This idea of humanity and whos behind bars, im grateful for that. I just want you guys to recognize, i want to make sure i double down on that idea. You are well, i love historians, i really do. Even though, you know, i rib you guys about how you write and everything. [laughter] its only because i read well, youve got Award Winners in here, so theyre safe. [laughter] its only because i read so much of what you do, and people like me, you know, who are lucky enough to, you know, write for magazines and we get all this attention, but the fact of the matter is we stand, you know, on, you know, some mighty, mighty, mighty shoulders. And one of the most beautiful things about this book is to see you standing, you know, as opposed to, you know, being in the archives, you know, doing the work which you did, but getting the credit that i think this book really, really deserves and that your work deserves. Ive literally leaned on heather for my own work in mass incarceration, shes been great counsel to me and, you know, it has been, you know, an honor and a highlight to be here and be in conversation with you. Thank you so much. [applause] on behalf of roosevelt house, our thanks. Tanehisi, i never thought you were talking about me or any historians i know. [laughter] you dont have to do a disclaimer. But seriously, heather, if these curtains have been drawn tight for 45 years, youve not only parted them, youve torn them down and let the sun shine. And for that, we thank you. For tonight, we thank heather and tanehisi for an unforgettable conversation. Thank you, and we invite you to join us for a conversation upstairs. [applause] [inaudible conversations] and the next author nominated for this Years National book award in nonfiction is ibram kendi. He talked about his book, stamped from the beginning the definitive history of racist ideas in america. This is from this years Annapolis Book festival. Good afternoon. Hi name is ivan bates, and illl serve as the moderator for todays panel, black in america. One of the things thats very interesting here at the key school, had the opportunity to look and listen to the schoolso leader, mr. Nesspool. And one of the things that he said last night as i had the opportunity to listen to him speak was that the key school lets individuals gain a Greater Knowledge through questions and answers. Well, thats exactly what this panel will do, black in america. We will sit down, and today is an important day within the black community because on today, april 16, 1862, if im not mistaken, we looked at the emancipation of washington d. C. With us. We have doctor ibram kendi from the university of florida, author of the book stamped trump in the beginning. It is a definition of the history of the racist ideas in america and this is a booklet spent a great deal of time researching. A book that chronicles the entire story of the antiblack racist ideas and their power over the course of American History. Ibram kendi has done this through a number of ways, he uses the life of five major americans, intellectuals throughout the time period of history, the first with the puritan minister who sits down and talks about that and how he looked at some of his ideas. The next individual, thomas jefferson, talk about him and his family upbringing and the thought he had in framing the constitution. We sit down and look at the abolitionist who was strong in making sure he ended slavery and worked within that movement. We have amazing scholar web du bois, the naacp leader and the legendary prison activist angela davis. Ibram kendi is a native son of jamaica, queens, new york, where he lived until he moved to virginia. He went to the florida and them for the undergraduate, and got his doctorate, from temple university. He is now a professor at the university of florida. Ibram kendi will give the background under the history of racism in america. Professor d. Watkins put together a number of essays, living and dying while black in america. The book chronicles his life story in many ways, talks about the things he grew up with and the things he witnessed but professor d. Watkins is able to talk about racist policies we have had in america, how they impacted him growing up in Baltimore City and the urban environment. D. Watkins is a young man who turned his life around from the early days gaining education showing the power of reading and how important it is through education is the key to success. D. Watkins is a graduate with a masters from john hopkins, he also teaches a Creative Writing Program at the university of baltimore. They have both of these gentlemen, scholars and activists on this panel. It is a great opportunity for all the panelists. Thank you very much for joining us. I would like to start with ibram kendi. Just talk about your book and what led you to this point in terms of publication and your research. Thank you. Incredible introduction and truly a pleasure and honor to be here, to be presenting at the annapolis festival. I went to high school not far from here in manassas, virginia. Anytime i can come back to my second home, i certainly take that opportunity so i am actually here talking to you about my new book and it really is brandnew, it came out on april 12th, just a few days ago, stamped from the beginning, the definitive history of racist ideas in america. On april 12, 1860, Jefferson Davis, who at the time was one of the us senators from mississippi, stood before his colleagues in the u. S. Senate and uttered the phrase inequality between the black and white races was stamped from the beginning. Ironically my book came out on