[inaudible conversations] hi, everybody. Welcome. Im lilly. An event associate sat politics and prose and im glad youre here. We do events all over the city from the main store on connecticut avenue, to our three bus boys and poets locations, the George Washington campus but a special place in our heart, its sun a joy to be part of this communicate. Thisser is our politic and prose event in 2017. We have an incredibly eye verse and dynamic lineup, starting tonight and continuing the next few weeks, paul oscar and then the parents of trayvon martin. Tonight were so glad to be joined to welcome Michael Eric Dyson, a Georgetown Professor of odawn mid inmer the author of books, most recently the black presidency. His newest book tears we cannot stop a sermon to whitemer is to quote patrick fill lips in New York Times nice. A book that should take its play in the tradition of bald wines high the fire next time and kings, why we cant wait. Combines analysis, personal experience deep faith and come consuming. This is a book that is going to stick with me for a long time. The conversation with wesley laurie, damage do National Reporter in the wops wops, they author of they cant kill us. So im going thunderstormtowetley. Before i do, please join me to welcome wesly lou rare lowrey and Michael Eric Dyson to the die dais. Good evening. We appreciate you coming fountain for what will be a conversation about a remarkably done very, moving and compel piece of writing. When you have written 19 book is hope you start getting pretty good at it. We know dr. Dyson has been excellent at this for a long time. Now, it would be unfitting, i guess to start the conversation anywhere else than kind of where we were having it back in the green room prior, where were sitting here two days before a president ial inauguration, after a campaign to replace the first black president , and a campaign well, the campaign that led to the election of a replacement who objectively ran a campaign premised on certainly racial discord, racial unrest and many would say racism. What how would you describe and take the temperature of the current moment in this nation as it relates to the ongoing wages of what our president current president describes as our original sin of slavery. I want to thank politic and prose and sixth and i, maded to the synagogue. Im baldwin now. And one of the most gifted and fiercely intelligent journalists and thinkers we have, brother wesly lowrey. Let give it up for him. [applause] we are in a fix. A muddle. There are many words we could generate to articulate the sense of misery, social distress, aapossibly and choose. My pastor says we have already gone through what we have come to. So a mittic says refuse to reduce your life to the event you con confront. This event will not exhaust the Infinite Possibilities of eternity or even time from fulfilling themselves and for us engaging in behavior that will modify a future that is not yet arrived. We can contribute to the changing of society and the scene in which we live bit our concerted efforts and actions. So its not fixed. Not rigidly predetermined we might have some theology of predestination what would determine in the outcome in advance. I think the radical possibilities of human activity can modify what we think is in the offing. When it comes to president obama versus donald trump its too easy. Toe draw the contrast. One man, interviewed by the New York Times about the books that informed his own consciousness. The wide range of literacy that articulates one of the most profound sensibilities of engagement with cerebral matters that ever darkened the oval office. Right . So, we have abraham lincoln, thomas jefferson, barack obama, bill clinton, even if we must begrudgingly or grudgingly an woodrow wilson, bigot that he was, Theodore Roosevelt and fdr, these are men who have engaged in serious and sustained rapport with literate sources. Then we have donald trump. I dont know if tweeting constitutes a new form of literaciy. It nil a post modern moment. The deconstruction of stable narrative of sense and lodgeishing, all by damned and now the their place riseles up a con conception of episodic intervention. The first toddler presidency, and i say that with all due respect to toddlers. Lets be real. Donald trump has arrived in america for very specific reasons. This is the man who attacked the legitimacy of barack obama for a year and a half two years, with rerentless intensity, remorseless velocity, he shattered the social compact such as it existed in this nation around a fragile conception of racial comity by intervening with some of the most vicious lambastings of a pratt known in the last 50 years. A sitting president being subjected to such discourse and such hateful rhetoric. Challenging his legitimate legitimacy of pratt of the United States of america and iter biller racism bit suggesting his birth certificate suggested he wasnt really an american and was hiding. Some this amalgam of Conspiracy Theory and hateful vengeful it would supremacist thinking. When you put that stuff together that concoction as well, proved to be a nasty brew, and yet instilled this is the guy who rows to the top. This is the man that many people in america chose to be president of the United States of america. To be the standardbearer of a party that really rose up against him to begin with. When we think about franen stein, that the name of the doctor, not the monster. Right . Thats who created whoever created donald trump is equally responsible as donald trump the monster himself. Metaphorically speaking, mr. Trump. So, the reality is, part created him. When you assaulted obama and said the first thing you wanted to do was to make him a oneterm president. When you got together on the day of his inauguration to say, we will figure out a way to make him unsuccessful, you are unpatriotic, my friend you are not americans. But you hoist yourselves up on your pitar to signature that obama was knew triamerican. Hes a muslim, his a socialist. Hes a communist. Yall do recognize there are contradictory elements within these assertions. Hedoesnt believe in god, believes too much of another god. All of the stuff day tried to lay obama own was the articulation of a venomous fund. Am we dont want a negro in charge and you can try to pretend its ideological and political combat, sure, thats part of it. But the end of the day the resurgence of racial an is the root of what we see in response to obama and now that we is leaving dont with miss system my god, my lord, where are you going . Dont go. Its like, color purple. You and i must never part. Dont leave, obama. No i dont know. Just help him out. Secretary of common sense. But mr. Trump cut represent something thats interesting. It is the fact i doubt that it is the fact theres a certain kind of metastasizing whiteness, a particular variety and speises of whiteness that is ininunderred