>> i wanted to ask you to join in here.

i think we're also talking about the asian community and we're talking about whether people feel that they are being hurt and they're included. you think about the minorities in the country and often times people, you know, start with the african-american community but largest is now hispanic community. and then you have the asian community growing in rapid numbers, especially the fastest growing group of immigrants is asian. whoo about political participation an inclusion? do people feel like they have a right to participate in this structure? >> well, yes. that's the message we have to carry to the community, to let them know that if they don't participate, their concerns are never going to be heard. they're concerned about immigration. they're concerned about health care and access to health care. they're concerned about housing, you know, putting food on the table.

you know, asians are not the model minority inclusively. there is diversity within that diversity. so there are many people, especially in the pacific islander community that are living in poverty. and so if you can't connect with them and explain to them that by voting, you are part, you can change, you can make that change, be an agent of change. so it's very important that we mobilize our community, to let them understand that their voice, their vote counts and it can make a difference. and this is why republican or democrat, they are all courting the asian-american communities. and, they understand that if they come out and vote and register and vote, it can make a big difference. so you see that nationally. states all over are courting the asian-american community. >> okay. so let's extend it then to young

people and let me ask you, you see young people staying away because they feel like nobody's hearing them? or do you see young people coming into the, feeling that they can be included in the political process 2016? >> so on the question of inclusion i think what a lot of young people are looking at, specifically is i am more knowledgeable about a democratic primary campaigns but i think both hillary and bernie are very much vying for both the black vote and the youth vote and i think what a lot of young people are looking at as, you know, are they for real or is this just posturing? you had a bernie sanders campaign in which i believe it was, not a commercial, but an ad in which he had, was it, freddie gray's daughter or eric garner's daughter and that, and i think it's, hillary just after her wins in the primaries was very

much speaking to the concerns of millenials but i think the question is, are they just posturing? or is this really something they're trying to include our voices in? i think that is a question a lot of people are still trying to figure out, with a lot of the kind of vying for these different, you know, subgroups of voters. >> ray, would you want to jump in here? >> i will say i remember in august of 2014 we were in the streets of st. louis and people told us to go vote. the voting wasn't stopping tear gas. it wasn't stopping the police, right? there was this thing i remember, harriet didn't vote for her freedom. this notion people had to push systems to be better. i think voting is a part of the solution and i worry that the messaging from the older generation has not said this is one way to make change but has said this is the only way to make change. i think that message is actually what turns people off and i do think there are people who feel like a vote for a candidate is

legitimatizing a system that has never worked for them. and i think people feel like that, whether it is right or not, the feel something -- feeling is real and i met with bernie and hillary and loretta lynch and they're asking us to support getting the voting rights act back. people do not see how the government has like postively impacted their lives. like that story telling has to happen to invest people in it. what we know to be true the government will exist tomorrow whether you vote or not, right? it is more important that you, some stake in the ground, in the absence of that take there are whole lot of people who don't look like me will surely put their stake in the ground but i think the story is potentially going to be better for people or has done good work is an important story to tell for people to be invested in the system again. >> that is so interesting to me. so you think in fact it may be a result of lack of feeling that

they are agents of change? people say, you know what? i'm just not going to vote. not that anybody is depressing my vote, taking away my polling station, is that i personally just don't see a need for being included in this, what they may consider to be a charade of politics. >> it has never worked, right? this idea of my vote never matters, i keep voting people in, still got tear gassed, right, voted my whole life didn't change, right? the feeling real. whether that is true or not the feel something definitely real. i think that there are people energized by bernie. i think there are people who are energized by hillary. with both of them though it took outside pressure to say talk about race as opposed to just talk about it is right thing to do. black people existed way before this primary election and it is hard to see people, even people you like only talk about economic injustice around racial lines when people take the mic

from them, right? i think that is hard for a lot of the younger generation. >> all right. who wants to jump in? wait until you get a mic. here you go. >> thank you. is it also fair to say that the concepts of engagement and inclusion are subsequent to ownership? because i think what happens in a lot of minority populations, that i have seen, i've experienced is that you don't necessarily feel like you are, this country belongs to you. i would consider myself an exception to that rule but we hear a lot of times on one side of the political spectrum, and i'm not identifying one way or the other, but we hear on one side of the spectrum you are great american or great patriot or this country needs you. and on other side it is insinuated that you're less of an american and this sometimes i think permeates into the general electorate, african-americans generally speaking don't vote very much in midterms or on statewide or regional local elections but at national cycle

every four years turnout does go up. i think a part and parcel there is a lack of ownership, you're feeling like you're not only an american, this is home for you. whether you're an immigrant or not, or american or naturalized citizen there is got to be some perhaps rewiring of the education in that people need to realize that if you are a minority in this country and you happen to be an american citizen you just as right to impact change as others. sure there may be level of desperation or exasperation or people voting for many years, haven't seen change they want. but a lost times do you really feel like this is your country? i happen to feel like this is my country i don't feel like any second-class citizen by any stretch. i'm not sure the same thought process is shared by majority of minority population. >> this is incredible moment here. we're talking about inclusion, we're hearing message people may feel like their voice has not been heard. they haven't been included. they're not allowed to really express to get a response but

you have a black president. people think they somehow didn't make a difference. i find that kind of stunning. i just on the surface. but help me. somebody help. [inaudible] [laughter] >> i'd like to quote don king who said, you know, my people built this place and i know my way around. there are, there have always been those disaffected voters who never read orwell when they were young and feel it's a choice between, if i am a sheep, would i prefer for the lion to eat me or the wolf to rip me apart? because it is the same thing no matter what you do. however, i don't believe that. i don't think the facts bear that out. let's talk about some of the facts that we know. statistically speaking the most

powerful and most engaged voting bloc is statistically speaking is black american woman. black women put barack obama in white house in 2008 and resoundingly so in 2012. black woman show up with their mama, sister, hairdresser and cousin bebe and naynay. they bring more voters to the polls than any other group they are. everybody with a black, mother, sister, person in their life, is literally being touched by somebody who understands the power of that ballot, who understands the power of that voting bloc which she belongs to by anita, let's look at chicago. anita alvarez, that prosecutor who knew about the tape of -- thank you, laquan mcdonald a year before it was forced to be released.

and did nothing about it. in chicago, i'm forgetting, chicago is one place. in cleveland, the prosecutor that declined to press charges when two officers got out of a car and within seconds 12 tamir rice was shot dead. that prosecutor who declined to prosecute got voted out too. for those black folks and other folks, i'm speaking about the demographic i belong to and extensively researched in my own work, when folkses said okay, enough is enough. let's go local and show up and out of these people, change was happening. the problem is that on national level districts are so completely gerrymandered it is impossible for those black majorities again, i'm speaking specifically to the area of my expertise right now. those black majorities have been broken up because i am district

a and this person here is district b which makes no sense. but guaranties that a particular party will be elected. these are the laws that are encouraging the voter suppression that we see. this is the voter fraud that we see, not me trying to vote as my dead grandmother. these are the issues that a lot of our problem mas and sisters and -- mamas and sisters and grand mamas are talking about. when we link arms and bring other people to the polls, this is what we're seeing. there is a change happening, there is a change happening in the way people are voting now. we understand that there are rigged systems, mostly gerrymandered in a lot of places. but the numbers and in key races to do key things, out of that prosecutor, put in this particular person, that can happen. last thing i want to say, because this hasn't come up at

all -- >> let's stay on this point. we're going to be here -- >> you know, i'm just so passionate about this thank you for having me. >> because i think, you were saying, you were saying you know, people, are we going to see -- you know, i thought she made a excellent point that black women definitely get out and vote and i don't think there is any question when we come back to what the mayor was saying about the clinton campaign, i don't think there is any question they have propelled her vis-a-vis populist energy for bernie sanders on -- >> [inaudible]. >> i'm sorry. you side something? said something. >> we're talking about in this race in 2016. that is what i was saying. anyway, we have a special guest, a mystery guest, from the political structure herself. yes. a leader of the political structure. so, please. >> i want to identify myself. i will keep it a mystery. >> no, no. >> no.

