like what is that flyer? i look over its four she sees me look at it. it flipped it over for a thought that was dramatic. i don't who they are ma'am you run this fight when you're talking about? that was another moment where it was like i have to go see this site. the chapter ended up being about me spending the day of the members of the son of confederates up there memorial day event. it did not write in my book proposal is going to do that. i had no interest in doing that. sometimes a story takes you in the direction it wants to go and shows you how it wants to be written. that kept happening at various stages throughout this book. >> watch the full program and the rest of the conference online anytime at booktv.org. just search 2022 annapolis book

festival. thank you so much for joining us today. my name is bethany allen-ebrahimian i that china reported at axis iv are today at hudson institute to speak with nury turkel a senior fellow here at hudson about his new book, which we have right here called no escape. and let me first introduce nury turkel part of the senior here pretty as a lawyer. he is vice chair of the u.s. commission on international religious freedom. he is a cofounder of the uighur human rights project frees one of the most prominent people who have been speaking out about the uighur situation the uighur genocide in china for years. i am thrilled today to be able to talk with him about his book.

learn more about his life story. his hard work, the challenges he has faced and what he sees going forward. thank you very much for joining us today for. >> thank you very much coming to have this conversation with me. >> i i would first like to ask u about the book project itself. how did it get started? when did you start thinking of writing a book and how did it come to be? >> thank you. if i elect to begin by thanking my colleagues here at hudson institute and leadership. and the support team. for sharing their knowledge and supporting my work over the years. i've been very pleased to have this opportunity work with world-class scholars at the hudson. the idea of writing this book has been in my mind for a long

timeir. but i never thought i would be writing a memoir early in life. and early 2019, you know very well about the frustration many of us who work in the human rights field not getting enough attention on the atrocities being committed in china. i was presented this opportunity to do stage talk to give opening speech. and in my speech i highlighted what is happening, what was happening and why it is happening. and what should we do about it. i highlighted the surveillance aspect. i highlighted the collective punishment aspect. i also highlighted the willful ignorance of the business leaders such as the ceo also the olympic 1936 to make it relatable to the audience there

so much what happened with the jewish people during the second world war and what is happening in china today. the talk i got a lot of compliments. several authors to me came to me and said i should consider turning this ten minute speech into a book. so i started out that that was the trigger. i also believed in the power of storytelling. ordinary people, average people, not clearly following the politics in china like you' andi usually do not see this has been happening for so long. as long as they have been breathing. some who lived through all of it both inside and outside of china, i thought the story should be told by somebody who had been wrecked victim of the atrocities committed by communist china.

two, i felt i owed it to the uyghur community and to the world to share stories of those who have not had the type of opportunity and platform that i have. i want to use this book an opportunity to tell the world or eeducate the world this is no longer about a group of oppressed ethnic minorities in china. this is about the future but what kind of future do we want? we want to stop this atrocity on the world what a redo want to keep making empty promises that never again? >> i was really struck when i was reading your book and i have my copy here because i took a lot of notes asus i was reading. i come at you closely a lot stories you told about the uighurs who have been put into the camp of their story i was

familiar with their story but what was so interesting about you write about them was you know it's not that you just let them but you know where they grew up. the culture is one you share. because of that i felt that i could really almost live with them what they were experiencing. i found a very powerful. another thing i really glean from this is my own personal story but hope you can share with everyone watching today. we know you as a lawyer but we know he was summoned courageous on the international stage. but your childhood is fascinating. and says a lot about the trajectory of the experience of leaders in china. with where you were born in the building you're born in. >> i never thought, especially coming to the united states

pursuing private education in the nation's capitol after becoming an american citizen thought my past history particularly weight my parents brought me too this program almost irrelevant who would like to talk about classic stories. even my close associates.no i was born in a camp at the height of the revolution. there is so much relevancy and to offering many uighurs are enduring. for one, for starters guilt by association. my mother and my father did not commit any crime. their crimes might mother happens to be the daughter of that uyghur nationals. my dad being a cousin or a relative of somebody individuals

who migrated to the soviet union back in the 60s.an and also the other aspect very similar is the way they forced my mom to go through indoctrination like verbal abuses, physical abuses, dehumanization the collective aspect is to punish and transform uighurs specifically the leaders following their traditional life and intellectuals the teacher who is sent to labor camp to perform labor. my mother is taken into the camp she was very young.

