WEBVTT 00:01.510 --> 00:04.090 align:start Female Speaker: From the Library of Congress in Washington, 00:04.090 --> 00:11.540 align:start D.C. Marcus Brauchli: On behalf of the Library of Congress, 00:11.540 --> 00:13.690 align:start welcome to the 2011 Book Festival. We hope you're having a great day. 00:15.210 --> 00:18.740 align:start Before we begin, I want to inform you that the proceedings 00:18.740 --> 00:21.570 align:start in this pavilion are being filmed for the Library 00:21.570 --> 00:25.810 align:start of Congress's website and for their archives and by C-SPAN for airing 00:25.810 --> 00:30.460 align:start on Book TV, so please be mindful of that as you watch the presentation. 00:30.460 --> 00:33.070 align:start Please don't sit on the camera risers on the back. 00:33.070 --> 00:35.560 align:start We wouldn't want a camera toppling on anybody. 00:35.560 --> 00:39.280 align:start And please, if you could, silence cell phones. 00:39.280 --> 00:40.120 align:start I'm Marcus Brauchli. 00:40.120 --> 00:42.600 align:start I'm the executive editor of The Washington Post. 00:42.600 --> 00:45.760 align:start We are proud to be a charter sponsor of the festival, as we have been, 00:45.760 --> 00:49.660 align:start in the 11 years since it's been going. 00:49.660 --> 00:53.060 align:start As you all know, who are here, the festival is really one of the city's 00:53.060 --> 00:55.940 align:start and the nation's great literary festivals. 00:55.940 --> 00:59.450 align:start A place where books and writing, thinking, and the people who do all 00:59.450 --> 01:02.410 align:start of those things are celebrated. 01:02.410 --> 01:05.620 align:start It's my great privilege today to open this pavilion 01:05.620 --> 01:07.980 align:start by introducing Eugene Robinson. 01:07.980 --> 01:10.460 align:start The act of introducing him to an audience 01:10.460 --> 01:13.610 align:start in Washington is probably an exercise in redundancy. 01:13.610 --> 01:17.510 align:start He's a big figure in this town, and for many good reasons. 01:17.510 --> 01:20.640 align:start He's a long-time reporter and editor at The Post. 01:20.640 --> 01:23.060 align:start He now writes an op-ed column for the paper and the website 01:23.060 --> 01:25.640 align:start and is syndicated nationally. 01:25.640 --> 01:28.190 align:start As you know, if you read him, he writes thoughtfully 01:28.190 --> 01:31.000 align:start and compassionately, and he's written on just about any subject 01:31.000 --> 01:34.850 align:start and every subject you or I or anybody else might find interesting. 01:34.850 --> 01:37.710 align:start He's also held just about every job at The Post. 01:37.710 --> 01:40.790 align:start He started as a reporter covering City Hall, he worked as City Editor, 01:40.790 --> 01:43.160 align:start he covered South America, he was London Bureau Chief, 01:43.160 --> 01:46.060 align:start he was Foreign Editor, and he was Assistant Managing Editor overseeing 01:46.060 --> 01:50.990 align:start the Style section, before he began writing opinion columns in 2005. 01:50.990 --> 01:53.800 align:start He's won a Pulitzer Price for his commentary for his columns 01:53.800 --> 01:57.230 align:start on the 2008 Presidential Campaign. 01:57.230 --> 01:59.840 align:start Today he's here because he's also an author. 01:59.840 --> 02:03.590 align:start His latest book, "Disintegration", is a fascinating exploration 02:03.590 --> 02:07.730 align:start of the ever shifting sands and understandings of race in America. 02:07.730 --> 02:10.710 align:start It's terrain that he has covered powerfully before. 02:10.710 --> 02:14.550 align:start In his book, "Coal to Cream", Gene, who is a South Carolina native, 02:14.550 --> 02:18.280 align:start described himself as an African American, who once was black, 02:18.280 --> 02:21.190 align:start once was a negro, once was a colored boy. 02:21.190 --> 02:23.160 align:start In that book, there's a telling sentence that sets 02:23.160 --> 02:25.280 align:start up the ideas in his new books. 02:25.280 --> 02:28.130 align:start He writes, "I'm a chronic integrator. 02:28.130 --> 02:31.060 align:start Sometimes by accident, sometimes by design, 02:31.060 --> 02:33.460 align:start but since high school has always been either a black student 02:33.460 --> 02:37.770 align:start at white schools, or a black employee at white institutions." 02:37.770 --> 02:41.660 align:start Contrast that with the title of the first chapter of his new book, 02:41.660 --> 02:44.500 align:start "Black America Doesn't Live Here Anymore". 02:44.500 --> 02:46.720 align:start You get the idea of the journey that Gene is taking. 02:46.720 --> 02:49.280 align:start It's an extraordinary one, and one I hope you will all join 02:49.280 --> 02:51.900 align:start in reading his -- when you read his book. 03:03.120 --> 03:04.910 align:start [applause] Eugene Robinson: Thanks so much. 03:04.910 --> 03:08.610 align:start Thank you, everyone for coming, and thank you, Marcus, 03:08.610 --> 03:11.590 align:start for that wonderful introduction. 03:11.590 --> 03:17.430 align:start Marcus is a great journalist who has, what I think has to be one 03:17.430 --> 03:23.680 align:start of the toughest jobs in America: editing a great daily newspaper 03:23.680 --> 03:29.650 align:start in the era of the Internet, in an era that is not being kind 03:29.650 --> 03:32.270 align:start to great daily newspapers. 03:32.270 --> 03:39.410 align:start And yet maintaining the quality of the journalism and the ambition 03:39.410 --> 03:41.960 align:start and the accomplishment of The Washington Post. 03:41.960 --> 03:47.680 align:start Marcus does it elegantly and he's been doing it for several years now, 03:47.680 --> 03:52.530 align:start and he's not wizened and bent over as most of us would be, 03:52.530 --> 03:54.970 align:start or crushed by the pressure. 03:54.970 --> 04:03.310 align:start And so I, let me first applaud him and thank him for his exertions. 04:07.290 --> 04:14.220 align:start [applause] I'm going to talk a bit about "Disintegration", 04:14.220 --> 04:21.400 align:start which is just out in paperback, and how that book came about, 04:21.400 --> 04:28.250 align:start and what it's about, and then open it up to questions. 04:28.250 --> 04:34.400 align:start And we can have more of a conversation for the second half 04:34.400 --> 04:39.410 align:start of this time we have together. 04:39.410 --> 04:42.750 align:start "Disintegration", by the way, is just out in paperback, 04:42.750 --> 04:44.250 align:start coming out now, right now. 04:44.250 --> 04:49.400 align:start So anyone who is interested, I think the nice folks at Barnes 04:49.400 --> 04:53.520 align:start and Noble would be happy to sell you a copy. 04:53.520 --> 05:00.470 align:start "Disintegration" is a book that grew out of a nagging feeling. 