connected on different grounds is the goal. nonexploit is to grounds. then we keep ourselves how to do this and we will not stop. >> thank you. >> getting the look. >> thank you for coming out. [applause] >> don't forget, we're having a preview opening tonight at 12:45 on cathedral street from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. and buy this book at the tent. [inaudible conversations] >> today i am very excited to be introducing sharlene carruthers.

if you see the way -- there's a tremendous, tremendous upsurge of activity of people struggling for racial justice in this country. it's been amazing and inspiring but when you see the way that story is told nationally, it doesn't quite ring true to me, at least. i'm seen here in baltimore that thing being led by amazing youth organizations. i have soon youth putting their bodies on the line, their lives on the line to make change happen. the prison industrial complex, presence policing, against an unjust school system and ioff don't seat those groups showing up in the story is told and there are groups doing amazing work, whether it's the dream defenders in florida or the 100 in chicago that charlene helped co found, and these are groups doing incredible, incredible

work to challenge white supremacy to challenge a brutally unjust policing regime, and are winning. chicago, the work of -- other groups alongside it. one of the few places that has gotten reparations. the thing that this is impossible. they get reparations. they got reparations for policer to tour and being able to bring an organizer, a visionary, a dynamo of revolution activity like charlene to ball more is one of the joys of being involved with a project like red emma's and an event like this. i'm excited that wendy is here to serve as a moderator for the conversation that will follow. so let me join me in giving a warm welcome to wendy and charlene to hear but unapologetic. [applause]

>> can you hear me? perfect. can hear myself. so, charlene, i want this to be a conversation about the book, but i want this to be a conversation just two home girls kicking and just talk bought this stuff. >> okay. >> i think that introduction was really beautiful about the work you have done with byp and also think it's so amazing to read this book and to read it from the lens of someone who is on the ground doing the work. so many times we have books about movements, about issues, and it's from a pie in the sky area and you don't give that. you give an insider's account. so, just to open up the door, i want to talk about this whole notion of black radical feminists and i love that you didn't just talk about movements from, this what happened, but charlene did an excellent job of providing this historical context of how we're even at

this place we are right now. so, i want you to just talk about the ways in which the voices of the people who need to be at the table, have been historically excluded and historically marginalized and if you could speak in particular to the ways that black feminist voice, that black qur void has been marginalized from important discussions and the applicability in thunder book. >> i start by saying, thank you. being in conversation with me issue appreciate it. and the work you do, i know is hard, honey. you get in the ring of fire with those people. >> i don't like them. >> so thank you for everything you do. and thank you to everyone who is here today. i'm thankful for this weather and the fact that we're about water. and having the opportunity to talk about work and people and history that is really close to my heart is something i deeply

enjoy doing, and i see it as a part of movement-building. not the central focus or the main driving factor but a different way to contribute. the last time i was in baltimore, doing any kind of movement work, i had a panel at johns hopkins in the middle of the baltimore uprising, and it wasn't planned for me to be here by any means and the narrative, much like the questioning you were asking, the narrative about what was happening here wasn't accurate. it wasn't can cure. people on the front lines, there were many young people, many young black folks, black women, quer and transfolks on the line but that was not the dominant anywhere taafe. celebrity activityists swooping in and foolish necessary. that was different than what i gnaw to be true. my comrades at the masters from here, and during the uprising we

drove around and we -- theres would a cbs, i think it was, and there were folks going in and out of the cvs and they had things in their hands and their arms and guess what theyed? diapers. they had diapers and toilet paper, things like that. and to me the news story was a story about looting, vanitiedism, savage black people, essentially and what i was seeing were people seizing things they needed for the day-to-day live. >> because they haven't been given those common necessities to again with. >> exactly. we know that baltimore has consistently been divested from, right? and how this connects to me to radical black feminism, because i organize through what we call the black qur nest lenses, when i see black folk coming in and out of a cvs during the uprising, my values, what i see is not people who are looting.

