>> hello everybody. welcome to hue-man bookstore in harlem. city. i am the director of the pacifica radio archives, the oldest and largest collection of public radio program in the united states. going back to 1949. this holds 55,000 real to reel masters document the progressive left from the last half of the 20th century. it's my job to do preservation and present ability of those recordings. and sort of inspired the book that we're going to talk about tonight. just really quick am here to introduce joanne griffith, the editor of the book. but i also want to let you know that the purchase of the book here, you'll get a free cd which is 11 hours of archived recordings, as was the participants of the book. joanne griffith, i was so lucky to find a meter in the archives, is an international broadcast

journalist, having worked with bbc, npr and the pacifica radio network. our work over the 17 years in broadcast journalism has been dedicated to the theme of the african diaspora. it was a perfect blending of chileans skills as a journalist and my inspiration of bringing the audio to print forms that were here today. so thank you so much for joining us. i'm going to hand over the mic to joanne griffith within carry on with our guest panel. thank you so much, joe when. [applause] it's lovely to see greg. we have been going backwards and forwards for the last three years i guess it is now, talking about this project, framing this project and writing the project and editing the project. me crying and greg saying they had to get it finished it and i'm saying i don't like you.

but now it is done so it's lovely to be here in new york and d.c. you and thank you for helping me put this together. i am an international journalist and editor of redefining black power. before we get into the conversation and the discussion tonight, i just want to give you an idea of what redefining black power is about. this is a project that was born out of the archive in the pacifica radio archive. and very specifically one particular voice which i will tell you about in a moment. i was introduced to the archives back in 2007. i'm a journalist for 17 years, worked at bbc and npr, pacifica radio network. i love sound to any kind of sound i absolutely love it. i love the way the voices can make you feel. i love the way that when you sit and listen to really good piece of radio, in terms of what you

call a dry moment. when you're sitting in your car and you can't move. you have to say what happened? and you have to sit and wait. that's really what i wanted to do with my entire career. but specifically looking at what happens to people from the african diaspora. i am not from harlem. i'm not from anywhere in the united states. i was born in the united kingdom. my family is from the caribbean, from barbados. any other barbadians in the house? no. me and my mother and my husband he was kind of honor he. he married into the family. my parents actually move to the uk, they had me and my sisters. and it's that kind global sensitivity that i bring to my work. i want to tell a story that people from the caribbean from africa, from the uk, from europe, from here in the united

states. i was fortunate when i stumbled across the archives, my boyfriend i guess he was at the time, and i said i want to go visit a radio station. i stumbled across -- i had long been a fan of amy goodman. i was introduced to brian in the archives. and literally i walked into the room that's probably half the size of this room that we are in here at hue-man. as you're walking, bear in mind you needed a jacket that was more well-suited and whether you fear. i walked in and on every single site, every seat here they were books, but everything outside of the fault there were tapes. 55,000 of them. big reel to reel cassettes in crisp white cardboard boxes.

all have numbers on the side. the numbers didn't mean anything. but when you pull them out and you see the names on the back, malcolm x, rosa parks, so many of those voices that you cry at and say listen to me. listen to what i have to teach you. don't keep me here in this box, take me out, learn from it. one of the recordings, one of the first recording that brian actually leading to was the inspiration for this book was a recording by fannie lou. most of you know about fannie do, right? so fannie the really is that one voice that cried out so loudly that she couldn't be ignored because she wanted to be heard. and it's a result of fannie may that we have this book called redefining black power. brian wrote the foreword. this is what he said.

about fannie lou hamer. at the time i was unfamiliar with fannie lou hamer. her story is one i hadn't been taught in school. her voice was like nothing i'd ever heard before. a small studio above an ice cream store with the voice of this woman telling about our work for african-american posting rights and her leadership role in the mississippi freedom democratic party. her tone was soft and gentle with its mississippi drawl and cloak your phrasing, yet it sparked with determination. it was like the heartbreaking voice of billie holiday singing strange fruit, but there was no sadness in it, just direct, brutal honesty. i heard the pain and promise of the civil rights movement in those headphones.

her words cut like a dagger as she described the horrific beating she endured, on the orders of a prison guard, two black inmates struck fannie do with weapons, leaving her blind in one eye. of one of the men she said, he beat me until he was exhausted. sitting alone, the dam of my emotions broke there in the corner of a modest office. this interview has never been transcribed or published. nor have countless others like it. if you've not heard that recording of fannie lou hamer, i employed to reach out to the pacific greater archives and listen to. it's like nothing you've ever heard before. but what we want to do with redefining black power is to look at the obama presidency, you know, we were all excited, oh, my gosh, it's going to be an african-american president.

and even though i'm from the uk, my mom is from barbados, we all felt like he was going to be our president, to. we liked the brother. we will claim himcome but really he belongs to all of you. you had a chance to go. we didn't. the election of barack obama, whether you support him or not, have transformed americans political and social life forever. it has transformed the way the world sees the united states. places like where i was born, it's like a wow could we perhaps see a black prime minister? i'm not holding my breath for that one, but isn't going to happen here? who knows. maybe it could happen in another country as well. so what we really wanted to do was be defined by power with the take the voice of someone like fannie lou hamer and malcolm x

and rosa parks and dr. martin luther king assuming other people. so every people talk about this informative moment in african-american history and american history, that they can never talk about barack obama without talking about all of the black freedom fighters who fought and died on the road of having an african-american president. before introduce my panel, redefining black power is about discussion. in this book we had seven-inches that were conducted over two and a half years, all of them from the perspective of activists, activists from the civil rights tradition, activists from the legal system. activists from the media, the investor complex to people who literally spent their lives trying to make things better for african-americans in this country. one of them, who really,

probably one of my favorites, i never knew my grandparents, and he kind of felt a little grandfatherly to me in his very professorial way. and his heritage in barbados, too, so that kind of -- but doctor vincent hardy, how many of you know him? doctor vincent harding was speechwriter for dr. martin luther king. he wrote that speech beyond vietnam in 1967, the one that he delivered right here in new york, april 4, 1967. when i sat down with doctor harding, his office is similar to hue-man bookstore u-turn and you bump into books. books above, books below. but this is a scholarly man. he's an activist. he was an activist in his 23rd he left his home.

