[00:00:02]
>> Thank you. Very much. I just wanted to.
Put in a plug for a hashtag here for those
of you who are tweeting hash hash tag eugenics
then and now we'd love to hear from you just
kind of start tweeting Also there are various
activities here with you right here that's
a reproduction of the hunted files exhibit
we had done and you can see some of the images
of the room there recreated and we're going
to be showing some performances from the closing
down of that exhibit and kind of needing to
kind of purify the air at the end of that
exhibit so you'll be seeing some of the performances
that were done that we've had a different
sense also that corner table back there has
a number of maps redlining maps in case you've
never seen one this is your chance a lot of
this is becoming now increasingly on line
and there are actually legal suits not about
redlining and the various kinds of issues
that this is very much a live issue in terms
of policy fights are going on today.
[00:01:25]
Maybe Mindy later on will mention this mirror
that's also there that is really that has
her father in there and over in this table
over here is the exercise they were hoping
you could help us out with which is on the
inside page of the program is that eugenics
tree right it's this healthy thriving tree
that's based on all of these disciplines and
it's creating this kind of brave new world
of healthy fit beings.
[00:01:53]
We felt we should do something about that
treat you so we encourage you to kind of do
your own version of the tree from your background
from your sorting experience and how you can
trace yourself in a reverse way OK So have
fun with it we'd love to have you do that.
[00:02:12]
Welcome back I hope you really have a great
lunch it's really great to have you all back
here. Mean I really appreciate that. We are
starting or afternoon to such. And it gives
me a great deal of pleasure pleasure pressure
pleasure to introduce. Joined us from would
be Are they mature.
[00:02:45]
To. Have. So. Low I'm. Very excited to see
all the students in the audience I just keep
thinking what it would be like if I had opportunity.
To participate in something like this and.
I'm not going to talk too much because I want
to keep my time but I will frame that.
[00:03:15]
So you see the image of the woman who was
displayed at the one thousand nine hundred
four World's Fair which was called the Louisiana
Purchase exposition in St Louis Missouri region
if you've heard about it. Now you have. And
so basically there were you know. The tale
of the purchase.
[00:03:39]
Of the Philippines as well as other countries
but in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight
the Treaty of Paris purchased and. We can
go into a lot of history which if you stay
for the panel later on I will talk a little
bit more about the Philippine American war
and all that but about twelve hundred Filipinos
or more were brought over to live in villages.
[00:04:03]
Living exhibit on a forty seven acre Philippine
reservation and so that's sort of like the
framing of my book souvenir but it also kind
of traces my own personal history now the
World's Fair was also commemorating the. Westward
expansion one hundred years prior in the Louisiana
Purchase so which I also talked you can kind
of tell there's a bit of a Western motif also
like a wanted ad kind of thing and that was
a purpose so anyway now I'll go into the homes.
[00:04:33]
So this is a character of voice of the poet
which is based on me. Basically going to the
museum in St Louis to learn about the World's
Fair. It's called objects and artifacts. I
enter the air conditioned room a maze of glass
cases. Here a lace up dress stretched over
a headless bust white taffeta layers and cascade
like a wedding cake.
[00:05:09]
Between the statue and myself I see my body
face reflected in the glass and which is the
ghost this colonial woman at Lynn's island
in her island dress or me gazing back. In
the adjacent case Gray tarnished Chris's a
BOLO the shark tips. Ahead dressed with red
and black feathers and the City of me.
[00:05:38]
A rice God elbows on knees who watches so
far from his domain. Of Philippine playing
cards sleep in a stack the top one stares
back my face is framed by the oval shaped
surrounding its object a sightless boy holes
for eyes the price pickers conical hat skin
like coffee.
[00:06:02]
He rides an elegant water buffalo I imagine
myself there was this a real boy modeling
for the artist flies and mosquitoes hovering
the color bows tail swatting back pursuing
sweat behind the boys. You're a desire to
be witnessed and the painter sent to collect
the very best a mess of putrid sweat gathering
under his thick suit skin crawling in the
heat or was the boy a figment just one like
many others.
[00:06:34]
If I were there nineteen zero for a souvenir
which suit what I become which number. So
the next one. Kind of response to that one
so basically if you picture it talks about
Philippine playing cards and. You can imagine
like you know like I said a regular playing
cards and I got really fixed with this one
image.
[00:07:03]
And this is my imagination of the young man
staring back Philippine souvenir card number
one. Nine of hearts upon a color bout I sit
telling the perpetual rice paddy of your imagination
legs astride bare footed painted into position
my brim hides my face you viewer would think
I have no features my skin only black like
the color bow we stare I listen who are you
to shuffle me into order bidding me away in
games assign me a number a suit my heart beneath
the starched yellow shirt I cannot breathe
for it's strict color every day I wait till
the same stereotype of a field it's barren
now no rise left to fill your plates only
this vision of a man and you think you've
succeeded in capturing me the way I brace
my color bow with bring with with.
[00:08:10]
OK. I'm going to let you. In. Like you are
more like quiet like you're contemplating
them but in the community people snap a lot
so you feel free to respond in that way or
make gasps of shock. Laugh. So. Actually we
could project the image. In the laboratory
so kind of going further into the exhibit.
[00:08:45]
Actually the text of this part in the laboratory
of the St Louis World's Fair So again I'm
going to hold off on all the factoids but
if you're if you're interested in the book
there's a lot of notes but basically these
are real names of people that were put on
display in the way they were and notated and
listed so some of them had ages and I kind
of like collected them in a slightly randomly
but you could see they're in pretty much of
a better border and then these are the kinds
of criteria that were measured so I'm just
going to do I've actually done this poem with
dancers and with multiple voices as well but
I'm just going to do sort of mini version
of it and you can see it.
[00:09:27]
In the laboratory of the St Louis World's
Fair each day they were measured between ten
AM and four pm. Name goes. On guy. Sex guy
Ned get age I feel as feel at how skin color
I How in. Weight. Hair and big star. Book
**** in height book.
[00:10:03]
By I color. In. Arms spread. Stature but the.
Girl. But the. Head form Dunga that. Lay only
facial angles Galo nasal angles going on gladly.
I added to. Chest and been me be human body
and lamp. Very. Relative links of limbs to
the body and. Pulse Claudio. Respiration rates
and Jorge say lung capacity Cullman.
[00:11:02]
Corriveau digital and joint movements March
Thea had the strength to leave. So I just
did it I did a little sampling but as you
might notice the names a lot of them were
very difficult to pronounce but it was a combination
of sort of like different tribal groups names
in different languages as well as ones that
were as you could tell expand in Spanish names.
[00:11:30]
OK catalogue of objects so. This one. I think
I have to say much. One bad one skirt one
beaded bag two beaded necklaces three carved
statues of the rice God one set of Filipino
playing cards you walk into the ME in Missouri
history museum you see a white you see white
everywhere alabaster casts of women in Victorian
dresses plaster infused with staff from the
Philippines Lionhead and the columns of the
Palace of Fine Arts Victorian men and women
sit atop elephants smiling in tall black hats
and mustaches.
[00:12:17]
And by the press jackets brown men on either
side the placard marked labor shows Africans
and Asians bent over to build to clean to
make the fair grand you dream that night statues
a creepy feel swimming in dark waters touch
warm flesh under water underfoot find out
their dead recently dead lots and lots of
stairs to six year old boys they want me to
follow them the bus is waving I'm liking like
I don't want to go the bus is parked above
lots of steps it's really hot moving slow
there's a woman.
[00:12:54]
I can't find my now a movie theater and behind
the theater a shopping market. To Bontoc head
hunters one girl one geisha girl one Eskimo
family one girl. You see the types of Filipinos
Native Americans Eskimos Arabs and Japanese
assembled on one cluster on the wall nearby
you see the playing cards of Filipinos and
the beaded dress behind the glass case you
see your face reflected in the glass.
