[applause] im going to begin by introducing my fellow panelists briefly and that we will just get right into it. To my immediate right is Samuel Roberts is the director of Institute Research in africanamerican studies and associate professor of history and also associate professor of socio medical sciences at the school of Public Health at columbia university. He writes, teaches and lectures widely on africanAmerican History, medical and Public Health history or been pedestrian history of social movements. His book titled infectious fear was published by the university of North Carolina press in 2009 and expiration of the political economy of health urban jack griffey and race between the late 19th century in the mid20th century. The mac which encompasses the jim crow era and the period from the bacteriological razzle revolution to the advent of antimicrobial therapy. To his right is professor chris lebron of yale university. He received his ph. D. From m. I. T. In 2009 and is the author of the awardwinning book, the color of our shame race and justice in our time. He has also written pieces on the race in the americas for the New York Times philosophy column and the stone into his right is professor Nell Irvin Painter who currently lives and works in newark new jersey and is author and historian. Shes the edwards professor of American History at princeton university. She is the author of seven books and polluting the history of white people creating black americans africanAmerican History and its meaning and sojourner truth. She is also a professional painter. She works digitally and manually on the artists books. Most recently on our history by nell painter volume 27. Professor painter received her ph. D. In history from harvard and her mfa in painting on the Rhode Island School of design. Please join me in welcoming our panelists. [applause] we are here to talk about race and politics in a time of crisis and i was thinking we could begin by thinking about the current state of affairs and hipaa just think about the last week we have a pretty dramatic way for thinking about this moment. In the past we have encountered the death of two black women in Police Custody candor chapman was only 10 years old and sandra bland. Shortly before that the mass murder at Emanuel Church in charleston. We celebrated, thats probably the wrong word but remembered the anniversary of eric garners death and so much has happened betwixt and between these moments. We have also had the data come out in the last week that 40 of black children live in poverty. Its the first time the absolute number exceeds the number of and so i want to begin by asking the question of all of you the question that dr. King asked in 1967, where do we go from here . All right all right, i will start. I think there are some people in the audience who share with me having lived through the 1960s and having gone through the 60s and then coming back around gives you a real sense, if you want to be pessimistic about it, how things havent changed that much. Things have changed a lot but there are still as you mentioned a lot to deploy. What i would like us to do though is not to focus solely on what we have to deplore and if you were here for the earlier session and please bear with me because im going to repeat something i said and that is i almost feel as if theres a conspiracy to keep us from doing our work by engaging us constantly with atrocities. As a historian and as a person who has lived many decades now i dont deal that somehow more black people are being murdered. I think we are simply hearing about it and in a very sad and perverse way thats a step toward i suppose but my real point is that we have to find means of coming to terms with the atrocities, finding steps we can take to counter them whether its going into the street, whether its joining an organization, whether its giving money. We have to be able to take a stab because to do something already gives you some space and then to continue on your own work. So i have two things on my mind following bucknell had to say. People look around and they see black man in the white house and a couple of rappers who are half a billion dollars and basketball players like lebron james being called king james and they see things are different. Many people are correct when they say there has been change by change and progress are two different things. Things can change but that is a mean they necessarily get that her. Things can look different from what they used to look like. It doesnt mean you have actually moved forward. A change of scenery. I think we have actually had some progress. I think youre right about change but i think there has been progress. There has been some progress. That doesnt mean that everything is okay. My comments addressed to people who say things have changed and therefore we are done. So that is who the comment is addressed towards but the second thing actually has to do, refers back to the name of this Panel Politics in a time of crisis and i beg to differ a bit access by definition a crisis is a disruption of the normal. Thats usually used to the detriment of whoevers the subject that this is ben the normal for black folks for a long time for centuries. The only difference now is that maybe now some folks are listening. The question really is who is the crisis for . Technology has made a difference and we are hearing more about it now. You look at statistics its not the police are killing more black people. The rate is about the same. This has been the story of lac america and Technology Helps us see it more so the question is who is the crisis really for . An interesting way that is a reversal at think the crisis is really for white america. People are finally realizing that there is immoral to pray today that regulates how black americans are governed and how they are surveilled and controlled, distribution of goods. Its not a crisis for us. In that sense what we are getting is possibly a moment of genuine hope through tragedy where we finally have a wall nations attention