the supreme court ruled against him but establish stricter guidelines for states wishing to impose the death penalty. case,s you discuss this carol steiger and a professor at harvard law school. she has argued against the death penalty in a number of cases. can't scheidegger, the legal director of the criminal justice legal foundation, capitalng for punishment. cases monday at 9:00 eastern on c-span and joined the conversation. #landmarkcases. resources on our website, the "landmark cases" companion book, and the "landmark cases" podcasts at

c-span.org/landmarkcases. next on american history tv, three california-based a story and is discussed citizenship rights and economic inequalities in the state and throughout america. they also explore immigration, policing, and housing. the organization of american historians hosted us event. it is about 90 minutes. it took place at their annual meeting in sacramento, california. >> good evening. thek you for coming to first session of this year's oah in sacramento. the going to introduce panelists in alphabetical order by last name. so moved to the left and come back to me.

walton e. alexander junior. his work on african-american intellectual history focuses in particular on the modern intellectual freedom struggle. his books include "blacks against empire: the history and politics of the black panther policy," "freedom on my mind: the history of african-americans soldiers: by cultural politics in postwar ," and "the mind of frederick douglass." -- at uc irvine, where she served as dean of the school's humanity. i had to shorten her introduction so we would have time tonight -- she has had such career.guished

she was the first latino to receive the national humanities leve metal that she received from president obama. she is a past president of our haa.ing organization, d her book "from out of the shadows: mexican women in 20th astury america," and co-author, "created equal: a istory of the united states." she co-edited "latinos in the states." my name is tj stiles. anm in an independent author. three of my books have been used !" three on "jeopardy separate times. thank you very much.

i assume you will defer to me throughout the panel. i want to allow a little time for introductory remarks, and hopefully we will get a conversation going about california and the nation, past and future. thank you. >> i want you to know i may be violating the only nondisclosure agreement i have ever signed. pg.t worry -- it is or g, i should say. in the mid-1990's, i was part of a small group of scholars that as to work on california-themed attraction. brainstorming session with those who would be designing the exhibit as well as those who would be funding the theme parks.

this roundtable was to generate ideas. "what is california?" what is the history? what type of exhibits? nationald we want a audience to embrace, to know about the history of california and california experience? i will say that the only idea that made it was in part of the 23-minute california dreams that played at california adventures between 2001 and 2009. it has now since then replaced by a mermaid. [laughter] 1500, -- wrote a very popular novel, and one of its protagonists was a black

amazon queen. 1542, one rodriguez cardillo sailed into port loma, look to the land, and called it california. the narrator was whoopi goldberg. that was my contribution. california,dea of certainly as the idea, it has always been shrouded, ok, even since 1542. came ton 1977, i california will to discover something that i had only ever read a couple of books on and also my own self-discovery. calafiaesentation of

certainly took hold and in fact, if you just go across the street to the california room is the state capital, you will see a representation of calafia, and look atcalafia, if you it, she has a spear in one hand and a gyroscope on the other. violent and innovation has been a binary. [applause] walton: two moments frame want to talk about, and the first moment, when i first came to california as a graduate student 1973, i was in the graduate

student lounge, and one of my , he hades came up to me heard i was from north carolina, and his first remark to me, well, what is it like to come out from behind the cotton curtain, and my first response was -- i did not know i was behind the cotton curtain. [laughter] waldo: and then he goes on and on to regale me about the wonders and the models of as fate wouldd have it, as of today, i have lived most of my life in california, but i still sort of see myself as a tar heel. so that is one way, a point of introduction. i am a very conflicted californian, and i am not quite sure -- to me, california is an americanon of

experience, writ large. is other point of departure the california dream. being from north carolina, having lived in virginia for almost a decade, i do not remember a north carolina dream. i do not remember a virginia dream. they way in from florida. there is no such thing as a florida dream. i was trying to think about this whole thing as the california dream and why there is something called california dream, and i think it is, in shorthand, the american dream in a lot of ways and how it gets represented, understood, put forth, and worked out. i am really one of those kind of people who believe california is the laboratory for a lot of that. so what i want to do is to take you to another place, because i

do think there are ways of thinking and understanding that , so if theresent brothers are not over there -- what happens to the brothers? ok, my brother. he is my dj. snippeting to play a that will give you a sense i think of where i am coming from. ♪ waldo: there are lots of ways of knowing, being, thinking, and understanding. this is a particular version of