[00:13:37]
It's. OK. Still in that time period and then
I'm going to move to present tense as we close
our present time. Or more recent time. So
one of the weird things I noticed when I when
I was studying the world's fairs was sort
of this odd mixture of different groups almost
as though they wanted to stage something but
they couldn't figure out how to do it properly
or authentically So imagine it being like
a human zoo and they were like mixing the
animals or the people and in this case you
hear about that.
[00:14:17]
And it's. Based on seeing a particular image
and learning about the selling of parts of
bodies. Suture. Oddities body parts wrapped
to be sold as souvenirs cold fingers layers
undoing the stitch it is invasive a sort of
jigsaw suture the way Navajos and Roger Stanley's
pose with elephants at the artificial cave
dwelling you know the backdrop of painted
sand pillars that Disneyland a serious cloud
sky.
[00:14:55]
Well jackets it's feathers. And so together
what does not belong one day it will heal
into something unrecognizable with the parts
of a person a teratoma with teeth hair and
nails come upon these measured feet this list
of names without warning come from thousands
of miles to witness the exhibit of the exhibit
come to participate in something for your
own story does not allow you to participate
the candidness of naked eyes bare chest devoid
of Goosebumps the smoothness of distance the
shadows of the uncaptured something tells
you to stop looking but you are spun sutured
to your subject.
[00:15:48]
So if I'm very interested in the gaze or the
eyes I got it. Right. OK. And I going to finish
with a couple more higher energy I guess this
one is about gosh sorry guys they're only
just by my apology you guys are hearing about
a lot of sad dark things this is about water
torture.
[00:16:14]
But this is the sort of the going to share
sort. You have to do with like the past in
this and the present in the future kind of
blending in some ways so this is called the
water cure a telegram to one thousand one
from the future and it refers to.
[00:16:30]
Confiding some of the some of these lyrics
from an American fighting song in their talk
about the peanuts and when I say when I say
and it's the N. word but I'm not going to
say it right now because they called Filipino.
Get the good old syringe boys and fill it
to the brim life stores I liaison to the sea
lessened on Philippine insurgent stop attempt
to get confession forced the feel of drowning
start cause water alone pneumonia caused the
writers cause adrenaline overload cause a
regular heart because release of catecholamines
caused heart attack star proven despite the
CIA's annotation above normal method yes one
can be scared to death stop We've caught another
and will operate on him if not from broken
limbs or bruises if knocks a gin loss if not
vital organ failure stop and under this distress
one will admit to anything stop post interrogation
should one survive now fear the gentle sprinkle
on a rainy day a pool a shower anything aquatic
stopped administration and United Nations
deeming a form of torture stop shouting the
battle cry of freedom stop stop stop wonder
who the terrorist is.
[00:17:50]
So I'm right at the edge of the time the closer
this promise of my one sort of inspirational
for you all meaning there's a sort of the
voice of ancestors speaking to the future
and it's called tiny fires and there's three
words and that I want to know when it's.
[00:18:06]
A lizard being as whale shark and to be is
a drug like. Time. Listen. We. All this bellies
over smooth rocks we. Turn the CD into milk
now Nestle carton down the Fed and waters
of the past open sewers gate like torn bellies
children hunt for metal parts and plastic
sacks on earth poets but now it sits in the
shadow of a fuel tank for disaster to C.E.O.'s
gaze down metallic towers cursing shanty while
there's a junkie.
[00:18:51]
In the hell below we Bloods to be we span
could be seen drifting between stores and
songs we thirty thousand began with gills
and shallow edges of the vigor could. I tell
you this because the thing is happening in
you may look upon your crack sheaves and see
a thing that we were not you may call yourself
John's use in case where all maybe smile was
them and thinks you look like Brad and Angelina
you make tip cowboy hat sling guns on hips
shift the gears of German sports cars but
one day the game is.
[00:19:28]
The ones who get compliments regard your eyes
detect your blood sting wings pressing through
your skin this is why it is important that
you listen and remember we were not jars of
talcum powder not master creams and syringe
Sam's cramming drug store aisles not teenage
drippers in red light districts with far away
looks waiting for the Americana to take us
home not the ideal woman begging at the edge
of the land fill her tiny methane light up
the mountains of the world has tossed away
we.
[00:20:03]
We. We do to be could. Underwater Thank you.
And. For the. Universal Law not be hooking
met over lunch and we decided that everybody
here in middle school and high school are
going to be admitted free tuition beginning
next semester so I hope you and I hope you
know we're going to put the letters in the
mail but it's coming soon OK so you guys proved
you're fantastic and you belong in this university
so thank you for thank you for applying and
you're accepted well maybe you didn't apply
that now you're accepted so welcome.
[00:20:49]
We're just setting up the stage now so I want
to kind of say a few thank you which of course
anytime we organize something like this it
takes a huge amount of effort over many many
months and this conferences no exception so
first of all we want to thank all the people
who are participating some of you have come
from very far away some of you have just come
from a subway or ride bit away but in fact
today a subway ride away is you know maybe
not so quick right so we really appreciate
your joining us in this also wanted to kind
of express my thanks to the red.
[00:21:26]
The Red Cross is a well the people who's been
helping us with the planning and conceptualization
of this conference as well as Ordover resort
over were over in the back OK So Ordover in
the red have been key in helping us make this
happen I should also say though that as you
all know these kinds of events are only possible
because of the incredible staff and in this
case.
[00:21:55]
It's Mark Quarterman has been behind the scenes
working on e-mailing him e-mailing and phoning
and making logistics and also setting up a
meta tag on who's also on the back right there
have been absolutely to kind of critical people.
So thank you both the great fear of it they're
still working there and also I want to thank
the documentation crew who are made up of
our students and former students and we love
you guys you guys are great so thank you for
doing this.
[00:22:27]
OK so I want to invite the Japan zero on food
did spin Dode and mutilated explain as they're
coming up what that means we some of you may
not even know what that means I start to feel
really feeded you know in some ways but Mindy
value of sooky aside and.
[00:22:49]
Ordover if you could kind of join us. So what
is what is where does that terminal how many
how many of you in the middle here especially
know what floated spindle to mutilate does
that make any sense you guys. Kind of it is
a lot of feel now how many people know what
that means OK So there's a real age divide
here you know and so used to be these computer
cards in which it was kind of the NOAH AND
THERE BE numbers on them and they'd be punched
out and you'd have to kind of touched them
in the right place and they always did NOT
food spend or mutilate because that would
mess up the computer really bad OK So this
is the early days in which a computer in an
air conditioned room would kind of take up
a whole large space to do things that we now
take for granted in our little you know handheld
i Phone That's.
[00:23:46]
The reason we mentioned this as Eartha Matic
is that. Clearly. Here at the University of
Hawking we don't abide by that approach we
we are actually not trying to. To food spinto
in mutilate we are trying to acknowledge the
ways in which we have been promoted Spinozza
mutilated and then begin to form ways of healing
and solving the many many fragmentations and
problems that that has created and.
[00:24:27]
We don't separate the poetry from the critical
from the philosophical we're trying to bring
them all together so this session is no different
than that and it's really a chance to in some
ways get at the guts of how this happened
we got some sense of historical framework
and we're going to kind of dig deeper now
into her.
[00:24:49]
Now this is actually worked institutionally
in terms of the systems that are created in
terms of how big data operates in terms of
the bureaucracies that are set up in terms
of how the meritocracy mentor very to credit
system has been established so we've got.
People to help us frame this so we're going
to begin the process now.
[00:25:15]
So this is a red lining them and we talked
a little bit about this and this very map
is on the back table there so you can go and
study it more closely. Redlining maps are
very important because they told the banking
system where to invest money and where not
to invest money and it used to be that if
you wanted to see these redlining maps you
had to actually go to the National Archives
only recently like in the past couple of years
you can go online and start to see them what's
important about these maps and not shown here
is that the maps are made by surveyors who
went out into the areas that were being surveyed
and they had a form that they had to fill
out and the form asked for things like really
who lived here what were the age of the houses
and what was the price of the houses but really
what they were trying to get at was this problem
of undesirable racial elements so that would
be people like me did I live there are not
an undesirable racial elements included a
lot of people what's interesting is that.
