chinese player peng sway has not been seen in public since she made sexual assault allegations against the top chinese government official. 2 weeks ago the head of the women's tennis association received an email purporting to be from peng, but he's now questioning it in it. she says she's resting at home and retracts the allegation. but steve simon says he's concerned about her safety. ah, to have a quick chat of the top stories here on al jazeera, hundreds of iraqis who gave up trying to enter the european union have arrived back home repatriation flight 1st stopped an air bill, the migrants and refugees had been stranded at the bell roofs poem border in cold and wet conditions. the canadian military has joined rescue efforts in the flood, devastated province of british columbia. one person is confirmed dead and at least 3 people are missing. several governments in europe are cracking down on people who

haven't been vaccinate against kobe 19. the virus is spreading again in a number of countries, including germany, where deaths are also on the rise. yes, president joe biden is holding his 1st in person meeting with the leaders of canada and mexico in the white house. it's the 1st such meeting of the 3 north american nations in 5 years. but president biden said the summit was crucial to tackle the major challenges facing north american or north american vision for the future. draws on our shared strengths, as well as 3 vibrant democracy to dynamic populations in economy. we should to work together where that we can be, we can meet today, and we can meet all the challenges. we just take the time to speak of one another by working together. and we have to end the pandemic and to take decisive action to

curb the climate crisis. and president biden says he's considering a diplomatic boycott of february winter olympics in china. he made the remarks during a meeting with canadian prime minister just intruder. it's expected to take the form of us government representative, not attending the games. the participation of athletes is expected to remain unaffected. to men convicted in the u. s. for the 1965 assassination of the black civil rights leader, malcolm makes up in formerly exonerated mamma, disease, and cultural islam both served around 20 years. in jail. islam died in 2009 a 2 year investigation by the manhattan attorney's office. and the 2 men's lawyers concluded that decisive evidence was withheld at the time. but those were the headlines. the news continues here now to sierra after democracy. maybe we had a dream stage with vessel. the stage is set and it's time for a different approach. one that is going to challenge the way you thing from

international politics to the global pandemic, and everything in between. upfront with me, mark lamond hill on out 0 me ah, i was very young age. what racism white supremacy was. racism is evil. if you are visible or not to be taken seriously, you are a criminal. you are someone who is supposed to shut up and accept when america

gives you the i the mother. she is like this ideal place where everybody's voice counts and it can only be created if we destroyed the systems that america. 2 2 2 2 2 2 people live on that it's illusion. they have power that they give to a politician. it's not real poll real powers and the people. when you make the politicians do what you want them to do. america is governed by people who are born, paid for by the rich is the money to make changes, not to people voting

black people not wheeled at all when we fought for the right to vote. when the honorable reverend doctor martin luther king junior, put his life on the line for the right to vote, he was fighting for the power of the vote. a power to change laws, the power of legislation. this is not where he fought for as well. both don't have any power. ah, brother, morning leg has everything called ok. have a st. thank you so so before we get started, i got to know where you've been in what you've been up to. so we decide. so something, it's all about black opportunity, right? as a new organization, i feel like the apex with black smoke. so i'd file for my license to

carry and texas, which will carry over to 30 states. we want to be prepared in reading. the violence arises. i will tell you that you may be met with resistance and the quickest way to change the laws regarding upholding your 2nd amendment, right, which is the right to be on it to have people of color apply for applications to carry a gun in value. you will see a change in state law because somebody will be tracking that. so i just want you to be aware of. right. i was really interested in as we are seeing record levels of black gun ownership. and we can, as that happen is a shortage of bullets right now is actually of a public, a hard core of public that was introduced to me by a mutual friend that said,

i hope you fight it so well i look, i'm not surprised in remo. back history, history is told us that republicans was on the right side of the ledger when he came down to slavery and then went to the other side of the ledger. i know, so i'm not surprised by the not a gory, but you're going to find a needle in a haystack. you know, it was, it was really interesting. so around the 1960, when doctor king and everything was on fire, right. it was a run for the presidency, right? democrats knew that they needed black boat, so they appear pro civil. right. so the republicans say we're going to have a white southern vote. and that's when everything shifted, right. i really feel like the black folks don't have anyone fighting for them in politics. i. oh, when martin luther king junior was murdered, it was an uproar across the world. right. it were riots all over this country.