indifferent to its own innocence, hostile to be tack to account for the things that says and does. And in my book i try to interrogate the sources of that. Where did it come from . Didnt start with donald trump. It began long ago the bases of the nation, the beginning of our experiment in democracy. What i try address in the book is where we got it from what we can do now that he is arrived has most powerful metaphor for this kind of metastasized whiteness in the body politic that has lead to a diseased democracy. So this book, the sub toot ill is a sermon to White America. Now, page seven, you write i simply want to bear witness to truth i see and to the reality i know. And without White America wrestling with truths and confronting the realities we mat not survive. In this moment, whiteness is not new construct. Nothing i vend by donald trump, not invenned in responsibility to a black presidency. Although certainly interacted with the black presidency. I think of the phrase that mlk used, the fierce urgency of now. What you write, we might not survive in a world essentially in which White Americans are unwilling or incapable of confronting this concept of whiteness, and acknowledging the truth and the realities that black and brun americans see every day. Yeah. A great point. Look, many White Brothers and sisters, perhaps even present here today, just a little bit up to the skin sub cutaneous reaction of being seen as a group. How dare you. They have had the luxury of being individuals. Black folk dont know nothing about that. We all part of the group. One of yall did, all yall did. So e thats why we pray, if somebody did something, please not be black. Not this time. Dont bet it be bo bo or willy, please . No disrespect hoaxer say, take some of of the blame. Hispanics saying, dont let it hey latino, and all of us together, dont let hit by a white guy let it be a white guy with a buzz cut from nebraska. So the way in which were born into and almost intrinsic conception of collect different, that we can correctivity, and we can never be judged ace an individual and when were seen as an individual, were seen as an exception to, not representative of, the bad things that black people do are seen as representative of the group. The gate things we too are seen as exceptions to the group. With never get the balance right. And many White Brothers and sisters are used to think themselves not as white but as human being. What a luxury. What a beautiful thing. You dont even see your whiteness. That great. We see it. And what is interesting is that on the one hand theres aned identifying conception of a certain kind of indifference to ethnicity or race. Its beautiful are but its dangerous. When you have and it dont know it and you do stuff with it, it can be real problematic if you dont knowow to handle it. You think you have a toy gun but you have a winchester. They, thats john waynelike a block, be more contemporary. Nra, whats up . So what is interesting is that if you deploy whiteness without knowing youre deploy it, its problematic and many White Brothers and sisters do not want to be called to account, even metaphorically as a group. White america why are you calling us white . Okay. Cacasoid . I could come up with nonblack, nonred, nonbrown. Why sigh us all knight understand that rebellion but the reality is its a shorthand, its a way of engaging a group of people that we know you have diversities and differences and contradictions. Many of which are not ascribed to africanamerican people when the shoe is on the other foot or the tongue is on the other side of the cheek. The reality is, that White Americans have not been invited and engaged to think selfcritically and what it means to be white. Men think gender. Thats bunch of women. No, you have a gender, too sir, youre a man. Masculinity can be toxic, we learned. You can grab things. You can be predatory, your misogyny, sexism and against vulnerable bodies. Men dont think about gender in regard to themselves and White Brothers and sisters dont think of race in regard to themselves. You got a races, too. Ethnicity is one thing. If we bring anything, im italian or lithuanian or jewish and polish and so on, and one is a culture and an ethnicity. And then race, however, is made in the crucible of america. You can be italian and lithuanian and polishing and cowom to america and in the crucible of race that italian is that polish identity is pulverized and remade as whiteness. We cant tempt people dont make those distinctions. Youre from the northern part of italy, the and then with poland and the youre greek and this differences that make a difference when youre in europe, become less important when you come to america so you lose the specificity of ethnicity and allows a serious engagement with whiteness. Whiteness is a political identity. Not something youre born with. You learn to become white and you become white by breathing in the atmosphere of a society that lends certain significance to what they white identity is, and so many White Brothers and sisters are resentment, rightfully so, of the acringes of Group Identity to them and yet welcome to the world of black and brown and read and yellow people, welcome to world of women and main minorities in the country or throughout the globe. So i think its extremely important for us to wrestle with that notion of whiteness, what it has meant, how it has operated so White Brothers and sisters become conscious of it and, yes, get a grasp on it, begin to grapple with and it interrogate and it talk about in any ways that are not defensive or nasty or vicious or putting down others or resentful, but calmly reflective about the existential and political identities ascribed to you, how it white ms. Has beened a an advantage. Some poor white people tell me youre a rich professorom georgetown. Im certain lay professor from georgetown. That is true. Thank you, president im a rich professor from georgetown, but the reality is it aint like Jackie Robinsons children got an exemption from jim crow because they were rich. Its not tike joe louis family got an exception understand, rich black people didnt get treat better than poor black people when it indicate to a white water fountain. Why is it that we say well its not right that black people be their certain legacies of benefit and advantage because now you got more money because it was never about the dough. It was never about the cash. It was never about the money. It was about the pigment and the color and the culture and the race. And on the other hand, if youre a white person and you get stopped by the police and you dont die, thats the greatest White Privilege in the world. At least in america. That you dont interact with the Police Person and you end up dead. Was in front of bens chili bowl a few months ago and 4 30 in the morning, doing study that night [laughter] the clubs of d. C. , wondering what the young