- Good afternoon, thank you, thank you.
It is my honor and privilege
to welcome all of you
in attendance today on
behalf of the Institute's MLK
lecture committee and
celebration planning committee
to our 2017 MLK Institute lecture.
It's an important point to
make that this is our sixth
lecture in a row and we're
proud that this tradition
is being firmly rooted in
the Georgia Tech tradition
and I'm so pleased to see
so many people in attendance
today so welcome and we're
glad that you're here.
It's been nearly 50 years,
it will be 50 years one year
April 4th in 2018 since
Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.
And in those 50 years much
has changed as President
Barrack Obama said last night, in America,
and much remains to be done.
We at Georgia Tech continue
to work ardently toward
those goals of inclusion
as a campus community
and we work very diligently
together to make our campus
community a model campus community.
In those 50 years many
things have changed and many
things have remained the same.
50 years after Dr. King's
death we still witness many,
many things in American society
that press us to continue
to follow the agenda that he
set for us 50-some years ago.
If Dr. King were alive
today, what would he find as
the most pressing social
and economic justice issues
facing us as a country
in the 21st century?
What would be his assessment
of our capacity to arise
to these challenges as
a country and meet them?
And would he, in fact, be
satisfied that we are doing our
very best individually
and collectively to rise
to these challenges?
These are some questions
that I think about as I
individually move throughout
life and in my capacity
as the vice president for
Institute of Diversity
here at Georgia Tech.
Each year we have this celebration
as a way to commemorate
the life and legacy of
Dr. Martin Luther King.
And with an ambitious slate
of programs, educational,
cultural events, service
opportunities and so on,
to engage the campus community
in a moment of reflection
on the ideals that Dr. King has posed.
This is a noble event for
us here at Georgia Tech
because we are in the
center of the cradle of
civil rights movements in this country.
And it is befitting that
we take the time to spark
the light and lead from
here at George Tech.
At this time I'd like to
ask if there are any elected
officials in the audience.
I'd like to acknowledge
them if they're here.
We were told some might be here.
And if they're late, that's okay too.
So I've done my due
diligence on that, Chris,
Mr. Brant.
So I'll do that.
At this time I'd like
to ask our president,
Dr. G.P. "Bud" Peterson to
come to the stage to provide
the official institute
welcome for this MLK lecture.
Dr. Peterson.
(applause)
- Thank you Dr. Irvine, it's
a real pleasure to welcome
all of you here to, as Dr. Irvine said,
the sixth Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture.
This is one of the high
points of our month long
celebration of Dr. King and
his legacy, and his life.
At Georgia Tech we honor Dr.
King's legacy and respect
those who advance his cause.
We're proud that our
institute is here in Atlanta,
which is the heart of the
American civil rights movement.
Our speaker today, Mr. Bakari Sellers
like Dr. King, studied
at Morehouse College,
here in Atlanta, and has
been to Georgia Tech's campus
on several occasions.
Mr. Sellers worked at a journalist,
a political commentator,
and an activist in the
area of civil rights,
has encouraged Americans to
come to grips with some of
the difficult challenges and
questions we as a nation face.
During our undergraduate
commencement ceremony last month,
we enjoyed a lively address
from Dr. Freeman Hrabowski.
He's the president of the
University of Maryland at
Baltimore County as has been
in that position since 1992.
As a youth, he was already
deeply involved in the civil
rights movement in his native Alabama.
Dr. Hrabowski was prominently
featured in a movie
entitled Four Little Girls,
a 1997 documentary by
Spike Lee about the 1983
bombings in Birmingham's
16th Street Baptist Church.
Dr. Hrabowski offered a
then and now perspective
to our graduates and our
friends and their families.
Coming from one who was
initially involved in the
momentous real world real
time movement that helped
to shape our nation's perspective.
It was enormously impactful.
He said, and I quote, "In
the 60s when I went to jail
"with Dr. King the world was split."
He also noted that the
diversity that we have at our
institutions of higher education today,
institutions like UMBC or
Georgia Tech is much greater
than it was 50 years ago.
And he told our graduates that
now is that time that they,
as leaders, can say to our country,
"Our generation will change the world."
At Georgia Tech we are working
to prepare our students
as leaders and innovators who
are equipped to do just that,
to handle the challenge
that was handed down by
Dr. Hrabowski.
Today's lecture is a
continuation of the month long
celebration of Dr. King.
Still to come are several
important events and I hope
you'll have an opportunity to
participate in some of them.
One that we're proud of is
the focus program which begins
tomorrow and runs through Saturday.
Focus gives perspective to our minority,
or gives perspective
minority graduate students an
opportunity to explore the
opportunities the graduate
school might present for them.
How many of the folks in
the room participated in the
focus program at one point?
We've got about 20 of you.
It is a terrific program, we
invite students to come to
the campus to look at Georgia Tech,
to see what Georgia Tech is
doing in a number of fields,
but also to encourage them
to pursue graduate degrees.
Then on Monday, January 16
we'll observe Georgia Tech's
seventh annual Martin
Luther King Day of Service.
A campus-wide initiative
where volunteers will serve
in teams and engage in
service projects with our
Metro Atlanta community partners.
And then, tomorrow through
Sunday Georgia Tech has
organized a Washington
D.C. civil rights tour
where 70 of our students nad
30 of our faculty members
will travel to understand
the civil rights movement
better from a personal perspective.
Dr. King once said, quote,
"Human progress is neither
"automatic nor inevitable,
every step towards the goal
"of justice requires sacrifice, suffering,
"and a struggle.
"The tireless exertions
and passionate concern of
"dedicated individuals."
He also observed that faith
is taking the first step,
even when you don't see
the whole staircase.
As we reflect upon his life and work,
we're reminded that his dream
can be our dream, as well.
And the journey that he
started and the steps on the
staircase that he talked
about can begin for us
here at Georgia Tech.
Thank you for joining us
and at this point I'd like
to introduce Nagela Nukuna,
our student body president.
Nagela.
(applause)
- Good afternoon.
There we go.
My name is Nagela Nukuna,
a fourth year industrial
engineering student serving
as student body president
this year.
It is such a great honor to
be in the room with so many
individuals who share the
same passion of unifying
people on one single premise.
The fact that we are all human,
each with our own calling
and purpose.
Each one of us here today has
a responsibility to continue
to promote acceptance of all
types of people and learn
from one another to grow this
melting pot that allows our
nation to progress.
Those principles and values
of love and acceptance
begin when we're young and
are truly shaped in college.
At Georgia Tech we are
blessed to be surrounded with
a diverse population of
students from different cultural
backgrounds, faiths, and continents,
each bringing various
experiences to the classroom,
sports teams, debate clubs,
and leadership organizations,
just to name a few.
Just by being here, we are
given one key to this equation
of promoting diversity and acceptance.
The second key is really our actions.
Who we invite to our conversations
and social gatherings
may be a small decision
now, yet the obligate us to
interact with people that are
different from you and me.
These minute learning experiences
act as building blocks
of more challenging decisions
that we have to face
later in life.
Whether or not to make
decisions with everyone's view
points and values in mind.
Being a representative for
all of the different students
at Georgia Tech constantly
reminds me to lead by example
and to exemplify these
necessary qualities to everyone
I meet.
Today we have the opportunity
to learn from someone
who has devoted his
career to doing just that.
Introducing him will be
a close friend and an
exceptional campus leader, Alex Berry.
