WEBVTT
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- (female announcer)
Production funding for
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Behind the Headlines
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is made possible in part by:
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the WKNO Production Fund,
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the WKNO Endowment Fund,
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and by viewers like you.
Thank you.
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- A look at the progress
and the shortfalls
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in the 50 years since
the assassination
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of Martin Luther King.
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Tonight on Behind the Headlines.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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I'm Eric Barnes, publisher
of the Memphis Daily News.
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Thanks for joining us.
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I am joined tonight
by Terri Freeman,
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president of the National
Civil Right Museum.
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- Hi, how are you?
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- (Eric)
Good, and Elena de la Vega
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is associate professor
of social work
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at the University of Memphis.
- Hello.
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- Thank you for being here.
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Along with Bill
Dries, senior reporter
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with the Memphis Daily News.
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We're here to talk
today about a study
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that the National Civil
Rights Museum, that Elena,
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that you did on behalf of
the Civil Rights Museum
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as part of the
MLK50 commemoration.
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Talk, maybe, I'll just say,
you'll do it better than me.
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What was the purpose
of this study,
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the background of the study,
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and then we'll walk through
many of the findings.
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- (Terri)
Sure.
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So when we decided that the
commemoration would have
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the theme of where
do we go from here,
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it was important for us to
kinda know where here was,
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and to then take a
look at the 50 years
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that had transpired since
this data was being developed.
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So having been a
fan, if you will,
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of the annual poverty fact sheet
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that Professor De la
Vega actually does,
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I thought it would be great
to look at the current data
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and then take it back 50 years
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so we have,
basically, a baseline
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on which to move forward,
where do we go from here.
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So that was the premise.
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And I also believe
that, you know,
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it's easy for us to have
anecdotes and stories
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about what we
think is happening.
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It's important, though,
for us to have data,
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hard data, real numbers, that
frankly you can't argue with.
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You have to take them at their
face value and move forward.
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- And Elena, maybe I'll ask you,
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we'll walk through as much
as we can in this time,
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but some of the key
findings from the report.
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- Well I think that the findings
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that are most important
to me, beyond the poverty,
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I have been looking
at poverty since 2011,
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so I wasn't very
surprised at the findings
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and I wasn't very surprised
at the differentials.
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The education I had also
kinda looked at before,
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but it was very rewarding to
see the gains in education,
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particularly since 1950.
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And I decided to start
in 1950 to have a nice
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starting point
before we even had
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Brown v. Board of Education
and the bus boycott and really
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the important moments in
the Civil Rights Movement.
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So it was really important
to have a baseline, for me.
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What really surprised
me, what really struck me
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is that African-Americans
have made
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tremendous gains in education,
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taking advantage of every
opportunity afforded to them
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by, you know, all the
legislation that passed since,
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but the median wage has remained
about half that of whites
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pretty consistently
through the decades,
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regardless of what
else is happening
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in the economy or
in civil rights.
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- We'll talk about
some of the high,
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you start with the education
and the high point.
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I think I have this right,
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that high school, back in 1960,
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only 6% of African-Americans
in Shelby County
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were graduating from high
school or going beyond that.
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Now it's 85%, so it's
an extremely high number.
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I would've, I actually was
sort of surprised by that.
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I mean the popular
perception is that
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maybe that number wouldn't
have been so high, I think.
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Which is probably a reflection
on the media if nothing else.
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And then college
back in 1960 was
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barely 1% of African-Americans
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were completing a
bachelor's degree.
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It's now closer to 20%.
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- And I think what's important
about that number is,
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if I'm correct, the national
average for college completion
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is only around 20% to 25%.
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So when you look at going
from 1.2% to 20%,
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that's right there with
the national average.
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That's a pretty significant
gain in baccalaureate,
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or post, let me
say post-secondary.
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- But then the
numbers, as you said,
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in terms of median income,
that is still 50%
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of comparable whites
across the board.
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And that was, I don't know,
I guess I'm a naive optimist.
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I had known from other
data, and you see
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that it's gonna be less,
women make less than men,
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I mean all that
data is out there.
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But 50% was certainly striking.
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- Fifty percent regardless
of what else is happening.
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You can have changes
in everything else,
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and you're not having
changes in income.
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So what is going on?