the very day the title was inspired from. He made that statement because there was a bill on the floor that was considering granting funds to educate black people in dc. Of course he got out and argued against it. Many of you know Jefferson Davis later became the president of the confederacy. I start with that very small story to say that to a certain extent that was indicative of the long and lingering history of racist ideas, that you essentially over the course of American History had racist policies put in place, or you had individuals who did not want antiracist policies to be put in place like a bill that would provide education to black children in washington dc, in the same manner that educational funds were being provided to white children. Then you had individuals like Jefferson Davis produce, reproduce racist ideas to challenge those antiracist bills or to defend existing racist bills, to defend existing racist policies. What i am saying in a nutshell is typically we have been taught in history that ignorance and hate have led to racist ideas and individuals who have these racist ideas are the ones who essentially have created these viciously racist policies that have impacted the lives of people over the course of American History and what i found from studying the history of racist ideas is the connection actually has been quite the opposite. What i am saying is i differentiated between what i call the producers of racist ideas, powerful producers, someone as influential as Jefferson Davis or as influential as donald trump, talking about powerful producers of racist ideas or powerful producers of ideas, i am differentiating between them and the consumer of those ideas, people like us, people like you and i, in my book i study the history of these producers of ideas. Why were they producing these ideas . I found that people created racist ideas to justify the slave trade. I found people created racist ideas to justify slavery. I found people created racist ideas to justify segregation. I found people continue to create racist ideas to justify mass incarceration. I am finding we have these policies in place, these disparities in place and people creating racist ideas over the course of American History to justify and rationalize them and it caused you and i having consumed these ideas to look out at america and see disparity or to see people in slaves or to see 2 million black people in jail or to see hundreds of thousands of people in chains coming over to america and view that as normal. And view that as normal. That is the power that racist ideas have had over the course of American History. I tried to chronicle that from the beginning. That these ideas have been powerful enough to make us believe in equities are normal and hopefully we will have time to talk about that from the beginning. With these policies and throughout history, where are we today . How have these policies impacted us on the Grassroots Level . That is why we have professor watkins living and dying while black in america, professor watkins, thank you. Thank you for having me. Ibram kendi did Amazing Research to put these in historical context. It goes well with his book because it breaks down how these things hit every day citizens who have to deal with these issues, the same issues that were established a long time ago. If you are from a place any urban area, you never see your self in a book, never see your self on television, never see your self as a statue when you walk down the street. There is no representation of your self anywhere in the country that you helped build and it is a love story for you, a chance to see yourself and understand your story, understand your journey, and flirts with somebody putting it in historical context. On the other side of the spectrum if you are from a place far removed from a place like east harlem or a suburb and dont have a lot of experience with urban communities or you have one black friend, it gives you an opportunity to understand or see the humanity the media leaves out. A lot of times you see unarmed black kid drummed down and what is next . We have to stop and think that kid was just a kid, he had goals and dreams and ambition, he could have been the next barack obama. You never know what these people can grow into because they never get a chance. Think about some of the people we celebrate in society today. Look at them when they were 20 years old and it goes across the board, look at malcolm x at 21 or those who look up to george w. Bush look at him in his 20s, though not much changed as he matured but you get the point. In life we all make mistakes, nobody is squeaky clean. We go through these things and we can experience redemption and we can take those mistakes and resiliency that comes from those mistakes and grow to be great people. A great job at showing humanity, you know, where people we have a lot in common with all types of people around this country so i try to do that and put it in language everyone can understand. It is very accessible. If you read 20 million academic articles a day, you say literature, if you like a second grade reading level like a 50yearold you can get to the book in three days. Ibram kendi and d. Watkins, as you put together research, in terms of your personal background, what is the number one thing you would like the reader to take from your book . Black readers or white readers . Both. I ask that for a specific reason. For black readers, one of one of the major unfortunate findings in the book in studying this history is i not only try to study racist ideas but i also try to study