Analysts of American Culture today. Author to change america, most of the most popular part in america. Following the conversation between you and i sessions with our moderator. At any time you think of something youd like to ask either of them, submitted in the questions box. And where you are as many questions as we can the time we have before we get to the discussion want to introduce a special guest to pick up the program. Special guest Heritage Foundation president , missus k gold james. Im so excited to welcome you to the Heritage Foundation in our virtual of the plot to change america. I want to thank you all especially want to thank michael joining us today, we are so honored to have you with us. We are so proud of Mike Gonzales and the time and research hes put into this tremendous book. Mike isnt afraid to show whats happening to our beloved country is not afraid to call it does into the destructiveness of our identity politics. Mike is awesome when it comes to these issues and he does it because hes a true patriot. He doesnt want to see our beloved country go any further down this treacherous road. Ladies and gentlemen, it was only in the 1960s when we are struggling to desegregate this country. Greatest white and black working to bring racists together and ensure america up to its promise of liberty and justice and equal treatment for all people. Today, most americans live in racial harmony. Weve had our first black president , women and people of all colors and backgrounds and highest ranks of American Business and government. Yet, our young people are coming out of our colleges and universities believing grievance politics, is the road to justice and equality. When in fact, it will bring us right to a place where the nation is working on our history with never been more destructive. This book wouldnt be any more timely with the rights and descriptions of monuments and rewriting of American History in the classroom, the American People need to wake up to the of identity politics they need to understand because they need to understand how it will poison our children and grandchildren if we just try to continue. We cant let that happen we wont let that happen. Mike, thank you thank you about that. Theyre all to the conversation. Will be virtually it is a pleasure to be accused when i looked around the scene and not just hearing them statues of the Founding Fathers of this country and using rhetoric of identity politics, some of whom are self proclaimed marxist, i cannot help but wonder if you hired this group of people as a Marketing Tool to promote the thesis in this book, it seems we are seeing the thesis played out horrifyingly in real time all around us. Michael, thank you very much for that introduction thank you for being here. Im happy that my book selling well in my getting out but im not happy at all, i did not hire these people. Everything you are seeing today, you put your finger on it. From the anarchy in portland to the 19th project in blm organization to antiracism Training Sessions socalled, all of this at the front of why i wrote my book. Little did i know a year ago as i was writing, that we would have the summer of 2020 is a consequence of the things weve done to ourselves. Its funny because trace the origin back to the 60s when you might see the summer of love and i think a lot of people were skeptical at the time but now i think your description, your stinky ideologies and its led to the summer of hate. There is one moment early on in the book that was a little surprising to me you are right, when people think of identity politics and all of the affiliated pathology, intersex reality, whatever term you like and we think of it, a lot of people consider it to be a sort of extra in sioux city, aside of american politics. Need to talk about foreign policies. What you say is much more specific and probably more damning. He say identity politics as our national hardware. What you mean by that . Its really the software of our culture. We have become divided into groups based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, even disability status. Anything that the degree that can be used to claim respect or attention or rewards or justice, from the moment you enter school when your daughters principle is saying this, then to high school when our kids are made to read within, doing a wonderful job because it is very bad history, it is really at the heart of this needs to work that way. Obviously the University Campuses have been taken over by this but it is the workforce. Hr is telling people to put a sign up saying that i am an ally. Are we in a time of war . So its really, i believe it is a jugular issue of our times. Not every group is to claim identity politics grievance status because even though i have a little darker for my heritage, honey other people do not qualify so what is it . Does one get to claim privilege of being considered oppressed . Decided in the 60s to siphon off people and call them minorities, we havent done this before. We have never done this before. We couldve done it in the 1920s and we have armenians in lebanese, facilitates or jewish people from eastern europe, people who could be identified, we siphon them off as minorities but choose not to. He chose to say no, lets have them join and become americans through assimilation. In the 40s have scientists who believe to associate the discrimination with the term minority and interim, minority as we know it today comes into its issue association victimhood. So we divide all these people into minority groups and have this sense of grievances, victimhood and it is that they well, the country is systemic country is that we must all the institutions and structures and systems themselves social scientists, institutions of imagination, identity is something about the grassroots. People spontaneously taking to the streets and coming toward a