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- And I think if it were 50%
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having moved from
10%... 25%... 40% to 50%,
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but it has been
consistently at 50%.
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So there is no, the
gap is not decreasing.
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- Yeah. Let's bring Bill in.
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- And so, now we
have the numbers,
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and we have the numbers over
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a long period of
time to look at.
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Why has the gap persisted?
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- I believe there are
a number of reasons.
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I think that we have to
look at our internal biases,
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and they may not be intentional,
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but one of the things
that research has shown
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is that when we have
publicly available salaries,
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when we have salaries and wages
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that are set by a
rubric or by a level,
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so government jobs
or public school jobs
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that tend to not have
a lot of flexibility,
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you enter at this rank
with this experience
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and this education, this is
the salary and it's published,
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that has almost closed the
gap between black and white.
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But when we look
at private industry
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and private corporations,
the gap remains.
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And it's, so that's part of it.
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And when we think
about, we can think,
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a starting salary that is a
couple thousand dollars less
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is not very great and it
might not even be intentional,
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it might just be some
internal bias operating.
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When we look 20
years down the road,
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because all salary
increases are going
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to be a percent
of initial salary,
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the gap is going to
be tremendously high.
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- So the percentage
comes into play here,
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and it starts with
an initial bias,
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it may be intentional
or maybe unintentional,
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but the percentage
perpetuates it.
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- (Terri)
Right, and I do think that it's
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very natural for people to hire
people who are like them.
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I think that that is just
a very natural thing that,
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it certainly takes into
consideration some bias,
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but sometimes it is unconscious,
the bias that exists,
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so that women hire more
women, men hire more men,
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whites hire more whites,
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African-Americans hire
more African-Americans.
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It's just what is
similar to you,
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and I think that that has
something to do with it as well.
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But I also agree that, you know,
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if you're hired in
low, you stay low.
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The wage does not usually
jump up unless there's
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a promotion, and then,
in a promotion situation,
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if you're promoted low,
you continue to stay low.
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- So Terri, what do you
do with this information?
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Do you have employers
at the table?
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Do you have people who make
these decisions at the table?
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And how does that
discussion begin?
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- Well I think what
happens with the data is,
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first, get it out there.
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So being able to put it out
there into the public view,
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that people can't
say, I'm not aware.
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We are actually going
to be getting this
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in front of business leaders at
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a breakfast that we're having
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in partnership with the chamber.
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And we're gonna make sure that
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everybody leaves with a report.
08:59.038 --> 09:00.840
While it's not,
the breakfast isn't
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about this report specifically,
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they will leave with the report,
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and I think we get it in front
of public officials as well.
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And they begin to
kinda look at this data
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and say, where are
we going to start?
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You can't start everywhere,
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but you can begin to create
a plan and a path forward
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that begins to chip
away at some of this.
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And it's not a
public sector issue
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or a private sector issue or
a non-profit sector issue,
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it's an entire community issue,
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and we have to deal with
it from that perspective.
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- Elena, we are in an era where,
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because of the tax
reform that has passed,
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a number of corporations
are repatriating
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their income that is
out of the country,
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and as a result,
they're giving bonuses,
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they're giving pay raises.
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Is this an opportunity,
in that kind
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of an environment,
to make corrections?
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- We have the opportunity
to make those corrections
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every single day,
every single one of us.
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- I'm a little bit hesitant to
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say what's gonna happen
with the tax reform,
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and I would like to
get more evidence.
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One case is not evidence,
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so I think we have
to wait and see,
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maybe even a couple of years,
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whether that money
actually was repatriated
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and whether those bonuses came.
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Here is the problem
with bonuses.
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They are probably even more
subject to unconscious bias
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than salaries and
things like that,
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because we also appraise a
performance of those we
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supervise, perhaps based on
whether we like them,
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and we, as humans,
tend to like our tribe.
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And this has been
studied tremendously.
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So we know that we are going to,
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and I'm not saying
this is conscious,
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that we're doing it
consciously at all,
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but we tend to like
those who look like us,
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that we feel we have
something in common with.
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And as a result, we
tend to asses their work
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perhaps a little bit
more favorably
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than we would otherwise.
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And the difference at the
moment of making the decision
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doesn't have to be very great.
