 Okay, so we have like half an hour for questions for hell you how do we want to do this? There is a microphone somewhere Good, so there is a question in the front. Yeah I would like to push back a bit on what you were saying about Michelle Obama You know my black woman you cannot say anything bad about Michelle bomb particularly her construction as this more feminine more docile woman and That overlays Her there's discrimination against her as both black and a woman, right? So the stereotype of it fights against the stereotype of Against us that we are not feminine enough and we are not worthy of male protection Particularly through the institution of marriage, right? So pushing her out as Susie homemaker as a domestic woman is actually revolutionary Because she's a domestic woman yet. She's not a domestic right, so That construction of her. I don't see that as problematic because of what it is going towards How do you call it Susie? What Susie homemaker? You know I'm going to call Susie homemaker I push back by saying that if you are right we should be able to document that with how people out there are looking at her and But I give you this point obviously When she was sort of retooled yeah and reintroduced to the America to the white public Yeah, so let's be honest up to ourselves. We view her in a different life. We sort of know Okay, and we have a Riley or wrongly a sort of deep Knowledge or a perception that we have a deep knowledge of who she is and we're happy Let's be honest, too. We're happy that Obama did something that many black men of his Standing don't do he made it a black If had he made the white woman he would not have gotten 95% of the black boat. Yeah, that's why why what's his name? He will never be like he will never get 50% plus of the black So I give you that but I think that what what what we think is important But not central in understanding how whites have Imagined and perceive Michel now, so we still basically say okay keep doing you hula hula We know better. We know you are a strong black woman. You know that you push back or on Obama and that are not you Spanking all right like oh, you don't know what you're doing. Let me tell you what you should be doing But that is our construction. That is our imagination I don't think that that's how white folks are looking at her now again It remains to be seen and I hope that those of you interested in this subject write papers Oh, I mean there are people really working on this. So if you are interested in this be quick and write the paper Soon. Thank you for your question Hi, dr. Benio Silva As you mentioned racism is alive and well But I'm curious if you would argue that this new racism or colorblind racism is perhaps More dangerous or at least more sinister Than overt racism because at least with overt racism it is visible and therefore easier to confront But when driven underground or obfuscated it is more difficult if not impossible to eradicate because you cannot fight what you cannot see Good question. Let me give you a long answer. The long answer is this If you ask me do you I have I've gotten this question version of this question many many times and From the minority side, I get the question of the more things change The more they stay the same and I always say absolutely not We are no longer enslaved in part because we fought remember half a million african-americas engaged in Actions against slavery plus we those of us who were still enslaved fought by all means necessary against slavery Killing master. Oh, you want food? Yeah It has a special sauce. Yeah During Jim Crow the same thing and today we're still fighting So my my first component is that because we have struggled we have forced changes from slavery to Jim Crow to the new race Now we are in this new phase in this moment where nothing is what it seems That's what I always use the Alice in Wonderland Metaphor to explain well the reality we're navigating we have a black prescient It doesn't mean as much as we thought it was going to mean so On the one hand in this new racing period. They are some doors. Yeah, so look at this room Look at your dean. Look at the chair of the studio department. We are not the kind of People are minority leaders that I described today Now the Rogelio science. No, the other one. Yeah, Silva are sort of a la callos del Rey. Yeah, so we fight and we are strategic actors, but we're not ceiling At the same time, I'm concerned about what will happen. I mean other work I have talked about the potential of the US racial order becoming Latin America Where race sort of dissipates and we all claim we are beyond race like happens in Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. If all these things happen and the new racism sort of gels particularly the second component the Latin Americanization of race stratification Then your concern is valid and we may be in a worse predicament because they're not even space to fight We are not there yet and we still can't fight and we still have some power political power and space to fight back Things could potentially turn worse if we do what Puerto Rico did for years It's like oh, we don't need to get data on race because we don't have race or Puerto Rican If you end up in that corner, you cannot even document inequality. You cannot talk about race, but race matters So it all depends on what happens in the next 20-30 years and a lot of that will depend on what we the people do. If we people of color keep On the colorblind dream, that's it And then we may end up in a slightly worse position than the Jim Crow period because the Jim Crow period at least we could fight We could make it visible we can put that you know do a documentary But how do you documentary of people go well actually some people are doing it Yeah, you go to stores and you are followed. What is that show by John Kignones? What would you do? You may watch actually he does a lot of top-on-race if you never watch that show check it online good stuff So it's an open question