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>> Good afternoon, everyone.

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And welcome to this most
special diversity salon.

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We created the UVA Diversity Salons for us to
engage in critical conversations about issues

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that we might not normally
discuss in our everyday lives.

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And today, we have what I believe is the
most special speaker of all for these salons.

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My name is John Gaites, I'm associate
dean for Diversity and Inclusion,

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in the School of Engineering
and Applied Science.

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It is my pleasure to introduce
Dr. Joy Degruy, a nationally

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and internationally renowned researcher,
educator, author, and presenter.

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Dr. Degruy is an ambassador for healing and
a voice for those who've struggled in search

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of the past and continue to
struggle through the present.

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Dr. Degruy is an acclaimed author, having
authored Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,

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America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing,
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: The Study Guide,

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and Post-Traumatic Slave
Syndrome Part 2: The Healing.

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Dr. Degruy holds a bachelor's degree, a
Bachelor of Science degree in Communications,

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and two Master's degrees in Social
Work and Clinical Psychology,

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and a PhD in Social Work Research,
as well as having spent over 20 years

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as a professional in the field of social work.

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This education and practical experience has
provided her with extensive research on,

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as well as hands on experiential insight
into the various cultural and ethnic groups

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that form the basis of contemporary
American society.

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Through these lectures, workshops, seminars, and
special guest appearances, Dr. Degruy continues

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to shine a light on those critical
issues affecting our society.

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Dr. Degruy's presentations have
been lauded as the most dynamic

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and inspirational lectures currently
being delivered on the topics of culture,

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race relations, and contemporary social issues.

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It is my great privilege
to present Dr. Joy Degruy.

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[ Applause ]

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>> -- watch that bottom stair,
[inaudible], fall up the stairs.

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So, good afternoon, is it afternoon?

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I'm in a weird time zone thing going on.

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So, I've been asked to do
an amazingly difficult task,

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I've been asked to compress a 10-week
graduate level course into 45 minutes.

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And how many people here are
actually familiar with my work?

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Okay --

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Okay. No, no, I always ask that question

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because it always determines where,
what I'm going to talk about.

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So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to
-- you're going to see a lot of slides.

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I will skip some, a lot of them
actually, to try to get to the point.

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So, let me just start with what
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome is,

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what it is not, and how I arrived at it.

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So, I think I first began to look at
behaviors within the African American community

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that were disturbing to me as a child.

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I grew up at a time where Black, to be
Black, wasn't necessarily a good thing.

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And in fact, when Black people
insulted other Black people,

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whatever they called you,
they called you Black first.

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"You Black," then fill in the blank.

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"You Black."

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And even as a child that seemed
odd, because the assumption is, one,

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I'm going to hurt you by calling you Black.

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And that always seemed odd to
me, because well, you are Black.

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So what does, what does Black somehow mean

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that I can assault another
Black person with the word?

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So even as a child that didn't make sense to me.

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Or I heard things like, oh, she was really,

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a really attractive girl,
even though she was dark.

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Or, he was really, you know,
he was really good looking,

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he was light skinned, and he had good hair.

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Okay? And these were all, to me, symptoms
of something I didn't quite understand.

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I didn't get.

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But as a social scientist it
became very important to me.

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So when we look at trauma for those of
you that, you know, hear the term trauma,

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it was very interesting for the
response I got when I actually came

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up with the term, post traumatic slave syndrome.

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It's actually exactly what it sounds
like, multigenerational trauma.

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Multigenerational trauma's not a new concept,

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we've looked at multigenerational
trauma with other groups.

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We've looked at victims of natural disaster,
we've looked at Aboriginal folks in Australia,

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First Nations, Native Americans, you know,
we've looked at war, veterans, and all --

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you know, we've looked at all kinds of people.

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But it was very interesting the visceral
response I got when I said slavery.

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In fact, there are people who
maybe even saw slavery in the title

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and decided they weren't coming today.

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Oh come on, surely you --
you're free now, aren't you?

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I wasn't there, okay, I didn't
-- I didn't own slaves.

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Well, I wasn't there either.

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Or, you know, hey, get over it, you know?

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All of these are the responses you
get when you say the term slavery.

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And I thought, as a social
scientist, that's very interesting.

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How come I can't say slavery
but I can say, well holocaust?

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How come? And I'll tell you why, because
Jewish people honor their Holocaust.

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And they don't particularly
care what you think about it.

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They're going to tell their children,
they're going to tell their children,

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and then Spielberg will make
another movie if anyone misses it.

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But what we're not going to do
is not talk about our Holocaust.

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But what I'm talking about is a Holocaust.

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A Holocaust we've never really looked
at, but we've been told to get over.

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One we've never really observed or
examined, but we've been told to get over.

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So when we talk about trauma, if I were
to shoot this individual seated here,

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that would be a horrible thing and this
person would be traumatized, you think?

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Yeah, I think it's safe to assume that.

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The person seated next to them is also
traumatized because they saw me shoot them.

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Someone in the hall heard the shot, later
found out who was shot, they're traumatized.

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The family members in Arkansas find out
they've been shot, they're traumatized.

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Then seated on the other side of the
table was someone else that witnessed it

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and we invite them to tell us their experience,
and they go yes, Joy, it was horrible.

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Blood everywhere, it was, yeah, when's lunch?

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Not traumatized.

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Because everyone's not traumatized
by a singular traumatic event.

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But when we talk about American chattel
slavery, we're not talking about a single event.

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We're talking about, about 339 years of trauma.

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So we're not talking about it being
plausible that people escape trauma,

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they just never got treated for it.

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It never got acknowledged.

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So now let's do some math on that and
let's take a look at what that means.

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So, if a person experiences
post-traumatic stress disorder,

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which is only one stress-related illness,

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they have certain symptoms
that are associated with that.

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Now, let's do some math on it, 339 years
of trauma, and no help, because no one came

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in to help you when you had trauma.

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There was no Dr. Phil, right?

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No doctors in the borders
or outside the borders,

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nobody showed up for that, for 339 years.

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Okay, so then you got freed, any help then?

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Anybody come and say, you know, I know
it's been, you know, people beaten,

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mutilated, raped, sold, experimented on.

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Any help? Any group therapy?

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Historically?

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No, so let's see, 339 years of trauma, no
help, freed, no help, did the trauma continue?

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Three-hundred and thirty-nine years of
trauma, no help, freed, no help, more trauma.

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What we are is a miracle.

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But what we've been told is well,
we don't want to talk about that,

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so let me give you some real upfront
examples of it, hidden in plain sight.

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Let's first give you an example, and I use this
example and the reason why I'm starting here is

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so that we can have a point of reference,
because we can't heal what we don't understand.

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So let's say you have a Black
mother and a white mother.

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Or a Black father and a white father.

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It's not gender specific.

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But you have a Black mother and a white
mother, each one of them have sons.

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And the sons know each other,
they kind of grew up together,

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and they're very much my son's experience
with his friend, Nick, who's Greek.

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He grew up with Nick.

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Nick would show up in the living room, or
show up in the kitchen table, and I go, Nick,

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I didn't even know you spent the night.

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Does your momma know you're here?

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You know, Nick, he ended
up being in his wedding.

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So, you have a Black mother and a white
mother, both their sons grew up together.

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The Black mother finds herself seated next to
the white mother at a meeting like this one,

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and both of their sons are
on either side of them.

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And the Black mother leans forward and
says to the white mother, "You know,

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I just wanted to let you know, I
noticed your son is really doing well."

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And the white mother's very excited, "Thank you
so much for noticing, did I mention he's in TAG?

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That would be the Talented and Gifted Program.

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In addition to that, you know, he also
won the Science Fair, just last week.

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You know, his uncle's an astronaut.

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The boy is just brilliant,
we're so proud of him."

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And she's oozing with enthusiasm and
she sits back, feeling warm and fuzzy.

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And as she sits back, she realizes

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that the Black mother's son
is actually excelling her son.

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So she leans back and she says to
the Black mother, "Wait a minute,

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you're talking about my son, your son's
the one that's really coming along."

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And the Black mother's response,
"Girl, get out of here.

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You should have seen that boy
yesterday, whoo, he's something else.

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He works my nerves, that boy is a handful.

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Whoo! He's something else.

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Girl, shut up, get out of here."

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Now, how many people have
seen or heard that behavior?

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Okay. So what I wanted to understand
is the etiology of the behavior.

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Where did it come from?

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I've been to seven countries in Africa, it's
not an African thing, it is a Caribbean thing.

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In fact, there's a secret, and it is
always the secrets that make us sick.

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It is not something that
most of us even question.

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Particularly those born in this skin, because
everyone in this room that's of African descent,

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know this secret, and the secret is that
even though the parent, male or female,

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father mother, is saying, oh that, oh he's
something else, they're proud at the same time.

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Am I telling the truth?

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Okay, so now everybody's giving me that nod
because we know, and it's regardless of class

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or education, but I wanted
to understand the etiology

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of that, and I actually traced its roots.

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And the way I did it was two ways, one,
I read thousands of slave narratives,

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and number two, I interviewed elders.

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Adelaide Sanford, Vice Chancellor of
Education of New York, called me while I was

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on a radio show to confirm and verify that
her grandmother, who had been enslaved,

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told her what I said as a
child, sitting at her feet.

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So now let's roll the whole
thing back several hundred years.

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And you have a Black mother,
and you have a white mother.

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And the Black mother, of course, is
enslaved and therefore also her children.

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And so perhaps she's in the fields,
or perhaps she's in the house,

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but she's working and she's enslaved.

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And a white slave owner comes
through, male or female,

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and says to the Black mother,
"Is that your boy there?

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That your boy?

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Huh, that boy sure is coming along.

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Look at him."

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And what is she going to say?

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"No sir, he's stupid, he's shiftless,"
because I don't want you to sell him.

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If it is my daughter, I don't want you to
breed her, so I denigrate them to protect them.

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That is called, Appropriate Adaptation,
when living in a hostile environment.

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Post traumatic slave syndrome.

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You know how many of those there are.

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Everything from what we eat to
what we believe it means to live

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in this skin that's colored by history.

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But you see, we've never unpacked this
because we never had the conversation,

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because we've been told to get over it.

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Or we say this other thing, which we can
ill afford to say, well, it's their culture.

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Well you see, African Americans cannot
swallow whole what we call cultural,

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because well, there's poison in the cookies.

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And what I endeavor to do is to tease the
poison from the cookies, because you see,

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along with culture is adaptation and survival.

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And that is all folded in to what it
means to live in this skin in 2017.

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But you see, most people look at this
experience of slavery and they say,

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you get immediate pushback, visceral, well, come
on now, that slavery is not a new institution.

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After all, almost every society had some
form of indentured servitude or slavery,

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or even your people, they enslaved each other.

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You see, this is what the
apologists say to throw you off.

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But you see, American chattel slavery was
different from every form that preceded it.

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It differed in the manner in
which a person became enslaved.

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It differed in the treatment of the enslaved,
it differed in the length of servitude,

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but most importantly, it differed in
how they were perceived as human beings.

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Before the European slave trade began, most
people became slaves as the result of a war.

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Two societies went to war,
winner's enslaved the losers.

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Europeans however, systematically
turned the capturing, shipping, selling,

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and breeding of other human
beings into a business.

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A business that would develop into
the backbone of an entire economy.

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That's different.

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So we have never had the conversation
to ever stop having the conversation.

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00:14:46,556 --> 00:14:51,346
And again, we've, you know, there's
just numerous things we can take a look

218
00:14:51,346 --> 00:14:56,006
at as it relates to this, but that's what
I began to look at so we can understand it.

219
00:14:56,356 --> 00:14:58,696
So, moving forward, say this word, Dinquinesh.

220
00:14:58,696 --> 00:14:59,676
>> [multiple] Dinquinesh.

221
00:15:00,946 --> 00:15:05,446
>> Okay, they called her Lucy,
but she was from Ethiopia

222
00:15:05,446 --> 00:15:08,466
and they called her Dinquinesh,
which means, thou art wonderful.

223
00:15:09,656 --> 00:15:12,186
Very interesting that they
called her Lucy, you think?

224
00:15:12,676 --> 00:15:20,266
Based on mitochondrial DNA, we know that well,
we all owe a debt of real support and pride

225
00:15:20,266 --> 00:15:23,456
for Dinquinesh because we
are a result of her DNA.

226
00:15:23,456 --> 00:15:27,086
And she was African, but it escaped your text.

227
00:15:28,586 --> 00:15:29,056
Why is that?

228
00:15:29,616 --> 00:15:32,516
Why is it you knew about Lucy, but
you didn't know about Dinquinesh?

229
00:15:32,806 --> 00:15:34,386
Is Dinquinesh hard to say?

230
00:15:34,386 --> 00:15:36,156
Is it obscure?

231
00:15:36,156 --> 00:15:38,966
Is it something we didn't know?

232
00:15:39,946 --> 00:15:43,366
No, it simply was summarily
removed because you see,

233
00:15:43,366 --> 00:15:47,296
then you have to begin to explain man's origins.

234
00:15:48,496 --> 00:15:58,366
And well, Dana don't lie, the DNA does not lie.

235
00:15:58,456 --> 00:16:05,486
So, how many of you, some of you have gray
hair, which is what I have under this hair --

236
00:16:06,266 --> 00:16:11,826
some of us had to read the
Structure of Scientific Revolutions,

237
00:16:11,826 --> 00:16:13,136
how many people had to read this?

238
00:16:13,206 --> 00:16:16,066
It was mandatory reading when I
was in my undergraduate studies.

239
00:16:16,626 --> 00:16:17,906
By Thomas Kuhn.

240
00:16:18,076 --> 00:16:22,276
And, you know, how many people
are 50 or above, don't be afraid.

241
00:16:23,766 --> 00:16:25,676
Isn't it wonderful not caring what people think?

242
00:16:26,616 --> 00:16:29,306
It's just, it's such a freeing space to be in.

243
00:16:29,306 --> 00:16:30,686
It's a development stage, I love it.

244
00:16:31,026 --> 00:16:37,276
Anyway, so during the time that I was growing
up, you know, I had a concept of reality

245
00:16:37,596 --> 00:16:40,646
that was a little different, because
my family was a little different.

246
00:16:40,826 --> 00:16:43,646
But Thomas Kuhn said something in
this book, the only thing I remember

247
00:16:43,646 --> 00:16:45,936
by the way, was the structure of change.

248
00:16:45,936 --> 00:16:46,886
How does change happen?

249
00:16:46,886 --> 00:16:51,106
We always want change, but we don't
act very well about changing things.

250
00:16:51,106 --> 00:16:52,436
We go out kicking and screaming.

251
00:16:53,526 --> 00:17:01,356
For example, if we don't understand how change
occurs, we can't very well make it happen.

252
00:17:01,356 --> 00:17:05,386
But we need to understand the structure,
the symptoms, the signs of change.

253
00:17:05,746 --> 00:17:10,476
For example, there was a point, I remember, when
there would be actually ashtrays in this room.

254
00:17:11,716 --> 00:17:14,016
There literally would be
ashtrays in the room, right?

255
00:17:14,326 --> 00:17:16,706
And then, you know, if you were my, you know,

256
00:17:16,796 --> 00:17:20,336
my family and during the holidays you would
go visit the family during the holidays

257
00:17:20,336 --> 00:17:22,486
and they would break out the nice ashtrays.

258
00:17:23,216 --> 00:17:27,046
Those would be the ones on the
stands, and they had little marble,

259
00:17:27,046 --> 00:17:28,536
with the little multiple, you know?

260
00:17:28,826 --> 00:17:32,106
And you knew, oh, can't touch those
ashtrays, because those are special.

261
00:17:32,906 --> 00:17:34,186
Very special ashtrays.

262
00:17:34,186 --> 00:17:37,976
I was having this conversation and my
grandkids were like, so what's an ashtray?

263
00:17:39,526 --> 00:17:41,956
They didn't even know what
an ashtray was, right?

264
00:17:42,106 --> 00:17:45,936
And in fact, if someone lit up
a cigarette today in this room,

265
00:17:46,696 --> 00:17:48,856
well I think the peer pressure
alone would put it out,

266
00:17:48,896 --> 00:17:54,526
but if for some reason the peer pressure
didn't put it out, then we'd start doing,

267
00:17:54,526 --> 00:17:56,156
you know, kind of a therapy thing.

268
00:17:56,156 --> 00:17:57,746
Has there been a death in the family?

269
00:17:58,356 --> 00:18:00,656
Is there, are they suffering
some depression right now?

270
00:18:00,956 --> 00:18:04,826
We start trying to diagnose the person,
because clearly they are not well

271
00:18:04,826 --> 00:18:06,346
if they have lit a cigarette in this room.

272
00:18:07,566 --> 00:18:09,846
Right? That's how clear it is for us.