kind of consciousness as a group of people and demanding their rights in the face of oppression. As the official leftwing narrative for the people pushing identity politics. You say the origins are a little different. You say they were much more specific involving the small group of people and it was highly intentional so which is it and whos behind it . It is not in all grassroots effort. In fact, it was written by elite activists, different groups of people who formed the bureaucracy thing is to promote this in universities and in the 60s, the foundation gave money, 600,000 or so to ucla researchers, the horrible news for the activists, mexican americans did not feel there were minorities, they didnt know they faced discrimination which they did they thought they could solve their own problems at an individual level. Use their own agency to overcome their problems. This was very bad news for researchers which then undertook a process to create identities, is giving money already in the late 60s, the gift to really support all of this creation. Behind all this is post modernist that wanted to rephrase the narrative, with the american dream, which we are not a perfect country by any means but it could be improved. They see themselves again and again and again the people who create the groups. You mentioned the founder of the italian communist party, probably the most significant philosopher ever, perhaps even karl marx himself. A marxist at the beginning from relating these ideas as you mentioned that there out and into critical theory and bonner university. Few today have people with politics who are openly describing themselves as training marxist, the blm organization. I see this Common Thread seems to be karl marx, people who are wildly communist and when you race that people say that is a crazy conspiracy theory. Nursing communist every where, is a scare. Is this conspiracy . The one who first came up with the idea, he went to prison to stop his brain from working which was a bad idea. People do a lot of thinking and present, a lot of great writing so he begins to think in the 20s and 30s, while revolutions happen. They have succeeded in only one place, back order of europe and russia in 1719 but they have failed since 1948. There is no italian soviet, he failed in italy and he begins to say the reason is the worker has become an appraiser, accepted the socalled oppressive class. The family, religion, Economic System and all the institutions so the need to destroy this narrative. This is what we are seeing today. The creator of the 1619 project, this is the narrative of ameri america. In 1937, first comes up with the idea of critical theory. It is an attack on the northwest. Jay who wrote the book notes that ignoring the union, there were no attacks on stalin even at the height of the files and massacres, it is really an attack on the american norms. Whether you have critical theory, its something that has infiltrated every faculty if youre in law school, he study critical legal theory, all the Ethnic Studies Department which we started in the 60s, the 70s actually. By these activists are about replacing the narrative, angela davis, former black panther member of the communist party with a, another one of the gurus of the west, she says the studies are the revolution, she knows what shes saying and she says it openly. I think we should take it seriously when we see today whats happening, having echoing repeating the same phrases that these cultural marxists used in the 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s and 60s. You can trace this evolution, intellectual revolution that overflows into this crazy politics we are seeing around us. One interesting. Is you did not dedicate a chapter to black identity because of the unique role of black people in the history of the united states. Legal slavery and jim crow and everything that accompanied the institutions. Identity politics tends to conflate other minority groups as they continue to be graded day by day with the black experience in america so as a matter of chronology, how do these minority groups develop, perhaps we can begin with hispanic or latino for the new term they want to see his ex, i dont know how to pronounce this but i wont even try but i noticed your last name is gonzales so what is the hispanic identity and assuming people did not buy into it when it came out, why has it stuck . It is the unique black experience that is. The National Organization for women were talking in terms of jane crow at the time to make a Clear Association with jim crow, marshall said, he said no, our experience is unique. I am not going to have a chapter on africanamericans because they are a unique experience. I dont think is helping fill the hearts of minds of africanamericans hatred but i do think slavery happens, segregation happened. I fight so hard because i dont want to go back to the era of ferguson, is very rapidly going back to ferguson with identity politics. The hispanic model is a very clear one when they try to organize in the 40s with the election, organized mexican americans, they did not think they were organized enough and then half this believes that mexicans should be considered a race, it is a nationality as many are european origin, indigenous origin so they do have the realization that they want to expand the coast to coast. Thats when they start to come up with the idea of hispanic. The bureaucracy finally goes in in 1977. The budget comes out with that policy direct in the 60s. The hispanic identity and a few years later, hes introduced to the census of 1980, this hispanic identity and had Asian Americans with is another huge Umbrella Group that brings together americans of many different origins, people from india or pakistan or the philippines, so americans are very different groups and cultural indicators brought in under the umbrella of Asian Americans. Its