Youd like for speakers to answer click the like button. Well try to answer as many questions as time will allow also consider supporting our bookstore in the authors work by purchasing a copy of todays featured book the black agenda. And just click on the green purchase button directly below the viewer screen. Itll take you the booksoups website and you can continue your checkout process without interrupting your video stream. Now a few words about our featured guests Michael Tubbs is the special advisor to california. Governor gavin newsom for economic mobility. Hes the founder of mayor. Hes the founder of mayors for a guaranteed income in the founder of and poverty in california or epic. In 2016. He was elected mayor of stockton at 26 years old. He is the citys first africanamerican mayor and the youngest mayor of any major city in american history. As merit hubs was lauded for his leadership and innovation. He raised over 20 Million Dollars to create the stockton scholars a universal scholarship in Mentorship Program for stockton students. Additionally. He piloted the first mirrorled guaranteed income pilot in the country. Under his leadership stockton was named in all American City in 2017 in 2018 by the National Civic league the city saw a 40 drop in homicides in 2018 and 2019 led by the state of california who led the state of for any of the decline of officer involved shootings in 2019 and was then named the second most fiscally healthy city in california. Additionally this was recognized as one of the most fiscally healthy cities in the nation and featured in hbo documentary film titled stockton on my mind. Tubbs has been named a fellow at the Harvard Institute of politics and the Mit Media Lab a number of fortunes top 40 under 40 a forbes 30 under 30 allstar. Alumni the most valuable mayor by the nation the 2019 new frontier award winner from the jfk library in the 2021 civic Leadership Award winner from the king center. Prior to his tenure as mayor tubbs served as a Council Member for the city of stockton district 6 a High School Educator and a fellow for the stanford Design Studio school in the Emerson Collective on november 16th. 2021 teves released his first book the deeper the roots and then more of hope and home published by the flatiron book. Blueprint and oprah book this was selected as and the book was also described by the la times as intamin and insightful not only relates tub story growing up in poverty, but lays his vision for leadership and policy that is more empathetic and responsive to people who are struggling. Thanks for being with us, michael. Who think that long bio . Thats so terrible. Very impressive. Ive got to say so embarrassed like smiling because they just really say him a book. Im sorry. Im screaming you you about a read my bio here. Not that impressive. No, i dont know the book like because your book is from forgive me. Im sorry. All right and anna gifty opaku agumon is currently a doctoral student studying a Public Policy and economics at the Harvard Kennedy school of government. As well as an alum of umbc where she received her ba in mathematics and a minor in economics. Her work has been featured in teen vogue the New York Times slate magazine npr fortune marketplace in the guardian. Shes the cofounder of the sadie collective the only Nonprofit Organization addressing the lack of black women and economics and related fields in 2020. She became the youngest recipient for the cedaw womens rights award by the Un Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Also, very impressive. Thank you. So without further ado, im gonna turn the camera over to these guys sit back relax, ask some questions and have a great talk you guys. Thank you. Well, first of all, congratulations, i know youve been on an incredible book tour. Thank you like Keisha Blaine and others. Im talking about this book through the black agenda. So i want to jump right in and for you all watching. Please come ready with your questions. I just i think sort of what and has been doing overall in terms of policy making and black woman voices being centered and particularly around the economy and it is also very interesting. So first question, i remember as a kid i was a nerds. I remember being so excited to read the covenant with black america by tavis smiley like 15 years ago, and it was different but similar in that it was a like collection of thoughts from experts about what were the covenant with black america look like so now between 21 we have this black agenda bold planned for for really censoring those most marginalized to make change. So could you help us walk through the how did you come up with this idea . Because also the timing is so perfect, right . Yeah. Yeah between 21 clearly. So why your process how did you come up with the site . Yeah, why a black agenda in the start there right . Thank you so much for this and thank you so much for being here such an honor just me talking with you. Im really excited. So the black agenda was really born organically sort of at the very very beginning of the pandemic right . So ill take you back to march 2020. Everybodys talking about how covid is absolutely like ripping through communities right now, right and whats happening is theres the conversation thats happening in the nationwide multimedia space right New York Times cnn. Theyre gonna give you up to date coverage about it, but then theres also a separate conversation thats happening over twitter over, you know, things like reddit right where youre seeing black folks who understand disparities in a very intimate way both because theyve lived through it and also have studied it and theyre saying this pandemic going to be catastrophic for black communities and we need to talk about that right and so i know that these two conversations were happening