My work is so very inspired by jeffs previous work in everything from cant stop wont stop, who we be and his essays and articles and he has sort of the completed a trifecta with this new book, we gon be alright. So, we gon be alrights prerogative collection of essays and described as connecting black lives matter to oscars so white to Great Migrations and nativism. Talks about race, class, and diversity and its a collection of essays and in each of those essays he picks a major theme and in that theme of the collective as he calls and says we gon be alright. I could talk about jeff chang in his work for eons. So, without further ado and me getting in the way any longer, the brilliant, iconic executive director of arts at stanford university, my friend, mr. Jeff chang. [applause]. Thank you so much. Hows everyone doing today . Doctor m did is one of my hiphop education, urban education superheroes and if you all were here for the earlier hiphop Education Summit sponsored by the university of wisconsin you got to see his brilliance and action and i hope you check out his new book for white people who teach in the hood and all of the rest of us and we say us because its as. Please get that book if you are a teacher or if you know a teacher get this book. Its very important. Want to say thank you to connor and amazing stuff of the madison book festival. Its an honor to be here. Thank you for the kind invitation. Thanks so much to the cspan book tv staff for making this dream and telecast available. I have some a folksy and medicine and i want to give a big shout out to willie from that university of wisconsin. Feel free to clap if you want to, actually. [applause]. I have been able to work with him for over a decade now and its been an honor and he has introduced me to so many people and hes been a big supporter of hiphop education. Calls a, the first wave scholars in the house. I know you are in the house. [applause]. And to staff and faculty of the program. I love you all. You give me so much hope and hearts. Also to liz and her amazing family and friends from madison, thank you for making me feel like i met home when im here. So, got this new book called we gon be alright. Its begins with donald trump. It ends with beyonce because after beyonce, what is there to say, really in the book follows fast on the heels of a previous book i sit i did, cant stop wont stop, who we be. That looked at the question of how we see race and how thats changed in not changed over the previous past century, 50 plus years in the book came out two months before the non indictment of officer Darren Wilson and the murder of Michael Brown and ferguson, missouri, two months before. It came out two months before the movement for black lives changed everything for all of us and so this book, came from a visit that i took to ferguson to st. Louis city to north st. Louis county for the First Anniversary of Michael Brown staff in 2015. There were a number of demonstrations planned and i felt strong to ferguson, to st. Louis as many thousands of people have been drawn in the Previous Year to learn from that young organizers, most of the young organizers in the streets of their who put together really the longest continuous protests and civil rights history with the exception of maybe the montgomery bus boycott. Historic protests and so i came back to berkeley hoping to write an intro to the paperback edition of who we be. I wrote 50 pages and turned it in to my publisher and my publisher said this is not an intro to a book, but probably a new book. I had taken two decades to do the first two books, cant stop wont stop, who we be, but this one had the essay pour out a man so i finish the rest of the book in about four months and one of the main ideas that i traced in who we be deepens when i had a chance to be there in st. Louis city, st. Louis county and ferguson. It was paradox, this strange paradox but i think we face right now in our country, which is we live in a period during which the picture of diversity has become more prevalent than ever. Our culture seems more desegregated than ever. That, all of the entities show growing inequality across the board. For all of folks in the us, but the frontline of that is racial inequality. All the indices show this growing racial inequality across the board and health, wealth, income and life expectancy, premature death in policing and mass incarceration. Along with that is a rise in resegregation and so i wanted to do in this book was to try to explore the idea that may be resegregation and to be clear, segregation and were ended in many parts of our nation, but resegregation may be that under discussed condition of our time. Its interesting to connect the dots between whats happening say in housing and schooling with what was happening in the Popular Culture and in the streets. Its maybe think that this is a moment that we are living through right now in which we might have the opportunity to step outside of this bad cycle of crisis, this bad history that we find ourselves in regards to race. But, in order to do so we will have to recognize what keeps us in this cycle. So, entitled this book after kendrick lamarrs song, which if you did not already know its become kind of an anthem for the movement all across the country for young people in the black lives Matter Movement and another social movements. We hear it happening around undocumented young folks who are organizing. We hear that song sung around Climate Change folks, young folks who are organizing. Its become an anthem for a new generation of organizers and activists who are pushing us to recognize the new realities of it race in resegregation in this moment and i hear in the song sort of a modern blues. Kendrick, 95 of the lyrics that kendrick is putting out are about struggle. But, hes the seems to still pull out this line, you are at up and i am f up and we going to be all