but i wanted to focus on, jamila? >> jamila. >> made me think how i was furtherterred political process. my name is mignon clyburn. let mystery out of the bag. grew up and being raised continually by a political family. what you said is so true. one of the reasons you brought up about the differences in midterms and national turnout is because we don't see where our votes count. and we don't see where our votes count, why do we feel that way? what is perpetuating that? i counter with some risks of me saying this, the current construct, we don't look at other constructs around the world that will allow proportional type voting, your voice will be heard in more of a weighted fashion as opposed to almost this winner-take-all gerrymandered approach. we don't have enough conversations that there are

other type of constructs that possibly could even change that. if i see i have a voice on city council as opposed to a countywide or some type of, you know, orientation that won't allow for my voice to be heard, maybe then somebody will say that is my person because in proportional sense i voted. so there are some things that we could just challenge on a state, local and national level, that could change that. we would have a voice and would change that paradigm of just every four years you see this uptick in every other year in state and local elections, we see this flat -- not uncommon for 12, 20% voter turnout to elect a mayor. something is wrong with that, or to elect city council. >> to come back, make sure we stay on point on the conversation. >> i'm sorry. >> no, you didn't, you were on point i want to say this is about inclusion. this is about people choosing to participate and feeling that the political structure in 2016

reflects their will, their concerns, their agenda. you're at fcc. >> yes. >> do you see that in terms of the political pressure on media in america? >> hmmm. yes. [laughter]. and i say that with hesitation because i have to go back home to another house that says fcc all of this is reflective. we can look how the races are handled now. it is very much influenced by where the media thinks the headline and the uptick in their numbers of the day will be. so you can't, you know all of these things are coupled and influenced and driven in some cases, you know, to our dismay, by all of this, so yes, it is all a straight line. it is all -- if you have more of a voice at the state, local and federal levels by maybe challenging ourselves to change the current construct, then i think we will see the shifts

in -- >> in black people vote they can create change even in terms of american media, is what you're saying? >> the change will be covered. that change and aspects of those changes and process of that change will be covered. so yes, definitely, when you see trends moving, if you're doing your job as journalist, yes, absolutely. >> what you heard from deray people still don't feel as if that vote is definitely going to make a difference. i think i'm quoting you right, didn't stop them from getting tear gassed. >> a lot of people feel that way. >> part of the reason i counter it doesn't, because the system in and of it ourself, our voting construct does not lend itself for multiple voices to be heard. there are hamlets in new england and places around the world, i keep going book to the proportion of voting. you will have a voice. it might not be a majority voice but will be a voice. the way we have it set up, if it

is countywide and get the entire county, you may not get entire county but might get 49 of the county. 49% of a voice is greater than zero. no, i'm with you. we're on same page. >> [inaudible]. >> i do think there is something about telling that story differently so people can see voting is a way to bring about change. i think chicago is interesting example recently of people organizing to change people and to say, organizers said immediately, kim fox doesn't have -- we hold her accountable too, right. which is important message. it wasn't just like get anita out, replace her and hold people accountable i think is good model. >> charlie firestone. >> the point about proportional representation was really raised by lani guinier in early '90s, really cut down, unfairly because it an idea but that is what cumulative voting is in corporations. it's done in various places.

and it's an idea that really maybe makes sense. it is very hard in this country to get that going but that is an interesting idea, that i just wanted to reinforce, that that's something that could be done if there were political will. >> and if you had that kind of proportional voting, then you would say, it would lead to then proportional representation of minorities? >> here is how, just, take us an instance. you have say 10 congressional districts in a state right now. they are geographic. what you could do is say you have 10 votes. you're in the state of north carolina. i don't know how many congresspeople they have. you have 10 votes, you could put all 10 votes into one person or, you know, five with one person and five in another. what that allows is for minority communities, if they, you know,

focused on a few people, to get, let's say there is 40% minorities, you could strategize you could get 40%. >> rather than having minority vote dispersed across districts and therefore often times not produce an official? >> it is an idea that happens in, as i said, in some countries, in some corporations. >> okay. chancellor, i wanted to get you in the conversation. again, we've heard a little bit about young people and political participation. young people on your campus, is your campus mostly minority? >> no. >> no? i'm sorry. >> it is mostly first generation, 45% or so. >> what's your experience on that campus then? by the way, what is the age range? >> multiple. they range from -- >> i mean most students are -- >> older. >> older student? >> uh-huh. >> that is very interesting.

so this is older campus. do those people feel they have political voice in america today? >> i think some do, some don't. it is really not a straightforward understanding of what their rights are. i think they are politically astute. and do participate in voting. and, i think that it is really important for us to tell people the story of about why it's so important to vote, even if it is for symbolic purposes because, it really represents a way of identifying with a past that was so, so destructive and was given, you know, new life by the ability to vote. i'm sitting here just saddened by a notion that we don't remember how we got the right to vote. women and, certainly african-americans and others in the '60s, in the '60s, we

were talking about these issues. so for us to think that our votes don't count -- >> you should talk to deray. he is sitting right next to you. >> i am. i am. i am speaking to him right now. he said the story hasn't gotten out there. so we've got some homework to do if the story is that focused on the shortness of memory because we didn't have the right to vote. we could not vote. >> okay. >> we laid down our lives to vote. >> can we get a microphone over here? >> hi. i'm victor a massey, a reporter with vox dot-com. one of the -- vox.com. one things we need to talk about, not only with panel, but people of color at home, not particularly minorities, how we understand county. we're talking about quantitative sense and not dealing with the quality. even if we're talking about inclusion.

i think it is important not to predicate the way, not only people of color but also young people of color, that the way we, way they are understanding count to be just solely on vote as deray was making a point about. especially when you're talking about, thinking about events like going back to chicago, just in general organizing what folks are doing right now, is very important not only in general, but what is going on with the political campaigns. i'm going very much to the trump rally. one of the things you have to understand. even if we hear people, young people, young people of color who may be undecided or not just impressed by for instance, like on democratic side, either hillary or bernie, that does not mean that people don't understand, are not participating in the political situation. and so i think that comes from the fact like folks do not necessarily see their, do not base how they count solely on

the vote that they are participating in ways that push but do not depend on a political situation that very much so often times does not, has let them down. they know that that is a part of the resistance to make sure people are held accountable. so you had in terms of chicago, people remember that people were chanting, at the trump rally, bernie sanders. there was a way that, i think, speaking from the media standpoint, it was easy for people to try to pin this on, okay, there were bernie sanders supporters who disrupt ad trump rally which makes for really easy narrative when it comes to democrats and republicans. it is much more complex than that. you had organizers from various activist organizations from chicago, not just broadly "black lives matter," some put it in the headlines, makes it easy for a search or clicking who had been doing this work alongside, like the by anita campaign. young folks my age people of

color organizing against broader systemic issues of injustice who understand that work comes from at times, they be seeing it with politicians or not but not basing it solely on that. if you talk about inclusion we have to include that in the conversation to make space for those kinds of possibilities. and also make for polling issues that don't necessarily give us much nuance to african-americans and white voters and people of color voters. >> in general. hold on, thank you. so let me just say, when we think about inclusion, and we talk about a political structure, when you see the tremendous turnout of voters for trump, you understand the power of a vote. and you're saying we have to make space for people who may not view their power in terms of casting that vote, but do. are you suggesting that people should be free.

