it was hardly a brief. if i used all the info he provided me, i would be speaking longer than the minutes assigned to bill himself. so i won't do that. i cut it down considerably. bill has a 56-page cv and it's not packed with anything trivial. i'll come back to his scholarly contributions. let me start with his titles, some, a few of his titles and honors. sociologist william julius wilson is the professor at harvard university and at the time of his appointment in mean 95 national media covered his addition to harvard's dream team of african-american intellectuals including henry lewis gates jr., a 20007 fellow. i met bill when he was at the university of chicago and a major force there as he's been everywhere. and i was a slightly younger scholar then and he was incredibly supportive as he is. he's a mentor. he started his teaching and research career in 1965 at the university of massachusetts amherst. shortly before completing his ph.d. in sociology graduate program at washington state university which was a major program at that time. he's the recipient of 46 honorary degrees. past president of the american social logical association, mcdonald mcarthur prize fellow, institute of medicine, national academy of education, british academy, and he's also the recipient of the national medal of science, the highest scientific honor bestowed in the united states. who you think us, certainly i don't know anybody in this room, but admit it if you have been, but who among us has been named among "time" most influential people in the snieunited states was in 1996? he has published three controversial seminal works of scholarship on different dimensions of race, classes and it is urban poor. the declining significance of race. the truly disadvantaged and when work disappears. i would add even though it hasn't quite reached that pinnacle yet, more than just race i would add to that list. that's his most recent one. bill and his work challenges liberal orthodoxy about causes of a permanent structural underclass in a u.s. society as well as conservative views that attribute the state of poverty to a dependency on welfare or cultural deficiencies. he's helped shape academic discourse and public policy debate, one of the requirements of the prize. he's appeared frequently on television, testified before numerous congressional committees, et cetera, et cetera. he's been advisers to mayors, to presidents, and to lots of people in the political space. notably it is documented that wilson's book the truly disadvantaged influence the philosophy and politics of the then chicago activists barack obama. and clinton told "time magazine" that wilson's books made me see race and poverty and the problems of the inner city in a different light. now, here's a fact that i at least hadn't known before. the truly disadvantaged inspired much of the writing that went into season two of the series "the wire". and his work was also a major influence on d.j. vance in hillbilly eulogy. so it is into the public culture. the truly disadvantaged, the under class and public poll examine the flip side of rising black prosperity. inner city blacks with poor training and limited education rising unemployment and welfare enrollment and shrinking prospects for getting out of poverty. the book is awesome in its combination of astute scholarship and great writing and it was largely written here which makes me like it even more, and one of the reasons i'm emphasizing it among his many books. i'll admit that some of his other books are just as important and in fact i still use all of them. but the link make this is one especially dear to me. the truly advantaged remains very relevant today and as i think bill probably agrees regrettably so. a second edition of the book published in 2012 he meticulously demonstrates how the conditions described in the first edition are not kwadiffer 25 years later. his reflection on the responses yielded a new 60-page afterword. i was going to bring the book and show it to you. that is a significant slcholarl skri contribution in itself. bill is -- i'm almost done, and this was a cut of what mike had given me. bill -- significant cut. bill is a very senior scholar. a nice way for saying he is over 80. but he is still going strong and his contributions keep coming. in october, 2016, harvard's hut hutchins center received a $10 million grant from its name sake foundation. the research project that it will fund led by wilson is a big data study of what he calls multi-dimensional inequality and cumulative adversity in the b s boston area. people subjected to simultaneous racial and economic hardships. it will dig deep into the lives of poor residents to better understand the inter connecting disadvantages that perpetuate poverty. the ultimate gat is to collect enough solid data. speaking to the "harvard gazette" how do i fight pescism? how is the fight going? it's been a tough day. we're about to find out. ladies and gentlemen, our 2017 sage award winner, william yul y -- julius wilson. [ applause ] boy, that was quite a introduction. you know, it's a real honor to return to the center, caspus, and deliver this lecture and i am especially pleased that sarah miller mccune is in the audience. you know, this is a frustrating period in our history and i thought that it would be good to take this opportunity to reflect on some of the issues regarding race in america that are very much on my mind. in november, shortly before the presidential election, i received an e-mail from my harvard colleague henry lewis gates jr., skip gates we call him as margaret pointed out, and he was also a member of the board of center for advanced studies and behavioral sciences. he sent me an e-mail and he said that he had to do a coto to the hbo television series "black america after mlk", martin luther king jr., to bring it up to date. he asked me if i was optimistic or pessimistic about the future of our people. he said that he actually heard a guy