Cynicism or a nihilism or something. But i really dont think it reached us until the 60s and the 70s where it really became codified, it became part of, you know, the way we function. And so its nothing you can put your finger on, but i think you do see the media typically tend to be uncomfortably secular. Even though theyre talking to a nation where most people have some kind of faith, you typically dont get that. In other words, you dont have that kind of a free market operating in the media. The media typically is people that theyre, you know, secular l. A. People or secular new york people. They dont get that. So they speak a different kind of language. And i think that, you know, the market always corrects itself, but it doesnt necessarily do it right away, you know . The truth will out eventually, but, you know, we had 70 years of soviet communism before that wall fell down. So these things can last a very long time, and i would say for a long time about 50 or so years weve had in this, you know, hollywood basically created antiheroes in the 60s. All the films you had before that, i mentioned mr. Smith goes to washington, suddenly they were seen as corny or Something Like that. And its part of the culture, the drinking water. The ivy league, where i went to school, its part of the way people begin to see things, and then thats the club you belong to. Thats how people think. And i really think that the gatekeepers, the people in media, you know, people in teachers unions, people in politics, generally speaking a lot of them are those kinds of idealogues. Your average american is not really there. But over time its affected america, you know . So i do think i think were at a tipping point. I really think were very close to the edge. So for me theres hope, but i say this with a level of desperation as well. I think we must take this seriously. This is not something that it cannot go on. So this you have it. Well, folks, thank you so much for coming. [applause] i appreciate it very much. So many of you have come from out of town. What were going to do thank you. [applause] i appreciate that. Let me just say what were going to do is let the party continue, and you can happening around as long hang around as long as you want. Ill be signing books as long as there are people who want books signed, and im happy to do that just to hang out. Please do tell your friends about socrates in the city. Please do read the book. Please do if you dont want to read the book, i dont care, but at least buy several copies, if you dont mind. [laughter] well leave it at that. God bless you and god bless america. [applause] [inaudible conversations] on sunday, september 4th, booktv is live from Hillsdale College in michigan with best selling author, radio talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager on in depth, our live monthly author callin program. His book examines how the Ten Commandments are still relevant today. He writes about idealism and extremism, racism, the holocaust and other such topics in think a second time. In his 2013 book, still the best hope, mr. Prager lays out why he believes American Values must triumph in an uncertain world. Here he is from this years Los Angeles Times festival of books. Its very simple. If everybody lived by the Ten Commandments, you would not need one army, you would not need one missile, you would not need any policemen, you would not have to put locks on your doors. This is all humans need. Its amazing. Dennis prager taking your calls, emails, tweets and Text Messages live on booktvs in depth from Hillsdale College in michigan sunday, september 4th from noon to 3 p. M. Eastern. [inaudible conversations] okay. Good afternoon again. Max rodriguez, founder of the harlem book fair, and this is the fourth of our discussions. Following this presentation by our author, we will, of course, have the tea here which is a online video Book Discussion program. And we have the presentation of the annual wheatley book awards. So we hope that youll stay. I have the honor of presenting mr. Eddie glaud conscientious who glaude who is the author of a new book titled democracy in black how race still enslaves the american soul. Im going to come to that in a second. Eddie glaude is a professor at Princeton University teaching in the Religion Department and department of africanamerican studies. He writes for Time Magazine and democracy now. This book i have read, it intrigues me. Its very thoughtprovoking, very provocative, and the title itself says that. Its actually quite offputting, how race still enslaves the american soul. How many ideas do we have in that title, the idea of race, the idea of enslavement, the idea of the american soul. I find that very interesting because were never really able to answer that question because, you know, the idea of soul has a connotation of groundedness, of truth, of absoluteness, of truth and being truth. And then theres life as we know it, and the two sort of dont align. The american soul. Democracy in black how race still enslaves the american soul. Eddie glaude. [applause] how yall doing . Can you hear me in the back . I got a little black preacher in me, so i want to make sure youre all right. I want to thank the organizers of this amazing book fair. That last panel was so enriching. Theres a picture, a photo of when i was a little kid, bunk beds, and i had this rag tied around my head. I had the mumps. And i was doing research for my book on africanamerican religion, and i was reading Zora Neale Hurstons the sanctified church and there she wrote about a remedy for the mumps. My mother is a devout catholic. She goes to mass every sunday, she sings in the choir. But in this little moment in the book she writes that if you get some sardines and you have the patient eat the star dines sardines and then you pour the sardine juice on a rag and tie it around the head, it will heal the mumps. [laughter] now, ive been looking at this picture for a long