our society had trouble with in recent years. that makes us wonder how strong our institutions will prove to be, how we will rise to a challenge like this. you can t help but see it as a time of crisis but because it is the time of testing it is also time to think about what america s strengths are, what we are good at and how we can build on that to address the enormous problems we confront. host: how did we get here? guest: that is an awfully complicated question. our country has always tried to strike a balance between the dignity and the quality of the individual on the one hand and some form of strength of community on the other. every free society faces that. our society has in the past century emphasized the individual, emphasize liberty, emphasize freedom and diversity and that has brought some enormous advantages and benefits but there is another side to that coin and the other side look like division and fragmentation and isolation, it can look like alienation a
deny. a spring that has been dominated by public health cries that s still very much with us. we re facing now also a social crisis that is as old also our country in some ways, the struggle for racial equal and human equality. but then also is very much of this moment, and forces us to confront challenges our society has had trouble with in recent years. this is a time that makes us wonder how strong our institutions are going to prove to be, how we re going to rise to a challenge like this. i think you can t help but see it as a time of crisis but because it is a time of testing, it s also a tame for us to think about america s strengths, what we re good at as a country and how to build on that to address the enormous problems. host: how did we get here? guest: well, that s an awfully complicated question. our country has always tried to strike a balance between the dignity and equality of the individual on the one hand and some form of strength of community on the othe
assess0. the united states? guest: well, thanks for having me. that s a wonderful by broad question to open with and challengen weeing. we are living a moment of crisis, lard to deny. we ve been through a spring dominated by public health crisis that with us. we re facing now also so el crisis that is as old as our country, the struggle for racial equality and for human equality. but then also is very much of this moment, and forces us to confront challenges in our society that had trouble with in recent years. this is a time that makes us wonder how strong our institutions will perform to be, how we ll rise to a challenge like this. think you can t help but see it as a team of crisis but because it as time of testing it s also a time to think about what america s strengths are, walt we are good at and how we can bill on that to address the enormous problems. host: how did we get here? guest: well, that s an awful complicated question. our country has always tried to st
professor imani perry, what is the structure of your newest book, brief? guest: well, there are three sections. fear, fly and fortune. it is a letter, a series of letters to my son but it s also a letter to the larger world. both about the reality of the terror and anxiety and the worry that comes along with being the parent about black children in particular at this moment but it s also filled with my desire for them to lead a life of beauty and joy and excellence and self regard, much of which i think one finds the lesson for an extraordinary tradition which we have to draw from. host: where did you come up with the idea to write your son s a letter? guest: i have written some letters privately for years and my editor at beacon press said is this something you d be interested in doing in large part because ado talk about my children all the time and i write posts about them on social media and initially, you know, i think what we both had in mind with something that
as a letter to her son. here is a portion of that program. people here when you say i wonder if i can be irredeemable they hear all white people and they hear them as individuals as opposed to whiteness for the identity. and with the second paragraph so they don t have a different history or a body but a different relationship to identity. so potentially as a consequence a more humane relationship to each other. so what i got to saying a person or individual so certainly like a white man or someone who thinks of those figures i take for example john brown are some of the most precious people in the world. it s important to me not to have a formulation and this is a struggle i am engaged in. one more question before we move on to your other book books, mothering black boys in america is a special calling. yes. my mother said to me and i think about it a number of different ways and one is of course all the risk as people talk incessantly that it is difficult and not nece