on anderson cooper's cnn news show say this is the worst time in the history of our people. and skip gates added this is surely not true, but that he would love to get my thoughts about this. and i said that i completely agree, that it can't be true. anybody who says this is the worst time in the history of african-americans does not have a sense of history. in general, nothing today compares with slavery or segregation. however, i also pointed out that it would be accurate to say that sense the death of martin luther king jr., conditions for poor blacks have deteriorated while the conditions of better-off blacks have indeed improved. and this is most clearly seen in the growing income in equality in the black community -- this was most clearly seen in the growing income in equality in the black community as reflected in the jeani eco-eshfficient, a measure that meshes zero, perfect equality, to one, maximum inequality. now, this figure discloses the increasing household income in equality across the american population as a whole rising from a low of 0.39 in 1970 to 0.48 in 2014. follow the blue line. more interesting, however, is the high level of intra group inequality among black households. see the green line. although the absolute level of black income is well below that of whites, blacks nonetheless display the most intragroup income inequality reaching a household jeannie index of 0.49 followed by whites at 0.47 and hispanics at 0.45. indeed one of the most significant changes since dr. king's passing is a remarkable gain in income among more affluent blacks. when a adjusted for inflation, the percentage of black americans making at least $75,000 more than doubled from 1970 to 2014 to 21%. those making $100,000 or more nearly kwquadrupled to 13%. white americans saw a less impressive increase from 11% to 26%. on the other hand, the percentage of black americans with incomes below $15,000 only declined by 4% points from 22% between 1970 and 2014. now, research reveals that income inequality is related to income segregation. this next figure presents data on income segregation by race, a metropolitan areas with populations of more than 500,000. the source for that figure is a 2014 study by tkendra bishop an published by the russell sage foundation. this figure reveals that income segregation has grown rapidly in the last decade and particularly among black and hispanic families. and what is notable is that whereas black americans in 1970, that's the purpose line there, it is purple, right? i suffer from a little bit of color blindness. whereas black americans in 1970, black families in 1970 recorded the least income segregation, follow the purple line, they now register the highest income segregation. please note that we are talking here, we are talking here about res des-- residential segregation -- another way of talking about these trend lines is that they describe the extent to which the exposure of families to neighbors of the same race has changed over time. and although income segregation among black families grew considerably in the 1970s and 1980s, it grew even more rapidly from 2000 to 2009 after slightly declining in the 1990s. and when considering a person's life trajectory or life chances between pre -- it is important to note that today poor black families have fewer middle class, fewer black middle class neighbors than they had in 1970. indeed the rising income segregation in the black community is driven both by the growth of affluent blacks and the deteriorating conditions of poor blacks which i will soon discuss. now, these data update the earlier arguments that i developed in my book "the declining significance of race" first published in 1978. and they remind me of a recent book by the harvard political scientist robert putnam entitled o "our kids, the american dream in crisis" published in 2015 by simon and schuster. although barriers to success remain powerful, they represent b burd burdensome impediments than they did in the 1950s. by contrast class barriers in america today loom much larger than they did back then. and this is reflected not only in growing income and equality among all racial ethnic groups as you see here, but also increasing disparities and many other aspects of well-being. a accumulated wealth. class segregation across neighborhoods. quality of primary and secondary education. enrollment in highly selective colleges. and even life expectancy. so one of the major underlying themes of the declining significance of race, the changing relative significant of race and class on a black person's life trajectory has been extended to all u.s. racial and ethnic groups in putnam's book. now, i wish i could share these figures with donald trump, these figures on changes in the black class structure with donald trump who tends to talk about african-americans as if they are a monolithic group that is a severely disadvantaged group that has made little progress. indeed he is quoted as saying that, quote, black communities are in the worst shape ever, unquote. as if there is absolutely no good news to talk about in the black community. and since i mentioned trump, i should say that racial tensions and the expression of racial antagonism seem to have increased after he decided to run for the presidency. which is probably one of the reasons, one of the rapes weaso the guy on cnn proclaimed that this is the worst time in the history of african-americans. now, this spike in racial assassinations should not come as a big surprise. we must understand that racial antagonisms are products of situations. political situations. economic situations. social situations. average citizens do not fully understand the complex forces that have increased. for example, their economic woes. the declines in real family income. the rise in wage d, industry relocation and so on. economic insecurities create conditions that are breeding grounds, breeding grounds tensi especially if populace messages