nationalists meeting in washington, d.c. today and counter protests also taking place, "washington journal" over the next three hours with your phone calls and tweets. host: one year ago today, hundreds of white nationalists and ku klux klan members came to charlottesville, virginia to protest the city's decision to remove the monument to confederate robert e. lee from a park. violence broke out between attendees and counter protests. ater, a car barreled into crowd of peaceful protesters, killing 32-year-old heather heyer. the organizers of last year's march are organizing a unite the

right 2 rally. a counter demonstration is also said. good morning. on this morning's "washington journal" your comments of race relations in your community. for those of you on the eastern and central time zones, that number is 202-748-8000. mountain and pacific, 202-748-8001. we welcome your comments on her facebook page and look forward to your tweets. you can send us a tweet. race relations in your community one year since charlottesville. what is it like in your neighborhood, school, work? we will be joined throughout the program by journalists and others from areas around the country that have been flashpoints and racial relations over the past couple of years. we will get to your phone call shortly. you do one a start with a poll conducted this past week released from politico.

you can find it at politico.com and their headline. it says race relations have gotten worse under trump. one year after donald trump said there were very find people on both sides of the violent protests and charles hill, a majority of voters in the poll say race relations have gotten worse since trump became president. 55% of voters say race relations have worsened under president trump compared to 16% that say it has gotten better. relations% say race have stayed the same since he became president last year. politico writing sing half of white voters say race relations largerrsened, while a majority of african-american voters, 79% and hispanics, 69%, say they have gotten worse. so identify democratic voters say race relations have gotten worse under trump. 82% compared to 4% who say

they've gotten better. 9% say the same. two rally set in washington, d.c. today. the unite the right rally ii, we will have coverage at 12:30 eastern. we will cover the counter demonstration that a set for lafayette square never white house. and at 5:30, we plan to bring you the coverage of that unite the right ii rally. we will keep you posted on that. there have been questions on how big that unite the right ii rally will be. throughout the program and through the day, we will update you. on that protest, from the associated press, here is what is planned. the organizer who abandoned his bid writes to stage a similar anniversary in charlottesville, said his permit application says he expects hundreds of people to participate at lafayette park in front of the white house.

but that number could be lower. and there have been permit issued by d.c. united against hate. new york black lives matter and other groups. government and police officials have expressed confidence the city can manage the events without violence. the mayor and police chief have promised a massive community globalization effort to keep protesters and counterprotesters apart. your reaction, your thoughts on community relations or racial relations in your community one year since charlottesville. we go to south carolina. mike, good morning. caller: good morning. unfortunately, race relations, in my opinion, have not gotten better. in fact, they have become a little more blatant. , people feeling more comfortable in blatant racism. i don't know if i would directly

tied to trump. it is just the openness now that he may give people to say exactly what they want and not consider that almost every issue we deal with has a racial component to it. and that is what we failed to recognize. so, i just think it is a highly unfortunate situation. and candidly, i don't see it getting better. host: mike, do you feel in your town of south carolina, have you -- sincehat since of the election a president trump, have you noticed it locally? caller: i have noticed there is a continuing us/them, open kind of thing. to justmajority wanting

ignore the reality that those less fortunate than some of us do suffer out there because of the racial issues. host: appreciate that. let's hear from glenn in florida. 202-748-8000 for those of you in the eastern time zones. caller: how are you doing? host: fine, thanks. caller: as far as race relations in the country, they have not changed. trump has given a voice to people who have always had those issues within their heart, but it in a can express more hateful way. you look at what they are doing, calling cops on black people just for the fact that they are being black. and what trump does, he actually emboldens the people that are doing those things.

and if all of these voters were personcan -- this is a who is been in the open as far as how he dialogues every day. he will not go against them as far as what they do. they do certain things and he says nothing. host: we will be talking to a professor and missouri region and a couple of hours. and we will be talking to others about race relations in places that have been impacted about racial violence, flashpoints for racial tensions. we go to st. louis and hear from dennis. good morning. caller: i want to make a very brief comment that has been said over and over again. the words of the president matter. he is the symbolic head of our country. and simply cannot speak to our nobility. he never speaks the language of unity, inclusiveness.

it is over and over again. he simply promotes division. heardu know, we have all examples from birther risen with president obama to lebron james, twolemon, calling african-american, one athlete and one journalist stupid and returning to the nfl issue deliberately for obvious reasons, just to whip up this space. it just never stops. i don't know where we go with it. i just hope for a peaceful day nbc today. i am worried about what will happen. host: here is a reporting from the washington post and are headline -- trump condemns racism ahead of supremacist rally. the president on saturday afternoon condemning all types of racism. on the first anniversary of the deadly white nationalist rally

in charlottesville. remarks wereat the in stark contrast to his comments a year ago when he declared that both sides were to blame for the violence in charlottesville, and followed a week of racial statements this past week by the president. president trump insult of the intelligence of nba star lebron james and cnn anchor don lemon, both of whom are black. reignited his crusade against black football players protesting police brutality and told group of business leaders that chinese student studying in the u.s. were fine. we expect to hear more from the president. studentshinese studying in the u.s. were spies. we expect to hear more from the president. he says, the right in charlottesville your ago resulted in sinful step and division. don is -- donna is next.

caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i have not encountered any type of blatant racism. i had one incident where a white man was in your laundry mat that i usually frequent. i happened to pull into a handicapped space just to run my close in. and this man that was very big and so boastful. he was talking to me and a very, very hateful manner for me pulling into that candy cap space -- for me pulling into that handicap space. he said he could call his police officer friends to come out and give me a ticket. i have never experienced anything like that before. i can laugh at it, but it wasn't funny in the moment. host: how recently was this?

caller: just last month. this was just last month. and i have never encountered anything like that before. you know, what the previous caller said, this is the president of the united states. and his words do matter. you know? i could easily compare him to maybe george wallace and away -- in a way. just blatant disregard for almost anyone. whether it is a woman, black says, ithe things he is like what a bull he does, you know? things that able he says. position, in his mind, he says, i can do this. he is tripping off of the fact that he is president, so he is in a position where he can say these things without any regard to the consequences that will

take place because people are listening to him. host: what can the president do personallylly pulpit to help improve race relations? caller: i don't now. once you light that fire, it is very hard to put it out or simmer it down. he has already sparked it. array of people taking his words to heart. you would have to literally, you know, grasp those people to actually do make them understand that, ok, you know, this talk is not appropriate. especially young people who are this. it is not appropriate. it is not a good thing, you know? incidents,ing more like with the lebron james' thing. it is absolutely ridiculous and

it is very sad. it is a sad thing that a grown man, you know, speaks like that. host: we are asking for your thoughts one year since charlottesville. last year's violence in charlottesville and the death of heather heyer and the two police officers killed in a helicopter crash. there were demonstrations yesterday in charlottesville. we will hear more about that in a minute, but here is a reporting from breitbart.com and their headline. clans go hand-in-hand was the chant they showed. they came with torches last year. fisher, they came with badges. joshua kaplan with breitbart writing, march attended by antifa to commemorate last summer's charlottesville positive rally evolved into an ati-police protest before preplanned evening rally to mark the anniversary of a campus

confrontation between torch carrying white nationalists and counter protests. unfurled a banner that read "last are they came with torches. this should they came with badges." from wind and -- from connecticut, go ahead. caller: good morning. you can see some of this racism reflected in the polling, especially going into the midterms. you have this huge divide with women went to elect the urban voter. i think that plays into the sexist comments. there was a visceral reaction to that. and with like immigration and mexicans. this whole reaction among a certain percentage of the population that, you know, they don't like people of colored -- they don't like people of color,

hispanics, asians, african-americans. it is true. populationcertain that is really touched by this. i want to point out. doug jones in alabama, the african-american -- [indiscernible] was really -- [indiscernible] host: we have to let you go. you're breaking up a little bit. he did mention the upcoming midterm elections and wanted to point out, one of those races, the race in new york, chris collins, the congressman from supporter in congress for donald trump. chris collins cass plans for a gop district into turmoil. this is the buffalo news. let me read a little bit of this article about the announcement

yesterday by chris collins. he says, congressman collins, who faces felony insider-trading charges said his decision not to seek reelection is a tough thing, but a tough thing for republican leaders. collins withdrawal from the race on saturday left them with a complex legal effort to remove the lawmaker from the ballot and settle on a replacement candidate from about a dozen possibilities, including the lightning rod buffalo developer and 2010 gop candidate for governor. we go to athens, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you, sir? host: i am good. how are things in athens when it comes to race relations? caller: honestly, the have not changed. i have three points if you would allow me, bill. first, i love c-span. i love america. i love being a black man in america with the ability to

watch c-span and engage in the political sphere. --ondly, the ignorance of the ignorance out there, the lack of intelligence coupled with the volume that social media and mainstream media has given to different opinions that people have about people, and it is not the good, decent people who are saying these things. it is the ignorant people, or the people who have no sympathy or empathy for anyone else. and my third point, bill -- i don't think the president is the problem. the president is a reflection of those same individuals i talked about. those ignorant, and compassionate people with that volume behind them where they can put their ideas out there. is aport trump because he behavior that he

has displayed is what negroes are doing being loud come across, and unapologetic. anyone upset with his antics are those middle-class people who have respectability. who have some semblance of intelligence. and they are following blindly behind this negro in the white house. host: back it up for a second. you say you support president trump. did you vote for him and 2016? -- in 2016? caller: i did not vote for him or hillary actually. i fully supported hillary, but i could not vote for her. but i did not want to step out there and vote permissive to. only because -- i did not want to step out there and vote for mr. trump. only because i saw his behavior what it was leading to. myave lived around negroes

entire life so i know how they behave. a lot of people should not be upset with mr. trump because you have been around negroes all of your life and you know negro behavior. upsetople who should be with mr. trump, they should be in lockstep -- host: to be clear, you are a black man in athens, georgia, correct? caller: that is correct. i love being black and i love c-span. i am 41 and i understand america is a wonderful place. we have had are issues with the racism and the racial divide all stemming from slavery. but what can i say, bill? you know? we have evolved. we have grown. some of us have devolved and become dysfunctional. that do you think devolution is in city every?