in parallel and therefore well, i noticed was like, okay look if thats the case then we need to have some sort of platform in which these black experts are heard because even though theyre sharing their thoughts here on twitter or here on reddit. Were not necessarily hearing them in the mainstream on the New York Times cnn and stuff like that. And so sorry yall theres a train right outside my window so that means said right. I also simultaneously was getting reached out to to kind of give comments on things like jenna yellen becoming potentially the next secretary the treasury and other economic concepts and i was like, look, im happy to give you my two cents on it, but but just because im the most or one of the more visible people in the field that identifies as a black woman doesnt necessarily mean. Im the most qualified and so i also wanted to sort of think about how do we create a platform that we put forth these qualified experts that people cant seem to find in the the forefront and and see how sort of the public and the media respond to them. And so thats sort of really what went into kind of inspiring this collection and bringing it to life. Absolutely and then in the introduction you say if you are not censoring black expertise youre becoming a vacuum for white rage. Break that down for for me. What what like what does that mean . Right, so those words are actually from dr. Tracy mcmillan cotton who graciously wrote our forward and the idea here is that why rage is really . Its something that explodes when theres not enough perspectives in the room right this idea of flattening individuals to stereotypes funny individuals into harmful beliefs around their culture their their Group Identity etc. And so what dr. Condom is really getting out here. Is that black expertise actually contextualizes a lot of the lived experiences of black and brown people across america, but not only does it do that. It adds the empirical evidence to back up those lived experiences as legitimate as experiences that deserve to be justified and deserve to be seen and so one thing that she talks about in your forward. She says look, clearly, you know certain parts of the media landscape respond only to experts who put forth empirical evidence, which is what makes this book. So unique where we have those individuals actually putting forth the empirical evidence while also holding the lived experience in the same hand, right . So this idea of balancing those two things and thats why you know, i often say look theres a difference between studying racial inequality and actually living through it and we need experts that can do both and thats essentially what that quote is getting at. And in this i mean you can see the book in in 2020. So that is covid19. But also a white supremacist in the white house, right . And now the book is released in 2021 or 2022. Excuse me post. Insurrection black womans the Vice President structural issues with the United States senate Voter Suppression gone. Wild your books probably get banned tomorrow somewhere 100 adding, obviously, so in this moment in 2022. What do you hope this book accomplishes . Like what . What does this book . What do you want this book to do now or what . What do you now from this book . Oh, thats a big question. I will say to contextualize your question or contextualize my answer to your question. I did not think this book was going to be as relevant. Its and seems to be aging well in that its become more relevant, which is not really great. But also good for the experts right . So i think the biggest thing that we want to see come from this book what this book ultimately makes a case for is the value of black life a lot of times when people say black lives matter they say in this way thats like hypothetical. Black lives matter hashtag blm and its all over peoples bio the different captions and stuff. But this book really says no no, black life actually doesnt matter. According to the evidence. And so what this book i hope to see will do is cut through this noise of you know, were not talking just in this lofty way of why black lives matter or why black lives dont matter rather, but were looking to the evidence theyre saying empirically we see that black lives dont matter empirically. We see that its quite literally criminal to be black in america, right empirically. We see black women in particular and black women and children more broadly speaking are undermined by the Healthcare System. In more ways than one right and so when we think about the empirical evidence that lies before us we cannot say that black life matters here and so my hope is that this book would then essentially make a compelling case to policymakers and Decision Makers who are across the country who are making sort of choices about how do we allocate resources . How do we think about different types of solutions that are impacting in shaping our communities . And so, you know, one of the biggest things that ive been kind of thinking about is that a lot of the book talks and book events that i have after this one. There are really with those types of entities that are looking to see how do we implement these solutions in real time and what i love about this book is its very practical and showing us the way to do that. Okay, let me take a moment of personal privilege and say to the your previous answer about sort of lived experience and being married to policy. This picture behind me is like an artistic wondering of a glamor shot a fannie lou hamer. Um, its about sort of. And i think she really epitomized what you talked about to meet your book in terms of being a shared proper poor black woman who understood the political system it was able to do both. I mean articulate solutions to things like cbc at the Democratic Convention to coops and other