Kelly who's a 
friend of mine who's going to be on the panel
said. So how did you reject Chin and I was
saying well you know he just came and we had
lunch. And but then it occurred to me that
we had a much older connection currents me
while we were having lunch that we had a much
I learned that we had a much older connection
which is that he is the editor of really the
most important book for everybody here to
read if you haven't read it and that is the
Chinese laundry when it is absolutely the
best book about segregation that's ever been
written. And he found this dissertation by
Paul Sue and got it published. And I happen
to come in contact with it because NYU is
having a remainder sale and I bought it for
$5. When I started this study of the psychology
of place because part of what I did studying
the psychology of place we're look for books
that has Place in the title. And so a laundry
is a place in the Chinese laundry men seem
to be in a category. Really it's the most
important book about segregation. I really
want to say without qualification to me that's
ever been written. Of course I haven't read
all the books on segregation. So take that
for what it's worth. It's an extraordinary
book. And if you're ever in a place where
you need to get people to start to have a
conversation about segregation or racism.
Chinese laundry man is the place to start
because it's unexpected. And they have no
defenses against what happened to these guys
who were under all this brutal pressure of
the Chinese Exclusion Act and and just this
loneliness and it's an extraordinary book
and thank you so much. And I'm so glad I have
that connection Thank you. Thank you know.
And and I think it's apparent why I really
appreciate Mindy and her work and we'll see
her books over on the table root shock is
the one that I first read which I recommend
to all of you in terms of looking at the historical
process of historical consequences of slum
clearance on African-American communities
and of course by extension other communities
across the landscape and urban alchemy which
is here on the table is we didn't plan this
but this is this is what I believe. Urban
alchemy on the table is part of the framing
that we're using for this conference. And
I really recommend that because it's not about
simply the tough horrible stuff of course
that's all there is not to deny the but also
how people learning from people and how they've
been actively kind of rebuilding the communities
around them despite and against all the horrific
things that happen. So I really do recommend
taking a look at them. So welcome back everybody
I'm really happy that that people are here.
And in some ways there are amazing things
that are now going to be unfolding as we start
wrapping up this these two days of very intense
very rich conversations And I really appreciate
everybody who's come from far away nearby.
In some ways the short little little hits
of five minutes eight minutes are really a
way for you to kind of get introduced to people's
ideas and then look them up and look up their
books and all that. So I know it's frustrating
in some ways not to be able to hear more but
it's also being able to talk with each other
across these specializations that we normally
don't get to do at all right I'm going to
meet most of these people for the first time
but we knew from their work that these are
people we want to have in the conversations.
That's a lot of our attention here and I think
it's actually working out. So I'm really delighted
to continue the discussion and especially
online but also in person read their works.
It's very important. Without any more delay.
I wanted to introduce the person who has that
we've been working with x0 what you ought
to come up and tell us about the story. So
so we're seeing a performance that kind of
emerged out of the American Slavery Project.
And Judy happened to be walking by I think
she mentioned this yesterday by the outdoor
exhibit we had done by the student center
with a series of windows displaying some of
the items that you'll see at the table of
different parts of the American Eugenics both
in terms of what was produced in the files
in scientific papers so-called of the eugenics
records office and its various intellectuals
and Harvard and everybody everywhere else
trained PhDs. But then also how it proliferate
it out into the nation through state fairs
and booze and popular culture itself. And
Judy happened to just see it I guess. And
out of that this connected with you somehow.
So Judy you want to say. Hi how are you So
for the people who were here yesterday you
heard this a little bit before but I am the
artistic director of the American Slavery
Project and we are a theatrical response to
revisionism in this country's discourse around
slavery the Civil War Jim Crow. We do a special
kind of investigative theater. Our original
performance piece unheard voices brings life
to many of the people who were working in
Cologne African descended people working in
Colonial New York during enslavement. And
because we focus on the Civil War slavery
and Jim Crow you guys know that eugenics was
the pseudoscience that underpinned Jim Crow
when of course that the Germans study hadn't
perfected for the Final Solution. So when
I saw this eugenics exhibit I thought oh my
god all the records in there all the disappeared
lives and the unheard voices and the stories
that we don't know. So I asked Noah and Jack
if I could come in and look through the files
and we found two people that were very interesting
to us one a eugenics field worker which the
social workers were called at the time. And
another Hazel Wilson who was an actual person
studied and you will hear her story You'll
hear both of their stories. I'm a playwright.
I wrote this dual log with writing partner
Michael Slade who's sitting right there. And
we took their stories and we intertwine them
and that's what you're going to hear for the
next 15 minutes or so. So without one thing
every fact every event that happens in the
stories that we've tried to humanize are true.
So without further ado unheard voices haunted
files with unto Yaakov and Stephen Nielsen.
My name is Margaret Anders 23 so good indoors.
I resemble my father and busy. Wait 22 pounds
high excelled in 61 edges. Gerson had 22 inches.
Rapid had 6.5 edges. Medium brown eyes three
me around here. A very high forehead. Nose
was originally straight because ciliary broken
in a basketball game at Smith College and
not proper rosette. Basketball was one of
the reasons I chose The first women's basketball
game was played in 1893 and they're continuing
dedication to athletics made them an ideal
match for me. Her name is Hazel. That's what
the note said. No more no less. It was tucked
in my blanket when they found me on the doorstep.
I dream about my mother's sometimes not Mrs.
Wilson the one who found me. But my real mother.
