The racial politics of time
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0:01 - 0:06What if I told you that time has a race,
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0:06 - 0:09a race in the contemporary way
that we understand race -
0:09 - 0:10in the United States?
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0:10 - 0:16Typically, we talk about race
in terms of black and white issues. -
0:16 - 0:18In the African-American communities
from which I come, -
0:18 - 0:21we have a long-standing
multi-generational joke -
0:21 - 0:24about what we call "CP time,"
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0:24 - 0:26or "colored people's time."
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0:26 - 0:30Now, we no longer refer
to African-Americans as "colored," -
0:30 - 0:31but this long-standing joke
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0:31 - 0:34about our perpetual lateness to church,
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0:34 - 0:35to cookouts, to family events
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0:35 - 0:38and even to our own funerals, remains.
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0:39 - 0:42I personally am a stickler for time.
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0:42 - 0:45It's almost as if my mother,
when I was growing up, said, -
0:45 - 0:47"We will not be those black people."
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0:47 - 0:49So we typically arrive to events
30 minutes early. -
0:50 - 0:55But today, I want to talk to you
more about the political nature of time, -
0:55 - 0:57for if time had a race,
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0:57 - 0:58it would be white.
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0:59 - 1:01White people own time.
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1:02 - 1:04I know, I know.
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1:04 - 1:08Making such "incendiary statements"
makes us uncomfortable: -
1:09 - 1:12Haven't we moved past the point
where race really matters? -
1:13 - 1:15Isn't race a heavy-handed concept?
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1:16 - 1:19Shouldn't we go ahead
with our enlightened, progressive selves -
1:19 - 1:23and relegate useless concepts like race
to the dustbins of history? -
1:23 - 1:28How will we ever get over racism
if we keep on talking about race? -
1:30 - 1:33Perhaps we should lock up our concepts
of race in a time capsule, -
1:33 - 1:36bury them and dig them up
in a thousand years, -
1:36 - 1:39peer at them with the clearly
more enlightened, -
1:39 - 1:42raceless versions of ourselves
that belong to the future. -
1:42 - 1:44But you see there,
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1:44 - 1:48that desire to mitigate the impact
of race and racism shows up -
1:48 - 1:51in how we attempt to manage time,
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1:51 - 1:53in the ways we narrate history,
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1:53 - 1:56in the ways we attempt to shove
the negative truths of the present -
1:56 - 1:57into the past,
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1:57 - 2:00in the ways we attempt to argue
that the future that we hope for -
2:00 - 2:02is the present in which
we're currently living. -
2:03 - 2:07Now, when Barack Obama
became President of the US in 2008, -
2:07 - 2:10many Americans declared
that we were post-racial. -
2:10 - 2:12I'm from the academy
-
2:12 - 2:14where we're enamored
with being post-everything. -
2:14 - 2:19We're postmodern, we're post-structural,
we're post-feminist. -
2:19 - 2:22"Post" has become
a simple academic appendage -
2:22 - 2:24that we apply to a range of terms
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2:24 - 2:25to mark the way we were.
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2:26 - 2:30But prefixes alone don't have the power
to make race and racism -
2:31 - 2:32a thing of the past.
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2:32 - 2:34The US was never "pre-race."
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2:35 - 2:39So to claim that we're post-race when we
have yet to grapple with the impact -
2:39 - 2:42of race on black people,
Latinos or the indigenous -
2:42 - 2:43is disingenuous.
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2:44 - 2:47Just about the moment
we were preparing to celebrate -
2:47 - 2:48our post-racial future,
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2:48 - 2:51our political conditions became
the most racial they've been -
2:51 - 2:53in the last 50 years.
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2:53 - 2:57So today, I want to offer to you
three observations, -
2:57 - 3:00about the past, the present
and the future of time, -
3:00 - 3:05as it relates to the combating
of racism and white dominance. -
3:05 - 3:07First: the past.
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3:08 - 3:10Time has a history,
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3:10 - 3:12and so do black people.
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3:12 - 3:14But we treat time as though
it is timeless, -
3:14 - 3:17as though it has always been this way,
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3:17 - 3:19as though it doesn't have
a political history -
3:19 - 3:21bound up with the plunder
of indigenous lands, -
3:21 - 3:23the genocide of indigenous people
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3:23 - 3:26and the stealing of Africans
from their homeland. -
3:27 - 3:29When white male European philosophers
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3:29 - 3:34first thought to conceptualize
time and history, one famously declared, -
3:34 - 3:37"[Africa] is no historical
part of the World." -
3:38 - 3:40He was essentially saying
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3:40 - 3:42that Africans were people
outside of history -
3:42 - 3:45who had had no impact on time
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3:45 - 3:47or the march of progress.
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3:47 - 3:52This idea, that black people
have had no impact on history, -
3:52 - 3:55is one of the foundational ideas
of white supremacy. -
3:55 - 4:00It's the reason that Carter G. Woodson
created "Negro History Week" in 1926. -
4:00 - 4:03It's the reason that we continue
to celebrate Black History Month -
4:03 - 4:06in the US every February.