-- devolution is in city every? caller: they are going along with what has been presented in front of them. there is always one side, another side, and then the truth. we as thinking people, critically-thinking people, have to try and think for ourselves, and decide for ourselves, what is truthful? what is accurate? what is factual? and then make a decision from what we take from the information. we cannot go lockstep behind a false narrative, and then expect something prosperous or proper to develop from that. get: we will continue to your views on across the country, your thoughts on race relations in your community on this one year anniversary of the charlottesville violence. 202-748-8000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001, mountain and

specific -- pacific. steve, thank you for waiting. caller: hi, bill. regarding race relations like in my community, they are pretty well normal. and it is spans about seven miles outside of york. i want to comment upon the charlottesville and how it was covered by the press. especially what was omitted and has been omitted was the first group that was protesting in the who, group of local people were protesting against the removal of the statue. taking the statue down doesn't matter one way or the other. but there was a group of local citizens who were not affiliated klan.uckland -- with the

this group has been omitted in wasnews coverage, and trump referencing two, saying their people on both sides could include those people. many of the people who were counterprotesters has also been omitted. regarding the counterprotesters, many of them, excuse me, were anarchists and the hate group, black lives matter. , they were showing many flags. they had a sign up there. the one up there with the raised fist. the communist group. also the group called "answer." , yoursteve, you just view, i think you said the group black lives matter, you called them a hate group.

is that what you said? caller: yes, sir. host: why do you say that? caller: i was in new york and they were coming down the street protesting in manhattan, -- --ing how they wanted screaming, what do we want? cops. how do we want them? dead. groups.e ignored these the press has ignored the communist elements with the flag being flown down there. host: is it fair to say that more violent or some violent groups tilted the playing field in charlottesville on both sides? caller: well, they both went there for a fight. mo, theyhists, their

antifa, but they are mostly, in my opinion, they are anarchists that have been around and exhibited violence in washington and in portland and a couple of other cities could host: we showed you the photo a moment ago in the washington post. inside, a full photo, a photo taken by ryan kelly on his final day of the daily progress in charlottesville. he had shot this photo, which won the pulitzer prize. the incident of the death of heather heyer, mr. kelly, the photographer took 100 frames of ats photo in a full piece washingtonpost.com on that day and how the year has evolved. your thoughts on racial relations in your community a year since roseville. -- we go to minneapolis

and hear from cj. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for letting me get on the conversation. i love c-span. to breakou allow us our opinions, regardless of what they are. [indiscernible] the relations are pretty much the same even when obama was president. people were getting along pretty good. [indiscernible] host: thank you. in massachusetts, david. hi, there.

good morning to david. hello there? are you on the line, david, and massachusetts? we will go to john in liverpool, new york. asking for your thoughts on the state of race relations. caller: i feel, can you hear me? host: yes we can. go ahead. caller: i feel race relations really are the same. they have not changed in the last year. is, i'm really kind of sick of this issue as far as i am concerned. college, i dated a black woman for about a half a year, so i consider myself very open-minded on race relationships and race relations, but i am sick of this concept that only whites are racist and nothing can be further from the truth. my personal opinion, i am 65. i feel that like people are

every bit as racist as whites. you know? host: john, give us an example of that. black peoplee being as racist as whites in your life? how have you experienced that? caller: looking from everything from a colored perspective. you try not to do that. that is what martin luther king said cannot do. but to me, everything is looked through a racial perspective. you know? it is coming from somebody who dated a white woman, i mean a black woman, so i consider myself open on this matter. but don't kid yourself that blacks aren't racist. they are every bit as racist as whites are. people are people. you know? white people should not have to feel like they are the only racist people, you know, and that blacks do not have racial tendencies. it is all garbage. int: we will hear from jen

fort lauderdale, florida. -- jim in fort lauderdale, florida. caller: good morning. i would like to talk about this conversation that black people want to have with white people. number one, that may be true. the press is sitting on the sidelines while all of these calls are going on. but let's look at what a conversation should be. the conversation should be some give and take. so let me give you an example. if black people want to say that slavery was terrible, i might agree. but on the other hand, if a white person says in return, that the first slaves in the united states were actually white indentured servants from europe, and that black people who were freed and transported to liberia actually created 1900sy in liberia in the

for the firestone company, that is going to be out of bounds for them. say black person wants to that there are white supremacists in the united states, the white person might agree. but in return, if a white person says, that there is a segment of the black society where there is no head of household in the united states, and this is causing a lack of discipline that effects the black children for the rest of their lives, that infuriates black people, and that is also out of bounds. when a black person says, it is wrong for a black person to be -- four and unarmed black person to be shot by the -- for a black person to be shot by police, and another example of a white

person being accosted at the time he was being handcuffed, he was unarmed, he bracelet from himce, the police taped , animals kills one of the policeman. he was unarmed until the very instant he pulled the gun out. and when he have a gun, he almost killed a police officer. this kind of example, again, you are getting into and out of bounds conversation with black people, and they don't like it. host: do you think that is all black people? are these people that you have had conversations with these issues you have listed? have you had conversations with people who say, i cannot have that conversation, i don't believe that? or are you just talking about the conversation happening nationally? caller: i have not, but i would

love to have it and i am not afraid of having it. here is the thing --i love a lot of the black people in my neighborhood. i treasure them. they are the greatest people on earth. they are better than most of the white people i know. but these people are on the sidelines. we need black people to foster give and take. without give and take, we are not going to have a conversation. needed that is what is in the press, among the good and white people in the community. have a real give-and-take. right now, it is only take. there is no gift. host: thank you for weighing in, jim. this is from the daily progress in charlottesville. this is the opinion piece from the daily progress. you can read it at dailyprogress.com. there hope for peace deteriorating in the city, talking about the rally saying at 7:00 p.m., things got edgier.

a plan to student protest devolved into a rolling rally the protesters abandoning their designated location and roaming instead over the several portions of central grounds. a painted sheet display the words last year that came in torches. issue they can and badges of students and others in the crowd objected to the heavy police presence. at one point, organizers to clear the protest over, but some students continued to congregate eventually, marching to the downtown mall. as this is being written, this was posted nine hours ago from the daily progress. as this is being written, the situation seems to have resolved itself, but there was one physical altercation between police and marchers. a wrong move on either side could've put things into a dangerous slide. this is the opinion piece of the daily progress, writing, it would be a tragedy if we turn on each other or against those trying to maintain order and security.

when we turn on each other, we have lost the moral high road and endanger the cause of peace and unity we say we espouse. the state of race relations in your community. massachusetts, next on the line, bob. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to make a comment on a woman who called in a few callers ago, she described an incident where an unruly driver was intimidating her. and she called it a race incident. but i did not hear in her conversation anywhere where the other driver may have called her the inward, said something racist. we are all treated in traffic with rudeness. you cannot go anywhere without being treated with rudeness and there is a difference tween rudeness and racism. i am up in boston, and i walk

around and look around and my eyes to me the truth. and there is an opportunity wide open for black people as white people, and there are certain places where if a black person does not get a job, it is racism, but if i don't get the job, it is lack of skills. if they don't get an apartment, it is racism, but if i don't get the apartment, it is a bad credit history. and i would just say, we just finished with an eight-year presidency of a black man. they unitedountry, states of america, but a black man into the presidency of the united states. isn't that the ultimate opportunity of this country? and anyone else who feels that they are being discriminated against, i was a go to atlanta. my wife and i spent a week in atlanta back in january. and from the mayor, who is a black woman, her entire staff is

black, two police officers, police chiefs, taxi drivers, store owners, business owners, we were amazed and pleased with the breath and depth of black dissipation in atlanta. it may not be representative of every city, but when people say this is a racist country, going through the presidency and all of these other opportunities for blacks, i just believe it. host: bob, we will get reaction on twitter. lots of comments on c-span wj. this is michael reacting to the protests last night. we showed you the bright part report. michael says -- michael tweet said race relations have gotten worse under top. he has worked hard to make sure of it. today is a reminder that we need to stay vigilant in the fight against fascism and racism. anythingweet says

dumber than racial bigotry, sir, and me me saying sick of the issue. that is the problem sir, you look in the mirror. wj is how you tweet us. tucker is in newport news, virginia. good morning. you're on the air, go ahead. caller: hello. i have three points. one point is that we need education. equal education under the law. we don't the nba players to be the only people who do something about the extreme poverty in this country. the best way to fix our race relations in this country is to give equal opportunities and jobs and education. two, we cannot think that we have surface interactions with people that we know the depth of the problems within this country. and three, to deny that we have a race problem in this country is to deny we have a problem at all. the first step to recovery is to

admit we have a problem. i will take all comments off air. host: thank you, tucker. you mentioned education. front page news of the new york times as schools begin in some jurisdictions in their headlines -- students return to armed guards and lockdowns and ride by fences with patrols. a heightened focus on security intended to ease fears about daily campus shootings. the massacre in parkland, florida, one of the most lethal in american history, unnerved school administrators across the country who devoted the summer to reinforcing buildings and hiring security. in florida, armed guards will be posted at almost every campus. in indiana, some schools will be getting handheld metal detectors. and in new york, some schools will upgrade their security cameras to include facial recognition. months after the rampage at

marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, public expensiveve embrace and sometimes controversial safety measures. in texas, good morning to donald. run into racet relations, but i usually listen to you alls show. i am listening to this people and it made me sad. to hear some of these people, they do not understand the difference between race and racism. i am listening to the man saying black lives matter is a communist, racist group. -- they doerstand not understand the ku klux klan was formed to keep black people and their place? and i am listening to all of these people calling, saying black people are racist. i don't understand that. ever since we have been here, we were brought here.

we have been oh pressed. -- we have been oppressed. black with matter doesn't control our judicial system or anything. people have been intimidating, not only black people, jews, you name it. and you hear these people calling in. we will never solve race relations in this country. talking about educating someone. how are you going to educate someone's heart and mind? people are not born racists. they are taught to be racist. ideas about other people. so you know, people need to wake up. and have a conversation? we've been having this conversation for years. what has been solved? standing inesident the poll paid and on tv shows.