i am political but i don't choose to participate in that way? >> i'm not here to tell people what they do or do not do in terms of voting. making space for people who for instance, have free choice. even talking about, you know, some people just aren't able to vote. we have policies that make it impossible for some people to vote and a lot of those people are people of color. they will not be people that trump supporters more often than not. we don't exist in a world that offers free opportunity for everybody. that comes to qualitative notion how we understand voting to count. >> i tell you, my perspective is voting counts but i don't think, i don't think it is the case that you have to ignore people who participate in different ways, but i just don't think that there is any doubt. so please, everybody, join in this conversation. here's the microphone. >> dante hill, wyc-usa. i'm intrigued we're talking about inclusion all day, as a

former university administrator, yes, part of the concept of inclusion is feeling of belongingness. those of us who work at universities, we know the fries is in all climate studies, feeling of belongedness. we need to understand and admit part of inclusion is not on onus of minorityized population but inclusion. inclusion is about policy. boston tea party was not just about belongingness to england, it was injust policies. no taxation without representation. inclusion is not just about the feeling of an aggrieved party. it is also about what are the actual intentions and practices and policies of an organization or institution and what are the impacts that those policies are having. and so an organization can be intentionally inclusive or not. that is a choice that an institution or organization makes. and i think sometimes we're

focusing on a lot on how people feel and we all know that feelings don't change policies. >> but, i'm just trying to bring a point to, what you just said. so you're saying feelings don't change policies, votes change policies? that people vote? >> sometimes. sometimes. >> because you can lose too. >> and sometimes you can win and still policies don't change, right? so feelings alone, votes alone, don't change policies. but institutions change policies. and sometimes tearing down institutions have changed policies. we are a country founded in revolution. founded in rebellion saying this doesn't work for us. so, we don't want to do this anymore. we're going to start something new. >> so is it the case politics 2016 could be inclusive, not be inclusive but people, especially minorities, are saying it doesn't work for us? >> i think there are many,

many -- there is no one answer for any community. i think some will choose to participate through community organizing. some who will choose to participate through voting. some will choose to participate through both. some voters do through academic research. some voters choose who participate who we talk to and what we say to people in our community. there are multiple, for true inclusion there are multiple ways to be present of the we need to honor all of those ways to critique. i come from community of people if you say you don't vote, people look at you real funny but that doesn't -- i have to learn, we have to learn that that's not the only -- voting, we all know that voting doesn't mean things are going to get what we want. many of us worked really hard to elect people and watched the things that we thought we elected them for not happen. [applause]

we know it is not the answer but part after process. >> i will argue with you. what if i don't vote and don't get what you want? >> i will argue both happen. we have to acknowledge that both, you can vote and nothing changes. and you can not vote and nothing changes or it might get worse. sometimes we voted it got worse. >> go back to miss clyburn. you know elected politics. your family knows elected politics. how do you respond to this. >> the answer is e. and i agree. it is all of the above. what is the igniter of change. where is that idea or concept sparked? we don't get in vacuums, thank goodness. allow ourselves to be open. how do i justify my positions at fcc and beyond. where does data come? research. how do i get, how are problems or challenges should address.

how do i find out about it. activism and others and disenfranchised groups let me know. all of those things i think are facilitators. almost like church. how do you, you know, just coming off the easter season, how do you save souls if that is your objective? you have to meet people where they are. that is foundation alley what we're talking about in terms of being facilitators of change. those who are stagnant and those who want wholesale change. somewhere in order to get change. in order to educate both and bring about, you know the betterment if that is your goal, somehow, we both need to move to that center. and that is how we facilitate. >> okay. but i just don't, in spirit of the easter season i don't forgive people who don't sacrifice for the greater good. if people tell me, oh, you know, you have to understand, you have to be kind to people who choose not to vote and not to participate, they have other ways that they make themselves heard.

i think, they are giving up power and the opportunity to create change. >> well if you go back to the prodigal son and the rest, those other stories, you got to know that you don't know what tomorrow brings and no one, that you don't know what that spark or influence will be and maybe that person's stagnation is what drives you harder. >> drives you herder but -- you ignore them or forgive them for not voting? >> you forgive them. you sometimes, it causes you to be, you know, more committed or more driven because of them. you know, everything and every element i believe, i don't know if i'm becoming more cosmic in my older age, which i had a birthday last week y'all missed but that is another thing. i guess what i'm saying is, every encounter if you allow it to be learning experience that will propel two of you. maybe that person who does not exercise their franchise in that

way, maybe you're influenced to them will, will empower them or enable them or open their minds in other ways. >> okay. yes? >> one of the things that, my name is joy cheney. i run an organization called equal pay today. i'm so glad to be here. i am glad i have a job to sit at aspen institute symposium on state of rice in america but most people don't have the opportunity to be here. they don't want to protest. they want to be a part of a. mo. they want to be able to work. they don't want any free stuff. they want to be able to get a job. they want to earn whatever it is that they want. they want to send their children to good schools. they want want to be paid fairl. don't want to be sexually harassed at work, it is really basic stuff. i think all of us, whether the political class or those of us who are in the media or advocacy organizations, i think we speak way over people's heads. not because we're smarter than they are but because we're not

engaged in what they're engaging in every single day. when we talk about going back to the question of why aren't people voting, i think that sometimes, i'm a clinton supporter but i think sometimes all politicians, they're not talking to people what they're dealing with on everyday basis. they're to the telling a story of how policies better set at federal level impact their everyday life. even local politicians are not talking about policies set at the state and local level. how does that impact their everyday life? the media doesn't bring out advocacy groups and organizations that represent them. they actually know. the councilwoman talk about african-american voters as if all african-american voters are the same. middle class, upper middle class african-american voter is extremely from a working class african-american voter and within the asian-american community, all of the diversity that is in that and we talk so

generally and that goes, immediately, a person like, well they don't know what i'm going through because they're lumping me all in one category. there is a real gap in between what real people are dealing with and what our politicians are talking about, what the media covers. and advocacy groups are talking about. too academic. >> two questions from my perspective. are you making excuses for people who don't get involved and see that the political structure is how change is most often concretely achieved? >> no excuses. every individual has responsibility to vote. i believe in voting, no excuses. that said, if our goal is to get more people to vote, we've got to meet them where they are. my mother is pediatrician from orlando, florida. she had one motto. you meet the patient where they are. and so you can't say to people, you should be doing this, you should be doing and you're not understanding what really is going on in their individual lives. yes, there are voting rights issues that are keeping them from being abe to vote but there

are also things like, where do i take my kid while i go and vote? i worked in florida during an election year. you will have your child standing in line five, six, seven hours? that sounds good if you're protest oriented. sounds really inspirational. but practical level, it is 90 degrees in november in florida. you are going to have your kid out there with you all day? that is a real thing. >> again, i just come back to, i would think you would find a way to make sure that the kid, there was some way to take care of that kid, but i'm not going to make excuses for people who say, you know, mayor nutter you went out of the room -- [laughter]. and i said, you know, now, there is somebody who doesn't understand inclusion. doesn't understand the power of participation but we've been having a very spirited conversation here about whether

or not you make excuses for people who say, eh, voting is not the be all, end all. i participate in other ways. am i being fair here? >> no. >> no? go ahead. somebody says, oh, no, you're not being fair. tell mayor nutter what you think is a fair assessment where this conversation is going. go ahead. >> my sentiment is this, i will be practical. >> yes. >> i vote. i'm going to vote. everybody in my family is going to vote. but after years of voting, when you have people stand, number one, we've watched eight years of president obama disrespected. so, my vote matters. you should not even think about disrespecting the president. >> is that a reason then to stop voting? >> no.

i'm not going to stop voting. >> okay. >> i'm saying you have to see it how other people may, those that don't. because they don't see the difference. >> okay. >> being made. if you have somebody standing up there, saying, americans want this, when they are saying only people that look like me and think like me are americans. >> so how does that help if you don't vote? >> it may not but you have to look at how people feel. >> okay. >> it is not going to make a difference. >> how people feel, as opposed how people vote? all right. go ahead. >> i kind of concept allize the issue this way. it is not about should you vote or you know, people are, people should vote. how is that vote won, right? people say, wait a minute, i'm being oppressed. the way i would not be oppressed i get the right to vote, then i have representation in congress and other places.