time, so i called my mother. Im from mississippi, by the way. Moss point, mississippi. And i said, mama, did you put sardine juice on my face when i had mumps . And this devout catholic woman said, i sure did. [laughter] Zora Neale Hurston speaking to us. So i want to thank the workers of this amazing the organize tokers of this amazing book fair. It is truly a blessing to be here in historic harlem surrounded by lovers of books, people who revel at ideas and those who are committed to a more just and loving world. As you can see, im a text preacher. We need this. In these trying times, to take comfort in each other even as we are angry and as we grieve that our lives are not reducible to that anger and to that grief. I want to thank brother Max Rodriguez for his vision, his courage and persistence. I can only imagine what it takes to do this, in making all of this a reality. I want to thank all of the folks who are running around behind the cameras, trying to manage this atrium and the sound and all the folks out there on the street. Im honored and humbled by your presence and by your powerful witness. Now, im here to talk about my book, democracy in black, but that book and my presence here today arent limited to that. This moment requires much more of us. We have witnessed other these many dark days the senseless murder of so many of our people. Alton sterling and Philando Castile were the latest in a long list of casualties in what seems like an allout war on our communities. We could call the names of so many from Trayvon Martin and eric garner and mike brown to a keel boyd and ayanna stanley jones. So many of our dead. So many loved ones whose lives have been cut short too early. And we all have had to grapple with the collective trauma of it all. To see over and over again this haunting, public ritual of grabbing of black grief. And then we find ourselves having to convince many of our fellow white americans of the truth of our anguish and the depth of our sorrow. Many would seek to blame those who no longer have a voice because theyre dead and buried in the ground. They want to blame them for their own demise. Talk of blackonblack crime. Didnt Rudy Giuliani say Something Like that . Talk of the need for the respect of police. Talk of a kind of general culture of poverty, all serve as distractions from what is really being said, that these black people deserved to die. Yeah . Its exhausting. Its enraging. And i think weve had enough. And i say this as we rightly decry the senseless murders of the Police Officers in dallas, but i dont want folk to get it confused. We are still grieving, and we are still angry. Right . So i wrote democracy in black because i want today provide an account of the crisis in our community. The crisis in this moment. From the mouths of pundits and politician, many were declaring that we had turned an economic corner, that america had survived the Great Recession and was now on a path of genuine recovery. But as i looked around my communities and families, i saw a different picture. Are we better off . Hmm. You know the old adage, when america has a cold, we got the what . We have the flu. I saw people who had lost their homes in the housing crisis and were now struggling in a brutal rental market. Black americans lost over 240,000 homes. Folks lost their jobs, and those who were lucky enough to get a new job found themselves working harder and longer, hours for less money. Many folks having to make the decision, do we put food on the table or do we pay the rent . Many young black families find themselves spiraling into poverty. Downward mobility is a central feature of this new economy in our community. Too many of our children languish in poverty, 38 of them are growing up in poverty. In my home state of mississippi, 50 of black children are growing up in poverty. 50 . By damn near every statistical measure, black america is suffering. By damn near every statistical measure, were suffering. This isnt the flu. Its a flareup of a National Congenital disease. We experienced and are experiencing what i call in the book the great black depression. And too many of our fellow americans have ignored that fact or simply dont want to know what is happening all around them. They are add minute in adamant in their contrived innocence. You hear me . Theyre adamant in their contrived innocent. Why is the case . Black people, especially the black poor and the black vulnerable, are invisible and disposable to so many people many this country. Why is that the case . [applause] i know a thing to talk books, but i have so much spirit. This belief animates our social lives and farms are economic reality. It is for monetary describes as the dissident equality. Its not just about intentional discrimination or explicit prejudice. It is the way we come to see the world that shakes our choices and actions and the value has been a key feature of this country since its inception. This is true even when weight knowledge the progress we have made over the generations with each moment of genuine progress, we have a reassertion of the limits and his figures a democracy in this country. At the moment in which the United States or the Founding Fathers quote, unquote a voice to the principles of freedom, liberty and inequality. At the moment which we have a civil war and wayside over the institution of slavery, no matter what the school said and engage in embark upon radical reconstruction and democracy come away to be in response to it. Birmingham is built on the back of black prisoners, unjustly imprisoned. In response to that, we did jim and jay crew in mississippi and alabama all throughout this, the value gap. In response to the civil rights movement, the black freedom struggle is that the mid20th century insisting upon dignity. We get the test results in california. Forget powerful law and order. Not just by republicans, but democrats, too. And president obama get to that is in everyones talking about