05:00.470 --> 05:11.170 align:start It was -- to the extent that there was a conversation at all 05:11.170 --> 05:16.580 align:start about Black America, I felt, it was an unreal conversation. 05:16.580 --> 05:23.610 align:start It seemed to be -- it seemed to have very little connection 05:23.610 --> 05:28.400 align:start with the reality that I was seeing every day. 05:28.400 --> 05:36.250 align:start So this kind of thought worked on me for really a couple of years 05:36.250 --> 05:42.160 align:start in 2005, 2006, and I was thinking 05:42.160 --> 05:45.940 align:start that well maybe there's some sort of book here. 05:45.940 --> 05:52.290 align:start Maybe, my thought was that Black America was really much more 05:52.290 --> 05:59.710 align:start diverse, economically, socially, and culturally than it was -- 05:59.710 --> 06:01.750 align:start than we made it out to be. 06:01.750 --> 06:06.070 align:start When we talked about Black America, we talked about, talked about it 06:06.070 --> 06:09.730 align:start as if it were still 1967 or 1968, 06:09.730 --> 06:11.860 align:start and you could make certain generalizations 06:11.860 --> 06:16.890 align:start that just weren't valid anymore, I thought. 06:16.890 --> 06:21.850 align:start And, so I kind of -- I didn't know where this led, 06:21.850 --> 06:27.260 align:start and then in 2007 actually, three things happened 06:27.260 --> 06:31.890 align:start that made me think this is definitely a book. 06:31.890 --> 06:37.550 align:start The first was that the Pew Research Center, which does all sorts 06:37.550 --> 06:42.830 align:start of interesting surveys about anything under the sun, 06:42.830 --> 06:45.200 align:start did a survey of African Americans. 06:45.200 --> 06:50.960 align:start And buried, sort of, toward the end of this -- 06:50.960 --> 06:59.490 align:start of these survey findings was the following question and response. 06:59.490 --> 07:06.140 align:start Thirty-seven percent of the black Americans who were interviewed 07:06.140 --> 07:13.500 align:start by Pew said they no longer believed black Americans could be thought 07:13.500 --> 07:16.600 align:start of as a single race. And I said, "Wow. 07:17.470 --> 07:19.320 align:start That is a really weird finding." 07:19.320 --> 07:24.780 align:start There was no kind of backup to say exactly what that meant, but I said, 07:24.780 --> 07:28.000 align:start "Well, you know, that seems to fit into what I've been thinking, 07:28.000 --> 07:31.370 align:start and I think it's probably -- I think it means something, 07:31.370 --> 07:33.740 align:start but I don't know exactly what it means." 07:34.840 --> 07:38.700 align:start Second thing that happened was that at -- 07:38.700 --> 07:43.620 align:start a group of black publishing executives 07:43.620 --> 07:46.820 align:start from the African American press around the country were 07:46.820 --> 07:51.610 align:start in Washington for a meeting and they were invited here, 07:51.610 --> 07:57.220 align:start invited to The Washington Post for a reception, and I was asked 07:57.220 --> 07:59.980 align:start to deliver a few remarks at this reception -- 07:59.980 --> 08:02.890 align:start kind of a drive-by greeting, five minutes, "Hello, How are you? 08:02.890 --> 08:04.000 align:start Welcome to Washington. 08:04.000 --> 08:09.400 align:start You can catch a trolley outside and I'll, you know, see you later." 08:09.400 --> 08:13.690 align:start And, so I went downstairs to our auditorium and I spoke 08:13.690 --> 08:20.130 align:start with this group for a while, and I started getting into this question 08:20.130 --> 08:24.130 align:start of diversity in the black community, and whether, 08:24.130 --> 08:29.880 align:start when we talk about Black America, we're talking about reality. 08:29.880 --> 08:31.890 align:start And the response was incredible. 08:31.890 --> 08:35.860 align:start This five minute drive-by turned into an hour, 08:35.860 --> 08:42.460 align:start which was more them talking to me than me talking to them. 08:42.460 --> 08:45.880 align:start And people said, "You know, you know, it's really true, and, 08:45.880 --> 08:46.700 align:start you know, there's this -- 08:46.700 --> 08:50.030 align:start there's this group that's in the middle class that's doing well, 08:50.030 --> 08:53.070 align:start but there's also this group that's not doing well," 08:53.070 --> 08:54.750 align:start and somebody pipes up, "You know, 08:54.750 --> 08:57.810 align:start what about the immigrants, black immigrants?" 08:57.810 --> 09:02.920 align:start and it was, it was just a really energizing and in some ways, 09:02.920 --> 09:07.070 align:start validating dialogue, and it made me think, "Well, 09:07.070 --> 09:09.690 align:start there is something here." So I started doing research. 09:14.400 --> 09:23.460 align:start I started looking at census data, at marketing studies, academic papers, 09:23.460 --> 09:26.990 align:start journalism -- anything I could get my hands on that kind 09:26.990 --> 09:32.500 align:start of addressed this question of what was Black America today as opposed 09:32.500 --> 09:37.580 align:start to Black America 40 years ago. 09:37.580 --> 09:46.890 align:start And then, and I actually worked up the proposal, that, 09:46.890 --> 09:52.750 align:start for "Disintegration" and signed up with Doubleday to do the book. 09:52.750 --> 09:55.620 align:start And then the third thing happened in 2007, 09:55.620 --> 09:58.630 align:start which is that the presidential campaign 09:58.630 --> 10:02.060 align:start of Barack Obama caught fire. This Junior Senator from Illinois 10:05.800 --> 10:10.320 align:start who had a name off the Guantanamo detainees list all 10:10.320 --> 10:15.760 align:start of a sudden was not just a viable candidate 10:15.760 --> 10:19.670 align:start for the Democratic nomination, but looked like he might get it. 10:19.670 --> 10:27.440 align:start And so I talked to my editors, my book editors, who were by then kind 10:27.440 --> 10:31.710 align:start of patiently waiting for me to get started and explained 10:31.710 --> 10:34.610 align:start that I didn't really think I could do this book 10:34.610 --> 10:38.710 align:start until I knew how that story came out. 10:38.710 --> 10:42.590 align:start So I did wait for that story to come out. 10:42.590 --> 10:53.250 align:start And I will tell just a little brief story I'd like to interject. 