Skip to main content

tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  April 3, 2012 4:00am-5:00am EDT

4:00 am
we begin tonight with breaking news. another campus 14509ing and sadly another string of casualties. young men and women who were strongly at the wrong place at the worst possible time. the place this time, a small christian college in oakland, california, oikos, university. dan simon is on the scene. he's joining us now with the very latest with fatalities and the suspect. >> reporter: well, wolf, investigators are still here at the scene, but just minutes ago police identified the suspect, 43-year-old oakland resident, juan goo. at this point they don't have a motive for the shooting. they tell at at 10:30 a.m. he went into oikos university and started shooting indiscriminately at people. we know seven people are dead. three more people are wounded. police describe what it looked
4:01 am
like when they got here. take a look. >> when we got there officers found several victims throughout the classroom, throughout the building. there were several people hiding in locked buildings, locked doors, behind desks. as you can imagine, very frightened, very scared. some of them were injured so we had to rescue them out. we had to force our way into a number of rooms because they were locked behind doors. >> reporter: well, after the shooting the suspect fled, according to police, to a local grocery store. inside he reportedly confessed his crime to a super market worker. he was then arrested in the parking lot of that grocery store a short time later. again, at this point police do not have a motive but, of course, the investigation continues. wolf, we know that seven people are dead, three more people are injured. they're at a local hospital but are suffering from nonlife
4:02 am
threatening injuries. wolf? >> dan simon, thanks very much. also tonight, keeping them honest. a fresh look at two key pieces of evidence in the trayvon martin killing. newly enhanced videotape and newly analyzed audio. one lending credence to george zimmerman's claim of self-defense, the other perhaps undermining a key part of his story, that he cried out for help before fatally shooting the unarmed teen. by now you're probably familiar with that grainy surveillance footage of george zimmerman being brought in for questioning. tonight we've taken a higher resolution version and enhanced it further so you can better decide how seriously injured george zimmerman was. reports say sanford police initially called for a second ambulance presumably to take him to the hospital. it was later canceled. also, remember this, zimmerman claims that trayvon martin
4:03 am
sucker punched him, then repeatedly slammed his head into the ground or pavement. they say he was treated on the scene for injuries to his nose or head. it was hard to tell much if anything from the original videotapes about the extent of his injuries or whether they were consistent with the story he tells. the newly enhanced video, which you'll see in a moment, may shed new light on that question. then there's the audio evidence, the 911 call, one of many that night, in which you hear someone cry out three times for help. the question has always been, who is it. first zimmerman's father on local owe fill yat wofl. >> all of our family, everyone who knows george knows absolutely that that is george screaming. there is no doubt in anyone's mind. >> you and i talked before you said without a doubt that is trayvon's voice on the 911 call calling out for help. there's now an eye witness who says that -- who's been interviewed who says that he saw
4:04 am
george zimmerman crying out for help. >> people can say anything they want to. i just personally don't believe it. i know that it was my son that was crying out for help so right now we're hearing a lot of speculations and people just want to say whatever they want. >> so who's right? no one can say with absolute certain certainty, but today on starting point with soledad o'brien a top forensic expert says it points to martin, not zimmerman. >> we have the tape of zimmerman, we have the tape of the screams and then we can start the comparison and basically it's going to do this comparison. if you can see the screen now. it's going to give me some false rejection rates, some false acceptance rates and a likelihood ratio, okay? and this gray dot over here designates the very lower end of the scale which in essence is translated as it's not him.