273
00:18:10,196 --> 00:18:15,466
Now, how do we go from, I remember as a child
running to the store to buy all the people,

274
00:18:15,466 --> 00:18:18,066
adults in the neighborhood cigarettes.

275
00:18:18,376 --> 00:18:20,916
Joy, get me some Winstons, some
Cools, some Salems, you know?

276
00:18:20,916 --> 00:18:22,886
And they would literally give you 50 cents.

277
00:18:22,886 --> 00:18:24,566
I don't know what that means,
but it's the truth.

278
00:18:24,566 --> 00:18:25,926
I'd go run to the store.

279
00:18:25,926 --> 00:18:30,306
How did we get from that to the point
where if anyone even kind of tried to act

280
00:18:30,306 --> 00:18:32,786
like they were going to smoke in this
room, there would be some sort of revolt?

281
00:18:33,006 --> 00:18:35,716
How, how did we get there?

282
00:18:36,046 --> 00:18:38,026
Clearly the tobacco industry, well, lied.

283
00:18:39,086 --> 00:18:41,676
And millions of people died while they lied.

284
00:18:43,306 --> 00:18:49,296
But what happened between that period
and this period was one, a lot of death,

285
00:18:50,086 --> 00:18:53,636
a lot of struggle, and a
preponderance of evidence.

286
00:18:54,906 --> 00:18:59,896
So much evidence, in fact, was produced
about cigarette smoking that even when you go

287
00:18:59,896 --> 00:19:03,646
to the doctor now, right after
they get that insurance form,

288
00:19:04,216 --> 00:19:07,256
whatever you're coming there for,
they're going to ask you, "Do you smoke?"

289
00:19:08,076 --> 00:19:11,236
Because it exacerbates your health that much.

290
00:19:11,446 --> 00:19:18,446
A preponderance of evidence forced
a paradigm shift, never to return.

291
00:19:19,086 --> 00:19:23,056
Well we, you know, have had similar experiences,

292
00:19:23,056 --> 00:19:26,636
although there's a few scary people
that believe the Earth is flat.

293
00:19:26,636 --> 00:19:27,656
Most of us know it's not.

294
00:19:27,846 --> 00:19:33,276
I'm really pleased, I'm very saddened
that there's the Flat Earthers who still,

295
00:19:33,696 --> 00:19:35,466
I'm thinking, haven't you seen the pictures?

296
00:19:35,466 --> 00:19:35,936
I don't know.

297
00:19:36,556 --> 00:19:41,166
But anyway, there was a preponderance
of evidence.

298
00:19:41,266 --> 00:19:44,866
Folks like Galileo, you know,
Bornov, this was an individual

299
00:19:44,866 --> 00:19:47,476
who had a dream that the universe was expansive.

300
00:19:48,206 --> 00:19:50,926
He just dreamed it, and they burned him alive.

301
00:19:51,566 --> 00:19:55,866
That's how much we fight against change.

302
00:19:56,396 --> 00:20:01,696
And I want you to know we're on the precipice
of change as it relates to race, and racism,

303
00:20:01,726 --> 00:20:04,776
we're on the precipice, and you
can tell because, you know, one,

304
00:20:04,966 --> 00:20:05,976
there's a preponderance of evidence.

305
00:20:07,506 --> 00:20:12,956
Never in our history has there ever been
a time when the entire globe has looked

306
00:20:12,956 --> 00:20:16,346
on at America and said, shame on you America.

307
00:20:16,346 --> 00:20:20,416
Because you see, now you can't
convince me, because well, I've seen it.

308
00:20:21,686 --> 00:20:24,766
Now I can push a button and I can see it all.

309
00:20:24,926 --> 00:20:27,346
And there is a preponderance of evidence

310
00:20:28,116 --> 00:20:31,076
and like any other paradigm
shift, it's going to be ugly.

311
00:20:32,216 --> 00:20:35,796
Matter of fact, it's going to get far
worse than we have ever seen in this room.

312
00:20:36,226 --> 00:20:41,406
Because people are going to go out kicking
and screaming before they're willing to share.

313
00:20:43,126 --> 00:20:48,326
That reality is upon us, so this does not
become simply a philosophical conversation.

314
00:20:49,396 --> 00:20:53,306
I believe that truthfulness is the foundation
of all the virtues of the world of humanity,

315
00:20:53,836 --> 00:20:56,086
and I believe it's the secrets
that make us sick.

316
00:20:56,826 --> 00:21:00,546
So one of the things we have to take a look
at is one reality, and that is a majority

317
00:21:00,546 --> 00:21:05,806
of the world, what we call world, over
the 7 billion-plus people on the planet,

318
00:21:06,206 --> 00:21:08,246
the majority of those people
are people of color.

319
00:21:08,766 --> 00:21:11,296
That's just simply numbers, it's the truth.

320
00:21:12,306 --> 00:21:13,246
It's the truth.

321
00:21:13,956 --> 00:21:17,956
And guess what, we're seeing it reflected
well in this room, and of course it is Be Kind

322
00:21:17,956 --> 00:21:24,406
to Negroes Month, so some have
come for different reasons.

323
00:21:24,866 --> 00:21:29,406
But, a better reflection, a truer reflection of
the world is the fact that well at this point,

324
00:21:29,406 --> 00:21:30,996
we can't even guess who's coming to dinner.

325
00:21:31,596 --> 00:21:37,396
So, I'm going to skip some
of the warm and fuzzy things.

326
00:21:37,736 --> 00:21:42,656
The reason why is because, you know, people
-- this gets really thick and it gets intense,

327
00:21:42,906 --> 00:21:46,406
one because it's compressed,
and two, because it's intense.

328
00:21:46,776 --> 00:21:49,876
One is astonished in the study of
history at the recurrence of the idea

329
00:21:49,876 --> 00:21:52,416
that evil must be forgotten,
distorted, skimmed over.

330
00:21:53,036 --> 00:21:55,226
We must not remember that
Daniel Webster got drunk,

331
00:21:55,226 --> 00:21:58,036
but only remember that he was a
splendid constitutional lawyer.

332
00:21:58,456 --> 00:22:01,086
We must forget that George
Washington was a slave owner,

333
00:22:01,086 --> 00:22:03,966
and simply remember the things we
regard as credible and inspiring.

334
00:22:04,306 --> 00:22:06,856
The difficulty, of course,
with this philosophy is

335
00:22:06,856 --> 00:22:09,686
that history loses its value
as an incentive and example.

336
00:22:10,146 --> 00:22:15,546
It paints perfect men and noble
nations, but it does not tell the truth.

337
00:22:16,256 --> 00:22:19,376
So it is America's pathology is her denial.

338
00:22:19,906 --> 00:22:22,476
That is why this issue of
race continues to be one.

339
00:22:23,006 --> 00:22:24,536
Because of our denial.

340
00:22:24,536 --> 00:22:26,636
But I'm going to talk about
why we have the denial.

341
00:22:27,246 --> 00:22:32,436
So when I start talking about the numbers, 339
years, I want you to know where it came from;

342
00:22:32,546 --> 00:22:36,636
1526, although there was
slavery started long before this,

343
00:22:36,636 --> 00:22:41,996
but in terms of the enslaved Africans,
these folks were taken to the Carolinas

344
00:22:41,996 --> 00:22:44,496
and so we're looking at 339 years.

345
00:22:44,976 --> 00:22:48,436
So if we consider something called
post-traumatic stress disorder,

346
00:22:48,706 --> 00:22:52,386
when I was working on my second
masters, which is in clinical psychology,

347
00:22:52,386 --> 00:22:57,536
and we reached this particular part in
the DSM, Diagnostic Statistical Manual

348
00:22:57,536 --> 00:23:02,856
of Mental Disorders, I wanted to, I was curious
about this post-traumatic stress disorder,

349
00:23:02,856 --> 00:23:06,486
which post traumatic slave syndrome is not.

350
00:23:07,316 --> 00:23:08,416
So who gets it?

351
00:23:08,446 --> 00:23:11,606
Well, victims of rape, war
veterans, heart attack victims,

352
00:23:11,606 --> 00:23:14,366
victims of natural disasters,
victims of severe accidents.

353
00:23:14,366 --> 00:23:15,816
Well I raised my hand, I said, well you know,

354
00:23:15,816 --> 00:23:19,326
I think enslaved Africans
should be put on the list.

355
00:23:19,866 --> 00:23:22,106
And they said no.

356
00:23:22,106 --> 00:23:22,586
I said, okay.

357
00:23:22,896 --> 00:23:26,936
So, what is the diagnostic criteria?

358
00:23:26,936 --> 00:23:31,126
Now these are some of the symptoms that
one might exhibit that has a diagnosis,

359
00:23:31,126 --> 00:23:32,996
now understand that you don't
have to have all of these,

360
00:23:32,996 --> 00:23:35,146
you just need to have a couple
of them to get the diagnosis.

361
00:23:35,216 --> 00:23:39,866
Intense psychological distress at exposure
to internal or external cues that symbolize

362
00:23:39,866 --> 00:23:41,726
or resemble an aspect of the event.

363
00:23:41,726 --> 00:23:44,766
Physiological reactivity to these
things that resemble the event.

364
00:23:45,106 --> 00:23:48,556
Marked diminished interest or
participation in significant activities.

365
00:23:48,556 --> 00:23:52,146
Feeling of estrangement from others,
or restricted range of affect.

366
00:23:52,146 --> 00:23:53,556
A sense of foreshortened future.

367
00:23:53,556 --> 00:23:55,606
Difficulty falling or staying asleep.

368
00:23:55,606 --> 00:23:58,506
Irritability, or outbursts of
anger, difficulty concentrating,

369
00:23:58,506 --> 00:24:01,686
hyper vigilance, exaggerated startle response.

370
00:24:01,686 --> 00:24:08,056
Now, what we have to understand is there's two
things that happen, one is you have the trauma,

371
00:24:08,056 --> 00:24:09,546
you exhibit some of those behaviors.

372
00:24:09,546 --> 00:24:14,916
And my question is, during this
period of chattel slavery, this is --

373
00:24:15,146 --> 00:24:20,046
these are the experiences that people had, and
thus these were the behaviors they exhibited.

374
00:24:20,046 --> 00:24:22,536
But we didn't know Big Mama was broken.

375
00:24:23,096 --> 00:24:25,106
It was just Big Mama.

376
00:24:25,436 --> 00:24:27,006
We just got to be quiet some time.

377
00:24:27,346 --> 00:24:32,676
Oh yeah, so such and such across the way,
he screams out sometimes, he gets violent.

378
00:24:32,786 --> 00:24:33,526
Are you following me?

379
00:24:33,526 --> 00:24:38,356
So these are behaviors that not only people
experience and folks have their own trauma,

380
00:24:38,356 --> 00:24:39,926
but they also model the behavior.

381
00:24:41,286 --> 00:24:45,786
So people began to learn,
Bandura, Social Learn Theory,

382
00:24:45,786 --> 00:24:47,436
you learn from the people in your environment.

383
00:24:47,436 --> 00:24:50,136
And if those people are broken,
you're learning broken behavior.

384
00:24:50,136 --> 00:24:50,866
Does that make sense?

385
00:24:51,616 --> 00:24:54,016
Right, so nobody got really well.

386
00:24:55,126 --> 00:24:57,066
We just learned how to make do.

387
00:24:57,506 --> 00:25:06,856
So then I thought to myself, okay, would
then enslaved Africans warrant the,

388
00:25:07,606 --> 00:25:10,416
at least some of them, because inevitably
there's always people who are saying,

389
00:25:10,416 --> 00:25:12,846
but Dr. Degruy, weren't there happy slaves?

390
00:25:14,716 --> 00:25:17,226
Weren't there, weren't there some happy ones?

391
00:25:17,836 --> 00:25:21,726
Because people really need to believe that there
were happy ones, all three of them, go ahead.

392
00:25:22,026 --> 00:25:24,446
Just throw them in there.

393
00:25:24,446 --> 00:25:26,466
Again, you know, live free or?

394
00:25:26,466 --> 00:25:29,506
Die. That's how important freedom is to us,

395
00:25:29,506 --> 00:25:32,926
but somehow we should reconcile
ourselves to a life of bondage, happily.

396
00:25:33,926 --> 00:25:35,066
Permanent bondage.

397
00:25:36,176 --> 00:25:41,436
So, for those that, let's say, weren't happy
with it, we have to assume that, you know,

398
00:25:41,436 --> 00:25:43,416
they experienced some levels of stress.

399
00:25:44,426 --> 00:25:49,476
So if we consider the diagnostic features
of post-traumatic stress disorder, again,

400
00:25:49,546 --> 00:25:55,606
post traumatic slave syndrome is impacted by
and infected by post-traumatic stress disorder,

401
00:25:55,606 --> 00:25:59,716
but it is not post-traumatic stress
disorder, which is treatable with, you know,

402
00:25:59,716 --> 00:26:03,216
talking to people softly twice
a week, medications, and such.

403
00:26:03,896 --> 00:26:06,206
Post traumatic slave syndrome
is not so easily solved.

404
00:26:06,566 --> 00:26:11,286
It requires social justice,
in addition to the healing.

405
00:26:11,706 --> 00:26:16,606
Most common trauma involved, let's
see if the enslaved Africans got it,

406
00:26:16,606 --> 00:26:18,996
and those after slavery, they get it too.

407
00:26:18,996 --> 00:26:21,206
Let's see, a serious threat
or harm to one's life

408
00:26:21,206 --> 00:26:23,956
and physical integrity, did we get that one?

409
00:26:23,956 --> 00:26:26,766
Yeah. Threat or harm to one's
children, spouse, or close relatives.

410
00:26:26,766 --> 00:26:27,616
Did we get that one?

411
00:26:28,496 --> 00:26:30,556
Thug destruction of one's home or community.

412
00:26:30,956 --> 00:26:34,556
Seeing another person injured, killed as
a result of accident or physical violence.

413
00:26:34,806 --> 00:26:36,996
Learning about a serious
threat to a close friend

414
00:26:36,996 --> 00:26:38,756
or relative, kidnapped, tortured, or killed.

415
00:26:39,626 --> 00:26:42,966
Stress was experienced with intense
fear, terror, and helplessness.

416
00:26:43,896 --> 00:26:47,086
Disorders considered to be more
serious and will last longer

417
00:26:47,086 --> 00:26:49,456
when the stressor is of human design.

418
00:26:49,736 --> 00:26:50,466
Seven out of seven.

419
00:26:50,916 --> 00:26:53,466
Not likely that, or plausible
that we escaped it.

420
00:26:54,876 --> 00:26:55,556
Not plausible.

421
00:26:56,516 --> 00:26:59,856
But we're an amazing people,
extraordinarily resilient.

422
00:26:59,856 --> 00:27:03,146
So, we'll look at the role of history

423
00:27:03,146 --> 00:27:06,346
and shaping our contemporary
attitudes and beliefs about race.

424
00:27:07,096 --> 00:27:11,116
Let's start with the United States
Constitution, which of late has been

425
00:27:11,116 --> 00:27:13,806
such an important contested issue.

426
00:27:13,806 --> 00:27:16,316
People are always, my constitutional right!

427
00:27:16,316 --> 00:27:18,976
And I don't know why I just
had such a response to it.

428
00:27:18,976 --> 00:27:21,946
And this is something internally
just would trigger stuff for me.

429
00:27:23,446 --> 00:27:25,066
But I kind of know why now.

430
00:27:26,516 --> 00:27:30,616
Because one of the things that the
United States has had to deal with is

431
00:27:30,616 --> 00:27:33,766
that cognitive dissonance that's associated

432
00:27:33,766 --> 00:27:37,336
with its fundamental beliefs
in freedom and democracy.

433
00:27:38,616 --> 00:27:41,686
Cognitive dissonance, by the way,
how many people know what that is?

434
00:27:41,686 --> 00:27:44,766
It's thinking discord, it's
literally what it sounds like.

435
00:27:44,766 --> 00:27:48,186
When you are simultaneously
holding contradictory ideas,

436
00:27:48,186 --> 00:27:49,976
beliefs, thoughts, behaviors.

437
00:27:51,166 --> 00:27:54,076
So we have a country that says,
send us your poor, your tired,

438
00:27:54,326 --> 00:27:57,896
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

439
00:27:58,116 --> 00:28:04,136
One nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.

440
00:28:04,136 --> 00:28:09,946
How does one reconcile the very obvious
contradiction, the hypocrisy associated

441
00:28:09,946 --> 00:28:16,596
with that, while enslaving Africans
for 339 years, and committing genocide

442
00:28:16,596 --> 00:28:18,176
against the natives of this land?

443
00:28:18,176 --> 00:28:20,216
How does one reconcile the contradiction?

444
00:28:21,746 --> 00:28:27,476
Well, here's what you have to remember, always,
in order to oppress or subjugate an entire group

445
00:28:27,476 --> 00:28:33,236
of people, regardless of who that group is, in
order to resolve the dissonance, you have to,

446
00:28:33,236 --> 00:28:36,456
number one, justify your behavior,
which calms the conscience.