she gave birth to me in the reeducation camp. while she was pregnant she got injured. she was in a cast chest down will she delivered me. even the father of two young kids who'd been to the hospital but my wife was delivered i know how difficult it is to go through a normal delivery product process the loan being in a cast in that environment. this makes it very special. this helps me too build a special bond with myr parents. my mother is 72 she still is in chinese control and i've not seen her since my law school graduation 2004. i do not know if i will ever see heher again. tragically i recently lost my father about a month ago when i was on -- he was on official trip. i heard the news on my arrival that he passed away.

but most hard mentioning aspect of that, i know thisin is coming is not prepared by the fact is not able to hold my mom when she is going through when she lost her husband of 53 years. that's about the same distance from here to new york. it's very close, same culture, samee environment. because i got sanction last december by a chinese regime for. >> congratulations request thank you, thank you policy announcement they made it impossible. for those u of us that had that childhood family connection that sanction i did not even have a

basic freedom to be there for my mom and carry my dad's casket. recent jump and separated from your parents along can be dangerous. about this is such an interesting thing for the reeducation camps your mother she was 19 years old and just a fewn months pregnant. it was in a city. as in downtown. you were released as a baby eventually after the cultural revolution that building was torn down and there is a movie theater. used to go there and go to movies there. i think it's very interesting i waived the trajectory of china. >> it is fascinating you walk by

a building where your mother was tortured and where you were kept and not even see that natural daylight causing a lot of health concerns. some people even suggested to my mom i was not going to that were associated with my early childhood life. the building was a russian built a giant building -- make a with giant windows and doors. and when they turn that into -- before they turn that into a mall or my uncles had shops to sell import and export products. i was walking close to the center of the central square. ironic every time we walk by my mom said that was the window i

try to peek out might mother could see me by the building. i was long disappeared i would walk by and arrive. that's why i generally believe the uighurs have never had a chance to live like aei normal human being even in my own life. even before i was born to this world. this is very personal to me. sometimes i share stories other people like to hear about my story. the others are much more horrific,nc heart wrenching previouslyf reporting. us another present directory you mentioned in the 1980s this is something of rope flowering a brief. it was with the local authorities rebuilt some of the more traditional things. >> is the polar opposite.

this is something i always say the platform of official private. human rights, religious freedom naturally have a happy population. even though there's some sort of political refresh and it exists. some people willfully choose to look the other wayas about the political aspect. that was the light of the uyghur people a. i was able to speak might mother language which i still i do. following my dad religious holidays were d permitted. you will easily get a label and

extremist those are the things that are very, very normal. and also this may be news to most people i grew up in university campus. we had some professors they were respectful. stars not touching the food when they come to visit the house you invite them to do. that kind of a basic respect has gone to date. parent taking a kid to worship is gone. so i c cultural revival the firt uyghur language publishing house was established by the state publishing textbooks. today those editors work with the publishing house editors whose authors publish books to thela publishing house languishg

in the camp spirit is just incredibly different world. and then as i wrote in the book there is an area in a chinese elementary school for one of the most significantly intellectual inin history. they organize preservation the classical music.li make it better they should look at some of the policies that we are working. reasonable leadership in beijing into a region today. cracks that talk aboutut the 1980s tell us what change along the way to bring some

regard today? >> the uighurs people fates, the uyghur people's life, their environment to the global politics through regional geopolitics. even though there's a serious political discussion. the soviet union after the gulf war after the democracy movements think chinese leadership promise themselves will not have the same kind of fate as the soviet. will not tolerate any kind of political dissent. the late '80s and then follow the soviet union. in the chinese nervous. as has been the case with the