exploit these fears. when i was writing my book "when work disappears" published by canal in 1996, right wing messages were more concerned with controlling blacks than immigrants. whereas donald trump and his supporters highlighted the negative traits of immigrants and their threat to american society. i pointed out in my 1996 book that supporters of welfare reform on the political right implicitly communicated the view that blacks were undeserving of special treatment from the government and that their high rates of welfare were due to personal short comings. including a lack of work ethic. and just as conservative republicans use these contentious messages, these contentious messages in gaining control of the united states congress and the congressional election of 1994, so, too, did donald trump employ a similar set of messages applied mainly to immigrants in his successful presidential campaign of 2016. but let me get back to what i was saying about the good news and the bad news in the black community. and in order to keep things in proper perspective when talking about the relative gains of more privileged blacks, it is important not to overlook the continuing interracial disparities. for example, a report from the center for economic and policy research reveals that before the great recession, there was only a 1.4% point difference in the unemployment gap between recent black and white college graduates age 22 to 27. however, in 2013 shortly after the economic downturn the gap had surged to a 7.5% difference. now, race is obviously a factor at play here. because historically the periods during and immediately after downturns have adversely impacted blacks more than whites. and the issues involving race in these intergroup comparisons are complex. for example, aside from the roll of racial discrimination, whites with the same amount of schooling as blacks usually attend better high schools. and colleges. and therefore, have an edge when employers rely on such criteria. especially during slack labor markets. that is periods of higher unemployment. also researchers at the computer research center released data showing that the immediate financial wealth of white households in 2013 exceeded that of black households by almost $131,000. so despite sharp increases in income in equality and income segregation among blacks, the interracial disparities between blacks and white remain huge and must always be kept in mind when discussing and highlighting growing intraracial differences. that said, and i repeat, the conditions of poor blacks have deteriorated overall since the death of martin luther king jr. while those of better-off blacks have improved. a blanket statement that things are worse now than ever before is totally unwarranted. but skip gates asked me -- also asked me if i am optimistic or pessimistic about the future of our people. so let me say that i am somewhat optimistic about the future of trained and educated blacks, and margaret, very pessimistic about the future of poorly educated blacks. and before i elaborate on why i am pessimistic about the conditions of poor blacks, let me partly qualify my optimism about the future of trained and educated blacks. and in so doing, i want to talk very briefly about the importance and continued need for affirmative action programs. research suggests that the white backlash against racial entitlements such as affirmative action contributed to the government's retreat from anti-discrimination policies during the 1980s. many of the gains that trained and educated blacks experienced in the 1970s were erased during the years of the reagan administration. now, it should not be surprising that winning support for affirmative action programs would have an adverse effect on african-americans in particular. for example, a number of studies have revealed significant differences in the family background and neighborhood environment of blacks and whites that are understated when standard measures of social economic state us are employed. take for example the question of family background. even when white parents and black parents report the same average income, white parents have substantially more assets than do black parents. and as i pointed out previously, whites with the same amount of schooling as blacks usually attend better high schools and colleges. furthermore, children's test scores are associated not only with a social and economic status of their parents, but they are also affected by the social and economic status of their grandparents. this means that it could take several generations before adjustments and socio economic inequality produce their sole benefits. if we were to rely solely on the standard criteria on universities like s.a.t. scores, even many children from black middle income families would be denied admission in favor of middle income whites who are not weighed down by the accumulation of disadvantages that stem from racial restrictions and who therefore tend to score higher on these conventional tests. so far all these reasons, the success of younger educated blacks remains dependent on affirmative action programs whereby more flexible merit based criteria of evaluation are used to gauge potential to succeed. now implicit in it argument, notice that i said flexible merit based criteria of evaluation. implicit in this argument is the view that the remedy does not have to consist of numerical guidelines and quotas. the remedy can be a different set of criteria. a different set of evaluations criteria. new, more flexible yet merit based criteria that are more accurate than the conventional tests, engaging the actual potential of black americans to succeed. criteria that capture such important attributes as per perseverance, interpersonal skills, reliability and leadership qualities. so the policy implications are obvious, rice-specific policies like affirmative action will be required for the foreseeable future to assure the continued mobility