is fine with us before. no job will adjust england. rosa go up to does teach, learn all to us. not as was our goals ensure i sometimes obama will be adult, points to look, it was. so go broader and those those pay like period routes have representative countries like us with canada and england. but when those countries have based african nations, this whole lives with certainly going with his article. so i've got most of about 40 particular, why do you have has qualified all previous woke up finals. there's hope amongst beyond that the country won't be able to do other nigerian today is not the one age to bring their grades a watch and going to pull out. ah,

zera. these are all top stories. the so called morality police unit that monitors women's clothing in iran has been suspended. after months of protests, the unrest response by the death of a 22 year old had been arrested for allegedly violating a dress code. now with this latest announcement from the attorney general, it is even more unclear about how this law will be enforced and many here believe that also this latest announcement from digital judiciary is somewhat of an attempt to try and quell the unrest that's been unfolding kara over the past nearly 3 months, but many women feel that i've spoken to at least say that there's gestures much too little and very, very late. at least 2 people have died during an anti government protest and southeastern syria. demonstrates is stormed a government building in swat deer, florida, and set it on fire that angry over rising prices and economic hardships. 2000

people have fed their homes on indonesia, java island, off to the 3rd summary volcano erupted as to where the jack said 15 kilometers into the sky. blank thing. the surrounding area had been no reports of casualties. it was a series of earthquakes in the west of java, including one last month that killed more than $300.00 people. so the african present 0 rom, oppose was planning to go to the constitutional court to challenge a report, but found he may have violated his oath of office. an independent panel investigated rum opposed or after he failed to report the fact of at least half a $1000000.00 from his game farm in 2020 england have raised the quarter finals of the world cup. soccer scored one of the goals in a free meal victory of african champions clinical captain hurricane also got his 1st goal of the tournament. these are you headlines up front is next

from kick off and tell the final whistle i will bring you extensive coverage through out the world cost action from all of the games, the joy and the hall experts and match analysis for my studios, info and excitement from around the 15th and across the globe. join us like half of 2022. now they are born and raised in mississippi author cast. a layman's work is all about. the black experience in the american south is best selling me more heavy, exploring issues around race, identity, masculinity and trauma. growing up as a black man in the book has been banned by misery school district, along with hundreds of other titles. and he's going to join us to discuss the legacy of racism. and what book fans mean for the cultural identity of the united states. that conversation is coming up next. but 1st month, the residence of jackson, mississippi have less access that they drinking water. and in some cases,

running water at all after floods overwhelmed with water treatment facilities in august. now, water pressure has been partially restored and some federal and state resources have been allocated to repair the water system. but jackson's infrastructure was go far beyond the latest crisis. during the discuss, this weeks headliner, jackson, mayor, to wait until the mayor took william. but thank you so much for joining us on upfront. thank you for having me. always good to talk with you there about a 160000 residents in a jackson, which is mississippi's capital city. the majority of them starting in august of this year lacked access to potable water. people captured videos, a brown water in their sinks in in their bath tubs, and for a few days in september, many people didn't have any water coming out of their faucets today. the residence of jackson continue to face water insecurity, and many are relying on bottled water, often supplied by grass roots,

organizations, community lead, effort and other things. but we're talking about a situation where unsafe water is not an outlier. it's the norm. ah, in fact the d o j department of justice has taken steps to establish a 3rd party monitor to ensure that water in the city is safe to drink. help me understand how we got to this place. well, well, 1st and foremost, i appreciate you lifting up this issue not only for the residence of jackson, but for so many communities that resemble jackson that deal with the same level or cycle of humiliation. and insecurity with infrastructure and, and issues of environmental racism. this has been an issue since, as long as i can remember, i moved to jackson in 1988 in 1989. i distinctly remember a phrase that that ability to our water system and there are too many times to count over the years in which we've had these challenges. this is due to a lack of

a lack of investment in the system, due to white flight and divestment in the city in its entirety. it's due to a state that failed to take responsibility and recognize its, its level of, of, of responsibility to the residence of jackson, and it's due to decades of deferred maintenance. and so we didn't get here overnight. these are challenges where you have too many issues to enumerate with the water treatment facility itself. a water treatment facility that was not functionally designed to begin with and has never after operated optimally and has led to these challenges for the residents of not only instability in the water system, but equity challenges as well. this is have been republican governor tate reeves. he entered the state of emergency november 22nd over the water crisis, and he has consistently blame the locals. he has said that its local authorities