[00:26:20]
There are people who are born who are foreign
born people who are Jews people who are Italians
people who are Irish who are undesirable racial
elements. And what's interesting about that
is that nowadays we might consider some of
those people white I think most Italians people
we consider waiter Jews white but then they
weren't they were really of different races
and they were the undesirable races.
[00:26:46]
Obviously blacks and Hispanics and. Asians
were part of this mix of the undesirable racial
elements so the other thing was that they
thought if you had a good neighborhood for
white you had white people. Who were really
white and they lived in a neighborhood with
good houses the other thing they needed to
have was clauses covenants that said not only
are we all wait people here but we agree not
to let any undesirable racial elements in.
[00:27:20]
So then they said OK let's put all this together
and let's have four groups of people so the
top group is white people who live in new
houses who have good covenants they have a
strong agreement to keep undesirable racial
elements out. And they they got green. The
second color is blue and blue was areas that
were.
[00:27:48]
Slightly older housing and then they had white
people but they didn't have as good covenants
so undesirable racial elements my get in there
so they got blue the next is yellow yellow
was first slightly older houses and they didn't
have good governance so there were some undesirable
racial elements there might be black people
might be as Banna people might be Asian people
they got yellow red was the oldest areas no
covenants all kinds of undesirable people
living there.
[00:28:23]
So these maps were made in one thousand nine
hundred thirty seven so at about that time
is when it off Hitler is taken power in Germany
and it's just before World War two breaks
out and part of Hitler's rise to power was
saying that he wanted to create a master race
in Germany and he wanted to kill a lot of
undesirable people what's important is that
is that this the language that if you go to
the National Archives and you look at the
survey documents.
[00:28:54]
Is very blatantly racist in the same kind
of way that Adolf Hitler was being blamed
racist what we were using these maps for was
to tell bankers where to invest money and
where not to invest money. So here's a question
for you. This is a red lining map where is
the red line there you hear somebody say there
isn't really.
[00:29:23]
There there isn't a red line right when everybody
agree there is this is like the emperor has
no clothes on right there is no red line the
first time I went on on google looking for
red Money Map I wanted to see where was the
red line I went to see the red line around
Harlem if there's no red line there's four
colors.
[00:29:42]
Now how much of this mask is green would you
say and how much is blue yellow or red not
just green just how much is green. Twenty
one hundred fifteen percent twenty percent
what you think everybody yeah what do you
think. You know like twenty percent yeah I
see him a lot of heads nodding twenty percent
OK So that means that eighty percent of Essex
County is getting Don't invest here not really
great for investing now as six County includes
Newark so on this side of the map where it's
red and yellow that's New York New Jersey.
[00:30:32]
We don't have an outline of the cities on
this map but north of Jersey is basically
yellow and red So how much investment is going
to go into Newark New Jersey none so. This
map is pretty much like the maps for the other
two hundred American cities that were surveyed
so they surveyed two hundred American cities
they made maps like this and they're more
or less that's about the proportion of green.
[00:31:00]
So where are they going to invest the money
because they're not going to invest in the
cities where they're going to invest the money.
In the suburbs so you see the real trick in
this map. They give it a name that's a fake
name because not a red line a map they make
you think it's about the red lining to make
you think it's about the red areas but really
it's not really it's a map saying the cities
are done let's move our money to the suburbs
so what happens to the cities after that period.
[00:31:37]
Yeah they deteriorate they fall apart because
cities require a constant flow of money it's
kind of like your hand requires a constant
flow of blood if you cut off the flow year
of blood your hand you hand is going to die
it's like if you have a stroke and a cut off
the flow of blood to your brain your brain
will die so cities have to have a constant
flow of money and resources how monkey New
York City survive if we close the bridges
and tunnels and no food can get in how much
food is in the grocery stores of Manhattan.
[00:32:09]
Yeah it's about two days. Two days right so
we have to keep the bridges and tunnels open
or we have to get some boats. So. The point
of this is that. We. Said we were cutting
off and we did cut off the flow of money to
minority areas but in a larger frame we actually
cut off the flow of money to all the urban
areas in the United States of America.
[00:32:38]
And cities are essential. For nations because
cities are where people read shoulders with
each other and they think together so basically
we shot ourselves in the foot that's what
I wanted to add thank you. Thank you lol I
am word over. Very happy to be here. I I loved
what you said about the changing nature of
racial characteristics and how folks who were
not considered white ninety years ago are
now considered white this is certainly true
in the way that my one of the ways that my
family got sorted when my grandparents came
which was all before nine hundred twenty they
were not.
[00:33:33]
Eastern European Jews they were not considered
white in Europe. And they were not considered
white here. However you know within their
lifetime suddenly abracadabra they were white
they had changed their racial group which
you know you would think would sort of give
some pause to this idea that racial groups.
[00:33:56]
Are you know that that it that that's a real
category that that sort of a biological immutable
never changes. But but that's really not what
you Genesis about right he Chantix is about
these very fixed categories. So while it is
an inconsistent sort or of people and groups.
[00:34:20]
Into. Kind of going to miss it going right
into my own. It has certainly been a very
committed sort or. And. You know very effective
because it's sorting people into made up categories
using made up criteria things like blood quantum
and germplasm. It actually tried to literally
sort on different geographic areas different
sexual identity is and acts so warm climates
produced homosexuals cold climates more heterosexuals.
[00:35:01]
Tribadism Balkans Petter Asti Armenia right
they were very you know even things like.
Whether or not you had a racial predilection
to be a Bolshevist OK And of course things
like insanity and morality crime which were
were can talk more about crime later as well.
But really what define you Genesis the engine
really made them like you know get up every
morning and go to it was not just the sorting
but their complete fear and panic that they.
[00:35:36]
We're not going to be able to sort right so.
You know I. Was sort of asked to talk about
the specific period of time early twentieth
century late one thousand nine hundred and
you know this was a time when a lot of African-Americans
were coming to the northern cities during
the Great Migration you had a lot of south
eastern.
[00:35:59]
Europe and Jews Slavs Italians had are all
coming kind of meeting in the same cities
and eugenicists were completely terrified
about who their children were going to be.
And who was going to corrupt the American
bloodline right who was going to you know
damage the national character and who was
infected themselves and was going to be an
infector of the national body so.
[00:36:28]
Jack you talk about medicine grant this morning
OK. So one of the most famous you Genesis
in Madison Grant really talked about these
racial hybrid some ethnic horrors that future
anthropologists would be unable to unravel
right so they were very panicked about their
inability their you know what happened if
they couldn't sort.
[00:36:51]
However. Eugenics itself is not so easy to
sort. Not in terms of which individuals or
groups that went after you know which of course
were immigrants the poorer racialized groups
people with disabilities people who did crime
people are considered sexual deviants women
women and more women. But also not by political
camps not by who really dug eugenics who its
adherents were.
[00:37:24]
It really was and it still is kind of it's
very limber it's very light it's very it's
very flexible writes like an octopus or a
hydra and it reached out to all different
kinds of ideology. So yes nationalists and
white supremacists and Christian supremacists
and you know straight up fascists but also
reformers and liberals so if we talk about.
[00:37:50]
Eugenics we will have to understand that a
lot of these campaigns completely indivisible.
And we talk about the arc of eugenics even
within this very confined timeframe even if
we're just sort of talking around about immigration.
It's really talking about how it it's served
these other ideologies and how these other
ideologies served it.
[00:38:15]
And you know these these were all in play
long before you know eugenics you know what
we think of as the heyday of eugenics in the
twentieth century. We had this race based
exclusionary immigration policy that was set
long before Francis Galton KOIN the work each
an accent one thousand nine hundred three
Write the seven hundred ninety naturalization
law said that you had to be a quote white
free person to be naturalized in this country.