even when using army, no, this is not the way. this isn't my life is meant to be about the he took to the road. he and his wife, rosemarie, now what i transition to produce a i couldn't have done my life's work without her. so when i was talking to him as a journalist for me it's important to get the definition and make sure we have the definition right. because we have the definition wrong and everything else to talk about is not going to make any sense but it's not going to be accurate. so one of the sub questions, and all these entities and here i have to sat down with people face-to-face and had a conversation with them. and asked him about his definition of the civil rights movement, because this is kind of where we started our conversation. and he's very grandfatherly, professorial way, he didn't quite can take my hand and tapped it but he may well have done. he said, the civil rights

movement is convenient journalistic terms. but the longer i live the more i am certain the civil rights movement is an absolutely inadequate way of talking about this great transformative movement that many of us were deeply involved in an that many of us continue to be deeply involved in. i prefer the movement for the expansion and deepening of democracy in america. chew on that one. and so whenever you say civil rights movement, i'm going to be hearing the movement of the expansion of the deepening of democracy in america. now, if i'd not done any other interviews for this book i could just sat there and chewed on that for the rest of my life. the movement of expansion and deepening of democracy. and that's what this in our own small way is hoping to be a part

of it is also having -- new hinault people in the movement at that time wasn't interested in the election of an african-american president. that's not what this was about. he said is about making sure everybody had a meal, that children had an opportunity to be educated, that people -- he said it was about human rights, it wasn't even about civil rights. so these conversations was just the starting point to what will do tonight is to expand the conversation. you are a part of that conversation. here's the book, read, and you put down. know, with this book and with this project we want you to read it, we want you to listen to this cd, 11 hours of audio of people from history, of conversations i had with the people in this book. and we want you to add your voice to it too. because just like how we're able

to sit and listen to the conversation, so has the foresight to have with fannie lou hamer, so that we can be inspired by that today, we want that when people look back on his voting history, that they can hear from african-americans exactly what they think, what we think about this age of obama. solo but later on i'm going to take exactly how you can get involved in that. but i do want to get into a conversation tonight. i have to say, i'm a little bit sad because the tour is almost over. i've been away from home, me and my roadie, my mom, she's been with me on the way to the but each case from los angeles to san francisco to oakland to washington, d.c., and even here in new york, we have an all female handle, each conversation has been different. its focus on something different. education, activism to talking

to two people who are part and the snake movement right back at the beginning to talking about women and how they are portrayed in the media. tonight i'm going to turn over to the brothers so they can have their say. i am so pleased and happy and excited and just be on a throne that we have two phenomenal gentlemen with us tonight. we have award winning film maker byron hurt ticket pricing some of his work which he talks about barack obama. [applause] talks about, they do sides of african-american -- i will get byron to talk about that more. we also have the presenter of lesser black, duke university professor and so many other wonderful things, professor mark anthony neal is joined as all the way from north carolina. [applause] thank you to both of you. for joining us tonight. i'm going to come and sit down now and i will give byron the

microphone. will have a bit of a conversation and will open it up to you guys to join the conversation the. because this is, i just asked that we have a comment to me, please raise your hand. i will see. no shouting out from the back or anything like that. please wait for the microphone to come to you, and then you make a comment. we want to make sure everyone can hear you and the audio is recorded at will. so when we get to the point raise your hand and make sure the microphone is with you before you make that comment. is that cool? excellent. it's nice to sit down. gentlemen, i think with all of the events and also what we've done with each of the people that are indeed in the book, michelle alexander, washington talk about the media, talk about emotional justice come we also

started talking about the 2008 campaign and when it looked as though, this brother may actually just do it. so i want you to take a back to election night, november 4, 2008. byron, where were you? how did you feel at that time? >> i was at an election night party that was hosted by the activist and writer kevin powell. and it was somewhere in new york city, and my wife and i attended the event, and the atmosphere was completely electric. i mean, it was like being at a club. it was like being at a party, and it was an election, you know, experience. it was election night sort of viewing of the results. i remember being better and standing next to kevin and watching the monitor and watching the different states reporting, the exit polls

reporting, all of the different numbers that were coming in. and for the first time really starting to believe that yes, it could happen, that barack obama could be elected president of the united states. and when the announcement was made when they declared the winner, when they declared president barack obama, i remember just standing there in just a total shock, just looking at the monitor and looking at the various images of people celebrated across the country, feeling the vibration and energy in the room. i mean, people hugging each other. people who don't even know each other hugging each other. everyone really for me that night but under a member also it spilling out into the street of new york city. and people standing in the middle of the street praying, holding hands and praying. and just being overwhelmed with a ton of emotion.

>> you were sitting the kind of nodding your head. how did he go down in north carolina and? >> so, in the fall of '08, i was a visiting scholar at the university of pennsylvania. supposed to be there three days a week, basically sunday to wednesday. and i didn't want election night to go by without being with my family, which you were still in north carolina. so i flew home to north carolina that day just to be home that night with my family, knowing that i had to fly back the next morning. and i still remember when cnn called the election right after 11:00, my oldest daughter at that time was about nine to our member going to wake her up and tell her about. i think we might've woken up the little and also, but if you remember about that moment was my own parents, my father had passed in favor of 2008. and that often said that when they voted in the primary i was actually voting for the vote that he couldn't make. he did register to vote into his

life until 1976 when jimmy carter ran for president, and then they were both from george. that's the first time he felt compelled to be engaged in the process but by the time barack obama ran, you know, he was dealing with debilitation's that would allow him to be engaged in the process at all. of course, he passed in favor of only. my mother was also suffering from dementia at the time. the thing that struck me the most, the folks at naturally wanted to sit down and communicate with about this election, i couldn't talk with. my last memory was flying back the next morning, sitting in the airport, those who travel in airports, it's always -- tvs are on all the time. i thought it was so interesting that every tv in the terminal was off. as if somehow they didn't want to process what happened the night before. >> interesting. you can't escape the tv screens

anywhere. but how did come as blackmun, the black panther after doing your work, seen in the world, did you feel when that happened that finally, brothers might ask to get a break? did spark that kind of, i don't know, not quite exiting but maybe things will be easy. but conversations you were having. >> i never felt like i would get a break. i never felt that. on a personal note i felt like i needed to get mike gameplay. because i was inspired by barack obama game plan. i was inspired by his ability to achieve the impossible. and to overcome the odds and to do something that had not been done before, and you in such a brilliant, strategic campaign. that was the one thing that i thought about.

