His acting career has spanned five decades. Includes many roles, the first one was his iconic and lu,orgettable portrayal of su but it includes many others. George is not just an actor. He is an unprecedented social media presence, and he is an activist for many causes, speaking out for the rights of lgbt people and also asianamericans and many others. In recognition of his contribution to the relationship between the United States and japan, he was awarded the order of the rising sun. By his majesty the emperor of japan. Please join me in welcoming george takei. [applause] mr. Roosevelt thank you so much for coming. Mr. Takei thank you for the invitation to be here. Enter the japan society, it is always a pleasure to be here and to have a discussion with you, who has written a novel titled allegiance. Im halfway through that right now, so please dont reveal any spoilers to me. Mr. Roosevelt i will try not to, although i should say you probably know a fair amount of the plot already. B
Want to segregate themselves . Arent they all trying to to, you know, form their own clubs or their own cliques . Well, some of thats true. Thats true of asianamericans. Its true of many groups. And if we want to really have a racially diverse, integrated society, we have to fight our own tendencies to do that. But partly, theres a difference. Your grandchildren are going to be my grandchildren. Theres going to be intermarriage. And and we have a shared future here. But if whites are anxious about being a minority you know what that shows . It shows two things. It shows theres some advantages to being white. Theres a hierarchy, theyd have to to give something up. And second, it shows were not yet really color blind because whites could never look around the room and say, whoa, im a minority. But thats not how it works. We may aspire to that, but we dont have that reality. Cspan your brothers, nelson and carson, what do they do . [laughter] guest theyre writers. Tear twins. Themson edit
Groups in the years of the cold why and government organizations made up of anticommunist private citizens engaged in cold war propaganda and it later emerged that these groups were being secretly funded and to some extent managed by the cia and one group that i really didnt engage with was the american friends of the middle east and it is purposed to do so much with the cold war and as with promoting the arab world to an american audience and it was also antizionists, that having the influence of the emerging israel lobby in 1950s america. This seems so odd and unexpected and i didnt really know quite what to do with it. So i mention it and then put my middle american friends to the one side. So i came back to the subject and story and began to delve into it further. I soon realized that the main office in the main cia officer involved in the creation of the american friends of the middle east was none other than current cameras about. This name might already be familiar to you before
East. This is about an hour. Thank you for that kind introduction, and id like thanks to everybody for coming out in these conditions. Im originally from england and will be heading back there shortly, so preparation after Southern California for a british winter. Just like to begin by saying a few words first, how i came to this subject, were describing the scenes of the book. Now, as you have already heard, the my previous book, the mighty wurletzer about cia front groups, nongovernment organizations made up of anticommunist, private citizens, engaged in cold war propaganda overseas and later emerged these groups were in fact being secretly funded and, to some extent, managed by the cia. One group i didnt really engage with in the mighty wurlitzer was the american Friend Office the middle east. And mainly because its purpose didnt seem to be so much to do with the cold war as with promoting the arab world to an american audience, and also it was antizionist, battling the insew lens o
[applause] thank you so much for that, for that kind introduction, and my thanks to everybody here tonight for coming out in these conditions. If you had not guessed from my accent, im from england and headed back there shortly. I think this is preparation after Southern California for a british winter. Just begin by saying a few words by saying the first time i came to the subject before describing the scenes of the book, now, as you already heard, the my previous book was about cia front groups in the early years of the cold war, apparently private, nongovernmental organizations made up of anticommunism citizens engaged in cold war propaganda overseas and emerged the groups were, in fact, secretly funded and managed by the cia. Now, one group i didnt really engage with in the book was the american friends was middle east mainly because its purpose didnt seem to be so much to do with the cold war as was promoting the arab world to an american audience, and, also, it was anti zionist b