Columbia university. He writes teaches and lectures on africanAmerican History medical and Public Health history urban history and the history of social movements. His book is entitled to infectious fear politics to season the Health Effects of segregation published by the university of North Carolina press in 2009 and an expiration of the political economys health urban geography and race between the late 19th century in the mid20th century but period which encompasses the jim crow era and the bacteriological revolution from me at the end of antimicrobial therapy. To his right is professor chris lebron. He received his ph. D. At m. I. T. And is the author of the awardwinning book imani perry, race and justice in our time. He has written pieces on race in america for the New York Times philosophy column and a stone into his right is that those are Nell Irvin Painter who currently lives and works in newark new jersey has an author and historian. She is the edwards professor of American History america of Princeton University and has authored several books including the history of white people africanAmerican History in its meaning and Sojourner Truth a life of cymbal preach is also a professional painter for a she works digitally and manually on artist books, most recently on art history by nell painter volume 27. Conceptual art. Professor painter received her ph. D. In history from harvard and her mfa in painting from 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 i was thinking we could begin by thinking about the current state of affairs and if we just think about the last week we have a pretty dramatic way of thinking about this moment. In the past week we have encountered the death of two black women in Police Custody under chapman who was only 18 years old and sonia bland. Surely before that the mass murder at a manual church in charleston. We celebrate it, thats probably the wrong word but remembered the anniversary of eric garners death and so much has happened to the text in between these moments. We have also had the data come out in the last week that 40 of black children live in poverty. Thats the first absolute number of black children living in poverty. We have black unemployment remaining at twice the rate of white americans etc. Etc. 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 . I will start. I think there are some people in the audience who shared with me having lived through the 1960s and having gone through the 60s and then coming back around gives you a real sense i mean if you want to be pessimistic about it, it hasnt changed that much. Things have changed a lot but there is 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 please bear with me because im going to read repeat something that was said and 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 feel that somehow more black people are being hurt. I think we are simply hearing about it and in a very sad and perverse way that is a step forward i suppose. My real point is that we have to find psychologically, we have to find means of coming to terms with the atrocities of 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 step 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 somewhat on what nell had to say. A lot of people look around at macy black men in the white house and they see a couple of rappers who are worth half a billion dollars for purging that basketball players like lebron james being called king james and they see look, things are different. The one thing that is important there has been a lot of change for change and progress are two different things. Things can change but it doesnt necessarily mean he gets better. They can look different than they used to look like but that doesnt mean necessarily have moved forward to. I think we have actually had some progress. I think you are right about change but i think there has been progress. My comment addresses the people who say things have changed therefore so thats who the comment is addressed to and the second thing refers back to the name of this Panel Politics than the name of crisis and id like to differ a bit is by definition a crisis is a puncture or disruption of the normal. Usually its to the detriment of whoever is the subject but this has been normal for black folks were really a long time, for centuries. The only difference now is maybe now some folks are listening. The question really is technology has made it possible to hear more. If you look at the statistics police are killing more black people. This kind of thing has been the story of black america but Technology Helps us see it. An interesting way ever personal the crisis is for white americans some sense. People are finally realizing this moral depravity that regulates how black americans americans are policed and controlled and the distribution of goods. In that sense may be what we are getting is possibly a moment of genuine hope through a lot of tragedy where we finally have a home nations attention nonstop. The question is whether things change from here. I think theres something to be said about pressing on the Pressure Point in not letting up every time one of these atrocities happened hopefully it will stop soon but every time a tragedy happens we say look this is consistent with the history and we will probably have more time to talk about 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 but i will stop there. You know i cant say no to you. 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 is clearly been in a state of decay for the past several decades. Its a question for governance. I think thats where the true change will happen and i agree when we live in the moment from atrocity to atrocity can prevent us from the real work which is thinking about the structural but need that which is often quite more dispersed, much more pervasive and insidious as well. I think going to the question of where to go from here, we have to think creatively which we are doing and continue to think creatively about some of the structures. Just for example i dont know why i was surprised when i heard that the president was the first sitting president to visit a prison in detroit and immediately after my surprise, why would i be surprised . We dont live in a democracy where people in prison, love people who arent imprisoned but have been imprisoned cant vote. They dont represent todays political logic so you might go to the smallest town in iowa hoping to pick up delegate votes but why would you go to the supermax . We have to rethink a lot of our assumptions and 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 a piece of that is not that we have become increasingly aware of these atrocities but people are responding in new ways. Im interested in to what extent are you optimistic isnt the word that ru hard and andis is suggestive of a possibility for transformation or does it strike you simply mobilization . What is your perspective on whats happening . If i may i think this moment of mobilization that we have is incredibly impressive. I think some of it is technological in the sense that im not sure in Human History we have had such a Pervasive Network communication and it came at a time where if you remember the period before twitter or before the internet what were the three channels you got for your news from . We have faith citizens journalism. You remember what they said about the New York Times. That wasnt the only newspaper. I do agree. There was is robust rise of the digital age. We are at a moment where there certainly is organization and intense awareness and we were speaking in the green room before. I was just kind of surfing around and i went to the hero of justice that keeps all the school data on criminal justice etc. We had have very little data about Police Killings for example. What we do have indicates there has not been much changed over the past 10 years which means what we are seeing now has eyes been going on. The difference is we dont have an epidemic of Police 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 the human body up their recording and there can be repercussions but i think thats where it is. We are realizing that power while it does not cede anything willingly is also not insurmountable either. Its a moment of hope i think. I dont want to be pollyannaish about it or naive particularly after the news of this past week but looking at the statistics how many