of the educated blacks, but affirmative action programs are not really designed to address the problems of the most disadvantaged and poorest people of color, including those who live in impoverished city ghettos. because of the time constraints, let me focus on a few things that make me pessimistic about the future of poor blacks beginning with the education in public schools. the research by the sociologist shawn rearden and others says that schools with high proportions of black students or high proportions of hispanic students typically tend to be schools with high proportions of poor students. although this finding suggests a strong association between residential segregation and residential achievement gaps, the key driving this association is a proportion of students, classmates who are poor. indeed, a school's poverty rate could be a proxy for the general school quality. le schools with high poverty rates could have fewer resources overall, and we definitely need more research to help explain the impact of concentrated poverty and urban public schools, and there are a num be of factors the take into account, and first of all, such schools may experience greater difficulty in attracting and retaining competent or skilled teachers and also the parents of the students in these schools generally have fewer resources, cultural capital and human capital, and that would be beneficial to their children's academic achievement. this means that the schools with the higher percentage of the poorer students have a higher percentage of lower performing students which may result in the school offering less advanced curricula. and the in other words, having low performing classmates may have an adverse effect on learning by altering instructional and social processes in the classroom. moreover, a recent study by my colleague robert sampson and the colleagues and i'm quoting from the study shows that residing in the severely disadvantaged neighborhood cumulatively impedes the development of academically relevant verle ball ability in children which affects the school performance. furthermore, the direct and indirect effects of peer influence have to be considered. students from disadvantaged backgrounds are less like willy to see a strong association between schooling and postal school employment, and finally, you know, we have to factor in other conditions that are not usually associated with school performance, but research suggests that these factors are important. i have in mind for example the impact of lead contamination on poor children. who live in dilapidated buildings on the school performance. the affect of home evictions on the schoolchildren's performance that my colleague desmond talks about. the impact of the psychological trauma of witnessing a kill ing in your neighborhood on school performance. when you are considering these c combined factors, it is to see that the school segregation, and social segregation contribute to the achievement gap, and what is not clear the relative importance and since the students tend to attend schools close to home, residential segregation is a major factor shaping patterns of school segregation, but we should carefully distinguish between two types of residential segregation that we might be involved in, racial segregation, and income segregation, and the kinds of the segregation and in combination that are associated with poor performing schools. and this reminds me of the research of one of my former students at the university of southern california. and owns. so in a 2016 sociological review entitled inequality in children's context, income segregation of households with and without children re-examines the longitudinal data here on income segregation. and her results reveal that families with children had a much higher level of income segregation than childless couples. and she hypothesizes that this is because families with children tend to seek out neighborhoods with the best schools. and i think that this hypothesis really applies to higher income families in the black community, as they try to escape the neighborhoods with the poorest schools and neighborhoods in which poor blacks suffer from the combination of income segregation and racial segregation. now, let me focus or for a moment on such neighborhoods. to provide additional information on why i am increasingly pessimistic of the future of poor blacks. and many of you are probably familiar with the story of to great migration of african-americans to northern cities in the first half of the 20th scentury. which seemed to offer a brighter future away from the jim crow segregation in the south. well, the great migration did improve the quality of life for african-americans as reflected in the growth of working and middle-class families as well as the significant reduction of poverty overall. and the great migration to northern cities abruptly ended. and because industries of the central cities with the major factor attracting blacks in the south relocated to the suburbs and to overseas destinations. and poor black neighborhoods, particularly those of the northeast and midwest change from densely packed areas that had constantly seen the arrival of the new migrants from the south to area that gradually experienced depopulation. and this depopulation was caused by two developments that occurred simultaneously, and the gradual out migration of higher income blacks, and significant blacks of which i highlight in my book "the truly disadvantaged" and the successful migration of the blacks from the south which meant that the ranks of the higher income migrants were no longer being replenished with poor migrants flowing in. and i might add that these depopulated black neighborhoods stand in sharp contrast to the densely populated black hispanic neighborhoods which continued to experience in migration, and two of the marks or symbols of these depopulated areas are abandoned buildings and vacant lots, brilliantly