taking questions from the house of commons. then students and the first amendment rights today. this week on q&a, former professional basketball player thomas discusses his book "we matter: athletes and activism." brian: tell us the story of a guy named bill bland and the impact he had on your life. etan: he had a big impact on my life.

i was on my way to a basketball game. i was stopped by the police. i was made to get out of my car and lay on the ground. three or four different policeman came up and they were searching my car. when i heard one of them say, we know him from somewhere. we have seen him somewhere before. they kept searching. they cap to detainee me. i remember being really embarrassed. although of these people passing by looking at me and angered that i was reading treated like -- i was being treated like a criminal and i had done nothing wrong. my booker t.eld at washington high school bag answer, oh, he plays high school basketball. you are free to go. stay out of trouble. what? nothing else? i went to the game. i was late.

i played very angry and very aggressively. i got my stuff and left. was stillext day, i upset about the whole thing, talking about it. my speech teacher, mr. bland, said let me talk to you for a little while. he listened to me that, how -- this and to me vent, how unfair it was, only because i was a black man, that i did nothing wrong. he said take everything you are feeling and put it into a speech. i'm not thinking about writing a speech right now. i'm upset. descent use it for your original oratory. talk about everything you are feeling. talk about the injustice. talk about what happens in society. me as a white male, i don't know this world. i have a whole. different experience when i am pulled over by the police. tell my world what happens in your world. i said, ok, i did it and started performing the speeches in a lot

of places. i started winning a lot. a newspaper wrote an article about it. wait a minute, i got attention from it just because i played basketball, when there are all these people i know for who this happens all the time. that's when i found my voice. i just continued on from there. brian: that was about 23 years ago. etan: that was a little while ago. brian: what happened next? etan: i went on to syracuse university where i continued to use my voice. when i was younger, i was always taught about the athletes that use their voice and use their positions and their platforms, kareem abdul-jabbar and muhammad ali and bill russell and jim brown. those with the athletes i learned about. as i was getting older, a light

went off and i made the connection of how i can follow in their footsteps. to theseng attention different causes just because i am an athlete. so i continue to do it. i continued to do it through college. prostinued to do it in the , right here in washington, d.c., with the wizards. brian: you met your wife in syracuse. there is a story about her here. etan: right. hurt, ifse, if you get you can't play, they can take away your scholarship. wife.appened to my in her junior year, her doctor said she should not play anymore because she had three surgeries on her knee and it would not be a good idea to play anymore. then her coaches went on a crusade to try to take away her scholarship. she had to hire a lawyer with her mother, threatened to meet , things like that so

they would not take her scholarship boy. -- scholarship away. the ncaa is really a business. it's a business. you are not a student athlete and you are way it -- and they are worried about your education. is a billion dollar business with a b. what they are concerned with is how to continuously generate those of allegiance -- those billions. and if you can't, you are of no use to them. athletes who have gone through the college experience and playing ball, they know that feeling. it is something that you start seeing once you get there. and youlooking around reach into your pocket and you don't feel anything but let. lint.u see you -- but but you see your jersey being sold and video games and people in the stands and they are making a lot of money.

economically, it does not add up. brian: what happened to her scholarship? etan: she got to keep it. but she had to fight for it. a lot of people do not even know that that is a possibility, that they can take away their scholarship. brian: what was the reason they gave other than the injury? etan: that was the reason. they don't really need a reason. the reason is because you can't play anymore. it's a tough business. brian: when you are at syracuse, what position did you play? why did you pick syracuse? etan: i played center. syracuse -- first of all, i was born in new york. i love the tradition of the big georgetown, syracuse, st. john -- i always wanted to play in the biggies. i went to the school and saw the campus and talk to the players and the professors and things of that nature.