who are responsible for jackson water graces. at the same time, reeves and republican control, mississippi state legislature, have repeatedly vetoed or otherwise rejected the city's request for infrastructure repairs. he's vetoed water project funding, helped me understand here and your view, what is the biggest problem occurring here? well, it's issues of environment, racism. it's a community that is not fully valued, and therefore the state does not see any, any responsibility or need to fund the residence of jackson fund. these challenges, these are democratic problems, these are white or black problems. these are problems of human dignity issues that residents simply deserve the ability to turn on the faucet and know that water is going to come through that faucet and come to safely. so while the governor has attempted to wash his hands of this, you have properly noted that not only my administration has made several endeavors

to get funding for our water system, but be to be quite honest. my predecessors have done the same to many to name the city has had plan after plan and had made has made legislative request after legislative request in order to get the funding necessary for our water treatment summit. what's, what may help us understand how this plays out, right? because when we talk about systemic racism, which is what you're talking about when you say environmental racism it's, it's not as simple as saying, you know, we're not given black people, clean water or we're not given poor people, clean water even if that's the ultimate consequence. how do they justify, how do they explain it? how do they say we're not going to give infrastructure repairs for system that was built in 1900. 14 clearly needs updating. how did they say we're not going to fund a water project? what's? what's the logic and language that they use? well, its language, such as, you know, jackson needs to fund its problems itself. language such as, you know,

we, we aren't responsible for paying for jackson's challenges. this is due to jackson's lack of investment over the years when the reality is, is that the money that we're asking for isn't actually state funds. it's federal funds that are fed through the state with the city, the city of jackson in mind, by large federal funding that has been allocated. for instance, when we look at the infrastructure bill. this is through direct discussions with the white house, with the e p, a administrator and with an intended use plan for the state that carved out cities like jackson to make sure that we don't receive the funding. and they are, have, this has been, this has been the culture, this has been the effort over decades in order to eliminate jackson in this way. this is, this is baffling to me that you're saying that the federal government has a economic investment in jackson, at least at the planning level. they're saying the money should go to mississippi

and in cities like jackson, because they're trying to develop infrastructure. they give it to the state with the express purpose of getting it to jackson. and the state just says that the federal government at that moment have any power to intervene. and if not, are they at least expressing their concerns? the money is not getting to you. yeah. so, so 1st and foremost, the president himself, i had an opportunity to talk with him about 20 minutes at the height of this challenge. and he specifically expressed his concern over the lack of money actually reaching the city of jackson through the state as it's conduit through the federal funds. and so this is, has been a concern for some time, but the federal government, it is often a state that is led by, by republican leadership that often not support the federal funding that was issued for instance, in the, in the infrastructure bill. and they are given the task or the responsibility of issuing it. so it's how do we get it from it's federal intent into jackson pain,

the city that it actually and it is intended to go to. and so there is an effort to siphon off that money siphoned to other priorities, other communities in which they value more than jackson. and we see this time and time again. the crisis in jackson, of course, isn't happening in a vacuum. we've seen the results of chronic disinvestment infrastructure, neglect around the country, especially in poor cities that have significant populations of black and brown people, places like flint, michigan, places like been harbor michigan. more than 80 percent of jackson's residents, a black, nearly a quarter of your population falls below the poverty line. you've talked about systemic racism, helped me understand how those 2 things are, reflect systemic racism because many people would say to you this is there's nothing to do a races. not do a class. it's just about broken water system. yeah. well,

it has everything to do with prioritization and value, not valuing the community like jackson. there have been investments, state investments in water systems, outside of jackson to replace the entire water lines of communities. there have been investments in places all across the state, and this is with actual state dollars. so once again, i think it's important to recognize that jackson is not asking for anything beyond what it is deserving of is irving of the federal funds that they recognize the challenges in jackson deserving of the federal dollars that are intended for the city. and also looking at how we have skin in the game. so we're taking even, even if, even if it weren't right, let's say the money wasn't targeted for you. it's hard for me to imagine that a town full of white people, middle class white people who had rushed in the water, who got 300, you know that 300 boil. notice that one point that's it doesn't know if you got

