Transcripts For CSPAN2 Race In America 20170618

And again i want to thank politics and prose and also cspan for thinking enough of this series to come out and continue to cover. You dont get these kinds of people in this kind of room without getting this kind of coverage. I want to thank you all for being here tonight for our fifth installment. I want you to feel free, feel welcome, feel like home. Come to the microphone, ask a question, intelligent, civil, and we will answer. And i want to come without further ado, introduce this great great pedal because were going to get into some bullet points on their career and were going to get into the discussion. Discussion. I want to start off with someone who i have such respect for, such apparition, love four. Dr. Mary Frances Berry. Shes a former head of the civil rights commission, you civil rights commission. Shes also, shes got a list of things shes done. Shes been jailed for fighting against apartheid in south africa. The list goes on and on, but shes also the author of the book, five dollars and a pork chop sandwich. She has a new book coming out, history teaches us to resist that. [applause] next to dr. Mary Frances Berry, we have avis jonesdeweever. She is a woman who is an activist, which is also the author of how exceptional black woman lead. Lets give her a big round of applause. [applause] next to avis jonesdeweever we have Wesley Lowery, the National Report from the Washington Post and the author of they cant kill us all. Lets give him a round of applause. [applause] that title alone leaves you thinking. And without further ado we want to introduce to you and economist, the president american of Bennet College as well as the author of are we better off race, obama and Public Policy. She is the author, and economist and tonight and thank you for being here with us. With us to talk about activism. We have to get Julian Hafner up. Yes. [applause] julianne malveaux. These two ladies right here i remember being a young lady watching them march for us, talk for us when we didnt have voices. And just basically let us know that we count, we matter in a time when many of us are not at the table. If you dont have a seat at the table, bring as folding chairs. Hello. So i want to start off with something that came to me while we were driving in tonight. Harry belafonte, activist,on entertainer said right after the election, this last election when President Trump becament tu president , he said thi this is a great time. I said why . And i hear a little chuckle back there. But he said its a great time. He said he reflected back on what w. E. B. Du bois told him. He said when there is great pain, when there is great pain theres radical activism, which effectuate change. A couple weeks later i called Harry Belafonte to do another interview. And i said how is it going . Is that im not too happy with what im seeing. I dont see the activism that i anticipated. I dont see the pain i thought was there. And hes remembering the 50s and the 60s. One of the greatest movements, Civil Rights Movement in this nation. Whats happening now . Whats happening now . We have an author here, civil rights icon, who has written a r book, history teaches us to resist. Talk to us about history yesterday to today. Is Harry Belafonte right . Well, my good friend harry ii always right. Let me just say what i talk about in this book is what i think its important for this hour. I hadnt planned to write any of the books. It was time for this one. The movements in the past where people have organized to resist president s who took actions or were trying to take actions that opposed our values and that we opposed, and most of the movements i talk about i do the history but i was involved in most of them, and in fact, we won in the case of a lot of them so its possible to win if you organize properly and if you persist. Things look at the Free South Africa Movement some of you were involved in. Things like the antivietnam war movement, which we thought we lost, and i not only was in the movement as a student at the university of michigan, i pretend i was a correspondent and went to vietnam and actually covered the war one summer. But we thought we had lost. We found out later that Richard Nixon stopped the Peace Process that was about to go forward. The point is, theres movements during the time of the president s since then. Sometimes friendly president s you have to oppose. Theyve start doing stuff you dont like. Look at the indians and obama in south dakota. We all love obama but he had to be pressured to get him to do something about the treaty, and now look what trump has done with it. Pressure has to be brought. The point is that there have been movements of people who are willing to not just march, because marching is important, and not just to come to rallies but to put their bodies on the line in civil disobedience and other ways in order to get things to change itch dont think were at that point now in this movement. I think the marches are great and every time there is a rally or march i say, terrific. Keep up the spirit. Good to some of the town halls to watch and listen to people. But we need more than we have had, and its not been as hari puts it, as radical at one might thought and the issues count. Its not just, hate trump. Okay, lets hate trump. What i hate is getting rid of the federal practice compliance, underfunding the civil rights organizations, not having the budget for the agencies in Environmental Justice and the Justice Department and all around the government, and what is happening, all of these things that affect people who are poor. What is happening on health care. We can just good down the list. Make policies the center of the movement. Not just can you get together because we dent like trump. I dont know if i answered your question. You answered it. You answered it. Julianne, are we better off, race, obama and Public Policy. We are now post obama, the post obama era. What does that look like to you and what are the issues that dr. Mary Frances Berry talked about that should be on the tabling. First all, april, thank you for bringing us together. Dont know anybody i admire more than mary Frances Berry. I dont. I just adore her. When i saw i was on the panel with her, thought, hey. Im with you and all that but its all about mary Frances Berry. Thank you for bring us together and the work you have done, not only to continue the series but also to speak truth to power. I would ask you a question but dont answer. Rhetorically, why dont sean spicer take his glad rags in a bag and go away. You told me not 0 not to answer. Went to see the pope and wouldnt let him be blessed. Congratulations. Dr. Ryan. Morgan state conferred honorary doctorate. Im proud of you for that and appreciate that. You know, feel like bobby womack sometimes. If you think you lonely now, wait until night, girl. [laughter] i was an obama critic, and i was like, barack, come back. But no, we are not better off. Barack obama was a tremendous president. He was outstanding and amazing and also horribly constrained any number of ways and when you look at the economic status of africanamerican people it did not substantially improve until the last year of his administration. Much of that was recession, which was not his fault, and was set up, quite frankly, with the economic failure our on 2078 by shrub. Shrub . You have a a bush and a shrub. Okay. Dad told me to stop being funny and act academic. So i think i will. In any case, were not better off and were about to be much worse off. The Economic Issues are the ones im with the with mary Frances Berry here. We spend too much time talking about russia. Its important. Dont know how much income has been wasted on the president and the first lady dont hold hands and a whole lot of other stuff they dont do that we dont want to know about. What we know is the economy this victory for 45 i dont call his name. Call him 45. But this victory for 45 was a vic for predatory capital jim. People have to struggle whether we had elected mrs. Clinton or that man, but what we have is a different kind of struggle. Is it trickle down economics . Its worse. Its about extracting every penny of surplus value from pe so, april, you have very simple rags that the department of labor requires people who are advising you on your pensions to follow certain rules. Now, that man says no, thats all right confederal had to follow certain rules. People get ripped off. Most americans dont get pensions anymore anyway. Youre setting people up to get ripped off. President obama passed an executive order at the said if you had a federal contract you must be paid 10. 