racialization of politics, particularly of sort of the way the southern part in particular, the republican party, has looked at politics, has been very careful and has brought on some of those attitudes. in fact, given the ok to some of those attitudes, that it's ok to be angry based on the sense of white victimization over "black advancements" in society. so i think there's some of that, but we can't get away from the fact that it's partisanship. people disagree f. you're a democrat and republican, you know, your oil and water might not mix. guest: i didn't understand if the caller was saying his siblings self-identify as being white, and he self-identifies as being black because they're biracial. i would love if the caller is still with us just to hear more about his family background and the partisanship he's seen within the family. but i think what he's telling is the larger story behalf we see in america at large today. people are still very, very much splintered on the question of race and on the question of

equality and on the question of who deserves a piece of the american pie. host: san diego, priscilla, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. thank you for the opportunity to share. i just want to speak about the racial point in our history, that it appears that the division is growing even wider, especially with the leadership in congress. our senators are feeding into this division of i hear you often talk about the partisanship with clinton. there's no comparison what he went through or any other president compared to president obama. this is the first time in history with an african-american president. to see how the flames of racial hate has risen -- guest: what do you see or hear? caller: when i see united

states senators feeding the fuel of hatred of not working with this president on anything, if he says the sun is shining, they will disagree with him. and that's purely based on hate and racism. we know -- i mean, the news try make it just partisanship between republicans and democrats. i mean, anyone with common sense know that the u.s. senators, for them to be put in the position of leadership in this nation, to divide the nation as they have been doing through the tea party is just outrageous to me. host: give and take with this current president, police ale is alluding to. leonard steinhorn? guest: again, i think part may be race, but i also think part of is he was elected as a very popular president and the republicans have been determined to block him in every way. he had 60 votes in the senate, and he couldn't get things through because of the threat

of filibuster. pretty much mitch mcconnell, the republican leadership has come out with a strategy to block him, to make him seem feckless as a president, in effect, also undermine the democratic party ideology, which is the democrats say government can be on your side. well, if you can make washington seem like a mess, then effectively you are making government out to be ineffective, bottled up, and something that people can't support, which would then move them toward a republican ideology that, you know, we got to get government out of here. so i think there's far more than racist. i think it's pure out and out power on capitol hill, and the very fact that he happens to be an african-american, i think in this case is more incidental than influential in terms of the political gamesmanship going on. host: michelle bernard, plug the economic part of all of this into this, unemployment. guest: unemployment nationwide is hovering at about 9%. in the african-american community, the unemployment

rate is 16% in certain pockets of the nation, where it can go high as 50%. so the job problem and the economic problem is going to be very, very difficult for president obama going into 2012. but i want to get back to a point that leonard made. if you look at intent versus what it feels like from the perspective -- from an african-american perspective, and i will say that most people that i know that are african-american do not see race as the boogeyman around every corner, but this feels and looks like something very, very different than what we saw, for example, when president clinton was president of the united states. if you look at the nation, sort of take a step backwards and look, and you have to ask yourself if you are a person of color, kwlfs it, for example, when we were asking the debt ceiling negotiations, why was it so important to almost bring the president to his knees and risk the debt -- you know, risk the economic standing of our nation as a way to bring him

down? is there notch anger that the leader of the free world is a black man that many members of congress would rather watch the nation fail economically i think that's what many, many people feel. >> i think there's something larger at stake. he represents a new america, a changed america, a more urbane and cosmopolitan america, an america that's not divided, sort of only according to race. that's very threatening to people who want to dial back america to the 1950's, such as the tea party folks. insofar as he happens to be african-american is incidental to what he represents as an emerging political culture in our country. which reject the new way he represents. i think there's a larger

cultural shift going on. to some extent you did see these things. but the tea party really does represent this very partisan side of the republican party. they're very angry their country is changing, and they don't to want let it change. guest: if you look at rush limbaugh, who we want on his radio show and said he doesn't want the president to succeed. we all have a mobile obligation . it's how you say i don't want this president to succeed, it's beyond explanation. host: we have ken on the line. caller: thank you for c-span. i want to get the comment on martin luther king being one of the greatest americans for using -- for doing what did he in bringing about change and

being nonviolent at the same being nonviolent at the same time. they're going to suffer with their voting rights because of the partisan engineery mannedering since the republicans took over here in texas 15 years ago. my final question is are we going to ask rick perry, mitt romney, and michele balkman to see their birth certificates? thank you for having my call. guest: i have to say to the caller thank you very much. again, i know for many people who are not people of color, you probably get tired of the same question over and over and over again. but turn things around and put yourself in the position of a person of color who hears that large swath of the american public want to return to the 1950's. what does that mean if you are a black man or a black woman?

you're a housekeeper? you live in a racially divided country, separate but equal? different bathrooms, water faucettes, everything. when you see people so adamant in saying i want to you prove that you are an american citizen and that you deserve to be in the office that you inhabit, you have to ask yourself, does not a large part of this have to do with the fact that people are so angry that we have somebody black who's leading the nation? guest: well, i can't deny that. the birth certificate thing is absurd. but most americans rejected it. i almost felt very sad for president obama having to dignify those objections. guest: i agree with you. guest: he should have said, you know, go stew in your own anger and obsession. guest: absolutely. guest: the caller brought up the voting issue. i think this is a really serious issue, something we all ought to be speaking about. it is a new form of subtle jim crow that is breaking through

in terms of laws that are being passed predominantly in republican-driven, governed states for voter i.d., photo i.d. cards. according to a statistic that i have seen, approximately a quarter of all blacks of voting age do not have government-issued photo i.d.'s, and therefore, that would prohibit them from voting in those states. some of those have had voter drives, reach hispanics and black voters, ok? you put all this together, and in effect, you're seeing the potential for a suppression of the minority vote on behalf of the republican party which does not want minorities and young people voting in such large numbers that they voted in 2008. if this is not stopped or fought, that could have serious consequences in our american

politics. host: is it being fought strongly? what's being done? guest: some people are trying guest: some people are trying to fight it, but what we actually see is that is this issue is not raised a critical level of public awareness so that people understand exactly what's happening. we're beginning to see the voices emerge but we need a critical mass of americans, particularly people of color, around the nation to explain. there's a t-shirt you see come out during election time that people wear that says black folk must volt. the increase in black turnout for president obama put him over the edge, particularly in a lot of states that went from red to blue. if you see any voter suppression, it's going to be very difficult for president obama to get re-elect. guest: alabama is one state to pay attention to every four years. i've seen a statistic that said

more than half of the black voters in florida voted early, yet the new law wants to limit the number of hours available in early voting. that really tells me that what they're trying to do is to limit the turnout of the african-american vote. these laws are being passed. it's not getting news. you don't hear it a lot on the talking heads on capable tv, but this stuff is important because it goes to the heart of our democracy and everything that dr. martin luther king stood for. guest: absolutely. host: we have more time with our guests, just under an hour, with michelle bernard, president and c.e.o. of the bernard center for women, politics, and public policy, also a political analyst for msnbc and a member of the women's forum. we're also joined by leonard steinhorn, author. leonard steinhorn is also author of the "greater generation" and is a professor of communication at american university here in the nation's capital. next call, willie, dayton,

