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Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On White Rage 2016080
Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On White Rage 2016080
Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On White Rage 20160805
Emory
University Professor
Carol Anderson
argues the racial divide in america is fueled by white resentment over progress by africanamericans. She discussed her book at the ferguson, missouri, public library. This is just over an hour. Were going to get started. Hello and welcome to
Left Bank Books
for our event with
Carol Anderson
. This is not
Left Bank Books
. Sorry. Im shane, host for
Left Bank Books
and want to thank or cosponsor, the ferguson library. Their work is incredible and inspiring. Theyre a wonderful partner to have for this event. Left bankbooks hosts over 300 author events and with your help we can continue bringing bringir favorite authors. Win you support us your tax dollars are going into her to schools and
Community Projects
at a higher rate. We give back to
Tower Community
by partnering with charities and organizations and we are doing our summer fundraising for our river city readers from. We have brochures at the back. We several
Public School
children by building a home library and encouraging literacy. The students get to keep five books each year and meet authors. I would like to ask you to make a donation tonight of any amount, you can do so at the sales table or ask the me about sponsoring a child. This program is near and dear to my heart and its wonderful i and will tell you all about it. So i would like to thank all of you for your continued support for us
Left Bank Books
. For information about our
Upcoming Events
and information on our reading group, ferguson reads, and much more, please visit our web site, left bank. Com. Grab a newsletter at the back leftbank. Com. And now, i am very proud to introduce
Carol Anderson
for
Left Bank Books
. As ferguson eresulted in 2014 and media commentators across the spectrum referred to the angry response of africanamericans as black rage, anderson wrote a remarkable oped in the
Washington Post
showing that this was instead why who white rage at force. Linking when by africanamericans was counselor bid cleverly drafted on six. White rage pulls back the veil of actions immediate in the name of protecting democracy. There are a handful of writers whose work i consider indispensable, proffer and the jettor of white aim vase this one of the most important books he has work on. Carol anderson is professor of africanamerican stewedies at hemry university. She author of many books, including bourgeois radicals, the naacp and the struggle for colonial libberration, 1941 to 1960 and numerous articles. Andersons opinion article from the
Washington Post
will appear in the fire this time a new generation speaks about race which comes out in august and i highly recommend that book as well. That article shaped and helped define this book, and a movement. White rage is inspiring and necessary. From the epilogue, its dime to diffuse the power of white rage. Time to finally truly move into the future. Tonight carol will be discussing white rage the unspoken truth of racial divide. Please help me in welcoming
Carol Anderson
. [applause] and thank you. Thank you for coming out on a what day is this . I really truly appreciate it. And i appreciate what
Ferguson Public Library
has done and is for this community. Thank you. And i appreciate
Left Bank Books
as well. Thank you. I wanted to spend some time
First Talking
about how i got to white rage. What white rage is and then move into several excerpts from the book and then enup for q a. When i first began to wrestle with the concept of white rage, it wasnt ferguson. It was in fact in february 1999. When a black man in new york city, stepped out on his doorstep after a long, hard days work, to go get something to eat, and he was greeted with 41 bullets. 19 of which hit him. His name was amadou dialo and he was gunned down by the nypd. Amadou was unarmed. That was bad enough. But as we know from these killings, it is the response that begins to tell you what is happening in society, and so im sitting there and im listening to mayor
Rudy Giuliani
in an interview with ted koppel, on nightline and ted koppel is talking about the nypd texas the amadou diallo killing, talking about 41 bullets. Talking about stop and frisk, talking about police brutality, and
Rudy Giuliani
says, i have the most restrained and best behaved police force you can imagine. Okay, yeah, i had one of those scooby doo moments, what . And then he began to talk about how his policies were working. That what he had put in place in new york city has brought down crime. New york city is a safer place because of his policies, and he has flow charts and graphs and bars, everything, and what you dont hear is that an unarmed black man stepped out on his porch and was gunned down. Im sitting there going, something is fundamentally wrong. Structurally wrong. I didnt know what to call it. Didnt know what to label it. Put i knew something was going on. And i continue as a professor began working and thinking and working and thinking, and then august 2014. The television is on and im watching, and i see ferguson in flames. And then i hear the pundits talking. And what they were talking about was black rage. Why are black people bushing up where they live . What is wrong with black people . Our can they burn up where they live . Theres something wrong with black people. Why are they burning us. Didnt matter what ideological stripe. It was all centered, the baseline, the starting point, was black rage. And i found myself in this moment shaking my head. You know that moment when you shake your head, something is going on and you realize, thats not right. Thats not right and thats when it hit me. Said, no, what were really seeing is white rage. What we are really seeing is that we have been so focused in on the flames, we have missed the kindling. We have missed what has soaked the fire. We have missed the disenfranchisement of the black community in ferson, through all kind shenanigans and rigmarole have created where, in the 2013 municipal election in population that is 67 of fergusons population, you had a six percent black voter turnout. You got to work really hard to make that happen. We missed in ferguson schools that had been on probation for 15 years. 15 years. Where a state had an
Accounting System
of base accreditation of 30 points and ferguson
Public School
ed were getting ten points a year, and we have allowed that to happen for 15 years. We have allowed an entire generation of students to go through from kindergarten to graduation, with a school in a
School System
