i'm w. kamau bell, and on

this episode of "united shades of america," we're talking all things white supremacy. the obvious stuff and the more subtle and insidious versions. and we filmed the show in early 2020, which means we filmed weeks before covid-19 hit and months before the police in minneapolis killed george floyd. and before all the protests that followed. before many of us had ever heard of reforming, abolishing or defunding the police, and before the president and his cronies used racism to describe the coronavirus, which led to a rise in hate crimes against asian americans. yep, you don't have to look to history to see racism. just watch the news. but the question is, are we finally ready to do the work it takes to really make america the just, equitable and great place it's always claimed to be? ♪ the first episode of the united shades of america. such an innocent time. many of you remember it because

i hear about it all the time. you're the kkk guy. why would you film with the kkk? america doesn't even have that time of racism anymore. hmm. you're right. it's gotten way worse. >> jews will not replace us. >> and that was all before covid-19 and before four cops in minneapolis killed george floyd rather than just treat him like a human. before protests, a police station burning to the ground. >> i'm going to tell them there's an african-american threatening my life. >> before too many karens, before flatting the curve. and a president incapable of handling any of it at all. oh, look, baby's first bible! america is finally ready to get real about white supremacy.

let's start super easy and basic. these are white supremacists. 44 white presidents out of 45 in a lands originally 100% native-american is white supremacy. white supremacy is a big complicated web of systems and institutions set up to keep power and privilege with one race. guess which one? ♪ ♪ pittsburgh is a paradox. it is known as steel town usa but the factories that came with that name are mostly gone.

it's a progressive, liberal city, but in the heart of deep midwestern, pa. industrial city, but also a booming intellectual and technology hub. it is america's most livable city, one of the safest, most affordable cities, a what in the name of pittsburgh's mr. rogers is going on? the paradox of a seven times higher infant mortality rate for black babies over white babies, or a safe, livable city versus deadliest attack on jewish people in our nation's history at the tree of life synagogue means that in pittsburgh, like in american, the history and structure of white supremacy has us living two totally separate realities. you know, existing while black in pittsburgh is live starving to death while in the supermarket aisle. okay, i didn't come up with that.

a friends of mine who is a great writer and a pittsburgh native did. >> what section of town is this? >> we're on the south sides. if you ever hear about the pittsburgh steelers getting arrested, it happened here. it always happens on carson street. >> that's funny. >> damon young is a writer and a co-founder of one of my favorite websites. very smart brothers. he was born and raised here. and most importantly after he made it, he stayed here. >> i feel like pittsburgh is a microcosm of america, in the sense that we believe our own hype, just adds in american believes its own hype, believes its lofty missions that were written by slave owners. and there's a reason why white people in pittsburgh seem to be thriving and black people are not. we didn't get this way just because of unconnected decisions. >> that's why i think when white people hear the phrase "white supremacy," they are only

thinkings about the klan, segregation now, segregation forever, you know? but they're not thinking about the structures that exist in this country that keep black folks at the bottom. >> and it's not even about hate. >> yes. >> weirdly, it's not about hate. >> yeah. you can have a black best your favorite show can be "power". you can have a lebron james poster on your wall. >> you can do all of that and still have investments in white supremacy. >> many people white supremacy is like neo-nazis and kkk members. but those guys are just the most visible tim of the iceberg along with genocide, hate crimes, lynching, hate groups. the stuff good folks agree is bad. beneath that cold dark water is actually most of the structure that keeps white supremacy rolling along. like police brutality. some states not even having laws against hate crimes. the legacy of jim crow laws. breaking treaties made with

native americans. and much, much more. and then as we move deeper down the iceberg, hearing race jokes and not challenging them. racist race baiting in the media. being black in america. the chinese virus. all lives matter. happy kwanzaa. i just can't pronounce your name. all the way down to, i never even owned slaves. the problem is it is too easy to look at the top and say, what a bunch of assholes. that's white supremacy and i'm not that. and miss everything else. slavery ended. >> then the lakers and the celtics played the next day. >> exactly. magic johnson and larry bird were friends and everything's been fine. >> when disparities exist with wealth, with education, with employment, with incarceration. these disparities exist everywhere in the country, but in pittsburgh, they're more stark. >> two cities happening here. yeah.