i felt it was a place i could thrive and a place i wanted to take on and i had a great experience. but that doesn't mean i can't call out the of progress he of the ncaa. i know they make billions and billions of dollars and say they don't have enough money to pay the players anything. i see the hypocrisy and that. brian: how tall are you and how tall is your wife? etan: i'm 6'9". my wife is six feet. we have tall children. brian: what is the advantage of that and what is the disadvantage of being that tall? etan: the advantage is that you are blessed to have tall children. it helps a little bit with basketball. some of the disadvantages, i would say that -- i learned from an early leg and my son has learners -- from my early age and my son has learned at an early age that you are viewed

aske older than you are. but he isears old, viewed as a 16-year-old young man. when he was eight, he was viewed as a 12-year-old. i had to have a talk with him much earlier than i probably should have had and i had to expose them to the way society would see him add the him a lot earlier than i wanted to. brian: what did you tell him? etan: a lot. i remember to this day. it was around the trayvon martin murder. he was six years old. i had to tell him there were people who would view you as a criminal. he is six years old. he heard about trayvon martin. the news was on and he was listening to it. he was asking what happened and i had to tell him. you are not always going to be this cute, little kid with dreadlocks like your dad that is tall for his age and a smile. that is not how people will look

at you. they will look at you as a threat. there are things i need to teach you now. for instance, i told him, when he gets older, when he goes to a store, he has to always ask for a receipt so no one can accuse you of stealing. those little things that black parents teach black children. i just did not think i would have to teach him that young, talk about how the police look at you, how you have to deescalate a situation that you did not escalate in the first place. i have to have regular conversations with him like that and he was six or seven years old. brian: you also say in your book that you had the talk with your daughters. how old are they? armani is 10hter and my baby sierra is eight. they are both tall for their ages. i speak it panel discussions and things of that nature so they speak about how

women are viewed, especially taller women come as a threat, the same way that young men are. a lot of times, women are lost in this conversation. but you have sandra bland and the justification that happened for her death, that she was mouthy or talking back or had an attitude, and that was interpreted as a threat. this is something that definitely caught the attention of my daughters. and i had to have the conversation with them. of your to be aware surroundings and how people are viewing you when they are in positions of power. of course, it is not fair. we are not talking about what is fair. it is reality. as a parent, the main thing you want for your children is to get home safely. brian: after syracuse, then what? etan: after syracuse, we came to

d.c. d.c. was a place rich with political energy. withember, i was playing the wizards, and the invasion of iraq happened. i was looking at it and it was after 9/11 and george w was making the connection or trying to make the connection to iraq. wait, what is the connection here? i don't know with the dots go here. the weapons of mass destruction were never found. wait a minute, i don't understand why we are going to war here. i don't get it. my anger brother had friends who were enlisted. i remember them going off to war. i remember how much it hit me. i was, like, little ad is going to war? how is he going? he's terrified. how do you think he's doing? going to war for something that

doesn't need to happen. that's how we became a guess the war in iraq. i was in d.c. and speaking in different rallies and i was playing for the washington wizards. one of the things that happened, and i talk about it in the book, that the ceo of the wizards at the time, his son was at one of the rallies. he commended me for standing up and speaking my mind and things of that nature. so a lot of the experiences that i had from high school to college to even professional was not as much resistance from the management perspective of me speaking out. they were very supportive of my right to be able to speak out. that is the thing that is up for debate right now. a lot of times, when people do speak out and they disagree with you, then they don't want you to speak out. then they -- then you hear shut

up and dribble. why don't you stick to your sport? i experienced it in the media. but not from the manage -- management. brian: how long did you play for the wizards and when did you decide to quit basketball? etan: i retired after 11 years playing in the nba. i had a great experience. it was definitely a blessing to play 11 years. it was in 2011 -- i play from 2000 to 2011 and it was a lesson -- a blessing. i learned a lot. brian: what happened when you had to step away for a year? etan: i had a leaky valve. it had to be replaced. it is something i had when i was little. at some point, it would have to be replaced. i just did not know when. brian: what led to the need to have it done when you were 29?

etan: just testing. things come up in testing. that's why testing was so important. they did not have a lot of these testings 20 years ago. just a regular ekg, echoes, checking your numbers. differed. now was the time and we don't want to take any chances and i don't either. it was right before training camp. i was, oh, really, right now? now is the time. brian: i want you to pronounce your first name so the audience doesn't get minus pronunciation. etan: you were doing a good job with it. a lot of times, people say ee- ton. but i say that it's like a baton that you twirl that without the b. brian: i want you to sling your book coverbrian: --

brian: i want you to explain your book cover. we see you with a coat and tie. then when we see you sitting here, this is another look that you have. explain this look and why, the dreadlocks and the -- did you have dreadlocks in that picture etan: yeah -- in that picture? etan: yeah. brian: you have had it for a long time. that is your look. that is your trademark. etan: i grew up admiring malcolm x.. i wanted to re-create the cover and oppose of malcolm x.. when i read the autobiography of malcolm x, it changed my entire life. brian: i want to show some video of mathematics and we can continue this discussion of who he was. structure --