antiracist ideas and antiracist policies and strategies, protest movements to show the course of history, interlocking struggles and black people specifically middle income black people have been long taught ever since the Abolitionist Movement that the way that we can undermine racist ideas of whites is when we go before white audiences to not defined stereotypes. To represent the race well. Many of our parents have told us to, quote, represent the race well which means dont defined stereotypes, defined stereotypes. Dont make it seem as if you are inferior. Act intelligent, speak proper. All of these Different Things. Abolitionists, specifically in 1790 began lecturing free blacks that this is the way that you undermine the prejudice of whites and thereby undermine the ideas that were underlying slavery, free blacks need to go before white audiences and show your equal humanity. That is what we two black people by white abolitionists and many internalize those ideas. We have been consuming them in teaching and reteaching and what i found in the book is that idea is based on a racist idea. That strategy is based on a racist idea. It connotes this idea that black people are responsible for the racist idea that white people have, that black people are somehow responsible for the racist ideas white people have which means there is some truth in the racist ideas that white people have because black people are acting a particular way. I basically chronicle this strategy of upwardly mobile blacks defying racist ideas and show the way those ideas are based on racist ideas. Very quickly, typically most americans think of a racist idea as an idea that states racial groups are biologically distinct and black people are genetically distinct and inferior and typically people do not acknowledge the other ways people have considered blacks to be inferior like culturally to give you an example. Throughout history you had a group i call assimilationists who stated they are biologically equal but when it comes to culture they say black people are culturally inferior. They say since we are biologically equal black people can be developed. They entered into black communities trying to develop black people because black people were inferior but since they are biologically equal they can be developed, they can be civilized, they can be improved. I show in the book that is a racist idea too. D. Watkins, what would you like readers to think about . Three things. I would like every reader to think more critically about race in society after reading the book. It doesnt ask you to change your perspectives what to think about these things. The traditions and information given to you versus your own thoughts and opinions of how these systems came about and how you can interpret them. Humanity, we are humans, people, these people who die and who go through these things are people. You can be a ku klux klan member from mississippi or gangbanger from california, but put two of those guys in a room with free ice cream they are both going to take it. Who is too racist for ice cream or too gangster for ice cream . We are taught we are so different but we have so much in common. And another thing, something i live by, the ethiopian proverb that reads, when spot is united they can take down a lighting. I dont care what will trickle down into these communities. I think about how we as individuals can use our power to make real change. My thing is literacy. I work with reading programs, i help other writers get book deals, i helped a whole lot of other writers get their work published in different places. That is my job. I have another friend that does the same thing with Financial Literacy and nutrition. We are all figuring out what our passion is and we are working really really hard to achieve mastery and share no skills with other people. I want people to read this book and understand how strong we are as individuals and the things we can do because all of us have been waiting for politicians forever so when people ask me things like what do you think of the election . What do you think about this president , this candidate or that candidate, i am not jaded and i understand the importance of all these things but i know that any and every change i wanted to see came from grassroots work so i put my time and energy there. I dont need to donate campaigns and wear a tshirt with someones name on it. I dont need a slogan. I dont need to wait for you to come to my city and call me a third world country and leave. Or offer free bumper stickers. That is not going to help people make money, in wont keep you out of prison, he wont get people reading or do any of these things. I want people who read this book to understand how powerful we are as individuals and how we can do more for our communities than marching in protest. Marching and protesting is great, you need marches and protesters but we need lawyers, teachers who believe in these issues, we need people who run for office who believe these issues to keep them when they get elected and do all these other things too. I was on the Television Show not long ago, chris hayes, we were talking about these issues and the guy working with the guy in the nikes to work with the guy in the suit, work with the white guy, we need all these different people to get together and work if we want to get through these issues and hopefully this book gives enough examples on how we can unite as one to give you these issues that plague our country today. Ibram kendi, you see the history and knowing the history, how do we move forward . Are we able to move forward