10 an hour which is identified on minimum wage. That man is reconsidering that. There was an, a piece oflegi legislation that was redefined how you got paid overtime. Right now you get overtime, if you make more than 24,00 24,0a year you are considered executive employees. You make 30 grahn, youre an executive employee. That means you cant getss overtime. Its in an overtime job. President obama put together regulation that said they were going raise the number so you can get overtime until you earned 44,000, 44a 45,000. That man, basically is saying, no, we dont want that. The labor secretary says, you know, maybe we should rates it a little bit but not that much. Maybe 30,000. So can you imagined ad a Administrative Assistant being considered executive and not being paid overtime. We can talk but our odious that man is, as long as we want to and thats fine. He is odious. I mean, used to call the orange orangutan until the told me to stop. Ill do that anymore. But in any case have to let her go. In any case, odious as he is that is not the issue. The issue is the way our economy is structuring, and let say one more thing because i know i talk too much. Occupational hazard. You have two island capital. You and predator capitalism and compassionate capital jim. Cockpity. Is the wolf. Government this dentist. The question is what does the den test do when you get the wolf in the chair . With comp passionate capital rhythm, the den tis files the teeth down the wolf, not eat everything and you provide health care, even though Insurance Companies are still making a lot of money. You do things like provide food stamps even though you ought to raise the minimum wage. You caulk about a minimum wage increase. The dentist when you have predatory capitalism, sharpens the teeth to make life for people at the bottom even more challenging. If you think about that metaphor and look al out the regs being changed and note not forget about what is being done with education and the way our hb uc us have been pitch pimped and it i use those, all those poor president s walking up very good one. Kellyanne put her feet on the sofa. She didnt know any betterment when people dont have home training and let them go into the white house, they still dont have home training. Just talking about the president s in reroom and she was taking a picture. Thank you for that analogy. I never heard about the dentist and the wolf but brings a whole new enlightenment on going to the dentist. So, avis, lets talk about the woman who is making 30,000 a year. She is low income, correct. Yep. Is she out there marching . Because we saw a couple of women marching the day after the inauguration, couple of women in lansing, women Walking Around in detroit and d and london. Is she move marching. Yes, we saw an historic day following the inauguration in terms of womens march. The largest demonstration in history. It was impactful and powerful. But its also true to say that there has been a bit of a struggle to maintain that momentum and n a bold and demonstrative way. When i look at what is going on i can provide other examples in terms of what baltimore has done since he has been in offers. So, we know that in terms of pay inequity, baltimore hard harry potter fans in house. Im a white house correspondent. Im april ryan. Have not said any of this names. I respect the office of the president. Also known as he who should not be named. In terms of pay inequity, we have this whole thing about equal pay day. Ironically our equal pay day, he changed a regulation that president obama put in place that required Government Contractors to open the books to really be able to demonstrate and show how they pay people by race and gender, because thats really how pay inequity thrives. I thrives in secrecy. What did he do . He got rid of that. And so that woman who is making 30,000 and those who are making more, now are going to suffer even more as a result of paying inequity. What is going on . I would say that what is going on is i think we can hear about this more. Theres been a calibration of strategy, and i think the strategy has really now turned to elected more women to office. We have seen a Record Number of women who are undergoing candidate training and wore preparing to run for office, and i think thats good. But i don think thats enough. I think you need a yen and a yang and need people who are preparing to infiltrate the system and preparing to good in there and change laws when they are elected to do so but i also think we still need the people in the streets to put the pressure on those currently in office to do the right thing and stop destroying this nation to the degree theyre doing right now. The simple way that it put is that protest is an essential ingredient of politics. Cant people say, vote. Vote, vote for somebody. But you have to keep its an essential ingredient which we forget. People when they telling you to vote, everybody wants you to vote for them but you have to make them do what you want them to do. Dr. King with lbj when it dime the Voting Rights act. When you saw, activism is a necessity when you think about this democracy, we saw young people take to the streets. The new activism, the new civil rights for this day when it came to issues of the engines when we sauer our black boys and black girls killed on the streets in cities like baltimore, like ferguson, north charleston. Baton rouge. So many different places. What is happening now . Because were not seeing the activism we saw just a few its only been 100 plus days. Were not seeing that today. Whats going on . Of course there are few elements to this. Think first is, lets not get twisted. Its not that the police have stopped killing people. Not as if these were problem that were solved and were not seeing it. We are my colleagues and i at the Washington Post keep a database in real time of people who are killed by police because the government fails to track that dat accurately. I believe, if i remember crequely, earlier today we recorded our 399th person shot and killed by the police in 2017. On average between kuo and three people are shot by police in america every single day. That is in friendly hootings. No a freddie gray. Gunshots. So, i say that its not at if the factored that mobilized people previously no longer exist. What happens from people who email me and call me, whats going on . The felt like there was there is moment that stretched almost two years and even further become when you think about it. Young activists mobilized after the death of Trayvon Martin and jordan davis in 2012, and the death of oscar grant in 2009, with 2012, 2013, George Zimmerman is acquitted in the death. Michael dunn kills jordan davis and theres a mistrial and then convicted. And theres the death of tamir rice and we saw tens of thousands people in the streets, across the country. Had this moment. Now a few things have happened. Theres activism going on before those moments there were miami people in communities, activists and organizations who had for deck cascades generations been working on issues and we hadnt been paying much attention to their work. Unquestion my cheer the attention we are were all collectively paying dissipated and it had started to do that even prior to the election. In 2015 last year in 2016, there hadnt been a name that had again viral the first time in the year, not a hash tag or shooting story. Work with colleagued preparing a piece about where did black lives matter go, why do now one care and as we went how to the Fact Checking of the story, saw this name alton sterling. And except for this one guy and then the next day, Orlando Steele was killed and then a shooting of dallas officers, and then the reality its very likely there will be a day, a video, moment this year, where are eyes will be back on these issues. That said ill shut up. A lot of the activist, and organizations, people i dont speak for them but talk to them very often as is true across any number of issues in the center left of the political spectrum were unprepared for the realitying that woke up into the morning after the election. Many people in a lot of spaces, especially on the left, were expecting to be pressuring a democratic president into doing more of what they considered to be the right thing. They may not have loved Hillary Clinton but believe theyd were dealing with someone who at least wanted to be seep at their ally who they could kind of keep pushing. This had been a similar strategy to obama. Many of the young activists were being invited into the white house. There was this idea that there was not an an adversarial relationship. Some voted for Bernie Sanders and didnt like Hillary Clinton, many thought they would be dealing with someone who is sympathetic to their courses and ideas. In reality they woke into a world with a president and now attorney general who doesnt believe Police Departments should be where its hard to win then somebody who is quote, friendly although thats hard to. What has happened with i think the young people is whats said, many of them put all their eggs in the political basket and i kept saying when i would see them, dont put all your eggs in the political basket, be subdued by going over to the white house and talking to people, resending this politician. Somebody applaud that because its important. Dont be seduced. Because you have got to politics without protest. I kept telling them open over and over that is the history. People who want freedom withoutstruggle , unless your. Unless your farrakhan. But hes so alive and diverse. [laughter] but what is needed is at every movement that ive been involved in, it is funny. Has had a crisis where people think well, we cant do anything anymore. And if you think about it, all those people who killed the people you made some of them, they got acquitted so or they didnt get charged which is terribly frustrating and i kept telling people way back then theyre not going to get acquitted unless you keep pressure up. Dont go away and saying now, somebodys going to do something. The fact is that it requires persistence and a lot of times sitting around strategizing about some things you can do because the media will follow you if you do something and its different. If you are among