Readers. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is john allen, president of the Brookings Institution and it is my sincere pleasure to welcome you to todays event celebrating andre perrys release of his new book know your price, valuing black lives, across brookingss roughly 104 year history brookings has taken powerful positions on issues of race, equality and civil rights. These issues stand at the top of brookings qualities and i have made this president ial priority, certainly for the institution. Brookings not only made an obligation to study these issues but it is also the responsibility of the organization as well, to examine the intersection of race and policy not just because we are an organization deeply committed to the public good but also because we are an organization based in washington dc, the nations capital. As much as washington is a city of politics it is also a city of great diversity, of the roughly 700,000 residents the call the city home, one need only walk past the great march, in the immortal words of Martin Luther kings i have a dream. It is a place to live and work. Alongside this rich history, theres a consistent lineage of discriminatory politics that continues to impact the people of the city, we passed a terrible milestone, 90,000 americans died in this covid19 pandemic, more than 1000 combined deaths in the korean and vietnam wars combined, it lasted years. In the american population, black americans suffered terribly in this pandemic, laying bare the reality of their situation and their position and vulnerability in society. The suffering is extended as well to the sharp downturn of the economy, and exploding unemployment figure and a devastating effect on small and minority owned businesses. Even basic policies of dealing with this crisis often detail where the essential of Wearing Masks have overtly racist undertones and hurt our economy. This is happening every day in dc and countless other cities like new orleans, new york and chicago, besides robbing us of our precious lives this disease has highlighted other socioeconomic disparities and education and basic access and still we have seen the news of black americans killed by the brewing hatred of White Nationalism and racism. Recognizing and realizing this reality we must Center Racial Equity in the post covid19 recovery and assure that it is part of the renewal project. However to gear toward reopening america and the world to emphasize these issues. At brookings our metropolitan policy program has taken this lead as a charge looking to ensure that at every level, local, state, federal theres more equitable recovery and take consideration from andre perry that includes a deep dedication to fixing the underlying policies to an equitable recovery not just debating around the issue. That is what making a difference is all about and that is what this book is all about. Ladies and gentlemen, let me take a moment to introduce the author, andre perry. A fellow installer at brookings who has focused on structural inequality and valuing black assets. His book know your price is powerful and personal work. Andre perry opens his book with an examination of his journey from wilkinsburg, pennsylvania through his work in washington dc. In know your price andre perry highlights those two cities in four others writing on their long overlooked assets and the need for structural change. For my part i view andre perry tos know your price as exceptional in andre perrys already rich and competent of compendium of work. He deserves our highest praise for this tremendous achievement. With that a brief reminder that we are recording and streaming this life. If you would like to ask any questions throughout the event please send them to us by email, events brookings. Edu or through twitter using the hashtag now your price. Let me turn the floor to andre perry who will introduce todays panel. Congratulations, it is a huge contribution to america, thank you. Guest thank you for that inspirational introduction and thank all of you for joining us today hopefully from the comforts of your own home. I obviously didnt plan to release the book in the middle of a pandemic but apparently there is never a bad time to publish on racism. I had grand visions of speaking directly to live audiences, big critics, signing books, and hugging attendees. Instead ive been forced to develop a special relationship with zoom. You can stay connected while being socially distant in spite of widespread book store closures and social distancing, my book has momentum. Know your price is breaking records. I learned the word black is written more times in know your price than any other book in history. There the healthy buzz and excitement around know your price, i could spend the entire hour thanking all the people who helped with the book to this point but because of time i will name a few. I want to thank my wife joya and my children, for giving me the space to write this book. I think my wonderful work family. The Brookings Metro program led by amy you. Working with Brookings Press headed by bill simon has been wonderful, thank you. I think my long time editor for her helpful markup. I send my deep appreciation to my colleague alan and said elaborate are brent maas for reading original draft. All the content editors for various sections of the book that address politics, reproductive justice, gentrification and black majority cities. Shout out to my crews in pittsburgh, detroit, new orleans, atlanta, birmingham and washington dc. Thank you david for your research and thank you for coordinating my community engagement. I also thank my writing partner Jonathan Rockwell, who along with david coauthored the study on housing devaluation. Finally i thanked two people who are no longer with us but are featured in know your price. My adoptive mother