ivanka say, why people don't understand -- i hate to say, white people don't understand. your pet people for hundreds of years intimidating other people -- you have had people for hundreds of years intimidating other people. [indiscernible] does she understand? he asked the people in the south -- [indiscernible] armseople picked up against the united states to keep people in slavery? host: in 2019 will mark the 400 anniversary of the introduction of slavery and to north america and what would become -- in what would become in that it states. from usa today, their headline, confederate memorials keep popping up. a statue of jefferson david was carted off.

was pulled off. in the year since, the violent unite the right rally, they write about 75 confederate memorials have been renamed or remote from public places across the nation. by civil to a study rights moment, that is in addition to 40 raced after a white supremacist fired on a bible study group in 2015. they write, the law center's list of monuments symbols, holidays, is 200 entries longer at 1740 than in 2016. in des moines, iowa, karen. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say that the foundation of any thing that is built becomes the foundation of what it is.

this country was built on racism. we are still evolving as a nation. we have not arrived. we still keep going backwards. and i think that is what we are seeing with the trump administration. myself, have i experienced those things? yes i have. and for someone to say, caller said, it is how you carry yourself. well, i was at a walmart, and i was waiting for a vehicle to pull out so i could pull in. the gentleman behind me was a white male who felt that i had taken too long. so as i pulled in because he was right behind me, then he parked and came back, and then all of a --den, this is still a part of our foundation. mccullough foundation and base, this is what trump talks to, that base.

we are evolving, but we have not yet i arrived. host: houston, texas, steve, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call, and thank you for c-span. am glad i'm following these last couple of people. i wish, in my neighborhood, so far, i haven't seen a change in a long time. i think if you treat people with respect, they will to you back with respect. the last caller, she was talking about the guy behind her. and him calling her names everything, i don't agree with that, but honking horns and stuff, most of it is due from road rage more people on their phone all the time. and they are oblivious to anything that they are doing. and the other caller from san antonio, i wish someday y'all

would have a -- here so that they would show that the democratic party is a party that actually used the kkk for many, many, many years. it wasn't the republican party, but it was the democratic party. and any historian will show you this. and i appreciate you taking my call. thank you. calls in, stopur this morning's virginia, in the wake of the right-wing rally that happened in the counter protest and the death of heather heyer. 202-748-8000 is a number to call if you're calling from the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 for mountain and pacific. we welcome your comments on facebook and twitter as well. we go to steve in maine. caller: hey, good morning.

i just want to talk about the state of maine and what is positive. left and right, i occur for some of the callers using the same terms. i called and the dog whistles. on both sides. there is no money in the cure. so we cover this and exploit and use articles to talk about the extreme. on the coast, we have a huge community, latinos. we also have a lot going on. we have a big muslim community in the southern part of the state. know,ad a couple of, you summer meetings for high school students i got together. and i think that is the biggest thing.

if you talk to someone who disagrees with you, and you are communicating, and you break bread, i think -- [indiscernible] steve, you are breaking up on us a little bit. let me ask you if you don't break up too much, you called main the whitest state in the nation. have you seen a market difference over the last 10 years or so in terms of the improvement of race relations there to? ? welcomedike i said, we a lot of somalians. there is a huge migrant workforce. i think you find most of the high schools in the state of

maine have a civil rights team gets kids -- that talking to each other so they can find out what is going on. you know? i think the state is done a great job. the minority of the people are people who just want a fight. they don't want to compromise. they want to exploit with all of the urbanists on both side. maine continues to do a great job. and i think, overall, i am more what he that no matter is doing on national media, i communitye in this

are on the right road. you know, that does not get written about enough. peoplech out and talk to who are different from you. like i said, it is when people find common ground is when people can work together. glad to get your view, one view from maine. thank you, steve. a piece in the washington post this morning with legal advice titled "how to keep the not tease out?" the former mayor of an attorneylle write, most states have constitutional language, criminal statutes, or both, boring unauthorized paramilitary

activity. every state except new york, has a provision that says in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power. in other words, private armies are prescribed in 48 states. you cannot legally organized with others into battalions to fight those with whom you disagree. as a university of virginia law -- professor has written, this provision ensures the right of all citizens to live free from the fear of an alien soldiery, committed by men who are not responsible to law and the political process. the accurate description of the militant group that invaded charlottesville. washington, d.c., the site of the alt-right protests have no such provisions. condition -- in addition, 20 states have criminal statutes that have individuals from forming road military units or drilling

publicly with firearms. while 25 states have criminal statutes that bar to or more people from engaging in paramilitary activity, including using firearms are other techniques capable of causing injury or death in a civil disorder. welcome to the conversation from texas. good morning. caller: the morning. can you hear me? host: go ahead. you were on. caller: good morning. i think of the big problem here in the united states is that everyone is really racist, you know? a lot of people don't want to admit that. everybody looks out for their own race. the president just brought that out in people, you know? whites,his campaign on you know? and then we have a lot of white people saying they are being displaced in the political arena because the minorities are

starting to get out there and vote. border, with the border wall coming up, how do think we hispanics feel about that, you know? the central americans are coming into the country. they're taking all of our tax money. but the history here is race, you know? host: we have been focusing on black life, but you have another perspective, and we want to talk about that as well. the state of race relations in your community. 202-748-8000 for those of you in -- mountain and pacific is 202-748-8000, and eastern is 202-748-8000. joining us is sandy hausman, the bureau chief for the virginia public radio in virginia in charlottesville. she was in charlottesville last year during the demonstration.

sandy hausman, thank you for joining us this morning. we read a bit about the events from last night and some of the protests going on. what do they stand this morning? guest: the protesters finally broke up last night at 9:30. they started out at the rotunda, the iconic building at the university of virginia. the university put so many fences around that it had so many police, that the protesters were uncomfortable. in fact, their focus of the protest was the militarization of the city. and they decided they would move away, so they started marching across campus. and then into neighborhoods around campus. and they continued through the downtown area and to the statue of robert e. lee that the city wants to remove. that is all tied up in court right now. at that point, police indicated that they would be making arrests. so the protests broke up with a valid return this morning. so far, they have not returned, but it is a good bet that some of them will be that. host: take us back a year.

where were you in terms of the events of september 12, 2017? how do you see things developing? guest: we really did not know what to expect. we are seeing a lot of frightening language online. a lot of threats being made, people say things like, bring your guns, we are bringing -- we're going to charlottesville for blood. it was a little unnerving, and we did not know if our police department was prepared. even our state police, for a situation like this. charlottesville is a small city with about 50,000 people, so there is not a lot of money for training. event, we went to that situation with a lot of uncertainty. and a lot of hope that there would not be violence. there are many, many people who theyd up and were there as force for peace. a lot of religious people, for example. but there were a lot of unknowns. later,ere we are a year august 12, 2018, asking our

viewers about race relations in their community. but i want to point out a headline going back to 2014. the headline from that year says charlottesville's community race relations in need of repair. how do you see things between the community and police? and what specific steps have been taken since last august? guest: good question. this has been an ongoing problem michelle iselle. we are a -- this has been an ongoing problem in charlottesville. we are a southern town. we do have a history of slavery, and post-civil war, oppression of the african-american community. so you know, it is an ongoing story, and people today are rallying around a demand that things finally get better. that they have a better relationship with the police. and for the first time, charlottesville has established a police review board. it is a group of citizens who

will review complaints about police conduct. as you probably know, the city 817 elected an african-american woman who ran as an independent and had no previous political experience. but she won handily, which is unusual in charlottesville which is a city of democrats. the city council, which chooses its mayor, selected her for the job. in part because i think her council meetings had become so crazy. there were so much fighting going on in cap calls from the audience that i think there was a feeling that the candidate might be able to control the passions of the crowd. in fact, even she has had difficulty. but i would say there is a lot more discussion now at city council about issues of race and issues that are of great interest to the african-american community, in particular, affordable housing and police conduct. host: you touched on this

briefly, but the status of the statue of robert e. lee. it was tied up in litigation? where does that stand? guest: that is right. of course, there are many civil war buffs, people who believe that the statue is history and should not come down. so when the city voted to take the statue down, and also to remove a statue of stonewall jackson, these groups went to court ensued. so, it is now going through the legal process. last night, when the demonstrators rallied around the statue, one of their demands was it be removed. host: do you know of specific plans for today? in charlottesville? guest: as i said, this group that rallied last night is supposed to rally against today. on a happier note, there will be a very large gathering in charlottesville. it is an art park.

about 400 people are expected to gather to sing songs of unity. "we are the world," "hallelujah," to sing out because they want to tell the world that what happened in charlottesville last year for the representation of the city. of all the racial problems we have had, it is a liberal and well-meaning place. and unlike other cities in america, we're trying to work things out. we are trying to find a way to live harmoniously, to celebrate diversity, and that performance will be part of the effort. host: these are among the ways that the city is trying to heal. how about the ongoing efforts? guest: i think there have been a lot of discussions. the city council is really struggling. it is really painful in the meetings. there is a lot of bickering on

the board. there is a lot of cat calling from the audience during the public comment period. we have folks getting up to the microphone and criticizing individual councilmembers. i guess in the fullness of time, we might say that change is never easy. this sort of discomfort is inevitable. but certainly, there is a lot of conscious -- consciousness being raised in charlottesville. i think people are more aware that the black community is not happy. the black community in charlottesville since i have moped or 10 years ago, seems rather quiet. and now, we're starting to see more young african-american community leaders come forward with complaints. and among other things, they referred to the university of virginia as "the plantation." many of them do work there. one of their target is a university and demands for a living wage. host: the university in charlottesville is about the

university of virginia. what have they done in the wake of last year's violence and protests? guest: you know, there have been statements from administration, expressing regrets for what happened last year. expressing opposition to white supremacy, obviously. and yesterday morning, the new president of the university, jim ryan, spoke to a group of perhaps three or 400 -- 300 or 400. and his message was one of humility, i would say. this is the first time, if i am not mistaken, that we have heard an actual apology from the university, if we can call it that. what he said to the students who confronted white supremacists as they marched across the lawn on the 11th of august is, i'm sorry, we're sorry. that could be an expression of regret them like i feel bad that happened. but it could also be something of an admission that the university failed. the critics say that if the

university had taken a tougher on theith those marchers 11th, we might not have seen the violence that we saw on the 12. but in fact, those tiki torch white supremacists were emboldened by the failure of the university to stop them. host: cindy housman joining us from -- sandy house and joining us from charlottesville. you can follow her reporting today on twitter. for youu so much joining us this morning. guest: my pleasure. "washingtonn journal," we're spending the entire program remembering the events in charlottesville a year ago today, and asking you, what is ahead? what is the status of race relations in your community? here is how to weigh in. 202-748-8000 is a number to call for folks in the eastern and central time zones. mountain and pacific, that number is 202-748-8001.

