Imagine that this is going to be a haitianamerican living room. Can you imagine that . Okay. So, we are here, we welcoming one of our favorite tv analysts on msnbc. [applause] cease the daughter of the beautiful country of it, any haitians here . Okay, all right. You count with the census, also the platal director for moveon. Org. [applause] she has worked on many local campaigns, statewide campaigns and national campaigns, and she has written this deelectricityible memoir of her personal, professional, and political life. Join me in giving a warm Miami Book Fair woman to karine jeanpierre. Maas applause [applause] hi. Hi, everybody. Hi. Thank you for coming. Hi, hi, hi. I see jedwin back there i have to give her some love. What is his nickname for you . Tika. Maybe like ka. Your first name is pronounced in creole. Karine. Karine jeanpierre. Moving forward, my first question for you is, how does your haitianness inform your wait, i have to Say Something, thank you so much, marlon, im so sorry, thank you for doing this. No problem. I have to do this ive known marlon for a long time. A wonderful, great guy. One of the major supporters down here for president barack obama in 2008, and now youre doing your own thing, which im very proud of you. So just wanted to make sure i honored you as well. Thank you very much. Its a pleasure to substitute for here ray ramos. Jorge ramos. And i want to ask you up front, how does what was it like the first time you came across through customs into america . Do you remember that . I was about five so i dont remember that. But its so interesting you said that. I just wrote a piece for vogue, and in the piece i talk about being hopeful, and i talk about one of the moments that has happened in the last three years that really just broke my heart. There have been many moments that have been heartbreaking. One of them was the separation of children at the border, and a zero tolerance policy which led to which basically meant were going to separate children from their families, with babies and children in cages and its just led to just awfulness, and i remember when that happened back in at least when it became known in the National Media back in 2018 of the summer, going into the summer of 2018, my heart broke because i thought about what would have happened to me, my parents came we were lucky, we landed at jfk, john f. Kennedy. I was five years old and i thought to myself, what have happened if they told my parents, were going to separate you from your daughter. Your daughter is going here. Youre going to go there. And potentially i would become an orphan, which is what is happening to tens of thousands of children right now. Who are orphaned, under our name. And so i do not remember that moment, but it has like i said, its interesting you brought it up because ive thought about what has happened recently and what would have happened to me at that young age if i was separate from my parents, on purpose. You were at home with mom and dad. What do you call mom and dad. Mommy, poppy. Take us inside the haitian American Home in new york. What was that like . I grew up in the in Queens Village to 12th street, german avenue. Jamaica avenue, and i lived in a two family house. My aunt and uncle lived downstairs and we lived upstairs. At the time you do not know theres a difference. You just do what you are told. Right . Thats very much in the haitian culture, hey san food haitian food, what you area, and we lived very humble had very Humble Beginnings mitchell dad was a new york city cab drive, my mom, Home Health Care aide, wog six or seven days a week, went to catholic did mom come home or she it depends there was nights she spend she had to sleep at her job, and nights she didnt, and it was just different. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, a totally different experience for haitians living in new york. It was tough. It was hard. I didnt learn to read until i was in third grade. I always felt like the outsider. I talk but that in detail in my book, and one of the things i wanted to make sure i did in the book was to tell an immigrant story because the last three years has been so ugliness, antiimmigrant policies and i wanted to almost correct the record, and tell stories of hope, some sadness, but some achievements, and what does it mean to be in this country, and i think another thing wanted to make really clear is that immigrants we feel very patriotic. This is our home. This is our country. And we are a fabric of america, part of that fabric. What do you see in america through the eyes of haiti . Do your haitianness inform your experience being at home with the haitian family, mom and dad . When was the first time you encountered American Culture to say theres a difference between the two. Just from the moment go. It was teased at school. It was made very, very clear, that i was different, whether a the way i looked, the way i dressed, the way i talked. Very, very clear. But i have to tell you, it took me some time to appreciate the haitian culture and the haitian history. That was something that i had to learn myself, and that took problem in my early 20s where i realized how powerful our country and is our history, and my ancestry and who i am, and took some time to be comfortable with all of that, and i think what is happening now is that im living in my truth, and so i think once you live in your truth and once you are comfortable with who you are, i think the doors open, and i think that is what is happening. Your dad a taxi driver you mom health care worker, what are the greatest lessons you got from them . My mom, endurance, strength. One of the smartest people i know. She does not have formal education but she is clearly one of the brightest people i know. She is strategic, you know how haitian moms are. Always a plan, always a strategy. Money being hidden here. Theres always something that when youre not thinking about and theyre ten steps ahead. My dad, kindness. One of the kindest people youll ever meet. Is he still driving. Parttime. Heres the thing. My parent its still live check to