Please join me in
welcoming him to the stage.
(applause)
- To the students, staff,
faculty, and all of our
wonderful guests, allow
me to say welcome and
good afternoon.
My name is Alex Berry,
a graduating fifth year
industrial engineering student.
(applause)
With the honor and
privilege of introducing our
speaker today.
Attorney Bakari Sellers
is an inspiration to me
because of how his fearless
nature has driven an
impressive list of accomplishments
at such a young age.
Attending Morehouse college,
Sellers was a progressive
leader, ultimately serving
as his college's student
body president.
In 2006, as a recent 22 year old graduate,
Attorney Sellers made history
by becoming the youngest
member of the South Carolina
state legislature and
the youngest African American
elected official in the
nation.
Sellers' political acumen
led him to becoming a 2014
democratic nominee for
the lieutenant governor
in the state of South Carolina.
That coupled with his uncommon
ability to reach across
the aisle to get things
done as lead to numerous
alcaldes.
Including being named Time
Magazine's 40 under 40 list
in 2010 as well as 2014.
And in 2015 being
selected as (mumbles) 100,
which is a list of the
nation's most influential
African Americans.
During these strange times in politics,
he shares his insights into
a political system as a
CNN political analyst.
Sellers has followed in the
footsteps of his father,
civil rights leader Cleveland Sellers,
in his tireless commitment to service.
His father's search for
social justice and equality
as well as his never
ending desire to attain the
highest level of education
possible is another daily
inspiration.
Earning his law degree from the
University of South Carolina
Sellers currently practices
law with the Strong Law Firm.
He has utilized his education
and knowledge of the law
to champion progressive
policies to address issues
ranging from education to
poverty and to preventing
domestic violence and childhood obesity.
And this is also why we bring him here.
At Georgia Tech, where we
have made it a priority
to use our technological
expertise to create the next
generation of global citizens.
Sellers life and passion
depicts how eduction,
civil rights, and equality
will be the cornerstones
for our future.
Attorney Sellers is not here
to merely tell us stories,
but to help give us perspective
on what it takes to set
the agenda for the next
civil rights movement.
Please join me in welcoming
Attorney Bakari Sellers.
(applause)
- Good afternoon.
Did I do it right?
I came to Georgia Tech, the
number one technical institute
in the world and I can't
work the microphone.
Are we on?
Yeah, cool?
I want to first, my mom and
dad would always tell me
the two most important words
in the english language
were the words "thank you".
And they're not nearly said enough.
Oftentimes you wait on people
to pass away or be gone
before you tell them how
much they mean to you,
but I want to say thank
you to a few people today.
The first is my new friend
and we're going to tackle
some of the world's challenges
together, Dr. Ervin.
I want to thank you for
just inviting me here today
and being a part of this amazing campus
and this amazing atmosphere.
Not often do I get a chance
to speak in front of the
institution's president
that's inviting me.
So thank you for taking a
little bit of time out of your
schedule to come and listen
to the words that I have
to say today.
Na-gee-la, did I pronounce that right?
- [Nagela] Nagela.
- Nagela, and she just corrected me, too.
I guess with Bakari I
get Bacardi, Barracki.
(laughter)
Please forgive me.
I look forward to meeting you at the top.
We need a lot of help along
the way so I look forward
to seeing you out there and
meeting you at the time.
And to Alex, I was in Chicago
last night and I have to
tell you that the president
didn't even get as good
of introduction as I got today.
(laughter)
Thank you all so very much.
I'm looking forward to
having this discussion today
and to take a few questions
because we're in very
interesting times.
I don't know if you all
realize that there's a lot of
things that are happening
in the world around us.
Just last night I had the
amazing opportunity to see
the 44th president of the
United States give his
farewell address.
I'm a rather emotional man,
myself, so I was crying.
I was not alone.
There were about 24,999
other people and I'm sure
they were crying.
As well as millions watching.
This is a very interesting
topic, setting the agenda
for the next civil rights movement.
And in this discussion, I
hate when people say I'm
going to give a lecture.
Because it makes me feel
like I'm going to have to
stand up here and speak for
hours and hours at a time.
So instead of giving a
traditional lecture, I guess,
today I'm going to treat you
all like Elizabeth Tailor
treated all seven of her husbands.
That means I'm not going to keep you long.
(laughter)
But as we go down this path,
right, of setting the agenda
for the next civil rights
movement, I want to talk to
you guys about a journey.
Because life is not a singular step,
but life is a journey.
And every journey, every race that we run,
everything that we do no
matter if you are 32 years old,
or 42 years old.
There we go, my voice is amazing now.
(laughter)
You have to have a goal.
So the purpose of today's discussion--
You making me a lot of
money of there, man.
For the purposes of today's
discussion we're going to
have journey to excellence.
And I'm going to apologize
beforehand because I know
you brought me here and
I'm flying back afterwards
to go and spend some time with some CEOs,
business executives
tomorrow in Washington D.C.
Talk about what the first
100 days of the Trump
administration will look like.
Which, I don't know why they invited me.
(laughter)
And I'm going to apologize
beforehand for bombarding
you with questions that are
rooted in such simplicity,
but they're necessary to answer
to navigate this journey.
(talking quietly)
How far have we come?
And the next is where do we go from here?
I think in whatever you're doing,
whatever journey you're on in life,
whether or not you're
on the basketball court,
like I used to be back
in high school and tried
to be in college, or whether
or not you're in acidemia,
or whether or not you're a student,
or whether or not you're
trying to be a husband,
a good husband, or a father,
or whatever you are doing
in life, on this journey
to excellence you have to
ask yourself those two
very simple questions.
How far have we come?
And where do we go from here?
So when answering the first question,
how far have we come, I
feel as if you have to use
some historical context.
And, for me, I'm a southern boy.
I'm from the big city of
Denmark, South Carolina,
where we had three stop
lights and a blinking light.
And so I like to use a little
bit of southern history
and I think back to 1949.
In a small county not far
away from here in Clarendon
County, South Carolina,
where the parents decided,
of African American children
decided they were going to
file for a lawsuit because they
simply wanted their children
to have the same opportunities
as white children
to ride the school buses.
That lawsuit was known
as Briggs v. Elliot.
Briggs V. Elliot became the
cornerstone for the landmark
case of Brown v. The Board of Education.
And let's think about Brown for a minute,
when you think about Brown
versus the Board of Education
in Topeka, Kansas in 1954,
chief justice Earl Warn
got a very rare unanimous opinion.
It was nine-zero.
And that unanimous opinion
read that segregation causes
a sense of inferiority by
placing children in environments
not conducive to learning.
That was the holding of the case.
Segregation causes a sense
of inferiority by placing
children in environments
not conducive to learning.
That's just what $100,000 worth
of law school will get you.
Debt, it just gets you
some wrote memorization.
But think about it, over 60 years later,
how far have we come?
When you look around you
and you see that teachers
are underpaid, where kids go
to school where their heating
and air don't work, where
their infrastructure is
falling apart, where literally
you have kids who they
literally steal meals and
breads and lunches from
the school lunch counter
because if they don't take
it home then their little
brother and sister won't eat.
Where you actually have
corridors of shame.
That's what we call these
education systems where
everything is just simply falling apart.
Ask yourself that very simple question,
how far have we come?
Or you think about the fact
that when you go to church,
and I go to a black church
and so on Sunday morning
all the women in the
black church, you know,
with the big hats, they
sit on the first two rows.