we know doesnt work. Kindling. We have a police force that didnt see that its role was to protect and serve, but saw africanamericans as a revenuegenerating source. That could provide 25 of the citys budget. Kindling. What all of this kind ling as i began to wrestle with white rage and began to understand what were looking at are the policies. As a nation we are so drawn to the spectacular. We are so drawn to what we can see. That we miss those tectonic plates that are actually moving. White rage moves subtly. Almost imperceptibly. Crosssive cor rosesively, through the courts, legislatures, government, bureaucracies, through the white house, through congress, and it wreaks havoc subtly. Its hard to discern what is the source of what youre seeing. So i set out to make white rage visible because the first thing is you have to see this thing. The trigger for white rage is black advancement. It is not the mere presence of black people that is the catalyst for white rage. But it is blackness with ambition. Blackness with drive. With purpose. With aspirations. With demands for full and equal citizenship. It is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation. Black mass that refuses to fifth to give up and through a formidable array of policy assaults and legal maneuvering, white rage consistently punishes black resilience and black resolve. How else can we reasonably explain why government after government fought so hard to keep black children from getting an education . We saw it after the civil war. We saw it all the way through the brown decision. We see it now. Why is it so difficult to educate black children . Why do we have this, even when at least since 1957, and sputnik, when the u. S. Said, oh, we have a
National Security
crisis, we must educate as many of our citizens as we can to be able to effectively wage the cold war. But brown was not going to get implemented. So even in the face of a
National Security
crisis, even in the tase when we say this is what our nation needs, white rage says, i dont think so. Why . What this nation this nation design a war on drugs, that incarcerates most those who sell and do drugs the least. Why . And why particularly, after the triumphs and the successes of thesive rights move with the
Civil Rights Act
of 1964 and the
Voting Rights
act of 1965 . Why would we incarcerate communities . Why would be overwhelm state budgets . Why would be destabilize families . Why would be do this to those who arent the primary users and sellers of narcotics . Why . Why would state after state develop ruse after ruse to keep american citizens from being able to vote. And to have a say in their own democracy. Why . When we say we value democracy, when we say this is why we fight, then why would be have such mass
Voter Suppression
. And understand that none of this was done with a mere klan cross, right . There werent any cross burnings that just made all of this happen. All of this was done coolly, methodically, systematically, and so in my new book white rage, i trace this historical pattern with sign posts. Reconstruction. The great migration. The brown decision. The
Civil Rights Movement
. And the election of barack obama. And i also trace it through three key sectors. Education, the criminal
Justice System
and the right to vote. And so now i want to read some excerpts. As you know, in 1954, the u. S. Supreme court ruled that separate but equal was unconstitutional. Overturned the messy decision and said that we must integrate. Jim crow was no longer the law of the land. The south rows rose up and said, huhuh, and used a series of ruses that dragged this process out for a long, long time. Well, in 1973, the battle the
Court Battles
are still going on. In 1973, there was an area in san antonio called the edgewood district. And in the edgewood neighborhood it was 96 mexicanamerican and africanamerican. It was the poorest neighborhood in san antonio, with the lowest
Median Income
and the lowest
Property Values
. They taxed themselves at the highest rate in order to try to fund their childrens education. By taxing themselves at the highest rate, they garnered 21 per capita. Meanwhile, alamo heights, predominantly white neighborhood in san antonio, taxed themselves at a much lower rate. They garnered over 300 per student. Lower rates, 1500 percent more in funding. Now, what we know is that
Property Values
have a lot to do with public policy. World governments choose, say, to put the landfill. Where they choose to put the highway. Where they choose to zone certain types of businesses and not others. Has a lot to do with
Property Values
. So, the parent in the edgewood district took texas to court. And said, this violates our childrens 14th amendment rights to have equal protection under the law. It violates brown. The u. S. Supreme court ruled in a 54 decision, 4 of the justices were appointed by richard nixon, and one was appointed by eisenhower. That quote there is no fundamental right to education in the constitution. They said that the state funding scheme did not systematically discriminate against all poor people in texas. And that because districts across the
United States
used property taxes that this method was not so irrational as to be discriminatory. Thurgood marshall, his dissent and thats what im going to read. Fully recognizing the implications of rodriguez, the name of the case,
Justice Thurgood
marshall was an electric tick. More than 40 of black children, 14 and under, lived with families below the poverty line. As compared with 10 of white children. Under those circumstances, marshall feeder feared, africanamerican children wouldnt stand a chance. The decision, he wrote in his dissent, could only be seen as a retreat from a commitment to equality of educational opportunities, as well as an unsupportable capitulation for a system which deprived children of the chance to reach their full potential as citizens. He was simply dumb found that the majority would acknowledge the existence of widely disoperate funning for schools across texas, and then instead over focusing on the cause of the slumsly pirouettes to the states efforts to close the gaps etch the issue, marshall complained, is not whether texas is doing it best to ameliorate the worst features of a discriminatory scheme. But, rather, whether the scheme itself is in fact unconstitutionally discriminatory. Moveover, he found it the height of absurdity that texas could actually argue that there was no correlation between funding and school quality. You cant make this up. And then from that faulty premise, deduce that there were no discriminatory consequences for the children of the disadvantaged districts. He was equally unimpressed with texas tendency to parade before the justices the stories of children who had excelled. Despite living in underresourced districts, as some sort of proof that funding wasnt relevant. That a child could excel even when forced to attend an underfunded school with poor physical facilities, less experienced teachers, larger classes, and a number of other deficits compared to the to a school with substantially more funds, marshall barked, it is to the credit of the child cannot the state. But rodriguez placed the onus slowly on the backs of the most vulnerable. While walling off access to the niece resources for quality education and played beautifully into the coralblind, post civil rights language 0, of substituting economics for race yet achieving a similar result. The simple truth was that. By virtue of the sheer demographics of poverty, rodriguez would have not only a disparate impact on africanamerican children but also a disastrous one. I know, sobering. And i then move into the war on drugs. Because it has so warped