depicted in david simon's hbo show the wire that ma margaret mentioned. by the way, when simon told me that my book, when work disappears influenced the writing of season two, man i was walking around campus with a swagger [ laughter ] now, these deeply depop yu u late e -- depopulated areas have increased joblessness and the diminishing and poor performance of families and depopulation makes i difficult to achieve higher institutions and neighborhood organization, and this is resulting in what sociologists call a weak institutional resource base. you see it is easier for parents to control the behavior of the neighborhoods when a strong institutional resource exists, and that is when the links between the community institutions such as churches, schools, political organizations, businesses and civic clubs are strong or secure, the higher the density and the stability of formal organizations, the less ill illicit activities such as drug trafficking, crime, prostitution, and the formation of gangs can take rout in the neighborhood, and the opposite is true in high jobless neighborhoods that feature low levels of social organization. parents in such neighborhoods have a much more difficult time controlling the behavior of their adolescents, of preventing them from getting involved in activities detrimental to pro social development, and acti activities that spill over into the classroom and affect a academic achievement. now, i should also point out that some intercity neighborhoods are improving. because of gentrification. there seems to be an increasing desire for many couples, especially younger childless coupleses to live in the central city as opposed to the suburbs. and long commutes, and to and from the suburbs are increasingly inconvenient and many other cities such as boston and new york and san francisco and seattle. however, the cost of housing and rentals are increasing sharply in the cities and couples seeking modest cost accommodations are ready to relocate to inner city neighborhoods where redevelopment projects are underway. as these neighborhoods gentry fi, their resources improve including the creation of the shopping centers and large grocery stores, and moreover as the neighborhoods are more desirable places to live, the cost of housing, taxes and rental properties increase which results in a displacement of many low income residents who can no longer afford to live there. indeed, such developments have fueled the growth of suburban poverty as low income families, and they are entering the suburbs that i am talking about, and as low income families are responding to the rising costs of living in the city, by relocating to peripheral areas beyond the urban cores, and areas that have seen rapid, a r rapid growth of concentrated povr the ti. and so yet, while suburban poverty is increasing, 3/4, and 74% of high poverty neighborhoods and in metro areas by high poverty i mean neighborhoods with povr the ti rates of at least 40%, and 74% of the high poverty rates and metro areas are located in big cities. the low income families who are able to remain an inner city neighborhoods that are gentryfying sometimes through the rent subsidies or the tax abatements will definitely benefit from the improvements, but given the present climate, i have no reason to feel that to have -- i have no reason to feel hopeful that other inner city neighborhoods, and particularly those who continue to experience depopulation will improve in the near future. thus to repeat, whereas the future of privileged blacks, like the privileged members of o other groups look relatively good, the overall future of p r poorer blacks looks very bleak indeed. and nowhere is this more apparent than when you are examining the plight of low-skilled black males. the disproportionate number of low skilled black males in this country is one of the legacies is of historic segregation and discrimination. however, aside from the effects of current segregation discrimination, and including those caused by employer bias, a number of impersonal economic forces have contributed to the incredibly high jobless rates of low skilled black males and their correspondingly low incomes. and these forces include the changes in the relative demand in the low-skilled labor caused by the computer revolution, and the globalization of economic k activity and the declining financial sector, and the growth industries where workers with limited skills and education are concentrated and given the time constraint, i would like to focus on the last factor associated with relatively high jobless rates of low skilled black men. the gradual shift from manufacturing to service industries, and this shift, this shift has created a new set of problems for low-skilled black males, because those industries featured jobs that require workers to serve and relate to consumers and in a study that we conducted in chicago in the early 1990s whose findings are are still very relevant, many employers favored women and women in recent migrants of both genders who have come to pop u yu late the labor pool and the low wage sector over black males for entry level service jobs. employers in service industrieses felt that consumers perceive intercity black males to be dangerous or threatening and in part because of their high incarceration rates and you can see in the past that african-american men had to demonstrate the strong back muscles or to be hired for physical labor in the factory at a construction site or on an assembly line, and they interacted with the peers informant and not with consumers tomday, they have to search for work in the employment sector where employers are less to hire them, because they are seen as unable to sustain positive contact with the public. and they employers believe that black males require the soft skills that the jobs require, you know what they are? the tendency to maintain eye contact, the ability to kcarry n polite and friendly conversations with