But you understand that
they, during the week,
have to make a decision
about whether or not they're
going to pay their utility
bills or get their prescription
drugs.
Ask yourself that very simple question,
how far have we come?
You know, I think about the
grip of poverty and how it's
placed it's grasp on both
our newborn and elderly alike
and escaping the trap of
impoverishment has become
synonymous with the proverbial
dog that chases his tail.
Again, ask yourself that
very simple question.
How far have we come?
And Mr. President, in my
32 years of great wisdom,
I have come to the resolve that
the answer to the question,
"How far have we come?"
Is that we've made progress,
but we still have yet
a ways to go.
And so as we're on this
journey to excellence and we
ask ourselves that first question,
then we're here, we understand
we have some historical
context, we ask ourselves
how far have we come,
we understand that we still
have yet a ways to go.
Ask yourself that next question which is,
where do we go from here?
Let me tell you a story.
It's about a young man who was
born at 633 Frederick Street
in Denmark, South Carolina.
He went to Voorhees High
School as it was known at the
time and when he graduated
Voorhees High School,
he went to Howard University.
When he got to Howard
University he befriended a man
named Stokely Carmichael.
There's a hint of irony in the story,
Stokely actually graduated
from Howard and convinced
this young man from Denmark
to drop out of school.
This young man from Denmark
dropped out of school,
but he became a part of
the freedom struggle of the
civil rights movement.
You see, early on in the 60s
they were at Miami University
of Ohio preparing for Freedom Summit.
And this young man from Denmark,
he ended up going on his
first civil rights mission
into Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Has anybody ever been to Philadelphia?
Not Pennsylvania, now,
Philadelphia, Mississippi.
It's about the size of
this room right here.
And they were actually
going to look for the bodies
of three of their fellow
slain civil rights workers.
Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney.
And during the day they would
hide in barns and sheds,
at night they would look in
ditches and trenches and,
ironically enough, those bodies
were find behind the home
of Edgar Ray Killen who was
one of the local sheriffs
deputies and ministers at the time.
And that was this young
man from Denmark's first
indoctrination into the
freedom movement of civil
rights struggle.
And you know, when I think
about this question of where
do we go from here?
It brings me to the man that we celebrate.
It brings me to Dr. King and
one of his greatest books
that he ever wrote.
Probably because you can
read it in one sitting,
but it was still an amazing book.
He gave us that challenge
of where do we go from here
and he gave us two choices,
he said, "Chaos or community."
Chaos or community.
And so when I think about
this young man from Denmark
and I think about the fact
that his first indoctrination,
his first mission was to go
to Philadelphia, Mississippi,
and I think about what happened next.
I think about the fact that
he became involved in the
most (mumbles) civil rights
demonstration that this
country has ever seen.
'Cause this young man from
Denmark who went to Howard
who befriended Stokely Carmichael,
who dropped out of Howard University
he then came back to South Carolina.
And on February 6, 1968
he and the students at
South Carolina State College,
it was known at the time,
decided they were going to
protest the All Star Bowling
Alley.
The history books call it Jim
Crowe's final hiding place,
the last vestige of discrimination.
In fact, it sits in the right angle,
it's on Russell street
not far from the campus,
it's actually tucked
back in that right angle.
And on February 6 the students
decided they were going to
go down and protest and they
were coming to clap and chant
and sing protest hymns.
And they did.
And if you think about it,
they were tucked back in that
right angle, but then
Orangeburg City Police and
South Carolina state troopers
began to surround many
of the students.
And as the students
began to clap and chant,
the state troopers began to
press up against the students
and the students began to
press up against the glass
and then the glass broke.
And the proverbial all hell broke loose.
City police and state
troopers began to beat many of
the students.
But they beat them, not
with normal police batons,
but the beat then with batons
that were about this long
and at the end they had
these leather rawhide whips.
There's a young man named
James Stroman who tells
a story about seeing
one of his classmates,
Emma McCain, who was actually
an Augusta, Georgia native,
she was being held by
two state troopers while
another one beat her.
And the students that night,
they were protesting simply
to have the right to bowl.
And they had to go back to
their campus and they had
to heal not only their physical wounds,
but they had to heal their
mental wounds and emotional
wounds as well.
And then came February 7, 1968.
I think older people used
the adjective that tension
was so thick you could
cut it with a knife.
I kind of say it's like
when you're playing your
high school rival and
you're in the parking lot
and you're like, "Mama,
let's get to the car 'cause
"something's about to pop off."
Everyone was a little
uneasy, but nothing happened.
But then came that fateful
day of February 8, 1968.
When the students at South
Carolina State College
decided they were going
to protest the All Star
Bowling Alley again.
And when down the state troopers
came and they surrounded
the students, but this time the
students got the right idea.
They went back to their
beloved campus and they built
this huge bonfire because
they felt safe in their
numbers, they were gathered
together much as we've
gathered here today, for
a singular cause and a
common good.
Because they couldn't foresee
what would happen next.
They didn't foresee that
those state troopers would
line up along the embankment
in front of their beloved
campus.
They didn't foresee that
they would close ranks
like they did.
They didn't foresee that
they would have shotguns
loaded with deadly doubled
eyed buck shots with the
same bullets we use to hunt deer,
and they didn't foresee
that those bullets would be
turned on them with deadly intent.
And for eight seconds,
1,001, 1,002, 1,003,
four, five, six,
seven, eight.
Shots were fired into
the group of students.
It killed three, Henry
Smith, Samuel Hammond,
and Delano Middleton,
and wounded another 28.
This young man from Denmark
was actually shot in the
shoulder that night.
And when he got to the infirmary,
they told him there was
nothing they could do for him there,
he had to go to the hospital.
When he got to the hospital
he was pointed out,
ironically enough by the
only black sheriff deputy in
Orangeburg County at the
time and he was actually
arrested.
And he was arrested
and between Orangeburg,
South Caroline and Columbia,
South Carolina is about
a 30 mile stretch and the
interstate was completely
blocked off.
Everyone who was on was
forced off and nobody else
was let on.
He was charged with five
felony counts looking at
a maximum of 75 years in prison.
In between the time of
the Orangeburg massacre,
as the history books write
this, and the time of his
trial all eight officers
who fired shots into the
group of students were tried,
you're going to find this
ironic, like history doesn't
really change, it just repeats itself,
and all eight officers
were found not guilty.
This young man from Denmark
actually went to trial,
they called it the
prototypical kangaroo court.
The lead investigator
testified that he had forgotten
the evidence so he had
to go back to Columbia,
South Carolina to get it.
When he came back he said
it must've been lost or
destroyed in the years between the trial.
He said, he did remember
this young man from Denmark
not on the night of the
8th, but on the night of the
6th standing on top of a
firetruck lighting a BIC
and saying, "Burn baby burn."
And so they backdated the
indictment and charged
this young man from Denmark with rioting.
And he was charged, tried,
and convicted of rioting,
becoming the first and only
one man riot in the history
of this country.
But when you look at him today
and you see that his eyes
don't pop like they used to
from shedding so many tears
from the loss of so many
civil rights heroes and
sheroes.
Or you see that his shoulders
don't stand as upright
as they once did from carrying
the burdens of so many
generations, you ask him,
"What's the greatest sacrifice
"you had to make?"
He'll tell you that the greatest
sacrifice he had to make
was not being in jail or
losing his freedom, per say,
but it was being in jail
for the birth of his oldest
daughter, or my big sister.