447
00:28:37,466 --> 00:28:43,676
And two, you have to re-label the people in such
a way that it fits your behavior towards them.

448
00:28:44,826 --> 00:28:47,706
Somehow then, slavery must be reasonable.

449
00:28:48,216 --> 00:28:51,316
But let's look at Thurgood,
and anyone who doesn't know

450
00:28:51,316 --> 00:28:53,706
who Thurgood Marshall is, shame on you.

451
00:28:56,016 --> 00:29:03,096
This was written in 1987, and this
was at the bicentennial, you know,

452
00:29:04,126 --> 00:29:06,606
celebration of the writing of the Constitution.

453
00:29:06,886 --> 00:29:10,936
"We the People of the United States, in Order
to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,

454
00:29:10,936 --> 00:29:15,536
insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defence, promote the general Welfare,

455
00:29:15,536 --> 00:29:19,766
and secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity,

456
00:29:19,766 --> 00:29:23,036
do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America."

457
00:29:23,476 --> 00:29:25,596
Well, most of you in the room
were not included in that.

458
00:29:26,706 --> 00:29:29,666
It did not include women, and it
most certainly did not include people

459
00:29:29,666 --> 00:29:30,936
who were three-fifths human.

460
00:29:32,206 --> 00:29:36,076
While slavery was never mentioned in the
Constitution, what Thurgood Marshall says

461
00:29:36,076 --> 00:29:39,776
at this particular meeting, and you should
read the entire document, you can go online

462
00:29:39,776 --> 00:29:42,106
and read it, he said it was defective

463
00:29:42,106 --> 00:29:45,226
with the first three words of
its preamble, we the people.

464
00:29:45,226 --> 00:29:50,056
No doubt it will be said when the
unpleasant truth of the history of slavery

465
00:29:50,056 --> 00:29:55,186
in America is mentioned during this bicentennial
year, that the Constitution was a product

466
00:29:55,186 --> 00:29:58,536
of its times and embodied a
compromise, which compromise is that?

467
00:29:59,796 --> 00:30:02,976
That would be the three-fifths
compromise, we'll get close with that one.

468
00:30:03,236 --> 00:30:05,526
Which, under other circumstances
would not have been made,

469
00:30:05,526 --> 00:30:08,816
but the effects of the framers'
compromise have remained for generations.

470
00:30:09,296 --> 00:30:13,096
They arose from the contradiction
between guaranteeing liberty and justice

471
00:30:13,326 --> 00:30:15,896
to all, and denying both to negroes.

472
00:30:16,436 --> 00:30:21,856
But in the propaganda, W.E.B. says, against
the negro, since emancipation in this land,

473
00:30:21,856 --> 00:30:26,326
we face one of the most stupendous efforts
the world ever saw to discredit human beings.

474
00:30:26,326 --> 00:30:31,356
An effort involving, look closely, universities,
history, science, social life, and religion.

475
00:30:31,356 --> 00:30:35,626
I looked a little further in my book, Post
Traumatic Slave Syndrome, it is not exhaustive,

476
00:30:35,856 --> 00:30:39,006
it's just all I had time to look at.

477
00:30:39,476 --> 00:30:42,856
Because you see, every single one,
every major institution in America had

478
00:30:42,856 --> 00:30:46,776
to normalize chattel slavery for 339 years.

479
00:30:48,036 --> 00:30:49,996
They had to somehow make it make sense.

480
00:30:50,146 --> 00:30:50,976
Are you following me?

481
00:30:51,306 --> 00:30:58,026
Every discipline, engineering,
business, law, medicine,

482
00:30:59,116 --> 00:31:01,306
all of it had to justify this, you see?

483
00:31:01,386 --> 00:31:02,906
Because it produced dissonance.

484
00:31:03,466 --> 00:31:09,226
We're talking about a people from
Europe that deemed themselves superior,

485
00:31:09,556 --> 00:31:13,636
noble, intelligent, civilized, moral.

486
00:31:14,766 --> 00:31:19,226
But they engaged for 300 years in
something that was the antithesis of that.

487
00:31:20,116 --> 00:31:21,696
They engaged in barbarism.

488
00:31:23,196 --> 00:31:29,756
How does one reconcile this notion of intrinsic
nobility, while engaging in barbaric behavior?

489
00:31:30,546 --> 00:31:32,716
You have to remove the dissonance.

490
00:31:33,276 --> 00:31:40,706
I'm not going to talk about racism,
I usually, I've spent a lot of time

491
00:31:40,706 --> 00:31:45,236
with my graduate students in the School
of Social Work, most of whom are women,

492
00:31:45,656 --> 00:31:52,116
social workers, MSW students, most of
them white, that end up in my class.

493
00:31:52,356 --> 00:31:55,796
And I always tell them, don't take my
class because it fits in your schedule.

494
00:31:56,326 --> 00:31:59,846
Not the kind of -- I try to weed
out the folks, thin it early.

495
00:32:00,326 --> 00:32:03,726
I do try to thin it, because it's
a life-changing class, it truly is.

496
00:32:04,046 --> 00:32:05,506
Ten weeks in my course, you're not the same.

497
00:32:05,506 --> 00:32:07,146
You can't un-know it.

498
00:32:07,436 --> 00:32:10,736
And so I always tell them, you know,
tread lightly, and don't try this at home.

499
00:32:10,736 --> 00:32:12,976
I told them, I try.

500
00:32:13,386 --> 00:32:14,986
And then I also try to warn them.

501
00:32:14,986 --> 00:32:18,696
I used to go, I put the syllabus out there,
you know, you can go online and look at it.

502
00:32:19,106 --> 00:32:21,716
It tells you that it's an African
American, you know, we're going to look

503
00:32:21,716 --> 00:32:25,816
at African American history,
multigenerational trauma, my area of expertise,

504
00:32:26,066 --> 00:32:28,086
and violence, it's very clear, the syllabus.

505
00:32:29,146 --> 00:32:31,996
So what I mean by that is, I'm going
to talk about Black people this week,

506
00:32:31,996 --> 00:32:33,996
I'm going to talk about Black people next week,

507
00:32:33,996 --> 00:32:35,896
I'm going to talk about Black
people the week after that.

508
00:32:36,136 --> 00:32:38,726
In fact, all 10 weeks I'm going
to talk about Black people.

509
00:32:39,706 --> 00:32:42,116
And I'm going to also show up Black myself.

510
00:32:43,056 --> 00:32:47,566
So, I'm trying to warn you that there's
going to be a thing about Black people.

511
00:32:47,566 --> 00:32:51,496
And inevitably, no matter what,
there's always a student, you know,

512
00:32:51,496 --> 00:32:55,076
my evaluations were always quite high, but
there would be one student that would say, gosh,

513
00:32:55,076 --> 00:33:00,416
you know, Professor spent an inordinate
amount of time talking about Black people.

514
00:33:00,416 --> 00:33:02,676
Wish she would have included other people.

515
00:33:02,826 --> 00:33:06,156
And you know, here's the thing, I have
four degrees, three of them advanced,

516
00:33:06,156 --> 00:33:08,236
you know how much of that
was about white people?

517
00:33:09,376 --> 00:33:13,736
But one 10-week course, oh
gosh, it's just too much.

518
00:33:13,996 --> 00:33:15,556
Absolutely amazing.

519
00:33:15,736 --> 00:33:18,596
So you know, I usually try to, again,
weed it out, and then you know,

520
00:33:18,596 --> 00:33:23,546
I have to weed out the folks that, you
know, that don't understand what racism is.

521
00:33:23,546 --> 00:33:25,896
So I said, let me just apply my
definition so everybody can be clear.

522
00:33:25,896 --> 00:33:27,356
It usually thins the class as well.

523
00:33:27,616 --> 00:33:29,006
People get upset, you know.

524
00:33:29,326 --> 00:33:33,836
I say, don't get in your feelings in my
class, if the white girl cries in my class,

525
00:33:33,836 --> 00:33:34,946
she's going to have to get a tissue.

526
00:33:35,676 --> 00:33:36,496
Nothing stops.

527
00:33:36,816 --> 00:33:38,866
Because you know, white girls'
crying stop everything.

528
00:33:39,786 --> 00:33:42,876
It's caused people to be
lynched when a white girl cries.

529
00:33:42,876 --> 00:33:45,666
Well, I let them know on the
frontend, this song is not about you.

530
00:33:46,136 --> 00:33:47,846
So, let's be clear about that.

531
00:33:47,976 --> 00:33:49,346
It's not here to take care of you.

532
00:33:49,766 --> 00:33:50,756
I'm not here to take care of you.

533
00:33:51,236 --> 00:33:57,386
So part of my work is always trying
to help, again, I do no harm.

534
00:33:57,386 --> 00:33:59,756
At the end of the day, I don't,
if you all go out of my class,

535
00:33:59,756 --> 00:34:06,506
I don't want you to harm anyone that's already
injured, with your niceness, or your ignorance,

536
00:34:06,566 --> 00:34:08,686
or your whatever the new words are,

537
00:34:08,766 --> 00:34:13,396
your difficulty understanding the
ally position, or cultural humility.

538
00:34:13,396 --> 00:34:18,666
Whatever word fits, just don't
hurt people, how about that?

539
00:34:18,666 --> 00:34:22,356
And this always centers around
this notion of racism, right?

540
00:34:22,356 --> 00:34:25,756
Which people usually mean prejudice when
they're talking about racism, because you know,

541
00:34:25,756 --> 00:34:28,126
I ask my audience, I've actually
cleared out classes.

542
00:34:28,126 --> 00:34:32,436
And I usually don't do it myself, I
actually have my graduate students come in

543
00:34:32,436 --> 00:34:36,446
and do this ahead of time, so I don't have to
deal with the person that goes, are you sure?

544
00:34:37,856 --> 00:34:40,126
I mean, aren't things better for you people now?

545
00:34:41,106 --> 00:34:43,036
I mean, you had a Black president.

546
00:34:43,316 --> 00:34:44,616
Come on. Right?

547
00:34:44,616 --> 00:34:45,716
See, I don't have time for that.

548
00:34:45,716 --> 00:34:47,266
That's race relations 101.

549
00:34:47,456 --> 00:34:48,456
Don't have time for it.

550
00:34:49,076 --> 00:34:53,626
Because I have students in the class
talking about, we want reparations, right?

551
00:34:53,756 --> 00:34:55,626
And you've got someone that's
going, are you sure?

552
00:34:56,086 --> 00:34:58,236
So it's, anyway.

553
00:34:58,666 --> 00:35:02,706
I try to help them understand that it's more
than just a system of advantage based on race,

554
00:35:02,906 --> 00:35:06,976
so then I have to give them an equation so
that they can understand what I mean by racism.

555
00:35:07,986 --> 00:35:13,326
So I ask my students, and I ask audiences of
people, do they understand what racism is,

556
00:35:13,326 --> 00:35:15,676
and you know, of course people are like scared.

557
00:35:15,676 --> 00:35:17,286
They go, is this a trick question?

558
00:35:17,756 --> 00:35:20,016
I go okay, so, we'll talk about it.

559
00:35:20,016 --> 00:35:23,246
So I ask my students, do you think
there's such a thing as white racism?

560
00:35:23,246 --> 00:35:27,016
And that means white racism enacted
by white people on other folks.

561
00:35:27,336 --> 00:35:28,326
Do you believe that exists?

562
00:35:28,326 --> 00:35:31,066
And again, it's a kind of
fear, yeah, kind of thing.

563
00:35:31,066 --> 00:35:33,516
Yeah, I think we pretty much know
that, preponderance of evidence.

564
00:35:33,516 --> 00:35:37,056
Okay. Do you think there's, in
America right here, Black racism?

565
00:35:38,306 --> 00:35:40,066
Equal number of hands go up.

566
00:35:40,066 --> 00:35:43,216
Okay, so now we're going to define
racism so we can all be on the same page,

567
00:35:43,216 --> 00:35:45,606
because I always assume people are
on the same page, but we're not.

568
00:35:45,816 --> 00:35:46,596
Most people aren't.

569
00:35:47,106 --> 00:35:53,646
So, I would like for you, audience, to tell
me in what ways white racism adversely,

570
00:35:53,646 --> 00:35:58,826
negatively impacts the lives of
Black people as an entire group

571
00:35:58,826 --> 00:36:00,326
of people in America, in what ways.

572
00:36:00,326 --> 00:36:01,286
Name them.

573
00:36:02,056 --> 00:36:05,806
Economically, jobs.

574
00:36:05,986 --> 00:36:06,856
Incarceration.

575
00:36:07,546 --> 00:36:08,576
Healthcare.

576
00:36:09,596 --> 00:36:11,056
Identity, education.

577
00:36:11,596 --> 00:36:14,936
Okay, so actually write it
down, so everybody can read it.

578
00:36:14,936 --> 00:36:16,256
And then we go on and I stop them.

579
00:36:16,256 --> 00:36:18,936
I'm going, okay, so now we're going to
go over to the category of Black racism.

580
00:36:18,936 --> 00:36:27,476
I need you to tell me how Black racism
adversely impacts the lives of white people

581
00:36:27,476 --> 00:36:30,216
in America as an entire group of people.

582
00:36:30,656 --> 00:36:33,756
And that's when they go, I'm leaving.

583
00:36:33,756 --> 00:36:36,006
She's calling me a racist, I'm out, I'm out.

584
00:36:37,816 --> 00:36:41,656
I'm not calling you a racist, I'm just
explaining to you that I may not like you,

585
00:36:42,296 --> 00:36:45,476
you may have Black people that hate
white people, invite folks over,

586
00:36:45,476 --> 00:36:48,186
throw darts at pictures of them, drink beer.

587
00:36:48,556 --> 00:36:49,796
But you still get the loan.

588
00:36:50,366 --> 00:36:54,196
You still get, you know, are you following me?

589
00:36:54,366 --> 00:36:56,756
So it's not just that you don't
like me, but you have the power

590
00:36:56,756 --> 00:36:58,926
to impact me as an entire group of people.

591
00:36:59,156 --> 00:37:00,586
That further thins the class.

592
00:37:01,406 --> 00:37:03,916
So let's start with something we all recognize,

593
00:37:04,646 --> 00:37:06,466
how many people have been
to the Statue of Liberty?

594
00:37:06,466 --> 00:37:11,136
Okay, I've been to the Statue of Liberty
now four times, but I was resistant.

595
00:37:11,406 --> 00:37:14,416
A really good friend of mine works
for the Department of the Interior,

596
00:37:15,236 --> 00:37:20,356
and back in 2008 said, Joy, he's over
all the national parks in New York State.

597
00:37:20,666 --> 00:37:22,656
He says, Joy, I want you to
come to the Statue of Liberty.

598
00:37:22,656 --> 00:37:24,146
I said, no Floyd, I'm not coming.

599
00:37:25,346 --> 00:37:25,896
He said, why?

600
00:37:25,896 --> 00:37:27,826
I said, because it's going to make me mad.

601
00:37:28,406 --> 00:37:30,236
He goes, come on Joy, I really want you to come.

602
00:37:30,236 --> 00:37:31,966
I said, no Floyd, I don't
think I'm ready to come.

603
00:37:32,166 --> 00:37:33,736
I'm not going to have a good attitude.

604
00:37:33,736 --> 00:37:37,256
He goes, come on, I can get you a pass,
you can go up in her eye and everything.

605
00:37:37,616 --> 00:37:37,976
I said, okay.

606
00:37:38,956 --> 00:37:42,056
So I go to the Statue of Liberty, and the reason
why I didn't want to go is I'd already been

607
00:37:42,056 --> 00:37:46,556
to France, I'd already seen the earlier
renderings of Bartholdi, and you know,

608
00:37:46,556 --> 00:37:48,546
so when you get there, first
of all, there are thousands

609
00:37:48,546 --> 00:37:50,806
of people getting off the little ferry, right?

610
00:37:50,806 --> 00:37:52,886
And the little kids with
the little rope are walking,

611
00:37:52,886 --> 00:37:54,716
and the people with the cameras,
and everybody's there.

612
00:37:54,716 --> 00:37:56,326
Every 20 minutes, thousands of people.

613
00:37:57,016 --> 00:38:00,916
And you know, you get kind of pushed together
in a little group and I had already decided

614
00:38:00,916 --> 00:38:01,956
that I was going to have to go twice,

615
00:38:02,496 --> 00:38:05,116
because I knew I wasn't going
to be objective the first time.

616
00:38:05,116 --> 00:38:07,116
So I already planned a trip to come back,

617
00:38:07,116 --> 00:38:08,696
because I knew I wasn't going
to have the right attitude.

618
00:38:08,696 --> 00:38:12,006
And I actually was traveling with a really
good friend of mine, her name is Faith Holmes.

619
00:38:12,336 --> 00:38:14,416
White white, Faith is very white.