the same thing as hispanic americans. Many people listen to this and they will be surprised to hear hispanics concocted by the theocracy and they will think has been around forever. It is professor of the university of california system who wrote about this, it would be corrective amnesia, people will forget this is new and it will be shifted always. This is what they wanted to do with me and create an Identity Group for group of americans at this time. The development which im pleased to say we have collective amnesia because it was a new Identity Group the left tried to hoist on us during the Obama Administration and it just never took off so when one for the good guys that theres not one more Grievance Group concocted because as you say in the book for the vast majority of our history, they were considered right. You named the former governor of indiana or other people of the middle eastern arrows. It raises the question the books written on the subject, you cant take a job or go to school about attending a Training Session where you are what raises the question, one receives special privilege by virtue of being wise, why are activists clamoring to remove their designation as white and create a new identity Politics Group . Seems to be a problem. This idea of white privilege, or five years ago, he described getting to gail, he did not know, is unaware of what was expected of him cultural, think of this moment, including a radical activist, the very idea the Census Bureau brought them to the office in 2000 team to advise on the creation, everything want to know about this, easy to capture by the left, they were very clear about what they were discussing, they discussed the fact that americans do not want this, they are not asking for that category than a professor said they understand they would benefit in terms of racial preferences or hiring practices or government contract, they will embrace it and it showed how using these racial purposes is a gateway drug to identity politics, but it shows also you could divide benefits of improving your not white. Right. You might call it oppression privilege. Its become totally inverted, you quote from the book, she began to work the job which she now wears in all her public appearances because without it, she was just another white woman and that was advantageous politically. The one question comes up as well because in addition to these racial categories, there were sexual categories and what struck me as very strange is that women make up the majority of the population, womens makeup in America Today, majority of college students, how is it that the majority could become an aggrieved minority. In the 60s, they identify women, they use jane crow analogy, a new generation, they are seen as being moved to the oppressor class, the new term hearing that comes in and people are mocking women as karens which is really bizarre and i believe, i havent read her bo book, white fragility including a chapter called white womans peers so i think that yes, you can get that for being a woman but i believe, this could be happening maybe being moved back into the oppressor class. I am with you, i have not read the book but it has become very popular. As has this term karen. The term karen, though it is, use, it is a racial slur. It explicitly to white women. Its a socially acceptable racial slur. You see this evolution, a change in what racial categories are protected but sexual categories are protected, theres a juice agreement between the new feminist and all feminist. The old bonus and second wave very much believed in biological effects and women hear me roar and now the category has been completely obliterated. Theres a news agency that referred the other day to individuals with the cervix. They didnt use the term woman, might say i am a woman, hear me roar, is replaced with i have a cervix which creates a contradiction, a problem within the particular identity category but im searching for any hope here that we can recover from this identity politics nightmare, is there a chance because of these contradictions, identity politics will collapse in on itself or will it require a greater effort to rid ourselves of that problem . I am hopeful, the reason i wrote my book is to shed light on what has happened. I think americans need to be aware of what happened, who did it, how they did it and why before we can start inking of ways of reversing of what has happened. At the end of the day, these are marxist ideas. The conflict is the concept of it being nothing but conflict between groups and Power Dynamics but at the end of the day, marxist set out to do the impossible. It is an attempt at changing human nature. Human nature is unchangeable. If you read the bible, you come across people like moses and abraham and sarah and you recognize them right away. They have vices and virtues that we have, human nature is unchangeable so when they fail to change human nature, marxist have to pull back on pilots. I think the American People to attached to freedom. To attach the liberties. Against hate speech because they are being used to silence. They explain how this is done, how these groups came about and why and teach how we talk about this. Change the conversation get us to think about differently in a more formal way. I am optimistic. You sit on a constellation here,. Reality is reasserts itself in the end. I take a long time. Ultimately the reality will reassert itself. In the book, it does appear people are coming to realize identity categories listed on them by elites by specific individual people, individuals you name in the book, they dont describe them, the reality that they see. Just one particular issue on ideology, the transgender ideology, i think people know a man is not a woman, men and women are different. The matter how many times a professor say they know its not the case for various Identity