education and a general sharing of values to make the constitution more than a scrap of paper. that is very valid. i think that is one reason magna carta survived as part of the sense of constitutional is that the in the anglo-american world these ideas have taken root. as you move to other cultural systems and you all follow the news and know what i am talking about. other parts of the world the political leaders insist the values we take for granted they will say that is culture imperilimperi emperilism. we don't live that way. the leaders have always insulted their own people about how they feel about the pronouncements. thank you for that question. are we running out of time? thank you so much. i appreciate you. here is look at some books being

published this week: ...c-span2 monday. >> washingtournal co >> travis smiley, 10 years ago

this book came out, "the covenant with black america: ten years later" and this is 10 years later, first about what you try to get out 10 years ago? >> guest: first of all can morning. ten years ago we were in the midst of the bush administration and 2005 katrina hit and kanye west famously said george bush does not care about black people, but whatever george bush did or did not do, those black people that lost their precious lives, black folk basically had a half and we were sick and tired of being sick and tired and as we put together-- together an agenda that what could be done through this national plan of action to turn the tide against all of those bills and ailments that was trying to take black america under, so everything from health to housing to criminal justice to housing to the criminal divide, the top 10 issues, education p read the book comes

out, makes history and goes to number one and stayed there for many weeks at number one and here we are 10 years later and one has to ask the question, based upon the agenda 10 years ago, what progress has black america made a decade later, so the book is out now and. >> host: in the introduction you right: black america has lost ground in every leading academic category in the last 10 years see to it you have to go with the data takes you whether-- where the facts take you. in my writings i want to stay focused on the facts and with the data tells us what the doubter tells us is what you just said, that black folk are falling behind on every major category. i would to indiana university to ask them to give me the data i needed on these 10 issue areas, so this book is not my opinion.

this is the truth and if you want the truth about the state of black america today and perhaps some statement about where the future is headed, this lays that out, but you can imagine, peter, when the data started to come in me and i started to compile and edits always coming to me, it hit me hard to realize in every major economic category black folk have lost ground of the last 10 years. >> host: let's start with healthcare, which is the first chapter originally written by surgeon general of the us. let's go to uninsured, number one and at the top hispanics remain uninsured, 20% level. black population has dropped in the last 10 years or so from 19.5 to 11.8. whites 7.6% uninsured, so there is some improvement. >> there is no doubt about the fact that obamacare has led to greater concert-- insurance

coverage and i think in the long run not only with the president getting great credit for having got us through i hope in the coming years we will able to improve this with what the president got through. it was not what he promised, but something is better than nothing and i hope we can improve on that, so the insurance rates for black people have improved. the problem is that most of these provisions have not kicked in and the most important mine in my mind is the pre-16 condition and when this kicks and it will be better, but at the moment 10 years later black health is not measurably better. also, even obamacare did not do anything about health disparities, which you will read in this chapter is that black women still continue to die disproportionately from preventable diseases and so we celebrate the past-- the pass up obamacare and i wait the day those provisions kick in and hope to see the impact that it will have the on just being

covered, but the health disparity in the racial element that involved therein has yet to be addressed. >> host: is very personal responsibility level when it comes to healthcare? >> guest: not just healthcare, there is a level of that on every one of these issues and i just listen to your conversation with robert woodson and there is not about the fact that people can hold others accountable and you must first hold yourself responsibility, so response billion accountable to go hand-in-hand. >> host: "the covenant with black america: ten years later" when it comes to tech-- education the goal to providing equal high-quality education to all american students has yet to be realized. >> guest: there are pockets of progress and on education there is evidence that we are making bigger progress number one. number two, one of my issues with the way we approached educational the last 10 years is this notion of racing to the top

and that has been the name of the program and that struck me as funny and interesting because in my mind at least education ought not to be a race he read it ought to be a right. we put so much competition in the education equation and there is so much money to be made from the competition that it has become a brace as opposed to a right i think every child ought to have access to and is speaking of rights we still have not accomplished 10 years later a way to hear and see every child access to an equal high-quality education. we have not figured that out. how do we make sure every child the matter what state you're bored and has access to equal high-quality education? something is wrong when you're up to wait for the ball to bounce your way in one of these lottery machines and hoping your number comes up. something is wrong when you hope they pull your name. people love talking about school choice and there has been some progress because of charter