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In fact, what I
would ask anybody
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who has any power, any ability
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to make those hiring and
salary and bonus decisions,
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is to look at their biases
very, very critically,
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because perhaps
they're not aware.
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In fact I think that most of us
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are not aware of
having those biases,
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and we have to be
very conscious,
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very deliberate in
making those decisions
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to make sure that we are
treating everybody fairly
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and that we're accounting
for everything.
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- I just wanted to
add that I do think
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that there is a way
that you can get
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around that a little
bit in bonuses
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if you create a
formula-based bonus, right?
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And so, that is formula-based,
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everybody gets whatever
the formula is.
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Now obviously it's based on
the number that they start at.
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But I wanted to also
make the statement
12:27.380 --> 12:29.649
with regard to, there
are more and more
12:29.649 --> 12:34.053
companies going to bonus
versus an increase in salary.
12:34.053 --> 12:38.524
Well, what that does is that
gives you a bump in that year,
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but it doesn't help if
you're building a retirement,
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it doesn't build your
salary over time.
12:45.665 --> 12:48.701
And so, what you end
up transferring with
12:48.701 --> 12:52.672
is again, a deflated
salary, because it hasn't
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moved over the course of time.
12:56.175 --> 12:59.078
- Let me, a couple more
statistics from here
12:59.078 --> 13:01.080
that are relevant to what
you're talking about.
13:01.080 --> 13:05.418
From 1960 to 2016,
in Shelby County,
13:05.418 --> 13:08.588
the percentage of
African-Americans
13:08.588 --> 13:11.057
who were in white
collar professions went
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from 8% to 52%,
so that's some sort of progress,
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I mean, back to some of the
years where there are progress.
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The percent back in 1960,
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85% of African-Americans
were in blue collar jobs,
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now it's down to 47%.
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But the study also pointed out
13:25.171 --> 13:27.607
that a white collar job,
which maybe back in the '60s
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was associated with advancement,
13:29.809 --> 13:32.845
with being in the middle
class, white and black,
13:32.845 --> 13:34.781
now, you can have
a white collar job
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and be in poverty,
white or black.
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Is that a fair assessment?
13:38.685 --> 13:39.886
- That's absolutely right.
13:39.886 --> 13:41.921
If you think of the
blue collar jobs
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in the '60s and the '70s,
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you're talking
heavy manufacturing,
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you're talking labor unions,
13:49.162 --> 13:51.964
you're talking a really
really good wage.
13:51.964 --> 13:54.067
I mean, I think of
the City of Detroit,
13:54.067 --> 13:59.072
and black wealth was created
in the car industry, right?
14:00.273 --> 14:02.108
They were able to send
their kids to college,
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they were able to go on
annual vacations, buy homes,
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and that was on a blue
collar manufacturing salary.
14:09.515 --> 14:10.850
- I mean isn't, Bill
would know better than me,
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isn't Firestone an
example in Memphis?
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Firestone in the
Frayser neighborhood
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and Harvester were the backbone
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of that blue collar but solidly,
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you know, more American
Dream oriented,
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to whatever degree that's true.
14:22.795 --> 14:25.231
And the decimation of
Frayser, a lot of people
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would link to those
blue collar jobs.
14:27.366 --> 14:29.335
- And to North
Memphis too, which was
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the industrial belt of the city.
14:32.238 --> 14:34.073
- Also, one other
statistic in here is,
14:34.073 --> 14:35.541
and I'll try not to
do too many of these,
14:35.541 --> 14:37.310
but they are fascinating,
as we talk about this,
14:37.310 --> 14:40.079
the percentage of whites who are
14:40.079 --> 14:42.081
in managerial or
professional occupations,
14:42.081 --> 14:44.050
which gets back to the
kind of potential bias
14:44.050 --> 14:46.052
you're talking about and the
people who give the bonuses,
14:46.052 --> 14:49.055
Forty-seven percent
of whites are in those jobs,
14:49.055 --> 14:51.290
Twenty-six percent of
African-Americans
14:51.290 --> 14:52.692
are in those jobs.
14:52.692 --> 14:54.894
It's a huge increase from
where it was in 1960,
14:54.894 --> 14:57.296
in 50 years,
it went from 5% to 26%,
14:57.296 --> 14:59.265
but it's still a smaller number.