so my voice will be heard. so people have to the the right to vote. now, people are saying nothing has changed. and what they realized is, oh, maybe the rules changed. maybe the rules changed. so people got the right to vote, but if this districts have been gerrymandered, right, then i don't have that representation that i thought i was going to have. if we have voting laws, voting i.d. laws, these are structural barriers that stop people from having access, why do people have to opt in? why not have people opt out? i mean we make it so easy for people to vote for "american idol" and everything else. you know, and we can do it in our home. we can do it on computer. people figure out how to do what they want to do. so what i'm questioning is, it is structural issues, it is

structural barriers that are in place that are stopping people from engaging. >> hold on. hold on. one more thing -- >> hang on, hang on. president obama got sop many minorities, specifically african-americans to turn out, record numbers but now you're saying to me, i think i'm hearing from you too, well, some people feel like well, that didn't create change and vote really didn't make a difference. is that right? >> here's the thing. all politics is local. so when we start looking at what is happening locally, how people are engaged locally. if i go to my polling place, and i get the ballot, and it says, two, three out of these five for the judges and i don't know who these judges are, is that just, so am i making an informed choice? am i saying oh, i will choose these names that i think are okay, i don't know who i am

voting for? now maybe possibly elected judges that, who when there are cases that come before them are not going to make good choices that are based in equity and access, for people of color. so there are structural things that are happening where people are not making informed choices, people are being pushed out of the electorate. those things have be address if we want to see change. not that people have to be engaged. there have to be structural changes. my question is really powers that be really want that? do they really want those groups to be engaged in the process? >> i think the answer is people who have power want to hold on to power, exercise power to their advantage but if you choose not to vote, i think that's a pretty big step. but i hear in this audience saying well -- >> it also voting. there are other ways to be engaged in the political

process. how does the information go out to be selected for to be a poll worker? how does information go out to be selected to be a judge. >> you're not involved, you don't know. >> but the point is information being provided in a way meeting people where they are so they can get involved? i don't know if they really want folks to be involved in that way, to hold on to power. >> so emphasis of inclusion here is i hear it is, much more saying the system is not doing outreach to make sure people feel that they are wanted and included in politics 2017? >> you can hurt my feelings, i don't care but it's no. you know, when i was a young girl my mom dragged me around, we were signing petitions. oh, no, come on, we got to go. so i understand these things but what i'm saying is, it shouldn't be like we say in -- education, shouldn't be accident of

geography. shouldn't be accident you happen to get it, you know? it should be this is the information, stance paren sy and this is how we move forward as a community to have inclusion in the political process. >> mayor nutter, you heard what you missed. people are really saying there are other ways to participate, other ways to value inclusion. >> yeah. >> it is no the just the vote. what are you saying. >> so i know we're under time pressure. a couple of things. i would say very quickly, from a very personal standpoint i don't think there's ever any real excuse or justification for not voting. having said that, many of the things that i did hear, i have a questioned back home, for instance, why do we vote on tuesday? who decided that? i mean why not monday, why not wednesday? why not saturday, right? >> [inaudible] >> right. or early voting. you know, some states have it. i was on the radio for my candidate yesterday.

you know, wisconsin's election coming up but early voting is going on right now, right? in pennsylvania we have voter i.d. law. they wanted like no voting, right, not early voting. so who makes these decisions? well, i mean for us, in pennsylvania that would be the general assembly. what day you vote, how long you vote, how long the polls are open. do you have early voting, not early voting all of these kinds of decisions. you can be halfway around the world and do your banking transactions and for the most part, unless somebody hacks the system they're safe and secure but you won't let me vote in that way. or do do the "american idol" thing, i think recently more people voted -- >> you don't have absentee voting in pennsylvania. >> absentee voting if you're not going to be there that day. >> that day. >> there are states in america where you start voting two weeks before election day. we don't have that. so, unless everybody is going to be away. so, you know, so fine. yes, president obama gets elected, folks say, oh, this is

going to change now. you know, first black president all will be good. we're post-racial. he walks into the great recession. all of that peace, love and happiness a month later went out the window i mentioned earlier not one house republican voted for economic stimulus plan and only three senate republicans voted for it. nice seeing you mr. barack obama. welcome to being president of the united states of america. so i mean i think that voting does matter. there are the districts that are gerrymandered not when it comes to voting for mayor of city. we had low voter turnout in our most recent election last year and certainly not governor and when it comes to president of the united states america. change takes time. are we where we want to be? no. are we where we used to be? no. in interim change has happened.

a lot of what came is people were voting and paying attention. >> okay. it is time to wrap this up, this session on inclusion in politics 2016. we had panelists today on politics, on the campus an inclusion, racial inclusion, gender inclusion. identity inclusion on the campus. we had session on neighborhoods and fast changing neighborhoods and how to maintain a sense of belonging, inclusion again in the neighborhoods. richard you raised your hand, you want to finish us up? >> i couldn't help this, juan but you kept us on point and on discussion of inclusion and participation. it was great conversation. we made it around the room and this way, this way, this way now. i think it is happy tension between the two, they're different, right, inclusion and participation? count my, i need to be counted, right? you get counted or you say count me. that is really interesting i

think of the api community where they don't say anything and don't do anything, generally speaking. they tried their best but they got counted in census. now they say you need to be counted. this discussion of inclusion and participation, right, whether you vote or whether you wait for somebody to say, i'm going to include you, is that neat, symbiotic situation when we talk about that idea of inclusion or participation for communities of color. and that is that cycle that either spirals down or spirals up. depending when you hop in the pool. doesn't matter where, whether it is inclusion side or the participation side. but they work together so well. >> this is great way to do it because i find asian-pacific islander community, for a long time you saw numbers rising but participation -- now people are much more inclined to they belong and they are part of the american political structure. that boosts actual voter turnout and participation.

the key, perspective of aspen institute, from this perspective of this state of race session, is that we're aware of what the voices in this room are saying and how they reflect larger sentiments in the broader society. that is why i so much appreciate the fact that you took the time to participate today. let me turn it back over. >> i want to thank juan williams for his great moderation, provocative. thank you all. [applause] speaking of participation, thank you for participating, including the online audience and the c-span audience who will see this and the twitter #stateof race. i hope that discussion will continue and i hope the discussion will continue over lunch and as we break bread in the next room. thank you you all for coming and

all the panelists and moderators and richard lui and juan williams and comcast corporation. thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]. [inaudible conversations].

[inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] ♪ >> our bus continues its travels

throughout the country to visit winners of this year's student cometics. the bus made a stop at jenks high school in oklahoma to recognize their winners, including grand prize winner, olivia herd about her video about national debt and deficit. school officials attended school wide ceremony. they visited winners in oklahoma and dallas texas area this week. the bus will visit winners in roswell, new mexico and el paso, texas. we worked with our cable a partners, cox, time warner cable, and cable one to coordinate visit of winners. watch all the videos from this year and get more information on c-span's community efforts and the bus schedule. every weekend during the month of april watch one of the top 21 winning entries at 6:58 a.m. before washington journal.

. . welcome to the national press club. my name is thomas burr, the washington correspondent for the sole attribute and the 109th president of the national press club. our guest today, ken burns, harvard professor henry louis -- canada skates juniper i like to welcome c-span and public radio. i want to remind you can follow the action on twitter using hashtag npclive. not withstand introduce our head table guests. i would ask each of you stand briefly passionate is announced.

please hold your applause until have finished introducing the entire table. from your right, michael fletcher, senior writer for espn the undefeated and the moderator of today's luncheon. [applause] bruce johnson, anchor chair gone. jeff ballou, vice president of national press club. sharon rockefeller, i guess for speakers and president and ceo of wpp a. elizabeth millikan washington bureau chief of the "new york times." skipping over our speaker, alison fitzgerald project, chairman of the board of governors. skipping over our other speaker, lisa mathews, vice president and a member of our speakers committee who organized today's luncheon. patricia harrison, a guest and the president and ceo of the corporation for public broadcasting. amy anderson, national portrait gallery. joe madison composed of the urban view on sirius/xm.

joel klein, director of the washington semester journalism program at american university and a former press club president. finally, john hurley, the press club member. [applause] >> thank you all. race can just be a part of the american fabric and the two men joining us have opened the door to compelling discussions about impacts much of american life and culture. through their works, filmic or ken burns and harvard professor henry louis gates, jr. pilot how much concessions of rates influence everything from our politics and policies toward economic future and past. documenters have given us insight capacity and sometimes troubling part of american story. bhs, the civil war and baseball. i'm terribly fond of this national parks documentaries and appendices develop national press club member. gates has extended his work beyond the classroom to his pbs

series finding your roots, which examined how diverse racial, religious and ethnic background challenge many of our national myths. late last year they launched a series of conversations about race hoping to provide a forum that could encourage but this event away from having an either or response to issues of racial component. both minute documentaries coming out soon on pbs. the premier of burns' jackie robinson is a put in love and 12. dates black america since mlk and still i rise will premiere in the fall. today in the break for our tradition i've asked mike fletcher from espn to moderate today's discussion, given his expertise in the field of sports and his coverage of racial issues. the undefeated is the digital side and will explore the intersection of race, sports and culture than it effort will generate stories and content worked own site as well as other platforms. it is scheduled to launch this