and you can also post your comments on facebook and send us a tweet at c-spanwj. inhear from ivan next massachusetts. good morning. caller: hi, good morning. it has been an interesting show. race relations all over the world have always been a problem in every country really sense the beginning of time. and i think, you know, the world has made a lot of progress. surly, america is probably the best country we have as far as race relations goes. but under president obama, who i voted for twice, i realized that there was also such a thing as black racists. which you know, it sounds shocking, but after the last two years of the obama administration, i realized that this goes two ways. and when eric holder said there

couldn't be any such thing as a black racist, and you know, black people cannot be convicted of the civil rights violation, i realized that maybe we are missing the boat and making a , ifake here in america that it passes laws like we have to protect black people, i wonder if there is such a thing as unintended consequences? we have reached the point now where a lot of people are resentful toward black people, that maybe would not have been. but we have reached a point that you are fearful of getting involved with a black person because if anything goes wrong, they are going to sue you and say you are violating their civil rights. i have come to change my thinking. i don't think they need this protected species legislation and this country, whether it is gays, or black people, or anybody. we all have to be equal, treated equally to the best we can.

but you cannot single out certain people and give them special protections because what that does, the unintended consequences, it is done the opposite of what civil rights laws -- host: but would you agree that it did take legislation and a legislations,eful the emancipation proclamation, the 15th amendment and the civil rights act to give african-americans equal representation? would you agree that those pieces of legislation, and a case of certain civil rights at the 15th a minute, were essential? yes, that is what we needed at the time. we try to get our best. i try my best not to be a racist, but what has happened over time is that the dynamics have changed. we have had a black president. we have had many black people who have really high positions. i think we don't need those

things anymore. now, i think they're causing a problem. i just want to say to all the black people who say, we were brought here as prisoners. we were brought here as slaves. yes, that is true. you were. that is no question. but look at the people in africa who were not brought here. art they so much worse off -- are not the sole much worse off -- aren't they so much worse off? africa has turned into a nightmare when they kicked out the white people. that is just the fact. it is a horrible, horrible place. it gets worse every day. if anyone who's ancestors were brought here as slaves, they should rank them. they are lucky. they are blessed to be in this country. and we have to let everybody be treated by their own efforts and their own work, and not by these crazy laws that have gotten way too far.

it is just creating more of a problem than solving. that is my take on everything. a caller from pit for, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. my name is chucky. i am calling from pittsburgh, new york. i want to make a comment that these people who try, including the last caller, to equalize the anger of black people of whites, are missing a lot of points. from the very start in the --ted states, they had their [indiscernible] changed a lotve but the united states, reached a point of being a welcoming country. because oft is that

int sizable amount of rage them, it has taken longer than it should for things to be -- [indiscernible] what do you expect? for decades and centuries when enslaved people and you were prejudiced against them. a number of them are going to hate white people. that is number one. number do we go, yes, since trump, i myself, am an immigrant, feel and have experienced much, much, much more racism unleashed. number three are the statistics. when the polls and everything i , we say it is 30%, 40% of the population who are racist, well that 40% comes to

about twice as high as a population of england. or england and french put together. person andng the those two countries were racist, that is how many races we have here -- that is how many racists we have here. if you are an immigrant or black , and that say dogs are following you and six of them are hissing. [indiscernible] host: we're going to move on to california. your thoughts on race relations in your community. where is paris, california? caller: it is in riverside county. good morning, c-span. host: good morning. caller: i don't want to speak for all black people. i just want to tell my story. , my parents'

ancestors were brought here in 1836, as far as we can trace our history back. probably even came in the 1619's. but 1836 is where we can trace our current family. in virginia. since then, a member of my family has served in the military. in 1908father was born and his grandfather was born in virginia. we have been here in this country for at least 300 years in my family. for somebody to give us a hyphenated name as an african-american or a black-american, we are just american. as far as it other thing goes as far as we want something, we

have earned it. i served in the military. i am 60 years old. my father served in the military in korea. my brother was killed in desert storm. i am right down the street from arlington cemetery. the base is right down the street. i'm sorry, i am a little nervous this morning. to.f my relatives lay there . host: in arlington national cemetery? caller: yes, and the cemetery, 50 of them. they have been here for centuries. and yet, you people don't understand. excuse me about the "you people," but the american people, we earned the right to be here. we earned the right to vote. this wasn't given to us.

we earned it. when heather's third army needed ler's army- when hit needed somebody to drive those tank into berlin, we did that and we still sad to sit -- and we still had to sit on the back of the bus. we are the most docile humble people in the world. host: henry, thank you for your call this morning. we appreciate all of your comments and calls. more coming up. 202-748-8000 for eastern and central and 202-748-8001 for mountain of specific. in yesterday's wall street journal, this photo from the site were heather heyer was killed in charlottesville, run over and that attack in charlottesville. one year later, charlottesville remembers violence. in new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say, sometimes

you got to excuse this expression. where is this problem coming from? we know where it is coming from. all of the attention, all of the attention is on overseas. all of our resources and all of the attention from this country is overseas. it is notsources -- given back to the people to help this country. onre is a lot of pressure the society and of the citizens. there is no opportunity. there is no out. people need help. of all those taxes, if they were used to help the people like they should be, then there would be no pressure, and people would not be fighting with each other. basically, that is where it is all coming from. nobody talks about that. but we are have not and talking about this small aspect.

and the side effects of the real problem. nobody is talking about that the government is focusing on the over investments and the corporations overseas. the military, one third of all the money taken in his been on the military, taken -- taking all of the interests. over and trying to protect the world instead of our own people. all of these other countries don't have that problem. host: alleged anti-semitic is from this morning posterior times. the headline -- anti-semitism problem develops into a crisis. william booth writing on the more polite political affairs show, what was described as the british labors problem with anti-semitic some has burst and

to a crisis engulfing opposition leader jeremy corbyn, who has been forced to apologize twice and vowed that anti-jewish poison has no place in his movement writing labor has spent the heat wave of midsummer twisting itself into knots over accusations that the party has condoned anti-semitic him. critics charged labor cannot untangle some members' fears harsh treatment of palestinians with statements with the jewish states rights to exist. jeremy corbyn host the 2010 panel where israelis were compared to nazis. he defended an artist's freedom of speech, but condemned that it failed to condemn the london mural that depicted jewish bankers plan monopoly on a board balanced on --

concedes relations between the jewlabourare at a new low. his defenders insist while there are a few anti-semitic voices among the 500,000 labour party members, it is a bury -- it is a very small number. jeremy corbyn supporters go further same year trying to smear the party and its leader. john. rancho, new mexico, hello, there. caller: thank you for throwing me in here now. turning this subject a little devices. seeing the labour party movement in england. host: sagan, john? i did not hear you. caller: have you ever had -- on your program? host: i don't know that he has been on "washington journal."

he may have been. we have tried, but we have not had him on "washington journal." we have covered events were he has spoken, yes. caller: the article that you referenced really reminds me of nigel. ofnow he wasn't the author the article or involved in it it anyway, but i would really recommend that would be a great guest. for all of this identity topics, i have been hearing that i have been sitting here in tears listening to this. here forhave been generations and bleeding and all of the wars and we are being divided bicolor -- being but a by color. it is not right. we have let too many immigrants in here. we definitely have a problem. we got all these groups on lining against -- get all of these groups aligning against us. they are against americans.

people who are been here forever. when you get the lgbt and the muslim group, and you get several of these groups, you know? if you don't have a group, you don't have any power. and what they are doing is called identity politics. they are tearing us all a part. they say we are a nation of immigrants. no we are not. if you had been here for 300 years like the caller who lost his brother, we are not all a nation of immigrants. he is just as much as an american is any indian. i got people who web-based here in every war. and i have relatives who came across to maryland. do you think there are people who came here from other places however long ago and we

mention a history of slavery in this country going back to 1619. would you say that is an accurate portrayal? caller: yes it is accurate. there was slavery. there was a martin luther king. i hate the way we are rewriting history. our history is a rich history, and the fact that a black man was enslaved and people have worked. like that guy said, we have bond these rights -- we have earned these rights. then we had indentured servants. workcame here 10 -- some for 10 years to pay off their work. host: all right. we will hear from don in sacramento. good morning. caller: yes. say, this is all bible prophecy. just like the bible says, the

his says, his people, ok, people are being oppressed. -- people are being racist his people -- racism is being done against, and racism is a -- racism is oppression. ain't know black people are able to a press anybody because we don't own anything. the bible says the earth is a given into the hands of the wicked. and the wicked are who owns this world, which is the white man. ok? truthsou get to the real of america, which are the blacks, hispanics, and the native americans here in america that were brought over here in slave ships. because of the wickedness that we have done toward our god, which is jesus christ, ok? which is a black man, all right. don't hang up on me because

every time i start talking about -- question into what our is, the state of race relations in sacramento. you are talking broadly here. specifically in your community, what is the solution? caller: ok. in thisiving because way because the bible says white folks have a perpetual hatred for blacks. and it is never done a change, no matter what we do. we were slaves already. and we were surveying you for almost -- the work serving you -- we were serving you for almost 300 years. we were never taken back to our homeland, which was israel that we were ran out of and africa, and sold into slavery by africans. host: we will continue to get some other voices as well. ricky in jacksonville, florida.

welcome. caller: good morning. good morning. these conversations should be have by y'all, c-span, i love you. i watch you once a week. i heard a guy saying black people being racist. and i am trying to figure out, my question to him and to the what audience -- how, broughtu think that black folks to be racist in this country? what are the components that led, if that is true, black folks to be racist? , oh mye in jacksonville god, it is just terrible. it is cosmetic racism. where you have blacks in positions, but the positions don't matter up to anything.