things based off her lived experience that i think sort of im sure you im dr. Blaine talked about this in your conversation, but i think its in that vein in our legacy serve this book seat. So i just thank you and in your team and all the experts for for the work and what i appreciate about the book is that its a black agenda, but it covers every issue and i remember being a mayor and having to tell people that no that black issues arent just criminal justice issues. I know thats important and right use arent just civil rights issues, although thats okay, but black issues are black issues are every issue in america is a black issue. So can you talk more about sort of i mean, thats the point of book because your articulate more for us and how you came . Why is the black engine so expansive and what does mean towards what you said earlier into the centering black peoples experiences and policymaking. Yes. So to your point right black issues are american issues, right . And americas issues are fundamentally rooted and how black people are valued in this country. And so the way that i thought about sort of the expansiveness of the essay collection was really about it. Its funny how it happened essentially the book ive started off as you know, i want to send her economist. I want to send our policy wants people in the dc space and see sort of how they think about these issues because as the summer of 2020 continue on i recognize that black life was not just being undermined in the economy. It wasnt just being undermine the dc space. It was being undermine everywhere, so you get away from this idea of black life being undervalued from climate or healthcare or wellness or education or technology because as the conversations are building on itself, you know that they were cracks and fissures and all of these different sectors of society if i had it my way i probably would have added a couple more sections such as business and entrepreneurship also would have probably added something that talks about, you know, folks who are in the Service Sector and how they are dealing with some of the issues that come about right . So this idea of black life being undervalued across the board is actually what this book is essentially arguing and so the solutions are very much targeted at saying look if you want to see anything progress in america, you absolutely have to begin with black america. There is actually no other way to go about it because black america is the or among the most underserved populations within the country. And so the way that we thought about a lot of these essays were if you could come up with some ends or outline a problem that you are very familiar with as it relates to black people in america. What would you talk about . And how do those solutions apply broadly and based off of the essays that were written by each individual, you know contributor or folks who decide to coauthor these individuals are not talk to each other by the way before coming together in these sections these sections essentially organically emerged from those essays, right . We had a couple essays about climate. We had a couple essays about health, but health intersecting with technology, so kind of bringing these things together and kind of showing that you know, what was great. Is that one section refer to another section another section will refer to another section, right . So, for example, youll youll see a constant stream of criminal justice in every single section of the book. Youll see a constant stream of how our black women viewed and every single section of the book, right . So this idea that a lot of these issues are intersectional by nature and so you need folks who understand intersectional solutions at the helm of these conversations. And what i want to pivot a little bit and talk about sort of the implications or the application of this work particularly. Were having a conversation. I know that your economist the economy is your thing. So were conversation now. Yeah about where the indicators we should use show that the economys recovery. Where the indicators we should use to show that the covid19 pandemic is behind us at least it impact. So can you talk particularly about sort of the black agenda for the economy in terms of where the indicators we should be looking at to show the health of the economy and where are some of the recommendations spelled out in the book or in the book in your own kind of work that speaks to what a black agenda for the economy will look like yes, so, you know, thankfully my work builds on the work of the individuals of the books i can talk about about both in tandem, right . I do the first thing to note is that what is happening with black populations in the economy oftentimes . Its a precursor to whats going to happen to the nation. We saw this in 2008 with the financial crisis. Yes. I was in fifth grade. However, ive done my research and black economists mentioned this time and time again folks were warning the fed the Federal Reserve bank or Federal ReserveBanking System rather which manages the health of our economy that look were seeing a ridiculous amount of foreclosures in our community. Were seeing part of dory loans happening in our community. Were seeing all of these economic breakdowns happening in our community. Something is about the drop right some things about to happen and the fed ignored them and then we got 2008 right . So that being said, economic indicator, really how are economy is faring begins with black people . How are black workers doing . How are black women doing . Whos entering in an exiting the labor force . And for those who dont know the labor force essentially is whether or not somebody has been looking for work the last three weeks. That means theyre unemployed or theyre currently working right if