[inaudible conversations] thanks to the west African Dance company that opened the way for us and this evening with the dancing drums instructor. I am extending a warm welcome on behalf of the of those that in between the of language of god then to remind us not forget about history and culture. And as a sponsor for tonight thinking them for 20 years to create a space to strategizing and immerse ourselves and to the families that have sacrificed with the safe liberation from us. Twenty years is no joke. I remember when you were talking and playing in your basement and here we are. We are honored to be on how the ground that was founded 1872 and the old piece of land previously owned by black people. [applause] as part of the changing demographics that is no easy task we are forever grateful to the ministerial staff the Church Administrator the churches ambassador it is a bill very well organized plays. All those to continue the legacy. Amen. While giving banks the situation that contributes a lot to the caliber and character we are grateful those of our broadcasting the program live thank you for being our media partner also we are recorded for cspan. [applause] since its founding the church as been a really important place for people to gather and to have discourse those are just a few of the notables that have spoken here to drop knowledge and insight and january 8094 almost 125 years ago and tying winching abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave his last speech from the pulpit. He protested prejudice and Racial Injustice bin here are again to contemplate the same themes to deliberate the lessons and to help us to do that with the analysis of two critical thinkers who have proven by their track record as a journalist and storytellers theyre not deterred by the cacophony of insanity with the provisions of history and silents science and the fake news that dominates the National Landscape today. [applause] it would be my pleasure to introduce kojo nnamdi. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] and my dear brother he may be a set of i am of but i think you because you speak so much your elbow deep in quality of life issues monday through friday and talking about what is up in d. C. [applause] to be hosting our conversation tonight knowing that he does not like a lot of praise with the redecoration of accomplishments [cheers and applause] pharao not to embarrass you too much but we love you sent you were serious about the issues that matter to us with your research and analysis and we look forward to you examine what the confederacy is. Kojo nnamdi and Tanehisi Coates. [cheers and applause] it is minder standing, can you hear me . No. Neece still can hear me . Can you hear me now . [applause] i will have 40 minutes with the two of us and then questions for people who raise their he does that this point for find their way to one of the microphones. So with that said father sphere and foremost the title of this book as a gatekeeper in power. It seems the title applies to three different but a separate phenomenon. With the Obama Presidency. Can you connect the dots for us . Can you hear me . No. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] citadel of keeping my distance so we dont have the feedback. [laughter] i appreciate that because with the assumption and that responsibility the assumption is made black people as a collective group somehow. So to the introduction talk about where the title comes from with the congressman in South Carolina. With several African Americans folks who were being asked to be freed before the war into that Ruling Coalition all across the of south and the majority of people that claimed they were black and for the first time you actually have the possibility of a real democracy. He attended the South CarolinaConstitutional Convention as a coalition of white supremacist for the way that they called redemption all throughout the country. He pleaded with the group. And to have some degree of sensibility at the time that you were in power with those that could take that mentally infirm. What could you disenfranchise given the record. And the voice that recounted the story even though he white didnt quite apprehend and to argue for good negro government they were not smart enough for cable from enough water for the model was so he said if there was anything that South Carolina feared they did not want them to succeed. It makes the case with that structure and they want to use the radio that is against what they want to do. And with the presidency of barack obama. And what they say in the relationship to the title of the book to be part of a familiar cycle. So the Obama Presidency to put your best face forward, and dont do any of those things and to reconstruct torsos complete the end of president does harvard law review to be educated to construct those drawings with that stereotype. And they ran the white house. The people did not believe them with an entire presentation with that antagonism and that we are so inured to this. And how shocking this is new to be called the Opposition Party that the majority of the people did not believe barack obama could be fit to be president because he was not born in the United States. And maybe back to the bin best buy presented the actual birth certificate. [laughter] but those that believe in any sort of factual way . The are open for argument they were a citizen of United States they believe it because they have to believe it. And with the familiar cycle that ran counter to the notion with those illusions of the progressive american in history that brought obama to power there was a notion that it was part of a progressive for word motion that probably indicates america has changed forever. That is the end of history moment that history always wins. With the election of barack obama that how easy it was to get caught up that some insulative black person to ruin his plantation