i do also remember initially walking through airports and walking around as a black man think to myself, okay, so this is what the inclusion feels like. so this is what it feels like it if you like, you know, you have some level of power and privilege, and you can feel like you are part of, as opposed to disassociate from. you know? undyed remember feeling wow, this is a really empowering feeling that i've been missing out on four, you know, almost, my entire life basically. so that was one thing. i did sort of look at blackmun different and i did feel an initial sort of feeling or sense that black men were looking at ourselves collectively somewhat differently. but i did learn that that really did depend on who you talk to, it depended on who you spoke with, where they were in life

and how they felt about themselves and how they felt about their own personal power. i think there were a lot of black men who still felt locked up, still felt like barack obama did necessary but -- didn't necessarily represent them. they have been disenfranchised, been in prison. so the election for them was meaningless. that a lot of black men, black folks if you like in the barack obama was president of the united states he was still not the person in charge, right? so i think it really depends on who you talk to, what blackmun are you talking to, where did he come from, where do they reside, where the educational level, what the class background, where do they fit? and so i hate to speak for all black because every single blackmun in the gym is a different, and that you have a different experience and had a different response. i can only speak about mine and speak to the brothers i know.

>> i had a different reaction to the election in that regard but in my mind barack obama, and those had to run, the most exceptional negro ever. and if the criteria for being the first black president is to be the most exceptional negro ever, because there is very little opportunity think that this would have a dramatic impact on the rest of us in that regard, particularly when we consider the nominal mediocrity of the 43rd minute came before him. -- 43 men who came before him. >> good point. when you talk about the number you -- they were disenfranchised, this is something that michelle alexander, she wrote the new jim crowe in the age of colorblind, she speaks in this very point, and when i asked her about her memories of election night, she was in ohio at the time, which is where she lived.

she talks about how, she felt that she was elated when she cast about what she tells the story of as a reporter, to join oh, i saw a black been handcuffed behind his back on his knees in the country there were four or five police officers around and laughing, joking of shooting the breeze. actually oblivious to this mansion in existence. i just remember seeing him. want to the election of barack obama mean for him, this man in the gutter? a comment on that point. depending on where you said, what class you're in, whether you could vote or not as a black back on you may felt quite differently. so there are, just make a comment on that underpinned as a black man when barack obama won.

>> i worked within the prison induction of complex. so i went to work the next day. that eating when i dashed it didn't sink in. it was like a surreal. the next day when i went to work, i was like you are solely. oh, wow, privileged class. calling the shots at the same time, like you, i was like well, you know, is he really part of pulling the shots or is he just a figure? do you know what i mean? i didn't feel totally inclusive but it was good to have symbolism of blackness in the

white house. and also i thought that it was time for us black men to pull our pants up. know what i mean? coming in, talk eloquent or what have you. because he was a symbolism of that. that's what was going through my mind. >> thank you. yes, this young man here. >> so, in terms of on election night, i was at college, and most, mostly the opinion that i had, i worked on the campaign,e< was that it was a great symbol, incomplete.

change, it didn't seem from sort of the small things, the small controversies that it happened over the campaign, that hea÷e] wasn't going to make sort of a leap of faith that is going to get back up by the larger black community, where the state of the reverend wright issue, and how he responded to that. and presenting out of speech but not realizing that those words had been spoken and even admired, such as from dr. martin is the king but also the issue of course was the whole young muslim woman, in order to say, in order to try to eliminate the muslim, not taking the stance to say well, let's put a cut and dry here, this is who we are. >> as a young african-american young man though, how did it

make you feel? did it feel like you have more swagger in the world? >> in my personal opinion, being the way, each person is different, being the way my parents raised me, i always felt i had the right to be included so it was important to me that it allowed not what he did enabled me to go out and communicate with others that they have the right to be in the room as well. and be able to amass as you said, and amount of power allowed a body to work for a greater role. >> thank you. it was interesting when we were at the panel in los angeles and talking about race in education, specifically kind of young, black men come but there was a grandmother who was in the audience and she said, she felt that she no longer had to lie to her grandson, that he could be whatever he wanted to be. she said in one stroke for election of a black man, she

said regardless of whether he was any good, regardless of his policies were, she could save look at him, he did it, don't let what anybody tells you, stop you. she said it was powerful just for me to feel i no longer had to lie. byron, you do a lot of work with young men in kind of helping them understand gender relationships and treating young women with respect. how has it impacted on them, the type of conversation perhaps they're having about themselves, the eight and nine-year-olds that you, you work with? >> well, i don't work with eight and nine year olds a lot. i just had the recent expense of working with a group of eight and nine year old boys in high school elementary school in brooklyn. and i found them to be very intelligent, curious, thoughtf thoughtful, sometimes bored out of their mind. you know?

unit, being talked to by three older men and one to go to the bathroom and go to the restroom and take a break and that sort of thing, but i didn't really make any parallel or connection to barack obama. i think what struck me most about those eight and 90 all boys is potential that lies within them to become a barack obama, or someone else. not necessary barack obama, but to be a filmmaker, to be a lawyer, a doctor, a professor, to be whatever they want to be. and what happens in between the time they're eight and nine years old and the time to become 17 or 18, and potentially go off to college, or go off to jail or go off to wherever they go. and thinking about how those traps are still very well in place for them. at how much attention has to be given to their nurturing and the

maintenance of their hopes and dreams and what the want of themselves. what they believe themselves to become. i think barack obama remains a real fresh symbol of what they are thinking of becoming. but i think in the world, in their communities and our committees, the pitfalls are still there. and i am concerned that many of them will become who they want to become because of all the pitfalls. >> one of the pitfalls is what's happening with our education system, you are a man who works in education. statistics are used in the book and i was checking them again today, the 2010 report, the 50 state board that black males in education, and using the academic year, that the graduation rate, the young black men was 47%.