The one I never knew. I dream she was the
color of cocoa and smelled like ginger. So
she worked in a laundry I heard. And that's
where she met. My daddy. Daddy was a china
min. Grown-ups whisper it whenever they think
I'm not close enough to hear. I heard that
Chade-Meng was working out west on the rail
road when he found that his wife refused to
travel across the ocean be with him. That
China made with sill aggrieved he tried to
drag us back into his own heart but drove
it into a pizza truck instead. Then he put
down his hammer and followed the railroad
learn as far east as it would take him. Then
they shake their heads and say my mother was
the moral. They say she was a WAN counter
fact. She lay down with that said I'll chime
in and grew me in her belly. But I don't think
she was a war. I think she was lonely. I think
she wanted to feel that China min strong arms
around her and hold on to something more than
half wet laundry it smells something better
than detergent Enlai. Unfortunately though
I was born with a love basketball. I wasn't
born with a proper body to play well. Had
I been taller that fall into And when it bounced
off the grid but the primary reason I chose
Smith College was for their social work program.
It is arguably the best in the country. And
this is what we should aspire to be the best
for ourselves the best for our country the
best for the world. And it's why I left Michigan
and my Midwest roots to attend college in
the East in Massachusetts. And then on to
New York. I was beside myself when I was given
this extraordinary job offer eugenics records
office in Cold Spring Harbor. Today this lady
Ms. Andrews came to look at. She says she's
trying to make people better. Now trying to
make better people. Our work is funded by
some of the most important people in the country
the Carnegie Institution the Rockefeller Foundation
Mr. Jay show that heroin and dedicated to
the belief that through selective breeding
and in certain special cases sterilization
the human species can directs its own evolution.
She say AMI moral because I didn't go to school
past the fourth grade and I had when I was
12 years old in kindergarten I instinctively
helped the children who had trouble adjusting
befriending playing them cajoling them into
making himself an active productive part of
our school community to the best of their
individual abilities. And in graduate school
I was always drawn to help the children who
unlike me struggle with arithmetic or reading
or spelling and grammar encouraging them to
live up to their potential whatever that level
maybe. On summer vacation when I visited my
grandparents and relatives on their farms
in Ohio always ensure that the chimps That's
one version so they can grow up to get the
best eggs and milk and meat. This compassion
this desire to help isn't something I was
taught. It's how I was born on both sides
of my family going back many generations of
anyone's name icon from intelligent successful
farmers. People who nurtured plants and animals
and helps them grow. My mother was an mercury
woman. My father became a doctor to help people
was bred to be care. Then she take a ruler
and measure every proud of my face top to
bottom side to side. I've written my notes
she think MATLAB start and my parents kinky
and that task can tell I'm not very smart
as a field worker I interview people take
measurements document family history is regarding
talents and intelligence illnesses and handicaps.
And in certain cases make recommendations.
Everything is scrupulously filled out on individual
analysis cards and pedigree charts. And I
write a report about each subjective thing.
I'm particularly drawn to collecting data
about the least fortunate and those who range
from idioms through low medium and high grade
all the way up to moron I seek to kindly and
with respect. But in the simplest terms she
smiles at me and says my mental age is 11
years and eight months. When I frown she saying
to worry your average theories and she point
to a picture that says I don't know ask figures
that because by my count I got seven seniors
that live in behind me now and I managed to
outrun Mr. Wilson. The neighborhood boys for
nearly 12 up on I think that makes me pretty
smart. Every farmer knows that one reads the
best specimens and everyone has an inferior
cow or he or she will remove her. So these
defects don't get passed on to future generations.
Does that tell us when talking about human
beings that should we test people to determine
whether or not they're fit to drive a car
is procreation any less important the transportation
as far back as I can remember Mr. Wilson like
me not like a real fathers poles do not enough
to hug me or read to me or take me to the
river instead of paper boda flow. But sometimes
he call me China widths. So Tinder a voice.
My heart would swell Then he was only time
anyone ever touched me except to beat me.
We're dealing with an adult who has the mental
capacity of a six or eight or 11 year old.
It's not their fault. They're living up to
the full potential of their genetic chain.
So I explain things as best I can to the extent
that we can wonder when I was six and all
the children had been sent away to school.
Mrs. Wilson got busy with the ***** women
suffrage group and Mr. Wilson's pats on my
bottom gave way to Something more at birth
Mrs. Wilson didn't seem to notice but that
just made Mr. Wilson bolder than she noticed
in the Bolder he that the matter she got the
matter Shi that the bigger the Bronx she used
to beat me one day she was so mad. She told
me things back to China. They'll break them
into little shoes. Making Mr. Wilson liked
you. Back at cooking hadn't know-how. You
know people often say that everything in their
lives up to a certain moments led them to
prepare for that thing that opportunity that
wherever I believe. Because everything in
my life everything in my Jeunesse led me to
become a eugenics feel my way to and from
the market from Mrs. Wilson. I will pass dirty
face women and men huddled by fires at that
friendly with one or two of them after doing
the marketing and would stay with them as
long as I could before Mrs. Wilson grew impatient
he came looking for me dragging me back to
the how she'd say you come from that filth
is that we want to end up No I'd say but they
were kind to me especially Ruth VI who smelled
like dark roasted coffee sheet hold me close
but warp and teach me to blow on a pair of
dice for her boyfriend's. They were all foul
mouth and carried pocket knives but gave me
a penny or two if they want it Krebs. I spent
my pennies at the corner store. Ruth The laughed
when I brought her the little gifts. She comb
my hair and ask me how a pretty girl like
me could look so glum. But accuracy in her
eyes. She already knew. By the time I was
nine or ten at stop going to school altogether.