620
00:38:15,136 --> 00:38:18,046
And Faith almost got us thrown
out because she had a meltdown.

621
00:38:18,186 --> 00:38:19,556
Okay, it was Faith that did it.

622
00:38:19,906 --> 00:38:23,036
But anyway, so we're traveling
together and, you know, we get --

623
00:38:23,116 --> 00:38:27,976
the little ranger gets everybody, he
goes, I'm going to be your ranger today.

624
00:38:27,976 --> 00:38:31,396
And you know, I'm going to be
the one touring you through.

625
00:38:31,396 --> 00:38:36,386
Well see, I already knew that this
rendering, now this is a bad picture,

626
00:38:36,386 --> 00:38:39,226
I actually have a better picture, I need to
put it in there, but this is the one I took.

627
00:38:39,226 --> 00:38:44,816
And you can actually see Floyd's reflection,
we're bouncing off the -- because this is --

628
00:38:44,816 --> 00:38:47,526
I knew this picture was here,
because it's a historical document.

629
00:38:47,836 --> 00:38:51,896
And this is one of the earlier renderings
of the Statue of Liberty, by Bartholdi,

630
00:38:51,896 --> 00:38:53,826
and she has broken chains in her left hand.

631
00:38:54,496 --> 00:38:58,306
This was commissioned in 1865,
important date, do you think?

632
00:38:58,506 --> 00:39:02,256
Yes, because it was to celebrate the end
of the Civil War, the end of slavery.

633
00:39:02,636 --> 00:39:04,986
And Bartholdi thought it was an excellent idea

634
00:39:04,986 --> 00:39:08,106
to have broken chains symbolizing
the break with slavery.

635
00:39:08,106 --> 00:39:13,116
Now, I knew that this existed,
matter of fact, I actually found it.

636
00:39:13,176 --> 00:39:16,986
I can almost guarantee you, you didn't,
when you went to the Statue of Liberty.

637
00:39:17,546 --> 00:39:21,946
It was in the basement of the
Statue of Liberty, encased in glass,

638
00:39:22,086 --> 00:39:25,466
behind some figurines, facing
a wall in a hallway.

639
00:39:25,466 --> 00:39:28,826
I went looking for it, because
I knew it had to be there.

640
00:39:29,496 --> 00:39:33,006
So when my ranger pulled us all together
and he says, I am going to be touring you,

641
00:39:33,006 --> 00:39:39,716
and if anyone has a question -- I was wondering
if you could talk to us about the chains.

642
00:39:40,576 --> 00:39:42,746
And of course, now it's translated, and chains?

643
00:39:42,746 --> 00:39:43,816
Chance? What is she talking about chains?

644
00:39:44,916 --> 00:39:47,956
He says, thank you so much for that
question and we'll talk about it later.

645
00:39:48,486 --> 00:39:51,046
Well, you know, they tell you more than you
ever want to know about the Statue of Liberty.

646
00:39:51,516 --> 00:39:54,636
They tell you how thick it is, they
cut it in half, they show it to you,

647
00:39:54,636 --> 00:39:57,246
they tell you it's green because it's
copper and that's why it turned green.

648
00:39:57,416 --> 00:39:58,646
They tell you how they got it over there.

649
00:39:58,646 --> 00:40:02,736
They say, this is our first chance at the
torch over here, there's her head over there.

650
00:40:03,006 --> 00:40:04,096
They just tell you everything.

651
00:40:04,556 --> 00:40:07,246
But they don't talk about the chains.

652
00:40:11,256 --> 00:40:17,206
So, we end up in the Bronze Garden, and here
is Bartholdi, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.

653
00:40:17,576 --> 00:40:21,566
I didn't pronounce that right, but
that's as close as I can get to it.

654
00:40:21,916 --> 00:40:27,106
So Bartholdi ended up in a huge argument
with the United States around the chains.

655
00:40:27,856 --> 00:40:31,186
Remember, this is the Statue of Liberty, of
course we want to forge this relationship

656
00:40:31,186 --> 00:40:36,176
with France, but we also, you know, want to
acknowledge the end of such a horrific period

657
00:40:36,176 --> 00:40:38,926
in American history, by showing the chains.

658
00:40:38,926 --> 00:40:40,066
The United States said, no.

659
00:40:41,076 --> 00:40:44,106
Bartholdi said, well no,
I'm going to have to insist.

660
00:40:44,276 --> 00:40:46,816
And the United States said, no.

661
00:40:46,816 --> 00:40:50,796
Who won? Who won?

662
00:40:52,146 --> 00:40:53,056
Bartholdi won.

663
00:40:54,416 --> 00:40:59,506
They are at her feet, where it is impossible
to see them under any circumstances.

664
00:41:00,076 --> 00:41:03,316
Unless, of course, you have a
zoom lens from a helicopter.

665
00:41:04,546 --> 00:41:08,846
Because you see, once you show the
chains, then you have to explain them.

666
00:41:09,736 --> 00:41:15,096
And that would cause cognitive
dissonance, especially for Timmy and Cindy.

667
00:41:16,256 --> 00:41:20,546
So we almost had news at
11:00, in the ranger house.

668
00:41:21,366 --> 00:41:25,046
And I was, I said, I don't
understand, because you let me --

669
00:41:25,046 --> 00:41:26,986
they said, well Dr. Degruy, what's the issue?

670
00:41:26,986 --> 00:41:30,586
I said, well you know, inevitably when you go to
the Statue of Liberty, you will hear people go,

671
00:41:30,586 --> 00:41:33,206
yes, well you know, my great-great
came through Ellis Island.

672
00:41:33,506 --> 00:41:35,586
You know, our great-great, you know, Mayflower.

673
00:41:36,076 --> 00:41:38,816
You know, my great-great
-- These are white people.

674
00:41:39,096 --> 00:41:44,296
You see, Black people, men, women, and
children, look on curiously at Lady Liberty

675
00:41:44,296 --> 00:41:45,816
because they feel no connection to her.

676
00:41:46,386 --> 00:41:52,636
But how much taller would they stand if they
knew that she was standing on the chains

677
00:41:52,636 --> 00:41:55,236
that their ancestors came in the belly of ships?

678
00:41:55,706 --> 00:42:01,176
How much prouder would they be, young Black
men, about the shoulders upon which they stand?

679
00:42:02,476 --> 00:42:05,876
Because, you erase the chains, you erase me.

680
00:42:06,416 --> 00:42:11,386
And so I had a, I was acting, and
feeling some kind of way about that.

681
00:42:11,916 --> 00:42:13,556
As an educator, you see.

682
00:42:14,196 --> 00:42:17,516
And so you know, I went, and I spoke,
went to the ranger station, we you know,

683
00:42:17,516 --> 00:42:19,806
had some moments that the ranger station.

684
00:42:20,526 --> 00:42:22,436
And nothing happened.

685
00:42:22,916 --> 00:42:25,506
So I started telling this
story all around the country.

686
00:42:26,416 --> 00:42:28,336
Matter of fact, not only around
the country, all around the world.

687
00:42:28,336 --> 00:42:29,646
I show the slides.

688
00:42:30,616 --> 00:42:35,956
And I ended up with the, you know, getting
a call from the Department of the Interior,

689
00:42:38,886 --> 00:42:40,156
because you know, when I went back.

690
00:42:40,356 --> 00:42:43,636
Remember, I told you I went back again, I
wanted to find out a couple things, one,

691
00:42:44,436 --> 00:42:49,286
if the chains would be mentioned
unasked, and they were not.

692
00:42:50,166 --> 00:42:55,326
So when I got to the Department of Interior,
there was a meeting of the higher ups,

693
00:42:55,536 --> 00:43:00,036
and they said, first of all, Dr.
Degruy, we want to apologize, you know,

694
00:43:00,216 --> 00:43:05,046
about the whole situation here with the chains,
and what we would like you to do is we'd

695
00:43:05,046 --> 00:43:11,006
like to hire you to come in and train all
of our rangers, and that picture is now

696
00:43:11,006 --> 00:43:12,976
on display at the Statue of Liberty.

697
00:43:13,516 --> 00:43:18,816
[ Applause ]

698
00:43:19,316 --> 00:43:23,286
Only problem is, only problem is,
they kind of mentioned, sort of,

699
00:43:23,536 --> 00:43:27,516
Statue of Liberty is a tapestry of all
symbols woven together to create new meaning,

700
00:43:27,516 --> 00:43:31,906
her classic face, classical face and
drapery suggests a Roman Goddess of Liberty,

701
00:43:31,906 --> 00:43:35,836
the broken shackles symbolize
freedom, newly achieved, whose?

702
00:43:37,076 --> 00:43:40,016
You see? So that's, one of you all
are going to have to -- I'm done.

703
00:43:40,426 --> 00:43:41,336
I'm not doing this anymore.

704
00:43:41,336 --> 00:43:44,576
I'm done. So you all got to fix that one.

705
00:43:45,056 --> 00:43:46,896
Hidden in plain sight though, you see?

706
00:43:47,676 --> 00:43:48,566
Hidden in plain sight.

707
00:43:48,566 --> 00:43:53,286
And these are things that are not obscure,
they're just deliberately left out.

708
00:43:53,806 --> 00:43:57,446
But you see, I cannot heal
myself if I don't know who I am.

709
00:43:58,916 --> 00:44:01,586
If I don't honor the shoulders
upon which I stand,

710
00:44:01,586 --> 00:44:03,766
everybody in this room, someone
paid for you to be here.

711
00:44:04,746 --> 00:44:07,036
Everyone. Someone paid for you to be here.

712
00:44:07,346 --> 00:44:12,686
But people of African descent don't know,
because we've been told to get over it.

713
00:44:13,676 --> 00:44:16,966
So, only way to see the chains,
this is you know, first trip.

714
00:44:17,076 --> 00:44:20,586
This is leaning backwards, there's a little
lip, you can see the little lip on the --

715
00:44:21,016 --> 00:44:24,676
that's as much as you could see with the
naked eye, leaning backwards with a zoom lens.

716
00:44:25,056 --> 00:44:28,486
So, that picture, and you'll know it's a new
picture, because it's the only one in color.

717
00:44:28,956 --> 00:44:31,666
So when you go on the tour, and
you go through the ranger station,

718
00:44:31,666 --> 00:44:34,766
you'll see that picture in
color that's now there.

719
00:44:36,196 --> 00:44:40,816
So we know there was a Trail of Tears, which
was a forced relocation of Native people,

720
00:44:40,816 --> 00:44:43,086
we know thousands died as a result of exposure.

721
00:44:43,386 --> 00:44:49,646
We know that there were individuals who offered
reparations to redress some of the issues,

722
00:44:49,646 --> 00:44:54,316
one of them the boarding schools, which were
torture chambers, truly, for Native children.

723
00:44:54,846 --> 00:45:00,206
Of course Native people laughed out loud
at the $250 million that was offered them.

724
00:45:01,056 --> 00:45:02,796
But we also had a Trail of Tears.

725
00:45:02,796 --> 00:45:08,776
These are pictures, how many people have
been to Ghana for the slave castles?

726
00:45:10,346 --> 00:45:13,966
Well, you know it's interesting
because this picture escaped my text.

727
00:45:15,236 --> 00:45:17,626
They somehow didn't make it to the text.

728
00:45:17,626 --> 00:45:23,356
All two pages of Black history, and one
was a picture, this one didn't make it.

729
00:45:24,046 --> 00:45:27,406
So, first of all, this is the Door
of No Return at Elmina slave castle.

730
00:45:27,406 --> 00:45:30,726
Now, I don't know if people realize it,

731
00:45:30,726 --> 00:45:33,226
but we weren't all just waiting
on the coast for the cruise.

732
00:45:34,536 --> 00:45:38,386
People were marched from the
interiors of Africa to that coast.

733
00:45:39,656 --> 00:45:44,306
And based on historians,
there millions died in route.

734
00:45:44,306 --> 00:45:47,696
But you didn't hear about them.

735
00:45:47,916 --> 00:45:53,576
You didn't know how many fought back or died
of exposure, or got lost, or became sick.

736
00:45:54,016 --> 00:45:56,086
You just didn't know.

737
00:45:56,756 --> 00:45:58,036
But it's not obscure.

738
00:45:58,426 --> 00:46:01,206
Big old giant castle, I took these pictures.

739
00:46:01,866 --> 00:46:03,366
Cape Coast slave castle.

740
00:46:06,256 --> 00:46:11,786
When you first walk in, there's two things
that greet you, one, not only the cannon balls

741
00:46:11,786 --> 00:46:14,386
and everything else, but that's not
actually meant for enslaved Africans,

742
00:46:14,386 --> 00:46:16,756
that's for the European invaders,
they were fighting each other.

743
00:46:18,026 --> 00:46:22,486
So on one side is a female dungeon, on the
other side is the male dungeon, slave dungeons.

744
00:46:22,676 --> 00:46:29,126
And what happened immediately is upon entering,
when they would bring the enslaved men, women,

745
00:46:29,126 --> 00:46:32,926
and children in, they would rape
the women within 50 feet of the men.

746
00:46:33,896 --> 00:46:37,816
In front of their fathers, their
brothers, their sons, their husbands.

747
00:46:38,756 --> 00:46:42,056
They would rape them to remind
them, he can't protect you.

748
00:46:42,606 --> 00:46:47,906
This is the male slave dungeon, Cape Coast.

749
00:46:49,056 --> 00:46:51,616
Now, it's difficult to see, but in this photo,

750
00:46:51,926 --> 00:46:55,866
I wish we could turn the
lights out, is that possible?

751
00:46:56,226 --> 00:46:57,096
No? Alrighty.

752
00:46:57,666 --> 00:47:01,166
So, the floors are actually slanted

753
00:47:01,766 --> 00:47:04,446
and the first thing you want to
do when you go in is get out.

754
00:47:05,106 --> 00:47:09,896
It smells, it's wet, it's slippery, you're
sliding because the floors are slanted .

755
00:47:10,386 --> 00:47:13,216
In the middle of the door, it's
hard to see, there's a trench,

756
00:47:13,216 --> 00:47:16,876
because there's no running water, no
facilities, hundreds of men and boys are packed

757
00:47:17,156 --> 00:47:21,126
in this facility, and they warn you
before they do what I do next, and it's,

758
00:47:21,126 --> 00:47:26,036
that is they turn out the light, because there
was no light, and the only source of light

759
00:47:26,036 --> 00:47:33,016
and ventilation, and this is a vaulted
situation, were those three little openings

760
00:47:33,016 --> 00:47:39,976
which is what they, you can imagine
the toxicity in terms of the waste.

761
00:47:40,956 --> 00:47:44,046
Then there was the death cell for African men.

762
00:47:44,186 --> 00:47:46,976
This becomes really important
I think, for young Black men

763
00:47:46,976 --> 00:47:49,896
to understand how frequently
African men fought back,

764
00:47:50,176 --> 00:47:53,696
so frequently that they created
a death cell for them.

765
00:47:53,836 --> 00:47:57,176
Meaning that when they were placed in this
cell, they were no longer given food or water,

766
00:47:57,596 --> 00:48:00,426
the only source of ventilation
are the small holes in the door.

767
00:48:00,656 --> 00:48:02,746
The big square you see I will explain next,

768
00:48:03,136 --> 00:48:07,526
but they would literally
thirst to death, and suffocate.

769
00:48:08,776 --> 00:48:12,486
But almost in total darkness
they carved these symbols.

770
00:48:12,526 --> 00:48:16,116
They actually to this day don't know how
they did it, because this is solid stone.

771
00:48:16,866 --> 00:48:22,046
But somehow they managed to carve into solid
stone, these symbols, African symbols calling

772
00:48:22,046 --> 00:48:26,216
out to the ancestors to please come and
to deliver them from their suffering.

773
00:48:26,786 --> 00:48:30,896
Next door to them was a cell where white
soldiers were held for no more than 24 hours.

774
00:48:31,406 --> 00:48:34,106
That is their window and the latticed door.

775
00:48:35,466 --> 00:48:38,206
This is where I had a bit of a
meltdown, these are stairs leading

776
00:48:38,206 --> 00:48:41,316
from the governor's bedroom
to the female slave dungeon.

777
00:48:41,526 --> 00:48:46,176
He commissioned to have these built, even
though his wife and children lived with him

778
00:48:46,176 --> 00:48:49,416
in the apartment above, he
needed to have absolute

779
00:48:49,756 --> 00:48:52,776
and immediate access to girls and women.

780
00:48:53,116 --> 00:48:58,226
This is a steel ball enslaved Africans women
were chained to when they resisted being raped,

781
00:48:58,226 --> 00:49:01,946
they were chained in the middle of the
courtyard naked, no longer given food or water.

782
00:49:02,596 --> 00:49:07,636
Another cell, death cell for African women
who fought back, more like a pit or a hole.