ohio. thank you for waiting. caller: yes, good morning. i've got two quick points. the race issue, it kind of leads african-americans, and what i mean is, as we keep focusing on blacks and whites, i watched africans, asians, i watched indians come into the country to integrate, get the skill sets, they either get advanced degrees, and they're competitors. we're stuck in 2011 still discussing issues that were prevalent when i was born in 1968. second topic, or second point, if you can complete a request for public assistance, you can also complete an application for a state i.d. to allow you to complete an application for a voter registration. and two, you're able to be

empowered by the vote, your voice is not going to be heard, and i will leave the balance of my time for the panel. thank you. host: michelle, first to that first point, he thinks we're talking about the same issues as in 1968, but there's a little bit of perspective at the table earlier in the chat. you want to add more? you want to add more? . are they five months different? >> when we used the word

racism, which is the mean to you? >> to meet her race relations means to -- to me, and race relations means to all of -- to all people be treated differently. to me that is what race relations is superior -- is. >> we should continue to talk hundreds of years from now about race relations, because it was the original sin of our country. never forget what people can do to each other and how people with power can enslave or segregate other people and abuse that power. so i think these are things we should never stop talking about even if we are close to that promised land. but i do think if we do reach the promised land it's going to

be at a point where race becomes descriptive and but not defining. it becomes incidental but not influential in the way we deal with each other. it means that my kids can describe my skin color or your skin color or your skin color and it would have no value attached other than this is just how somebody looks because they are of equal value in society. but we're not going to reach that point of equality until we do begin to deal with some of the economic disparities that have been brought on by those hundreds of years of enslayment and segregation. you just look at the wealth statistics and a typical house. the average black wealth in this country right now is 5,677 and one third have negative wealth. >> how has that changed in recent years? >> it's gone down a little bit. wealth numbers have gone down with the decline this housing and the people who got hit the

most are the most recent home owners in the most vulnerable areas where home prices collapse add great deal. insofar as a lot of americans have their wealth in homes or inherited money from parents during that great time of housing inflation blacks have fallen behind once again because of that leg sigssy of segregation and race relations. so we are living with that every day and it reaches into the very bank accounts of the american people. >> we have frank on the line from long beach, california. good morning to you. caller: good morning to you, sir. i am a 70-year-old white former marine and i was going to talk to my peers and they seemed the main problem they have with barack obama is the color of his skin. no matter how else you phrase it. and no matter how else you put it. but i still don't think that's the major problem. some of the problems we have people are going around using the n word are things of the

past. but the discrimination on a higher level, on a company level. take washington journal identify been keeping track since the first of november. you have 90 guests a month approximately every month on your show but uff never exceeded more than six african american guests in any one month in black history month you only had three. now, i think that's an issue that we dealt with because that's institutional racism. and as long as we continue to have that kind of a racism we're going to continue to have these kind of problems. and i would like to listen to your comments on that. thank you very much. and have a plessnt day. host: anything either want to say? guest: a very interesting comment and you go back between comments of institutional racism versus on an individual basis versus what the previous caller talked about which is a

little bit of personal responsibility and self-reliance. one of the things that i can lie to do when i'm talking to people particularly impoverished or people of color before you get to the issue of institutional racism is the issue of what you can do and what you will do for yourself. and you will hear me continually harp on the same thing over and over again. education, education, education. the previous caller talked about people that come here as immigrants from other countries for example and they all know that the key to achieving the american dream is education and they will get educated and they will work one, two, three, four, five, six, seven no matter how many jobs they have to work in order to make it to the next level. and fur the best in anything you do the barriers that we call institutional racism have to break down. host: give us some more perspective. we do read that college, admitance and college taundance and graduation is up. is that true?

guest: true. and we're still dealing with racial separation in schools. and when your caller brings up the issue of the number of people in washington journal, it's sort of a metaphor for what goes on in the rest of society. which is that if you're surrounded by sort of white people in your schools and in your communities because we don't necessarily have integrated communities, the people you're going to call up for jobs and sort of say hey this is open or why don't you apply for this are going to be people in your network. and so it may be the same reason why people in a particular network get called on for particular shows and the media and all the rest. and if you can't break sort of that network and find something to counter act chits really what affirmative acks was designed to do, then you're going to perpwut the continual hiring of people based on the network of people they know and who they seem comfortable with and who they say is a good fit

for their organization. this is why integration really has to lean because if people don't begin to see the humanity of their neighbors, irrespective of the color of their skin, they're going to sort of continue to use that as a block to how they create their networks and who they hire. one other point that your caller gid mention. he said he's over 70. the older generation is really the most conservative a and has the most racial issues on all of this. and it's the older generation that votes in the highest numbers. if you look at the 2010 vote which brought the tea party in, the under 30 voters represent about 22% of the population. but only 11% of the voting public. the over 65 voters represented i think 17% of the population but 23% of the voters. so if people at the younger end don't go out and vote they will be disenfranchised their values will be disenfranchised and the olders values will continue to

dominate our society for a far longer period. guest: every four years we continue to see what we call a gender gap in voting. it's not just older people. i think probably the most effective voting block in the nation quite frankly is women voters. whether we call them mortgage moms, soccer moms or whatever the term will be in 2012, women by and large vote in the highest numbers in the country. whether they are young women, or middle-age or older. and it is women quite frankly who put george bush back into office for a second time and largely put barack obama into office in 2008 and so it will be quite interesting to see what concerns women going into 2012. i believe it will be the economy and quite frankly regardless of what we see in the republican party right now the candidate who can most effectively say to women voters that we understand your pain, we understand that large numbers of your husbands are unemployed and that the economic crisis has reeked

havoc on your household, that is the person who is going to get the women's vote and win the next election. host: resounded around the globe from northern ireland to south africa to teen men square. that's today's editorial in the baltimore sun. georgia now on the line, david. go ahead, please. caller: yes. on one point i was going to make was when you said number

one when obama said his grandmother was a typical white pesh, what is that? is that racism? also, if there's a black woman, a black man recently represent ed west from florida he becomes a nonblack person, women become nonwomen when they're conservative or republican. national organization of women, any of these organization of women, your organization you don't speak up. and another point when the representative stood up and said you lie, obama said all the health care was going to be posted on the internet and everything was going to be hunky dory and you can read it and of course that wasn't true. it was all done in the back room. whenever you have any kind of representative giffords when she was shot saying you've got to cut this rhetoric out you conservatives, you're tea party you're making this happen.

and when the tea party spoke their mind on the road for the debt ceiling they became terrorists, gun to the head, holding hostage all the these. and every single one. it was probably put down in an obama e-mail because everybody is using hostage, gun to the head, terrorist, so there you go. i mean, what is that? what are those? my points? host: thanks for your contribution. guest: interesting point that the caller makes and i'll hit on a couple of them. with the a vent of sara palin for example and michele bachmann i remember in 2008 when sara palin announced that she was a feminist and talked about what made her a feminist we did see a lot of traditional women's groups that absolutely went applectic and all of a sudden we saw the rise of what many people called the red state feminist or women and to

many groups those women could not possibly be feminists because there seems to be a check list of what it is to be or not be a feminist and to many people if you don't meet all the criteria on the check list you are no longer truthfully a feminist or truthfully a woman. and i think there is a problem with that. in the african american community we see many republicans, many african american republicans who have quite a difficult time with their left of center brothers and sistwhorse are involved with politics, involved with policy and it's unfair. it is wrong. we are not a monolithic voting we are not a monolithic voting group whatever the case may be. people have different values and views. and i am someone who firmly believes in the african american community until republicans and democrats both feel that they have to court you and have to fight for your vote we will continue to see the status quo. guest: your guests are pushing