can you burn yourself in vietnam during the war, the first month everybody said all my god, there were months pouring themselves in the whole nation was fixated at the 5 00 news. After the 10th month burn themselves, people said oh another monk burn himself. If you have to get, in a movement, they also need new people to come in and they will, young people who are on the campus is now doing stuff , theyre going home for the summer but they will be back in the fall so once we get over this peroxisome of we hate trauma, whatever and all of that and whatever else, then in fact im more concerned about north korea than i am about russia but then i think the Movement Needs new energy, it needs some of the young people like some of you out there to get involved with these understandings and keep going because as you point out, the killings aregoing to continue. Racism isnt going away. One of the things thats important is when you think about the Free South Africa Movement with the aftermathof congress that said they wanted to do, they want to make south africa ungovernable. Thats why those of us and people came out very differently. In the work that i did was around divestment. Other folks were you know basically protesting being arrested but there was a proposition in San Francisco 1984, proposition a named after me where we divested city Pension Funds from companies doing business as with south africa but the thing about it is you want to make it economically ungovernable, politically ungovernable . Ungovernable any number of ways so the issue of imagination is people have, how many people have told us you dont have any power because they have a house and the senate and the white house and the court but somehow there are ways to make this thing ungovernable. And we saw the folks, the Texas Legislature that you saw some individual some individuals say he was going to call the imf on the protesters and you saw two legislators go visit them. So again, thinking about ways to basically make this thing ungovernable. One of the things that seems to me that has to happen is, and im speaking to my young folks because i dont care if ann coulter speaks somewhere. Were notafraid of that. But the amount of energy that we are putting into, if we put it to them, they can put it to us. Thats not the approach we want to take our young people i want to be cognizant. Debate her. Shut her down. I did say the secretary of education at the bathroom, devoid of good sense at the bathroom graduation, that just was not acceptable. But we have to be able to basically deal with how do you make something ungovernable . They made their statement. I love both of those people, they definitely made their case also when the person who introduced her, and they made the statement with her and they made it with the education secretary. And again, hashtag race in america. Break the twitter. If you have questions, come forward but theres so much on the table. Theres so much on the table right now. And as a reporter whos been covering the white house for 20 years, you guys have been in streets for longer than that but when there is persistence and en masse, things happen. Im not seeing it at the white house now and going back to my conversation, he said back in the 50s and 60s, people came together. Is a now there is a different move on the other side. That has a lot of funding that is sporting what the other side will do like heritage or the nra. Talk to me about the resources going into the activism to create change, talk about that. Heres the biggest, one of the Biggest Challenges that we face is people who are about making change and those organizations are largely 501 c 3 so there largely focused on fundraising and typically its a handful of foundations. That article relied upon. It seems to be more direct funding from the people to flow into organizations know that their morning bowl, they can focus on those things that they know are important and they dont have to wait through a grant cycle. Thats huge. Another part of this process is to deny the funding. People are choked up. People are shellshocked. There is so much happening. At one time. That people dont even really know how to focus their energy. Should we focus on education, should we focus on something, its like every day its like five or six things coming down the pipe and how do you defend everything all at one time . The biggest way in my mind to make a difference in terms of the movement is to focus on one thing, focus everything you have and push and push until you create change. But when you are pushing against an octopus of destruction that we are facing right now, theres so many Different Things are being threatened and so many different ways, how can you really mount a movement that is targeted and structured and powerful in a way thats going to be able to knock those things down in domino form, thats very difficult. Everything we have at this moment will be spread so thin that its difficult to be impactful. But if people stay in their lane, people have so Many Organizations that do so many Different Things, we had Health Organizations and they do the health stuff. We have lawyers looking at voter suppression. Lets have people come and join them and stay in their lanes and you might have helped people people should come and join what im saying is i love the octopus, im going to use that. Im stealing it. But i love the notion of the octopus of destruction but i also know how Many Organizations we do have, we have organizations that dealt with africanamerican women, organizations of lgbt human issues and i dont mean to restrictive because we have so Many Organizations everybody is out working on one thing. We have to work with organizations who should be working on that. I thought today interested me because i sent a letter to somebody, im not sure yet but looking at the endowment of the universities in our nation, they get all kind of tax breaks on the mit harvard institute. One of them has, if you add up all the hp cues, we have one percent , one of those endowments but theyre getting major tax breaks so the issue is how can those tax benefits be spread, why should the universities which maintains race and class differences, why should the University Get them but thats the issue for folks interested in Educational Equity and i think we have to continue our work with organizations that we have Economic Policy institute which is where i serve, progressive economic organizations but folks that do the work that they are best able to do instead of trying to do everything because its going to require a massive, literally a massive resistance thats not just going to be with all come together to my aunt. We need those doctors, that the medical nooses association and all these organizations out against that they may called, i wouldnt even call it back. I would call it make america sick again. But in any event, all these organizations who especially politically decided they were going to oppose it, thats massive. If they continue, but even more important. It seems like, how do you eat an elephant . Bitesize pieces. Julianne is correct and one way to do it but theres another way to do it and thats witches take an issue and mobilize around that issue and get people to mobilize and we found that if you win on that issue, it helps them respond to you on the others because they see you can win. I remember we did the work fight, some of you may remember and we beat them on that and when we beat them on it by mobilizing grassroots, intermediate and everything and we would try to get them call it the civil restoration rights act passed, heading for a bad decision on gender and race and Everything Else and we had this law we were trying to get past to remedy it and we couldnt get it passed but the white house set up and paid notice and people in Congress Said if they can mobilize all those people and rile that, we can mobilize all these people around this, maybe we ought to take a second look. One way to do it is think about focusing on one issue and just paring down and the other is as you said the people who have a lane area to stay in their lane but theres two ways to do it. If you can get a hillary supporter, were enjoying very much what youre talking about. Would you comment on the underlying reason some of these policies are being fostered into these departments where these structures and the administrative procedures are being decimated because i mean, we can see that its happening and its being reported in the paper but when you comment on the underlying policy, the reasons this is occurring. Its to free up capitalism. Julianne puts it in economic language, julianne puts it in economic language in her economic language in terms which is a release but in fact, it is about freeing up capitalism from regulatory constraints so that more profits can be made. Thats the bottom line, whether its on the environment, whether theyre doing the epa or whether it is the rules in the labor department, whether its getting rid of the contract compliance, whatever it is, when you see it, the language of the healthcare, the overall goal is to deregulate and make sure that the people who are either capitalists maximize their profits. Thats all its about is maximizing profits because capitalism does what . It requires any quality, we learned that in econ 101. The only question is whos going to be at the bottom and whos going to be at the top. Or getting rid of all this stuff and clearing the land for capitalists to thrive even more than before. Racism in the United States is basically inextricably intertwined with capitalism. Thats the nature of the basis quite frankly racism is the way that the country has justified its expansion. Its economic expansion. Its the way we basically justify our financial system. Remember, inflamed people were bonds which was a basis of the development of our banking system. But capitalism requires you to be able to basically pick out folks who could be exploited so if you think back on history, inflated people and indentured people, there was no difference in the early 17th century. And they saw we could discriminate against these black folks or white folks who became english, irish, those who became indentured were able to work their way into freedom or seven or 14 years. And early on black africans were able to do so as well i forget the year invirginia, mary frances knows but its a year in the book somewhere. 