close to the coast so that everyone can get involved. in addition, terrorism is money in the southern part of the country so it's pretty much more, it's not strictly regional, so this, in the northeastern part of the country, in the area you see that's where the majority of the piracy i would not because there's a big port. in the southern part that's we see a lot of al-shabaab going on because it's closer to the capital. terrorism, terrorists have political goals so they want to be close to the capital. pirates of economic goals so they want to close to the poor. that's pretty much a geographical thing the virus can be different people but you were speaking just young men who have very little options but not all of them. not all of them are poor people are just doing something to get by. this is a way to make money. some people sell drugs, some people commit acts of crime. piracy is a viable way to make money because if you go out and launch an attack that cost maybe three or $4000 to launch an

attack which you may get some of these ransoms are getting two or $3 million. so it's a high profit margin business. basically people go out and recruit. but the to do is mix people are inexperienced and experience people. say of someone who's called a jumper. the person is the first person who boards the ship. that's the most extreme, the purses been there before and that's a person makes the most money. thank all go out, one of two ways. go out and what are called motherships which are small fishing boats but within the small fishing boats are little secrets. so they go out to sea and when they see a big ship coming, shoot out of the mothership and quickly run up on the bigger ship and the sea boat and start firing on them. when they get close enough where the ship has to slow down then they will board the ship and try to hijack it. they usually have machine guns and rpg. basically most ships are not manned by people who are armed. a lot of insurance companies use to give insurance companies have

guns off the ships. they get the guns from within the country. you have to remember, somalia has been at civil war for decades. and the guns have been pumped into the country consistently ever since the cold war, ever since the '70s, believes of dollars per year pumped into the country. there's plenty of guns. so basically they have funders who fund them come to invest in them divide and the guns come to buy them the votes, to buy the food they need to go out and attack the ships. they're able to make attacks up to 800 nautical miles from the coast which is a long way. so really you can be anywhere near that the coast and be 100% safe. now generally speaking, most people state about 200 or so nautical miles away from a country because that's the exclusive economic zone but because of piracy they have to be a lease a thousand or so nautical miles away from somalia to be safe. the problem is the way the area

is shaped is very difficult to be that far away and still be efficient in terms of like gas and fuel efficiency within the shipping vessels. they were two or three main stories. the biggest one was a serious oil tanker. it had $109 worth of oil. that was one that people start to think, wait a minute, we need to stop these powers because if they hijack an oil tanker with i think to million barrels of oil on it, that could cause global oil prices to go through the roof. so that cause controversy onto and. it caused controversy because, because of the value of the products that were hijacked but simply because it was a saudi arabian should. because as another muslim country their hijacking a lot of muslims were like hey, you should be seeing from other muslims. he of muslims who are like this fight. then you have the people involved in the global economy saying look, this piracy problem could be a major, major issue

that we need to get this thing under control. the second one was there was a big shipment of weapons that were coming in to a blue going to south sudan, and hijacked that. it was tanks, machine guns, high artillery weapons. the people were concerned that they're going to take these weapons and sell them to al-shabaab. and i have oil, weapons, and have a lot of money to actually what made people start paying attention to the somali piracy. the first thing is first, you have a real legitimate government within somalia. you cannot have our sharing agreements, governments that are basically people in government in the country, they're only in it for themselves. they are there to enrich themselves, their claim. basically select few people. there has to be a lot more people centered government. that has to be some point where people within somalia are

allowed to vote, too big to our leaders in a more organic, holistic way. i think one should be more centered government, you will have a lot better situation. the second thing is you have to reduce the amount of violence. there's too much violence. the main authority stopping the violence because you can have any political system in place without ending violence. ol is to get them to reason level, then you can have some political the government and also economic development as well. >> next from booktv's trip to tallahassee, florida we take a tour of the claude pepper library. >> the retreat house of senator claude pepper located in the claude pepper museum. claude pepper was my first united states senator and then united states congressman from the state of florida in his early days in the senate he was first proponent of the wage and hour bill which established fair minimum wage for american