whether this regime will become more problematic or less Professor thank you for coming to San Antonio and UTSA one element of the Obama administration that you don't deal with is How his election and re-election so threatened and antagonized Just about everyone on the right the Republican Party the emergence of the Tea Party People terribly frightened of a black man being successful in the White House and thus leading to more Elections of more candidates like that. It seems to me that that in itself Created a discussion and awareness about race that that you don't Address or that I didn't hear you address today. I I don't think anything has happened in our time Comparable where we have seen people openly work Against a president being successful They say it's not about race, but I think all of us agree is it is about race What else could it be about and I wonder how you see that and that seems to me in itself? Perhaps the most powerful element of the Obama of the Obama administration's You know the fact that he is a black man We also do two things one we have to go back to the Bill Clinton times unless him I mean Bill Clinton was impeached Bill Clinton was accused of every possible thing Okay, so one can sort of disentangle someone the existence of a right wing that will not accept anything that Smacks of liberalism. Yeah, so that's sort of an independent force in American life in the last 30 40 50 The second component is and let me give you my answer through analogy in the 19 1818 28 1930 or so the enlightened segment of the bourgeoisie of the elite Decided to push for reform such as you know Social security rise for workers, etc. Even though Plenty of the elements of the class of the group were not in line with that argument. Okay So I'm suggesting that today Those white supporting the Obama argument are the enlightened version of white America who know I don't think it's a conspiracy, but you know, they are doing the right thing of pushing for their best interest Those who want more conservative versions of white America who want us to go back to Software version of Jim Crow. I think are missing the historical boat this new regime That is working with I call it multi-racial white supremacy following the work of Dylan Rodriguez Riverside I think I think is More pernicious Potentially than the software version of the Jim Crow that Conservative whites may want for us in America. So in a sense the support of white liberals and whites Whatever 48% of whites or more that supported Obama. I think that that segment is representing Again the interest if you wish of the class and sometimes that enlightened segment has to take care of business Same as in the 1830s the line that segment of the boy you see told the conservative segments You're wrong if we don't give some rights to workers the system collapse This is the only way of preserving capitalizing for this segment I'm suggesting this may be the moment of saying this is better You think that given the demo think about the demographic trends of America Do you think that the minority masses will accept a softer version of Jim Crow? No, you would have a racial revolution So whether you agree with me or not this thing that is emerging I call it the new racism for lack of a better term And I'm talking about this multi-racial white supremacy. It's a much better alternative to preserve systemic white privilege The other alternatives going back to any kind of Jim Crow Software version of Jim Crow, etc. That that cannot work. Yeah, so That would be sort of my my answer to your question and we can talk more after About this deep deep comment. Yeah, I wonder if we could get your perceptions about the new Popular phrase income inequality, which of course hasn't a phenomenon is a phenomenon I'm not unknown to minorities for a long time, but it seems to have some legs now Do you think it will continue to have legs and why? I miss the first part the perceptions of income inequality or the reality of income inequality Your perceptions of income inequality, which minorities have experienced for a long time It seems to have some legs now some some force and it seems to be the thing to talk about Do you think it will continue to be a? a factor in politics we had the occupied movement And for a little bit we thought That's it. This may be the the way out. Yeah, I came in I Returned to my place of birth in 1984 and then I was a Volgar Marcy's who only saw class. Yeah, I Still remain convinced that class is one of the central components of American life and I still believe that the riddle to The matrix of domination in this country is developing a formula to join class race and gender concerns Of course, that's easy to say hard to do Now to answer the question will the discussions agitation around income inequality allow us to push forward a Social democratic agenda for the future. I don't think so I don't think so in part because of this new racial order combined with your concern that what 50% or so of whites Are on the other side of history and for them. They are willing to betray their class interest to defend their race interest. Yeah Plus, let's give the elite some credit. They do know how to divide. They do know how to rule and They are really good in selling the ideology that everybody can make it in America if you work hard And ideology that is also now corroborated to some extent Erratically, I think with the election of Obama. Yeah, because part of the narrative of his election is look these people came from nothing yeah, and Unfortunately, both Obama and Michelle have been strong in making comments particularly to minority kids about look Stay in school like I did and look you may end up in Harvard, etc So all those statistically speaking, this is absolute nonsense. Yeah, they like a lot of food people ending up in Harvard It's quite small. The fact that you have this example. Hey, you can become president has become normal How many of you have heard the argument out there? Colleague of mine at Michigan was