and just as a recent biography he is the father of the notion of government balancing, he was terribly irresponsible. He was a absolute best you have to believe there were black people. [laughter] and there is the realization so i understand the rapture. That went into that moment it is a harsh taskmaster cheer reach out to those that fell to president delaunay should have spoken more directly for after the election but for eight years barack obama walked and never fell. So it represents the medic and the American People and this is the group but Bill Parcells has a great saying that you are that if this is a group of people with their hands with the Nuclear Launch code for those that do diplomacy through twitter who is come on tape koch bragging about Sexual Assault is okay. That is okay. And he was able to do that to massage backandforth that doesnt mean everything and that he did with the correct . For those that live in the country but if you voted for barack obama there would be limits now of what this country will tolerate. In many ways with those arguments from the bully pulpit with the clear results with that power . Then you look at Abraham Lincoln and the gettysburg address that is a beautiful piece of rhetoric but a group of slaveholders in the south did that go crazy deciding to destroy the country and track their own country to ensure further insight into the black people. Sought the end of the day with the preservation not that there is a motive beyond the moral idea so so that majority for those other living in this country so talk about reconstruction and the third reference to the title is in some regards and when he came into office you were unemployed. But now you will not. And essentially with yours and other black writers careers. They were curious about what they were not curious about before. And through my own personal journey and in places like this to receive accolades and awards i have to remain very present it could have gone a different way i know that because 12 years into my writing career so those years that came now were different than the preceding 12. So think of temptation that put accolades on you. And then not realize for what used to it, and they know this because they grew up in a community and i was not ready to think with the other people around me. So some things went away. And in this case it was the election. And to make it more possible. Like a group of black writers like myself who were toiling away. In the New York Times issue is thinking of going into public places. There has been several awards. They were not just looking at you. And some part of that is vague with those periods of unemployment standup. Your father. [applause] and mother. [applause] and your wife. [applause] what was the particular way at a time you were considering it is seriously considering you ended up being a writer because there wasnt much else you could do . Im sorry. Ice where a brief preamble that you are who you are. With 30 years of her life people dont stand up and clap. Thats fine but when they do it is an odd transition but at any rate im sorry. [laughter] what was the question . [laughter] lets get to your riding. [laughter] with this book with a deliberate and conscious effort to make a conscious effort of those that our most important with the duty in this riding. But with that old cliche. And how it came to be. And that critical event which i have stewed over 15 years and was killed by the Police Officer and then what helped to keep his memory alive. But some of those were not kind. And to call them one day. So i did not answer. Pick up the phone can check the message this is not a pray get is the white house so if you come down to washington d. C. Tamara to meet with the president . I said okay. I had to think about doing this are not doing this. So i went down at the time to have the heavy artistic impulse why dont people right this way . With these journalistic with an open mind. It is me and others and with those duties off the record they have assigned seating and you have to sit where they tell you to say and you dont get to choose. It is like saying it to my face. [laughter] and he comes to shake hands of everybody in fisa next to hamper crow i cannot even say what i was thinking. Not in church. [laughter] but it sounds like long page but it is like long the moist question to the president. And by the way Tanehisi Coates he did not say my name right. I saw the article you look the other day and that was terribly unfair. And he went off on me. It really felt like that. I said i am not show up. Think youre not going to do what youre going to do then i get another phone call. [laughter] ended is a strange number can you come tomorrow . I said i am going down again i am not sure it shot this time. [laughter] she says yes. Yes for yes. [laughter] just think when they met kennedy. That is you. You have got it. I get all the trade negative train. I am listening to an online my iphone. I get down there and it is raining that day. With a the traffic and i am way late. I get out of the cab with no umbrella. Is appropriately dressed and they are calling me in the cab are you coming . This is the president show some respect. I get there the room is all white except for him and again it is assigned seating. Theyre already in motion this time he is here in my seat is across from him. Im ready now. I am ready. Im late but i am not shock. [laughter] so he says by city to join us. So i sit down all across the board and i am not really see myself at the Employment Office theyre asking about the economy and Foreign Policy in the environment, he is seeking everybody on in detail. It was a display of brilliance the black part of me was i get them. [laughter] because i am watching this black dude than the other part is no i got to do when im going to do. [laughter] so my time comes for my question i am overheated. There with the statistics of obamacare i am