with the history and scars inflicted on the Africanamerican Community . I will take your second question first. The answer is yes. Black people have suffered quite a bit of trauma as a result of many things we could talk about, but at the same time i dont think the history of oppression has made black people inferior in any way. It reduced their opportunity, but the people themselves just like any group of people throughout World History who suffered oppression, the people were able to put a strikethrough. I think we should first recognize black people, racial groups are equal despite their differences. That is the first thing people recognize. I am pretty clear i take a very antiracist position which is racial groups are equal. When you believe racial groups are equal, when you believe antiracist ideas and you look out at Racial Disparities and inequities you will see discrimination. When you truly believe the racial groups are equal and you look out at disparities you are not going to see the black Unemployment Rate is twice as high as the white Unemployment Rate, black people dont want to work because black people are, quote, unqualified, you will see discrimination because you believe the racial groups are equal. I am hoping people really understand the difference between antiracist and racist ideas because it is a very simple distance, antiracist believes racial groups are equal, racist ideas connote that in some way a Certain Group is inferior or superior. I will say also as i stated in my opening talk when we are trying to confront these producers of racist ideas differentiating them from you and i, the consumer, when we are trying to confront them and their ideas education and persuasion is not going to work. So again, it could work with us but if you are creating ideas to justify existing policies, you are not creating those ideas because you are ignorant or hateful, you recognize the ways in which those ideas benefit, and rich you, manipulate others, you recognize that. You and i when we go to those people and try to persuade them and convince them otherwise is not going to work. That is like trying to convince an executive of the country that sold harmful products that its products are harmful. They already know and dont care so we need to recognize the differences and those producers of those ideas and they are simply manipulating those ideas to enrich their policies, to enrich, rationalize disparities. And you see that over and over again. We understand that in slavery. We understand how slaveholders create ideas that black people were stupid and turn around and when skilled workers would run away they would put out advertisements saying my smart black worker needs to be recovered. We know these contradictions, that is one of the things, our strategies have to change. To undermine racist ideas we have to undermine the policies that gave birth to them. D. Watkins, we understand where we have been but how do we make the change did you look at the educational system in Baltimore City and we can look at educational system here and bring your children here a phenomenal education. These children are already on the path to success. How do we get our children in Baltimore City beyond that path to success and what are the things we need to do . There are a lot of things we can do when we talk about resources, finding qualified teachers and giving them what they need to stay in and all these things that would work in a perfect world, in all fairness, i give a full disclaimer, the see mike what i believe in is not a 30 year battle its not 45 year battle, when i die i will not see the changes that i want to see in this country. These issues took hundreds of years to create and theyre not to be affected by policycy is second to be a few good teachers that will change it. We are fighting against ahers th culture a culture of people who have been forced to go to school when there was nothing on the other side excess this. Pulling your pants up getting a good grade does not guarantee that you will not get a bullet in your head. , it does not guarantee that you will get a call back for a job. Ntee im not fighting against some simple ideas these things the other day a few months ago i was watching this Television Show called a different world about these kids in college, like a black college in there was a woman and her name is whitley and she was a substitute teacher she came home, she was reallyher who frustrated should allow day she have this has been named duane wayne and he said whats wrong . Whats going on . She said they want these kids to fail. My class is crowded, they dont have it learning disabilities they have behavioral issues. Its like the system is set up for them to fail. I said wow i knew that. I know it wasnt anything new but the issues were the same. I have a button on the Television Just to check the year and make sure i wasnt hallucinating and it was 1991. 