people were engaged in. Let me see myself. So, im out there, 4 30, and a white kid is going off on the police. You blank blank blank, you blank blank blank, and i said, my god, they going shoot him. And then i said no, hes a white guy. Then theyre not going shoot him. This is what that policeman said. Now, son, youre liely inebriated. You need to go home. All black folk are saying, can we get that . Just can we get that . Like, dont shoot us. Dont stab us. To mere rice, you roll up on me and in two seconds you make a snap decision to deprive our children of life . That is the cumulative knowledge, fear, it is the projection of stereotype, up chon shoes racial profiling on the body of a 12yearold child. What we want is a cessation of the velocity of stereotype and a granting to us of the same humanity you grant each other. And if we could have that, if White Brothers and sisters could tell the truth about that, could grapple with that, wed make a lot more progress in trying to grapple with what it means to be white. , so it struck me is a started the read thing bee and can a conversation that many black writers and journalists and thought leaders have very often among offers what the roll of the black public intellectual in engaging a white awens one thing that could white audience. One conversation i had he said, about who his audience was, why do white people love you so much . And he said, talking about who he writes for, i felt like many of the people i was read in the 90s and in come were very much burden bid needed to explain to white people. That affected their language. Now you set out in this space with the stated goal and purpose of talking to white people. The title of the sermon. What do you see as the role of black men and black women who are engaged in telling the stories of black trauma and black pain and what is the responsibility of the black writer then to engage with white audiences, the white majority. A great point. I identify with many of my millenan students who say im not their teach you, speaking to White America but they talk to me. But theyre talking to you but theyre speaking to me. Im not here to teach you anything. I cant say that. Im literally a teacher. Im here to teach you. And i get all kind of hate mail from white people who call me nigger. I got ten emails today, out of my name, nigger this and that and im such a nice guy. Other could you at least say professor nigger . Please . I work hard for this ph. D from princeton, bro. Can you at lows shout me out on the ped ad pedigree off my ive ivy league . You get that blowback and that kind of hostility and some of the letter is get from irate parents, i cant believe youre a professor at georgetown. Youre trying to warp the minds of my children. Yeah, am, actually. Thats my stated goal. You dont warp them up so bad, beam them up, scotty, warp speed of intense mav legal lance, guy tot try to rejigger that thing. I try to hope he minds up. Want to warp the warp you have given them i want to challenge and demythologyist and it youre mad a anything grove is saying stuff you dont understand and cuss youth our simultaneously. Thats a form of resistance. I come from a different generation. , and i understand that inclination to say, i take the black universe as a norm. Therefore i dont speak to White Brothers and sisters. Have written 20 books, ive got plenty of them books, booked that dont even take into account what the dominant Society Might believe or reflect on in the sense of a cultural starting point bit any job as a scholar scholar is to think critically about that. Im suspect of the fact, what it meaned to be an intellectual is to be a cantankerous individual. Herding cats. Cant never change the world. We can write about what changed bit we aint together to be been oforefront. Nice march on washington here this past saturday, and ive been involved in getting arrested and so on and so forth. Not as a summer job but a as a real thing. And no disrespect. But i also know that what it means to be suspicious and skeptical as an intellectual is to be suspicious and skeptical of your own thinking and thoughts and surety, certitude. Right . That what it means to be an intellectual. It does mean that youre a bit more skeptical about the certitude which which it is articulated. Have to have a little bit more humility about i could be wrong. Think im right and i believe this this position but im willing to engage in and negotiate. A different between a barack obama whose would willing to say im going reach cross the aisle even the though i had many disgreat we president obama and with hill about his presidency but thats a different gesture of openness than one like donald trump where i know the deal and i know what to do and i have all the answers. So as a public intellectual, as a thinker, i think what our responsibility is, is to raise questions that are troubling, both to the dominant culture, dont have to explain to them, although in this book im preaching because im trying to convert people. Im unpoll yetic unapologetic about that there virtues the revenges truthed that can ben jet rated but i come from a side of the aisle, im trying to reach you. Im trying to talk to you. Yes irwant too explain to you, if you dont understand, let me break that down for you. Because i feel sympathetic to some white people to go you throw throw me in river but a can you give me a life boat, something to hang on to . I think out of generosity, a genial spirit and affable spirit we ought to engage people about what we think. Some black people think one way, some think another way, some are individuals, some think about the collective process of groups. Some people are not curious about or concerned with the impact of a certain stereo typical reputation of cultural, others only on seesed with that. Theres a Great Variety within black ms. Gut in book i also not only talk about White Brothers and sisters, i talk about light versus dark, and maybe White Brothers and sisters i feel like youre in church. Turn 0 to your neighbor and i light versus dark is being in black america. You happen to have two yellow negroes, one good looking, the other another guy. And so the light versus dark my daddy was blue black. Saw how negroes lookedded a him and how he was judge it. Some ape and thats among black people. Dont let your Children Play too long in the sun, they might get darker, or dont let your dark skin child mary another dark skinned person because at the time the i deal with the class simple and homophobia, percolating forms of bigotry and tribalism that narrates themselves the heart of our own selfconsciousness and i want to grapple with that as well but the end of the day i am about trying to tell White Brothers and sisters this is what i think the deal is, what i think you need do, and i think im trying to answer at long last the question that the young white woman asked mall malcolm x with a good