going. And i respond he gets his response i said can i respond . He said please. I look around and everybody looks like oh my god. Like the black guys are spicy. [laughter] see you cannot be to the president so i am thinking about this all fortunate hall i was to be there to take it to the highest offices ended say this is the of moment and this book does not exist and he said to me listen the road is littered there is a lot of people who tried this. They did not quite get there then he said i thank you can do it but if anybody can do you can do it we didnt quite do a but we got there. [applause] so to be a black writer to be drafted in the freedom and democracy. Those better searching for the more individual self with ancestry and tradition that may be one of the most difficult things. Why . Because we dont give ourselves enough credit. When i came into a journalism from older black writers or white writers that dont get boxed off. I understood they were saying. And i agonized over this for a long time. And then i started to do that report. And i came to understand i was never boxed and. They were box out. It doesnt exist over here is the thread and running through the countrys health. But they dont get that. Like this is one color in the rainbow. But you are attempting to study American History into understand by supremacy you costliness understand america. [applause] i dont mean rhetorically i mean literally. But the majority of the exports were cotton or the 4 million inflicted in the south with the largest concentration of wealth if you think that is just a side note then you are not getting it. I now want to sit back but but there is a certain crop of writers who came before me of with the notion we have to get that culture. We cannot do what they do. But that is not your story. That is not your culture or maybe it is. That isnt what i knew not even black people just anybody. You have to come out of who you are. They got that now but. So to some extent that to occupy the world of black nationalist. That you left the world of nationalism. But it never left you. That is how i was raised. And to expand and frankly to write i was not raised in a particularly villages house, forgive me. [laughter] i am talking to you. That somebody who died for your sins for you to be free. Im sorry. Im so sorry. [applause] i can only speak to who i am. That is what it was. And to understand the words of Martin Luther king. Because i could not understand due to the tradition that i was raised. I quoted to say there was the oped piece in the New York Times fifth those that are you race to give it more power those looking for great areas and Common Ground give the power twice. With white supremacy. I am not interested in Common Ground with white supremacist. [applause] ill leave it to thomas to find a the gray area. I just used his name i leave it for him to find those grey areas this is more. More. There is no place for that. That any jewish person would find. And no power to them but with the tradition to see is much truth as nike and i know is a Common Ground with sex is a or islamophobia. I need to prove the argument that it does not exist. Give this book. With the report written back in 1965 the you criticize that outlined with the condition of the africanAmerican People as a senator moynihan abandoned scholarship for rhetoric to became a u. S. Senator after serving the administration. What do you mean by that . This goes back to your earlier question. Moynihan was brilliant and very intelligent but there is a discrepancy when people have power dont have power in terms of who does what. Part of the privileged and the disadvantage to be white in this country you dont have to know black people. Then you better know white people about what that means is when people gets in a room to analyze about black people and those that seek to define Common Ground it is a way that they presume ultimately they did that. And you can find in the notes raising the issue that black people are mentally inferior. Creme day la creme they cannot see at. And did not have to have scholarships. Literally they would call them. He should have shrink from that. Adobe should be called back. Especially with no social media or twitter he could say whatever he wanted. I know it is just a different time. That the report itself. To realize it is sexist. Most of those conditions to be remedied hasted to essentially empowering black man. That men must have jobs based on the black man. To say they must have jobs even if they were the white man. Every doing this just a day through today . But remember that scene period is it possible to be much more conscious about sexism the from the perspective of that was there. And may not have been heard for the megaphone. But the difference between u. S. President obama over the top campaign that president obama believes that he could not win you felt that he would not win. But the american tragedy is larger and will not end with trump. What do you mean . So what you can say here that so there is this the ada in the country with the things that are not inscribing into a lot of reasons by the electorate so there is a long history with republicans walking right up to the line for the reason they didnt step over the line to believe debt was too far. They dont know what to far is at this point. In many ways were being saved by his ineptness but it disguises saudi interests this could be. Im not a dog. I can shout. He knows how to use the government to push whatever agenda ed they have is a terrible future. Leader nafta do none of this no more. Not for black people or brown people to be elected with Sexual Assault i can do whatever but the notion to be twice as good with that counter notion from trump. Keith to be twice as bad we will suffer from the one for a while. So those that have questions one or the other of the microphones what you see as your best work in this book . Of a collaboration . My pre