10:53.250 --> 10:56.110 align:start As some of you know, I grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina 10:56.110 --> 11:04.790 align:start in the late 1950s, early 1960s toward the end of Jim Crow. 11:04.790 --> 11:09.730 align:start I went to segregated schools, lived in a black neighborhood 11:09.730 --> 11:16.240 align:start on the black side of town, because that's where one lived. 11:16.240 --> 11:22.820 align:start I was too young to remember, but Dr. King did visit my church and spoke. 11:22.820 --> 11:30.490 align:start Two black colleges in Orangeburg, and in 1968 there was an incident 11:30.490 --> 11:34.330 align:start that became known as the Orangeburg Massacre. 11:36.580 --> 11:42.560 align:start Students from South Carolina State University began a demonstration 11:42.560 --> 11:46.940 align:start over a segregated bowling alley in the heart of Orangeburg. 11:46.940 --> 11:50.420 align:start It's called The All Star Lanes, long since closed, 11:50.420 --> 11:52.790 align:start but it was a whites only bowling alley. 11:52.790 --> 11:58.910 align:start And this protest over the bowling alley grew into something larger. 11:58.910 --> 12:03.810 align:start And it mushroomed over the course of three nights. 12:03.810 --> 12:05.580 align:start After the second night -- 12:05.580 --> 12:09.490 align:start this demonstration was about five hundred yards from my house, 12:09.490 --> 12:15.480 align:start so we had kind of a direct line of sight -- after the second night, 12:15.480 --> 12:20.900 align:start I remember getting up in the morning, schools were all closed, 12:20.900 --> 12:26.830 align:start and looking out the window to see what was going on and my father, 12:26.830 --> 12:32.030 align:start who was an extremely gentle man, yelled at me in a voice 12:32.030 --> 12:34.800 align:start that he had never used before and said, 12:34.800 --> 12:37.000 align:start "Get down out of that window, right now!" 12:37.000 --> 12:42.780 align:start And so I ducked down and then he let me peek over the window sill. 12:42.780 --> 12:45.880 align:start And right across the street from our house there was a line 12:45.880 --> 12:49.420 align:start of 12 highway patrol cars, the state troopers were out of the cars, 12:49.420 --> 12:53.520 align:start behind the open doors of their cars with the rifles pointing 12:53.520 --> 12:57.060 align:start at a house two doors down from our house. 12:57.060 --> 13:01.360 align:start And they were looking for the organizer 13:01.360 --> 13:04.310 align:start from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 13:04.310 --> 13:05.490 align:start from Smith [spelled phonetically]. 13:05.490 --> 13:07.230 align:start A man named Cleveland Sellers [spelled phonetically], 13:07.230 --> 13:12.220 align:start who they correctly suspected was the outside agitator who was stirring 13:12.220 --> 13:13.980 align:start up all the colored folk in Orangeburg, 13:13.980 --> 13:16.050 align:start and they were coming to get him. 13:16.050 --> 13:19.830 align:start He had better intelligence than they had, so he was long gone, 13:19.830 --> 13:22.770 align:start so there was no gunfire that morning. 13:22.770 --> 13:24.880 align:start However, that night there was. The highway patrol claimed 13:27.380 --> 13:30.900 align:start to have been fired on, by the, from the campus. 13:30.900 --> 13:35.260 align:start Gunfire was never demonstrated. 13:35.260 --> 13:38.630 align:start It was never proved that anybody on the campus had any weapons, 13:38.630 --> 13:42.570 align:start but nonetheless the state troopers did fire at, into the crowd, 13:42.570 --> 13:46.190 align:start and when the smoke cleared, three black -- 13:46.190 --> 13:48.340 align:start three young black men had been killed. 13:48.340 --> 13:51.930 align:start All shot in the back, or the soles of their feet. 13:51.930 --> 13:55.650 align:start A couple of dozen other people injured. 13:55.650 --> 13:58.860 align:start That was the Orangeburg Massacre. 13:58.860 --> 14:03.430 align:start If you kind of fast forward to election night on 2008, 14:03.430 --> 14:07.380 align:start when we're about to see how the Obama story was coming out, 14:07.380 --> 14:14.510 align:start I was at Rockefeller Center with my very interesting, 14:14.510 --> 14:20.880 align:start but somewhat dysfunctional, MSNBC family on the anchor desk. 14:20.880 --> 14:25.000 align:start And it was that period when it was really dysfunctional, you know, 14:25.000 --> 14:30.680 align:start because we had Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, and Rachel Maddow 14:30.680 --> 14:36.070 align:start and I were there and kind of trying to figure 14:36.070 --> 14:41.240 align:start out [laughs] what the deal was with Keith and Chris, 14:41.240 --> 14:47.370 align:start and at 10:45 that evening, we heard through our little earpieces 14:47.370 --> 14:51.560 align:start that the network was going to call the election for Obama at 11:00. 14:51.560 --> 14:55.990 align:start And so I got to live one of the moments of my life 14:55.990 --> 14:57.120 align:start that I will never forget. 14:57.120 --> 15:02.180 align:start I got to, at the next break, take out my cell phone and call my father 15:02.180 --> 15:07.000 align:start and mother, my father was then 92 years old, 15:07.000 --> 15:09.390 align:start he died several months later actually, 15:09.390 --> 15:11.080 align:start right before the inauguration. 15:11.080 --> 15:15.090 align:start And I got to call my father and my mother who was 87, 15:15.090 --> 15:19.810 align:start and tell them that they had lived to see the election 15:19.810 --> 15:23.790 align:start of the first African American president in U.S. history. 15:23.790 --> 15:27.500 align:start It's a moment I will never forget. 15:27.500 --> 15:31.450 align:start A moment none of us, I think, will ever forget. 15:31.450 --> 15:41.940 align:start And certainly a moment that kind of rounded out the arc of the story 15:41.940 --> 15:47.860 align:start that I had decided I wanted to tell with "Disintegration", 15:47.860 --> 15:55.470 align:start which was essentially that there isn't one Black America anymore. 15:55.470 --> 16:01.490 align:start I, somewhat arbitrarily, because I think 16:01.490 --> 16:04.780 align:start such decisions are almost always arbitrary, 16:05.810 --> 16:12.240 align:start came out with not one Black America, but four. 16:12.240 --> 16:14.020 align:start And they are as follows. 