other people died in cells and we never knew about it . I think there is some reason for hope. Nell is pointing out that black newspapers historically have been an important part of getting the word out that theyre Something Different about this moment and that is ironically technology has acted as a democratizing factor. Almost everything this ram has a device right now and if something happened you could get surveilling right away. You can go home or you can get home and let the rest of the world know like that. That is new and that is different and thats very powerful and thats something that i think is cause for hope. Theres also something we have to be cautious of. There are two things. One, surveillance camera viewer verse especially when you dont have the power. Everyones clamoring for every Police Officer to have a camera as if black communities are not already over surveilled in the first place. This is something for going to think hard about. What would it mean for Police Officer to have the camera walking through the neighborhood . When we are recording Police Officers we are not recording them just as a matter of courts. We are catching the men acted something but what would now mean to be recorded just crossing the street walking to the corner bodega. That may be known for their activities that you are getting in to get a pack of lifesavers but then there something else. I want to go back to 9 11. When we saw the two towers come and the news played over and over and something odd at least happened to me. The first time i was horrified but are the 50th time i started a detached fascination. Look how the building is falling. Thats an awful thought to happen after you have seen it on the loop 50 times the visual reaction is to be doubled so there something we have to be cautious of. Just because these videos are hitting the web that by itself cannot do the work that is needed to do. There is a way to get im only currently and i come back every six days to news on facebook and theyre somebody new. I hadnt heard about sonia bland and whats this . Every five or six days theres another video of a guy getting shot and the person gone missing or person being beat. When that happens over and over again we have to take care that we simply dont say, it has to have the effect of motivating people and thats the danger of it aint so pervasive that at some point thats my more cautiously pessimistic perspective. I think those images and i agreed we can easily become used to a whole host of images and when he speaks about 9 11 that loop stand itself for the general public, circling not this audience but for the general public the looping quickly became whipping up a frenzy fires, the sentiment of the patriot act a whole host of things and with that loop being the background drumbeat so i completely you dont have to be entirely pessimistic to understand that so i agree with you. On the other hand i think having this awareness is a painful thing we all have to go through. We have to make sure people are stating their name and you cannot run from these images. They wont be relegated to a secure blog like we will make the Mainstream Media take a look at this. For all the talk of our bucket list as he calls it im not sure it was on his agenda to visit a prison in 2015 when he was first elected or even the second time he was elected. We have moved the tape that much further. Im not particularly disparaging of the present and im not wholeheartedly in favor of everything he has done and i think we very much have given him credit for taking initiatives to visit a prison. I think he genuinely wanted to do it, dont get me wrong but i think his this awareness was raised by all the work that people have been doing for years before he was elected and now we are at a point where power is starting to acknowledge some of this. Another thing, what we see through the internet through interconnectivity is very important but i really want to stress on the psychological side and on the medical side the importance of action, a doing something. And that doing something can be in the street and it can be giving money and it can be part of an organization. It can be writing. There are many ways of doing something but speaking of someone who has been through this and knows how long the struggle lasts, that we have to first have meetings of doing something and then step away and returning to our work. When i say our work i mean your work and your work and your work. I dont just mean political work. For some people it will be political work. For some people it will mean running for office. For some people it will be writing reports that well get to the fbi or the bureau of labor statistics. There are so many ways of doing it but we each have our own work and if we only talk to each other or talk to the world, to the web about our anguish we impede our own work and we are not simply black people and anguish or in anger. We are also writers, scholars, artists, whatever else it is we can do. You need to do that as well. The point that you make about the psychological resonates with me with perspective talking about 9 11 because one of the things, one of the consequences people talked about afterthefact is that those who watch the footage over and over again were more likely to have poster breivik stress disorder than those who were on the ground and there is a way that the witnessing can become a deep wounding if we dont have the resources to do something. Just shifting gears a little bit one of the critiques that has emerged about who around family mobilized with respect to gender, with respect to gender identity, Sexual Orientation etc. And the primary critique being it has been much more common for people to mobilize around this gender, heterosexual black men than other categories of people subjected to Police Violence or any kind of deadly violence. We see that shifting. This is a prime example of a gender privileging and you feel strange knowing that especially i grew up in the 1980s were we were thinking the extension extinction of the blackmail, there was an entire political discourse but nonetheless its still what it is. And thats a can of worms it really becomes ultimately nonproductive. You start favoring the hetero normative but he. You end up finding yourself close and company with critiques of matriarchal black families since well before the moynihan report and embedded our whole line of thoughts for which we should not subscribe at all. I think the other thing about it is it quickly puts us in a state where we could talk about my brothers keeper. They have supporters and we have detractors. I am very skeptical of it. I think it puts us in the mindset of gender segregation cognitively which translated to policy which is also inappropriate. Its attacked and i dont think it would be put up if. Your brothers keeper . I also agree. I think whatever has happened for examples an awful thing. I like to think that the equalizing of our technical fields and i do think its a positive thing whether that changes here. I certainly like the hopes of that and one of the things to think about this what is happening in the background, the opening up of the idea of marriage. We have American Families were American Families dont tend to look up a used to look in terms of competition so im hopeful that i can change but i think its one of those things also that the black and Brown Community cannot fit that agenda forests. Im not sure its always very good. Part of it has to do with gender norms. Who can be on the front lines of the state. Thats not the right way to think of it but i think we have to be especially sensitive to who we speak about. When i spoke on the issue of privilege and black male victims so we have to be more attentive because its basic. All black lives matter and when we say black lives matter its not a catchphrase for black men, but other folks. In early may to put that back on the agenda and thats why its important that we have the darnell moores of the world word the arising helping us here is their way out of it. Ultimately its about politics and about the action doing but we have to think very closely. There is a discussion that has to be offered and thats important to have those voices as leaders of the movement. In some ways its distinguished from me about this moment there are clear black activist better at the forefront in refusing to set aside issues of gende