poor,the blacks are so and the so-called black leadership is so ignorant. there probably traveling in 1800s as far as black leadership goes. ricky, why are you so disappointed in black leadership in jacksonville? can said fiveou of them down in a room, and none of them have any answers. this has been going on and on. we had a black mayor here, alan brown, he is running for something here. he was even afraid to go with the president obama or his wife when they came. a young man said earlier, you have to be educated to the american process. yourself in involve

the process, then you cannot be mad at caucasian people. host: ricky in jacksonville, florida. three hours getting your reaction and your thoughts on the state of race relations in your community. this on the one-year anniversary of the violence in charlottesville, virginia with rallies planned and anticipated at the nation's capital. rally setthe right ii for 5:30 p.m. look for coverage here on c-span. throughout the program, we're hearing from a number of other voices and joining next to be a skype is devon ferguson. he is joining us to talk about race relations in the st. louis area, specifically in the four years since the shooting of michael brown in ferguson. professor fergus, thank you for being with us this morning.

what are some of your thoughts on the st. louis community in terms of race relations and where these things stand? guest: sure, thank you for having me today. i wish this was a happier event and occasion. as you mentioned, the ferguson shooting and killing of michael brown happened four years ago. and it is part of a larger sub which isi think, in the doj reported in 2016 and noted, that law enforcement in ferguson and in greater st. was trying to see targets and extractions. what happened with the michael

brown case with the shooting was part of the broader context in was beingenforcement seeking out by city managers to communitiesth from of caller -- communities of color. it goes back to public policy in many ways. in 1980, the state of missouri passed an amendment that authorized only through direct voters, could taxes -- through direct voter approval, taxes could be raised. cities have no other means to extracting.besides ist has happened in missouri

one study pointed out, since generatedof wealth throughout the country has been generated largely due to -- -- it wast context within that contest that -- it was within that context that you can see what happened with michael brown. we have been focusing the morning conversation on the state of race relations in communities across the country. we had a collar mention the broader interest that it is not a racial issue, but it is a class issue. i will tie this into a book are coming out with. of the hidden cross and the decline of the middle class," by devon fergus. hone in on that a bit terms of the plan of the middle class.

what are you touching on and what are you seeing specifically that applies to our discussion on race relations? caller: sure. absolutely right. in two i would say it is ways that ties into charlottesville. and you mentioned the rally theght in washington, d.c., unite the right ralllly y. white nationalists view themselves as under siege and view that the shifts of the nation is making them feel alienated. fact theyt with the feel like they are being marginalized economically. you see within -- you see throughout history, wherever there is a competition of wages and jobs, it heightens racial tension.

we see the origins of it. in the 1900s, it created competition for employment and jobs. they seem to be under siege and appears to be down economically. tensionthis economic and suppression has to do with the flatlining of wages. we have seen wage stagnation. real wages flatlining throughout the last few generations. and quarterly reports talked about nominal wages and the actual increase in real wages

has flatlined. working and middle-class americans, white americans view themselves under siege in many ways economically as the demographic is moving theoretically. as thelicymakers as well as media individuals -- [no audio] this heightened racial tensions throughout the country by this system of marginalization.

the second point that i want to make is what we also see as well as the demographic is changing. indicated that the middle class is becoming more race floral than ever before -- race plural than ever before. there is evidence that demographic trends are shifting and white americans feel marginalized. , policymakers, talking heads are going to take advantage of this economic trend. the fallout from ferguson in the killing of michael brown four years ago, some political fallout that there was a story in a prosecutor, wesley bell ousting the prosecuting attorney. robert mcculloch' eight-year run

as an elected prosecutor came to a stunning end tuesday when he was upset by ferguson councilmembers promised to reform the criminal justice system. wesley bell earned 57% of the vote in that race. did that surprise you? yes and no. in thehat's happening local and national elections the last 24 months, very little surprises me on the electoral front. running against the incumbent, , buts also city councilman also heavily organizing in the community, so a political figure that was also a community activist. he did the organic sort of work that an election requires. it doesn't surprise me, really, that much. there's been real fallout in terms of the area for

ferguson in terms of tourism, etc., like that. how about the community itself, how is it doing? guest: the community is still sort of struggling. if you look at the numbers in ,erms of rates of unemployment look at the numbers in terms of -- median wages and the high school graduation rates, they's remain fairly consistent the national racial disparities. this is some improvement, actually, in some of those categories, but it is such a wide gap involved in terms of white fear in the broader society. and it's not just a ferguson that become. there are issues of race, rasul tension. in 2017 the naacp issued a

travel it ties a refer those traveling from the state of missouri. not something that is endemic to ferguson. in fact the doj report b-17 thinks that ferguson is not the worst of the actors. it was to be the place in which the flashpoint occurred, but it's not the worst in terms of the extraction of wealth by law enforcement and embedded by the .ourts and city officials ferguson is not actually the worst of it. in fact, in some municipalities in the greater st. louis region, you could be fined for having mismatched curtains. any kind of way in which to raise revenue and using law enforcement as the arm of wealth extraction. your own university was impacted by the fallout from the protest, etc., paying someone $.3 million on public relations

to fix some of the negative image after the protest. after the protest the enrollment falling after that. how have things fared since then at the university of missouri? guest: i'm glad you brought that up. so, i would -- the university is paying, fiscally, economically, financially. the consequences have been sort of layoffs in the university of staff and some faculty. so, the university is still paying financially and economically. it is being penalized and there were protests on campus. these protests on campus were done by graduate students, by student athletes.

badhear so many awful and things about student half eats, but here on this campus we have student athletes that were so important, they have this symbolic role on campus and in the city of symbolic representation in politics. they are often given a bad rap, but the policy leadership points , theye politics involved are able to have strong material and important value and we see that with the student athletes that were protesting football players, particularly on campus. -- theone of the regions reasons i came to this institution, the socially conscious and aware student athletes that we have. , you canin fergus follow him on twitter and his book is "the land of hidden costs in the decline of the american middle class. professor, thank you for being with us.

this morning we are spending the morning getting your thoughts on the situation with race relations in your community one year after the charlottesville protest. our numbers are (202) 748-8000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. reach us on twitter, we are @cspanwj. this tweet from steve --

madison, wisconsin. keith, good morning, thanks for waiting, go ahead with your comments. i object toller: the idea that black people are racist. they cannot be racist. white racism has the weight of history behind it. it's institutionalized. it's a social, political, and psyched up -- psychological force and it cannot be dealt with on an individual basis. there has to be a material component. i would think a guaranteed minimum wage would undercut racism. i'm a marxist and have a materialistic conception of history. let me just mention something about lack lives matter. i hear some white collars calling in and saying that black

lives matter is a racist organization. i have gone to their marches and i have never been denied the right to march with them. they always welcome me with open arms. some criticism of black lives matter. i think that their agenda is fairly narrow. it's not the black panthers. they were a revolutionary already. they wanted the overthrow of , replaced with socialism. black lives matter simply once atk people not to be killed sure judicially by cops. that's all they want, that's a very narrow agenda. white people who object to black lives matter, they hate the whole term because they don't want black lives matter. they don't want them to matter at all. they don't want lack people to have opportunities with white. it's like a 100 yard --. they want black people to stay at the starting line while they get the 20 yard head start and they object to the idea that lack people can run the 100 yard

-- with them at the same starting line. host: keith, are you still there? you are calling from madison, a college town, university of wisconsin. likeare race relations there, particularly on campus? caller: it's no different than anywhere else. it's a liberal town. we had some white cop to couple of years ago who threw a young black woman down on that ground outside of a mall, embarrassing many in the community. all she was doing was complaining about something being stolen and these cops, they turned on her. we lost a lot of good white and black talent. they were going to move to madison. we were excited about some decent, talented, it went to -- intellectual black people that were going to move to madison, but they can -- reconsidered after that.

host: we will hear from buffalo next. this is tosha. caller: good morning. the manna called in, i would say the ignoramus that called in and said that slavery was a good african-americans and the african-americans in africa benefited from white people? that statement in itself can tell you the state of race to even make that statement. i used to get really violently angry when i hear white people talk that. now i am just more flabbergasted. either you know the history and if you know the history and you still slip -- still say that slavery was good for africa and africans? you are just a coldhearted person. another point, you don't know the history to say that.

europe underdeveloped effort. europe did africa no favors. africa gave america everything. americans went over there, europeans went over from all walks. from portugal to everywhere else and extracted everything from mother africa. that's why in the day aspirin a you have black people of african descent all over the continent, all over the world because and extracted its people. for him to sit up and make an ignorant statement like that, it just shows the state of race relations. i must say this. this is the problem with racism. white mythology just grows and grows and grows until white mythology gets this mantle -- dismantled, we will keep having this conversation, people around the mountain because white people are fed a diet of lies. think part of that

is the education system? we study the civil war, of werse, but do you think study enough about the roots of the civil war? the slavery system that was the cause of it all? .aller: of course we don't of course, we don't. you have now where they revise history to say that slavery was voluntary or whatever. nonsense to say right. let's say this. the state of relations will never get at her. that's why we keep having this conversation. it never gets better. it's the same old same old repackaged. until we dismantle white mythology and the white lies that white folks -- not all, but a great majority, they live and at lackn -- they look people and they are fed a history of black people being inferior. if you studied black history, we had civilization before bc.