It's not that I didn't like school. I like
the stories and the number and the little
science experiments. I can even put up with
the kids who call me RPN and flat. But the
days when Mr. Wilson left work early to pick
me up. Those days were hard. I had to think
of so many chores to occupy myself to slip
out of Mr. Wilson's grasp. The house was spotless.
And Mrs. Wilson had grown to look at me like
a cross between the devil and an old steamer
trunk heavy the lip but two useful to throw
away. When I was 12 I started to bleed. I
was so scared I ran to Ruth who told me I
had to be very very careful now especially
around men. By February I began to show that
much just the bump. But Mrs. Wilson understood
what had happening. And without a word she
took me to court told them. I was not going
to school that I was a thief incorrigible
and inclined to associate with havens and
criminals without asking me at them. They
sent me to the State Home for girls and it's
just like they give you call bath and a good
flogging if you disobeying except it took
them three months to big around that I was
ready to have a baby. When they did realize
it they sent me to Clinton farms. It wasn't
for girls to. They didn't flog you or put
you in ice baths. No they talk to you. And
asked you questions. Always fondly. Remember
the first person I interviewed a lovely young
Chinese ******* named Hazel. Completely average
for her race but Clinton farms. Also cut open
my stomach. Pulled out my baby. Teach me up
and sent me back to the state. Without her.
I got were that she died six weeks later after
three days of convulsions and a bad stomach.
Maybe if I had held her Touched her nurse
turn like that. Some mothers do you think
that she thought that she was lonely when
she died. Apparently the news event with a
headset Hazel Intuit. And they were class
that the State Home and I threw myself into
them. So I wouldn't think of my little girl.
I never had a chance to name. It wasn't book
learning whites do with Wilson's but I picked
up solid and had a cane wicker chairs. Obviously
a society requires a population with a wide
spectrum of abilities. Some who are capable
of being leaders others who need only And
middle-management me Schon have pretended
I could use my hands so they would let me
read more. But they said I had reached my
grade limits. Studies show that ******* and
southern Europeans have less intellectual
and leadership ability than Anglo-Saxons as
follows Gregory routing. But every subgroup
there are fascinating and hormones which need
to be flagged and study further. If we are
to fully fulfill our mission they told me
they had found me a family to live with and
a laundry for me to work in during my parole.
A laundry like where my mother met my daddy
I didn't like the soap or the heat the way
my hands would dry up and wrinkle. Add a star
like a rope that length of my belly and I
didn't like the way pulled When I was lived
in large bundles on the boiling pot into the
spinner. I worked in slept eight in dreams
and watch the steam rise over the tubs of
boiling shirts. One day I was dropping newsprint
on the floor and Alice deck and clean start
shirts where when I saw my name in a headline
it was next to the famous tennis player. I've
read the whole story the words that are simple
enough. The papers day a woman named Hazel
whitening may tennis payments and even after
she wants so many games they told her she
was immoral. She wore her sleeve short. Her
arms were showing. She was a more. I started
to think. Even with everything I'd done running
away stelae making Mr. Wilson Like Me too
much. There's a chance I can still make a
life for myself BY somebody love somebody.
In the very next week. When came to work at
the laundry he stopped short only saw my face
but not like it was strange. Like it was familiar.
He asked me something in Chinese I didn't
understand then in broken English he asked
me why didn't speak Chinese I told them about
my daddy and the railroad spike in my mama
leaving me on the doorstep He listened. When
he said My name is that each part separate
ha there he called me. And I laughed for the
first time since they took my baby and she
died. The next week I laid down with when
behind the wash spots on a pile of dirty dresses
and I could smell ginger in feel that China
made strong arms around me. I held on to him
like my mother held onto Furman and for the
first time in my life. I understood what she
must valves. For the first time in my life.
I felt something like love. When I told when
we were going to have a baby he asked me to
run away with him to New York City more money.
They're better work. After that I was 17 and
run into ways what put me in jail and firstly
he said he couldn't wait. He had to go. He
said to come find them when I turned 18 bring
the baby to him and we live in Chinatown and
raise him together. We work in a store or
a restaurant. I try to wait. I tried to forget.
But I felt like my insides were breaking two
weeks later I close the laundry and instead
of going home I got on a bus to New York City.
But before I could find when the police found
me and brought me back here to this date home.
Last week my second baby was born at the Mercer
hospital. The doctors cut me again down the
length of my belly and pull the baby out.
This time they will tell me if it was a boy
or a girl they won't let me see it. They won't
let me hold it. We decided it was better not
to tell her the second baby. It would've been
confusing and accruals or through that again
is clearly more than she's capable of comprehending.
They only said Miss Andrews in to measure
my nose and my eyes and my faith to look for
signs in my face that I am immoral and raped
me on the imbecile scale. She says I can't
reason. She says I can't help it. She smiles
and says that it's inherited in that some
races are by nature inferior but not to worry
you won't pass it only. Tomorrow They didn't
give me an operation tomorrow that take out
my tubes and my ovaries the doctor's degree
but another pregnancy and others this area's
section would prove fatal to hazel. But she
couldn't know better be expected to understand
that and to understand how stock from becoming
pregnant but then I could be expected to engineer
way of Mr. Herman's locomotives Actually given
my genetic makeup I'm certain I could be taught
to engineer love motivated when necessary
but that's not the point. The point is or
was that to say hey those like I had to recommend
sterilization. She says it's a saved my life
into say someone else's lamp. Easy recommendation
for a 21 year old. She said continued to be
immoral. If I try to have another baby I'll
probably die but it was the right decision.