a very popular song by the mamas apas, and it is giving to you in a very pop, funkadelic, jimi hendrix-inspired style. but the brother who created this was basically detroit, but when i heard this, it made me think west coaster, jimi hendrix, because i think there is a way that those on the west ,oast think and act and do effectively coming out of cities, sites, neighborhoods, communities that black people inhabit, and they sort of have a particular vision, a particular understanding. and i like to think of a wise and optimism, a critical and or better yet,m,

a kind of hope. so there are three things that really stand out to me, and that is this whole idea of dreaming. because i think dreaming is very important. if you cannot dream come if you cannot imagine, then you cannot struggle, younnot cannot sort of try to realize your best self, so i spent a lot of time with my students trying to get them to think about imagining a better world. and to me, one of the issues is freedom. we have all of these wonderful conversations about freedom, but what is always very clear to me the conversations get very tense around issues of economics. a lot of my students are very comfortable with poverty. they are very comfortable with economic inequality.

rhetorically opposed to the worst excesses of they neitherut articulate a critique or a deep understanding, so i try to push back. abolishingy i am for all inherited wealth. restructuringsive -- and they look at me, and they say "we are going to get rid of you." [laughter] waldo: "you must go." but it seems to me, as i think about california and the experiences that i have had over the last several decades, the thing that really horrifies me is the growing economic inequality is this state. i live in berkeley, too. when i first came to berkeley, there was a visibly black population there, because they could afford to live there. increasingly, that is no longer the case, and it is largely a function of a lack of resources,

especially black wealth. so when i think about california, i think it is an extraordinary place. to me, the myth, the dreaming is very, very important. i think it has generated a lot of really exceptional contributions to not only the state and the nation but the world. but what i really want us to do is think long and hard about how we got to the place where we are , given sort of the current state of economic inequality, wealth and asperity, and how we can envision, train, imagine a better california, dream a better california future. to me, it has to start with sort of trying to think about a more economic, the deleterious society. egalitarian-- a gala terr

society, and i have some ideas about this. i hope there are young people here, because you're the ones who are going to do something about it. california could be and should be on the forefront of any effort to try to do something about equalizing resources in the nation, because it is absolutely essential. the other thing i am really committed to, and my students gave me this term, being "woke" when i was coming up, it just meant to be a vigilant and strong in the struggle, but my students keep telling me about being woke. i grew up in a world, and i continue to inhabit a world, where i cannot understand how you can expect to have a better world if you do not fight for it.

understand the notion that some students come to me with that out of the goodness of , theeart of the powerful less powerful and those that have no power will all of a sudden get a better like you i find that the a and get a better life -- will get a better life. i find that to be totally reasonable. as for douglas said, our teeth nothing without -- power c oncedes nothing without a demand and it never will. insurgstrong mass back. fihgting one of the things that has made my life so exciting is wife's

-- black lives matter. blacksurgence of a militant movement that harkens and to california history national history. i would like us to engage in conversation rooted in what kinds of struggles we need to engage in. without the struggles, the next generation will not live a better life and why do i care? i have a 22-year-old granddaughter is the center of my universe and i want her to have the best of all possible worlds. the final thing i want to say is i take this very seriously. constantlyg i play and work with my students around

is a bob marley tune. in 1976, bob theater,reek berkley, haze of some kind of smoke. picture it. until the philosophy which will one race inferior and another superior is finally permanently abandoned them everywhere is war. war in the east. war in the west. war down south. war up north. everywhere there will be war. why do i want to end with this? wehink we are party is -- complacent around

forms of quality. quality.een -- of ine have been black all my life, i live that, breathe that. i want to make a sound or -- a andt out for racial economic inequality. asee tham as -- them inseperable. it is a no-brainer. we tried to puzzle. how do you enhance black wealth? i tell my students, what about m y 40 acres and a mule? we can sort that with soeme

interest. liforniarience of ca came through with the history of the black panther party. it taught me something i knew that california may be the apotheosis of the california dream, but it is also the apotheosis of the american dream, the american nightmare. we have to work through and understand that paradox. the black experience in california and throughout this nation come to grips -- nation helps us come to grips with that. >> that leads right into what i wanted to talk about.