4:05 am
>> two pieces of evidence, audio and video. we'll talk more about both shortly. we'll also be joined by a martin family lawyer, benjamin krump, who wrote to the civil rights division questioning whether not charging george zimmerman was made fairly or justly. we respectfully request that the united states department of justice investigate the circumstances surrounding the meeting in which they disregarded the lead homicide investigator's recommendation to arrest george zimmerman for manslaughter. late today mr. wol inger said he's outij raed by the laws contained in the crumb p letter. we begin with the videotape. how it was enhanced and what it may show. here again is the tape as you've been seeing it for the last several days. it's grainy and certainly not
4:06 am
easy to make out details. now here is the higher resolution version, the sanford police department recently posted to their website. you can see it's much sharper, much easier to make out detail. in addition to what you see here, we've also taken the tape into an edit bay and made some enhancements to give you a better look what the camera saw that night. details literally from deborah faye rick. >> reporter: so i'm here with jason bass is a, one of our great editors on cnn. we'll show you a surveillance tape. this is the night of the shooting. let's take a look at this now. let's play it down. you can see george zimmerman. he's sort of talking to police. the police officer right there looks at the back of his head to see if he can see anything. so take a look at this because
4:07 am
this is something you actually do see what appears to be some sort of a bump. >> yeah. there's a few things i can do to enhance it. i'm going to put a contrast on it now to see if you can bring this out a little bit more. i'll throw another color correction tool on it. what i'm going to do is oversaturate it too so you can see the reds. >> that's interesting. >> you know. >> there it definitely looks like something's popping out. >> yeah. >> we'll raise it. you can see his jacket getting redder and that area getting redder. and i'm going to lighten it up a little bit. raise the whites. there you go. >> again, tonight nothing conclusive there, but a fresh look at two key pieces of evidence. videotape showing george zimmerman's head injury. audio tape suggesting he was not
4:08 am
the voice on the 911 tape crying out for help. joining us now is martin family attorney benjamin crump. thank you for coming in. this letter that i mentioned earlier, you sent it to the justice department asking them to look into why the sanford police chief met with state attorney norm wolfinger on the night of the shooting and why they chose to ignore the inclination to arrest mr. zimmerman. mr. wolfinger made a statement. i am outraged by the outright lies contained in the ler by benjamin crump. no such meeting occurred. i am encouraging those to stop and allow the state attorney angela coreyy complete her work. he's calling you, mr. crump, a lawyer so we'd love to get your response. >> yes. on behalf of the family we are
4:09 am
outraged at his and for whatever reason refusal to arrest george zimmerman for arresting their son. it took our letter to get him to comment on why george zimmerman has not been arrested. we hear all these things from the media. we don't get anything from his office or the police department so these folks have been left out in the cold when it's them who should get all the information about why mr. zimmerman is still free for killing their son. and we're going to keep writing letters and asking people to investigate anything that is suspicious in this death because they deserve answers. this family only wants answers. >> mr. crump, have you seen the affidavit that your letter hinges upon? in other words, can you prove your claim? >> no. when we told -- stated to the special prosecutor for the department of justice, we're hearing all of these things.
4:10 am
mr. wolfinger knew this was out in the media. the if a amly asked these questions. why did they overrule it? why is george zimmerman free? who made this decision? this is something they've asked repeatedly from the beginning of this thing. why wasn't he arrested? that's at the crux of the matter. >> if there was a disagreement between the investigator and the prosecutor who thought there wasn't enough evidence to charge zimmerman, what does that tell you? >> well, what it really tells us, this investigator who's the one making the decision where he recommends manslaughter. he is the person who's evaluated his statement, evaluated evidence, observed it, why would you overrule him or reject his notion if it is said that zimmerman's claim isn't credible? and remember, wolf, let's be absolutely certain, nobody's saying that he can't make a self-defense claim in a court of
4:11 am
law. all we're saying is he should have been arrested. if that was trayvon martin who was accused of pulling the trigger, he would have been arrested right there on the spot. we only want equal judgment and fair and impartial to be applied across the board. and that means simply stated for, again, a cry and a demand that he be arrested and we will have a court of law decide his innocence or guilt. >> very briefly, mr. crump, there's new evidence, enhanced surveillance video, i should say, that shows what could be, could be an injury to the back of zimmerman's head. could this video, indeed, support his claim that he was in an altercation with trayvon martin? >> you know, again, it's going to be a court of law. but you have to look at it. is that enough to justify deadly use of force to kill an unarmed teen? and more importantly, the crux
4:12 am
of the matter that we keep harping on, if he does not get out of that car, if he does what a neighborhood watch person is supposed to do, report it to the proper authorities and let them deal with this matter, then trayvon martin is here living and breathing and we're not here dealing with this with his parents saying, why is my son in the ground and nobody's been arrested for killing him? >> benjamin crump, as usual, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, sir. >> as always, more on this at cnn.com. let us know what you think. we're also on facebook and google plus. you can follow me on twitter @wolf blitzer cnn. a lot more happening tonight, including ann romney's efforts including trying to bring women out to vote for her husband. and new polling to show how much of a gender gap there is to key swing states when it comes to a race against president obama. that's next. ♪
4:13 am
[ male announcer ] you're at the age where you don't get thrown by curveballs. ♪ this is the age of knowing how to get things done. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action.
