to introduce to this powerful man these are the women that are him our rain this afternoon and our women empowerment discussion so we're going to do is i'm going to introduce a mom and then they're going to the true and most important part i'm the grandmother of three is a challenge at times when we look at the racial disparities that we face however is a vibrant robust community where there's actually a lot of opportunity but i have come to realize that we have to fight for what we want one of the folks who has inspired me throughout history is harriet tubman i mean here you tell me it was a strong woman in a situation and which black people really didn't have a voice as a side they were inspiration i feel like i'm inspired by many women and you can see the light that especially black women when i'm in community with black women when i especially african americans because this country was built off of the backs of our your ancestors we have never been compensated for what are you supposed to have gone through and we continue to pay the price of an equitable treatment in this country and we know that there is a transfer of wealth that goes on from one generation to the next in many white families and communities and it's time for us to be able to tap into that transfer of wealth we land corporations and reparations for what our people have gone  the ears were i own people won't attack and make fun of you because they say you're educated and i eat a lot of a man's insurance's when you see those kinds of attacks well why is solution is you've got to maintain a situation i know has gone back to being bad and we don't maintain them and keep them safe so we need people to come together across want to i thought about that one in power and what does that mean that i'm translating at the main that you have you haven't had access to influence of positions that old in south georgia and i say really community some to prepare myself i would have been studious to of out and as i was constantly preparing myself i keep on learning i have to community service i'm not a show not for television camera not taken on and clear the newspaper but just the little things that will make things better people we can't wait to retirement we can't wait to do nothing and lovers are doing other now that we could so when we talk about women have our man she is a prime example i mean you do things just because you know it's the right thing to do and how much energy will it take to sit in front of a computer and really reach out to people and try to help raise money trying to help a cause that you believe  us through whatever obstacles we have to overcome but i don't envy in the day failure is not an option and giving up is mom and i asked and i'm sure that's something that i've learned as a woman through it through it all my first couple of years on the john where i felt inferior because i started teaching i think i was about twenty six years old and i was you know the only african american woman on the faculty most of my colleagues are over forty and there were white men and it saved me a long time to develop a strong sense of identity and purpose and seem to understand that i didn't have to always ask permission to do what i mean it's a do that was a mistake that i made my first couple of years i ask permission to do something different or bring forward a new idea and typically because people are used to one things a certain way they say you know even if it is a good idea and i realized that i really wasn't getting anywhere and terms of being able to fight for my community or prove forward new ways of doing things are constantly asking permission so i just started doing it and again i apologize and later oh i didn't realize as far as evil by the end i mean i'm already ten steps ahead because i'm says this and you know what i have to keep pushing  below and thinking outside the box and trying innovative ways of doing things and i also pay attention to my students you know i'm a person who although i'm in a classroom teaching i learn just as much from those around me so when my is that the legacy of black women i mean when you turn slavery they gave us scraps to work with and we made meals that has to stay in our community from one generation to the next and so i had to realize it was  god who has the power the women before me and it's because he cares about us we're made in his image we have actual buttes thank god his place on the inside of us had made each of us unique and once i came to that realization i said i'm not going to stay limited walk into a room i'm like i can figure into these people on his daughter and i feel that there's one of the highest positions that we can attain as as black women in this society recognize that we're made in his image and then our nothing more than a war in the minds i am because i think i am and i am because i believe in know that i am and just is the humus and they don't one has to tap into all of them power tap into that home is that black woman who brings to our to our lives i when and when i'm when i'm battling myself because i you know i get scared and i get worried and i get anxious i lean on god first because that is my color and then i lean on my mama in my grandma because they are everything to me and then i lean on my my mentors and my elders to give me words that i need to hear when i need to hear them so for me and all of that in the end result is i'm using my tools to help my community but it is not  about my community and i am of the soul and that is what i continuously you know come to myself and i'm praying to and that's what i receive from guys i don't feel like you know i'm sure laurie you know has a quote you know when i use own i use my you know tools in the service of others it doesn't matter when i am whether i'm both free or not and it's not about me and praying on that and keeping close to god and my mentors my elders and my family i think what is an obstacle i have no obstacles situations over all asian situations not all that tino situations where i'm the only african american there and then when i travel to other african countries i'm the african american because they are africa and mixed with something but i think overcoming self consciousness about our being a life  problem not mine so you don't want people to make your blackness a problem for you because it is clear they are trying to do that  ok how do we stay in community with each other as as a well person i feel you are you know you're aware to what's going on you really just have to be with people like you just have to be in community with people in a in a genuine way and i think and i know for me sometimes it's hard because being awake can suck it's very frustrating because people can see what you see and  it is isolating and but what's important is that we we recognize that that is not the humanity of a person like theirs they need to be unlocked and you're there to help kind of smooth over the law do you know what i mean you're there to just being