1626. Thank you, 1626. When basically you could, that African People could not work their way out so the entirety of the six south was still black backs. You would not have had any of those plantations and any of all of that. So its intertwined. You must have this form of capitalism, this form of capitalism requires racism and i dont think what people are thinking now is you did a really great job. Its really about profit maximization, its about unfettered profit maximization so that the man in the debate, he talked about all this regulation, how that was regulation has been good. By and large. Weve seen the benefits, do we want filthy water . We need that fda and theyre not even perfect. They have one bank that says you can have an eighth of the road and a box of cereal. Seriously. Maybe its a 16th of a roach but whatever it is. Sometimes bugs from the field. But so, this is about empowering capitalism, these people dont want regulation because regulation forces them to be responsible. It forces them to report and they dont want to report what theyre doing, they dont want to report the amount of pollution or this. This process. Osha now, they basically are cutting the budget of osha, Occupational Safety and Health Administration so people may not be inspected for 15 years. So you reduce the. Of inspections significantly. Its about the profits and about the capitalism. I want to take unscientific polling, how many people right now are discontent or disease. Can we put both hands and feet . All right, i want you to be honest, we accept you. Those who are okay, whos okay . Okay. So this is my question, everyone talks about the approval numbers and im seeing more people disapproving and i like , why dont you talk about the approval numbers, the approval numbers are the majority. This is a friendly audience of progressive people. A sickly who have come to hear this because theyre interested and you read. Not only that, there is a level of discontent over this. My trainer trains men, whos a big trunk supporter, right before he trains at me every tuesday so fees and africanamerican so he always tells me hes like, i called the man but you one they told me hillary was a pox, thats not what he said, so id say house this thing today. But in any case, this man truly believe that everything , everything is a democratic plot to make 45 look bad. And craig is always like, i wantto get the two of you together to have a conversation but 35 percent at least , those arehardcore people who believe that. That number is eroding. I have been in the fossils with mary frances in the past. One thing i do want to say and i cant speak for everyone but since the trump, i will call it a victory. Since trump was elected, i find myself more and more at places like this and in forums like this and maybe there are other people like this to. Not just commiserating together but the resistance, what mary talked about, not the story of the antiapartheid movement. This is everyone so i think the glass is way more phone. And anyone can really assess at this moment. Unfortunately, you start patterns, they sometimes move slow and were in it right now. But for anyone who was at the womens large, that was amazingly phenomenal. There were people there who would never go to a large anywhere. You know it was phenomenal because sean spicer talked about the numbers that saturday. But my point, april, you touched right on it. I think that we should be less focused about what that percentage of the socalled Trump Supporters think and feel and continue the galvanizing, whatever you are doing. I think it was mary or someone said whatever you are doing, take that piece of your resistance , own it and do not let go of it. And i think that is really where we have to be. As opposed to the heritage and those folks, theyre not that strong. They really are not. They have money. Money is the game in this town and around the world. Money is the game and im not trying to minimize but i think the power of resistance is even stronger. And given where we are today, people cannot control the internet. They cant control social media. There are twitter trolls out there right now. There are loud voice and theyre resisting you. Im saying resist. We have a long line and i want to keep the questions and answers short but lets see the answer. [inaudible] and i talk about this is a journalist from the mindset but as you said, crisis creates clarity. The reality is people asking very often, i work with so many reporters breaking these stories day in and day out, whats it like right now at the post. It must be so difficult to be a journalist and there are not real difficult elements, the violence in the vitriol towards many of my colleagues has been real and disorienting but that said, in this moment its very clear and very obvious with administrations that has attempted to conceal, has perhaps classified all convention and all ideas but its very obvious what our job is. We have an enemy, we have the opposition party. Its obvious what our job is every day. With that said i think that while there certainly is a clear grassroots and real energy, a real mobilization of people, i do think you cant write off the reality that there are real people, and immigrant in the detention center, of the person shot and killed by the police but their day. And there are in fact real life consequences to policy and politics. So the fact that after the fact everyone gets together and decide something should change , you cant be used to overlook the reality that in real time, there are real consequences. And in stark contrast something that happened in the last couple weeks at morgan state universitys graduation, former Vice President joe biden declared like lives matter as you have a new administration, hundred some days in talking about reviewing all these sentencing of people. Its everything. Its a different day. This is not political, this is actual fact, there is a different day here. Thank you for being here. You have a room full of people who want to be activists. We are activists and but theres no systematic coordinated effort. We can put a man on the moon. We can do the hollywood shows. We can do all these things but why have we never brought together a think tank of the leading experts across america to address education . To address the criminal Justice System . To address community . What can we do . We are all here because we want to do something. There is a blueprint, the most successful blueprint ever, the civil rights blueprint. You have to link up. Youve got two people right here, three people right here who women, civil rights, civil rights, economy. This is the beginning. Absolutely but what im saying is is there needs to be a systematic coordinated effort on a National Level that we, the everyday people can then feed into and weve got the resources but no ones ever done it. One of the womens market as an example, and there were lots of issues but if you look at the womens market, the lady in, was she in alaska . Some lady just threw it out that she was an activist, she was somebody who said we got to do something so she threw it out there and it got energy of itself. My power with the womens march had to do with race issues and class issues. But ithink it was, i was there. It was a tremendous moment and the challenge for me is, marches are necessary. Marches have to link from Public Policy and thats been my challenge with the young ones in black lives matter. Although i like the fact that they put together policy, we should now talk about policy but everyone always anchors for this big National Movement and you forget that when doctor king, the montgomery bus boycott was after two National Movements. It was a few people who were so outraged by what had happened that they came together. The state office buses for more than a year. Deeper than that, when doctor king started with the Civil Rights Movement, i understand its four percent of black people were with him. Only four percent of black churches so it grew sometimes you got to start small and grow. The National Baptist Convention Kick them out so they starteda new one. But if you start a movement and you can start one yourself , you and five of your friends or three of them or whatever and you can go to whatever organization you belong in with the business of politics, on any of these issues that you care about, and coordinate a strategy with them and send out messages over the internet the way you doing social media and you can sit down with your friends every day which is what we did and strategize on what can we do today. Draw attention to this issue and get a couple people on the hill who have some courage and sense. To introduce legislation that will do what you want. Its not going to pass right now but its to do what you want, which gives you a focus for whatever it is you decide pick from this. And you can spread that movements, ive seen it happen. You can spread thatmovement and we used to do it with mimeograph machines. So i know you can do it with the internet. If you take the time and we all had jobs but we had to work too. And you can do that, i dont mean just you but anybody in here can do this themselves but starting data. And inconsistent. Its like people who start newsletters or the email or whatever it is. I guess my point, absolutely. I guess the point is we saw so many people showing up for marches, all the different marches,womens day marks, anytime a black man was killed by police officers. