Transcripts For CSPAN2 April Ryan Hosts Discussion On Race Relations In America 20170116

Great lineup of authors behind us. There will be one more addition coming soon. My name is davis pick up part of the events staff at politic pold prose and i would like to welcome you here to thisis politics and prose event. Tonight is a special location as we host a continuing series and Panel Discussion entitled race in america. We had one this summer at a main connecticut avenue location. That was an incredible host a conversation and were excited to keep it going tonight. This is coordinated by the great april ryan. [applause] she has a wonderful line of authors including joyann reid. [applause] Mary Frances Berry. [applause] avis jonesdeweever. D ston [applause] and soon to be here, wes moore. S [applause] politics and prose is honored to host this conversation as we are committed to tolerance and Public Discourse in addressing the most pressing issue of our times. We are thankful to have this partnership with busboys and poets and a shared common values to host such an important discussion tonight. If youre watching this at home or out in the rest of the story we welcome you to participate in our discussion with the hashtag on twitter on this facebook wit racematters. Our coordinator tonight april ryan is a white house correspondent. She has unique Vantage Point as the only black female reporter covering urban issues from the white house. Position point [applause] this this position she has held since the clinton era, and on behalf of the American Urban Radio Networks and through her fabric of america news thought, she delivers her readership ande listeners millions of africanamericans and close to 300 radio affiliates a quote unique ribbon and minority perspective in news. Her position as a white house correspondents has afforded her unusual insight into the racial sensitivities issues and the political struggles of our nations last three president s. She can be seen almost daily on Television Come in such programs as hardball with chris matthews, among many others. She is the author of the awardwinning book the presidency and black and white, and a first book at mamas knee. So if you will to introduce the rest of the panel will you please join me in welcoming april ryan. [applause] [inaudible] there we go. Let there be sound. Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for taking time out at a very busy schedule during this Holiday Season two,y talk with us, to share with us kind of a cathartic moment for many of us, its cathartic. For others its a time offor ot celebration. I am hearing the church out there. You know, its almost like a preacher, call and respond. But this is very interesting time, a historic time. We are in the center of where everything is happening,ere washington, d. C. January 20 at 12 01 p. M. 2017 there will be a transition of power from number 44 number 45. Okay. [laughter] but literally we are less than one month away from what was a most historic election then we have ever seen. Less than one month and we are still trying to figure outve whats happening. So thats why were here, particularly when it comes to issues of difference, the other race. As we try to grapple with what we dont know and the things that we do know and the things that weve seen before, i want to give an example of something. One of the reasons why we are here tonight, the seven Poverty Law Center found the southern poverty incidents that were immediately following thedents election. In the 10 days after the november election, in the days after, what was that number . 800watt . 60 comment and going. Just 10 days after. 800 people wonder why are we talking about race. They say when you put the facts on the table your race baiting but thats why were here. Were talking about an issue that is in the forefront. It has been in the forefront since the beginning of this country and it is still here in 2016. Now, i also want to give you something, immediately following the election i talked to chris darden. Chris darden, the former prosecutor in the o. J. Simpson case, he said black republican and he said this is a time ofe activism. We also heard recently welcome, wes moore. [applause] we also heard recently from billionaire africanamerican democrat bob johnson who saysaid its time we need to find commoi ground. But this morning a doctor from naacp naacp head and from a maryland congressman who said both men are right. We are at a crossroads. So how do we have a parallel roads instead of being at the crossroads . Tonight and is 90 minutes that we have with experts, people that you know, people that you trust to talk to us and we will up the floor to you in a little bit but i want to introduce first a woman who needs no introduction. She is walking history herself spirit then dont introducer. [laughter] but i will. Because she says the only reason why she came out tonight is because i asked her. And i thank you so much. [applause]d her. Lets give Mary Frances Berry a big round of applause. Y fran [applause] hinot only has she served hee in one of the most visible activism and civil rights inos this country, for gender equality and social injustice in this nation, she also went abroad. She fought against apartheid in south africa, was jailed for her efforts. [applause] and she actually was allowed to speak at the National Cathedral in december 2013 after the deato of nelson mandela. Am i correct . 2 and the South African government invited her to do that. So that speaks volumes. But shes also the author of the book five dollars and a porkis chop sandwich. Rk cho [applause] explains some campaign voter turnout activities are just another form of Voter Suppression. Of voter isnt that something . You have to remember also she served as the chairperson of the u. S. Civil rights commission. So we give a big round of applause to Mary Frances Berry. [applause]e] so up next is a fascia seen a lot. I call her a dragonslayer. Dragonslayer. [applause] shes used to the aem that she is in that p. M. Tonight. But sh [laughter] joyann reid is the host of aem joy, weekend mornings at 10 a. M. On msnbc shes a columnist at the daily beast and the author of fracture, barack obama the clintons and the racial divide and the coeditor with e. J. Dionne of the upcoming book we are the change we seek. Yes, with speeches of barack obama. [applause] this was supposed to be the year of the women, and we have womans advocate. It was supposed to be the yeare of the woman. [laughter] it was supposed to be. [laughter] sometimes to keep from crying you have to laugh, right . Without further ado i want to introduce to you doctor avis jonesdeweever, the author of the awardwinning book how exceptional black women lead cometh out of Exceptional Leadership institute for women. You see her about on tv with our regularly coaches also regular guest host on various and various leading Television Programs to include tv one as well as pbs to the contrary. Lets give her a big round of applause. Will go down the road to baltimore, my hometown. Be more careful town. [laughter] with a gentleman i just saw on with oprah winfrey. We are stepping in some high cotton. D step [laughter] i would like to introduce to you wes moore, a decorated army combat veteran, youth advocate and ceo of a National Initiative focusing on addressing the College Completion and the replacement crisis by reinventing the freshman year of college. He is also the author of two instant New York Times bestselling books. Thats not an easy task. The books are called the other wes moore and lets give wes moore a big round of applause. [applause] so for all of you out there in the audience tonight, i want you to pull out your social media devices. I want you to go on the twitter or the facebook, or the chat snap, i dont know, pick one. Snapchat can i know what its called. I want you to go on your device and want you to tweet out, were going to break the twitter tonight. I want you to tweet out tonight racematters, because what you put out their people watching, with a president elect who is very much on twitter. So lets break twitter tonight. I want to start off with history. We have to start with history. From where we have come from to where we are today and where we need to be going. Mary frances berry, youve seen a lot. You have protested a lot for the rights of people. Could you talk to us about where we are today in this crossroads, and is there a chance the road will be parallel . Well, the first thing i would say, and thanks for having me. Im so happy to see so many of you pick the first thing i want to say is im not as pessimistic as some people i know, mainly because i think if you begin with the knowledge of facts that will make you more optimistic than otherwise. The facts are that if we were to turn out more black voters in the cities in the midwest, in milwaukee, in detroit, it will turn out, and in philadelphiaro and in pittsburgh, if we had turned out more voters, hillary could have one of those states. And we didnt turn them out in the states, not because of Voter Suppression, but becausese oldfashioned things that campaigns have been doing for years, and ive been involved in at i know about, and ive written about in five dollars and a pork chop sandwich, which is putting street money and walker and money on the street and having yard signs and giving up chicken boxes and pork chops and 5 and motivating your people didnt happen because the money wasnt on the street. I know that because i talked to the people who were trying to get the campaign, send them the money so they could do these oldfashioned things, and facetoface persuades did want to vote, especially some of thew young people who didnt want to thought barack hadnt done much for them and she was going to do enough. That didnt happen. I think if we put money on the street next time, and if we put walking fragment of the street which is what my book is about, eckstein that we can get turnout. Because its all about turnout which is what the book is abouto now, where weve been. Where weve been is that we have of course add very tough times, the whole long history which i wont get into. Everybody knows. But in the last few years mostst of us thought that we had reached a new millennium, and that things were going so well that all we had to do was get hillary in office and now were just going to take the next step and everything was going ouret way. O and, in fact, it didnt happen. S so now where are we going . So that if i never get to see anything else here again tonight, i will just tell you that weve been here before. You may not remember but i do when Ronald Reagan got elected. E this talent wise, people were so sad. They were so somber when he got elected, and when he got elected all these people came to town with their money i remember they were quoting, you could never be too thin or too rich and at all these parties and all the stuff