heart asked, what can i do and mallcome x said, nothing, turned around. Sometimes you feel like that. They kind of day. Youary lead are, youre black, i have tell thank you you i get it. But my disposition is if somebody asks, talk to them. If somebody wants to know, speak to them, because at a man i want to know certain things about feminism. Imsure im a dumb guy when it comes to this and ive tried to be enlightened but now, like white liberalled do thinks look at my antimisogyny, our great a man i am. Im with you women. And then im just rearticulating perspectives left and right. God dang it. Its tough out here. So were trying to interrogate what that might mean. So when White Brothers and sisters are asking, think we ought tree ward that curiosity. [applause] those who havent picked up the book yet, it is structured as a sermon which as the grandson of a baptist minister i can appreciate. After the call to worship you go to the hymns of praise. To open up this section, the section shouts out this is a book dedicated to Beyonce Knowles and carter and to tina as well. This opens with a quote from web do boys dubois. What do these songs mean . The music of an unhappy people, the children of disappointment. They tell of death and suffering, and unvoiced longing to a truer world. Ones that you grapple with in this book, this idea of truth. Whiteness is not real, it is still truth. You were talking about this concept and social structure even though we know race is an invented concept overlaid into our lives. Talk for a second about why you began by exposing your white parishioners to black culture, to these hymns that deal with the police, that deal with oppression, pain and trauma. Why is that and essential doorway to understanding blackness . Host a fine mind operating there. I will guest i will back my way into the second. I think White Brothers and sisters here this music, bless their hearts, not their hearts, bless they hearts, i dont have an understanding. Welcome to older black people. What in the heck are you saying we come from a generation where Nat King Cole was at julliard, darling notebook dont know what to do chestnuts roasting on an open fire jack frost nipping at your nose yuletide carols being sunk by a choir all of that. [mumbling] excuse me . What are you talking about . Are i love that music. A nice little song. I dont think Scottie Pippen thinks so. Got some tea and the up in here. Let those who have years here. What is interesting if i come from a generation where certain clarity and logic motivated the sensibilities articulated in the music we listen to that there was purpose and vision. Not all of them. We get romantic, a lot of it was horrible, not good. Aretha franklin and a bunch of other singers you cant remember, you want to judge Aretha Franklins powerful pedigree of handsome people now and that is not fair because there is a lot of stuff that is horrible. I want to start with these songs so even if people couldnt understand what they are saying, they are saying something poignant and powerful. I got lynched by some crooked cops, cops on the beat, when i get my check taken, we pan the cops, you dont have to be marxist theorist to understand subsidizing your own oppression. You are paying tax money for cops to turn around to hurt you. When he says somebody wake me, i am dreaming, swimming upstream, screaming on the top was my pop, my mother stopped from a single drop. My pop up was a loser mama was a clinker and abuser even if the seed i could see his plan for me stranded on welfare another broken family. Listen to the agony of jayz. Back when the police were al qaeda to black men. When people get riled up like i did this morning on cnn in new york when i compare the experience of many black people in terms of isis, how dare you, how dare you. You dont understand what i am saying is im telling you the police have acted arbitrarily, capriciously and wantonly and violently with waves and treatments and behaviors they would not give to others, there was an Occupying Force that happened under the edges of the state and the first interaction many black people had with the state was through the police and they were often vicious and violent. I have been accosted many times by the police calling me by the police calling me threatening to shoot me, bringing the but down on my back and threatening to kill me. That is tara, my brothers and sisters. That is terror to us was the police would like isis to us, they were like al qaeda to us, they were visiting violence upon us with no good reason and no justification and we felt vulnerable. I wanted the music to resonate. Beyonce cant be blackish. As she black . Why is it that we have 2 why cant we be black and human . Why cant we be black and universal . Martin doesnt have to cease to be jewish. I and out abraham doesnt have to be about being out of a pedigree of prosthetic expression within a broader jewish tradition, a conception of humanity that doesnt have to be jewish in order to be resident with the conception of the universal, the particular is the universal. When you ask for a rose and you bring your beloved a rose, in that conception is the universal norm of what it means to be rose. That is a philosophical conception. I dont want to get bogged down in the niceties of distinction. When you bring your girlfriend or boyfriend a nose, wrapped up into particular. Why do people have to stop being black in order to be human . That is a problem and i want to challenge that and White Brothers and sisters to see the agony and grief. Of bob dylan has a nobel prize i cant wait till jayz gives one, only right that i was born and even tougher than dice and i am wrapping to a new plateau, my rhyming is a vitamin, l without a capsule, a smooth criminal, never took me in your box. That is nice. Then a speaker and a fever, wasnt me either, some are madness, i cant stand around so i get closer and closer i get, my mind starts to activate, lines collaborate and had to make. Fell into the groove, and no mistakes allowed. These drink champagne, and bragging about who has the change. Even after all my logic and my theory, i had a cuss word so ignorant people hear me. Narrative devices, wanted pain. The sorrow, suffering, humanity to resonate. That is a biblical question, philosophical question. And a professor in philosophy, and philosophy, pure reason before which other disciplines, adjudicative power, rival epistemologies, had to be worked out in ostensibly objective and our comedian point of Human History, and we see down here from the worms i view, that truth is what we make of it, what we know of it. We say to brothers and sisters these are the truths we had to grapple with. The pain and agony we have been confronted with. This is the mortality we are forced to confront. When i think of that truth, there is that one unyielding truth that will be true now and forever the truth is generated in the