schools, but i don't think it's about school choice. is about how we make all schools choice and so long as public education for african americans does not measure up we have a problem. >> host: some of the other covenants that smiley writes about in his book in crude criminal justice, economics and economic opportunity, and bonnell justice, digital divide issues, rural roots and democracy and participation in our democracy. we will go through a couple more, but we have to get to your calls and we want to hear your voices. brick in fairfax virginia, republican line of you are on. >> caller: according to the congressional budget office, overall federal taxation is on average affectively progressive. you can google that with distributional taxes, so actually the tax increase we had in 2013 increased the overall effective progress of taxation.

i think that was all a diversion from the spending side of the equation-- excuse me-- the spending side of the equation, which was this year 5.9 trillion according to the bea and if we wasted just 15% of that, that would be close to a trillion dollars a year, so-- >> host: ricker, where you going with this? >> caller: i mean, isn't it a diversion from the real problem of spending and the regulations because the average-- i don't know if you are familiar with cost of government day, but it is now 51% of average income, which includes manufacturing income, so basically poor people can't get jobs because the total government related costs are so high and so there is no-- there is not enough business formation >> guest: are not altogether

sure of the point he was attempting to make but i know doctor king said once that budgets are moral documents, budgets are moral documents, not just financial transactions. they are moral documents, so you can say what you say it and we see who you are when you put your budget on the table and so far as black folk are concerned over the last 10 years the problem is our budget priorities is that we have not prioritize the lives of those whose are suffering the most and so we could have a great debate about government spending and what we ought to spend more on unless on, but if king is right and budget is our more document and our badges ought to say something about what matters to us and so again, over the last 10 years we have not put enough spending in the right places, but that is a debate we could have for hours, i guess. >> host: moly, from texas, "the covenant with black america: ten years later" is the name of the book c3 hello.

>> guest: how are you? >> caller: first and foremost i agree with most of what you are sane, but i will add what the problem is with black america is our family structure has crumbled. we have destroyed our family structure. black females have decided for the last 30 years to out of wedlock childbirth at an enormous rate and i think it 77% about lack children born now are born out of wedlock. those children are living in poverty because there is no family structure, no husband-and-wife. in black female most of the time those black females, those families are subsidized by the federal government. section eight housing has destroyed working-class black communities. has destroyed it. home ownership in the tax revenue would go to improve schools, but because our neighborhoods are crumbling, not because of the government, but because of our own behavior, there is no more shift in tax

revenue. >> host: we are going to get an answer from travis smiley, but what do you do in arlington texas? >> caller: i am an electric instrumentation technician at a manufacturing plant and have been so for 10 years. >> host: thank you. >> guest: let me say three things quickly and hit a lot there in his statement. start with the fact that i'm not sure that we can say most women who are single mothers, most black single mothers are in black assistance. i went to caution us on that one. i don't know that most a single black mothers are on assistance however i would not argue with you about the breakdown of what about traditional or nuclear family as we know it, but what i would as is when you talk about american society and how it has changed, we are becoming a single-parent society across the board, not just a black thing. we are becoming a single-parent society.

the problem is black folk don't get married and as the point you made. black folk don't get married, but black folk can't stay married and that's why the divorce number is so high. we have more divorce in this country that any country in the world and we have become a single-parent society, but what i don't like is we have this conversation as if black folk are the all-in-one suite in the way, leading the charge for us becoming a single parent society and on the issue of housing and funding for schools i hear you loud and clear and i am starting to rethink myself, peter, whether not funny schools through property taxes is the way to do that and that's because a lot of folk don't have kids and their kids are grown and out of the house and they have a problem paying these property taxes because they don't see how they are being benefited by their money going to schools that you see people started to rise up against paying property taxes and i don't know that i know all of the answers how to best do that, but i am rethinking whether property taxes are the best way to fund education.

