Enter as white person, i dont have black experience. Are you committed to justice than ever then youre committed to this work, period. Thats what i wanted to say. [laughter] i think Langston Hughes instead better. In his poem, dream of freedom, he said this dream today, and battle back against the wall. It must be saved for all. It doesnt matter, whether you are black, white, red, black or brown. Your commitment to the values of this society. To the values of this society, which is of course, equality. I know baldwin, wrote a lot about identity, and one of the things that i love is, how he wrote about how whiteness came to be. You had to seize being german or irish or jewish. Often times the jewish identity is swallowed and the narrative that the white narrative has to be a narrative thats a ethic narrative down, we understand, each other better. Understand what, how irish people were treated in the north. Probably as badly as africanamerican people. They were not enslaved. They had signs who said no irish need apply. Boat sides are self righteous they dont listen. Theres no communication. How do we get some humility, and real communication into the issue. One side has the legal use to deathly violence. Its not equal. That is example. You tell me. What do you mean it was an example. The, when youre communicating you listen and you ask questions, you dont throw accusations. Okay, let me say something. I dont think they were throwing accusations, speaking from the knowledge of being africanamericans. Let me say one thing to you. As someone from baltimore, the first thing, many people see when i walk through the door, they dont see me as a White House Correspondent they see my color. They dont see us as people. And it is who i am. Who everyone else is here. We can walk with all the legal degrees and supreme court, but you are still, in some parts of this world, and country, a black person. And they call us other words. So it is per se vif. I hear what you are say, killed like you to watch the videotape of this, and see if that is not self righteousness. Withwith all due respect. I dont think that anyone is being self righteous. I think that when you you said the people are very angry, and righteous and the blue lives people are. What one might do is not look at moment in time but look at the evolution and why these things occur. The black lives matter young people feel as the poem that you read, back up against the wall. They have seen their comrades shot, for nothing, and the woman, being humiliate and he had a baby in the car. I dont know how you can justify that. Weve had so many cases on your side but on the police size i do understand, they are the people we call when were in trouble. But we do not need folks who have a license to kill because they have a badge. Too much has happened. You have a little old man the man cant hardly walk straight and they have given him a taser and a gun. And he shoots somebody in the back. Osar grant, he said i mistook my taser for a gun. But, we have to look at it, Oakland CaliforniaPolice Officers, in the 1960s were recruited in mississippi, alabama, and, they went to get the most, to co lield with the black panther party. That is prescription for disaster. I agree. I think communication between parties that are in dispute is critical. One of the reasons im delighted to see so many, is because the credit belongs to those who are willing to enter the arena. Well never make progress. So i believe that communication between black lives matter and those that are concerned about Police Behavior and those who represent the police are very important. Key, though, is we can make changes. When you look at whats happening today, we need Better Community policing. We need increased training, we need cameras on every Police Officer and we need Police Officers, to be responsible when they to do something wrong. When they express the rage of grieving over our families, the baby was 15 yearsold, and, 4yearold daughter, its okay, im here. Fouryearsold trying to comfort her mother to be, to express in that moment and to have someone say im being self righteous. Thats our reality. This is not the same, this is not say, that we have some moral position. That we cant be wrong. We cant be open to being convinced overwise. Says what are you doing . The officer says, the park closes at 9 30. And his partner comes around the cruiser, and they both lean in, and says it closes at 9 30. And he says, we dont want any trouble were leaving right now. I could have lost him right there. Thats not self righteous nice. All in by that by how many thousands. Because we hear about them, and we wont hear about baby boy unless he tells it. We all have a story of a young man, that gets stopped, and who has been, those stories dont make the stats. Heres what i want to do, and lets have a real session right here. Now, i know, from baltimore, i have been racially profiled and stopped, and, i want honestly here. How many minorities have been in a situation, with police hands are going up already. This is reality. I thank the gentleman for his statement. Hold your hands up high. Whats so important about this, every time this happens, we find ourselves in the moment of having to convince others, that it is real. Ask how many white people . No. No. No. Hold on. Hello. I have the floor. Now since, hold on. I hear you. Now that you say you want to know how many white people. Okay, lets do that. How many white people have had situations, that gentleman back there who said we were self righteous. Because you went through the same thing. Yes or no. Okay. So, but do you understand, that, the reason why this is being, were having this conversation is because theres a discease in america. In my home area. I just met him tonight. One related about what whites do and you focus on the word justice and again you did, and, a few minutes ago we talked about the equal justice initiative, and, if you havent read just mercy and you dont know about the work,shim you. My students, in every class at Community College reads his book because it is the essence of fighting, not just mass incar ser raising but the injustice that exists in our society. It is documented. And i encourage you to learn more about his work. Justice initiative. This is a not