workers. he was also a proponent of the land lease act which allowed the united states to send arms and matériel to the allied nation in fighting the axis of powers at the very beginning of the second world war. he was also instrumental in social security reform in the early '30s. he was branded a warmonger by isolationist politicians and was hung in effigy outside of the halls of the capitol building in 1941 by the congress of american mothers. they were convinced that he, along with all the other senators who were pushing for american involvement in the second world war, were going to inevitably send their sons off to war which unfortunate did happen. but claude viewed it as something necessary, given the rapid expansion of the not see regime and the japanese over in the pacific. club was one of the more vocal proponents of america's involvement so that made him a

target, but he was one who was always open to criticism and, in fact, kept the effigy in his office for the remainder of the time he was in senate. and up until many years ago it was the with the collection but it is since i guess disappeared over the last decade. the library is here. according to legend, claude had dinner one evening with former president bernard, one of our english professors, is now professor emeritus. and initially his plans were to donate his papers to the franklin delano roosevelt library museum. on the because at such association with fdr when he was in senate, and but president flagler and professor stanley oppressed upon him that he would have his own standalone museum

and library way to donate his papers here. he had a connection to the local area in his law office was located down in area, florida to his wife, mildred, is buried in tallahassee. and on his way up to his sessions in congress it always stop off in tallahassee on the trip up to spend some time with her. so we had many connections to tallahassee. and so that coupled with the fact that he would have his own standalone museum and library sort of appeal to his ego a little bit actually and he decided to donate his papers to florida state. apart from the museum, which is the first thing visitors see when they walk in we do have a reading room. when we go into the reading room i have some a cheerio from his senate and congressional days. we are currently in the claude pepper meeting room. this is our space for research, as well as the other political

collection here at the library. right now going to start by showing you a few items from the collection that were created by senator pepper in conjunction with his fortunes with some former u.s. presidents and his time in the senate and the house. we are going to start with a box from series 431. this is his memoir series. we've got some telegrams that he sent while he was on the foreign relations trip to germany. when he was over, he noticed with some alarm the rapidity and rapid growth that the regime was going through your here are the telegrams. all sent urging the united states to enter the war. this is from pepper to the united states senate.

on both sides, our duty one is obvious. we can help in the following ways. one, we need to get planes and warplanes beyond war guns and if necessary what is harder still, our men. claude was very aware of the fact that are involved, the united states involved in the second world war was a matter of not if but when. he was one of those that saw the writing on the wall very early and educated for the growth of the american industrial military-industrial complex in order to prepare for the conflict that was coming. next i'm going to pull one of the items that belonged to claude when he was in the united states congress. this was his charm bracelet it's got to pepper shakers on it. and political cartoons throughout his career, claude was depicted as a pepper shaker for obvious reasons.

his name went very well today. the inscription reads, claude pepper, salt of the earth. we need pepper for spice. that hit close to them at all times. thirdly, we got a letter written to claude by franklin delano roosevelt thanking claude for his unyielding support during his administration. this letter was sent to claude by fdr thanking him for his support of the roosevelt administration and the policies that claude had supported. this wasn't drafted at warm springs, georgia. that was where fdr would go to seek treatment for his polio. the letter is dated april 9, 1945. this was a less than a week before president roosevelt

passed away, and this was a very special piece to claude because he was so very close to roosevelt. he was a very strong proponent of them. now i'm going to pull some correspondence between president roosevelt and senator pepper. initially when claude was a young senator, he gained the attention of roosevelt. he spoke as a freshman senator which up until that point was present that had not been made. typically senators waited until their sophomore year to speak on the floor of the senate, but claude opted to speak as a freshly minted the senator coming out in strong support of fdr's policies. and this got the attention of president roosevelt, and sort of cultivated a relationship that

would essentially put claude in the position to be his mouthpiece to speak to the southeast. this is a teletype dated august 3, 1940. dear claude, i want to send you this note to tell her of my personal appreciation of all that you've done. your support during these past few months has meant a lot to me. i am sure that you know this even without my telling you. i could say much about your speech to the convention but will only tell you that to us, who are listing on the radio, it was like if refreshing breeze. thank you very much. i do hope to see you soon. here we have an original print of a political cartoon done by the political cartoonist len britton. the caption reads a slight case of indigestion. too much pepper in alphabet soup it as a mentioned before claude was often depicted in clinical

cartoons as a pepper shaker particularly of adolf hitler sadly over a bowl of alphabet soup. this was done in response to claude's support of the lease and his advocacy of the allies in the struggle against the axis nation. you've also got from a little bit later on, this would have been from clots how states are hard on, a print from the memorial service of president john f. kennedy. claude was very devoted to president kennedy who believed, the forward thinking ideals that sort of claude identified with as a young senator. so he was very, very sad, as the entire nation was, at the passing of president kennedy. in fact, our next item is a letter to claude from president kennedy thanking him for his support. i'll read this excerpt.