was going on. Ne they came to town and the attorney general announced that he was not going to enforce the civil rights laws, which was shocking. And all kinds of terrible things happen. We had constructive engagement with South African government and apartheid was going to stay forever. He close down a bunch of the programs for women that were in the white house. All kinds of bad, terrible things happened. Se and even though they happened, the Supreme Court was disgusting and some of the decisions and they handed down, but people mobilized. They resisted. They organized. They got over their sadness and their morning and pickgot ov themselves up and did what needed to be done. And in the end we were able to make some gains, even in a very terrible time. So im not pessimistic. Im optimistic. And dont say to me as some people have, it could have been as bad as it is now because reagan, you know, he has a building named after him downtown and an airport named after him and he was a sunnytowi fellow. I like talking to him. [laughter] but he was just as terrible or worse in many ways. Although he didnt use twitter i guess he didnt. [laughter] twitt so we have been there before. Lets pick ourselves up and move on. [applause] words of wisdom. Lets go to joy. I want to ask you something. You talked to a lot of people all the time, and thats what makes you so great because you in the street. You find out what people are thinking. What is this necessarily more so about hillary versus trump or is it about our issues being on the table for either candidate . Which one is it . Thank you again for doing this. You guys can hear me . You a i think people are doing, depressed. Counseling others. Some counseling myself. I feel like avenue profession. Im not judging by the hour butn thats pretty much what ive been doing. And i think what you find the selection were a few things. One of them Mary Frances Berry is actually write it was a campaign that did not feel that it had to do that kind of on the ground street level campaigning that democrats sort of werestrel known for partly because theycr were adopting the barack obama model. Unfortunately the barack obama model only work if you barackng obama on the ticket. What i mean by that is that in t 2008 in the Obama Campaign came along and they seem to invent this brandnew model which was they could use data modeling, deep data dive meaning you could not only target a block in a precinct that actually a household and you would know that jane deludes and now sold is your voter but john is not your voter shall he find a way to micro target jane and not john. That all the sophisticated modeling. I had this dramatic fundraising advantage whether able to reach him. I saw things ive never seen before. Black folks during a barbecue where everybody brought 100 and gave to do cant be. You have not seen the kind of fund raising. I met people who into \50{l1}s{l0}\50{l1}s{l0} and \60{l1}s{l0}\60{l1}s{l0} would never given a dollar to a president to compete in the lives who are giving 100 to obama. You. You had this incredible energy, sophisticated datadrivenob campaign but you also had this charismatic figure and barack t obama who was poised to be the first black president. That was its own motivator the barbecues were not because of data modeling or because democrats and that is something sophisticated big news because of barack obama. People were voting as then in line for hours and hours because of barack obama. In 2008 i was telling the story, i was at a conference debate in d. C. For state and local legislators. One. One of the good things coming, the good news out of this campaign, democrats have discovered there are other things besides the presidency as a political party, right . They suddenly discovered their state legislators and there are governorships. Vernor if you dont control the sector of States Office you cant stop a Voter Suppression . What . Te we have to the 16 States Office so they dont throw all of thehe people were black and brown and throw those in the trash . We have to control the states legislatures so they dont pass laws for voter id . Democrats have sunday discovered to have fight at the localthat level. They will now try to get people to vote in midterms. Thats happen. When i was work on the Obama Campaign ive gotten out of news and was in politics, this thing happening was that people lining up around the block to vote for barack obama but the line was going so fast and we are out there wondering why is the line going so fast . This was a fourpage ballot. Theyre all the state offices, all these local initiatives are people were not voting. They were voting obama ande coming out going so excited. Theyre coming out in their wheelchairs, coming out, obama and they didnt vote for anything else. People were not paying attention down ballot. With hillary get the opposite. Jennifer granholm was treating, tweeting earlier that in michigan there were 75,000 voters who voted everything on the ballot except the president. It was a reverse pick people who came out but felt they bought interesting part is the to didnt push this idea that both candidates were equally bad. A lot of young voters whose minimum standard for president is obama felt these were not good enough so they werent going to vote for either of them because they had a black president. My kid, the only president in the light is obama. Make h they think that is what abrasion is. People who felt to righteous to vote for either candidate voted third party. Jill stein votes add up much more than Hillary Clinton is marching to the three state she lost, pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan, the combined total of Donald Trumps advantage, before these recounts it started was 107,000 votes. 107,000 votes, thats what a few dozen blocks a few chicken boxes and some street money. Speed back there you go. 40,000 thousand more black people voting in philadelphia, milwaukee. She wins. Milwau so you had a failure of imagination because the clinton team had the obama people and the obama modeling. They were using that data and there was saying by the dated we should not lose wisconsin toy donut to send hillary to wisconsin. E shou we cant lose belly because the suburbs have this percentage with a College Degree. We dont have to go to pennsylvania. We have all this data that shows we can win the way obama did but you dont have obama. Without obama the candidate at the top of the ticket has to create an intrinsic reason for this galvanized boat to take place. For a lot of reasons Hillary Clinton couldnt do that. They didnt tell their story. We had an media that was incredibly hostile to her and open to any store that depicted her as a criminal. You would a primary amateur opponent as she was depicted by donald trump. A lot at my kids aged voters saw her as a criminal. Yet understand the way she wasmu perceived among even voters ofwa color when she was a criminal. When they went into the voting booth if they showed up their attitude, she isnt good enough for me. Im going to Vote Third Party or not at all. You also at the last thing i will send them pass it on is you had a lack of Awareness Among a lot of very hyperaware democrats but a lack of awareness of history and where we been before. This idea we are in the circle, every time we met reconstruction, weve had a backlash. Reconstruction after civil war, you get the red shirts. Your Linton Johnson waiting all this positive racial change. You have a backlash. H. You get nixon and reagan, this deepening divide among White Americans think enough of giving things to them. I want things for me. Too much focus on black people. I rebel and walk away from the Democratic Party. You have obama, the same thing, this backlash were a lot of White America, not just working class, trump voters average earnings are 70,000 a year. They are not the broke White America the rest of us are depicting two. Avera theres a lot to say enough focus on lgbt. Enough with the trans people who want to go in the bathroom. Enough document liberalism, enough black lives matter. Enough enough enough. Co too much of this eight years of liberal america tried to tinker with the culture. We want back the culture we can connect with witches of the 50s. They came out in droves. Hillary clinton wins the early vote in florida. She gets swapped on election day by white voters with and without College Degrees. I think if you want to sum up what went wrong in the election it was a failure of imagination on the part of the Clinton Campaign not understand without obama you cant run an Obama Campaign. You have to run an actual campaign. You have to campaignat without doortodoor. Number two, failure of imagination among Young Americans who dont understand if you want to beat john lisko you but have Bobby Kennedy and the Justice Department. You are john lewis with no Bobby Kennedy. You think you are john lewis, good luck because this is what youre facing with a hostile Justice Department that are intent on you and no calvary coming. So failure of imagination at what cost democrats this e election but the good news is i think democrats are rediscovering their imagination. They will have something to fight, fight like hell to say medicare from being privatized, like hell does it all of the social safety nets from being ripped away. They will have to fight like hell and its good to make democrats fight. [applause] so as we hear joy talk about the obama coalition, where were the women . Avis, where were the women asked there was a good setup for the women to revolt. What happened . The women were there. If you look at the turnout, the women were there but there were, there was a huge dynamic across race. Once again we saw that overwhelmingly black women voted for the democratic candidate, 94 . But even though there was a woman at the top of the ticket, still white women did not vote democratic. Its interesting to me this is a situation with the Democratic Party year after year after year to me to invest in fools gold, to be perfectly blunt. They invest millions upon millions of dollars trying to get out the suburban white women voter every couple of years they call her something to the one years shes a soccer mom, next year she is Something Else but the bottom line is the same demographic were talking, white suburban women voters. Th and every year they voterban wom republican. Obama did not carry any white people. Y he didnt just lose white men began also lost white women. So to think that at this point they might be able to change just because they had a woman at the top of the ticket, once again it was self deception. It was not the strategy. Instead of investing in the demographics that they know, time and time again hatefullyin for this particular party, they invested in an area that did not actually show up on election day. A did not i suspect that one of the thing as relates to florida, one of the things