paid for commercial. [laughter] but, im getting back to one of the questions, that i thought was a question that we were going to address tonight, that maybe we didnt. It ties in with the discussion of technology. And the technology, that we didnt discuss tonight and the technology of cameras, and, the cameras, that the body cameras, that police are taking, and using, and, some, in some police departments, in baltimore, more and more police are going to have body cameras. So im just interested in your reaction to the pros and con, twhoarve. S to talk about it. The pros and cons of body cameras, in this world of police, and minority community. Let me say this. The accountability component, when it comes to policing, is now more evident because there is a call for body cameras. Its not required. Theres the issue of the cost. But the bottomline is, we are now seeing, in the black community, we have been talking about it for years. But now you see it and you understand our truth. Thats not whatever you said it was, sir, being self righteous. Its the truth. I believe that that is one of the best pieces. Theres an evolution, when it comes to race. And i believe thats one of the best pieces that is coming out, in 2016 that we see the videos, this young woman the boldness, to live stream after her fiance was shot. It takes lot to hold back the tears. To see your brothers, that could be my brother or father, and my uncle. As a community, i speak for a large portion. We are there, brothers and sisters. So, i think that piece,. You had something about what happened in baltimore, the stor yes, but theres a story in baltimore that people dont know about, that they are talking about. Everybody knows that of freddie gray and six officers not being convict and we did have a Police Officer who had shoot individual while os ground. And two other Police Officers came and testified at the trial as to what he did, and he was convict. And that hasnt been covered. Justice was done in that case. It has several components the police testified against another Police Officer that did wrong. The victim survived and was able to testify, very fortunate. Basically white folks have to be willing to believe, white folks have to be willing to believe that all police are not good. You will get people who tell you, its like, they drank some koolaid. But, they are good. No, they are not all good. Some cities you have 18yearold. Your frontal lobe is not fully developed, impulse scroll not fully developed, until you are in your 20s. Not sure. I noticed this in the beginning, and, how are you going to be able to communicate. Thank you so much. I would have never known. I have something thats going into this conversation issue, from facebook. From a young lady, and she said, this goes into the campaign. She says why does donald trump think it is acceptable to speak, on. He is pandering to everyone and he put out a full page ad, when the central park five were accused of the wilding. They werent even guilty. Hes he is winging and nodding to undecided white people who could not dream of voting for a racist. Or at least a blatant racist. Im talking to you. Hes talking to them. So, i mean, trump, you know we all,. [applause] we have to, and you guys have been wonderful and you have stuck with us tonight. Have you enjoyed the conversation . Have you really enjoyed it . Thank you. The floor is yours. Come close. Were not going to bite you. If you could share with me, your perspective of how obama has dealt with the issue of race. Before we start, its a very complicated situation. Im going to say, everyone has their differing opinions. Who would like to pick up this cross. [laughter] can you set the tone . Well, thank you. This is my book its called are we better off . In the book i talk about president barak obama and race. What we have to remember, is that he is a president of all america, not of black america, that he did have two years, where he could have done a lot. He didnt maximize that opportunity. And then he got these crazy republicans were obstruction nists at every turn. In fact, even as he was elected, there was as pass tor, in arizona who was praying for his death. When you pray for the president s death, the f. B. I. Comes to see you. They let that man get away with that. As the president i give him a b. On race matters, something closer to a c. , cminus. I i wish that he had done more and there are opportunities, there have been, and, i dont think hes taken advantages. Thank you. I think i call him a confidence man. Oh. Selling the snake oil of hope and change. I. I hear greens. I wrote it. I cant take it back. You have a lady standing up and shes trying to see what it is. One way in which i can crystallize that point is at the town hall meeting after the shootings of sterling, and christmas steel, and, the dallas Police Officers. You saw the a. B. C. News, disney, town hall and the way president barak obama engaged, in that conversation around race. Had little to nothing to do with black people. He was in, that the moment, the paperback edition no youre not kidding. He was the interpreter in chief. Trying to convince white america, of the reality of racism of the reality of inequality. So he didnt change the frame. He gave us a lot of hope, a lot of rhetoric. But it turned out to be snake oil. Do you believe that a. B. C. Read that conversation . I believe it was both of them. I think, president barak obama was standing his ground. And i think, i do. I think that he he i really do. I think he tried to, and he has never the same experiences, as many of us, as africanamericans. I tried to convince a good friend of mine. His parents, his father was into the slave. Did not come here. Totally different experience. He was trying to may noor through this entire thing, and did he make mistakes . Yes. But, i dont know very much people who havent. [applause] im happy to speak on president barak obama as a professor, im delighted to evaluate him. I give him an aplus on anger management. Wow that was a good one. That was good. [laughter] now we can all agree that one. In the spirit of time ill stop right there. I could evaluate him that was great. I tend to be less critical of president barak obama than many others because i think you need to evaluate him in