>> while black communities in pittsburgh deal with huge racial disparities and quickly gentrifying neighborhoods, steel neighborhoods like braddock outside the city are grappling with a common experience for cities across the entire nation. the compound effects of industrial pollution and long-term systemic white supremacy. >> this is the town that steel built. this is where mostly a lot of the black folks lived back in the day but all of this area was occupied. and this is the steel mill. so they literally just worked right there. >> i can hear and see smoke coming out of there. >> they say it's steam. >> i've heard that before. >> yeah, so folks used to live on top of it. all day, all night, this is the sound that they heard. a lot of people look at this and they'll ask, why would anyone

want to stay here? we're talking about people who have their social networks here. that's the school my mom went to when she was in junior high. so a lot of the folks who lived here, they've been here generations. >> summer lee, pittsburgh-born but raised in brodaddock. she is the state rep for the 34th district. >> this is the place where so many of our family members spent all their days. the town used to run by the schedule at u.s. steel. the bell would ring. one shift would go out, another one would go in and that's how the town ran. that's how everybody knew what time it was. >> so the town is run by the company? >> definitely. this is u.s. steel's town. >> by the 1960s and '70s, suburbanization moved braddock up the hill and into the valley. while black folks remained, along with red lining and discriminatory home lending, which were all legal until 1968. but in the more than 50 years

since, it is clear that changing the law has not changed the reality. >> the jobless rate is over 15% in pittsburgh. >> when the united states steel industry chanced in the '80s, braddock, the town that lived and died for steel, was left with the problems and little else except for some of the worst air quality in the u.s. of a. >> we look at wages, we look at environmental issues, education, when we look at the school to prison pipeline, mass incarceration, we see those as issues in and of themselves. in reality, they're all part of the cycle of racism. ♪ a perfect example. take my town. black folks, most of them live there because at some point they were red lined. government policies. predatory lenning. all those things colluded to ensure that black kids couldn't

get into communities where there were more opportunities. so ghettos. our supreme court says education can be funds at the local level. you live in this town, you get one educational experience. you live in the suburb, you get a vastly different one. you live in this community, you're more likely to live by an environmental hazard. we have u.s. steel in this community. you're more likely to live in a medical desert and a food desert. in the zip code where we are, we have no grocery stores. we had a hospital that was notoriously closed down and you're less likely to have transportation in and out of your community. you're literally and physically trapped in your communities. so which means you have now bought your kid a one-way ticket right back into that cycle. right back into that cycle. that's typical racism. where do you even start to dismantle that? >> you just broke it all the way down, didn't you? i feel like i want to do this. so, i mean, it seems to me like you're in a town that has money

and a good school district. you look at towns like that and you go, they made that, they created that problem. white supremacy convinces people systemic problems are problems those people created. >> even if they give a leg up to black folks, we're doing something for people that we dehumanized. you know, those are welfare queens. those are people who are just leaching off of the system, you know? that's how we framed it in this country. it is to leach off the system. just last year, one of the facilities caught fire. the day before christmas. we didn't finds out until two, three weeks later. even me, the state rep for this area, every other government official, we found out on the news when it was like, hey, there was a big fire. if you live in any of these communities, we suggest you don't go outside. from january to may. we're supposed to be grateful for the jobs. why can't we be grateful for the jobs and also be healthy? >> in the wake of covid-19, some people are wondering why black

folks were affected at a higher rate? >> why is it, more so than other people, that doesn't make sense. >> back to the iceberg. black communities generally have worse air quality which heeds to chronic health and respiratory issues and then oh, yeah, we have less access to health care and healthy food. then you throw a pandemic on top of that. no shit it's going to hit you harder. >> we have a billion-dollar industry in our town. braddock has about 500 properties filled with vacant lots, basically a ghost of what it used to be. we have to talk about what is a community partner. community partners contribute, they participate, they're active in your community, they're your neighbor. and they're not doing all that, they're your colonizer. if you're 55 and up,

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know that can end in violence. on october 27, 2018, an alt-right supremacist from just south of the city killed 11 people at the tree of life synagogue in the squirrel hill neighborhood of pittsburgh. his online manifesto was packed with language blaming jewish people and immigrants for the problems facing the white working class. this is just part of the rising tide of racist hostility in america. but kuznetsov ? but you don't have to take my word on that. i brought an expert. >> are you nervous? >> yeah! a little. >> no way. >> i'm scared of what you might get me to say. >> cnn's kamau bell. >> if you're watching cnn and reporter in somewhere in america talking about racism, hate and violence, it's probably sara sidner. you are in the shit. you're, like, running after hate, you know?

