Theres no way to introduce bill succinctly given his incredible accomplishments and undisputed status as one of the u. S. Leadly public election rules. Unfortunately, i dying breed. We can use more like bill. I will take you to the cloning machine as well. I will catch here from remarkable and lengthy biography that communication director wrote for me. It was hardly a brief. If i used all the info he provided me, i would be speaking longer than the minutes assigned to bill himself. I cut down considerably. Bill has a 56page cv. Its not packed with anything trivial. Ill come back to his scholarly contributions. Let me start with his title from a few of his titles and honors. Sociologist William Julius wilson a University Professor at harvard university. At the time of his appointment in 1995, National Media covered his addition to harvards dream team of africanamerican intellectuals including skip gates, a 2008 hello. I met bill when he was at the university of chicago in a major force there as hes been everywhere. I was slightly younger scholar and he was incredibly supportive as he is. He is a mentor of renown. He started his teaching and Research Career in 1965 at the university of massachusetts amherst shortly before completing his ph. D. In Sociology Graduate Program at Washington State university. Which is a Major Program at that time. Hes the recipient of 46 honorary degrees. Past president the american sociological association, member of the National Academy sciences, American Academy of science, american philosophical society, institute of Medicine National , academy of education, British Academy and hes also the recipient of the National Medal of science. Highest scientific honor bestowed in the United States. Who among us certainly i dont know anybody in this room, been. Mit it if you have who among us has been named among times magazine most influential people in the United States other than bill who was in 1996. Bill published three widely read and some controversial, but nevertheless seminal works of scholarships on different dimensions of race and class and the urban core. The declining significance of race, the truly disadvantaged and when work disappears. I would add even though it hasnt quite reached that pinnacle yet, more than just race. I would add to that list. Thats his most recent one. Bill and his work challenges liberal orthodoxy about causes of a permanent structural underclass in u. S. Society as well as conservative views that attribute to state poverty on welfare or cultural deficiencies. He has helped shape academic discourse and Public Policy debate. One of the requirements of the prize. Hes appeared frequently on television, testified before numerous congressional committees. Etc. Hes been advisors to mayors, to president s and to lots of people in the political space. Notably it is documented that wilsons book truly disadvantaged influence of the philosophy in politics of the then chicago activist barack obama. Clinton told Time Magazine bill clinton that wilsons makes made me see race and poverty in a different light. Heres a fact that i at least hadnt known before. The truly disadvantaged inspired mump the writing that went into season two of the series, the wire. His work was a major influence on j. D. Vance in hillbilly elegy. His spread is beyond politics and academics. The truly disadvantaged, the inner city, underclass and Public Policy examine the flip side of rising black prosperity. Inner city blacks with poor training and limited education rising unemployment and welfare enrollment and shrinking prospects for getting out of poverty. The book is awesome in its combination of a student writing and impact on policy. And it was largely written here. Which makes me like it even more. One of the reasons im emphasizing it among his many books. Ill admit some of his other books are just as important. I still use all of them, but this one is especially dear to me. The truly advantaged remains very relevant today. As i think bill will probably agrees , regrettably so. In second edition of the book, published in 2012, he me meticulously elucidates and describes describes how the conditions are not qualitatively different 20 years later. His reflections on responses to the First Edition of book yielded a new 60 page afterword. I was going to bring the book and show it to you, but it did it is the truly disadvantaged. That is a significant scholarly andribution and itself fellow ication by a at rutgers. Bill is a very senior scholar a nice way for saying hes over 80. He is still going strong and his contributions keep coming. In october 2016, Harvard Center for africanamerican and africanamerican research, received a 10 million grant from its name sake foundation. The Research Project that will fund is a longitudinal, ethnographic, and big data study of what he calls multidimensional inequality. People in the neighborhood subjected to many simultaneous racial and economic hardships. It will dig deep into the lives of poor residents, to better understand the interconnecting disadvantages that perpetuates poverty. The ultimate goal is to collect enough solid data to generate insights that will influence Public Policy. Speaking to the harvard gazette in march 2016, wilson said heres my problem. How do i fight pessimism. I fight it all the time. I try to keep thinking eventually well come around to addressing our problems. So bill how is that pessimism going . Its been a tough day. Were about to find out. Ladies and gentlemen our 2017 award winner, William Julius wilson. [applause] prof. Wilson that was quite an introduction. You know, its a real honor to return to the center and deliver this lecture. Im especially pleased as sarah is in the audience. This is a frustrating period in our history. I thought that it would be good to take this opportunity to reflect on some of the issues