so much food and drink we are hoping you will help. but there will be gift bags and signed copies of the book. my friend gave us cbd for everybody. [applause] so grab one of those also dessert and champagne. [inaudible conversations] >> welcome. good morning i am with the political reform program here

at new america for this book discussion of the book franchise that we will learn more about but learning about the black community over the past 60 years. a fascinating book of fellow in the class of 2017 in new america for go it was in then study african-american studies in georgetown and then teaches about women and girls history. i do a lot of work with the program here my favorite thing about the fellows program you look at it and say this is something i haven't thought about.

and that has always been my reaction to this story. then its relationship to the civil rights movement. and to help us understand the relationship. >> and my other favorite thing to be supportive of the colleagues. and then when you see that kind of cross pollination. so that's why i'm particularly excited. but this is in the same category as the center for

justice and also the fellow at new america and has also been super engaged and those complexities of the economic experience. and then to get the conversation going between the two of you. [applause] >> i am so excited. i'm trying not to pry because

there are so many cross-sections of my life. colleagues and other scholars and that's the best part of writing a book so then you realize just how many people were surrounding you in a critical moment so is just wonderful to see so many people. because i'm the relationship is hidden in plain sight. with a deep desire of african-americans to realize freedom in all of its possibilities and the way that's expressed not just

mcdonald's but the relationship to our communities. and people are often curious. and i think about the fact of the great migration it was the quiz bowl team. know your heritage. and then i read a book about the great migration. and i had a good quality education. so i read the book about the great migration and the prizes were paid for by the local

chapter in that was about the great migration to lead me down a path and every time i go back to chicago and said sponsored by or paying for chicagoland and the if my intellectual life was delivered by a mcdonald's franchise owner. so i talk about black mcdonald's owners. and that they paid for the team. and those health screenings that could happen on the weekend.

and then to pay go for scholarship that they paid for. all of these organizations had a relationship with mcdonald's. at graduate school to become more and more interested in this justice movement. how do parents let their kids eat like that? or if you have hamburgers all the time you will have heart disease.

to have diabetes or hypertension. and with that deep desire with health disparities. so where i go from thinking of african-american migration into write books about people and places that are seen with contempt and help people understand the thoughtful political choices people are making. so when it came to gather how mcdonald's became black and why there are communities where mcdonald's has replaced

those interesting cultural programs to have access to diabetes screening. and job training opportunities. and the choices people make in which they half to negotiate talking about food and health in america we are talking about capitalism forgot the end of the day i'm deeply concerned about the conditions. so we have franchises the golden arches black america. [laughter] so now i will turn it over to my colleague. >> congratulations.

>> you should check out the new york times and also a jumping off point. but on that possibility and then to be on the same old street. [laughter] but to capture a lot of that.

and the place to begin is in the passage in the book so there's chapter four that i will begin with and then allows a jumping off point. while black america was continuing its fight racism the entanglement was still brand-new. nobody could predict the drive-through was a window that worked out to a new possibility on the same old street. but it captures what the book wrestles with. so we open the book talking about ferguson misery.

and how the mcdonald's there serves as a reprieve from the chaos happening. protesters are coming in with pepper spray and military gear looking for water or air conditioning. so mcdonald's is the place that was just an escape from the chaos. so the first question so ferguson is supposed to home and you talk about this. so why focus on the economic model? that i thought when i pick this up the mcdonald's is the place in the community. but through the lens of franchising.

>> so what is happening in the story of why mcdonald's is one of the few places to open and it goes back to my curiosity to write a book about mcdonald's. remember the uprising in los angeles. after things had calmed down there is a press release that said with our stores in southern of them were harmed in that is for socially progressive policies since the 19 sixties. we thought it was the weirdest thing i had ever heard that there had been so much goodwill between people who are incredibly hurt and upset over the vindication of police officers that this is the first time people had seen it caught on video. at in the chaos of the

uprising to say mcdonald's is one of us. what a strange claim. so i realize that when fast food entered communities of color especially black communities was because of chaos after the mlk assassination so they saw 1992 is the perfect book and. if you go into these communities and will become rich as franchise owners they won't mess up your store and at such a wild claim. so in ferguson when the mcdonald's becomes the focal point people write about it as if it is a moment i say know the reason it stays open it's the wealthiest businesses in that community. and in that relationship. i wanted to think of the ways we seek restaurants.

while franchising is fascinating to me because it is quintessentially american with the right to work hard and not own something and pretend how you own it like i own my house and actually own my car but you don't want to see that. but at one point bank owned the car so it's fascinating to me with a franchise because it's an opportunity to carry the liability of a corporation with more resources than you and to get a little bit out of it. the reason why i think franchising is important if you think of african-american in the mid- 19 sixties for those that do this type of business these features of economic models were very harmful to african-americans like sharecropping but it was done in the context to believe that liberation will become from ownership.