>> host: correcting the system of the unequal justice, criminal justice reform 10 years later and there has been movement. >> guest: there has. error: before he left as attorney general made some good decisions about how they are going to go forward and prosecute these drug crimes and i have always felt so many of these drug crimes are held up, it's a health crisis more than a criminal justice issue, so i think before he left he made some good moves in terms of fixing things and what kind of crimes they want to prosecute, so i celebrate that. still disappointed in attorney general holder for not going after anyone on that wall street. and no one has paid the price for the raping and pillaging of our treasury that basically bankrupted this country and the american people had to bail these people out and wall street is making more money than ever now, but no one paid that-- has paid for the crime of what they did to bankrupt, try to bankrupt

this country. progress has been. going forward, the only area i can come up with is these 10 issues where there might be a partisan consensus at the motion-- moment is criminal justice report. he see ran paul working with senator booker and easy other senators expressing support for sensible limited reform to criminal justice and i think there is a lot that can be done and i would highly recommend the new jim crow book. but come i think there is starting to be some shifting of opinion on the hill. sometimes we do the right thing for the wrong reasons, the right thing for the wrong reasons so the democrats who are talking about criminal justice reform, but doing it because they care about justice and reforming the way we do this in the country. i am not saying republicans

don't feel some of that, but my senses there concern is fiduciary and finally figured out we cannot spend our way out of this and cannot continue to be the nation that leads the world and mass incarceration because we are spending so much money doing that, so poor one group it may be a justice issue, but others may be age fiduciary issue, but i don't care how we get there as long as we get there, i will take it. >> host: where do you think the cope brothers-- >> guest: that's a good question. i don't know them and even when i question people's politics i'd never won a question their motivation. i don't like their practices or their strategies, but i don't know the coca brothers to say anything about their load-- motivation. >> host: travis smiley is listening. >> caller: first of all i want to say i think it's interesting how he diminished the previous cars point by diverting what the caller said about the black

family and started talking about the divorce rate among white spirit i don't think that was a good answer. but, what i want to call about was when i see is a situation to where when do people start caring more about their own situation in their own destiny than allowing someone else to care about its racks when you get to the point where you are waiting for someone else or you expect someone else to improve your situation instead of it you the person, the individual caring more about yourself, carry more about your children you having the wherewithal to improve your life instead of waiting for someone to come along with the program or teachers and school-- >> host: and the, i think of the

point. travis smiley. >> guest: there are a lot of generalities there because there are so many i don't know what to say, but i will take is that i started this conversation by saying we have to first hold ourselves responsible before we hold other people accountable, so i agree with your message if that is your point about personal accountability. to your other point about my having diminished the previous caller at that was your impression i apologize for that to you in the call of. i don't want to diminish anyone and i don't think i did, but what i tried to do was expand on his point when i started to saying was that i agree with you about the breakdown of the black family. what i also wanted to do was expand on his point. it is not just the black family that has broken down. it is the family at large in this country that is no longer nuclear the way it was. are divorce rate is too high. i just try to expand upon his point.

>> host: maverick tweets into you: what is next after president obama's term is up? will you go after the next potus for not solving issues concerning minorities? >> caller: will i do that? absolutely. for those who follow my work and have known me for some time i love and respect built clinton and wind traveled around the world together yet, there were a number of issues during his presidency as a member of the media that i challenged him and i think our job when we do this as c-span does a good job of exposing us to the truth is to get out the truth and raise issues that otherwise would not be raised to get americans to re-examine their assumptions, expanded their inventory of ideas and that is my work in public television-- television to get people to look at the world and are issues through different prism. i don't have monogamy on that truth, but the truth i know i help it out there and i held

bill clinton accountable on a number of things. i didn't like his welfare deform bill to read he called it a reform bill. a didn't like crime bill. i certainly did not like the way he and secretary albright at the time set on their hands and did not going to rwanda to stop that genocide and he has so said since that he believes it was his greatest mistake, so i have had issues with people i like and sometimes you had to fight with your friends. i did that for clinton who i like and president obama who i voted for and like and am proud to see him as the first imac-- african-american president. when it comes to me, my philosophy is pretty straightforward. i respect my president. i will protest my presence. i respect him. of protective, but i will correct them when i think he's wrong. i've done in the past and i will do it in the future.