[00:38:48]
And then of course subsequent act mince the
eight hundred seventy five page law right
that said basically Chinese women couldn't
come in the eighty two Chinese Exclusion Act.
On and on and on we could go had already really
racialized the debate but eugenics had a very
special job it had a very special role in
all this which is validate and and shore up
and biology has all these social categories
right it was going to in Paris eyes then it
was going to consolidate these ideas of race
and ethnicity and religion and nationality
and it was going to do this with charts and
skulls I guess like this guy we haven't met.
[00:39:34]
Maybe after the panel. OK But also it was
going to you know scientifically neutralize
these other critiques of the status quo that
said. You know inequity is socially and economically
generated. And it was going to say no we have
the science to justify the existing establishment
and distribution of power and wealth.
[00:40:02]
But the most important thing that it was going
to do was it was going to sort out who was
risky and who was safe. OK. So in the years
leading up to what I think of as two of the.
It's really hard to pick but two of the seminal
immigration acts of the twentieth century
one nine hundred seventeen in one thousand
nine hundred for immigration acts and I want
to say that we can really see these laws as
part of a larger racial cataloging monitoring
and redlining.
[00:40:37]
So in the years leading up to this they produced
all this data and they did it with things
like literacy tests now we allot of times
we think about literacy tests and how they
were used to keep people from voting in this
country that was certainly true my grandparents
they couldn't vote because of the literacy
tests.
[00:40:57]
But it was first used as a tool in response
to immigration so we had in one thousand and
fourteen results reported out by Genesis that
said sixty four percent of all Turkish immigrants
illiterate. OK. But but but less than one
percent of the English Scandinavian Swedish
Welsh and Finnish immigrants right are literate
we had I.Q. tests in one nine hundred twelve
that were given to people coming steerage
only steerage So there's a built in class
bias rates.
[00:41:35]
Arriving. Ellis Island that found that over
eighty percent of Jews and Ariens and Russians
were feeble minded defectives we had an attorney
general at this time an assistant attorney
general who was using the word eugenics with
regard to to deportations or right he was
describing deportations as eugenics measures
and of course we had again Madison Grant's
book that came out in one nine hundred sixty
and the passing of the great race warning
that America was hurtling toward a racial
abyss and pay immediately after the one nine
hundred seventeen law which barred people
from South Asia it made it easier to deport
leftists.
[00:42:15]
Came the army I.Q. tests that said the average
mental age of African-American recruits is
ten years old and for a white recruits it's
thirteen years old but no problem Genesis
could spin this they said this was because
of the white recruit age was so low mental
age was so low because of interracial unions
because the American Stock.
[00:42:38]
Had been diluted by Southern Eastern European
immigrants and because the poor in the feudal
minded were having too many children. Not
only were these findings heavily cited in
debate in the one nine hundred twenty four
act but they helped establish these ideas
that we're still living with right one that
intelligence can be measured to that it is
determined by race which is to say determined
by a made up category.
[00:43:08]
And three that it should inform policy and
funding decisions so it often still gets evoked
around. Debates around from an action and
Head Start programs and things like that by
the way I want to just say that Lewis Terman
who was part of this. Army I.Q. test. Endeavor
was also a supporter of a research project
here in New York City in which he's a.
[00:43:36]
Lesbians were subject to inspection skin color
hair type nipple erection pelvic structure.
Things like that genital safe shape and size.
So when the one nine hundred twenty four Act
was passed which slammed the door on pretty
much everyone left standing who was not from
north and western Europe.
[00:44:02]
You know. You know it was done very hands
on with eugenicists the sponsor of the bill
was a eugenicists Harry lost one of the eugenics
record office had come in to testify before
Congress around you know who was slipping
in through the immigration system of too many
morons He said he said racial purity can't
be maintained because women of lower races
won't hesitate to have intercourse with men
of higher races and then he sorted ten different
categories of what he called socially inadequate
persons who should be subject to sterilization
should they not whether or not they agree
to it and by the way this suggestion was later
adopted in Nazi Germany that's a model for
their law even though it's in past year the
bill itself was framed by Madison Ram I'm
not going to go on with the next you know
ninety years of eugenics and immigration policy
though I could.
[00:44:58]
But I just very want to I just very quickly
just want to mention a few things to sort
of think about as these unifying elements
for eugenics OK so one is the opportunism
of eugenics eugenics whatever people are thinking
about that's what eugenics is going to use
Ok so.
[00:45:17]
You know around one nine hundred seventeen
when people were thinking about you know workers
were really thinking about how maybe a class
based system isn't so great. You know we and
we're organizing you know you Genesis we're
saying we're going to we're going to protect
the genitally fit Americans from this unfit
cheap.
[00:45:36]
Immigrant labor right. After World War two
when people were panicked. About you know
all these immigrants coming in refugees from
the war there was you Genesis talking about
you know how Communists were going to slip
in and spread propaganda some this may sound
familiar about what's going on right now.
[00:45:58]
To just the way eugenics is a danger to dissent
in a couple ways right because it tells us
why should we organize and fight right resistance
is sort of biologically futile but also because
it's very very reactionary So you have eugenics
inform laws being passed. As a way to help
get radicals out of the country right.
[00:46:21]
But you also have things like the sterilization
of African-American women she count as Puerto
Rican women Native American women and bottom
knees and gay people all happening in the
one nine hundred seventy S. when each of these
groups was engaged in very effective and militant
liberation and sovereignty movements right
as a response to that.
[00:46:47]
I also want to again you know I don't want
to exonerate kind of the right wing ownership
of Eugenists of eugenics but to really understand
that liberals have supported eugenics as well.
You know eugenics. Gives liberals what they
like which is individual solutions to structural
problems they really like that so they end
up supporting a lot of the same interventions
that conservatives do things that are very
punitive like making women except sterilization
or plan in order to get public benefits or
in order to get a probation deal.
[00:47:24]
Another point of consensus they have is around
disability this is really foundational to
Janet's And I really want people to walk away
understanding this point once it was sort
of a stablished that people with disabilities
who have been among most vulnerable to Gen
X. were the biggest eugenics threat it then
became very easy to use those use that category
whether it was called feebleminded miss or
corrupted anatomy or whatever it was to say
not only are you guys a eugenics threat all
these other people we don't like right who
we think are you know.
[00:48:02]
Racially intellectually. Insufficient who
we who are poor who do crime who are gay.
All this is manifestations of their disability
and since we've established that disability
is grounds for eugenics intervention we're
going to intervene on all your bodies to OK.
It probably doesn't know you know need to
be thoughts may be said in this room but the
ways that people get ensnared in these eugenics
traps you know or because they're caught up
in the criminal justice system the health
care net the welfare that right these places
are really eugenics traps and laboratories
OK.
[00:48:47]
So. You know I just want to close by reemphasizing
the role that nationalism played OK talking
about you know eugenics and immigration because
of the racial panic that you Genesis had but
it wasn't just racial panic OK until one thousand
nine hundred ninety being gay kept you out
of this country until five years ago having
HIV kept you out of this country OK being
a sex worker or someone who uses drugs can
still keep you out of this country and everything
you know about that is about deciding who
is who is and is not going to become part
of the nation.
[00:49:26]
So you know just to close yes they're sorting
all around us which immigrants have H I V
Who has a boat. You know who are truly refuse.
He is are merely migrants or worst hottest
right which which kid is bringing in a clock
to his first science project in which kid
is bringing in a bomb and surely right there
must be some racial shorthand that we can
use to figure that out.
[00:49:50]
So you know please you know everything that
you know here or today and tomorrow I really
want to just encourage people to think and
D. compartmentalise because each of these
campaigns each of these vilification and exclusions
and reductions really lay the groundwork for
the next one. And if we're really going to
resist we have to be unsettled and very unruly
in our Nelson and also in our activism.