right and it feels true in some ways, and so many ways because its a leap of the imagination and the kind of imagination i think that seem so important right now in this particular moments because we are living in times, i dont need to tell you this letter been defined as hemingway spied division mongering demagogues. We can talk about the debates here tonight, but you are probably exhausted by all of this stuff, but these times have also been defined by the movement for black lives, the moral imperative for black lives in what the movement has called upon all this to do especially if we are not is to see an address the growing inequality between the races on all of these different types of issues, resting violence, ran life expectancy. Of the movement for black lives as we ways asks that black lives be centered because the gaps are the widest with the exception of just a few cohorts between one point and of course all lives matter. Of course they do, but what needs attention is this, the fact that by all indices we seem to be valuing black lives less than others. In order to make good and i did not always matter we have to turn the idea of black lives matter from aspiration into a reality. Thats what black lives matter is all about. So, lets start there, your basic. We can also sort this, that more polls than ever show that americans are more concerned than ever about Race Relations that it any time since 1992, the moment of the los angeles riots and the previous spike in concern when all the way back to 1965, a halfcentury ago, the europe selma, the year of the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, Civil Rights Act had already been passed. Voting right act would be passed this year. Infrastructure, however, incomplete, however besieged was being put into place to help to try to move us towards Racial Justice. 1965, was the last year that we had a National Consensus for Racial Justice and cultural equity in this country. Its been more than a halfcentury since we have a National Consensus for Racial Justice and cultural equity. What we saw 1965, was the watts riots. We had a white Highway Police officer pull over to black men coming back from a party a couple blocks from their house and he pulls them out of their cars and starts talking down to them. In the neighborhood goes to the house. They bring back the two young mans mother in the first thing the mother does is to asks the boys what kind of trouble they had gotten into. Shes berating her sons, but then the police escalate the situation and soon the mother and boys are arguing with the police and the Police Respond by beating the three of them. So, amidst all this chaos the mother, her two sons are hauled into a police car. Of the neighborhood is getting very angry and the cars haul off and people start throwing bottles and rocks in the appraising begins. This is a moment where we see a beginning of a turn in policing in this country. There was a young officer named darrell gates who later becomes the chief of police in los angeles and the way he makes his name is he decides to talk about creating military forces. Sort of military teams, militarily trained teams. They call it swat teams as a reaction to prevent any of these kind of things from happening again. This is the beginning of the militarization of the police in 1965. It leads us into the moment that we are in now. This is the moment that you can actually mark as a beginning of the post Civil Rights Era and so its an era thats been defined by sort of this rich vital culture that has been born of demographic change in cultural shifts, but its also a period in which the politics of racial backlash has continued to play a role through this entire time and its often been supported by egregious and militarized policing, so from 1965 to 1992 to 2014 to now, we seem cots in this cycle of crisis, theres a crisis, reaction that, backlash, a sense of exhaustion that sets in. And we find ourselves in another crisis, so the question is how do we break ourselves out of this crisis. We have to recognize this crisis has taken away our focus from how racism has shifted over the last halfcentury. The infrastructure that was put into place beginning in the mid 60s has been dismantled, sometimes quietly and sometimes very very loudly. So, we have lurched back to resegregation appeared during this time of explicit racism it has become less acceptable with perhaps the exception of if you are running for president ial office. Racism has become Something Else had we see race now cracks i wanted to bring in if we could the great who wrote about the visual algae of race in my template the visual algae of race it is not as how we see race, but how we see race to preserve tolerance, racial powered hero im an invisible man. Payment is both of the because people refuse to see me. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination , indeed everything and anything accept me, so prolonged time people of color were not seen. In not seen we were excluded from institutions of power. Politifact sorted to the 80s as demographics shifts and cultural shifts happen when the next generation of the Civil Rights Movement comes of age and so this becomes the era of the cultural world and there is a kind of hysteria set loose by the emergence of what is named at that time americas most diverse generation ever, most diverse until we come to the current generation and still less diverse than the generation that will come after that, but pat buchanan at this particular point declares multiculturalism on assault on america and with the official history is that this is a period that was ripe with racial tensions. One of the places it showed up is on campus, hate speech, hate violence was on the rise and against that students protested for greater inclusion into the institution and by a large they succeeded in becoming visible. At the same time shifts are