16:14.020 --> 16:17.870 align:start From all the research I did, all the interviewing I did, 16:17.870 --> 16:22.350 align:start it seemed to me that, number one, there was a majority 16:22.350 --> 16:28.590 align:start of African Americans, not a huge majority, but a majority 16:28.590 --> 16:32.390 align:start that had managed to enter the middle class, 16:32.390 --> 16:34.880 align:start such as there is a middle class in this country anymore, 16:34.880 --> 16:40.140 align:start we can discuss that, and we can also discuss the impact the recession has 16:40.140 --> 16:47.230 align:start had, but that if you look not only at income, but if you look 16:47.230 --> 16:53.180 align:start at education and other sorts of social indicators and you try 16:53.180 --> 16:58.580 align:start to make a realistic assessment of not only where people are, 16:58.580 --> 17:02.950 align:start but what their prospects are, I see a majority 17:02.950 --> 17:07.660 align:start that entered the middle class, and I called that group the Mainstream. 17:07.660 --> 17:12.370 align:start It was clear to me, too, that there is, however, 17:12.370 --> 17:21.460 align:start that there is also a very large minority of African Americans, 17:21.460 --> 17:30.000 align:start 35 percent perhaps, 30, 35 percent, maybe that much, that did not make 17:30.000 --> 17:35.920 align:start that climb from poverty to the middle class and for whom 17:35.920 --> 17:43.990 align:start that climb is more difficult and actually becoming more improbable 17:43.990 --> 17:48.760 align:start than it has been in decades, simply because so many rungs 17:48.760 --> 17:51.950 align:start of that ladder are missing. 17:51.950 --> 17:57.550 align:start Those blue collared jobs that used to exist, that a person with, 17:57.550 --> 18:02.370 align:start who perhaps didn't have a college education, but was -- 18:02.370 --> 18:12.940 align:start but wanted to work and do better for his or her family could get a job, 18:12.940 --> 18:20.220 align:start have job security, good salary, good benefits, 18:20.220 --> 18:24.800 align:start a pension when they retired, could have a little house, 18:24.800 --> 18:29.150 align:start could send their kids to college, so the kids would have a better life. 18:29.150 --> 18:34.140 align:start Millions of African Americans, many of whom participated 18:34.140 --> 18:39.900 align:start in the great migration from South to North, took advantage 18:39.900 --> 18:46.030 align:start of this great sort of escalator that the auto industry 18:46.030 --> 18:52.280 align:start in Detroit provided and that other industries in Chicago 18:52.280 --> 18:55.190 align:start or Baltimore or wherever provided. 18:55.190 --> 18:59.580 align:start One example is Michelle Obama's family. 18:59.580 --> 19:07.170 align:start The way -- her father is sort of the person I think of when I think 19:07.170 --> 19:14.180 align:start of this striving, achieving group of African Americans. 19:14.180 --> 19:16.460 align:start And where are those jobs? 19:16.460 --> 19:20.160 align:start Well, they're in, you know, they're in China, a lot of them are 19:20.160 --> 19:23.250 align:start in China, they're going to be moving offshore from China, I guess, 19:23.250 --> 19:25.340 align:start at some point soon to places 19:25.340 --> 19:31.210 align:start where you can pay even lower wages, but they're not here. 19:31.210 --> 19:34.400 align:start And they're not going to be here. 19:34.400 --> 19:40.770 align:start So, huge group of African Americans, that, to my mind, 19:40.770 --> 19:44.650 align:start has become abandoned, practically. 19:44.650 --> 19:48.990 align:start And so that's what I call that group -- the Abandoned. 19:48.990 --> 19:52.700 align:start And then I saw something that struck me as new. 19:52.700 --> 20:02.500 align:start A group of African Americans who have achieved or obtained wealth, 20:02.500 --> 20:11.240 align:start power, or influence on a scale far beyond anything we have seen before. 20:11.240 --> 20:14.020 align:start Not just relative to other African Americans, 20:14.020 --> 20:15.590 align:start but relative to anybody in the world. 20:15.590 --> 20:20.250 align:start And so, you know, the number one obvious example would be President 20:20.250 --> 20:21.940 align:start Obama, he's president of the United States. 20:21.940 --> 20:26.820 align:start But also Oprah Winfrey or Bob Johnson, 20:26.820 --> 20:30.850 align:start the founder of Black Entertainment Television, 20:30.850 --> 20:34.630 align:start I think was the first black billionaire. 20:34.630 --> 20:39.490 align:start Richard Parsons, who was chairman and CEO 20:39.490 --> 20:44.690 align:start of the world's biggest entertainment -- media and entertainment company, 20:44.690 --> 20:51.360 align:start Time Warner, and then was asked to come back after his retirement, 20:51.360 --> 20:56.790 align:start leave his vineyard in Tuscany and come back to help right the ship 20:56.790 --> 21:00.510 align:start at Citigroup after the collapse. 21:00.510 --> 21:05.120 align:start And so we had a -- we had a tableau that could, 21:05.120 --> 21:09.280 align:start we could never have had, ever in history. 21:09.280 --> 21:12.950 align:start An African American president grappling 21:12.950 --> 21:19.480 align:start with the worst financial economic crisis since the Great Depression, 21:19.480 --> 21:22.140 align:start sees that a steady hand is needed 21:22.140 --> 21:26.860 align:start at this giant world important financial institution, Citigroup, 21:26.860 --> 21:30.830 align:start and is able to call on an African American seasoned CEO to come 21:30.830 --> 21:32.570 align:start in and help right the ship. That couldn't have happened before. 21:35.410 --> 21:40.730 align:start So I called this tiny group the Transcendent group, 21:40.730 --> 21:46.640 align:start and actually opened the book with a scene from a party 21:46.640 --> 21:52.040 align:start at Vernon Jordan's house that was quite interesting. 21:52.040 --> 22:04.530 align:start And finally I saw something new that I called Emergent Black America. 22:04.530 --> 22:08.450 align:start And this emergent group I further subdivided 22:08.450 --> 22:11.160 align:start into kind of two categories. 22:11.160 --> 22:20.900 align:start One is the record number of black immigrants from the Caribbean, 22:20.900 --> 22:24.450 align:start but especially from Africa, who have come to this country in the last two 22:24.450 --> 22:30.140 align:start or three decades, especially the last 20 years, who are -- 22:30.140 --> 22:38.470 align:start who arrived from Ethiopia or Nigeria or Ghana with intact families, 22:38.470 --> 22:41.670 align:start without a lot of money, but with a tremendous amount of education. 22:41.670 --> 22:43.800 align:start It's the best educated group 22:43.800 --> 22:47.260 align:start of immigrants coming to this country today. 22:47.260 --> 22:52.910 align:start And whose children are doing spectacularly well. 22:52.910 --> 22:56.670 align:start A few years ago Skip Gates and Lani Guinier 22:56.670 --> 23:01.360 align:start at Harvard did an informal survey that has been 23:01.360 --> 23:03.560 align:start since replicated with more rigor. 