this question before us now of the attack on the very idea of there is the in the united states -- of diversity in the u.s. anniversary150th year of the ratification of the that createdt birthright citizenship. there have been proposals recently to get rid of it. this is what the immigrant experience is about, the nature of citizenship, what it means to be an american. the 14th amendment guarantees due process, equal protection of the laws, equal rights isolation. -- legislation. it also gives everyone the benefit of the bill of rights.

this is some thing one of the framers of the 14th amendment said, this gives the congress the power to force the bill of rights. before the 14th amendment, the states violated the bill of rights all the time. slavery were there states and state sponsored churches. i am read because of the 14th amendment. it was in response to a political crisis driven by lax self-assertion -- black self-assertion. and a violent retaliation by the former confederates in the south. at the same time it was being

put forward, resistance came from california because there was a fear it would make chinese immigrants citizens. this moment is just one of those pieces. -- little set this brings forward all of the issues that are present in america and are so in california. california. in what is an american? who is an american? these rights are the result of struggle and conflict. the question i would like to pose is where do you see the conflicts in california that there have been over economic

ofquality, immigration, and course genocide in california. the state was made by the deliberate attempt to eliminate native people. the black half brother of -- made a small fortune. it has been this place of amazing diversity and also intense conflict and oppression. to throw it back to you, do you see moments where these things have been formative? >> do you want to take that?

[laughter] question,'t like that answer a different one. >> we have been thinking there are epople -- people that know more than we do. offer sfeel so moved to knowledge, raise your hand. >> i think about erica lee's work. when you talk about immigration, leader in is the exclusion. act led byxclusion the working man's party. a the same time you had over

between people deported 1929 and 1934, the same time this is going in l.a. george sanchez says how almost every southern california has to decide to stay or go. you have city operators speaking spanish. there is this mexican in vogue. tile roofs. i'm thinking better homes and gardens. this is the start of fiest plates in popularity. there is this repellant, like

the food, hate the mexican. in orange county, the patrons next to you talking loudly about the illegals or the protest of beach,utemen in newport the veterans are holding theirs signs. what is this discontinuity? aroundo many myths california. i was part of a group that georgia.eamers from they were in heaven. this is freedom. i can get a drivers license.

california, you know, is a land of economic inequality, deep racial fault lines. that was part of the things i wanted to talk about today. what do we do as scholars, historians? most of us are well compensated. what can we do? admire,whose work i their activism, professor at ucla, kelly are you still here? did she leave? oh no. kelly left. andmillion dollar hoods working with communities to

talk about mass incarceration and letting the community push the agenda, do the research taht talkommunities want to cant the way sis in which we partner. we talk about outreach. we are here from the university and here to help. no, we're not. partnerships and listen and take their lead. learn from them. i hope people will share what they have been doing. the old credo, go back to the

community with your education. the way in which the community can educate us. >> there are two things happening that excite me. one is the issue of engaged scholars. haveg to not only students and community activists working together to create courses but opportunities and pathways work.uly interactive the other thing is a program where formerly incarcerated students are creating a series

of experiences for themselves and the community. i have been engaged in a number of projects with them. wes is exciting because how about the crisis, but do we incorporate those that come out of institutions back into society? there is a vibrant effort to do that. that is exciting to me. the other thing that is this notion of guns. interested in -- i

grew up around guns. i grew up around country folk. country folk have guns. they hunt. guns.her had a bunch of to do withw what d them. there is this notion of afriaccn non-violent, civil disobedient people. i don't know where they got that. when the black panther party stands up and says we are going to defend ourselves, that made sense to me.

that was the community i grew up in. no white people came up. laws. control >> negroes with guns create all kinds of paradoxes. we can't stand negroes with guns. there is this different way in which some people can stand their own ground, but when people of color do it creats this p -- it creates this problem. we are supposed to talk about this history of state violence. kinds ofts of these

issues in california. the thing that has been most insightful for me from my students about, and we have been puzzling through it, think about the history of the u.s. tahhat centers on indigineous people. what with the history of the u.s. look like if you centered on the history of indigenous people. this is the challenge. california is an extraordinary laboratory for this. we have done a lot of work thinking about indigenous people in california and not just what was done to them, but what they ande done for themselves

how they had continued to be survived andy have what enables that. protesthad the pipeline a few years ago, and there was a student in my class very active in that, that just blew the whole thing open for my class. we began to talk about what kind of citizens are indigenous people? how did they come to have particular kind of citizenship they do? this whole question of who and what is a citizen, how it worked itself out across these racial fault lines, we have extraordinary conversations about this. these are the kinds of conversations when i have them in my class, we should take this and go forward with this. this is really deep and

