work with students daily and the vast majority are africanamericans, first generation, under resource, and i will articulate you are where you are not because of someones kindness, benevolence, or someones social experiment but you are where you are because you belong there and no one with pull that away from you. Part of the process we collectively have to go through is staying vigilant. We have to stay on each and every policy, each and every message. Each and every subliminal message. But what we also do in our own communities is make sure everybody understand the power we inherently have and we dont have to sit there and be a witness to history over the next four years and hope it is okay. Our history shows us we are much more powerful than that or any administration or any man sitting in any chair. We have to first internally understand that. By me spending time educating whoever else about it is not as good a use of my time because i frankly dont care what they think. Can i just add . That is absolutely 1000 true and in terms of operational that i would love to see us as a community utilize our institutions to provide that education about our history to our children. Lets get real. They will gnot get it in the curriculum at school. Like other cultures, and this has been done before, lets develop saturday academy where children can come together and get instruction on history so they know who the tubmans are and where they come from. I have done a lot of research that shows those students who have a strong grounding in their own history and culture they not only have a better sense of self but they also do better academically because they dont believe the hype that they dont belong. They know they belong. We have to take on more responsibility. When we are tithing in the churches we need to say what are you giving back to the community to make sure you are planting in our children seeds that will grow up and fight for us in the future. [applause] i will give you a few very easy strategies for your several. This is borrowed by evan mcmelon who ran as a Third Party Candidate and gave us good ideas on what we all should do. Number one, listen to the gold star dad and familiarize yourself with the constitution. Read the bill of rights. Skim through what are those amendments in the constitution. Know your rights. Get real familiar with there bill of rights is number one. Two, text everything you hear the administration doing against the bill of rights. If it is a violation of the civil rights you need to get loud whether it is protesting, calling congressman, or making noise on social media. Know the bill of rights and test everything against the bill of rights over the next four years because we have those rights no matter who the president is. Those bill of rights apply to us all. The third thing is use your social media. Right . Your social network. Our social networks in the past used to be our churches. For a lot of people it is still church. It can be groups of family and friends and social media. How many of you use facebook here . Right. Our moms and grandmas are using facebook. Young people using snapchat, twitter, whatever. Find good news sources that are credible. Do not share fake news and rumors in our social feed. Whether it is face to face, at church or on your social media feed. Look at the source and make sure there are a couple. If you hear it on abc, nbc, rioter it has a chance but check it. The New York Times reprinted clinton cash which is made up stories. Only share credible information. The most powerful information sharing medium right now is facebook. It is the most powerful information sharing medium. Where do people get what they put on facebook . Traditional media. Share only sound, credible information in all of your various social netwoshs if you just do those things i think we will be fine. And joy, we are sharing this on facebook right now. Cspan is going to be carrying it as well. I have a question from our Facebook Live field from pat hill. Pat asks how can working people protest without the fear of retaliation . From our history making protester who has marched with ma many . You always face retaliation but the bigger the numbers and the more support the less likely there will be retaliation. But when you are one by yourself or no one is there supporting you it is riskier. You always risk it but the best way is to get people to do it with you and the more you have the less the risk. Moderator we will take three questions and we will do a lite lightening round of if you have comment, lets search not later. Ask the question, really fans because we want tints. Everybody has their hands raised. Raise your planned, keep your hanses raid is. Joy, seems that the russian infiltration in the election system was pretty mildly reported and taken serious by the media. It was absolutely horrible whitened happened the media was reporting it bust jaw fundamental dismantle of everything we believe as far as democracy. Could the couldnt the media had done more to talk about the atrocious this of what the russian said. The Supreme Court what obama tried to do in getting someone to the Supreme Court was a travesty. Trump will select someone to the Supreme Court he will replace scalia is it such a bad thing. Has been leaning left in the last couple of years. Ree mi he will replace three people probably. Regarding the black lives Matter Movement i agree with everything that has been exposed but my own challengegeet in question is for me black lives matter from the time of inception until the time of death. O how do we hold ourselves and our brothers and sisters and has been accountable from the time a black child is conceived raised sometimes with or without a father present educated that is a good question. Next question please. Is it enough to just say educate ourselves to try to take away and focus on bringing in people outside of our group. Over cou you talk about flyover country. And you you can go to places where there is literally no black people, no minorities. I just realized living in dc were in a bubble. They still have other people that they interact with. How do you change that. You talk about protests and i know there is power in calling the number which is that capitol hill switchboard. For those that are afraid of protesting can you talk a little bit more about how much power it is. Currently and the once coming in january. Do we had one more. Right behind you. See make it certainly exciting that people are really but then