14:59.265 --> 15:04.270
How much of all of this,
probably 10 minutes left here,
15:05.404 --> 15:07.340
is, the study focused
on Shelby County,
15:07.340 --> 15:10.076
study done, issues in Memphis,
15:10.076 --> 15:11.878
these issues aren't necessarily,
15:11.878 --> 15:14.680
or are they necessarily,
specific to Memphis.
15:14.680 --> 15:16.449
I mean, and how do you balance
15:16.449 --> 15:19.352
that conversation
about the progress?
15:19.352 --> 15:22.288
Martin Luther King
was not in Memphis
15:22.288 --> 15:24.056
just because there was
a problem in Memphis,
15:24.056 --> 15:27.093
it was a national, obviously a
national civil rights museum.
15:27.093 --> 15:28.828
But there is a way
in which, in Memphis,
15:28.828 --> 15:30.863
part of what I'm getting to is
15:30.863 --> 15:33.032
we pick on ourselves,
we're harder on ourselves.
15:33.032 --> 15:36.502
Angela Rye, the commentator
who spoke at the event recently
15:36.502 --> 15:39.005
and was very critical
specifically of Memphis
15:39.005 --> 15:40.907
not making the progress
it should have.
15:40.907 --> 15:42.241
So how do you balance that?
15:42.241 --> 15:44.610
- I think, honestly,
I think you could go
15:44.610 --> 15:49.215
to almost every urban
center in America
15:49.215 --> 15:53.152
and you will find some
iteration of this data.
15:53.152 --> 15:56.022
I don't think that this
is specific to Memphis.
15:56.022 --> 16:00.259
Now, I do think that
the child poverty rate
16:00.259 --> 16:05.164
for African-American
children is very high.
16:05.164 --> 16:08.167
I don't think you'll find
that in every urban center.
16:08.167 --> 16:11.270
But these numbers should not,
16:11.270 --> 16:15.775
these numbers are, in my
estimation, more an indictment
16:15.775 --> 16:20.346
of America than an indictment
of Memphis, Tennessee.
16:20.346 --> 16:22.415
- And I will say, just
from the numbers here,
16:22.415 --> 16:24.483
and then we'll go to you Elena,
16:24.483 --> 16:25.985
the percent of
children in poverty
16:25.985 --> 16:30.690
in Shelby County overall is
35%, which is shocking.
16:32.258 --> 16:33.759
Eleven percent
of white children,
16:33.759 --> 16:36.295
Fifty percent,
48% of black children.
16:36.295 --> 16:39.298
However, nationally,
you've got 30%
16:39.298 --> 16:41.901
of African-America
children in poverty.
16:41.901 --> 16:43.302
So it's not exactly that that's
16:43.302 --> 16:45.204
a great number
nationally by comparison,
16:45.204 --> 16:46.472
but it is much, much worse here.
16:46.472 --> 16:47.373
But to your point.
16:48.574 --> 16:49.809
- Well, and part of
the problem is that
16:49.809 --> 16:52.111
a few years ago, a
couple of years ago,
16:52.111 --> 16:53.613
we saw a decrease in poverty
16:53.613 --> 16:56.148
and in child poverty nationwide,
16:56.148 --> 16:59.085
and yet we went in the
opposite direction.
16:59.085 --> 17:01.520
So I think that is
much more concerning,
17:01.520 --> 17:03.890
the direction in
which we are moving.
17:03.890 --> 17:07.193
But I think it's very
very important to clarify
17:07.193 --> 17:09.862
that when we're
talking about Memphis
17:09.862 --> 17:13.199
as the poorest area,
we're talking about
17:13.199 --> 17:16.269
the poorest large
metropolitan area
17:16.269 --> 17:18.137
with more than a million people.
17:18.137 --> 17:22.642
So when we look at
smaller metropolitan areas
17:22.642 --> 17:25.444
or smaller cities,
we're not number one.
17:25.444 --> 17:29.649
In fact, Detroit
and the McAllen area
17:29.649 --> 17:34.287
are much greater
poverty than we are.
17:34.287 --> 17:39.125
And then the other thing that
is important to point out,
17:39.125 --> 17:41.961
as I'd like to
second what you said,
17:41.961 --> 17:45.064
as goes Memphis,
so goes the nation.
