Anyhow you doing . Im doing well. This black History Month is sure is. And eddie is history. We have all made as americans. But why is it significa today in the 21st century that we keep a focus on knowing black history . Well, first of all, its such a delight to be in with you. Its just a blessing. And to see all of you, i think its its crucial that we understand in the past that has made us who we are. And there is this kind of parallel, these parallels stories, the story we tell ourselves. The myths and legends that affirm our sense of who we are as the shining city on the hill. And then theres the actual lived experience, the stories that dont come into view, what we might do, what we might describe it as the undisclosed features of American Democratic life. And it seems to me that when we you know how let me put it differently, the stories we tell reveal who we are and what we choose to leave out of leave out of our stories all too often reveal the limits of our conceptions of justice. So who and what we choose to leave out actually reveals, expose causes, you know, moral shortcomings. So its important for us to tell this story and africanamerican History Month, which was history week, is this moment in which we tell the story not only of black achievement, but we also tell the story of the complex contradiction at the heart of the american experiment. I couldnt agree more. And along those lines of telling this history, its also about the narrative and shaping that narrative as part of telling our story. What is the narrative of the 21st Century Black experience is . Is it different from the 20th century or the 19th century . And it brings me back to, and im a quote, James Baldwin or misquote baldwin so that they can correct me because he is the premier historian and writer and James Baldwin. But can we tell this story . Can we write a narrative in the 21st century that exclude racism as part of our story . Oh, no, no, no. Sadly not. You know, to quote ralph ellison, the author of invisible man, he talks about what he calls this tricky magic that this country really doesnt understand who and what it is that we dont really know who we are. And in the moments in which those contradictions bubble up, we have to consult the notion of whiteness so that our differences are lost in this idea that we are all white. Right. And that we, as a complicated we coming out of my mouth. Right. So but the tricky magic is that tap means by way of a procedure of scapegoating these black folk, these other folk allow us to consolidate a notion of whiteness. So here we are in the 21st century, facing the terror and panic of demographic shifts, the browning of america the discomforting reality that, you know, these folk elected the first black family to be in the white house. These folk got these racially ambiguous children on cheerios commercials and all of this and this, and they dont know what the hell to do with it. And so what do we see in response. In some ways, the First Century is wash, rinse and repeat. Same thing over and and over again. Echoes even though we have this historic these, historic achievements. Because in some ways, the country, in my view and im going to ask you a question next is the country, in my view, refuses to grow the hell up. Its stuck in a kind of perpetual out of lessons and by virtue of that fact, right, it refuses to look itself in the mirror. Now, what do you make of the state of things and you youve been from Jesse Jackson campaign 1984 to all the work from that moment on, you have seen the shifts in our Political Landscape scape. You have been privy to the political discourse. What you make of this moment in the 21st century when it comes to race and democracy. What you you know, as a black woman who grew up in the segregated deep south, i spent much of my childhood wondering if i would live long enough to see my old age or my senior years or even my middle age. Ill never forget when i wrote in my diary and by the way, im catholic, said i will always my diary always started, dear god, because i was afraid that if i talked to the priest and confessed what i was feeling, he would tell the man singer and then my senior would get so confused. He would tell the Bishop Bishop would talk to the archbishop before, you know, the cardinal will be in my business and the pope. So i went straight. God, im like, im not messing with you, man. You just aint time enough for me. So i know i in time, but, you know, im still a good catholic girl. Now i go to church every time i can and love it because you see, unlike some people who go to mass as i go to church and saint mattress is probably the most Beautiful Church on the planet, thats when you get on your knees next to your bed. That st mattress and the living witness that you all should visit. Saint mattress on a daily basis. It will make you feel better. So how do us feel. I, i really did believe growing up and we didnt grow too well. We grew up, what, less than a hundred miles from each other. But i would have. Yeah. And you know, we share that, that muddy river, that golf course breathes heat and humidity. We share all of those things together. Musky, those snakes. But we also have four delicious seasons crab, crawfish, oysters and shrimp. So. And that man. Thats right. I grew up knowing the history of black people, not because it was taught to me in fourth grade by miss eugene of fifth grade history. Well, mr. Lee, i grew up because i had grandparents who wanted us to know as much about our condition, our environment. There was a reason for everything. And the thing that they stirred and all nine of us, there were nine of us. Did i tell you we were catholic . My grandmother had 12 children. My dad was number 12. I said the one thing he never had to accuse us of is, you know, leaving somebody behind. We just have more children. But i grew up thinking, listening them that i could create the change, create the environment that would be totally different from the one i was experience in, meaning that i would be able one day not to you have to cross the street when a white person appeared on the block, i could be the kid that, you know, could walk on any side the sidewalk. I was when