important public conversation. point, to touch on that california is a land of migration, not just immigration. right now, the large majority of native people in this country live in a cosmopolitan area. oakland and other urban centers -- home to many native people. this story runs across many ethnic and racial groups intersects so strongly with these questions of last poverty. that is something i wanted to go back to because there is this theinating case where 1990's california is not through hemarkable -- has gone throug

remarkable transformations, one of which is this seachange. said thisl analyst through does not repeat itself it just -- history does not repeat itself, it just moves east. >> tell that to new england. conversatione this being repeated on the national thee to basically jury-rig entire political system so you maintain white supremacy. all of the attacks on affirmative action, english language only, all of these have thatnd now you

you have democrats running for 2017 thatoll in california's think that none that demented immigrant are good thing for california. that is a remarkable seachange. the way in which, because of ,his nativist standpoint republican party has taken such a hit. is, you have lived in california through this, the economic transformation in which this huge tech boom, which has brought wealth to california, and i thinkin -- think in

2015, there was more venture capital invested in california than all the other states. it is highly localized. it has tremendous racial and gender disparities. it has had repercussions to the communities where it is located with housing cost of living increases. take it from there. what are the challenges and struggles going on right now? how are people addressing these things now, and how did they address them in the 1990's? ast is your perspective historians that have made positive changes? that?e any thoughts on waldo: basically this money has made it on affordable for most

people -- unaffordable for most people i know. they are being forced out of the bay area or silicon valley or san jose, that whole area. affordableneed living initiatives in all of these cities for ordinary people. i know these are very difficult. there are several in berkeley and san francisco. the face an uphill battle. we cannot just have cities for rich folk. we have to have cities for a diverse class and racial and gender and sexual identifiers. thatreally bothers me

these places are becoming less diverse. a lot of my students, like an old blues song, they are going to rub your hands -- throw up their hands and holler, what's the use? you have to ensure a certain percentage of the housing will go to low and moderate income folks. you have to have a civilian board which ensures that. it is not just some rich person person. poor i have seen it happen. i am one of these people that occupy was really exciting. i was hoping it would do more.

that kind of energy, passion, and commitment i thought was powerful. people i knew in occupy are still doing that kind of work at the local level around homelessness and housing and displaced veterans. that is where i see the struggle. that is absolutely essential. t.j.: do you see an organic connection between more recent s, affordable housing, black lives matter, groups that are very active now, and the occupy movement, that and the black panther party? is there a disconnect?

is there a continuing organizational connection? my sense is that this generation of activists know a lot more history than a lot of us give them credit for. that ad i were grateful lot of the people that helped create black lives matter were inspired by the party. they actually looked at her book -- our book, and it made a difference. that is gratifying. the older i get, i am very wary of someone like me trying to tell the younger person what they should do. at that.gristled each generation must make its

own way. my experience has been these kinds of connections that people across generations try to create and sustain. about prop 187, andthere was this idea, i've seen these simplified itsogies, california had 187 moment, and the nation is having its 187 moment. the nation will become more like california. i don't see it. et is one of those very facil examples of, i think -- i think

that what, things are much more, i would say, the economic inequality, the us versus them, students who feel that perhaps they would have had opportunities if it had not been for that other student, nameless, or that there's this of, among young people, either incredible hope, the dreamers, or i can't be a history major, i need to be business major or do this vocational aspect.

i look at the homelessness and homeless situation. you pass bond measures in los angeles,what is the way with des are able to do the loophole, so they do not have affordable housing, and there is not accountability? the housing market -- it is not when we're and yet ,alking about the justification what is going on in terms of people who have lived in houses, lincoln lincoln heights, loyal heights, who have for 30, 40 years nts now finding their re double, and the lack of recourse they actually have is shocking.

affects even the people living in the $16 million home in pacific heights. my last home, we were renting in san francisco. in berkeleyliving capital, had my father-in-law's house, and we did ok. on'spreschool -- my s preschool teacher was commuting an hour and a half each way, because she could afford anything close to san francisco. we have to be honest about how good.ic development is you can do certain things. they have been breaking things in their own communities. and this is something that is going to be very interesting to see moving forward and heartbreaking to see, also, how california grapples with this. there are large parts of the

state that are still very agricultural, that are very po or. mean, california is not a monolith, and we have highly concentrated areas of great wealth. it does not mean it is all bad, but it is a millenarian, silicon digitallley, i call it millenarianism. we see a broadway in which digital companies in the digital landscape, it is concentrated in the west coast and especially in transforminy area, states to the local levelg, and it will be interesting to see -- it is great because the political reaction is already building, and it is interesting because you see some of it on the conservative side.