happening in the culture, so 1993 is here multiculturalism finally crosses over. This is the old cover of Time Magazine from 1993 and they literally created a grid of people from all these different races and pictures from all these different races across the top, down the side and in the boxes and in the matrix they put pictures of what they thought folks would look like and they pulled this picture out of the middle of that and she was a perfect example of a perfect mix of all of the different races at the time and she looked a lot like solidad obrien, actually. They called her eve and so there was visibility. As for the 90s were people color and diversity becomes not just a rallying cry for the left , but for corporations admitting that the decade even for the george w. Bush presidency. Remember those pictures of his cabinet with colin powell, Condoleezza Rice and so this creates new issues. Visibility creates new issues. Remember, hero when they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination. Indeed, everything and anything accept me and so think of the kind of images that proceeded Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown ricky avoid and jamal rice and summary more. As ellison said when they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, everything and anything but me. The moral imperative for the movement for black lives is to fight and be able for black people to be seen in all their difference in all of their humanity and by extension for everyone to be seen in all of our difference in all of our humanity because if we can all be seen in all their humanity, we might have the possibility of forming a more open, more just, for your community. Com. In this moment people of color especially, i think, find themselves in a strange position. What is it mean to be so invisible and gets a visible at the same time . This i think is the condition that they speak to and also the student protesters of last fall. They dont see me and they dont see, so in our Popular Culture we have the picture of diversity that hegemonic image of a hospital, Health Care System based on the extensive treatment of advanced diseases and not on prevention and wellness. Heres the problem with diversity. The problem isnt with diversity itself. I run an institute called the diversity of the institute of the arts. Ad lib. With his everyday. I love diversity. In summary ways the word diversity has been uncoupled, decoupled from the word equity and so if we are really truly committed to forming community what we have to do is repair, repair diversity and equity together. Again, it is true inequality has grown for all americans, but the frontline of this again is racial inequality and so what is this picture of diversity hide . Lets talk a bit about that. One of the places where the picture of diversity has been most prominent is in the marketing of colleges and universities. So, last years fall protest should not have been surprising at all. It with students calling out the gap between the picture diversity and the reality of inequity. Campus climate is a term that came into both for my generation. It was going in an academic article in 1992. Through that people have done Campus Climate surveys at universities all across the country and one of the things we found is that Campus Climate studies done in 1992 and 2012, are remarkably consistent. 24 students receiving racial conflict on the campus the this more recent report from the university over in 2012, in it we learn that issues are so deep that students of color and queer students seriously consider dropping out and that is not including the one in five that actually do and when you look at the top student demand year students walked out at over 100 campuses last year. The demands had more to do with the hiring of more diverse faculty, more diverse staff, Mental Health professionals who are culturally sensitive, more cultural programs, more diversity training. They were asking for more than five times as what as much as they it have no method 10 of the campuses. Whats interesting is that the focus in the National Debate has been on the question of the freedom of expression. Johnny called, my run from your called it free speech diversion. We have students protesting for the same things that students like i was protesting for that in the 80s. 10, 20, 30 years ago calling at this and be visible and invisible all at the same time. The reality of inequity, reduced funding for programs, lack of faculty, lack of staff of color, so culturally sensitive professionals is what we have, but the debate has been about freedom of expression and focusing on these words save speeches and trigger warnings, but i think it might be fair to ask how much it took for the students from the university of missouri to be able to get the words to find the words to be able to come together to launch this protest in the first place. Jonathan butler who went on strike who vowed he was not going to eat until the university of missouri fired the president s, Jonathan Butler told me a story about his first year at the university of missouri. This is the year that president obama was elected and he had been celebrating in his dorm. He was one of two young black men in this entire dorm. The other one had gone home to chicago to celebrate with his family and so when victory was declared for obama he started celebrating in his dorm floor and he was quickly approached by four white guys who taunted him and started beating him. This is the first semester he was there at the university of missouri, so again i think its fair to ask how much students had to overcome. A much silence they had to overcome the find the words to watch this protest and i want to suggest that in this country its always been easier to mobilize people around a generational conflicts than its been to be with to mobilize folks around moving towards Racial Justice and