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4:07 - 4:09Now, we also see this idea
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4:09 - 4:14that black people are people either
alternately outside of the bounds of time -
4:14 - 4:15or stuck in the past,
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4:15 - 4:18in a scenario where,
much as I'm doing right now, -
4:18 - 4:22a black person stands up and insists
that racism still matters, -
4:22 - 4:25and a person, usually white,
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4:25 - 4:26says to them,
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4:26 - 4:27"Why are you stuck in the past?
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4:28 - 4:29Why can't you move on?
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4:30 - 4:32We have a black president.
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4:32 - 4:33We're past all that."
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4:35 - 4:37William Faulkner famously said,
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4:37 - 4:39"The past is never dead.
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4:39 - 4:41It's not even past."
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4:42 - 4:45But my good friend
Professor Kristie Dotson says, -
4:45 - 4:48"Our memory is longer than our lifespan."
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4:49 - 4:52We carry, all of us,
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4:52 - 4:55family and communal
hopes and dreams with us. -
4:57 - 5:02We don't have the luxury
of letting go of the past. -
5:02 - 5:04But sometimes,
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5:04 - 5:06our political conditions are so troubling
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5:06 - 5:08that we don't know
if we're living in the past -
5:08 - 5:10or we're living in the present.
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5:10 - 5:13Take, for instance,
when Black Lives Matter protesters -
5:13 - 5:17go out to protest unjust killings
of black citizens by police, -
5:17 - 5:20and the pictures that emerge
from the protest -
5:20 - 5:23look like they could have been
taken 50 years ago. -
5:24 - 5:26The past won't let us go.
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5:27 - 5:31But still, let us press our way
into the present. -
5:32 - 5:34At present, I would argue
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5:34 - 5:36that the racial struggles
we are experiencing -
5:36 - 5:39are clashes over time and space.
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5:40 - 5:42What do I mean?
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5:42 - 5:45Well, I've already told you
that white people own time. -
5:46 - 5:49Those in power dictate
the pace of the workday. -
5:50 - 5:53They dictate how much money
our time is actually worth. -
5:54 - 5:56And Professor George Lipsitz argues
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5:56 - 6:00that white people even dictate
the pace of social inclusion. -
6:00 - 6:03They dictate how long
it will actually take -
6:03 - 6:07for minority groups to receive the rights
that they have been fighting for. -
6:07 - 6:10Let me loop back to the past quickly
to give you an example. -
6:11 - 6:13If you think about
the Civil Rights Movement -
6:13 - 6:16and the cries of its leaders
for "Freedom Now," -
6:16 - 6:20they were challenging the slow pace
of white social inclusion. -
6:20 - 6:24By 1965, the year
the Voting Rights Act was passed, -
6:24 - 6:26there had been a full 100 years
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6:26 - 6:28between the end of the Civil War
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6:28 - 6:31and the conferral of voting rights
on African-American communities. -
6:31 - 6:33Despite the urgency of a war,
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6:33 - 6:38it still took a full 100 years
for actual social inclusion to occur. -
6:38 - 6:40Since 2012,
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6:40 - 6:44conservative state legislatures
across the US have ramped up attempts -
6:44 - 6:46to roll back African-American
voting rights -
6:46 - 6:49by passing restrictive voter ID laws
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6:49 - 6:51and curtailing early voting opportunities.
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6:52 - 6:56This past July, a federal court
struck down North Carolina's voter ID law -
6:56 - 7:01saying it "... targeted African-Americans
with surgical precision." -
7:03 - 7:06Restricting African-American inclusion
in the body politic -
7:06 - 7:11is a primary way that we attempt
to manage and control people -
7:11 - 7:14by managing and controlling time.
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7:14 - 7:18But another place that we see
these time-space clashes -
7:18 - 7:21is in gentrifying cities
like Atlanta, Brooklyn, -
7:21 - 7:25Philadelphia, New Orleans
and Washington, DC -- -
7:25 - 7:28places that have had
black populations for generations. -
7:28 - 7:32But now, in the name
of urban renewal and progress, -
7:32 - 7:34these communities are pushed out,
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7:34 - 7:36in service of bringing them
into the 21st century. -
7:37 - 7:40Professor Sharon Holland asked:
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7:40 - 7:44What happens when a person
who exists in time -
7:44 - 7:47meets someone who only occupies space?
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7:49 - 7:50These racial struggles
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7:51 - 7:54are battles over those
who are perceived to be space-takers -
7:54 - 7:57and those who are perceived
to be world-makers. -
7:58 - 8:01Those who control the flow
and thrust of history -
8:01 - 8:05are considered world-makers
who own and master time. -
8:05 - 8:07In other words: white people.
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8:08 - 8:12But when Hegel famously said that Africa
was no historical part of the world, -
8:12 - 8:15he implied that it was merely
a voluminous land mass -
8:15 - 8:17taking up space
at the bottom of the globe. -
8:18 - 8:20Africans were space-takers.