koran. What do we get an response . The vitriol of the tea party. A wholesale attack on Voting Rights and we get whatever he is donald trump. In each moment with each moment we get a reassertion of the value gap good at the heart of this country for the first time it was created with the institution of slavery ended determines the very idea of citizenship. At the heart of this nation and the belief that some people because of the color of their skin are valued more than others. Today isnt the same as 1960 year 1868, of what is consistent across these moments as the value gap. When you hear black people say things havent changed, we know we are not living in the mississippi that i got grew up in, but we do now in this country are babies can be taken from us just like that. Last value precarious. You dont know what to conditions may be. You have to worry about your dog runs. You have to worry every time you have an encounter with someone sworn to protect and serve you. Let me say this. The value gap isnt sustained. Yall alright . Im yelling at you because i want you to hear me in the back. Actually one finisher matt type if the value gap isnt saying im not racist. That is too easy. We like to identify the folks running around talking about we want to take back our country. That is too easy. It allows the sentimental type girls it allows them to say dont do five people. Zero lord. Im one of them to look at me. [laughter] at the heart of the value cap are these racial habit. I tell this story in the book. My dad was the second africanamerican hired at the post office in mississippi at the place where faulkner honeymooned and his wife tried to commit suicide in the gulf of mexico. My dad got hired by the post office. He knew he had some for kosher schizo removed us from the eastside to the westside. So we moved up on a hill and as we were moving in, the police drove by. My dad hung out and said i own it. A couple days later the kids in the back blow out the back window with a pellet gun in my dad responded by shooting a 12 gauge and blowing off the Oaktree Landen said shoot back here again. And then i heard his daddy say stop playing with that nigger. It was the first time theyve been called that word in that context. I thought you didnt get that. In that context. I grabbed my truck and ran inside and i saw the history of mississippi come down on it. He ran out type you i dont know what he said to my new neighbor but the other for sale sign up within months. The power to the story of american racism that some black family has achieved the American Dream and then their child gets wounded by some meanspirited adults who cause some meanspirited adult who calls them the and not prayers for the rest of our life that hes not that, but thats too easy. I knew at the age of eight we were moving from the black side of town to the wayside. I knew it because in our Old Neighborhood when her brain is flooded because the pipes are bad. The sidewalks werent paid, houses were were smaller, schools werent as good. In the very spatial environment, and i was learning race. I was learning the value gap. Thats all these folks have to do. The enough to be allowed. They just have to drive around. Drive through harlem. Drive through brooklyn. Drive uptown. You know what im talking about. I had to say that for the folks out here. You have raised racial habit. It is all of us. We are making choices again and day out that reproduce inequality. All of us, uni. Think about this. This is the example i use. Im not a Climate Change denier. I think the world is getting hotter and i think human beings are the reason why it is getting hotter. But if you look at my car, you look at my house, you look at the label of zaires, you look at all my daily choices come to you with think i would think the plan that was just fine. But im not running around saying and denying that the climate is changing. I dont need folks to run around calling people the. I dont need people talking about that we need to take our country back. When people say what to send my kids to the best schools, what does that mean . It typically means how many lack of brown people in the school. We are making choices they in and day out that are reproducing the value gap, racial habit. Giving the lie to the value data. And then there is Something Else i will try to bring it home. Are you all right . Im trying to stay close to the time. What is in addition to racial habit . I was thinking about this the other day because i was watching a town hall meeting on abc. Wait fear. Racial habits are nourished by weight fear. Wait fear is the kind of political fear, reaches beyond anxiety experienced by individuals, bigger than any one person. It is a deeply self collectively held fear shared by people who believe together someone threatened them them and their way of life. Wait fear isnt just simply the possession of white people. If a new inmate. Political fear takes fears based in narrow concerns and generalizes them and that fear can drive public policy, can cause racial moral panic. And about that fear of lack of male sexuality and what it drove at the end of slavery at the context of emancipation. Think about white fear and what it did in new york city in terms of central park. Think about white fear in the knockout games. Remember that . They started passing laws thinking that this gaggle of young black men were Walking Around randomly knocking white people out and it turned out to just be isolated incidences. But we have the New York Legislature passing laws and its not male. Thomas jefferson and the notes of virginia was panicking. White fear. In that moment he says i fear for my country as he is thinking about slavery. Abraham lincoln thinking about the civil war as gods punishment for the institution of slavery. Worrying about black revenge are the living daylights out of the western world still paying for via the black panther party, the black Power Movement scaring black folk. Black re