Long island, and all of his papers and stuff is there. Not many people had looked at it at all, so i really was the first guy to get in there, and it was a gold mind of information about him. Host professor steven watts and author of this, among other books, selfhelp messiah about dale carnegie. Thanks for being on booktv. Guest pleasure talking with you. Booktv is on twitter. Follow us to get publishing news, scheduling updates, author information and to talk directly with authors during our live programs. Twitter. Com booktv. [inaudible conversations] oh, thats much better. Good evening, everyone. And what a great crowd. Thank you all so much for coming out tonight. Im lissa muscatine, one of the coowners of politics prose bookstore, and we are really delighted to be here at 14th and v and sponsoring this event. I dont know how many of you realize we also have a book operation here in the store as well as the busboys and poets at brookland and tacoma. About a year ago, the own or approached us and asked us if we would help run his book operations, and we were ecstatic at the possibility, and one of the reasons was because we have such a sort of parallel, synergistic role in our communities with busboys, and we were very, very grateful for the opportunity to be here, to be able to bring books to many more parts of washington and also events like this one. So i wish andy were here. He was here a little while ago, he had to go off to another event, but this is very much the sort of event that busboys has become known for over the years, and we are extremely proud to be a part of. And the way this is going to work tonight is that our panel will talk for a bit, and then there will be questions from the audience, a mic will be passed around. If you have a question, just raise your hand. At the end of the event, all four of our guests are, im sure you know, very successful authors. Their books are right here. You will have a chance to get their books and get them signed if you wish afterwards. So thats the housekeeping. Maybe if you have a cell phone on and could turn it off, that would also be a good idea just sow it doesnt interrupt the conversation. And i want to just start by thanking april ryan who, really, this is her event. She came to us, she asked us if we would consider working with her to create an event like this and sponsor it, and we were really delighted by the prospect. We made it harder for her, we said, well, you have to have authors, people who have written about this subject. And, of course, in a flash she found not only authors, but great authors and friends of ours at politics prose who we so treasure many our community. So, april, thank you for making this possible. She really the driving force behind this. [applause] i just have to say that, you know, this is partly a shameless plug for her book, which is called the presidency in black and white. We, of course, hosted her event when it came out last february, i think it was. Yes, yes. And its a tremendous book. Shes too modest to say it, so im going to say it. It has just won the nonfiction award from the 11th annual africanamerican literary awards show. So congratulations. [applause] and i, you know, theres a lot of controversy now about whats classified and what isnt in washington, so im going to err on the side of caution and just say i dont want to reveal any state secrets, but stay tuned for a few more headlines possibly pertaining to that book. Just keep your eyes out for the news in the next few months. And then secondly and this is just a rumor shes got another one coming out at some point. And its in progress, and were going to have her back. Ill hold you to it. [laughter] so anyway, thank you, april. April will be giving a little more detailed introduction of our panelists tonight, but i do have to say just a brief word about them. Michael eric dyson is possibly our best customer. [laughter] he just rolled out a dollar figure that hes spent in the store, and i wont hold him to it, but hes got to be up there. Of course, hes a professor, an incredibly prolific author, hes written 15 or 16 books, i think we have one of his collections here for you if youd like it. So its great to have him. Special friend of our store, were so delighted always to be with him. Joy ann reid who we hosted just a few weeks ago. Her new book, i hope youve had a chance to read it. If you havent, youve got to get it. Its called fractured. Its one of smart itself books, honestly, about american politics, especially about the evolution of race in the democratic party. Fantastic book, so thank you, joy ann, so much for being here. What a contribution that book is. Of course, weve got it here for you, so come right up afterwards. And then lastly but, of course, not least, paul butler whos the author of lets get free, and hes one of the most respected civil rights attorneys in the country as well as a professor at georgetown law. We are so delighted also to have you, another friend of our store. So i feel, you know, very, very happy to be in such Great Company with all of them and with all of you. So they are terrific. But i just want to say a couple more things about april. Many of you know shes a very familiar voice on american urban radio, longtime commentator on american politics, been a reporter for more than 30 years and, obviously, in that amount of time shes seen her share of politics and politicians. Shes been a White House Correspondent for the networks since 1997, covered the presidencies of bill clinton, george w. Bush and barack obama. And i think that if you read her book, youll find that its a compilation of a lot of yores of observation a lot of years of observation and a lot of years of immersion in that world of the american presidency, and shes learned a lot, for sure. But i think at least from my Vantage Point what is most important about april is not the reporting itself, but sort of what she does with her reporting. She is one of 42 journalists assigned to the white house beat, but she has been intent on bringing news to communities that are also too often ignored