And for society maybe sell. But I feel like
I've already data 1000 deaths We can direct
our own evolution. I call this baby when in
when I imagine heaven I see him there with
his big sister holding hands. And they are
not lonely. They're not immoral. They are
themselves and they have each other Thank
you so much. This is I mean this the second
time I've been presence in the performance
and I've watched the tape a great deal. So
I really appreciate thank you so much as just
beautifully scripted and here's something
different every time I see it and I'm apart
of and thank you. So let's we're just getting
set up and maybe we can just say a few things
and invite the the final session intervening
and changing folks up. Scott Bernstein Ryan
Gilliam Kelly Harding Marta Marino Vega or
Dover and love Twilio strong when should come
up and join us. I guess I wanted to say maybe
a few quick words which is that Scott Bernstein
and I have known each other from Kindergarten.
Okay we both grew up and parked forest illinois
which in if you're familiar with sociological
kinda classics William H Whyte wrote this
book called The Organization Man. And he wrote
about Levitt Town which many of you may know
more about but also of Park Forest Illinois.
And it was this kind of in some ways this
plan suburb with one of the first outdoor
shopping malls in the area in some ways. This
is the beginning of a lot of the logic of
a kind of utopian planners are saying that
highway out of the city which would deacon
just these neighborhoods would lead into the
cornfields and these new single-family units.
And so much of the structure of red lining
everything else was kind of leading in that
direction. Scott and I just to say very briefly
had been kind of reverse engineering that
process to figure out what happened to us
okay as we're growing up in that experience.
So for me I've been trying to connect the
dots between that experience with looking
for some place that I could call my home which
might be Chinatown but that wasn't quite it
but the history of Chinatown in some ways
was what I discovered was My home because
in that history and the laundry worker experiences
a part of that I can begin to kind of locate
myself in a way that I know is not possible
right and but in some ways along that way
after a number of years of looking at that
and getting a Ph.D. and working in the university
I have come back to trying to understand these
dynamics and in some ways eugenics has been
that vehicle for me to understand the connection
between the Chinese Exclusion Act and the
National Origins Act and the array in which
biopolitics and other kinds of you know Davis
of fragmentations have happened. So I really
This has been a great journey for me and I'm
really kind of in the middle of this riots
I'm really really delighted to meet so many
of you and have a chance to kind of learn
more about how these fragments relate to each
other. So same thing and then we'll get started.
Yeah I hope Scott. Scott didn't bring his
object but he has an incredible or object
and I hope Hill describe it and maybe that
is a good segue into this panel. If you would
come up and talk about the object you didn't
bring object. I didn't bring. One thing I
didn't bring him was the discipline of reading
my e-mails or I would not I was supposed to
bring an object And Jack and I did grow up
together in a place where we knew we were
part of an experiment it was it was very open
and it was a planned community. It was supposed
to do differently. When people there would
tell you they hadn't runaway from Chicago.
They've moved towards a better life. Very
white place very white place I was white Jewish
and nu is another outlier. An absolutely unique
I recently found an artifact they should've
brought which were the detailed notes of my
kindergarten and first grade teachers. Who
microphones here it's no wonder. I can't hold
thing. Maybe you take that and incredibly
detailed Now it's saying what a great student
I was and it was too bad. I wasn't assimilating
fast enough into things like group exercises
around Christmas time. And I mean it was just
an incredible power in those first of all
because it was deep there were forms and formats.
And we're talking about from from the mid
fifties. And it was already that formalized
and much like some of what we just heard in
that superb performance hard a hard act to
follow and and Phil clad Snake who develop
that town would throw out the first ball at
the Little League fell clutch Nick later Secretary.
So a klutz neck or the Department of Commerce
and the and tell us how lucky we were because
our parents had gotten out of Chicago and
as we grow up we were told how lucky we could
be if we just kept our noses clean and go
to college we could get out of their toe and
go someplace else this was about as non place-based
and approach to building community as I could
think about I wanted to offer just a couple
of quick perspectives. I'm privileged to run
the Center for Neighborhood Technology which
helps communities capture the value of better
places and distributed equitably. And I've
had the privilege of having helped elect the
first black mayor of Chicago Harold Washington
Barack Obama was on my board for a couple
of years. We're definitely troublemakers And
it's good it's good to do that. You have to
challenge the system. The word of the day
these days is resilience and often that's
related to sort of personal capacity and on
break ability. But the definition I found
that I like that I want to offer a couple
of quick comments on is that it's also about
collective ability to adapt to changing conditions
and rise above them to set goals together
as in community empowerment. And in fact that
definition was offered by the committee the
committee on resilience of the American Psychiatric
Association it's a very useful sorted definition.
So what so listening today about the stories
of exclusion. And the ones yesterday made
me feel even more strongly. That if we're
going to start a a better movement to avoid
or to mitigate or hot extreme exclusion. We
better before extreme inclusion in some sense
the How do we deliver the means of doing that
and there's two very different ideas. I think
that were floating around the last two days.
One had to do with providing the tools perhaps
by which people could better tell the stories.
Or more venues more performance is more of
the things I'll you great artists know how
to do to get people out of their comfort zone
that that really helps from an economist's
point of view that's a supply-side strategy.