donald trump is taught at amazon because jeff beas ozone's "the jeff bezospost -- post."e "washington we see that a lot with what is going on now. i'm sorry? waldo: i am ready to open it up. are going to take some questions, so you better prepare some questions, but i want to take a couple minutes more to talk about the fact that we are oah the,cious at panelists and myself, that we veryn sacramento at a serious time, the aftermath of death, hisrk's shooting death by the police in sacramento. first of all, i just want to ed ayers, the

mentioned inoah, any military out, and it is available on our association website, to places that we can suggest where you can donate if you would like to respond that way, those who would like to support mr. clark's family, especially his sons, should know that there is a fund. a build blackis initiative, a coalition of activists, nonprofit, legal support team, youth advocates , faith leaders, policy experts, and sacramento community leaders who are in the fight for equity focusing on four areas -- uplifting black youth voices, health axis, justice in black community,

investing in black neighborhoods and businesses. that is another place you can donate to have an impact. also, the organization is associating books by publishers at the local library. partners,rokerage sacramental library, is partnering with the sacramento public library, and it is having an event coming up in june, i believe, called let's talk about guns. want to express our sympathy and solidarity with the family come the community that has gone through so much right now. our sensitivity to the fact that we are here is such a sensitive time. topic, and if you do have any thoughts you would like to express on it, that is fine. ok, too.hat is the question of police shootings

as so often -- young black men have been shot by police. most recent cases have been unarmed youth and individuals. a is so often put forward as criminal justice issue, when i think that as historians, we see it as much more broadly embedded in a whole set of issues in community, government, historical inequities, that, you know, i think, again, this is something that, as the story is, you know, providing that perspective can be very important. waldo: i want to say to things. really increasingly an active of something that i've only been a long time, and that review ofn

police that have a real priority, that do not just rubberstamp with these police commissions do. there is a movement to get one with some teeth in it. these body cams, where people are taking pictures, and these pictures are supposed to somehow give us the kind of insight into this situation that is going to give us justice, i think the only way you are going some kind of -- move toward some kind of justice, is ,o have a civilian review civilian commissions, which oversee police and their activity. policedon't think that have shown that they can really police themselves very well, especially around these kinds of issues. i am increasingly deaf people ask "what do you do?" increasingly people

ask "what do you do?" that is one thing that makes sense to me. vicki: for me -- tj: sorry, your microphone is off. vicki: for me, a singular moment more courage sends out to me, looking at 20th-century u.s. history, and that is when they till demanded that an open casket so that the public could review what happened to her son, and i think that is what we need, the material public viewing, something that says you cannot take our eyes off, turn the channel, the distraction, that we have to be focused. the civilian review, how do

we make sure that they are actually independent? who gets appointments? why? backgrounds. it is not an individual family. it is not individual mother's grief, but we have to take responsibility. tj: yeah, i think that is a very important point. again, my area that i worked in is in the 19th century, and i just want to retire back to what i worked with, 14th amendment reconstruction, i think it was a great moment in american history, very hard-fought, huge setbacks afterwards. but reconstruction, it reconstructed the constitution, did note americans reconstruct themselves. there is an internal reconstruction that is still waiting to be done where there is a sense, i think, that white

americans have the freedom, civil rights campaigns meaning freedom that is something that is ours that can be extended to others, and you are still others. and we let you guys in, too, but it is still our thing. arelieve a some policemen scared out of their wits when they see an unarmed lack man in the street. why? a historicalis construction that has gotten down to th the instinctive level. it is a hard road to see another person walking down the street and not see the person as the "other." maybe i am the one that does not have the right to be on the street. that level of kind of universality penetrating to the subconscious level, that is going to require a huge

struggle in public as well as private reconstruction. i think america has barely started down that road. so the legal changes, constitution changes, they are hugely important. yet here we are 150 years after some of the great triumphs of reconstruction, and we are still trying to get to the point where a black mother or a latina mother does not have to worry about her son going outside and going to the store. , we willt moment comes not be done. that is my personal opinion. i would like to take some questions from otherwise, we will scramble away and get dinner. and if you have thoughts, too, or simply vent. usually at events, i cannot stand when people get up and lecture, but go ahead. there is a microphone over here, and there is a microphone over here.