i see people getting thing is they need and they shouldn't have to fight for it. >> they've been denied. >> exactly. and so that's the tradition that unapologetic is written in written in the tradition of saying that actually, we should live in a world where people have the things they need. but we live in a world where some people -- a number of people have what they need and a lot of what they want, a lot of what they want, at the expense of what other people need. and black feminism, radical black feminism in particular, how i came into it, it wasn't in the academy. the first -- i like to say the first out black feminist i knew was in the senior year of college, dr. withinner and it was a course on education and houstoning and racism, and it was through being introduce ted her i decided to read more

outside of school, movements exposed me to odd dray -- audrey, mash sharks james batted win. didn't learn about those people in school. and so part of how people are marginalized through history is how -- is what happens when an incomplete story about black struggle, about the black radical tradition, is told, and that's intentional. there's a reason why i didn't know but marsha b. johnson until i was in my body 20s. >> what do now county is the root cause for that intention? i don't know if is is your answer but one of -- enhe when i think of chatle slavery, i remember they always say the slave owners would say if you want to hide michigan from a negro, put it in a book. i want to hear you take on why you think these individuals are not something that is commonplace or on the tip of our

tongue when we talk about history. >> they hid it in a book because literally the consequence for reading was violence. if you read, you could be beaten or killed during chattel slavery in the united states. wasn't that black people didn't want to read but you could be killed. or experience in other type of violence. so going through history, it benefits people who are in control of systems, various systems and institutions, for us to have a lack of knowledge and an incomplete set of stories, when we have a moe more complete set of what happened to our people, resistance our people have led, the movement our people have led, we can craft more complete solutions and our work. >> i think there's a layer of consciousness that would ignite a level of activism within anybody.

james baldwin speaks of that. often people quote him but he talks but to be a negro in this country and then to be a negro and aware in this country is to be in a constant state of rage. it's a duality of knowledge base and once you get that knowledge base, what do you do with it? >> that's right. work as activist and organizers can't simply be about awareness, known that black transwomen are being killed as an al.a.ing rate is important. taking action to end that is a whole nuther matter that actually gets us closer to where we want to be, knowing how freddy gray was handcuffed in the back of the police van, knowing how they treated him, knowing how baltimore cops have planted drugs on black people, knowing those things are one thing. another thing is to join an organization to contribute to a

campaign, with your time or your money. right? one to show up to the city council meetings or school board meetings. so we need both things. they're bowling -- both valuable. i trained by organizers in the linsky tradition. i'm from chicago and grew nip back of the yard us but didn't know a lick about him. i was not one hover those kid -- i know teenagers who know more but politic at their age than i did when i was their age. was not conscious. i know them, though. so i was trained by folks in that tradition, and what they taught me was that some much of what can drive people to show up and do organizing work is angst. angst about something.

something that in your gut, in your stomach, and turning that angst, the root of anger, and i'm angry about a lot of things. i don't think anger is inherently -- you talk but audrey lord but i heard that in an earlier talk. like, turning that angst and anger into collective action. that's also what the good folks before me were talking about, collective action. and it's one thing to be angry. literally can turn into your stomach hurting and being sick, and what do you do with that? organizing is one of the few ways i like don't completely lose it all. i've been close to the edge more than once. >> my goodness. >> sometimes people good over the edge and that's human, too. >> you bring up something. there's an interplay between activism, of course, being an organizer, and then electoral

politics and can right now we are in the climate for that conversation. a lot of people who have not been interested in politics now are drawn to it, but why they're drawn to it is because of their anger, and there's something i heard that says something along the lines of, you know you may be against this, you know you don't like this, but let's probe a little deeper. what are you for? you know what you're against. but what are you for? us a someone in the political space i always beg that question because we all know the mid-terms are coming up and the question becomes, okay, we get it, some of us are against 45 and his policies. well, what do you want? >> that's right. that's right. >> i think that's a question that a lot of people would stop and think. you know you don't want that. but what are the ideologies you do want? >> that's right. so in chapter -- i think -- i

tried to number in -- i think chapter 4. title five questions. and or chapter five. it's title v questions and start wisdom who am i, the second, who are my people, ella baker's question. the third is, what do you want? the fourth is, what are we building? not what are you building or am i building but what are we building? and are way ready to win? that third question of what do we want is super critical in this moment. dr. barbara ramsey, one of my meant years, talk bods that importance of forwarding a vision in this moment and also having a defensive strategy. one where, like for me, electoral politics are not any north star. they're not. my comrade, jessica in electoral politics, working hard right now