>> you have to recognize that hatred often comes from a place of fear and pain. the fear is someone else is taking over, and i'm going to be a minority. and one of the big themes of this white supremacist movement is the browning of america. and so i'm a white supremacist's worst nightmare. and not because i attack them. >> yeah. >> but because of who i am. >> yeah. >> my mother is caucasian and my father is black. >> there you go. >> i am mixed race. i am changing america. >> yeah. here we are sitting in this town, you know, like a lot of areas in this town, used to be an industrial town. good union jobs. >> you retired. you had a pension. >> yes. then deindustrialization happened, jobs go overseas. people start to get frustrated. >> scapegoating starts. >> yes. >> who do you blame?

you don't want to blame yourself, right? you don't want to blame your family or your community. so you look at who could be the scapegoat. the immigrants. even if there isn't an immigrant to be seen in your community. >> yeah. are to blame for takin taking my life. it gets people in this place where hatred that is okay because i'm just protecting myself and my family. but the other thing is that it can feel good. >> hatred can feel good. yeah. >> am i wrong? >> no, no, you're not wrong. >> it's powerful. young boys get on the internet and in their feeds will have memes that seem real funny. >> yeah. >> and bbut, really, they're teaching. >> oh. >> i've had a conversation with a mother who said my 13-year-old boy had a hitler meme that he thought was funny that came into

his -- >> yeah. >> right? into his feed. he didn't go searching for it. but then if you click on it, you get more, right? you get more. you get more. and so you're filling young people up with things that they're normalizing. normalizing anti-semitism. normalizing racism. normalizing homophobia. >> they're being fed more hate per pound than any generation's been fed. >> in certain people, it grows into hate and then violence. >> on march 15th, 2019, that hate turned violent in another safe, liveable city, when a 29-year-old white supremacist live streamed the murder of 51 muslim worshippers in christchurch, new zealand.

>> that is gunfire. >> new zealand sucks. brenton rules. >> 50 is a great score, brenton. god bless brenton with a light to his path right now, lord jesus. >> i love spyro iii and fortnite ii. >> i like the name. it's kind of rough. >> i subscribe to pewdiepie and brenton. >> brenton, you are innocent and you will get out in no time. >> wow. >> yeah, that's a lot. >> so, somebody posted a -- you don't know where it came from. >> no idea who those people are. >> and they're all excited about the perpetrator in new zealand. >> yeah, new zealand terror attack. >> terror attack. the first little girl was watching something where you were hearing gunshots. >> yeah. yeah. >> wow. and those are kids.

>> those are kids. >> pete seamy, phd, is, associate professor at chapman university. he studies terrorist groups and -- >> we have this broader historical kind of engrained almost within our kind of collective psyche of white supremacy that is just floating around out there, and, you know, everyone's susceptible in some form or another. >> and a lot of this has been supercharged by social media and the internet? >> absolutely. i mean, that's opened up so many doors. now, white supremacists have been getting activated online even during the 1980s with electronic bulletin boards to create propaganda, distribute propaganda. >> as access to the web grew, it moved to globally interconnected organizations with an instant pipeline to the disenfranchised,

the disillusioned and the teenager. >> welcome, everybody in the house, put your hands up. >> meet youtube's biggest star, felix shellberg, and his channel, pewdiepie. >> the new zealand shooter references pewdiepie in their manifesto. >> he's one of the most subscribed to channels on youtube. >> over 100 million subscribers. >> cute videos and has funny pranks. every now and again, some hate speech comes through. >> right. paid people to hold signs up on video that said "death to all j jews." >> i feel partially responsible, but i didn't think they would do it. >> meanwhile, the website the daily storme thanked him. >> how did you get the name? >> i want to thank the internet for allowing their emperor to be here for the -- >> and that kind of normalization of hate doesn't

just happen on youtube, it happens in the halls of government where the stakes are much higher. >> and we saw that in the 2016 election, obviously, with donald trump. and, you know, in the case of many of his advisers like stephen miller. >> the word racist gets thrown around a lot by me. but miller, who writes trump's immigration policy, is in my humble opinion the real deal. which, of course, he denies. because, of course, but he's got a well-documented history of pushing anti-immigrant, anti-minority agendas. miller was the architect of both the awful child separation border policy and the awful travel ban on mostly muslim-majority countries. miller has also long coveted a full immigration ban, quote, like coolidge did, citing the 1924 immigration act which banned european jews, which miller is, in favor of nordic races and was based on the same racist book that hitler called his bible.