Groups. No matter how many times hispanics are say you must go by hispanic, latino, latin x, they say no, i dont think that describes me very much. Id like to close but before we move on to the q and a, id like to get back to the points you made it in the beginning, we hear now is a constant mantra. Adversity is our strength. What people mean, their small Identity Groups. We can look around at the statues toppling and discovered that the probably not the case. Have people who couldve to that yet . There is a common good here in america. His argument catching on or, even if we can remain hopeful, do we have a ways to go of division and identity politics . Before reality reasserts itself . Grad you brought this up, you have to represent a group, congresswoman presley very well when she said late last year, if you come to the table, as a member of a group, you have to speak with that group. If you are not going to come in and represent that group and represent assigned to you, dont come to the table. I have to think and speak on the hispanic category. He just said to me, a great way to close, what makes this country possible, come together and be americans and great this American Culture that we can adhere to. You can continue if you want to. Ive seen this and other countries, many months, this country is exceptional and it does take people from all over the world, heres what we do. At the end of the day, weve solved all of our problems, weve solved slavery, jim crow, segregation, going back to the revolution. All men are created equal. When lincoln fought against slavery and said jefferson did not need to put in those words, he put it in there for somebody like me to come along. He says we are here to cast a promissory note. Its a promise of all men are created equal. We have to go back to aspiring to live by those ideals, when we have aspired to that we have solved our problems and by aspiring to this ideal that we will solve those problems. I think you are right. Building up the equality principle, perhaps we should acknowledge the equality of our viewers and take some questions. I know there are a lot of questions in the audience so perhaps we can get into the now. You are right. There are a bunch of questions. We probably wont have time to get to them all. I will read from jim scott in colorado, he asked with the media and corporations, professional Sports League and every other politics, how do they fight against that . I dont want anyone to lose their jobs but i think we need to draw inspiration from the people who live behind the curtain and the soviet union who did speak the truth and face the consequences. I think there are electoral players who remain standing and playing the National Anthem, i think we should hold them off as heroes. They are the ones who have courage. We need the media to say look how courageous they are when they played the National Anthem. That is not courageous to stand up, to be the one man of people saluting hitler and this one man with his arms folded, that is the courageous one. When your Company Comes along and says theres going to be another struggle session where you have to put something on, is prudent and gently pushes back and say what is happening . I think we have to sum up some courage but i dont know if you have any ideas. I agree with everything you said and im reminded of the irony, the left always tells us theres institutional racism, oppression that controls every institution in the u. S. , the control hollywood, big tech, Higher Education and lower education, the list goes on and on so if there is institutional racism or oppression, whose fault with that be . Probably the people who run the institution. You brought up the basketball player stood up for the National Anthem when everybody else was taking a knee. That guys name who is out the other night, jonathan isaac. Im not a big nba fan but a lot of people have never heard his name before and i think is a constellation here and a worthy lesson which is, even though this is a relatively unknown player, with anybody else in his league other than lebron james, there is a silent majority out there, who are conservative or republican necessarily but people who feel bullied, censored, intimidated by this geologist institutional environment and they want to push against it and reward people who fought against it. Very often kids will ask me should i speak up in class or should i keep my mouth shut and get a good grade and later i will tell people my views . It seems to me integrity is a habit. Honesty is a habit. We want people to be innocent as doves but habits have to be practiced. Its not going to be easier tomorrow to practice or to tell the truth and have integrity when youre out of college and suddenly have a job and family to support. Its not going to be easier ten or 20 years from now either. Courage is a virtue, prerequisite for all other bridges. If you show a little courage, there are a lot of people out there, more than most people think who will reward speaking the truth in that environment. This is probably a good one for you since you mentioned your talking to college students, you interact with your audiences every day so youre talking to average people trying to navigate this so the question is, for people who study them, how does the average purpose and talk about whats going on in laymans terms and extent of them quite so dangerous . It is the key here because so much of whats in mikes book, its been based on the highly technical jargon of a bunch of egg head academics going back 100 years, if one engages in a conversation like that, we have no idea what we are talking about. If you speak in plain terms, is going to be a much easier way. The nice thing is, because you have this highly ideologist leftist culture, the alternative is common sense using common language. The idea of Political Correctness itself is to create these