the racial divide. we are all individuals they write. guest: well, i honesf honestly don't want to push any racial divide. i would much prefer an integrated society in which sort of race becomes descriptive and not defining and it does, we are all individuals treating each other. but it's not us pushing the racial divide. the constitution when it was first written pushed a racial divide. the first settlers when they brought african americans here in chains pushed a racial divide. the laws of segregation and jim crow pushed a racial divide. we are living with the consequences of that racial divide and the continuing fallout of that racial divide and so how one processes that in terms of the values of equality and freedom under our society is what we're trying to discuss here. i don't think there's anybody except sort of the outliars in society who would like to have

that racial divide. but it's a historical fact. host: that tweet, pushing the individual. guest: i agree. i wish that the tweeter could understand what is actually i believe in both of our minds one group does not have and should not have more rights than another group. and i think when we talk about race it is that, it is not pushing the racial divide. it is having a conversation about the state of america today because ultimately that's what we want to see. we want to see a nation where all people are equal. where someone who is white does not have more rights than someone as black and where a man doesn't have more rights than a woman. we're not there yet. we are close but we are not there yet. and that's not pushing something negative. it is frankly just an anest assessment of where we are as a nation. guest: if we didn't have this history sort of random distribution of wealth and blacks would have equal all the of whites and black

unemployment would be the same as white and educational lels would be the same if we didn't have that history. but no country can erase its history. how you deal with that is one of the continuing challenges. host: comment now from tracy. caller: a hundred years from now. host: you're on the air. caller: good morning to you. host: i'm going to ask you to turn the sound down on your set. caller: i'm turning my tv down. all right. ok. it's down now. host: perfect. go ahead. guest: i want to talk about the immigrants who come over to the country and settle in and they really don't settle in and integrate well. they might come over here and be successful but what they do, hispanics that's why you have a little china town or haiti or have na. they have not been stripped of their language or religion.

they come here with a language. when you have a language you are united. they don't have to deal with americans because they go integrate with other hispanics otheration. host: besides language what else are you expecting? guest: when you have a language you are united as a race. that's why you have little china town. they don't have to go to american stores and buy american products. i don't see in asians working at mcdonalds or too many indians working at mcdonalds. they have their own stores and products in their stores where people like them who speak their language do that. host: integration further expact panding this chat. any thoughts? guest: i'm frankly a little perplexed at the caller's point in this. i don't know if the point is that when you brought black africans to this nation in slaves and slave with people speaking different tribal languages that somehow that is

why we are still in the state that we are in today and still talking about the same issues or fs if it's a complaint. i am a child of immigrants and i will tell you that most immigrants that you look at from whatever nation that they come to to the united states, they come here because they believe that this is the greatest nation on earth and they understand that you must ekate yourself and you have to work hard if you are to get ahead. and some of the values that some people look at disparagingly guest: that more people that are quote/unquote home grown americans or people who don't come from other countries need to look at in terms of our own cultures, opening our own stores, having our families stay together, stay intact and move forward and move towards that american dream is something that should be replicated and should be honored as what makes us such a wonderful country. guest: two issues. one is that when people make a comparison between immigrants and african americans, look,

there's no comparison. but blacks are not -- and for the most part, never have been immigrants, came to this country nout out of choice but as slaste in chains. but the question about immigrants has to again look at the larger historical context. you dial back a hundred or so years and people if there were such a thing as c-span and people could call in those days they would have been talking about the italian stores in new york city or thidish newspapers or the russian communities or the polish communities that speak their own language. what happens is the first generation comes to america tends to hunker down win their own framework and then the next generation starts to acquire the language. and in fact one of the unique things about our country is that young people have always been so dominant and one of the reasons is that it's been the young people, the children of immigrants who have taught the parents their customs of this country, the language of this country who adopt it had language far earlier than their parents did.

so what happens is that each generation of immigrants comes through they become more and more integrated and assimilated into the sort of emerging melting pot that we call the mainstream. so we can't look at the snapshot of today's immigrants and suggest they're going to be stuck in that old first generation mode. their kids, their grandkids will widen the definition of what it means to be american and fully join that mainstream. host: california on the line, good morning to you, mike. caller: good morning. and thanks a lot for a very thoughtful discussion this morning. i have a libertarian perspective on dr. king's dream speech. it strikes me that as a libertarian that his dream was not 50% increase in the size of the social welfare state. his dream was freedom. and in fact, if you read the speech he use that is word more than 20 times and just in case there isn't, there's still doubt he includes the speech --

concludes the speech with a declaration that all people are free at last. and in the context of ending the legacy of slavery which we're still suffering, i think this is especially an important point. that freedom actually has a meaning. if legacy slavery as we see is shown up in the huge incarceration rates of young black men and the terrible state of public education for young black children, freedom means, it strikes me, that you own your own body. it's not a public private partnership and therefore if you see it that way then you can see how all these drug laws produces huge incarcerate rate among black men and parents have the power have the school for their own children. so vouchers i believe would

empower the adults, the parents who are the customers of the education service to be able to choose a school that really works. and by the way, the scholarship program for d.c. school children was working and the results of reading scores actually produced that. one of the first things that the democrats produced out of their taking the house in 2006 was the repeal of the d.c. scholarship program. may i have your comment, please? host: thanks for weighing in. guest: well, a couple of issues on this. one is that dr. king is often misinterpreted and what he did believe in was actually in his book why we can't wait if you read it he talks about the function equivalent of a bill of rights that government does have to serve as a partner to

rectify all of those years of injustice and i wrote quote him in here. the if a man is entered at the starting line 30 o years after and what he was really saying is that you can only ask the individual to perform that fete. that society does have an obligation to rectify the injustices of the past to deal with this. now the question is what's the balance? how much? what types of programs? and how you do that. and i think that's where the political system really needs to engage. i mean, there are certainly arguments for and against the voucher system that are equally legitimate. there are certainly arguments in favor of pouring a lot more money into school systems and community support programs and community centers that will provide sort of the middle class trappings that a lot of people in inner cities don't have. so i think that's something for the legislatures to figure out what is the is in the best

interest. but we don't want to leave government out of this. now let's see how government can help us mid wife the good values. >> i want to thank the caller for calling in. i pretty much agree with everything the caller said. there are many people that believe that comprehensive education reform is the civil rights movement of our times. it is the extension of drsm king's work. i personally have not seen any good arguments as to why a voucher system or a school system of school choice around the nation is a bad option if you are poor if you are underprivileged in a poor urban area or rural area every parent i believe should have the option to put their child in any school that they want to and any school that they believe works for them. and i think quite interesting the question i would love to pose to americans across the country today if we look at the state of our squelf education

system and how separate and unequal it still is and what is the largest problemsd with qufl system and we look at the approach to doing things which is sort of marrying theel logical belief to public policy what would dr. king today actually say about the role that teachers unions have from a theel logical perspective on a public education system and the ability of all children to move forward? host: if you look in the "washington post" here is a photo of leaders on the march on washington august 28, 1963. so 48 years ago today. and one of the pictures is of a very young john lewis here on the right currently congressman from georgia. he writes a piece in the outlook section. what would king say to obama? we'll read just a little bit from that and drop in a couple of passages from this piece. john lewis writes that he, meaning dr. king, wow say that the president has the capacity to unify america, to bring us together as one people, one