783
00:49:08,616 --> 00:49:13,136
UNESCO, having made these particular
castles tourable, were having difficulty

784
00:49:13,136 --> 00:49:18,346
with this particular one, note that there seems
to be a watermark at the top, where it's light.

785
00:49:18,946 --> 00:49:22,346
They were trying to level the ground,
the workers, they couldn't figure

786
00:49:22,346 --> 00:49:24,686
out why they couldn't and
they were trying to break

787
00:49:24,686 --> 00:49:27,396
through two feet of solidified human waste.

788
00:49:28,186 --> 00:49:33,556
Which means that Africans, enslaved
Africans, were wallowing in two feet

789
00:49:33,556 --> 00:49:36,846
of waste, and Europeans never removed it.

790
00:49:37,376 --> 00:49:44,236
And right in the middle, of course, well bit
of a contradiction you think, is a church.

791
00:49:44,236 --> 00:49:48,246
Now the church is not there for the enslaved
Africans, it is there for the soldiers

792
00:49:48,296 --> 00:49:51,056
so they can worship in the midst of it all.

793
00:49:52,156 --> 00:49:54,166
Now, I want you to say this word, maafa.

794
00:49:54,386 --> 00:50:01,666
Maafa is a key Swahili word, which means the
"great suffering," the "great catastrophe,"

795
00:50:02,116 --> 00:50:04,606
and what we refer to as the Black Holocaust.

796
00:50:05,566 --> 00:50:10,426
It is a triangular route, the Middle Passage
of slavery, which brought enslaved Africans

797
00:50:11,366 --> 00:50:14,846
through various places, Cuba, Caribbean.

798
00:50:15,656 --> 00:50:19,336
And I want you to look closely at
this picture, it's interesting,

799
00:50:19,336 --> 00:50:21,326
one of the few things that
remain that you look at.

800
00:50:21,326 --> 00:50:25,146
And it bothers me, because you see,
it's peculiar absent of any feeling,

801
00:50:25,696 --> 00:50:28,286
but those are really great, perfect dimensions.

802
00:50:28,916 --> 00:50:31,956
People were packed that tightly, because
after all, they were cargo, you see.

803
00:50:32,146 --> 00:50:36,436
And like any cargo, they're tightly
packed because there's an expectation

804
00:50:36,436 --> 00:50:37,806
that some of it will spoil en route.

805
00:50:37,806 --> 00:50:42,036
And in that case, what would
this mean for enslaved Africans?

806
00:50:42,726 --> 00:50:43,816
To spoil en route.

807
00:50:45,246 --> 00:50:46,346
It means that they would die.

808
00:50:46,906 --> 00:50:50,276
But why? Why were they estimating
that so many would die?

809
00:50:50,806 --> 00:50:58,026
Let me give you some dimensions as approximately
an average of 18 inches of space between them.

810
00:50:58,696 --> 00:51:02,826
It is where they slept, it is where
they wept, it is where they ate,

811
00:51:03,326 --> 00:51:07,566
it is where they defecated, it is where
they urinated, it is where they menstruated,

812
00:51:07,736 --> 00:51:11,256
it is where they vomited, gave birth, and died.

813
00:51:12,046 --> 00:51:14,136
Eighteen inches of space.

814
00:51:15,306 --> 00:51:22,926
The lowest figure on record for those that
died during the Middle Passage, is 9 million.

815
00:51:24,016 --> 00:51:33,366
Based on ship manifests, like Amistad, ship
manifests kicked that number up to 15 million,

816
00:51:33,366 --> 00:51:37,156
because at least as many
died as actually arrived.

817
00:51:37,616 --> 00:51:38,956
But it didn't make it to your text.

818
00:51:38,956 --> 00:51:40,926
How is that?

819
00:51:41,136 --> 00:51:44,256
How many Jews died during the Holocaust?

820
00:51:44,416 --> 00:51:46,696
Say it. You know.

821
00:51:48,116 --> 00:51:49,686
How many? Six million.

822
00:51:49,916 --> 00:51:50,636
Of course you know.

823
00:51:50,716 --> 00:51:51,906
And you should never forget that.

824
00:51:53,086 --> 00:51:55,976
But you didn't know how many died
during the Middle Passage, now did you?

825
00:51:56,096 --> 00:51:58,576
Is this obscure?

826
00:51:58,996 --> 00:52:00,126
It is not.

827
00:52:01,036 --> 00:52:02,426
It is not.

828
00:52:03,476 --> 00:52:04,216
Why is it?

829
00:52:04,216 --> 00:52:06,456
How is it we don't honor them?

830
00:52:07,756 --> 00:52:14,036
There's not a plaque, not a moment
of silence, anywhere in this country,

831
00:52:14,616 --> 00:52:19,276
except the burial ground, that
acknowledges this holocaust.

832
00:52:19,546 --> 00:52:21,866
Why is that?

833
00:52:22,456 --> 00:52:23,696
It's not obscure.

834
00:52:23,696 --> 00:52:25,486
Are you following me?

835
00:52:26,506 --> 00:52:30,176
Because it causes cognitive dissonance.

836
00:52:30,616 --> 00:52:34,816
It's a picture of the shackles
and of the people.

837
00:52:35,966 --> 00:52:39,026
Based on the International Criminal Court,

838
00:52:39,196 --> 00:52:44,606
this squarely placed the United States
having committed crimes against humanity.

839
00:52:45,726 --> 00:52:49,996
Clearly stated that America has never
acknowledging nor paid for her sins.

840
00:52:51,126 --> 00:52:55,536
How many of you knew that the United
States apologized for slavery, twice?

841
00:52:56,796 --> 00:52:58,626
Two-thousand-eight and 2009.

842
00:52:58,626 --> 00:52:59,116
Interesting.

843
00:53:02,116 --> 00:53:03,396
They apologized twice.

844
00:53:03,396 --> 00:53:06,856
House of Representatives, U.S. Senate.

845
00:53:07,426 --> 00:53:13,316
But it wasn't like, you know,
CNN didn't take a special moment,

846
00:53:14,266 --> 00:53:16,686
there weren't, you know, assemblies at school.

847
00:53:16,806 --> 00:53:19,286
Pretty important moment in
our history, don't you think?

848
00:53:19,936 --> 00:53:21,226
How is it it escaped?

849
00:53:21,666 --> 00:53:24,146
Hidden in plain sight.

850
00:53:24,246 --> 00:53:27,106
Well, let's - I just took a piece of it, you
should, you know, it should be everywhere.

851
00:53:27,106 --> 00:53:33,416
It should be a document somewhere, I don't
know, but somehow even Black people don't know.

852
00:53:33,646 --> 00:53:36,726
Two-thousand-and-eight and 2009,
and did they just remember then?

853
00:53:36,726 --> 00:53:42,696
Why then? I'll tell you why, because
2008 marked the 200th anniversary

854
00:53:42,696 --> 00:53:44,296
of the end of the slave trade in America.

855
00:53:44,656 --> 00:53:50,336
In 2007, I was in Europe, because the prime
minister invited me, among other scholars,

856
00:53:50,336 --> 00:53:55,156
to come to the country to acknowledge
the 200th anniversary of the end

857
00:53:55,156 --> 00:53:57,586
of the slave trade in Europe, 2007.

858
00:53:57,776 --> 00:53:59,026
Well, America had to do something.

859
00:53:59,556 --> 00:54:05,506
And they say, we acknowledge, the Federal
Government, the injustice, cruelty, brutality,

860
00:54:05,506 --> 00:54:07,516
and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow.

861
00:54:07,516 --> 00:54:10,596
The resolution states that the vestiges
of Jim Crow continue to this day,

862
00:54:10,596 --> 00:54:14,516
African Americans continue to suffer from
the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow --

863
00:54:14,696 --> 00:54:17,486
long after both systems were
formally abolished -- How?

864
00:54:17,756 --> 00:54:22,126
" -- through enormous damage and loss, both
tangible and intangible, including the loss

865
00:54:22,126 --> 00:54:27,166
of human dignity and liberty, the
frustration of careers and professional lives,

866
00:54:27,166 --> 00:54:31,096
and the long-term loss of
income and opportunity --

867
00:54:31,366 --> 00:54:36,256
" They knew, but they dared you to say
anything about it, and so, you didn't.

868
00:54:38,436 --> 00:54:45,306
So when we look at the more recent
statement by the UN, 2016, January,

869
00:54:46,316 --> 00:54:48,156
"UN Working Group of Experts on People

870
00:54:48,156 --> 00:54:52,246
of African Descent released its preliminary
recommendations after more than a week

871
00:54:52,246 --> 00:54:56,346
of meetings with Black Americans and others
from around the country, including Baltimore,

872
00:54:56,506 --> 00:54:59,976
Chicago, New York City, the District
of Columbia, and Jackson, Mississippi.

873
00:55:00,046 --> 00:55:05,586
After finishing their fact-finding mission,
the working group was extremely concerned

874
00:55:05,586 --> 00:55:08,076
about the human rights situation
of African Americans.

875
00:55:08,446 --> 00:55:12,626
The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement,
racial subordination and segregation,

876
00:55:12,916 --> 00:55:16,676
racial terrorism, and racial inequality
in the U.S. remains a serious challenge

877
00:55:16,676 --> 00:55:19,766
as there's been no real commitment
to reparations and to truth

878
00:55:19,766 --> 00:55:21,926
and reconciliation for people
of African descent.

879
00:55:22,176 --> 00:55:26,976
Contemporary police killings and the
trauma it creates are reminiscent

880
00:55:26,976 --> 00:55:28,756
of the racial terror lynchings in the past.

881
00:55:29,496 --> 00:55:33,786
Impunity for state violence has resulted
in the current human rights crisis

882
00:55:33,926 --> 00:55:36,696
and must be addressed as a matter of urgency."

883
00:55:37,036 --> 00:55:39,186
That would be 2016.

884
00:55:39,586 --> 00:55:43,506
But we didn't talk about it.

885
00:55:44,646 --> 00:55:47,966
It came and went, hidden in plain sight.

886
00:55:50,116 --> 00:55:53,636
So now we have to understand
the branches of the various --

887
00:55:53,636 --> 00:55:57,666
somebody needs to tell me where I am in time
too, because I have no, I can't -- have no idea.

888
00:56:00,476 --> 00:56:01,566
How much time do I have?

889
00:56:02,526 --> 00:56:03,256
You said five minutes?

890
00:56:04,096 --> 00:56:05,146
Are you serious?

891
00:56:06,296 --> 00:56:07,156
It's not his fault.

892
00:56:07,156 --> 00:56:10,196
It really isn't.

893
00:56:10,416 --> 00:56:16,646
Okay, so I'm going to go really
fast and, very hard to do this.

894
00:56:16,646 --> 00:56:22,746
Okay, so we will go to Carl, now you all know
Carl, Carl von Linnaeus, everyone in the room,

895
00:56:22,746 --> 00:56:25,686
because we took him through high
school, in high school biology.

896
00:56:25,686 --> 00:56:29,426
And I just want you to know that you should
get concerned whenever you see someone dressed

897
00:56:29,426 --> 00:56:30,506
like him.

898
00:56:30,856 --> 00:56:41,286
Carl von Linnaeus, 1707 to 1778, most well-known
for classifications of things, species,

899
00:56:41,326 --> 00:56:43,276
phylum, genus, he just classified stuff.

900
00:56:44,156 --> 00:56:47,116
He also took, made his attempt
to classify human beings.

901
00:56:47,286 --> 00:56:50,756
Now remember I told you, every major
institution in America had to be complicit

902
00:56:50,756 --> 00:56:52,776
with slavery and to somehow justify it.

903
00:56:53,126 --> 00:56:54,836
So let's see what Carl had to say.

904
00:56:55,926 --> 00:56:59,366
Carl describes Homo Americanus,
now understand that we're talking

905
00:56:59,366 --> 00:57:01,736
about science here, who might that be?

906
00:57:02,376 --> 00:57:03,506
Those would be Natives.

907
00:57:03,506 --> 00:57:07,626
He says they are reddish, choleric,
abstinent, contented, and regulated by customs.

908
00:57:08,366 --> 00:57:09,376
No science yet.

909
00:57:09,576 --> 00:57:13,546
Homo Europesnus, that would be white people,
he says they're white, fickle, sanguine,

910
00:57:13,546 --> 00:57:16,676
blue-eyed, gentle, and governed by laws.

911
00:57:17,856 --> 00:57:21,776
Homo Asiaticus, that would be Asians,
he says they're sallow, grave,

912
00:57:21,776 --> 00:57:24,566
dignified, aborishas, and ruled by opinion.

913
00:57:24,566 --> 00:57:32,326
And then there's Homo [inaudible], Black,
phlegmatic, cunning, lazy, lustful,

914
00:57:32,456 --> 00:57:35,016
careless, and governed by caprice.

915
00:57:35,326 --> 00:57:40,136
These insights into what Linnaeus defined
as racial character, personality traits,

916
00:57:40,136 --> 00:57:42,976
and a host of other related categories
are more fixed in the races themselves.

917
00:57:43,176 --> 00:57:45,306
And by the way, there's not a shred of science.

918
00:57:45,506 --> 00:57:49,526
At this point, again, my students
feeling cognitive dissonance push back,

919
00:57:49,596 --> 00:57:52,216
Dr. Degruy, but look at the year, 1707.

920
00:57:52,216 --> 00:57:55,226
I said, do you not still hear these
attributions about Black people?

921
00:57:56,496 --> 00:57:57,026
Doesn't matter.

922
00:57:58,126 --> 00:57:59,306
But no one checked his vitae.

923
00:57:59,566 --> 00:58:00,316
Let's see.

924
00:58:01,026 --> 00:58:08,536
Linnaeus, after one week received his PhD for a
13-page dissertation from the Dutch university

925
00:58:08,536 --> 00:58:12,876
of Harderwijk, which one historian of science
designated as a mail-order institution.

926
00:58:13,306 --> 00:58:15,556
The University of Harderwijk
was known for selling degrees.

927
00:58:15,556 --> 00:58:18,936
There's a saying in the Netherlands for a person
who's scientific knowledge is questionable,

928
00:58:18,936 --> 00:58:21,066
well, he's from the University of Harderwijk.

929
00:58:21,396 --> 00:58:27,256
Then there's Johann, you all know Johann, Johann
Friedrich Blumenbach, you can just look at him

930
00:58:27,256 --> 00:58:28,986
and know there's something wrong here.

931
00:58:28,986 --> 00:58:33,026
Johann, Johann originated the term, "Caucasian."

932
00:58:33,296 --> 00:58:38,126
Now this man decided that, you know, the
Caucasian stock, of course, was superior,

933
00:58:38,416 --> 00:58:42,376
he says, and it you know, revealed
the most beautiful form of the skull,

934
00:58:42,796 --> 00:58:47,316
from which is the meaning primeval type,
the others diverge by most easy gradations

935
00:58:47,316 --> 00:58:50,526
on both sides of its ultimate extremes, that
is on the one side, the Mongolian, the other,

936
00:58:50,526 --> 00:58:53,536
the Ethiopian, besides, it is white in color.

937
00:58:54,756 --> 00:58:57,676
Anybody ever met a skull that wasn't?

938
00:58:57,676 --> 00:59:02,286
Okay. Which we may fairly assume to have
been the primitive color of mankind.

939
00:59:03,286 --> 00:59:07,946
Zippity-doo-dah, no science here, but
well, they didn't check his vitae either.

940
00:59:08,316 --> 00:59:11,896
Blumenbach received a medical degree
from the University of Göttingen

941
00:59:11,896 --> 00:59:15,016
after submitting a 15-page long dissertation.

942
00:59:15,016 --> 00:59:17,936
Boy, if only I had lived --
well no, I'd be enslaved.

943
00:59:18,276 --> 00:59:23,486
The result of one year's study,
one year, with an older professor

944
00:59:23,486 --> 00:59:24,886
who owned an extraordinarily large

945
00:59:24,886 --> 00:59:27,236
and disordered natural history
collection, that would be skulls.

946
00:59:27,616 --> 00:59:30,026
Now this becomes very important,
because this set the stage

947
00:59:30,026 --> 00:59:31,946
for what we understand as white racism.

948
00:59:32,026 --> 00:59:36,226
Because you see, racism and the
concept of whiteness did not exist.

949
00:59:36,926 --> 00:59:42,206
So what began to happen was we created
this notion of beauty, Caucasian beauty,

950
00:59:42,306 --> 00:59:46,986
and therefore we had this
whole idea of a superior race,

951
00:59:47,516 --> 00:59:51,966
breeding better human beings,
eugenics became a movement.

952
00:59:52,306 --> 00:59:58,796
But what we know based on contemporary
science is that race is biological fiction.

953
01:00:00,256 --> 01:00:03,976
We are 99.99% the same, 9999.

954
01:00:04,416 --> 01:00:11,116
So it begs the question of the
bell curve now, doesn't it?

