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those who know my work know that I'm not
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necessarily known for my my sunny and
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cheery optimism about the world and
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particularly as relates to this country
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and as relates to the issue of race and
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yet because I am a father right I always
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try to tease out some optimism out of
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the worst moments that befall us
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as a nation and I do that because I
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think it's important to give young
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people hope right and I've got two of
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these young people in my home that I'm
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responsible for so I'm always looking
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for a silver lining and whatever cloud
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happens to cover right the skies of the
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country and it's real hard to do that
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right now right things are a little
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foreboding and yet I have figured out
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and I don't know if I actually believe
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this like I might totally be fooling
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myself right so you don't have to buy it
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you might I don't even know if I buy it
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but I'm gonna try to tease out some
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optimism of this moment here it is let's
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see how this works right for the last
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eight years as I've gone around the
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country doing this work talking about
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race in America and not just myself
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other people who do this work as well
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for the last eight years we have been
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having to convince people particularly
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to convince white Americans that the
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issue of race and racism was even
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something we had to talk about right
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because people were convinced we didn't
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have to talk about it anymore because a
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black man was president and of course
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how can we have a racism problem when a
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black man is president which of course
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is not something we would say about
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sexism in Pakistan just because a woman
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benazir bhutto became the head of that
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country not once but twice it's not
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something we would say about Great
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Britain just because Margaret Thatcher
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became the head of state
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on several occasions it's not something
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we would say about Germany or Ireland or
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Israel or India or the Philippines all
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of which have had female heads of state
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we wouldn't say sexism was dead in those
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places we wouldn't say misogyny and
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patriarchy had been eradicated there but
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in this country that is sort of what we
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said for eight years about race and
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racism just because a man of color was
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in the White House so for eight years
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it's been like pulling teeth man it's
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like holding people's hands to convince
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them that racism is the thing okay
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here's the good news in this bad moment
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we don't have to convince people of that
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anymore
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right the hand holding the teeth pulling
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right we don't have to do that now
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because it's a little more obvious to
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people now never underestimate the
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ability of white folks to miss stuff
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though right so I'm not saying that
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everybody sees it I'm just saying I
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think it's more obvious now and the good
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news if there is some good news is that
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we don't have to do the 101 right the
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good news if there is some good news is
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that we now have enough evidence the
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resurgence of overt racism not only in
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our politics but around our country the
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resurgence and continuation really of
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systemic injustice ice raids on folks
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that have done nothing to nobody talk of
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building walls but only on this border
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never this board are only this border
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never that border because we're not
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worried about crafty Canadian sneaking
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in to take advantage of our health care
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system I suppose so we have all of this
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overt resurgence of Islamophobia overt
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resurgence of the other ring of those
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who appear and seem or pray or speak
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differently than the dominant group so
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unlike the last eight years where we
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were in this sort of intermission period
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right we're sort of back to the
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continuation of a long-standing
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tradition now some of y'all may remember
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back in the day some of the older folks
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in the room will remember back when
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Sunday football NFL football used to
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only be on CBS
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so before Fox had a license to show
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games and it was just just CBS and they
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were usually two games a day now I live
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in the central time zone so when the
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central time zone I don't know about out
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here but it was 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock
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and the 3 o'clock game if you were on
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the east coast or in the central time
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zone would always bleed over into the 6
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o'clock hours when 60 minutes comes on
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right and so what would happen now if
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you're on the west coast they would show
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it in real time you know because y'all
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were behind a couple hours and so you
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could see it live it didn't interrupt 60
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minutes but if you were on the east
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coast or in central time it would bleed
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over and about 6:15 the game would end
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right and the announcer would come in
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and the voice-over would say and now
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back to your regularly scheduled
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programming right that's sort of what
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the election of Donald Trump is y'all
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just so you know it is back to your
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regularly scheduled programming it's not
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something new it's not a break with
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tradition folks that are trippin on the
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election of Donald Trump
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like somehow this is a deviation from
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America's norm that this is somehow some
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unique horrible break with the history
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of the country no the glitch was the
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eight years of the Obama administration
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this is back to your regularly scheduled
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programming the history of politicians
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scapegoating black and brown folks
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blaming them for problems that they
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didn't create and then getting votes on
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the basis of that that's not new Donald
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Trump didn't create that didn't invent
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that that's been going on for four
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hundred years back to the colonial
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period before we even were a country so
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the first lesson is don't assume that
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what's happened all the sudden is a new
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thing don't be shocked by it this is
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normal for America welcome to your
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country right is what this really is all
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about we have to start with that and we
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have to understand the past and how the
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past connects to the present so that we
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can understand this isn't a unique break
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with history and the reason it's
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important it's not just an academic
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point if you want to fight injustice you
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have to know the injustice that you're
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up against and if you think that it's a
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new thing if you think the monster in
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the room is new and unique it becomes
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disempowering because you don't know how
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to fight that monster if you understand
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that we've seen this monster before that
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we've seen this movie before that
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there's really nothing new about this
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then you can take lessons from our
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history about how to resist and figure
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out how to do that again you see so we
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don't want to build up the monster into
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something bigger than it is we don't
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want to underestimate it but we also
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don't want to give it more power than it
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deserves we have to dissect it and we
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have to understand its continuity not
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its unique rupture with the history of
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this country so let's talk about that