[video clip] structure was such that, if people began to identify with caches and the image he was creating, they would have trouble with knee grows -- with negroes because then you would have negroes walking around saying "i'm the greatest." etan: i was in the darkness before and then somebody opened the shed and turned on the lights. brian: what did he tell youbrian:? etan: there were so many things going on around me to start questioning. it was right after the rodney king verdicts happened. why was he treated that way? why did the policeman get off -- policemen get off?

why do not -- why do i not learn about my history in school? you know, just questioning things and seeing yourself and having pride in yourself and learning about different members of your race and the things they have done and accomplished in the past. that's when i started learning about muhammad ali. it tookd the courage for him to take a stand and everybody turned on him. he was the heavyweight champion of the world. they love him for a second. then he started -- then he cited talking about racism and war and things changed. having the courage to stand up for what you believe in, even though you know the majority will criticize you for it, it takes a lot of courage to be able to do that. i started learning more. brian: when did malcolm x. die and why? etan: there was so much that

happened. when you stand up for what you believe in and you are a seeker of truth, especially in the 1960's, your life was on the line. do you talk about mager everson, dr. martin luther king, and you go down the list of people who sacrificed their lives to be able to stand up for what they believed in, especially in that time period, that is what makes him even more courageous. they should put them up on an even higher pedestal. right now, we are blessed to be able to say what we say and have a certain level of criticism. but our lives are not threatened the same way. even though you are dealing with a situation like calling cap and and or -- like colin kaepernick or lebron james,. once they speak out on something, it is completely different, the way that some of the pioneers in the 1960's and what they had to deal with. brian:? how did he die etan: he was assessed --

brian: how did he die? etan: he was assassinated. brian: why? lot goinge is a around. martin luthert j ray, thatled by is one thing. brian: what i am leading up to is -- what do you think is the reason would be for someone wanting to assassinate him? etan: the reason to assassinate somebody at that time is you kill the messenger because you want to stop the message. but you cannot stop a revolution. x messages -- malcolm

lived on. same with dr. martin luther king. that is what makes them so great. and that is why everybody knows their name and learns about them. 'sat's why i picked up a book seventh grade to learn the autobiography of malcolm x and learned everything that made him aboutple will be learning malcolm x. for centuries to come. brian: here is video of you in 2016 at the first baptist church of glenn a-day. let's watch. [video clip] >> he's about 10 feet tall. [laughter] he is a huge dude. . nicole -- -- mary to married to nicole. stand up. her mother from tulsa, oklahoma

is here. forum tell us what that was about and why you do these things. etan: i do a lot of panel discussions and speaking in different places, speaking on different issues that a lot of times don't get necessarily the amount of coverage that they should. when athletesr say, whatever the issue is. i think the issue there was dealing with fatherhood. my previous book was on fatherhood. i do panels all over the country. we used different celebrities and utilize their voices and their platform and speak on different things. i have been doing it for a file. powerfulower -- a platform to have, especially as a collective. you are able to encourage and

people in a way that sometimes you may not hear from other people. you are able to tell them that their lives matter, no matter what they are being told by guilty or by every verdict or not indictment or police shooting where the victim was unarmed and didn't really do anything wrong and deserved to die. we tell them that their lives matter despite all that. it's a very powerful platform to have. brian: how much are you worried about being in the public spotlight. wasalk about malcolm x assassinated and martin luther king and all that. and you have your family there. do you worry about it? etan: you worry about your family, but it is a blessing. one of the things i talk about the book is the fearlessness of athletes using their platform. you see dwayne wade, after trayvon martin was killed,

taking a picture with his son sons and ilook at my want to say that this is not ok. this is not the norm. this is not what should happen. i should not be viewed as a criminal and my son should not be viewed as a criminal because we have a hoodie on. it shows that it is not -- athletes are not right now interjecting themselves in the conversation for any reason. these are personal things to them. there are personal reasons for it. we want our children to have a better place. we want our children to be able to live and breathe and not be feared and not go into a situation where they are profiled. while we are fighting for different changes in the different laws and things that happen, we are also telling the children in low -- in the world that they live there.