2016, the same thing. The school of education they fly people in from all over the globe and they said there and they say you know the data e has said this and that, give me my honorarium check and leave me alone. Thats it. But if everybody so smart and we have all of this research how come its not making it into the classroom. Hiresearch thats why i put so much on and so much of this on communitybased work every change that ive seen has been from the ground up. Strong neighborhoods. Its in the cliche in its old it takes a village. So my so my job like a said my commitment and my focus is literacy. I try my best to continue tod create the content that gets young people excited about reading or excited about telling their own story. But my story doesnt resonate maybe someone else as well. I am trying to create a culture of thinkers in aei culture of readers and a culture of communicators andnk you cant create a culture one lifetime. Not the way that i want to see it in the type of ideas that i would like to see go viral. These things take time. I always had much love and respect for the dynamic administrators and teachers who want to change these things. This is capitalism. Do you know what social reproduction is . S to sustain capitalism you must create a permanent underclass and you do that through policecr forces. You do that through education and is right in front of our faces when they say the things they say hes a Conspiracy Theory guy. Call him crazy. Nspira but its the same issues that have been going on year after year in and out. At what point do we say it is a mistake and start saying these things were put in place for a reason and its up to us to change them because the y system is working really great for the people that created it. Syst [applause]. I guess the last question i would like to ask is a very hot button issue which we see right now and it deals with the criminal Justice System. My question to you is how has racism impacted the criminal Justice System . And you touch the bases of that through your book and also to your professor watkins professor watkins how has the criminal Justice Systemss impacted the life of the africanamerican male in east baltimore . I will first go ahead and ask ibram kendi to talk about it and then you professor watkins. Had spoken a lot about many Different Things so i want ton give a brief History Lesson on the relationship between blackness and crime. On the so if anybody reads shakespeare im sure, i dont know how many of his plays youve read but there are certain plays in which the black characters are noted as devils or demons. I see some people shaking their heads. This literature came about as a result of the connections a that were made between blackness and the devil. In those deep connections were already been being made in the early 16 hundreds those connections settled into america we first saw those connections made in a very dramatic way during the salem witch trials. Those you that are familiar with the people were constantly saying that the devil black men was speaking to the which and it was ofcont course bringing harm to me. That was a constant refrain during the witch trials. The notion of devil anddrefrai blackness and the devil is the ultimate criminal in christian nations. That emerged very early on in American History. We also know of course that when black people resisted enslavement that was illegalerio those were considered criminals when they resisted that. When they fled to the north they were considered what, fugitives of the law. And so when black people of course they were enslaved in this country for roughly over 200 years. Try for its over 200 years when they were resisting slavery and when they were doing what many people in this room were doing that led to their classification as criminals. And then roughly by the 1890s you have more and more reports of crime data specifically from the census data and thate started showing that they were more likely to be arrestedshowi they were more likely to be in prison. And of course those racialop disparities had continued to this day. And the scholars in the 1890s took that data and stated this means that they are by nature criminals. Now course most scholars thenin took this crime data. They took it as actual crime t rates. They said because they are more likely to be arrested and imprisoned there more likely to commit crimes. So with that they are more criminal like. And that emerges from the nature or their culture. From t those are the series that they put forth over the course of the 20th century. Cutors many other people today to justify why 40 of theat incarcerated population in this country is black even though black people representbl about 13 of the prison the population and then when we talk about the reasons why they were 22 times more likely to be killed by police from roughly 2010 they say they are recklessly violent. That is the reason why. These racist ideas blaming black people to justify racial disparity. So now when you see these shootings there is typically three responses. There is a response that the individual whether trey weather trade on martin or jordan davis was acting somehow rest recklessly or you had people that state the Police Officer was acting recklessly and then you had people who state both. Those three positions had been the three positions that they have utilized to explain the disparities over the course of American History. There was something wrong with black people and discrimination. Or both. Of am and we see that. Either the racial groups are equal which means that there are some black people who act recklessly. Either the groups are equal or theyre not. And when they are not there are 70 people that believe that they are not. They believe that they actually commit more crimes when the statistics say it otherwise. We know that the racial groups that white people are more likely to sell it consume drugs in this country. We know there is a direct link between unemployment and violence. There is no set thing as a violent black neighborhood. That would call for a war against unemployment as a war against drugs and criminals. I will stop there. [applause]. Before returning it over we open the floor to ask a couple of questions would you mindques. Answering that very quickly