4:14 am
viagra. talk to your doctor. on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space. which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd, and you still need to retire. td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k).
4:15 am
so who's in control now, mayans?
4:16 am
. raw politics tonight. the gender gap. new polling from u; a today and gallop shows president obama beating mitt romney by nine points in swing states and women the reason why. take a look at the gender breakdown. among men, romney has a one point lead. among women though, look at this, it's an 18 point deficit. the republican party apparently paying the price for making statements a lot of women simply don't like. to counter that, governor romney is putting his wife, ann romney, front and center with her take on what matters to women. >> do you know what women care about, and this is what i love, women care about jobs. >> she talks to women that are concerned about the jobs their kids are going to get. >> women are talking about jobs. >> women care about the economy. they care about their children, and they care about the debt. >> she's going across the country and talking with women. >> you've got moms that are driving their kids to school. >> women are talking about
4:17 am
deficit spending. >> women. >> women. >> women. >> thank you, women. >> ann romney trying to bring women home to the party and to her husband's campaign. she's also trying to humanize him. >> well, you know, i guess we better unzip him and let the real mitt romney out because he is not -- it is so funny to me that that is the perception out there because he is funny, he's engaging, he's witty, he's always playing jokes. when i met him when i was a teenager he was the life of the party. that's why i like getting out there. it's being able to let people see the other side of mitt. >> more now on the woman who sees the other side of mitt romney from randy kane. >> in the romney household ann romney has a host of titles, trusted advisor, the mitt stabilizer, mother and grandmother. but she's also the great protector of all things romney. >> the last person on earth you'd want to cross would be ann
4:18 am
romney. if you go after one of her kids or after her husband, she's going to be there. >> reporter: ron scott has known mitt romney since 1985 and just wrote a book about him. he says ann is no pushover. >> she got into a tiff with one of her teenage boys and he was being a smart mouth and she was trying to get away to go to the cape for the weekend. he was going back and forth with her and timely she got in the car and slammed the door and said, see ya later and took off and left him standing there in the driveway. >> reporter: scott says ann even stoot up to her mother who voiced concern years ago when ann and mitt started having so many children. >> her mom said, gee, you're over populating the earth and ann at one point said, mom, if you want to see your grand sons on a regular basis, you need to knock this stuff off. >> reporter: ann romney humanizes her husband, calling him her most disobedient child. she often shares secrets about his love of chocolate milk and
4:19 am
his obsession with peanut butter. >> we're high school sweet hearts and we still are sweet hearts. we have five wonderful sons. we have 16 grandchildren. >> reporter: like mitt, ann grew up wealthy in michigan. her father manufactured auto parts. she and mitt fell in love in high school. mitt proposed when ann was just 15. they married while in college at brigham young university, a mormon school in utah. ann had converted to mormonism in high school. their love affair has been part of the campaign rhetoric dating back to this ad from mitt's 2002 senate run simply titled ann. >> our first real date. >> the night of the senior prom. >> mitt pulls up to pick me up in some goofy looking car. >> it was an amc marlin. >> he was a little embarrassed by it. >> it was awful. >> it was very romantic. >> reporter: mitt admits without ann he's lost. >> if i'm away from her for a week, i get a bit off course.
4:20 am
>> reporter: still, ann may not be perfect. in 1994 during mitt's senate campaign she told the boston globe money was so tight in college they considered selling stock from their portfolio. critics painted her as out of touch. >> everybody that read that g p gasp gasped. >> reporter: ann's greatest challenge had nothing to do with politics n. 1998 she learned she had multiple sclerosis. >> it was a devastating thing in my life. it was very tough. i went from being a very active, involved, and hands-on mom to hardly being able to take care of myself. >> reporter: to feel better, she turned to holistic therapies and horseback riding. but her battle didn't end there. in 2008 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. whether it's cancer or the campaign trail, ann romney is a fighter. she's beaten two life threatening diseases but she knows with the gop nomination still up for grabs, there are many more battles ahead.
