WEBVTT

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This is-- I'm so proud of this.

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This is my latest book actually.

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And it's a biography
of Rosa Parks.

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And I had the privilege
of knowing Mrs. Parks

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for like 24 years.

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And I say that-- and I
actually I think I could fairly

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say we had a friendship.

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But having a friendship
with Mrs. Parks

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is probably like
having a friendship

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with Queen Elizabeth.

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She's somebody and you're not.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And so it works as long
as you understand that.

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And I did.

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As she was kind
enough to mention,

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I am the first recipient
of the Rosa Parks

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Woman of Courage award.

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And the Rosa Parks award
is an academic award.

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And for those of
us who don't know

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if I may be indulged for a
moment, an academic award

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you have to go and receive them.

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So I have a Grammy nomination.

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When I was nominated for the
Grammy I didn't have to go.

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If I would have won or didn't
as I didn't, well, it's

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a 4 in 1 chance of losing
a 1 in 5 chance of winning.

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What are the odds there?

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It's why I don't
play the lottery.

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I don't.

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But nonetheless you have
to go to receive this.

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You don't have to go
to the Oscars either.

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You don't have to
go to Golden Globe.

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Do you miss a lot?

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You don't.

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But anytime you win
an academy award

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you have to actually show up.

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This man is James Tate.

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And Montgomery,
Alabama is a small--

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it's the capital of Alabama,
but it's a small city.

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And the day that I flew into
Montgomery to receive the Rosa

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Parks, the headlines--
because nothing else going

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on, the headline
going this way says,

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"Giovanni in town for Rosa
Parks award," because it was--

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an inaugural award.

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The column coming down
says, "James Tate died."

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Bus driver who had
Mrs. Parks arrested,

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he died on the same day.

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There is a God.

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So when I got off the
plane quite naturally,

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the reporters got nothing else
to do so they said to me--

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they call me Dr. Giovanni
and he said, "Dr. Giovanni,

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James Tate died.

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But I know who James Tate was.

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And so I'm like, yeah.

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And I said, "Well, do you
have anything to say?"

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And I said, "Well,
yeah, I'm glad."

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[LAUGHTER]

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I didn't kill him and it
didn't mean anything to me

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and another one bites the dust.

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[LAUGHTER]

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It meant nothing.

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But of course, what they
did they went to Mrs. Tate

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and they said, "Dr.
Giovanni says she's glad--

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[LAUGHTER]

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"She's glad James is dead."

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Well, I'm not exactly.

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You know what I'm saying?

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That's not exactly what I said.

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But Mrs. Tate took
exception and I was sorry

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because I wasn't trying
to hurt her feelings.

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I had no stake in
hurting her feelings.

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And she said, "Well, what Dr.
Giovanni doesn't understand."

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And so now I got to
tell you, Mrs. Tate

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is in dangerous ground
because Dr. Giovanni damn well

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did understand.

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She said, "What Dr.
Giovanni doesn't understand

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is that James was just
a man of his time."

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And so that comes back to
me and I said, "Oh, no.

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Oh, no, no, no.

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Nobody."

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What Mrs. Tate
doesn't understand

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is that nobody should
be a man of their time.

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To be a man of
your time in 1700s

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is to engage in the slave trade.

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To be a man of your
time in the 1800s

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is to take smallpox
in places and blankets

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and give him to the Indians.

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To be a man of your
time in the 1900s

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it's the lynch on the average
of 1 black person a week.

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To be a man of your
time in the 1930s

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is to don, you see what
I'm saying, a brown shirt

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and round up Jewish people
and put them in a Holocaust.

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But mostly, to be a man of your
time at the beginning of time

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is to stand in the crowd and
shout, "Give us Barabbas."

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Nobody should be a
man of their time.

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And we thank God that Rosa Parks
was not a woman of her time.

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[APPLAUSE]

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