establishment as an organization you can see with russia andre china which is a regional security organization they just built up this pressure both inside and outside of china creating an enemy in the uyghur people. and the rest of the history as you know. >> what is it that the chinese communist party what? >> two things. unconditional loyalty and subjugation. the chinese to the communist party their way of life something that has been treated as a threat orth sign of disloyalty. part of the overall thinking in the leadership in the state

propaganda. and even in society. i lived in china for five years, even with my student status and gainful employment in beijing i always feel it as other dramatic that stem from the concept initially created by social and about the ccc propaganda become social aptitude. the other pieces subjugation the chinese tried different methods from the beginning 1940 people should know before stalin handed over in 1949 with assassination

of the most leadership inso the airplane crash. they tried a different method of dirt xi jinping took office and became the supreme leader of china it had a dramatic change. they were very careful with the language of social stability ethnic harmony type of pop a squelch a uyghur resentment. seventeen it the narrative completely changed it. rounded up everyone should be roundede up. it is state sponsored racial profiling, discrimination that

qualify through state policies in the last several years? >> but some of the challenges i face in conveying what's happening to the uighurs that's familiar to western audience ethnic minority and concentration camp we have a schema for that the holocaust. but a lot of it isn't, there is not a simple way to explain people who are not encamped space. in the total surveillance you use the term digital dictatorship equips visualer authoritarianism. really starting with the digital authoritarianism, can you describe what thatt is, what tht looks like how it affects the daily lives of uighurs there and what it's for? >> we have been focusing on those who been detained in the

camps is based on the chinese own white paper 1.3 million uighurs went the reeducation yosince 2000 rink number. andst these practices. forget or ignored the life of the uighurs outside of the camps. you have been subject tohe surveillance and aspect of their lives. this resulted in something very serious to the uyghur community around the world. this was family members made a conscious decision to delete their foreign contacts. including children and grandchildren, evens reading when their walking down the street lease stop that into mobile device scan?

it's a data scan something as reported by human whites and joint operating platform. you will been profiled. you will be subject to reeducation for that is one thing. the other thing early on they did a free medical checkup offeringng free medical checkup even for people who have healthy insurance like my parents. to collect dna samples. will. you use the samples with the help of the chinese republic security officials here in the united states.

at the facial recognition software that also created such an for example going to your parents house or exercise if not previously recorded in the database you will not be allowed in.o so you imagine every apartment complex has a type of door we see in the metro station with cameras. the reason they added ars qr coe on your doors. so they know what kind of people hlive there the context they hd every aspect of the uyghur life had been surveilled. see most important thing people should take away from this part of the conversation is to the extent the american public the american investors are investing

late. not realizing this to be a bigger problem for the rest of the world to deal with. as we speak with the 80 countries around the world. not only adopted the chinese from surveillance techniques but expending it on their own. this is something that people should be concerned. because this will affect lives when it comes to privacy. especially in the united states as americans we love our privacy. this kind of intrusive surveillance and other parts of the world for the other pieces what does that mean for democratic system democratic freedom? are weio going to allow ourselvs to have a government or opposition group to monitor your voting records? he may not have that problem here but aroundd the world that may be the case. also these security concerns.

we reported in the united states but commercialization's we have actually this is part. >> people need to pay attention. sometimes think thehe chinese develop valence technology it actually came from other parts of china. with the effectiveness now big a exploited. i'm grateful for the united states government o focusing on chinese tech firms. he biden administration sanctioning its largest security camera. which has been enabling, facilitating the genocide.