people leave that entire group of people. That means that theyre no longer looking for work and theyre no longer working and thats a bad thing for everyone. Right . So this idea of looking at how black workers are doing how black individuals are doing. Where is Economic Relief being allocated right . Because if youre saying that youre providing Economic Relief to Small Businesses, but those Small Businesses are largely controlled by white and nonblack individuals, then those who are most marginalized within the business sector are not getting what they need, right . We saw a lot of reports about, you know, certain businesses capitalizing on that kind of loophole of oh we can kind of you know, certain type of business and get a higher pp pvp wont excuse me. So then, you know raise our revenue when in fact black businesses and many minority women owned businesses are led by black women in particular were were struggling right . And so its really important to recognize that, you know a lot of times whats happening with black folks in the economy is the best indicator of what its going to happen with the nation one thing i wanted to know for you there is an essay in the book by kyle kyle moore and it says look the black Unemployment Rate has always been nearly double the white Unemployment Rate for the past 50 years, so we cannot say anymore that the Unemployment Rate going down is an indicator for everybodys unemployment going down because we saw that there was quote unquote a positive trend meaning that the Unemployment Rate declined in january. However, we saw black womens Unemployment Rate rise, right and this is actually again very much in line with what was happening in. Under 9 to 2011 following the Recovery Period of the financial crisis where it seemed like black women in particular were being left behind in all of the Recovery Efforts that were being done with respect to the economy. One other thing that i want to mention here as well is that you know, there is a concept a framework that i love to talk about. Its by Janelle Jones is coined by her the essays written by her and angela hanks. But by the way, Janelle Jones is someone who actually made history recently as the first black woman to be the chief of commerce of the department of labor. So you want to understand whats the indicator for the economy. This is the person that you want to talk to and essentially she says look theres a thing called black woman best. It says the best outcome for black woman is a better outcome for everyone else. And so if you think about all the indicators with that in mind, then you will be able to determine whether or not the economy is actually working for all. And theres so much good stuff in the book from Climate Change you criminal justice before to voting rights. Um excited etc healthcare. Etc i guess i want to hear so moving from policy to politics. So whats the how do we get the implement it like like the experts know what works . I know my frustration has always been the disconnect between what works and whats implemented or whats worked and whats legislative. So what any ideas or thoughts about what will it take . Maybe ive been Cliff Albright gives us some in his chapter. But like what will it take to allow us to actually see this for a better country nice for black people but for everybody yeah, i think it will take a radical humility on the part of Decision Makers and stakeholders right this idea that you do not know. In fact, there is a lot to learn and black folks should really be at the helm of those conversations. And so beyond just inviting these types of black experts into your space. You actually have to look at the solutions that theyre proposing. Ill give you an example. So the climate chapter dr. Marshall shepherd who is a meteorologist and was the president of the mirological association nationwide some years ago says look hurricane. Katrina was a glitz. Okay. Its a how bad the climate crisis. Can have on communities of color in particular . And so we need to start thinking specifically about how the racial wellcap plays a role in that because ultimately how much money you have. How much wealth you have determines where you live and where you live unfortunately determines the kind of resources that are funneled into your community and that ties directly into what sandy dairy talks about where he says look we need to implement something of an economic bill of rights where there are certain things that every single individuals entitled to just because theyre an american citizen, right . So one of those things that he mentions is a federal job guarantee and this is something thats actually currently being kind of pitched in congress by congresswoman. Ayana presley where she says look everybodys entitled to a wellpaying federal job if they need it, right and so thats the first thing he also says look we need to make sure that our Banking Systems and our postal system are strong we have that whole curfew with the postal system last year right where you know, there was a lot of Politics Around know how does it operate in . Who is it serving . Um, wed ensure that that is something that is strong. So people need things like covid test kids right like its not gonna be this whole thing that impacts whether or not theyre able to get something that helps their health right one other thing that he mentions too is that we need a National Health insurance system, right . And this is something that again going from policy to politics. How do you implement Something Like that . You need radical humility from those who are empowered, but you also needed a huge infusion of black expertise to be in every single part of that process. So of course you have been a mayor of a wonderful town in california, we need more individuals like you we dont want to hear any