host: kind of an agreement here from twitter, roger tweets -- host: the congressman from buffalo, chris collins, announcing yesterday that he is suspending his campaign in the wake of a federal indictment late last week. post" this "washington piece, they write that "beyond mr. collinspeutics, has held leadership roles in other biotech pennies -- -- companies --

host: "the washington post" writes that "mr. collins had no business serving on this publicly traded company from the get go --

host: again, he was indicted last week, issuing a statement yesterday that he is suspending his campaign. chris collins, of the new york 27th district. east lansing, michigan, we hear from andre. no ahead. i was calling for the race relations topic. seems like part of the issue, this doesn't improve it because this is a hard topic discussed, but there's a big issue with a lack of empathy and listening. i will give you some examples. when the nfl players are taking a knee, i know it's highly

controversial, but i think the problem with that is that that of people that when i zynga, they should actually take a and maybelisten empathize with what the players are trying to stand up for. of you back off of that, i would say that to mend the race relations, to start, anyway, it's kind of like those therapy. if you have a spouse and you two are going back and forth and arguing, the first thing you learned there if he is that you need to stop and acknowledge what the other person is thinking and their feelings, if you don't acknowledge it, you're not giving validity to the person, belittling them, which allows for no healing to occur. in this case, mentioning the players, the action by the owners in the off-season was to set timelines and. were they not listening to what the players were saying? i don't feel like --

that's kind of a tough one in summers x. i don't feel that they were listening to what the players were saying. at the same time i understand it's also a is this. they don't want to like -- lose customers. but if they could have done some more stuff to be more proactive or listen to what the players were saying, help them out, continue to help them facilitate the improvements the black layers were trying to get addressed is that of kind of going -- not necessarily going out of their way, but just kind of like hauling them into a little -- you have to do it this way or nothing. it doesn't allow them to give them a voice. the black players and the white players that were doing it, too, they were just standing up and trying to demonstrate how they feel about something that is really them into them. host: of course, the president

has continued to weigh in on it. the happy, be cool, a football paying sofans are much money to watch and enjoy, it's no place to protest, most of the money goes to the players anyway. standard -- stand proudly for your national anthem or be suspended without pay." that's from the president. we hear from this, next, in st. maarten, california. host: i want to comment about the lady who called an earlier about being harassed in a handicapped parking spot. i have been harassed by them. it goes to show you that she took it out as being a racist thing. there are a million people out there that don't like arcing and handicap spots. it's a double standard. if i criticize a black version, i'm a racist. a black person criticizes a white worsen, they have the right to do that because we oppress them. host: to be clear, that caller from virginia i think it was,

she didn't specifically mention being called the n-word, we didn't get into the details, but her take away from that incident was that she was being targeted because of her race. her -- that's her thinking. can i say that i was targeted for parking and handicap spot because of my race? no, she was probably harassed as she was in a handicap spot, like i was. she never said anything about being called anything like that. -- you agreed with her, said that happen to you? that happened to me. there are people out there that don't like people parking in the handicap spots. as far as race goes, it just shows you that when a white worsen says anything bad about black people or criticizes anything, it's racism, even if it's true. ok.: to roger, next. plainfield, new jersey. the situation in race relations in your community, roger.

caller: this is the topic of the century. you know? that a lotonception of people have. which is that black people can be racist. racism has nothing to do with prejudice. everybody is prejudiced. only white people who are in power can institute the institution of racism through manipulation of their prejudice views. ok? you know, black evil really don't care what white people think about them. we care about the racism that is instituted against us that doesn't allow us to live the american dream. and it's predicated on one thing. truth versus lies. one of your callers called in and said -- the country has been

fed lies. that's the truth. if you go to the bible, the bible describes jesus as having a bronze, woolly head. you have never seen that picture of jesus. it's always a blonde and blue-eyed feature of jesus. host: -- picture of jesus. , they're ine plainfield, racism, where do you feel that those keenly? caller: racism is -- host: for you, personally. caller: i feel it every day. it's in every institution in america. the banking, the schooling. the health care. whatever institution you talk about, racism is involved. it affects me and every other black worsen, ok?

i grew up in planes field. they had a riot in 1967 that was predicated off of racism. it was predicated off of prejudice. a white police man shot an unarmed black man that facilitated that riot. it was put in the paper as -- black people doing something to facilitate the riot. so, it's the information that we .re given that's distorted it's not accurate and it's not shrewd. host: appreciate you weighing in, roger. we are spending the morning on "washington journal" getting your thoughts on race relations are us the community. those of you in the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8001 --(202) 748-8000. (202) 748-8001, mountain and pacific. we are joined now by skate -- on

skype by professor mays. minnesota was said to be the second worst in the u.s. for racial equality. where do things stand today? we talk to you now some two years from the shooting there in minneapolis of a lot of test field. shooting there in minneapolis of philando castile. guest: we are in the same place. that report talked about all of the disparities sate -- disparities in the state. ,ou are absolutely right minnesota shows up at the top of the list. one or two. interestingly, the upper midwest was really one of the worst regions to live in. when you look at the indicators, whether it is income, education, health, home ownership,

certainly incarceration rates, minnesota absolutely ranks at the top of the list. or close to the top of the list. it is appalling and it's confusing. people don't understand why a state that understandably and historically has been so liberal and progressive when you talk about the 20 plus, 30's, and 40's, this is democratic armed labour territory. it used to mean something in the early 20th century. apparently those decades have gone. host: why doesn't that mean anything anymore? how are the policies of that party different then where things stand now in i think thatest: if you look at the national political picture, the democratic party is a much more centrist party and our state mirrors other states, where you have deep blue pockets in the big cities.

minneapolis and st. paul. it tends to carry the state democratically. some blue places have turned purple. the state errors wisconsin. wisconsin is read red outside of milwaukee and madison and i think that minnesota is going that way, too. it's a red outside the twin cities and i think that has everything to do with the national political landscape with the democratic already being a much more centrist party. it's hard to pull the party back to the left. i think the party needs to go back to address these disparities and inequalities. host: headline there from minnesota back in july on the second anniversary, the vigil held on the second anniversary of the full on deal -- philando shooting death, what

have police done to improve relations in the community? guest: one of the things that was so gutwrenching was his young child and his wife in the backseat of the car. he also had a permit to carry the firearm. also announced to the police officer that he had a permit to carry. and for some reason we keep trying to figure out why it's so difficult for african-americans to not get the benefit of the doubt when they are caught up in a situation where they have appeared -- permit that they owned legally to carry a firearm and police officers cannot disengage or cannot figure out a way to disarm black people who do have firearms to carry. subsequently, the case was settled. arrested, tried,

and found not guilty. left us really has wondering when we can get justice, how we can get justice. interestingly, we have had a couple of other cases since philando castile. we had a young man named thurmond levens shot and killed. and interestingly, we had a black minneapolis cop that was charged for killing a white woman and his case is pending in the court. thatve a number of cases are swirling and circulating in the twin cities and it will be very interesting to the what some of the outcomes are. you touched on this earlier, do you think that because the upper midwest, minnesota, second worst in terms of racial inequity, do you think that the story of that geographic area doesn't get told

nationwide because it is not an area where people would expect to have racial tensions? guest: absolutely i think that. if you look at the demographics, folks assume that the lack of black density in the state of minnesota would make the difference. chicago, illinois as the state shows up on the list. a lot of black density, a lot of folks in that state, mainly in the city of chicago, but it doesn't matter if the demographics are high or low when it relates to black folks. the same issue still permeates. south dakota is on the list. so his iowa, minnesota, , a clusterillinois of midwestern states. whether you have a low population of black folks or a lot of black folks, it just doesn't matter. average income for black folks, $30,000. average income for whites,

$70,000 per year. looking at the opportunity and achievement cap and education, the disparities, we get reports about a state of minnesota being one of the best states to live in. they never add the caveat that it is one of the best states are white people to live in. black folks in the state have a very different experience, even in 2018. host: certainly minnesota minneapolis in particular has a strong advocate in the form of keith ellison, the first muslim elected to congress. very active in democratic party politics and a prominent voice on the house floor. how do you see his voice being heard? has he made a difference? guest: keith allison has made a difference. but just like any other progressive politician, particularly black politician, seems to be constrained by the state party politics as well as

the national, as i mentioned before. we have a lot of folks coming up. keith allison has decided to run for attorney general. we will see how that turns out. representative omar has thrown her name into the hat. in the fifth congressional district. she will probably win that, a fresh face with a fresh voice. theill see she can to move agenda of the democratic party nationally as well as in the state. but it is very difficult. i think that we always even mind that as the social wind blows in the country, it always dictates how a party should move. i heard your previous caller talking about black lives matter and the social justice movement. we have to return to the days when those movements helped to dig eight the agenda of local, state, and the national party.

right now that's not happening. byt: keith mayes, joining us skype, he's on twitter. mayesunmollow him on on twitter. guest: thank you. this morning, getting your thoughts on the state of race relations in your community. is the number to call in the eastern and central time zones. mountain and1 four pacific. c-span will have coverage today of the two rallies that are planned. the one today, the counter protest is actually first today, coming up at 12:30 eastern. we will have coverage of the rally set for 5:30 eastern. whyll-page ad and taken out -- charlottesville strength

by the charlottesville strength. we will look at that and go to a caller in washington. eric, good morning. good morning. i am from washington, d.c. and i have an old enough to be a participant or spectator of so many protest in my hometown. from the vietnam antiwar march through the iran contra and the various protest in lafayette park, i would like to remind americans that this is an opportunity for free speech and for people all over the world to ourselvesw we conduct in an effort to get our voices heard. thank you for c-span. my other comment is that one of the places of the rallies today is in lafayette park. and in lafayette park is a statue of [indiscernible]

in 1817 as a friend of george washington and thomas jefferson, he left in his last will and testament $100 would be given to each of the african slaves who helped in the construction of what became west point. thomas jefferson refused to honor his friend's humanitarian gesture. , the u.s. supreme court gave what was left of the state to his descendents in europe. this is an example of the institutional racism in europe, where the executive branch and the judiciary branch failed to take the opportunity to help make over 100 years ago this statue is in laughing at park. for all of those who have a chance to go down, you might put a flower at the base of the statue of [indiscernible]

thank you for c-span. next we're going to charleston, west virginia, to hear from paul. caller: good morning, how are you doing? host: fine, thank you, paul. caller: i have been listening to this ongoing process of a conversation that seems to be based in previous research that has been done by two specific people that i can think of. margaret mead, in relation to her tribalism in the pacific and her observation on our species. and the necessity of the function of convention. and then to couple this with skinner and his research on behavioral modification. i think it's core to the overall discussion of the process of hate that we are involved in.

i would like to hear people familiar with anthropology. what do you think? give us a specific example of what you mentioned and how that ties into our conversation. well, the problem i see, i have an allegory i tell. can i tell a small allegory? host: mm hmm. caller: i like dogs. down the street for me there is a dog that is kind of mean. and if you go by, he barks at you. and he also chases cars. i have talked to the dog. mass, momentum, velocity, and vectors of force. i haven't had an effect on changing the behavior of the

dog. john in pink mead, michigan. caller: i would like to talk about the relations of race in my community. community, we live a proximally triangular between three big cities. most of the crime that we see in our community comes from these three big cities. they come into our area and you read the paper and they are in here's dealing, moving drugs, things like that. but you know what we don't have in our community? in the direct community that i live in, where we are within the top five in the united states of eating the safest community.