>> there is the chinese man who came just recently in part of his interesting and important testimony he recognized the hike vision logo in the mass internment camp he wrote first-person evidence of the use of high cameras in the camp somewhat therefor. another building in their what else have you seen from the u.s. and other countries that has already happened. and what do you want to see happen? >> i interviewed had the pleasure to interview the book everyone should read.

he spent a lot of time in china including a a visit. the news broke up and there's something bad happening. something very interesting in the book so most of the u.s. hospitals, schools and prison systems use the chinese security cameras. this is it. u.s. embassy closed and one military base in theer united states. the problem with this was those of usis call attention to the th authoritarian and digital authoritarianism people politicized. but these entities are all about. in the same but there's also another interesting information that each of these companies

from directly related to the leadership. that this model, the technology sharing even a certain degree of investment all connected. and in one instance the author mentionedob the lobby i have a slogan that said we ruled china today we will rule the day tomorrow. that is their ambition but. >> quite a slogan. >> i think the american people are gradually wakinggo up. bipartisan spirit doing something right about this particular issue. i worry the european companies, even some western european countries are still not really appreciating that magnitude, seriousness of the problem are dealing with. >> i want to get into the stories we spend so much of your book on. especially storiesbo about wome,

you really give so much attention what women have suffered. pick one or two of the women you wrote about and talk about what happened to them especially as women in the camps and also outside of the camps. that proved to with the uyghur camp survivors. because of limited space in the book the camp instructor, she was assigned to teach to the dude. most horrifying thing i've heard from her was even at her house she was subject to various abuses, even at her house. >> uses the family? >> this is partut of becoming.

>> tells about that. this is one thing's specialists know about the broader audience may not. it's a special kind of horror. >> a couple of years ago we learned about this program will call it a program. worked essentially with the chinese has done is to send a group of chinese cadres the home of the uyghur people. to eat or sleep uninvited. anyone can appreciate how annoying, how offensive that can be if someone comes your house and tries to join you in your bed and join you in your meal. if, children in this case. this is still ongoing. i interviewed all the relatives.

they will check up on you they will talk to your children you are not around the questions when he is talking we are not at home? in the honest answer by a child, children could cause big trouble. it lent you into the camp. >> questions like casey mommy or daddy praying is not a question? >> does he tell you to do certain things? that this thing called to face crime. and also the is outrageous and heartbreaking. i profiled in the book they specifically sexual favor. then you have noe mail household

has been taken to the camp are the most vulnerable ones. they are based on the stories i put in the book with the camp survivors. some people may object to this description. the uyghur woman or sexual object in china. some only meet saying the chinese and put out a tweet calling a uyghur woman as a baby making machine. they took itnd down. you can imagine with the social context the attitude can be to a vulnerable group of uyghur women. the camp survivors reminded me of the jewish woman who survived the holocaust.

and share their stories. i have the pleasure to work with some holocaust survivors here at home. reminded me of courageous women tell the world. another important aspect we talked of the culturaluc revolution. but today's collective punishment has so much similarities to at the jewish people have gone through during the second world war. use the glorified regime, taking children away, targeting women even some of the slogans they use disturbingly final solution the chinese documents. text talk about taking the children away that's in reference to the statement orphanages. one or both of the parents are in the camps and there is a

child. you don't teach them uyghur they only teach them management. this party i am not muslim. there is a essay in the "washington post" are peopled in the nation's capitol. the population it's more international legal ramificationss potentially. we can talk about creating the legal case of the genocide.gr but forcible removal or transfer of children to from one group to another is itself alone right.f the deliberate systematic prevention of growth that has also been documented.

other pieces is the whole destruction group of people. so the last two the sterilizationio population and child separation were some of the most important factors for the united states government elect at a genocide. like to share a story. i was giving a talk at ucla law school. right around the time the investigative reporting done on the documents, a young student came to me and asked me if i could help to save his sister. mymy question what happened to your sister? he said my mom was a very successful publisher. my dad was working with her and both of them are detained.