American Society
in ways that are so profound, and so i walk us through how the war on drugs emerged. I then walk us through the court cases, the
Supreme Court
decisions that
Michelle Alexander
in the new jim crow so beautifully laid out, and then i begin to lay out the consequences, and so as i go through the court cases, i then say, taken together, those rulings allow inteed encouraged, the indeed encouraged the criminal justice to run racially amok and thats exactly what happened. On july 23, 1999, in texas. In the dead of night, local police launched a massive raid and busted a major cocaine trafficking ring, at least thats how it was billed by the local media, which after being tipped off, lined up to get the best, most humiliating photographs of 46 of the towns 5,000 residents, handcuffed, in pajamas, underwear and uncombed bed hair. Paraded into the jails for booking. The local newspaper ran the headline streets cleared of garbage. Praisees
Law Enforcement
for ridding the city of drugdealing scum bags. The raid was the result of an 18 month investigation by a man who would be named by
Texas Attorney
general as outstanding lawman of the year. Attached to at the federally funded
Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task
force, based in amarillo, he didnt lead a team of investigators. Instead he single handedly identified eve member of the massive cocaine coercion and made over 100 drug purchases. He was hailed as a hero and his testimony immediately let to 36 38 of the 46 being convicted. With the other case just waiting to get into the clogged court system. Joe moor, a pig farmer, sentenced sentenced sentenced to 99 years for selling 200 worth of cocaine to the uncover narcotics agent. His wife received 25 years. While her husband, william, cash love, landed 434 years. For possessing an ounce of cocaine. Well, the case began to unravel, however, when tanya went to trial. Coleman swore she sold him drugs. Tanarch however, had video prove she was at a bank in oklahoma city, 300 miles away, cashing a check, at the very moment he claimed to have bought cocaine from her. Then another defendant, billywaver had time sheets and his hiss boss eye witness testimony that he was at work and not out selling drugs to coleman. And when the outstanding lawman of the year swore under oath that he has purchased cocaine from all bryant, tall, bushyhaired man, only to have bryant, bald, and 56, appear in court. It finally became very clear that something was awry. Coleman in fact had no proof whatsoever. That any of the alleged drug deals had taken place. There were no oddow tapes no audiotapes no, photographs, no other
Police Officers
presence, nobodys fingerprints but his on the bags of drugs no records. Over the spain of an 18month investigation, he never wore a wire. Now, he claimed to have written each drug transaction on his leg. But to have washed away the evidence when he showered. So, im either thinking he showered once in 18 months, or
University Professor<\/a>
Carol Anderson<\/a> argues the racial divide in america is fueled by white resentment over progress by africanamericans. She discussed her book at the ferguson, missouri, public library. This is just over an hour. Were going to get started. Hello and welcome to
Left Bank Books<\/a> for our event with
Carol Anderson<\/a>. This is not
Left Bank Books<\/a>. Sorry. Im shane, host for
Left Bank Books<\/a> and want to thank or cosponsor, the ferguson library. Their work is incredible and inspiring. Theyre a wonderful partner to have for this event. Left bankbooks hosts over 300 author events and with your help we can continue bringing bringir favorite authors. Win you support us your tax dollars are going into her to schools and
Community Projects<\/a> at a higher rate. We give back to
Tower Community<\/a> by partnering with charities and organizations and we are doing our summer fundraising for our river city readers from. We have brochures at the back. We several
Public School<\/a> children by building a home library and encouraging literacy. The students get to keep five books each year and meet authors. I would like to ask you to make a donation tonight of any amount, you can do so at the sales table or ask the me about sponsoring a child. This program is near and dear to my heart and its wonderful i and will tell you all about it. So i would like to thank all of you for your continued support for us
Left Bank Books<\/a>. For information about our
Upcoming Events<\/a> and information on our reading group, ferguson reads, and much more, please visit our web site, left bank. Com. Grab a newsletter at the back leftbank. Com. And now, i am very proud to introduce
Carol Anderson<\/a> for
Left Bank Books<\/a>. As ferguson eresulted in 2014 and media commentators across the spectrum referred to the angry response of africanamericans as black rage, anderson wrote a remarkable oped in the
Washington Post<\/a> showing that this was instead why who white rage at force. Linking when by africanamericans was counselor bid cleverly drafted on six. White rage pulls back the veil of actions immediate in the name of protecting democracy. There are a handful of writers whose work i consider indispensable, proffer and the jettor of white aim vase this one of the most important books he has work on. Carol anderson is professor of africanamerican stewedies at hemry university. She author of many books, including bourgeois radicals, the naacp and the struggle for colonial libberration, 1941 to 1960 and numerous articles. Andersons opinion article from the
Washington Post<\/a> will appear in the fire this time a new generation speaks about race which comes out in august and i highly recommend that book as well. That article shaped and helped define this book, and a movement. White rage is inspiring and necessary. From the epilogue, its dime to diffuse the power of white rage. Time to finally truly move into the future. Tonight carol will be discussing white rage the unspoken truth of racial divide. Please help me in welcoming
Carol Anderson<\/a>. [applause] and thank you. Thank you for coming out on a what day is this . I really truly appreciate it. And i appreciate what
Ferguson Public Library<\/a> has done and is for this community. Thank you. And i appreciate
Left Bank Books<\/a> as well. Thank you. I wanted to spend some time
First Talking<\/a> about how i got to white rage. What white rage is and then move into several excerpts from the book and then enup for q a. When i first began to wrestle with the concept of white rage, it wasnt ferguson. It was in fact in february 1999. When a black man in new york city, stepped out on his doorstep after a long, hard days work, to go get something to eat, and he was greeted with 41 bullets. 19 of which hit him. His name was amadou dialo and he was gunned down by the nypd. Amadou was unarmed. That was bad enough. But as we know from these killings, it is the response that begins to tell you what is happening in society, and so im sitting there and im listening to mayor