more about black folks making history every single ten years right there needs to be black people literally in the fabric of how were thinking about policy making in america. And so i think that is really how we get these solutions into becoming something that feasible and is in practice, right . How do we ensure that black folks are at the end of the day and ill say this black folks who center other black folks you have black folks in power who dont set her black votes who are undermining black folks. Thats not who im talking about. Im talking about black folks who care about black votes right being in every single level of power and being able to essentially recognize where can we implement some of these solutions in a way that can actually impact American Families across the board. And i know youre but the discussion guy that came with the book. Yes. Theres a question that finally harder for you to answer because i actually which ones your favorite children. But what what chip is three or if you have three in magic wand and you had three policy solutions from this book that you can implement as a start not gonna solve everything. Thats a start. What would be the three . He wrote the piece too. So the folks. Sorry. Sure. Let me let me go ahead and pull that up. I would say perhaps my first one would be im the name of this community. Sorry. My first one would be probably to hear duckett. I would start off with that. So do your ducky talks about abolition, but he talks more specifically about the disinvestment in policing and more investment in Community Oriented solutions that address why individuals are more likely to be incarcerated or even when theyre incarcerated those effects of incarceration right then but actually keep them in the system. He talks about how look whats happening with the criminal Justice System is carcel, right . Like i dont know if i even said that word correctly, but the idea that inhumane its theres the the one thing about the criminal justice chapter when i was taking my notes is that its just statistics. The problems are just facts. Theyre just facts, right . You know, you have individuals, for example, ill say this in 2017 2. 15 Million People were in prison, right . Um, black men are two to three times more likely to be killed by the police compared to the white man and black women are 1. 4 times more likely than white woman out of 17,500 Police Killings between 2005 and 2021 only 140 Police Officers were indicted on murder or manslaughter charges. Im just listening facts. These are not even opinions, right . So this idea of criminal justice being one of the biggest core ways to move forward and how we think about it as you can imagine, right . The other thing i would say is climate which actually surprisingly ties back to criminal classes there is an essay by Abigail Thomas where she connects whats happening with the Climate Movement broadly speaking to whats happening with the criminal justice movement. And again, she says look how were thinking about the Climate Movement is a great start, but we need to be more intersectional about some of the solutions that are being proposed. It cannot be just be straight up white leaders and they kind of movement who are leading this conversation when we know that indigenous black and brown communities are going to be disproportionately affected by what happens with this climate crisis. We need to think about how those communities have handled it in the past use those solutions then to inform how we think about it today and then also find ways to figure out how other systems of oppression tie into the environmentalist movement. So in her essay, she really gets up the fact that building prison is actually increases carbon admissions deep. You know, thats crazy. Right and the other fact is you know, you have multiple i would say hundreds of prisons both federal and state that are built right next to environmentally toxic waste sites. Why are we talking about this right . So these are some of these issues that overlap with criminal justice that are directly typed the Climate Movement that i havent really heard much about so, i think thats one thing i would say. The last thing i would say is that you know, i believe the children are our future. To teach them well and let them lead the way right and so my when my favorite essays that i argue my most favorite essay is by dr. Lauren them where she talks about the brilliance of black girls, and she accounts for a experience that she had in the classroom where she, you know had a number of of different black girls in the room. Some of them came from more. I would say complicated backgrounds, right . They, you know, there was different difficulties that they were facing in their lives and she asked them why theyre here. Why are you here . Why do you think youre here and they start yelling out disparaging things about themselves because im a single mother right . Like they said in the negative way, right because im not talented because im not are and so she lets them shut out all of these harmful beliefs of themselves and then afterwards she says she takes the chocolate she just starts. To cross them out on the board one by one replacing them with you know, if you say im a single mother your mother with priorities you want to get your education. You say youre somebody who is disruptive in class you have opinions. You ought to be heard and this actually literally transformers in real time how those black girls view themselves. Oh, so you mean that this is a special program for for black girls who are really interested in school. Shes like, yes, exactly. Right . And so i think that that essay but sigler gets up the fact that the way that we bring up black folks in the Education System is fundamental to how they view themselves beyond the Education