nonstop. The question is whether things change from here but i think theyre something to be said about really pressing on the Pressure Point and not letting up. Every time one of these atrocities happens hopefully it will stop soon but every time an atrocity happens we say look this is consistent with the history. We will probably have more time to talk about the denial of history which is one of James Baldwins most famous and important themes how folks like to forget their history and what that means. I knew him when he was a tiny tot. I think it is a crisis for us and again i speak psychologically because i have heard so many people say oh my god i cant take it anymore. The constant drumbeat of victimization really is something that makes people feel badly not just white people. I agree entirely. The crisis is really for democracy until the moment has passed for democracy which has clearly been in a state of decay for the past several decades. I think that is where the true change will happen and i agree that the lived in a moment of atrocities to atrocity that can prevent us from the world work which is thinking about the structural been a the fact which is often quite more dispersed, much more pervasive and insidious as well. I think going to the question of where we go from here we have to think very creatively which we are doing and we have to continue to think creatively about the structures. For example i dont know why i was surprised when i heard that the president was the first sitting president to visit a prison. And immediately after my surprise i said why would i be surprised . We did do not live in a democracy where people, a lot of people who are not in prison but who have been imprisoned in both. They dont represent a constituency in todays political logic so why would you you might go to the smallest town in iowa hoping to pick up they pick up they were public about the why would he go to a super max . We think a lot of are some shows are one of those is the level of disenfranchisement that happens in this country and all the way down to people who are inside as well. To go back to a point made earlier about digital circulation and our awareness because the piece of that is not just that we have become increasingly aware of these atrocities but people are responding in new ways. Im interested in to what extent are you maybe optimistic isnt the word that is the response suggested out pop possibility for transformation or did it strike you mobilization . What is your perspective on what is happening . If i may i think this moment of mobilization we have this incredibly impressive. I think some of it is technological in the sense that im not sure in Human History we have had a Pervasive Network documentation senate came at a time where if you can remember the period before twitter or before the internet i mean you know what would the three channels that you got your news from . We have a citizen journalism. You remember what they said about the New York Times. We had print journalism. There was is robust practice that administered for the rise of the digital age. I think we are in a moment where there are certainly is intense organization and intense awareness and we were speaking in the green room before three. I was searching around and i went to the bureau of statistics which is keep us all the statistical data on criminal justice etc. We have little data about Police Killings for example. We do have indicates there has not done much change over the past 10 years which means what we are seeing now has always been going on. The difference is we dont have an epidemic of lees killings, we have an epidemic of people paying attention being fearless enough to film in the technology isnt the only thing. You still have to have a human body recording and knowing there can be repercussions. I think that is where theres a moment where we are realizing that power while it does not cede anything willingly is also not insurmountable either. This is a moment of hope i think. I dont want to be pollyannaish about it or naive but particularly after the news of this past week. Looking at those statistics how can people die in their cells and we never knew about it . On the one hand i think nell is correct in pointing out that black newspapers have a starkly been an important part of getting the word out that theres Something Different about this moment and ironically technology has acted as a democratizing factor. Everybody in this room has advice right now that something happened to somebody else you could be getting surveillance right away. Angela the rest of the world know like that and that is new and that is different and that is very very powerful and that something that i think is some cause for hope. En you have the powers. Everyone is clamoring for Police Officers to have a camera as a black it is already over surveilled the 1st place. Thats what people need to think hard about. Walking through neighborhood and you being just you dont have to be doing anything. Police officers, we dont record them as a matter of course. Theyre catching them in the act or something. Possibly to be recorded just crossing the street, walking in front of the bodega, known for other kind of activities. What is a mean . This is something else. Not to go back to september 11. A very peculiar thing happened. The solitude towers come down. And is played it over and over and over. The 1st ten times house horrified. The 50th time i started the kind of detached fascination. Look at the building is going down. After you see it on loop 50 times the visceral reaction begins to get the old. There is something, we have to be cautious that just because these videos are hitting the web, that by itself cannot do the work we needed to do. This begins to dull the senses. I am on leave currently in a notnot going to do this frequently. Come back every few days and there somebody new. I have not heard of us under blend. Now its kind of like every five or six days. Theres no video. The guys getting shot. Its when that happens over and over again, we have