telling me But it was a don't you think that now our kids can you know aspire and like And I'm a social scientist. I'm like actually research on aspirations shows clearly our kids Don't have a deficit in aspirations. We actually have slightly higher aspirations That white kids what our kids lack is an equal opportunity structure to match their aspirations with possibilities for success So how good is for me to be like I want to be the king when I have no chance of becoming the king Yeah, and now unfortunately some people can say well actually you may become the king Because look at Obama and I'm like, yeah, but if I have to do that I have to like you know retool myself you know Be articulate Go to Harvard being nice when people call me names. I'm like I hear you here You know, and that's not how I that's not how I roll out there. So Okay, more anyway, I hope I'm wrong by the way I hope I'm wrong and that through the level of income inequality the majority and minority masses Join hands as Marcy's would predict and fight the power But we have been waiting for that for a long time and ultimately even if that is the Vehicle to achieve Social justice in America. We still need to be out there doing the politics and they were organizing for that It won't happen just because of objective conditions. Yeah, so the whole argument about objective conditions determining everything Objective conditions are nothing unless we engage in political action Objective conditions may kill people and that doesn't mean people are going to organize along there You know what? We should join hands with our black brown folks to fight the power The real power is the white bull you are seeing they rule them the universe and we should fight them That's not the way things work More questions comments Thank you so much for your talk I came over here from my CRT class where I had them watch space traders So it was listening. It was very interesting listening to what you had to say I wish they could be here But one of the things a couple of things that you said that I found really interesting as I've tried to sort of Wrap my own head around this is with Obama. So Let's say we Disregard the racial aspect because my opinion is I think it's okay. It's sort of like the football thing I I think we will achieve a quality when we have you know And an adequate black quarterback just like we can have an in you know Adequate white quarter black going inadequate black quarterback like we have so many inadequate white quarterbacks that to me is like some level of achievement so even for something like Obama what what I Haven't been able to wrap my head around is that and you haven't mentioned it and we're in Texas is the tea party movement in The sense that if Obama is everything that you're saying He's really more right He really isn't doing anything to move a socially or any other way economically All of these things. I don't understand then the tea party movement and the Characterization of him throughout a lot of the media whether it's Fox News or listening to Morning Joe rant about all of these things about Barack Obama while on the one hand saying he's like Bush Right or other conservatives, but on the other hand saying, you know, oh, we're going towards socialism Our country is going down where it doesn't seem to connect. There is a disconnect somewhere between that Ideology that's one and the second thing is that the fact that the tea party Formed as sort of this movement in the way that you're saying you want to see on the other side and With something that seems to be as powerful as the tea party But it's an astro but baby specific. It's an astro turf movement Funded by the elite. So let's know that the beginning of the so-called movement was really all these rich folks putting money paying for buses to go and rally against mostly democratic Leaders etc. Now The right wing then lost control over the tea party And now they're going crazy and they're going even against their folks. Yeah, but the beginning of the movement of the movement was Funded big time we have the data on that yet by all these rich folks the Koch brother, for example gave tons of money To make sure that this thing Worked now that connects and dovetails well with the last question. This is not news to us the The white masses the white workers of the world the poor whites have not been in Symphony with our interest for years. Yeah There is a good book called dear hunting with Jesus really good book a Author died three years ago for got his last name And what he shows is he goes to one of these rural poor communities and Chose that one of the reasons why we Progressives are losing out is because we abandon these communities and who is taking the space first the local elites maybe elites but they go and Go to the bars and talk and talk to folks and although they may treat them as second-class citizens They are there. We're not even there Then we don't provide any kind of counter ideology to what they're saying So forget about Fox News. Yeah, they do watch Fox News. But you know what? It is talk radio For the workers of the world is talk radio. And most of us don't what don't listen to Rush Limbaugh or these fellow savage and all these people the white members of poor whites are listening to all these folks and Not not understanding what is going on why they're not making ends meet why they're losing their jobs it The easy explanation which is because of black people gays lesbians and a socialist president who is Muslim on the side by the way And we're not even American. Yeah Those easy explanations have become like normative. But again, this is not New to us. We have had this for a long long time What we're seeing now is that we see what you call a movement version of The ferment that has been there for years. Yeah, and it's not a nice ferment now There is a way for us to turn that back So you talk about let me let me challenge your analogy of the quarterback We don't need the quarterback, but we need to set team, but