4:21 am
randy kaye, cnn, new york. >> a short time ago i spoke to two members of our political panel, republican strategist mary matlin and maria cardona. mary, how worried should the romney campaign be about this huge swing among women voters and how crucial will ann romney be in trying to win them over? >> well, as we talk about often, wolf, the numbers in the primary are 23409 determinative or necessarily predictive for the general election. but, yes, we always need to be concerned about women and the poll numbers i'm looking at now, resurge gent republic poll numbers, women as well as menace anybody else are concerned about the jobs numbers, the unemployment, the underemployment. the lack of jobs that are family sustaining. they're going to vote in the end on the same concerns that everybody else does. those will be aired out in the fall. >> maria, in describe ann romney
4:22 am
politico called her the romney democrats fear most. is that true? how big of an staasset do you tk she is. >> tremendous. i don't think fear would be a word i would describe any democrats have about anybody in the romney campaign right now. it will be a tough election, there's no question about that. ann romney is very charming. she's articulate. she gives the robotic mitt romney a humanizing factor he needs, but to mary's point, she's not on the ballot. as charming and articulate as she's going to be, it's going to be mitt romney's policies, which right now and all the polls are showing this, independent women do see those policies as anti-woman and that's why 53% of the electorate right now is not supporting mitt romney and that is not the kind of chasm that you need going into the general election with 53% of the electorate. that's not a trend that is going
4:23 am
to be easy to make up. >> mary, you do know the gender gap was certainly one of the biggest factors behind the obama win back in 2008. as of right now that gap is even bigger this time around. here's the question. can republicans win the white house again without reversing this trend? >> when mitt romney is running against barack obama and he's not being attacked every day in his own party and every day by this president who's declared that he's going after women in the super figuresal way, talking about things as if they have no other concern on their mind about where they're going to get their next box of birth control, we have a real policy debate, then, yes, it's not a trend. we'll reverse these numbers and women will vote the way they'll vote on their pocketbooks. they'll vote on their gas tank, they'll vote on their grocery bags like everybody else. >> maria, a lot of crowing about these latest poll numbers that i mentioned earlier. this sort of sudden spike, as you well know, can't necessarily be relied on, can it?
4:24 am
it can certainly evaporate as quickly as it appears. >> there's no question about that, wolf. yes, while these numbers all make us feel happy, we feel happy for one day, two days. the election is not today, it's not tomorrow, it's not next week. so it is absolutely true that we cannot sleep on our laurels, that we need to be focused. this president is very focused on making sure that he continues to talk to women and, frankly, all voters about how he's continuing to create jobs, to create economic growth and to focus on the issues that middle class families are really concerned about. and this, i think, is where mitt romney is also running into trouble. mary's right, women vote on the issues that everyone else votes on and that is economic growth and job creation. right now those women feel like mitt romney is not speaking to those issues and it's a reason why they're supporting president obama on all of those. so i think right now today the mitt romney campaign probably not at defcon 1.
4:25 am
the election isn't tomorrow. they've got to be worried about this at defcon 2. >> thanks very much. thanks for your time. >> thanks so much, wolf. >> syria's government is making a new promise tonight to pull its troops and heavy weapons out of syria's cities by april 10th. the veteran war photo journalist paul conroy has seen the violence in syria up close. he barely got out of baba amr alive. coming up, his take on the latest promise from the assad regime. [ male announcer ] if your kid can recognize your sneeze from a crowd... you're probably muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air.
4:26 am
4:27 am
4:28 am
4:29 am
tonight the syrian regime is making a new promise. it now says it will withdraw its troops and heavy weapons from syria's cities by april 10th. the latest in a string of promises president bashar al-assad has made, all the others have been broken. like those other promises, this one comes as the death toll is rising. opposition activists say at least 65 people were killed in syria today. more than half of them in homs. this video was reportedly shot in homs earlier today. as always, we can't independently verify this video.
4:30 am
we do know that homs is still a target for assad's troops. veteran photo journalist paul conroy was inside the baba amr section of homs. two other journalists were killed in the siege. he barely got out alive. he was hit in the leg and stomach by shrapnel. he recorded this as he was fleeing the city. >> the shelling was immense. we took a lot of hits in the house today. the free syrian army ran in and just said, get ready to go, threw us into trucks, and we've just been through a rather arduous journey to get out of baba amr. >> you can imagine how painful that ride must have been with his injuries. even more painful to conroy, the man who helped him escape is now in syrian custody and paul conroy fears that if you don't know his name, the syrian regime will kill him. i talked to paul conroy earlier.