spring. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the national press club ken burns, henry louis gates and michael fletcher. [applause] >> good afternoon. i firs first of all want to thae national press club for inviting us back, and for giving us the opportunity to change the normal format in this way. i'm very grateful to be back. i have a lot of thank you, sir that are necessary. first of all the film that was referenced on jackie robinson was produced and directed by sarah burns and david met alone with myself and written by sarah burns and david mcmahon and i wish they could be your to participate in the discussions

of this project. i do not go anywhere without my beloved network is represented by its extraordinary president, not 10 years in office, paula. [applause] or my longtime production partners and longtime even for ken burns means 35, 40 years and that's weta and its leader, senator rockefeller. we have enjoyed the fund in a most every film from two organizations, principally the corporation for public broadcasting and i'm glad pat harrison is a. also we enjoyed the support for 35 years from the national endowment for the humanities and its chairman is also here. i would like to thank all of those people that i've also forgotten to who make it possible for us to do our films. [applause] the events in charleston last june disturbed and disrupted

skits and my equilibrium tremendously. it's not that we are unfamiliar with that level of violence. it's just too much. we reached out to then mayor joe riley to talk about what we could do. we are very pleased that the confederate flag had been removed from the columbia, south carolina, state grounds, but -- [applause] it's true, i'm glad you are uploading. symbols are important and this is a hateful symbol, not even people's history but of the resistance to progress. most of -- arrives in a consciousness after 1954 brown v. board of education. sso and sister were taking away but, in fact, we are acknowledging that this represents resistance to an american ideal of equality. but we felt about was important that a symbolic change could be made it was equally important that we just not leave it alone. it was like good, and we don't have to talk about race anymore, which is what always happens

after that. skip and i were looking for ways to forget how to do that, and mayor riley asked its content and we begin a conversation about race. we continue didn't in pasadena. we just came yesterday from austin where we are at south by southwest. were heading to george washington university tonight into the brooklyn academy of music on wednesday night. we sincerely want to do something that is preoccupied all of our lives work and do in a way that doesn't exclude people but includes people, and to try to move the discussion a little bit for the. and so my greatest thanks to do is to my friend, dear, dear friend and partner and described, professor henry louis gates. [applause] >> i have the same angels on my list of thanks, to whom i owe so much, but have to start with

and, of course, it's sharon, paula and pat but have to start with sharon rockefeller. i met shared in 1967 in the hills of west virginia because we both are west virginia and. you're a transplant west virginia and. my family lived in a 30-mile radius of where i was born for 250 years. so you could say either my comment rates to build our we were incredibly lazy and -- [laughter] but when sharon married jay rockefeller i was an undergraduate, well, i was finishing high school and then i went onto yale antidote by senior project, stalled in house project about jay rockefeller steichen 72 gubernatorial campaign. remember teddy white, theodore h. white who work for the president that i was going to write theodore h. -- only one small problem.

j. lost. so i had to write the unmaking of a governor. but they were here in washington and sharon became involved in public television. from the beginning we had a very close connection come unusual connection, and she would say you should think about making documentaries. i was premed like every smart little black kid i knew at yale complex smart kids, what's his name, then, ben carson, yeah. i ran into them. landed them in labs that yale going to do well. then i started watching this guy ken burns who had this capacity to tell stories. i love great storytelling. i love great storytelling because my dad, not rest his soul, whom sharon knew, was a fabulous storyteller. and i thought i could never be a storyteller like my father but maybe i can find my way in this

new medium, and maybe to some backdoor i could become a documentary filmmaker. paula kerger was in new york, an executive there before she came here, and i got to know her. and she was so encouraging. she said why don't you take up making documentary films? and why don't you find your home here in new york? and as soon as i did that, she welcomed me so warmly that she left and went to washington. when she did she introduced me to not a force of nature but a force of culture and a woman who is running the corporation for public broadcasting. the three of them have been my guardian angels, my advisers, my protectors, giving me sage advice all along my career and through a miracle, i don't know about you all, each of you blessed day job.

i read a chapter i'm a professor at harvard. i'm in the english department of the department of african and african-american studies on a moonlight. i have a second job and i have now made 16 documentary films, but if they were all dedicated appropriately, they would be dedicated to sharon and paula and pat, with a little footnote, in homage of my hero, ken burns. [applause] >> i wanted to start a little conversation about race. people talk about this for decades but i remember covering myself when i was at the "washington post," bill clinton's conversation on race. i'm curious what you do hope to see come from this conversation, and how do you prevent from having a preaching to the choir quality? how'd you get those others

involved? >> i think the thing to limit anything about race if we can to do it dialectically. it's not a black and white issue. it's complicated. i think what we've tried to do in our own work in scholarly work and then skips documentary films and open the work that we been over the last four decades, that there's a kind of nuance, undertow, complication, that it's possible something may be true but the opposite might also be true at the same time. it's very important to understand all of those sorts of nuances so you can have a discussion that doesn't just add fuel to the flames of our already divided rhetoric. that we are so dialectically preoccupied, everything is black or white, young or old, red state blue state, rich or poor, north or south, deeper street. it becomes important to say we wish to describe a more inclusive thing. we will give you an example of a skip respond, which is when

you're in charles is outgoing and having a conversation with 1800 people just a couple blocks away from mother emanuel with the tragedy happened in june of last year, we were in a town which welcomed 48% of the africans who were stolen from the country, their continent, and brought to the united states. it's the ellis island of the african narrative, but without a welcome statue of liberty. what mayor riley can even though x. may violate this posted and is in the process of doing, skip and i are hoping that this weekend is to do a newseum there were all this took place. are ambitious, very important but it's not trying to say that if you add the store you're taking away some of those distorted what you're doing is adding to the store and that's what we need to. we know that we are in pursuit of happiness, that we are a nation in the process of becoming that requires process

and inclusion. when thomas jefferson said all men are created equal he met all white men with property free of debt. that's been the progress spewing some people mean that. >> i was just going to say, we find ourselves now in a particularly retrograde moment where this discussion is more critical than ever before and a discussion that stays out of sort of the superficiality and conventional wisdom of what passes for the media today and the conversations. i think skip and i are just hoping someone to see if we can join the discussion on where people as a white man and a black man that this is a conversation we wish to brings everybody around that it doesn't make anybody wrong. it tries to include as many as we can. >> we are in pursuit of a more complex narrative. about the american past, which is another way of comment on the

american president can of course pick any historic nose that. any journalist knows that. that you are writing a but it's an analogy for something that happened a long time ago. if you're writing about something that happened a long time ago it analogy of what's happening now. it's inevitable. and example for me, and you know this and most african-americans in the room would know this, i have a contrary in nature when it comes to writing about the black experience. i don't believe in being an ethnic cheerleader. i don't think it helps anybody in the black community. i did two different kinds of documents. one set of my documentary about africans and african-american history. the other thing is about finding roots and we'll talk about that. allocated an example. of 42 million african-americans today. since 1970, the percentage of african-americans whose income is over $100,000 has quadrupled.

since 1970 the percentage of african-americans whose incomes over $100,000 a year has quadrupled and the percentage of fat in americans whose income is over $75,000 since 1970 has doubled but rather largest middle-class and upper-middle-class in our history. it is the best of times economically for the african-american community. at the same time the percentage of black children living at a big poverty line in 1970 was just over 40%. as of the 2010 census the percentage of black children at or beneath the poverty line is just over 38 or send. it's the worst of times in the black community. but both of these rallies are true at the same time. there are more african-americans and all the people in canada are that always is stunning. it is as martin delaney, martin

delaney come the father of black nationalism said the negro is a nation within a nation. in 1852. we are a nation within a nation. so that any rhetoric that attempts to describe a nation within a nation of 42 million people with one set of descriptors is a dishonest narrative. we have differences among us. we have major class interest in racial interests, habits and traditions. and they are not all the same. what brings us all together is racist. what unifies the jewish committee, anti-semitism. what brings us all together as we are altogether different aspect of his way they were all fighting again, right quick what company do in my film is to show the complexity of the black experience, to show on the when and how there is no american history without african-american history. how we don't need to me black

history month i love black history month or i celebrate it. can and i were joking, it's the coldest, shortest and darkest month of the year. [laughter] the one that was left over is the one that we got, right? but michael, my evening job is to make every month, every day in the school system black history month. but you can only get it by creating a complex narrative. a complex narrative about the human beings who were of color and who interacted with white people and native american people and later has been able to create this great patchwork that we call the american republic. you can't do it by taking shortcuts. you can do it by being an ethnic cheerleader. you can't do it by pretending that all the black people who walk the stage of history were angels and had no bad sides. i think that makes for a more compelling case.