so in the book people are really confused if it's a black owned franchise is a black business for real but not a real business but there is a hilarious moment where the naacp tries to call for a boycott of mcdonald's in los angeles and make a statement to say boycott mcdonald's but not the black-owned ones but you know which ones they are because they are only in black communities but that's what the protest is about. this is a provocative and serious challenge of consumer citizenship what does it mean to say you will not engage in a selective way quite exciting that economic model of franchising is fascinating because it exists in the real tension of how do we feel we have real ownership over the means of production what does

it mean for a member of the business class? for african-americans there are so many examples. >> i was going to ask about the franchising model is like sharecropping. >> it is a powerful word. the reason i use that word is because just recently in business there was an article about some tension from an african-american franchise of mcdonald's but a case that i talk about in the eighties where this man mcdonald's operator in los angeles and very wealthy wants to open a new mcdonald's in a black neighborhood and claims he is redlined out of that opportunity. so he use the language of residential segregation to talk about business opportunities. he is ready for prime time. every quotation he gives is perfect this is before

twitter. so make down on - - mcdonald's counters his claims to say we gave you the opportunity we don't think it's bad to work in a black community and he says who are you? i'm absorbing the risk of liability i'm giving the jobs. you say i should be allowed or happy to do business in my own community i live in bel air. that is my community so why am i relegated only to this section? every person who was to do the right thing is confronted with a system. >> i will go back to that after this question. there is something about the franchise model with a debate that has been happening and is most well-known is it most

achieved through educating and that's one argument and then it will come only if we can be economically self-sufficient so racial justice is something that follows. so in many ways we are still having that debate. and those two things seem to collide talking about franchising because it is economic attainment as well as justice not allowed to own things for quite a long time. so we get this washingtonian debate leading to the civil rights movement and suddenly

with the riots and the franchises are places for cities in the two theories collide here. so how does franchising in black communities satisfy without being contradictory? and also, it seems like the franchising corporations use this as a way to put black franchises against as a protection against the assets but also agency that did not exist before. >> from that 2020 standpoint how did people fall for this? didn't they know this would not lead to freedom? it's easy for us to say that because we know the answer. think about 1968 and the

question of what is around the corner and what's available to us. franchising makes perfect sense. hears an opportunity at the very least to have a business in your community where you know there is a black head of state. and the perfect boss you know people respect you in a way that working for a white person probably will not happen. you also know when you spend money, at the very least it goes into the hands of someone who may have less contempt. so one of the things we often miss in the history of the sixties we focus so much on residential white flight and we forget what business flight does to communities as well even before uprisings. people do not have a lot of consumer choices. so the franchise does provide that.

that more than anything else the rhetoric of the time were black self determination opening channels worked for everyone because on one hand it took the language of civil rights to talk about success and did not threaten any type of challenge. so by 68 and 69 and 70 they have seen very little participation is opening up as a result but you don't have a critical mass of candidates that people are so invested in the system. somebody says help us give us an opportunity to keep money in the community it's a pretty big deal. and then to say surely it doesn't build new schools. but at the very least it provides an opportunity that

isn't just losing businesses and opportunities and then alienated from the very basic services they should expect. think about our sin and real major cities that were burned out in 68 are still burned out lots. if you can imagine something new appearing, you can understand why people from a lot of ideological backgrounds want to give this a chance. >> let's talk about you have franchises in black communities by white franchisees then they get skittish after the riots of 67 and the mlk assassination so they start looking for black franchises. so how do they know they found a good black person quick.

>> as a really interesting group of men, the very first guy in chicago he was a barber and had a college education and a person noted because of people in the community knew and trusted him. so the other men that were the first franchise owners that were part of that generation that were in the military and had gotten opportunities and that only went so far. and people who had been successful in other industries one of the people i had a chance to talk to he played professional basketball.

he brought more capital from a franchise in milwaukee. but they were left to their own devices. and the idea was to make it successful figure it out so they started the operators association because they felt cut out from those opportunities mcdonald's was supposed to provide. >> i want to leap forward 72 rolls around and exit is up for election and then jet and ebony start talking about black capitalism. so i want to read the blurb that occurs in one of the ads. of a well coiffed afro and

then in a library surrounded by books it says richard nixon believes in black capitalism because that's black power. in the best sense of the word. >> not the scary sense but actual accountability. the road that leads to black economic influence, black pride in the black man's fight for equality perk i want you to talk about black capitalism a little bit to be so wrapped up it rolls right into the franchising conversation and also has politics of respectability combined with black power. so you talk about black leaders and the role that they play in the black panthers and they had to talk to all of these folks and nixon's black capitalism pulls them together. >> one of the things if you