i got on a public bus, the airline bus that i would sit wherever i wanted to, like rosa parks. I did. I didnt know that she had to go to the back. Hill no, im sitting right on that road. Im sitting right here because i believe that i can make change possible. When i was a little girl, i used to have big dreams i mean, i still have big dreams and i dont know, being out here in california with these big mountains might have bigger dreams next week. I mean, these are bigger than levees. But my dreams were big. Part of what i was dreaming was, well, you know, i mean, Abraham Lincoln is is a great guy. I really like lincoln. But what if we try having our own black president so we didnt have to rely on lincoln to be the only black one. And i would ask my grandmother because i thought she knew lincoln. I thought she knew everybody, including jesus, my grandmother. So i never knew she had any of the colored hair but gray. And look at me. But i just knew i could do it because in telling our history, they told me a history where they survive all of their adversity and that they saw a way out of no way and they had hope. They never gave up hope. And my grandmother, because she really read that bible, she loved the lord. I learned the scriptures that she would recite it every day. I every night because im like, she must know something because shes reading that bible. So i read the bible and do not grow weary in doing for and do season your people harvest if you dont give up what has happened in america. Well, we cannot read that harvest. What has happened in this country when we want to stop and turn back the clock and go back, nobody going backwards, you. Are not going back. Im not going back to the back of the bus. Im not going back to being 3 5 anything. And i am not going back and settling for those old stereotypes. That is essentially defined me as something that was not even human. So that when people beat me with me and threaten me, they didnt see me, they did not see me. And so i thought my entire life to be seen, to be heard, to be known as a human being. What i hate but with love, because thats what my grandparents taught me. Love how could these people love folks . They did all of this to you and you still love. There was a night at the dr. King died. But i do i knew what i had to do. This was a thursday afternoon. I turned and it was raining. Ill never forget it was raining. And grandma told us to take off our good clothes. You know, when you came home, take off your school clothes, they were good. Good clothes. Like your Church Clothes you only worn once a week, a once a day period. You put on, you play clothes, whatever, and grandmom said, you all got to get on your knees and pray who when you had to get on your knees and pray during the day to somebody else, somebody was done. I mean, look, we knew enough at that point. And of course, being the curious kid, the third of nine, while we prayed, donna, i shut up. Really . While we pray, dr. King has been shot. And of course, even at eight years old, i understood that. I understood that. And i wanted to go into a fit of rage. A kid who would shoot dr. King, why would dr. King be shot . I mean, at that point, we didnt know if he had died from his wounds or whatever. We learned that later that night. But as we were praying, my grandmother us to pray for dr. King and pray for his family, mrs. King. But this was the one that got to me, eddie she told us to pray for whoever did it. Im like, oh hell. Oh. And here come my grandmother. Back with matthews about loving the enemies, loving. And im like, here we go. Back to love and people. How can we love people who hate us . How can we pray for people who want us dead . And so for me, i have measured my life by how much progress can we make . How do you pushing how do you keep turning . How do you keep staring . How do you keep loving people . And that is ultimately my test as a human being, but that is the test we all have as americans. How do we keep this american experiment going . You about democracy. Yesterday, you and doris and you know douglas, i mean, you guys were like, yeah, yall pretty bad. Yall brought it back. But fundamentally, as a country, were out of sync with all of that so called values that we uphold and enshrined even in the words in our document, were not in sync. The majority of us. And yet weve got to keep pushing and keep stirring and keep moving forward. Because ultimately, i do believe theres a theres a force in this society that will move when we start moving. But as long as we sit back and just accept the status quo, were not going to change. And i must say something, and i hope this aint awful. See, i told this to area i was doing my confession yesterday, you know, give me a glass and ill tell you, any dampened. And dont criticize me because what was jesus first miracle he turned one into one. He listened to his mother, got the party, started. So im a christian woman, period. So by the time i reached my twenties and i had, you know, i was stern as much as i could organize and anything that needed to be organized, getting things done that people say can never happen. Like my first campaign, National Campaign was to help make Martin Luther kings birthday a holiday, because they told me it couldnt happen. I said, really . Bull. Two years we got us a holiday. Yall. Okay, so i was on to something coming out of Jackson Campaign and that was the year that i said, do lent. I went to church. You to. Thats why i tell my priest and you to and my priest. What are you giving up . This why people. I say i had to give up this whole concept of whiteness and why people because you know what the in my mind and they dont know who they are so im going to heres what im gonna do for my parents. Im going to europe and figure out who white people are because theyre not they dont know themselves. Theyre not telling me nothing about themselves. And how can i love people that dont love themselves . Because thats why they hate me. They dont love them. So so, you know, i really i spent that year in europe and let me tell you, i came back telling everybody you are irish. Oh, i think im irish to let me tell you why. Oh, italians. Oh, terrible. And