and in my finding your roots, the whole point of finding your roots is to show that the my what the law says, in any society at any point in american history for any other history, no matter what the law says about who you could or could not sleep with, when the lights came down -- [laughter] everybody was sleeping with everybody. [laughter] spirit talk to us about what do you to jackie robinson as a subject of your latest documentary. >> i had come to jackie robinson to my 199418 and have serious on his of baseball. i think there's one episode of which some part of his narrative didn't of game, and yet at the same time you had a sense that we were repeating some of the more familiar tropes about him. so his widow who is now 93 had been pressing me to do a standalone on jackie. and at some point severance and

david smick man and i have bandwidth to build it up to finish a film that we are here speaking on the central park five. we dove into it and over many, many years would begin to realize that in some ways jackie burden has been smothered b by e particles of sentimentality nostalgia. he's been made into a two-dimensional figure, almost christlike figure but it doesn't reflect the whole person. what we found would be possible to do was to liberate them in much the way skip us talk about, complex narrative. if he take with some of the tropes that have become familiar to us, that peewee reese put his arm around him, did not get to know branch ricky reached down from heaven and michael angelo touched his son, jackie kemp would rise up and turn the other cheek in a christlike gesture. branch ricky had motivations which we made clear in our field. he had very deep web religious and moral opinions that were right about bringing jackie but he intended to bring civil

african-americans at the he was not the only voice in the wilderness. it was an active african-american press for decades that was pushing for this. does the left wing american press, a communist press, "the daily worker" that was arguing. we don't like to talk about that. there was a left leaning republican, i have not lost my mind, left leaning republican mayor who is pushing for this. there was lots of agency for this progress, particularly in the pent-up emotions after the second world war. we felt it was possible to tell the story about jackie robinson to be able to do a multi-generatiogeneratio nal complex for of an african-american, to talk about a love story, an amazing story. we validate that love story in some respect by having the president and the first lady their will also go through their own kind of version, but different couples and different spaces in time but the dude in a react with the same dynamic. they both can comment on each other in very interesting ways.

it was possible for us to strip away some of the articles. and the truth is not a revision. we assume in revisionism that pendulum swing's the other way. thomas jefferson, man of the millennium. the worst person of the millennium. it's neither and both. you have to do that. indicates a jackie robinson making it more complex make it more interesting, much more interesting and permits is not just a focus safely in that narrow view of 47 when he came up but to d give his birth in 19 in jim crow georgia and his death in 1972 as a 53 year-old man feeling that he didn't have it made, that he still didn't have it made. so i black men and white country. so what happens to him before baseball? what happens during baseball when you no longer has to turn the other cheek? what happens after visible as republican? all of these things disrupt the familiar contingent story that we want to have.

>> but this is a story that you would've heard that i heard remember i was born in 1950. every two weeks i go to the barbershop and listen to the men as we called call it. listen to the name. no such thing as an appointment. u.n. on saturdays and you just ate all day. you hear the men talking trash all day long. they would say two things. jackie robinson was not the greatest black baseball player who was alive, nor should you than the first one. they like jackie a most black people were dodgers fans. they would also say that he was being destroyed by the rage inside of them. jackie robinson was to me killed by the pressures of being black and playing a pioneering role that he did. and more especially as ken points out by the fact that

richard nixon refused, he implored richard nixon to use his good offices when he was candidate richard nixon for the presidency of the united states, get martin luther king, jr. out of joker at the same time black democrats were deploring jfk. jfk did it and richard nixon did not. jackie was very embarrassed for the black community that he didn't have the juice to persuade nixon to do that. and i don't think he ever recovered. that is just my barbershop version i think that was a big -- >> skip is right. branch ricky intend to bring up a lot of different names under consideration of people probably would never know. sam jethro, marvin williams. you've probably heard of don newcombe and other folks again later and other folks again later by jack at the almost accidentally as result of several forces which is a better film and i won't belabor the. i disagree about that. rachel decided that he died of congestive heart failure and the complications of diabetes which ran in the family. addicott every day to help

others and he was inside a coal in that pursuit. but in his eulogy jesse jackson said that he had carried it is wait for everybody. and if you think about when he arrived april 15, 1947, martin luther king waging at morehouse college. harry s. truman had not integrated the military. there was no brown versus board of education. no rosa parks was a decade away from refusing to give up her seat though jackie done that and as a kid refuse to give up a seat ahisseat at a lunch countet jalemeh serve. >> and was court-martialed. >> and was court-martialed and acquitted. which have been jackie robinson is dr. king himself said the citcity of august president anda freedom rider before freedom riders. we have people who are active on behalf of civil rights but jackie represents the beginning of the modern civil rights era. because he takes our national pastime, walks through the door and carries it single-handedly.

>> you make in some of these myths. off and do something about jackie robinson. i went to high school in brooklyn. why has that myth been so enduring? >> i will tell you why. i have to be honest. we perpetrated it. we passed it along the way ms. are often vastly greater simple, easy, they don't represent the public at america's. there's a statue outside of the great american ballpark. the story is 1947 when the dodgers went to cincinnati, the racist up that attended every place he played except for brooklyn and sometimes even better was just horrific and that pee wee reese supposedly and put his arm around jackie robinson in a sort of symbol of solidarity between the white man and the black man. >> iconic moment. >> in children's books there's a statue, and rachel says efimkin his widow says, we asked them

not to get because you do better picture of him coming off the field. their hands touching momentary. and we know from roger, peewee reese had never shaken and other black man until he met jackie and western kentucky and that was where it came about, and red barber promoted this. there's no mention in jackie's autobiography, no mention in the wipers. no mention and the black press which would've done 20 wrist was it that it happened. baseball etiquette suggest you don't do that. that for a few jackie is a first base, peewee to shortstop if you don't walk across the diamond to do that for any reason. i think what happened is why people seeing the nobility of this story wanted to have no pun intended some skin in the game. and they wanted to show that they were supporting this. they put themselves forward in this one of the what happened is several years later when jackie was playing second base, that maybe they told each of the joker would've added up with arms around each other and that mike would ask it will take the

stuff in history migrates all the time. this migrated back in time to that to become a symbol of white solidarity with this load action of jackie robinson. you can understand what it is but it's important we don't perpetuate it. baseball, hall of fame is in cooperstown because we think abner doubleday come we don't have any record is a professional game, invented baseball, that the real story in hoboken isn't good enough and so we perpetuate this myth and we are happy to reassure ourselves with this myth about the creation of baseball when it's not. so, too, with jackie robinson. so many things of which the conventional wisdom, the superficial conventional wisdom, it's so much more interesting this way. >> we as a society needed that myth at that time. society has produced myths that reconcile irreconcilable things. >> that didn't develop until decades later. if you know and love for you to find in the mythology of jackie.

can find another kind of maybe itself frozen but later on it gravitates as books get written in people's stories decanted down and red barber, the now deceased broadcaster, told is the star that worked its way into our film but we read in a few other places. it becomes as you know, it's hard to turn around the ship that got the momentum. i think what the cause requirement of the stories both professional and amateur is to try to figure out how to as we'll learn new information, said about thomas jefferson and dna and sally hemings, how you turn the ship around and say the father of our country, the author of our catechism come we hold these truths to be self-evident, actually as the father of sally's -- >> but the way we turned it around is by issuing political correctness and say this is the truth of the story. you might not like about this might not like t it but this is the way it happened. we are not going to be myth

danish. the messy bits of african-american history or interracial history of america or indeed of -- >> you talk about some of the contrasts in the black community. it's not classical narrative that can capture the complexity -- >> which every black person knows. >> he supported nixon in 60. spirit he denounced paul robeson. spent how much did he suffer for that? >> let's do with the first point, the suffering. i teach a course, when i was an undergraduate at yale back it was 69-73. that was the height of the black arts movement, black power. he smiling. you have to cut back to 1969 to you see my class picture. i had a two-foot high afro. [laughter] you know cornell west after? it looked like a crew cut next

to my afro. [laughter] >> it could come back if i wanted it to. i had a closet full of -- remember the secret soul handshake? we would change it every month like changing a computer could. make sure you were still black. right on, right on. [laughter] but there was -- [applause] there were people on campus because where was i? in 1970, i was in new haven, connecticut, in calvin college a block away from the courthouse where bobby seale was being tried. so it was full of black families, and there was lincoln's drug store on the way to yale cole. that's where we'd go get the book. lincoln drugstore.