dear claude, i do want you to get humans to express to you my deep appreciation for your kind and thought for remarks with regard to my recent state of union message. i am particularly appreciated other strong support on behalf of medical care for the aged under associates to become an our federal aid to education program. i'm also grateful for your comments regarding latin america and a approach to it. doing your many years in congress the people of florida and the nation had an outstanding and valiant fighter in behalf of the public interest, and i hope that somebody will consider the possibility of returning to public office. in closing, may i again express to my gratitude for your invaluable help during the campaign last fall. with kind personal regards, sincerely, john f. kennedy. claude was very important to the american political team for well over 40 years. very active in the senate and the house, and was a proponent of legislation that would help

the common american man and woman. the museum and library are very important because it gives researchers and those students who are not familiar with progressive politicians a glimpse into his life, and allows everyone really to see the scope of his work, and appreciate what he did in his time in office. >> from booktv's recent trip to tallahassee, john granted take us through the constitutions of florida as early as 1812. >> we are here today at the state library and archives in tallahassee. today we're here to talk about some of the early florida constitutions. the first document i have here, and it's a special that we have this here at the archives right now, it's on a loan from a florida has civil society in cocoa. this is what's known as the

hatred constitution of 1812. there's a lot of history behind this particular document. in 1812, a group of georgia settlers known as the patriot army invaded northeastern florida and they were operating with the assistance of citizens were living in spanish florida. at the time florida was still a colony of spain. throughout the entire spanish empire their independent movements. that had originated in the late 18th century and early 19th century. by the time that the stock was created, mexico had already become independent. boulevard and the folks down in south america operating to achieve independence as well, and the motivation for this particular group of individuals was that are going to come into florida. they were primarily from georgia. ever going to come into florida and are going to encourage these citizens of spanish florida to rise up against the government and proclaim independence.

when they came across the st. mary's river which was the boundary between georgia and florida, they entered into the city of fernandina, and the people there, the spanish government in control was of the opinion that it would be much easier for them to just let these pages occupied the city. so the occupied fernandina without firing a shot at all. and the patriots then are going to make a move on the city of saint augustine which were protected by a large stone fortress known as -- when they approacheapproache d the city of saint augustine, ma a military commander in that city let it be known to the patriots that they were going to allow them to take control of saint augustine. there were some idiotic fighting that took place. the most significant fighting that took place in this rebellion with windows patriots moved on some seminal and free black towns that were located in the interior portion of the northern florida peninsula. around what is today known as the project the patriots were

defeated in the fighting against the seminoles. they eventually moved back where they determined that this project was a complete failure and that they had failed to achieve the objective of taking a portion of florida and was the ultimate wanted to do when they took over fernandina and the plan to take over saint augustine was that as soon as they became in charge of the area they would cede it to the united states. they would immediately transfer the territory to the united states, and then republic of east florida would be, another territory of the united states. and so they created in the time and which they were in florida and in control of fernandina, they created what's known as their constitution, the hatred constitution. and the document is very similar to the united states constitution. it wasn't directly influenced by that document and it is very,

very similar in form and function. it granted citizenship to white men over the age of 21. that's the only people who could vote. and it was very specific that most of the people would make up this government, which would be short-lived anyway, had to have taken a role in the rebellion against the spanish. well, it was never really enforced at all, and because the individuals with the so-called patriots, were not officially acting on the part of the united states government, and since they never took control of spanish florida, the constitution really never had any significant impact whatsoever on the form of government in what was at that time spanish florida. as potential government started to form, the drive toward statehood occurred about 15 years after florida became a territory. the document that we have here is the 1838 constitution of florida. this is the first constitution