people think athletes aren't affected by these things, aren't affected by police retell it in the same way. you areings happen but an athlete and you are in a protective bubble. when the police stop you, they don't look at you as such and such athlete. they look at you as a black man who could potentially be dangerous to them. brian: your son malcolm, i assume you named him after malcolm x. etan: yes. brian: we have a video of him doing a recitation. [video clip] >> my daddy tells me, when i get older, there will always be somebody who looks at me as a threat. i have to work twice as hard and be twice as good. ande are good white people bad light people, just like there are good by people and bad. by people. . and just because people look like me, it does not mean that

he's my brother. brian: did he write that himself? etan: yes. brian: where did he get that talent? etan: i have been taking him to different things with me for a long time. right now, he is in the waiting room and he is watching this. so he is watching and observing and learning and formulating his own opinion and formulating his own thoughts. that is what i am proudest of him. questions.nd he asks he has always asked questions. he sees things and says, ok, i see it is this way, but can it be this way as well? and sometimes, with young people, with the type of education that they are getting, they are almost taught to regurgitate answers, but not to think and form their own opinion. one thing that he does and has always done, without me having to tell him to is he is a

thinker, forming his own opinion and his own thoughts. and nitrogen to write them down. brian: you see him in the seventh grade. any difference in the atmosphere when you were growing up in tulsa and his atmosphere in the d.c. area? etan: oh, yeah. so much has changed, especially with internet and social media. young people are aware of so much more. and every generation says that, that young people are exposed to more than they were. i was just learning a lot of this stuff that he has been learning for the past three or four years when i was his age. now, young people are organizing in a way that is beautiful to see, after the parkland incident. you see the march for our lives, all put on by young people. you see young people come down to d.c.

there will be thousands of them. they are talking about gun reform, talking about what they specifically want to change. it is interesting because people say young people are not engaged into the current society as far as what is going on. they are only worried about video games or some type of technology or social media. but you hear these people talk now and it is encouraging to see. that is what the book is all about. it is not only for athletes, but for everybody to use their collective voices. kareem abdul-jabbar said it's wonderful. toalways encouraged athletes continue to use their voice on the platform. but then he said he wants everyone to use their platform. everybody can use their platform and really push for young people. because they are the ones who will take over. they are the ones who will be in positions of power. gone. will be

we want young people to really incurs in to have the freedom and to be able to withstand criticism. you say that the way the young people are being criticized who are speaking about on reform. it is amazing to see the parallel. that is the way athletes are criticized. you see the cabinet come out and speaking. michael bennet and torrey smith and russell less length and carmelo anthony, when they speak about these things, they are told to shut up and dribble. you don't know what you're talking about. you see the same thing happening to the young people. you are too young to even know the nuances of gun reform. they say, no, we can break it down for you. it is really encouraging to see that energy from them. brian: book on fatherhood. what was your own father like? how big a family did you grow up in? etan: me and my brother. my parents got divorced when i was younger.

so my father wasn't. actually in the home, but i had a relationship with him on my life. but it's different than action being in the home. you know, visitations twice maybe a month, it's just the front. my main purpose to write that book was to encourage young people growing up in single-penthouse and know that they can still be successful in life and still make the right choices. and if they don't believe me, they can hear all these different voices that told their stories. i interviewed a lot of different people in that book as well, kevin durant, chris paul, kareem rappers, people that young people would recognize and be inspired by. for "we matter," i want to have people read it and continue to use their voice. i want michael voice using his voice and using his platform.