and remember this? >> why are we having all these people from shithole countries to come here? the president went on to talk about how they needed to bring more people from places like norway. >> that's classic eugenics, that's classic miller and that's classic racism, again in my opinion. >> you don't have to be wearing a klan robe or have a shaved head and swastika on your forehead to be a white supremist. we've got to be more honest. >> five teenagers pressured into giving false confessions. >> of course i hate these people and let's all hate these people because maybe hate is what we need if we're going to get something done. >> we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. >> progressive democrat congresswoman should go back to the crime-infected places from which they came. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're bringing drugs, they're

bringing crime, they're rapists. >> knock the crap out of him, would you? seriously. >> you see these tluhugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon. i see, please, don't be too nice. >> nothing happens in a vacuum. when that language is being used by our leaders, it spreads. so when you see how far it can go, hatred can grow and turned not just into words but then actions and become deadly. i sat down with the family in el paso, misty and paul's son-in-law and their daughter jordan were two of 22 people killed by a suspected terrorist at an el paso walmart. the mother was holding her child. the child survived, just a baby. you can't sit there and talk to families without having that sit on you. >> yeah. >> forever. >> yeah. >> right?

thinking about them -- >> i mean, i -- i just -- i mean -- sorry. >> thinking about that family and what they will have to tell this child who has no idea, right, why his mother and father are not there. because somebody hated immigrants. it is -- how do you explain that? right? i mean, how do you -- how do you even begin to explain that? that will forever bother me. >> yeah. >> i'm sorry, you guys. >> no, no, no. that's all right. it's all right. it's all right. >> i was really not expecting that. see, this is what i was afraid of, kamau. >> i didn't even do anything. >> i'm a reporter, do you hear me? >> welcome to my house.

i cry on the show all the time. it's -- it's what -- it's what we do to move through these movements, so -- >> the families that i talk to, they give me life because i see that they're able to function, they're able to move forward in their lives. they have no choice. they're still here. that fills me with, like, okay, get up, go do your job. sara sidner, cnn, el paso. ♪ if you're staying home with friends and family, you can still order all your favorites. because right now, denny's is offering free delivery. just go to dennys.com for free delivery right to your door. see you at dennys.com. today, we're talking with sara. hey lily, i'm hearing a lot about 5g.

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♪ studies show that if you have between 104-degree or 108-degree nasal tip rotation -- >> wow. >> those are the ones that are considered the most beautiful. >> i have a tv show, and even i know that still overall black folks and people of color don't always get a fair shot on television. don't believe me? imagine being this reporter. >> if you think you see the man in this sketch, they want you to call the police tips hotline, that number 816-474-tips. we're live in waldo tonight. >> in 2020, the pittsburgh-based heinz endowment released a study that showed how pittsburgh broadcast news depicted african-american men as either athletes or criminals, a mind-blowing 72% of the time. damn. so how do you find your own voice when it feels like your city bases your entire value on how you break tackles or how you

break laws? one hood media teaches young people in pittsburgh to take charge of their own narratives. >> do you accept the light of jesus christ? >> i accept the light. >> so when my friend, activist, acted me to talk to his class about my work and industry, i did. >> face the cross. for god. >> for god! for country! for kentucky! >> this is a symbol of god's love. >> holy shit. >> that's the final scene from the episode. >> were those people real klansmen? >> oh, yeah. that's not the chappelle show. this is not a sketch. >> i knew the klan existed. hearing them really say those things, i had to laugh.

because i'm like, wow, they really believed this. >> they've got god and kentucky on the same level. >> yeah. god and kentucky. what? >> i feel like klan imagery is a little bit older. did your generation have that same fear? >> i'm not scared if i go down south that i'll get lynched anymore. i'm more scared when i go outside the house. am i going to get shot by a police officer? >> what he just said is the whole show. it's easy to focus on the kkk. you can avoid the kkk. but the police? you'll have to eventually deal with the police. a 2018 rutgers university study showed that negative media portrayals which foster fear of black men were a significant factor in a five times higher rate of unarmed black men being shot by police than unarmed white men. that fear has justified not only excessive force but also claims of self-defense.

>> i think a lot of it has to do with, when you see us on mainstream media, we're dehumanized. when antwaan gets killed, oh, that's a young black dude. >> you know how it goes. a black 17-year-old was killed by a police officer. he had been fired from his previous post. he volunteered, he was an honor roll student and had never been in trouble with the law. while many outside the community focused on a drive-by shooting he was allegedly involved in. his community finds it hard to focus only since the officer shot him in the back as he was running away. completely unarmed. >> when the trial happened, it was this idea that it would be violence. >> yeah. >> so they had the courthouse surrounded by police. they shut the streets down around the courthouse.