there has been one since then but i was looking at a graduation rate here in new york city where only 25% of black male students are graduating from their regions to plumb and statistics get ever more depressing kind of as you go down. what is happening in our education system that our black boys and potato, girls not doing much better but our black boys in particular doing so badly? what's going wrong? >> there's lots of reasons, and i know at least one teacher in the autistic or private address isn't better. but the reality is that our young boys are criminalized within these institutions. i'd like to reference a work of one my colleagues, he just released this great report that talks about the deficit way in which we talk about african-american male achievement education. that with all these numbers about how they feel, why they

go, the percentages how they feel that we never had a conversation on when you talk about that 44%, what is the 56% doing to be successful? why are we paying attention to that stuff as a way to model successful models for other african-american students? so it always creates this kind of dynamic. and i have two different experiences in terms of this age. i have a nine year old daughter and a 14 -- flakes with a schedule that i can spend sometime in the classroom with her. the young men that are in the class with her are out of control. and on the one hand is a kind of out of control communism you almost want to shake a few of them, that kind of love. but at same level of looking at the environment in which their surviving and you talk about what is a system where their primary young white female teachers who have been socialized to fear the very young boys they're responsible for teaching. and then i look at another model

of private school called a nativity school, indoor which is all black and latino men, a lot of blackmail to you and latino teachers so they see themselves they are and it's a totally different process. so part of it is okay, how do we create a system and which were no longer criminalizing our boys, but we understand that affect boys and girls learn and very different ways, right? researchers out there. young boys like to move. they are very into motion. they can't sit there for laundry to time. you all remember what that expense was like, or you have young sons. and other aspect of this of course is when you look at how we socialize black boys and girls, we are here in a bookstore. how many boys by the time they're eight or nine years old have everything other black men read books? how many of those young boys

actually are ever in a situation where a black man has read a book to them? so of course these books become a kind of ministry for them. what are we supposed to do with them? what does this have to do with this? which is why say what you want about someone like j.c. his book was brilliant because it is, in fact, the kind of book that i could use to sit downxx with a group of 10 or 11, 13 year old boys to get them interested so they started and we can take them to the board, they wouldn't take them to all those kind of places. >> can i just say something? just to put a button on my story about working with those eight, nine year old boys. at the end of our workshop with them, we asked all of them in the room what they wanted to be when they grew up. i'm sure you have had this expense. fasb jory of them, this is happening in the most every situation i've been in in working with boys and young men

for almost 20 years now. most of them wanted to be an athlete. most of them wanted to be a rapper. most of them want to be a hip-hop executive. most of them want to play football or do something in the world that is entertainment and sports. i don't think anyone of those young men, one of those young boys said they want to be president of the united states or to be a councilman or wanted to be, you do, a superintendent. >> or a filmmaker. >> or a filmmaker. [inaudible] >> it's still that, we still have to get beyond that notion that we can only be these very limited things. as black men. we can be so much more than being an athlete or an entertainer but i'm not saying there's anything wrong with the. i was an athlete myself and network in some ways in the campaign industry, but i think

we still view our capacity at being very, very narrow and very limited. and you know, i think that's one of the things that i'm working to try and change. and i think marc is also working to change. >> that's one of the things that troubles me a little bit aboutx how iraq obama's image have÷ñ circulated÷ postelection. because now his become sort the dominant model for how to be successful, not all of our young men are going to double to fit into that model. blackness is diverse. black expression is diverse. dust out of which we do the things that we do our diverse. and so the thing we can suddenly packed that up in some little small box called barack, and/or for us to be successful, so when the brother talks about, a lot of, there was this whole movement about bow ties and stops taking these kind of

things. a lot of these young students were directly correlated how they dressed to the capacity to succeed academically. then i'm looking at these white kids who are coming into my class at 8:30 a.m. and pajamas of flip-flops on and they're having no problem thinking that because they're dressed this way that they can't also be as exceptional as they think they can. >> just wait a moment for the microphone to make its way over to you. thank you. >> gentlemen, thank you so much. i'm an english teacher. i worked as a tutor of young men in private schools. the parents, they usually have mothers and fathers together wh@ are paying their tuition.@p@@dhh they might have a partiald@@ $ph scholarship. @ h h i asked the first question, the are usually not

though they have high iqs. you can't be in the special program unless you have the highest iq. so something is wrong with that picture. our young men and women face cold, ugly racism. there's no way that those young men just getting scr low grades in their courses. i've called on the parents. i've gotten $100 from them. they say we went to the liberation bookstore. we got black books. we read it. they excel. because they have refused to read the white books. they are all white books in the green but i didn't have the courage enough to on this is the i was proud of them. they say we don't want to read all white. so the boys, all of them are scholars. their grades went up, and one

school, president nixon's grandson was at that school. the children went from deep and as up eight and b's in the work. and i don't write for people but they do their own work. work about go through the thought pattern. but the principle, the headmaster walked in to the room, walked around, stared at the one black male who moved from d and f up to in a. to intimidate. and so his parents won't discuss it, one of the few people who take your looking at racism. you haven't mentioned that yet. that's what's holding a lot of our children back. he won a scholarship. he went on to west wing. a private school. he won the pride of architectu

architecture. then they gave a second want a white child. >> that's a good example of, you know, someone, we kind of say, you do, it's like we show them the way, we teach them the way, we give them the books, we give them the tools. just like you say we have here at hue-man bookstore but other point, is it as simple as african-american boys or black boys, is it as simple as them just facing racism in the classroom? we will go to this gentleman here first, if we can just take the microphone. >> my thoughts are, and i think chris put it well when he said a brother who is a rap artist or an entertainer or intensely, he's celebrating, you know, but the brother he was getting the

straight a's, speaks proper interest and carries a certainly, he's not as applauded, you know, in certain come in our committee. and i think that seems to be, i've been hearing about this for the past 20 years, the guy he was good with his this or, you know, he is an athlete. he celebrated by his peers. could you just be too that. the guy he was an engineer or a lawyer, he's only celebrated when he gets to that spot. but if there's the potential, you know, for an athlete, from grade school to college, youc?q? know, he celebrated. he knows that this is the route to go. he gets the accolades, but the brother who was in high school scholar getting straight a's, he doesn't get that much attention. it's only when he starts making the six digits, now he has arrived. could you speak to that? >> thank you.

>> i was going to ask real quickly, what marc and i both do is to try and create conversations, to help large numbers of black men redefine what it means to be male. what it means to be masculine. how do you reach masculine success, what makes you, what did you masculine credibility, right? so i think what we all have to do, and i don't want to speak for you, but i think what we all have to do collectively as a community is to figure out ways how we can successfully redefine masculinity. because for far too long, just like you spoke of, the idea of what it means to be male, what it means to be masculine is not positive, it's not progressive. it's all about the physical and not necessarily the cerebral.

and if you tie this back to barack obama, one of the things i do think is very important that we see, that we see images of our men who use their brains, who use their minds in order to achieve and to be successful in whatever field that they are in. i think that's very, very important. ..