23:03.560 --> 23:07.570 align:start What they did was, they just took a list of the incoming black freshmen 23:07.570 --> 23:15.880 align:start at Harvard and checked how many were African surnames. 23:15.880 --> 23:22.450 align:start And it was a little more than half, I believe. 23:22.450 --> 23:29.230 align:start My wife, for several years, ran a college access 23:29.230 --> 23:31.940 align:start and scholarship program that she founded 23:31.940 --> 23:38.100 align:start for African American students from the Washington area. 23:38.100 --> 23:39.490 align:start We found the same thing. 23:39.490 --> 23:47.330 align:start We found that, at least, I would say, 35 to 40 percent of -- 23:47.330 --> 23:50.960 align:start and at times more, of the high achieving black students 23:50.960 --> 23:54.060 align:start in this area had African surnames. 23:54.060 --> 23:59.780 align:start Clearly obviously either Ethiopian or Nigerian or Ghanaian. 23:59.780 --> 24:08.500 align:start And this sort of nascent record of achievement tells me 24:08.500 --> 24:14.240 align:start that this is going to be a very, very important group in the future. 24:14.240 --> 24:20.200 align:start The other emergent group that I saw is the increasing number 24:20.200 --> 24:28.090 align:start of biracial, black white Americans, who self identify 24:28.090 --> 24:30.410 align:start as African American, but whose relationship 24:30.410 --> 24:35.580 align:start with White America is somewhat different in nuanced, 24:35.580 --> 24:37.730 align:start in a nuanced way, but somewhat different from mine, 24:37.730 --> 24:40.270 align:start as President Obama has talked about this. 24:40.270 --> 24:42.880 align:start Remember during his race speech in Philadelphia 24:42.880 --> 24:45.980 align:start when he essentially said -- 24:45.980 --> 24:50.050 align:start before he threw Reverend Wright under the bus, he said, "I can't, 24:50.050 --> 24:52.310 align:start I could no more throw Reverend Wright under the bus 24:52.310 --> 24:56.170 align:start than I could my own grandmother, whom I've, my white grandmother, 24:56.170 --> 24:58.400 align:start whom I've heard say racially insensitive things." 24:58.400 --> 25:05.380 align:start And it seems to me that this is a nuanced, perhaps, difference, 25:05.380 --> 25:09.650 align:start but it's a distinction, and it will be interesting 25:09.650 --> 25:11.850 align:start to see how it evolves. 25:11.850 --> 25:15.300 align:start So those are the four groups I saw: Mainstream, 25:15.300 --> 25:18.190 align:start Abandoned, Transcendent, Emergent. 25:18.190 --> 25:25.050 align:start And "Disintegration" really is about kind of how we got to where we are 25:25.050 --> 25:28.470 align:start and eventually where we're headed. 25:28.470 --> 25:36.070 align:start And where I really come out is that, whatever is left 25:36.070 --> 25:40.630 align:start of affirmative action, whatever attention we have, 25:40.630 --> 25:44.610 align:start we can summon for promotion of equality 25:44.610 --> 25:46.520 align:start and justice in this country. 25:46.520 --> 25:52.880 align:start We need to focus in on this abandoned group. 25:52.880 --> 25:58.860 align:start And if it means the rest of us got to fend for ourselves, that's fine, 25:58.860 --> 26:04.050 align:start but we're really in danger of losing millions and millions of people 26:04.050 --> 26:10.100 align:start who are just kind of dropping off the map in terms of this society. 26:10.100 --> 26:11.700 align:start So, thank you again for coming. I'm going to stop talking now 26:12.840 --> 26:15.600 align:start and so we can do a few minutes of questions. 26:15.600 --> 26:16.360 align:start So thank you. Thank you. 26:16.760 --> 26:24.420 align:start [applause] There are a couple of microphones up here. 26:34.100 --> 26:39.590 align:start I just wanted to ask a question regarding your primary thesis on -- 26:39.590 --> 26:42.080 align:start Eugene Robinson: Could you, sir -- could you pull the mic down? 26:42.080 --> 26:44.570 align:start Male Speaker: Oh sure, okay. 26:44.570 --> 26:53.720 align:start On your primary thesis that you have these three groups, so to speak. 26:53.720 --> 26:58.860 align:start Don't you think the same situation applies 26:58.860 --> 27:02.030 align:start to many ethnic and racial groups? 27:02.030 --> 27:09.300 align:start That you have a -- what you might call a emergent group, 27:09.300 --> 27:13.160 align:start a transcendent group, and those that might be left out. 27:13.160 --> 27:18.420 align:start That might apply to other ethnic and racial groups. 27:18.420 --> 27:22.170 align:start Eugene Robinson: Yeah, the question is whether that, 27:22.170 --> 27:25.650 align:start this sort of schema applies to other ethnic and racial groups. 27:25.650 --> 27:28.340 align:start You know in a -- I'd say 27:28.340 --> 27:33.130 align:start in a general sense I think you could certainly -- 27:33.130 --> 27:39.860 align:start you could certainly look at other groups in a similar fashion. 27:39.860 --> 27:45.450 align:start I'm not sure you'd come out with the same way of kind of figuring 27:45.450 --> 27:51.600 align:start out distinctions, for example if you were talking about Latinos, 27:51.600 --> 27:55.220 align:start you might put some emphasis on national origin, for example, 27:55.220 --> 27:57.570 align:start which is still a, you know, 27:57.570 --> 28:01.760 align:start kind of an important factor in some people's lives. 28:01.760 --> 28:06.610 align:start But, yeah, you could use the same method, I think, 28:06.610 --> 28:08.910 align:start for kind of looking at other groups, too. 28:08.910 --> 28:14.930 align:start Female Speaker: You made your distinction along race lines, 28:14.930 --> 28:16.940 align:start but it, as you were speaking, 28:16.940 --> 28:22.160 align:start it seems as though addressing the problems of the abandoned, 28:22.160 --> 28:27.650 align:start would be as much a class and economic solution as racial. 28:27.650 --> 28:28.860 align:start Eugene Robinson: Yeah, are we talking about -- 28:28.860 --> 28:30.480 align:start Female Speaker: Can you please address that? 28:30.480 --> 28:32.510 align:start Eugene Robinson: Are we -- right. 28:32.510 --> 28:34.500 align:start Are we talking race or are we talking class? 28:34.500 --> 28:37.200 align:start I think the inevitable answer is both. 28:37.200 --> 28:46.370 align:start And what I -- you know, I tried to go into the book with an open mind. 28:46.370 --> 28:52.020 align:start And tried to prepare myself to be led to the conclusion 28:52.020 --> 28:54.260 align:start that really we didn't need to talk about race anymore, 28:54.260 --> 28:56.110 align:start we just needed to talk about class. 