17:45.064 --> 17:50.069
We are really just...
maybe emblematic
17:52.438 --> 17:55.007
of the greater problems,
but certainly not unique.
17:55.007 --> 17:56.943
- (Eric)
Bill.
17:56.943 --> 17:59.278
- You also looked at
incarceration rates
17:59.278 --> 18:03.182
and exposure to the
criminal justice system.
18:03.182 --> 18:06.018
Basically, your findings
there, which again,
18:06.018 --> 18:10.990
we've seen plenty of
anecdotal evidence of this,
18:10.990 --> 18:13.392
but what did your study
find in that regard?
18:13.392 --> 18:17.563
- Well we, in 1980,
the percent of
18:17.563 --> 18:20.800
African-Americans
and whites in prisons
18:20.800 --> 18:25.171
or institutionalized
was very, very similar.
18:25.171 --> 18:29.809
And, okay, you could
say it's not great,
18:29.809 --> 18:32.745
but there appears to
be some parity here.
18:32.745 --> 18:36.582
And now, there is
much greater percent
18:36.582 --> 18:40.319
of African-Americans that
have been institutionalized.
18:40.319 --> 18:42.955
I did look at national
data, and if you look at
18:42.955 --> 18:47.960
what I did here in Memphis
in the national data,
18:48.828 --> 18:51.063
the graphs are almost identical.
18:51.063 --> 18:52.798
They reflect each other.
18:52.798 --> 18:55.401
And so that's,
again, to your point
18:55.401 --> 18:57.536
of what's happening
in Memphis is really
18:57.536 --> 19:00.873
a reflection of what's happening
in the rest of the country.
19:00.873 --> 19:03.609
And yes, we have a
lot of work to do
19:03.609 --> 19:05.978
in Memphis and in Shelby County,
19:05.978 --> 19:08.914
and certainly we are
interested in this area
19:08.914 --> 19:10.750
because this is where we live
19:10.750 --> 19:12.251
and this is what we care about,
19:12.251 --> 19:15.254
but this is something that
is a national conversation,
19:15.254 --> 19:17.590
should be a national
conversation.
19:17.590 --> 19:20.693
These are problems that are
affecting the entire nation.
19:20.693 --> 19:22.928
- In our local
conversations, the term
19:22.928 --> 19:25.464
"disproportionate
minority contact"
19:25.464 --> 19:29.468
has come to be associated
with juvenile court.
19:29.468 --> 19:30.803
- (Elena)
Yes.
19:30.803 --> 19:33.039
- Is there disproportionate
minority contact
19:33.039 --> 19:36.042
in the adult
incarceration system?
19:36.042 --> 19:37.476
- (Elena)
Oh absolutely.
19:37.476 --> 19:39.512
- (Terri)
Yes, it does appear so based
19:39.512 --> 19:43.215
on the data. And it
appears to me that there were
19:43.215 --> 19:46.685
policy decisions that
were made that impacted
19:50.756 --> 19:53.192
the number of times
people came into contact
19:53.192 --> 19:55.795
with the criminal justice system
19:55.795 --> 19:58.064
because of the
consistency between
19:58.064 --> 20:00.533
the local data and
the national data.
20:00.533 --> 20:03.235
There were some
decisions that were made
20:03.235 --> 20:05.838
that have impacted
how we deal with
20:05.838 --> 20:09.208
criminal justice in our country,
20:09.208 --> 20:10.943
and I believe that
there are some
20:10.943 --> 20:12.778
policy decisions
that could be made
20:12.778 --> 20:17.116
that could also begin to
help us decrease that number.
20:17.116 --> 20:20.219
- Decisions around
mandatory minimum sentences?
20:20.219 --> 20:21.454
- (Terri)
Yes, absolutely.
20:21.454 --> 20:24.223
Mandatory minimums,
really rethinking
20:25.257 --> 20:28.527
what we do around the possession
20:28.527 --> 20:33.532
of small amounts of
illegal substances.
20:34.433 --> 20:36.469
Is that a crime that you think
20:36.469 --> 20:40.106
is necessary to actually
put somebody in jail?
20:40.106 --> 20:42.441
Are there other
opportunities for us
20:42.441 --> 20:46.245
to figure out how we have
people pay, if you will,
20:46.245 --> 20:49.115
restitution for those
types of crimes?