a lot of water to make sure that it's safe. it's hard for me to imagine that even if there were no fun targeted for this, that the state of mississippi wouldn't find funds for middle class white people thing where they would find in michigan, pennsylvania or california or anywhere else. i mean, it's the fact that you're going to make the case that it's your money seems to me almost beside the point is not only beside the point, it would be unheard of because these are issues of humanity. these are circumstances that we would find, you know, just lacking the basic human dignity that people deserve. and so this is why we're speaking to that. you know, we are taking out state revolving loan funds that, that in other states there are principal interests, forgiveness that are far beyond what the state of mississippi provides. one of the, the f r f, loan state revolving loan funds that we have taken out in order to make improvement in our system is $27000000.00 in mississippi. the principal forgiveness that they

offer. the city of jackson on that loan is $500000.00, woefully insufficient, not an investment on the state. making sure the cities like jackson or saddle with that in are crippled, are suffocated or unable, in order to make their improvement. and this is not only recognizing the value of the residence, this is recognizing the value of the city itself, which is 3 times larger than the next largest city, the overwhelming contrib contributor to the state coffers. that is not only the capital of the state of mississippi is the capital health. it is the place where the largest employer in the state university, mississippi medical center exists. it is a college town that we often don't refer to it in that regard, but we have nearly $40000.00 college students in the city of jackson. and so this recognize, this is, this represents just humiliation on, on multiple levels not only to the residence, but it is also the, the state cutting off its nose to spite of space understanding that it will hurt

the economic vitality of the state. it's mutual aid in community lead efforts to provide people with safe drinking water have been essential, frankly, in jackson for years. and they've been consistent at the same time organizing have also calling the state to do more in response to crisis. just recently, protest is demanded. the state of mississippi to fully fund the city's water and sewage system issues and to provide residents with at home water filtration devices . you grew up in a family that was heavily involved in local activism. you were an organizer yourself, now you're in government. how do you take into account the people's voices or as you move forward and fixing the system? the people's voice is absolutely essential. they are a part, they are the, they are the most essential part of the equation. making sure that we recognize people's experience as we build a new water system. recognizing equity challenges,

i keep mentioning equity. and what i mean by that is that we have parts of our city that is disproportionately affected by these water challenge. south jackson and portions of west jackson, those communities are most disproportionately affected because they are the furthers from the water treatment facility and at the highest elevation. and so we have to recognize that city planning is never neutral. that it benefit someone and it works to the detriment of others. and so in our efforts to build a new system, we have to begin with the end in mind and make certain that, that we're providing the same level of service to all of our residents. when we look at how we fix this problem, the reason that we are against privatization, the reason that we are against regionalization is that we have to be able to do so in a way that once again doesn't move people from one state of misery to the next, instead of moving our residence away with a water system that they can't afford, instead of pushing them away,

we want to lift them mer to them over. thank you so much for joining us up front. thank you. ah, best selling author can't say layman, grew up in jackson, mississippi, his award winning memoir, a heavy along with the recently released novel, long division, and as, as a collection how to slowly kill yourself and others in america. dive deep into the heart of what makes up black southern american identity, his younger bending work as a meditation on race, gender, and coming of age and the american south. author, professor of english, in creative writing at rice university and mac arthur genius, grant recipient kiss a layman. i want to thank you for joining me on up front. i'm so happy to be here which out make you. you're writing often centers around the ideas of not just revisiting the past, but also this process of what you call revision. yet we live at a time when laws are being passed that prevent americans not just from correcting

the history before leaving, acknowledging history. even witnessing history of teachers in some parts of the country are being prevented from teaching facts about the country. historical books have been banned, literatures being banned. in fact, there was a research report by the non profit organization, penn america that stated that more than 1600 book titles were banned in schools from 2021 to 2022. even your own book heavy was banned by missouri school district . what do you make of that? and particularly like how important is it for us to live in an environment where we do have access to ideas? we do have access to, to literature. we do have access to history. it. thank you for that question. i me, i think is, i don't think there's anything more important ah, except, direct organizing, ah, in the face of people who don't want us to look back, who don't want us to direct organize who don't want us to care. particularly if you look at the deep south, ah, we know what, what we have is like again like in terms of percentage like the black is place in the nation. i think the place with the highest can you know, kind of can,