the two clearly are on the agenda and they are not on that agenda height up at the moment. >> host: is something you write about with "the covenant with black america: ten years later" eric garner, michael brown, walter scott etc. have been killed. >> guest: it is difficult. i was in a conversation last night and it's going to be difficult challenging for the historians years from now to try to pose a number of things about the obama presidency. i'm not putting this at the president's fee, i'm just making a parallel. so, historians will have to wrestle with how in the error of the first black president, black boys and a black men were shot and killed in the streets and how cops were getting away with that. let me say right quick that if barack obama campaign not once or twice in chicago and recently

the president says he supports ron emmanuelle p read the black folk in the chicago don't quite think at that-- believe it that way. you know the story here. he ought not to be-- he has disqualified himself as far as i'm concerned to be the mayor of chicago and we had to make the link a connection to those who supported him then and still support him now after this egregious act. is something is wrong in our country when not just black folk, but citizens across the board are starting to trust law enforcement lesson lesson that's not to say law enforcement is a bad thing. in black communities we are the ones victimized by violent crime and we want to be protected and i support police, but i don't support the incidence that happen when black men's lives are-- this sanctity of their life is not appreciated. these cuts continue to get off, so we can talk about incident by incident by incident, but how many incident make a pattern? historians have to deal with how in the era of the first black president black folk are being

shot and killed in the street and folks are getting away with that. how did the bottom fall out for black america? we lost ground over 10 years in every major economic had a gory. the president will get great credit and deserves great credit, deserves great credit for the things he did get done against the headwind of the republicans. it was real, but on this slice, his most loyal constituency, black people, lost a ground of. how will they square that in the future? >> host: irick's call in and from rialto, california and the republican line how come you was on hannity how come he was talking to hannity about being black? >> host: we will just take the first part of that question. >> guest: i go where i'm invited if people are open to truth and

because i show up somewhere does not mean i root for people's policies. sean hannity and i are friends. sean hannity and i have been connected at the hip for 20 years now and we both happen to be-- i was a radio host and ellie at the time and he was a host in atlanta. the day o.j. simpson was supposed to turn himself into police in the bright-- white bronco chase, sean and i were sitting together on the set at cnn and because of the reporters downtown waiting for oj to show up the studio was basically empty and sean and i were to radio host trying to fill time talking about what this case would yield, long story short oj does not show up in the bronco chase begins and sean i basically stuck in the studio and no one expected this to happen, so for almost six hours we did commentary and just watching this chase because we happen to be there at the right

place at the right time and when i came off-- i can't speak for sean, but when i came off the year i had some immediate calls because everyone had seen me talking about it and i started getting invited to go to other me-- me to places, long story short my career took off because of that and sean ended up on fox news channel, so both of us have been blessed to do well. our policies are different, but we get along and have known each other for 20 years and when he invited on a show from time to time i go on and we debate these issues and i believe if you believe in your point of view you should not be afraid to defend your point of view and sometimes talking to folks you disagree with can sometimes open your eyes to some things you don't agree with. >> host: did you refer to donald trump is a racial arsonist? >> guest: i did. his name came up in conversation and my comment, as i recall, was that donald trump was to my mind an unrepentant, irrational,

religious and racial arsonist. then, i went on to talk about the media's complicity in this. so, there are two points are made and of course the point that got picked up quickest was the point about donald trump, remarks because within a matter of hours donald trump had responded on twitter and so with -- when trump came after me with his tweets, for me it felt like being on nixon's enemy list and didn't much bother me, but that media was so titillated by donald trump anyway. that story when around the world in a matter of seconds. i have been spending this week on book two were talking about the book and donald trump, but at the end of the day, my point is this, donald trump is covered by the media, but not being challenged. he is been covered, but not

being condemned and when you see that kind of xenophobia taking place, that racial and religious bigotry it has to be challenged and the country is better than that and our media ought to be better than that, but we know it's happening. there is a codependency, if you will, the media and donald trump are sort of codependent because there are so much money being made here and it's almost as if it's a prequel pro that if you give us what we want, mr. trump, we will give you air time the covers of newspapers on covers of magazines, so those of us in this business by large people love this because if not predictable. we have a cat fight on the right, a dogfight on the left, who knew a month or so ago that we may have a republican nominee with those 80 guys that were all running at 110 and we may have a republican nominee before democrat nominee because bernie sanders is on a terror right now , so we thought hillary that was foregone conclusion no one