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people showed up. If there was a coordinated effort for those people to then funnel into, we would see a lot more change in our communities because people dont know what to do. They want to do something but they dont know what to do some of that goes back as well. And anybody who would like, i own a cafc here in the city and we have a dialogue on race every second or monday evening and its the love and Faith Community cafc. Where on 14th street halfway between between columbia, second and fourth days. Thank you, are you going guys enjoying the conversation tonight . Im from politics and prose and were streaming the event on Facebook Live and weve got people were asking questions online. The last question was very similar to the one we just had. This is from frank and he says to the whole panel, what advice would you give to black lives matter . Thank you. I happen to be the mother of two black children. I would say the first thing is to dont ignore the issue of race. Dont make your child just like your children. Teach them that theyre not black, that theyre just human. We are all human, of course we know this but they need to equip their child with history and knowledge and information that will allow them to navigate a racist society in a way in which and something happens to them, and when somethinginevitably will happen to them , they will know that it hasnt happened to them because there is something wrong with them. They will know that happened to them because its something horribly wrong with society. That is the best method that you can give your children. Another thing i would suggest , hayden wrote a brilliant book called why all the children put together in the cafeteria. That book is about racial identity development. That book is how many years old. At least 20 years. I read that when i was, many many years old but its so relevant. I would suggest now what were and raising black children, i would really suggested. Because its very important to understand that what we struggle with in this country as it relates to race is something that we like to kid ourselves and say were not racists. Its a racist society and it is, they see it in magazine, they see on tv, they see it in videogames. It permeates our society. So it infuses itself into them. So they then do either their privileged to something or complete rejection to other things based on that. We have to raise our children in that truth so they dont take it personally. Im going to pass on this one. Hold on. I wrote a book on that topic and life, reality happens. I have two little girls. We are in multiple and their school was a factor. I would be in this about matters of race and not talking about it inmy own home. I had to tell them about what was happening in life but i told him there is hope. Reality means not sugar and spice, everything is not nice. So i had to reality forced me. I think we have to tell them with love and hope because when you talk about race, it comes from one of the most Sacred Places. You can have all the laws and legislation in the world after that what happens its a heart issue. It comes from one of the most Sacred Places so i think in all parents , they have a responsibility to influence their children, i dont care what color you are. We have to do that and tell me about some way as a parent that you had to deal with this. Im not the parent of any children, black children are like children but from your research , the reality is part of the work ive done about telling the stories of the people are at the center of the touch points in history, sitting in the living room at walter scott family as there watching the video of walter scott being killed. There watching this in their front lawn and there in the living room on the television and again, i think thats important. Sometimes you have these conversations and youre removed from the the philosophical ways and the reality is, this is pat the reality of parenting, i understand a problack side race is not a theoretical or black and brown america. Theory could be debated, is not a philosophical class but rather its an ever present reality and it has the potential and possibility of impacting every interaction over whether or not its somehow impacted. I think thats important. The only other thing ill say on that is its important and this is true for all of us to remember what we dont know. And not to be foolish enough to believe that we can comprehend someone elses experience or vice versa. I remember in the class and Charles Mills in this idea that there is an etymology of immigrants. And this intersects with intersection allergy, what we know about kind of the laboring of oppression in inequity. Is that a white man or someone with heteronormative gender and sexuality had their experiences so structured and so influenced by the fact that they are part of a Privileged Group that they are removed from ever being able to understand what it would be like otherwise and vice versa, a black american who has had this ever present league of race on them for the entirety of their life is never going to be able to comprehend what it must be like to have never really thought about what that look like or interacted so i think in this moment where we can all, you asked me a question, ill look at my phone and ill be smart in this moment where we feel as if we know everything about everything or you can figure it out, sometimes we have to remember that there are experiences that we dont quite get and we should shut up and listen while other people talk. If you look up things on wikipedia, most of the times whats on their soul but anyway, all i wanted to say was to the parent of the white children, dont let your child read things that end up telling them how hopeless everything is. No matter how wellwritten it is, beautifully written it is, if they dont give you some direction at the end about then you might try to do or how you might overcome or just to say well child, now you can do the word, thats it. Thats not the kind of thing you want to let your child read and you should never let your child believe that racism doesnt affect almost everything. Because your child will be not armed, i dont mean they should go around punching everybody but with a chip on their shoulder but at least be prepared whether youre buying a house or somebody tells you that the house is worth more than you can pay when they just told somebody else less than that, that happened to me recently. Other things even in this day and age, so that they are prepared to be speaking like a white person to try that out so these are things that you should arm the child. Very quickly, i noticed you said talked about reading. Theres so many culturally sensitive materials available for parents and i would say to this white parent to make sure there are books of African Americans and other people of color, thatthere are dolls , that there is history and that you talk about the history and youre going to have to as a white parents indicate and many white parents that ive dealt with in the context of years ago, i worked very hard to propose the ability of white parents to adopt black children with the National Association of black social workers because there are challenges in terms of personal appropriation. What i would say is if a white person wants to adopt a black child, they need to be prepared to do cultural immersion. They need to be prepared to learn and they need to be prepared to then speak out. If your bougie and white, put your child in jack and jill. You may not want to do it but for africanamerican organizations. But if you dont know what jack and jill is, its a bougie lack organization that basically, it was to have kids hang out together so black kids would hang out. But there are other types of organizations and you could speak out to other black kids, especially living in the suburbs or somewhere where youre not around a bunch of black kids, your child to a black church and run them up and down the aisles. Then have the opportunity to experience that, doesnt mean you have to do that. Dontnecessarily taken the church area. We got another question. Youre going to get in trouble with these. Okay, i have many questions. So i understand what you say and at the same time, all these lofty goals that is interesting and all but it misses the point. Doesnt donald, do you know him, the other donald. Hes in baltimore and i took him. William Donald Schaefer . Know, hes