and marginalized by the conventional news media. And over the years she literally has become herself a news outlet, a resource for millions of americans who might otherwise be left in the dark about how events in the news are affecting and shaping their own lives, their families and their communities. But i think a lot of these journalistic awards, we should be giving you a Public Service award. Really. [applause] [inaudible] and, you know, its not, it should be far be recognized at a far higher level than it often is, but you are making a tremendous contribution. And including doing this here tonight. To thank you so much for being the driving force, and thank all of you for coming and being here, and thank all of you for coming and being here, were delighted to have you. Thank you, lissa. [applause] i tell you what, im floored. And, i mean, any author tries to get to this great place called politics prose. So this is the owner. This is the owner. So, please, support her, and lets thank her. [applause] she didnt have to have our books in her store and have it there. I mean, everyone doesnt get to politics prose. And not only that and its true, you know that [inaudible] [laughter] and we want to thank her for hosting this and providing the books and hosting all of you tonight. And thank you for coming out. We want to let you know there is food and libation, so if you want [laughter] if you need a little nosh, a little drink, a little food while were talking, we encourage you, and we thank busboys and poets as well. Lets give them a big round of applause. [applause] well, welcome to race in america today, a panel discussion. Im your moderator, april ryan. And i want to move on down the line to my great panel. I mean, im in awe of these people. Im going to give short bios. I mean, you know who they are. Next to me, michael eric dyson, Georgetown Professor of sociology and author of 16, count them, 16 books,16 books including can you hear me now. Lets give him a big round of applause. [applause] thank you, michael, for coming. The great, the great, the great joy ann reid, the author of the new book, fractured. Im so happy for you. Joy ann reid is a National Correspondent for msnbc, former managing editor and author, again, of fractured. To be honest with you, many people believe, and this is an unscientific statement that im going to make, but im going to say it, i think youre one of the best reporters around. Im serious, and i thank you. [applause] thank you for being here. And seated at the end, the illustrious author, paul butler, former federal prosecutor and author of lets get free and currently a law professor at georgetown university. Thank you so much for coming. [applause] now, i want to, i want to start this off with something x many of us watch the news. We are consumed by the news and current issues. And right now issues of our culture, our time focus around race. And i cant help but last year think about a conversation we had in a car. We were in a car talking about race, and its a lot. Its more than theres a lot underneath the surface that you just dont know, and i hope that this panel brings you a little bit more insight and understanding as to whats really going on. Michael said youre scared of the truth. I put my head down, and i had to hold my ears, i couldnt take it anymore. This is a real dialogue. I want to start off with the fact that w. E. B. Due boys wrote duboise wrote the problem with the 20th century is the problem with the color line. There were frequent media assertions of a Postracial America after the election of barack obama. Meanwhile, earlier this year on a flight to selma, alabama, for the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday, i asked president obama after he completed his eight years in the oval office, would he consider america postracial or postobama . Now, listen to what he said to me. He said, quote i think theres no doubt that my election was a significant moment in this countrys racial history. I say that with all humility. And then later in his answer he went on to say. I wouldnt equate my election with seminal moments like the emancipation proclamation or the pass passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Those were massive changes in legal status that represented fundamental breaks with americas tragic history. He also said they were the pillars, the 13th amendment, the 14th amendment, the 15th amendment, the Civil Rights Act of the 1960s. He said those represented the dismantling of formal discrimination in this country, and theres nothing thats going to compare to that. And with that said, where are we now . Are we postduboise . In the next 16 months or so will we be postobama or are we postracial . I want to start with you, joy. Oh, thanks thanks a lot. [laughter] thanks a lot, april. Well, first of all, i want to echo your thanks to politics prose as well as to busboys and poets as well as to you, april, for bringing us all together. It is an honor to be here with this really great panel, so thank you very much. And thanks a lot for starting with me, really. [laughter] so, you know, i think when you talk about the country being postracial, i think that is a goal that the country cannot fully share. I think when you think about the United States of america, it is one of the most explicitly raceconscious countries ever put together anywhere. The formation and the foundation of the country was consciously placed into our founding documents that to be free, white and male had a meaning for your citizenship, and to not be those things had a meaning for your lack of citizenship. And the struggle to bring about the equality of africanamericans is foundational to the country. So i think it is, its interesting that the desire to be postracial, i think it really reflects very different goals and very different sort of psychic needs that prims and white africanamericans and White Americans, frankly, have when they think about race in america. There is a desire for transcendence, to transcend the racial path, to put it behind us, to put a coda on it, to somehow