955
01:00:11,646 --> 01:00:16,636
But there's a reason why people want to, and
it keeps reemerging, this notion of inferiority

956
01:00:16,636 --> 01:00:19,336
and superiority, because then
you can justify your behavior.

957
01:00:20,226 --> 01:00:25,256
So as the secrets make us sick, we need to
understand what happened about that fear

958
01:00:25,256 --> 01:00:28,656
of that original number I showed you, and I
told you the majority of the people of the world

959
01:00:28,656 --> 01:00:31,876
of color, the world is a world of
colors, the majority of people.

960
01:00:32,096 --> 01:00:35,556
Well, the first fear that showed
up was a fear of annihilation,

961
01:00:35,556 --> 01:00:40,186
and this is not something I'm making
up, this came straight out of,

962
01:00:40,186 --> 01:00:42,546
in this particular case, the Oregon Territory.

963
01:00:43,266 --> 01:00:47,146
The negroes associate with the Indians,
inter-marry, and if they're free ingress

964
01:00:47,146 --> 01:00:50,446
and courage are allowed, there were a
relationship spring up between them,

965
01:00:50,446 --> 01:00:52,806
in other words, the fear is they're going
to get together, they're going to make a lot

966
01:00:52,806 --> 01:00:55,656
of children, they're going
to kill all the white people.

967
01:00:56,036 --> 01:01:01,886
Now, according to a mid-1800s census, there
were 600 thousand mixed race children born,

968
01:01:02,496 --> 01:01:05,666
even though miscegenation laws were in
effect, meaning it was illegal to be

969
01:01:05,666 --> 01:01:07,136
with someone of a different race.

970
01:01:07,996 --> 01:01:12,046
Six-hundred-thousand, that's
how many they counted.

971
01:01:12,536 --> 01:01:14,256
That's a lot of sneaking out back, you think?

972
01:01:14,436 --> 01:01:21,546
And do you think this, these are men of colors
kind of sneaking into white women's parlors?

973
01:01:22,306 --> 01:01:24,006
No, this is the rape of women of color.

974
01:01:24,366 --> 01:01:25,586
And we have numbers for that.

975
01:01:25,586 --> 01:01:27,726
It's not my opinion, that's a fact.

976
01:01:28,036 --> 01:01:31,246
Want you to take a close look at what
happens when you have that much fear.

977
01:01:31,936 --> 01:01:37,066
This was 2014, showed up in front of
an immigration organization in Oregon.

978
01:01:38,836 --> 01:01:40,236
Diversity equals what?

979
01:01:45,156 --> 01:01:46,476
White genocide.

980
01:01:46,966 --> 01:01:47,556
That means death.

981
01:01:48,056 --> 01:01:51,196
Stay with me, remember I told you
we were on the precipice of change?

982
01:01:51,556 --> 01:01:56,656
You know we are because when that kind
of a fear arises, it's us against them.

983
01:01:56,816 --> 01:02:00,656
Hence, you can see what's going on
in the country and around the world.

984
01:02:01,176 --> 01:02:04,836
It is a real fear, and I'm not making it up.

985
01:02:04,836 --> 01:02:07,206
Here's someone who let us know in his own words.

986
01:02:07,296 --> 01:02:11,916
This is Dylann Roof, who went into
a church and shot nine people.

987
01:02:11,916 --> 01:02:16,436
He says, Black people are raping our women,
interesting, and taking over our country.

988
01:02:16,436 --> 01:02:18,606
Someone needed to do something
about it for the white race.

989
01:02:19,296 --> 01:02:23,596
I may be paranoid, but it
appears someone's following me.

990
01:02:24,696 --> 01:02:32,006
So, Southern Poverty Law Center put this out
in 2016, and actually, this has increased

991
01:02:32,116 --> 01:02:38,066
since then, the number of hate and radical
anti-government groups are both up 14%.

992
01:02:38,166 --> 01:02:42,446
The 10 states with the highest number of
hate groups, Texas, no surprise, number one,

993
01:02:42,446 --> 01:02:46,406
California, number two, 26 of
the 68 are racist hate groups.

994
01:02:47,286 --> 01:02:50,246
It continues and that is on
the rise, because remember,

995
01:02:50,246 --> 01:02:53,486
I told you we're on the precipice,
on the precipice.

996
01:02:54,026 --> 01:02:56,046
So when we look at politics,
and you look at people

997
01:02:56,046 --> 01:02:58,326
like James Madison, again,
look how he's dressed.

998
01:02:58,896 --> 01:03:02,516
And this is where he basically deals
with the three-fifths compromise,

999
01:03:02,516 --> 01:03:04,856
which you can barely know he's
talking about human beings.

1000
01:03:04,856 --> 01:03:08,176
Look at the way it's written, "Blacks
are inhabitants but is debased

1001
01:03:08,176 --> 01:03:11,786
by servitude below the equal level of
free inhabitants, which regards the slave

1002
01:03:11,926 --> 01:03:13,376
as divested of three-fifths -- " Really?

1003
01:03:13,376 --> 01:03:14,526
What does that mean?

1004
01:03:15,526 --> 01:03:18,946
It means that you have just, with
the stroke of a pen, dehumanized me.

1005
01:03:19,916 --> 01:03:25,906
Now we also know that a whole lot
of presidents have had slaves.

1006
01:03:25,906 --> 01:03:32,896
Now, this list, by the way, again, not
obscure, but it's not showing up in textbooks.

1007
01:03:33,066 --> 01:03:34,906
Matter of fact, it's been removed.

1008
01:03:35,606 --> 01:03:38,556
Now let me say that again, not going
to be removed, has been removed.

1009
01:03:38,916 --> 01:03:44,896
In fact, Texas is the Walmart of textbooks.

1010
01:03:45,896 --> 01:03:48,536
That's where poor school
districts go to get their books.

1011
01:03:49,016 --> 01:03:51,046
And they have changed the textbooks.

1012
01:03:51,786 --> 01:03:54,876
So the two pages of Black history
that was there, is not there anymore,

1013
01:03:55,036 --> 01:03:58,396
and slavery has been totally removed,
and they have to memorize now, students,

1014
01:03:58,756 --> 01:04:01,586
the actual speeches of the confederacy.

1015
01:04:01,586 --> 01:04:06,336
If you don't believe me, recently what arose,
this was on Facebook, became a huge thing,

1016
01:04:06,336 --> 01:04:10,236
a kid that was in a geography class was
reading something, and it said something

1017
01:04:10,236 --> 01:04:13,466
about the America bringing
over workers and laborers.

1018
01:04:14,556 --> 01:04:18,106
And he took a picture of it and sent it
to his mother, and all hell broke loose.

1019
01:04:18,316 --> 01:04:22,706
And of course they removed that back from the
shelf, only to be replaced with the same thing.

1020
01:04:24,046 --> 01:04:27,926
But we should have gone after the editors,
and publishers, and everyone involved.

1021
01:04:27,926 --> 01:04:29,756
But you see, this has been done on our watch.

1022
01:04:31,056 --> 01:04:33,006
Not going to be done, has been done.

1023
01:04:33,006 --> 01:04:40,706
And then we get to well, your guy.

1024
01:04:41,016 --> 01:04:45,516
Thomas Jefferson, actually closed out my
book with a soliloquy from Thomas Jefferson,

1025
01:04:45,516 --> 01:04:50,786
where he says and I quote, "Indeed I tremble for
my country, when I consider that God is just,

1026
01:04:51,366 --> 01:04:53,976
and that his justice cannot sleep forever."

1027
01:04:55,056 --> 01:04:56,276
Those were his words.

1028
01:04:57,306 --> 01:05:01,706
Thomas Jefferson becomes a very important
person as we begin to look at perceptions,

1029
01:05:01,706 --> 01:05:05,816
because you see, if Thomas
Jefferson said it, it must be true.

1030
01:05:05,966 --> 01:05:08,766
He set the stage for not only
what his countrymen believed,

1031
01:05:08,846 --> 01:05:10,976
but what everyone believed around the world.

1032
01:05:12,406 --> 01:05:15,176
He said, Blacks smell bad and
were physically unattractive.

1033
01:05:15,406 --> 01:05:17,836
This is a little inconsistent
with his behavior, you think?

1034
01:05:20,376 --> 01:05:24,346
Now most Black people knew about Sally Hemings,
my grandmother used to talk about Sally Hemings,

1035
01:05:24,346 --> 01:05:27,656
but this is amazing, white people started
clutching their pearls, not Thomas.

1036
01:05:32,016 --> 01:05:36,796
Then he goes on to say something even more
egregious, he says that we required less sleep.

1037
01:05:36,796 --> 01:05:39,886
And you see, for me as a social
scientist, this became very interesting.

1038
01:05:39,886 --> 01:05:44,086
Why would Thomas Jefferson, in other words,
what cognitive dissonance was he experiencing

1039
01:05:44,246 --> 01:05:48,726
that he somehow had to mediate, what
was he feeling that he would make

1040
01:05:48,726 --> 01:05:50,916
such an assertion that we required less sleep?

1041
01:05:50,916 --> 01:05:53,576
What was a work day for an enslaved African?

1042
01:05:54,196 --> 01:05:57,746
From can't see to can't see,
the slave narratives say.

1043
01:05:58,906 --> 01:06:00,416
From can't see to can't see.

1044
01:06:00,416 --> 01:06:03,656
And here's what you get faced
with in 2017, oh you know,

1045
01:06:03,656 --> 01:06:06,026
you African Americans, you're over sensitive.

1046
01:06:06,366 --> 01:06:09,246
You have, what empirical evidence
do you have to support that?

1047
01:06:09,946 --> 01:06:11,856
How can you count and measure that?

1048
01:06:11,936 --> 01:06:14,576
Do you have any physical evidence to suggest

1049
01:06:14,576 --> 01:06:16,676
that they didn't have breaks
and vacations and what have you?

1050
01:06:16,706 --> 01:06:17,786
What do you know?

1051
01:06:17,786 --> 01:06:20,086
Because this, and you know, it's a shutdown.

1052
01:06:20,256 --> 01:06:21,046
You get the pushback.

1053
01:06:21,386 --> 01:06:23,096
Well, we actually do have evidence.

1054
01:06:23,096 --> 01:06:25,156
Well you can at first ask the enslaved Africans.

1055
01:06:25,406 --> 01:06:25,906
They can tell you.

1056
01:06:26,286 --> 01:06:29,726
This is Sarah Gudger, she said, "Never
known nothing about work, never knew rest,

1057
01:06:30,166 --> 01:06:32,616
felt like my back was going to
break, that's the gospel truth."

1058
01:06:33,706 --> 01:06:36,266
And then something even more peculiar happened,

1059
01:06:36,266 --> 01:06:39,586
our people unearthed themselves
well on Wall Street.

1060
01:06:40,086 --> 01:06:42,856
Most people don't associate
slavery with New York or the North,

1061
01:06:42,906 --> 01:06:48,826
truth is all 13 colonies had slavery, with
estimates of 10-20 thousand people buried

1062
01:06:48,826 --> 01:06:52,866
in this seven-acre burial ground, it's
considered the largest known site of its kind

1063
01:06:52,866 --> 01:06:59,856
in the U.S. Blakey's analysis of human
skeletal remains revealed that these men

1064
01:06:59,856 --> 01:07:02,826
and women were literally worked to death.

1065
01:07:03,506 --> 01:07:04,396
How do you know?

1066
01:07:04,676 --> 01:07:08,876
They suffered from enthesopathies, a condition
resulting in the muscle detaching itself

1067
01:07:08,876 --> 01:07:12,176
from the bone as a result of people
being worked beyond human capacity.

1068
01:07:12,846 --> 01:07:13,986
You lazy people you.

1069
01:07:15,116 --> 01:07:15,976
Isn't it amazing?

1070
01:07:16,136 --> 01:07:22,566
Who worked so hard that the muscle actually
detaches itself from the bone, who does that?

1071
01:07:22,566 --> 01:07:27,406
I'll tell you who, someone who has a gun
trained on them from sunrise to sunset.

1072
01:07:27,596 --> 01:07:29,206
And yet he asserted these things.

1073
01:07:29,206 --> 01:07:32,506
He goes on to say something even more
egregious, he says, "we were dumb,

1074
01:07:32,606 --> 01:07:35,896
cowardly, and incapable of feeling grief."

1075
01:07:36,466 --> 01:07:37,396
These are his words.

1076
01:07:38,596 --> 01:07:41,516
Why would Thomas Jefferson,
one, assert it, number two,

1077
01:07:41,516 --> 01:07:44,296
why would he need to believe
we could not feel grief?

1078
01:07:44,296 --> 01:07:46,726
What was he and others like him, doing?

1079
01:07:47,186 --> 01:07:52,926
While you were ripping mothers away from
their babies, and husbands from wives,

1080
01:07:52,926 --> 01:07:58,066
and brothers from sisters, surely they
cannot feel grief, that would make them what?

1081
01:07:58,966 --> 01:08:02,446
Like him. And yet he asserted it.

1082
01:08:02,446 --> 01:08:05,626
But here's my question, do
you think he saw grief?

1083
01:08:06,116 --> 01:08:11,646
You think he didn't hear and see
the mothers screaming and crying

1084
01:08:11,646 --> 01:08:13,516
and begging them, don't take my babies?

1085
01:08:14,896 --> 01:08:17,866
The man saw it and then asserted
it didn't exist.

1086
01:08:17,986 --> 01:08:22,696
And that is the pathology
that surrounds whiteness.

1087
01:08:24,226 --> 01:08:26,916
That denial has permeated so much.

1088
01:08:28,836 --> 01:08:34,566
So, moving to education, I want to kind
of -- I don't even know where to go.

1089
01:08:39,886 --> 01:08:46,276
Education has done its fair share as it relates
to pathologizing, you know, the Negro problem,

1090
01:08:46,576 --> 01:08:48,246
and the whole idea the white man's burden.

1091
01:08:48,416 --> 01:08:51,756
That all came out of the idea of
benevolence and we're just trying

1092
01:08:51,756 --> 01:08:53,276
to make you all, we're trying to help you.

1093
01:08:53,536 --> 01:08:55,786
We're trying to civilize you.

1094
01:08:56,496 --> 01:09:00,156
So let me move forward, gosh, I wish I had time.

1095
01:09:00,866 --> 01:09:05,526
A very little known thing, Albert
Einstein lecturing to a segregated group

1096
01:09:05,526 --> 01:09:07,746
of African American students
at Lincoln University says,

1097
01:09:07,746 --> 01:09:11,996
"My trip to this institution was on behalf
of a worthwhile cause, there is a separation

1098
01:09:11,996 --> 01:09:15,906
of colored people from white people in the
United States, that separation is not a disease

1099
01:09:15,906 --> 01:09:17,946
of colored people, it is
a disease of white people.

1100
01:09:18,076 --> 01:09:19,956
I do not intend to be quiet about it.

1101
01:09:20,476 --> 01:09:21,076
And he was not.

1102
01:09:21,466 --> 01:09:22,966
But you didn't hear about it.

1103
01:09:24,446 --> 01:09:26,976
So when we start talking about
post traumatic slave syndrome,

1104
01:09:26,976 --> 01:09:31,816
and I'll try to wrap this up,
I don't know how to do it.

1105
01:09:32,006 --> 01:09:37,356
This is a book, the Mis-Education of the Negro,
by Carter G. Woodson, everyone should have,

1106
01:09:37,356 --> 01:09:40,056
because it is upon his shoulders
that I truly stand with my work.

1107
01:09:40,056 --> 01:09:45,756
I want you to listen carefully to this, it says,
"The same educational process, which inspires

1108
01:09:45,756 --> 01:09:48,346
and stimulate the oppressor with
the thought that he is everything

1109
01:09:48,346 --> 01:09:53,486
and has accomplished everything worthwhile,
depresses and crushes at the same time the spark

1110
01:09:53,486 --> 01:09:57,376
of genius in the Negro, by making him feel
that his race is does not amount to much,

1111
01:09:57,556 --> 01:10:00,886
and never will measure up to
the standards of other people's.

1112
01:10:01,366 --> 01:10:07,196
The Negro thus educated, is a
hopeless liability of the race."

1113
01:10:07,306 --> 01:10:12,806
Why? Because the difficulty is that
the educated Negro is compelled to live

1114
01:10:12,806 --> 01:10:16,496
and move among his own people whom
he has been taught to despise.

1115
01:10:17,356 --> 01:10:22,166
As a rule, therefore, the educated Negro
prefers to buy his food from a white grocer

1116
01:10:22,166 --> 01:10:25,636
because he has been taught
that the Negro is not clean.

1117
01:10:25,786 --> 01:10:29,616
It does not matter how often a Negro
washes his hands, he cannot clean them.

1118
01:10:29,676 --> 01:10:33,136
And no matter how often a white man
uses his hands, he cannot soil them.

1119
01:10:33,526 --> 01:10:36,226
post traumatic slave syndrome.