recently mom was transferred to a factory to perform forced labor rested what happened to your sister? he said she is other. if something happens to her and my sister will be sent to a state run orphanage. this is one of the many stories. in this profiled a father in istanbul who recognized his son. it was a state run orphanage propaganda material. this is one of the many cases i personally heard. it is heart wrenching. what kind of people will take you away from you? this sounds like a very basic human conversation. but policy makers should ask themselves what will happen to them if someone takes away their children from their wife's?

they end up recognizing in a promotional video somewhere? and what if your children do not recognize you call so what else the father? these kind of things keep me awake at night. specifically what happened to the uyghur women and children. what kind of future can you have when you do not have women and children? it's a very simple question. chinese authority the policymakers know exactly what they tried to accomplish.ti so it bothers me so much on a personal level people are still debating whether to check i need to document and speech refers to breaking that lineage. the point. we do not want the next generation of leaders to be uighurs. they are very specific. >> that is the policy. that's the policy in china system you do not have to have like we do the think tanks picking congress to debate is

never part is to report nothing beneficial to chance it becomes a policy. everyone is seeing that is being implemented. you talk about the forcedli sterilization. thanks aspects. it's truly pointless cruelty. the woman in the book was 48. >> forced sterilization at that but some of them are still suffering serious health issues. she has been hospitalized a number of times. this is public. they are so courageous these are private matters people do not casually talk about.

this is all unusual circumstances. these women feel compelled to share the stories. she was not even planning to have another baby she was close to 50 in middle age forced her to go through forced sterilization. it is cruel, it is inhuman. >> i know that the u.s. has led a lot on this issue.ve has been very important and that. >> thank you for caps on the specific action? talked about this already there's been a genocide there has been sanctions.n there's been a companies put the entities list. our leap touched this and we need too. talk about forced labor and

supply chain issues. the act was passed recently in you walk us through i is that happening? what is these u.s. doing to get these products out of global supply chain? you raisey issue makes this issue even more relatable relevant to general american public ordinary people's interest, forced labor is not something new toi the uyghur people. we talked about my early life city where i was born and raised chinese authorities used it uighurs to perform forced labor

picking cotton. and has been part of uyghur life for long, long time production construction controls much of the cotton fields, water sources. they have been enslaving the people are less 40w or 50 years. this has been ongoing. what is new additionally those global brands and coastal cities. this program people give chinese government a lot of credit for also created labor shortage. that labor shortage compounds businesses to move their assembly line. there's plenty of naturall resources. they do not have to transport.

plenty of agriculturalty produc. used to build solar panels it was geographically location there's over 600 miles an international border. it is a huge market. those are the reasons they move thee manufacturing site the country what is new literally everything. including the ppe is to save lives times reported that practice. the one shipment only. i asked my female friends to

come up with a ballpark estimate how many women's heads need to be checked shaved to make 13 tons of women's products? no one can give me an accurate figure. that was only one shipment. >> you mentionede in here the women in the camps had their heads shaved. that particular shipment came from a factory that was very close to a detention facility at the idea here is this has such echoes of the holocaust. the women are put into the camps, their heads are shaped and now that here's an african-american keep american women with the darker hair preference. the solar panel my environmental friends that we need to save the planet, at what? i remember when il was in law

school helping the workers manuals for the sneaker makers who had a plant in northeast china this was like a legit business they were paid even less than the others but not at the full scale industrial scale it slavery that weo are dealing with. so the united states government to be our o's and now this legislation like and the leadership in the u.s. congress and president biden and some credit for signing it in such a short time. this piece of lead unchecked legislation came while literally three weeks but took a long time to get there but he was a pretty quick. might be sanctioned has something to do with this as well. the type. three things happened around that time the olympic boycott, conditional sanctions in signing

this bill through law. with the prevention act. it is interesting timing to say the least. so what this law does is push the responsibility over to the business to prove to the united states that they are not using forced labor unless otherwise they would presume to be using forced labor. i think it's a smart strategy. in china is an forced migration but even if you managed to stop the forced labor practices through legal means, legal tools, they can move it to neighboring providence. with that kind of pushing the task over to the businesses i think it's on the most effective ways. we shallll see. this law will be implemented next month, june 21 to be exact. but businesses may find a way to

ask for labor exceptions business community still had not been up to the plate yet. i will give you one example shortly after putin invaded ukraine at took up two or three days for the international businesses to either pull out or suspend their business practices. to this day if you count late 2016 it is been almost six years the advocates who tried to stop this practice of not been able to make one u.s. company to make a pledge. it will not stop sourcing. one or a few of them tried and they ended up being subject to state-sponsored boycott in china. this is a very complicated work.