28:56.110 --> 28:58.320 align:start I didn't come to that conclusion, actually. 28:58.320 --> 29:02.860 align:start I mean, and I found it, yeah, but I, no, but I understand. 29:02.860 --> 29:12.250 align:start I found it impossible to kind of tease the two apart, and so I, 29:12.250 --> 29:22.810 align:start but yes, the, certainly the economic situation of the abandoned, 29:22.810 --> 29:29.130 align:start will be addressed when we, hey, here's an idea, 29:29.130 --> 29:33.430 align:start when we talk about poverty. 29:33.430 --> 29:35.570 align:start When we talk about ways to alleviate poverty. 29:35.570 --> 29:41.740 align:start When we actually pay more than lip service to the notion 29:41.740 --> 29:45.400 align:start that everybody, you know, deserves a chance in this society. 29:45.400 --> 29:48.100 align:start [low audio] Eugene Robinson: Oh, yeah. 29:48.100 --> 29:51.050 align:start Female Speaker: Thank you for your comments. 29:51.050 --> 29:52.910 align:start I very much admire your work. Eugene Robinson: Thank you so much. 29:54.700 --> 29:57.250 align:start Female Speaker: And I look forward to reading your book. 29:57.250 --> 29:59.590 align:start I've not had the opportunity as yet. 29:59.590 --> 30:05.860 align:start But it strikes me in your comment about jobs going away, 30:05.860 --> 30:07.920 align:start that they're in China and elsewhere in the world, 30:07.920 --> 30:10.990 align:start and that they're not coming back, and I think that's true. 30:10.990 --> 30:15.090 align:start I think that companies are very invested outside 30:15.090 --> 30:18.690 align:start of the United States, but I think also that they could make more 30:18.690 --> 30:21.020 align:start of an investment here in the United States 30:21.020 --> 30:23.740 align:start if they were motivated to do so. 30:23.740 --> 30:28.510 align:start For example, just retraining of the Abandoned, 30:28.510 --> 30:32.200 align:start regardless of what is class or, you know, ethnicity, 30:32.200 --> 30:38.520 align:start but the retraining aspect, building more schools, secondary, 30:38.520 --> 30:45.800 align:start not secondary schools, but the, thinking of two-year type schools, 30:45.800 --> 30:47.350 align:start where they're focused on that. 30:47.350 --> 30:51.490 align:start So I was just wondered, do you address solutions in your book, 30:51.490 --> 30:57.060 align:start and do you think that that might be a way to incent companies, 30:57.060 --> 30:59.470 align:start manufacturing companies and otherwise to, 30:59.470 --> 31:02.570 align:start you know, focus more on that? 31:02.570 --> 31:09.690 align:start Eugene Robinson: I do try to address some solutions in the book, 31:09.690 --> 31:14.720 align:start and I kind of decided not to confine myself 31:14.720 --> 31:17.400 align:start to what I thought could get 60 votes in the Senate. 31:17.400 --> 31:21.770 align:start You know, because otherwise I could just call, you know, Susan Collins 31:21.770 --> 31:25.750 align:start and Olympia Snow and ask them, "Gee, what should we do?" 31:25.750 --> 31:28.310 align:start Yeah, because they would be the votes. 31:28.310 --> 31:34.360 align:start But, and where I came out is that, you know, the one thing I've seen 31:34.360 --> 31:41.010 align:start that really works is very expensive because it's a holistic approach. 31:41.010 --> 31:48.390 align:start You've got to work on education, education is complicated. 31:48.390 --> 31:52.430 align:start I use the example in the book of a program that my former colleague, 31:52.430 --> 31:56.820 align:start William Raspberry, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist at The Post, 31:56.820 --> 32:02.090 align:start who retired and started a nonprofit called "Baby Steps" 32:02.090 --> 32:05.180 align:start in his hometown in Mississippi. 32:05.180 --> 32:08.180 align:start Tiny little town, mostly black, very poor. 32:08.180 --> 32:10.440 align:start He wanted to do something. 32:10.440 --> 32:14.160 align:start And so he decided, he did it, he did some reporting, 32:14.160 --> 32:16.180 align:start he decided early childhood education was 32:16.180 --> 32:18.140 align:start where he could have the biggest impact. 32:18.140 --> 32:23.150 align:start So he sets up this, set up a program for early childhood education, 32:23.150 --> 32:28.600 align:start and he quickly discovers that you can't just do that. 32:28.600 --> 32:35.850 align:start You have to -- he learned that you couldn't just instruct parents 32:35.850 --> 32:40.450 align:start on how to read to their children if there was nobody in that household 32:40.450 --> 32:44.460 align:start who was capable of doing that in a way that really helped the children. 32:44.460 --> 32:47.350 align:start So he needed a center for those kids to come to. 32:47.350 --> 32:52.050 align:start He needed to do, you know, some very thorough assessment work before 32:52.050 --> 32:53.190 align:start families came into the program, 32:53.190 --> 32:55.290 align:start and he needed a center for kids to come to. 32:55.290 --> 33:00.860 align:start Then he found that he needed to deal with nutritional and health issues 33:00.860 --> 33:06.100 align:start because there were a lot of, you know, chronic disease, diabetes, 33:06.100 --> 33:12.390 align:start obesity, and questions about, you know, kids who were eating a lot 33:12.390 --> 33:15.630 align:start of empty calories, but not good calories. 33:15.630 --> 33:19.510 align:start So he had to deal with the health aspect, 33:19.510 --> 33:21.530 align:start and it just kind of mushroomed. 33:21.530 --> 33:26.600 align:start The program is still going strong, and it's having a real impact, 33:26.600 --> 33:30.110 align:start but you know, he's a famous newspaper columnist, 33:30.110 --> 33:34.800 align:start whose name is recognized, who was, who got his phone calls returned 33:34.800 --> 33:37.210 align:start when he called, you know, the Kellogg Foundation 33:37.210 --> 33:42.150 align:start and other big foundations, and he managed to raise a lot of money 33:42.150 --> 33:44.250 align:start that is having a real impact. 33:44.250 --> 33:51.160 align:start It's very expensive, though, and we need 30 million Bill Raspberrys. 33:51.160 --> 33:55.170 align:start Female Speaker: I'm coming from the point of view of a, 33:55.170 --> 33:56.910 align:start working in the schools in Arlington. 33:56.910 --> 34:02.630 align:start And there I saw that the African American, 34:02.630 --> 34:06.700 align:start historically African American kids versus the African, 34:06.700 --> 34:10.290 align:start historically African kids saw themselves as two complete 34:10.290 --> 34:13.060 align:start and not necessarily friendly groups. 