[00:50:31]
Today by connecting in from the local to the
global. Migration and thinking about how we
define what is undesirable and so on in terms
of linking it I'm thinking of reviving money
of thinking about. Games billable maps of
how we think about international law and the
whole treaties have dad.
[00:51:00]
The picture is about. A Syrian child who was
trying to do it. In some of this is about
trying to look at people who are trying you
know with their migrant refugees or whatever
looking at the background structures that
keep them in place or render their lives disposable
or into their lives in other words that could
in a diving beach in some standard by which
they live become one river to that to that
fate so you really.
[00:51:52]
And this is not intended as a comprehensive
history but just as a way of how we think
about the rule of international law and how
we sort of connect the dots from you know
thirty thousand feet up to down. So in these
usually three windows are. Colonialism and.
[00:52:11]
Univocal of these none of them is no longer
there pieces from those. Moments then today
because of today's architecture of international
government that resulted in things like the
little boy on the beach. This is the first
window of the Berlin Conference. When was
it about. The. Visit and.
[00:53:11]
The. This could mean this one was to basically
deny. That prior. To the current war you have
no longer. There. Many many ideas from this
was still very much a. National. Was divided.
Into. The broadest versus spread so one of
the reasons why with. The beach. Trying to
go to Canada.
[00:54:06]
And. Was now having. To have a. Voice and.
Lies about. Doing this to. Me. Using. British.
And. Treaty. After the after the British opium
was. Given to the Chinese had to. Fish but
one of the I mean again you know many horrific
things that come out of this many legacies
that are problematic but I'm going to want
to highlight just one of those legacies a
general level to do this to to do history.
[00:55:53]
Which is one of the things of the treaty was
that even certain Chinese ports to British
trade so this is another way of thinking about
what produces migrants what produces people
who have to live in terms of how we think
about the woman in the national tree and the
qualities of the National create produce globally
in terms of creating making people want to
leave your home which clearly is not something
that people would want to do wanting to people
would do it because feed their children if
they can't see a future that's viable for
them and that's part of it think about the
distributive impacts of global capitalism
that we have now and so that's one way of
thinking about one of the legacies of the
Treaty of Nanking and with the global capitalism
has many different elements and this is just
just a window through which we can still highlight
in some sense the role of free trade and the
inequality is that history and geography.
[00:56:51]
Big together in some sense so we couldn't
have been. Paralysed doesn't even know what
the Treaty of Paris was about. Yet this is
in. This. That is true there are multiple
entities apparently. Guys wonders why the
Internet giving can't recall the Philippines
go on to the dentist is probably a problem
from Spain and so so it was a warning for.
[00:57:36]
Telling in. The in many different things but
the wrong I want to take from me is actually
what I was going. To do going to bring. You
to me. This is going to. Be the only. One
who was. Going. To do. This so you know. I.
Didn't. Want.
[00:58:42]
To miss it. You know. Uses me in the mission
and produce. It. Stops us from having proper
responses responses have demanded because
because this. Response is that. Response to
the current Syrian crisis. Was. The right.
Response to this. So you like. Being civilized
enough not being savvy enough and not a good
guy.
[00:59:53]
Another story that one can take from your
parents and then want to finish by just talking
the. Example of a mortar business. In my.
Ear made him a player. You know there's a
plan for it. Said boy you want to get. Testing.
Testing site. Itself so that. Iran.
[01:01:01]
Can run the Reuters. Stuff or those are. Your.
Friends. OK bye. I 
actually wrote out what I was going to say
but I'm going to try to make it a little bit
fancier than just reading it so my research
has really been about the Lower East Side
of Manhattan and I'm interested in the ways
in which the space of the Lower East Side
has really been cast over the long twentieth
century as a as an alien space.
[01:01:56]
And so when I was doing my research I was
not surprised to find that there are ways
that the term alien was kind of mixed up with
other terms or was used as a code for other
terms like degenerate and diseased and unsanitary
and this was the case in the late nineteenth
century and early twentieth century.
[01:02:20]
But and and I'd also say that alien was also
placed in opposition to the term citizen Alien
Immigrant citizen and that citizenship was
as Ordover with. Matthew for Jacobson has
said this is really about whiteness and who
who gets to be white and who isn't weight.
Also determines who gets to be considered
a citizen and who isn't and so what was more
surprising to me as I continued my research
was that this kind of descriptive language
of social reform existed in the one nine hundred
century that was.
[01:02:53]
Late nineteenth century was very sensational
since ational a stick and tended to be. Very
similar to what you'd read in the guidebook.
Was then made to be scientific these then
were kind of applied to categories that were
considered scientific. And sorry if I'm repeating
things that were said earlier this morning
but you know if you weren't here this morning
this is all new to you so there are certain
social surveys that came out in the late nineteenth
century and early twentieth century this is
you know the era of immigration in the second
era of immigration to the U.S. as we like
to store size it so some of these social surveys
were whole house maps and papers which came
out of Chicago and.
[01:03:36]
Eight hundred ninety five the sub subtitle
of that is a study of nationality using wages
and congested district of Chicago so you can
see congestion nationality you can go together
and you're maybe familiar with the Pittsburgh
survey which was from one thousand nine hundred
fourteen and maybe the US industrial commission
reports on immigration and then closer to
home when I'm talking about the lower east
side again we have the forests in V.A. is
the tenement house problem from one thousand
and three Kate holiday classic origins maps
for the US industrial commission and she had
one called the foreign immigrant in New York
City from one thousand one hundred two and
then there's the congestion exhibit of one
thousand eight and all of these things these
are kind of the basis of social science research
and surveys in this period of time use the
same tools of social science that some of
us use today data collection demography mapping
we're very excited about mapping these days
and they calculate and rationalize the sorting
of people in urban space.
[01:04:42]
And these continue to be pretty important
progressive documents but the biases inside
them are very apparent as you start to read
over them so clad Horan's maps conflate density
or congestion not only with sanitation or
the lack thereof but with specific ethnic
groups specifically Italians Russians and
pulls whole house maps and papers recorded
citizenship status and congestion.
[01:05:08]
Citizenship status and national origin in
the same breath that it was collecting information
about cleaning methods. And even the congressional
investigation of the sweating system in one
thousand nine hundred three identified a core
problem of sweatshops to be the Jews who worked
in the quote as they are a dirtier class of
people.
[01:05:30]
The effect of this kind of social science
is also spatial and so the data collected
in the social service. At the turn of the
twentieth century informs the early years
of professional city planning as well and
so that's that's where this all comes together
is this idea of urban planning is somehow
this neutral way of organizing space but in
fact it's really connected to.
[01:05:53]
Ethnic groups. And these biases so I'm just
going to throw out a little quote because
I know. Thank you. Just two things. Walter
Laidlaw who was one of the people who informs
the creation of census tracts so he's kind
of. Something that's important today too.
He worked for the Federation of churches and
Catholic organizations and he suggested in
one thousand nine hundred eighty that the
way to solve the immigration congestion problem
was to create separate quote segregated settlements
in the outer boroughs of New York of Italians
Russians and other nationalities whose immigration
is by.
[01:06:35]
Benjamin Marsh who wrote the introduction
to city planning in one thousand and nine
which is also super influential he admitted
at the congestion exhibit that. Many places
have adopted comprehensive city planning as
a means of preventing race deterioration so
there's a pretty straight line between city
planning and the gentrification and urban
renewal that we talk about.
[01:07:00]
Once all of us and I'm sure there's more to
say OK thanks. I think we can. Thanks everybody
my name's know if I co-created the exhibit
with Jack and with Mark that this conference
has come out of and obviously a lot more has
gone into it since then but in many ways I
want to start with something that Amy's our
Southerner pomo which was listen and remember.