Rudy Giuliani<\/a> in an interview with ted koppel, on nightline and ted koppel is talking about the nypd texas the amadou diallo killing, talking about 41 bullets. Talking about stop and frisk, talking about police brutality, and
Rudy Giuliani<\/a> says, i have the most restrained and best behaved police force you can imagine. Okay, yeah, i had one of those scooby doo moments, what . And then he began to talk about how his policies were working. That what he had put in place in new york city has brought down crime. New york city is a safer place because of his policies, and he has flow charts and graphs and bars, everything, and what you dont hear is that an unarmed black man stepped out on his porch and was gunned down. Im sitting there going, something is fundamentally wrong. Structurally wrong. I didnt know what to call it. Didnt know what to label it. Put i knew something was going on. And i continue as a professor began working and thinking and working and thinking, and then august 2014. The television is on and im watching, and i see ferguson in flames. And then i hear the pundits talking. And what they were talking about was black rage. Why are black people bushing up where they live . What is wrong with black people . Our can they burn up where they live . Theres something wrong with black people. Why are they burning us. Didnt matter what ideological stripe. It was all centered, the baseline, the starting point, was black rage. And i found myself in this moment shaking my head. You know that moment when you shake your head, something is going on and you realize, thats not right. Thats not right and thats when it hit me. Said, no, what were really seeing is white rage. What we are really seeing is that we have been so focused in on the flames, we have missed the kindling. We have missed what has soaked the fire. We have missed the disenfranchisement of the black community in ferson, through all kind shenanigans and rigmarole have created where, in the 2013 municipal election in population that is 67 of fergusons population, you had a six percent black voter turnout. You got to work really hard to make that happen. We missed in ferguson schools that had been on probation for 15 years. 15 years. Where a state had an
Accounting System<\/a> of base accreditation of 30 points and ferguson
Public School<\/a>ed were getting ten points a year, and we have allowed that to happen for 15 years. We have allowed an entire generation of students to go through from kindergarten to graduation, with a school in a
School System<\/a> we know doesnt work. Kindling. We have a police force that didnt see that its role was to protect and serve, but saw africanamericans as a revenuegenerating source. That could provide 25 of the citys budget. Kindling. What all of this kind ling as i began to wrestle with white rage and began to understand what were looking at are the policies. As a nation we are so drawn to the spectacular. We are so drawn to what we can see. That we miss those tectonic plates that are actually moving. White rage moves subtly. Almost imperceptibly. Crosssive cor rosesively, through the courts, legislatures, government, bureaucracies, through the white house, through congress, and it wreaks havoc subtly. Its hard to discern what is the source of what youre seeing. So i set out to make white rage visible because the first thing is you have to see this thing. The trigger for white rage is black advancement. It is not the mere presence of black people that is the catalyst for white rage. But it is blackness with ambition. Blackness with drive. With purpose. With aspirations. With demands for full and equal citizenship. It is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation. Black mass that refuses to fifth to give up and through a formidable array of policy assaults and legal maneuvering, white rage consistently punishes black resilience and black resolve. How else can we reasonably explain why government after government fought so hard to keep black children from getting an education . We saw it after the civil war. We saw it all the way through the brown decision. We see it now. Why is it so difficult to educate black children . Why do we have this, even when at least since 1957, and sputnik, when the u. S. Said, oh, we have a
National Security<\/a> crisis, we must educate as many of our citizens as we can to be able to effectively wage the cold war. But brown was not going to get implemented. So even in the face of a
National Security<\/a> crisis, even in the tase when we say this is what our nation needs, white rage says, i dont think so. Why . What this nation this nation design a war on drugs, that incarcerates most those who sell and do drugs the least. Why . And why particularly, after the triumphs and the successes of thesive rights move with the
Civil Rights Act<\/a> of 1964 and the
Voting Rights<\/a> act of 1965 . Why would we incarcerate communities . Why would be overwhelm state budgets . Why would be destabilize families . Why would be do this to those who arent the primary users and sellers of narcotics . Why . Why would state after state develop ruse after ruse to keep american citizens from being able to vote. And to have a say in their own democracy. Why . When we say we value democracy, when we say this is why we fight, then why would be have such mass
Voter Suppression<\/a> . And understand that none of this was done with a mere klan cross, right . There werent any cross burnings that just made all of this happen. All of this was done coolly, methodically, systematically, and so in my new book white rage, i trace this historical pattern with sign posts. Reconstruction. The great migration. The brown decision. The
Civil Rights Movement<\/a>. And the election of barack obama. And i also trace it through three key sectors. Education, the criminal
Justice System<\/a> and the right to vote. And so now i want to read some excerpts. As you know, in 1954, the u. S. Supreme court ruled that separate but equal was unconstitutional. Overturned the messy decision and said that we must integrate. Jim crow was no longer the law of the land. The south rows rose up and said, huhuh, and used a series of ruses that dragged this process out for a long, long time. Well, in 1973, the battle the
Court Battles<\/a> are still going on. In 1973, there was an area in san antonio called the edgewood district. And in the edgewood neighborhood it was 96 mexicanamerican and africanamerican. It was the poorest neighborhood in san antonio, with the lowest
Median Income<\/a> and the lowest
Property Values<\/a>. They taxed themselves at the highest rate in order to try to fund their childrens education. By taxing themselves at the highest rate, they garnered 21 per capita. Meanwhile, alamo heights, predominantly white neighborhood in san antonio, taxed themselves at a much lower rate. They garnered over 300 per student. Lower rates, 1500 percent more in funding. Now, what we know is that
Property Values<\/a> have a lot to do with public policy. World governments choose, say, to put the landfill. Where they choose to put the highway. Where they choose to zone certain types of businesses and not others. Has a lot to do with