20:49.115 --> 20:50.616
- (Eric)
Go ahead Elena.
20:50.616 --> 20:52.218
- I would like to point
out that this doesn't start
20:52.218 --> 20:55.621
with the criminal justice
system, it starts in schools.
20:55.621 --> 21:00.159
And I did some research that
the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute
21:00.159 --> 21:03.028
published in the
Hooks Policy Papers.
21:03.028 --> 21:08.033
And what I found is that
the rate of punishment
21:09.468 --> 21:13.639
and expulsion and suspension
for African-American children,
21:13.639 --> 21:15.908
both in former
Memphis city schools,
21:15.908 --> 21:18.110
Shelby County schools, but also
21:18.110 --> 21:20.079
when Shelby County
was independent,
21:20.079 --> 21:23.115
was up to 700 times higher
21:23.115 --> 21:26.685
for African-American
male students
21:26.685 --> 21:29.688
as for white students
and other students.
21:29.688 --> 21:33.659
So we're not beginning at
the criminal justice system.
21:33.659 --> 21:38.297
We are taking children,
and I am using the word
21:38.297 --> 21:41.734
in its traditional
sense, small little boys,
21:44.003 --> 21:49.008
who are being harassed
at a young age
21:50.209 --> 21:52.311
for behaviors that may
not have anything to do--
21:53.479 --> 21:56.048
- I don't think
it's helpful at all
21:56.048 --> 21:58.517
to remove children
who are having
21:58.517 --> 22:00.553
difficulty in
school from school.
22:00.553 --> 22:03.022
I think there's a
different way, that maybe
22:03.022 --> 22:05.791
they don't need to be in
that particular classroom.
22:05.791 --> 22:08.494
But the idea of restorative
justice opportunities
22:08.494 --> 22:13.098
where we can, we need to
keep children in school,
22:13.098 --> 22:14.600
that's where they should be.
22:14.600 --> 22:16.435
- There's so much to do on
this, and it's interesting,
22:16.435 --> 22:18.070
we actually, 'cause of just
some scheduling things,
22:18.070 --> 22:21.840
we pre-taped a conversation
with the U.S. attorney,
22:21.840 --> 22:24.210
newly appointed in
September, who talks,
22:24.210 --> 22:26.979
I will say, a very, very
different perspective
22:26.979 --> 22:28.514
on, we didn't talk about race
22:28.514 --> 22:30.149
but we did talk about
mandatory minimum sentencing
22:30.149 --> 22:32.618
and who should be, so that
show is coming up soon
22:32.618 --> 22:35.521
and there'll be a very
different point of view
22:35.521 --> 22:38.457
expressed, you know,
from the, coming from
22:38.457 --> 22:41.460
the Trump
Administration on down.
22:41.460 --> 22:43.162
With just three,
four minutes left,
22:43.162 --> 22:45.264
we can talk more
and more about this,
22:45.264 --> 22:48.067
the study is on the
Civil Rights Museum site?
22:48.067 --> 22:49.335
- (Terri)
It is.
22:49.335 --> 22:50.569
- It is, so you
can get it there.
22:50.569 --> 22:53.205
I wanna talk a little
bit about MLK 50,
22:53.205 --> 22:55.241
moving towards April.
22:55.241 --> 22:56.942
What all is going on?
22:56.942 --> 22:59.612
What events should
people look for?
22:59.612 --> 23:02.715
- Well, where we're
headed right now
23:02.715 --> 23:05.384
is into the first week of April,
23:05.384 --> 23:07.319
second, third and fourth.
23:07.319 --> 23:09.388
The second and
third we will have
23:09.388 --> 23:13.092
a two day symposium on
where do we go from here.
23:13.092 --> 23:15.327
We've partnered with the
University of Memphis'
23:15.327 --> 23:17.896
Cecil C. Humphreys Law School,
23:17.896 --> 23:20.799
and the law school will
host that first day
23:20.799 --> 23:23.535
with several panels
throughout the day.
23:23.535 --> 23:24.837
They'll have a keynote with
23:24.837 --> 23:28.607
Eric Holder on
Monday the second.