[01:07:29]
Listen and remember rightly so we all know
like it was a listen. And I think the relationship
between. Thing and remembering is really important
so we're not only listening with our ears
and seeing with our eyes but we're listening
and sensing and experiencing the world around
us and one of the things that we rarely do
when we experience the world around us is
remember the things before us and it's not
that I think that we should be living in the
past but I do think that seeing the kind of
layered nature of especially in an urban environment
like New York is incredibly important there
is so much under this park right here in this
building and the people who came on the tour
learned that in this very building is where
the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory happened the
fire happened which created most of the regulations
we have today around urban industrial sites.
[01:08:15]
In this park this park has that all these
layers of not only the control that is still
built into it with the fencing but the layers
of being a potter's field the layers of of
being a parade ground for troops the beginning
of Fifth Avenue which we talked about so I
just want to quickly say that and then and
then to talk a little bit about the connection
between what he was talking about in terms
of these earlier moments of eugenic control
and what we did with the exhibit and the kind
of clearing urban space and a project that
happened in the fifty's and sixty's called
the Lower Manhattan Expressway So a lot of
you were from New York City how many of you
knew there was going to be a highway that
was going to run right through the heart of
downtown Manhattan raise your hand if you've
heard of that before OK like maybe a quarter
of us right so this was a highway a highway
ten lane highway that was going to be like
twenty feet high that was going to run right
down the center through all these neighborhoods
we love like like Soho right that's where
we all go and shop where we all like so right
who likes the Lower East Side that's of the
place we want to go school place you guys
are going to be you know hey you know if they're
getting old they're going to do stuff there
who like Chinatown right Chinatown that's
like a good place to go to food OK and Little
Italy another place where all these places
massive parts of them were going to be run
down and destroy in order to change the nature
of the city from one of a streetscape city
to a car a city so when we think of the spatial
ization of eugenics when we think about the
maps when we think about the introduction
of free markets and commerce and.
[01:09:36]
Urban spaces we also need to think about the
way in which we are physically creating a
eugenics with the city body we are moving
people around to serve particular goals and
particular people and those particular goals
in particular people represent a tiny fraction
of the rest of us so this highway that we're
actually doing another exhibit on we're going
to build a twelve foot high version of it
so you get to stand under what this high would
have been like which is pretty cool I think
it's really important kind of feel like if
you go stand by the go on as Expressway the
Cross Bronx that's what it would have been
like in the heart of Manhattan so we were
recreating this not just to like make it look
cool you know and to be interesting in because
history is cool to learn about but because
we understand the ways in which the city is
changed to move people that we don't think
are valuable out of it and so eugenics is
a dirty word it's a word that we think about
with OK two minutes got it word we think about
with Nazis right and so we don't want to just
label things bad that's again it's I don't
like that that's bad but we do want to think
about the ways in which things beyond just
the moment historically degenerates can be
seen through the same lens and inner trajectory
so a lot of what we've talked about up here
is it consistent interesting arc a layered
arc a lot of different people coming in and
creating new ideas and adding to it and challenging
it and resisting to it at the same time it's
connected and so the flow of ideas that we're
all working with today are engaged with each
other and when you walk around the city during
the meeting with them so I really hope to
to add to your kind of toolkit something that
you probably already do when you walk around
the city but really pay attention open your
senses and think about the ways that the streets
around you the grid that defines most of this
island the land the natural geography that
is lost under it but continues to still flow
they're still streams flowing through the
basements of buildings there's still a natural
topography you're right there's a lot still
going on so continue to think about that in
your daily practice in your daily life and
have it open up the ways in which you engage
with the beautiful things these people here
shared with you in these layered histories
in your own movement through this.
[01:11:38]
We. Didn't get. To the work. Of the just.
Love. It. When. All of the. People of the
earth forgot to listen. And if. We focus on
the number of the. Cycle of the word. Here
somebody. Here. Care the role of the fittest
and. Presence. Is often to say OK let's just
start.
[01:12:56]
Working with our. Organization. It's. Worth
it for all or. Hurt or if there is a problem
with people that are at this world. And especially.
Reflects. Some of the. Thirty. But for the
for example. Well. I heard someone. Say a
group of. Friends. To Christian. And. In as
much as labor.
[01:14:06]
Cared to call the liberation and thought that
you 
and I was definitely the books. They are.
Rare. To do and can access to. And developing.
Discrimination and so I. Wanted to focus on.
The end of her. People's resistance from.
Going to. Prison and incarceration and policing.
There is definitely a proliferation.
[01:15:04]
Profit and that's. You know people. Really
are. Have to. Look for. But we really want
to focus on the people the efforts and. So.
Differently from a lot of resistance. Before
it permanent. Rebellion goes for violent.
Prison time at the heart of. This is a rebellion
that happened in July in the.
[01:15:54]
Prison commissary of. Prisons and. Although
we were extremely under were extremely over
time there were people who are simply. Out.
Of the rebellion that I think that there are
all reactions to that sort of like over. And
horrible conditions. Rather. Than letting
people who were. And. They were all.
[01:16:32]
Including Larry who were some of them with
different rocks. And there was an effort to.
These people are the worst of the worst people.
There aren't. Really this. Sort of. Rather
a resistance to their condition. And it's
funny. A lot of. Organizations. Were represented
by the people who really for the rebellion.
[01:17:19]
Organized. To support the people and to put
the state on. That became very popular in
response to that rebellion in the framing
and. All of those people were put at that.
Some are. Our. Friends. From like criminal.
Under. That there are. Some here in the last.
Paragraph. That had a.
[01:18:23]
Really interesting time to be working on the
stuff. President of. It's been really interesting
to read all this. Documentation. Are going
to. Record stores. Which I walk through almost
every day. Because there are others in a lot
of jazz musicians. They're. Highly contested.
It's really incredible. I think it's really
important.
[01:19:14]
That there are. That. ON WHEN I'M STILL IN
Yates and with such an honor to be here it's
very important conference and to be among
such amazing people and such an amazing audience
I think one of the things that confidence
is asking us to think about is this idea of
sorting and also how we relate personally
in our own experience to sorting and that
was one of the things that Jack had talked
to me about before I came was you know just
thinking about how the i've been sorted and
then what am I doing to kind of unsourced
So I want to share some artifacts to to that
effect.
[01:20:11]
And for me I study nineteenth century American
history so I thought and I do think it is
important for us to think of history as a
process not only about learning the past and
going to other places but learning about how
we fit in in a variety of ways.
[01:20:28]
To what came before us so I want to share
discovery that I made for the summer. When
my mother asked me to research some of her
old family members who are all from Brooklyn
so Manchester's of mine and I've been working
with Jack actually on the history of Chinese
exclusion for.
[01:20:48]
Ten years. Anyways I just found out that one
of my ancestors from Ireland came to Brooklyn
the month that the Chinese who genetically
passed and they were also a laborer and Jack
said earlier. Laborers were excluded from
immigrate to the country so the fact right
there my very beginnings in that are not mine
but my family's beginnings in the country
already were framed in the history of Chinese
immigration in a sense so it's kind of amazing
I think that I ended up studying that so that
another thing I want to share.
[01:21:18]
Was on that. The son of this person who came
during a chance because you know in one nine
hundred seventeen which we learned was actually
just moments ago it was another moment of
creating a new immigration barrier I found
his Draco. On which for the Army in which
he broke they asked him race please specify
and he wrote Irish and someone else crossed
it out and wrote white it seemed like a very
evocative moment for me to think about that
and so when I looked into this guy's.
[01:21:53]
History and his family history and more I'm
going to ask you know to help me out again.
So I was nineteen seventeen when he wrote
it that draft card and I just want to hold
up this map which is just a map of Brooklyn
and you can't really tell and I'm promising
to get jack out a color copy.
[01:22:12]
And this is a small little red version so
you can see that there are different colors
on it similar to the mouth you seen before
this is actually the. A Brooklyn map of. The
location and extent of racial comedies and
so it had different colors it's actually quite
cheesy You know if it weren't for Manhattan
the Bronx and Brooklyn and so the Chinese
were and the Irish were green and the Jews
were red because they were seen as both danger
forms of disease and also in form of socialism
and radical politics generally but so I ended
up finding out that this ancestor who rode
Irish but then someone told him No actually
you're white.