a student. Hes a donald and in baltimore, came from a place and he told me people around him always like to hang around. Hang around. Donald, ill do you want to do research . He says yes. He said its an important university, donald. Thefamily , and like you he produces many size donald. How you do this with these examples, the teachers resigned. He said this is the important thing, how do you do that . How people are doing searches thank you for the question. Part of it though is what you did with your donald. Each one takes one. There are organizations in dc , the Learning Center that former first lady has founded where kids are having amazing opportunities. But part of it also the challenge is that the city has made a decision, i remember when the center was founded because i helped with one of the proposals. We looked at the numbers, there was one Regulation Center for every2700 kids in southeast dc. One Recreation Center for every 900 kids in word city so somebody made a decision that some area was going to get resources and some area was not getting resources but while the individual touches are important, whats also important is for us to make decisions about who gets resources and who gets access. Thats why the question i raised earlier about these endowments, these endowments of these highflying institutions is important because many more of these young people will want to have the opportunity to go to acu. Many of these are not prepared to give the Financial Aid that we need to get to our young people. Were talking practice. Evas mentors, everybody here putting their hands on people , putting our hands on people because we believe in transformation but even as we believe in transformation individually, we believe the Public Policy that makes a difference. We can advise people , your question is a very good one because while we are working on some of these policies and everybody in this room wants to do something toresist and so on and we should , if people were to take without doing it , were to take one child center or one child to go help in the community or do something, it would help at that level. Doesnt mean its going to change the world but its an important point. And i think that everyone should try to do that in their own personal life, not for the person theyre helping but for themselves. Thank you so much. Yes sir. This is been a very informative conversation, im trying to get as many people as we can i want to say im honored to be able to hear all your stories tonight. Its really inspirational for me to see that just the groundwork you guys have laid, as a young person to who hears a lot about social justice, i want to say that another thing i see is an allblack panel or as im a white kid who iss is gender, fairly affluent, straight, weve never had to worry about where his next meal has come from and whos received the benefits of what we call worldclass education. And the moral values that my mother gave me as a kid have been just thrown into shock as ive realized that systems that are in place and have helped me in my family succeed have been what you called an octopus of destruction which i think about as a hierarchical district when you cut off one hand, 10 more pop up so im wondering instead of feeling guilty if you could give me some ways that i could leverage, some ways i could leverage my privilege into being a more productive activist. I watched you back there taking notes. Thats the first piece, being here, speaking, telling your truth and wanting to learn. I agree with that and also, know that wherever you want to go stand handinhand and sidebyside with other people who are organizing, mentoring, or helping in whatever way they can in their community, you will be accepted. Dont feel like you have to sort of weight on the outside. Where you see that there is help and you see people in their doing the work, join in. You will be welcome. Their privileged to leverage against injustice. Theres a huge story, one of my people was at kinkos and the person behind the counter went around her to serve a young white woman. The young white woman saidno, she was next. She stood there and said, she stood up for her just being in order. Look at those guys in portland, im not suggesting you get yourself killed but im saying that they chose to stand up. So you can do it in ways that some other folks cant. When you look at the, not the occupy the focus against the world bank, a lot of people didnt see a lot of students of color in those protests. Somebody was not going to bail them out of jail necessarily. They cannot afford to miss a semester of school, you can. Im not suggesting you put your whole self on the line but , maybe i am. Im suggesting you think about ways that your privilege could become an asset to the movement. Thank you so much. Next question. [applause] my question is particularly about race. There was an open letter to the dnc, black women saying that listen, you use us for your grassroots organizing and together, when are you going to recognize us for what we can contribute here, not just to the Democratic Party but the country at large so do you all, your thoughts on that. Im going to Say Something really fast. I guess julie and i might agree with this. One, we view our community with money people and the unfortunate thing is when you look at the black community, they dont see an investment. They dont see by the zip code that shows that they are able to put their kids in a nicer school. And i go back to the convention, i think of the black mothers or mothers of the movement. Dating, they were on the road the whole time but when im talking about the mothers, im talking about the mother of eric garner whois still looking for justice over a son who cried out 11 times that i cant breathe. So the question is now, how much more are you going to take . Thats the question, what you do now. You just say okay, im writing letters. What are we talking about here. Im saying this is a reporter, when people make moves in number, consistently, persistently, they see it. Those women marched around, those few women arched around that saturday, it was so upsetting to them, sean spicer came to the podium. Im serious, becausethe numbers matter, the numbers were massive. Just in this town, it was globally. But april you know africanamerican women 94 or 96 not sure voted democrat in this election. Yet our power our strength has gone unrecognized in the Democratic Party of the couple of young sisters ran for vice chair were not elected. Could be appointed have not been appointed now i know theyre trying to figure it all out but we have been the most loyal, the loyalists of the Democratic Party and we have not been rewarded thereof. None of us have prepared or few of us have prepared to sit out an election and maybe thats what it takes. You of us are prepared to set not going to vote in this election because im tired ofk being taken advantage of. Congrs women was pounded in 1984 in San Francisco, when reverends jackson ran for president , the tension between black and white women were such that that organization was founded. And the even though africanamerican women have been loyalist, loyalist loyalist that loyalty has been not recognized as i told young brother who came to the mic with riff ledge and talked about how to do with his privilege white women, white democrats have to be able to speak up for black women even as we speak up for ourselves. I saw the letter was right on time. But Julianne Julianne maybe they should but they dont most of the time. And, in fact, its all right for us to say that women should ive been in all of these situations where they wont speak up for black think of some other color now because other people you know black is not in vogue. So that theres a problem. And so i think that youre correct Democratic Party lets be blungt about it takes black people for granted. They have done it for if a long time, and we doapght have to not vote. Its too painful to talk about were not going to after people who died this and that and others Third Party Candidate and i voted and one of my friends names [laughter] theres that. One vote and i didnt immediate to vote for her but i think what we need to do so stop, figure out a way to not be taken for granted no matter what we say or what we do, the Democratic Party leadership and the structure and i know it because ive been in administration that sat around listening to people talk. They know that theyre going to get our votes. They assume theyre going get our votes and when people take you for granted theyre not going to do anything for you and thats a problem. I want to say i was one of the people involved with that letter, and that need to be the beginning of a longer strategy. Heres the reality. Not only have we been the most loyal demographic to the Democratic Party for decades but number within voters in america for the past several elections. So we vote. So weve also ran some amazing black women, but those same black women dont get sprouter from Additional Party structures so we invest in an organization that does not invest in us. And i think that is time to think about redirecting dollars, to support us and tell democrat and at the same time continue to put them on blast in numerous ways. Because they like to talk a good became. Right . But when it comes to what actually happens, its like crickets look at the contracting that the dnc held look at who they spend their money on look at who they