>> i lived in california about a dozen years ago, less than a dozen years ago, and i am beganing about, dr. ruiz to enter into the discussion of higher education, what is the evolution of public higher education here in california, and how does it reflect the larger trends or go against the larger trends? i think it depends, really, on university. places that there are that take community partnerships seriously, who i think that

thereare scholars, but are also institutions which, you know, the focus is on s.t.e.m., the march to s.t.e.m., and also here at the uc irvine campus, is some advice to help faculty, incentivize their research. a great deal of money has been invested in the center. i think thathich we all, in terms of being involved, have seen -- i have seen that trend in the 16 years that i was at irvine in terms of venturey are calling philanthropy, what one donor told me. yes, i want to make sure that

i'm giving you the money, but what is my deliverable? it was like learning a whole new language of terms of i think that,nd but i also think they are imagining scholars of america to me, i just take great, incredible pride on a national level by my colleagues america, by holding universities accountable, leveraging university resources, and there are so many people here in the room, in terms of the type of important community work that extend not just to going and doing tutoring after school, what we call sort of a charity model, but the idea -- for me, it is about community.

that ithe big thing would add, the language that i would use is the berkeley is increasingly privatizing, and i do not think that is going to change. i think that is the wave of the future, and i think it is a lot the way that you described it. a differenty want kind of public institution, people are going to have to fight for that. i really see the privatization of the public a horse that is already out of the barn, and i do not know how you will put that horse back in the barn. [laughter] tj: i have been an adult about that. -- i have an anecdote about that. i will not name the school. but i spoke to the dean as one of the uc campuses who wanted to

recruit me to start a nonfiction imsa program. why? not because i was so great, but in order to set up a moneymaking program, because the university only provided something like less than half of the budget, dean's job was to come up with programs that would bring in money to cover the budget so they could have classes in their main subject. and that is the university of california. that is when you get donors as he for deliverables. that is when you get programs that do not necessarily, you pedagogical need or a scholarly need but are there to make money. i did not want to become an administrator, you know, an entrepreneur. vicki: in honor of the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 14th amendment, could you

please address the hijacking of of 14th amendment in behest corporate personhood that has led us to citizens united? thank you. tj: sure. this actually started in santa the pacific railroad case that turned the 14th amendment into a sense of corporate personhood, and i often say gave the united states fact,ly is hardware, fun railroads still very 40% of the freight in the country, but they give us the software, our purchase system, even our national system was set up because unreal you could transfer money before we had a theyal reserve bank, and

give us a legal system in which corporate personhood is such a thing. there is a recent book that has come out that has gotten a lot of people talking about this, of course historians are very aware of it, about how the conquering of new york, that, you know, he helped to persuade the court that it was the intention to defend corporations, which at the time , find quite shocking because as the slogan was, how can the state create an entity that it thereafter cannot control? and you had grangers and other groups saying the state created this by law. how can you not cast another law that says we will regulate it, etc.? but the idea of laissez-faire government that steps back and says the corporation is a private entity representing a private interest really arose

andted in the 1880's reached its heyday in the last couple of decades in the 19th century, and it is still with us. then we enter a long decline of regulations that gay men, and now we are in a new era with citizens united where that idea a commercials entity created by law to survey but it hasmmercial purpose, now become the law of the land, but the antecedents comes back to the 1880's. remarkable a transformation. you might get qualified after i have read lawsuits in which some of the early corporations were sued because they were being run for the sole view of

profit, and now that is all they are for. that transformation is quite remarkable. my name is joe berry from city college of san francisco. been inlly glad to of the session, and i am encouraged when people are encouraging people to take action and to reach their historical knowledge and institutional position to reach the needs of the day on the ground. that bylike to build on making one more suggestion, that we look even more closely not just at where we live and where we can engage in politics, like the city of berkeley at los angeles or orange county, but where do you live most of the time, which is, most of us, and higher educational institutions, not just universities. in fact, most of them are not universities.