34:13.060 --> 34:17.080 align:start And I was gathering from what you were saying that things got better 34:17.080 --> 34:21.040 align:start by college age, but how do you see this, and [inaudible]? 34:21.040 --> 34:23.130 align:start Eugene Robinson: You know I do think that, 34:23.130 --> 34:27.940 align:start at least in my fairly limited experience, you know, I haven't, 34:27.940 --> 34:30.010 align:start we haven't had a chance to do sort 34:30.010 --> 34:32.800 align:start of a longitudinal study of that relationship. 34:32.800 --> 34:36.950 align:start But it does, it strikes me that it does, that the friction 34:36.950 --> 34:43.610 align:start which you see in the schools, in the elementary and secondary schools, 34:43.610 --> 34:51.800 align:start and the sort of culture clash, seems to attenuate, seems to diminish 34:51.800 --> 34:58.400 align:start over time, and you see a lot less of that in college, and then, 34:58.400 --> 35:04.580 align:start of course, as this large, sort of, group of either foreign born 35:04.580 --> 35:10.150 align:start or first generation kids moves out into the workplace, 35:10.150 --> 35:12.080 align:start I think you'll see it even less. 35:12.080 --> 35:18.010 align:start As they kind of increasingly identify as African American, 35:18.010 --> 35:22.250 align:start rather than as Ethiopian or a Nigerian or Ghanaian, 35:22.250 --> 35:28.100 align:start and as African Americans expand their definition 35:28.100 --> 35:29.140 align:start of African American. So. Thank you. 35:30.350 --> 35:33.990 align:start Male Speaker: I'd like to know, if, from your research 35:33.990 --> 35:38.250 align:start on the fragmentation of blacks, if you get a sense that the election 35:38.250 --> 35:41.580 align:start of Barack Obama will go the way of the election of Harold Washington, 35:41.580 --> 35:44.630 align:start a moment in time, not to be repeated anytime soon, 35:44.630 --> 35:50.020 align:start or has the country gotten to a real turning point? 35:50.020 --> 35:52.840 align:start Can you derive that from what you've look at? 35:52.840 --> 35:55.210 align:start Eugene Robinson: Oh, I don't know. 35:55.210 --> 35:56.560 align:start [laughs] I mean, you know, if I knew, I would, 35:56.560 --> 36:00.330 align:start I'd be in tremendous demand as a pundit. 36:00.330 --> 36:06.850 align:start I think from what we've seen since, 36:06.850 --> 36:11.000 align:start I think you could make a good argument that the stars aligned 36:11.000 --> 36:23.710 align:start in an unusual way for the election of President Obama. 36:23.710 --> 36:25.750 align:start Nonetheless, you know, they could align again. 36:25.750 --> 36:29.800 align:start I mean, there, you can't -- it wasn't an accident, 36:29.800 --> 36:35.060 align:start and it does reflect, I think, obviously real change in the country 36:35.060 --> 36:39.530 align:start because it couldn't possibly have happened, you know, 36:39.530 --> 36:41.440 align:start 20 years ago, or 30 years ago. 36:41.440 --> 36:45.640 align:start I don't know if it happens again next year. 36:45.640 --> 36:49.330 align:start I don't know if it -- and does it happen anytime soon? 36:49.330 --> 36:55.880 align:start I really think he was the man for that specific moment. 36:55.880 --> 37:00.230 align:start If the man or woman for another specific moment emerges, 37:00.230 --> 37:02.200 align:start but you know, you just don't know. You just don't know. 37:03.120 --> 37:04.730 align:start Female Speaker: Hi. Good morning. 37:05.450 --> 37:07.030 align:start Eugene Robinson: Good morning. 37:07.030 --> 37:10.860 align:start Female Speaker: Enjoyed watching you on CNN on "The Last Word". 37:10.860 --> 37:11.940 align:start Eugene Robinson: Thank you. Female Speaker: Okay. 37:12.720 --> 37:15.690 align:start My question, I'm going to piggyback off of a previous comment, 37:15.690 --> 37:17.560 align:start but from a different perspective. 37:17.560 --> 37:21.720 align:start The comment that I'm paraphrasing was about the abandoned class and, 37:21.720 --> 37:23.550 align:start you know, classism and all of that. 37:23.550 --> 37:25.920 align:start And I wanted your take on, okay, the abandoned class, that issue has 37:25.920 --> 37:29.730 align:start to be addressed, but oftentimes when you address the abandoned class, 37:29.730 --> 37:33.660 align:start it's perceived as welfare or classism or socialism, 37:33.660 --> 37:36.710 align:start but then on the other end you do have, and I'm not trying to make it, 37:36.710 --> 37:41.720 align:start this political, I'm asking a valid question, corporate welfare, 37:41.720 --> 37:45.160 align:start bailouts, and whatnot, but it's not perceived in the same way, 37:45.160 --> 37:47.020 align:start and they're both almost the same. 37:47.020 --> 37:52.020 align:start So why do you think that, okay, if you help the underclass, you know, 37:52.020 --> 37:56.000 align:start there's the perception, oh, it's socialism, but it's not viewed 37:56.000 --> 37:59.690 align:start in the same way if you bail out a larger company that, 37:59.690 --> 38:01.260 align:start you know, corporate welfare. You know, it's almost the same. 38:02.250 --> 38:06.800 align:start Eugene Robinson: Right, well, that's an excellent question. 38:06.800 --> 38:07.720 align:start I've asked it myself. In print. But I don't have an answer 38:09.670 --> 38:14.480 align:start as to why we don't see corporate welfare as, 38:14.480 --> 38:17.660 align:start we don't recognize corporate welfare, and we do recognize, 38:17.660 --> 38:21.170 align:start well gee, we don't even have welfare anymore, 38:21.170 --> 38:28.920 align:start but we're certainly determined to get rid of, kind of, social welfare. 38:28.920 --> 38:33.440 align:start So, you know, I don't know. I don't know. 38:35.010 --> 38:36.860 align:start The similarity seems clear to me. 38:36.860 --> 38:42.950 align:start But. [low audio] Eugene Robinson: I can't hear you. 38:42.950 --> 38:47.590 align:start Female Speaker: So what part of the opposition 38:47.590 --> 38:50.550 align:start to President Obama do you feel is racial, 38:50.550 --> 38:54.620 align:start and at first glance this might seem obvious, but Clinton had 38:54.620 --> 38:56.400 align:start such an ugly opposition as well. 38:56.400 --> 38:58.160 align:start Do you think that's just part of the system now, 38:58.160 --> 39:02.340 align:start or do you think that's hard to determine? 39:02.340 --> 39:06.400 align:start Eugene Robinson: So, the question, what part of the opposition 39:06.400 --> 39:09.280 align:start to President Obama do I think is racial. 39:09.280 --> 39:12.810 align:start I don't know. 48.3 percent? 