>> i do think that rocco donna does, on some level, and he does have a standard. his family says a standard of excellence. i think that they do not allow their children to watch tv until the weekend. those things are very important. i think that as a community and a culture, we have to raise the bar and we have to demand excellence, not just from our young people but from ourselves to. how many of us can do better? how many of us can become better at what we do? how many of us could go to work tomorrow and put extra effort in? how many of us can come up with a game plan that is five to 10 years out that is going to change our life or our situation in life? we all have that ability. i think barack obama demonstrated that masterfully.

now, we also have to do the work of changing our communities in the same way. >> i want to say something about the racism peace. if you are asking whether educational institutions are racist, i would say yes. if you would to be asking me -- i would say that they have been largely socialized in certain kinds of ways. i have a nine year old daughter. i like to refer to her as little sophia. any of you have seen the color purple. she is very much in charge of herself on what she wants to do and say. i have seen the situation where white teachers have been threatened by her presence. your kid is not doing anything, but they're watching your kid more than they're watching the white kids in that situation.

they have already then socialized to think that there is something pathological about your child. this is not necessarily dumb acting out. what they are acting out is what the larger society has chosen to depict our children within that context. in taking this to the next kind of level, what this means as communities and parents is that we have to be in the face of these institutions all the time. we need to have a presence in these schools that as parents we walked into the schools and they say oh, my god. what did one of these teachers do or say? i realize that many parents are not in a position to do that. if you are in the working class in your working 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., that's real. that is where you have to really be a process of the community and be engaged. we are the -- where are the education professionals in the

black communities who can be advocates for a? >> the statistics in los angeles is the second largest school district in the country. even though in the schools, the schools are 80% of african and latino. 80% of the teachers are whites. it was having a detrimental effect in terms of education and. >> in chicago, black and latino men, they got a bunch of press a few years ago. a lot of those boys were not college. is it something you did with the curriculum? know, 90% of the teachers are black men. these boys are thinking what you're in seeing black men in the classroom as teachers. they are seeing them as fingers. they are not just seeing rappers and ballplayers.

how do we intervene into those kind of discussions? conversation about someone like [inaudible] jay-z. you don't necessarily have to be the wrapper. you can be the entertainment lawyer. you can be the head publicist. you could be the videographer. we could go on and on in terms of the way that folks are successful, living professional middle-class lives on hip-hop who are never near the microphone. >> blackmon any armor -- black men do not have any armor.

they hesitate on shooting any other nationality but your children because they know the average blackmon does not have a good name. whether you are black or white, once the world knows that, things will change. as long as we sit here and talk and talk and talk, nothing is going to happen. you don't have any threat or power. you need to be ready to stand up and let people know that you cannot do this as business as usual. you're not going to get anywhere. you are not going to have any respect. >> thank you for your comments. let's take a couple of more. i would like to get into -- >> i agree.

[laughter] >> my mother is sitting over there, so i am dead. [laughter] >> the level of violence that is inflicted upon young lachman and young black girls and women is largely because they feel like they can get away with it. >> the pathology is complex and is very real. the level of disrespect that you are talking about -- it is very true. i do think that we have to become stronger as a community and as a voting bloc we need to

demonstrate that we are not going to accept the level of violence that is being inflicted upon our community. whether it is young black men or young black girls. i can appreciate your sensibility around being able to mobilize and have armies. i would like to see something like that happen myself. to be really honest with you. i do not like to see are people being slaughtered. i understand that even though i do believe in nonviolence, i preach nonviolence, i do believe in it, but there are moments where i feel like the only way that people are going to respond is if we show them that we are not playing games.

do we have the resources, do we have the capital, do we have all that it takes to do that? i do not know. i do know that we have two respond in a stronger way than we have been doing it. if we don't, it is only going to continue. >> and we have had models of that in the past. when we talk about groups like the deacons of defense, even when we use that model, we cannot think of it as a singular way in which we can respond. when we talk about organizations and organizing ourselves, that is multifaceted approach. we also have to focus on organized methods within institutions. >> i thought it was criminal when william jennings said the only way to end poverty was abortion. i just feel that people should not be able to -- why people

should not able to say those things and feel comfortable walking down the street. [laughter] >> i'm saying that -- the only way you can say something like that is when you feel that there will be no repercussions for that. who is going to stand up for its? there has to be some level of fear -- real fear that your words and your actions are going to have some consequences. i think that is really important. >> and we also have to look at -- if you can come forward. thank you. we also have to look at, and this is something all three of us had discussed, when you have people like 45 year old rapper

tooshort, describing in his video how to sexually assault women. now, he is black, and he is giving so-called fatherly advice to a huge audience of young easily influenced young men. that is not a white person doing it. that is one of our own. let's deconstruct that. >> so anthony shaw, the wrapper too short, he is engaging 45 rapper.

a popular magazine allows him to do a video in which he gave a fatherly instruction -- in his words, middle school and young high school students on how to turn out e-mails. he gave explicit instructions on how you push them up against the wall, you then lick your finger to lubricate, and then put your hand in her panties in order to wed her. those are the explicit instructions that were offered. as the editor said, i did not see it and i apologize. on the one side, if were going to be real about this, the same way that we are going to hold a newt gingrich or a rick santorum accountable, we have to hold black men accountable also. if not, we look hypocritical.

you set it all right there. i think it too short's comments are really indicative about what men are teaching about violence against women. too short is the latest person to be caught on videotape providing those kinds of instructions. based on my working within the marine corps, working within the u.s. army and air force and with the football programs, educating boys and men, preventing sexual violence and talking about this -- i know the this is an attitude that is pervasive around the country. in white communities, asian communities, everywhere. it is a masculinity problem.

there have been women for generations who have been working to address it and to get men to own up to our sexism, sexual violence, own up to our battering and emotional assault and to do something about it. but also pleading with men to work as allies -- non-abusive men to work as allies to create some change. to challenge people like too short. to challenge other men who are espousing ideas that we produce violence against our girls and women. there is a coalition. [talking over each other] >> mark and i both signed on to that project. or roomy as a male, i think it is very important for men to see other men and young boys to see other young boys who stand up and speak out against this

strongly. the challenge sexism right there when it happens -- to confront the violence when we see it happening, when we think it is happening -- when we know something about it. that is one way we can begin to change the culture. from what i understand, i don't know too much about it, but too short has begun to retreat. has he not? he has begun to retreat based on the feedback and response. >> based on the fact that folks began to wonder. this is the thing. listen to your point, bright? let's just use this strategy is the last resort. what did we do before we didn't have the drop squad? you all know what 44% stands for? 44% of the women in this country who were sexually assaulted and raped are under the age of 18.