most of them are colleges. just likeat california is the richest place in the united states and also the most unequal, higher education -- we could make much the same statement. somebody made a comment, i forget who made it come at some point, that most of us have comfortable livings. well, most of us do not have comfortable living spirit of 75% teaching higher education classes are contingent. maybe 5% or 6% at any given time are homeless, our colleagues. they are not in this room because they cannot afford to come to these meetings. so i would strongly encourage people to address our inequality our casual a

ization. the majority of the faculty are women. i do not think it is the case here the majority of senior faculty are women. i would like to know, but i doubt it. so it is very disproportionate. and people of color are much more likely to be contingent than to be tenure as well. so i would like to say that one step that people, if they choose to, could go to the root of resistance, because the of higherion education began in california and spread east with the rise of neoliberalism in the 1970's. you know, it might be a discussion that would spark some interest and activity on the part of some people. i would love to see some of you there tomorrow afternoon. thank you. vicki: i would like to respond.

comment, i refer to people in this audience, because i am very well aware of the fact that the majority of students who are enrolled in institutions of higher education are being taught by adjuncts. i have a number of graduate students who are probably going to make their career going from adjunct job to adjunct job, and it breaks my heart. and i really think that all of us bear responsibility, and that we should be having a really hard conversation about the overproduction of phd's and the way in which you can put some, ty, what of creativersi serves the whole panorama of careers and not just we want you

to get a four-year job. i talked many students who said i am going to be the one who gets that r1 job, and so many people do not get that r1 job. i am a proud graduate of a community college. because of that, i was able to transfer. tenured community college professor, very lucky, someone who got out of the adjunct pool. conversation,e a and we need ways in which we can partner and we can make a difference. i know the oah recently received a gift to subsidize travel for adjuncts to the annual meeting. this is an incredible start, because i do think they need to incorporate. i mean, look at the grain of the professional association.

oahformer president of the is the former president of dha. we really skew older come and how are we going to -- the way in which we are trying to redefine what our mission is, redefine our missions as a professional organization. >> hello there. i am a student at sacramento state. immigrant to california, so my california dream starts a bit farther. what i would like to have at least two of your address is the issue of immigrant children coming into k-12 and also the higher education system. sacramento, when i came to the it was marketed as one of

the most adversities, but in a load of cases, those students are overlooked. we tally that you are from kenya and we have your five on the real but for the connections that need to be made in the classroom and elsewhere, those were projects that were simply not taken on. so how can we address those in communityalso questions that are being overlooked? yes, we celebrate diversity, but when we seek people of color, are we also bringing them in? vicki: the idea that all the students who are considered daca eligible, they are all from mexico or latin america. daca students come from 192

countries. yes, the majority of them are latin american. d.r.e.a.m. centers that took a lot of activism and a lot of pushing for the d.r.e.a.m. center. what kind of support? food security is a huge thing. community colleges. ways in which we can assure that students do not go hungry, and first-generation students, and use of color, immigrants are much more prone to this food insecurity, and the ways in the food pantry, for example, at irvine, i will just the studentexample, outreach and ascension center, where students would go, you would see students come out there and just put stuff in their backpacks.

they did not want to come out with that bag of food. now the pantry as being located so it is not in the campus center. example, if it comes to our classroom, do we know what we can do? the first thing we can say is, you know, we would like to see it warrant, and you have to be, in the company of a local law enforcement officer on campus. what are the ways, how can we educate ourselves to be allies? waldo: i just want to throw out two things. thin see how you can begin to think about making a better world if you do not teach that we are all global citizens, that we are all interconnected, united states is just a small part of a global

community, so the notion of world citizenship and global citizenship and how we fit into it is absolutely crucial from day one in terms of the ways in which i think we should come back in sync. limitations, one of the things i like to engage my students is is thinking about taking life seriously. what are civil rights? what is the difference between civil rights and try to get them to not only thing through what some of these things actually are, but are there ways you might conceptualize and create a worldamework for a better , so the rhetoric or rights does not circumscribe who people are and what they are able to achieve. my sense is that we tend to be

far too narrow in the ways in which we think about who we are and how we are ultimately connected around the world. in fact, i really hope that in sacramento, they are teaching global citizenship, world citizenship, not just sort of a narrow, local state or u.s. state idea about citizenship. thank you. this is not quite a rhetorical question, but maybe i just want a peptalk. to martin, i was pleased your you go from historical issues to policy several times, as you spoke. it seems clear that there are plenty of activists who could be out on the street and occupy and the housing activists, and they do not any disjuncture between