39:15.990 --> 39:17.200 align:start [laughter] 52.9? 39:17.200 --> 39:19.220 align:start You know, I think it's, I think it's a lot. 39:19.220 --> 39:28.170 align:start I think it's -- and, some of it I think is consciously racial, 39:28.170 --> 39:36.000 align:start and some of it probably is not explicit or conscious, 39:36.000 --> 39:45.340 align:start but there's a -- but for some people I think his race militates 39:45.340 --> 39:48.560 align:start against legitimacy in some way. That, and it is striking to me, 39:52.610 --> 39:57.880 align:start the extent to which people feel they have permission 39:57.880 --> 40:04.140 align:start to consider the duly elected, in a landslide, 40:04.140 --> 40:08.120 align:start President of the United States as somehow illegitimate, 40:08.120 --> 40:11.130 align:start an illegitimate holder of the office, 40:11.130 --> 40:15.950 align:start not just the birtherism [spelled phonetically] but -- [applause] -- 40:15.950 --> 40:24.550 align:start and, you know, if you think I'm overstating that, 40:24.550 --> 40:26.350 align:start I'd show you my email. [laughs] Because I get it. 40:28.480 --> 40:31.160 align:start And it's sometimes very ugly. Female Speaker: Thank you. 40:36.380 --> 40:48.270 align:start I'm a special educator in Montgomery County schools, 40:48.270 --> 40:59.380 align:start and even though I think it's not a special education perspective, 40:59.380 --> 41:08.570 align:start the problem in, I feel, in education today is 41:08.570 --> 41:15.930 align:start that the vocational programs in high schools have been shut down. 41:15.930 --> 41:17.180 align:start Eugene Robinson: Yeah. 41:17.180 --> 41:20.640 align:start Female Speaker: And you can be a very intelligent person, 41:20.640 --> 41:25.030 align:start but not interested in the academic program, and the -- 41:25.030 --> 41:30.170 align:start there seems to be no addressing this in the race to the top program 41:30.170 --> 41:33.370 align:start and -- Eugene Robinson: Right. I -- Female Speaker: -- everything. 41:35.110 --> 41:38.140 align:start Eugene Robinson: You know, 41:38.140 --> 41:43.320 align:start I agree that we have not been creative enough in thinking 41:43.320 --> 41:47.550 align:start of education and in offering viable alternatives to people, 41:47.550 --> 41:55.820 align:start particularly in the, you know, in the vocations, in, and we're going 41:55.820 --> 42:00.820 align:start to have to find some way to do that. 42:00.820 --> 42:05.150 align:start And maybe it's through community colleges. 42:05.150 --> 42:08.700 align:start Maybe it's, you know, but why not start at the secondary level? 42:08.700 --> 42:11.400 align:start And, you know, it's an excellent question. 42:11.400 --> 42:23.020 align:start We persist with the kind of "one size fits all", 42:23.020 --> 42:26.600 align:start when we know that one size doesn't fit all. 42:26.600 --> 42:30.980 align:start And we know that, you know, we're not giving people the kind 42:30.980 --> 42:34.970 align:start of education that they need to compete at a high level, you know, 42:34.970 --> 42:39.180 align:start without necessarily having the classic liberal arts 42:39.180 --> 42:41.020 align:start college education. 42:41.020 --> 42:43.500 align:start So. Male Speaker: Hello, Mr. Robinson. 42:43.500 --> 42:46.430 align:start I really enjoy watching you on MSNBC. 42:46.430 --> 42:47.320 align:start Eugene Robinson: Thank you. 42:47.320 --> 42:49.970 align:start Male Speaker: If you had the opportunity to speak 42:49.970 --> 42:59.030 align:start with President Obama, what would you tell him about the abandoned class 42:59.030 --> 43:00.860 align:start to make them take notice? 43:00.860 --> 43:04.890 align:start He and his senior advisors, to try to help that class you 43:04.890 --> 43:08.050 align:start so well identified in the book. Thank you. 43:08.510 --> 43:13.030 align:start Eugene Robinson: Well, I'd say, "Read the book." 43:13.030 --> 43:15.290 align:start And I'd say -- I was getting [spelled phonetically] a plug -- 43:15.290 --> 43:18.660 align:start and I would, you know I'd throw out some numbers and statistics, 43:18.660 --> 43:22.350 align:start and he would already know them. 43:22.350 --> 43:25.210 align:start And he would say that -- and he would respond that, what he's, 43:25.210 --> 43:30.050 align:start what he has tried to do and would like to do is pursue policies 43:30.050 --> 43:36.280 align:start that would uplift, you know, all people who are similarly situated, 43:36.280 --> 43:43.990 align:start but policies that would necessarily have a greater impact among African 43:43.990 --> 43:47.730 align:start Americans, simply because the problems of, you know, 43:47.730 --> 43:52.310 align:start in terms of poverty and dysfunction are so much greater. 43:52.310 --> 43:57.940 align:start I'm told that I'm out of time, so take one more question, that's it. 43:57.940 --> 44:02.290 align:start Male Speaker: Just a quick comment on the Republican field 44:02.290 --> 44:04.870 align:start for presidential nomination. 44:04.870 --> 44:07.470 align:start Eugene Robinson: [laughs] A quick comment 44:07.470 --> 44:08.620 align:start on the Republican [spelled phonetically] field. 44:08.620 --> 44:12.880 align:start Well, it says a lot that, after, you know, we had several weeks of, 44:12.880 --> 44:15.620 align:start you know, "When will Rick Perry get in? 44:15.620 --> 44:17.560 align:start If Rick Perry would only get in, that's the guy." 44:17.560 --> 44:20.170 align:start And now, it's, "Where's Chris Christie? 44:20.170 --> 44:22.600 align:start Please, Chris Christie, to get in the race." 44:22.600 --> 44:26.740 align:start They still, to my mind, haven't found, and I think it's, 44:26.740 --> 44:28.820 align:start this is clear to the Republican establishment, 44:28.820 --> 44:29.600 align:start they haven't found a candidate 44:29.600 --> 44:31.370 align:start yet who they're confident can beat President Obama next year and, 44:31.370 --> 44:33.020 align:start you know, I thought the toughest candidate for him to face last time 44:33.020 --> 44:33.710 align:start around would have been Romney. 44:33.710 --> 44:35.000 align:start I think that's true again this time, but I don't know 44:35.000 --> 44:36.500 align:start if Republican's primary electorate will choose Mitt Romney. 44:36.500 --> 44:37.040 align:start Because of RomneyCare. So. Thank you so much. 44:37.580 --> 44:37.980 align:start Thank you. 44:37.980 --> 44:38.960 align:start [applause] Female Speaker: This has been a presentation 44:38.960 --> 44:39.710 align:start of the Library of Congress. 44:39.710 --> 44:40.400 align:start Visit us at loc.gov. [end of transcript]