we would call of running the gamut. the first person you had to get by was a black muslim. trying to sell you mohammed speak. come on, my brother. i got it, i died. [laughter] did would be a big brother with a beret on and a leather coat and the panthers speech. where are you going to be when the revolution comes? i got that one, too. but there were so many people who would come to the black student. i was secretary of the black student alliance and they were so many of these guys would come and try to tell us how to be black. and lets you were black their way then you are not like. i saw a lot of damage. i saw a guy who wa was in love h his wife growth and she was at alberta college of the street. they should've gotten married and he wouldn't marry her because it would unblock him and broke his heart. he never got over it. i decided if i ever in a

position of power, i was the debate, if i ever became a professor come which as i said earlier i did given the would be a professor because my mom raised two boys to be doctors. my mother is in heaven. there's the father comes the son and holy ghost, and right in the middle is a medical doctor. [laughter] that's true. by hook and by crook i can to become a professor. i teach a very large and think out popular course at harvard and it's got a simple think of introduction to of american studies. teacher with evelyn brooks higginbotham, the historian, leon's a widow. now a teacher with larry, was a sociologist. the whole course is about public people have been arguing with each other since the 18th century about what it means to be black. the reason i do that, the last line of my final lecture, i say if you take the way one thing in

this class, just one, that professor bobo and i have said, i want to be this. there are 42 million african-americans in this country, which means that are 42 million ways to be black. never let a boldly tell you how to be black. [applause] >> let me just what you think the black lives matter movement fits into the larger narrative that you just described? >> i just wrote an article a couple weeks ago and to try to put it in historical context because i just got all my friends at "the new yorker," they did a piece on black lives matter but it's all about how deray and alisa hate each other. i go to come i can't do it better and they say this is like the battle royale seen. why did you talk about its intellectual roots? what do they want to achieve intellectually?

i don't think has been done. sure would be nice if the "new york times" did that. [laughter] but i believe the editor, brilliant editor at the times called and said my editor said we can't find this assertion anywhere. where's the photo? and i said i'm the footnote. you know, i'm the footnote. this is what i say. is less because of the class divide within the african-american committee there's a tremendous amount of guilt. there's a gym in the amount of guilt on college campuses about these kids are very successful and they're going to be successful. the guilt is about all the people in the hood who are left behind, and unless there is something drastic, some drastic change of both structural and behavioral in, then those group of people are going to be exactly where the parents were socioeconomic. what is most like a predictor of the economic outcome? your parents economic status. so if you are born in a

household that is deeply deprived, chances are endless the our government intervention, philanthropic intervention and behavioral modification that's not going to change. my third black lives matter eroded because of this class divide the you have to be in the race to see that and think about it and to know, and they said that they were carried out wb the boys charge and that is we are not free until we are all free. spent absolutely. >> jackie robinson of all people, if you haven't made the jesus i don't have made and to every person in st. augustine, florida, has it. >> do you think the rise of donald trump says a thing about race relations in the custody or does the same about the state of -- >> we are in a retrograde moment right now in which the dog was abrasive and with us and we can't pretend now that the

phenomenon of the kind of racial innuendo that's happening right now is somehow new and we are shocked at how to get it's been going on for a long time. ronald reagan opened his 1980 campaign in philadelphia. he was saying wink wink the whole group of people -- >> that's where -- >> it's important for ronald reagan to go there and talk to states' rights. he swore to that which was a wink but that's been going on since richard nixon on since richard nixon god' thought of ss didn't do anything on behalf of dr. king is about to be sent to change again. it was barry goldwater said we would go hunting where the ducks are committing not into african-american committee, the party of lincoln which was formed and brought forth its first -- in 1856 as principal idea was to introduce the limitation and abolition of slavery. that's an important thing to remember has been advocated. we have a presidential candidate who takes a day to remember that you already once repudiated --

took me to remember that is going to do it now, that is the wink wink dog whistle that signals to our unreconstructed bother. because we like to believe and better angels of our nature. we would like to believe we're making progress. we would like to believe we would all be the slave -- slave ship owner who gives it up and writes amazing grace. we would like to believe in our better selves but in point of fact a lot of us are not that. the older guilt and we've inherited from slavery, original sin, don't often transform into goodness but metastasize into darkness. >> i agree. i agree. [applause] >> i, although in my little coach rick hautacam when people work mocking donald trump i said you can't watch this guy. this guy is not going to go away as he famously said. and he is speaking to a need and

a deep set of fears within a large segment of the american community. we were talking briefly at lunch. we've all been frightened. you can't mock the people who are frightened. when you are frightened, if so when mach ii unkosher scaredy cat, does that make you feel better? they made you feel worse. it's not an exact analogy, but i think if i were an adviser to hillary clinton, whom i support, a very good friend, i would say you have to study what the needs are come why are these people terrified. why are they so proud to antiblack feelings and anti-muslim, islamophobia and why did you want to walk up, et cetera, et cetera? and then what policies can be formulated that speak to their fears, but from the opposite end of the ideological spectrum that donald trump is doing? rather than exacerbate their fears how do we assuage their

fears and teach them out to reach across ethnic and racial and class lines, create new coalitions and form bridges? rather than to erect barriers. we cannot come until the audience in texas. i grew up in the hills of west virginia. ims west virginia and as i am black. and anyways i am more than i'd like it would on multiple identities and being counted as to how it got to this stage i would say growing up independent come rugged hills of east and west virginia on the potomac river, get as much to shape the person i became, give me your as being black. this is true. i grew up overwhelming, with of 1% of white kids. many are supporting donald trump. i'm still close to them and they would use the n-word and i've told sharon day would say, i grew up with it would take no, skip, if all

or like you we would have no problems. willie, if all crackers were like you -- [laughter] [laughter] these are my people. i don't think that calling people trailer trash, i think calling trailer trash is just as offensive as using the n-word. i think you can't just flush whole segment of frightened people, terrified people down the sewer pipes of western history. we have to figure out how to bring them up, how to give them hope, how to create programs like bill clinton did. hillary said last night that, a townhall that, look at the we race relations were much better when we had the lowest unemployment and we've had since the great depression under bill clinton's economic policies.

people start to look for skip gates -- scapegoats when there's not enough lasagna. that's when you look for scapegoats. would've to do is figure out how to convince people that there is enough to eat at the table and these black people and these the women or the state people and the jewish people are not eating their share of lunch. >> you mentioned we're in kind of a -- doesn't dissipate if trump loses? >> no. i think it's already there. i spent my professional life dealing in american history. over 30 films i've made, maybe three to deal with race in some way or another but it doesn't mean i'm going to look for the it's just always there. we put black history as if it's a politically correct agenda in february. it's everyday. this is part of the american narrative. when thomas jefferson said all men were created equal, he did meeme the one of the people thae owned and so that insured would have a civil war, both

symbolically and literally everything to let up to the civil war. everything before it let up to it and everything since has been a consequence. i've spent my life deflecting criticism not only from the haters we would say on the internet by people writing letters and even friends and colleagues who would say would you let go of this thing? now that obama has been elected would you now shut up? i say wait, wait, you watch. a member the onion headline when he was inaugurated. like men given worst job in the world. [laughter] -- black man. that is a preview what could happen. so that is going to serve molecules and a lot of people. it's never going to go away so we begin to move and advance the conversation. skip his right. if you could reach out to the people who are now so frightened, and i believe a counter narrative has been drummed into their head for decades and decades and to give to look up and see a black guy

fly off in air force one and look at the supposedly wards of people coming over the no wall when there is, in fact, a net loss the mexican. more mexicans are leaving and coming over. and those who do come over or about one-third less likely to commit a crime. if you can educate people by having a conversation that doesn't come you don't call them trailer trash. you don't refer to donald trump supports as a print or whatever content you say you're supporting someone who actually doesn't have a self-interest in mind. that the vacuum more self-interest and a lot of the folks at skip with saying that if you are perhaps even untrained eating your lasagna. in fact, you can break bread, you have common cause with poor blacks and those blacks stuck below the poverty line and skit pointed out. you have common cause with immigrants. nobody is eating your dinner. there are the people who are so self interested they've been eating for dinner for a long time and they been convincing you to vote against her self interests for decades and decades. and made we can help through a

little bit of counter narrative remind you that what shall happening him and this is after 72 straight months of job growth, after auto industry that is now making a profit, this is after the end of capitalism didn't happen. this is after 20 million more people with health insurance, whether it's flawed or not, means that it's human. we've actually, it's not as bad. >> make no mistake. it ever working class white people and working-class black people ever realizes, that the greatest thing that could ever happen to them would be cute break their common economic interest, it would be a major social transformation. it would be a whole new place. [applause] >> any of this degeneration of race relations has a direct backlash to the fact -- >> no. no. >> july.