complicated euphemisms that say basic obvious things. I would engage on that level, i dont think you need to go through the notebooks or read copy tall, i could never get through that myself. I think that is true of a lot of people but many people in this country can see something is off, something isnt right and the statues are traveling, thats simple enough. One thing i want to encourage is recognizing, going back to these older vehicles, the trick has been to pretend the political philosophy is a science so it will be the science of history theyve discovered or social sciences and use the term science so its impossible to disagree with them whereas in an authentic politics, there is debate between eternal questions weve debated since the dawn of civilization and that is legitimate, the topics are open for debate. You dont need to 15 letters of the end of your last name and credentials from all the top schools to engage with them. We the people to have a voice, at least for now. One thing i want to add, my son going to college, he said talk about critical theory, make sure youre not talking about Critical Thinking, your target of the opposite. Critical theory is the opposite of Critical Thinking because they tell you what to do. Critical theories making a public out of you. The other thing, if anybody wants to keep up with this, a good resource in michaels show, a great podcast, michael explained these things very well. Thank you very much. A question from daniel compton, africanamericans because of their unique history, why do you think black leaders have not fought back against all of these and binding groups . That is a good question, some people have said the foundation was setting out to create these groups had the fear that the Civil Rights Movement needed to have a wider constituency, it could just be africanamericans were 13 of the population, it could be these leaders think the contingency is enlarged when their speaking on behalf of of the people, the needs of leaders and average people, the average americans are very different, sometimes at odds and these is a piece when that happens. When you have somebody else in terms of, on behalf of people of color, but this is not doing any good to africanamericans, i dont believe. I have all of mikes thoughts. I actually think the. Michael thanks in the book, not to have a chapter on black identity is sort of the key here because the black identity in america is unique and you cannot analogize other groups expenses for one simple reason, which is a huge number of black people in America Today can trace their ancestry back to slave ship. Its a categorically different experience from people whose ancestors chose to come here. That choice, the idea your greatgrandfather decided to come to this country in search of a better life, a free act of will shows you how preposterous it is to now generations later, contrive this grievance of the country that your ancestors sought out in the country that made ones ancestors are a place to build a better life. There are several questions regarding what we do about the assertion of identity politics and education, mike, i know you dealt with this and montgomery counter county in many different places. What advice would you give for parents from k through phd who have kids in school . The board of education and make the best of yourself. Ask the tough questions, my wife doesnt like to come with me, you have to ask why your spending money on such things as teaching, zero proof that it works and yet, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be spent on books or computers and so forth. The policy recommendations are given my book are basically to get the government out of the creation business, you should be creating categories and the second one is to stop giving benefits for people to adhere to these categories. Once we stop this, i do believe affirmative action which is really racial preference, it is unconstitutional but i do believe is running out of time. They said we are going to approve this but only 25 years, i think even before that, the next is because of Asian Americans and indian americans, to come before the court, they say this is clearly a violation of equality under the law. By of course agree it should be involved in childrens schools and go to School Board Meetings and look at the curricula. One thing i think its importa important, do not underestimate how damaging identity politics can be for Young Children when you find identity politics in the school. Theres nothing worse that you can tell a young child then you cannot succeed because of your skin color or Sexual Identity or whatever identity category you prefer. In the 1990s when we have this movement that probably went to extreme, we told them they could do whatever they want at any given time. The cap participation trophies and a on every assignment, now it seems the opposite and retail, i suppose half the population, when you include the women, will not be able to do anything, give up. Dont even try. It is the opposite of what education should be doing. Teach us to grow, grow in wisdom and go with our passions and make us responsible people who can strive energy. When the identity politics creep in, it may seemed like a trivial issue but it can be profoundly damaging for your childs life. Any parent who comes across any idea punctuality or hard work or the use of reason a function of light is him, just go back to the teacher essay, do not teach this poison to my child. This is racist stuff. You have to stand up and say this is poison. It separates us from our use of reason so do not say it is a white thing. I cant believe we are saying this in 2020 so fight against that really hard. There was an argument at work yesterday about whether two plus two actually equals four. [laughter] i think they were serious about it, too. Ill throw this to you, david from canada. He ask, why