we saw as a result of this election i think its a result of years of investment in voter disenfranchisement in multiple ways. If you look at florida, florida is one of the states where last an entire lifetime. You have to make an appeal specifically to the governor to get that pushed back. As it stands today their 2 Million People in florida that cannot vote for the rest of their lives in less they appeal to the governor to change that. Thats more than enough to have carried that state for hillary. So when you think about all of the different hurdles that wee had to overcome, you have all shenanigans going on in voter id, you have felon disenfranchisement, this sort ou gamesmanship around having people thrown off the rolls because i happen to be the same name of someone else in a completely other states but a different social skipping numbers here you are the games played, give all these people are on the rolls better dead and we know it takes time for that stuff to trickle off. You have all the lies that were around this issue of people not being qualified to vote and, therefore, you have to go buy into this. The bottom line is this is years and years of investment andtt synergy on the right to suppress the black vote and to suppress voters of color because lets get real about it. The republicans understand their lives in a demographic battle. Their strategy is not to actually go out and play in the marketplace of ideas and try to convince people to see things their way and, therefore, to earn their vote. Eas their strategy is to get rid of all those people, as many people as they can, millions so that they cannot vote and only appeal to their small, in fact,to increasingly diminished demographic. Unfortunately it is worked. Until the Democratic Party understands that you have to advance, invest in state politics, jeff to push back when voting by torricelli. This was the first president ial election that we faced that has come on the heels of the cutting of the Voting Rights act. So we are fighting these various different fronts and still you had to believe in data figure i do believe in some about this white women voter would buck the trend and difficult for the Democratic Party. You did not find black organizations that have a long history and knowledge about how to get out on the ground vote. Instead you voted these other can invest in these other organizations that are not as good and as a result you has a result we have. Unfortunately were stuck withre an incompetent misogynistic racist, not narcissist, and the white as for the next fourur years. [applause] i want to say a word about, i agree with most of what you said, dear, but let me say a word about white women. Some of my best friends are white women. [laughter] no, what i want to say about white women is about what democrats keep forgetting is that white women have husbands and fathers and children. And some of the white women have grown children who graduated from college who they put through college, who are still sleeping i dont because they dont have a job where they make enough money to go out and get a decent job and start a family. So that white women are not some little out there. Thats the way they are talked about in terms of womens rights and all the rest of the stuff that i support, of course. But youve got to think about the connections and networks,tw just as we as black women think about our children and husbands and fathers and everybody else, so do white women. So that you have to take intonc account the whole set ofhing i circumstances. The only other thing i want toma say is that i was against Voter Suppression as anybody in the world, and i fought and give money to all the organizations that fight it and im on the board of them and all the rest of it. But i dont want us to forget that it wasnt voter suppressios alone that caused us to lose this election. Because if we do that we wont know what to do. You have to listen to what joyce said. You have to think about all the places where the wasnt even an issue. And figure out what to do next. And i agree about running for office, as you were talking about. Ive been going around telling people we ought to put some on the ballot for dogcatcher, everything. Somebody any office that anybody is one of four, democrats ought to put somebody on the ballot and try to get them there. Thats what the republicans did. They started with the most office they could find and put people on it. But again i just want to say that white women do have relevance. [laughter] thank you for that, white women are relevant. [laughter] before we go to wes, we were just talking about the data. Lets look at this. This last election mirrored with the numbers 2012, correct . D hil and Hillary Clinton got 5 million votes less than barack obama. Than damn right. I think it was its a lot closer, i think about 2 million less. Its not as much exactly. I have been calling this a shadow reelected this is essentially a third termrm reelected, like the George Herbert walker bush election after reagan. It mirrored a reelection because yet a democrat wanting to extend democratic policy identify more with immediate past president than with her own husband bill clinton policy so is a shadow reelected and it wasnt that g hillary didnt get enough votes. She got two point 5 million more control. Its what she got the votes. She wins the popular vote. In coastal states like california, new york and she literally spent more time trying to win arizona than trying to win wisconsin. So so at the end of the day if you feel so confident that you think youre going to win that you picked tim kaine as a company could rather than picking a winner pick, because youre so sure because the data has got to literally data can be dangerous. I was super nerdy person. I believe in math and science i love science. Data folders all. We had assumptions about white women spinning who uses a landline now . No, this is real. Ll, because when they pull you they call you on your, what . Landline. Ask you let me ask you this. How many of you have a landline . I still do. All right. How many of you do not answerhau the phone if you see that you dont know the numbers . There you go. The instrument is broken. We saw it with this election. It wasnt just the instrument. Holding companies do use cell phones now. Spirit they are starting spirit of the assumptions into the polling. Understand the likely voter model as opposed to the raw number, the likely voter model is the polls are taking their own assumption and then using it to massage with it but the percentages. The assumption that white women would see a white woman runninge and see that as an opportunity to place themselves in the person of the present was an assumption people may. The idea white voters with a College Degree would behavede differently in white voters without speedy but dont you believe there is a wilder effect with hillary . Vote for obama, a vote for her. The trumpeter, they didnt tell you yes. [inaudible]]did no but it did not admit it, right. K hank you. I like the interactive crowd. [laughter] what joy was think about Hillary Campaign when she was think about candidates campaigning in the wrong places, is like that song, looking for love in all the wrong places. Spirit okay, okay. Really where you really saw the wilder effect in place was the number of people who claim they. Were undecided. You saw on a normal election that before election day the number of people undecided as to hovering around three to 5 . This election the number wasng n hovering around 1250 . Those folks were not undecided. They just did not want to tell a pollster that they were going to vote for donald trump. A National Polls were not wrong. The National Paul said hillaryll clinton would win by one to two points. She won by two points or so. She won by exactly in the nashville she. E. The the polls that were wrong with a statewide polls. In a statewide polls you had this huge people were not admitting there in the undecided camp eitherer trump or jill stein or gary johnson voters. I dont think they were jill stein or gary johnson photo. I think was just trump voters. I want to go back to wes. Youve been grassroots and you are at the highest of highs right now. And with that what did you do on the ground . Used to working with grassroots organizations. You are in baltimore with me anh then today, and well deal with that today, the issue of walter scott. We would deal with that. The next question will be about walter scott. What do we do now after january 20 when it comes to to policing . But what were you hearing . What are you still hearing on the ground as to the election . I think about the africanamerican voter turnout a in baltimore city. If you look at the africanamerican voter turnout, this goes directly to your point. City its about the percentage of people who voted, africanamerican vote in this past election was 23 of eligible voters. This election wasnt so much about that transfer, the transient nature of the working class. This election was about the folks who just didnt even come out. The level of disillusionment that people have about the political system as a whole is real. This is going from younger folks, folks, first on voting, to folks who are in the 40s and 50s and \60{l1}s{l0}\60{l1}s{l0} who are just like theres nothing about the system that works for. Me. The day after the primary in indiana, i was in indianapolis. I was speaking to an advocate of hoover from my hotel to where i was meeting. I get an uber driver and we start talking. He tells me, hes like, i saw talk about how things are inn indiana, how long is been driving . For about 11 months. I said how is it going . He said i got laid off from my job and i just, i tried for four months to new job and then i started driving for uber. I said hows it going . He said im making more money than it was with my other jets i guess its going okay. Then it was the day after the indiana primary. T how did you vote so on and so forth . To look at me in the first thing he said was im a lifelong democrat. Lets start with that. Gotcha. Lifelong democrat. But, then he talked about how he transferred any voted for trumpe so what i get to the question oe why he decided to vote for trump, he gave a whole bunch of Different Reasons that franklya 90 were factually incorrect but these are things he kept repeating to himself, even though there was no factual basis behind it. There was something he said three times to me, and when he said hes not owned by anybody. Exactly, right . E playin this isnt the narrative playing in his head that he is not owned by anybody. Part of the thing i was hearing from not just this uber driver in indianapolis but also from the folks in baltimore is a frustration that the system is almost intentionally not working. That everything, every majoriona institution has now been triggered against them. Education institution that been triggered