on a numb of campaigns, talked but electoral politics as building safe houses along the way. right? not on -- not our final destination to just elect candidates but how do we actual he engage in an ongoing process and understanding there's no such thing as this this electoral cycle, it's 3 -- 36 5 every year there's something happens. so how do we use the flash points or various opportunities where a lot of people are paying attention. we spend billions of dollars on elects in this country. billions of dollars on elections. how do we, one, leverage the resources that are currently placed into this, and redirect those resources into the work we need? 0 so i'm one who believes in be whether it you're in florida, with an grew gillum, run -- an grew gillum, running for

governor somebody is with them and by their side -- andrew and staysyear charismatic and very cool peel bum the platform they're returning on, the issues they say they care about is more important than any candidate. >> for those five questions you talk about within the book, two of them made me think of another thing i want to pose, the first question of who am and i who are me sometime think that speaks to the whole notion of identity politics and i want to unpact that in two ways. one, there's this constant conversation how do we define blackness and what is black ms.? >> ooh. >> i know. know the touchy subject. but i can't help but talk about that even when my shirt i'm wearing because i represent my identity. it speaks to the comments by 45 when he called a few countries

s-hole countries and one country was my country, nigeria. so when i think of who am i and how do we define blackness, i think of the ways in which we always have this constant conversation in the black community. as i want to hear your thoughts around that, what is blackness? how do we define blackness and whether you're voting or become activists or organizes, the ways in which identity politics plays into that or doesn't. >> so, -- >> that was four questions. >> ry i'll report statute by explain hogue i understand vote identity politics. people facing their plate below values and actions on their lived experiences. their identity. and so, if we use that really basic definition, white men are

the oldest group's people in the country to engage in identity politics. the klu klux klan is steeped in identity politics. however, often times black folk, brown folk, indigenous folk, question are, transfolks, vilified for engaging in identity politics. i don't believe identity politics will get to us experiencing liberation, liberation is not a destination temp same time i engage in a politic that is grounded in radical black feminism. one that believes that all systems of oppression and exploitation need to be dismantled. one that believes that black women are inherently valuable. one that is anti-capitalist. one that is anti-prison and police and explicitly abolitionist of prisons and policing. all of those things.

pro miring. good-might grant. i could go on and on. if i'm in south africa, blackness is not the exact same as in the united states or if i'm in the uk, blackness is not the same. it varieses. it's in more ways than one blackness is inherently queer. meaning it's difference, expansive, explosive, like beyond what can set in a box. a lot of the conversations happening in the united states amongst black folks from throughout the diaspora have been hurting my feelings. they've been herring my feelings so much. because even within a lot of those conversations, i've witnessed a lot of antiblackness. i mean, antiblackness in sense of being african from colonizers and african descend dents from

slaveholders all those things um like these tropes being used, and it doesn't benefit us to be ahistorical, and i see that happening and folks individual feelings bubbling to the surface and being substituted for structural analysis, and we know there have been a lot of recent blowups, be from nondescendents of chattel slavery in the u.s. -- cynthia -- i don't know how to -- >> harriet tubman, to various things that happened in more popular cultures and i have to be completely 100 with you and say that it goes beyond these current conversations for me in, like, if, like me, being a black person from the u.s., i have a certain level of privilege. no matter where i go because i have a u.s. passport.

and he same time, actress to cultures not the gay. at seven years old and i live in nigeria i will never be nigerian. i'll still be a back person who moved there from the united states of america. lineage. food, language, faith, all these things and that's not anything to play around with. something to be respect sped and honored. >> yes. we are more than kingdom of wakanda. everybody watch "black panther" and people think that's africa. it's a lot more than that. let's talk about the trans movement, the queer movement and i feel like when i read the who am and i who die represent, i don't think that -- this is nat broadbrush statement but i don't think that when it comes to

