michelle alexander, thank you. author of the "the new jim crow". aving me. >>> how michelle obama has defined her role as first lady is next. ♪ [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. ♪ ooh baby, (what) can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a patented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance. try align to help retain a balanced digestive system. try the #1 gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. and it's surprising what it goes through in the course of a day. but what's even more surprising is that brushing alone isn't enough to keep it clean. fortunately, you've got listerine. unlike brushing which misses 75% of your mouth, listerine cleans

i want to thank michelle alexander. thanks so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you forville me. >> how michelle obama has defined her role as first lady, next. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. >> how michelle obama has defined her role as first lady, next. lle me. >> how michelle obama has defined her role as first lady, next. e me. >> how michelle obama has defined her role as first lady, next. e me. >> how michelle obama has defined her role as first lady, next. and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. you walk into a conventional mattress store,

i'd like to bring in michelle alexander, law professor at ohio state university and author of a fantasticow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness." good morning, michelle. >> good morning. >> michelle, this is a fantastic book. i hope people read it. one of the things i think that's interesting in the book is you talk about your own experience of coming to recognize what the system was doing and what we are in the midst of. as someone who came to that realization, before we get into the details of what the system looks like and what it does to people, to talk about this political question of how do we go about creating the conditions under which this becomes a political issue, the way that we bridge the gap that right now means that it's consigned to the margins and communities that are experiencing the criminal justice system and it's not on the campaign trail in iowa. >> well, i think it is a huge challenge to put this near the top of the agenda. when prisons are out of sight, out of mind, and so many of the mainstream voters who hold so much influence in elections aren't dir

michelle alexander calling it the new jim crow. between the 1960's and 1970's, the prison population across the country doubled. in the 1970's and 1980's, it tripled. in california, and build no new prisons between the 1960's and 1970's, the height of political action. between the 1970's and 1980's, they build more prisons in california alone and in the past 100 years. one thing that has happened is the warehousing of black folks in these facilities. if you think about what slavery is, the parallels, it is not just a metaphor when you talk about modern-day slavery. slavery denied black folks the ability to be mobile. you were trapped on one location, in a plantation. it broke up our families. it subjected us to daly wants and violence. anything can happen to you -- an example to you for somebody else. it exploded us for our free labor. all of those things happen in prison today. the u.s. has 5% of the world's population and over 25% of the world's prison population. that is a big part of the equation. i am not waiting for superman,

i think i was inspired by michele alexander's booke." >> it is my pleasure to say, ms. colvin, without you we would not be where we are. [applause] thank you for sharing your story, and keep telling your story because we need to know, and our children need to know, and our children's children need to know your story. and we want to thank our sponsors today. we have the san francisco unified school district. we have marked as bookstores, who will be selling this -- ms. colvin's book, written about her, by philip house. we have sponsorship from the african diaspora, and the friends of the san francisco public library. i serve as part of the african- american interest committee that helped put this program together, and i want to thank all of you for coming, and i want to thank sfgtv for taking the program today. we want to thank the department here at san francisco public library, and we are having a reception in l58, and we want to thank read your catering for providing some delicious food for us to nibble on today, so will you please join us and say thank you again to m

those of you who have read michele alexander's booke, it says that this needs to be a national conversation. part of the national conversation, i hope, is here. that is why we are going to turn it over to you, to engage in some conversation with our guests. >> i just want to say to the young people today, especially teenagers, boys and girls, some of whom might have been incarcerated, what advice would you give to them? >> first thing i would say -- believe in yourself. if you do not believe in yourself and have some kind of faith and try to work hard, and listen to your teachers and take advantage of all the resources that you have, learning resources. >> today is super bowl sunday. what can our black men in the nfl do to help us have some great people? that is the only place i get to see a positive role model is by watching sports. i think we have a lot of cultures we could really bring together, but we are not joining. >> great question. in 1968, when we saw the black system in the air, that did not happen in a vacuum. it happened in the context of a broader movement. i think we have to

alexander michelle is a professor at the university of southern california.a study and is here to share what she found. dr. michelle, good to have you with us this morning. good morning. >> good morning. >> this study actually goes back a few years. almost ten years, in fact. i think you actually tracked or shadowed some of these bankers as they made their way into life on wall street. in short, what are your findings? >> that's right. i did track them for ten years. and my findings are, perhaps, not surprisingly, that when you work under 20 hours a week, something snaps. the interesting finding is, what exactly snaps. it's not technical accuracy. the bankers were quite accurate in what they were doing. but what snapped was creativity and judgment. that's really important in our new knowledge-based economy. because we now compete on innovation. i mean, if you look at apple, for example, they outsource everything that has to do with manufacturing. but what stays here are the creative aspects. so i think we need to listen to this. >> we're looking at a graphic

that was alexander mckean with $2 million worth of harry winston yellow diamonds. viola davis stunning in her green vera wang. >> michellelouis vuitton is one of the prettiest moments i've ever seen. >> the guys took time for r & r. >> i played basketball and i watched two games on tv. and you had to work. >> i had to sit, get glam. >> it is easier for guys. >> easy for the guys. >> i sat there getting ready for hours and he sat on the bed napping. >> i slept in in this for two days. i just got up and went. >> there are even some oscar red carpet newcomers who enjoyed strutting their style for the first time. >> what i loved about this is that it is just so clean and you know, because it is my first time, i wanted to be clean and statueskue. >> pretty massive to be here for the first time. >> everybody took it to the next level. you hear all the time, hollywood old school glamour. >> as the night belonged to the gold statue winners, it was also a night of memorable gowns an unforgettable designs. >> i don't know if i can choose my favorite. >> they were nice. the guys all have on black tux and black tie. >> they don't ca