so are level of crisis. no one take the affordable care act away. there are certain moments, a way in which president obama narrates the story which narrows it to culmination when the moments when there is a sense of which the more radical elements did read, the speech, the 50th anniversary of the march on washington targeting wrapped into a narrative and what has happened over the course over and beyond the actual politics is a narrowing of tradition.

you think about that period, black communists, black pen africanist, naacp, the vibrance a black policy. >> host: but let's be honest. hundreds of people were being enriched, no right to vote, the politics of protest organizations, voluntary associations were also necessitated by the reality of those times that you could not participate. you look at the tradition of woodrow wilson kicking a prominent black publisher out of his office in the

white house or when teddy roosevelt invited booker t. washington to simply have a meal he was roundly criticized. i can see, we had a spectrum in our committee from center to left, but it was all operating outside of what was then considered the political mainstream. >> because you could not participate. >> right. we were at the tail end, the complete dismantling. this was 1920 the last black delegate attended the republican national convention and in the

1880s and 90s, so i also think -- and this is a healthy debate about the role of the president and barack obama's responsibility to that role for the african-american community. the 1st black president but also president of the country where african-americans make up 12 or 13 percent of the population, also a president elected by this multidimensional coalition, african-americans, latinos, whites, he carries a majority of the white vote in ten to 12 states, the majority of the african-american and hispanic votes nationwide. in the south where you and i are from, mississippi,, mississippi, alabama, louisiana he does not get

more than 13, 14 percent in any state. here you come to power understanding that you have been, if you will, the inheritor of this multiracial, multidimensional coalition comeau what would have been your device about, here is your responsibility? >> guest: that is a hard one. >> host: that is the question. >> guest: going back to what we talked about earlier how do you change the frame? i think i wanted the president to be bolder. change the frame. if we have to list all boats , managing southern racists we do not want to trigger white fears tall white backlash and as long

as we do so we allow all of that to stay in place. as long as we engage in practical politics of navigating and moving about and trying to avoid what is really at the heart of the problem for the value gap and so when you govern in such a way engage in reverse talk whistle, i must speak in such a way to let you know i am not that manchurian candidate. >> host: for president obama there were very few if any role models. >> the best example can be seen in the reaction to the 1st african-american mayors of los angeles, atlanta, detroit, new orleans because it is the same, expectation, backlash,

and challenging navigation, lots like president obama had difficult reelection, enemies came after them to regain control and so president obama in many respects really had no role model, really had no one, this is the 1st african-american to hold such an extremely high office. in fairness to the reality of the situation the waters were so uncharted, particularly in the early days when the pres. was dealing with a deep and difficult crisis clearly i on the record for the record

and the media have always been and continue to be a proponent of more targeted and specific economic policy designed, attacked, here is where the unemployment rates in policy rates live. and i do think that in that sense moving the administration economic advisers in that direction was far more difficult than it should have been given the electoral coalition and the track record. so what i thought was interesting is that the speaker and mitch mcconnell are out there, are not

mentioned. were you surprised by the reaction of the present selection institutionally, institutiona lly, within congress and within what we will call the republican coalition? >> the intensity of it. >> absolutely. i wish to be clear. i am not letting this at the feet of barack obama. i liken him to a confidence man selling hope and change. >> is the office of the president a place were radical frame changes can happen?

and one that pushed him and pressed him. >> i think the bully pulpit of the presidency can open the space for that very kind of movement. at the end of the day we must confront the reality that obama is on his way home and imagine how we are going to address the circumstances on the ground and what we know for sure is there are communities and ruin in the previous ways of engaging in black politics has changed fundamentally. the way in which we engage publicly because we have had

to walk that tight rope. how do we engage in a critical press without giving fodder to the right knowing all along that communities are suffering. the open where grassroots movements across the country whether black lives matter responding to the epidemic of babies being murdered or the together movement in north carolina. taking the notion of doctor king saying and taking that state and local oriented approach and organizing a broad-based coalition to challenge. i would think of the black power movement as a

consciousness, political economic and cultural consciousness-raising effort. however, the victory, the substantive public policy victory whether the civil rights act, the voting rights act civil rights movement king and the young and lewis were central and mobilizing. they were trying to raise consciousness.

it was not traditional politics so i am not saying that is the only form of politics. >> you had if you went on the ground knew voices represented by black lives matter they also have the churches, naacp and others who were part of a broader coalition. it will now become an urban league center.

what i push back on is the notion that a new movement is in opposition to traditional or complementary because the question for all his do they remain conscious or more and mature? >> there is a line that i will paraphrase. democracy is not about marching for a board room. changing the context, trying to bring it out. we have a form of black leadership in which you do your job, go back they're and lord knows what would happen, but the idea of a

robust form of democratic politics where they outsource work to leaders like yourself or others, what does it mean? requiring representation of the voices of all. >> what you are speaking to his people need to be more engaged and active. you need less spectators.