Because this young man from
Denmark who grew up into
a civil rights hero is my
father, Dr. Cleveland Sellers.
And the lessons that I
learned from people like
Henry Smith and Samuel
Hammond and Delano Middleton
and Jimmy Lee Jackson,
and Modjeska Simkins,
and September Clark, even
before you get to Martin,
Malcolm, and Rosa, the
names that they really teach
you in school, they
don't teach you about the
Miriam Berrys and the Julian Bonds.
When you think about the
sacrifices that all of these
individuals made and you
ask yourself the answer to
the next question, which is
where do we go from here,
understanding that we have
two choices which are chaos
or community, you understand
that the answer lies
fundamentally in the ability
for us to dream with our
eyes open.
And so you're going to be
like, "Ya'll brought this dude
"all the way down here to
tell me to dream with my
"eyes open?
"This sounds like some be
all you can be type stuff."
Let me explain to you
what that looks like.
I was telling a class earlier
today that when I was,
when I was 20 years old I
had just graduated Morehouse
College.
Went home, I had a little
Morehouse swag to me,
so I sauntered down the steps
into my kitchen and I told
my parents that I was going to run for the
South Carolina house of
representatives at the ripe
age of 20.
My mom said that she would vote for me,
my dad said he would think about it.
So I knew I had a very,
very long way to go.
I went out and I knocked
on over 2600 doors and went
to over 55 churches and I
have to explain 'cause some
of ya'll are city folk.
I had to explain this to
Corey Booker one time,
who's from New York where
apparently people live
on top of each other in these high rises.
We don't really have that down
south, it's like you knock
on a door, drive another mile
and knock on another door.
So I'm very proud of my
2600 door accomplishment.
June 13, 2006 I was running
against someone who was
82 years old, had been
in office for 26 years,
longer than I had been born.
We made history, we won.
It was one of the most
amazing days of my life.
Became the youngest black
elected official in the
country, youngest state
legislature in the country.
But something was happening
in our world then.
In 2006 there was a campaign
for president going on,
there was a new energy out there.
Because I was so young and so involved,
I was getting these phone
calls from everybody.
I was getting these phone
calls from Dennis Cousinage
and John Edwards.
I was getting these phone
calls from Bill and Hillary
Clinton, I was getting these
phone calls from Barrack
and Michelle Obama.
And so finally I narrowed my choices down,
I felt like a five star athlete.
I felt like Travis Bess.
I felt like, or Jadeveon Clowney
since I'm a Gamecock fan,
but I found myself deciding
between Barrack Obama
and John Edwards.
And then I get a private
phone call as I'm pulling up
in a (mumbles) law class.
I'm the only state
legislature with a book bag.
And let me just advise
the students in the room,
just so you know, we
need to do this PSA now,
if someone calls you from
a private number it's one
of two people.
It's either somebody very
important or it's the student
loan company calling you
to get their money back.
So ya'll just need to be
really cognoscente of that
right now, okay?
And so I pick up the phone and they say,
"Do you have time to
speak to Senator Obama?"
I said, "Of course."
And it wasn't the first time,
I hadn't met him before,
talked to him many times before.
And I had a little brain
freeze because I had forgotten
that he was a professor and
the University of Chicago
and con-law and so I told
him I was going to con-law
and I hadn't been to class
in weeks so I didn't know
where we were.
And he started asking me
what paces we were on and
all of this stuff and it was
a little disconnect in the
conversation.
And the senator said, "Now
is the time," he said,
"I want you to endorse
me to be president of the
"United States."
I said, "Senator, I'll do
so under two conditions,
"one, my mom gets to work on the campaign,
"and two, you come to my district."
And he said, "Okay."
So I traveled all across the country,
I usually travel sometimes
with Tatyana Ali or
Harold and Kumar.
Not Harold and Kumar, but what's his name?
Harold from Harold and Kumar.
And so we travel all across
the south and all across
the country and finally they call and say,
"The senator wants to make
good, he wants to come to
"your district."
I'm from a very poor rural
area, I have no place to put
Barrack Obama in 2008 in my district.
So I say, "Let's do it
at South Carolina State.
"We'll do it in the
gymnasium that's named after
"Henry Smith, Samuel
Hammond, and Delano Middleton
"right near where they
were shot and we're going
"to have this amazing event."
So I pull up and I have my security.
It's the most amazing thing,
people are coming from
everywhere, this was when
Barrack Obama was at the
height of Obamamania.
People were driving from
Georgia and Tennessee
just to touch the hem of his garment,
it was the most amazing thing ever.
And you can just imagine
that there's a stage right
in center court, the green
room was the men's basketball
locker room.
And so when I walk into the
green room as people are
out there, they're playing
Ain't No Mountain High Enough.
Sitting down is Chris Tucker
and Carrie Washington.
And so me, Christ Tucker,
and Carrie Washington,
we're just chatting it up.
Chatting for about 30,
45 minutes, an hour.
Everything's late in politics.
And then my good friend,
Rick Wade comes in and Rick
says, "I'm going to go to
the Orangeburg airport,
"I'll be right back."
Rick goes to the Orangeburg
airport and comes back
with Usher.
So it's me Usher, Chris--
This is a true story.
(laughter)
Goodness, I'm at an engineering,
you've got to have facts
here I can't just throw stuff out there.
So yes it's me, Usher,
Chris Tucker, and Carrie
Washington waiting on Barrack Obama.
And so finally the senator
gets there, he was,
I can't remember what state
or part of the country
he was in, he gets there.
And they say, "You know, it's go time."
And this was the most amazing event.
This was my hometown and I
didn't a good introduction
at this event like I got from Alex,
I got the voice of God.
Which was, "And now welcome
to the stage representative
"Bakari Sellers."
And I'm in my hometown so
the feeling is so amazing
that I'm going out,
people are grabbing you,
I'm signing babies, like
the rails are shaking.
You're walking to the stage,
it is the most amazing thing.
And I get on stage and, I
mentioned this a little earlier
as well, but I get a chance to talk about
Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech.
And it drives me crazy that
people like the rhythmic
cadence of his speech.
They love the, "I have a
dream that one day we shall,"
and they forget about
the rest of the speech.
The most important part
of that speech is when he
talks about the fierce urgency of now.
When he talks about the
importance of that moment
and how you can change
the world in that moment,
oh but a second, right?
And so I talk about that
and I turn around and I
introduce Christ Tucker.
And the decibel level goes
up a little bit higher.
Chris comes out then Christ
turns around and Chris
introduces Usher.
And the women start passing out.
And then Usher introduces
Carrie Washington and then
Carrie Washington
introduces Barrack Obama.
And so we have this moment
on stage where we're all
supposed to stand on stage
while Barrack Obama speaks,
but it's unbelievably
loud and pandemonium.
But we have this moment.
To my left is Christ Tucker
to my right is the president
of the United States.
To the right of the president
of the United States
is Carrie Washington and
to her right is Usher.
And we take this picture.
And everyone asks me what I was thinking.
And to be honest, I was
thinking that I was 19 miles
away from when I actually
came downstairs and told my
parents I was going to
run for the South Carolina
house of representatives.
I was only 19 miles away
from where I really had this
dream with my eyes open that
I thought I could change
the world.
I was only 19 miles away
from where I thought if I
could set an agenda that
other people would believe in
and follow because I simply
felt that no matter if
you were black or white,
you really wanted to see the
world change, and that was
my goal every single day.