that was drafted in anticipation of florida becoming a state. so in 1838, a group of delegates met at st. joseph's. this is a site along the coast, a port city on the coast southwest of tallahassee. is a very small area but it was a very important in the time and it was kind of a rival port city to apalachicola which was a major port city on the florida panhandle. the delegates came from west florida, east florida, and they were selected to serve on different committee depending on the area of expertise. one of the major controversies surrounding the convention was the issue of banking in florida. there was a lot of articles in the constitution that attempted to regulate banking in what would become the state of florida. it was a very big interest among floridians from keeping a lot of outside of the state control banks from established themselves in the territory. they were quite adamant about keeping land speculation to a

minimum. and in effect that careful government wanted to be the ones were handling a lot of the land dealings. the document itself, this is the first portion of it but it's a very long document. and we are looking at one of the, the top of it, the very top of the. if we would lay that they would extend across the entire table. it's also unusual because this is the only known copy to exist of the 1830s florida constitution but it's believed to be a secretaries copy at the second or in this case would be the secretary of the constitutional convention. there's lot of interesting provisions in this document are it's very similar in form and function to the united states constitution and also to the constitutions of georgia and south carolina. there were specific loss in here aimed at limiting the ability of state government to emancipate slice but they also did what they could to limit the extent of free blacks are moving into

the territory so set up the terms for the governor, governor was elected every four years to the house of representatives would be elected every year and then the senate would have a two-year term. so it could a senate and house. seven years would pass before florida would become a state, and that has to do with the fact that the time states were admitted into the union in pairs. one slight state, one free state. so in florida was admitted as a slave state in 1845, iowa came into being in as a free state. so the next document in that we have is what's known as the florida ordinance of secession. much like the 18 to get constitution, this is the only known copy of the ordinance that is in existence. this particular case is on a vellum type paper. as you can see there's quite a lot of damage to the original document. for many years this on in the hall of the florida house of

representatives. it's a remarkable document insofain sofar as it's the onlyn to exist. some of it is peeling off but it's clear what the ordinance did in the context of florida, and you can see your it is dated january 10, 1861. this is the doctor a separate of the ties between what at that time was the state of florida and the united states government. when the civil war ended in 1865, the state of florida became part with the other southern states of being under federal control. immediately upon the possession of florida by the federal government, they attracted what is known as the 1865 constitution. its major contribution to florida's political history was to abolish the florida secession. so in essence this document said that the secession which had been illegal and so on under,

from the perspective of the supper was government was you were notified and in this constitution would be what they were trying to work out, what florida's government would look like what's it reentered the union. and so a lot of this document, the 1865 document, a very much resembles the 1838 document. there wasn't a lot that was going to change. the most important thing that was going to change, that slavery would be abolished in the state of florida. the next document, the 1868 constitution, and this is significant because this is the constitution was enacted in florida during reconstruction. so it is the reconstruction document. when florida was readmitted to the union, this is the constitution that was accepted by the federal government. so it had to abolish slavery, the 13th amendment. it had to accept the 14th and 15th amendments in order for

florida to be readmitted into the union. so this document in effect granted a lot of political rights to african-americans that prior to this time they had been expressly denied by the words of the 1838 constitution. and florida, when florida became part of the union again, it was a short-lived time much like any other southern states were african-americans were elected to positions of power within the state government. they were african-americans from florida who served in the united states house of representatives, for example, but there were many african-americans that served in the florida house and the florida senate. and it would actually, these would be the only african-americans to serve in those positions into well into the 20th century following the limitation of the jim crow laws and a lot of the history of segregation that would come later in the 19th century. the 1868 cause addition from the perspective of many floridians would be looked upon as a terrible document. the vast majority of political

power in the state after reconstruction ended was still vested with the white, primarily individuals who have been involved in the slaveholding and in railroads and banking and some of the other large industries. and so the 1868 constitution from the perspective of those individuals, something they want to reverse almost immediately but it did take some time. the federal government ostracize florida until, into the 1870s, and the individuals who were in power who were floridians, not the people who have been federal agents in essence in florida, they wanted to try to reverse this and strip back some of the rights that have been granted to african-americans in the wake of the civil war. so this document in essence undid a lot of what the 1860 document did. for example, it established poll