we need this organizing Yeah movements They forget about the quarterback Quarterbacks can be injured. Yeah Or die or become ineffective But if you have a team, which is what we need the social movement We may be able to counter and that will include going back to the last question about income inequality us Working with the white masses at the end of the day. We have more in common we Most of us people of color have more in common with the white majority Down with the white elite and that is a hard work. I'm not saying that it's easy to go in going to West Virginia North Carolina Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama Half of Texas Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. By the way, Michigan, Wisconsin is not much better. It's hard work But if we do what we're doing, which is we abandon them and just focus on our people I'm not saying Not to organize our people. We have to do that But we also if we want social justice for us and for everybody, we should be also working there And what are we doing? Let me be so optimistic about our future what will happen So I sort of waste time giving these talks because at the end of the day I can predict what most of us will do in November of 2013 all of you will be like wow We need to vote in these elections because they're fundamentally the Democrats don't get control of And in 2016, you know what you're going to do? I Cannot believe that the Republican Party nominated these fascists. We use the word fascists In the US in a very like, you know, hey, everybody's a fascist yeah, and because we claim that whoever the Republicans nominate the fascist we all end up not doing the work that I think needs to be done and just go Do a bit of electoral work and then we vote and then after the elections, what do we do? Go back to watching morning job So so the almost is on us is our collective Responsibility to work for social change social change will not happen by just getting the better quarterback It will happen by us getting the better team Okay, I think we have time for one more question Who decides? Okay, I'll feel both of them want to What we'll do is you ask the question you ask and then I try to Yes, yes, oh you need the mic We have a social movement going on so maybe we only have one more question Okay, depending on how our sister asked the question. Okay. Shoot. Thank you. Good afternoon to each and every one of you Good evening my question is relating to the same vein that you're talking about right now I'm coming back from a year of being in Mexico and right now Me Chua Khan is being attacked by the cartels So the community police is organizing and mobilizing Against the cartels and now the state of Mexico and the federalists are coming in to try to maintain order In Mexico and a lot of Latino communities and countries They have a different sense of community. They have What really embodies a community and so it challenges when people come from the United States and claim a community They ask him the first question they ask you is what's your cargo or what's your responsibility or your role in the community? here being born and raised as an American which Carries that Western culture. That's heavily rooted in individualism In capitalism how do you what are some of the ways that we can overcome those barriers of the culture that we Are born into and and live in every single day and feel the pressures of in every single moment In order to build rebuild that sense of community and start to sound like a broken record But the answer to everything is social movement and politics you want a new culture If anyone here has participate in social movements, you all realize that when you are in a movement new ideas emerge new music New visions sometime new sort of social relationships. Yeah, so I participated in two important social movements in my life One in a squad or settlement movement and all the one in a student movement in the 80s later on in the US I did a little few things for the US, you know, but it's not the beacon of social movement activity. So at any rate If you want a new culture a new vision of community that will not be taught to people, you know So you cannot go to school. Okay. Let me teach you community. Be nice Care for one another Yeah, so what you do is social movements also produce new cultures new understandings. Yeah If for example, we have a movement in which women are in a central position in the movement as they should That could potentially help us rethink a new the position of women in society and it would be harder for people to Sort of practice sexism as they do. Yeah Similarly in terms of race if in this movement we have relations of comradery and friendship Emotion and maybe even love hard for you not to think of one another as you know, we are brothers and sisters. Yeah That's the language of movement brothers and sisters. So if we want a new culture I think the fastest way of getting there is through social movement activity I am a firm believer that social movements are central because as a social scientist and a student of history I think that fundamental social Changes have occurred throughout history because of people's movements. Yeah, because of social protest because of politics Yeah, politics meaning beyond just electoral politics. I'm not by the way. I'm not saying never vote I'm not saying that I'm just saying if you need to vote go ahead and vote as I did into it But don't assume that that is all that politics encompasses. Yeah Voting is a segment of political activity and in the US since 1980s in some of Reagan's election We progress is we liberals stop doing the other kind of politics for the most part and have focused only on every four years Give money so as we get old and you know, give me a bit of money We're like, I'm going to give Obama all the money I can give him because of the tea party idiots Yeah, and then we don't do anything else and that Ultimately will not help us get to the promised land Okay, right. I think I'm tired