Couldn't find the video but found the transcript...
O'BRIEN: Those kids from Bushwick(ph) among the poorest of the poor. Carlotta Myles is dealing with the most well-off people in America. And yet the same quote.
COMPTON-ROCK: I disagree that the black elite, if you would call it, are invisible.
I think that white elites don't necessarily have to talk about it or get upset that they're not being shown.
I went to Howard University, which is a historically black university. And we can talk about race again, and talk about things that are uncomfortable about race.
But the black elite at that university had a lot of color issues. When you apply to Howard University, you have to send in a picture as part of your paperwork. Even when I was there, which was a long time ago, but not too long ago, there was a secret club of fair-skinned black girls, and who could be in it if you were fair enough to be in the club.
BANKS: There's a serious statement that the black elite is there, and they're doing a lot, and it's not highlighted. And that's where I think it tends to be invisible, when they're out there doing what they're doing, but because it's not the proper thing or the hot thing, they're not shown a lot.
And so I think that they're doing a lot, but it's not highlighted a lot.
SMITH: Because you've gone to school, you have a great education, a great job, and you're doing well, that makes you elite?
Like, for me, that's not elite. Like when I -- when I see the NBA all-star game, 12 basketball players--they're the 12 best because of a certain reason. When I see the Supreme Court Justice, those people are there for a certain reason, it becomes an elite.
But to categorize things that are expectations that we should already have for ourselves as elite sometimes gets construed, too, in that same message.
O'BRIEN: But there's an interesting point she was making, which was this--she said a lot of times our kids go on to schools or we move to suburbs, and they are the one or two black faces in a sea of white faces.
BEAL: As one who belongs to the links in Jack and Jill, my children joined that organization because I live in the city, but they went to private schools. And they were the only black kids in those schools.
And so I don't have any -- I'm not defending, I don't feel the need to defend it.
I also told my children that, in particular my son, he had to be as comfortable on the Rutgers (ph) playground, because he plays ball, as he is in a corporate board room.
And that that's the dilemma, or that's what they have to deal with in their lives, in making sure -- and I feel that my responsibility as their parent is to make sure that he and my daughter are as comfortable in all worlds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they will be --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they will be comfortable in all worlds.
BANKS: As we have these panel discussions, is that there's a lot of different ways to go at a problem. And sometimes when we feel like you have to go that way, the other way is wrong.
You have to do some of this, and you have to do some of that, and you have to do some of this to cover the scope of the issue that we're dealing with.
JOHNS: The challenge is to straddle, a lot of times, the different cultures. In other words, if you're able to go and talk in the hood to somebody there as easy as you can talk to somebody in the board room, then you've sort of got a full range of a personality there.
But it does seem to me to be a problem for people to just seal themselves off.
LOTT: Having this on display. I mean making sure our kids can see that there are people who are out there who look like me that are doing very well. And so can I.
I think that's an important part of it.
PERRY: As do I.
O'BRIEN: There is a number -- I will tell you this when we were working on the story, the number of white colleagues who said, there are -- there's a black elite?
PERRY: And for me, I say again, I think for telling the story of blacks in America, it's a necessity to tell the story in all of its beauty.
Likewise, as the story is being told, I think there's an opportunity for us to, as reasonable people, disagree with what we could and should do with our time.
BEAL: We're making a position that that's how they spend all of their time --
O'BRIEN: And Carlotta Myles is very clear about that. Many of the people involved in the Tuxedo Ball, that is a social event --
(CROSSTALK)
COMPTON-ROCK: You know what I wish? I wish that the group, the actual cotillion part, the social part, was more inclusive. Absolutely the links, the cotillions, AKA's, they are great service organizations. One of my scholarships to Howard university was an AKA scholarship that I still remain appreciative for. But I wish that they were more inclusive on the social front as they are in giving back to the community, just like when you asked can that little girl --
SMITH: I heard this from Bill Russell, one of the greatest basketball player ever. He says an African-American, how can you not be inclusive? It's impossible not to be.
O'BRIEN: That's going to be our final word. I thank our panelists. Kenny Smith with us today, and Gloria Mayfield Banks, Lisa Bloom, and Joe Johns. Also Nic Lott, starting on this end, and Valerie Beal, Malaak Compton-Rock, and Steve Perry. Thank you so much.
even myself it wasnt until age 23 that I was able to actually muster enough money to be in school 
when you see asian immigrants with not a nickel to their name come over and build wealth within 20 years theres no reason we couldnt cause you know damn well they get discriminated against but they work with what they have
happened in this thread?