consumers. the inclination to smile and to be responsive to consumer requests however demanding or unreasonable they may seem. consequently, black male job seekers will face rising rates of rejection, and the prevalence of such attitudes combined with with the physical and the social isolation of minorities living in the inner cities of poverty severely limit the access of poor black men have to informal job networks of people or acquaintances that can pass along employment prospect, and this is a notableb problem for black males especially considering that low skilled employees first learn about their jobs through an acquaint tense or were recommended by someone associated with the company. now, research suggests that only a small percentage of the low skill skilled employees are hired through advertised job openings or cold calls, and the importance of knowing someone who knows the boss is illustrated by this employer's comments about a young black male to one of our interviews that the employer stated, quote, all of the sudden, they take a look at a guy and unless he has and in, and the reason why i hire this black kid the last time is because my neighbor said to me, yeah, i use him for a few days. he's good. and i said, i will take a chance, but it was a re recommendation. but other than that, i have a walk-in and who knows, because for the most part a guy sees a black male, an he is hesitant end quote and such attitudes are classic examples of the statistical discrimination, and in this context, i prefer the term statistical discrimination, instead of racial discrimination, because the black employers in our systampl also expressed reluctance to hire inner city blackma males a so the generally the assumptions of the the black male workers and reach assumptions based on those assumptions without reviewing the qualification of a black male applicant. and so consequently, many black applicants are not given the opportunity to prove themselves. why is this such requirements and problems for black males? simply because employers believe that women and recent immigrants of both genders are better suited than black males, and especially those with prison records with such jobs, and the image has been partly created by cultural shifts and national attitudes that reflect concerns about the higher rates of violence in to get tows. and in the eyes of many americans, black males symbolizes violence and cries for law and order have are resulted in a more punitive criminal justice system and a dramatic inkrecrease in black m incarceration. and the high incarceration rates of the low skilled black males are very much connected to the high jobless rates, and it is a vicious cycle, and being without a job can encourage illegal money-making actives in order to make money meet to risk the increase of incarceration, and upon release, a prison record carries are a stigma in the eyes of employers, and decreases the probability that an ex-offender will be hired resulting in the graeat er likelihood of even moe intra intractable joblessness and forced to turn to the low wage sector for employment. inner city black males including a significant number of ex-offenders have to compete often unsuccessfully with a growing number of female and immigrant workers and if these men complain or manifest dissatisfaction they are seeming unat trtractive to employers an therefore encounter greater discrimination when they search for employment, and because of the feelings, many inner city black males express about their jobs and job aspects, the plummeting position in a changing economy, and it is important to link these attitudes with the opportunity structure that is the spectrum of life chances available to them in societyt at a large. this brings me to the subjek of black lives matter. the black lives matter movement has dramatically called attention to violent police encounters with the blacks, especially young black males who given the very circumstances are more likely to have confrontations with the police. which reinforces the negative perceptions they have garnered. aided by smarts phones and social media, americans have now become more aware of these incidents. which is very likely occurred at similar levels and previous decades, but they were under the radar so to speak. however, i think that it would be good to expand the focus of the movement to include groups that are not usually a referenced when we discuss black lives matter. i'm referring to ordinary residents who are often innocent victims of criminal offenses and poor inner city neighborhoods and have called for more police protection, not less. and to repeat, these people are usually not referenced when we talk about black lives matter. and the in this connection, you know, i are recall a conversation that i had several decades ago with a mother who resided in one of the poor inner city neighborhoods on chicago's south side. a stray bullet from a gang fight had killed her son, who was not a gang member. and she sadly lamented that his death was not reported in any of the chicago newspapers and not on tv or the electronic media, and i distinctly remember hearing her saying that no one cared, mr. wilson, that my son was killed. no one cared. >> as a i pointed out recently, when income segregation is coupled with segregation, there are several dimensions including exposure to violent crime. take a look at this figure, which captures this graphic well. in 1978, poor blacks age 12 and over were only marginally more likely than nonaffluent blacks to be violent crime victims. roughly 45 per 38,000 individuals respectively, however, by 2008, poor blacks were far more likely to be violent crime victims about 75 per 1,000 while affluent blacks were far less likely to be victims of violent crime, and about 23 per 1,000, and violent crime can reach extraordinary levels in the poorest inner city black neighborhood, and that is why, david simons "the wire" it was an important show. because