you hear about robert reed and colin kaepernick. and the other nba players and how they use their voices. how they collectively did it as an entire league, the entire nba, which was something phenomenal that we have not seen. i want people to be inspired. that is my reasons for writing. brian: you cite film and you cite books in your book that have had an impact on you. here is coach carter, starring samuel l jackson. that's what's this. [video clip] >> i know you all like stats, so let me give you some. richmond high only graduates 55% of the students. of those who graduate, only 6% go to college. which tells me, when i walked down these halls and i look in your classrooms, may be only one student is going to go to college. , coach carter, if i

ate going to college, where am i going to go? that is a great question. the answer for young african-american men is this. probably to prison. brian: that is 2005. why did they get your attention? etan: i speak to a lot of schools. i have been since i was in college. my mother is a teacher. she would have me come and talk at her school. when i was in college. , what do i know. and she said to speak honestly to them. i tell young people, as far as what they have, what road they have to climb, and how the chips are stacked against them and how -- to look at their school, the fact that they have metal detectors and old books. there are 40 people in the class. they look in the suburbs and there are 15 people in the class

and they have a teacher's aide theyhey have an ipad and close when it's too cold because the heater didn't work. they are not getting the same education. but you have to know that going in, that you will be judged by the same standardized test. if you can look at this and know that it is not equal and know you have to work twice as hard, the same thing as malcolm said when you saw his power, that you have to work twice as hard because a chips are stacked up against you. and if you don't, you will be outside -- you will be on the outside looking in annual fall by the wayside. you have to be honest. youtimes, young people, don't want them to go through life thinking that everything is fair because it is not there. you have to tell him what. -- it is not fair. you have to tell them reality. you have to tell them that you will be judged like you i get in the same education as the people

in the suburbs, but you are not. brian: let's watch this clip. [video clip] >> all the black people are concentrated in the two revenue-producing sports, basketball and football. when you go to the athletic department, field hockey, swimming, tennis, which they support, there is no black presence at all. maybe once we were here and one over there appeared but for the most part, these two revenue-producing sports, which is made up of 70% sports, they are all supporting these clubs for its and it's like a plantation. brian: why is that? etan: all players are set up for what makes -- what generates money. and the top generating sports are football and basketball and they have the most african-americans. brian: why is that? why are african-americans not more interested in country club sports? is it because they don't have parents in country clubs?

etan: we have outliers of people that are dominating in tenants and golf and things of that -- in tennis and golf and things of that nature. march madness right now or the nfl, they are dominantly black sports. "theook, which is great, $40 million late," -- "the $40 million slave," we will be speaking at harvard. think the category of the $40 billion slave is the category of not knowing where you are and being muted. it is a very good book. i had a debate with him a couple of years ago here at georgetown. i have a lot of respect for him. brian: when i was a freshman in high school, in indiana, our team played in the finals of a 1956 state championship in

indianapolis. and the star of the indianapolis team was a man named oscar robertson. here he is. he is 79 years old. [video clip] >> we were just like anyone else. we went to school, played ball, and forcefully for us, we won basketball games. that put us in a category were they had to write about us. they had to say something good about us. our coach was great. an all-black high school in indianapolis. our coach was great because he had been around lights and we were not. he knew what it took -- around whites androundw we were not. he knew what it took. butn: we have nothing respect for oscar robertson and

their coach, who is quite a gentleman. what happened after they won that state championship? etan: he saw how they were treated and how they were viewed and it opened his eyes to a lot of stuff. i had the chance to interview oscar robertson and bill russell. oscar robertson is the all-time leading triple-double in the nba. bill russell has won 11 chairmanships for boston. but talking about how they were cheated -- treated after that was eye-opening for me. i read about it, of course. brian: they couldn't have a parade the same place as the white team. etan: everything was segregatedetan:. bill russell is telling me in the book how he was winning always championships for boston, then he goes down to kentucky and they can't eat at the same restaurant.