I was only 19 miles away from
where I made that decision
to dream with my eyes open,
but I had gone so far.
And so as I took that picture
the next day it was on
US Weekly and Entertainment
Tonight and all this stuff.
It was amazing.
I got a chance as a 22, 23
year old kid from a community
where we had three stop
lights and a blinking light,
where we had wooden backboards
on all of our basketball
goals, where for fun during
the summer we literally
jumped ditches.
That was an amazing activity
as a childhood youth
to jump a ditch.
And I just thought about
this concept of dreaming
with my eyes open because I
was able to imagine it here,
wanted to change the world
here, order my steps,
and then play a part of history.
And so when you're on this
journey to excellence,
when we're setting this
agenda for the world that
looks as if it's spinning out of control.
Who was I speaking with earlier today,
we were talking about how
the world is moving fast
and he said the world is,
some of the people think it's
spinning out of control.
He was at lunch with us earlier today.
And so, a lot of people look
around and they say that
it's just pure chaos, pure pandemonium.
But the challenge for all
of us on this journey to
excellence is to ask ourselves
these very two simple
questions.
Understand how far we've
come, refocus and center.
Answer the next question
which is where do we go
from here?
Dream with your eyes open.
And then understand that the
goal is nothing less than
excellence.
How many educators are in the room?
Raise your hand.
Let me tell you all something,
the greatest educator
of all time is Benjamin
E. Mays, I'm sorry.
I just have to break it to you, okay?
Benjamin E. Mays once said
that in all things that you do,
you do them so well that
no man living, dead,
or yet to be born can do them better.
Just think about that.
Think about on this journey
to excellence that we're
taking in all things that you do,
do them so well that no man living, dead,
or yet to be born can do them better.
The country demands that.
We should all expect that.
We live in a culture of
low expectation right now
and the worst part about
that is oftentimes you get
what you expect.
We live in communities
where kids are not taught
that they can be doctors.
You know why?
Because they haven't
ever seen a Black doctor.
It's hard to tell a kid
he can be a scientist
or be George Washington Carter
if he's never seen a Black scientist.
It's the most amazing thing we can do.
We can set that example and we can show
that on this journey to excellence,
we're not just going to run this race
but we're going to win it.
So as we're setting this agenda,
that we'll flesh out in some questions,
as we're talking about this
next civil rights movement.
I dare not come up and here and say
that I've done something on my own.
I will kind of finish where I started,
by talking about the
two most important words
in the English language, which
are the words "thank you."
Because on the days when we
remember and we celebrate,
and sometimes the post
office is even closed
on Martin Luther King's birthday.
We also have to remember those
names that are not taught.
We also have to remember
that there would be
no Hillary Clinton if there
was no Shirley Chisholm.
There'd be no Hillary Clinton
if there was no Fannie Lou Hamer.
There would be no educators like Dr. Ervin
if there was no Benjamin E. Mays.
We stand on the shoulders of
so many heroes and sheroes
who deserve for us to
continue this journey,
to take the baton, and
not just run the race,
but run the race to excellence.
And I know a lot of us are beaten up.
A lot us are worn down.
But we have to just take a moment to just
refresh ourselves and say thank you.
Thank you to those heroes
who came before us,
for just allowing us to
stand on their shoulders.
And then, especially me,
be a little part in this,
I have to fight this race at
least over the next four years,
and use all of my energy to do it.
But I want you all there with me
because this journey demands
everything that we have.
So with that, I'll take a few questions.
(applause)
Yeah, just, I don't care how we do it.
Just stand up, so I can at least here you.
- So Dr. King was ahead of
his time when he talked about
the triplets of evil.
- [Sellers] Yeah.
- Racism, capitalism, and militarism.
- [Sellers] We talked about
this last night on CNN.
Did you watch?
You likely watch FOX News, don't you?
(laughter)
- And he talked about how in his speeches,
Vietnam at Riverside Church,
- [sellers] Correct.
- He's talked about, he warned us that
America is the greatest
purveyor of violence
in the world today.
- [Sellers] He talked about a
military industrial complex.
- Yes, in his last conversation
with Harry Belafonte,
King told him that comfortably there were
integrating into a birth of hell.
So in this hyper-capitalist society,
how do we ensure that we ensure Dr. King's
message of equality and
peace doesn't get lost.
Is capitalism inherently
odd with his message,
is my question.
- No, and capitalism is
not inherently at odds
with his message.
I don't believe, I
wouldn't dare believe that
Dr. King was socialist,
fascist, communist,
or anything else of the sort,
but I will say this.
Do you know what Dr. King was doing
in Memphis, Tennessee before he died?
He was there actually
marching and protesting
with sanitation workers for wages.
Dr. King fundamentally
understood something that
we have let exacerbate, something that
we have let just grow out of proportion,
which are the income inequality gaps
that we have in this country.
I think that,
it's not that I think, I know that,
in this country, the gap between
the billionaires and I'm
The billionaires and millionaires.
I'm channeling my Bernie Sanders.
The gap between the billionaires
and the haves and have
nots continues to grow.
And until we begin to pay
attention to those people,
I like to say that when I get on TV,
I speak for the voiceless, I
give a voice to the voiceless,
but really that's what I try to do,
and that's what I challenge you to do.
That's what Dr. King was
doing by giving a voice
to those sanitation workers.
We have to continue to
stand up for those people
who often times will go unheard.
Those people who work everyday, who
It's amazing, we only had two states
in the entire Union where
working a minimum wage job,
you can afford to live in
a one bedroom apartment.
I mean, just think about that.
People work 40 hours a week
and are still in poverty.
I mean, we have so many
people who give their all
and this is what Dr.
King was talking about
and so especially when we
had this discussion about
democratic politics,
democratic in terms of
democratic party politics,
people had this discussion
often times about
whether or not you can focus on
giving a voice to issues
such as immigration
or criminal justice reform,
or you have to focus on the white rule,
middle class in middle America
who may have lost a job,
you know, or you have to
focus on the progressive left.
I think that you can focus
on all of those things.
I think that intersectionality
in Kimberle Crenshaw's
amazing thesis of intersectionality.
I don't know if you've ever
read Kimberly Crenshaw.
She's from UCLA, she's brilliant.
She talks about intersectionality,
demands that of us.
Questions.
Yes.
You gotta run.
If you have a question, just
come on over here to the mic.
- So Attorney Sellers,
as I'm sure you know,
a lot of millennials, is the buzzword,
especially the Black
millennials, have become
really disillusioned and
distrustful of the political system
but we all know as well that
you can't get things done
in this country and affect change without
understanding and being
involved in politics.
So what would you say to younger people,
especially young Black
people who feel that
the political system is not
the way that they're gonna
like achieve the equality
that they're seeking.
- I mean, that's a tough question.
I mean, I think that
it's necessary to have
a healthy dose of cynicism.
I think it's necessary
to make sure that you
hold the people who you elect
and who are in positions
of power accountable.
I don't think it's wrong for anyone
to ask for those who are
in positions of power
to have ethics and be transparent.
I think we can demand all of those things,
but I also think that
sometimes we lose focus
of how we get here,
or how we got here.
I think, many times, we forget that
I was on The Breakfast
Club with my friend,
Charlamagne Tha God, and
What, y'all don't believe
any of my stories, do you?
(laughter)
I was on The Breakfast
Club, and I talked about how
some people attempt to take a stand
by saying they're gonna
sit out the process.