consider that number for second before you start blaming this on r. kelly. with that kind of dynamic, first it starts with an individual petition and then it moves off the color of change with 55 signatures -- 55,000 signatures in a petition. it creates this coalition that will be a national movement. if we are talking about protecting our girls, we need to project all girls. the strategy and mechanism that we are using could be pushed back in terms of media racism. this is the beginning of the organization. the drop squad strategy is the last resort. what are we going to do before that point? before we talked about what it means to be in the room. part of the fighting over the last four years has been we got

in the room, but we don't know what to do in the room. including does it mean electing someone and then not helping them. you can't expect him to do it because he loves you. >> that is the point that all contributors make it he said yes, we can. not yes, i can. we need to push them to be as great as he can be it. we have a paralysis of analysis. he said that he will run, but he needs the backing. now that he is there, where is everybody else?

he got scared. he would look around. there were about 1000 people who work within the government administration. and he said he looked around and he thought, where did everybody go? where were all the people -- what happened to all the people who were out there, grassroots, knocking on doors, social media campaign, where did everybody go? we have been left alone. i would like to let michael common. you have been waiting very patiently. i do think that the brother in the back and the professor are both correct. his approach has to bexx multifaceted. i have been gazing back andpr forth between redefining black power and human.oóowow right now we are at the stage in

which people go in different directions and they have to take where they come from -- the things that they have assembled along the line in terms of expertise to bring us to a greater good.óóóó i decided at the time in which g came along that i went away --o but not with my brother over here. i went to the united states air force. that wasó my choice, and itñoñ worked well for me. in the context of the 1960s, 1970s, and going through the movements of those times. >> thank you, sir. can we take the comments of the until you got to that -- >> can you hold the microphone closer? >> until you got to the point where you got to the point where he said there is not much racism

in our schools. the example of this is the failure of too many of our children. yes, the parents needs to be a part of this when they come home. when they come home, make sure they do homework and read books and whatever. but we have a tendency to make excuses. i know your next comment was that you're not making excuses -- [laughter] >> but i'm going to refuse that. eating back to what the gentleman sat in the back -- we all remember the gentleman who was defending his home out in queens. those i telling kids came on his property and threatened to kill him and his mom and father and everybody else. what are the father due? he said he is going to kill the father that was defending the family. i agree with just gentleman that we are too timid and that we --

if we didn't have the ancestors that we had, we wouldn't realiz; that we are too comfortable. [inaudible] if it made you happy, you could come out for the hue man bookstore bookstore meeting. i'm not going to make excusesúc for men because they were not taught. our history is that the white man has been molesting our women, our girls, for years. okay? they're looking at the weight are men came from -- that background. and we have a lot of closet

pedophiles, yes, in our own community. but because of everything that is going on, the whites -- the mother is left to raise a child. i have one boy, one man, and grown daughters. i used to have to ask my -- [inaudible]. once the void gets there, they're gone. they don't take them to the basketball games, they don't take into the theater. my husband was actually a pool player. we need some real -- >> we need some good examples. for some of you who are fathers and the audience, is it fair with this lady is saying? our husbands or are fathers just

absent -- if we can take this gentleman's comments. >> two parts. versed with regard to the issue concerning doing more. it is my belief that we have neglected the understanding that malcolm and martin came to that the problem is not just black. it is universal. white people have discovered the leaders of the new age. they are available to become a coalition. we are sitting up here consistently enamored with the need to concentrate solely.

my skin color is one thing, some of the else's in color is another. we need to get over that income to the appreciation that this is our measures about people -- not just black people. i appreciate the fact that there are a whole bunch of fathers that ignore the responsibility of being a father. that young man who first spoke -- and i understood that in order for me not to -- to make sure that it was not going to be my responsibility -- first that he was protected, second that he could grow. it is necessary to understand rules of engagement of society. i think to my pleasure, i have been successful.

>> let me brief you if i could please. >> you brief the question that obama looked around and said that -- [talking over each other] >> it was actually president obama who turned around and said okay, the election is over. the administration has started. we are here. where is everybody else? i think that means us. >> did in obama this band -- didn't obama this -- >> we need to stay organized in our own communities anyway. >> when he became president, did he disband organizations and groups that helped them to become president?

once he got into the white house, he disbanded all across the country? >> why should it stop us as individuals? when we need to be told what to do by the president? >> i'm not saying that we need the president telling us what to do, i'm just curious if you know why he disbanded? >> it was the end of the election campaign. that is what all campaigns do. they pack up and they go home. but it is still incumbent on us as individuals that this is stop that is happening in our communities. this is what i will do to try to change it. that should not be the presidents job. i am not an obama defender. but it should not be the president's job to tell us what to do within our own communities. i will open this up to the floor. do people feel that they were abandoned by president obama after the 2000 election? >> if you are to have a network together, [inaudible] why would

he be disbanding? >> that was a system to set up to get him elected, not a system to set up to help govern. part of what joanne has suggested is that we should be proactive to govern. julianne malveaux, i believe it was, the journalist talked about that conversation. most of you have heard this before. the conversation that philip van dopp had with president roosevelt. i can't do it unless you make me to do it. when we think about civil rights in this country -- johnson,

texas, and dixie crap, he was to the right of the republicans who was only on the ticket because that was the only way that kennedy could win the election -- the closest election in the history of the country and until 2000. when jfk got killed, and johnson clearly didn't support civil rights, he had to. because there was a political will to force them to carry the water. how do we get barack obama to carry the water for these issues that face us? whether it is no child left behind flash race to the top,, we could go on and on about the kind of policies that are allowed in this country. they did not enforce them out there in terms of our issues. we cannot expect our national organizations to do that kind of work either. >> i want to say quickly that i

believe that after barack obama became president of the united states, most of the people whom supported him and yelled and eyes their efforts for him, they went home and laid on the couch. the tea party woke up and went to work. they attempted to take over. i just reinforced what mark said about not sustaining all of the energy and momentum that was created by his campaign. do you know what i mean? i don't know -- i'm not sure -- i'm not familiar with what you're talking about in terms of obama disbanding his campaign headquarters around the country. but i do know that barack obama's team and his cabinet have been working to try to