against, people are going to school at taking mountains of debt, coming up with mounds of votes after many of them theyre starting college, not finishing another Walking Around with debt and no degree. There are people who look at the media and say immediate as bot and found, teddy which are simply a special end of the major president ial candidate who every time he steps up to a microphone he to start talk about this person is untrustworthy and dishonest media. So he is fanning the flames. Major businesses, people feel that these larger institutions to include our politics microphone. And that tell you, you talk about, we talk about baltimore. If you look, i was talking somewhat about reagan, i know well talk about policing and the second. I can wait for that one. But i have been very heavy on the need for policing reform an accountability because people just do not feel safe in theirir own neighborhood. I was talking with a friend of mine and were talking about freddie gray and everything thah happened in baltimore. He said to me, next time you get a chance i want you to Youtube Freddie gray his arrest again. I said are seen that 100 times. Okay, hold on. You need to get mad, do me a favor, go to a computer anddi Youtube Freddie gray his arrest again. And he said next time, its all over youtube. The handcuffs, being thrown in the back of a police van and out before he was in a coma. And he said that next time you look at that video, dont look at freddie. And dont look at the Police Officers. He said look at Everything Else. Look at the homes in the background. Look at the buildings, the neighborhood, look at the fact that he was taken at 9 17 a. M. And how these people are just standing around. They are not on the way to work. They are not on the way to school. They are standing there with cell phones taking pictures. The point is this, is that we are not willing to be honest and address a macro, to be honest about the structural inequities, the structural racism, the structural history that exist in so many of our communities. We we can never simply for years go rent ask for a vote. Thats not going to be enough. The frustration of people feel about not a Certain Party or not a certain individual. Its well past that. Its people fundamentally believe that this system has been built against them. And its ironic that we can build up a whole Waterside Development in five years of my neighborhood has looked exactlye the same way since the riots in the 60s. Its about the fact that we can sit there and talk about brandnew developments and transportation infrastructure and all the stuff into were blue in the face but truthfully when these neighborhoods gohe through these on rests that we have seen you cant tell the difference between a house that was burned down yesterday andnd house that was burned down 20 years ago. They look the same. So i feel that the frustration that people felt when we look at things like the voter turnout roles and looking at the reality that that is right, we could a a fundamentally change this election and wouldnt have even been close had you increase voter turnout, right . All that is true and all the data modeling and all that is right. But the truth is we as a party have got to be very clear that we have to be a party of ideas and a part of making sure thates these people who feel completely forgotten, that we actually do hear them. Because if if you like this is the situation where its not going to make a difference or this person is owned by this person, this person is not, its going to be a very can i Say Something about what you said . The Democratic Party isga regarded, and i know you guys will not believe this, but around the country when you travel out to, go to little towns down in the gulf and everywhere around the country where i go to speak and talk ton people, they think what we would call the Democratic Party doesnt represent working people anymore, people are trying to find a job. The party is the party of the managerial and professional elite. Thats what the Democratic Party is in their minds. The Democratic Party, what i said about having to do street money and all the old campaign stuff, the reason why you have to do that is because people dont believe that the system is going to do anything. You are exactly right, and the irony is that Neither Party represents the working people. Ee [applause] exactly. And if i could just do one more thing on that because you are exactly right. T. For a lot of the error that was made by the coastal elite, d. C. To new york court order, of which i am a part, is that for a lot of people in places like, colorado or, a lot of people work in the business that either of you are still live in what you call flyover country. But to a lot of people around the country it is the height of absurdity to think that you have the time and that youve got the space in your life to think about wanting to have a woman president. For that to be a top priority for you. So the democrats are seen as the party who at the time and the leisure to think about the abstract notion that having a woman in the white house is more important than somebody who in flyover country think its muchc more important have prayer in school. We can have our judgments aboute that but to a lot of these voters bringing christianitytyol back into the school is way more important. Even women than having a woman in the white house. Those things are not important to everyone. Democrats at the party this end of the leisure over the course of the last eight years to go after sort of utopia cultural ideas that to them are we embrace the idea of lgbt rights because that is our ethic. But for a lot of americans piercing how do you have a tent to be thinking more about that than to think about my factory job i need you to think about a factory job. You are worried about having these niche issues. These are fundamentally important because about fundamental civil rights but even during the Civil Rights Movement, the official one, a lot of americans saw those things is off the script from what they thought democratsme should be spent time thing attention to. Democrats need to find a way of making this idea of civil rights and issued that is outside of the base of the Democratic Party. People dont its important. S its also true if your neighborhood ever does get changed, it will be gentrified and the people who live there enough will not be able to live there. I dont how much you make, i dont know if youll be able to live there. [laughter] spirit he now lives and a very nice neighborhood. Thats all you need to know. But if i could say one thing, were hitting the Democratic Party hard but lets make no mistake about it. We also had something unprecedented happen which is. [speaking russian] and an American Election on a level ive never seen. They didnt hack the machines. I know thats the thing peoplen. Are on what russians have been doing all over europe, they have played this game at everything western european country. Theyve been so far into,n britain and the United States. They go to traditional voters, mostly rural voters, exurban voters, they went to rural voters in england and they said your problem of not having factory work is because of the immigrant. The immigrants and the syrians, the muslims, the brown people are destroying your way of lifer they sell this idea. They pop the social media world full of fake news that is alarm. Some of the stuff was performing way better than anything we wert riding in the visual media, story silicon and fbi agent murdered. Stories that should write a child sex ring from a pizza place that produce an actual w violent person. C these stories were believed by people who are grabbing for anen explanation. This sort of infusion of a Russian Point of view in the news, and interfering in peoples information flow happened. They want not that they like doctor up the because they know donald trump is a window to do with what is happening in all of these movements. G the populist wins. The oligarchs rule. Donald trump is amassing a cabinet full of more billionaires than has ever beent into United States government since the 20s beware going back not to the 50s to the 20s. He is amassing billionaires are not primarily interested in making sure peoples neighborhoods are livable, and making sure the coal plants are fired up or people of the factory job. America played themselves really. N econom then trickle down economics. The economic and financial superrich, they want to privatize everything. I would say people dont say why do people not vote for interest . They do. So now we have about the democrats and now lets focus in on the republicans. Come january its not a myth. Its going to happen. You have a white house that is republican. You have a house, a senate that a republican, and then the next 2030 years will be leaningpr conservative in the Supreme Court. It is not a myth, it is not a conjecture. Ld tru and donald trump says it is a mandate, he did not get the vast majority of the vote. Hillary clinton did so it does not have a mandate. So how do people who are concerned about their rights, people who are concerned with what he says, things like when you talk to lester holt. When lester holt asked him at the debate how would you heal the divide, the racial divide . He said law and order. How do you deal with that issue . How do you also do with the issue of aca with the millions, tens of millions who are concerned, people in Lgbt Community who are going to the transgender process who may now have one part done and afternt jenny 20th they dont know about the other part being done. So how do we navigate these waters with the neww administration and the new wave of conservatism at the different mentality that is coming into washington . How do you do it . First of all, all the organizations that are supposed to do the litigation like aclu and all the rest of them, have to be ready to start going to the lower courts and to the state courts. O st sometimes its great that there are state courts that are not under their control, that you may get something done. But the lower federal courts. Thats what theyve done before. They will do it now. The other is for people to engage and organize in direct action, in my view, to infect protest against the things that are done. What capitalists want more than anything else is order. So if you can make disorder, you can slow them up and stop them from doing what theyre doing. But you have got to be willing to make this order. Protest is an essential ingredient of politics. And so instead of mourning or saying im so mad i would like to punch them in the eye, that is not a strategy. What you should do is be organized or if you have the courage and the strength and the will to engage in organized protest activity, you should do it. During reagan, we had to do it the whole first and second administration. So youve got to slow these people up and