1120
01:10:36,226 --> 01:10:37,686
Why can't they get along?

1121
01:10:37,746 --> 01:10:39,746
How come they're always putting each other down?

1122
01:10:39,956 --> 01:10:42,356
Why is it they can't seem
to get together on anything?

1123
01:10:42,356 --> 01:10:46,056
How come they -- Well, that
would be because of Stephen.

1124
01:10:47,316 --> 01:10:54,076
If you all saw Django, Samuel
L. Jackson's character, Stephen.

1125
01:10:54,316 --> 01:10:57,746
Matter of fact, not only does Stephen
exist then, Stephen exists now.

1126
01:10:58,256 --> 01:11:00,386
In fact, white people always hire Stephen.

1127
01:11:00,746 --> 01:11:04,206
Let's be clear about that.

1128
01:11:04,476 --> 01:11:08,716
Now that's not my opinion, we got the data,
and the data says that white people are,

1129
01:11:08,876 --> 01:11:12,106
the darker you are, the bigger
you are, the greater the fear.

1130
01:11:12,106 --> 01:11:13,356
Conscious or unconscious.

1131
01:11:13,636 --> 01:11:17,836
So white people gravitate to Black
people who don't like themselves.

1132
01:11:17,836 --> 01:11:23,496
And those people then become what we have
here, Black here, we have your representative.

1133
01:11:23,716 --> 01:11:25,596
And everybody Black is like going, Lord.

1134
01:11:26,416 --> 01:11:33,006
How are we going to somehow
work around this fool?

1135
01:11:33,526 --> 01:11:37,646
Who becomes the spokesperson and the gatekeeper.

1136
01:11:38,096 --> 01:11:39,906
And we go, well there they are.

1137
01:11:39,906 --> 01:11:43,156
And those people are actually more
harmful than someone white would be.

1138
01:11:44,336 --> 01:11:48,546
Stephen. And so when white people in
particular, you know, school districts,

1139
01:11:48,656 --> 01:11:53,196
mental health facilities, county districts,
they'll say Dr., Dr. Degruy, we want to be,

1140
01:11:53,196 --> 01:11:56,646
you know, we have an equity standard
here, we want to have representation.

1141
01:11:56,646 --> 01:12:00,876
We want to make certain that our staff is
reflective of the -- you know, we want to have,

1142
01:12:00,946 --> 01:12:02,906
you know -- in other words, we
want to hire people of color.

1143
01:12:02,906 --> 01:12:03,566
I'm going, really?

1144
01:12:03,566 --> 01:12:05,066
Who's going to hire them?

1145
01:12:05,066 --> 01:12:05,606
Well, we are.

1146
01:12:05,696 --> 01:12:08,906
What makes you think you can?

1147
01:12:09,106 --> 01:12:11,106
Because I already know who you're
going to hire, the data's in.

1148
01:12:12,036 --> 01:12:16,146
So you need to get Black people to vet whoever
the person of color is you're talking about.

1149
01:12:17,136 --> 01:12:19,286
And that happens in every group, by the way.

1150
01:12:19,616 --> 01:12:20,436
Every group gets this.

1151
01:12:20,436 --> 01:12:22,926
And we're all looking, and
shaking our heads, going Lord.

1152
01:12:23,426 --> 01:12:26,276
And this is the Black person
that doesn't even want

1153
01:12:26,276 --> 01:12:29,336
to accidentally see Black people during the day.

1154
01:12:29,806 --> 01:12:33,866
But that's how it shows up, you see?

1155
01:12:33,866 --> 01:12:36,216
Because everybody goes, but we
have your Black representative.

1156
01:12:36,946 --> 01:12:40,136
But those Black representatives
have post traumatic slave syndrome.

1157
01:12:40,136 --> 01:12:45,166
And I almost feel like if you like
them, there's probably a problem.

1158
01:12:45,166 --> 01:12:50,986
So you need someone to even come in
to vet them before you can hire them.

1159
01:12:50,986 --> 01:12:51,766
Does that make sense?

1160
01:12:52,266 --> 01:12:55,076
But you see, we don't have this
conversation, we pretend it's not true.

1161
01:12:55,076 --> 01:13:01,116
We pretend and we are in an
environment of hostility all the time.

1162
01:13:01,346 --> 01:13:04,876
Students, faculty, everyone
has to deal with that person.

1163
01:13:04,996 --> 01:13:08,486
Matter of fact, sometimes Black
conscious, woke Black folks,

1164
01:13:08,486 --> 01:13:11,196
have to then warn the students
about the Black person.

1165
01:13:11,716 --> 01:13:15,006
We've got to say, okay, let me
just help you navigate this.

1166
01:13:15,526 --> 01:13:20,226
The reason I know it was because,
you know, I work in universities.

1167
01:13:20,226 --> 01:13:25,216
I used to have to do the same thing, doesn't
matter, every major institution got them.

1168
01:13:25,466 --> 01:13:27,486
They've got Stephen.

1169
01:13:27,546 --> 01:13:30,596
How many of you knew they put
a Black man in the Bronx Zoo?

1170
01:13:31,756 --> 01:13:36,786
Hmm, again, not obscure, Ota
Benga was placed in the Bronx Zoo.

1171
01:13:38,266 --> 01:13:39,276
He's from the Congo.

1172
01:13:39,276 --> 01:13:41,636
Eventually he was released,
he shot himself in the head.

1173
01:13:41,636 --> 01:13:43,756
But let's look at who really defended him.

1174
01:13:44,226 --> 01:13:45,296
That would be the New York Times.

1175
01:13:45,456 --> 01:13:49,556
You don't quite understand the emotion which
others are expressing, it's absurd to make moan

1176
01:13:49,556 --> 01:13:53,996
over the imagined humiliation and degradation
Benga is suffering, the pygmies are very low

1177
01:13:53,996 --> 01:13:57,326
in the human scale, and the suggestion
that Benga should be in a school instead

1178
01:13:57,326 --> 01:14:00,026
of a cage ignores a probability
that school would be a place

1179
01:14:00,026 --> 01:14:01,506
in which he could draw no advantage whatever.

1180
01:14:01,506 --> 01:14:05,226
The idea that men are all much alike, except
that they have had or lack opportunities

1181
01:14:05,446 --> 01:14:07,886
for getting an education out of
books is now far out of date.

1182
01:14:07,886 --> 01:14:08,726
They supported it.

1183
01:14:08,786 --> 01:14:11,076
But this wasn't during slavery, this was 1906.

1184
01:14:12,786 --> 01:14:14,086
Hidden in plain sight.

1185
01:14:14,086 --> 01:14:17,046
And then they wondered why we
might have had a problem with this.

1186
01:14:17,206 --> 01:14:20,466
This is the first Black man ever to
appear on the cover of Vogue Magazine.

1187
01:14:20,466 --> 01:14:22,176
That would be LeBron James.

1188
01:14:22,606 --> 01:14:26,356
And when Vogue Magazine was confronted
with the similarities between the picture

1189
01:14:26,696 --> 01:14:31,406
that they had him pose for, and that of
the brute, they said, oh coincidence.

1190
01:14:31,406 --> 01:14:33,836
Well look closely, they got
it down to the blue dress.

1191
01:14:34,806 --> 01:14:37,126
And they had to tell LeBron to open his mouth.

1192
01:14:37,686 --> 01:14:40,646
But you see, LeBron probably
did not know about, well that.

1193
01:14:41,826 --> 01:14:44,396
Because if he had, he wouldn't have done that.

1194
01:14:45,336 --> 01:14:48,626
And most of you didn't know that there
were human zoos throughout Europe.

1195
01:14:48,626 --> 01:14:56,346
Here's one from 1958, they're feeding this
little girl a banana in a zoo, in Brussels.

1196
01:14:56,596 --> 01:14:59,556
I was born in '57, just saying.

1197
01:14:59,906 --> 01:15:01,996
So, where did slavery go?

1198
01:15:03,266 --> 01:15:05,836
Well, the first thing that happened
after slavery ended was, it didn't.

1199
01:15:07,256 --> 01:15:10,306
It was peonage, the unlawful
selling of people back into slavery.

1200
01:15:10,306 --> 01:15:11,876
You know, hence 12 Years a Slave.

1201
01:15:11,876 --> 01:15:13,036
Well, it wasn't just him.

1202
01:15:14,306 --> 01:15:17,126
Then that was followed by
Black codes and sundown laws,

1203
01:15:17,196 --> 01:15:20,516
saying you might be free,
but you better not come here.

1204
01:15:20,926 --> 01:15:25,486
Then this was moved into convict
leasing, we want to know about that,

1205
01:15:25,576 --> 01:15:31,246
look at the new documentary
by Ava DuVernay, 13th,

1206
01:15:31,466 --> 01:15:35,506
or the new Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander.

1207
01:15:35,796 --> 01:15:36,846
It'll get clear for you.

1208
01:15:38,176 --> 01:15:41,146
So we need to understand that
what followed slavery was trauma.

1209
01:15:41,146 --> 01:15:44,496
I want you to look closely at this, because
I want to unpack this just for a moment.

1210
01:15:44,496 --> 01:15:47,326
I want you to look at this picture,
these pictures aren't in my book,

1211
01:15:47,456 --> 01:15:48,956
very deliberately not in my book.

1212
01:15:48,956 --> 01:15:53,656
But I want you to look at it, not because I want
you to feel, you know, uncomfortable and queasy,

1213
01:15:53,716 --> 01:15:55,156
I want you to look at who's in the photo.

1214
01:15:55,156 --> 01:15:56,386
It's a famous photo, actually.

1215
01:15:56,566 --> 01:15:59,576
I want you to see that the people are
in white because they've been to what?

1216
01:15:59,576 --> 01:16:01,936
And after church they went to the?

1217
01:16:02,646 --> 01:16:04,136
And look at how everyone is there.

1218
01:16:04,136 --> 01:16:07,996
Let me put this in perspective for you for
trauma, so if there was a puppy that ran

1219
01:16:07,996 --> 01:16:12,646
in here, let's just get that nice little
yellow lab, runs in and starts flipping

1220
01:16:12,646 --> 01:16:14,346
around and licking people's ankles.

1221
01:16:14,606 --> 01:16:18,046
And I take some of the wires up here
and I wrap it around that puppy's neck,

1222
01:16:18,326 --> 01:16:22,366
and I hold it up in front of you
until it chokes, gasps, and dies.

1223
01:16:23,106 --> 01:16:26,526
Two things will happen, one, I'd be
arrested faster than if it was a Black man

1224
01:16:26,526 --> 01:16:29,506
on the other side, and number
two, you'd be traumatized.

1225
01:16:29,976 --> 01:16:32,986
Look closely at this photo, because no one is.

1226
01:16:33,776 --> 01:16:35,036
He is less than a deer.

1227
01:16:35,066 --> 01:16:39,056
People often ask me, Joy, what
did 339 yours do to Black people?

1228
01:16:39,106 --> 01:16:42,076
Well, this is what 339 years
of trauma did to white people.

1229
01:16:42,156 --> 01:16:42,826
Can't feel it.

1230
01:16:44,056 --> 01:16:45,716
Hence Katrina, can't feel it.

1231
01:16:45,716 --> 01:16:48,546
Can intellectualize it, but can't feel it.

1232
01:16:48,546 --> 01:16:49,306
Are you following me?

1233
01:16:49,306 --> 01:16:51,996
Because there's no way you can
be that close to a human being

1234
01:16:51,996 --> 01:16:54,126
and feel nothing except that he is nothing.

1235
01:16:54,636 --> 01:16:57,026
And that is how you resolve
the dissonance you see,

1236
01:16:57,026 --> 01:17:00,806
is you dehumanize so it's
not quite that bad for them.

1237
01:17:01,196 --> 01:17:05,256
To this day, 2013 research
into hospitals, doctors,

1238
01:17:05,406 --> 01:17:09,376
who believe Black people feel less pain.

1239
01:17:09,376 --> 01:17:11,606
Hence the new epidemic in heroin addiction

1240
01:17:11,606 --> 01:17:16,646
and then the following pharmaceutical opioid
medications, all that's for white people.

1241
01:17:17,296 --> 01:17:19,006
They're calling it accidental poisonings.

1242
01:17:19,006 --> 01:17:20,206
We call them ODs.

1243
01:17:20,806 --> 01:17:23,356
But the white people are now
getting addicted to heroin.

1244
01:17:23,356 --> 01:17:25,846
Why? Because of an over prescribing of opiates.

1245
01:17:25,916 --> 01:17:30,166
Then the research, New York Times, look it
up, New York Times looked up, said well wow!

1246
01:17:30,166 --> 01:17:33,816
Why are all these young, white
students becoming addicted to heroin?

1247
01:17:34,066 --> 01:17:38,376
Why aren't there more Mexicans,
and Asians, and Black people?

1248
01:17:38,526 --> 01:17:41,076
Because of racism we are denied opiates.

1249
01:17:41,756 --> 01:17:45,576
Because the assumption is we're trying to sell
them or we're really not in that much pain.

1250
01:17:45,726 --> 01:17:46,236
That's a fact.

1251
01:17:46,846 --> 01:17:48,816
So, racism helped us this time.

1252
01:17:49,006 --> 01:17:52,656
Look at this picture, even worse.

1253
01:17:52,906 --> 01:17:57,276
You see, these are the pictures, we have
these notions of hooded folks on horses

1254
01:17:57,276 --> 01:17:59,906
with toothless, no, no, no,
these are regular folks.

1255
01:18:00,556 --> 01:18:02,996
Thousands of people participated in lynchings.

1256
01:18:03,436 --> 01:18:04,296
Thousands.

1257
01:18:08,426 --> 01:18:09,656
Now, here's a question.

1258
01:18:09,656 --> 01:18:13,966
When I first saw these photos, they're all
actually in a book called, Without Sanctuary.

1259
01:18:14,186 --> 01:18:16,576
But I wondered, my God, did
they get them from an attic?

1260
01:18:16,576 --> 01:18:17,506
Were they in a basement?

1261
01:18:17,506 --> 01:18:18,736
These are postcards.

1262
01:18:20,426 --> 01:18:21,696
That's why we have them.

1263
01:18:22,026 --> 01:18:22,946
Postcards.

1264
01:18:23,676 --> 01:18:28,866
So, when you start talking about,
so when did the trauma end?

1265
01:18:32,246 --> 01:18:39,616
Contrary to popular opinion, trauma of slavery,
trauma of lynching, all over the United States.

1266
01:18:41,066 --> 01:18:42,736
Then you had sharecropping, right?

1267
01:18:42,906 --> 01:18:45,426
Because we're going to bring
us all the way up to 2017.

1268
01:18:45,816 --> 01:18:47,826
Sharecropping, these are people who went back,

1269
01:18:47,826 --> 01:18:52,696
went back to their former slave
owners, why would you do that?

1270
01:18:52,696 --> 01:18:55,116
Well, you might be free, but
you better not come here.

1271
01:18:55,296 --> 01:18:58,616
This is taken from the Constitution in
the state of Oregon, where I worked,

1272
01:18:58,766 --> 01:19:01,826
"No free Negro Mulatto not residing in
the state at the time of the adoption

1273
01:19:01,826 --> 01:19:05,236
of this constitution shall come, reside, be
within the state holding any real estate,

1274
01:19:05,236 --> 01:19:07,316
make any contracts, or maintain
any suit therein.

1275
01:19:07,316 --> 01:19:11,736
And the Legislative Assembly should provide
by penile laws with removal by public officers

1276
01:19:11,736 --> 01:19:16,456
of all such degrees and mulattos, and for
their effectual exclusion from the state

1277
01:19:16,456 --> 01:19:19,396
and for the punishment of persons who
shall bring them in the state, implore --

1278
01:19:19,606 --> 01:19:22,346
this was repealed November 3, 1926.

1279
01:19:22,346 --> 01:19:23,446
My father was alive.

1280
01:19:23,616 --> 01:19:24,876
But we're free, aren't we?

1281
01:19:26,026 --> 01:19:27,216
Can't I go north?

1282
01:19:27,456 --> 01:19:31,126
Maybe if you people worked harder, if you
pulled yourselves up from your bootstraps.

1283
01:19:31,596 --> 01:19:36,006
What if I stand on my constitutional
right that I have the right to be there?

1284
01:19:36,006 --> 01:19:40,726
That, if any free Negroes or Mulattos shall
fail to put the country as required by this act,

1285
01:19:40,726 --> 01:19:45,956
if guilty upon trial, shall receive upon his
or her back not less than -- We'll beat you!

1286
01:19:47,036 --> 01:19:48,356
But aren't we free?

1287
01:19:48,516 --> 01:19:51,656
Hasn't the playing field
been leveled for you people?

1288
01:19:51,656 --> 01:19:55,346
See that's the mythology,
because we don't know our history.

1289
01:19:56,216 --> 01:19:56,906
Or our present.