System. And so that being said, i really saw myself in that essay when i was, you know, reading it but more importantly i saw the solution being its in its not enough to to say that i im not racist or to say that im anti racist or to say that black lives matter. Its it requires that black life literally be valued right from infancy, right that be a constant reminder. Are so many other things fighting against that so those are three i would pick absolutely and suppose you watching. Were almost at the time were gonna take some audience q a. So please for free to type in your question. Ill be more than happy to answer them inters them in this conversation. I think everyone should take a breath and recognize and recap some of the things we heard we heard that the black engine is actually a more Perfect Union agenda. Its an american agenda. Its really being dated informed and empirically driven and identifying problems and solutions from where their problems are. And with the solution is also exists and its a team of experts really thinking through so whether things we need to do on a policy level to make this country treat away that says on paper. So again phenomenal work. I appreciate the book. I appreciate that hustle. I know what took to get everyone to write their essays and then turn them in on time right and turned around. I know thats just the beginning um for you in terms of all the things youve already accomplished and whats to come and we have a question from and audience the trees hayler trees and the question is if humility and the courage the center black needs are key ingredients for policy change. How optimistic are you . We will see meaningful change anytime soon. Whoa, its a its a good question. I actually also want you to answer the question michael if you dont mind. Yeah, i would say im pretty optimistic and i think its because im young. And you know, im actually on the cusp of the millennial generation and gen z so i call myself a millennial in that like i encompass both sort of mentalities about where were headed and where were going. I think the next generation gives me a lot of hope and you know people have asked me about this. I spoke to a group of High School Students a couple weeks ago and you know, all of them showed up one they didnt have to do that because the virtual but the other thing too, is that a lot of them were incredibly inspired incredibly invigorated by just the speech on you know, Martin Luther king jr. Day where i was basically touching on a lot of these concepts that are illustrated in the book. They know we want to do more we want to get out there. You kind of already see this right the young folks are and ill say im alongside them but like, you know, we are out there. Were protesting were driving change. Organizing and using different means to do that and so i dont know if the folks who are currently living might see meaningful change. Im sustained on you know for for a long time, but i think those who are coming about are actually gonna be the ones that really gonna see it through and my hope is that you know in a generation or so, we will actually have a lot more progress and thinking about how equity should be centered policy and beyond yeah, i think. Pessimism is a luxury right like you sick is like because if youre really on the if youre really living with this stuff you have to fight for a better because they need benefit to survive. Yep, but i think sort of especially between eight years in government and seeing what his country is now i i think anything short of a massive sustained multiyear social Movement Like we saw in the 60s. Its necessary. Its really wake this country up and really to get folks to understand the needs. They do procedural reforms like the boss filibuster expanded some supreme court, um legislative performs like the john rice john lewis voting right tag, and its right. So, i think its really a question of power and how do folks in communities build power and using the black agenda. For example, the organizing tool to build power so that power concedes because power the conceding anything without the man and it can be the man for some weak people. Thats be the man from organized sustained folks or causes comfort who are causing some tension or causing some some of the easiness. So i guess im answering and not answering i think i think we have work to do and i think its easier for me on these to align myself with work when theres an answer. Its hard for me to work and work for answers, but the fact that its clear answers makes it easier the at least for me to summon the energy to really push for like no you guys we know what works. And then we have a couple more questions. Oh nice. Jesse says hey jessie, appreciate your question. Where can we find voting guides that reflect the policy changes suggested in the book . So hes a voting guide you mean how we think about voting or . I take it to me like and maybe maybe the answer is in these. Jesse needs are so many secreted because i think the question is are we have this . Policy agenda and how do we wrap that to what people are who what types of people what who should be voting for i guess is there eventually because albright question there. Is there a black edition of goals guy or it could thats a really great. Thats a really great question. I think that the entities that curly exist around mobilizing lab owners probably do have language around. You know, how do you vote . And how do you think about voting but i think the black agenda in some ways is also a little bit of a voting guide right . This is a litmus test right to see whether or not a candidate an institution an organization a Community Cares about black people. You might not agree with all the solutions in the book, but at least the context for the problems gives you a sense