[01:23:00]
From one of these racial colonies that one
of the green ones but he had just moved out
of it. Right when he wrote when he signed
up for the drought and so when I started looking
into how he moved out of it. One of the things
I realized was that it was.
[01:23:19]
Because he was able to enroll in a manual
training high school which used to be in Park
Slope and he was able to get a series of character
references from different neighborhoods none
of which were Irish American incidentally.
To get this apprenticeship at the Brooklyn
Navy Yard and that was a.
[01:23:36]
Able to give him double the salary that his
other neighbors were were placing And so he
moved into it with you if you look at this
map online or something the non-colored areas
are what makes it to this map in one second
for my remaining minute but so it was very
very difficult actually to.
[01:23:57]
And only with the assistance of the state
and public schools was he able to move out
of this neighborhood and these regional colonies
were actually. The hardest hit by the Spanish
flu in one thousand eight hundred and all
of his brothers died in that flu and they
hadn't gotten these character records so.
[01:24:19]
Now to the. Very quickly this map isn't actually
produced by the state of New York originally
which convened in one thousand nine thousand
this thing called the Left Commission which
was created by a freshman upstate senator
in one thousand nine hundred who was sort
of who won a campaign against by claiming
that he was going to fight communism immigrants
and sort of cleanse the state so he created
this map and the interesting thing that I
just want to mention is.
[01:24:49]
The recommendations of the committee were
actually to create more of a to control the
schools the cap it's Cool's immigrant schools
and to turn the schools into even more of.
A Americanizing machine and that was vetoed
by the Catholic governor who was pretty close
to that represented immigrant community the
committee then said Well now we need to restrict
immigration and I guess the this is the conflict
but I just want to point out that I see happening
is that.
[01:25:18]
The very mechanisms that or or designed to
help people assimilate fail and then and this
is you know all these policies like redlining
was supposed to help but they fail and when
they fail as we was mentioned earlier. The
victims are blamed and the solution is to
stop people from coming in so I think we have
to think about.
[01:25:44]
How to recapture the machine and how to position
ourselves within it in a way that we can articulate.
Britta stop failing so that. The victim can
keep getting cleaned Thank you. British session
and others with it to work for us to but.
I'd really love if you could or maybe.
[01:26:16]
Some of. The failures. In the relationship
but it's also been coming to bear Very close
to you those who are making them or people.
Well let's let's put it up we're going to
create a sort of a mike in the middle where
here. We were passing around before but there
was taking so much time to get so very good
we'd like to ask a question or say something
I want you.
[01:26:52]
To. Thank you all. No off. I threw the powerbroker
across or about three times before it finally
got through it rather carols on the name that
didn't come up in discussion you can't hear
me at all but. God has that OK. Robert Harris
book The Power Broker I was saying I took
through the cross or at least three times
before I finished reading it.
[01:27:23]
If you could talk of contents of what you
were in context of what you were saying about.
About the development of how the the red lining
of the sky. Country and particularly in terms
of what Robert Miller says and in that field.
I can talk a bit though I bet there's other
people on this panel who have thoughts to
hear you have.
[01:27:49]
Does everyone know who Robert Moses OK Raise
your hand if you know who he is to somebody
want to tell us who he is that somebody is
going to cost him OK now OK So he was considered
the master builder of New York right he built
like all most all the bridges and tunnels
and highways that we have in this city and
he he also cleared and created much of the
public housing projects which a very mixed
legacy with all those things so in many ways
it kind of the argument that we're making
in this exhibit is that not only Robert Moses
but the kind of planning ethos that he comes
from which is that white men should sit in
a room and determine how the city should be
shaped around their various philosophical
ideas whether it is Robert Moses this style
of planning around cars or whether it's the
city beautiful moment whether it's the boulevards
of Paris that mode of creation really has
no consideration for the people on the streets
it's very much a perspective that's done from
the heights of the tallest buildings in the
city so if you're standing at the top of the
Freedom Tower and looking down at all the
little ants below that's the kind of planning
that they're doing you don't care about the
ants right the answer ants for a day when
you walk down the street don't think about
ants so an alternative method of dealing with
things is to think more about the kind of
negotiation between the people on the ground
the light the experience like it is to walk
through the streets of the city as I was kind
of imploring you to do but then to not only
just think about yourself and how you feel
and what you want but then to think about
all the people around you and the neighborhoods
next to yours and the city next to yours in
the countries and the connections between
them so you're really thinking both from a
global international perspective in terms
of how we were talking about the various ways
in which these treaties have shaped the world
but also on the very local.
[01:29:36]
Level eliminated somebody is home somebody
was told to get out and get the hell out of
their house because they needed to build something
right there where there was a high where in
other buildings so in many ways that's kind
of the relationship of Robert Moses to some
of this is it's He's very much part of a history
of people coming in and not thinking about
the way in which people who live who grow
up who make cities vibrant and what they are
they don't care about that and and in many
ways they want to eliminate the very vibrancy
that a lot of us feel about cities today so
does anybody else want to speak to just follow
along with somebody else when it's easily
and I was just quickly it's important to note
also that Robert Moses is considered a liberal
I mean this is really the enactment of liberal
city planning policy and you know and Carol
argues this or other people I can't remember
but many of the plans that Robert Moses was
an acting were you know kind of thought up
in the late one nine hundred thirty S.
[01:30:33]
in the first City Planning Commission in New
York City so the areas that were being knocked
down under urban renewal with Moses in charge
were areas that had been designated in the
one nine hundred thirty S. as blighted slum
areas like the Lower East Side that ought
to be demolished and rebuilt so this is a
very long history of urban renewal and Robert
Moses is just sort of a technocrat who is
in charge that we get to blame.
[01:31:00]
You know I just want to remind folks that
over thirty percent of the city whose rezoned
under our previous mayor and we haven't seen
the full fallout from that and that this idea
of you know what is for the public good and
what is not around some of the stuff also
changed during Bloomberg said ministration
so that people know what the the concept of
eminent domain is.
[01:31:26]
OK well used to mean that. In this case that
the city could come in and clean property
if it was going to be used for public use
right. Everybody gets to use it so you might
lose your house as no one said you might use
your neighborhood might lose your neighborhood
but everybody can come back and use that spaces
in a Grand Central Station or as a park or
whatever it is under Bloomberg that changed
from public use to a very elastic and ill
defined public good which means that private
eyes interests like we have at the Atlantic
Yards in the Barclay Center could come in
and claim and in time and so that's very recent
change but it builds on this.
[01:32:10]
This you know kind of philosophy that it's
you know it's all for the public good right
public money for the public at a. Time up
and. Break them. And I learned a lot no one
I don't know what that. Planning to be directed
by half white guys like Moses I mean bringing
it to contemporary times I'm not going to
name them I can think of a lot of pap people
a collar who've got an elected office and
pragmatic here and I'm from Chicago but in
the heart out West who got elected to office
and in the spirit of reform but yet are still
stuck in a top down undemocratic framework
pushing a product is absolutely the wrong
answer and some people think that was reform
till now part of the lessons of the two framing
pieces we got at the beginning was that these
kinds of branding in the case of redlining
or alternative governance systems in the case
of.