family, one house. he would say that a leader has the ability to inspire people to greatness but that to do so he must be daring, courageous, and unafraid to demonstrate what he is made of. missouri, mike. caller: just a quick background i'm a marine corps vietnam veteran. when i was in the corps there is no white black green yellow whatever. everybody was green. here's my issue. i find this discussion this i find this discussion this morning and your two guests so rearblely biased and skewed it just defies imagination. host: let me jump in. what was the one thing or two things that you heard that got you going? caller: i could go for hours but go to the statue. first of all, 30 feet? lincoln, washington, jefferson, they aren't exactly -- they did a little bit more in my

opinion. martin luther king was never elected to an office. then this thing is sculpted by a chinese guy and shipped here to the states. are you telling me that there's no black sculptors that could have done this? host: michelle start with the 30 feet that got him going. caller: guest: you know there are rules and regulations it was made to scale that congress would not have let this be built or sculpted in the way that it was done unless it was appropriate to do so. i don't find anything wrong with it. he was a towering subject. the sculptur was taken from parts of elements of his speech where he talked about a mountain of despair and a stone of hope. i've never seen a short mountain. there's a reason mountains are called mountains. they are high, they are statuesque. i find nothing wrong with it or nothing wrong with the fact nothing wrong with the fact that the sculptor was chinese. again, we are talking about equal opportunity in the greatest nation in the world.

and frankly it doesn't matter. host: madison, wisconsin, give us your name please. caller: good morning my name is [inaudible] i just want to know this is about rod any king's day and this is a true story that just imagine what happened rodney king happened ten times worse to a man of me knowing the to a man of me knowing the circumstances police brutality and misconduct of law enforcement officers and the department of the jail county and being transferred through collier county and lee county and fort myers. they literally tried to kill me to stop me testifying against my arresting officers through discrimination, through my spiritual belief as a christian. i mean, the circumstances i mean, i've been through so much i finally have been released back home to my mother's hometown madison wisconsin to arrival back home here. i want to know how it would be a situation for me to handle

this and knowing the circumstances through the state of florida and now arriving back home in the state of wisconsin. host: sentiment there about relations with the police. guest: the previous caller talked about the military. and in the military i think it is one of the most racially progressive institutions in this country and one of the reasons why is they don't let any biased or bigotted attitudes stand. it's questioned. it's turned inside out. people's assumptions are washed out in front of everyone else and people are expected to deal with their own inner demons on this. and i think that type of work would be really quite helpful. and one of those institutions certainly are in police departments around the country that deal with these issues because you can have police officers who -- just see black and assume bad trouble or criminal. and if those attitudes do exist those have to be dealt with, washed out and changed. guest: i absolutely agree.

and i remember rodney king saying can't we all just get along? and it's the same thing i immediately thought to myself when this last caller phoned in. i thing it's important to also bring about the fact and make sure people understand that it's not always just white for example police officers who see somebody black and automatically assume that they are engaged in criminal conduct. sometimes we see that with african american police officers as well. so it's a real, it is a real problem within police forces and we have to find a way to deal with that. but it's not just a matter of whites always being the aggressors. it happens with black police officers as well. >> and to how much of our country has internalized. guest: and the stereo types. guest: there was a study done about 15, 20 years ago in which they showed a television report of a crime happening and there wasn't a perpetrator shown. ok? and afterwards they asked people what their memory of that tv story was and i think

it was two thirds of the whites who did see a perpetrator thought that that perpetrator was black and half of the blacks who did see or remember a perpetrator thought that that perpetrator was brack. so there wasn't even a perpetrator in the story. people assumed there was and most people assumed that the perpetrator was black. so people have internalized those oottudes and thoots why our educational system has to do more. that's why we have to do more in each of our families to try to root out those issues and prejudices and those subtle saumples -- assumptions that people make. host: let's get a couple more from calls in here. caller: good morning. it was a long time ago when we start having slaves on this continent and it's only been 150 years since it was abolished. and usually it takes centuries and centuries two groups of

people to finally start getting along. how much progress can we really expect to make in only a century and a half? host: san jose california. john on the line. caller: i just wanted to comment. it's kind of easy to see the political association just by the expression of the guests on your show this morning but i want to go back on the race that i think it's really evident to see that the democratic party has courted gays to put clinton in office, courted blacks to put obama in office, and i thoroughly expect them to court latinos to get the 2012 vote. just my comment. thank you. host: any thoughts from the table? ifrpblts i think quite frankly the caller is correct. but quite frankly in the system of politics we have a representative government in the united states and all of our politicians, republican and democratic, have an obligation

to go out and seek to represent all of us. black, whites, hispanics, asians, women, men, you know, that is what a part of our political system is all based upon. and quite frankly i personally would be very happy to see republicans working as hard as democrats to open the republican party and do everything they can to bring in as many voters as possible. guest: let's face it. it's again not all people who are african american think or vote the same way and not all hispanics not all white southerners do. but if there's a preponderance of sort of values among certain groups that are consistent with the base of a political party, that political party is going to try and go and cultivate those voters because you know that if you don't turn out your base you're not going to win. so if democrats go try and attract african americans and latinos and gay voters and

jewish voters well the republican party tries to go get white southerners and sort of rural white rural voters and fundamentalist christians and evangelicals to go because they believe each party believes that those groups provide the base of the votes that's going to build their support. so yeah we would prefer that everyone treats each other as an individual but the reality of politics you try to cultivate the base and if the base happens to be racialized that's part of our history. we can't do anything about that. guest: if you are fundamentally disenfranchised, it seems to me as an observer that whether we have a republican in the white house or a democrat, things fundamentally do not change. you are still disenfranchised. you are still fighting for the american dream. so my question would be for the truly disenfrance chiesed, why not put yourself in the position we begin to see over the last few years of making

sure that both parties really have to fight for your vote and have to appeal to you? i think it is a reason why we are seeing many, many more americans particularly african americans who are now self-identifying as independents because they said a pox on the houses of both parties. neither are doing what you want to do and touf fight to get me to vote for you. guest: and of course you deal with the big structural issue which is the elect torl college which basically puts 10 or 12 or 13 states in play. so people in watts in los angeles politicians really don't go out there because they know that california in general is going to go democratic or they're not going to go into new york city and speak to people in harlem because they know that new york in general is going to go to the democratic part yifment and i think if there were a way to change up this system where politicians had to go into different parts of the this country. if republican candidates had to go and peel and pry away 5% of the vote ners harlem because

finally they're going to reach them and we have an opportunity to speak to them that might change up our politics. host: more of the words in the congressman john lewis, what would king say to obama? mr. lewis writes visit the people where they live. he would urge them to meet the coal miners of west virginia to shake the hands of the working poor in our large urban centers juggling multiple jobs to try to make ends meet

next call louisiana lucy thank you for waiting you're on with michelle and leonard. what do you have to say? caller: thank you so much for taking my call. my name is lucy and i'm an immigrant from nigeria. and it was beautiful to come to the united states and i was taken aback when i came to the united states to see that there is such a racial segregation system in the united states of america because we don't know that in africa. we don't know that there is such thing. and what bothers me a lot about this is why? why do you promote the idea of black and white? why do you actually have that? why do we promote this? because you look at social settings you see that there is

a promotion of ideologies. look at indonesia they don't promotion any of that. and promoting interrelation relationships is integration. you cannot in any society, the you cannot in any society, the minorities are always going to be oppressed. you can go to africa. but in a country as beautiful as the united states that knows that humanely humans are supposed to integrate, we are natural integrators because we are social wings. animals are not social beings. so my question is why do we promote black and white? very -- you promote it in the media all the time. host: thank you for taking the time. guest: in a sense the caller is correct we should not be promoting if i understand her correctly black and white.