do corporations and Foundations Fund this movement, what did they get out of it when you people actually supported . A great question from our neighbors to the north which i refer to americas hat. I think the room Holding Party the partisan realm and conservative movement has made a big mistake for several decades which is, in their zeal to go after the ever expanding size and scope of government, they seem to give Corporate America the past and they develop this Bad Reputation as being promoters of Corporate America. Corporate america is the problem. Probably more than every other group maybe the exception of education, is leaving for splurge and america and embracing identity politics and hurtling us off the cliff into oblivion. What are they doing that . Corporations have one goal which is to follow the almighty dollar and its much easier when you have contrived activist groups, which are well funded and highly organized. Youve got those highly motivated groups, petitioning, threatening boycotts and even making a couple of dozen phone calls, that will push corporate policy because they dont want to deal with it. Its just easier, they will save money and the long run, why not . I think we need to hold the corporations to account, theres a debate now at least since the rise of President Trump and over the last four years over globalism. We have corporations that dont have that much oil to the u. S. The nba that we mentioned earlier is more loyal to china than the u. S. That is a big problem. I dont blame corporations for following the almighty dollar but i think we have to do much more in this country to hold them to account because even if somehow he managed to reign in the administrative government, even if by some government we were able to rein in the educational system, he would still have this major power for shaping Corporate America and if we dont get them on the right track, theyre not going to be able to escape this identity politics. I think we have time for one more question. With all this talk about identity politics, we know we have a shared american identity. How do we restore that . We need to go back to teaching civics. Civics used to be known, who were the founders . Or their strengths . Or their arguments . They often argued against each other. What is natural right that is natural law . Really only, make america exceptional is the only country to drive on legitimacy from natural law and natural right, it is really are, documents. What do these things mean . We have rights in nature that are pregovernment and the only tyrants can create the way . How does this system work . What is the separation of powe powers . Then, how do you become slickly engaged . Civics now is talk participation civics, how to demonstrate, go on the street, you can get extra points, we need to go back to the old traditional understanding of how civic american sees his or her government but we also have to do the hard job of driving division of our country but we are a Company Country made up of different peoples, we need to go back to rural americans, from knowing our background, we enjoy grandmas cooking and our familys history but there are also other things, which is americans. It is a wonderful thing to be. We are lucky america is right, whether its somebody like me so this is really, i think, the way out. Its not going to be easy but you got to do it or we lose our freedoms. I believe that strongly. Final thoughts. My final thought is, the people should read the book. Because youre right, we will lose our freedom as we have come to understand our freedom in america and as we have cherished it. We will do that if we lose the sense of natural law and allow reasons to multiply. One of the most important takeaways from this book, this didnt happen by accident. This wasnt a spur of the moment grassroots campaign, there were specific individuals we can name going back now 100 years who plotted this and affected his campaign to dismantle america. The fruit is all around us. Statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are falling all around the country. That was not an accident. It was intentional. If you want to save our country, our cherished institution and freedom, the nation itself, that isnt going to be by accident. Its going to be an intentional act. We have to muster the courage to do it and you wont be able too unless you know exactly how it happened in the first place which is white and encourage people to read this. Gentlemen, this i cant think of a better way to have spent the last hour. How to think mike gonzalez, michael no forgiving as your time, your mind and your words today. We will share a recording of this for everybody who has joined us today so look out for that. I want to reiterate two things before we go, first, please purchase a copy. If you already have purchased one, consider buying another one as a gift. Go to heritage. Org the plot. Second, subscribe both of his podcasts. The Michael Knowles show and the verdict with ted cruz. There are some good episodes coming out right now which is why michael is in d. C. Thank you for joining us, have a wonderful tuesday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Your watching book tv on cspan2. Television for serious readers. Here are some programs to watch out for this weekend on our Author Interview program, afterwards. Science journalist, Deborah Mckenzie reports on how covid19 became a Global Pandemic and offers her thoughts on how to prevent future outbreaks. Identity politics is dividing america and the indian chief legal analyst, jeffrey weighs in on the Mueller Investigation and impeachment of President Trump. For more schedule information, consult your Program Guide or visit booktv. Org. Over the next several hours we are going to show you some of those programs. We are going to begin in 2003 when booktv accompanied mr. Caro on a trip to the lbj