context of our own existence where we know things to be real, true and powerful. And youre in a great seat but if what you do has not been authorized by the state and people look at it suspiciously and cross eyed at view, you are seen as a blip on the screen, part of an inferior species of quakers and believers and human beings and i wanted to challenge that and i wanted White Brothers and sisters to think strategically and seriously about that. And addition of politics and prose, a participatory set up. I want to open the floor to questions so people who have questions, you want to begin lining up, two microphones, as you get there, try to move through as many as possible, we always say statements, send them an email. As people start to line up, toward the end of the book, you go through and lay out a pathway forward for White Americans. I consolidated it between 3 major points, the first is the idea of providing reparation for harm that has been done. The second is white people need to educate themselves about Life Experiences and lack of trauma and the third is white people have a responsibility to school their own White Brothers and sisters in these areas as well. That was fascinating and im sure it will come up in question so i will shut up and get started. Here is where we go back and forth. I like that summary. I will use it in the future. How are you doing . Kevin mcnear. Ive read many of your things. Given where we are right now in america, as a preparation it is interesting to me either two messages, is black america asked to listen in or do we have different conversations . Good to see you. A bunch of books for black people, like jayz, i am on something new. Somebody bring back my money. I am still talking to black folks, black folks love that i am speaking to White Brothers and sisters and i have heard from people who read the book, thank you. Thank god. The great one. Moses. And everybody else. The popes modern gospel, we are all together in the same boat, struggling for meaning. There are many africanamerican people, black people, people of color saying finally somebody is saying what we want to be said. They dont feel they are voiceless but also understand it is time to stretch out and engage White Brothers and sisters more directly to direct my language at them and i use the word beloved for here, trying to beat them down. In a serious way. God loves you too much to leave you that way. Get it right the first time. The evolutionary process, the reality is White Brothers and sisters come to a sense who they are over the long haul and this is one particular black man thinking about the world in which we live. Not exhaustive or exclusive or claiming to be the only voice but i have a perspective. It resonates with a lot of people who identify with me. And our own culture struggles and trials, but they dont have to listen on the side. I have stuff in there about black people in the book. I got you, i got stuff loaded in. That is for us but also the benefit of the broader society. It is important for black people to understand how we speak to white mothers and sisters as well. Thank you for the wrap, the words and all that. I am hearing folks talk about therapy, leaving the country, going all over the place as part of the motion. Three ideas around where people start channeling that energy from dean that is being depressed and activated how to move forward together. Thanks for not exposing me as a person who said all three of those. I think i mentioned Howard Thurman but let me be more specific the we must not reduce our lives to the events we confront now. Imagine the different future, what it was going to look like. They imagined a different future, the book from which we draw metaphoric intensity of africanamerican from the hebrew bible, people ensconced in niches of oppression, who imagined their way out of where they were, not them or their children but their grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, we are giving birth, the possibility in the wombs of our minds and souls by nurturing consistently the belief would not exhaust the infinite capacity for hope. You have been here before. David has something in selective memories. Let me see what i got. Let me fight the best way you knew how, it didnt work. A slingshot, you got to fight it. If you are not a person who believes in spirits you got to fight with hiphop. Then you got to do it with country music, i love them all. I love the country voices. I love their lyrics and sense of irony. If you walk across my lawn, the least you could do is take off your shoes. Hey, lady, your husband is cheating on us. [laughter] all my exes live in texas which is why i live in tennessee or one of my favorites, killed you when i met you i would have been in jail by now. The thing is there is irony and parodi and signifying going on. The arts i lifesavers. We must not reduce the complexity of our situation to the event we confront. If donald trump represents an albatross, the resurgence of an infantile sensibility that is scary then acknowledge that but also acknowledge there are countervailing forces you must wield, that you must be on your job, on your game, constantly talking, thinking, reflecting, you have got to be more active. We were passive under the last guy. We have to be more active, the recessive gene has to come forward again. Number 2 we have to remember a lot of people on the other side are scared too. They are trying to figure it out, we cant afford links with them in one sense but at the same time we need honest conversations, you have to create this stuff too. We have to be responsible. We talk about Political Correctness in everything except speaking to the dominant white masses. Donald trump when he says we can no longer be politically correct, okay, do you want to hear the truth about whiteness . No. No. No. No. Political correctness is all over white culture. White folks dont have to hear the truth about what black folks really think about you or brown folks. You dont really want to hear what people of color are saying about you. I didnt want to be called a traitor to the race but black folks and brown folks do things like during slavery when the master came in. Sure tastes good today or i will put some extra in their for you. Dont want you to get pissed off. It is green too. A little green tea before you knew what green tea was, spitting in food, avoiding babies. Before i will be a slave i will be buried in a grave and every day forms of resistance, workers o down. There were ways in which the practice of resistance manifested itself. There are ways in which we tell the truth about White Brothers and sisters not acknowledging the degree to which they have been invested and asleep at the wheel. In particular when it comes to whiteness, and not holding whiteness accountable in this is the time White Brothers and sisters have to go to the things to confront your people. You