i own people really care. just like when george boys with george, george closed his regular do. he was no freedom fighter. use no angel that god sent down to give us the right to vote, just regular to. but to way the sheet she was killed. it jolted everybody into action. ah . so we

look back at the protest bird by the black lives matter movement and we see this is attorney point in american democracy and in democracy more general with was the death of george lloyd alone, whose back spark the math approach has been that we saw in united states in 2020, it was bad death on top of a long term process of disenfranchisement and disillusionment on the part of the african american and other citizens that really odd that with what i think a lot of people felt was we're not gonna take it any more a, just a collective ceiling of enough is enough. the racial wounds and divisions that still have not healed in the united states still have not been

transcended in the united states. and it didn't. and with the civil rights legislation of the sixties and it didn't and with the election of an african american president. oh, i think that in order to get rid of the racial device in this country is going to take a lot of hard work and it's going to be complicated. i don't think that it's going to be a simple process. it's not easy to change. and the longer you've been doing something that even harder that it is to change, and this has been the status quo for the western world. since slavery began to, we have defined what it means to be a human being. we have defined what it means to be a citizen based on race. i think that people have trouble believing in democracy because we don't have a good example. it's hard to believe in what you can't see. it's even harder to

conceptualize something new. and so people are just looking for answers and i think that is really that's really the conversations that are happening around the world . i don't think that adjusting the race problem must allow us to achieve democracy, but i think that it is unnecessary for ah, i think that racism is a huge issue and extremely into influential. and i think that's where i always start. i am not coming to you asking you to stop being races as a person who is devoid of prejudice, but you have to learn how to question, why. why do i think that something different from the what i've seen is wrong. when we talk about the majority of america, not believing in democracy, how would most of them define it? how would most of them define our own democracy? why don't we care about other people enough to allow them the same opportunities we

would want for ourselves? ah, well, all with living fell to the water with my life. so i think we can see the consequences of very deep social divisions and cleavages in the united states. where we now have one party, a republican party that has become in many ways, extremely homogenous. it is overwhelmingly white. it is overwhelmingly not just christian, but composed of people who are quite religious retires in the my god gave me a dream about present time in the white house. and he said, i want you to start paying for this man. the democratic party in this country is composed of people from a broader array of backgrounds except for those types of folks who are represented in the republican party. and so people have really retreated into seeing themselves

as parts of groups that are really quite distinct that don't have a lot of overlap or interaction with other groups. and therefore, the sense that we are americans, in addition to all of these other identity, i believe, and i did my math e, the people that came to sat down, i saw a barb empty book infiltrated. they had plans to dress up and looked like some supporters. they are never seen the united states so divided in the political agendas that people have no clue. and it's a for sure is problem to many what we like to focus on. why are people violating our laws and in particular, the constitution states ah, this division in our society has been boiling for

a long time. it's not that trump. oliver's son brought this division on. it's the fact that they now have a strong, strong republican who has been able to move things that they want to just blame him for everything that has gone wrong. ah, all the people have, my personal opinion is when you're part of any country, you need to understand there are responsibility. it's not all about rights to belong. we have elections that are supposed to be run a certain way. ah. one of the major problems with the current situation is that the people in power worked to make sure that more ballots were put in volks,

for that particular candidate than the other can. and so would that be considered broad? yes. do you hear many stories? i cannot justify whether the stories are true or false. you look at death records in people who have been dead for years or roading. how can nappy ah, a ah, there is, i think, a real division that is reflected in values, you know, attitudes towards religion towards you know,

certain social practices that i think is, you know, actually shaping a lot of contemporary politics. what is the problem? why does identity oppose such such an enduring and serious challenge for democracy? tanqueray rock roster, wrote this famous article back in the 19 sixty's which said that one of the basic requirements of a democracy is you have to believe you're living in the same country. well actually what was interesting about that article is he said it's the only precondition is that common sense of national identity. everything else you can develop along the way. the trouble for democratic politics comes when your identity becomes essential eyes, meaning it's the most important thing about you so difficult to actually govern them because they have no sense of national identity. so this is clearly the single

most emotive dividing line in american politics. now i have no doubt of those. do you have any thoughts about how this can be bridge? i think there is a kind of unfortunate tendency that you know, a lot of people want everybody to think the way they do. and their strategies are all about how do we actually a modernize everybody in terms of thought. but i just think that, you know, the challenge of living in a diverse society is precisely, you know, figuring out how to get along with people that don't agree with you. ah, i think we did not fully understand how very fragile our democracy was and how very divided our society was ah, our democracy is extremely fragile. and that if we are not constantly cultivating