elsie boyd and my father lloyd kristof. Is told in my book ma helped me raise more than a dozen children and informally adopted my biological brothers largely because of the conditions leading to my father being killed in a prison outside of detroit. For most of my professional life i had to navigate a policy Research Community that demons my mother, father and family construction is devious. Since the moynihan report was published in 1965 researchers and journalists have continued framing poverty mainly as a function of each individual choice. Moynihan offered a robust Structural Analysis but set a dangerous example by identifying a central problem as black people not living up to white middleclass ideals, this falls in line with the White Supremacy smith the claims harsh conditions in black communities are mainly the result of black peoples collective choices and moral failures. Weve all heard someone say the notsosubtle dig it all starts at home. Suggesting if we could just stick to that black mother and father to be more responsible like white middleclass families we wouldnt have problems. Of course white middleclass families are more disciplined and harder working, just look at their wealth and education. If black people are going to ask, well, black, there is no need to pay them fairly or invest in their business, more direct ways to make someone middleclass. Were better off giving that investment to someone who has the credibility and capacity to show black people how to behave. False narratives help normalize a hierarchy of human values that lead to an investment into whiteness. One of the major goals of this book is to show that theres nothing wrong with black people that ending racism. Underlying presumptions of black peoples unworthiness and cut efforts to invest in black majority neighbors. There is a lot of programs and research that attempt to fix black people, not enough focus on fixing Structural Racism. Until we rid ourselves of the underlying assumptions found between the lines of our research, policy recommendations and reforms we will always do more harm than good. Most black people dont need to hear people say overtly racist things about us when actions and outcomes tell us everything we need to know. Roy wood junior on the daily show was asked whether he believed donald trump and use the nword in the white house, he replied i dont need footage of the rock in the gym to know if he works out. Of using his arm, now your price, identify how precious black lives and property are devalued by racism, by exalting the strengths or assets, you can simultaneously debunk the false narrative that distracts us from investing in those assets. If we can account for the associated cost of racism to individuals, then we can begin to properly restore lost value by investing in the people who have been penalized simply for being. The anchor study found after controlling four factors like housing quality, structure as well as neighborhood factors like education and crime, Owner Occupied homes in black neighborhoods devalued by 48, 000 amounting to a whopping 156 billion in cumulative loss, the point is the value of homes in black neighborhoods is much higher than they are priced and isnt this true in other parts of our lives but 150 billion is a big number, the reason i say theres nothing wrong with black people that racism cant solve. 156 billion started 4 million black owned businesses, black entrepreneurs could use this money as they are denied bank loans more than twice as often as their white peers. When we do get loans we pay higher interest rates. The loss of equity means many black Business Owners are less likely to have the financial position to weather economic crisis like the one were in now. During the Great Recession half of all black businesses survive compared to 60 of white owners. 156 billion lost in racism should have helps Municipalities Fund essential Services Like education. Weve known for decades that school funding, wealth and racial prejudice are correlated with academic achievement. Schools dominated by students of color receive 23 billion less then majority white district. This is largely a byproduct of an educational system that devalues black communities through financing structure based on local property taxes. Many education reformers ignore structural race, saying it is too hard to address segregation in school finances but when reform is applied within the confines of inequality in black majority cities like it was in new orleans postkatrina we needed the room but to effectively blame black teachers, parents and School Boards for underachieving. I saw this up close as a Charter School leader, approximately 10 years after the breaches and the levees the black teacher population dropped from 70 to 50 replaced by younger, mostly white teachers, 2 thirds of teachers who worked in new orleans before katrina were no longer there. The erasure of black teachers flew in the face of research that showed positive effects of black educators on academic success, black students who had one black teacher by thirdgrader 7 more likely to graduate high school for 13 to enroll in college. Two black teachers, black students likelihood of enrolling in college increases by 32 . Unfortunately, hiring more black teachers is something we have yet to try at scale. There is nothing wrong with black people ending racism. The values underlying the erasure of black teachers are behind why black women cant buy or educate their way towards better birthing outcomes in spite of their educational and professional gains in the past few decades. More black babies die before their first birthday then all racial categories. The mortality rate among black mothers is 3 times higher than their white counterparts. These disparities exist even controlling education. At 2017 study using death records, my