4:31 am
let's talk about alley ofman. he's the syrian activist, the filmmaker you know well. he's been aest ared by the syrian army, allegedly tortured. you say you think he will be killed if the world doesn't come to know his name. why would the assad regime want to silence this man? >> this man's been instrumental. he's one of the people from the beginning who picked up a camera. he was there at the start. he's assisted the international media in shining a light into the situation of syria. he's become a thorn in their side and i think now the siege of homs has been completed, the destruction is complete, the assad regime have turned their attention to the very people who have given us an opportunity to look into what's happened in syria. i think he's, for them, a very dangerous man. >> there has been international pleas for his release but what
4:32 am
else can the international community do to try to help him? >> i think keep up the pressure, as you say, the international pleas and attempt to let the syrian regime, let them know we know they have him. he's been making telephone calls to other activists arranging meetings. they've shown up and they've been aest ared. we know he is talking under duress at this point in time, otherwise he would have never made the telephone calls. >> paul, you once described the situation in syria not as war but as indiscriminate massacre, your words. do you have any confidence that better days are ahead, particularly if the united nations's peace plan gains any real traction? >> if the united nations peace plan gains any traction, i would think there was room for optimism. i think what this regime is doing has proved itself, it's to continually take anything they
4:33 am
can. hide behind there and continue the slaughter, continue the massacre, continue the clamp down. i fear this is the same warfare. i see no realistic change in that outlook. why change their spots now. they have a track record. i don't believe there is going to be any change. >> as you know, the only acceptable end is that the syrian president, bashar al-assad, must go. there's no indication that he's going voluntarily at any point, that he's ready to leave power, is there? >> no, not at all. i think it's something in the minds of these deck dictators. gadhafi was the same. he could have taken his money and his family and left. there's a mental block with these people. i think he's in it for the long
4:34 am
haul. it will be a great day when he's in the haig world crimes tribunal. >> thanks for everything you're doing and thanks for your time. >> it's been a pleasure, wolf. thanks for having me. other news tonight, a ground breaking 360 report on kids and race. it's a window into how and when children's perceptions of race are shaped. coming up, the results of anderson's year long investigation. >> you've heard people talk about other people's skin color, and what kind of stuff do they say? >> they say -- they say to the teacher, i don't like their black skin. can they go to another school. >> you've heard people say that? [ all ] shh! ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ male announcer ] dow solutions use vibration reduction technology
4:35 am
to help reduce track noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. [ all ] shh! [ male announcer ] solutionism. the new optimism. you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word. you have yet to master the quiet sneeze. you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts. well, muddlers, muddle no more.
4:36 am
try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. zyrtec®. love the air. the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. now, sleep number redefines memory foam, combining coolfit gel foam with sleep number adjustability! during our white sale, receive $400 in free bedding. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699.
4:37 am
4:38 am
tonight another ground breaking ac 360 report about kids and race. once again, 360 has teemed up with research experts and the results are fascinating. here's anderson. tonight we're debuting a really important 360 special report called kids on race, the hidden picture. it's a year in the making. race relation is one of the most explosive issues. with adults, one of the most taboo issues to talk about with kids. kids as young as 6 years old are already talking about and thinking about race. what they say is making friends
4:39 am
with kids of other races is hard and only gets harder as they grow up. we teemed up with renowned child psychologist dr. melanie killin to scientifically measure children's attitudes on race. they showed 6-year-old children this picture. they said, what's happening? are they friends? would their parents want them to be friends? the picture is ambiguous. what's happening is in the eye of the beholder. they showed them this picture and asked the same question. the only difference in the pictures, the race of the children was flipped. both white and after amitriptyline children were tested and in addition to the 6-year-olds, psychologists showed a similar set of pictures to 13-year-olds. at our request they asked kids open ended questions about race to try to understand how it plays into their own lives. their responses were raw. some of the experiences they described are frankly shocking. this is the reality of what kids see, hear, and think about race.
4:40 am
listen. >> if people have the same skin, you can play together but if you don't have the same skin, you can't play together. >> so why can't you play together if you have different color skin? >> because your mom might not want you to play with that friend. >> that's okay to tell people that they can't be your friend because of the color of their skin? >> uh-huh. >> why is that okay? >> because your mom will not want them to be the same -- be -- be a different color friends. >> do you think it would be easy for a kid to convince his parents that it would be okay to have other people around. >> uh-uh. >> why not? >> probably because you might get in trouble. >> why would a parent want to put -- want you to get in trouble if you wanted someone to come over to your house if someone was a different skin color? >> probably because they don't allow. >> why not? why would some parents not allow
4:41 am
other skin colored kids to come over? >> probably because they might not like that skin color. >> i think it's really different, like the way i look and the way the skin is at my previous school that i went to. and they just kept on bullying me and i didn't like it. i just asked them to stop, like over and over again. and then i tried to like -- i tried not to break, but i couldn't hold on anymore so i asked my mom, can i leave. >> my grandparents have a lot of -- like they're very racist against african-americans and other races but it's 2012 so they have to like push that aside and they'll be like, no, that's wrong to be -- you want to stick with your own race. i'm oo like, no, i'm friends with everyone. >> there was more. our cnn study found signs of hope and progress as well.