I'm a big Colin Kaepernick.
In fact, I got like three
of his jerseys, alright?
And I, when he said that he didn't vote,
I just wanted to reach over
there and grab him real quick
and have a good, personal
conversation with him.
I still rock with Colin, but
I think he made a faux pas.
But with that being said, I
think that we forget sometimes
that people literally die,
people gave up their lives.
The blood is real blood,
the sweat is real sweat.
For many of us, especially
African-Americans in the South,
we don't have to read about
the Civil Rights movement
in a history book.
You know, we understand
the smell of gun smoke.
We know people who felt
the lash of water hoses.
You could probably go in your community.
Where you from?
- [Man] I'm from College
Park, like in the Southwest.
- Oh yeah, you can go
right to College Park.
You go down the street, on the corner,
you find somebody who knew Dr. King,
marched with Julian
Bond, or knew John Lewis.
I mean, we forget that we stand
on the shoulders of so many people.
And unfortunately, we only remember those
during King holiday and
Black History Month.
But I think that we have to begin,
especially people like you and I,
we have to make sure that we're pushing
our brothers and sisters who are our age
to continue this fight.
I think that's the most important part.
Without us, we'll lose.
Disinformation will win.
This whole bubble theology
where people are just
retreating to their own personal bubble,
and they don't care about
what other people are doing.
We'll have no empathy.
I think it's come to put all of us,
just to put our shoulder to the wheel,
and make sure that other
young people understand
that we have to get up.
We have to get up, get
out, show up, and show out.
And you also have to caution yourself
to understand that if you look
at the Civil Rights Movement,
everybody wasn't a part of it.
So everybody ain't gonna
be a part of your movement.
You just need to know that.
You can't look around an expect everyone
to be on the same team you are.
But what you can do is
be a beacon of light
for others to follow.
And I think being an example is probably
the best thing you can do right now.
- [Man] Thank you.
- Thank you.
If you have a question,
it can be more than once.
You can line up, and we can just,
we can just knock 'em out.
- I'm an international student,
and I just wanted to,
it enables us to see a
different perspective
when you come from somewhere else.
You see the differences
that most people don't see
because, you know, they're used to it.
And, I mean, based on the
question that I'm about to ask,
is just, speaking the
first thing that I saw
when I came to the States,
even educated ones in college,
even probably more
reputable ones in college
or the ones who are not in college,
there's a cage in the mind, it's weird,
like there's an anger and this anger is
the conversation you have with them.
It can go as simple as
to the most complex,
and based on the,
I translated it to social
media, like twitter,
there's a lot of reactions online.
There's a lot of reactions online.
You go through a stream of Twitter feeds
and so many reactions and
angry people, legit angry,
but I'm wondering, how is it possible?
Because they have legitimate gripe,
or based on what he said,
how do you translate that?
What's the most effective way to
change that reaction into action,
and actually, you know, get it out?
- First of all, if I had
the answer to that question,
Hillary Clinton would be president,
and I would be like king of the world.
(applause)
So that is a tough,
that is a tough, tough nut to crack.
You know, the first thing I try to do,
and I just said this again,
so pardon me for repetition,
is I try to be an example, that's first.
I think that's something we can all do.
But even second, I think we have to
give people a reason to move.
I think we have to give
people something to vote for,
something to be a part of.
And I think, I don't want
to say that's unfortunate,
but if we have to meet
people where they are.
There was an article
in the New York Times,
I don't know how many people
read the New York Times.
It depends on where you fall.
Some people said that's fake
news and now too, I guess.
I don't know.
And so there was an article
in the New York Times
about a group of people
from Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
who decided that they were
not gonna participate in the election.
It was a group of Black barbers,
and they just said, you
know, nobody speaks to me.
I don't feel like it.
This isn't about us.
You know, no one, Donald
Trump or Hillary Clinton,
neither one of them are
talking to our issues.
No one's come by to see us,
this, that, and the third.
And see, it's hard for me to
make that mental leap to say,
this is an obligation,
you're supposed to do it
because that's gonna fall on deaf ears.
You know, you need to do it because
my father almost died so you
would have the right to do it.
That doesn't really
resonate with everyone.
But what I do have to
be able to show is that
it affects people's bottom line,
it affects your college tuition,
it affects your healthcare, it
affects your small business,
it affects everything
that goes on around you.
And so you have to play
a role in this process
because if you do not play
a role in this process,
it will eat you up.
In this country, especially
as an African American,
you have systems of oppression, okay?
Sometimes, it's very hard for
me, especially when I'm on CNN
to explain to people what systems
of oppression really mean.
It's very hard for me to explain
intersectionality to people
and I think that the systems of oppression
have really beaten many of
our brothers and sisters up
to the point of hopelessness.
And I think until we unravel
these systems of oppression,
we're gonna continue to have
this epidemic of hopelessness.
These systems of
oppression look like this.
It looks like an educational system
that punishes you because of your zip code
because you're not really,
you don't get to choose
when you fourth grade, whether or not
you're gon' have pre-K,
what school you gon' go to,
if they gon' care about you, you know,
if they gon' care about that you have
a slight learning disability
or that your parents
ain't home after school.
They're not gon' care
about all of this stuff.
So we live in a country
where your punished
for your zip code,
based in your educational system.
That's one system.
Then you have a system of
environmental injustices, right?
That's a new one.
It's been going on for years,
but people just started caring about it.
Let me tell you where Flint
Michigan ain't gonna happen,
in Cobb County.
Okay, that's right.
(laughter)
So, after you have the
environmental injustices
and you have the educational injustices,
think about a criminal justice system
that doesn't care who you are,
how many degrees you have.
And when you think about these things,
when I explain to people what racism is,
or what any -ism is,
they want me to allow them to feel soothed
by the fact that the
bathrooms and water fountains
no longer say "whites only,"
but it' still there in these systems.
Now, there's a question about
whether or not these systems were broken
or whether or not these
systems were built like this,
fair question to ask.
But I do believe that we
can reform these systems.
And so what I'm trying to
do in a multi-faceted way
with every bit of energy I have,
is convince the people that
you're talking about is
I'm trying to treat this
ailment hopelessness,
understanding while they're hopeless,
by reforming each one of these systems.
So the question is where
you gonna help me out?
'Cause this is a lot of work to do.
Question.
- Yes, thanks for being here today.
So you and I, I would
say, you're 32, I'm 33,
I would call us the OM, the
Original Millennials, right?
- [Sellers] Man, don't
make up that new name, man.
I don't wanna be
- We have a whole new, a whole new thing.
But what I mean by that is,
our parents are more
than likely baby boomers,
- I want you to know that I quoted today,
I ain't gonna say who said it.
I was saying that at a school,
I believe it's in the state of Georgia,
I'm pretty sure it's UGA,
they teach a class on OutKast.
- [Man] Yeah, Savannah.
- It's Savannah State?
- [Man] Yeah, Savannah State.
- It's Savannah State.
I thought it was, I gave
UGA too much credit.
Savannah State.
- [Man] Yeah.
(laughter)
- And somebody had the audacity to say
"OutKast? The band?"
(chatter and laughter)
- [Man] They should be held back a year.
- That hurt. Aha, thank you.
- [Man] Take them back a year.
- Or we're gon' start the
impeachment process right now.