know granny is saying stuff that is crazy. I get it. Here you are, proud supporter of black lives matter, my naacp membership and granny is calling people oh my god you dont have to break her off. I will bust a cap on you right now if you say that again, dont do that. Got to get the turkey first, got to get the dressing or the stuffing as you might call it, get the macaroni and cheese, then you gently say that is not the best way to think about black people and you are mad at willie but look at mediocre white cousin who doesnt deserve to have anything gets everything. Begin to interrogate, think about pushback in a way. That is a metaphor. And white circles, looking as intelligent and powerful, cant resonate because they cant hear him or you. You have a responsibility in this meeting of minds, go forth into the world of whiteness and challenge it and stay alive. Dont be crazy with it or come to be like you may be homeless and i have no job and im working for you. Jiminy cricket. Slow down with that. Do as much as your cousin allows you to do but move beyond your comfort zones to challenge that from within. If we do that we can survive donald trump. If we survive the pharaoh, herod, if we survive hitler, if we survived some vicious fascist, crypto fascist insurgents we can survive donald trump as well. [applause] we have time for two more questions. Two more questions. I will make it real fast which can we do a speed round of jeopardy . Yes, no, maybe . My question is when you start to embrace your White Brothers and sisters, a lot of white friend and colleagues who start to hang out so much of black people they think i can use the n word and i can do this and one of my girlfriends said it is not fair, you guys have all the cool music and the cool fraternities and sororities, me being white i can blink because in america by being white a lot of people they are an ethnic group and come from an ethnic group, my question is do you see a point on the horizon where we are going to have to let go of the things, some of the stuff we love like the nword in order to get to this other place in humanity where we all recognize race as a construct and we have forgotten about it. How can we let go of race as a construct . That is powerful, thank you so much. Im from a different generation. You look a little younger than me, just a couple years. Looking good. I think white folk have grown. Grow up. Im not going to scandalize white people, if you cant use the word get over it. Please. Know, i am not giving it up. We can do so much with it. Black people, they are explaining or mad. Or they are happy. Or they are suspicious. There are so many ways that are sensual and white folks should have to listen and cant participate. That is one of the participatory values and virtues of black culture and it may be one of the individual reparations white folks have to hear black people say it and you invented the term, dont act like you dont say it but you dont that is not what i am saying, youre going to mess it up. No, no, no. Dont be doing that. Part of the problem with hiphop music is red fox was saying it on a party record that was in your basement, snoop dogg is saying in the world, japanese people who dont even know the squabbles among black people in america and white folk about those struggles talk about that. You do have a problem, pointing to something very real but in america i dont think chris rock said white people think if i just use that word it would fulfill my life. You started it. You were using it when you were lynching people and castrating people, we dont dig that part of the history so just the same way gay, lesbian, transgender people use certain terms among themselves or you are such women say im around women all the time calling each other be, that is not my word. If i use it i would get smacked in my face. Did you see this . No, no, no. There is a unique register in the context of america. What interests he is black people think words are not powerful and dynamic. If you bury it like jesus, it will raise up on the third day. I am with you always even until the end of the world, you may be too. I dont think you you challenge white people, the words you cant use. And a racist economy and it is problematic. With an African American culture there is permission to do that, black people dont believe black people should use it and by not using the word you have therefore denied legitimacy and permission to white folks you must have superblack this. I will tell this to white people, i will give you a once and for all lifetime bargain right here tonight. You give us your billions and trillions of dollars, give us all the advantages accrued to white is consciously and unconsciously and for whitetail you can use the word as much as you want. If we got the banks, the major institutions, president of every Major Ivy League and other school, run everything you run, you see how ludicrous that is . How ridiculous that notion is . The Exchange Value is not equal, the marketplace of ideas cannot bear it because whiteness is such an enormous privilege that to deny the grown accountable adult hood. And to capitulates and in one sense surrendering to a kind of infantile behavior. Say what i want you to send if you say anything other than that im going to be mad. That is the kind of immature whiteness we need to confront. Good evening. Web dubois wrote the following. I will read and excerpt. After the egyptian, indian, greek and roman, to thanh and mongolian, in the american world. And let him see the other world. And double consciousness, and books on and amused contempt, and american the bro unreconciled strivings go to school warring ideals, strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. And my question is to what extent if at all, but concept as web dubois, with social and racial landscape by your own work. Very good, very sharp. That is a great quote. You have a great voice. Hello, how are you . Very white of your generation, exploit that. The irony of seeing your self forever into the eyes, meditate on everything. We could preach a sermon on that, duboisian double consciousness. What does it mean to see your self through the eyes of somebody else how White Brothers and sisters feel . How donald trump sees you, how the largest society sees you, how they portray you as a first lady who is mean and nasty because you say for the first time in your life you feel good about your country because they are giving you a fair shake and how dare you, you are a harvard graduate and princeton graduate, see yourself through the eyes of others and those are the is specially fortunate negroes. What about the average black person who has no standing or pedigree . Forever seen through the eyes of somebody else, not just somebody else, an opponent, somebody invested in seeing you in a distorted fashion. Can you imagine during the height of nazi germany for jewish mothers