Property Values<\/a>. So, the parent in the edgewood district took texas to court. And said, this violates our childrens 14th amendment rights to have equal protection under the law. It violates brown. The u. S. Supreme court ruled in a 54 decision, 4 of the justices were appointed by richard nixon, and one was appointed by eisenhower. That quote there is no fundamental right to education in the constitution. They said that the state funding scheme did not systematically discriminate against all poor people in texas. And that because districts across the
United States<\/a> used property taxes that this method was not so irrational as to be discriminatory. Thurgood marshall, his dissent and thats what im going to read. Fully recognizing the implications of rodriguez, the name of the case,
Justice Thurgood<\/a> marshall was an electric tick. More than 40 of black children, 14 and under, lived with families below the poverty line. As compared with 10 of white children. Under those circumstances, marshall feeder feared, africanamerican children wouldnt stand a chance. The decision, he wrote in his dissent, could only be seen as a retreat from a commitment to equality of educational opportunities, as well as an unsupportable capitulation for a system which deprived children of the chance to reach their full potential as citizens. He was simply dumb found that the majority would acknowledge the existence of widely disoperate funning for schools across texas, and then instead over focusing on the cause of the slumsly pirouettes to the states efforts to close the gaps etch the issue, marshall complained, is not whether texas is doing it best to ameliorate the worst features of a discriminatory scheme. But, rather, whether the scheme itself is in fact unconstitutionally discriminatory. Moveover, he found it the height of absurdity that texas could actually argue that there was no correlation between funding and school quality. You cant make this up. And then from that faulty premise, deduce that there were no discriminatory consequences for the children of the disadvantaged districts. He was equally unimpressed with texas tendency to parade before the justices the stories of children who had excelled. Despite living in underresourced districts, as some sort of proof that funding wasnt relevant. That a child could excel even when forced to attend an underfunded school with poor physical facilities, less experienced teachers, larger classes, and a number of other deficits compared to the to a school with substantially more funds, marshall barked, it is to the credit of the child cannot the state. But rodriguez placed the onus slowly on the backs of the most vulnerable. While walling off access to the niece resources for quality education and played beautifully into the coralblind, post civil rights language 0, of substituting economics for race yet achieving a similar result. The simple truth was that. By virtue of the sheer demographics of poverty, rodriguez would have not only a disparate impact on africanamerican children but also a disastrous one. I know, sobering. And i then move into the war on drugs. Because it has so warped
American Society<\/a> in ways that are so profound, and so i walk us through how the war on drugs emerged. I then walk us through the court cases, the
Supreme Court<\/a> decisions that
Michelle Alexander<\/a> in the new jim crow so beautifully laid out, and then i begin to lay out the consequences, and so as i go through the court cases, i then say, taken together, those rulings allow inteed encouraged, the indeed encouraged the criminal justice to run racially amok and thats exactly what happened. On july 23, 1999, in texas. In the dead of night, local police launched a massive raid and busted a major cocaine trafficking ring, at least thats how it was billed by the local media, which after being tipped off, lined up to get the best, most humiliating photographs of 46 of the towns 5,000 residents, handcuffed, in pajamas, underwear and uncombed bed hair. Paraded into the jails for booking. The local newspaper ran the headline streets cleared of garbage. Praisees
Law Enforcement<\/a> for ridding the city of drugdealing scum bags. The raid was the result of an 18 month investigation by a man who would be named by
Texas Attorney<\/a> general as outstanding lawman of the year. Attached to at the federally funded
Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task<\/a> force, based in amarillo, he didnt lead a team of investigators. Instead he single handedly identified eve member of the massive cocaine coercion and made over 100 drug purchases. He was hailed as a hero and his testimony immediately let to 36 38 of the 46 being convicted. With the other case just waiting to get into the clogged court system. Joe moor, a pig farmer, sentenced sentenced sentenced to 99 years for selling 200 worth of cocaine to the uncover narcotics agent. His wife received 25 years. While her husband, william, cash love, landed 434 years. For possessing an ounce of cocaine. Well, the case began to unravel, however, when tanya went to trial. Coleman swore she sold him drugs. Tanarch however, had video prove she was at a bank in oklahoma city, 300 miles away, cashing a check, at the very moment he claimed to have bought cocaine from her. Then another defendant, billywaver had time sheets and his hiss boss eye witness testimony that he was at work and not out selling drugs to coleman. And when the outstanding lawman of the year swore under oath that he has purchased cocaine from all bryant, tall, bushyhaired man, only to have bryant, bald, and 56, appear in court. It finally became very clear that something was awry. Coleman in fact had no proof whatsoever. That any of the alleged drug deals had taken place. There were no oddow tapes no audiotapes no, photographs, no other
Police Officers<\/a> presence, nobodys fingerprints but his on the bags of drugs no records. Over the spain of an 18month investigation, he never wore a wire. Now, he claimed to have written each drug transaction on his leg. But to have washed away the evidence when he showered. So, im either thinking he showered once in 18 months, or
Additional Investigation<\/a> led to no corroborating proof. When the
Police Arrested<\/a> those 46 people and search their homes and possessions no drugs were found. No were weapons, money, paraphernalia or any other indication at all that the house wife, pig farmer, or anyone else arrested, were actually drug kingpins. What was discovered, however, was judicial misconduct running rampant in the war on drugs in tulia texas, with a clear racial bias. Coleman had accused ten percent of tulias black population of dealing in cocaine. Based on his word alone, 50 of all of the black men in the town were indicted, convicted, and sentenced to prison. Randy credit of the
Williams Moses<\/a> fund for
Racial Justice<\/a> todd tia a mass lynching, taking down 50 of the male black
Adult Population<\/a> like that . Its outrageous. Its like being accused of raping someone in indiana in the 1930s. You didnt do it. But it doesnt matter. Because a bunch of klans men on the jury are going to string you up anyway. But this wasnt 1930. It was the beginning of the 21st century. And a powerful