(laughter)
- But I say that because we have,
that age range has a unique mix
of X-generation and baby boomers,
those qualities and so
my question to you is,
seeing the last eight years,
and I'll say this before
I ask my question,
I always thought that
one of the presidents,
Obama's biggest flaws was that,
and I will say this cynically,
that he didn't get Joe Biden to come out
and say a lot of things
that he wanted to do.
I think at the point,
the country would've been
a little bit more palatable
to swallow in the field,
and there's thing that you see
- [Seller] So let the guy say it,
it would've gone over well.
- It would've been perfectly fine.
- [Sellers] (laughs) I
don't know about that one,
but I haven't thought about that.
I don't think that
theory is true but okay.
- That's my cynical joke.
And I say that because of this.
What we've seen, I believe, over the last,
I would say eight to 10 years,
is a willful ignorance
of the anti-intellectual,
anti-school, anti-technology.
And we tend to, I work for JPMorgan Chase.
I'm a commercial banker and
I tell people all the time
that immigrants aren't
taking manufacturing jobs.
It's the quad 3200, you can't stop it.
You know, I've seen I mean Amazon Go
is coming out with something
where you can go in
and pick up a sandwich and
it can charge your account
which would undoubtedly make cashiers,
- [Sellers] Disappear.
- Take those jobs away.
And so you have people that are,
how do you
adjusts those systems with people that are
willfully ignorant and
anti-intellectual to the point,
and I see you battling CNN all the time,
and I wonder, I'm like
- [Sellers] There's a lot of
anti-intellectualism on TV.
- Yeah, how
(laughter)
I always said, you
can't get it out the rut
because again, coming
from the corporate world,
you know, I was taught as a manager,
people have the skill or the will.
You can teach somebody that
has the will, the skill,
but you can't teach somebody the skill,
who doesn't have the will.
And I think a lot of the country,
both on whether it's
young African Americans,
brown Americans, and white Americans,
you have a segment of
the take-my-country-back
and also the segment of woke people.
They're highly un-intellectual,
and they're not,
and they're smart about
what they're doing.
- So I mean, it is a challenge.
I mean, I think that
one of the things that,
and I think the president
addressed this last night,
in an hour, way more eloquently than
I'm gonna address it in
a five minute retort, but
I think that he laid out many things
that contribute to us
building and making sure that
we strengthens our democracy.
The first is that, we have this culture
of anti-intellectualism.
I'm not a big Jonathan McWhorter fan,
but he did write a good piece
on anti-intellectualism.
And, you know, it is becoming
pervasive on both sides
and I think this will be
my third time saying it,
but people actually, now, instead of
getting news to expand their worldview,
they just get news to
reinforce their opinions.
And then if the news doesn't
reinforce their opinions,
they kick it aside as fake news, alright?
And so that is a very
difficult discussion.
On TV, I have these debates all the time,
and I realized that I'm never debating
the person in front of me.
I'm always debating for the
people who are watching.
I'm usually debating for the
one and a half million people
at any given point who probably
are watching you on TV,
not trying to change that person's mind.
But one of the things we have to do
is begin to have serious conversations.
My friends who just sat down over there
was talking about social media.
And we kinda need to break away
from having discussions in 140 characters.
Pew Research came out and
said 69% of all adults,
adults, adults, 69% of all adults.
Think about this, 69% of all adults
get their news off Twitter.
(laughter)
I mean, you're talking
about 140 characters
without context, alright?
That you can't even edit.
Jack hasn't made is so
you can edit Twitter yet,
so that is where you're
getting your news from.
And so when you're thinking about this,
we do have a culture of
anti-intellectualism.
It's on the right, it's on the left,
it's black, it's white, it's
other, it's gay, it's straight.
It doesn't matter.
It's very hard to, we
have to become individuals
and citizens to make sure
that we're focused on
at least having conversations with people.
That is what we're missing
in this whole discussion.
I don't think, you start off by saying
Barack Obama had a flaw, in this
really weird political
theory that you came up with.
(laughter)
But by letting Joe
Biden be the mouthpiece,
which is an interesting concept
because you can't control anything
that comes out of Joe Biden's mouth.
(laughter)
So I don't know how well that would've
gone over in the White
House. (nervously laughs)
Let Joe say it. No, please.
(laughter)
If anything, it's please God,
don't let Joe say it, (laughs)
is usually how it goes.
Absolutely phenomenal
man, like phenomenal man.
But I do think that the
president has been an example
and he showed this
country not what we were
or what we are but what we can be.
And I think that that is probably
one of the legacies that Barack
Obama is going to teach us.
Another thing is, there's a
question about whether or not
the issue of race, which
you hit in on as well,
has become, or racism
has become more prevalent
in the eight years that Barack Obama
has been president of the United States.
Answer to that question is no.
And the reason that it's no is because
I think it's you can see it more
because we have social media
and things of that nature,
but it's not, it's always been there.
I mean, it ain't like it just went away.
It ain't like people stopped being racist,
or people stopped being antisemitic.
I mean you just see it now.
And so that makes me a little bit crazy.
People often times,
especially on TV, they say
"Well what about Chicago?"
And I'm like, well what about Chicago?
And so they wanna say,
they wanna talk about,
you know, gun violence
and all of these things
and you know, if you
are having a discussion
because I want people in this room
to be able to have more discussions,
and people begin to, when
you're having discussion
with people about racism
or race and Barack Obama
or anything else, and they talk about
well what about gun violence?
Then you have to ask
yourself those questions,
and you have to be able to go
through that logically and say
well one, personally, I think,
and I said this earlier today that
gun violence needs to be treated
as a public health crisis, alright?
And two, you have to go and
look at why it's occurring.
It's occurring because you
have places that are desolate,
you have places literally in Chicago
where you have food
desserts, where you don't,
where you can't go to a market
and get fresh fruits or fresh vegetables,
where you have an education
system which is deplorable.
I actually asked Rahm Emanuel to resign.
He looked at me all crazy last night.
He reads the newspaper, by the way.
And so, you know, you have
all of these different layers
of oppression that are
right there in Chicago
which breed this violence,
and don't talk to me about,
do not talk to me about this
outbreak that's occurring
without even dealing with
the root cause of it,
and so, I say all of that
to say that I think that
we have issues that can be resolved
if this country's willing
to have a conversation.
- [Man] Thank you.
- But as Dr. Ervin said,
what's the hardest conversation
to have in this country right now?
Race is the hardest conversation
to have in this country right now.
That time for three more?
Yeah.
Do we have any women
that wanna ask questions?
(laughter)
I usually do really well
with women in the audience.
This is bothering me.
(laughter)
Go ahead.
- So you raise a, you keep mentioning
systems of oppression
throughout your talk today
and I think that's really interesting.
You know, drawing from
Michelle Alexander's book
about, you know, how
racism has transformed
and through Jim Crow, and how
what we're dealing with nowadays,
it's not as overt, it's
not as direct, right?
It's embedded into systems.
- [Sellers] Correct, and
she was talking about
the new Jim Crow and it being embedded
in the criminal justice system.
- Right, right right right.
- [Sellers] Or even more specifically
in our prison industrial complex.
- And so I recall an
interview with the president,
I think it was MPR, and he was,
he got a question regarding how some
people in the African
American community felt like,
this is a common critique for him,
that he did not directly engage
as powerfully as he could
on some of these issues.
His response to that was
simply that, you know,
the form that racism takes
nowadays is not as overt, right?
It's systems, so you know,
it's not going to be productive
for me to come at it
the way that, you know,
Malcolm X might have come at it, right?