you know why? because there are no blacks here. specifically listed as the reason is among the safest? of the it is one reasons, yes. but let me tell you what, you don't want to say that. i posted that on facebook and guess what? they eliminated me from facebook. that goes to show you how prejudiced facebook is. blacks ine are no your community because it's unaffordable, because it's more rural? caller: it's a rural community. probably that's a good share of it. much, youst pretty know, it's a republican community. it's a conservative community. but we don't have the crime that we have in the triangular area of three of the biggest cities around, which are mostly blacks. host: how big is your town or

should mark -- town? caller: we read in the paper, every day, one of the cities, detroit, michigan, there are people being killed every day. every day you read in the paper where there are drive-by shootings. it's just one of those situations where that's why, you know, a lot of us white people are basically afraid of those areas. that you said yourself are a rural community, your town is very different from detroit. what is one of the other big cities you are near? caller: lansing. lansing, michigan and flint, michigan. and like i said, most of what we read in the local paper of in ourthat are happening

community are people that come areas in the shopping centers, in the stores, and are being arrested for trying to steal things. host: ok. here is olympia, washington. elaine, welcome. not in i'm generally favor of any kind of segregation, but you hear a lot about black people not being satisfied with the judicial system. i can understand that. think, i wonder if it would help -- they are supposed to be judged by a jury of their peers. worsen had a black to have a complete lack of jury, black prosecutor, black defendant, black judge. perhaps then they wouldn't feel like they are treated unfairly

because they are treated by their peers. the second thing i wanted to talk about was -- i grew up around black people. in a city that had a black population. all my life i have been around black will. , it changed when the black population started instigating crime. it changed my attitude of black people. because never before was i even aware of their color, let alone their behavior. host: this was in olympia? caller: tacoma, washington. yeah. but, when their behavior changed, then maybe -- my attitude towards them changed because then you become afraid of them. you don't know if you should trust them are not. the people that i know intimately, you know, those are

my friends. but the people that i don't know who are on the street or , you don't know if you can trust them. that is causing a lot of the rift tween the whites and the blacks, i think. and even with the police. host: when you go down the streets, people that you don't trust are not the same color is you? so if you see a stranger that is a white person? caller: depending on where i am. in general -- i was a liquor enforcement officer for a while. if i started getting trapped by a black worsen, trust, that was very uncomfortable. and i might not feel that if it was a white person. but knowing the crime that is perpetuated, that made the very -- a lot of them are into drugs. they want to rob you because they want money for drugs. and that happens a lot in the

inner-city. caller: that's elaine in olympia, washington. we are getting your thoughts one year since the charlottesville violence. your thoughts on race relations in your community. protest last night in charlottesville, specifically, and the reporting here from "the ," this wasess updated last night at around 11:00. a planned student protest at the university of virginia quickly turned into a rolling rally that traversed the grounds, part of charlottesville and wound up at market street park along the way , about 125 protesters made it past security perimeters placed downtown and marched towards the statue of robert e lee around 9 p.m. before this pursing. the demonstration was originally planned as a student rally to take act the grounds and

commemorate students who protected a statue of thomas jefferson during last year's torch lit march by nazis and s."te supremacist bob, good morning. caller: michigan. host: yes. caller: i'm surprised, it's a famous town. host: whereabouts? caller: just south of sag and not. -- saginaw. it's a german themed town. shout out to that guy from pinckney, that needed to be said, it's exactly right. saginaw is pretty nasty, too. they wear hats that say nasty. it's pathetic. theow, i want to talk about state of race relations here. we are a tourist town. we get people from all over the world.

we got the arabs, we got the blacks. you name it. the indians, you name it. these people coming here and we have a great time. we sit together, sit around, open air places where we listen to polka music. believe me, you don't want to commit any crimes in this town. the cops will drop the hammer on you. this is a beautiful place to live, i wouldn't want to live anywhere else host:. gary -- anywhere else. host: gary, baltimore, maryland. caller: we have had our own issues around race recently in baltimore with the death of freddie gray at the hands of police here in baltimore. we are a majority african-american city. 62 to 65%, depending on who you ask. and it is definitely still a big problem with race.

because baltimore was the surrounding county. the narrative was always similar to what you'll heard other people say. you know, that black democrats took over the city and black democrats are ruining the city end, you know, don't go to baltimore, it's unsafe and everything. you hear that narrative, but in reality, the majority of the city is really safe. especially if you are not involved in the truck trade. so, not just like the harbor or the tourist areas. but there are places with strong, black middle class and working as neighborhoods with grocery stores and is like that. but the narrative throughout the state is always the baltimore is unsafe. how do things: stand between the community and the police? caller: i would say that there is still a lot of mistrust. we have a doj dissent the with a community board working to

implement that. people are still really nervous about calling the police. the police distrust the community and i think it's going to be a long, long time. and then we have issues of the baltimore city police being found stealing drugs from doug -- from drug dealers in baltimore and selling them to other police officers in philadelphia. and then also baltimore city police planting weapons to get false gun charges. so, there is still a lot of mistrust and, i think, to be honest, legitimately so. i don't think that baltimore is the only city with that kind of dynamic tween the police and the community. one quick thing, to, one of the dynamics that has shaped baltimore, white flight. not only in the 60's, but the 80's, through-- the 90's. what happened here is that as white people moved out into the

suburbs and emptied the cities, the second dynamic that happened is now that middle-class and wealthy white moved back into baltimore, it pushed poor black people -- poor white people out into the suburbs. have a white working-class neighborhood. what often happens is white working-class people are told that it's people of color, you know, we have a large immigrant -- a growing immigrant folks,ion and that black hispanic folks, latino folks are the reason why the white working-class people got dispersed, but in reality, all the gentrifying neighborhoods were white working-class neighborhoods. they would gentrify and then they ended up the coming a kind of white upper to middle-class

wealthy neighborhood. host: thanks for that view from baltimore from gary. this from rick on twitter -- georgia.der springs, tim, good morning. go ahead with your comments. caller: i want to comment about race relations in your -- this country. i'm 61 years old. i'm a proud american and we have always been talking about this issue. i think we should focus more on

the human race and not so much the division of where people are from. our country has been hurt and our country has suffered. the fact that still call others out as racist, pointing them out socially and economically, it's disturbing. i'm a proud american. but i think we should focus more that's myan race comment for this morning. host: all right, here's howard. indiana. welcome. race relations have definitely gotten worse over the last few years with trump in office. he's a horrible leader. he has not been a leader to

unite a country where diversity has really been our strength. we will see the damage that comes from this time when we look at how blacks have employment ranks and management ranks in years down the line. racism, where i live i don't see blatant racism, though there have been incidents trump has been elected. at my kid size will there has and vandalism with racial epithets. those kinds of issues. what you are going to see it more in areas where blacks don't appear, like in some courtrooms where managers are being selected and where other employment decisions are being made. emboldened has been in those decisions, we won't see that until a few years down the line. i think we have an awful leader

in office and it will be incumbent on all of us to really push back on this administration. just the level of decline we have seen in advancing equal rights, really embracing all people. i will leave you with this. i am in my 60's now. i have had some success in this , this is a country where the majority of people are of goodwill and want to see america progress, but i don't believe that today. i don't believe that we are a country with a majority of goodwill. i think there are people with hard views and negative views on race that have been spurned by this awful leader and we are going to really have to grapple with this and it is incumbent on white people to push back.

blacks are not in the board room where these decisions are made. it will be whites and their peers who will really have to call out racism in their contact with different groups. thank you for letting me make my comment. comment --s a

is in springfield, oregon. go ahead. good morning. springfield, oregon. are you on the line? we are going to lawrenceville, georgia.

welcome. you are on the air. hi, i wanted to refute the gentleman from michigan who called, pick me, something like that near detroit? lansing? there ishat he's -- kind of a bifurcation in the black community. there is a culture in the black community that is problematic to say the least. a lot of crime in that particular culture. i live in when it county outside atlanta. ago,i moved here 20 years there was never he a black person in our neighborhood. like to bring families with 179 homes. the 40's now.'s crime is not going up in the area. i think to just automatically say that there -- because there

are no blacks, there is no crime? genuine'sit this and an element in the black community with higher crime than the white community, and if that comes to your area, you will experience additional crime, but i think it was over the top to make that comparison to that extent. int: jack is next scottsdale, arizona. we are asking people about the state of race relations in their community. good morning, jack. caller: thanks for taking my call. that one caller who commented that trump was the worst. for eight years, what if obama's had chopped off head and showed that on tv? all of these other racist elites in new york and hollywood, p,mmenting on all their cra nobody ever did that. just to let that go. but here's my comment on the race thing. you know, the blacks, i grew up

in an area in the east where we all got along. you know why? because everybody worked areas they had jobs. jobs are coming back and guess what -- host: where did you grow up? caller: in a small town in ohio, outside a big town. the bottom line is, though, the point i'm making is jobs are coming back. unemployment for the hispanic and africans are lowest it has been. everybody starts working when you get jobs. here's the thing about race relations that gets me. you know, the black athletes, most of them, here's what's get allas soon as they the money, they moved to where the rich white people are. they moved to where the rich white areas are. they don't go back to the black communities where they came from.

try to help the community? the bottom line is -- until everybody -- the one guy is right, it is an economic climate and it always will be. but relax, you know? there are blacks who are conservative, ok? they necessarily don't go to where the whites are. they want to be around the other blacks to help the blacks and teach them to get better. same with white. ways.wing goes both if you look at the majority of the blacks. especially the athletes, they just don't move back to where they came from. jack mentioned the unemployment situation in the country. the jobs numbers. the president touting that yesterday in one of a number of tweets, saying that he was proud

to have fought for and secure the lowest african-american and hispanic unemployment rates in history and now i'm pushing for prison reform to give people have paid their debt to society is second chance and i will never stop reading for all americans." ralph is next in oklahoma. good morning, ralph. caller: good morning, good arning, i would like to say couple of things. i hate number 45. and i would like to say -- i think that we have too much desegregation. we need more segregation between the races. trying to make people like other people. we are just wasting our time. inc. you. caller: lafayette -- host: lafayette, louisiana. ronald is next up. your thoughts on race relations in your community. go ahead, ronald. do reasonably well here.