he speaks about how wrong that is. if we are not going to be able to eat here, we will not play here. all the black carriers -- although black players left. he talked about how everyone was upset. how can you be so ungrateful? and it was, wait a minute, you are ok for me not to be able to eat with my white teammates? he started talking about segregation and racism and things that were wrong. you are either going to be silent or point out what was wrong. that's what people talk about bill russell now, because he had that courage in that day to be able to stand up and say what is right and what is wrong. and oscar robertson as well. brian: oscar robertson went on to play at the university of cincinnati and went on to play and be able. what impact -- to play nba ball. what impact did he have on society when he was in the nba etan: effect -- he change the

fact than a have free agency. brian: what does that mean? etan: i asked him about it in the book. the way they had the system before, if a team drafted you, that was it until they didn't want you anymore. you had no rights, no time when you could interview for a different team. there was nothing. you were with that one team. and there was no free agency, period, where you could look as if you wanted to play with somebody else or somebody wanted to make you into -- a better offer. we can't imagine a situation like that, but that was the norm for them. aboutd oscar robertson what kind of courage did it take for you to do that? how upset were people? they got death threats. like, how dare you? you should just be grateful. i wanted to make the connection of what it took for him to be

able to change an entire system ,o the ncaa, where i am hoping decades down -- hopefully not decades -- that they will be looking at the system we had with the ncaa and looking at it the way i was looking about how they had no free agency. that's ridiculous. they had a system where they made a billion dollars every did notear and they pay the players at all and that was ok? that is what i want to happen later on. it is interesting because all it takes is somebody to challenge it to the level that oscar robertson was able to challenge it. it's a hard road. it is a hard road. oscar robertson, that is why he is so revered and why he is so put on the pedestal that he is because he had the courage to be able to do that. brian: there is a basketball coach who is paid $10 million a

year. what do you think of that? etan: in the nba or the ncaa? brian: in college basketball. etan: when you say $10 million a year and they don't have enough to pay the players, that is shared say. -- that ishat it sheer hypocrisy. everybody is getting paid except for the players. brian: do the players ever confront a coach, why are you being paid all that money? etan: the players do not confront the coaches. the coaches can get endorsements. players cannot get endorsements. they cannot make an endorsement with a player who is marketing their merchandise. they have to make it with the coach. they can't have any deals. anything you see in the ncaa with any logo on it, they are getting paid for it. but the players aren't. brian: when will this end or

will it? etan: it will end. will not happen when the ncaa finds it in their heart to change the system. that will not happen. but when it happens, i don't know. i think it will happen. brian: here is a woman named jamaica. she played in the wnba -- etan: she playedetan: in the wnba. who uses herdy position and her platform to really talk about something that is not really talked about a lot, which is mental health. brian: why did you put her story in the book? etan: because, first of all, how inspiring she was to my daughters. i did a panel with her and i saw how she was inspiring to an auditorium full of young girls who were hearing her story. brian: what is her story?

etan: her story about how she had to deal with mental health and how she acted like it wasn't something that was an issue because it was a taboo subject in sports. especially with man, but even with women. brian: what impact did it have on herbrian:? etan: a tremendous impact. she had a breakdown at certain times and there were rumors flying and she talked about dealing with that and dealing with the stigma having mental health issues. i saw an entire auditorium of young girls completely relate to everything she was saying. i started looking at the numbers of people in america who have mental health issues and people who are going untreated. you would be surprised. just to have that courage to be able to stand up -- that is a thing about the book, to have the courage to be able to stand up for something and use your position as a platform for other people who do not have the ability, for whatever reason, to

be able to stand up for themselves. brian: here's 20 seconds of her talking. [video clip] >> she appeared in a fulton county courtroom this morning. >> my life changed dramatically, socially, financially -- for once, it was not pushing through something are breaking through something. i realized i needed help. brian: did she ever go to prison? etan: no. brian: did she ever get convicted? etan: i don't know. brian: why is she known for mental health? etan: because she has taken it head-on. she has a documentary that is phenomenal. it.has written a book about she has been speaking on speaking to is pretty much nonstop about it. she is really taking this

seriously, as far as using this position and this platform to talk about all health -- talk about mental health. something you have to understand is that mental health is -- you can have a bum knee and that is viewed as ok, or an ankle or a hip or something like that and they can work with that. but something wrong with the mentally, especially in professional sports, it is not even supposed to happen. that is not even supposed to be a subject. now you have different teams that have had psychiatrists that they have hired, different players that have had anxiety. now you see different players coming out. kevin love talked about his mental health. kevin brady right here with the wizard stopped about his mental health. ua.all started with shaniq work outte, it did not for him because they did not