sustain that momentum and reach out to their voters and their constituency -- to reach out to the fundraisers [laughter] >> that's a good point. but i think a lot of people, most -- the vast majority of people, have stepped back and watched someone who is charismatic enough, smart enough, to do all of the heavy lifting on his own. we sit back and watch them. they have absolutely no desire to see him succeed. they want to see him fail. they won't see the democrats fail, a black man fail, they won't let people and america to see -- this verse blackmail president -- that's what they

want to see. >> i know something from the previous conversation where there are advocacy's communications move. [inaudible] >> we had a long conversation. she said that she and others did not vote because in their opinion, whether a politician is black or white or somewhere in between or something else, that they are a politician. politicians will do what they do. politicians want to be reelected. politicians need to raise money to be reelected. something that she said that was really powerful -- she said, barack obama is the new crack. we have people hallucinating. he is the new crack in the black community and poor communities. what he meant by that is pretty

much echoing what the gentleman here was saying. barack obama is not the messiah. he is not the savior. he is one man who is trying to do the right thing -- but he is a politician. we need to not sleep on this, so we cannot hand over our agencies to one individual. he is beholden to [inaudible]. and we're trying to see how that is working out. they're not exactly friendly and receiving him with orb in arms. -- open arms. we are not out there saying that he is doing his job. what is the job that i'm supposed to do? i just wanted to share that.

we have a couple of comments your. >> [inaudible] i for one have always had motivation. [inaudible question]

[inaudible question] >> i'm sorry, sir. could you get your point? >> one second. >> i don't want to hurry you, but i just want to be mindful that there are other folks who want to make a comment. >> [inaudible question]

>> [inaudible question] >> [inaudible question] >> [inaudible question]

>> thank you very much. i like the quote that politicians are not humanitarian's. i will be using that. there was another comment, i believe, at the back -- no, no. you're good. were actually going to begin to conduct this -- can we talk to you at the back first, please. he is coming to you with a microphone. thank you all for being so good about waiting for the microphone. >> in reference to your statement that you made about [inaudible] >> yes. >> if you look at barack obama's administration, they're trying to move him in the direction. if you look at what he did when he spoke at the congressional black caucus, totally

reprehensible what he did there -- >> is that when he said put on your walking shoes? >> he was disconnected from the black community. we can pretend that he is including us, but it really is an illusion of inclusion. do you know what i'm saying? the brother has a formula for the green economy. he gets kicked out of the administration -- >> the interesting thing about van jones -- do you feel that you are more effective within the administration or out, i asked him. he said listen, whether i was in the administration or outside, it mattered to me what needs to be done. bogart was the guard was where i am, i am still going to continue to do that work. and i think that was a very powerful thing that apply to all of us. we don't need a green light to

be able to told yes, you could organize. we can do that. >> he knew that it was going to be printed. heat -- he is a very smart man. >> to believe that a president who is articulate -- all the things are going to be coming from him -- guess what, it's real simple. >> it's an interesting point as well. please give the microphone back to brian. >> i had a conversation with a washington columnists. he was talking about these same press briefings and the number of african-american journalist as opposed to the number of white journalists that were in there. he was saying that -- it was

actually quite difficult. one of his colleagues was actually having a really tough time at the beginning of the administration getting into those white house press re- things.. -- briefings. it is we, as black folks and journalist, if we cannot get to the table to ask our questions, it becomes difficult for everybody else to do that as well. we do need to be at the table. there is another comment just down here at the front? we are going to take some final comments from our panel. >> the title of your book

"redefining black power", -- [inaudible]. the black army, the pacers, and now barack obama. we didn't have black struggles and [inaudible].íi÷iíi now we have barack obama. now we have political power. is it to your [inaudible] -- to your title, "redefining black power", are you saying that barack obama being president is a new turn and quarter of black our? >> is actually the second point. i feel like i should give you

background to how we got here. there's a collection called defining black power which has now come acts and doctor martin luther king, who wrote in part with others. we could be here all year forever and it is difficult to say that these are the people that signify black power. with "redefining black power", what we wanted to do was mary that continuum is doctor vincent harding talks about. we don't want to talk about president obama without also making sure that we pay amongst two [inaudible]. and all of those people who really pave the way for barack obama. even with folks like shirley chisholm. these are people that we just don't talk about. barack obama was the first to run and win, but he was not the first to run. we really wanted to make sure that you talk about the one and

the other. personally, "redefining black power", to me, is how i define my power, which may be different as to how you defined it. some people are natural leaders and some people are natural organizers. if that's what you are, go out and do it. but we don't want is for people to say that you are african-american, your life should be dictated by high unemployment, low graduation rates -- that is not all that we are. we talk about the 47% of young black boys who are graduating. what about the other 53% who are? why are we not talking about them, and why are we not producing models to replicate their success? "redefining black power" is about marrying all of those traditions and talking about all

of those traditions in tandem. we are also saying look, within all of our communities -- los angeles, washington dc, baltimore -- you take your power. you say this is what i'm going to do with it. the longer we say that it is somebody else's fault -- his fault or her fault that i don't have a job or am not married, we are handing over our power to all of these people that we thought so far to have. it is so important -- if you leave with nothing else, leave with that. if you leave without anything else -- saying starting tomorrow, i'm going to be there for a young man whose father is not there. i'm going to bring a young girl to pick up some books at the library that reflect who she is. i'm going to take young children to a theater or i'm going to hook them up with people.

this is the documentary that byron made. we have so many resources whether it is books or theater or film or blog posts we have all those resources. we just have to make sure that we actually share them as well. >> there is a free cd from the pacific radio archives that you can purchase for 1 dollar. he met t. want to make thato common again? please hold the microphone. >> how would you say that we effectively hold barack obama lot of backlash for that. how do we effectively hold him accountable?