that to me i would tell you too. And then the french and the art and i fell in love with white people. And then i had to come back to america and tell them why you were great to him. Why are you mad . Why . People dont know why people and you have a nerve to hate me and you dont know yourself. Did you . Not loving yourself. So how far . If we cant . Weve come a long way, but we still each other. We dont love meeting each other. We dont love knowing each other. We dont learning that were complex and crazy too. Just like you. But you dont see us. You dont know our humanity. And then it brings me to what just occurred this past month. The beaten and deaf of mr. Nicholls and we thought after the death of george floyd that america work to some reckoned some moment when we can start to see each other as one start to heal, start to address systemic racism, what happened and why didnt we fulfill that socalled pledge, a commitment to do better . Its the americans theater of race. Thats what we do. You know, i mean, we see the ugliness, we see the horror. We clutch our pearls, we cry crocodile tears. Baldwin, echoing emerson, says sentimentality is the mask of cruelty. Richard wright said he wanted to draw character that didnt get they didnt call for crocodile tears. So you cry your crocodile tears and you say, oh my god, thats horrible. And then youd go back to your lives. And policing never changed. In fact, in the midst of it all, in the midst of hundreds of thousands of people risking their lives after george floyd was lynched, and they risked their lives in the midst of a pandemic that was that swung low death whole. Thats right. In a way. What did we hear . We started hearing the rhetoric of law and order from the 1980s, start hearing talk about crime as the principal threat and demands for more policing. I mean, the very rhetoric i mean, i thought i was right back in the the nineties, listening to, you know, watching bill clinton in front of Stone Mountain with all of those black men in white. You remember that image, right . And shackles in shackles, right . Not just simply reagan and not just simply nixon, but the safe streets act of 1968 under Lyndon Baines johnson. So what we did in that moment, we thought we were in a space. We were going to get the George Floyd Justice in policing act, and we got the irony of tim scott playing my good friend cory booker like, like a like, you know, like a toy nothing was generated we started seeing again those special squads. Thats why i wish chief bratton was right here. Those special police units that terrorize black communities, because in the united states, forgetfulness is our arch nemesis is we forgot about ramparts in los angeles, we forgot about the black box and the special unit in chicago. We forget about all the things that we and what do we do . Wash, rinse, repeat. And so my baby, whos 26 years old, whom i only child studying in law at berkeley, wants to be a public defender. Im going to have to make some more money. Hes going to be broke. Ill had to take care of my grandbabies. He has degrees growing up in an environment where if hes having a bad day, i tell you this story. Yeah, i wrote about this in democracy in black. I was elected to be the president of the American Academy of religion, the largest body of scholars of religion in the world. Im a country boy from moss point, mississippi. My mom had her first baby in the ninth grade. I grew up near the water. This is big. This is something huge. So i want to call my mom after, find out that i won. But i get a call from my baby. Hes at brown. And as soon as i hear his voice, i said, what happened . He said, daddy had i was doing an assignment for my anthropology class in this upscale neighborhood in providence and im sitting there and the police drive by and hang a uturn. And he pulls up and they get out the car. And he comes up to me. He says, who are you and why are you here . And he says, sir, my name is langston and im here doing an assignment. And leans over and he says, the park closes at such and such a time. And he says, yes, sir, i know. But its only its only. And then the officer leans over again, touches his gun and says, the park closes at such and such a time. He touches his girlfriend. They get up and have to leave. And so im thinking, okay, what if he had a bad day, right . And he didnt follow instruction, then the boy comes home for the summer hes going to work for. Hes working for a nonprofit lobbying the state legislature around Capital Punishment stuff, criminal justice reform. He had on one of those tight h m suits. I dont know how these kids wear these things means they wear them. They hide. And so hes got this. He got his h m suit on. Hes go getting this little honda civic and hes driving. So i send him off. Nice. Wow. He walks in my son six, too. He walks into the house and i immediately see something wrong. What happened . This big division one, caleb, a basketball player fighting on the back of his to sit there. I was to get to the to the capitol cop stops me black cop who are you what youre doing youre just going to drive past me . I mean, you lost your. No, no, no, sir. Im just trying to find a parking spot. Im trying to get here. Well, go over there and park. He tells him so then he said, dad, i do. I followed the instructions. Then i get stopped by another cop and. He starts grilling at me and i said, well, im just trying to fight. Did i . He said, go over there. And so i pull over and dad got stopped by another mother cop. And at this my baby is crying. My only child. And he said, you know what, this man asked me, daddy . He asked me, whos my p. O. . Oh. Whos my p. O. Daddy parole officer . Some of you who dont know what im talking about. And hes crying. So im having to figure out in that moment, what do i do to keep this from turning inward . Mm hmm. From this anger . Yeah. Beginning to consume him. What do i do . I reach for the mccallum 25. Thats some good stuff, too. Yall know that some good stuff. You dont drink mccallum every 25 every day. Yeah, right. But the point that im making that here it is went through it. Mm. As a boy am my dad went through it as a boy, his dad went through it. Now my babys