>> the police presence exponentially grew every day. it got thicker and thicker. you would think the president was here. it was wild down there. it was madness. then previously before that, the nra marched, an open carry march. >> a bunch of well armed white folks marching on the steps of the building. this was just 2 1/2 months after the tree of life massacre. it was to protest proposed gun regulations that were hoping the avoid another massacre. why would we want to do that? when white folks show up at rallies, no matter how violent or ridiculous they are, they're given the benefit of the doubt. look at these two rallies. in one case, the cop shut down the street for the rally. in the other case, they shut down the street to stop the rally. who are you afraid of? >> i just imagine us saying, we're going to ride with our guns. and how far would that bus get before a bomb hits it?

to me this is where white supremacy really functions. we gave them no reason to believe -- >> none. >> -- that it would be any type of violence. we protested all year and every single protest was nonviolent. the verdict came out friday night. that following monday, young organizers from the universities and high schools organized the largest protest that pittsburgh has ever seen. >> what do we want? >> justice! >> when do we want it? >> now! >> you had 3,000 to 5,000 young people taking to the streets. that's what gave me hope. seeing how they organized and the manner in which they showed up. that's never the narrative. >> no peace! >> no justice! >> no peace! >> and we are seeing that narrative play out again. the protests following the

killing of george floyd are some of the most powerful since martin had that dream. and it is easy to see the disparity. remember, george floyd was killed over suspicion of having a fake 20. but this guy? cops bought him some burger king. you know how some media is. never failing to portray black people as scary while completely ignoring the issues at hand. aka, what's up, tucker? >> for the past week all of us have seen chaos engulf our beloved country. what do the mobs want? >> while many of you get caught up in, why are people rioting? well, your hero martin luther king jr. said, a riot is the language of the unheard. and somebody else said, it is hard to start a riot when everybody else has good job, a full belly, well-educated kids, access to health care, and feels

safe and protected. try getting someone to though a brick through a window for you then. that was me. i said that shit, just now. >> this may be a lot of things, this moment we're living through. but it is definitely not about black lives. remember that when they come for you, and they will. >> that's why he's advertising pillows. >> i see you. >> all of this shows why black folks need to have control over our own narrative. a 2019 american society of news editors study shows the overwhelming majority of roles in newsrooms are held by white people. no surprise. so no matter the diversity of the stories, they're largely filtered through a white lens. regardless of perceptions, this influences what people of color have to live with and in too many cases, die with. >> a lot of people's experience

with diversity does come from the media. for myself, too. growing up in a suburb area, that was kind of my outlet to be connected in a diverse environment. but i have learned that it is important to be the person in the room. you can't expect other people to really speak for you. >> and so i think you know this but the power is behind the camera. it's fine to be on camera. you can want to be on camera. but you want to work to get the letters behind your name that say executive producer. the director. that's when you can make decisions that actually change culture. ryan coogler is the power. tyler perry is the power, oprah is the power. so the fear for these young people isn't of the klan or nazis but how the way they are seen will affect them the next time they're at a job interview,

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y'all ready for the blues? [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ when i left my happy home i had a woman of my own ♪

♪ now i have a pain in my heart and a guilty conscience on my mind ♪ ♪ >> there's a bar called the silver dollar lounge. basically an all-white bar. i was the only black guy in the band. i came off the bandstand on break and somebody walked up to me and put their arm around my shoulder. man, i sure like your piano playing. this is the first time i heard a black man play piano like jerry lee lewis. i said, well, he got it from the same place i did, from black blues and boogie-woogie piano players. oh, no, i never heard a black man play it like you. it was fascinating until he went to buy me a drink. and he said this is first time i ever sat down and had a drink with a black man.

i said, why? his buddy elbowed him and said, tell him, tell him. i said, tell me. he looked back at me and said, i'm a member of the ku klux klan. i burst out laughing. >> that was your response? >> yeah. >> we often say someone is one of a kind, but in darrell davis' case, that's true. he has made his living as a musician but he's made it his life's work to convert kkk members back into humans. when i did my episode, many of his fans thought i was stealing his gig. >> take a bag of skittles. taste the individual colors. it's even better. >> i don't want his gig. >> the first episode of the tv show, i met with the klan but you go all the way in. >> and i incur the wrath of some people for that. >> yes. yes, yes. who do you incur the wrath of? >> mostly black people.