of okay, this problem is pretty bad. How does that compare to what this individual is saying, right . So if a candidates like yeah, like climates like cool or whatever right . Like im not really gonna focus on it. Well, you know, of course the black agenda, you know, according to organizations that like intersectional environmentalists that thats not enough right because we know that black communities are quite literally in hotter neighborhoods and our suffering just proportionately from environmentally toxic waste sites. So you need someone who actually prioritizing that in accordance to what has been laid out in the evidence and the evidence in my opinion begins with this book obviously doesnt end with the book. And then we are another question about in addition to climate and the economy. How does healthcare mental and physical Health Factor into the black agenda and where the super questions the second question is, what are the costs of our Current System for black americans . So theres a couple essays in the wellness chapter that get at this question. So for example, dr. Gervais grooms whos a economist at Howard University talks about Mental Health for black america and basically what she boils it down to is that we cannot progress as a country if we do not invest heavily in Mental Health infrastructure, and she also recognizes how racialized the conversation around Mental Health is when its about black people and when its about white people and so if you think about Mental Health with respect to folks who are incarcerated and folks who are formally incarcerated this idea of you know, how those individuals who i argue would are most vulnerable within our population are treated often times is indicative of how the Larger Community is treated. And so thats one thing that she mentioned that Mental Health for black. America is should be a number one priority moving forward with respect to health care. Theres a lot of different overlapping issues that kind of complement one another dr. Monica mclemore talks about how we need a more diverse healthcare at workforce and she talked about how hpc use and minority serving institutions can be a catalyst for that. We then have you know, dr. Dara mendez and dr. Joel scott who are both nursing researchers as well that say look we actually need a completely think about how we are administering healthcare within the system we have to think about heres that word Critical Race Theory right in that we need to think about how racism has informed how the Healthcare System has evolved. And so they give us literally a framework in which we are thinking about. Okay. How do we repair . How do we refine what is happening within our care system so that were able to identify the fissures and the gaps and which health care is not being insured to black and brown people and then i think the last thing ill say really quickly is that also recognizing that caregiving which is something that people dont like to talk a lot about is a multibillion dollar industry that has gone underpaid because black women make up the majority of caregivers. And so that being said dr. Yolanda wilson says look, we actually have to legitimize caregiving if you want to think about a Healthcare System that is accounting for the aging population while also honoring those who are ministering care. While you guys get all that. And i appreciate the knots of caregiving particularly when . We fail to pass a which is another sort of commentary or that better. Yeah, were able to infrastructure bill is cool. We start investing in black and brown women to now were not going to do that. Thats right from right in the new deal and acceleratex other, right . So we have time for a couple more questions and ill see in the chat. So ill ask a couple of myself sure when you look at sort of whats next for the book. I know its i mean the book just came out. This is a presumption question, but i think the photograph question really struck me with this one. Whats next for the black agenda for these ideas and how to be support. I love this question a lot, and i want to be a little bit ambitious. The first thing is that i want more people to come across the experts in this book and experts beyond the book such as yourself, right . And so i would like the platform to be bigger in that, you know, theres a lot of different ways to engage that maybe a podcast maybe some sort of documentary that highlights the work that black experts have been doing and so finding different ways to bring forth black expertise to the mainstream. Thats sort of my number one priority, but i think the other thing too is im currently working with my friend Lexi Robinson on finding ways to actually see if we can further legitimize the funding and the structure around supporting black experts who are pushing for these Bold Solutions right a lot of times black folks. Dont get paid to have good ideas, right or to have even a little bit of an idea of what theyre interested in doing but that needs to change and so i think that, you know actually having some sort of infrastructure around funding the ideas of black folks who are pushing for Different Solutions around a lot of these policy areas is another way to tackle this problem. I think one thing have asked me including Franklin Leonard who was also on the stories. Is there gonna be a black agenda too . I dont know thats up to my polishes lowkey. But at the end of that there are versions of this that can continue. I will say that there is something that like this that kind of already exists the the National Urban league releases a report every single year that focuses on black america the invite a number of different experts. The one thing is you probably havent heard of it because a lot of times what happens is these reports are not widely covered. And so