Municipality . One of my biggest dilemmas was administered being forced to pass students. I experienced that. I received a passing grade in the minister said we need to pastor, i dont know if those the pressure. Also as far as elected officials, giving them instead of treating the kennedy as victims, addressing the community and the same these students, two parent family, these are the statistics of people whether they have a religious background or whatever. Is there any way they think changing that mentality, the administers in the Education System or the elected officials . One thing i have to say, i told them before, dr. Williams is probably my biggest inspiration im going back and getting my degree in high school. Thank you very much. I think one of the problems is that we cant get rid of students whose minds are alien and hostile to the education process. That is, we have to have a mechanism where we can stop the students from anything with the education of others. There have been several studies, at a campsite and this because ive written some years ago, said with a 25 person class many teachers are spending up to 90 of the classtime on discipline. If they could remove just six students that this one time would go down to the National Average around 17, 18 . But they cant get rid of student. That is, its been much like you asking me, its a barrel of apples, we want to keep them fresh but you cant get rid of the rotten ones. Thats an impossible job. And i think from a political point of view, that just makes sense that we need to deliver education to those kids who can best use their education, and those who can best use education our kids who have parents who care and parents will make them do their homework. And i think that money is not the solution to our education problem. Its because, there some simple things that are needed for kids to get a good education. Somebody has to make the kid do his homework. Somebody has to make the kid go to bed on time so he can get about 10 hours of sleep. Somebody has to wake the get up and getting breakfast, and somebody has to make sure that he obeys the teacher. These are critical input. If these inputs are not met, and i dont care how much money put in education, its going to be a failure. We have to ask the question, which one of those inputs can be met by politicians. What can obama do, or what can together do, what can i mayor do to duties basic functions bikes and if theyre not done, no matter how much money you put in education, its not going to work. And i feel like, what the political question that one faces is very much like, if youre in charge of the highways and easy drunk drivers and sober drivers on the highway, whats your first order of business . Your First Priority out to be get the drunk ones offer someone my site what are we going to do with the drunks . I look i in the whether you cant do anything at all, but first order of business is to get the drunk ones off. Thats the same thing you do with education. That is, the kids making education impossible for other kids. And what do you do with them . Well, you get them out. You get them out of the school and some in my site what do you do with them . I dont know what your going to do with the budget to stop them from making education impossible for those kids who want to learn. And who have parents who want them to learn. Its a difficult chore, and the Political Forces are not on our side. They are on the side of the National Education association. I mean, so i believe the waiting list for parents, predominate in black parents, for Charter Schools is 21,000 right now, 21,000 parents on the waiting list to get the kids into Charter Schools. Thats a sad commentary that theyre such the waiting list exists, and also evidence theres at least some parents who want a better education for their children. Patrick ewing with heritage foundation. On the topic of owning ourselves i was wondering where you stand on the topic of assisted suicide . Because it opens incentives that hurts the vulnerable and the week. If i own Walter Williams, i can decide not to live. But if the United States congress owes me, and i just dont have that right. The true test of ownership is whether you can, whether you have full rights over your own body. Net sink your the right to impose injury on other people, but you have the right to change take your own life. Maybe one way to do that is kind of have, what do they call it, the document that you say i dont want anymore a living will, yes. And people say things like, well, in terms of self ownership is a look, williams, lets say i dont want to wear a seat belt. Lets say thats the case, i do wear a seatbelt blitz that i dont want to wear a seat belt. The argument what to look williams, if you drive a car without a seatbelt and you havent accident and you turn into a vegetable you will be a burden on society. Thats why we are going to make you wear a seat belt. Thats an issue that doesnt have anything to do with personal liberty and private ownership it is not a problem of personal liberty and private ownership, self ownership. Its a problem of socialism. That is, you should not, nobody should be required to take care of me for any reason. But once you get government taking care of you to make decisions, then government can tell you how to its kind of like my mother, you know, when boys get around 14 or 15 years old and start thinking they can tickle the house over my mother used to say to me, as long as you live in my house and i think the bills, you will do what i say. Thats okay for kids, but what about adult . You want to, to say as long as we are paying the bills you will do what i say . Do what we say. Thats not a good way for adulthood. Im going to get next time get two people. Interest to me, political shenanigans. In 2009 you write about the congress and its apology for slavery and you have a very