sought donald trump coming, so the media is loving this. no one wants to seem to go away anytime soon. too much money is being made. corporate media is complicit in this game being played and no one wants to challenge or check donald trump on his inner phobias, so donald trump got to tweeting about me, that he has not tweeted as of yet even after debate last night these white supremacist groups that had been running robo calls to support him, he has not denounced them that and if you have time to tweet about me, but you cannot denounce a white supremacist group running robo calls in your support in iowa, so this is sort of a codependency and i know the facts tell us he is rising in the polls in this might sound a bit counterintuitive, sometimes he has to look past the fax to get at the truth. you got to look past the fax to get the truth and the facts tell us he is leading in the polls, but the truth is that he is

leading in the polls because he is appealing to the dark side, to the night side of america and if we are going to let candidates get away with this, we are on a slippery slope when you can talk about people because of their faith or because of their race and no one check she won that and the media is excited. i mean, donald trump is calling into sunday morning shows and they are so desperate to have him on the guy calls in on the phone. i have never seen anything like it. you show up and put your suit in your tie on like i did this morning. he calls in on the phone and they are so happy to talk to him that they take him on the phone line. i've never seen anything like it in my life. my only point here is that the media has got to stop playing this game with him and start to hold him accountable like they hold everyone else accountable. >> host: "the covenant with black america: ten years later", travis smiley is the author and barbara is on the phone from oklahoma city acoma, democrat

wide. >> caller: good morning. >> guest: good morning. >> caller: mr. smiley, you touched on a lot of different subjects, but i just want to go back to the subject about lack women and their approach to not getting healthcare. i and the women's business and have been for 30 years servicing african-american clientele. one thing i will say is that black women do not forsake their health. they get a very-- they did a very low quality healthcare attention when they do go when. more than enough african-american female clients who are diagnosed with cancer and went to six months of treatment to find out they never

had cancer in the first place, so one of the problems i see with african-american females and i cannot speak on the black man because i do not deal with them -- host: two are for your call. guest: i cannot agree -- host: thank you for your call. guest: i cannot agree more with her. there is the key word, preventable diseases, so i celebrate obama care and i hope in the coming months, they will benefit all of us. in the meantime, we are losing the lives of too many african-american women. i should add that one of the things that help industries have to deal with at some point. in the most >> the multiethnic america. and we have to get serious about multiculture when it comes to health care. as long as the people of color continue to grow and doctors of color don't keep up we have to

talk about how these patients ought to be treated. there are a myriad of issues that need to be addressed concerning health care. >> black america has lost ground in every economic category you write in the introduction. is that saying let's try something different? >> black wealth has evaporated over the last ten years. we have lost more black wealth in all years in history of the country. the last ten years wiped out the black wealth. we know the unemployment numbers. 8.5 is the most recent for black unemployment. my first thought is that ain't the real number firstly. we have the unemployed, we have the under employed and those not looking for work because they have been unemployed for so

long. and i said am i supposed to singing celebrate good times? 8.5% is nothing to celebrate. at the end of the day, there is work to be done. not just for black folk but for all of america about how we get to a living wage not just a minimum wage. i am looking peter right now, well not right now but i am working on a documentary called getting ahead that will be out on pbs. we are drilling down into this notion of middle wage and why in certain pockets of the country the minimum wage is starting to be raised and raised significantly. this movement called fight for $15 is gaining steam. there is momentum. it might become a movement. we need real action and movement on a living wage in this

country. that would benefit not just black folks but all americans. this stat of loosing ground in this category. >> han is calling on the independent line. >> thank you for taking my call. mr. smiley, i wanted to ask you a couple questions. your rise as a public intellectual is impressive. i love your show. >> thank you. >> i wanted to also just comment that these are structural, systemic problems. a lot of the callers are trying to reduce it down and the previous guest did this. we want to be careful. 40% of americans are double the poverty rate and almost everyone

of them are on some sort of public assistance. inequality is rising and instability and stagnation economist is a long-term problem. that is a comment. but i would like you to take us back to your mention of dr. king's moral budget. dr. king pushed this idea of a freedom budget which i think is crucially important and ties this all back into the issues of race. back into the structural problems of the economic system. and i think that is a very important thing to get back to. just one more comment and i hope you will address this also once we get to a moral budget we are not just talking about a racial issue. it becomes both a black and white issue. the vast majority of people that are poor are white. now that is not to say we don't