movements within the black community, we're inclusive when it comes to other people who are black but identify with other groups we can say black lives matter but do black translifes meater. it becomes that hesitation because there's a sense of lack of inclusion and i think we have to talk about that. have to be critical in our own moment. what are your thoughts and ways in which we can advance. >> ey, the first piece you should listen to black trans women who talk about these issues, like racquel and other black trans folks. dr. green. not me. not me. i'm not the expert. i can tell you, like, how hi work has supported the

long-bedly -- that's the best position i can come from. but i ain't the expert on that, nor is in other person who is not leading in that walk. what i have witnessed and seen, be it black queer folks, black undocumented, black folks who are disabled, black folks who are even if they are documented and they're migrant, is that it -- what people are demanding and what people are desiring goes beyond ininclusion and one of, like, saying this is not some add-on, you just add us to the mix and you have done your job, check off your box, queer person, young person, somebody who is bilingual, somebody who migrated as a child, second generation, first generation, whatever. how is this a part of how you see us winning? how does the part of our long-term strategy and

understanding that, be it as a collective said in 1976 or -- i forget my years now -- that if black women were free, everybody else would have to be free bus it would require the dismantling of so many systems of oppression, right? and that's not the direct quote. it's actually in the first chapter of the book. they understood that these various interlooking systems of oppression, which comes about 20 years before intersectionallity and explain hogue black women experience systems of oppression, that they're deeply intertwined and we can't just take away one at a time and get through it. i don't believe in a socialism or communism that forces ideas that we can just get rid of class and it's all fixed to me that's actually not true socialism. it is not true communism. to believe that. we have a class-only strategy.

>> my next question was in your become i notice there were sprinklingses of marxist ideology and social jim and i think i caught a mao reference. >> yes. >> the little red snook my professor hat was on, saw sprinklings of different things in the book and i want to know where you stood along those lines. >> yeah. so, a really great question. you have really great questions. >> thank you. >> you'll notice the book doesn't say a black queer feminist and socialism or communist mandate for a radical movement. to be honest that's a reflection of my own political depth. he that's what it is. not that i sat down and said this is not socialist, this is not a communist, like, leaning

text or embracing that set of how i think society should be organized. it's like i'm still in my open explore exploration phase how i think sew it should be arranged relating to the economy, the lan we live on, all of that stuff. and i'm clear about certain things, that, like, yes, people would work should control the means of production. and that's not enough for me. not everybody is working. or able to work. so we got to 0 goon that to make sure that everybody actually -- just because you are -- not just the person who cultivates the farm should benefit from the farm. we live in a society where the people who sculpt said the farms are largely not benefitinging from the farm. so we say lab scholar control the means of crux and we have to

go bigger how we understand work. not all social socialists believe that reproductive labor is labor. not all socialists believe that antiblackness is a form -- let me become -- that prisons, policing, are a mode of producing control and wealth and that we don't control that. if we can't control how we deal with conflict and harm and violence in our communities, then we don't actually control our modes of production. >> you brought up communities which makes me think of your home community of chicago, which happens to be the home community of barack obama. so, my question to you is, a lot of times when there are things happening within a community, you often see that the people who need to benefit the most from those thing within the community are often pushed out, pushed away and not included in the conversation. whether you look at

gentrification, issues with white blight, food deserts. with what is coming into chicago, with the buildings -- i forget -- ithe presidential center -- the presidential center and you see a lot of times in the news when they want to have a poster boy for urban communities it's always chicago, beau blah blah chicago, and i led that because you use chicago but no one wants to do anything to help chicago. that speaks to my next question. how-we tying the two when we have this big infrastructure coming into chicago, how is that going to benefit the people within the community that needs it the most? is there any incentive, anything that requires them to help native chicagoans who need it the most. >> woo, thank you for asking that. now we have a bunch of promises and requests to trust barack

obama. that's what we have right now. and saying trust me. like -- just trust me. someone who says they have roots in community organizing in chicago, says to organizers that you should just trust me. who -- i can't do know -- we know some -- who did you actually organize with, obama to think that organized woofer distrust what you have to say. so the chicago chapter in a coalition of coalition of organizations including the oakland museum organization and other groups like -- groups organizing in chicago for decade. we're like the new kid on the block, and our fighting for a community benefits agreement, and the presidential center -- >> what is that. >> the community benefits agreement is not with barack obama. we're not looking for barack obama to say this is with you and us. it's actually with the city of