put a period on the end of that sentence and say we have now come past this point where race matters. But race hat marrieded has mattered in everything. Its been so explicit. And it used to be a consciousness on the part of White Americans about race that sort of drove policy whether it was jim crow policy, housing policy, who could live on this block, who could go to this school. It was explicitly race conscious. So we now come to a point in our history where i think a lot of White America wants to put a period on the end of that sentence and get postracial, whereas for prims race is something that africanamericans, race is something were living every day, when we walk through a store, when a Police Officer follows us. Africanamericans have no desire to transcend race other than to just be fully citizens, and that has never been allowed. I think for a lot of White Americans the expectation is to transcend it, and those are two opposite goals that can never be brought boo union, and so i think thats part of the reason we have so much discord. Lets go to former prosecutor and the litigation. And were seeing criminal justice, were seeing so much right now in the way of the visuals. And many people are seeing the inequity, the inequality in this nation that we have talked about more years, but now you see the visuals. Weve talked about the numbers, but when people see the numbers in print, theyre like, oh, wow, did you know that . Of course we did. We are from the commitment. Theres also an article, the paradox of the first black president. How does all that play into this postobama issue . Im going to agree with joy and respectfully disagree with dr. Duboise. The problem then and now was never the color line, the problem is White Supremacy. And White Supremacy has not been impacted at all. I love the president. I have an barack obama action figure on my table. [laughter] whenever i come home and someones knocked it down, i stand it up. [inaudible] i love the president , so i [inaudible] [laughter] but when he was elected, i dont think anyone expected that he would reverse 400 years of White Supremacy. I do think meaning slavery. Slavery, the old jim crow, the new jim crow. I do think people hoped that he would make Racial Justice a significant part of his agenda. And he has not. And because i have so much love and respect for him, its disappointing. Because if he applied his brilliant mind and his amazing political talent to Racial Justice as he has other issues like lgbt equality, immigration, trade, i think we could be further along than we are. So if we look at where we are now with black Family Wealth, when president obama took office, the average was 18,000. Thats the average net worth of a black family. For a white family, its 142,000. Black Family Wealth has actually gone down during the time that the president has been in office. White Family Wealth has gone up. And if we look at the criminal Justice System, you know, if you look at places like ferguson and baltimore, its something to think that the problem is bad apple cops. Thats not really the problem. The problem is criminal justice is also infused with White Supremacy. The problem isnt so much whats illegal, the problem is whats legal. What the police are allowed to do. And so in many ways when we look at ferguson, the system is working the way its supposed to work. So when we think about reform, that might be a mild way of thinking about the change that this country needs in order to truly establish Racial Justice. And just really quickly, you mentioned president obamas speech at selma. I think there he understood that. There he talked about the way that the Civil Rights Movement ott 60s had transformed of the 60s had transformed america. We need that transformation now. Thank you so much, professor butler. [applause] understanding that we come from a vantage of research and knowledge and reporting and sourcing, michael eric dyson, i want to ask can you, is it fair ask you, is it fair to pin a lot of these hopes on this president when it took 400 years to come out i mean, it took 200 years to. Com out of to come out of what happened 400 years ago. Can we lump all of this on this president . And should we look to the past to see who we are today and how we should go forward now and after hes president . Well, i want to say its great to be here with april, the great joy reid and the magnanimous and gifted professor paul butler. Look, of course its not fair to pin all of our hopes on one man, to put all of our eggs in one basket. But its unavoidable. Because we love him so much. Hes our guy. Hes tall, terrific, talented with a tall, terrific, talented wife and children. And they are the sparkling image of the projected brilliance of the black family which is an implicit rebuttal to the moynihan report about the pathology of the black family. In a narrow, heterosexist vein, but nonetheless, an important one. On the other hand, look at the humility of obama in responding to your question. Where he says, hey, i wouldnt put my presidency on the level of the 13th, 14th amendment, im not going to put it on the level of the civil rights bill. Now, most of us would be president , yeah, that was a greatest thing in the history of negroes ever, me being president. Yep, thats how it goes. So you can see that the man is exquisitely and consciously humble in the most appropriate fashion and in a refreshing fashion. If you juxtapose him to people on the other side of the aisle running now who relentlessly remind us of their billions i dont want to name any names [laughter] then he holds the trump card, so to speak. [laughter] now, as james brown elegantly said house and ever, barack obama is the product of paradox, is the purveyor of paradox and pursues a project that as professor butler said and ms. Reid said is one that is highly ironic and also disappointing to to this degree. It is not that we can foist hoist the entire, if you will, gravity and weight of our existence onto obamas slim shoulders, and yet history has done that. History has thrust upon him what Martin Luther king jr