The other way to go and how communities organized
is to demand change is to. It's that don't
mourn organized sort of impulse in question
in my mind is if you could mimic the most
successful organizing movements in the country
you would quickly come to the need to get
a very large number of people. They hit that
aha moment. There's something here I have
to pay attention to. So the response to red
lining in the 160s were was first individual
saying Why did this happen to me why can't
I get the money from my bank anymore later
on they came to a group of us and asked Could
you do a study that showed that was going
on and draw a different kind of map. One that
would show not only where the red lining was
happening but where there might be green line
where there might be reinvestment. And eventually
we turn that into a law. And as a result you
can go into any bank in the country today
and ask where your money's getting reinvest
by a quick show of hands how many people have
ever done that see this is a tool I saw two
hands in the back a universally available.
So how many people have ever asked where the
environmental risks are in their neighborhood.
Have you gone to the tax six release inventory
and looked at how clean and safe your neighborhood
is anybody another 233 hands. So what's the
equivalent of that we can bring this up in
the discussion again but I think we need to
build demand for change out of the stories
that are being tall. And then to think about
what a systematic approaches to achieve that
change if we're going to succeed out of this
excellent discussion. Thank you very much.
Maybe Brian would you be willing to go next
yeah. Here we go. Hi I'm Ryan Gollum. I'm
a theatre artist playwright director and I've
been working in the lower east side for the
past 20 plus years a lot of my work is based
in collaboration with teens mostly from the
lower east side. And a lot of the work that
I create is based on stories of communities.
Coming together organizing that piece in history
Much of that history is Hillary side although
recently I've been doing a number of works
about the civil rights era. And those performances
which sometimes are indoors and sometimes
take place at multiple sites throughout the
community engender conversation. But the reason
I'm really here today I think it's because
of my role in co instigating lower your site
history month. And that is a really simple
idea very open platform for the entire community.
That started two years ago where we start
talking across sectors not just the cultural
people or historian in the neighborhood but
also to organize our social service agencies
schools. And and we said you know this is
just like African-American History Month or
women's history month. What we wanna do is
we want to tell the stories of our community.
Our community is under incredible giraffes.
It's gone through enormous change in recent
years. And we're losing a lot of our culture
and our stories through gentrification. And
it's a very painful process. And there is
a lot of fight back. We have a history of
activism in the neighborhood and there's a
lot of fight back. But but it's unclear that
you know where where things are going. But
I think in the process we do need to build
our connections across the community and we
need to be able to celebrate the stories That
are happening now and connect them. I'm sorry
they're happening that have happened connect
them to now and to the vision of where we
want to go. So so I think what I really want
to say about this is that it's been a very
powerful kind of connection that new collaborations
have come out of it has been part of that
hopeful process that corresponds to the anger
and the mourning. And and we've brought together
over 80. Organizations. People have told stories
and all kinds of different ways And one of
the ways that now we're trying to move that
forward is to create opportunities for our
newer residence for people who become engaged
in the story is to actually go deeper and
become part of the campaigns that are about
asserting neighborhood identity about protecting
affordability for small businesses and resonance.
So it's been a very powerful process to be
part of as a cultural worker and an artist.
And I'm deeply grateful to my community because
they have been so open to and finding all
kinds of ways to engage through this platform
Thank you. Martha goes you know. O I divided
the world into two parts. And you could say
eugenic started. Because we already understood
that there was two worlds and anyone found
in those worlds that was not part of the Columbus
conquest was Pagan. And whoever was found
was even native or African or Asian. So that
the history in the construct of exclusion
starts there and even before because we know
that within our own cultures there was enslaved.
But globally it starts there. And if it starts
there that means that everything that's constructed
has to address that superiority. So that we
have to understand that law has to support
that education has to support that. In every
institution that exists has to support that
point of view. So the question is then how
do we intervene as and I have to identify
myself as an African descendant let Dina of
parents born and raised in East Harlem. And
I have to understand that when I speak about
community I'm not speaking about anybody else.
I'm speaking about myself. And I also understand
that scholars have to learn how to speak better.
And I was talking to Jack. And what do I mean
by that you place and most of the compensation
has placed to speak or outside of the community.
And that's problematic. Because we are mothers
fathers we are aunts uncles grandparents and
we have to into being in whatever sector affects
up family and affects us. In the fifties more
than 33% of women in Puerto Rico was sterilized.
And that's the United States. But he goes
a colony of the United States and was colonized
with the Philippines and other areas of the
Caribbean. And it's still a colony and it
just declared bankruptcy. In the United States
has said when that into being the mayor of
New York Jenkins was in Harlem trying to get
a cab. He wasn't able to get a cat because
may or may not be. The labor law scholars
means nothing. Because he was a black man
in Harlem and was not picked up by a taxi
I stepped out of my office the other day on
a 125 history between Lexington and probably
the most up abandoned strip in the city where
K2 is destroying lives got into a cab and
the man tells me Dominique and very dark.
And he tells me I can't take. When I said
IPO gave you one of us a man Docker them.
So it's so internal lines that we have to
understand that we have to do different and
what has been different for me has been building
institutions in our image. And we'll show
their bathroom. We organize in South Africa
African descendents from throughout the globe.
Because we have to understand that and talking
about ourselves we're not talking about the
African-American us experience apart from
the African experience in the Caribbean in
Latin America and throughout the world. And
when we're talking about exclusion we're also
talking about native peoples because it was
the teachers in native reservations that was
sent to Puerto Rico to take away and the culture
relies. The people look pretty cool. Right
but what only can still speak Spanish which
is another colonial language but it's resistance
against the US. So to me to make a difference
is to build institutions that reflect us.
But colors that enough. It's culture at the
senza. It's what our sacred beliefs. That's
why I started how I started. Because if you
pay attention pay attention to the sacred
beliefs of your people. Yes they're honoring
ancestors but they can speak the language.