and sisters, not to be seen through the eyes of rampant fascist and nazi identities, and what happened when they were . They were sent summarily to their deaths, committed to both physical death and there was an attempt to kill a culture, to murder and identity, to eviscerate an entire construction of humanity. That is what the consequence is. Think about what dubois was speaking about. A comparative analysis, what the late great theorist Barbara Christian talk about, oh pression derby. I was poorer than you, i used to do that. We couldnt pay attention. One of the differences in the holocaust versus slavery is when it happens in the 20th century and you have photographic evidence and the remark, when you got testimony to the inhumanity and dehumanizing impulse of a certain culture and people on others, imagine if we had twitter during slavery. First of all i am not picking any that. Can you imagine those sweets . No. Facebook, face the book and read it because i am done. Imagine if you have some kind of testimony, maybe White Brothers and sisters would feel more empathy for what we dealt with, maybe if there was a film of a castration or lynching. We would see the postcards handed out by white people who were so demented in their own sick racism that they wanted to photograph and visually conjure the infamous renunciation of their humanity by passing out a card to park their distant into ontological nothing so imagine those people being responsible for seeing you. Imagine an administration that have gifts for the attorney general. A man who called black people andwords or the worst offense of civil rights was the people who tried to defend it. Imagine in the west wing a big it, Howard Thurman said a person who makes an idol of his or her commitment. Imagine a big it in the west wing whose responsibility is to advise the president who is poisoned by the recalcitrant of a vicious denial of humanity to black people that the fundamental level. And yet it is through his eyes that Public Policy will look at black people. I think dubois is quite relevant. The passage you read, two warring ideals, dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. He acknowledges that residing in the black identity is the answer. The refusal to give up and when the young woman talked earlier about a black reality, there is a fetishization of blackness, romanticism nation of blackness but to engage real basis, and stability in the midst of all kinds of horror. And before any states, as a preemptive strike, the vicious resurgence of racial hostility. And they flipped the script, you have seen us as flotsam and jetsam in the scream of life. And with something more divine, and offer love and forgiveness. To cancel out your lack of humanity so dubois said [applause] understood part of the answer had resided in the humanity of the people being claimed to be not human. Across the wide span of Human History and the epic tide of grief that washes over us now i am reminded of that simple, beautiful majesty, an imaginary black person possesses, i preach to White America, killing people who are beautiful, wonderful, loving, affirming, your kids get on the internet and dress up like gangsters, you did it when you were children, dont count the person who is growing as the ultimate statement of their identity when you dont get judged by a part of who you are so that statement resonates with me and for me and dubois across the nation, they were in the atlantic, the magisterial tone. The 20th century or 21st for the color line and resides in our activity, to see each other with the grantor and simplicity of humanity that all human beings should be granted. You squeeze when it ends nobody help and i took an effort. Really appreciate your words. From the university when i was 18 and inspired. To start thinking critically about the use things. I am the mother of a 3yearold child following the confirmation hearing for the secretary of education, American Public schools are as segregated as they were in the 1970s, and humanism among our children when growing a generation that doesnt know each other, wont be in school with one another and recreating a society of that that our parents fought against. You dont look a day older than you were in school. And still very intelligent. And sister jones, and resegregation, and the deliberate you got to say it. Race relations better under me, if you say so. Not your fault. You are as genial a black man as will ever exist and if you dont dig obama as a black man you will really dig. It wont happen in this lifetime. Wesley is one and a couple other brothers i met along the way. Other than that it is not happening. Race relations have gotten worse because obama provoked a sustained consternation. To flush the bigots out. Not that he would acknowledge that under his administration, the racism and animus against blackness has found a lethal intensity, so good at being what he was, a president speaking to the needs of the nation. Universal healthcare bailed out the automobile industry, and brought literacy back, if Justin Timberlake brought sexy back he brought reading back to the white house. The oval office was again awash in ideas, jared then participles and dangling participles. Where they are again. And yet, this vicious resurgence can be attributed to the fact that this extraordinary black man with a point person along a larger trajectory, flash point. His emergence, the renewed association with racial progress and the sign that we refuse to go any further. When i think about the schools, the resegregation, black and brown kids at the same level as they did near the brown versus board of education, that is unacceptable. As the statement was made by my former student. How do these kids know each other . They dont talk to each other or engage each other. People of different races and ethnicities and religions, they dont know. When you are kids you dont know until your dad tells you. It doesnt go that way. Even if they dont tell you they give you that body language, that nudge, that gestural affirmation of your cloistered existence so we know race depends on the society in which we live to give it meaning. One of you beautiful things about going to school about each other is you learn to love each other and forge bonds with each other and speak across class and sexual orientation. It is a horror and i think the woman who will be confirmed for secretary of education, oh my lord. I dont want white folks to say nothing else about affirmative action. I dont want to hear it. I am talking about real affirmative action, the attempt to it redress historic inequities in race and gender. When you took other able people and white women into the stew, white people benefit from affirmative action already more than black people and brown people. That is the statistic. Number 2, talking about stereotypical notion of what affirmative action is, hooking somebody up with stuff