hire to do polls to do consulting. Its not us. But they cant win an election without us. So if nothing else, divest from the Democratic Party. Find several ways to embarrass them at every opportunity, the letter being just one. I mean, there could be protesting from the dnc. Exactly. [laughter] ill come. Exactly, theres time. That should be the beginning and it shouldnt end until question see some real change. Thank you so much. But im going to ask you this, and im going to say this too. Before a couple of months before the election, the rmc ftion try to get the black vote, they had wess you remember this they have black journalist coming into the rnc talking about oh, you know, crump is speaking this now. But hes going to have to use our our data so he can win, guess what . So hold one Party Accountable. Thats true im not suggesting what you hold one Party Account public. Voted for thats why. But i understand but money to. Ingdz, i understand but i think if youre in democracy all sides need to permanent friends, equity. Thank you so much. Im white democratic woman and i have spoke up for miernghts and will again and im sure there are more of us. But our unified movement i read recently that some of Bernie Sanders supporters have fund an Organization Called our revolution, and to work for economic and political change so people might want to check into that and im sure its not even though it might come are from largely democratic roots, i dont, i dont think its strictly aligned with Democratic Party. So i want to recommend optimistic note we finally have hall richmond, california fourth largest city in california, which has minority population majority, minority population through community action, labor group, et cetera made substantial changes in their city. So steve early town in addition to books all of you are for sale yes. Thank you for that so much. Yes, maam, you are the last question. Yes, maam. You mentioned the word, predatory capitalism and its intrigued me. And my question is if you peel away the onion, what are the root what are root cause or root causes of predatory capitalism my opinion i could be wrong i want to know if im wrong or if perhaps im on the right track is number one, predatory capitalism is driven by the fact that we have dont have Campaign Finance reform. Citizens united has expanded and given life to predatory capitalism. So we can put regulations in place but really the root cause is the amount of money if we look at other first world countries, and compare those countries to how we operate as a socalled democracy, we have unfettered access to money in our socalled democracy. I believe the root cause and also the fact that the right have coopted narrative and have equated democracy with capitalism. And so our constituency, our citizenship has we no longer understand civic, our civic adult and we actually believe that had democracy equals predatory capitalism. So i would like to hear your take on that. Well thanks, thanks for the question. We have become more predatory even prior to Citizens United if you look at the cycle of recession and recovery. One of the things that youll find is that lets say 1973 recovery. About and by number manies are rough because i dont have them in front of me but u roughly 60 of the benefit of the economic recovery wngt to the bottom 90 . While the other 40 went to top 10 . Now when most recent socalled recovery which theoretically began in 2009, haha. But in that particular recovery, the bottom 90 lost 10 and top 10 gained 115 . So question basically from the 70s on have seen basically again, Citizens United a factor. But not the factor. We have basically seen a narrative thats been driven by the ability to wedges between people. So you have these working class white people as if there are no working class black people but white people who believe that all of these black people have all of this stuff. That the government is provided now, understand that well pair or food stamps were black programs these programs would not exist. But you have they just wouldnt be. Only people who got these programs. But you have these white folks who believe the that narrative theye everything. We have nothing our tax money is going for them and they wont even work and half of them came across border with anchor baby, and, i mean, this is narrative but this is believed. So we people have been able to use race and et thinksty ethnicity as a wedge to maintain basically be deregulatory focus that money and other money essentially support. But you have point but i think deeper than that and you have to put the race piece in there poop thank you. Diewpght to add something . No, and yes we have our dear friend were going to have ones last, really fast. Thank you so much april, and also congratulations on your upcoming award of National Journalist of the year so shall have us do read. You know, needless to say we cant say enough about mary Francis Barry and other panelist as well. But this is a very powerful panel and ive been to all of your series, and it needs to go on the road. But i would also say with the National Congress [laughter] not just from the perspective of politics and pros, and i was a member of National Congress of black women black activist women and with my mentor Steve Dolores tucker how we miss her but we live in a celebrity culture theres no celebrity in the panel signature here, and it seems to me it was about video with music with other people that you would bring along, and with the harry who has been here by the way, you know, with i adore him. But you have to reeducate the young people. This is who they are. This is who was in the struggle. I can still visualize and other people being trained in the movement and how to deal with knots upside your heads and protect women an training them how to hold their bodies so that they cannot be injured. In the midst area, there was a time when a panel like this, there would have been a list for people to sign up. And for somebody to be able to take it and to do something with it. And self of us advocating for more. And just as i challenge you to get 45 to the National Museum of national africanamerican history and he did go that week. For five dinners. I think it was like two hours but two hours but we challenged a whole day need a lot in that. Absolutely. No it is not enough [laughter] thank you here a lot of people here saying that wasnt me. More is needed so where do you go from here to do more . You know, i think that activist spirit this mind youve got this had. Youve got it right here. The more i think the cafe her cafe i saw some people go over there. Thats why celebrities, you are the people. But here youve got mary francis at the cafe but as this, as someone im taking any journalistic hat off. Im a black woman in america. No kidding [laughter] no kidding im a black woman in america. One up in baltimore, and i understand the polite of baltimore but i also understand all economic levels and i think the best way for me as a journalist as subjective journalist understanding who i am and having the relationships with these amazing people, to bring them to you. These are my friends. And i bring them to you because they have something important to say. Yes, they do. I think once you hear from them we take it out into your community and talk have tea with your friends. You know, or have a girls group together have a book club with each one of the books, and you spread it out. Those are just few things that you can do this is not just a moment but weve done politic and pro so forward thinking. This is fifth and im sure were going to do more. You make a difference. You make a difference believe me. When i say it starts with you ive seen it from the crazy lofty perch which i work every day. You make more of a difference than you know. So being here discussing the knowledge and understanding the each one has it is to part you to go into the community and do with it which you must so i think for me as a journal youve done your job. Follow barry anywhere, and that for every women who would do it like wise amen so im just saying. Just saying just saying. [laughter] i know were winding down i want to lift up the name of Second Lieutenant richard kolins the third by the university of the yanked student. Reason i lift him up is because i think it is important to note that we have had very Little National conversation about this. Speaker ryan talked about what happened in manchester im surgery not equating the two. But on facebook she went on social media julianne went talking about this case. Listen this this first of all, the fbi is investigating a hate crime. Investigating when you look at where this boy has come from and all right things that hes on and fact that he and his friends are tweeting saying things about if you what if you mess with a crab you got a stab. Really it is really frightening. But its amazing that that man we know now can read a teleprompter could not on memorial day say anything about this young man who agreed to get basically to he had a commission in the army. Paul ryan called for a moment of silence on the floor of the congress for manchester, good. But lets call for a moment of silence for this victim of domestic terrorism and lets deal when we talk about terrorism lets talk about this. [applause] i mean, i cried i would not cry that often when i walked by albert teal casket and hes done everything right, and he squeaky clean but i pray for them every day