Opening the building, why would the museum even help to organize such a conference . Well, the simple answer is that were crazy. But the real answer is that at the smithsonian, at this museum, scholarship is the engine and research is the lifeblood of the institution. Without the decade of research and academic scholarship as a foundation, there would be no National Museum of African American history and culture. So we know that we are tied so much to the work that so many of you do. So much of the intellectual and interpretive agenda of the museum has been shaped by the work of many who are participating in this conference. Thanks to this amazing array of scholarship, the museum is able to position itself as an discussion that will help all who visit find the rich, complex, and nuanced history of the African American community. But even more importantly, thanks to your work, this museum will recenter the African American experience, and use African American history and culture as a le
Because youre engaging and organizing which is capacity building, which is building peoples ability to have those conversations. And also to figure out how to act together, how to make each other strong instead of feeling isolated. And, you know, it is certainly true that when that legal structure fell down a lot of people sort of thought, well, thats taken care of. And it was only the beginning of a beginning. Well, two words. I mean, one is when clay said struggle, theres struggle in the macro sense and then theres struggle within movements to find a Common Ground that we can stand on together, right . Right. And thats critically important and it involves dealing with all the complexities that jessica just laid out there. Can i Say Something . Yeah. I think we have to remember the young people who are coming up, like through elementary school. Im not talking about teenagers. And the way they perceive not only children of color, but children who are white as well. Especially since we