chicago and the presidential center and i could be wrong but i belief also the university of chicago but could i be wrong on that point. but the gluetoggle of chicago implicated in all of this because they stand to profit millions of millions of dollars. >> and so -- the community benefits agreement is about guaranteeing a certain amount of jobs for people in the neighborhood, actually live in the south shore neighborhood. some blocks away from the center is going built. i live in that neighborhood. and also housing. already a housing complex that is across the street from the site, the rents have been raise and haven't even broken ground yet in this place. so, there are things around housing and jobs, things around policing which is something we have been pushing for because we know when new things are built, when new shiny things are built, often times that means more policing and and in chicago we spend nearly 40% of the public

service budget on policing and one group that did the group was -- amplifying that fact how much money we spent on policing in chicago. shares no such thing as building the presidential center and not necessarily being plans for more policing, and so i think -- i was definitely -- i talk about it in the book -- all of my feelings when barack obama was elected, i think i cried. i probably did. don't remember. i was in st. louis, i probably cried when he was elected. i went to the democratic national convention in 2012, and i definitely was like, enthralled by many things and while we can celebrate or be happy about the good things that come out of his presidency, we also got to talk -- contend with the awful things that happened. undocumented immigrants being deported. he was a war president.

he was a war president. right who got a nobody anybody peace prize, which is -- a nobel peace prize which is wild. we have to contend with all of those thing, unfortunately too often we don't and we don't to our detriment. >> i think that's a good point and actually a takeaway that is applicable here in bolt more. a lot of my docker toal work was based on community development and whenever you look at urban epicenters, whether it's chicago, baltimore, where i did any study, camden, new jersey, you have to be mindful of the community benefits granted to a community but not granted to the individuals, and whether we look at our -- i'll call out my own institution, johns hopkins or any university who is and -- core institution you have to hold them -- if you're rooted in community and making millions off of a community then it is your -- you have to -- it's incumbent upon you to make sure that individuals in the

community benefit the most, not just you or your students. so i'm glad to have you have a community benefits conversation going on it and hope it leads to something else'ds prom -- besides proking promises. >> when we talk about transformational work we look at that almost separate from when people say i want to have a seat at the table. that's a cute thing. a seat at the table. blah blah blah. no. that's not transformational because frankly, transformational mean is don't care if i have a seat at the table because i'm buying the whole dam building -- the whole damn building. what does -- honestly, you were talking how you were sad. when we have the conversations of having a seat at the table it feeds into the motion hoff white

supremacy. right? and we don't to move it. it's like, i just want to by as good as, so i can be one of. as opposed to-i'm going to transform this because it's not just about me sitting at the table. it's making sure that gentlemen generations come after me don't have to worry about the table because they have their own. >> one of the -- i'll gave concrete demand that people have made the past several years as an example. body cameras. so people saying that body cameras would prevent employing from killing us. >> no. >> a real basic -- but when we first started the organization in 2013, we actually -- our culture -- our dc chapter has a bunch of folks -- not everybody but a number of people come out the policy world but not everyone. some folks actually from d.c. and then people from baltimore.

we had a rigorous debate about body cameras and whether or not we would include them in our policy platform on ending mass criminalization and police accountability. and so this was before walter scott in south carolina, i believe he was in, and this is before i believe freddie gray was killed as well as before laquan mcdonald. and i'm naming instances where we have, like, cam -- except for freddie gray -- where we had police camera footage, and people are like, yes, body cameras will stop cops from killing us because they'll have cam razz and other folks in the camp of, no, no, no, i would use different language if this wasn't on c-span how we talk but it -- so we had two camps and we

compromised and can the compromise we made was not a transformational compromise. it was reformist reform compromise, one that said, okay, if body cameras are possibly going to come to your city, it needs to be a democratic conversationmaking prognosis by the people living the those conversation about whether or not they would come and that is a reform of -- never heard one before. that it what we included, y'all. that's what we did. and i wish we hadn't done it. we were wrong. we were wrong. now, did it perhaps help with the health of our organization? sure. but for our people, that didn't help our people weapon got closer -- we're getting closer and closer as an organization to, like, actually enacting -- having abolitionist values and politics as core of not just what we put on paper but how we