we need to get rid of this model of leadership. she was to cultivate the capacity of everybody. >> i have been an elected official. before that i was an anti- apartheid activist and believe there is a singular model and activism is not need elected officials and that push back about this notion.

he is the president. what do you think in terms of that going forward? >> we need an aggressive agenda to respond. >> three central areas. focus on those areas.

what is happening in your own beloved schools. and our school and children of being educated. >> if you think of it, his main large accomplishment in the economic recovery all took place in the 1st few years.

against that wall very few things could happen. we had a meeting with him, the 1st meeting took place on a snow day. he walked out of said,said, i am going to do a jobs bill. it went nowhere. the president talked about it in a joint session of congress, but we got no movement.

it would be the opposition to tell the story of those who have opposed the president and the intensity, magnitude that it really went in to creating the tea party and take back control. >> i can see the fact that congress driven by the insanity up front. what i am arguing for, we need to put forward a radical vision.

reaching across the aisle go bold. but what if that is not his politics. the book is about the current frame. what we need comeau we are no longer a democracy. we are an oligarchy. we need a revitalization the republican opposition and

our failure to put forward a radical democratic vision that picks the least and most vulnerable. and so i'm calling for revolution of values. get rid of the story. we must understand what that has meant. understanding what we ask and demand changes.

we must change our view of black people. why people don't matter more than anyone else. >> what does that mean? >> you have the idea, they are white communities feeling vulnerable and there is an assumption that it is a result of taking things they have learned and giving it to people who did not earn it. and folks are going to have

to challenge the idea that there is a correlation. >> it makes sense. and it is the economic anxiety. you have people feeling anxious. the art of politics is to win an election. what politicians do today,

there is more access to public opinion, shaping how people feel will talk, the madison avenue e fells. and there was a time when it was more principle and philosophical driven. it operates on the right and left. even gets down to running out and messaging people who

do not show up to the polls. what i am saying is your making an excellent point combat there is a reality that i am describing absent a tremendous crisis that compels that type of thinking. i believe this. we must understand democracy. much more vibrant. we see this and grassroots organizing.

on the ground organizing is taking place which gives me hope. but we must imagine democracy. we have a crisis of imagination. the 1st revolution is one in which what we think is possible. people want us to believe our only options are those that are right in front of us felt think the black men

has come home. >> academics. >> an audience of young people. they represent an important segment for the malice. what is the role of the revolution of value? the practical side. >> the beauty of a liberal arts education creates the condition to engage in self

question and part the way in which to reach for broader horizons, more expansive comeau one of the beautiful things is that i was able to before or five different people. i was trying to create, cosmopolitan disposition.

just becomes justifier of your current status quo. >> the obligation, self reconstructive or critical which is a role which is sometimes been adopted by the media. >> money has taken over that though. >> you only have a handful of television news organizations that have the power in the reach which is what makes social media so important. >> it allows anyone to level

however, it requires one to be more sharpen exercising judgment. >> and it can gravitate. >> absolutely. >> it has been a great our, too short. congratulations on the book. i like a good bit of what you say. that is what we need in terms of dialogue, but you have got to write a 2nd book on the opposition and outi would like to see you write a book, forecast 50 years from now. appreciate you. bless you. washington journal c.

t is back atl wrigh our desk.

>> host: crystal right isb. back at our desk. want to get into in the title of your book but i wish to begin with this y quotation reading, real racism still exists and hurts real people. they are quick to label every incident racists. to the shooting of black teens, it diminishes the rightful attention that true racism should receive. whyhat is true racism and are some of the issues that you bring up in that example not for racism? guest: i actually devote a chapter in the book to true racism. it is in the appendix. it is my family's personal story of being disseminated against. when i was a little girl and they applied to a country club and were told that they didn't want my parents to be members because they were black.

that case went all the way up to the u.s. court of appeals. 1980, the u.s. justice department filed an amicus brief because they said 13 years after the civil rights act had passed, this is not what america was about. so that to me is true racism and discrimination. i would say, when someone is denied access to something, that is true racist discrimination. when people are called the n-word out right by white supremacist, that is discrimination. ,leve and bundy, the rancher the incendiary things he said about black people, that is racism. what is happening now is you have this industry where people like al sharpton and cornell west are getting rich off of calling everything racism, jumping into racial division incidents in the united states

and profiting on it. jesse jackson is another one. that to me is not being a champion for ending discrimination, that is a champion for making money. host: you say it is something the democratic party is trading off of. guest: it is trading off that. you see the narrative playing out on the democratic side. we have hillary clinton and bernie sanders, which are the democrat front-runners. -- only one fine for the only ones buying for the democratic nomination. they are pandering to black lives matter. we saw last year when bernie sanders is that an event, he didn't give what black people felt was an appropriate lipservice to black lives matter and he was heckled off the stage. what is that? i want to hear about candidates policies to make all lives better. so right now, there is a race going on a democrat side with the candidates to get so-called black endorsements.