regarding race in america that are very much on my mind. In november shortly before the president ial election, i received an email from my harvard colleague, henry louis skip gates we call him. He was also a member of the center for advanced studies in behavorial sciences. He sent me an email and he said that he had to do a coda to the hbo television series, black. He asked memlk if i was optimistic or pessimistic about the future of our people. He said that he actually heard a guy on anderson cnn news show say, this is the worst time in history of our people. Gates added this is not true. But that he would love to get my thoughts about this. I said, that i completely agree. That it cant be true. Anybody who says this is worst time in history of africanamericans, does not have a sense of history. In general, nothing today compares with slavery or jim crow segregation. However, i also pointed out that it would be accurate to say that sense the death of Martin Luther king, jr. , conditions for poor blacks have deteriorated while the conditions of better off blacks have indeed improved. This is most clearly seen in the growing income inequality in the black community. This is most clearly seen in the growing income inequality in the black community as reflected in the jeannie coefficient a major of income inequality that ranges from zero perfect equality to one maximum inequality. This figure discloses the increasing Household Income inequality across the American Population as a whole. Rising from a low of 0. 39 in 1970 to 0. 48 in 2013. Follow the blue line. More interesting, however, is a high level of intragroup inequality among black households. See the green line. Although the absolute level of black income is well below that of whites, blacks nonetheless display the most intragroup income inequality reaching a household gini index of 0. 49 in 2013 followed by whites 0. 47 and hispanics at 0. 45. Indeed, one of the most significant changes since dr. Kings passing is a remarkable gain in income among affluent blacks. When adjusted for inflation for 2014. The percentage of black americans making at least 75,000 more than doubled from 1970 to 2015, to 21 . To 2014 those making 100,000 or more to 13 . Uadrupled white americans saw a less impressive increase from 11 to 26 . On the other hand, the percentage of black americans with incomes below 15,000 only declined by four Percentage Points to 22 between 1970 and 2014. Research reveals that income inequality is related to income segregation. This next figure presents income data on segregation by race and race in metropolitan areas with populations of more than 500,000. The source for this figure is a 2014 study by the social i will just sociologist Kendra Bishop and sean published by the russell state foundation. This figure reveals income along blacks and hispanics families, what is noticeable is that income segregation has grown rapidly in the last decade and particularly among black and hispanic families. What is notable is that whereas black americans in 1970, thats a purple line there, it is purple right . I suffer from a little color blindness. Whereas black americans in 1970, black families in 1970 recorded the least income segregation follow the purple line. They now register the highest income segregation. Please note that we are talking here about residential segregation among black families of different income levels. Not segregation between black and white families. And another way of talking about these trend lines is that they describe the extent to which the exposure of families to neighbors of the same race has changed over time. Although income segregation among black families grew considerably in the 1970s and 1980s, it grew even more rapidly from 2000 to 2009 after slightly declining in the 1990s. And when considering a persons life trajectory or life chances the differences in the quality ones daily life between residing in a predominantly affluent neighborhood and poor black neighborhood are huge. It is important to note that today, poor black families have fewer middle class, fewer black middle class neighbors than they had in 1970. Indeed, the rising income regation ident oh segregation in the black community is driven both by the growth of affluent blacks and the deteriorating conditions of boor blacks which i will soon discussed. These data update the earlier arguments that are developed in my book, the declining significance of race. It remind ed me of a recent book by the harvard critical scientists Robert Putnam entitled our kids, American Dream in crisis published in 2015 by simon schuster. According to putnam, although racial barriers remains powerful, they represent less burdensome impediments than they did in the 1950s. By contrast, class barriers in America Today loom much larger than they did back then. This is reflected not only in growing income inequality among all racial and ethnic groups as you see here, but also increasing disparities in many other aspects of well being. Eye cumulated wealth. Wealth, class segregation across neighborhoods, quality primary education,ry enrollment in highing selective colleges and even life expectancy. So one of the major underlying , themes of declining significance of race, the changing relative significance of race and class on a black persons life trajectory has been extended to all u. S. Racial and ethnic groups in putnams book. I wish i could share these figures with donald trump. These figures on changes in the black class structure with donald trump who tends to talk about africanamericans as if they are a monolithic Disadvantaged Group that made little progress. He was quoted as saying black communities are in the worse shape ever. As if there is absolutely no good news to talk about in the black community. Since i mentioned trump, i should say that racial tensions and the