i believe our motto here is out of many one. and that is the kind of nation that we are. we are trying to build we are a nation of immigrants. i don't think it's the media that is promote this idea of separateness and black or white or each race being the ideal. i think what you see by and large in the media and in commentaries is people discussing and reflecting what we see out in the country. guest: sometimes if you want to reach the ideal of color blindness touf have a certain degree of color consciousness because it's through color consciousness that we can begin to address a history that did bring us enslavement and segregation. but integration would have been a wonderful idea. we had some opportunities in this country and we lost them. for example, after world war ii, when the suburbs were created. you go and listen to what william levity the great creator said, if i open these houses to black people, you know, nobody white would want

to come and live here. we had housing policies that kept integration from taking place. so in the rise of the sort of great suburben america that we had right in the beginning of it you had segregation being enforced. that was a powerful fact. had we been able to block that, had we been able to allow the g.i.s coming out of world war ii to integrate those neighborhoods we could have written a very different history but we didn't. so we're living with that legacy and how we live with that legacy is how we create a road map to integration. host: there's a tweet here. guest: i have absolutely no idea. i don't look at whites as being the boogie man by any sense, by any stretch of the imagination. i think that all human beings regardless of race or gender or

ethnic background have the ability and the propensity to be good and some have the ability and propensity to be evil. and i don't think that your race determines that. it's your own personal ideology. host: good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i disagree with boats both of your guests and the reason i do i don't like the fact that michelle is using black education or black working hard or the lack thereof as the justification for racism. i think that's 100% wrong. we should not be making excuse force racism, white supremacy or black self-hatred. i disagree with the concept of integration. it's a solution to the race relation problem is to eliminate the black race by having the black race absorbed by the white race then that's racist too. why can't the white race accept the black race? why do we have to be eliminated or destroyed in order for some kind of equality or race

relations to improve? we should be able to exist as a separate but equal race. guest: i don't understand how he drew some of the conclusions he drew. for example in no way say that education excuses racism and i think but fundamentally to the last point that the caller made, i believe leonard and i both agree we want people po be equal. you should be able to be black and be equal you should be able to be white and be equal. the bottom libe line is we are looking for equal opportunity, for all americans to achieve the american dream. and my fundamental point is in order to do that you have to have a superior education. bottom line. there is no excuse for racism. guest: i think you end up with very dangerous territory in separate but equal. that is what brown versus board of education overturned. guest: i want to make sure nobody miscontrues what i say. because you are black you are equal.

that is the only point i'm trying to make. nobody should look at you as being infearier because you are not white. guest: because we are people we're equal. and whether it's because of my hair or your hair or my skin sclor or your skin color those are descriptive factors of our individual wult. but we're equal. guest: exactly. guest: so again we need to move from to a culture in which race becomes descriptive and not defining. but i think the key thing with that gentleman is that people ought to be able to live together and not have restrictions on where they can move. there's the typical example of what happens with integration and some people say integration is the time between when you have an all-white neighborhood and an all-black neighborhood. and what they found is in some white neighborhoods the minute black people start to move in, when more black people move in it becomes a tipping point and white people move out that's unfortunate because it denies

that humanity that personhood of that individual wult of neighbor and assumes your neighborhood is going to be all one way or the other. host: one writes guest: there are discussions over and over again about the disparities for example in how people are sentenced for doing crack versus cocaine. my philosophy on this is a little bit different. there is a racial disparity in terms of the sentencing guidelines but personally i believe don't do the crime. period. using drugs or illegal drugs is a crime. punishable by in different ways depending on the state that you live in. don't engage in it and then there would never be an issue as to who is getting unequal treatment in terms of sentencing. guest: but i think drug abuse is an equal opportunity

thipping. it hits rural america. the whole methamphetamine epidemic is so thoroughly tragic. if that were taking place in the inner cities people would be talking once again about the dysfunction of the black community when in fact this is a white rural and often suburben thing. so it happens i think law enforcement has tended to focus more on drug crimes in urban areas and therefore have incarcerated and imprisoned and put through the criminal justice system more african americans when really this thing is pervasive all throughout america. so i think in some ways again this goes back to how these crimes are identified and who is ending up in jail for them. host: john calling in from florida. good morning. caller: good morning. i've got to agree with the couple previous callers i think both of your guests are out on the left. obama was supposed to be the great uniter and he is curning out to be i think the great

divider which is evidenced by the so-called department of justice led by eric holder who refused to prosecute the black panthers for voter intimidation. a d.o.j. lawyer who became a whibblor said they have a slam dunk case against him but hey weren't going to prosecute black on white crime. so how is this supposed to foster any racial harmony? this is only going to foster resentment. and you talk wage disparity because we have a welfare system that was created for the black community and it destroys their incentive to get an education and a job or to start a business. why bother when they can get a check from the government each month? host: a little about president obama's approach currently. guest: look, let's be clear one of the greatest success stories has been the rise of the black middle class. so stop talking about this welfare system and diminishing

african desire for education. guest: or ignoring the number of white people on welfare also. guest: it's substantial. these are sort of mends that go out in politics that are really unfortunate and people need to go against them. and in terms of barack obama being a great divider look i think we're living in a very partisan era and again i go back to bill clinton. he was impeached and he wasn't convicted but impeached. the divisiveness the partisanship exists. so barack obama walked into it. he i believe sincerely tried to bridge it and was blocked in every possible way. he came wup a health care plan that was probably more republican than it tended toward the republican version of what was being offered in the 1990s when bill clinton tried to move health care along and that was rejected out of hand. so i think people have to see the larger dynamics of partisanship and how that's affecting barack obama's presidency. host: a little more from john

lewis. jack on the phone from new orleans. glad to have you. caller: listen, i don't know where this sister lives she must be on mars. she is most educated black women men once you go to harvard, pribston they lose it they start thinking about what it could and should have. let's talk about what it is. there's nothing wrong with welfare. the legacy of slavery is not over. and we're all affected. the black race is affected. there's no way that the

japanese would hire black man to make a statue of their hero. it does not work. and the reason why we're in a weakened position economically. that's what's really happening for the black man. integration did not help black folks. it destroyed the communities because it took them out. the busing was a trip. all they had to do was rebuild the schools and build the communities the way it was not bus them across the town to say that mix them with white people. white people have superior, white people have superior, even obama on the street if he's white he really thinks he's black. so these are some of the thing that is the common folks are facing. so sist gert your head together. host: anybody want to respond? guest: you know, as one black person on the panel today and the caller talking about black people wanting to go to harvard and prince ton i did want to point out that i am a very

proud graduate of howard which is a historically black university and probably one of the great ufertes in the country. in terms of what is afflicting african americans that are really faring very poorly during this economic downturn again we have to be realistic about where our country stands today. we live in an era of globalization. we live in an era where the jobs that the nation produced in the 1950s is very different than what we see in 2011. and it is going to be very, very different five, 10, 1520 years from now if we are not educated to be able to compete in the global economy, nothing will change. it will be the status quo. that is not a matter of me coming from mars or inn else coming from a different planet. it's the bottom line. you have to be able to compete in a 21st century economy. guest: i agree. education is one of the greatest gifts we can give our society. but i do think there are other