and protecting its foundations, they kind of road with really surprising rapidity. and that the divisions in our society, if we do not figure out ways to overcome them, then the door will be open for another illiberal autocratic figure like trump to walk through and begin this process of attacking american democracy and american community. again, a tooth visit. oh, no, oh, no, no, no. well, you know what our community to make your story we are free all kind of be a black lives matter of you. this is organizing,

this is the community. it's a lot more and more down the street. it's us. but organize all you want to put i'll put it in a bag. you got it. the fact we need strong back to me. i have a dream that is economic separation because nobody will care about what black people are talking about until we remove our money from the systems and use that money to build up schools in our community. we can build our communities when we don't have to rely on white

people coming back a little, ma'am, if you could kind of get a bag so you'll have to rely on the money when your business. just imagine like banks if they stop shopping all their stores, you started shopping in our stores. you know how fast we would get right. oh, i have to stand hand in hand, white people sing songs and be happy. i just have to live a life without the obstruction of oppression. so when we say black lives matter, essentially is saying that your life doesn't matter. our life does man and they get upset if you say all lives matter because they want to focus on black. the black

lives matter created more havoc and more, more violence than peace. they were not a peaceful organization. as a brown person myself, i'm ashamed of them. they don't stand for what we stand for. identity is difficult for democracy, so you see yourself primarily as a member of a particular ethnic group or a particular religious group or identify most with a sexual minority. i'm and these are things that obviously are not problematic in themselves. they only become problematic when they're seen as being in competition with or antithetical to broader national identities.

there are some very real problems in our society, some very deep social divisions that if we do not recognize and deal with our democracies in our societies are going to continue to decay. oh ah oh, we never see a gunshot here against another american from a american to american. i hope it never happens. i see both sides are getting more passionate, more intense. and we're not looking at us as american citizens. we're looking at,

that's the right. that's the left, and that's it. and there's a big river or big mountain in between us and we can come together. i think that it's possible the next 10 years. it something could happen in terms of a civil war. it's like a volcano. volcano just doesn't erupt, all of a sudden it builds pressure. and then eventually to ropes, we're building that pressure because we are not going according to the fundamental principles of the constitution. ah, god bless you. oh, oh, he read me. ah,

[000:00:00;00] move . ah, the law is white, it benefits white people in a decimate by a hold, locks us in cages. it chokes us to death. it puts bullets to our body a when we went

out there tearing things apart, why america handles is problems violently. all with threat of violence. so why wouldn't, why wouldn't we do that? ah, with me. what do we do about? are we going to have an i'll say the word a civil war? are we going to fight among ourselves?

ah, the world is in a more and more perilous state in my biggest fear is about democracy in the west. if we don't defend and renew and reform invigorate democracy in our democracies, we're not going to be an example that is inspiring to other countries in the world . but i remain an optimist. i think there is a new generation emerging that is seeking a multi racial society in which everybody can live in dignity. i don't think that will ever be able to completely eradicate inequality or human

suffering. i guess what democracy looks like in practical terms is an intention and is a consistent effort to achieving that idea. i do this for the horse with don't have a lot of swords. mm hm. i don't think that that's something bad. whatever's not exist, but i think that being willing to do the work whole to your whole, minimize it to help people to care about people who is that is what matters. ah, but if we stop trying, then we have no business calling ourselves with

the quote unquote. all there are many paradoxes surrounding democracy, and one paradox is the divergent tendencies in human nature. we all want to be respected. we all want to be treated with dignity. we don't like to have some power and control over our own lives. but at the same time, there is this darker side of human nature, the greed for power. the greed for wealth insecurity, the drives to monopoly, the drive to tyranny. and the vanity that comes through tyrants who want to dominate over their citizens and control all sources of information,

wealth and power. so this is the stuff of human history. this is the struggle of politics. me port moresby, the capital of puffy giddy is ranked one of the most dangerous things in the world . one a one east investigate the violent gains, filling fia on the street. on l g 0 from the al jazeera london broke off and passed 2 people in thoughtful conversation. we were 1st generation of black versus people and we have to really find our way with no hope and no limitation. the world is a much smaller place. we do better to get away with these regional boundaries, film direct,

thank you. in to tell me things come right back in you think about lisa. thank you, stephanie have if making often visible you hear b unscripted on out to thera ah . ready hundreds of iraqis have flown home from bella roofs, giving up hope of starting a new life in europe. ah, you're welcome. i'm peter toby. you're watching al jazeera alive from our headquarters here in dough are also coming up. the u. s. president joe biden hosts his northern and southern neighbors at the white house. the 1st summit between north american leaders in years assessing the damage,