>> yeah. >> yeah. they have a visceral reaction when they see a picture, as would i, if i saw a picture of a black guys shaking hands with some guy in a robe and hood. what the? >> sometimes when black people are angry with me about the work i'm doing, it's not that i agree with them but i understand where they come from. i get the situation, that they don't have any time or any room for a black person to sit across from a klansman. >> can i ask you a question? >> yeah. >> if we don't have time to sit down and work out our issues, what is the answer? we have to stop thinking, i'm not my brother's keeper. i am my brother's keeper. >> yeah. >> i think the challenge is, who do you define as your brother? a lot of black folks would not define a klansman as your brother. you know what i mean? >> this is entire country is my community. a black neighborhood, a white neighborhood, a jewish neighborhood, i'm an american.

i see humanity in everybody. >> by his count, he's been directly or indirectly responsible for the conversion of 200 white supremacists and he's brought four of them here to tell their stories. none of them are from pittsburgh. these are ex-white supremacists. i hope. i'm really not trying to make a sequel. >> i want to go around the table saying your name. how long have you been out of the organization and what were your titles in the organization. let's start with you. darrell, how long have you been out of the klan? >> depends who you ask. >> still in. yeah. >> tell me about yourself. >> i'm jeff scoop. i was with the national socialist movement. i was the national director, the commander for the united states. i was there 27 years. >> jeff scoop was a leader of the national socialist movement. the united states' largest

neo-nazi group. from 1994 until just recently in 2019. yikes. >> i've been out since about ten months now. >> you're fresh still. i mean, ten months. if this is recovery, that's still early days. >> right. >> i think it will be recovery for the rest of our lives, actually. >> yeah. >> garrett was born in germany, where he became a neo-nazi. then he moved to america and joined the kkk. you know what they say, when in rome. so what was it specifically? can you think of the moment where you said, this doesn't work for me anymore? >> some of the final straws for me was the violent acts. one after another. the tree of life shooting. the mosque shooting in new zealand, poway, california. you make up excuses in your mind. i could say, well, at least it wasn't anybody from nsm that did it. but you're still putting out that negative, hateful stuff. but a lot of times with the

organizations, the leaders served as a pressure valve. we were telling people don't, don't, don't. literally before an event or a rally, you had to tell people, racial epithets, cussing, calls to violence. >> all the negative energy and what you are putting out, if it wouldn't be that way, you wouldn't have to tell your members don't, don't, don't. right? >> yeah. >> that actually proves it. >> good point. >> even though jeff says he's out, not everybody trusts he's out. that includes the southern poverty law center. and really, is that so bad? he was a leading hate monger for 25 years. it feels like it should take more than ten months to go from the hate list to the hugs list. >> when i heard neo-nazis, they will put all the hate and say, but we don't advocate violence. i feel like you are creating a culture of violence. this is supposed to be a land of just white folks, there's one way to get there. and that involves guns and

violence, you know? >> i was not the nonviolent racist type. i was like, i am violent. and i will attack you. and i'm here to kill people. >> did you ever practice violence? >> every day. i was literally awash in it. >> he is a former nazi skinhead. he approaches all the anti-racism work he does with the same vigor he approached being a white supremacist with. which as far as i'm concerned, is exactly how it should be. >> we would get joe pissed off white kid. we would blame it on jews, black people, gay people, so they don't have to look inward and do the difficult work of looking at their own life. a lot of these kids followed me around like puppy dogs. i would get them rip-roaring drunk, and blast into their mind that we were at war, that our race is going to be wiped off the planet earth. >> so you were fighting people, attacking people? >> yeah.

>> were you ever arrested for it? >> i was arrested many times. i spent a lot of weekends in jail. i never caught a case because i was a white kid. >> there you go. i'm glad you said it. >> i say it all the time. if a black or latino kid did half the things i did, they would still be in prison. that's just the way this country works. >> white privilege. >> it is. >> scott has a very interesting history as well. >> of all these men, scott shepherd has been out the longest, but his ties run the deepest. and he comes from notorious klan history. scott's godfather killed medgar evers. >> at 19 years old, i've served as grand dragon of the state of tennessee. i spent over 20 years in the movement. when i was in the klan, there was a little voice in the back

of my head that said, do you believe what you're really doing? and i also had a deep secret that they didn't know. i was raised by a black lady. >> many southern children were raised by black nannies and surrogate moms that knew the kids better than their biological mom. >> yeah. >> did she know you were in the klan? >> oh, yeah. yeah. and i had a lot of guilt from that. i disenfranchised myself from her. and didn't see her. when i did get out of the klan, i knocked on the door, and she opened the door. and not only was her arms open, her heart was, too. i knew i had been on a long, crazy journey, but i was home. of course she's passed away now.