issues involved. for example, the creation of wealth in our society and the disparities of wealth. we have seen such an increase in the amount that the rich have versus the poor have and the middle have. the rich really truly have gotten richer over the last two or three decades. that wealth has to start moving its way down to the rest of society because if it doesn't it leaves people without a sense that they're making progress, it leaves people making feeling as if they're treading water, as if they can't make progress to move ahead. so if the jobs aren't there, if the good paying jobs aren't there if the communities aren't supported in terms of their schools and the quality of their schools and if we end up with this sort of third world approach to a very wealthy small corner of people and then the rest of americans we're going to be in trouble. so look at the wealth statistics in america. that's one of the keys, toward one of the issues that we do have to address. host: a couple mourcals for our -- more calls for our guests. maryland, richard, good

morning. caller: good morning. look, i just want to say that the commentary that we've heard so far is excellent and thanks for taking my call. but i think the media, the television and radio media has a lot to do with the problem of separation of the races today. that is at the level that it is today. freedom means being able to speak your mind but i don't believe freedom means being able to collaborate to put out half truths and untruths. and what i'm hearing a lot today is a number of sound bites that skew a particular instance, situation, et cetera. host: is there one thing you heard in the last couple of days, couple of weeks that struck you? caller: not necessarily in the last couple of days but i can give you a situation where a

person on the radio said that the number one thing that they wanted to do was not let barack obama get anywhere near the white house. and then start explaining why. and i think that the reason that he gave for enticing people to think a certain way, which of course you have your freedom to speak what's on your mind but a lot of the information that was given is not true. so doesn't the media have a responsibility to speak the truth when they're speaking to so many different people around the country? host: thank you. and we know the media is a very big thing. obviously the difference between what's reported and what's other people are allowed to say in this world that we have. but any thoughts on media in general? guest: i was listening to the caller and i was thinking about

that great black and white movie mr. smith goes to washington. and you think about the vast majority of the american public that watches television, radio, reporting listens or watches to quote/unquote opinion journalism and i think all americans are sit back and they look at the media and they say can't we just get the truth? or could you at least report just report the facts and let me draw my own conclusion. i think all members of the media actually try to do their best but we're living in very interesting times with 24 hour a day cable television, radio, and the mass growth of opinion journalism today. host: we have a professor of communications with us. let's hear from him. guest: it would be nice if much of the media would be able to replicate conversations like this and have that on all day. but unfortunately most of the media is a profit-making business that depends on viewers and how do you attract viewers? often through conflict, controversy, drama and anger. and sometimes it's those

angriest voices that get rewarded with a platform in the media because it makes for good television. so that can tend to distort what people are thinking and people tend to think that the extremes are more prevalent and more pervasive than they really are. a lot of people in america just want to sit down, break bread and have a conversation and scuts thing in a way that rational americans can sort of talk with each other. i don't think most of the media afford those opportunities. host: if we were sitting here five, ten, 20 years from now having these same kmbingses, what do you suspect at this point we would be talking about? guest: i think we would be talking about all of this in a historical context. i gratly believe that we will see more african americans as president of the united states, president of the united states, we will see more women, we will see women as president of the united states. we will be probably very close to being able color blind society and will probably be looking back and saying how did we ever live the way that we

did? i think america will still be the greatest nation on earth and all of this will be behind us. guest: i would hope so. but i think we will see significant progress. as i said earlier i think this next generation is the most inclusive generation our nation's history and i think as they move through and as they exercise their own voting rights, as they help to shape institutions, families, schools and communities, we will see us moving much more toward that promised land that dr. king spoke about. but i don't think we'll ever be free of our history at least in the next 20 or 30 years. the next 20 or 30 years. we still live with sort of a legacy that can be manifested in unemployment and wealth statistics, in scoot, in some angry voices in the media. i don't think we'll be free of that but we need to continue to have these discussions because again this was our original sin race and slavery. and as a nation we always have to be conscious of it constantly talk about it and

constantly hold ourselves accountable to the ideals that were undermined by that original sin. host: our guests, leonard stine horn coaudsor of by the color of our skin. also professor of communication at american university here in washington. also michelle bernard, be

[applause] >> could afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

-- good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. to all of the members of the human family. and individuals gathered to this day. you started your day by coming to this historic and memorable proceeding in which we gather round of these tables, to honor civil-rights heroes and she of yesterday, today, and hopefully those of the future. i am senior pastor of the third baptist church of san francisco.

as i stand before you, i leave you in the words of our former president, william jefferson, the email rest assured that if you ever see a turtle up on a stock, you better know that he or she did not get up there by himself or herself. i am appeared today, because of the love and support of my wife and members of third baptist church, who are in the audience. i am here thanks to my fraternity brothers. johnston, who has been a moving spirit behind this great occasion. i am here today, because there are many persons that labored with main in this movement that we celebrate today.

freedom and peace. more importantly. i stand before you today because as moscow made julian bond reference, dr. king taught only one class in his lifetime. that was at morehouse college, of 1961he semester's and 1962. we sat in the seminar of social philosophy. i am delighted to say to you that dr. king arose to that great physician of teaching, because he had a great mentor in the personhood of benjamin elijah mays, howard washington

thurman. he passed on to julian and others coming you're truly, the gray pearls of wisdom that we receive from him sitting at his feet at morehouse college. i want to frame a my comments by saying after all is said and done about dr. king and, we must never forget that he was a black baptist preacher. i know many have not understood that. let me remind you that it was also influenced by another baptist preacher, whose legacy impact our opportunity here today. the story is told that in 1926,

when howard university in decided that it would be inclusive and offered the opportunity for an african american to be president of that prestigious institution that we know it to be today. when they were thinking of who should be that person, and there was frazier and many others who thought they had earned degrees and had the right to be president. the board of trustees decided that there was a black baptist preacher that we have not said enough about as be remember ever great legacy. his name was mordecai johnson, pastor of the first baptist church of charleston of west

virginia. when dr. johnson arrived in washington, he did not seek to find where the next cocktail party would be. or where the next social event would be. he sought out justice lewis. in a conversation, he said to him, if you were to build a first-class law school, what advice would you give to the builder? he was told him on the condition that he would not tell anybody what he would say under the condition that he was dead, but if our work to build a first- class law school and take this from being a night school to a first class school, i would not build a school -- i would --

young lawyers to make -- become corporate lawyers just to put money in their pockets. i cannot teach them to be criminal lawyers to make a lot of money only for themselves. he said i would build a school that would teach young black minds how to master constitutional law. from that conversation dr. johnson knocked on the door of charles hamilton houston, told him to get to work and build their law school. it was the providence of god that his first-class, there was a black boy named to thurgood marshall from a maryland, who was denied admission to the

university of maryland law school. on the heels of richmond's virginia, one person from new jersey. -- when they came together, they went before the high court. they interpreted a constitution better than thomas jefferson and got the unanimous decision of segregation publication in education on the grounds of equal protection under the law. [applause] a preacher did it. a baptist preacher laid the groundwork. do not forget that martin luther king was a preacher inspired by

mordecai johnson. even women got to their women's rights under equal protection under the law. handicapped people have a better day under equal protection under the law. everybody owes something to the black baptist preacher, martin luther king and mordecai why it johnson. [applause] in that class, dr. king told us not to become preachers conservative the status quo. he said be a profit in speak

through the power. i will never forget his words. i say to you today, i want to see some truth before i take my seat. i know barack obama is in the white house. i have news for you. i learned a long time ago that my daddy had diabetes. and also had hypertension my oldest brother had a smoke, the brother next to him had a stroke. one year ago, i suffered a stroke. thank god that he spared my mind and my mouth that i could come here and speak to you today. he would have made to remind you that the same stroke that went

through my dna -- racism is still in the dna of the united states of america. we still need a therapeutic team to get this out of our minds. out of our souls, and out of our bodies. i have the faith that we can make this monument more than stones. in bring meaning and hear the message of martin luther king jr. at boston university in he sat at the feet of other teachers. he learned something about what an idea meant. everybody is a person. everybody has a worth and dignity. they should be respected as such.