to take care that we simply dont say were seeing it. Has to have the effect of motivating people. And that is the danger of being so pervasive that it becomes a part of the regular new strain. Cautiously pessimistic. I think those images, and i agree we can easily become inured. We speak is relevant, that constant loop also been us often the one not just for the general public and seven of this audience 12 for the general public in the looping quickly became frenzied fire antiarab sentiment for the patriot act kemal most of things that looping the background from thes. You dont have to be entirely pessimistic understand that. I agree 100 percent. On the other hand, i think having this awareness command is the painful thing we all have to go through. We have to make sure people are saying it, that you cannot run from these images. They will not be relegated to an obscure blog. The Mainstream Media will take a look at this. From the pres. s fabled bucketpresident s fabled bucket list, im not sure was on his agenda that is a prison in 2015 when he was 1st elected or even a 2nd time is elected. Remove the tape that much further. Im not particularly disparaging, but im not also wholeheartedly in favor of everything he says. I think we very much have given him the credit for taking the initiative to visit the present. I think hes genuinely wanted to do it, but i think his awareness was raised about the work that people have been doing before he was elected. And now power is actually starting to acknowledge some of this. We will we see through the internet, through interconnectivity is very important. But i really was stress of a psychological side and the political side of the importance of action doing something. And that doing something can be in a street and it can be giving money and it can be part of an organization. It can be riding. There are many ways of doing something, but speaking as someone who has been through this and knows how long the struggle less, we have to 1st have meetings of doing something and then stepping away and returning to our work. When i say our work for me your work and your work and your work. I dont just mean the political work. For some people it will be political work. For some people it will be running for office. For some people it will be running reports that will get to the fbi or to the bureau of labor statistics. There are so many ways of doing it. We each have our own work, and if we only talk to each other or talk to the world, to the web about our english we impede our homeworks and we are not simply black people in english or in anger. Were also writers, scholars, artists, whatever else that you do. You need to do that as well the. 11 of the things are the consequences talking about after the fact is those who watch the more likely to have posttraumatic stress disorder there is no way that it can become a deep feeling to do something in response. But from the critique steady merge about who we mobilizes . With respect to gender or sexual orientation, etc. Do you see the primary critique that it is much more common to mobilize around then all other categories . Other than deadly violence. This is a prime example of the agenda of privileging. You feel strange saying that especially i grew up in the 1980s the devolution of the blackmail is part of the political discourse but nonetheless that is what it is. Certain privileging. Thats ultimately that is unproductive if you start to favor the activity they usually accompanies that. You find yourself been close and uncomfortable company with critiques of the patriarchal black families that come down. It is embedded in all of that. I think the other thing is a critically puts us up if i am my brothers keeper. I am very skeptical to put us in the mindset of gender segregation. Which is also inappropriate to i dont think that would be productive. I also agree. I think whatever has happened is awful and i think rather like to think that is and i quote equalizing. So whether that changes here tuesday her cry would like to hope so but what is it happening at the background of . Where American Families dont look like they used to look for their composition so i am hopeful the black and Brown Community to set the agenda we have to do that ourselves. But part of that has to do that gender normal so to speak. But we have to be especially sensitive to fu we speak about. To speak of the issue of privileging we have to be more attentive that all black lives matter. And then other folks. To save the mobilization to put that back on the agenda that is why it is important to have the people in the world to help the rise our way out of that. Ultimately it is about politics and action but we have to think very closely that there is a discussion. It is important to have those as leaders of the movement. In some ways for me, there are clearer black activist at the forefront to set aside issues of gender sexuality for the more amorphous solidarity. Can supposedly have argued they are inseparable. We have a sort of new mayor now. And before that we had a charismatic mayor mr. Booker. He had a much higher profile nationally. Cory booker was a regular man and did not walk on water although he has a high profile but what has happened with this city that does not have much money money, the first Barack Administration was able to tap the existing sources of money of support that they agreed to federal oversight for with the Booker Administration fought off so we could have changes 40,000 people to have young jobs simply because the administration has been active with the use with the existing assets. So first of all, i think when we talk about the importance to push on the administration or the cabinet that the push starts at the local level. One am part of what could be the action to keep our sanity to be active at the local level i would say it is more useful. Old simile that activist is only the beginning part. But it is separate. Certainly in new work is not the beginning. We still do retail politics is a new work i went to my nextdoor neighbor because