interesting economic piece about that. Do you want to comment . The comment about slavery, it doesnt make me very popular but as medevac comes into interviewing for the job in 1971 at university of massachusetts. I didnt know about i would not have gone up there to interview for a job. Anyway, some professors were standing about a recession theyre holding for me, and the leftist professors do and what has been what they think about the relationship between capitalism and slavery . I said i think slavery has existed under every economic system. He says no, i want to ask you about what you think about the slavery of ancestors, slavery of your ancestors. So i said slavery is a horrible institution, but i have benefited immensely from the suffering and slavery of my ancestors, and the guys just any there in shock. So i said to him, he asked me to explain myself. I said my wealth and my freedom is not as a result of being born in the United States than any country in africa and i asked him, how was it that it came to be born in the United States. I came to be born and yes, its because of slavery. And so i have personally, im not saying that slavery is good. Im saying i benefit from it. And most blacks have benefited as black americans, at a document this in my book, race and economics, it added income black americans earn each year at thought of us as a nation, it would be the 17th or 18th richest nation in the face of the earth . And thus the medevac thats richer than any nation on the continent of africa. And so you can say the same thing you can say about colonialism. That is, or the conquest of the romans when they took over england, people in england were barbarians. And the romans, they imported navigation, skills and they imported Education Technology and all the importation of the wisdom of the romans ultimately make Great Britain the mightiest nation on the face of the earth. And it was because of colonialism. Again, im not making an argument in favor of colonialism but you cant deny the historical facts. So slavery was a historical fact that i benefit from it. Thank you dr. Williams. You highlighted three things this afternoon, liberty, Racial Disparity and Higher Education front. Would you concur that one of the principles, principle reasons why we have contempt for liberty is that liberty is very underrepresented and all the dimensions of Popular Culture and movies and music and the things that influence ones actions . And the question behind that is, given that you can assess with a lot of movement, individuals, might you take the opportunity to explained in one of the reasons why we have contempt, one of places that its learned is in universities. So ill ask you, behind the previous event of yours, if you were reconvening the conference and doing another one, would you think that would be a Good Platform to examine how to move in terms of Racial Disparities more africanamericans from the Public Sector ecosystem to the private sector ecosystem . Which also entertain a minting this abreast of 1955, 64, sorry, to prohibit discrimination in employment based on credentials . Would you entertain intercessor with your colleagues in the conservative movement that they need to take good content like this and put it in more entertaining settings because if i dont answer all your questions, you can remind me. One of the hazards of growing old is not your mind is the first thing to go. The second is worse. [laughter] but i think that, as ive said in the book and as i said on many occasions, one of our very important jobs is to try to sell our fellow americans on the moral superiority of liberty and its main ingredient, limited government. So far as credential ism, that is a major problem. That is people who have credentials, they use the credentials to keep others out, to maintain their higher income. And ive written a lot about this, particularly and occupational licensing where, just a little bit away from your question, but it cuts off the bottom of the economic ladder. I point out in the 1920s a poor illiterate italian if it into should innovation should go and buy a used car and write the word taxi on and he was in business for himself. Today, that opportunity is not as open in many cities the licensing regulations. In the york you have to buy a galleon to own and operate one taxi and the medallion is 700,000. In boston and chicago utah, 300, 400, 500,000. So the effect of this law is to keep people out so that they can earn, so the they can earn a higher income by charging higher prices. And you see the desire to maintain this monopoly with the losses against huber and some of the private carriers coming in competing with the incoming cap business goober. This phenomenon is widespread, goes across many occupations and many professions. The medical profession is a good example. That once the licensing laws to keep people out. It turns out for interesting if you look at licensing boards, occupational licensing boards, twothirds of the boards across the country, the members are people who are in the profession themselves. That is, the doctors occupy totally the licensing board to become a doctor. They decide who has the right to become a doctor enter and under what conditions. And, of course, the doctors will say who else has made better able to judge what a person should be a doctor or regulate, who else is better able to regulate doctors and other doctors . That kind of reasoning, you would make al capone the attorney general. That is, who is better able to regulate criminals than other criminals. So im for open market entry. Im for peaceful voluntary exchange between people, and that requires some of the elimination of the credentials. Due to more. My name is christopher. If you start from the premise Walter Williams owning Walter Williams, person only themselves, it sounds how does that not lead to anarchism speak with well, im not