4:42 am
watch. >> if somebody has like a different kind of skin color, they all -- if they're their friend, you always should be friends. so like i have tons of friends that are black and i'm white. >> it doesn't matter what skin color you are. it's just inside here, like in your heart. >> this is the second time that 360 has scientifically studied children and race. back in 2010 we discovered that kids as young as five picked up on racial attitudes in the world around them and all of the ugliness that can sometimes come with that. this time around we wanted to understand why children have these attitudes on race, how those attitudes change as kids get older, and how the race of their classmates may shape the adults they're going to become. we begin tonight with the results of the younger children in our study. >> oh, you don't have the right color skin. >> we tested 145 kids at six schools spread across three states. the schools had three different racial makeups. majority white, majority african-american, and racially
4:43 am
diverse. >> why do you think that brenda pushed sarah? >> because she wanted to get on the swing. >> what the research found might surprise you. the first headline, overall young white children are far more negative about interactions between the races than young black children. when white children were shown these pictures, they had a negative interpretation 70% of the time, meaning they were much more likely to say this. >> how did he fall off? bobby pushed him. >> i think brenda pushed sarah off the swing. >> do you think that he did something that was good or bad? >> bad. >> than they were to say this. >> and how good would you say what bobby is doing is? >> super good. >> super good? >> white kids are also far more likely to think the white child and black child in the picture are not friends. they think their parents wouldn't approve of them being friends. but why? responses like this might begin to explain. >> do you think it would be as easy to ask your mom to have someone over who's the same skin
4:44 am
color than someone over who's a different skin color. >> yeah. that might be hard. >> what about it might be hard? >> because all of my people in my family are white and not most of the people that my mom knows and dad knows are black or brown. >> yeah. so it might be kind of hard to ask your mom to have a friend over who's black or brown? >> yeah. >> what do you hear? >> i don't want to be your friend because i have white skin and you have black skin. >> okay. what is it about skin color that sometimes kids think they might not want to be friends? >> because they don't like their color. like they don't like brown so they want a white color skin friend. >> this is an ambiguous situation. >> our expert says children's own experiences with race, along
4:45 am
with the messages they hear at school and at home, the characters in the tv shows they watch, what they see online, all of those have an effect, but the subtle messages adults might not even realize they're sending also have a huge effect on children. dr. killan calls it implicit bias. >> when we're in a situation in public, in a room, we can ask two different people help for something, we might just be more likely to ask the person of the same race than somebody who's an opposite race for help. all of that really has a very powerful influence very early in children's lives, much earlier than we think. >> but if all kids internalize what they see and hear about race, why are young black children more positive about race than young whites? remember, 70% of young white kids saw these and thought something negative happened. when black children looked at the same pictures only 38% saw something negative, meaning they were much more likely to see
4:46 am
this. >> what's going on with carrie? >> she was sad that her friend got hurt. >> what's going on with chris? >> he was waiting his turn. >> positive attitudes despite experiences like this. >> my friend's mom wanted to be only her daughter's friend because he's only white and i'm black. >> okay. so it happened with your friend's mom? >> uh-huh. >> that only wanted him to be friends with people who were the same color? >> uh-huh. >> and so he didn't want you to be friends? >> yes. >> how did that make you feel? >> sad. >> and was it something that they said? >> uh-huh. >> how did they say it? >> you can't be my friend because you're not the same color. >> they said that you can't be friends because you're not the same color?
4:47 am
>> uh-huh. >> she dropped her -- >> 6-year-old sierra was so vocal about race i asked her questions afterwards. >> you've heard other people talk about other people's skin color? and what kind of things do they say? >> they say -- they say to the teacher, i don't like their black skin. can they go to another school. >> you've heard people say that? so why are young black children more positive about race than young whites? dr. killen says the perception that some kids are color blind has several reasons. >> african-american parents are preparing their kids for the world of diversity and discrimination. in contrast, what we find is that a lot of white parents, they sort of have this view that if you talk about race, you are creating the problem and what we're finding, that children are aware of race very early.