have racial problems. i think you are right-on by pushing this book. it was important when it came out during the bush era. i haven't read the most recent version but i would -- >> han, we are going to leave it there and get the response from our guest. >> thank you for the phone call. i appreciate it. you write about these issues. they are textured and layered and long-term. i am clear about the fact these issues existed prior to barack obama's presidency. things got worse as we lay out and the data tells us black america hasn't gained much grown. i don't know if we can regain that and redeem that time. but i recognize these issues were there long before barack

obama showed up. i want to be clear about that. they are structural and you are right. secondly to your point about the moral document, king's budget, you are right. in my mind, when you talk about a budget being a moral document you are talking about humanity. it is not just a black thing. put in other ways, when you make black america better you make all of america better. we cannot continue to ignore and render the suffering invisible of a community this large and this significant as part of america saying nothing of the fact so long as this community continues to use ground in all major economic categories and can't seem to close the achievement gap america is letting a lot of talent go to waste. we cannot regain our position as the world leader where we lost that distinction we cannot

regain that if we let all of the talent in black and brown america go to waste. we don't have a single soldier to waste in as donald trump says the fight to make america great. everybody has to play the role they have been given to play but we cannot do that if we push some people to the margins. >> educational attainment in the u.s. 21% of white students in 2013 of whites students obtained a bachelor 13% of black people did the same. 12% of white students phd and masters 6%. and african-american bachelors or more 19% overall with the white students having 33%. >> for all of these students, education is getting more and more difficult to afford. we are going to have to figure out a way -- i know that bernie sanders is talking about and hillary clinton is talking about it.

to their great credit. i don't know what the republicans are saying about it. but we have to have education become more affordable in this country number one. number two there are 50 states and 50 different ways of doing education and that is not hurting young people where if you are born in mississippi you don't have access to as good of an education as you do in washington state. how is it your fault you are born in mississippi? 50 states and 50 different ways of doing it and not fair to america's school children. and education isn't even a great equalizer it used to be. you looked at the charts and if i am an african-american and i have the same resume and qualifications you have you get the job. you still get the job if we are equally qualified. if you happen to be a black women, we are both loosing out

to the black woman because they can check off the women box and the black box. people are not competing fairly for all kinds of opportunities because of the way race and class factor into all of this. at the end of the day, education isn't the great equalizer it used to be. i know african-american with ph d's looking for work. when it makes the turn will the african-americans still be left behind sh >> bernie sanders going on an hbcu tour. is he going to get the kind of black support that bill clinton got that barack obama got? or will hillary clinton get it? >> bernie sanders is fighting for it. i love it. i said it on a morning show a year ago and the minute i said it all hell broke loose.

when asked the direction question i said i thought hillary clinton needs a challenger. this is not a coronation. it is not a coronation. it is an election. these days it is more an auction than an election. i said hillary clinton needs a challenge for three reasons. number one, because the challenge on the left is going to make her address issues that would otherwise not be addressed. push her to be more progressive, i think. number two, it is going to make her, i hope, a little less hawkish on foreign policy. i love secretary clinton. i spent time with her over the years interviewing her and hanging out. but in my mind on foreign policy she is a bit hawkish for me so i was hoping a challenger on the progressive left would chal challenge her views. and thirdly, i know barack obama

became a better candidate because hillary clinton pushed him. if hillary clinton has a real challenge and goes on to win she will be a better candidate because bernie sanders pushed her. so for all of those reasons i wanted her to have a challenge. i didn't know it would be bernie sanders and he would be coming this hard. feel the burn. i am delighted to know he is on a concert tour with hbcu with cornel west. people love dr. west. i certainly do. now you have the black vote being competed for. that is what you want. you want your vote to matter so much that people ask you for it. that you compete for it. it they make this book and look at these issues and ten years later they see what black america is lay out their own version of a marshall plan, if you will, to make black america better. you don't feel like you are being taken for granted in the election. whoever is going to win is going to win.