can const concentrated like a direct action organizing happening. and what we really just have is we just honestly mississippi for example, we just need 22 percent white people to not to not be republican. we need 22 percent because we're 38 percent of the population. and you know, with those of us who have been incarcerated, those of us who cannot vote should need to be a provoke, but an abscess voting will. we've always done in the south as we've always directly, like we've always done direct action direct actually predicated on doing what the state did not want us to do was to look back with accuracy with secuity and in make a direct action based on what we actually see, it's hard to do that, it's hard to do that now with the nation politicians, social media and everything convincing us did that, which we saw. and no, we do not see or no. there's also the question of coming to terms with our history . there's this way that, you know, text that are wrestling with history, revising, history, challenging history are being banned as well. ah,

are these bands and attempt to erase american history? ultimately, i treat v attempts or bands. i think the banter attempts to erase american history . but i think one way you erase american histories. org lee in a deep south is you punish the people who are attempting to get folk to watch and look a different way. and so what, what i see much more than like, you know, lager like let, let's white watch american history. what i see is less discipline, those folk who do not want to see american present, american pass or american future is anything other than in white, sis, christian and nationalists. and so like, i'm under no illusions, you know, say like i'm, i'm writing books. ah, that white christian nationalists do not like or love and, and the hard part of doing at work is not centering. those people who make the writing of those books so. so, so far we talked about this before mark, you know, when i'm writing, i'm writing to you, i'm writing to your kids, i'm writing to your part and i'm writing to the communities that made you with an

acknowledgement that there are other communities that do not care about any of our communities watching, but i cannot centered at community and do the work that i think i've been called to do from a deep south of gap to like, look at the abundant parts of you look at the that, that the lacking parts of you m aso and try to create 8 are in response to that, but i just want to say it's really hard when the power of your state and the power of your region is disciplining you for doing what they actually told you to do as a young child which was to look to reading and writing for some kind of, quote unquote salvation that, that south that you're talking about, that region has been disciplining and punishing for it for a long time. you written about this extensively, the focal point of us history in many ways, is the u. s. south a specifically, when we talk about race and the legacy of slavery, the racial disparities, the systemic inequality in the region. there are rooted in jim crow. they're rooted in slavery. are they rooted in these moments before and after reconstruction? ah, can you explain particularly to our international audience, sort of how that legacy plays out today? what is that through line, from enslaved africans coming here to now to want to give it

a whole history as much as sort of how they're rented plays out now? well, i mean there a lot of ways to look at the legacy, but i'll just look now at healthcare grey on one of the things e l, as you know, like i've been, i was, i'm incredibly critical. anybody who occupies the seat of empire, which is a prisoner seat united states. i was critical of obama prisoner, of all clinton's crowds, prison, a critical of, of trump, bush, blah, blah, blah. ah. but the, what we see in our nation is that, like these particular states, often lead by governors, you know, pushing states, right? do a number of things throughout history. some, some, some like say, you know, this particular where people don't have the right to bow. some say to particular group of people who happened to be black, you know, can't use the bathroom. so they did, we were good people happened me, black can't get the benefit that they deserve. after going to serve and fight for the country. one of the page you see a musty than a destroy must a. now is that mississippi, the state that is last in damn near every metric you can think of it that comes to health care, refused the medicaid medicare expansion,

which means that half of our hospitals in mississippi are about to close. because they are about to close and knows hospitals, of course spend most of their times a lot of their time that is reported amount of times helping poor black people. but they also spend the other manager time helping poor white people. so what's happening to my state is literally the capital's that the poorest people in this, in the state who are indigenous, white and black, neat the most are about to close. and at the end of the day, because a governor elected by ah, residence of, of, of, of mississippi. and i said we're in house representatives, did not want to accept, would they called obamacare, which would have helped all of their people. all of the people who go for it in the poor way, who would it would have had hospitals, they're about to close. you read a lot about during colby, you know, my grandmothers one and people went to the hospital. her intestines were like turned around. she could not be seen by anyone because there were no hospital bids to be seen, which took my grandmother back. you know, we started out on travel and when at my work deck took my grandmother back in 1952