expression of racial antagonism seem to have increased after he decided to run for the presidency, which is probably one of the reasons why the guy on cnn proclaim that this is a worst time in the history of african americans. This spike in racial tensions should not come as a big surprise. We must understand racial antagonisms are products of situations, political situations, economic situations, social situations. Average citizens do not fully understand the complex forces that have increased, for example, their economic woes. The declines in real family income, the rise and wage dispersion changes in the , global economy, industry relocation and so on. Economic insecurities create conditions that are breeding grounds for racial and ethnic tensions. Especially if exclusive populist messages exploit these fears. Wheni was writing my book work disappears published in 1996, right wing messages were more concerned with controlling blacks than immigrants. Whereas , donald trump and his supporters highlighted the negative trait of immigrants and their threat to american society, i pointed out in my 1996 book that supporters of welfare reform on the political right, implicitly communicated the view that blacks were undeserving of special treatment from the government and that their high rates of welfare were due to personal shortcomings including a lack of work ethic. Republicanservative use these contentious messages, contentious messages gaining in gaining control in 1994, so too did donald trump employee a similar set of messages applied mainly to immigrants in a successful Residential Campaign of 2016. But let me get back to what i was saying about the good news and the bad news in the black community. In order to keep things in proper perspective when talking about the relative gains of more privileged blacks, it is important not to overlook the continuing interracial disparities. For example, report from the center for economic and policy Research Reveals that before the Great Recession there was only a 1. 4 difference in the unemployment gap between recent black and White College graduates, age 22 to 27. However, in 2013, shortly after the economic downturn, the gap had surged to a 7. 5 difference. Now, race is obviously a factor at play here because historically the periods during and immediately after downturns have adversely impacted blacks more than whites and the issues involving these comparisons are complex. Aside from the role of Racial Discrimination, whites with the same amount of schooling as blacks usually attend better high schools and colleges, and, therefore, have an edge when employers rely on such criteria, especially during slack labor markets. That is, periods of higher unemployment. Also researchers at the Pew Research Center released data showing the median financial wealth of white households in 2013 exceeded that of black households by almost 131,000. So despite sharp increases in income inequality and income segregation among blacks, the interracial disparities among blacks and whites remain huge and should always be kept in mind when discussing and highlighting growing intraracial differences. That said, and i repeat, the conditions of poor blacks have degenerated overall since the death of Martin Luther king jr. , while those of betteroff blacks have improved, a blanket statement that things are worse now for blacks than ever before is totally unwarranted. But skip gates asked me also asked me if i am optimistic or pessimistic about the future of our people. So let me say that i am somewhat optimistic about the future of trained and educated blacks, and, margaret, very pessimistic about the future of poorly educated blacks. And before i elaborate on why i am pessimistic about the conditions of poor blacks, let me partly qualify my optimism about the future of trained and educated blacks. And in so doing, i want to talk very briefly about the importance and continued need for affirmative action programs. Research suggests that the white backlash against racial entitlements such as affirmative action contributed to the governments retreat from antidiscrimination policies during the 1980s. And many of the gains that trained and educated blacks contained in the 1970s were erased during the years of the reagan administration. Now, it should not be surprising that waning support for affirmative action programs would have an adverse effect on africanamericans in particular. For example, a number of empirical studies have revealed significant differences in the family background and neighborhood environment of blacks and whites that are understated when standard measures of socioeconomic status are employed. Take for example the question of family background. Even when white parents and black parents report the same average income, white parents have substantially more assets than do black parents. And as i pointed out previously, whites with the same amount of schooling as blacks usually attend better high schools and colleges. Furthermore, childrens test scores are associated not only with the socioeconomic status of their parents, but they are also affected by the social and economic status of their grandparents. This means that it could take several generations before adjustments in socioeconomic inequality produced their full benefits. Thus, if we were to rely solely on the standard criteria for College Admission in highly selective colleges and universities, like sat scores, even many children from black middleincome families would be denied admission in favor of middleincome whites who are not weighed down by disadvantages that stem from racial restrictions and who tend to score higher on these conventional tests. For all these reasons, the success of younger educated blacks remains dependent on affirmative action programs whereby more excellent meritbased criteria of evaluation are use