make them, tripped them up and slow them up and that will help. Before we go to joy, i want to come back to this law and order issued. I want you guys to think of your questions because well go to questions very soon. Not only that, again, i want you to know this twitter up, break that twitter, racemattersrace t please. Racematters and which are questions in. T i am reading them. But joy, law and order, today we saw a mistrial and the walter scott case. We saw the video. That gentleman gave that video, he gave admitted to the family, evidence, even when it look like the Police Officer tried to change the scene. What happened at the scene. Spooky drop the taser. I saw him drop the taser. Then you have right now the mother of eric garner who is very scared, once jenny 20th rose rent because the federal government, the Justice Department is trying to help really find justice in this the case. They change the people on theat case and now what happens after jenny 20th. What do you anticipate from your reporting and talking to sources that we are to see generallywe 20th . What happens to racial profilint and this piece of accountability with the video cameras and things of that nature . This is the other thing, some of the very young voters who sort of spurt of the black lives matter people who went and talked to the white of the what happens when theres no white house he will talk to you. When you think youll see happen, theres theres been a report i think in reuters that the case is about to go up to the Supreme Court that will discuss whether or not a policen officer can provoke you and then killed you. Right, so they start a confrontation with you and then kill you. The same scenario as in the Trayvon Martin case except George Zimmerman is a cop. That case will go to Supreme Court that george w. Bush will fill out. Nd so you know how that will go. Spirit donald trump spirit donald trump, sorry. I flashback. I miss george w. Bush by the way. If you would like to come back and be our president , i would welcome him with open arms. [laughter] i thought i never would say that. Come back, george w. We miss you. You can paint in the white house. [laughter] sorry. Donald trump will fill out. You have a fleeing felon with our existence said he should be able to do what officer, former officer did. You cant kill someone just because of money for me but that happens every single day. Theres almost never even aet prosecution let alone a conviction. The prosecutor who tried this case is a rightwing conservative republican. The vast majority of the district attorneys makingcrn decisions are democrats. Democrats are primaries in which no one runs against the democrats in which they are overwhelming elected as the case and that tamir rice prosecutor as was the case with the prosecutor in ferguson. You generally need to try to control who is in the District Attorneys Office if you want to have a chance of having a prosecution rather than the case just be pushed aside which is what generally happens when a Police Officer kill someone. What you have is a system where its highly unlikely that any prosecutor will bring a case against a Police Officer who killed you or someone that you love or care about. If they do with more than likely youll put it before a grand jury in which it to seek a proceeding which they can essentially act as a defense attorney inside the grand jury room and still at the officer off and then do nothing for you or your loved one whos been killed by Police Officer. Now you have the other issue for civic participation which is called the jury itself. Even when you get a prosecutor willing to prosecute, a case that goes to trial, and instance, you have 12 jurors 11 white, one black, one white male juror alone decides to hang the jury. Why were they able to do that . It was essentially the reverse of the zimmerman case in which one women of color was overwhelmed, overwhelmed by the other jurors when she wanted to hold George Zimmerman accountable. She tells the story to my friend in a book about the Trayvon Martin martin process that she was essentially bullied because she was the only person of color on that jury. What if we learn . Most people i know try to avoid jury service do not do that. You need to get on juries because we dont have jurors that represent us, when is only one person of color on a jury they did overwhelmed. There is an effect that happens called groupthink. Ucted the way juries are constructive predicts the outcome. In a case we have an 11 to one white to black ratio i did not believe you would be convicted. I was surprised it went this far but the fact is you have one white juror among 10 other white jurors as much were able to hold their ground inside that jury room. One white juror among 10 other white jurors is much were able to stand up to the pressure of the majority that this person stood against 11 people and would not budge. N. Color, couldnt hold their ground was she was alone. Even putting two jurors of color together on a jury has been shawn to change the outcome. Because you give the person someone to argue with. I have a frond who was a juror in one case where the bush administration, the george w. Bush administration, attempted to prosecute a group of men and call them terrorists when they were basically black moores. An offkilter religion, would stand outside and practice karate. Accused of being terroristment they were hey haitian. The government couldnt convict them because the jurors had more than one person of color on them who could stand together and say so i think what we learned Going Forward is because now trump is going to decide the Supreme Court, because you have courts unwilling to convict officers and officers can get around even if the jury will be hostile by going to the judge, prosecutors dont even get married so voters are not waiting on on who they are and what decisions they make. The only thing left now for americans who care about this issue is to get on juries, hopefully get on juries enough numbers where you have juries that have multiple races and you have to register to vote and democrats have a good incentive and registering people to vote , think about running for attorney positions if you are an attorney, get in that game and decide who these people are. We have to look at for people who are progressive, the only flight now is at the local level and the state i want to add to what she said. Everything joyce i said is correct but the thing thats missing is that most of the judges in these cases are elected to. Yes they are. So you also run for elections in judge and see who you are voting for as a judge. Some people dont even Pay Attention to who they are voting for as a judge because theyre the ones who decide these cases. The other thing you want to do and i tried to say this to people for years now is when you hear, and i sent it to black lives matter to that one of these cases is happening, theres a video and we all see and we say we are going to get them this time, no you are not. So you want to keep protesting. When the courts says, when the Prosecutor Says or somebody in the government says at the local level were going to take care of it this time, weve got it on tape, dont believe it. Just keep on protesting. They want order. They want you to shut up and go home. Dont stop. When they say now the prosecutor is going to make a decision, if they are like the woman in baltimore, they can tell for doing this, mostly they want to redeem this but if the Prosecutor Says they are going to prosecute, dont go all in. Keep on protesting. When the Justice Department, i dont care whose Justice Department is whether its obama, trump or somebody else says we are going to send somebody in to investigate and work, if you have a report, were going to investigate this thoroughly and now you can go home so go home. Theyre not going to do anything either. The system is gained not to do anything unless you make enough noise and make people uncomfortable and keep on staying out there. And it shouldnt be the case and its hard to see a protester. Its hard to be an activist. You sacrifice so much in your life but if you really care, dont believe the lies that people tell you. Stay with this until you see an endgame happening dont forget the politics because in the case of marilyn mosley, when she comes up for reelection will the people of baltimore reward her for showing up to election or let her go down . The last union that has any power in this country, they are coming for and in the lock on the donald case, that got thrown out. That was the right thing to happen if you care about black lives matter and the mere rice, that prosecutor got thrown out in primary. You can make them change their behavior by making them believe there is a consequence in terms of their job security, the guy that did the mike brown case has been in Something Like 20 years, he rarely gets the primary. Last time he did it was a black woman who nobody gave her a dollar and paid attention in the primary, go to the sheriffs office, i had four people die in his jail, is a democrat, hes going, for primary in 2018, 20 voters going to do about it, if youre happy with him, leave him there. If you dont like these guys and barry is going for my profession, we need to see you in order for us to cover you because the media in and of itself is not going to stand up for you. You have to give us something to cover so you have to be seen and be visible because it will force the media to Pay Attention. And very quick, all that is absolutely right. T. Heres what we have to do, make sure we are not focusing on the accountabilitymeasures. We have to also look at who is coming personally. Because heres what we mean by this. How Police Officers recruit, how Police Officers hold each other accountable in matters, this is where the final election may become a big deal. Police chiefs are appointed by the mayor that they serve on. These chiefs are appointed by the elected officials were quick to the office. So we have to make sure we are putting elected officials in positions like mayor and city council for holding the police chief accountable for their training of their people, for the recruitment of their people because the best way to keep accountability when these happen is they need to be repeatedly happening is make sure we can decrease the times they have to happen in the first place and that becomes part of the responsibility of Law Enforcement in and of themselves. Law enforcement cannot just be on them, Law Enforcement has to happen internally and the people in charge of that are the people who are elected officials put in charge and as we are electing our mayors, that that issue or that issue, an issue that has to come up in their election, an issue that has to come up in these elections is his issues about police accountability, what kind of cheap you are going to have and how you will hold that chief