look at what they write commissions starting late 20th century in the 1910 through the presen present, they asked the question why are people so angry? they say police brutality, not enough jobs, quality of the schools, no affordable housing they will say problems of local businesses. these commissions say let's focus on the business part and the other key elements we will figure that out later. but the business part is the easiest part. because it suggests if a person can create a workable relationship to capitalism that they will not be so upset the next time. so throughout the book there

are all these people that would agree on all these things that find themselves coming to idea because the reasoning is it is something. is a start. it's a place to pivot and have other needs met. so we have on the surface politically radical groups people who are strong critics of capitalism who say it is bad but in the context of the community we can't figure it out and i don't think that's very different so it's all the feelings people have light :-colon keep her neck and jay-z. so does that make it less radical? these are the same types of questions rising up as these

restaurants were opening and again i try to be so sensitive to the fact people are living with a constrained set of choices. it doesn't absolve them from responsibility? so people ask if it's a takedown book of the fast food industry. and what capitals and presents to people and to get the most basic needs met. 's is the only job i could possibly have. is this the only avenue for a

place to have coffee. and that's what people are grappling with it to make decisions but their relationship would be to these institutions. >> it seems like mcdonald's at least took the hint it's not just black face on the local mcdonald's that when you get these investments that you talk about. so i will be honest when we first talked about this years ago mcdonald's and post- 1990 i think and i still remember those commercials. the quarter powder french fries. so how did mcdonald's add a

time over battles over franchises come up with an ad campaig campaign, maybe the first that targeted black americans not just be creating white advertisements but add campaign campaigns. >> so now there is targeting towards african-americans but what mcdonald's did so well out of the urging of the black franchise owners is they invested in black culture makers. black america brought to you by because i want to acknowledge the creative energy. there is way to create the creativity of the fast food industry but it is fascinating

with the ephemera of the fast food industry and it is creative. those calvin as were effective because they created them because there was the negative perception of working at mcdonald's and the sociologist will predetermine jobs there was all of this baggage. so they created this to work at mcdonald's and the entire ad is about a young black man who everybody thinks is up to no good. and he is good. this is so appalling. but nine -year-old me was like this is so cool. look at me learning something about the world. these advertisements are so smart because they form an

intimacy that was about specificity and anytime you believe advertising will say i will one of you and to walk a deep desire to not buy anything. >> even if you don't watch the commercials the entire show is a commercial. so all of this is to say with the black culture makers into the background dancers the national double dutch team on television. it is so easy for many of us

to imagine a struggling world without mcdonald's. of those are patronizing a mcdonald's for black consumers ever 16 years federal protection into the television program that was available. if you think of the importance of that publication of black enterprise and jet and ebony to show these advertisements come out if i can say is the greatest triumph ever bet it is special and wonderful. i go to mcdonald's in downtown chicago for quite a no how many times i went to a black museum to be honest we have them i was not there every day but the black mcdonald's with portraits of joe lewis and the march in washington.

but all of this is to say this relationship increasingly has little to do as a mode of address. and it is substantive. and then doing people's behavior. it gets lost. >> and with those artifacts it brings to mind talk about the pizzeria. so this gets to another quote i want to read very quickly to say fast food rent franchises learn of racial authenticity and control. and they could never provide these things.

and all of these conflicts and to be a good citizen or a symbol of black america. so they are trying to create the capital. black citizens are appreciative of that. and then to the extent so you talk in the book how government incentivize the franchise model in the black communities but for those corporations to be a better citizen. so what is the future when all the government programs and

opportunities provided to black male democrats in the senate? it's very much a black way. but also whether there is a living wage being paid. so does the attention get resolved? and then to make this a capitalist endeavor. >> i think the tensions are always there because the corporation is seen as the space in the public sphere. the problem is not just the franchise but in the black community if there's a way

that no business should bear. that when that doesn't happen looking where those needs can be met and it still the case that black owned franchises fill the gap and the space. as a citizen or a neighbor or a leader not just the person who owns a business but running interference with the legal system. because there is not access to capital the person who will keep tabs. so any time we claim to have a democratic civil society except for when you are poor.

and then the business in the marketplace but then i do think it is interesting we have a very justice movement that tries to move away from these demeaning ways from what we eat with the food it's getting better because we have voices of people of color that are more critical but at the end of the day i hope my research and commitment to this issue is we target all of our energies on the food that we cannot that they may want to exercise.