in the role that youve seen in terms of incarceration in your neighborhood. I studied present theory. At trump university. I know we have to leave a little time for questions and i think they summit up beautifully. It is is the biggest employer in the United States of america. It works. At t employs more black people than it does outside of that. Everything is gone. Were answers and all of these things to Different Countries t and then were wondering why things are the way they are. It is the biggest employer they are sucking young people up. , suck there is a joke going around among the elite that youre not falling unless you haveon that. I think he got convicted not to long ago. He was selling in people to g his friends. If you think about it its better than slavery. If youve a plantation in the owned slaves own slaves yet to make sure that their healthy and make sure that they are making money. Prison is just like slavery. Cloi they make the poor people pay for it. Thank you. At this point in time we would like to open the floor up for questions. Thank you. At this point in time we would like to open the floor up for questions. This is me when i quit smoking cigarettes. I started again. Sir if youd like to ask a question would just like you to line up behind thee i microphone. See mac thank you so much for being here. Nd at such an enlightening panelmi and very happy to be here. One of the questions that i have is about the power ofte social media in the Race Relations and broadening what we were generally situations that occurred in neighborhoods and taking it national. In the power of a hashtag like lack lives matter. How do you see that sort of shaping the movement. B how do you all see that. In this book he talks about social media. Social media is like a gun. If something comes in here anddi threatens this group and you take that gun and you shoot that person then youre here. Then your horrible person. I think it can go both ways. When you get quality for those reputations. They they spread of these issues which is great. A lot of times people thinkhelps that they are really making a difference by retreating something and you get caught up in the whole illusion of you doing actual work when youre not. There are some great communities. At the same time you have a lot of other people who dont really care who want to infiltrate these movements. I would like to see social media do be used as a tool to mass educate our children on all of this things. This is the one time in history we had access to n everybody. Thank you. Ss to think both of you for your work. I work as a surgeon in Baltimore City. Whether i am at home where iam grew up in Rural North Carolina or whether i am in baltimore seen the folks from 3d and greenmount what i was wondering is where had you seen in your research that racist ideas with regard to health had been implanted. Im sure you probably saw that. The medical students any of white medical students that believe that they are more susceptible to or less susceptible to pain actually that theory was a theory that was used by Benjamin Rush he was one of the founders and the medical school. He was in the early 1800s. 00s he cited another dr. Who stated that this dr. Was able to amputate a black persons leg while the black person held their leg. Because the black person did not feel pain. Later, the father of gynecology J Marion Sims who of course has a statue of this man. So this guy who was a practicing dr. In the south decided there was a major gynecological problem that was affecting women he decided that he was going to experiment on the reginas of enslaved black women. And the irony of this and it speaks to my point that i was making earlier that he experimented on these women and did not give them anesthesia and argued that they didnt need it because they were black. Hey we but in other writings he talked about how these women were rising in pain so he clearly saw the women rising in pain but then in his literature when he was trying to justify why he didnt use it he said they are black so they dont need it. It demonstrates that he probably now that black people are equal in the sense that we feel pain also. He had he have to figure a way to justify why he did not use anesthesia. I will also say that the first scholars in the United States were typically medical doctors. The phds really did not emerge as a degree until the latter part of the 19th century. In these medical doctors are the very people that were creating these racist ideas not only about medicine but about all different types ofofi things. They were the very people who were creating notions that the races were biologically distinct. They have specific diseases that need to be treated differently. Thlvk you. I dont know if you have ever read this book but medical a pirate tire it does a great job its a same that he was talking about. There were african babies being born and they were catching something from the filth in the stables they were born in. Have the bright idea they would drill the nail right into the skull of this baby. Is a great book that talks about that. I was just reading that book i was just making myself upset. There is an instrument that we use called a similar retractor thank you. Only had time for a few more questions. When they one time send that horror houses us were to be desegregated before churches. When jimmy carter was governorat of georgia he went to church one sunday morning and took several africanamericans with him and they were admitted. Afria but have he not been there they would not had been admitted into the church which is