1290
01:19:58,286 --> 01:19:58,966
We don't know it.

1291
01:19:59,096 --> 01:20:00,676
So that's why they went well back.

1292
01:20:01,976 --> 01:20:03,206
And guess what happens to them?

1293
01:20:03,306 --> 01:20:04,446
They couldn't read or?

1294
01:20:05,086 --> 01:20:06,626
So, we said oh, I know you don't have anything,

1295
01:20:06,626 --> 01:20:08,686
I'm going to advance you
tools, seed, and a mule.

1296
01:20:08,686 --> 01:20:12,036
Don't worry about it, we'll
settle up at the end of the year.

1297
01:20:12,266 --> 01:20:13,966
What happened at the end of the year?

1298
01:20:14,126 --> 01:20:15,196
Well, they were found owing.

1299
01:20:15,196 --> 01:20:16,966
Well, how do you settle that debt?

1300
01:20:17,116 --> 01:20:20,606
Which is another form of?

1301
01:20:20,806 --> 01:20:22,126
But you all are free.

1302
01:20:22,636 --> 01:20:27,296
It's a mythology, you see,
this causes dissonance.

1303
01:20:28,106 --> 01:20:29,926
Because nobody believes it's true.

1304
01:20:29,926 --> 01:20:33,436
So I'm going to move all the
way forward, I wish I had time.

1305
01:20:33,436 --> 01:20:35,026
I just simply don't.

1306
01:20:35,656 --> 01:20:41,626
Convict leasing, big business
then, big business now.

1307
01:20:42,506 --> 01:20:47,646
Companies that employ slave labor,
oh, I'm sorry, prison labor.

1308
01:20:51,516 --> 01:20:56,646
Jim Crow, separate but equal, ever been equal?

1309
01:20:57,136 --> 01:21:00,416
Still separate now though, isn't it?

1310
01:21:00,416 --> 01:21:02,586
I'm sure there's a Black
community here somewhere.

1311
01:21:03,196 --> 01:21:07,066
But there's no sign on your
freeway that says, next right, hood.

1312
01:21:08,066 --> 01:21:09,876
But you always know when
you're in the hood, don't you?

1313
01:21:10,506 --> 01:21:12,736
Because instead of banks you
see check cashing places,

1314
01:21:12,736 --> 01:21:15,276
and then there are liquor stores,
and then of course, churches.

1315
01:21:15,646 --> 01:21:16,366
How come I know?

1316
01:21:17,426 --> 01:21:20,666
We also know that police use of
deadly force is a major problem.

1317
01:21:20,666 --> 01:21:23,506
I just don't have time to talk about it all.

1318
01:21:24,226 --> 01:21:31,716
But I want to say this, that one last thing
I want to share and then I will close it.

1319
01:21:31,866 --> 01:21:35,406
Because again, can't do it in
45 minutes, nor should we be.

1320
01:21:36,736 --> 01:21:39,286
But that's just how we have to do it.

1321
01:21:40,066 --> 01:21:43,496
There's something called epigenetics.

1322
01:21:44,146 --> 01:21:50,126
Now my work, you know, nine years of research,
and I look specifically at violence, actually.

1323
01:21:50,336 --> 01:21:54,186
I gave and created some empirical
evidence and some measurement.

1324
01:21:54,746 --> 01:21:57,826
A measurement tool, called the Respect
Scale, which I won't have time to cover.

1325
01:21:57,936 --> 01:22:01,986
But I want to talk about epigenics because
you see, my work has to deal with, you know,

1326
01:22:02,156 --> 01:22:05,476
multigenerational trauma,
socialization, and social learning.

1327
01:22:05,736 --> 01:22:11,096
Behavior can be affected by events in
previous generations which have been passed

1328
01:22:11,096 --> 01:22:13,906
on through a form of genetic memory,
animal and human studies suggest.

1329
01:22:14,056 --> 01:22:18,266
This came out of recent research, where
they took a rat, and they accustomed

1330
01:22:18,266 --> 01:22:20,906
that particular rat to develop
an aversion for peppermint.

1331
01:22:22,406 --> 01:22:25,076
So, they basically shocked the
rat, you know what they do,

1332
01:22:25,076 --> 01:22:26,986
they release the smell, shock the rat.

1333
01:22:27,276 --> 01:22:31,226
Creates an aversion, reinforcement,
conditioned response.

1334
01:22:32,416 --> 01:22:34,126
Then they said, well, let's check the babies.

1335
01:22:34,336 --> 01:22:38,746
So they checked the babies of that particular
rat, and the babies were born with an aversion

1336
01:22:38,746 --> 01:22:41,016
to peppermint, having never been exposed.

1337
01:22:41,636 --> 01:22:44,166
And then they checked the
grandbabies of that rat.

1338
01:22:44,256 --> 01:22:47,916
And the grandbabies of the
rat were born with an aversion

1339
01:22:47,916 --> 01:22:50,606
to peppermint, having never been exposed to it.

1340
01:22:50,646 --> 01:22:55,216
And they realize now that
trauma is trapped in the DNA.

1341
01:22:56,096 --> 01:23:00,016
A body of research shows that your
DNA may contain a biological memory

1342
01:23:00,016 --> 01:23:01,806
of the stress your grandparents endured.

1343
01:23:02,036 --> 01:23:06,816
Can trauma, stress, and even nightmares be
passed down from generation to generation?

1344
01:23:07,436 --> 01:23:08,396
Scientists say, yes.

1345
01:23:09,116 --> 01:23:12,886
The findings provide evidence of
transgenerational epigenetic inheritance

1346
01:23:12,886 --> 01:23:17,016
that the environment can effect an individual's
genetics, which can in turn be passed on.

1347
01:23:17,146 --> 01:23:21,486
As previously explained, significant
life-threatening experiences alter genetic

1348
01:23:21,486 --> 01:23:26,296
coding, and this is heritable in subsequent
generations, therefore, it stands to reason

1349
01:23:26,296 --> 01:23:30,646
that a child conceived post-trauma will
acquire this adaptive genetic information.

1350
01:23:31,636 --> 01:23:35,856
So again, you can't break my leg
and then complain that I'm limping.

1351
01:23:36,246 --> 01:23:40,436
And what we have to understand
is, everyone is broken.

1352
01:23:41,496 --> 01:23:45,446
There's a reason why white people
cannot feel for Black people.

1353
01:23:45,806 --> 01:23:50,286
I'm not talking about intellectualize
it, rationalize it, they can't feel it.

1354
01:23:50,676 --> 01:23:52,056
And to me that is pathology.

1355
01:23:53,226 --> 01:23:57,906
Similarly, you have Black people who have,
are hypersensitive, struggle in schools

1356
01:23:57,906 --> 01:24:07,506
and institutions, feel disconnected, feel
unwanted, feel disrespected, feel fear.

1357
01:24:08,116 --> 01:24:15,276
It is trapped in the DNA, and we've got to
do a whole lot more than Black history month.

1358
01:24:16,456 --> 01:24:22,666
So I think, again, I have probably 100
more slides, but I will end with this one.

1359
01:24:23,256 --> 01:24:28,566
They're just so much, you see how much I was
going to kind of -- It does take a village.

1360
01:24:29,326 --> 01:24:31,226
But please don't say that,
if you've never been to one.

1361
01:24:32,316 --> 01:24:34,486
If one more person tells me that
that's never been to a village.

1362
01:24:34,876 --> 01:24:38,756
So this is my granddaughter, we started
working with her at 2 years old to teach her

1363
01:24:38,756 --> 01:24:43,616
to love herself, because of what we knew she
was going to have to impact in the world.

1364
01:24:43,846 --> 01:24:48,706
Not just from white people, but from Black
people, who are injured with post traumatic.

1365
01:24:49,416 --> 01:24:53,656
So we got her involved in positive racial
socialization activities, you know,

1366
01:24:53,656 --> 01:24:56,546
this is Portland, Oregon, there's only four
Black people, I guess they were all there.

1367
01:24:58,796 --> 01:25:04,146
Her father developed a basketball camp for
her, because well, there wasn't one there

1368
01:25:04,196 --> 01:25:07,976
and we started, I started to look at
this notion of light skin and good hair.

1369
01:25:08,116 --> 01:25:13,236
You know, there are a number of videos that
you should take a look at, A Girl Like Me,

1370
01:25:13,236 --> 01:25:16,076
and Dark Girls, Billy Duke, who's a friend.

1371
01:25:17,056 --> 01:25:19,546
When I went to Ghana, when
I went to Ghana I noticed

1372
01:25:19,546 --> 01:25:22,546
that the children didn't have
any hair, so I mentioned it.

1373
01:25:22,546 --> 01:25:24,516
I said, I notice the children
don't have any hair.

1374
01:25:25,816 --> 01:25:27,476
People said, they're in school.

1375
01:25:28,166 --> 01:25:29,666
I said, yeah, but you know,
they don't got no hair.

1376
01:25:29,666 --> 01:25:33,796
They go, well they're in school,
what are you talking about?

1377
01:25:33,796 --> 01:25:35,326
I went, okay.

1378
01:25:35,376 --> 01:25:36,326
So maybe it's the little ones.

1379
01:25:36,326 --> 01:25:38,316
Well, no, there's middle school kids, no hair.

1380
01:25:38,316 --> 01:25:41,786
I'm going wow, maybe it's the
-- nope, it's the high school.

1381
01:25:41,786 --> 01:25:45,626
And that young woman was looking at me,
gave me permission to take that picture.

1382
01:25:46,196 --> 01:25:48,786
But you don't get a sense of
confusion about their Blackness.

1383
01:25:48,786 --> 01:25:51,346
And they're not preoccupied with hair.

1384
01:25:52,096 --> 01:25:53,266
So it's not an African thing.

1385
01:25:53,266 --> 01:25:59,966
In this village, the young woman,
Michele Yeboah, who is seated next

1386
01:25:59,966 --> 01:26:03,156
to the two little girls, one's
drinking water, that's her village.

1387
01:26:03,156 --> 01:26:08,346
The man was looking off to the side,
that's the chief of that village.

1388
01:26:08,756 --> 01:26:14,006
And everywhere we went, Michele's, the
women would follow her and surround her,

1389
01:26:14,006 --> 01:26:15,466
and just start crying and screaming.

1390
01:26:15,466 --> 01:26:17,616
We didn't know what they were saying,
because it was in another language.

1391
01:26:17,616 --> 01:26:19,476
I was traveling with a group of other scholars.

1392
01:26:20,276 --> 01:26:21,666
And we didn't know what was going on.

1393
01:26:22,236 --> 01:26:27,876
But what turns out is the matrilineal
matriarchal society and the next chief has

1394
01:26:27,936 --> 01:26:29,916
to come through her, and she hasn't had a child.

1395
01:26:30,246 --> 01:26:32,246
And they were very upset with her about that.

1396
01:26:32,966 --> 01:26:36,946
So, I snapped this picture of these
men, had never seen this before,

1397
01:26:37,686 --> 01:26:39,446
it was a whole group of men babysitting.

1398
01:26:39,506 --> 01:26:40,316
I'd never seen it.

1399
01:26:40,396 --> 01:26:41,476
Not a woman in sight.

1400
01:26:41,626 --> 01:26:42,926
All men were babysitting.

1401
01:26:43,156 --> 01:26:45,836
So I took the picture, and this
is a zoom lens, really far away.

1402
01:26:46,176 --> 01:26:49,286
The man holding the baby saw me take the
picture and he started walking towards me.

1403
01:26:50,176 --> 01:26:56,976
Fast. So I put the camera down and --
you know -- my heart started beating,

1404
01:26:56,976 --> 01:26:58,426
I'm going, Joy what have you done?

1405
01:26:58,426 --> 01:27:01,866
You fool. And the man walks up to
me and I'm thinking I'm, you know,

1406
01:27:01,866 --> 01:27:03,546
I must have done something wrong.

1407
01:27:03,546 --> 01:27:04,596
And my heart's beating.

1408
01:27:04,596 --> 01:27:07,056
He doesn't say anything to me,
hands me the baby and he leaves.

1409
01:27:07,236 --> 01:27:12,766
So I'm holding that little baby you see
there and the man going, going, gone.

1410
01:27:13,496 --> 01:27:15,066
So I'm thinking, surely he's coming back.

1411
01:27:16,346 --> 01:27:19,496
After about 20 minutes he didn't come back.

1412
01:27:19,496 --> 01:27:20,906
Everybody's gone except me and the baby.

1413
01:27:21,616 --> 01:27:23,626
So I'm, it's okay, okay.

1414
01:27:23,796 --> 01:27:26,196
So I go inside to the house where
I'm staying, and I sit down.

1415
01:27:26,616 --> 01:27:30,236
And the women are, you know, and men, and
everybody's talking, and people I'm traveling

1416
01:27:30,236 --> 01:27:32,946
with are looking at me and they're,
you know, handing out refreshments.

1417
01:27:32,946 --> 01:27:34,186
Does anybody ask me about the baby?

1418
01:27:34,186 --> 01:27:36,806
They know I didn't come there
with a baby, right?

1419
01:27:37,106 --> 01:27:39,206
So I'm sitting there, the baby falls asleep.

1420
01:27:39,486 --> 01:27:41,126
So my friends are like, Joy,
what's with the baby?

1421
01:27:41,126 --> 01:27:41,886
I'm going, I don't know.

1422
01:27:41,886 --> 01:27:53,336
So there after about 45 minutes, the baby starts
stirring, and I'm going, is this now my baby?

1423
01:27:53,466 --> 01:27:55,686
What's going on?

1424
01:27:55,686 --> 01:28:02,726
Where's Children Protective
Services when you need them?

1425
01:28:02,936 --> 01:28:07,176
And you know, then I'm going, when the
baby wakes up, what am I supposed to do?

1426
01:28:07,176 --> 01:28:08,396
Am I supposed to feed the baby?

1427
01:28:08,396 --> 01:28:09,736
What if the baby's wet?

1428
01:28:09,736 --> 01:28:12,986
What am I supposed to do with the baby?

1429
01:28:12,986 --> 01:28:15,416
I don't know what to do, right?

1430
01:28:15,486 --> 01:28:22,596
So after that, I'm a little sweaty, I'm
just -- so I'm sitting there on the couch,

1431
01:28:22,596 --> 01:28:34,846
the baby is waking up, and someone reaches
over, a young girl, 12 or 13, picks the baby up.

1432
01:28:34,846 --> 01:28:40,606
I'm sitting down, she lifts the
baby up and walks out the door.

1433
01:28:40,606 --> 01:28:45,316
I'm going, oh no, no, no, no, no,
that's not how this is going to work.

1434
01:28:45,516 --> 01:28:47,566
So I go out there, and I say
to him, couldn't help noticing

1435
01:28:47,996 --> 01:28:51,286
that you gave me this baby and then you left.

1436
01:28:51,286 --> 01:28:54,606
He said, you took a picture of
baby, I figured you wanted the baby.

1437
01:28:54,606 --> 01:28:57,496
That was it, there was no other conversation.

1438
01:28:57,496 --> 01:29:01,506
He didn't know me, my name, he only knew
one thing and whose house I came out of.

1439
01:29:01,506 --> 01:29:03,186
That's a village.

1440
01:29:03,186 --> 01:29:08,516
And that's a village I grew up in.

1441
01:29:08,746 --> 01:29:13,466
I grew up in a village in
South Central Los Angeles,

1442
01:29:13,466 --> 01:29:17,766
where my daddy would tell you,
bad news will beat you home.

1443
01:29:17,766 --> 01:29:25,166
Because Mr. Isador could check you, and the
lady who lived across the street who was

1444
01:29:25,166 --> 01:29:28,906
from some other country, white family, spoke
a language we never figured out what it was,

1445
01:29:28,906 --> 01:29:30,946
but she would feed our dog when we left.

1446
01:29:30,946 --> 01:29:31,496
We had a community.

1447
01:29:31,496 --> 01:29:32,396
We had a remnant of a society.

1448
01:29:32,426 --> 01:29:32,756
And it worked.

1449
01:29:32,786 --> 01:29:33,566
So yeah, we need to build village.

1450
01:29:33,596 --> 01:29:34,436
It's the village that will help us.

1451
01:29:34,466 --> 01:29:36,626
But I think that for me, when I was standing
out, and some of you probably were there,

1452
01:29:36,656 --> 01:29:38,816
when I stood out the Door of No Return, and
I was looking out, looking at these fishermen

1453
01:29:38,846 --> 01:29:41,066
out fishing, doing what they had been doing for
generations, and I read a proverb that says,

1454
01:29:41,096 --> 01:29:42,056
"If you wish to go fast, then go alone.

1455
01:29:42,086 --> 01:29:43,076
But if you wish to go far, go together."

1456
01:29:43,106 --> 01:29:43,526
Let's go together.

1457
01:29:43,556 --> 01:29:43,976
Thank you so much.