two categories, not one. Legislation, and then rhetoric and i think what happens, people look what the he has said and when he did the beer summit, when he dealt with race he saw his poll numbers drop. And as a politics, and they want one thing, a second term. He made a judgment. When you look at his initiatives i give him a lot of credit. If congress, and professor mentioned a congress, if they had gone along with many, we would have reduced many of the ghosts of jim crow that exist today. We would have reduced many of those. I have the last word. Thank you so much. Im going to say this. You can clap. [applause] [laughter] but, now, for me, im a White House Correspondent, been covering president s for 20 years. But i say this to say, it is hard to grade a president and judge. It takes about ten years. But one thing i will say about this president , race and policy make particulars will follow him. Whether it is in the oval office or whether it is post oval office. There is an evolution when it comes to issues of race. We have been dealing with this for hundreds of years, and for anyone to think in four years, that this will all be solved is mistaken. But what i will tell you is, assessing him, there are things that he could have done, and things that he couldnt do. One thing, i know the issue of race, did guide his decisions. If he had not done what he did, he would not get a second term. This is something that i put in my next book. [laughter] i know. Hold on. Shameless plug. But there was a president who integrated the u. S. Military, yes. Truman. Yeah. He integrated it, and he could have been one of the greatest ever but the reason why he wasnt, is because of that because of race. Many people are saying, this president could be considered one of the greatest but one of the only reasons is race. I will leave you with this. I thank you, hold up your book. Thank you all for contributing in this great civil conversation, third installment. Thank you, and brad, c. Span you are all that. Thank you all and there are books for sale, get your books now. We are signing right now. It will take you across the country, and book parties, where authors talk about their latest works. It is the only National Book network that focuses on, books. Television for serious readers. Now the importance of sound and video in politics. This is a little over an hour. Mitchell schwartz, andrew frank, and steve bar, they learned the craft on mondales campaign, served as my role models. They were the answer to diva during that summer and schwartz was a lead advance man, and, quick humor. That was selfserving enough. I had to read that. Mort claimed he was his mentor. He got four pages, but was a great teacher, just to be clear on that. Josh is a good buddy, and a good friend and a lot of people worked with him and me and we all work odom accurate particular politics together and josh has written a really interesting book that most of you here have bought and he would sign everybodys. T. V. Has really changed politics, and, theres just a quick couple of examples of that, in 1960, the debate, they said they thought that nixon had won. But when they watched t. V. , kennedy had one. He was younger, and, shaven, and, nixon had this shadow. Throughout now, the portrayal of the candidates through their campaign stops, has made a tremendous difference. There are constant examples, our former governor, schwarzenegger, when he wanted to abolish the car tax, he did an event, where he had it destroyed. Do you remember this . It was such an extreme example and he was saying were going to abolish the car tax. Im not sure what that had to do. Bill clinton, who mort and others, did more work, had something where he was dedicating a monument in utah or designating land to be under the terms, it was limited to how much building you could do. He didnt put up anything. What he did was set up a nice wooden table and there was a gorgeous view so that was an example of letting the picture speak for itself. You didnt have to build anything. You the beauty of this wonderful wilderness area behind him. Doubt this election. What do we remember . Not a ton. Donald trump. Boo. What he would do is coming in, his huge plane that was supposed to evoke, thats how he byes around, air force 1. Or when he announced and he came down the escalate tor, so, the theatrics of campaigns are more and more important, and josh stayed with it and became one of the experts, at it. And learned a lot. On his own became one of the best and stayed with it and worked for the clinton administration, and this book is just wonderful to read. We all know all the people. But its somewhat overlooked part of campaigns, and its so important. Picture says 1,000 sand words. In a day and age when the average soundbite is five or six seconds, the pictures of critical. People like josh and others, maybe have an out sized influence, whether that is good or bad, im not sure. But when it is for the cause of good, and its a wonderful thing. Hes going to be inteufd by todd, a recent citizen of l. A. You guys moved here, two years. Todd came from washington, dc with his wife, and todd was the head of the New York Times bureau, in washington. He now works for variety. Hes fascinating because hes one of the best political writers, and its wonderful. He writes really well, and is so a quick plug, it is their first time being there, his books has been an institution here, and larchmont boulevard is the epicenter of this whole thing, and larchmont area and you see people all the time, and its just a wonderful thing. But bookstores are hurting. More are buying books at amazon. And burt, who is a very accomplished attorney, bought this bookstore, in order to save it from becoming coffee shop. And has built it up and he does these salons, please get on his list, and they have everybody who writes books, and speaks, it is wonderful. He has several times a month and hes added tremendously to the fervor and stuff. So we thank you, wonderful thing i give you the great two some of josh and todd. Thank you. I just to want say, i work for vanity fair. For my past employer, i was the l. A. But never the Washington Bureau chief. [laughter] thats all. But because to say television and internet. So welcome. Its good to see you josh. Th