also known as the house of god. Urch w my question to the panel is. This is thats the history of racism in the United States represent a failure of christianity a failure of the message of christianity as described in the new testament on the gospels over a billion b of people the people in the world consider themselves christians and yet, we have this history that the panel has been talking about occurring in the Christian Country so my question to you is do you agree that the history of racism in the United States which you had documented represents a failure of the ethics of christianity. Yes i agree. This is a last question. Thank you to dr. Ibram kendi and professor watkins. I just retired after 25 years. And most of the time i went to district heights. Most of it was my privilege to go there. And professor watkins i want to add one thing to what you said about the guy in the suit and everything there. There are a lot of women who are out there in our doing that kind of thing also from the library is often a lot of predominately women there but we also work with sororities and Church Groups and men but also the women there with the ministries and all sorts of things they are doing a lotmen, also. Oi i also want to say that there are two in annapolis is and Everybody Knows it. One place where they come together is the Annapolis Senior Center where most of the people seem to have gotten beyond a lot of stuff. Wh thank you. Always acknowledge all of the women and that i work with. I shouldve been more clear in my language. If women were not around my life i would not even bege, here. I could do my own anything. But thank you for that. And i will echo that as well. First of all unfortunately i will conclude the panel. The pe we had time constraints but i definitely deftly wish tooon thank the panelists. We definitely want to thank all of you for coming out and taking the time and please support and read their books. Inw we know you have a question. We have opportunity. We will allow you to answer that question just not right now. Thank you very much. [applause]. She appeared at the 2016 southern festival of books last month to talk about her book strangers in their own land. Anger and morning in morning on the american right. Good morning. We have a couple of housekeeping announcements i want to make. The author will be at the signing, and aid in available to talk. Books are also available at the main sales table. In the festival itself is free but if you like to make a donation you can go to humanities tennessee. Org and will be greatly appreciated. Our author today is Arlie Hochschild and her book is strangers in their own land. Im going to read the bio. Instead of trying to memorize it. She is the author of nine books among them strangers in their own land, anger in the morning. A finalist for the National Book award this year. Just an ounce. Announce. Congratulations. Hi other books include second shift. The revolution at home. The time bind one home becomes work and work becomes home. In the manage chart. The commercialization of the intimate life. She has been awarded the illicit these metal from Dublin Ireland as well as the Guggenheim Mellon fellowship. Lln they had been named notable non fiction book of the year. And it appears in 16 languages. She is a sociology professor at uc berkeley. Eley. She lives with her husband adam. She li welcome. Thank you very much. It is great to be here what i thought we could do is i will spend a little bit of time taking you on a journey with me that i have just come home from. And then we can open it up to questions and comments. Five years ago i sensed like so many of us did a split between left and right. It was getting more extreme. Each side was heartening and we lived so that i would talk to my husband and our friend. We would chatter away and then i would open the newspaper and say oh my gosh. Ther there are two truths there. Im not living in the whole world. Look at television and feel the same. I knew that actually americans were in the same situation that we lived in in media enclaves in technological enclaves and in geographics. I thought i want to get out of my enclave. Take my political and moral alarm system off and permit myself to get very curious about the lives of people who lived in an enclave as far as way wherewith that be. The split between left and right is not because the left has gotten more but because the right has gotten more bright and more people are on the right. So i said that change has happened mainly in the south. I wanted to go to the south. But where in the south. I saw in 2012 that way dash make half of whites voted for f obama and about a third did in the south as a whole region 14 did in louisiana. I want to talk to whites and who else. Maybe especially religious older whites in louisiana. So our voyage starts theres the with a question. I i went with this red state. Docs in mind. How is it true that in the United States the most red states are also the poor states and ones with worse education with worse health and lower Life Expectancy those states receive more funds from the federal government in aid than they give in tax dollars. And yet are the most suspicious and resistant tol the idea of a federal government. Thats really interesting. What goes on does on with that. And louisiana is a super red state paradox. Because in 2014 it was the poor state 44 percent of its state budget came from the federal government and it was a very largely a tea party event. It was perfect. I was there an exaggerated version of the red state paradox. And then i made one morethen i move