There's a lot of books that we should be reading.
There's a lot of your father and your mother's speeches
that we should be going back to look at and to read.
And that is what we're trying to do with this platform
that we have from now on--
is learn and listen.
How can we be your ally?
How can we continue to grow, and learn, and be better?
I think the white community, as they're leaning in now,
I think it's important that you all really listen
to what is being said in the environment and the climate
now, even through the emotion that's being emitted,
which is a legitimate emotion--
the anger, sometimes coming across as rage, and maybe even
hate.
But it's not hate in a pure state.
It's reaction to all of the years of oppression
and not having the-- not just justice, but the equity
in society, and not addressing issues such as police brutality
and putting legislation in place to ensure
that these kind of excessive uses of force are punished
and, hopefully, deter others.
And so reading-- my father has so many things that he wrote.
My mother's book is a wonderful place to start, too--
My Life, My Love, My Legacy--
to understand that journey.
My father's book-- Where Do We Go from Here, Chaos
or Community, and Stride Toward Freedom, and Why We Can't Wait,
and Tied in a Single Garment of Destiny.
I mean, he has so many things that I
think people need to read.
And there's so many other offers out there--
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow.
And there's just so many things.
And part of the part of that is being
willing to put to aside whatever you've
brought to the table in terms of your perception
and your perspective and say, OK, I'm
going to take this in now and let this speak to me.
And then hear what other people say.
Because I think the problem now is people have been talking.
Every generation, every 10 years, every five years,
every two years, people are saying things.
But I think people are formulating opinions,
and they're not really taking in what is being said.
And you have to meditate on what's being said,
because it's not easy to hear some of the stuff.
And as you meditate, we have to trust the direction.
I mean, that's been the hardest part,
I think, with the white and black community--
is there's just distrust, and there's fear,
and there's anger.
And the only way we're going to get to a more trusting place
is there has to be guards let down on both sides,
and in the white community especially.
It's OK to know that you have to learn
and you're not right on these things.
And I'm not saying everybody in the white community.
But I'm saying there is so much of a gap here that,
if the white community can just trust what we're saying--
we're not making it up--
[LAUGHS] I think the equation will change.
And what you're talking about--
I think what people have to realize is there is not anger
without pain.
The reason that there is so much anger
is because there has been pain inflicted
on the black community for so long, for hundreds of years.
And that kind of feeling of having to talk to your children
about when you go out of the house,
and how you have to be careful around police,
and how you have to act, when no white person has
to tell their child that--
no one has to worry about what the police are going
to do to their white children.
And like you said, white people have
to realize the disparity of our lfiestyles.
Exactly.
And that's what it is.
This is what people have been saying--
the white supremacist system.
There is this elitism.
There's a system that comes into play for white people
that doesn't come into play for black people.
If that had been a white person, first of all,
they wouldn't have been on the ground.
I saw a picture on social media of a gentleman who
had done something horrific, and the cop was giving them
something to drink.
And I'm thinking, this is crazy-- of a gentleman who
did the shooting at Mother Zion, in South Carolina,
being taken to get something to eat.
That doesn't happen with us.
Some of us don't make it out of that moment, as George did not.
And so there are two separate justice systems.
The justice is not the problem.
It's what's in people's hearts and these systemic systems
that have been put in place to benefit
the white community that doesn't benefit
the black community at all.
I mean, it's not fair.
And it's not equal.
It really is not.
The scales of justice are not equal.
And they're not equitable.
In this country, we see an incident like George Floyd.
We all get angry.
And then, historically, we move on.
This isn't about individual incidents.
This is about a systemic problem of racism.
Yes.
And that's the part we haven't dealt with.
We've dealt with racial acts by an individual.
But now this is really about we've got to dismantle racism.
We have to dismantle white supremacy.
And we've got to create and build
the true, beloved community and my father talked about
and my mother talked about and worked toward.
Well, I hope we have a brand new dream,
because it's time for your father's dream to come true.
And there needs to be equality, which we have never ever had.
And we need to all work towards that end
of changing all of our behaviors, all of our beliefs.
And I will do my best to be a part of that
and be a platform for anyone like yourself or anyone
that I can have on to teach us so we can be better people.
And let me just say, 'cause I'm going to keep saying it.
Better people is good, because better people
can create, as you said, a new dream and a better system,
because these systems are created by people.
But if we fail to do the work of the systemic,
we'll have better people, but we'll still
be having poor results, if you understand what I'm saying.
There's something in the practices
and the policies of institutions that have
to be addressed and looked at.
And that's where the real work is.
And then, just as it relates to equality, if you look it up
on the internet, there's this wonderful example
of the difference between equality and equity
where it shows that, if everybody gets equality,
and I'm short, and you're middle height,
and this other person is tall, and they all
get the same height stool, the taller person will still
be taller, and the shorter person
will still be the shortest.
And so this shorter person would need a taller stool
so that now we get to equality.
We can't even do equality yet till we get to equity.
And that's been a fundamental problem in America.
Well, and that's a great analogy about the same-size stool.
It's got to all balance out.
And thank you so much for taking the time, Dr. King.
You're amazing.
Your mother and your father were amazing.
And anytime, come back and talk to us, please.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.