treat each other. we're not there yet. a long way to go. but transformation is about be it -- it is about of course getting at the root of the issue, and dismantling the particular system of oppression and creating a completely different alternative. that's not based on punishment, not based in -- patriarchry north based in classism, ableism, any of those things, and grace bobs would say it's about being transformed within yourself. right? about being revolutionized internally in order for a revolution to happen, like, outside, and then the rest of the world. so i want nothing short of transformation. for myself, and for our people. and that takes a lot of unlearning and relearning to do that. >> do you think it's possible -- the reason i say that history

has a strange way of repeating itself but in different forms. right now we're all enthralled and probably watching, like, this, this past few days, with kavanaugh and the supreme court hearings, what springily eerie is -- strangely e-y, the same thing happened when it was anita hill, same thing, different year, and possibly the same result. so do you think it's possible to do that unlearning? do you think the possible -- what is needed, what are the takeaways? >> this is a perfect moment for that electrons formation could help. we should notice that dr. ford has not to my knowledge filed a criminal case or made a report 0 the police, saying i want this noon go to prison. to my knowledge she hasn't done that. right? hasn't said she is unfit to sit

on the supreme court. what is said he needs to tell the through but what happened and to me, i think there's a lesson to be learned about people who are cures you about abolition of the prison industrial complex right now. why isn't the calling for him to go to prison? i would loaf to know the answer to her question -- to that because what i heard from people in my experience is that why didn't call the police and what people have been saying all over the media right now, social media, particularly people that i know, people i don't know, is that i call them and they did nothing. or this is the second, third, fourth time this happened to me and i called them the first time i called them them second time and they did nothing so i'm not calling them again. what their radical possibilities of casting something different in this moment? if this is a prime moment to do that. because i could imagine dr. ford saying that, my justice is not in that system. this system put he me on trial in font of principles of people. that's what this system does. it doesn't restore mow.

i can imagine her saying that. and i can imagine other people who have experienced sexual violence and other people saying the same thing. would say that. i would say that. >> you know what the i-y to that is -- the irony to that is asker saying that their same details can be laid with black people. for so long, before social media, before the hash tag, before the movement its just it what just you're pulling the race card. that doesn't happen. you're making these things up and there's something to be said about it almost being a clarion call not just for women but also for people of color. i think that -- kuwait frankly i want to bring in for the younger generation the way the kids and experienced the shooting in parkland have said, this is a time for our generation. just think that anybody who is of privilege or who has been --

who has enjoyed the loins of privilege for too long show be on notice bus a lot of people who have been marginalized historically are now coming to bear and saying, no, you're going to hear us and hear our story. >> that's right. one being know to be a constant in the black radical tradition and how i talk but the black radical tryings tradition is inclusive of the u.s., caribbean, central america, south america, colonized stats in africa. folks in europe, all of that. when e talk but -- block folks have been -- black folks have been working and moving towards liberation for a century. around this world, and i can remember who was it who said it, i've been in a lot of conversations-y'all. may -- it was dr. angela davis. in conversation on thursday.

and she was like, we have been doing this for centuries.ment we have one over the longest running movements for human liberation ever. and we are not going to stop. when people say the resistance is here in 2016. we're like, where y'all been? where y'all been? a lot of me i'm just like physically, like, tired from fighting the police and things like that. we have to fight them just a couple of months ago physically, just -- this is what we do as a people. what we have to do. >> whatting your takeaways. you wrote this amazing book. what are your takeways for yourself that i would always say what are your take aways for people who are interesting in raiding your book? for me this spoke to, like -- if

i would say my take away -- i have a identify-year-old and a three-year-old, two little black boys and i do this for them mitchell takeaway would be so you want to get involved. read this book. that's what your book is for me. >> thank you. >> this is like a handbook, manual to say not just how to get involved but this is what has happened in the past. don't make the same mistake. what is your person takeaway, you're doing this over 14, 15 years now. >> uh-huh. >> and the takeaway you want people to have after reading this. >> thank you mitchell takeaway, i finally got to say a bunch of things i needed to say and the writing process allowed me to finally speak for my own voice and not just the voice of my organization. i've been talking the organizational mind and sharing the organizational line for the pastive years and -- our