taxes, these were taxes placed on voting throughout the south and in other parts of the country as well so that poor whites and also african-americans were prevented from voting, in essence disenfranchised because they would have to be required to pay a small amount of money when they came to vote. there's also another provision, a specific one thing that it was illegal for african-american, african-americans and whites to live together or to marry one another. so by the time to get into the 20th century and the most recent revision to the constitution, you are still working very much on a framework that has been established during the territorial period. there are little tweaks here and there how long representatives could serve, different things about redistricting, banking, infrastructure. but much of the framework established in 1830 remained in place until the 20th century when we have this major revision that really brought florida's constitution into a modern period and reflected a massive economic and demographic changes

that took place in the state in the 20th century. >> up next, the authors david ikard and train to talk about their book, "nation of cowards: black activism in barack obama's post-racial america." the co-author spoke with booktv during a recent visit to tallahassee, florida. >> politicians have agendas. and probably the primary agenda is to be reelected. and what barack obama new and what he was able to massage very well was that race be a factor for whether or not people would vote for him. and we saw during this first election we had the great race speech -- >> what would be needed for americans who are willing to do their part, to protest and struggle on the streets and in the course through a civil war, civil disobedience, and always at great risk, to narrow that gap between the promise of our

ideals and the reality of their times. this was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this presidential campaign. to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous america. >> but what was great about that race speech was that it pacified a lot of white folks who would've otherwise said well, here we go, angry black men. but in order to accomplish that, he had to fudge the truth. he had -- black folk taking over with the harsh reality, social economic reality of black people being oppressed. and make the two things equivalent. so my feeling that in some of your pushing too fast and you make me uncomfortable by the man that you get what i have, gets

equated with generations of folks who are economically enslaved and disenfranchise. somebody felt like i think he hears me. he may, in fact, do you but that actually skews the historical belt of what happened. >> why the title, "nation of cowards"? >> it was initially based on eric holder's lecture, and it was about no more than a couple months after barack obama's historic rise to the presidency. and it was controversial in the sense that eric said everybody was expecting the first black attorney, jim the first black president for, it was during black history month, the this going to be a very celebratory speech. but, in fact, he started his speech by saying america is a nation of cowards. >> one cannot truly understand america without understanding the historical experience of black people in this nation.

simply put, to get to the heart of this country, one must examine its racial soul. though this nation has probably thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, and things racial, we have always been, and ugly continue to be, in too many ways essentially a nation of cowards. though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our medical discussion -- >> and he went on to say why we shouldn't get overly excited about the election of the first black president when there was still some in racial disparities and social inequities in our society, and we thought that was the ideal title because that really captured what we are trying to do with the book. is really caution people not to get overly excited about the symbolism of a black president versus the social economic realities that it actually meant on the ground.

>> our initial concern with the title was well, in eric holder speech, it was taken out of context. and so his notion was that soon this nation will be majority-minority nation and whites will all the wealth and all the power. we really don't want of a conversation about it, which we talk about the whole notion of conversation and we mentioned that in the book. and so, therefore, we are a nation of cowards. yes, it was the symbolism and so what we write about, this whole notion of what it means to be black or have a black agenda as the president of the united states, this is the first president within the past 40 years that has had no african-american agenda. and so even the republican presidents have all had african-american agendas. and so he sets a very bad precedent going forward. if there is none now, and what

will become if we have another president, will they have one? and so that's very problematic spend what you think the expectation level is of the african-american community once obama was elected? >> we've got people got caught up in the hoopla at the time to initially, and we talk about a that in the book, that people would say he would have to get past a few tough times, and tap dance around if you think in terms of the republican constituency. but that sometime within his presidency he would get to issues pertaining to black america. >> i think up until all the way into the latter part of his first term in office, there was still a lot of optimism and hope that he would do something in terms of a black agenda, particularly the word on the street and black spaces was that wait until his second term. but we still had not drunk the

kool-aid so to speak spent and why would people say wait until the second term? what was the rationale? that's what we were hearing. we talk to other black committees, well, barack obama can't do, you can only do so much. white america is on him if he tries to give it to talk and address about specific black issues, then they're going to tag him as he raised president and he's going to turn off that white constituency that voted for him. so the real clincher in terms of pressuring him is waiting for the second term where he doesn't have to worry about being reelected. and that's what he's going to really show, right, his blackness. that's what is really going to tow the line for black america. >> that was the kind of word on the street in black america. we felt none of that because mainly the central question is, and i think you asked that his can what it mean to be black? it's quite a big difference between color content, and, dark