there with them and just like i said when i feel like inspired by women i love to just sit and talk to people you hear exactly where they're at when you sit and talk to people to affect great change it's going to take root because each person is so you know there's so much for to lady there's so much potential in all those people and you know doing that's the work igniting that light and of course they don't want that light burning as we go in for an audition  better then black skinned people also we have improved only in terms of segregation the months of life but we have some ways to go so we can we can work on that ourselves economic lives matter we've got to do what we can individually right now is what is not so much the answer but am i the only one that notices that our young brothers and sisters are not giving us seventh or eighth grade i did not see in the graduation rate i don't see the college of our young children about our kids what is your take on th sleep what why is there so few of us on these plus stops when you go into the schools the public schools not so much alternative for me the answer to that would you have to look towards the prison industrial complex and how they're funneling our children into the system and their young agents we have to look at the institutionalization of our schools they look more like prisons and they do school that that's my really only thing that we can point to because the kids that are the state has been failing our kids we don't have any curriculum that looks like us so how are they supposed to be engaged how are they supposed to engage with authority figures that don't have their best interests in mind that are looking for tenure in urban schools trying to get debt erased they don't care about our kids and we have to actively come back that and to or create alternative ok i was just just respond to that by saying i think the root of a lot of these issues is white supremacy as something that professor mahmood our crowded talks about a lot and often we're afraid to say the words white supremacy so i want to hear ya say all right so colonel say we have to begin to get that in our vocabulary and not be ashamed to call it what it is because it is that the root of a lot of the problems we have a lot of the institutions that have been created have been created for our demise we don't run these systems we don't create these systems but we're constantly seeing the impacts on our community and we have to fight back going back to my earlier question of how creating a sense of community i think number one we have to be intentional about creating a sense of community it doesn't mean that everyone has to get along all the time or there has to be some false united front i simply reject that i'm typically looking for people who are serious about lifting and building the community and and riding with them and encouraging them to run this next leg of the race because i feel that we've entered into phase two of the civil rights movement i believe that black lives matter has helped to bring that to the forefront because all of these issues that we're talking about whether it's the system of mass incarceration or disparities in public education or high poverty rates the juvenile justice system i mean the list goes on and on all of these are issues that we have had to deal with since i asked us to those were brought here forcibly to this country and rather than things getting better they have gotten worse and sometimes the problems hide under the facade of a few of us be unable to reach the top and their users poster children if they're able to get a basters or some other higher degree and make six figures we see them as poster children when in reality the system is designed for only a few to rise to the top so we need to be intentional about the future that we want to create and we need to decide that we're willing to fight back that's what i admire so much about the young people now and during the one nine hundred sixty s they refuse to be refuse they're willing to use their bodies as a living sacrifice they're willing to reject this false notion of the american dream and fight for what they believe in but it is too many of us sitting on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to do what we all need to do there's enough power in th room enough talent enough creativity strong voices and resources to change the status quo because the status quo is killing our people and it's killing our community so we need to decide that twenty sixteen is going to be different and we don't just show up at a spokesman event is some good food drink some good dreams here's some good speakers but seeds are being deposited there we're going to bring forward into something good on behalf of our community and that means everybody has to roll up their sleeves and get involved everybody has a role to play you don't have to go a lot i don't train tracks if that's not what you're interested in and that's what i happen to do with ass and other people if we if it comes down to it you may not even want to go to city hall that's what i asked and i may do if it comes down to it sometimes maybe it's going to talk to the governor but other times it's going to your places of worship it's going it's your workplaces  your neighborhoods and saying enough is enough we are going to demand the changes that we want to see and as women we can do that ok so now i have to this is the part i hate the most just get started and team wrapped it up very well because i was going to ask the question what device would you leave these women you didn't excellent job and articulate your thoughts on what you want to leave with them can i get the other two panelists to leave with what it buys you going to send them home with this that getting involved if you find that is empowering his power that gives you encourage men inspiration to do something else because we need some creativity and creativity comes from one kind of own children and i'll try to show that is the words that it is worth getting education that was the number one factor that helped me growing up in the south georgia the community that people  do that the rest i would remind everyone in this room that you are ready have the power i can empower you because you already have it these people that are alleged to think that they have the power but that's only because you borrowed a piece of your power to claim your where you think just like the slaves were saying if you have an idea you were supposed to have that idea you were supposed to be the fertile land that that idea grew and blossomed upon the community it was how could you dream it up so i just want to remind everybody to remember your power and pay attention to how you use your power in your daily life whether your buying something from mcdonald's or buying something from a black owned business your dollar is your vote in this community or in this capitalistic society so we need to be thinking more about what we bring to the table and actually