[01:33:27]
What was it you had to say. Democratizing
it somebody else exerting control labeling
places fair game. For doing something different
Robert Moses was I'm honored I just want this
guy who believe in kind of a centralized regionalism
they thought that escaping the city was a
good idea and here was a guy who had the guts
to build the roads and you know the polite
word is the central ice of it called the camp
the city sort of for everything out across
the countryside and the power and the systems
that could have been democratic and of going
with them you know in opposite sort of approach
which actually the pope used to yesterday
when he used the word subsidiarity again as
an idea of putting decisions as close as possible
to the communities where people actually live
and sort of networking things instead of planning
is as decisions that come across so you've
got this issue in New York and especially
finally and earlier in my life I helped write
the National Transportation law and after
a conversation with your senator morning who
believed that in subsidiarity he thought decisions
on that regional level ought to be made as
close as possible to the people who have to
live with them and ironically the one place
in the country that has resisted taking its
regional transportation planning agency and
subjecting it influences the one right here
in New York City so you've got this issue
of big systems and small places you're pointing
to Bloomberg to Blasio as if that's the decisions
that's getting made There's also another set
of national and regional This is getting made
that people think don't make a difference
but actually those are the kinds of systems
that Robert Moses types generations of elected
officials to use in until people step up to
the plate more strongly and it seems to me
that what you're seeing in New York play out
is one to one in the Allergist's with what
those two framing pieces were about it continues
to decent.
[01:35:36]
Advice Authority continues to disinvest from
existing places in favor of new ones and it
creates governmental institutions that are
resentful. Of the governed and therefore that's
a real issue that you're going to have to
deal with now so there are some lessons in
here the question is how do we take those
lessons and then put them to use going forward
Thank you.
[01:36:07]
Everyone as I'm going to make this quick.
I really enjoyed with a need as well as no
place really enjoyed it because for the simple
fact that with Nick it's points where I could
go on and on I can literally speak about this
for hours because I'll pass an item with it
and I get intense with even with my teacher
that brought us in we speak about all the
time so I think it's just want to say before
I started really like that No but when no
one said I think.
[01:36:37]
We we do only just take it for granted New
York City basically because I always speak
about I like I would love to live like here
you know they are but I'm very I'm starting
to appreciate more of what we have around
here and like you said with all these bridges
being build it also reminded me sort of about
I remember when some points there would be
bridges built up cross like homeless you know
groups of people and just to like ignore them
homo's but to get rid of them in a sense but
also it was your neighborhood one of archaea.
[01:37:15]
I was waiting for someone since this morning
to touch on the test for example voting because
I was I was waiting I was like Is anyone going
to mention it but. I remember they would be
test for voting for color immigrants etc I
think if they're leading hundreds or somewhere
on their mom little if you're on a budget.
[01:37:37]
All we as a class we took the test and we
want they wanted to see how we would do our
students. Our history teacher and we all got
it every single question wrong and I was like.
You know at some point but I begin to realize
like it's almost impossible and it was impossible
we figured out later on to get them all right
because the simple fact that there would be
I remember a question and draw three circles
like shapes you could define what type of
circle you want it's like a bias question
almost you know so yeah that would be used
against just to prevent people from voting
that are colored.
[01:38:19]
But yeah. I guess just quickly last point
I don't know or. When I over time in over
developing I guess maturing in a sense. I
begin to realize you know I've been living
in New York City all my life and just now
and I'm starting to appreciate even more when
I've gone through these for example art museums
I'm going to you know you know a certain way
or March that I'm starting to appreciate and
I feel like for some reason at some point
in time is all going to be taken away I don't
know why I feel like they're probably not
anytime soon but like you said I really like
it touched when you say whether we need to
really almost like appreciated you her room
so yeah that's them thank you thank.
[01:39:07]
You. Thank you thank you this has been really
wonderful and I'm at that stage right very
excited and I'm trying to turn my thoughts
into a question but it's a bit. Trying to
get us becoming more question but I think
I'm very interested in something that all
of you already have and have had brought up
which is the way that eugenics has been always
a positive project a byproduct of it I mean
again it's great I mean its goal is as.
[01:39:34]
It moves you know it's to pray. If you could
read blogs write it's not necessarily if you
just produced did you decide if to make healthy.
And so when I'm in geography or in the seat
I want the pace back and I want to talk more
about the way that space functions with a
healthy day and in particular with a public
health is working in a way that kind of physical
knowledge is categorizing bodies and the way
that a particular we've just been distributed
and we can imagine looking at the wrong thing
from the rocks presently you know we can literally
be putting poison in the air within the soil
and then say there are higher rates of black
people we have to investigate whether it's
genetic bravery lately how does so then you
know just kind of wanted to kind of push back
a bit think more about the way that these
physical substances are entering our bodies
and how that kind of.
[01:40:25]
Part of the production of positive health
for me and someone who lives in this one area
but if it's. I mean that's the question. That
you. Hear Sorry I've heard you guys talking
about the whole like bridges and taking down
different neighborhoods say but on different
things but my question is in regarding to
all of us eugenics in this entire conversation
from the morning to now was that how do you
guys feel about these kinds of things being
represented in pop culture I've seen a lot
of this kind of stuff be represented very
loosely but most the time it's directly what
it's trying to do like the movie is about
slavery it's like it's like there's never
a movie with slavery in it it's a movie about
slavery.
[01:41:13]
But as an example in terms of like the housing
projects and all that I've never seen a movie
or T.V. show in general reference the problems
that those kind of things create outside of
an F.X. series called daredevil funnily enough
where there's an entire arc in the story that
it's just basically trying to describe the
two main characters trying to save a woman
and her home primarily spanning neighborhood
basically trying to preserve the culture in.
[01:41:36]
Whatever was there but I was curious but what
your take on the whole like pop culture and
how that actually references and how those
things impact the pop culture and it's on
its own because I have heard a lot of conversations
about massage these companies' kinds of things
that there's hardly any like strong female
characters and a lot of pop culture and it's
quite primarily.
[01:41:56]
Older white males in these kinds of things
so I was just curious what your take on these
kinds of things are. Home and. Since we're.
All. Different parts. Her reaction he's gotten
a little said. Here. Halperin sample the better.
Chance of taking this course you can tell
it's white boy talk about color for the second.
[01:42:50]
I have a little Sandy Hook comments are. We
going. To do all. People who become very most
honest have you heard two men single mothers.
Carry members. Do you have to take. Write
clearly you can't. Even more on the New York
Times bestseller lists for weeks and weeks
and weeks with hundreds of hears and this
is a year just because of this.
[01:43:33]
OK back to the final moments. Little bastards
erase. Homework me give me tonight this is
my way. It is it is this is me. Right it's
you see. It's a thing about. Precisely our.
Company things come into place but the but
the point you made about is being positive
projects that I think that's true but look
at the end believe that often the putting
set in they have pretty toxic consequences
at about sorting and.
[01:44:19]
Naming it controlling it so I've often advanced
not by people who say they want to read and
read my life but people who want to see people
say you know we want to advance good government
they want to do is help that she writes We
want to the top dog it is a positive.
[01:44:36]
And. It's a useful thing as a reminder that
about keeping a critical questions. That people
have. Which is that you can just say want
to tripping in terms of things coming in our
bodies on and in both the classes which I
can I teach we've been talking a lot about
a body of knowledge and we have a number of
answers in our classroom really great insights
about the way in which our bodies the way
that our bodies moved in are perceived as
movement is really important I think that
when it comes to the physical harm that is
done to us by structural racism by structural
discrimination it's important to recognise
that you don't just need to look up a study
that tells us as you saying that there's a
highway bill you know like that as your rates
are higher if you feel bad if you feel physically
sick and by a place in which you live perhaps
to be a valuable part of the process that
we go through with resistance you know it's
just as valuable to to understand the way
in which our bodies are affected the value
of just me.
[01:45:36]
Moving away from this top heavy part of a
kind of rational type they could actually
respect the ways that if we have a bad feeling
in our gut that that is a valuable part of
the process and if we feel sick every day
because we're walking through a neighborhood
where the highway has been plowed through
since we were a little kid that we don't need
it you know a doctor or a ten year study to
tell us that that something is causing it
we know what that thing is and we actually
know who to blame so yeah maybe the government
is going to wait until it does that study
but that doesn't mean that if you have a feeling
like that you can start your own form of resistance
so definitely respect the ways in which your
body is functioning the way in which you move
and the way and if you feel as as a valuable
tool in our tool kit of resistance that we're
building over these couple days thank you.
[01:46:19]
Thanks.