people with strange minds, that is. just because you have a particular hue doesn't have a particular agenda. we weren't swallowing that right off the top and felt that no, this person has come through the mainstream constituency. we saw his track record in chicago. we saw the type of folks that he had to deal with to get the election and the nomination as the democratic candidate for president. and it was the same kind of political contingency that has been in the first place. so for us it was just not black america but america in general that was under this hypnotic spell of this person who because of his hew was supposed to bring so much change. >> right, and you have to keep in mind that our subjectivity as black men, right, writing about the first black president really complicated our receptivity in black spaces. as we were writing the book as

well, tava smiley and cornel west became the kind of figureheads as the kind of anti-obama like or obama haters, and so there was a lot of controversy around those particular figures. one, because of a well documented frustration that tava smiley had him feel like he was snubbed, barack obama snubbed him for a state of the union symposium that he does, and he said that instead of him coming, he said michele, he's going to like have michelle stand in. so he was treasurer had he was very sore about that and so he came out very vocal about like his discontent about that and then cornell west again, this is part of the rumor mill, not getting tickets to the migration and getting kind of vip seat

there after you done so much campaigning for barack obama. soboba them got framed in the public sphere as haters and by extension of that sellouts. so any kind of conversation that involves pushing the president to have some kind of glycogen in some kind of political conscious that recognize that he has overwhelming at one point it was close to 100% of african-american support, and it really wasn't talking to anything but he wasn't doing anything with that support, and the argument that we were making that was that the squeaky wheel gets the greece. right question if you don't push the president do anything, he won't do anything. the roadblock was about the moment you begin to make that argument, people made the assertion between cornell west and tavis smiley but you're bute saying the same thing tavis

smiley essay. so that really shut down our ability a lot about to have these, right, these conversations about how do we get people to support barack obama. you can enjoy the symbolic capital of that, but our unemployment in some places are twice, even three times that of white america. what through white america into financial crisis would've reached like a% everybody was going hysterical, the unplumbed rate for black america have been that and more for many years prior to that. and -- there wasn't history. so there was a clear disparity in the kind of economic and social strife that america was under. in other words, there were multiple america's, right? we wanted to really address that issue and really think about what kind of voice to we need to have as a black community to push the president to actually

act on this and to say, you know what? america is hurting, but black america, around america has been hurting even worse and for longer period of time. so it's not like i'm singling them out for special treatment, but i'm stating the facts. >> talk about some of the issues. >> one would be the wealth gap and an employment. the wealth gap, i don't know what he particularly can do about that, but you can put particular things in motion. we thought with a black america and we think that they would be jobs, they would be more projects within the black community, not by executive order, or by legislation, bills could be signed that would bring jobs and that there would be more consideration for the needs of the black community when social policy was made. so take, for example, raced to the top, the school reform policy that he had.

african-americans would've thought that more money would have come into the intercity schools because they were very dramatic and hurting. they are bleeding in terms of their preparation of black children for the future. the types of policies that have been developed through race to the top were consistent with bush's no child left behind, which not only was hurting black communities in terms of putting testing in front of students who are really not prepared to take it, but raced to the top really affords the same thing. one, by bringing in charter schools and market-based reform when african-americans do not have the wherewithal to participate in market-based reform in terms of k-12 education. >> and park money. >> hard money was the big one. -- t.a.r.p. money. we saw huge backlash about t.a.r.p. money speak and then the face of abuse of that money was maxine waters --

>> right. >> so the taxpayers have let their money to the big banks who are supposed to be big business, expertise in management who are failing. that come back to as dishonest as they are being denied. and in addition to that, mr. chairman, i want to talk a little bit later on when they questioned about the fact that these things not only took huge amounts of money from the taxpayers under the banner of t.a.r.p., they then charged and made money on the banks on the money that we give them in fees. >> who was really pricing to make sure, i me, she saw disparity and she was like, we are being left behind in being held. and we are being disproportionately, right, left out of, right, the pool of money. and so then she became the kind of face of corruption when the reality is a lot of these very