accountable for the recruitment and training of the people who wear that uniform before the election. That is 100 percent dead on, the challenge that we have is that the Police Culture is right, im going to say it, its rotten to the core, i am so tired of hearing about all these police that are bad but if 99 percent of the policemen dont say anything when you see the one percent acting the fool, then call them bad in my eyes. You have to prove to me that you deserve that badge by not looking the other way when you see someone else abuse power that results in loss of life. So this accountability thing is huge for me. I have a son right here, 20 years old. He was 16 when trey vaughn was killed. He was 18 when mike brown was killed. I see what happens in and like thosewhite women i have other interests. My son , the men in my life and the women in my life, look at sandra bland. What im saying here is that we have seen a system that is corrupt to the core and until Police Officers start going to jail, until they start going to jail, nothing will ever change. My challenges now that we are having the shift in places and we have someone coming into office and he who shall not be named, i have yet to call him by the keyword. When you say the keyword, the big taxes when you stick with the p word. I got these harry potter people out here. Thats right. I hate to say it, baltimore. With baltimore, this is the office. Youve already said that he wants to be a law and order candidate. Many of us that have memories that will have to go back to far, we know what that means. That means cracking heads, that means a very dangerous thing particularly the black people, somewhat racial profiling into someone who says he wants to move forward. Despite the fact that its unconstitutional and it doesnt work so this is someone who to me is talked about for potentially lethal policies against icons and against many of you out there to here today. This is nothing that is theoretically to me, its a literal lifeanddeath issue. One last thing, [applause] you also have to give if you are a democrat you have to give your party courage because the hearings to speak on the jessica border guard sessions, as the attorney general of the United States are coming up, what will the democrats in the senate do if they seethere will be no consequence for what they are getting . What will you do to ensure your senator asked very tough questions of jefferson border guard. All right. Last question, when you are in some of these state legislatures, Pay Attention to your local state legislatures and stage reps, there are bills imploded that would steal those cell phone videos and its the only dash cam videos that have made some of these cases. You are able to write now obtain the dash cam video and the video from when they do not cover or drop off. The body camera video, there are movements underway by unions to steal those and see that the public cannot get them, those are legislative issues. Are you enjoying the conversation . Weve got a justice on politics so this time im going to my friend, we work for politics and prose could not be here tonight at this critical issue, postmortem on the 2016 election i was looking on facebook, a friend of mine said he postmortem, i said okay so it this time we will go to questions and were going to get our friends in politics and prose, lets give them a big round of applause. Weve got a couple questions and then were going to move to the audience so you guys have a lot to say. Weve had people be watching these events on facebook alive, they had people tweeting their questions at us and the people who are watching across the country think that they want to ask so what are we going to do is have some questions for the audience and then some questions from the internet as well. Were going to go backwards and forwards. Can you hear me okay . Okay. All right. So in question here from cunningham. For the past, how can these be part of an segregation and lead to it becoming unconstitutional . Segregation. British accent. The jury segregation means segregation by law. As it was before state brown decided that the law enforces and jury segregation is already illegal but it doesnt help. Thats because de facto selling segregation which occurs most moves in the country are segregated. Most schools that white kids attend, they are the vast majority, most kids and black latino kids tend to be the majority but we dont call it segregation because its de facto so we call it racial isolation. Dont use the word segregation, its the same thing but it sounds better. Im just isolated, im not segregated. So segregation is already illegal but it doesnt make any difference. For schools, a funny thing is they have that will be interesting is donald trump is bringing in another one of his privatized friends that he wants to make a dispensation and her things are both privatization and Charter Schools. On the privatization side, a lot of white parents pull their kids out of Public School and into private schools to get the kid around the brown versus board, to get around desegregation. A funny thing might happen if dominoes decides to get out millions of dollars in coupons, vouchers to send those things, those kids to private schools so that will be an interesting experiment. On the Charter School side its a segregation within the black community, siphoning off africanamerican communities and communities of color putting them in these forprofit Charter Schools pulling the dollars away and they typically go to is the most successful and leave time for disabilities, developmental disabilities. So youre going to see more and the housing, in terms of housing discrimination, you might have been carson and he listen to the house. We dont know. He lives in a house in baltimore and he lives in a mansion in florida so hes now leaving to come to washington if hes confirmed by the senate. At this time we are going to ask all of you with questions to raise your hands and thanks for allowing us to have civil conversation. We have the mic going around. We have the mic going around. Were going to have short answers as well, short questions and short answers go ahead. Im looking at you and i think the tv media especially deserves some blame for the creation of donald trump, self exempted, you are great. But people like your colleagues helped create trump. Youre going to start trouble. We cannot call out her colleagues but she can call out other people. My question is its a makeup time now, what should the media do to report the lies etc. Of a Trump Presidency . My friend and colleague at the other network, seltzer wrote a great piece this week where he said you cant cover trump as if hes a normal politician. If hes lying, just say hes lying. Finally people are coming around that you cant pretend this is normal politician. If hes saying something untrue, just say its a lie. I would not be for reading every tweet that he has because hes getting around the requirement to have a dialogue with the press just tweeting knowing everything he said is going to be reported unfiltered. The media has to be a lot tougher on him, call it out. A lie is alive. We should allow his folks to dispute propaganda without countering it and interrogating it area these are some great journalists out there, we asked some terrific journalists doing real work and youve got to support them. By the newspaper, get subscription because journalism cost money and i think the tv media once less free airtime would be a good thing. And really just being a lot tougher on him. I personally would favor donald trump if i owed the whole media. If you want to talk to us, come to our network because you cant call us and to address and were just not going to report that. If the media were to take that position, they said you cant so its important for the media and i think the media is trying to figure out what to do here because look, it is difficult to cover somebody this bizarre and this sort of unconventional and theyre trying to figure out how to tell you what hes doing without reading every tweet. Its a difficult thing for media to do. But that is historic. Even going after saturday night live , i care so much about that. Thats the crazy thing, he was on the show a couple months ago but then we were running after the tweets last week, to about the flagburning, he was responding. It is anything president ial, im going to have to follow. Watching to. Watching tweet, press releases, it is real and its happening now. I have two points, the fbi , the state body cans and things like that, were not safe at all, and were proving that. My second point is im frustrated at the people who have money that are in certain positions like me and in my neighborhood that we need to do something when you are sitting up here, you have the money and you can really make a difference and its people like us, the working people, if we do something we could lose our jobs. And its really hard when you say get out and protest, get out and do this, i have a daughter thats going to have a baby next week. But i still do what i need to do. I protest, i say my things but im still confident that im going to have my pink slip. The most Successful Campaign in this station was the Civil Rights Movement and everyone has taken that blueprint from the Lgbt Community to the Hispanic Community to womens rights, all communities and we dropped blueprints so if you dont protest, the squeaky wheel gets oil. Mary frances was absolutely right, shes been there and done that. Shes had a tshirt, washed it and is wearing it again. Ive seen it. If its consistent and persistent and en masse, you get the ear of the Administration Officials and maybe even the president of the United States so its real, what shes saying is true. Ive been at the white house for 20 years and those who make the biggest noise and keep going get the attention and they are hers. You raise a very important point in the real point and i get it. I think whats important also is that we are able to broaden our movements to includeallied variety of people , we have the dakota pipeline for example. You dont know whats going to happen with the new administration but what happens today, the reason why it has halted today is because you had thousands and thousands of people come out to say no, no more. So they were able to expand beyond that specific native American Community and were able to include thousands of people from around the United States andthats what needs to happen in these circumstances. We shouldnt put too much of a burden on you if you cant stand it. All through the movement that have been in and all the protests andgoing to jail and the suffering and Everything Else , but there were people who couldnt. And who were doing all they could, nobody tried to put all their motivations to dance so im not asking you to do what you cant do. Im just saying the people who can do rather than what