wife and her coauthors found the racial inequality and things like educational attainment, income, unemployment, imprisonment, showed a harmful effect on black infant mortality, and racial inequality and employment increased, black infant mortality, a decrease in educational inequality improved it. The devaluation of black lives is at the intersection of race, gender, and occupation. Our Solutions Must be intersectional in nature. The issue of equity like all the other issues presented in this book is not an academic one. In know your price i detail the personal struggle, trying to have a child when going through professional crisis, having babies like white people show that instead of restricting access to womens fertility options, idea that the moynihan report gave license 2, we must expand womens reproductive choices. The lack of wealth the federal government facilitated should not continue to limit black womens choices. Addressing structures because inequality, a birthing option we have yet to try. Theres nothing wrong with black people that ending racism canceled. And Martin Luther king jr. s controversial 1967 speech the clarified his opposition to the vietnam war king spotlighted the hypocrisy of the United States fight for democracy abroad while actively suppressing the white rights of black, brown and native americans at home. King called for a revolution of values that included making a shift from a thing Oriented Society to a person Oriented Society. Just as the Us Government actively worked to normalize bigotry through policy, it can normalize investment in people who have been denied, wealth, dignity and opportunity. Indeed, discover nation has serviced white men and Public Policy for so long it has become an immoral entitlement, a form of social security. We need an antiracist policy agenda that normalizes support for the injured. Over the next few months i will roll an Initiative Im calling the valuing black Assets Initiative which will employ a virtual book tour to help communities mobilize around their assets amid covid19 efforts. With wk kellogg foundation, black lead Impact Investment firm and Impact America Fund to develop an index of goals for the nation to advance black businesses. We are determined to increase employment among 15 of black businesses that are rate that will add an estimated 55 billion to the us economy. But have to 1555 will convene business leaders, government stakeholders and communities and provide them with the necessary steps to achieve the goal. In addition Brookings Metro and the social Entrepreneurship Organization will solicit social entrepreneurs and cities across the country in a one milliondollar competition to develop policy and marketbased solutions that confront the problem of housing devaluation. The project will incentivize innovators who are proximate to the problem. We will seek to foster a new generation of structural innovation that removes the drag of racism on home value. Another advocate by the Assets Initiative is collaboration with polling from gallup which we will develop a survey to help measure Racial Attitudes behind asset devaluation. The survey will enhance our quantitative analyses and further illuminate how to prejudice black majority neighbors. Todays malcolm xs birthday. There are few quotes on my message board that have given me fuel on my writing journey. Malcolm once said when a person places the proper value on freedom there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. I named the book know your price after my favorite play in the world by august wolf. The main character named memphis is about to have his property seized by the city of pittsburgh, the city offers and 15, 000 into which memphis says im not selling my property for 15, 000. I know i price. Im paraphrasing but it is a refrain throughout the play. Theres another character, hambow, he paints a fence, never gets his hand, give me my hand throughout the play. We are not sure if hambone had Mental Illness before he painted the fence but he sure enough and went mad and eventually died. That a happy ending, the main character, memphis, got 30, 000, more than he asked for. The moral of the story is clear, you must know you have worth. What i try to do with this book is give people a price to stand on. I wrote this book because i know my price. I look forward to working with those who know theres too. At this time it gives me great pleasure to introduce brentin mock who helped in the editing of this book, incredible journalist and Kimberle Williams crenshaw, the legal scholar i looked up to for years who helped bring forth the idea of intersection now letty which runs through this book and kimberly is a hero of mine and it is a pleasure to have these two talk about know your price with me. Im going to turn it over to you, serving as the moderator. Thanks for inviting me to participate. Congratulations on the launch of your book and i congratulate you for the institution particularly for publishing a book that says black more times than any other book in its history. It is an honor to be in conversation with Kimberle Williams crenshaw, john allen, president of Brookings Institution, the cities you pick in this book, what you call black majority cities, pittsburgh, wilkinsburg, birmingham, atlanta, new orleans, explain the importance of the season why it is important they remain black majority is why you picked them for your book. The reason i picked them is a personal relationship with them. I dont think it is coincidence i ended up in many black majority cities because i was raised in one. It quickly became black because majority blacks because of something i talk about a lot. The university, people working in a commercial, a great place to live. A supportive place to live. It wasnt until i entered other spaces, mainly college, thats what i learne