but if this law is implemented it will address some of the lingering issues in the u.s. china trade since china joined the wto. what about you be able to solve the supply-chain problem if you do not address this. somega time to those business leaders and lobbyists were pushing against, trying to convince congress and theoi current administration going hard on china on this particular issue would create more supply-chain issue. we cannot handle something covered up. this has to be dealt. also i think this is also very important to the u.s. eu relationship as well but i was pleased he was taken to the last g7. they did not issue a joint communiqué but was included int the statement push back against forced labor.

i never thought that uyghur issue would make it to g7. the europeans have not figured out the china comprehensive old. who knows what will happen to it.pa i hope the australians, japanese, canadians, brits, have something similar in place of this to be a global effort. otherwise will not be able to stop this. >> i first heard people were trapped in r this and putting it together hope the idea behind it was really brilliant. because at the time you talk to cdp come to the office of customs and border protection that's tasked with preventing. it's already against the law for people to bring products made with the forced labor into the u.s. but the onus was on this tiny office totally understaffed with these really complex supply-chain audits that you have to do with china.

to put the onus onto the company, it at least makes it theoretically possible to tenforce u.s. law as it already exists. >> you raise an important point. not only did they have specific tools or mandate that would address this issue. we are sos understaffed. that's our time at that particular office with about 15 people. the whole united states government has about people tasked to do this. the united states remains to be the largest export destination for these products along with some european companies by. >> they basically almost a work doing it relying on media reports to do that for them. that's understandable. it is still very complicated and difficult. on the chinese government authorities have made it next to impossible for the actual on the ground audit.

anywhere it so walkable a little bit. >> absolutely. this is why i always emphasize the role of the consumers in the united states. you have to create an uncomfortable environment for cpolicymakers and business leaders that they cannot just ignore this. there is some reluctance and some officials. we read there was some pushback and some lobbying through the u.s. chamber of commerce to the state did not think it was a good idea to have the slot. oh consumers need to create an environment that policymakers force them to do the right thing. consumers also could have a huge role to play to make it costly for the businesses to continue this modern-day slavery. otherwise, there's one example bring the winter olympics, i doa not know who promoted this idea initially, it could be those

three jewish leaders who published heisman in the "new york times" calling for a breakout of the nbc viewership who are watching the game. the viewership dropped in half during the games. that is significant. do not know what was going to the executive at nbc but that was huge. we live in a free society people have a choice not to watch, not to buy things for a quick senate one affect was that it was really difficult for advertisers for brands to have judgment to run as manyw ads to be excited about the olympics.he everyone knew there was a genocide going on. >> speaking of that remind me of something fostered by companies implicated already in the practices.

it is not that difficult.ge some of them came to testify and conquer. they did not even acknowledge bad happening in this part of the world. more important this is un-american. we have a cotton trade history. this country has a history it was slavery. we have a history of not listening to people who are facing a genocidal campaign. if this will not wake up i do not know what will. finally i want to remind something the in action by the state parties to the genocide convention, making this treaty almost irrelevant. as of 2019, i believe there's over 13050 state parties of the genocide convention. under the genocide convention article one of the genocide convention state parties to call

it out and published by theid state countries and parliament including our own only to do what they were supposed to do as a baby step number one. so nothing. i'm very pleased with the progress is caused in particular were able to make in the united states with zero financial investment. passing these kind of major laws require a lot of resources and lobbying efforts. i'm very pleased congress did this with anyone investing a pet also very pleased there is a bipartisan policy response by previous administration and the current administration. but what i is missing is a globl effort. what is missing is a coherent plan. t i don't think anyone put out a plan to stop this genocide like