That honest is that ancestors. And we also
have the color system the symbolism that speaks
to who we are as a people. So although I didn't
really bring objects but I'm wearing the colors
of my divinities. The divinities that came
from West Africa traveled throughout the Caribbean
and the world and landed in the basements
of the Bronx of New Jersey of Washington where
people still celebrate those traditions that
a sacred and frame the aesthetic. Not from
a European standard from our standing. And
if we don't change the framework to reflect
who we are What we stand for we also replicate
dominance and exclusion. So never speak about
the other because the other was well the first
thing that I want to say is how great you
know this is the I think the the third program
that Jack and Mark and meta no ifs had put
together around this. And each one has been
pretty interdisciplinary. And for me it's
been so fantastic to be able to sort of engage
with this work and this issues with with artists.
I'm not an artist. But all my work is I would
say not just indebted to but dependent on
the work of artists. So I just really I really
wanted to take that opportunity to say to
exemptions to say thank you for that because
I really am with Brecht right who said that
art is not a mirror to hold up to society
but a hammer with which to shape it. And I
think we we see that here yesterday and today.
The first thing I guess I don't want to say
after that because you know it's going to
have a couple of days is just to reiterate
again that there is resistance. There has
been resistance there will be resistance.
All right so for example a lot of folks have
talked about a 100 plus years of sterilization
abuse well from the very early decades of
this of over in another century now of the
20th century there were people organizing
against this paradigm. So yes you know you
had Margaret Sanger who was completely an
engine for massive sterilisation Puerto Rico.
But you also had people who challenged her
who said yes you know we believe that women
should have access to birth control and reproductive
rights and freedoms but we're not down with
this. We're not down with this coercion right
and they were very early on in particular
African American women's organizations. And
the earlier part of the 20th century anarchists
free love advocates. And certainly as sort
of the century went on right every sort of
community right you know queers people whose
gender identity and expression does not match
their birth. People who really understood
the racialization process that was going on
with our pathology have all organized. And
this brings me to my second which is you know
eugenics has gone after a lot of different
people in a lot of different ways it is in
a way has been kind of a coalition right and
you know that gives us a lot of opportunity
to Bill coalition and to build alliance to
beat it back. You know so again a to keep
harping on this 1 cuz it's certainly not the
only work that I think is out there even that
I've been engaged in but when we were fighting
around the HIV immigration ban yes we had
HIV aids organizations in that coalition.
We also had civil rights organizations. We
had immigrant justice organizations. We disability
rights organizations. The attack comes from
a coalition that can sometimes be just as
contentious has As the old ones that were
N'T right but but but we can do a lot more
together than we can separately. And to get
back to sort of you know what people were
here yesterday and heard Jack mentioned the
eugenics tree. Or if people got to see this
right which was a graphic that eugenics and
other very into self-promotion. So there's
no lack material. So they had this eugenics
tree and it talked about all the different
movements and all the different pieces that
are the roots and the branches of eugenics.
We could fill up that tree talking about the
history of resistance to eugenics. All the
different communities came from all the different
movements that came from and is still coming
from very specifically. And the very last
thing I want to say is that you know eugenics
likes to pick off the vulnerable right to
pick off people who they think. Everybody
else is going to think of as a pariah or expendable
or somewhat other. So when we're thinking
about how to beat all this back it is very
important because everybody or most of the
people in this room are or will be in rooms
where they had the pariah right where they
are the most vilified. Were they are the farthest
away from what is considered kind of normative
in terms of right gender immigration religion
et cetera et cetera. And we are the people
that we need to fight for. We get our rights
the people who were the most marginalized
and people have multiple marginalization.
Everybody else gets their rights tail. We
fight for the people who look the most like
what is considered normative and acceptable
yeah they're gonna get their rights and it'll
just be them I'm here representing the near
collective of radical educator. Some coming
from that perspective. When we think about
exclusion education is an institution where
the values and the beliefs of the eugenics
movement still exists and it's very raw form.
So as an example we can take the practices
of testing and tracking students. Direct descendant
from that era. And we know that such practices
although touted as being used to guide student
achievement is really just a marker for socioeconomic
status. So the students who are and that low-income
population are going to be the ones who overall
do worse. And we also know that in that low
income population we have our students of
color. We have our emergent bilinguals and
we have our special education students. So
those same people that were on the margins
eugenics movement was was being born. And
so we have this education system that's based
on race his ideology that guides and determines
what we teach how we teach and who gets to
teach at. And so once again pushing our students
of color are emergent bilingual our immigrant
students out to the margins. So the end result
of this is a reproduction and perpetuation
Of the inequities that exist in our society.
And so even though I consider myself an activist
and an advocate for public education no matter
how I slice it myself. Nick remembers and
our allies unfortunately are complicit in
this system because we are educators. So the
question for us and for our allies and for
everyone else in this group is how do we subvert
this system how do we subvert this system
that we have to exist and to pay our bills
and to feed ourselves. And so for all of its
whenever field or n these are questions that
we have to ask of ourselves. And so for us
in NYC where what we'd like to do is it first
begins with individual work which is uncomfortable
because you have to look into yourself. First.
We have to recognize the various the various
powers and privileges that we come with. Even
those of us who are part of marginalized communities.
There's still things within our identity that
gives us privileged over other certain other
communities. So sometimes it's easy to say
that you're committed to inclusion. It's easy
to say you're committed to equity and justice.