politicians who were, you know, grabbing for that money. i remember the great moment during that presidential election where biden turned to paul ryan, and biden told him, i remember when you requested that specific t.a.r.p. money and the desperate as before that t.a.r.p. money and now you're coming on public television and say that was a waste of taxpayer money. and so it's really interesting that maxine waters when they talked about the abuse of that money, she became the face of that. so even when the reality was that black and brown folks were being disproportionately left out of that peace. spend back to your questions about what was some of the thoughts in terms of what could be done for black insurgency with the election, or free election of barack obama, one was more of his face with a black communities, or endorsement of our partnership with the black community to not mrs. of asking for a handout

that just recognition that black folk would work hard, more up limits to his cabinet to to his credit there were a handful of appointments to prominent positions throughout the administration, but in many ways people thought that there were not enough. >> and you have to remember, i've been over in his first term, the midterm election, a lot of republican governors picked up seats and they said if the black population had turned out or those races as much as they turned out for the presidential election, the democrats would have won. and our member specifically tom joyner who is a major figure in the black community, who has a mourning readership, came on the show and basically said, well, i have tried to get barack obama on my show when is running for president. he came on the show and said, but since then we haven't heard from him. and if you wanted the black humor to come out he should have

come on my show. it was shortly after that that he actually came back on the show. which makes our point. when tom joyner calls it out and he said wait a minute, i can't just be here and expect black folks to come out to support the actual have to earn that. i have to rally that. he would respond to the end of the things that we make that is kind of in direct line with that have to do with barney frank and the gay vote, right? ..

he's had the first active nba player to the white house. we have don't ask don't i'll policy within the military that was shot down. so it turns out that barney frank was very raw. first openly gay by being vocal, you could look in the the major debate in change. not only that, but it has led to a momentous change in how, you know, even communities that are very resistant to that,

radically changed attitudes because people were willing to push the president. >> the point is you're going to give someone approximately 95, 90%, 6% of your entire boat you must demand that the. that is that not done. so they are very parochial at this. a new ideal of having the first but president. so what does that really mean? you have to ask for something. you have to hold your feet to the fire. the keystone pipeline, environmentalists brothers and sisters said that if you don't consider stopping the pipe way, there will probably be some challenges to people who won't vote for you during your reelection campaign. lo and behold the keystone pipeline was stopped. so that's in the same they were speaking their and here again the kids that she reads this that if you want to go we have demands. that is what we have not seen

black america do. nor have we seen black america's leaders demand that. there's an article in "the new york times" at the "washington post" here and there, particularly a black lawmakers who were not satisfied. maxine waters several times. but the voice has not been enough in terms of the outreach needed for kids to choose the that has supported him wholeheartedly prior to the run for election and continues to support him. for one it starts at the grassroots. if we take the travis smiley, cornell west debacle that happened, what we have bear are the most visible black leaders in the country who have name brand recognition who are called to rally and other problematic situation were arguing amongst themselves.

coming out with a solidified agenda that is next. >> you raised a question about trade by martin. >> when trayvon martin was shot i said this could have had my son. another way of saying that is trayvon martín could've been me 35 years ago. and when you think about why in the african-american ud at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here. i think it is important to recognize the african-american community is looking at this issue to reset of experiences and a history that doesn't go away. >> we have to keep in mind that

trayvon martin doesn't become an issue if community organizations don't make it a campaign. so we don't need to know it as problematic as the verdict was, this does not even become an international tour if people from the grassroots, from the bottom on twitter and facebook and flickr in mr. graham in front of courthouses make that an issue. that is not something initiated from montana. that came from the bottom. so we know this kind of -- we can point to moments where this kind of grassroot action matters. if we think about trayvon martin, his death wasn't indicated. yes and no. because cynthia were a trayvon martin campbell and michael dunn situation happen, people are

like wait a minute, are we going to allow this to happen again? the jurors understood it the chechen new state. the prosecutor understood we could not let this happen again. so it made people hyperaware. conversations were being had. people were prepared to rally. in other words it doesn't have to take a celebrity or politician. they can come from the ground and we can see with this type or awareness actually yields. it pays dividends. >> in a militaristic community. but not as moneymakers, but in terms of doing -- taking care of the needs of the community. and in the political constituents get hooked also. that is not having so much terms of the needs of black america during the obama. >> well, you know, debeers senate, right, was an important moment as was the eric holder moment because that was when you