Civil Rights Movement<\/a> had bridged those two eras. And then the last excerpt i want to read. The last chapter deals with the election of president obama. And how white rage reared up in really deep, profound ways. Almost in ways we hadnt seen in years. And so as i walked through
Voter Suppression<\/a>, and then i move into the threats on his life, and the disrespect that the office of the president received, i then began to deal with the violence. Black respectability or appropriate behavior doesnt seem to matter. If anything, black achievement, black aspirations, and black success, are construed as direct threats. Obamas presidency made that clear. Aspirations and their achievement provide no protection. Not even to the godfearing. On june 17, 2015,
South Carolina<\/a>an dylann roof, a white, unemployed 21yearold high school dropout, was on a mission to take his country back. Every since
George Zimmerman<\/a> walked out of the courthouse a free man, after killing trayvon martin, in a racially polearizd nation. Civil rights law. But despite the groups of vowed racist belief system in the mid to late 1990s as the
Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a> reports the group bloses of having 43 members in the
Mississippi Legislature<\/a> and hard powerful
Republican Party<\/a> allies including trent lott of mississippi. By 2004, mississippi governor hailey barber, the chair of the
Republican National<\/a> committee, and 37 other powerful politicians, had all attended the event in the 21st century. Earl hope, the chair of the tric, gave 65,000 to
Republican Campaign<\/a> funds in recent year, including donations to the 2016 president ial campaigns of rand paul, rick santorum, and ted cruz. The tric enjoyed the cachet of respectability that racism required to achieve its goals in
American Society<\/a> and the web site of hatred and live provided the selfserving education that dylann roof the drank in the poise on of its message, got into this car, trough to charleston, entered ame church and landed in a bible study with a group of africanamericans the model of respectability. Roof played prayed with them. Read the bible with them. Thought they were so nice. And then he shot them dead. Leaving just one woman alive. So that she could tell the world what he had done and why. Youre taking over our country, he said, and he knew this to be true. Well, not even a full month after dylann roof againsted down nine africanamericans at emanuel ame in charleston,
South Carolina<\/a>, republican president ial frontrunner, donald trump, fired up his silent majority audience of thousands in july 2015 with a macabre promise. Dont worry, well take our country back. No. Its time instead that we take our country forward. Into the future. Thank you. [applause] thank you. And now im going to open it up for questions but i would ask, because cspan is filming this, that if you have a question, please go to the mic. Ask. Ask. Yes. Thank you. Is this on . I have read your book. And we have discussed it with ferguson book group here, readings on race book group. My one question that i i find it very helpful and a good compendsum of things that i kind of know but good to have it all in one place. The one concern i had was that seemed that you really detailed problems that happened under republican administrations. And what the eisenhower, to nixon, to bush, and then the present situation under obama but you didnt talk much about, say, what say, framework clintons ending welfare as we know it or other things that might happen under democratic administrations which also had disproportionate affects on black people. Absolutely. Thank you. And one of those one of the reasons behind that is because i was looking at these moments of advancement, and in those moments of advancement, where youre seeing the pushback comes before 68 from the you have the republicans and the democrats. But one of the things i in a piece i did in salon i begin to unpack, just somewhat, bill clinton and what he has done. Now, the article focused on the g. O. P. But understand that there are a couple of things happening here. Is that white rage moves through parties. It isnt just isolated, like in the republicans or isolated in the democrats, and that is also really important to understand. So just the epochs that i looked at, that did that. I could have easily, for instance, during the great depression, when
Franklin Delano<\/a> roost roosevelt is creating programs the southern democrats say we need relief, we need agriculture funding and support, we need social security. But black people cant have that. So, you can create this whole new deal compendium of programs and you have to exclude africanamericans. I could have talked about that but crunch time. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. I really just wanted to thank you so much for this work. Its incredibly profound, and the things in here that yao cited i that you cited i was unaware of. The state of mississippi didnt ratify the 13th amendment until 2013 . Yes. The date state of mississippi finally got around to ratifying the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery in 2013. They said it was an oversight. Well, so, the other really difficult pieces in here. I want to thank you for telling the story of mary turner, which i had only recently learned about, but i think being a witness to her story is so important and so powerful. So, i read the book for the ferguson readings on race book club, too. I love this. Its a great group. I learned so much. And so i was really diligent about reading it, and i had to put it down sometimes, and it was so difficult and painful. My question for you is, was it like that for you writing it . It had to be so much more difficult to write it and research it. It was tough. One of the things that i but ive been through this before in the first book eyes off the prize i had to deal with the lynchings that happened after the
First World War<\/a> and talking about blood boiling so hard that his eye balls popped out of his heads and anytime those records, im reading through this. So ive been in the bowels and so that is how it felt in these moments going through this, but one of the things i had the mary turner lynching is just it is tough, and it is a woman who protested because her husband was lynched. She is angry. Eight months pregnant. And so the lynchers come after her because she didnt know her place. How dare she protest that her husband was lynched, and so they snatcher head, they stripped her, they hung her upsidedown from a tree, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire, and then they saw her stomach she is eight months pregnant they saw her stomach quivering and they got a knife and sliced it open. The baby pops out and they stomped on the babys head. Win youre reading through those records, because one of the things i think is also important to understand about the way white rage works is that we focus in on this kind of violence but it is the system arou that condones condones cont