happened here in the last few weeks for people preventing and complaining and crying and i went to a meeting up in someplace where i spoke and i had to sit up and listen to people talk for hours one after another about how bad they felt and how bad i felt and cry. I said get up off your donothing stool and do something. And keep doing it consistently and persistently. [applause] i see a lady who has two books. We are selling books, all the authors are selling books after this event is over. I see my book too. Amen. I see fracture, i see the president. The pork chop, yes. My question is for all of you. How do you folks go on and lightning our people . I dont care if the levelthey are at , but until it happens to people of color and comparing to what happened in europe with the rise of fascism. The American Public is certainly historically illiterate. And maybe by design in our educational system. How would you focus on this . I think for me, how i would start it, i dont find it demeaning in my job to educate the world about the virtue of africanamericans in this country. I dont feel like its very useful. Its interesting because these elections have consequences. And the truth is that i know everyone was getting all up in arms when folks like steve bannon yet asked to be a Senior Advisor to the people elect. [laughter] but the truth is this, you dont you know why i didnt get up in arms about it, i am like im not surprised. This was a campaign chairman. He is not a new face to donald trump. He was selected to be the person in charge of his campaign, no one should be shocked when hes asked to be Senior Advisor when this man wins. Part of the thing that we have to do , because i thought your poem was so beautiful. The idea that weve been here before. Im not trying to listen, the 80s were horrible. Even when folks say it was bad, let me tell you something. I came up in baltimore and the bronx in the 80s, that were bad times for us. Bad times for us. We are still feelingthe implications of the 80s right now in our communities. But heres the thing. I think part of the education isnt so much about how we are educating this administration about our virtues and joys, i think part of it is also educating ourselves. [applause] i think part of it is helping people understand, our own people that you dont have, no one has to, i dont need verification nor do i need any type of satisfaction from somebody else. I come from the blood of the public. I come from the blood of robeson, marshall, i dont need anyone else to tell me that im good or special. I know that and who i am that im special. And i think part of what we then collectively have to do isnteven so much about how we educate other people about us , we have to make sure we understand ourselves who we are and where weve come from and what we can deal with and what we can do. We work with students all year, students daily right now the vast majority are africanamericans, the vast majority of firstgeneration, under resourced students and one of the first things i will articulate to our students is that you are where you are now not because of someones kindness, not because of someones benevolence. Not because of someones social experiment. You are where you are because you belong there. And no one can pull that away from you. So i think part of the process that we collectively have to go through is we have to stay vigilant. We have to stay on each and every policy, each and every message, each and every subliminal message that sent out but what we also do is in our own communities, make sure that everybody understands the power that we inherently have and we dont have to sit there and be a witness to history and hope that is okay. There are history shows we are more powerful than any administration or any man sitting any chair. We have traversed internally understand that and me spending time trying to educate whoever else about it , thats not as good a use of my time. I dont feel that way. Can i add, that is absolutely 1000 percent through and just in terms of operationalizing that, how we do that, i would love to see us as a community utilize our institutions much more strategically to be able to provide that education about our history to our own children. They will not get it in the curriculum at school. So why not develop a series, and this has been done before. We have a history of doing this of saturday academy where ourchildren can come together , get instructions specifically on history though they know who the paul robisons and Harriet Cummins are and they know from wednesday,. They need that. Ive done a lot of research over the years that shows those students who have a strong grounding in their own history and in their culture, they not only have a better sense of self, they also do better academically. Because they dont believe the hype that they dont belong. They know they belong. We have to take on more responsibility, when you we are in church every sunday we need to say what are you giving back to your community to make sure you are planning our children seeds that are going to grow up and fight for us in the future . [applause] lets go back to john gary quick. Ill give you guys a few easy strategies for yourself over the next few years. Number one, and this is from Evan Mcmullen who ran as a thirdparty candidate and had a very good idea about someof the things almost should do , whatever your background or political persuasion, looking to goldstar dad, familiarize yourself with the constitution. Read the bill of rights. Go through what are the amendments to the constitution so know your rights. Yet familiar with your rights. Number two, everything you hear the administration doing against the bill of rights. If it is a violation of the bill ofrights, you need to get loud about it. Whether you protest about it or call your congressman or senator , making noise on social media so thats the second thing. The bill of rights, that everything you hear against the bill of rights because we do still have those fundamental rights no matter who is president. The bill of rights applies to us all. Good thing is, choose your social media. Your social network. Our social network in the past, for a lot of people it still is your church. Our social networks can be are groups of friends and family and our social networks can be social media. How many people use facebook here . Especially are seasoned folks, might be our moms and grandmothers still use facebook, the young ones are using snap chat or twitter. These are where we find good news sources that are credible. Do not sharerumors. At phase, at church or on your social media streams. Look at the source and make sure theres a couple different sources. Know that if you hear it on ap, reuters, cbs news, and has a chance and even then double check it. The New York Times reprinted clinton cash which is a made up book of conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, it made it into the New York Times. Only share credible information, the most powerful information sharing medium right now is facebook. It is the most powerful medium. Where do people get wear what they put on facebook . Traditional media, or big news . Share only sound, credible information in all your social networks. If you just do those things,i think that will be joyce. We are sharing this on facebook right now. Facebook live. Cspan is going to be sharing this. Cspan as well. I have a question about facebooklive feeds. How could work people protest without the fear of retaliation . From our history making process, to march with many. You always risk retaliation. But the bigger your numbers and the more you get support from people, the less likely it is that there will be retaliation but when you are one, by yourself and no one is there supporting you, you always risk retaliation but the best way is to get some people with you. And do it and the more you have, the less you are with, thats been my experience. To go back, we have time for about three more were going to take three questions. Do you know what we can do . All of you have your hands up, were going to do a lightning round of questions. The panelists, one at a time. If you have a comment, lets save it for later but asked the question that we want answered. Everyone has their hand raised area and raise your hand please sir. Keep your hands raised. Id like to ask joy, it seems like the russian infiltration into the system was pretty mildly recorded and taken seriously by the media. It seems like its horrible what happened, the media was reporting it but its just a fundamental dismantling of everything we believe as a first democracy. Whats your question . Couldnt the media have done more to talk about the atrocious miss of what the russians did . The Supreme Court, scalia may he rest in peace, what obama tried to do in getting somebody to the Supreme Court was a travesty. Im sorry. Trump will elect somebody to the Supreme Court, is this such a bad thing . The court has been leaning left in the last couple years. Know and hes going to replace three people probably, three or four people. Next question. Regarding the black lives matter movements, i agree with everything that this child has said but my own challenge, the question is for me, black lives matter from the time of inception until the time of death so how do we hold ourselves and our brothers and sisters and husband accountable for this kind of a black child is conceived, raised, sometimes without a father present. Educated and put in the workforce in the community. Thank you, thats a good question. [laughter] next question please. Isnt it enough to just educate ourselves . I feel like to try to take away focus on bringing in people who are outside of our group might also be the best idea. You talk about our country, i was in colorado a few months ago and you can go to places where there are no black people, no minorities and i realize that living in europe, youre in a bowl. They dont have other people they interact with. How do you change that to say focus on us but its not just us, its us in policy, we also need to reach out and be in places where we are not. This gentleman right here had a question. You talked about protests and i know theres power in a policy, 121 which is the capitol hill switchboard so for those that are afraid of calling or protesting, can you talk more about how much power there is in hunting contacting our elected officials and the ones coming in january . Do we have one more . Right behind you, yes. Okay. People are excited theres a womens march after the inauguration but then all of a sudden i was like, i think trump is it misogynist but im worried about all these other things that have nothing to do with women and then im super concerned about how we all protest everything. The day after the election, hes concerned about women. The next question. Okay, we need a mic for you, go ahead. My concern is not the