but this is what black mothers and fathers go through when their children leave the house. This is why young people are being caught to be humble you know this is why any momma says im glad youre not male with my temper you would have been gone. I would have been gone a long time ago. But in any case it is a rightening situation and we have conscience have to continue to lift this young man up. As you said when wroa call the role of the folks who have been killed his name belongs in that role. And then other question we have to ask is who raised him . How did they raise him and what did they talk about at the dinner table. How did this person 20, you know, all of the races i dont mind. I mind them but if youre 80 and racist youre about to be up out of here that i. But you know, when youre 20 youre a race arist it is very troubling to me because where did you get that from . Youll be around for a while. Thats learned. Have you enjoyed this evening . [applause] even as you leave or buying our book i want you to hashtag race in america and have concluding statement and activist friend mary Francis Barry. Hallelujah. [applause] well, i guess only thing i would say is, obviously, race schism not over so you can have plenty of these programs and that what we do about it is not something that is clearer now than it was before. But when we think about the young man julianne was talking about i can think of all of the black soldiers who were in the military who came home from the war and were killed in their hometown when is they got off the train. Just because they had on a uniform. And that it happen haded in world war i it happened in world war ii. And added something that we confront and face every day, and racism and talking about it is in this room but may not be many vogue anywhere else and certainly not in the white house but it is something that will keep us busy working and thats what we should do. Davis jones we agree, and i have to say that i think one thing what we need to be real about at this moment is that there is a rise in hate groups and hate violence. Hatebased violence throughout this nation. And that is particularly disturbing is as you mentioned theres this reluctance of call it what it is, terrorism and to really prosecute it at the level that it should be prosecuted. Im mother of two sons and you know, i hope im doing the right thing but you know, obviously, we all have the talk. But also teach my makes my friends have marshal arts training because imght them to be able to help themselves. Thank you for joining us a knew bee on the panel. Sitting here trying to listen and a not talk that much. But one thing i would say is many closing is important we talked multiple times about important knowledge and of reading, and so this would be my plug is one of the media members up here. At a moment like this our press and media is very important. I think many of us overtime have gotten out of the habit of paying for our journalism as well as to giving that engaged feedback to our journalism i think in molts like this whether it is so much attention, but often whats happening at the white house. That can come at the expense of attention happening what is happen hadding in state house and city hall and our neighbor. Reality is that way our government or lack of government or change many it affects most human beings and you know short of us being attacked nuclearly comes with change in the policy. Comes with the shift or the closing of the civil rights offings and department of labor, and you know, these types that type of journalism is difficult, it is not always a sexy. It is not being were going to get there smoking to bring trump down but you see this thing that was benefiting people, and so as, you know, i was asked or i had the opportunity to talk to readers is that you would be engidged in that journalism and apply the pressure. Cheer us on as we report are on things happening in or politic but hold to fire as well and insist that we cover important things happening in main street and mlk drive as well as whats happening on pennsylvania avenue. Thank you. Julianne i would say once again thank you everybody uplifting for me. Im a cynic by nature. And this room gives me hope. It gives me hope to see the number of white people who are in the room. Who voluntarily came into the room to talk about race, which a lot of white folks dont want to talk about that some of you will start running from the store but as you know, a lot of white folks will not voluntarily talk about race so this givers me hope that folks are willing to give up a couple of l hours of their evening to do that. It gives me hope to see a little boy over there that somebody brought a young man in how are you doing im glad youre here, and we need to think about who we bring into the room with us, and that young people can can hear this. Can process this, can participate many many it. Oftentimes we want to shield young folks from these kind of conversations, but fifth graders tell their classmates theyre beginning to get them deported unless they didnt have the right kind of conversations at home. So i leave this and some of yall might be on my Facebook Page so they think im angry black woman. I am. [laughter] youre my neighbor i live off 1th street in gender i central, so i have attitude but im angry black woman that hopes for a better world and turn pain into power by working with others to make sure that we do have a better world and so i wish we could see rooms like this replicated in lots of places. Thank you all for coming out. Im going to say this concern youve had a great, great audience and this is very important to continue these conversations because listening tonight, just 100 and 30some days in is it, oh. I didnt say, she said it. But this so manies to be a great disease and discontentment from a majority of people. And what i would say talk amongst yourselves. Figure this out. You can figure it out. You have to figure this out. Its about you. We can talk about what we know but its all about you. Its all about you. And what i would encourage nou to do get together with each other. This is julianne said this is one of the most diverse crowds talking about race on a continual basis some of the faces ive seen before here. And we encourage you to keep coming and bring someone else. This is an important conversation race touches almost every facet of herk. America. This president is totally different from the last when i say that when it comes to race we have seen rubber band expand throughout history. And some would say now theres been recoiling in in the rubber band has even broken so i encourage you to stay tuned. Because i believe were going to have another series another series. But i want the you to take what youve learned from each one of the panelists and move on and figure out how you are going to effect change in your community it all started from a conversation that i had with harry so now what are you going to do with this an what are you going to do with what you learned want to . What are you going to do . Not about us, its about you, and tonight i want to thank mary Francis Barry author of five dollars and a pork chop sandwich and the corruption of democracy. Give her a big round of applause. [applause] dr. Eva jones how exceptional black women lead, give her a big round of applause. [applause] Wesley Lowery author of they cant kill us all Ferguson Baltimore and a new era of americans Racial Justice movement. [applause] and last and not least, dr. Julianne, the author of are are we better off race obama and policy policy, and with that, i thank you all for this segment of our race conversation with college and our books are up for sale. We are signing books so buy them, full of knowledge thank you c. Span youre awesome. Thank you politics and pros you are the best bookstore ever. Thank you guys. Have a great evening. Have a great evening. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] tonight on after words, utah republican senator mike lee talks about forgotten historical figures who fought against Big Government in his book written out of history. He is interviewed by former acting solicitor general. When youre on the lookout they come to gradually. Ask friends, of the people i knew who they thought should get more credit than they did. Thithis is an earthquake indian chief and understood iroquois. I was intrigued by that from the outset because he is not a name most americans know anything about. And yet he had a profound impact on our system of government. Hes the guy who enabled Benjamin Franklin to learn about federalism and he was the conduit for which this information flowed through the rest of the counter. He made his way first in the articles of confederation. Watch tonight at nine eastern on cspan2s booktv. Heres a look at some of the current bestselling nonfiction books according to powells books in portland, oregon. As franklin matured as president particularly during the war years, he had two escapes. There was hyde park. He would come your he could really feel like this was his home. He could relax, indulge in his passions walking the woods, seeing birds, having his friends over, being with his books, with his fans. This is a place he really was comfortable. Welcome to hyde park, new york, on booktv. Located along the hudson river about 90 miles north of new york city its the home data president Franklin Delano roosevelt. Its here where he lived in his families