Everybody Knows<\/a> who killed mary turner. You go through the naacps papers as walter white, the head of the naacp is writing to the governor of georgia and is naming the names. So and so, and he works at standard oil, and and so and works at the furniture shop. So and so and da da da. And nothing happened. And so when you have that kind of violence that happens in a community, and then the powers that be are like, yeah, that is white rage, because it creates the kinds of policies, the kinds of judicial system, that allow that to occur. In order to keep africanamericans in their place, to stop that advancement. Thank you. I have another question. We talked about this a lot in our book club. What can we do . Youre doing it. And this is the thing about i study movements. I love movements. My i love what i how too we change a norm . There are these moments for instance, before the civil war, 80 of the nations gnp was tied up in slavery. Tied to slavery. 80 of the
United States<\/a> gnp tied to slavery. When we got to the point we had to fight a mean, hard war, but where the norm changed, when we knew that slavery was wrong. We came to know that jim crow was wrong. We came to know that apartheid was wrong. The movement that it takes to change those norms, its bit by bit. Its neighbors talking to neighbors. Its mobilizing, its organizing, its writing, its talking, its thinking, its voting. Its voting. Its laying pressure on policymakers to make this a much more just and decent nation and world. Thats how we do it. Thats how we do it, by working together. Good evening, everybody. How are you doing . Fine. Recently i was completing a job application, and under the nationality it listed latin, spanish, or mexican, list evidence africanamerican, said african haitian, island pacific or japanese but just said white under caucasian but not to reference who youre european or. Why is so it hard for some caucasians to recognize that it there areles immigrants to this country and also quick to say this is their country . I think a lot of that has to do with the way that history is taught k through 12. It creates a civics lesson but not a history lesson. It creates citizens in terms of a very kind of flattened narrative, about how by whom and how the nation was founded, who built the nation, who created the railroads, who built the cities, who invent this, who invented that, and if you go through those standard textbooks, what you will find is very minimal discussion about anybody else; that it is whites who have built america. Whites who have sustained america. Whites who created america. Whites are america. And its that framing in our textbooks, from k through 12, that have really solidified this narrative. So, we do get what were a nation of immigrants. You get that kind of thrown out there, but then we have the melting pot. And we all become one. But not really. And so when you and i think i saw a statistic that said only about 20 of americans have a bachelors degree. So, that means somewhere around 80 that this is the history they know. This is the history they know. And you know how it is when somebody tells you something the first story you hear, is the one then that
Everything Else<\/a> has to be weighed against . So if the first story you hear, and its the story you have heard over and over and over again, then trying to say, you know, your folks came over from poland, hmm . Tell you a quick story. I have tons of stories. I was teaching a u. S. Cold war
Foreign Policy<\/a> class. And i broke my students up into research teams, and they were to be the president s
Transition Team<\/a> for a series of issues. So, we had things like human rights, and energy, the environment, and i had one on immigration. And so that team actually wrote a great policy paper on immigration. Really good policy paper on immigration, but i required that they then present it to the rest of the class as part of the president s team. The responses were so vitriolic. Things like, well, yeah so, my parents were immigrants but i do think we need to build a wall. Wow. Wow. Wow. So you talked about that we only
Pay Attention<\/a> to the flash points. Right . Here in ferguson,
Michael Brown<\/a> is shot and killed. Sorry. You talk about the fact that people only
Pay Attention<\/a> to the flashpoints. Here in ferguson,
Michael Brown<\/a> is shot and killed. People take to the streets. The police, politicians, the governor overreact. Ferguson blows up and suddenly its national and international news. Right . In baltimore, people march peacefully and then nobody pays attention until people start looting and rioting and suddenly once again it is national and international news. So my question is, as member who is about as nonviolent as you can get, right . Like, how it seems like the only thing that people
Pay Attention<\/a> to, the only thing that white people
Pay Attention<\/a> to is when things turn violent. How do you protest peacefully and still get attention and make a difference when its seems like the flashpoints are the only thing that people listen to. One of the reasons i wrote white rage is so that we begin to
Pay Attention<\/a> to the consistenting, we real kindling, the understand the power of policymaking and pages paying attention and asking the next questions and push back on a bit on whites only
Pay Attention<\/a> when somebody blows up, because in movement, in struggle, you have whites who are there, on the ground, who are doing that hard, heavy lifting. You have asias who are on the ground, doing that hard, heavy lifting. As well as having latinos and having africanamericans. You have people who are doing the base work, the organizing, the strategizing, the letterwriting, and social media has helped so much with that kind of mobilization. So you have that going on. The thing that happens then is, though, is that we dont see it but it is happening, and that is why when something jumps off mad, crazy, because that kind of organizing has already been in place, you have people and organizations that step into the breach. Who help provide policy rational, policy options, who provide safe spaces. We just dont see that heavy lifting initially but it is there. And thats why we have to keep at it. Keep doing it. Its not sexy. We love sexy. And this kind of heavy lifting isnt sexy, but as i documented, tried to go through looking at what the
Supreme Court<\/a> is doing, this is why we have to
Pay Attention<\/a> to who the
Supreme Court<\/a> nominees are. We have to pay really close attention because their decisions help shape the roof of this nation. To follow up with his question, i think we really do
Pay Attention<\/a>. We whites but in a different way. Lets go back to charleston. One thing i noticed, when one of us whites dont act appropriate as whites do, then the media starts talking about, well, was it parents, environment, and we go on to this and intellectual assessment so we can figure it out so we can keep our image intact, while we never grieve the deaths of eight nine of our brothers and sisters, but theyre africanamericans so it doesnt count. We judge ourself by our best examples and be judge you by your worst so theres violence in that by never allowing ourselves we call it, its not safe. No. Its not comfortable but we mislabel it. So, the media then presents in a narrative that we whites want and tours and supports and thats violence for me. We know flashpoints. When we are stepping out of line we make sure we come back looking good. Could you comment on that . That was a boom. Im working on a piece right now dealing with the politics politf respectability. And one of the elements in this politics of respectability is how africanamericans dont get the bin fit of the doubt. Benefit of the doubt. And i walk through i walk through why the politics of respectability was deployed during the