raw passion and policy outcomes between who is on a citizen review board, for example, and how you compose those sports, who is on housing -- those kind of walk he can feel like passionate answers to a problem. i think for a lot of younger people, it is hard to see policy serving their political passion, as a question is -- historian who teaches younger people, undergraduates and k-12 students in particular, what is the responsibility of historians to teach about outcomes in policy, or should we leave that to the political scientists, particularly in a cultural atmosphere where the right is aking a lot of th political currency out of blaming academic and teachers for being too far on the left,

indoctrinating students toward the left? we navigate between students being a little bit young to understand that policy and yet being blamed as ready for doing too much in that direction by the right? basically, i come from a certain political perspective, but can i actually teach a child and give them a broad, you know, view of possibilities and all kinds of things that one might be labeled more conservative, some might be labeled more radical? i always tell them what course i have in the race. that sometimes use the people want to step up to the professor, but i tell people you get more points if you do not suck up and you have a good argument for not sucking up. i like giving a sense of the

terrain, and i tell them what i would argue. this is one of the best conversations i had in the last several years, it was around affirmative action. there was a guy who just it up one day and said "you all are full of shit. i am totally opposed to affirmative action," and he went on a five-minute streak. it was totally interesting, because as a result of that, we had this conversation where, you know, nobody ever really opposed affirmative action openly, and he did. into the forced conversation why people oppose sort of all the arguments. so it was really bracing for a lot of my students because they "politically correct," and they heard about his arguments or read about them on a piece of paper, but they never heard one of their colleagues stand up and

try to make one of these arguments. so we had a sort of a debate. we created a series of of and it was totally bracing and it totally came out of a student driven moment where this i was frustrated with what he thought this chorus of "ame ns" around affirmative action that he really did not agree with. i still see what we do as trying sort of range of alternatives, a range of possibilities, and try and suggest what we think, because i think you need to be honest, but, you know, i don't try to tell people what to think. , and itried to give them tried to create a safe space for the articulation. and i always say that. if you come in here and you really do not agree, i hope you can stand up and say that.

and i have had a number of students get up and do that, really challenge me and really challenge some of their me,eagues, and those, to have been real teachable moments, not only for me but for the class. vicki: that is one thing, in terms of presenting an array of respective perspectives, have drop their own conclusions. 180%,n disagree with me but you have to make the argument. that i talked, there is always an assumption of my politicsd what are when i was a young professor at uc davis, i did a holding lecture, a survey about the

united farm workers. i got a student evaluation. "you are political, you are biased, you're too liberal, you have an agenda, there should have been more diplomatic history, less on women, less on" -- what they called "minorities." and then i had a colleague, michael spence, and i went and gave a very same lecture in his survey. his evaluation -- "oh, you are so cool, there was a lecture on cesar chavez and united farmworkers, and i learned a lot ." that was something i had absolutely no control. tj: i just want to mention a couple of things. i don't teach, which can be a blessing, but in writing history, i think it is important

go into a project, you know, and i had moral questions, and i had a clear view point in my own sense of right and wrong, and yet even when i think people are completely abysmal, my attitude cannot be one of scorn, because i need to understand them and their world. example, my last book was about one of the most toxic individuals in american history, herge armstrong custer, and was slightly to the left of it adolf hitler, in the reason why he was controversial in his own time are totally different from the ones that we carry in some of the general culture surrounding us today. also you find looking at that topic that people who were on

the most progressive side of the political ledger, who accomplish some of the greatest things that i mentioned earlier in reconstruction, the same ku klux that passes the klan act and puts the federal government in the business of actually prosecuting civil rights violations pass a law ending the recognition of native solvency and ending the treaty with native people, because the same little philosophy of universal rights justified eradicated that separate sovereignty and that separate role system in which they operated. and so if i were to go in with an agenda, you know, there are things about him that you can actually understand why people of the time admired him if you are not scorning. and you can also understand why he was complex and contradictory and offensive to people at the time, because i look at my agenda, and i would see the

irs. history can be presented honestly without giving up your own moral viewpoint and, you know, by just being honest in being willing to be proven assumptions.wn you go in with that attitude, if you're not picking up a fake moral position or pretending not to have a point of view, and you are being a scholar, you're being rigorous. >> thanks. i appreciate that. i am interested in a couple of different things, and one is creating a space where student can get up and challenge you like that. the other is actually talking about politics. the idea that policy matters is easy to forget when you are 18 or 16. thanks. [applause] tj: thank you. i think that is it. thanks very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the

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