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8:21 - 8:25So today, white people continue to control
the flow and thrust of history, -
8:25 - 8:29while too often treating black people
as though we are merely taking up space -
8:29 - 8:31to which we are not entitled.
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8:32 - 8:36Time and the march of progress
is used to justify -
8:36 - 8:40a stunning degree of violence
towards our most vulnerable populations, -
8:40 - 8:45who, being perceived as space-takers
rather than world-makers, -
8:45 - 8:48are moved out of the places
where they live, -
8:48 - 8:51in service of bringing them
into the 21st century. -
8:52 - 8:56Shortened life span according to zip code
is just one example of the ways -
8:56 - 8:59that time and space cohere
in an unjust manner -
8:59 - 9:00in the lives of black people.
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9:01 - 9:05Children who are born
in New Orleans zip code 70124, -
9:06 - 9:07which is 93 percent white,
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9:07 - 9:11can expect to live a full 25 years longer
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9:11 - 9:15than children born
in New Orleans zip code 70112, -
9:15 - 9:17which is 60 percent black.
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9:18 - 9:22Children born in Washington, DC's
wealthy Maryland suburbs -
9:22 - 9:25can expect to live a full 20 years longer
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9:25 - 9:29than children born
in its downtown neighborhoods. -
9:30 - 9:32Ta-Nehisi Coates argues
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9:32 - 9:38that, "The defining feature
of being drafted into the Black race -
9:38 - 9:41is the inescapable robbery of time."
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9:42 - 9:43We experience time discrimination,
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9:44 - 9:45he tells us,
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9:45 - 9:46not just as structural,
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9:46 - 9:48but as personal:
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9:48 - 9:50in lost moments of joy,
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9:50 - 9:52lost moments of connection,
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9:52 - 9:54lost quality of time with loved ones
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9:54 - 9:57and lost years of healthy quality of life.
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10:00 - 10:03In the future, do you see black people?
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10:05 - 10:07Do black people have a future?
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10:08 - 10:11What if you belong
to the very race of people -
10:11 - 10:13who have always been pitted against time?
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10:14 - 10:19What if your group is the group
for whom a future was never imagined? -
10:20 - 10:22These time-space clashes --
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10:22 - 10:24between protesters and police,
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10:24 - 10:27between gentrifiers and residents --
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10:27 - 10:29don't paint a very pretty picture
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10:29 - 10:32of what America hopes
for black people's future. -
10:32 - 10:34If the present is any indicator,
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10:34 - 10:36our children will be under-educated,
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10:36 - 10:39health maladies will take their toll
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10:39 - 10:41and housing will continue
to be unaffordable. -
10:42 - 10:45So if we're really ready
to talk about the future, -
10:45 - 10:49perhaps we should begin
by admitting that we're out of time. -
10:50 - 10:53We black people
have always been out of time. -
10:53 - 10:55Time does not belong to us.
-
10:55 - 10:59Our lives are lives of perpetual urgency.
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10:59 - 11:01Time is used to displace us,
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11:01 - 11:04or conversely, we are urged
into complacency -
11:04 - 11:07through endless calls to just be patient.
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11:08 - 11:10But if past is prologue,
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11:10 - 11:14let us seize upon the ways in which
we're always out of time anyway -
11:14 - 11:15to demand with urgency
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11:15 - 11:17freedom now.
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11:18 - 11:21I believe the future is what we make it.
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11:21 - 11:25But first, we have to decide
that time belongs to all of us. -
11:26 - 11:29No, we don't all get equal time,
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11:29 - 11:33but we can decide that the time
we do get is just and free. -
11:33 - 11:35We can stop making your zip code
the primary determinant -
11:35 - 11:36of your lifespan.
-
11:37 - 11:40We can stop stealing learning time
from black children -
11:40 - 11:43through excessive use
of suspensions and expulsions. -
11:43 - 11:45We can stop stealing time
from black people -
11:45 - 11:48through long periods
of incarceration for nonviolent crimes. -
11:49 - 11:52The police can stop
stealing time and black lives -
11:52 - 11:54through use of excessive force.
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11:55 - 11:58I believe the future is what we make it.
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11:58 - 12:02But we can't get there
on colored people's time -
12:02 - 12:04or white time
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12:04 - 12:06or your time
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12:06 - 12:08or even my time.
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12:09 - 12:10It's our time.
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12:11 - 12:12Ours.
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12:12 - 12:14Thank you.
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12:14 - 12:17(Applause)
- Title:
- The racial politics of time
- Speaker:
- Brittney Cooper
- Description:
-
"If time had a race, it would be white," says cultural theorist Brittney Cooper. In this thought-provoking talk, Cooper reconsiders racism and discrimination through the lens of time, showing us how throughout history, time has been stolen from people of color, resulting in lost moments of joy and connection, lost years of healthy quality of life and the delay of progress.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:29
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The racial politics of time | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The racial politics of time | ||
Camille Martínez accepted English subtitles for The racial politics of time | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for The racial politics of time | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for The racial politics of time | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for The racial politics of time |