national codirector is think how can i share with. the, what -- the bumps and the bruises so maybe hey have different and fewer bumps bumpsd bruises along the way. and, yeah, maybe hope they can find more of their voice in the process than i do, of serving as national director of the organization and the book allowed me to do a lot of that. not like i was in front but i was in a collective process with people and what i said, i was accountable to a group of people, and i was -- whatever i said was reflective of this group of people and i had a responsibility to do that. and so this book is some ways a bigger responsibility than just byp100 and my responsibility to my family, my on sees stores, our movement -- ancestors and the movement and future generations to come. so, it's a lot -- i feel lighter

after doing this book, got to process this stuff, like therapy, help me get through things. for people who actually do this work i hope you move away from this bang wanting to write your own to create your own content and saying, yo, she got this stuff right or wrong and i can do better. can build on what you did. that's on erring ore's work. organize y'all into doing some stuff and that's a big part of the work, people tell me after reading the book i had a lot of questions beaut folk and other movements so smarted doing my own research. that's be on it of the this book, for you to get more curious, more critical, more committed to political struggle and study, and i say it in the book -- i see white people in the audience and say it now --

we going -- >> we got nine minutes. >> cool. so, for dish didn't necessarily write this book just -- i'm just going to be -- not be liberal. i wrote this book for black people who are curious but and engaged in the collective liberation process. like when you write, you thousand but your eightens. that's who i had in mind as my core audience spade if black women like this book, ann else going like it. ...

the end black women who are during radical black feminist work and black folks who are women who are doing radical black feminist work is super important. if you agree with everything i say and you don't question for one moment and you're not curious or confused about something, i haven't done my job. >> absolutely. not just testing the equipment. thank you so much [applause] >> thank you, thank you. >> are some questions on the floor

[inaudible] it was revealed -- [inaudible] [inaudible] and [inaudible] >> the question was about accountability. there is a conversation on whether the curator of the hip-hop at the smithsonian they found out it was a white woman

and a lot of people come a lot of black people were wondering why that was. however, a lot of the elite black people came to the defense of the curator of the smithsonian. the question then becomes who are you accountable to? >> that's a really great question. i made several comments on twitter about it. first and foremost, by people of every single right to question what history their tally. even if it's by people. and especially when it's my pope because we have also centuries of knowing them not tell her history accurately. we can always question not. the original person, so that's number one. number two, this monday and -- recognizing the smithsonian for what it departed doesn't mean we can't question or challenge it. we should recognize the

institution method is to have a blue check twitter person. i think that we have always had that class of black folks who will come to the defense of white people. that's not new. that's not new at all. often times in history, black folks who have a platform you of various types like malcolm x had a of a platform. no more. we have a ton of followers. and also, booker t. washington had a lot of followers, too. all of these people, a lot of followers. a lot of people. and so, i think in this moment in time, and it gets real difficult for us because we're friends with people, but then

it's like if they come for you and you also have to listen, i don't think people are always willing to listen, and then a really good take on the situation. jamila knows the curator. and still have a really sound analysis about the same even about her. but structurally we know that white folks get opportunities to be representative of indigenous peoples culture. so what are we going to do about that? that's a problem. who am i accountable to? most directly the people in my organization. when i'm no longer director of an organization, i'm still a member of the organizations i assert level, but also elders and comrade who i committed to holding me accountable if i go left field. as i go into this next phase of my work come if you see me out

of order, please say something to me. accountability is also a choice i think and it's about making a clear invitation and request. not anybody can hold me accountable. if i don't know you there's very little accountability you can create with me. as a leader making the request and folks around you to hold you accountable. thank you. >> one more question. we are good, where blast, where wealth. [applause] >> will be getting started with her next talking a little bit. in the meantime come you can head to the table in the back.

buy a copy of charlene spoke. by alexa about us play. get assigned afterwards. >> and let's take a picture. >> okay, welcome back. some of you never left. this is perfect. i am kayla again. this time we're going to be talking about "as black as resistance," written by william anderson and zoe samudzi. it is essentially a black anarchist -- [inaudible]