i love to see black people being fought over, their issues matter, people have to put an agenda on the table. there is a democratic debate in charleston, south carolina. it is the only debate we are told of the six democrat debates that will focus on black issues. we will see how tough the questions are. i sent the book to all of them so they would know the fact and truth about the state of plaque america. we will see sunday night what they get into with their regard to make black america better. >> the debate is being sponsored by the black caucus institution. britain is in garland, texas. >> thank you for taking my call. >> hello. >> in the vein of the discussion that you were just having when you encounter in almost every aspect of society voluntary organizations of individuals who are cominging together based on their race like the black caucus

or hbcu's or black student organizations. do you believe, or how can you reconcile that with the overall steam of diversity and unity among the races if it seems like organizations of those nature are passively or suggestively encouraging an us and them mentality. >> because i don't agree they are passively suggesting that. this is not an either or question. it is black people can vote, support each other, and be happy and proud to live in this great country. on my tv show on pbs we were talking about this issue. and we had a breakdown or a chart that breaks down how a dollar turns over in a particular community. and i don't recall the exact number but in the asian

community a dollar turns over like five or six weeks. in the jewish community it is like 20 days. in the hispanic community it turns over. the numbers went on and on for how many days a dollar turns over. in the white community it turns over for multiple days. in the black community, this i do remember, a dollar doesn't turn over for days. it turns over for six hours! a black dollar spent only turns over in the black community six hours. everybody else turns their money over for days. that is not being a separatist but we are saying you can't expect black people to come up if you are not helping your own people. we have to be responsible to ourselves before we can hold others accountability. this isn't a separatist movement. that is what donald trump is calling for. that is donald's agenda not

mine. what i am suggesting is that black people have to look out for themselves and again we make black america better we make all of america better. these problems and issues may appear rather to be black america's problem. but they are white america's burden. as goes black america so goes the nation. this is too significant of a slice of our population to just write off. nobody is trying to be separatist. but i believe a true patriot rebukes one's country. when one's country is wrong you forgive the sin but you rebuke. we love the country. ain't nobody trying to separate. we are making sure our dignity and humanity is upheld. >> your thoughts on the flint water crisis?

>> tragic. one of the issues in the book is issues of environment. specifically where black folk are concerned they are there ones that often get subjected to racial and environmental injustice. look at the black population in the city of flint. it is significant. it is not exclusively black but significant. for all of those persons who have been forced to drink the water and those who died and lost their lives and contracted till illnesses this is sick. these things will continue to pop up as long as we don't take these environmental issues seriously. on my program this week we are having a lot of guest, it must have been friday, pbs.org shows the side from last night. erin brock vich was the guest. we are going to keep seeing these things happen from time to time and often they tend to

happen in poor communities because that is where these issues exist and plants are placed in the first place. in harlem, 1-3 children in harlem, have asthma. it is always black and brown folks who are forced to live near these toxic dumps and wastelands and horrible pollution producing facilities. we are the ones subjected to that. we all have to care about the environments but there is a specific part of the country that gets subjected to these elements more than others >> last call is right here from washington, d.c. >> good morning. how are you doing? >> good morning. >> c-span, i am a scientist and

multilingual. i have three concerns and i will try to get to them quickly. i have concerns a, b and c. a, the concern i have against the right wing hating media. there is a lot of hate media and women bashing. and i believe it is aimed at african-american women to stop them from voting. part b, our people have power of the vote. i am definitely going to get your book. our people made a difference in this country and we can make a difference again. and point c, the thing about this bernie sanders rising up in the polls and everything. i can support bernie sanders in

a lot of ways but i believe the best chance for our country to gain the democrat in the white house again is hillary clinton. she is super commander in chief of quality material. >> ed, we are going to leave it there. >> he is right about the fact the black community does have power. i don't want to see us powerless. i don't like seeing the black community economically exploited, socially manipulated or politically disenfranchised. there is a great deal black america has and will always have in this country. what does worry me is how much time we have left to turn this tide. i am concerned. i don't know. i am never an op opmist becauset

gives you reason to think things will get better. but i am a prisoner of hope and believe you can build life on hope. we have to admit hope needs help. even hope needs help. i hope that this book will be what we need about giving us the data about what black america is and what can be done to turn that around. i love my people. i love all of humanity but i have a particular love for african-american people and i don't like seeing black people forced to live beneath their pr privile privileges. you make black america better you make all of america better. i think we can do better on the issues confronting the african-american community. >> who is on the front of the cover? >> you books together and i was