Because that's not the
way things work nowadays.
But, so this is the Oval Office.
It's different, right?
But in terms of civil rights, you know,
what does that mean in
terms of an approach?
Alright, how does that
- [Sellers] So to kinda
answer your question,
in this whole civil rights movement thing
that we're talking about,
everybody has different
roles to play, alright?
And I've said this earlier,
and this is so true.
Barack Obama,
if he was the president that we wanted,
he wouldn't be president,
but he was the president
that we needed, okay?
I think that's first and foremost.
Malcolm x ain't gettin' elected president
of the United States of America.
I mean y'all could just,
what would Malcolm X have
done in the White House?
Malcolm X wouldn't have been
in the White House, okay?
So, that's first.
But also there is this,
and we were talking about this earlier,
but there's this system of misinformation.
Barack Obama is leaving
the White House right now,
for the first time in American History,
with fewer prisoners in the prison system
than when he got there.
He's granted more prisoners clemency
than the last eight presidents combined.
Violent crime has gone
down in this country,
minus Baltimore Washington,
D.C. and Chicago.
So, I mean when you're looking at these,
when you're looking at
statistics like that
and what has he done for these systems,
you can look at that system, alright?
Look at income inequality.
We have two million less
people in poverty now
than we did in 2007.
- Well just to be clear,
I'm not necessarily
critiquing his performance.
What I'm saying is in
terms of an approach,
he's talking about,
he doesn't necessarily believe he can
directly engage these things.
- And that's fine.
And my only point is that,
that was Barack Obama's role, right?
But for every Barack Obama,
we also need a D. Ray, right?
For every D. Ray, we also need a T.I.
Excuse me, he's a rapper, by the way.
(laughter)
We also need a T.I. or a J. Cole.
You know, we also need people
who are playing their role,
or, you know, staying
in their lane in art.
The Civil Rights movement was made up of
a collection of beings,
Jewish beings, Black beings.
It was made up of artists.
It was made up of people who would
throw something through
your window, you know?
It was made up of people who
believed in the whole spectrum
trying to get to a goal.
And so yeah, that may not
be Barack Obama's place,
but that may be yours to fill that void.
And so that's what we have to fill.
You have to figure out where
you fit in this movement.
I got two more questions.
If you both ask 'em, then
I'll answer 'em together
in wrap up.
This is a questions for
education and equality.
So this might gonna be
a little touchy subject.
- [Sellers] I don't have any secrets.
- Okay, so for the special needs kids,
like such as myself, that
want to get into college,
such as Georgia Tech or UGA,
so what you think that
the legislative church
do or say that'll make the president say
okay, we're gonna make this more easier
for the special needs
kids to have education
more than like the regular kids.
- That's a good question.
I'ma answer that.
Go ahead, ask yours.
- First of all, thank
you so much for coming.
I really appreciate it.
- [Sellers] Thank you for having me.
- I wrote my question down.
- [Sellers] Okay, that means it's short.
- Yes, I'll get it.
(laughter)
So this summer, I was
turned onto a book called
Silent Covenants by Derrick Bell.
Although I have read it yet,
its ideas were conveyed to me.
Bell discuses how Brown
v. Board missed the point.
He argues that the logic
behind Brown v. Board was
the achievement gap between
Black and White children
would be magically solved
by Black children having the
privilege of being in the same classroom
- [Seller] Of course, he
said the integration was a
yeah, go ahead.
- And by some osmosis, the
learning would flow from
White children to Black
children in the same room.
My question is what do we do
about Civil Rights victories
that might seem to miss the point,
even if they're well intentioned.
Do we take it as a victory?
Do we demand more?
- Dear God, I'ma tell you
what you can tell Derrick Bell
in a minute.
Your question was a very good question,
and I think that you
have to raise your voice,
every chance you get
because you're blessed
and fortunate enough
to be in this room right now.
And even by asking that question,
there are people who didn't
know that you had that concern
or that that concern existed, right?
And so you're doing the first part,
that you're supposed to do.
Don't ever let anybody tell you to
shut up, sit down, or be quiet, alright?
You don't look like you're
gonna do that anyway.
- No.
- [Sellers] But don't let
anybody tell you that.
- My mom told me that and I didn't.
- There you go, there you go.
So make sure you always
speak up and speak out.
And then you need to be the leader
that wants to address those problems.
I will tell you a secret.
The president is sitting,
of this institution,
is sitting right here in the front row,
and so I would start with him.
And don't ever say that you
gotta go to a vice president,
or you gotta go to a dean across campus.
You need to go and sit
down until he talks to you.
- [Man] Okay.
- And addresses your problem
so that you understand
how you can make it better for
students with special needs
at Georgia Tech, and then maybe
that will translate at Savannah State.
Maybe that'll translate at UGA.
You never know.
You might start something.
He wants to talk to you.
- [Man] Thank you.
(laughter)
- The last question
was somehow, everybody,
I mess with my father
about this all the time
about the Civil Rights Movement.
Where did you go?
I mess with my father about this.
We talk about this all the time.
So the Civil Rights
Movement had been focused on
economic empowerment for African Americans
and not integration.
You know the best part about
people like Derrick Bell
and others is that
hindsight is 20/20, alright.
He wasn't back there, you
know, with his children,
you know, walking in the
snow in Clarendon County
trying to figure out if they
were gonna file a lawsuit
so they could actually have buses then.
You know, he wasn't getting
beat like everybody else.
Just to simply say 40 years
later, as some academic,
that it was wrong.
You know, their goal's wrong,
their premise was wrong.
That's kinda faulty logic.
It's actually intellectualism
that lacks empathy, I think,
which as an intellectual,
you probably need to learn
a taste of empathy.
And so I think that there are things
that we can do to build on that movement.
There's certain things that
the Civil Rights Movement,
it got us about 55 yards to the left,
and there are 45 more yards to go.
And what we have to do is
we have to stand those shoulders,
and whatever your movement may be,
don't let the movement pass you by.
So with that, I say thank
you and God bless you all.
(applause)
Ooh I went over, I'm sorry.
(applause)
- So, Bakari, and not the Bacardi.
(laughter)
Bakari, I want to thank you on behalf
of the Georgia Tech community
for your words of inspirations
and reminding us of the
challenge that Dr. King
set before us more than 50 years ago.
It's up to us, kiosk or community,
and I think most of us understand what
that challenge means to all of us.
On behalf of our planning
committee and the institute,
I wanna offer this as a
token of our appreciation
- Thank you.
- For you being here today,
and thank you so much
for your presence today.
- Thank you for having me.
(applause)
- So when President Peterson was here,
he mentioned a number of
programs that are planned
over the next two weeks in
celebration and commemoration
of Dr. Martin Luther
King's life and legacy.
We invite you to look at
those, and where possible,
hope that you are able to participate
in what will be some
exciting opportunities to
engage other people around
these topics and issues.
I would be remissed if I did not ask
those of the planning committee
and the sponsors who are here
who've worked for the past
six, seven, whatever months
we've done this, to stand
up, to be acknolwedged
for the work that you've done
and I'll say thank you personally.
So those of the planning committee
and sponsors, please stand.
(applause)
And last and not least, I wanna
thank all of you sincerely
for being here today, for without you,
this conversation would be a
very small group conversation
and not the impact that we'd
want to have so thank you.
So, with that, thank you
for being here today.
Bye-bye.
(applause)