4:48 am
>> we're joined now by dr. melanie killen and cnn's soledad o'brien. you found that the racial makeup of a school can have a profound effect. how so? >> it can. it gives children the opportunities for having contact with other kids and potentially making friends. we find that it really makes a difference for kids in thinking about who they're going to play with and who they're going to be friends with. >> so if you're a white parent whose child goes to a majority white school, this study gives you a lot to worry about. what do you say to a parent who's concerned? >> well, we hope it gives them a lot to think about in thinking about their -- how they're exposing their children to people of different races and ethnicities and you can think about the level of community. so maybe your school isn't diverse but the larger district you live in is more diverse. maybe there's an opportunity to have your children encounter other kids or if not that, then to use other kinds of media, whether it's books or television, but to think about the whole issue of exposing your
4:49 am
children -- other children from different racial backgrounds. >> soledad, for you what was one of the big take aways? >> i think it's pretty fascinating as how kids are very articulate and understand the nuance and differences in race. they were talking very specifically about what they thought either their parents may or may not like and i was surprised at kind of the high level conversation. you look over and the kid is six years old. i do think what it sends as a message to parents is, if you're in a majority white school, that's it, that's the school you're in. there are many other opportunities to reach out and have your kid meet other kids. if you're not doing that, you're limiting your kids' opportunities in a lot of ways. >> you found that young african-american kids are a lot more optimistic than white kids? >> yeah. what was really interesting about the study was that the young african-american kids were much more positive about the potential for friendship. when they're looking at a picture card of a white child and black child, can these two be friends, they're much more likely to say -- in fact, the majority would say, yeah, they
4:50 am
can be friends. whereas, we found a different finding for white kids. much less likely to say they could be friends. it makes you think about why is that and what goes into that. >> why do you think that is? >> a lot has to do with children's exposure and contact and the messages they get from all over. you get messages from the broader community, the media and they have a lot of stereotypes, negative stereotypes. it's a parents' job to challenge that for children and counter it. doing it through all of the sort of daily interactions, conversations you have with children about who you're going to play with, who you're going to stand with at the bus stop. it's everyday interactions that are really important. >> i think it's a matter of minority, a black child in a white school, is going to have to be friends with people who look different than they do. white child in a white school doesn't necessarily have to get to know kids who are different than themselves. a lot of them is in the effort extended to understand and get to know people. >> what soledad said earlier is
4:51 am
so fundamental and important. these kids talk about it early. at six years of age they're talking about race. >> they're aware of it. >> they're aware of it. >> a lot of parents you talk about will say, my child is color blind, i want my child to be color blind. yet what we're seeing is that kids are forming impressions about race very early on. >> i have never heard a child in my whole life say color blind. i've only heard parents describing them using the word color blind. parents are more blind to what's happening than their kids. tonight you saw how six-year-olds reacted to race. in our next installment you'll see how 13-year-olds handle the issue. we'll be right back. trogena® na. removes 99% of dirt and toxins without dyes, parabens or harsh sulfates. so skin feels pure and healthy. [ female announcer ] from neutrogena® naturals.
4:52 am
on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space. which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd, and you still need to retire. td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans?
4:53 am
4:54 am
is [ male announcer ] break the grip of back or arthritis pain
4:55 am
with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. . hi there, i'm susan hendricks with a 360 news and business bulletin. there are reports of multiple injuries after a small plane crashes into the roof of a public super market. this is outside of orlando. two people suffered third-degree burns. an update for you now, the pilot on jetblue arrested after an apparent midair meltdown. looking subdued after a judge ordered him held in jail. he was in court after leaving the hospital where doctors treated him since last thursday. he is due back in court later this week. president obama predicts the supreme court will rule in favor of his signature health care law at a news conference today with leaders from canada and mexico. he weighed in on last week's
4:56 am
argument stating legal precedent for justices to find the legislation constitutional. a maryland mcdonald's employee says she is one of the megamillions winners. she is hiding the prize and won't share it. wilson admits buying the group tickets at a local 7-eleven. she claims the winner is from her own stash and she's not sharing.
4:57 am
4:58 am
4:59 am
that does it for this