she passed away at 103, two days before her birthday. and i thank god that i was able to reunite with her before she passed away. i'm a mississippi boy, raised by a black lady, and then ended up in the klan. >> i've made some of my best friends from people in the klan because i have been around people since a young child of different backgrounds. so i wasn't allowed to become radicalized. my parents were in the u.s. foreign service. so i spent a lot of time overseas. different countries. being around so many people, if i had not had that experience, would i be fooling with these people? probably not. and our society can only become one of two things. it can become that which we sit back and let it become or we can become that which we stand up and make it. and i have chosen the latter. ♪

>> now, this show has put some strange stuff in front of my eyes, but, ladies and gentlemen, welcome darrell davis and the ex-supremes. ♪ ♪ i'm the boogie man he's the boogie man ♪ ♪ the boogie woogie man in this boogie woogie band ♪ ♪ bye-bye ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> oh, yeah. thank you. how they gonna pay for this? they will, but with accident forgiveness allstate won't raise your rates

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♪ the truth is, as much as we're surrounded by it, we rarely talk about the bottom of the iceberg. we're fascinated with the violence white supremacy creates. but then the victims, the responsibility is on them to bang the drums, do the interviews, and clean up the damage. the tree of life massacre was one of those days in america that makes zero sense when you hear about it. but then you quickly remember that days like these have become more common. i won't go over the details. you can do that on your own. i'm here because of what came after.

♪ >> the muslim community modeled how to behave at a time of trauma to the jewish community. they were outside the tree of life as the incident unfolded because they said something to the effect of because this is where we knew we needed to be. but it didn't end there. they started a gofundme page and raised a quarter of a million dollars. and said, don't worry about the funerals. we're taking care of that. >> we have similar burial practices. we knew it had to be immediate. >> we returned the love and kindness six months later, the horrific attack in christchurch in the two mosques. tree of life put together

gofundme pages and sent $650,000 to christ church. >> and we do that all the time. those things don't get highlighted because we don't run around and boast about the good things we do. so the divisions people talk about are really concocted. >> i think it's a really important message that for people who wonder can jews and muslims get along? well, why not. >> yeah. >> they have worked together since the tree of life shootings to bring peace and unity to the city. >> well, horror drew us together. but that's not what unites us. the horror was a call to action, and we both recognized that action is required but to do that you need to find partners to effect change. >> i feel like generally in america, non-jewish americans thought anti-semitism was a thing of the past.

it was an historic thing, not something that jewish people dealt with. >> unless you experience it personally, you don't necessarily know that it's anti-semitism. i think i was about 10 years old, came home one day from school and in the driveway were a couple swastikas in chalk. with the words that jeffrey is a dirty jew. i thought that was the price to be a jew and live in the united states. >> a lot of black people feel like, as long as we're not experiencing the harshest end of racism, you start to not complain about things you should complain about because you're like, at least it's not worse. when is the last time you were here? >> oh, let's see. i think it was about three weeks ago. sometimes the mood is such that you could be having a great day and something reminds you of the

events of october 27th. and there are times i just can't drive by here. i'll detour. the visual reminder sometimes of the facade is just too much. >> yeah. >> to me, the greatest horror would be that they just pass away in anonymity without saying that these are beautiful people. they died because they were being jewish. so the answer to that is to be even more jewish. >> i like that. be even more jewish. >> there is this wonderful phrase. it's in the talmud. it's not upon you to finish the task, but you are not absolved from trying. so you may not get to that part

of the rainbow, but that doesn't mean that we're letting you off the hook from trying, at least making a few steps and more progress. >> mlk said, no matter our race, creed, and religion, if we all do that every day to work to make the world a little better, it gets better. >> absolutely. >> yeah. i can't help thinking of my mom at moments like this, hearing her talk about her friends about racism and activism. she was playing records in the house. at time i was like, why do i have to -- can't we put some temptations on? and to realize she was building the bridge for me to be here right now talking to you. >> so you honor your mother by doing the same thing to your kids. >> yes. thank you. >> thank you. i knew i'd get emotional. >> thank you. >> thank you. i'm glad you came to pittsburgh. >> it's hard to not stand here

in pittsburgh, in mr. rogers' neighborhood, and not say, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. >> indeed, today the sun is shining. >> yeah. >> it's a good day. at visionworks, we know there's lots of things you've been avoiding. like people... and pants. but don't avoid taking care of your eyes, because we're here to safely serve you with new procedures

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talk to an eye doctor about twice-daily xiidra. i prefer you didn't! xiidra. not today, dry eye. i prefer you didn't! today, we're talking with sara. hey lily, i'm hearing a lot about 5g. should i be getting excited? depends. are you gonna want faster speeds?

i will. more reliability? oh, also yes. better response times? definitely. are you gonna be making sourdough bread? oh, is that 5g related? no, just like why is everyone making sourdough now [laughs]... but yes, you're gonna want 5g. at&t is building 5g on america's best network. visit att.com to learn more. ♪ okay. this clearly ain't pittsburgh. this is santa monica, home of the santa monica pier and the birthplace of steven miller. we aren't here for that stuff. we're here for this lady, my mom. and doesn't she look good in this light?