know how to deal with his mental health. he would get anxiety every time he had to fly or do certain things that would trigger him. he was a great player. a lottery pick. but they were so afraid of the term mental health that they did not want to touch it. is starting aua thing were athletes are not shunned because they have mental health challenges. they are learning to deal with it. so it is changing everything. brian: do you talk differently to a white audience than a black audience? whatever it is, what would be the difference? etan: for instance, i just spoke at penn state to an audience of about 400 students. maybe there were five black students. it's predominantly white. -- theyalking about asked, as far as how they don't

know this world. it's an honest question. we don't know this world. so we hear black people talking about things with the police and we can't really relate because it is not our experience. so, of course, we have disbelief. he must be exaggerating. . until the video comes out. they were being very honest. some of the things you are describing, that can't possibly be what happened. the black people al qaeda smile. you have no right -- the black people all kind of smile. you have no idea. o'reillyhave bill always says come up when i get stopped by the boys, i just listen to what they say and follow the rules and i have no problem. your experience with the police is completely different from mine. it is not -- you can't even compare. there are rules that we have when we get stopped by the police. i will tell you a story. i was with my some -- my son

malcolm and his teammate. police.topped by the i roll as i get stopped, down the window, turn the music off, take my wallet and put it on the dashboard, take my camera record.hone on i am doing all this immediately and they are looking at me, let, what is all this you are doing? the officer comes up. how are you doing, officer? hello. it is de-escalating a situation that i did not escalate in the that,place because i know depending on how this person is viewing the situation, who has all the power in this situation, it can be a matter of life or death. us getting matter of home safely and not getting home safely. that is something that

predominantly white america doesn't understand because they don't have to do all of that. that is just not the reality. so speaking to a white audience, telling them of the privilege they live in and understanding, trying to have empathy for the fact that there is a whole different world that you are not a part of and that you don't have to deal with, that is what these athletes are talking about. and being a naff wheat is not what will save you from being in that situation and being abused -- being viewed as a threat. that's why hearing different athletes talk about it -- for instance, an interview in the book, the nypd broke his leg. james blake, they tackled him in broad daylight. he was a former tennis player. he was at the u.s. open and they thought he was something i'll -- somebody else. they tackled him in front of his hotel. they viewed him as a threat. brings ahose stories

whole different thing to mainstream america that, without video, they would it really believe it exists. brian: have you ever talked to cops about why they do this? or maybe they don't do it, but they have seen their colleagues do it. forum withd a policeman. -- policemen. rums at my church where we talk to big groups of youth. after kaepernick took a knee, they had these forums with the toice in different cities have the police here from the community and have a community

here from the police when they are trying to push for different laws. so, yes, i have had a lot of different experiences as far as having police that they forums. is, there aret it good cops and there are bad cops. there's good police and there about police. everybody is not one way. everybody is not bad. everybody is not good. policeman, first of all, that recognizes that reality and recognizes that there are things that need to change, that is when you can have an honest conversation. if you can start right there, then i don't know where you go from there. because it is not a situation where the police are always right and do everything by the book and you just have to do this and obey the rules and everything will be fine. that can't be the conversation.

it has to be an honest conversation. and there are bad apples out there. and there are different things that need to be changed. those are just facts. brian: how do black and white players get along in the nba? etan: black and white players get along just fine. one of the things that i wanted to encourage through the course of this book was for white athletes to use their voices. i was able to interview steve kerr and he uses his voice, and mike cuban. you need more white athletes to use their voices. a lot of white people will only hear from other white people. that is just a reality. so when popovich says all the things that he says right now in san antonio, there is a whole different segment that will listen to popovich and will not listen to anything that kaepernick says or lebron says. son -- even when my

son and i and my daughters were watching "selma, how everything changed once the white clergy joined them and the world started to see it differently, that is just the reality of what happened. so for athletes to not be in the comfort zone that they are in, but get involved in the different causes and use their voices, that is why we have so much respect for the young people of parkland with the march for our lives because they verbalize -- we have the spotlight right now. now we will talk about how gun violence affects different communities they get no attention. they are using their privilege to bring light to a situation that does not directly affect them. brian: four years ago, anderson cooper interviewed a man named don sterling. here is 30 seconds from that interview. [video clip] >> what has he done? can you tell me?