23:28.607 --> 23:31.543
And then on the third, the
National Civil Rights Museum
23:31.543 --> 23:36.482
will host the second day of
the symposium on the campus of,
23:36.482 --> 23:39.051
the main campus of the
University of Memphis,
23:39.051 --> 23:44.056
and focusing on labor
issues in Memphis,
23:45.157 --> 23:47.593
the past, the
present, the future,
23:47.593 --> 23:52.598
economic equity and education
and the promise of education,
23:53.999 --> 23:56.368
which will be interesting
based on this study
23:56.368 --> 23:59.405
what the promise of
education actually is.
23:59.405 --> 24:02.107
And we have a keynote that
day with Taylor Branch.
24:02.107 --> 24:04.710
And then on the fourth, which is
24:04.710 --> 24:07.079
the actual 50th anniversary,
24:07.079 --> 24:08.881
we'll have a day of remembrance
24:08.881 --> 24:11.116
that will be in the courtyard of
24:11.116 --> 24:12.618
the National Civil
Rights Museum.
24:12.618 --> 24:15.120
We'll have a variety of
speakers and entertainment
24:15.120 --> 24:18.023
and speeches that will
be delivered there,
24:18.023 --> 24:21.827
organizations that
worked with King
24:21.827 --> 24:23.862
or were a part of King's makeup
24:23.862 --> 24:27.099
as well as other organizations
24:27.099 --> 24:29.702
that are doing
the hard work now,
24:29.702 --> 24:32.671
and we'll have a
commemoration in the courtyard
24:32.671 --> 24:35.441
beginning at 3:30,
ending at 6:01
24:35.441 --> 24:40.279
with a bell tolling across,
actually, the globe.
24:40.279 --> 24:41.613
We've even found
that there's some
24:41.613 --> 24:44.383
international interest
in ringing bells.
24:44.383 --> 24:46.819
And then at the end
of the day we'll have
24:46.819 --> 24:49.455
an evening of
storytelling with icons
24:49.455 --> 24:52.491
from the 20th Century
Civil Rights Movement
24:52.491 --> 24:55.594
and new movement makers
of the 21st Century.
24:55.594 --> 24:58.997
So conversations with
these groups of people.
24:58.997 --> 25:00.599
- And, not to put
you in a bad spot,
25:00.599 --> 25:02.368
but I do wanna come
back to Angela Rye
25:02.368 --> 25:05.304
and her comments recently at
a forum that was part of this,
25:05.304 --> 25:06.839
and she was very
critical specifically
25:06.839 --> 25:08.807
of things that were
going on in Memphis.
25:08.807 --> 25:11.310
Do you think this spotlight,
this growing spotlight
25:11.310 --> 25:13.779
that you've just articulated
that's gonna be on Memphis,
25:13.779 --> 25:17.015
is it, does Memphis look
good under that light?
25:17.015 --> 25:22.020
- I think that Memphis
addressing the issues of the
25:23.188 --> 25:26.525
past, where we are presently,
and where we're headed,
25:26.525 --> 25:28.894
is the best picture
that we can present.
25:28.894 --> 25:31.630
I think the fact that
people are thinking about
25:31.630 --> 25:34.867
where do we go from here
is a very positive thing.
25:34.867 --> 25:37.336
And what we want people to do
25:37.336 --> 25:39.571
when they come for the symposium
25:39.571 --> 25:44.276
is really talk about
how the nation looks
25:44.276 --> 25:46.445
right now at this point
25:46.445 --> 25:49.048
and how the nation
needs to move forward,
25:49.048 --> 25:51.917
and within that, how
Memphis should move forward.
25:51.917 --> 25:55.988
So again, this is not at all
an indictment of Memphis.
25:55.988 --> 25:58.991
I think the worst
thing that we could do
25:58.991 --> 26:01.560
would be to sugarcoat
where we are.
26:01.560 --> 26:03.195
I think it's important for us
26:03.195 --> 26:05.197
to be honest about where we are
26:05.197 --> 26:07.266
and optimistic about
where we're headed.
26:07.266 --> 26:08.700
- Alright, we will
leave it there.
26:08.700 --> 26:11.069
Thank you for being here, thank
you Elena, thank you Bill.
26:11.069 --> 26:12.371
And thank you for joining us.
26:12.371 --> 26:13.839
Join us again next week.
26:26.618 --> 26:28.620
[acoustic guitar chords]