>> the problem was the style in which he offered a critique in which he clearly resonated less to do with power -- and there were people who considered it a personal affront. what is very real is when we think about mainstream media in this country is that we have absolutely neglected that there has been a left critique of brock obama. it is just a substantial of a critique is the right party. as an example, we would not know that there was a left making it could take a brock obama. that said, part of that is the same way that any of these folks make their positions accountable. you write letters, you show up in their offices. you consciously tell them that i

am not giving you money this month because you are not representing what i do. white folks do this all the time. when we think about ralph reed in succession to the rise of george bush, george w. bush, as opposed to his father -- folks in churches, these are the folks that you need to vote on. these are the kind of powers that they follow. we need to get serious about organizing. it is like watching black people on tv for the first time. you call all your friends. you say, who in the community has the color tv? so our response to barack obama's election is that we were so exhilarated that we did not take into account that there is

another part of it. getting him into office as the first part. organizing the way every other political group does. you're right. they don't respect us. but before we talk about the arms federal, they need to respect us in a political context. santorum and romney say whatever they want to say about his because they know that we don't ever speak back to them politically. so it doesn't matter what they're going to say because they don't have -- we don't offer any retribution for that. >> do have a comment that you wanted to make? >> i think mark's point was very well said. i think that they are not going to respect our concerns and issues if we do not vote -- if we do not vote in numbers. if we can't vote. if we are disenfranchised as voters and, as mark said, if we are not serious and organized as

a voting bloc. we will not be taken seriously. >> real political power in this country is on the local and state level. and we never come out for those elections. >> but i do hear the criticism of brock obama's administration. i am also critical of the administration. i am both inspired by barack obama, but i'm also reminded that barack obama -- his administration is facing a level of hatred and the tree all and disrespect that makes me want to defend him. i think it is a complicated relationship that we have with brock obama. i think it is very nuanced. i think it is a mistake, as you said, to avoid the voices of people on the left -- the organizers, the nationalists, the people who are doing community work and are concerned

about issues that are affecting us on a daily basis. i think it is a mistake to ignore those voices, and i think it's a mistake to for barack obama not to hear us. the last thing i want to say is that mark talked about how teachers and schools are racist and are enacting their racism against our young boys in school. based upon how they have been trained and socialized and how they have been conditioned to see black men is dangerous and criminals -- write? barack obama is being treated the same way. in congress, among his peers, on capitol hill, the governor of arizona wagging his -- her finger in his face. the public displays of disrespect for him -- the chipping of his presidency,

reducing the value of his presidency in so many different ways. that is the part that, for me, is a reminder that we do live in a deeply racist society. a systematic and is working. we all have a lot of work to do. every single one of us have a lot of work to do, we have to continue to organize, we have to continue to raise our children -- raise up our communities and the leaders as mark talked about. >> just to try and this night to the past night with the panel, do you think there is an issue in terms of not allowing power in our own communities -- allowing black men in black women, as both of you spoke to, the definition of masculinity being that we are partially repressing black women, and does

not allowing them to reach their full potential because we are afraid of what is going to occur with their power being unleashed in the community -- and by hypothesis, [inaudible] -- seeing ourselves as accepting some form of it subjugation of black women. we could be enslaved ourselves. until we allow the women in our community and the relationship between men and women to have powerful re- coursing through it, we won't be able to illuminate our own in slavery? >> [applause] well stated question. well stated point. i don't know if i can answer it,

but i will say this. i think that we as black men have become more secure and ourselves. i think that we have to do a lot more introspective work and figure out who we are and figure out our power, and i think we have to divest, we have to let go of the idea that in order to be powerful as a man, we have to be in control -- that we have to be in charge and we have to make more money than our wives or our partners. that we have to wear our success on our sleeves, where our sexual conquest as a badge of honor. we have to stop that brand of masculinity and become more secure in who we are and recognize that the women in our community are valuable, they are important, and that we all have women in our lives whether it is her mother, sister, daughter's -- were important to us. the women we are involved with -- someone's wife or daughter or sister and someone who is loved and cared about.

we have to begin to view ourselves in a more human way as men. we have to view ourselves as more human, and i think when we become -- we can really begin to deal with our emotional selves. i think that's when we can become more loving and accepting and affirming of the women in our lives. >> here's the thing. with everything that byron just said, our communities allow the most talented folks to be able to ascend to the position of leadership. can we say that that has historically been the case? no. until a community in which we except the talent of black women as leaders -- that accepts the talents of black homosexuals and black gays -- when you ask young

folks who emma joe baker was, you get blank looks, because they essentially had been compartmentalized outside the civil rights movement. we do ourselves a disservice by not allowing the most talented folks to be able to essentially to share. >> looking historically, can we think of one woman who has the kind of political cachet in our history on the level of martin luther king or jesse jackson, al sharpton, folks love to bring up toward the heights as one example. there all these women who have been reduced to a secondary level and our understanding of it. we do ourselves an incredible disservice by not realizing that power does not have to be heterosexual and male. >> there is really so much we could talk about and she wanted

and digest. unfortunately, we cannot keep folks here all night. otherwise they will never have me back. [talking over each other] [laughter] >> i was just going to say that. seriously. we have had a big conversation tonight. i would like to thank our guests and byron hurt for coming out tonight and having this conversation. what we are talking about in this conversation with seven people -- this isn't just a book for the seven people who are in here. there a lot of you looking back and saying, wow, where did everyone come from? this really is a book and a project for everybody. i am not joking that i say when people look back on this presidency -- on this moment in

history -- whether it is one time or two, we want to get at the heart of it. i'm not a journalist or an academic. i love to talk and discuss and chew the bone and all of that. it is so important. it is important for us to say that we can listen to it now and be inspired. when we are long gone in years from now, if they can say that goal, that is what black folks are talking about during this historic transformants he moment. a few 10, don't just support this project, support black independent bookstores everywhere. i've been so fortunate to go around the country to different

bookstores. it is a beautiful place. bring your children, bring your mothers, bring your uncles. get them to pick up a book, read it, buy it. come and buy the books, listen to the cd, you're getting a free seat to die.. -- cd tonight. with this audio, we played it to some high school children. it was just before the 2008 election. they were listening to james baldwin. he was talking about the murder of four little girls in alabama. he had the fire in his voice. they all said they were going to read james baldwin. now when i pick up a book, i can

hear what he sounds like on the pages. books are important. our history is important. as i said, we have to tell our story. you have an opportunity to tell your story. buy the book, support this project. i will sign them. i'm happy to do that. please go to "redefining black power".com. the information is on the back. if you didn't get a chance to make a comment, you can record a video message, it you can send a blog post. i want to thank my mother, the professor -- check out his blog -- new black man at blogspot.com.