big magic johnson, what has he done? >> is a businessperson. >> these got aids. >> did he do any business? did he help anybody in south l.a.? >> well, it's hiv. he does not have full-blown aids. >> is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about? brian: don sterling means what do people like you who play basketball? etan: here's an interesting character. t is someone who has been who he is for a long time. the way the nba handled his situation after the tape came out, say racist comments, talking about magic and a lot of different things, and they listened to the players, i think that was really something that was powerful, the way the players handled it. they banded together.

went to the head of the mba, the commissioner -- the nba, the commissioner, and said we don't want this in our league. lebron used the time after the game and talked about it. that is not something we want in our league. one of the things you are seeing is how collective voices can really get things done. and collectively, the nba players got together and said they did not want this to represent their leak -- their league. it was phenomenal how they use their voice and how the mba responded. donald sterling is who he is and it is not a matter of allowing something to just persist. but when you have the collective voice of all the mba saying one thing, a lot can happen.

picture on the screen, this happened before you were born or close to it. i want you to tell us about what impact this had on your? etan: i interviewed john carlos for the book. verylked about this picture and the courage for him to be able to use this platform at the olympics, to be able to about thestatement way that black people and brown people were treated in the country and use that platform to be able to make that statement and relate it to what kaepernick did with taking then he, and the fact that people told him that was not the right time, not the right place to make that statement. do that protest on your own time. he said, if i did it in my own time, nobody would see it. i wanted to do it where someone would see it.

and that's what you have kaepernick -- and as we have kaepernick. you have a topic that nobody wants to feel like it happens. they are the pioneers that i look up to. brian: what, in your opinion -- what has been the positive result of kaepernick taking any? etan: there is a lot of results -- positive results. there is an awakening. this past. season was probably the most speaking out of nfl players that i can ever say that i have seen. even looking back in history, just as far as a collective whole, speaking about injustice. of a safe space where a lot of people don't want to be able to talk about anything that is going on or anything that is wrong. it's kind of like a facade of and a retreat from

everything going on in society. no,the players were, well, we cannot retreat because this is every day life for us. kaepernick was talking about -- and of course, they wanted to switch it to be about the military and about the flag. but he said this is not about the military or the flag. this is about injustice. this is about the political process. better.ve and this is about police brutality and the killings of unarmed black man and black women. this is about systemic racism. he said, i can't take it anymore. i can't look at case after case of police killing unarmed men and nothing happens. takingy commend him for that stand. of course, he had threats and people who turned on him. now it seems like he is being blackballed out of nfl. but he could not take it anymore and that is what people will remember his name. brian: the name of this book is

"we matter: athletes and activism." thomas, thank you for joining us. etan: thank you so much for having me. ♪ >> for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this .orgram, visit us at q-qne-q and-a.org. >> this weekend on q and a, we --r from logan cunningham

lillian cunningham. watch here on c-span. >>'s washington journal live with news and policy issues that impact you. john bennett and erica warner from the washington post congressional report to discuss the week ahead in washington. then the heritage foundation looks at the faa's role in hairline -- in airline safety. watch washington journal on c-span monday morning. join the discussion. cases,ay, on landmark des moines independent community school district talks about student free speech. in 1965, 5 students from des armbandsowa wore black to protest the war.

the students challenged the school board to free speech restrictions and the resulting supreme court decision established that the students keep their first amendment rights on school grounds. our guest to discuss this landmark case are mary beth tinker, one of the five students who challenged the des moines school district. she was 13 at the time. after being a nurse, she was a free-speech advocate for students. chapman, a litigator with experience at the supreme court, including work on more than 100 cases. in 1996.nce thomas watch landmark cases monday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and join the conversation. #landmarkcases. and follow us on c-span. the landmark cases companion

booth -- companion book, and interactive constitution, and the landmark cases podcast at c-span.org/landmarkcases. week, premise or theresa may was asked about the recent controversy involving caribbean immigrants who were given permission to stay but have the documentation destroyed. there were also questions about a meeting in london about the house of government and this is 45 minutes. >> order. questions to the prime minister. neal o'brien. minister. >> thank you, mr. speaker. the u.k. plays host to the commonwealth heads of government meeting. i know the whole house will want to join me in welcoming leaders from 52 countries to