got to see what it would look like if the black president, right, the person who has been given so much love because he seems to be able to talk about race in a way that defuses situation for a lot of people. we got to see what would it be like? but was telling us about the particular moment was lost on a lot of people were raised in the book was when barack obama and made the comments, first of all, the cambridge police department had actually reversed their position, said humphrey, drop the charges. when he said the police acted stupidly, it had actually looked like on the ground the issue had

been resolved, that in fact the cambridge police department themselves had acknowledged they act in haste. what was also about that moment was the soundbite that god heard around the world with the police acted stupidly, which quite frank way the police acted stupidly. they completely miss the second and most important part of obama's response, which was when i was a senator in illinois, we had similar issues of racial profiling and police brutality. what we did to see what the issue has come up put cameras in police cars. and what we saw was when it came to a black or brown person come that they significantly -- or assign a percentage of the being traced and asked them to open their chunk that it was when it have to do with a white motorists.

when they did check the white motorists, the rate they would have put paraphernalia or drugs was incredibly high. so when he was saying is i'm talking through the stat in the stats show whether you look at a macro or micro issue, the racial profiling is a really serious issue when it comes to policing black and brown spaces. that completely dropped out of the conversation. barack obama's approval ratings took a major hit. it became the major news cycle, you know, soundbite. instead of coming out and explaining the context, he retreated and we ended up with this kind of watered down summit kind of op-ed photo op moment that really set the stage for how the obama white house was going to deal with race at that

moment. also keep in mind because you asked earlier about how he came up with the name nation of cowards. for several weeks after eric holder made that controversial statement, barack obama was silent and then the noise kept getting bigger and bigger and finally was being interviewed at "the new york times." he said basically eric holder misspoke. or he spoke out of line and not in fact was he should've said we are not interested in a nation of cowards. but what we should be talking about it so everybody can work together, how policies benefit everybody. we shouldn't single out one group or another. in fact, it was a very clear public record hit that he was giving holder. and after that, we saw a dramatic change in the way holder address race issues. he pulled back good one got the

sense there is a conversation that was like his kinds of issues are added down. if you read the book, you should become very clear that we are not interested in being obama haters. obama is just kind of the starting point for the conversation. we are thinking about obama is how we think about black act that is in the 21st century when the politics have shifted and who is the person now -- he was the face of power does not mean a seismic change has happened or does that mean power has shifted how comports itself. barack obama was the entry point that really it was these larger issues that we were trying to get at. >> if you're going to give someone 96% of your vote is a group of people, you must have been guaranteed something for that we must push something for

that. you must stay organized. you must keep the pedal to the metal and turns it back to this in. the challenge is that african-americans have will take a long time to fix. what we are doing is trying to have some conversation to that as our part in our time. we would like to see americans learn a lesson from this is that we are yelling and this first african-american president. in the future we will have other leaders who may reach this high. so the next time around that we are not so naïve, not so parochial, not so katie and our approach that we vote for people who are going to descend name about problems that don't just belong to african-americans, that predominately impact within their communities and in that way it will help all americans.

also, we must remember that barack obama, one of the reasons he was select it is because he has this way about him or he can take on racial issues. and make america not feel so bad about them, but in a very cogent way explain what's going on as well as come to some solution. so that is why many african-americans were pro-barack obama. we thought he was a founding board for many of the things that black america and us about the first place and he could articulate them in the highest places within this country. and that he really has failed to do. so what we want is one that our politicians hold their feet to the fire for us to hold the fire under them.

>> appomattox, "after words" with guest hosts david plotz, editor of slate online magazine.

this week amy chua and jed rubenfeld and their latest book, "the triple package: how three unlikely traits explain the rise and fall of cultural groups in america." and that, they argue the most successful ethnic groups in america have all had to use one of three characteristics that constitute the triple package. superiority come in security and impulse control. they also say that despite the respect and success of the groups, all three traits have a dark side that should be avoided. this program is about an hour. >> host: amy chua and jed rubenfeld, what is the triple package and where do i get it? >> guest: the triple package is in reference to three qualities or three aliment that in combination propel individuals and certain groups to disproportionate success to find a certain way.