>> what would be really great is if it was warm. >> yeah. but you're always cold. >> i think something happens when you get older. >> yeah, and you are old. >> yes, i -- >> i mean like, old. >> i acknowledge that. >> like, old. i mean, like martin luther king jr. would be 91. >> that's just nine years older than me. idea being that my mo experienced every part of america's racism except for slavery. born in 1937 in indianapolis, indiana, whether as a textbook editor, author, activist. mostly she's happy to know you can't believe she's 83. so when you had me, what was your idea about raising this black boy? >> i was very conscious about that. and i remember when you were a little guy.

you know, 6, 7 years old. and there was a drugstore near us that we would shop in. and as soon as we walked in the store, the store detective would follow us. i said, be really careful. and i pointed out the store detective. because we're always being watched. >> i remember that lesson, and it sticks with me today so much so that i'm aware when i'm in stores as a fully grown adult where my hands were. as a kid i was aware of it because i didn't want to be arrested. and now as an adult i'm aware of it because i don't want to be killed. >> yeah. >> the other thing i want to talk about is how i didn't think america would ever elect a black president. >> yeah. >> and then i remember you voted early because you knew they had early voting. >> yeah. >> and then you flew out to san francisco. >> to watch the returns with you. >> with me. we could have just talked on the phone. >> oh, no. no. i wanted to be there when the results came in. yeah. yeah.

[ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> it was a historic occasion, living history. shoot. i didn't ever think in my lifetime that i would get to see a black president. >> the thing is, we only have one blurry picture of that night. >> oh, really? >> of you being like, ah! >> yeah. i'll never forget that night. yeah. >> and then eight years later -- >> every time black people make any progress in this country, there is a backlash. and so this is the backlash to obama's being president. >> how bad do things feel right now? like i said, you've experienced every part of racism except for

slavery. >> i feel fascism coming on. and so that really, really frightens me. and if we don't somehow overcome this in the next election, i'm worried. i'm really worried. >> i don't know if i ever told you this, but i remember when trump won and i was like, it's kind of too bad she didn't die while barack was in office. >> oh, really? yeah. >> and you know i don't mean that. >> no, i know. i know. i know. i understand. >> it just felt like, oh, come on. >> you know, all of my siblings are deceased and i've had the thought, i'm glad they didn't have to live through this. one of the biggest success stories in racism in the united states is how they have kept the races apart. that was deliberate, of course. segregation started it.

if you keep people apart so that they don't get to know each other, then they could just hate that unknown group. if all the people of color and the disgruntled white people came together, they wouldn't stand a chance, the people in power who want to keep us apart. they wouldn't have a ghost of a chance. so they have to keep using us as decoys to keep white people from understanding that they are being ripped off, too. one thing i know for sure is that when people get to know each other, they can't hate each other. >> yeah. >> look, every single episode of this show, by the end, i'm hoping the screwed-up thing we talked about will be over forever, but it never is. and sometimes, honestly, i feel alone in this. i bet a lot of you do. but one thing we're seeing right

now is we are not alone. >> many other groups joined in in support. >> there is at least a few thousand here. >> a wave of demonstrations in solidarity with u.s. protesters. >> at home or in the streets we are in it together. >> this caused the whole problem. >> okay. maybe not every one of us. but a lot of us are out there in this fight. >> you see what is in front of them right now, peaceful protesting. >> really in the shit, putting ourselves on the line, from huntsville, alabama to [ bleep ] berlin, trying to do everything we can to make sure that no matter what happens, today we're going to do whatever we can, fight hard, love as hard as we can to make sure that tomorrow, as one of pittsburgh's favorite sons says -- ♪ it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ♪ ♪ a beautiful day for a neighbor ♪

♪ would you be mine could you be mine ♪ ♪ would you be mine could you be mine won't you be my neighbor ♪ ♪ welcome back to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. our top story, the growing divergence between the u.s. president and the virus. he's once again blaming testing for the spike in cases. health experts totally disagree because he's wrong. and say the soaring case count signals an ominous trend. but during an interview with fox news, president trump repeated his claims that the u.s. has done the most incredible