Civil Rights Movement<\/a>. As a means to try to humanize africanamericans to the larger
American Society<\/a> to the power brokers and to white citizens, because there had been a series of killings, brutal, horrific killings, like the lynching of quad neil in 1934. Where he was dragged out of an alabama jail, sent through a gauntlet of torture into florida, hoisted unon a stand and tortured. With tortured. And the florida said theres no crime here because he wasnt from here. Alabama said there was no crime here because he wasnt killed her, and the naacp turned to the fbi because now we have the lindbergh kidnapping law can that if you cross state lines its a federal offense, and j. Edgar hoover said, there was no ransom required. No crime. And so seeing what this kind of violence on the black body has done, you saw the
Civil Rights Movement<\/a> deploy the politics of respectability as a way to make visible that the only way, the only reason that youre seeing mrs. Amelia boynton yanked on to the concrete in selma, is because she is black. This cant be anything but racism. So, it was a way to say you cant say, you dont have a criminal record. And so this is why you see this deployed. The politics of respectability does have some good pieces in it. I just plop it off at some kind of bourgeois victorian thing because being sober is not a bad thing. We know that alcohol and drugs destroys families. Being sober is not a bad thing. Education is a good thing. So there are these but what it doesnt do is to protect black bodies from white violence. And so i look at one of the things about charleston, charleston drove me to this. Because i looked at that. Because the nine who were killed were the model of respectability. And you saw nikki hailey and
South Carolina<\/a> going, oh, that was really bad. That was really bad. Then you had to have their killer so you got respectability, if the killer had to be an avowed white supremacist. They had to find incontro veritable proof that he was an avowed white supremacist so he had to have the are par tied south africaing. The
Confederate Flag<\/a>. And then he had to have his manifesto where the says i want to start a race war. But thats still not enough. Then you had to have the families of the slain forgive dylann roof. Wow. Wow. And then they are going to take down the
Confederate Flag<\/a> with dignity. The avatar for all muslims in the world, but you didnt see the same kind of rationale being used for instance with timothy mcveigh. And so, that is part of the way the narratives work and the way that they begin to undergird policy. You hear as they are talking about, muslims and terrorists. They are in fact talking about what policies to put in place, based on this, yes. When they looked up and saw them flying at half mast and the confederacy at full mast, and then it strategized a white tall guy at the bottom and they were to taste her. They looked at the white man that killed her, and though they backed off and let her live. The only reason that shes alive today is he grabbed the pole and told him to kill him and people dont know that story because they wont report it. I am a historian so im going to run with this. In 1946 in columbia tennessee, a white shop owner smacked a black woman, a black veteran was standing next to her. You do not lay your hands on somebodys mother. That veteran picked him up and flew him out the glass window to lynch the black man. The black veterans in that town were not having it and basically it was called the race riot. After it was over, they were arrested for murder although as you know, shooting and killing happened. Thurgood marshall came to defend the black man in columbia tennessee but he couldnt stay in a hotel because they were white only hotels. After court every day he would have to drive so
Thurgood Marshall<\/a> one of his colleagues was a white man driving out one night after court he looks behind and they go left, the cop car goes right. Finally the cops pulled him over. They were like you need to come with us. Thurgood was like snape. He gets in the cop car, the white man looks up and realizes they were several cars behind that and they dont turn around to go back to columbia tennessee. Instead they are heading off into the woods. Thurgood marshall was getting ready to get going lynch to. They hop over to the seat and he starts following. And hes scared. But he is like i am not going to let this happen. They turned left and he turns left. Finally they stopped like what are you doing and he says i am not going to let you do this. Now, think about the courage that it took in 1946, in the middle of tennessee. This loan white man standing up before the sheriff and his posse saying im not going to let you do this. It was one of those moments im so glad ive got some folks my age appear. Remember those aqua velvet commercials . Thanks, i needed that. They had never seen anything like this before. They went okay, fine. So, there is history in this kind of solidarity. Its absolutely essential to. [inaudible] and you got it. Thats half the battle. I remember the problem involved with a lot of groups concerning racism is all screws holding it, getting rid of it. But i think we have a problem. We need to know more about what happened and we havent been told the truth. It may have been my caucasian friends, but im sorry. I think they need to be offended. If the truth is going to send them, it will help them become whole and that is one of the problems is that we are not really telling the truth, and im glad that you and
Michelle Alexander<\/a> r. Writing the way that your writing. As an example, i heard others which i enjoy ms. Hunter. She always talks from a historical point of view about the lynchings that took place. Then they would bring the person and to be lynched. Then they would cut off their head and they wouldnt eat it, they were thrown away. Things like that we need to know more about. They are saying that the people that were killed in orlando, the worst massacre that we ever had, and i think it is someplace in arkansas. Ive been looking at some books by fraser. I read about him in the 50s and 60s and i would like to know where i might re tree of those books about the lynchings that took place, but a lot of these are out of print now. There are some good books i use in my class because my studentsav","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia800507.us.archive.org\/30\/items\/CSPAN2_20160805_000000_Book_Discussion_on_White_Rage\/CSPAN2_20160805_000000_Book_Discussion_on_White_Rage.thumbs\/CSPAN2_20160805_000000_Book_Discussion_on_White_Rage_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240625T12:35:10+00:00"}