i say to you, we need therapy in this land. until we get busy, get out of our system homophobia, something that martin luther king would stand up for if he were alive today. he would believe that gays were god's children also. he knew that a gay man was logistical brain, organizer behind the march on washington in 1963. god knows we must not become that which we hate. if we do not want other people marginalizing us, we should not marginalized gays, women, and

people who are different. but stand up for justice. stand-up for truth. stand-up for consistency. stand up and do what the teacher would have us do. a day would come when all of god's children will be able to say, i am black and i am proud. i am yellow and i am a mellow. i am red, but i ain't dead. i am straight, but i am a sensible. i am white and i am all right. that was the message of martin luther king jr., my master teacher. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, wasn't

that powerful? give him another round of applause. ladies and gentlemen, i am proud to announce that according to the contract, we needed to be out of this room by 2:25. every speaker has complied to the time rule, the audience has been great, and we will meet that deadline. give yourselves a round of applause for being on time. [applause] before we close out with the benediction along with the accompaniment of music, let me on the behalf of the martin luther king memorial foundation, say thank-you to the program participants today. this was a four day celebration

as we celebrate the formal dedication of the martin luther king memorial of the mall. we want to express our thanks to all of the corporate sponsors and supporters, the individuals, the foundation, everyone that has given money, time, any sense of support to this project, when it was envisioned, there were many doubters and many that said it could not be done. this is a tribute to many people. a warm thanks to alpha phi alpha fraternity and the incredible leadership. let's give them a big round of applause again. [applause] i want to say as the contemporary leader of one of the six organizations that helped organize the march on washington, two things. one is the continuing debt of

gratitude we all owe, to the men and women that organized the 1963 effort. but also the march on washington was just one point of a broad movement for social and economic justice, which endured for many years in this nation. all of us today have to continue to remind ourselves that our accomplishments, the doors we walk through, the things we have been able to do could not have been possible without the sacrifice of other generations of their men. it is touching to see rev. jesse jackson and julian bond and andrew young and many others, joseph lowery, and many others that truly were alongside with the integral part of the effort

of the 1960's. those of us know that while leadership has expanded and changed, while we do have an african-american in the white house, and at the department of justice, black people in congress in city hall, county government, state legislature, that our continuing role is to be the conscious of this nation, to challenge this nation to continue to work to achieve the dream of dr. king. it is important that those who say nothing has absolutely changed since the 1960's are absolutely wrong. those who say, america has arrived and equal opportunity is abundant in flowing are equally wrong. we must give credence in credit to the distance we have, while seeing today, 2011, the

dedication of this wonderful memorial and the time for each and every one of us to reaffirm our commitment to social and economic justice, the important work of this nation in the 21st century. i think the 21st century will be about the economic line, combined with the color line. we have important work to do. thanks for being here, i look forward to seeing all of you congratulate yourself for traveling afar and being a part of something great and committing your life to social and economic justice. give yourself a round of applause. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, rev. otis. he is accompanied by an

outstanding music group. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome this group. >> it is an honor to be here at such an auspicious occasion. we feel right at home and would like to bless this house. cappella]

[applause] >> we would like to mix the old with the new. how many people love motown? i know you would. we did a style called vocal play. my brother here is going to start with a little something like this. [beat boxing] that is a little bit of a new school. [vocalizing]

[singing a cappella]

[ready or not here i come, you can't hide, gonna find you]

>> we have no use for drums or a bass guitar. give it up for them. on the trombone. [vocalizing] the guitar for year. -- for you. [vocalizing]

give it up for this person.

[applause] >> thanks so much. most importantly, god blast. >> please welcome rev. otis for our been addition -- benediction.

once again please welcome the rev. otis moss. [applause] for those who are able, let us please stand and join hands as brothers and sisters and keepers of the dream. if you have the strength, hold hands with the person next to you. , recognizing that weather

friend, husband, a relative, wife, child, or member of your organization, you may never you may never have the opportunity to hold this opportunity again in this world. real regret that sister dorothy could not be with us today her job with the southern christian leadership conference was a revolutionary task leading the citizenship education program may with the exception prayer the rev. fred, whose body is now a frail, but whose legacy and

the laborers are immortal. may we bao our heads. as i looked on a hill and i saw men, women, and children standing with the hands united and each one looked into the eyes of the other hand and nobody was afraid. and i asked the angel, what is this. the angel said, this is the kingdom of god. and i asked, the angel, where is this, and the angel said, in

your own heart. i asked the angel, when is this. -- when is this? and the angel said, when we all learn how to love one another as the god loves us. teach us ogata to love one another and send us -- teaches 0 god to love one another and listened as a way from these fleeting days of celebration to the heart and unnecessary days of labor, the task, toil, a voter education, and voter registration. as we give all of the marvelous

keen quotations, send us away with a made up mind to be engaged in transformation, social transformation, hear us as we're surrounded by a great cloud of the witnesses. and keep us a forever in the path we pray. this is our prayer in the name of our lord, amen. ♪

♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] --2011] [unintelligible] ♪ ♪ >> tonight on the "communicators" a look at cyber security and the u.s. ability to

prevent attacks on private and public computer systems. wall street journal correspondent joins three other guests as it wraps up its 4th part series looking at to the dangers of cyber security issues. see it tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. as august nears an end. we continue book tv in prime- time. former secretary of state henry kissinger talks with monica crowley about china. then adam looks at world war i and the debate in his book. microsoft co-founder discusses his book, idea man. book tv into prime time, all this month on c-span2.

♪ ♪

>> last week the country's top banking regulator said the number of so-called problem banks dropped last quarter for the first time since 2006. the fdic also said its fund for dealing with failing banks is in positive territory after seven negative territories. this is 25 minutes. >> morning, everybody. i would like to thank you for coming to the release of the second quarter results for the banking industry. banks have continued to make gradual but steady progress in recovering from the financial market turmoil in the severe recession that unfolded in 2007 through 2009. earnings improved year over

year for eight consecutive quarters. the trend has expanded to include a growing proportion of shared institutions. in the next chart, 60% of basic had an improvement this quarter. the percentage that was unprofitable fell to the lowest level in more than three years. the recovery and industry profitability has gotten final improvement. this next chart shows credit quality has been improving since the first half of last year. noncurrent rates are still well among above historic months. add to the debt of this crisis, expenses for bad loans was more than half. as one quality improved, expenses have declined.

in the second quarter, provisions represented only 11.5% of banks' net operating r. lack of revenue growth affected at the earnings improvement. the prospect of earnings improvement from further reduction in provisions diminished. the traditional banking business of taking deposits and making loans account for almost two- thirds of the industry's revenue. increased lending is essential for future revenue growth.