check. It is if you were to look from the outside and look at my parents, you would say, oh, the American Dream is so it missed them. They didnt get the American Dream. Many people dont. And my mom and my dad will tell you that i am their American Dream. [applause] what that theyre dream for you . Caribbean parents have specific dreams. Very specific. What war the dreams. Always a plan afoot. So, my parents and this is something that i talk about in my book that is leads to ups and downs that occurred in my life. And so what my parents were very much i think like many michigan families they want you to be three things. Lawyer, doctor, engineer. Theres some other stuff but those are the three. And in their minds you are one of those three. You will be successful. That is what is going to help uplift you and the rest of your family. For me it was being a doctor. And it was connected to someone in our family who was a doctor, who they very much respected, that i loved, she pass evidence away recently. But passed away recently. Thats how i grew up. I grew up with, youre going to be be a doctor and to the introduce you to everybody, karine, our future doctor. When did you black that dream . I went to undergrad, and went to undergrad, majored in premed, thought i would be a doctor, and it just didnt happen. You have to take the m cat, you realize that it is just very big burden and you carry that burden for your family and for your community, and i actually went through something that i talked about very specifically. I went i had mental i had to deal with Mental Health issues, and something that we do not talk but no our community, and it was one of those moments that was incredibly depressing for me, because i thought, wow, i just disappointed the people i love the most. And i felt like i broke their heart. And it was incredibly hard for me, and i had this thought in my mind that if im gone, then it will be better. If im not around, then it will be better for them. And i tried to take my life. Thank goodness, thank god, im still here, clearly, talking to all of you. [applause] but i do want to Say Something but the book before we move too far in. The book is a memoir, and the memoir piece is very raw, hospital, and authentic. Wrote it that way because i wanted to connect to people. I want people to feel something when they read the story, my memoir, and i wanted for anyone who is having a hard time, and felt like they will never make it or they cant make it to look at me, someone who is worked for the first black president , worked in the white house, made it through his was on tv regularly to look at me and think if she was able to do it, i can do it, and i think theres this misconception. She must have this great, wonderful life and its not. Its hard. It was very, very hard. And so i write that part because i wanted to at least if i can change one persons life, that means the book has really done it work. Then the other part is a call to action to get politically involved. Dont sit back. We need your voice. We need everybodys voice in here to get involved, especially in this time. But its also connected because i wouldnt be on tv, i wouldnt have worked in the white house, if i didnt have the experience that i had growing up. All of that has made me the person that i am today. So, yes, it is a sad part of my story, but it made me who i am today. What with what was your support system . I didnt have that story i just told you about taking trying to take my life, my mom doesnt know that story. My parents did not know that story. My sister knew that story. She found me. And we never talked about it. After i decided that being a doctor was not going to be my thing, i took some time off, worked, and i went to columbia to get my masters degree, and it was at columbia when i got my masters degree and i was out of my home, i started to see a therapist, thats what helped me, because when i was at graduate school, i was actually having anxiety attacks because i hadnt dealt with the pain from prior. So that was the time, the moment i was really able to dig deep and ask for help, and growing up, in my community, you dont talk about your seek secreted. You dont talk but your business. You dont go to therapy and i wanted to break that. We are so glad youre still here with us. Thank you. [applause] so what was your First Encounter with the political world . Can you recall that . Yeah. So, the political world, my First Encounter was actually in grad school, and the first week i started grad school was the first week of september 11th. And it was clearly hard and heartbreaking, and it was something that i think many of us just really just speaking for myself i felt like i lived in a bubble, and when that happened you are awakened very, very quickly, especially it happened we lost more than 3,000 souls, 3,000 lives in new york city alone, and so that was an awakening. And i went to the program i was in was at the International School of public affairs, which had other my peers were from all over the world, and so you are opened up to what is going on outside of the country, and you meet people going through their own hardships whether theres a civil war in their home and theyre coming their get a better education, or whatever is going on theyre trying to do at the school. And then the second thing that happened is i went to haiti for the first time in 2003, which was also a mindopening experience. And so those two things led me to this kind of new awareness and new path for what i was where i am today, the path that has led me to this moment. The rope i say that is when i came back from haiti i wanted to make a difference. What can i do . Two of my mentors, one wasafricw york city, and he was at that point, ask still now, teaching at cepa, and i had this amazing professor, esther fuchs, this firey feminist who pushed young women to get involved in politics and suggested, you should get into politics. And i thought, oh, okay. Thats interesting. What was your first job. My first job was working in new York City Council for a council member. I worked for two council