everyone i think he is a gross misogynist but im worried about all of the other things as well and you have nothing to do withst women and then im super concerned about how we all actually protest everything. The next question. [inaudible] we need a microphone for you. My concern is actually notrn with the republicans but with other democrats michael moore, Chris Matthews and others whowh are now arguing that we havent done enough of his listen to white men. And that seems to be the narrative that im hearing a lot more from the news not what were talking about here. Oud do you agree with that. What do we do about it. Take the last question. Out ta there is another one that was similar about talking tooup. People outside of our group. I did politics for a while in terms of actual electoral politics. If you want to do that as a social matter its much more important to get your base out with the to go and try to convert white male republicans into democrats. They try to will them. Ifover you are still a democrat get your boat out. After you when you can have lovely conversations withh people. Lets go to the young lady who said how do you protestot everything especially since you have that one march. What the black lives matter question. In that particular march started out a littlele controversial. Putting in from it more women of color. And they are still working out some kinks. We cant think of this as oneprt day a protest. But we that would be a nice little blip but we need to spend four years of protesting because there are things that are coming down the pipe every day. And in terms of the issue of the broadened interpretationr,n of black lives matter sounds like reproductive justice. As women of color we are concerned with making sureom that we are able to create life and have it lived safely or if we choose to basically that we should have the right as well. The bottom line is we want to make sure that we are able to have choices about our Reproductive Health and when we have children that they are able to grow up in safe communities and live safe lives without being targeted by unfair violence from any form. Thats that is the idea find it. Economically, socially and all sorts of different challenges. It means we need to work harder to make sure ultimately we overcome those things. Reme cu i want to go to the issue of the Supreme Court. I am a grump about the courts because i made myself very unpopular with my democratic friends did during the Obama Administration going for the Nuclear Option in the senate. It got rid of the filibuster. And on the boards that i am on that deal with these sorts of issues i was a grump who said you arent always meant to be in power and when youre not, yu you will need the filibuster so if i were you i would not do it but everybody was so sure that we were going to win w the next election which was incomprehensible to me that you could be that sure and they said we will deal with that when the time comes. E can t we gave up the right to a filibuster with a lower court the lower Court Appointees in the cabinet people. We still have the right on the Supreme Court but they may change that the republicans may change that because they can say what you guys did now working to do this. I think what they will do is trump will nominate one of those people he named in the list of people he have because t so far if you look to see what hes doing a lot of stuff that hes doing with nominees and all of that stuff is stuff he said he was going to do. The the likelihood is unless he nominate his sister who is too old he will likely do this. And then we will have to see whether they say you cant filibuster or not i think everybody should lean on the democrats in the senate to make it as tough as possible for them to get someone to drag it out as much as they can procedurally to keep it from happening. I dont expect trump to put anybody on their and weve got this problem that there of an age and we dont all live forever. So we have that problem also. I think it is going to take a lot of defending the backbone of people and we may even be able to go get some people up in maine and some of the others in the senate to get them to side with the democrats if theyre Strong Enough on doing it and its crucial that we keep the courter either eight forever or keep it as long as we can given whats going on. The republicans have set the precedent. Mitch Mitch Mcconnell said obstruction every day we will give him nothing. On the first day they met that night and they were going to obstruct everything. Republic adopt successful policies. Struco t is how you actually win. That is exactly right although i fear the democrats quite frankly dont have the nerve to do it. You would be shocked how few polish petitions get phone calls. If you call your mayor they will almost do whatever you say they are so shocked. They are ready to do that thing. And when i say protest i include that. I dont mean you going out on the streets and going to jail. You can call. Systematically. Protest everything that needs to be protested. This has been amazing someone have asked aboutne russia and one question was is enough to just say educate ourselves. I think tonight starts a dialogue and brings us together to keep the conversation going. I think i will and like i started talking about the crossroads it is about activism as well as finding Common Ground but like mary Frances Berry said you have to stiffen that backbone. Thank you for coming out. I love that many of you had been here once before. How many of you had been to this event three times. Im talking about the race panel discussion. Thank you. I want to thank everyone in one of the best restaurants in town. And to be into the best bookstore in the tion amazing. I want to thank this amazing panel the author of lets give him a big round of applause. His book is for sale. How exceptional black women lead. And the dragonslayer herself. We have to thank you. Give i mary Frances Berry. Give it up. That is amazing. And thank you. For sale, to [applause]. You also had to remember mary Frances Berry and her 5dollar sandwich. Ll. Im sure you will be coming back soon. Facebook live thank you. S keep the conversation going. Thank you all. Give us just the few moments and we will have the signing line over here. If you want to get your book signed you can do that. If you want to purchase any copies they are available in the bookstore. Thank you so much for coming out. We want to hear from you. Where your post a comment on the facebook page