he captured this violen violence. for example, in milwaukee, wisconsin, where 46% of the african-americans live in high poverty neighborhoods, those with poverty rates of at a least 40%, and blackss are nearly 20 times more likely to get shot than a white person, and nine time times more likely to be murdered. and now, some people are reluctant to talk about the high murder rates in cities like milwaukee, because one, it might distract our attention from the vital discussions of the police violence against blacks, and secondly, it runs the risk of providing am yu in addition to those who were resisting justice criminal reform and sentencing policy, but geo levy of the "los angeles times" and author of "ghet "ghettoize" says that the policy placed on solving the problems of the inner city neighborhoods comparing with woefully ill equipped homicide investigates represent represents one of the biggest moral failings of the criminal justice system. and in essence the thousands of african-american families whose loved ones tend to be killed are disregarded and ignored even by the media, and although the nation's consciousness has been aroused by the repeated violence of police brutality against blacks is seen in the public in distress of trauma and pain and many poor inner city families experience while following the killing of a family member or close relative also deserves our special attention. in the use of the phrase, the other side of black lives matter coined by my former student of the university of california berkeley could help to create such an awareness. the other side of black lives matter. let me just end by saying in the closing remarks by saying that when i wrote the bridge over the racial divide, which is published by the university of california press in 1990, i was hopeful that we could create a climate in the united states that could lead to a constructive dialogue on how problems associated with the disappearance of work among certain segments of our population can be addressed, including problems that result in neighborhood violence that traumatize the residents. despite the fact that such problems tend to be more severe in poor intercity neighborhoods, i nonetheless felt that they should be discussed not in isolati isolation, and as part of the more general dialogue which focuses on the concerns of ordinary americans, concerns that the poor working and middle class, middle-classes of all groups share, including concerns about crime in the neighborhoods. declining real wages. job security and unemployment. escalating medical and housing costs and the availability of child care programs. and i also argued in my 1999 book, that programs created in response to these concerns despite being race neutral would disproportionately benefit the intercity job leless poor, but o benefit large segments of the remaining population including the white population. and i stated that the framers of this message should be cognizant of the fact that these groups although often seen as adversaries are potential al allies in a reform coalition, because they suffer from a common problem. economic distress caused by forces outside of their control. and the argument is as true today as it was when i wrote "over the bridge of racial divide" in 1999, and it is being repe repeated by some observers in the post election debates that those on identity politic, and attempt to mobilize people of o color and immigrants, and lgbt community tended to ignore the pr problems of poorer white americans. and one notable exception that they point out is bernie sand ers, progressive and unifying populist economic message and a democratic primary is a message that resonate d wih a significant segment of the white lower and working class populations. however, santos was not the democratic nominee, and donald trump was able to capture notable support from these populations with the divisive not unifying populous message. so i end this lecture by once again returning to some of the basic argument s ths that i pred in the 1999 book, the "bridge over the racial divide." and i hope that you don't mind that the closing comments of the public intellectual and a sk scholar. but in the age of otrump, these comments are even more relevant and important, because the problems of social inequality, and the gap between the expanding have nots and haves is growing more severe. a visual that acknowledges racially distinct problems, and the need for race specific remedies, but at the same time, emphasizes the importance of multi racial solutions to shared problems is more important now than ever. a new democratic vision must reject the commonly held view that race is so divisive that whites, black, latinos, and asian, and native americans cannot work together in a common cause. those articulating the new vision must realize that if a political message is tailored to the white audience, people of color draw back just as whites draw back when a message is tailored to racial minority audiences. the challenge is to find issues and programs that concern families of all racial and ethnic groups so that individuals in these groups can honestly perceive mutual interest and join in a multi racial coalition to move america forward. i cling to this vision. i cling to this vision, in my efforts to overcome a feeling of deep pessimism about the plight ofhe ninner city poor. i thank you for being so attentive. [ applause ] president trump landed in ft. myers, florida, to tour hurricane damage and to meet with individuals impacted by hurricane irma. the president made brief remark s at southwest florida airport before proceeding with relief efforts. his comments are just under ten minutes. >> is there a microphone? >> no mic. >> all right. >> well, i just want to thank everybody. i came down to see fema, to see the coast guard, to see the army, the marines and everybody, the navy and the job that everybody

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