the way the international community came together and tried to push back against putin's invasion in ukraine. >> i remember what i found to be so incredibly disheartening although see appropriate and when the international olympic committee when russia invaded ukraine, called for countries to cancel sporting events with russia. which was coming off the heels of the beijing olympics in sog many people have been urging the ioc to take action regarding genocide they been totally silent. the juxtaposition of that was very hard to see. >> secretary-general went to ukraine and to. this day he is not set a word frequency is never mentioned that his rights. >> that's right he is never mentioned. >> the hypocrisy. >> that turns us to the last

thing i want to talk about which is the global implication of that uyghur genocide would that uyghur genocide matters no matter what. all of that uyghur people is important enough for everyone in the world to care about. but because of china's position, their ability to reshape the communist party to reshape global institutions has added weight andrm importance in terms of what kind of world the 21st century is going to be. whatt other ways are the chinese government has been trying to make the world safe for whetherl

obligation, historical concerns and regret, technological aspect for the products that they use at home or global leadership, health of democratic system, privacy. it relates. one of the things i want people to take away is to feel hopefully that this is not only about them anymore it's about the future. if they get away with this this would become the new normal.

i personally think this is too much of a problem. i'm o very critical of the syst. there is no one we can address in the organizational entity today. the campaigns. the united states government recognized the last two but where is the action. if you let this go if they sufferedti no cost we would see this again but if you stop this the historical promise never again. the treaty obligation, the moral obligation i can begin so i thik this is about leadership,

conscience, about future. i think it's a good way to remind the audience people sometimes feel in different. feel so closee today is because they've seen how it ends. you might think and other muslim people, too far but at the end of the day when it happens to you you may not have people to speak for you so i hope this book will compel policymakers, ordinary citizens to do whatever they can lending their voices, initiating new responses, putting in place legal tools. journalists like yourself even

at a personal cost you are one of the great examples of china going after individuals for doing their job. it's the right thing for a better future. >> thank you for your time today and for the book into the work that you've done and continue to do. thank you to all of you for joining us here today at hudson. homework can be hard but squatting in a diner for internetwork is even harder that's why we are providing lower income students access to affordable internet so homework can just be homework. connect to compete. >> along with of these other providers giving you be front row seat to democracy.

founder and activist recently discussed her life and work to support and empower black and brown girls. >> no one wants to have this conversation or be honest about the conversation. this is the reality of being a black woman in the world and the reality of being a woman on the internet and quite frankly a black woman with a lot to say. people would rather talk about what i look like than what i do. the amount of people that have said things like you couldn't have gotten raped. why would anybody want to rape you. i was like i was cuter. does that make you feel better. i just want to kind of put it in people's face because it's just like anything else. i look in the mirror and i'm

like i all right. if other people have an issue with that let's be real about what is called in the world. my friends and family would be like your beautiful, your this and that but the actual world finds ways to tell me i'm not worthy you are beautiful and what i did when i was young is i conflated that is the reason i was violated and i think that's what happens a lot of times when you are dealing with multiple things at the same time. it's not just the sexual violence. it's as a young black girl in america in particular and what that is. i just want to be right in people's face with that and talk about this dishonesty. people actually quote i look like is an affront to them.

like you're going to get mad at me and it's also to read the book i don't want to give a lot away about why i put on the anger. like i've got anger also. you're fighting, i'm fighting to. i've got it because i'm trying desperately to find something to cling to that says i'm just as good or better or worthy. it's not just healing from the trauma but all the things we have to carry around of the trauma. >> to watch the rest to visit booktv.org, use the search box at the top of the page to look for the title of the book unbound. >> good afternoon everyone. i'm the chief communications officer for the library of congress and weie can say this enou w