you know? [laughter] >> .co some people crazy. the first thing that happened was some people on the left started cranking out books for one of my friends wrote the end of black literature because of barack. what? i called, are you crazy? likes about racism disappears. this is the promised land. barack and michelle are here and everything -- when the man yelled that what was the congressman's name? i almost fell -- >> joe wilson spin what would lyndon johnson have done to that main? he would've disappeared spirit his district would have been gerrymandered out. [laughter] >> jon stewart said, i hated to do it. [laughter] the other thing when the press conference, the republicans are going to do everything we can to defeat this man -- >> day one spirit unprecedented.

>> mini on the other side would argue this is hardball politics. i'i'm a republican i i'm a republican under what is it was presidents have a second term. >> so i ask shelby white i ask shelby white us of working there decent sent americans like to think of themselves as i'm optimizing people but we are not. our genius is compromise and when it broke down we murdered each other. 750,000 people died in the greatest war. were not any political if i were in which we celebrate the no compromise in which since the passage of the affordable care act, there has been almost party by party vote on every single thing, lockstep. and that is the greatest threat to the united states. is our unwillingness to bend. a lot of it has to do with basic come as you say, hardball politics it's always been around but those hardball politics, when johnson thousands, when johnson thousands of, when johnson doesn't oversigh oversid

the voters fact he accused republicans of were produced able to make it happen even the republicans as the party have essentially abandoned in the substrate reaching out to african-americans but he could individually say this is wha whs right. one of the great four leaders and that is everett dirksen, republican. those things happened because people were willing to compromise. we don't do that anymore so it is of course a political dynamic. but i think what has made it easy for people to do it, just as it's easy and a mob to say fire or give him, it takes the calmer voices. it takes the more complicated narrative a long time to get up to the simple one in which you say the n-word or you say you lie or using i'm not going to compromise because that's against my principles, our genius is compromise. compromise. >> there was one other difference. lyndon johnson wasn't just having tea parties at the white house inviting them to participate. lyndon johnson was like knocking heads. and it's a hard thing to talk

about. i've noticed many of my friends in the press are very reluctant to criticize barack obama because barack obama has taken so much criticism from, undue criticism, right? but i think there is room for a critique of how the president has or has not used the hallmarks and tools and perks of office to effect compromise. i think that he's worked very hard but i think that he's not a lyndon johnson. you can't ask them to be that. but maybe he could've done more. what do you think? >> you and i'v and i talked befi respect which is good because i think on the very first day, nobody sai sent when operating m the democrat when while reagan was elected, said my one job is to make sure he's a failure. which means you're one job is to make sure that united states is a failure. and let me also point out, not to keep beating to death the

affordable care act but this is something teddy roosevelt one, that woodrow wilson one, that franklin was a boy, that harry truman and lyndon johnson, bill clinton wanted and he got it done. [applause] >> i would say is a stylistically not a southern person knows how to get votes taken have a drink? no, he's not but i will not say that he is without better but i think it's very important with this in perspective if you start off from not even day one you are negative three months, this is that you are elected, you are not inaugurated and jeff entire party that says no. >> how much, the idea that a black president could cajole, not kids if need be, i know times have changed since the '60s but is it something harder for a black president to do speak with of course it is because yes to come in there, having to represent all of the

people are tried represent all the people who did not vote for a lot of those votes were people that didn't vote for him based on the color of his skin. effect of the incredibly circumspect. i think i would have an easier time talking about and do have an easy time talking about it. in a few instances he's been able to do that effectively, i thought it was very moving with trayvon martin was killed and he said he look like he could've been my son if i had a son spent and he took enormous lack. >> and remember he went on a date in the city which is why. if anybody else would have done that it would've been a wonderful moment. pbs posted on entertainment weekly a little bite in the film with the president and first lady are speaking about how they needed each other in times of trouble, just like jackie and rachel needed each other. i would urge you to go to that link and look at the. it will not ruin the fun for you. of the best moments in the film but didn't scroll down and look at the comments about it.

they are beyond the pale in terms of vitriol. this is one of those pitiful homes between husband and wife. anyone, white, black, purple, green. it's very funny and embarrassing and kind of loving all at the same time and you realize there's relationship between jack and rachel. no rachel, no jackie. and maybe know michelle, maybe no president obama. the vitriol just for the fact that there is a black man who is president talking about marriage is so instructive. you cannot believe it we all know, we've all been singed cub we are all aware of the unfettered internet which allows this sort of ungovernable to constantly be out of there saying the worst possible thing anonymously. so what it is t is that is it hs to show you what lies beneath the market if you're all surprise what happened in a political process, if you been

dedicated to no compromise, you can see this in the way, it's called trolling that takes place. this is beyond the pale. you couldn't imagine if we look ahead come in for five years ago and look ahead at the kind of stuff that's going on. this sounds like stuff you read in the 1880s about why so and so was lynched, right? this is not a modern progressive republic that is the leader of the free world. >> in michigan there's a jim crow museum and i felt for our documentary, and that was two years ago i guess when we went up there to fill that. and already there was not a wink but this is a jim crow museum of all the negative sample images. they already had a huge collection of the most demeaning, i mean sexually demeaning even images of barack obama. clear up so the right.

but, you know, ken and when i was going up there were no excuses. we expected why people to be racist. i think that barack obama was shot just like you were, unlike i was, at the degree of racism. i think a little bit maybe he let his guard down. i think maybe he believed the narrative that a new racial company of racial harmony had come. and i think that they were caught offguard. i don't think that, i think i don't think that they anticipated the depth of american racism or come and how much has not changed because a blackman had been elected president of the united states. >> let me ask you this -- >> that's barbershop talk. >> the questions about your arrest -- >> was i arrested? [laughter] >> did you know immediately when he answered that question that

this is going to be a big deal? it seemed to me it was an obvious point. but did you see it immediately? >> my phone started ringing off the hook. i don't guess you could even use that metaphor anymore, right? does your phone ring off the hook? [laughter] >> vibrated out of your pocket. >> immediately he was attacked for doing it. i knew you'd have to pull back. i did the what is going to do. so the idea of having a beer came up and asked my opinion about that. he had talked to the placement before he talked to me. and i said i think that's a great idea. at the point all i wanted was -- is what happened. we were making -- micro for that

i flew out to l.a. on a friday, and we were in southern cal for the weekend. people, it was very traumatic, but i'm assuming eva longoria on a sunday at her house. so i notice that there was a little bit of tension around the swimming pool, just a little bit. people try to do a double take, okay, maybe i'm just being -- i'm black, i'm paranoid. it is in our dna. so sunday we went up and with the utah -- eva longoria is that this interview. and then she said i want to take you to dinner at my restaurant. i said okay. so we went to the restaurant america's great meal, and like right there i said okay, i'm going up to quincy jones' house.

opened the door. like 10,000 photographers, and light bulbs going off and i've never experienced that before. we had to jump in the car, run away. we had to find escape routes in the hotel and all that. that continued into the day after. so all i wanted was for all of that to go away. and for my life to be returned to normal. death threats, hate mail. my secretary, she's retired now. she's italian, married to a irish high schools would appear i call that a roman catholic interracial marriage. [laughter] she loved me. and she said she would have no idea came into being my secretary, picture of black studies at harvard. she said i never knew the depth of anti-black racism in this country. because she was taking phone calls.