But our actions don't always match up with
the words that we say. And so that's where
the real work begins is how do we centered
the voices of those people are the most marginalized
in our communities and our classrooms in our
workplace. So we have to be constantly educating
ourselves politically. So I'm going to speak
just generally about three things that we
try to do. An NIH core that I think can be
applicable to any field or any institution
that maybe represented here in the audience.
So one thing is political education. We have
to understand the structural institution that
we're situated within. So whenever we're thinking
about things we're always thinking about it
in terms of white supremacy neoliberalism
and racism. We can't think about making changes
to education without having those things at
the forefront of our mind. We have affinity
groups. So right now we have two that are
the most prominent. We have one for white
educators called anti-racist educators group
and we have one for educators of color. So
for the educators of color when we meet it's
to heal it's to validate and affirm our existence
and our stories and our narratives. But it's
also to challenge ourselves. Because even
though we are from marginalized communities
some of us are cis gendered. Some of us are
heterosexual Some of us have class privilege.
So still be unable to understand how these
things play a role for weight educators they
get together so they can fumble through those
things that they may not be comfortable seeing
in front of other folks of color right so
they can work on how do you have that conversation
with your racist uncle at Thanksgiving and
then a third thing that we do which should
be the easiest thing to do but seems to be
incredibly hard. It's building with other
institutions and other organizations. So we
have to recognize that our students exist
not just in our classroom but outside in their
communities and the world at large. So how
do we make connections but there's other organizations
that are due on the work that they might be
doing it differently than we are They might
have a different approach than we do and maybe
that's something completely different. But
recognizing that our end goal is the same.
And therefore we need to be doing this work
together. Thank you. So I think I'm the last
on our panel to go. What I might do is just
for a second have everyone stand up and stretch
and I'm a physician by training. And so I'm
always listening that sort of process and
I unfortunately wasn't able to be here yesterday
but was able to catch up on some of the materials
and then seeing today. And I just wanted to
say first of all how incredibly impressed
I am with this gathering of people and how
each of you has brought something different
to the table with different talents and strengths
and your own unique experience as a human
being. And I again congratulate you for being
here on that I guess what I would want to
say is I think about sorting a lot I'm a physician
I work in mental health. It's a place where
people are stigmatized and segregated as different
quite frequently. And I know from collecting
personal stories that are commonalities are
tremendous and getting to know other people
seems to be the key. There'd been a couple
themes that I've picked up on that have really
struck me and I guess the challenge I would
ask of all of you leaving here is to think
about something that actually I think almost
all of you touched on sort of thinking about
within your own sphere of influence. Every
day you make hundreds of choices that people
you pass on the street the people you interact
with. Think about what's going on. You're
educating yourself in the historical politics
of our daily interactions but yet you have
choices in front of you and you have opportunities
for kindness and what's really exciting to
me because I also like to think on systems
level is that a lot a lot of the sort of science
this is sort of the reason for the conference
of itself and and some of this this terrible
use of science to sort people actually made
it so incredibly distressing. And I think
there's actually a newer science that in a
positive way is showing that our interconnections
really make a difference in our health and
our health and our lives and in our communities.
By the time I see people that they've gotten
to the hospital and I work in an emergency
room by the time they've gotten to the emergency
room a lot has happened and it's been years
that it will take of undoing. And I think
having difficult conversations whether it's
in education or out in places where people
live and tack back of taxis it sounds like
the idea is just to really to to form those
connections. And I want to just end with something
that I was really impressed by the performance
that we just saw and the power of that type
of communication and there was a line in it
that particularly moved to me that that image
of the two children holding hands and the
line that said they have each other and I
think something is everyone who is curious
and interested we have each other. And I think
this is very inspiring. It's a beginning of
a story from this moment So we've been kind
of sitting and you've been you in the audience
have been kind of listening actively engaged
but this is our chance to break up into four
groups again and that we're going to come
back. So the thought was that we would each
group would maybe fill out a list of engagements
interventions actions that they they would
like for us to be making as much together
as possible right and we've got the four groups.
Let me just make sure I remember who they
are. But it's really the four groups are.
Excuse me. Have it Mindy fully love Marta
Marina Vega Kim taught Bert is Kim here can
worry I'll kick him. And then also myself.
So maybe the group that's in this wing over
here kind of gather around Kim. Okay and then
maybe some of us I can join you and gather
round over here on the left and then we should
divide up maybe the front and the back. So
that maybe Mindy If you could be in the front
group and then the back group can convene
over there. So Martha would you mind This
is the moment where everybody gets into group
and what are we supposed to do So just to
be just be extremely precise. Just to be extremely
precise this that we've gone through a line.
I think this was a fabulous charge. What are
we supposed to do good list of things to do
we have aligned in our in our fears and what
we don't want to see this is the point at
which we've taken it forward to what we do
want to see. And now we have to say what do
we do so think of this as a to-do list for
how we make the world. You want to see We'd
like you to come back each group with a ten
or 500 item to do list that will become part
of the website and part of the instructions
on how to make a better world everybody got
a to-do list. Everybody makes it to-do list
every day. So yeah yeah yeah. Five minutes.
Experiences or infections on the conference
but maybe start from thinking about parts
and institutions that provide the culture
support. Here. Once they output a phrase which
maybe you can help explain the concept of
building trust and rewind and processes port
open heart surgeries. I wrote race. They might
seem so smart Astrobiologists sorted out each
other and say yeah yeah. For us it's about
the space that's awesome and Charles spreading
forgotten for teachers often. Ask me you know
Let's say I want to also doing was really
based on its. Hi everyone. It's good. You're
gonna leave here with a to-do list research
of justice. So which group would like to start
our group. Ok. Well our group came up with
many amazing ideas like 31 I think ideas here
and they all fell under three basic categories.