when she was outside of a hospital in stock, scott county, mississippi, and she would not be let in because of her race gender. so and again, i just think it's important that we understand that you know, the past is the past, we need to continually revisit it. are we gonna and an, or we're going to relive it. but at the other side of slot that we have understand the draconian definitely measures being made by governors like tate rees. house of representatives like the people in mississippi, the republicans in mississippi. and most importantly, the voters who wrote these people and to do exactly what they're doing. people miss moser, mississippi buddhism, alabama. voters into these now. white christian masses, voters are bolting politicians, and to her in harm other poor white people, which will ineffectively hurt black people. you talk a bunch a grandmother and i think about your interactions with your grandmother on this question of forgiveness. who you asked a grandmother why? she's shows so much kindness toward people. and she replied, god says you must forgive them for they know not what they do. you say back to her

loving white supremacists in the face of white supremacy is a hallmark of american evil. now the context of this dialog, ah, was a piece you wrote about the charleston massacre with dylan, roof enter the church and kills and 9 black people in worship. you talk about how the teaching of forgiveness in black churches can actually grow into a kind of shame, the black people care with them. and it functions as a way of kind of absolving why people have responsibility for their actions. talk to me a little bit about what that means about this concept of forgiveness and what the possibilities are for it. hello there. question. and i'll try to be brief. you know, whenever there have been mass shootings, a mass massacres of black people or mass public massacres. of black people are in this nation, says my grandmother, as i've been that has,

i've been alive long enough to understand my grandmother. she's always put on this sort of a costume of presidential news when it happens. you know, when you talk to her, you might as well be talking to a president because the grandmother who existed before this spectacular violence was a completely different one. when charleston happened, my grandmother kept talking things. she's the key, you know, you know, not what they, they know, not what they do. and part of what she's doing is doing this is that messy, talked about, she's trying to like, calm me now. even though i'm a grown man at the time, her hope is that i won't go out there and put myself in my body and my head in my heart, in any sort of space that could get obliterated and destroy. so when she's like they know now what they do, she's now she knows she's more anybody in this country? my grandmother knows white people know exactly what they are. do she know she but how i know that because she has told me that but but but but, but, but after charleston, do you know a after buffalo, you know, after so many murders that have happened in mustang and disappearances,

my grandmother has to put on that the presidential sort of costume of talking to her grandson about how you can not be too angry son, because a to angry black person particular to english black boy does not live to be an alive black. me it. so as on trying to also say in that, in that piece is that like i'm, she's not really, really forgiving. she's taking some of what she has heard from the church and she's wrapping it around a sort of like understanding it. like it's ignorance. that is really god and he's why christian nationalist do not do what they do. i'm fully aware, graham, of the 90 percent of the things you've told me about why christian nationalists that they will do everything they can to destroy us no matter what. but in a mist she has to put on another costume of taking care of her grandson, walking him away from what she would call a cliff. and actually like that's a conflict, but i think that conflict creates depth. i don't think that conflict is necessary, a contradiction is a black southern like creased kind of dep to me that i think we sorta neglect or we

think about that age. a black woman who got us here. yes, a layman. thank you so much for joining me. on up front. i'm so happy to be with you. mark. always thank you both. all right, everybody, that is our show up front. we'll be back with ah ah ah

ah. with the people will come in as officially because i'm going to head to 3 stadium by the metro. i shut the boxes to see how easy it is a to celebrate a bowl. just feels like a big noise and it sort of covers days. it is hugely important,

so not only the visitors, but also those of us who live here lu, sales stadium, whether walk up final is gonna be held in time. think i'm okay with ah aaron's morality police suspends operations off to the was social unrest in years. ah, m nora kyle, this is alex is, are alive from dough also coming up a portraits of a president, vandalized and government buildings stormed, rising prices trigger protests and se, syria.