thats something that i would definitely encourage you to check out if youre still interested in stuff like this, but my hope is that i will find other avenues for this to be a platformer which we celebrate and honor black expertise from here on out. That is incredible to be part of something that feels final and that its a book. They also feels like a beginning i entry point into a wider conversation like experts like x like expertise and then each of the amplifier lift up. So thank you for your leadership in your work and i guess. I dont see any more questions from the audience. So ill keep asking im also. Very curious around sort of how should im thinking about me as a College Student, so if im a College Student or a High School Student and i read this book. That im inspired. Im motivated. What . Well, you cant be prescriptive for everybody. But if someone wants to actually like hey, im inspired. I want to be a black expert i wouldnt be involved in policy. What would you recognize the next step . I think you want to you want to move on what youre convicted by a lot of times. You know, i im speaking to you, which is great because i think you move this way as well what youre convicted by will ultimately lead you towards, you know honoring the communities that you hope to honor and so that being said, like with economics i was convicted by the fact that there was no black women in economic that i could look up to upon like a google search, right and how that representation actually bleeds into the types of Economic Policy decisions that are made on behalf of communities of color and black community particular that suffered the hand of crises this proportionately and so i think thats the biggest thing i would say like if youre young like dont want dont think that you cant do anything right . I think thats the first thing you be surprised how much you can accomplish when youre young, especially when you have energy right you can kind of, you know, go out you need to you gotta use the different platforms that you have access to to really push forth an idea and i would say also, you know find someone else that feels similarly or feels as convicted as you about an issue. I i strongly believe and never doing anything by yourself right this idea of working with other people and building across as issa ray would say right building across and Building Community across to ensure that you know, whatever idea that you you come up with isnt something that you have to share alone that you can also sorry. Im hold alone, but you can share with other individuals so i would say thats the first first two things and i think the last thing i would say is, you know, do your research dont come out looking crazy because people are already going to undermine you especially if back for not understanding whats going on not understand the data not understand the empirical evidence not understanding what previous work. Ive been done. So its you know as my my mentor is actually in here dr. King would say like really hard to be kind of a double whammy understand the evidence and then understand how to communicate it the biggest challenge with this book was taking a lot of academic speak and boiling it all the way down to the essence. What are you ultimately saying and how do you want people to respond to what youre saying . And i think that that is a skill that apparently something im learning. Im going through my phd its not a skill that people actually have like people who especially in this space dont actually have as well. So thats something i would highly highly encourage you to just kind of flex find ways to write find ways to communicate your ideas and sort of exercise that muscle of spreading your ideas through a way that other folks can understand. Well again, thank you for this gift. Thank you for this challenge. Thank you for this call to accident. Thank you for this. Look, i want a future could look like right and i think oftentimes. Think tyler farrer said we must remain or retained hope despite the harshness of reality and sort of what you have given us is a primer for why we can have hope because there is a better world. There are better solutions. There are ways for everyone to be integrate in our society and the black engine the book paves away. So for all you all watching, please theres a nice little link that says purchase the black agenda here purchase the book purchase it for a friend have reading groups discussions debate the ideas disagree with the ideas come up with your own ideas, but really be a part of this conversation actually believe conversations like feeds or whats gonna take to keep our democracy and democracy. So anna congratulations, so happy and thankful for your work and effort youre looking for to all the ways you push the conversation and push us over the next several years, and thank you so much. Thank you, and please buy michaels book as well. Give me the route. Thank you. Guys, this was an amazing inspiring conversation. Im personally gonna buy this book myself. Also, i probably shouldnt be saying this, but if youre not buying it from book soup buy it from a black and bookstore Operations Club is a great one in la. Please support this author and click on that button below the screen. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We appreciate everyones time and supportive independent bookstores and if youd like regular updates on our Upcoming Events follow us on crowdcast and subscribe to our newsletter. Thank you so much again to anna on this afternoon. Im really really happy to discuss market switcher and rachel fergusons new book black liberation through the marketplace heartbreak. Hope and promise of america. Its a book that chronicles the painful failures of policy while also having some solutions from a Classical Liberal perspective