and then i stop doing that. and with the shifts in the food system particularly in the delivery system and then all the different ways will impact how the fast food industry engages and the fast casual is a fascinating category. because it is the idea of cementing the market and all of these factors will ultimately shift some of those

dynamics but then they will seek them out. >> i want to open to questions. on the hands are going up i want to mention mcdonald's is at the forefront of corporate social responsibility or if this is an evolution. >> i think prior to the rise of mcdonald's what people called corporate social responsibility would be more of the category of charity or philanthropy like a contest or special kids day sponsored by pepsi. i think mcdonald's is amazing that the system is deeply regimented i cannot open a mcdonald's and say we will have steak sandwiches all the time. i cannot add crawfish to the menu. so there is rigidity of what

and how it is offered but it allows franchise owners in the area of community building and philanthropy to do in the ways that fits in the community and the african-american franchise owners can act with community and they created a new model to do that and mcdonald's understood they had to give them the space to do that in the ways that was relevant to that community to get the buy-in. so it's an interesting model of rigidity in the service of profits. >> a lot of the conversation is focused on the community impacting choice and a little bit matching on the ownership which is the ownership itself for economic mobility for those owners.

i were the for you to expound upon those findings how was it a source of economic mobility did it payback in dividends just beyond the jobs themselves? >> there have been groups of people who tried franchising and could not maintain because it is a risky business if you think about food poisoning, the rise of pricing it still the restaurant industry. in terms of generating wealth in other places, this is a big issue of debate whether it really is an investment because of the amount of money that has to go elsewhere in terms of franchising

fees, real estate fees, loans made by banks that are not local or community. what we did notice with franchise openings in the seventies is the way banks had traditionally been discriminatory black business people were comfortable with this model and that i could use that to open the banking world. so there is also another element that the naacp makes claims about equity and put deposits in black banks and then purchase policies from black insurance agencies. with distribution of wealth i think some of those institutions that were waning in the seventies and eighties

couldn't get their infusion of capital and the naacp has worked with mcdonald's allow for that sponsorship for those programs. >>. >> good to see you. >> the question is have we discussed the mlk ad and the origins of that. >> he could shine his light. and then could you talk how the franchise owners mobilize in their own interest and in conjunction with other things happening? >> i talk about the role of the franchise owners have. again depending on how old you

are, it's not everybody's favorite holiday and mlk is not everybody's favorite guy from the past. they're not sure if they want to line up behind the mlk holiday. african-american franchise owners are very proactive sponsoring the holiday, creating the video , they created an exhibit and they were very big on the holiday and they understood how to take that position and that's when they started to graph the story of franchising with the story of mlk together. it's interesting. one of the earlier members of the black mcdonald's association it was our naacp and urban league and all the organizations because the only

black franchisees in this network there are a few that are doing similar things in that way. so they really have come together historically to challenge mcdonald's policies and to suggest they are in a position to negotiate more opportunities with franchise owners into the system for quite found a little archive about of funneling for jesse jackson he's very important to the story i should probably write a book about him at some point. we all should. [laughter] and those are the connective threads in the book they are

every single movement having a conversation and then really understanding their role as negotiators. politically they have advocated for each other and have been proud of that and also have done a lot of work using their influence to launch the candidate. >> i have heard that phrase before but the silver and racial justice practice together. >> have the black franchise owners dealing with demographics in the seventies may be in the all latino neighborhood now how is that effective?

>> shortly after the creation of the operators association there was similar recruitments among the latino community and the asian-pacific islander to see that demographic shift some parts of texas and other parts of the south. one of the radicals i find myself in was a campaign that we partnered with educational material was spanish speaking customers and it was really fascinating the distinction of those consumer bases. so the material that they did was cultural heritage

instruction for kids. it's a very interesting contact. i can tell you all the research in my office. but it's a fascinating way of how they are marketing to african-americans. >> we have time for one more question. >> i am curious how mcdonald's compares with other franchise owners or walmart do others try to copy them? >> and with the landscape james brown had a franchise. >> he actually gave a speech he wants to focus on his gold platter restaurants so stop

writing music but did not continue. so to bring those together, mcdonald's is the first to aggressively do this bid for franchises of color than burger king followed suit then kfc and taco bell so they see what they are doing with other organizations but mcdonald's is leaps and bounds in that model. has mcdonald's was growing in the african-american communities in the seventies, other people wanted to see if they could get in on the action. so throughout the late sixties through the mid- seventies, there were a number of the celebrity backed franchise opportunities that made the argument we really are not black-owned. james brown, mohammed all the champ burger.

ninety-nine.9 percent of those partnerships were with white lawyers to lease the name and then market it. that many perl check-in was the same . . . .

is a weekly interview program with relevant guest hosts interviewing top nonfiction authors about their latest work. all "after words" programs are also available as podcasts. >> host: it's great to sit down with you. your book contains plenty of timely subjects given the political times that we are in and given the height of apple, amazon, facebook. but you normally have a pretty broad scope