very much involved in designing the cover. i wanted a picture that would speak to the times that we live. the cover that came out ten years ago had a more hopeful cover. it was the face of a children; the original book. it was made up of hundreds of photos of african-americans. we asked on black radio for people to send photos of their loved ones and took the photos and created a face of a little girl that presented hope for the future. but this book at this year in this moment we needed a cover to speak to what the times are. there are a number of ways to view that. i love going to the book signings and ask the audience what they say when they see the picture. the most moving part of the interactions is not talking about just the data but what they think of the picture and what they see. some people see a black man on

his knees with his hands on the back of his head assuming the position that police want to put you in when they pull you over. some see a black man who is frustrated like oh, my, god, how did we get here? where do we go from here? people see frustration and angst and anger and hopelessness. they say you can't judge a book by its cover but you can judge this book by the cover. the data inside is not stuff you want to jump up and down about. at the end of the chapters, there is a list that every individual can do. what you can do. what government can do with public policy, prescriptions and suggestions. what the private sector can do, what the community can do. these are all sections at the end of every single chapter of what can be done. then there are examples and short stories of what is happening on these issues that

is good because people are making a difference. we cite examples of things being done that we ought to try to stale up. the book is not a book of hopelessness. we put the data out there, tell the truth but at the end of every chapter we tell you how to fix this. it is a national plan to make black america better. >> travis smily we appreciate you coming on. it was a year ago you were on our in-depth program so if you search for that on our website you will see three hours of that. >> antonin scalia was found dead yesterday at a north texas resort. justice scalia arrived at the ranch on friday and attended a

private party with about 40 people. when he did not appear for breakfast a person from the resort went to the room and found the body. the sheriff and fbi are involved in the investigation. a federal official who asked not to be named told one newspaper there was no evidence of foul play and it appeared that scalia died of natural causes. he is the longest serving justice on the court nominated in 1986 by ronald reagan. justice scalia was 79. >> what most annoys me? >> yes, sir. >> i think any judge or appellate judge will probably tell you it is counsel evasion of questions. trying to avoid giving a straight and simple answer. instead of saying yes or no they will go into a long explanation. >> you have a whole chapter in

the book about brevity. >> never heard judges complain that an argument was too short. >> has an oral argument in the court every changed your mind about a case? >> i think, you know, that is a common question most people seem to be under the impression that the oral argument is just a dog and pony show. what i am telling you is what almost all appellate judges will tell you. it doesn't change your mind that often but it is frequently changes up your mind. many cases are close and persuasive counsel can make the difference. >> who should read this book? >> anybody arguing in front of me because it will not only help him it will help me. his argument will be shorter, he will answer my questions, i will

be able to understand the case better. >> what have you learned on the book tour about book touring and what do you think about the dog and pony show that comes with it? >> well, i am going to be here, what? maybe an hour and a half or so. at the end of the day i am not worth much. >> have you been touring quite a bit? >> i have done a book signing when i am somewhere else some another reason. giving a lecture or something i will do a book signing. i think it is only a couple times that i really scheduled a book signing. >> there is nothing personal in the book like justice thomas' books. >> no, i have a dull biography. it would not be worth reading >> justice scalia, who is brian garner? >> he is a more prominent author

than i am. he is the editor of black law dictionary and has a number of books on how to write briefs and how to make oral argument and how to use the words of the law properly. he is a dictionary on modern american usage. he is a prominent fellow. if he were here you should be interviewing him. >> justice antonin scalia is also an author. thank you. >> thank you. >> tonight we are here to welcome william arkin who is a scholar, author, panelists, journalists, he focuses on national security issue and has been doing so for over 40 years. he has groups ranging from green

peace international to the u.s. air force. his career has an in tteresting and way too long to go into. in berlin during the cold war, military analyst for nbc news, and the author and co-author of 11 books and many, many, many articles for newspapers and journals. bill is not one to shy away from controversy and drones are definitely controversial right now. every time you turn on the news they are talking about drones and regulations. and in writing this introduction i went online and the twitter feed subjects were write int interesting. post like threat of ied's to

civ civilians. and another says an marked 747 made a landing in the state. we are proud to be included in the list of twitter tweets i guess you call them. with that, help me welcome bill arkin. >> thank you very much. i am also a vermont resident. i live in pom prit. spending most of my time in new york city today. today was an annoying day for me like most days are. it was annoying particularly because i was driving to an appoi appointment and turned on the radio and was listening to a story about drones on the radio. i was