members, and that was my First Experience doing a local politics, which is very important, local. Get involved. Way to make a change. Not just federal government and the white house. You can do a lot of change peoples lives on the love level and thats what i did. What was your first uncounter with being a black woman in america . Oh, my. That question is so interesting because thats a conversation i was having recently with ive been all over literally all over the country on this book tour. I was in a different city every day for ten days straight. And there was a conversation i was having about being a black woman in america, and i think there are things even i think i know there are things that black women take on a daily basis that has been part of our almost part of our dna that we dont even think about. Theres things. That we have to deal with, that we dont even realize or we dont have time to realize this is not okay. Because were just trying to survive. So i think about that question, and im like, i think that we all just every day from probably as young as we can remember, there is something that reminds us that we are black, we are a woman, and sometimes were not accepted. And so thats why its i think its something that is just part of the daytoday that i personally have to deal with, and sometimes sometimes you donn realize microaggression. It happeneds and you just have to deal with it. You dedicate the book for folks who have ever been told no. When was the first time that someone told you, no, that you why did you dedicate the book the dedication was probably one of the most important energies to me in this book. And i dedicate this book to anybody who has ever been told no. Hope this book inspires you and motivates you. And when i was first thinking about the dedication, i thought i would dedicate it to my mom and my daughter and the women in my life, and then i thought, i really thought about the book, and the main ingredient and what the book encompasses and i thought i wanted to dedicate it to folks who have been told no, very similar so what i said earlier. This book, if you have been told no, i hope you can read this book and know that you can get to the other side, and that know that you can reach that dream, reach whatever as separation you have for yourself. Even if you have been york down, even if people have told you no, time and time again, you can get there. And ive been told no so many times. When i got into politics one reason i left new York City Council and moved to d. C. Is because i was told no. I was working for my Second Council member, and he the reason i went to work for him is he said, look, the chief of staff will be leaving in a year, come work for me, youll see how i work, and that job is yours. And when we got to by the way the chief of staff was his fiancee. They got married, i was in their wedding. A whole nuther story. Things you do in the staffer, a brides maid and in your boss wedding, unexpectedly lastminute bridesmaid. They got married, and i remember this moment very vividly. They got married. Ran his campaign so i helped him get reelected. His campaign manager, and i remember we were Walking Around the block, and he says to me, were going to give im going to give the job to somebody else. And he gave it to a man who was older than me, probably had 15 more Years Experience than than i did, and i remember crying, and i remember thinking worked so hard. I ran your campaign and im not getting the job . And that moment, i said to myself, im leaving. And i took a leap of faith and i said i want to do national politics, and i looked through my role low desk, my phone roll low desk, my phone contacts and had coffee with people and asked how to get to washington, dc, i want to do politics and hopefully campaign and go into the white house. Who answered the phone. So many people. There were local consultants in new york that were well known. People who have been just been around the political atmosphere for a while who had contacts in d. C. I ended up working for an issue campaign. You left on good terms. I mean, its not i left on bad terms but they knew i left because i didnt get the job. So its not like i blew everything up and i suggest never to do that. It was just one of those things i decided i needed to leave. Not on bad terms but disappointment. They tried to get my back a couple years later, and at that point i had moved. I worked on president obamas campaign. Im not coming back. I was like, what . No. But anyway, that no was the best no i could have received. [applause] i dont know if i would have gone to washington, dc and worked on the president ial campaign and ended up working for obama in chicago, then ended up in the i dont know what my trajectory would have been. I could have stayed at new York City Council, happy as a chief of staff for another year or two, and it was the best, best no, it and pushed me. How did you achieve deciding which campaign to work for and which campaign not to work for . Well, that moment, when i moved to d. C. , i worked for walmart watch for a year, and then i had a choice of multiple campaigns i interviewed for edwards and for obama, and at the time i decided to work for edwards because it was the work i was doing seemed more connected to what he was doing. He was labor guy, doing poverty work, and i was one of the people that thought, nobody is ready for a blackman president , were not ready as a country. Thats what i thought. Marlon did not think that. He was smart. And so i went to go work for edwards. And it was good experience, actually. I worked for edwards for a year and went to north carolina, i chapel hill, worked out of the headquarters, and he drop out after south carolina, and that experience and the connections that i got from that campaign led me to the Obama Campaign because the somebody i worked with on the Edwards Campaign she went to the Obama Campaign and called me and said, im working for getting ready for at the general Election Campaign and we want you to come here and do what you did for edwards, for obama. And i decide that. And so it actuall