our latest data shows loan balances insured institutions increased by $64 billion in the second quarter. a modest -- this is the first time in three years that we have seen actual growth in portfolios. it increased for a fourth consecutive quarter. at the same time, a significant portion of the overall growth in loans represented intercompany lending between banks, lending activity still has a long way to go, before it approaches more normal levels. deposit growth was strong in the second quarter, particularly large denomination counts of the biggest banks. it increased by almost 3% during the quarter. the pots in account > $250,000

increased by almost 9%. they add temporary -- deposits and accounts greater than $250,000 increased by almost 9%. they added more than 1700 $13 billion -- $713 billion. they improve liquidity, reduce portfolio risk, and expanded in a different capacity to make loans. we saw improvement in the number of problem banks and bank failures in the second quarter. the number of institutions on our problems bank list fell from 8882865. this is the first decline in the

number of problem institutions since the third quarter of 2006. a total of 22 banks failed in the second quarter, marking a fourth quarter in the number of failures as follows. through the end of last week, there have been 68 failures in 2011. during the same time last year, we had 119 failures. these trends are favorable. the failure of institutions remain high by standards. after second consecutive quarters of negative balances, the fund is once again positive. $3.9 billion as of june 30. the balance has risen six quarters in a row for a

cumulative increase of $25 from the negative point previously. as of june 30, the fdic total cast -- cash position was $35 billion. we continue to have sufficient liquidity to meet all of our obligations. in summary, we saw further income growth based on improving trends and asset quality. lending activity shows modest improvement. the number of failures continues to diminish. the lender of problem banks fell for the first time in almost five years. the deposit insurance balance returned to the black.

these were all positive developments. we also saw a continuation weakness in revenues. we are remindful that earnings growth cannot be sustained indefinitely by reducing loss provisions. recent events have reminded us that the u.s. economy and u.s. banks still face serious challenges ahead. the fdic will remain alert to these challenges going forward. that concludes my statement. i would be glad to try to respond to your questions. >> what would the revenue picture look like? trading in the accounts for the large part of the revenue that

is not accounted for by interest earnings. i do not know if our staff will have a particular response to that. >> close to 7% of the total led up to revenue. we can give the specifics down to the trading. >> what would your assessment the with those numbers back out? >> your question is relevant to the trading? trading is generally concentrated in some of the largest institutions. when you look across the aggregate, it does not have as big respect. but there is going to be a significant impact, because it has a final impact on the earnings over the last couple of quarters.

>> for the industry as a group, should we feel serendipitous about that? or are we concerned that a son of the big money of central banks, our main street banks are having a tough time in the struggling? the trends have been improving for the small institutions as well as the larger ones regarding credit quality. that is what the chairman has brought up. it was affected by narrow interest margins. that is still a problem. when you look at the aggregate of these institutions, from a credit quality stand point, the trends have improved. the largest money institutions depend on trading revenue.

we look at earnings improvements in the larger institutions and have been improved by reduce provisions and larger trading institutions, is the get amount of trading. it has had an impact. i do not know that you would want to take job conclusions based on money institutions, when you look at the ad industry performance level. >> to qualify for the second quarter, over 100 billion in operating revenue. >> the underlying point is we must generate more loan growth. >> this is a follow-up to that. what impact has various policies curtailing the fees that banks can charge on their revenue growth? is it getting worse for having a

bigger impact in october? >> i was going to say particular policies in mind? >> they have not gone into effect yet. there have been overdraft fees and other things take effect. is it having an impact on revenue growth? >> some decrease in revenue fees from regulatory actions on overdrafts. about $2 billion? for the quarter? yes. >> the new system, based on an

assets -- i wanted to know, 3.9 billion positive balance, what was the impact reached in the assessment? what has been the number? >> i will have the staff responded to this. the intention while shifting the base for deposit insurance assessments to assets, the overall revenue was supposed to be neutral. the amount of income in take would be kept about the same. >> the change in the base did go into effect after the second quarter. both were revenue neutral.

we accrued $3.5 billion in assessment revenue, which is what we had been recognizing in prior quarters >> in terms of lower revenue, it mentions lower revenues, and so can you explain why was that and help the industry respond to that kind of information? >> we have had compressed the net income margins, which was a key factor. i want to know if there is anything further to add on that? >> any indication as to why, because of economic uncertainty or any other logical reason?

>> some of it is economic uncertainty. there is a lot of money that has moved into deposits. the industry still struggles with flat loan growth. so putting money to work in investments. in the holding amounts of cash results in lower net interest margins. that has been a challenge. recently there has been a lot of a fluctuation in the market. some have said there is a concern about bank capital. what about the amount of capital being held by large banks at the moment? >> the general answer to the question is yes. the level of capital in a shared

institutions has been substantially strengthened over the last couple of years. as a general matter, the answer to the question is yes. >> both the quality and level of capital, when you look across industries will stretch -- strengthen. banks have been in a better position for quite some time. >> i know you cannot comment on opening and operating institutions. one bank is trading less than $5 a share. do you feel you have the tools you need to cope with any situation that may arise? one of the larger banks, do you have what you need or are we several months away from having that authority in play.

>> under the new authorities of the daughter of frank act, we have authorities to address whatever circumstances may develop. they are sufficient. >> do you have what you need now? it is not like you will be left with pieces of authority or undeveloped pieces of regulation in the law. you will have to improvise. >> we have had insufficient time to engage in and the necessary planning. we look forward to carrying out hours of responsibilities under the law. thanks.

>> prison -- provide an update -- >> the last update we did for the board was in april. we projected $21 billion of loss. the next update will be this fall. >> i noticed in the details that bank holdings of u.s. government securities had gone down almost 8%. is that a surprising fluctuation in the context of the debt ceiling debate? is that a substantial decline

for it to go up or down by that much? that is the third quarter for u.s. treasurys to reduce their holdings. >> there are a number of explanations, the yield has been fairly low. margins are under pressure one technical question on the temporary limited insurance requirement. when you say temporary, when does it expire? >> at the end of next year. it was a two year rule. >> even when the loan balances were negative, they were still

creeping up gradually in quarter by quarter. this quarter they were up a little bit. anything different about the lending environment now compared to others? >> in this cycle, it is characterized by something between commercial and industrial and real-estate lending. almost 11 million mortgages under water. we have seen the impairment in collateral value. about 56% -- a holding back growth is still shrinking. banks report they are having some problems finding credit- worthy borrowers. that is an issue.

i think we are seeing a comeback from the commercial side and so on the real estate side as we work on that. on the number of banks to decline, to what extent are those bangs that have been on the list failing or merging versus these banks getting better? >> i would say it is a combination for both. banks are working through their problems. and it is a long process that will continue over some time. it is a combination of both. >> do you have a specific number of banks that graduated off of

the list? >> i do not have that information. >> we can get it for you. >> can you elaborate more on what the chairman said about having sufficient time to handle the resolution. have you done enough aside from a separate track? we have done a tremendous amount of work preparing even prior to the world being enacted realizing we would have this responsibility in dealing with different institutions, the other agencies and preparing

internationally with various groups. there is a lot of work that has been done so far and working with my counterparts with this agency can say we are well- positioned to deal with any issues that we may be facing, regardless of the fact that a lot of the regulations have not been written. these institutions have made a tremendous amount of progress, preparing for the need to create living wills.