So I'm just going to tell you the categories.
One is curriculum and education. And we were
really interested in doing something targeted
at really young people like you know earlier
than people are in than in this audience and
people who are figuring things out now People
earlier number two is communication platform.
So some ideas that we had where I'm doing
a podcast or making a film or films. And so
any kind of communication platform using social
media for example. And then the number three
is community interactions based activism and
engagement. And so some ideas that we had
were role reversals playing out different
take on different roles and figuring out what
that feels like. And yeah there's just a bunch
of parades and drawing things in neighborhoods
on the ground with chalk and that kind of
yeah so those are our three categories
So our group had that like many many ideas
we had 14 but it kind of focus around maybe
three team theme. So kinda worked out. The
first one is visibility so we're picking the
art and performance is very important because
there's a way to connect in a way that maybe
not using academic language as a visible way
of having us connect that doesn't use language
as know that divides us and continued as like
you know gorilla is allows us to use like
maybe U2 or different ways of Islam. Creating
Universal language it kind of leads into another
thing like just having a set goal is something
that we can all use together to defeat like
you know systematic racism like reasoning.
There's a big re zoning issue in the United
States in New York City. And eugenics is really
a part of that that message. So very well
too is a tackle one topic at a time something
like stopping reasoning that prevents under-privileged
people from using their committees though
A1 used them. That's maybe a good way we can
start and then a third thing you just continue
the conversation that we just don't leave
NYU. We don't leave newer this weekend and
we forget everything we just spoke about maintaining
this conversation maybe through meal forums
online maybe Twitter accounts maybe just meeting
back in a most time at a coffee shop and continuing
having this conversation that you know we're
just this is not just a one shot deal that
this is something that if we're going to make
change in our society we just can't leave
this compress not having that mentality So
our group we went around the circle and that
our to-do lists and then we kind of landed
on like a top one which was education and
then coming out of that. Main points being
filled transcending language claiming and
challenging our ignorance humanizing science
through youth education of science building
institutions in our image. And then we had
a discussion about what and I deal our ideal
education may or may not look like AND OR
does look like. And then we came up with a
kind of resource bank at the bottom of places
that are doing. So yes that is all thank you.
I just wanted to say before I do those lists
just that For those of you didn't hear we're
going to be sharing all of these list on the
website and we'll do it in a forum in which
you can continue to build off there's an ad
on this. And so we really want to keep this
going. We launch this new website haunted
files.org which really recreates and a very
cool way a lot of what the actual exhibit
was like but it also provides a research space.
It's archival space. There's about 4 thousand
pages of documents that you can look at. Um
you can see what the effect of field was like
a bit but it's also going to be continuing
resource. We're going to continue using the
blog and you need these conversations. So
this will be one of these sites that was just
discussed on that could be a continuing digital
commons in which we can kind of continue this.
Ok. So speaking to our root we had a lot.
So we just quickly at the end threw together
a couple of three of them that we really liked.
The first was dealing with naming practices
and processes both in the past and how we
can be renaming and coming up with new words.
Loretta as abuse of neurogenic I thought was
incredibly useful. The second one is what
can we do with negative stereotypes and negative
perceptions but also seeing ourselves in a
range of roles. And I think GB just mentioned
that and kind of her list just the way in
which we can open up the percents are kind
of the ways we get to see ourselves in in
pop culture but also in daily experience Then
the third and so how do we intervene on conformity
norms and assimilation but through embodied
knowledges and framework. So really Decety
moving out of the kind of Cartesian mind-body
split. How can we bring in accept knowledge
on as coming from all of us and coming from
the physical way we move and valuing that
just as as much as we do think ourselves as
our brain. So those are the three that we
picked. Yeah. Well So that the whole to-do
list will be posted okay great. So we're moving
into the into the closing moments. You are
remember that yesterday Jack said. So what
is the name of this university that we're
making here and I propose that we call this
the law not by hooking University in honor
of the fact that we're in LA not by hooking.
So I think we've all had a great time at the
not by hooking University. And it's an example
of alternative institutions that we've just
been able to create by gathering here and
and opening up the space to listen to each
other and have fun and have incredible music
and poetry and theater. So really mixing it
up. It's been great for me. And I am so glad
to have been at this inaugural session of
the Hawking University. Jack was joking yesterday
that everybody has now it would get letters
of admission but actually that are free peoples
university. You're you're a member of it.
If you want to be. So you admit yourself.
So and you graduate when you want to graduate.
Now tuition is free. So I think we move into
our last session. Great. As another thing
we did last year and the space which had to
do with detoxifying The Eugenics Record Office
haunted files face I have to tell you that
that exhibit was up for a number of months.
And after a while we work in that space day
after day and quite frankly it began getting
very creepy. We would hear noises that we
had a soundtrack but with your noises and
I'd be upstairs by myself then I started kind
of imagining all sorts of things happening
in feeling the things because those files
are toxic right I mean you already get a sense
of what they're saying. So Martha did kind
of cleansing and thought wow I don't know
what what there would be. Would you describe
what you had done earlier ok. So in some ways
that's a reiteration and an echoing of how
folks middle and app-based Center also sent
us a message that earlier in the day. But
Kara did this incredible performance in the
space. I don't know if you want to say anything
about it. Okay it's everything she just said.
Ok. So let's show it. Okay great