an anarchist. I believe we do need some government. I believe that people have, that government is necessary. That is, government under the worst circumstances is a necessary evil. Under similar circumstances they can become intolerable. I believe that we have the right, that is, as owners of her own body, we have the right to delegate certain things to the government. That is, i have the right, since i have the right to protect myself from criminals or from anybody else, then i have the right to delegate that authority, some government level to protect me. I can have the right to say look, if we had a more orderly society, if it can agency is about the protection, have a police force. I dont have a right to take your money. I do have a natural right or any other right to take your money so, therefore, i cannot delegate the right to government to take your money. And some the only rights come from a moral point of view, the only rights that can be delegated to the federal government are rights that you possess yourself, that human beings possess themselves. And so that might sound like a rock bar a little bit. But i dont see myself as a follower of Milton Friedman says theres like two kinds of, some estimate that Chicago School economics versus hightech or Austrian School of economics. And he says theres like two kinds of economists, a good economist and the bad economist. Al milliken, amec. Are United StatesSupreme Court, how deeply theyve shown contempt for liberty in the recent years . Well, they dont hold as unconstitutional many things that congress is doing. That is, it is not in the constitution for congress to do most of what it does. That is, twothirds to three quarters of all federal spending, is no Constitutional Authority for it. The word education does not even appear in the constitution but the government is involved in a. The founders say congress can only to those enumerated things, the things that are enumerated in article one of, article 1, section 8 of the United States constitution. But the Supreme Court has been derelict. Both jefferson and madison, they want us, they said do not allow the courts to be the final arbiter of whats constitutional or not. He said if we allow the courts to be the final arbiter, then we will be living under oligarchy. And thats in fact what we are doing. I think that its tragic that the Supreme Court, and i would say most of its members, have little respect for the United States constitution. Theres probably two members, im not going to mention their names, probably to members who have respect for the United States constitution and are willing to go to bat for it. Look, folks, thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Again the book is american contempt for liberty. You will find it quite interesting and very thoughtprovoking. I do encourage you to pick up a copy here while we have them, and we think our friends at the Hoover Institution for supplying them to us, and to all of you for your kind attention. Walter williams will be a guest on both tvs in Depth Program in november for three hours on the first sunday of the month. For more information visit booktv. Org. Pamela newkirk discusses her book spectacle the astonishing life of ota benga at the 17th annual harlem book fair. Watch it now on booktv. Nk you v stuck well, thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Come on now, good afternoon. Good afternoon. We had a wonderful panel thio afternoon and were in for a treat. Im so happy to be here this afternoon to introduce our panel our panel today which will be g. Pride and prejudice more on the white gaze. Cri literary critic Kenneth Burke once said that we are the instrument of our instrument ant we are two exemplars to dateaveo include have their work insurance of the dedication toav the black identity. So im very pleased to introduce our panel this afternoon. Le lets start with our moderator th of the sessione and that is the director of the Schomburg Center for research in black culture r, and that is khalil muhammad. Here in my public library, the f research division, is a former associate professor of historyia at indiana university. F this book, the combination of lil blackness, making of a modern urban america was published by Harvard University press e frankt book award in american studies. And here also this afternoon is we have author and nyu professor of journalism, dr. Pamela newkirk. He book, which you all see in your programs, is spectacle the astonishing life of ota bengal she is an author, journalist, and professor at new york university, multifacetted scholar who has published a variety of works that present multidimensional portraits of africanamerican life. Her first book within the veiled black journalist, like me, explores historical troubles of journalists integrate can mainstream news rooms in america. Love letters from a black america which i had the pleasure of reading recently, a fantastic tome put on the list. The book were talking about this afternoon, im not going steal her thunder as she is going to talk to us about the book and all that went putting it together as part of a wonderful afternoon. Please join me in welcoming our speaker this afternoon. [applause] thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all for that terrific production. I want to thank all of you for being here this afternoon, and i want to thank our guests, decider pamela newkirk, the author of spectacle. Its hard to say wonderful with the subject matter she hays written about, but i think that as a writer, as someone deeply committed to learning from the past to recovering stories that have something to say, that speak to us across generations, that makes this book quite rivetting and amazing and one that, if nothing else gets said of any interest, you must buy it and read for yourself. Because in some ways this story is better known than some other