republicans but with other democrats, michael moore, chris and others are arguing that we havent done in a to listen to what men. And that seems to be the narrative im hearing about on the news, not what we are talking about here so what do we do, do you agree with that . What do we do about it . Okay. Thanks for that last question. Its sort of that one and it combines, another one similar about talking to people outside our group im going to keep it real. Im going to guess that they agree with me, i did politics for a while in terms of electoral politics. Talking to people outside is great if you want to do that as a social mechanism. Get your base out, its more important to get your base out and tried to convert white male republicans into democrats. If democrats in the next four years trying to white male voters and white women voters outside , barack obama lost white voters but you one for lots of white democrats who votedemocratic , if you are a white democrat in georgia, youre a liberal because you are still a democrat and you arewriting this out, so the reality is talking to other people , thats great. Get your boat out. People who are black, hispanic base out and after you win, you can then have lovely conversations with people on the other side. [applause] all right, lets go to the young lady who said how do you protest everything, especially since you have that womens march, million womens march the day after the inauguration. That is hard and i want to expand on that with the black lives matter what and which is a broad one. That particular market started out a little controversial so theyre trying to reorient it now by putting in front of it more women of color, women who have been very strong in terms of the protesters and theyre still working out some kinks but the bottom line is we cant think of this as this one day of protests. That would be a nice lit but we need to spend four years of protesting because there will be things coming down the pipe every day, just trust me on that and in terms of this issue of the wrong interpretation of black lives matter, as you described it to me it sounds like reproductive justice, its this idea that as women of color we are concerned with making sure that you are able to create life license and live safely or we choose to have, to basically have an abortion, that we should have that right as well but the bottom line is that we want to make sure that we are able to have choices about our Reproductive Health and when we have children that they are able to grow up in safe communities and live safely lives without being targeted by violence from any form so thats the idea behind it that you espouse and theres a lot we need to do to make that happen because we face a number of structural challenges economically, socially but it means that we need to work harder to make sure that we overcome these things. I want to go to the issue of the Supreme Court, do you want to tackle that . Im sort of a growth about the courts because i made myself very unpopular with my democratic friends during the obama question when i opposed going to the Nuclear Option in the senate. Which gathered the filibuster. And on theboards that im on, that deal with these sorts of issues i was the grump. And you are always going to be in power. And when you are not, you will need the filibuster. But if i were you, i would not do it but everybody was so sure that we were going to win the next election which was incomprehensible to me that you could be that sure and they said we will deal with that when the time comes. Lets do it now so we can get federal judges that obama wants so we gave up the right to filibuster the lower court and the cabinet seats. We still have the right on the Supreme Court but they may change that, the republicans may change that because they can say look what you guys did now we are going to do this. I think trump will either nominate one of those people he named to the people he had because so far if you look at what hes doing, a lot of stuff hes doingwith nominees and all that stuff , the kind of people he said he was going to put, some of them hard but most of them are. So the likelihood is unless he decides to nominate the sisters, i guess hes too old but he will likely do that. Then we will have to see whether they say you cant filibuster or not. And i think that everybody should lean on the democrats in the senate to make it as tough as possible for them to get someone and to drag it out as much as they can procedurally to keep it from happening because i dont think trump will put anybody there whos going to vote with ginsburg and hagan and those folks, so the mailer and those folks. They are up in age and we dont all live forever. So weve got that problem too but i think its going to take a lot of adjusting the backbone of people and we may even be able to go get some people in maine after Susan Collins and some of the others who left republicans in the senate. But to get them to side with the democrats if they are Strong Enough on doing that and it is crucial that we keep the court to that eight forever or keep it as long as we can to give them whats going on. Theres a precedent that they said there is no obligation to nominate a Supreme Court justice, when they establish that precedent, its instruction every day on everything, that they will give them nothing, he said on the first day they met night because they were going to start everything, democrats have to notice the republicans play pay no political price and were rewarded for obstruction and a dock adopted these obstruction politics. The reality of that is how you win. Thats exactly right although i fear that the democrats quite frankly dont have the nerve to do itthat is . They are. you would be shocked how you republicans get emails from their constituents. Im talking local, if you call your mayor, they will do it, you are so shocked. City council people, they will tell you. People called my office today and he said xyz and they are ready to do that thing. When i say protest, i didnt mean just you going out on the street and going to jail. I mean you can do that, you can call systematically, protest everything that needs to be protested all the time. This has been amazing. And yes, lets ask for that now. Someone had asked about joy talks about russia but one question was is it enough to just educate ourselves. I think tonight starts the dialogue and brings us together to keep the conversation going and i think im going to end like i started, talking about the crossroads. Its about activism as well as finding Common Ground but like mary frances says youve got to go out there and have that backbone so i thank you for coming out, how many of you have been here once before . I love it. How many have been here twice . Amen. How many of you have been to this event three times . Okay, how many four times, im talking about the session. Amen, thank you. Everyone, i want to thank busboys and poets for being one of the best restaurants in town. [applause] not only for president obama but for the whole community and to the best bookstore in the nation. Politics and prose, amazing. I want to thank this amazing panel. Westmore, the author of westmore and the works, lets give him a big round of applause. His book is for sale. Incomparable with doctor avis jones weaver. How exceptional black women lead. And the dragonslayer herself, joy and, slate at dragon. Barack obama, clintons and the race for the white house and we have to thank you. Mary frances berry. Give it up. She came just because i asked, thats amazing. I love you. Thank you averill. My book is for sale to what youve got to also remember Mary Frances Berry and her five dollar pork chop sandwich, weve got to get that as well. Im sure we will be coming back soon. Facebook alive, thank you. Keep the conversation going, lets talk. Hashtag race matters, thank you all. Give us a few moments and we will have the signing slide over here. The table to the left, you want to get their book signed you can do so. We will line up around the event space. Closing across the stage and back toward the window and if you want to purchase copies of the book, they are available in the bookstore, thank you for coming out. Linda start actually was dead on, i heard word from jeff zucker on this book and this is really intriguing, he says here on page 49, i dont think donald trump ever thought he was going to be the republican nominee for president , remember doctor was running in bc when the apprentice was on so he has known trump for many years. I think he got into this race to burn into his brand and finish second. Now hes getting all this publicity and i think thats what it was all about. He realized he could actually win. Looking back 18 months, does that sound true to you as the recorder on his feet . Absolutely. I know question, i agree. Just watching him, he was just kind of doing his thing, making it up as he went along and obviously using his faster marketing skills and celebrity status to do it. The first interview i had with him was at his wineryand i remember sitting off in charlottesville , this beautiful scene of these vineyards and this hilltop and he had come in on a helicopter and instead of walking up the hill, 10 steps he drove home in the suv and im thinking okay, no one is going to relate to. When did i ever think that i would be doing an interview with a candidate overlooking his winery. And that i was thinking is marketing. And it turns out people didnt like it a lot. Even the night of the election, trump was trying to lower expectations and blame people like mitt romney. So you talk about unprecedented, he couldnt imagine himself in that scenario because the hour before he was the president elect they were saying these guys are in law. Did that explain some of what happened in election nights, there were times where it didnt seem like we were seeing a normal transition. There may not have been enough preparedness because the expectation was not of winning . According to reporting they had a Transition Team but then they saw what was put together and now were seeing liveauditions at trump tower with a parade of potential secretary of state coming through. Which is a form of marketing. Youre absolutely right, they were prepared but i think we are also seeing an apprenticeship that style of a transition because if they broke, why fix it, it worked for him on the primary, it worked for him throughout the general. Why change things, like it now . Hes been very successful. Its also who he is and also the way he operates. To just sort of fly by the city of his pants. Its clearly from anybody whos ever worked with him and its obvious from the way he ran his Campaign Area my sense is that even ifthere was an expectation that he was going to win , the transition process probably wouldnt. Watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. [laughter] [inaudible conversation]