they dont deserve. Two words for you, john alden, trump. He has hooked up more incompetent white folks since gilligans island. The professor and marianne i am sorry. So now, they could never get off the island. It is a set in hollywood. Sorry. That is unfair. So now dont tell me they are smart entrepreneurs, what does Rex Tillerson know about being secretary of faith . Look at the vicious sexism against Hillary Clinton . We didnt remark, we knew about the racism against obama. We cant even speak about the sexism against Hillary Clinton it was so normalized, we didnt even remark on it. She was smart, more smartness in her Little Finger than mister trump possessed in the ever fitting follicular fidelity of his holding on hair. [applause] and then, i made an exception. And then here we are, all these white folks and a brother, lets call that the self the country of bro expectations. So now we have people who are incompetent for the job to which they are assigned in charge of the american welfare. The Benjamin Franklin common wheel has been subverted by the intense metastasis asian of whiteness gone amok to be redundant and now our children are disadvantaged by hucksters and billionaires. Tycoons in charge of what they dont know and how can the White Working Class hope for a man who is not only drained the swamp but refueled it, filled it up again with slimy okra. And nefarious, scandal ridden practices, and in the name of, i say to the White Working Class, martin picking junior was in jail in birmingham, been arrested. The board said you are wrong about segregation was you should believe in segregation, we are right, your demonstrations are wrong, doctor king, let me ask you one thing, my brother. I gave a speech about having a dream but i had a dream. Right now, i dont want to talk to you about that. I want to ask you what you are making in wages. They told him. He was like you should be marching with us. You are just as bad off as negroes are. King said you are in the same economic boat as us. What makes a white workingclass person vote against his or her interests . They keep asking black votes why they vote democrat, why are white folks voting republican . Why are white workingclass people voting for a billionaire . It is not a populist movement, he lost the popular vote by 3. 28 million votes. By definition that is not populist. That is demographic destiny and geographical contingency based on an elect oral college and the construction of american democracy that turns out to be not what you thought it was. You thought one man one vote, one woman one vote, sorry, it is not really like that. In the midst of this, the most egregious example, most flagrant offense of stereotypical conception of affirmativeaction, this is the rebellion of the white workingclass, there is a black workingclass, there is a red and yellow workingclass, the very people, i will say this connected to the school thing, the white liberals who joined with everybody else in the postmortem of the election. You know what the result is . We should get beyond identity politics. Really . Was that the lesson . Our politics have identities. If they are yours you dont see them. Or politics from aristotle and plato about the nature and before of identity. That identity was white and ruled, and visible. It is easier to talk about racism and sexism then altman sex. I love you, senator sanders, but what world are you living in . This is why Bernie Sanders was akin to, not the same as donald trump on the right. Older white men who understand race in a specific fashion and cannot contend with cantankerous specificity in the scandal that it demands accountability. We know donald trump is resistance but Bernie Sanders was, he wants to subsume race underclass, race makes class hurt more. White poverty is not the same as black and brown poverty. It is called concentrated poverty. When you are white and for you have alternatives within society at large. When you are black and brown and 4 there is concentrated poor, the school is poor, neighborhood is poor, parents have for jobs and the kids are poor. Sociologically speaking. My point is this. White workingclass is an adjective modifying a noun and post identity politics world when appealing to identity politics to get beyond identity politics with white people who are poor and working class are sold a bill of goods. Dubois talked about what white people are told, at least you might be poor but you are not inferior. They held onto racial animus against the barons and tycoons and what king was saying, we have more in common together, i want the White Working Class to see donald trump is not your friend. The schools of our nation should be the seed heads for the reeducation of america but they become under the intense pressure of segregation, an extension of our line unwillingness to see. We must cholla challenge that, dont just send your kids to school beyond the district. You dont want to use your kids the social experiments but look out for the children of those who dont have what you have. Make certain Public Education reflects the values you find important. Make sure the tax base can be, if you will, underwritten by your efforts and those tax bases cannot be underwritten by your efforts make sure you involve yourself in politics to change the world in which we live so the people who are in control will not appoint people like the present secretary of education who will reinforce choice, reinforce a certain voucher system but will cherry pick over Public Education and leaving the masses of American Society and their children unaddressed and therefore severely undereducated. Off the top of my head, that is what i would say. [applause] the book is tears we cannot stop a sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson. Lets hear it one more time. [applause] very kind of you. [applause] lets go to wesley lowery. [applause] thank you for joining us. We will move straight to the book signing. If you have a number of your ticket between one, and 150 please join us and there are additional copies of all the books by Michael Eric Dyson and tears we cannot stop a sermon to White America. Thank you. Sunday, in depth will feature a live discussion with nick adams. Taking calls, tweets, emails and facebook questions during the programs. Spot the cultural problems of america, this is still by far and away the greatest country in the history of the world. Nick adams is the author of america the greatest good, how americas greatest turnaround nation will do it again and retaking america, crushing Political Correctness. Mister adams is founder and executive director of the foundation for liberty and american greatness dedicated to promoting american exceptionalism and combating antiamericanism worldwide. Watch in depth from noon to 3 00 pm eastern on booktv on cspan2. After testifying before congress and making frontpage news grace returned to new york