it is fast and furious, their meeting with al sharpton. i don't know about you john, but i'm a black woman. i speak for myself. you was a white man don't have white people telling you how to vote. why aren't hillary clinton and bernie sanders getting the endorsement of so-called white americans and so fault -- so-called white spokespeople? they should be talking that their agenda for black america and they haven't. hillary clinton supported her husband's crime bill which locked up and incarcerated more black men than any president in u.s. history. he created the disparagement between sentencing of crack and crack cocaine and cocaine. that led to the mass incarceration of black americans. i would argue that neither candidate has done anything in their decades of services to help black americans. in your bookue that they are voting against their own interests when they vote for democrats.

-- overwhelmingly you have over 90% of black americans the last two election the subtitle of the book is howe they gave us these divisions. so i wrote to expose to america's allies of the democrat party, and i have 50 pages of mostly government data to prove every point that i've talkedt about. abortion is not a friend of women's health. so three out of 10 women by the time they turn age 45 will have had an abortion. you tell me how that is promoting women's health. we should be talking about if a

woman comes into an abortion clinic, she should be getting counseling on you can have your baby, you can put your baby up for adoption, but none of that is happening in planned parenthood area they are given 40% government funding to fund their $1.3 billion by saying that they may 2013. and oftentimes you see democrats th hitting one constituent against another. so there is no party that could the all people. that is the failure of identity politics. on one hand revco mcclinton and bernie sanders and barack obama talking about illegal immigration, which is actually the enemy of black employment in this country. so i could probably go on and on. >> we want to bring in our) colleagues, phones are open. please out the number.

so james, hollywood, florida. you are up first. please go ahead. stick by your phone, let's go over to josh from kissimmee, florida. the line for the republicans. you are on "washington journal". >> caller: i would like to ask about the narrative that all republicans are related to. my daughter, we were in orlando last weekend. and she was saying that -- how can we get around this false narrative? >> that is a great question. and that is why we want to break through the stereotypes.

because lack people were born with a certain skin color. we are relegated to this. if you go back in history, way before 1964 when the democratic party started owning the blackla vote lock stock and barrel because lyndon johnson actually sign this into law and he marshaled it through for political expediency. before that you had republicanst championing all of the things that now the democratic party is giving lip service to. but i think that more importantly people like you and me are speaking out. you didn't have people calling each other names. and i do not believe that donald trump is a racist. i would have liked him to repudiate much stronger when hee he d came out with this support and white supremacist support and he

says i cannot control who votes for him but he needs to talk in the vein of ronald reagan and say hey, if i'm elected president i'm going to bring all people together and recruit repudiate that trash talk. >> i have not endorsed a candidate or decided who i am going to court in the primary yet. but i will will vote as ai likea republican him and i like what donald trump's candidacy is doing for the political establishment because they aree tone deaf to to inclusion. and that is why we are in the state that we are. so i predict that they will do this even if 2 doesn't prevailwh in being nominated or elected. >> your column about donald trump as well as this issue of the white supremacists and his comments about that.

you know some criticism for the republican establishment that they have done nothing to grow this beyond this white base over the past four years. >> i remember vividly when mitt romney became our nominee and i was a newt gingrich supporter. i tried at every turn to volunteer for mr. romney's campaign. i never got responses. i was on television supported him, supporting his wife. he ran one of the widest campaigns in recent memory. >> what does that mean? >> one barack obama -- even though i do not believe perception becomes reality. president obama had people of color. he enlisted actresses in hollywood to go out there and te help him with this campaign. you did not have the surrogates looking like a who's who ofpe white america.

the very opposite is true, not just in the people he was using to talk on his half of his campaign largely white male. he had a bunch of coalitions. but that is all they were in name only. and that was reflected in the votes that mitt romney won. he won dixie% of the white vote, which is more than any president won in 1988. we see that the passport is not just a white vote. our nominee today is going to have to appeal to minorities, women and independents. and so i thought it was really disingenuous as well as an affront for him to get up there and start blasting donald trump when he lost an election in 2012 that many people say that he should have won. so my party has problems on inclusion. >> host: we have a call from waldorf, maryland. please go ahead. >> hello, and good morning, c-span.