the races doesn't mix too terribly much socially. even religiously, you don't see many blacks in white churches and what have you. having policeman, like william white, who is a things that gets the city in an uproar -- he was for people making false arrest, what have you. of course, the federal judge annexeded the case was police man. so consequently, he wasn't convicted. in fact, the case probably wasn't even published because they kept all of that quiet. the city has paid an enormous andnt of money to law firms

what have you to keep things quiet. us notess other than , that's whyery much our situation is fairly calm here. host: have things changed in lafayette over the past years? is very different now than they were a year ago, five years ago? caller: other than -- other than not having people mix. i don't see much change. i still have friends that are racist. they tell me racist things on consequently, having served in the service with black people.

they watched my back and i watched there's. i have probably a different attitude to black worsen. ronald, -- black person. had you handled the situation like that, ronald? you are among guys were saying something racist, whether it is a joke or a comment, generally what do you try to do? caller: well, you just hold your tongue and you tell yourself that this is a's to bid, uninformed person who has never had to defend on his fellow man, be him black. hard to live more or less hidden. thanks for being part of

the discussion. we hear next from donna, in westerville, ohio. donna, go ahead. caller: i actually live in reynolds will. i live in an integrated senior citizen building and i love it. it's about 60% white, 40% lack. i think we live in a complicated time. change happens so often. labor unions are not big. i understand how black people feel. sometimes they think someone is racist when they are not. but you know, it's very easy to see color. i know that there are racist people, white people that are prejudiced.

i know that there are black people that are very hateful to whites. but i can understand. i'm not a physical person that would fight or commit crime or things, but i can understand how it but surely men. young men can get angry when they are black because there is prejudice. and it's not -- it's not thinkl, in my opinion, to that human beings based on their color of skin -- i think that everyone has an innate feeling of justice and when they have felt that something like skin color -- what if we discriminated a son eyecolor, you know? i can understand it. and i can also understand why people feeling very confused.

it's easy for people to have an enemy. i have a brother who's a christian. i'm a christian as well, but he -- i don't agree with president trump's divisive nature. he's a conservative republican, so he supports president trump. but i just ask questions to i will ask a question to see if i can get some of my white friends to this about what divisiveness is doing to the country. whenother didn't say much i bought a couple of things that with how president trump talks. he just said -- well, you know, president -- and president obama didn't go to a zero tolerance.

it wasn't a negotiating technique that he has to win no matter what he has to do. and he said -- well, they didn't have to deal with all the movements. everything's a movement. black lives matter, me too. but my brother is not black or a woman. so he can't feel what others do. back to what you are urgently said. you are in a senior center, i think you said 60% white, 40% black. how different is that make up from where you were living, the neighborhood you came from before? caller: when i was a child i grew up in an all white neighborhood and one black person moved in and boy the neighborhood turned and in a year i think we were the only whites left. i lived there for about four years. but then i moved to all white areas. we moved. my father wouldn't sell the

house until he can get the price for it. we moved to an all-white neighborhood. actually, i like some of the other stuff that her. , i didn't haverl any teenage friends because all the people on my block were younger black people and i taught them kick ball and stuff. anyhow, as a child i wrote my bike one-mile up with my black friends. black girlfriends in the all-white neighborhood. and i was only about 13 and she was 11. a white teenage boy yelled out and atdow nigger lover the time i wasn't articulate and i sensed that the real thing he was saying was that someone who looks like me should not be around someone that looks like her and i felt very embarrassed and it was my first touch with peoplethat some white

judged, put people down just as of the color of their skin. host: glad you could call in and tell us that story and your experience. more now from darlene in we geton, new york, as your thoughts about race relations around the country. caller: it's actually henderson, nevada. host: i'm sorry, yet. -- yup. caller: when i look at america, my dad was in the air force for 26 years. i understand the integration movement. i also understand the ability of what happened during segregation is black people were getting educated and now they are not. they are not controlling the education. blacks in america don't control anything. we participate. how is it the law requires you to get a public education and you don't did a basic education? 12 years you come out and you

can't work. there's no job training for these people. they are just living amongst themselves, taking from each other. that's called taxation without representation. you turn around you get dmx, wesley snipes, this people that went to jail for not paying their taxes. don't haves oversight of the use of public funds and neither do the people. local towns it's just like it was on the plantation. they want one person to come speak for the group and it doesn't change anything. we are all americans and in america, that's what we have to be. all americans. we have heard from the president and we expect to hear more about the rallies in the nation's capital. the planned rallies, anyway. rallyite the right two today. the counter protest happening

ahead of that this afternoon coming up at 12:30. live coverage here on c-span. expecting to hear more from the president. ivanka trump waiting in yesterday with a series of tweets saying that while americans host: here is lynn, in columbus, ohio. there you are, go ahead, good morning. i wanted to respond because there was an earlier caller who spoke about being distrustful of black people because of crime or whatever. but when i look at history, i say to myself, considering all that has been done to black people, who should really be mistrustful and apprehensive of whom? i also feel that we need to stop looking at the color or saying quite people.

what we really need to look at his history and we need to try to find out what the psychological reason is for why some of the things happen and why "white" people did what they did. when i look back, it's a pretty well-known photo of a group of caucasian people watching a hanging. you see smiles on their faces. it's known that they would let out churches, which these people were supposed to believe in god and they would let out schools and allow their children to watch this. did to to study what it these people, psychologically and that this was passed down from generation to generation. there is something seriously wrong with people who claim they believe in god but would let out churches or let their young children watch the hanging of another human being.

has nothing to do with their color but something that has happened throughout the generations, something that had happened to them that would cause them to have such deep hatred for someone because of the color of their skin. host: more of your calls, coming up. we are joined professorn, sociology at the college of ny in new york city. joining us this morning as we get input and feedback or may number of people on race relations around the country. joining us specifically to talk about where things stand and that of eric garner. rate the state of race relations and police relations with the community in new york city? guest: we definitely continue to have problems there. with the case of erica garner, it's connected to one of the big issues in new york city,

gentrification. erica garner was killed in an aria -- area of staten island where developers are very much interested. in new york, leasee a lot of stories about the remote gentrification, real estate development. things like landlords not doing repairs on apartments, turning up the heat, making living conditions terrible so that tenants leave. [inaudible] [indiscernible] and trump is certainly in support of these real estate product -- practices. he and his father were sued in the 1970's for racially coding the applicants of the people to live in their apartment building. they would put a c if it was a

person of color. if he has any influence on this, it's going to worsen. host: this echoes some of the comments we have heard this morning about not only racism, but the plight of the middle-class. people talking not just about income, in one case a caller mentioning neighborhoods causing white flight and those middle-class people being forced out of their neighborhoods in cities like baltimore and such. sounds like a similar situation in new york city that spreads beyond being just a racial issue. well, it's been both race and class and a lot of the people historically pushed out have been african-american and there is definitely an intersection of both factors. host: this headline, the nypd producing internal affairs charges against the officers in

the eric garner death. have police changed their interaction target -- practices with potential suspects in the city? i think they have tried to implement some measures of community policing, meeting with residents and talking with them to have more of that community policing, where they would know the residence that they are supposed to be protecting. i'm not sure -- we are not seeing an immediate effect and changes. i think the people of color that people, that african-americans are still targeted. i think that in staten island there are still problems with that. i don't know, we might see changes moving forward? it's a good idea to have those talks. but when you have those community talks it's a russian of how safe people can feel in

voicing their opinions and if you are from a community that has been targeted, you might not feel safe in opening up what's going on with the policing when only certain people show up for those sorts of things. i think that there has to be some structural level of change in how police are trained, recruited, the types of people who are drawn to this type of occupation, this type of training that they are receiving. more accountability. i know for example in the case of tamir rice, which wasn't in new york city, but the issues there were clear. that officer was i believe fired from his previous job in his supervisor wrote all sorts of troubling things about this man's mental emotional health, yet he was still hired elsewhere and then shot tamir rice. there has to be more theuntability in looking at police officers who are being hired and their behavior. who have taken this long to see

any action on the erica garner case. is thengie beeman associate professor at baruch college in new york city. thank you for being part of our conversation this morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will continue to get your thoughts in the remaining minutes here. what are the state of race relations in your community? (202) 748-8000 four eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 four mountain and pacific. city, missouri. rob, hello there. yes, good morning, everyone. i heard on the bill marshal thatrday, someone said obama is who we aspire to be and .rump is who we really are i think that racism is a systemic problem in america. it's like a slow burn apartheid

that never seems to go away. people don't see themselves as racist. in terms of the protest in charlottesville against racism, you see young people, even young people protesting. the people calling in on your show happen to be older white will probably be watching fox news after the show is over and that is where they get their opinions from and they continue to say things like -- well, crime is only a black problem. it's not only lack problem. -- black problem. whatever there is poverty, there is going to be crime. what do you do when you can't feed your baby? a convenience store to put food on the table or something like that because you can't get enough. wherever there is poverty, there will be crime, white or black, it doesn't matter.

look at the constitution for it says that all men and all women are created equal. that is where we need to begin. thank you so much. host: maryland, you're next. caller: the woman talking about crime and violence in the black community, she was sweet. 5% of the crime in the black community is violent, but people don't know that. a lot of times when you look at blackws, all you see is trying to rob people that people don't realize that's the minority in the african-american community. i think what contributes to, i guess, issues, is basically prop -- basically poverty and opportunity. i have a graduate degree from

the johns hopkins is this administration and the maryland computer science. maryland,rock ill, taking care of my family, we live well. in prince george's county, a lot of people i went to school with, we all do well for ourselves, we are all african-american, but no one ever talks about that. verse woman thinks that we are all violent and we are not. that is the minority. the issue is that people like trump, what they do is they focus on everybody's differences. as opposed to being an actual president or actual leader, trying to bring people together, he divides everybody. a lot of people in this country right now are hurting because they are off shoring everybody's jobs. a lot of caucasians cannot get jobs where they used to be able to. they are upset and angry. he goes into that and finds escape out.

anyone who is not caucasian is "bad from i live in the dmv, as we call it. .aucasians here are not racist there is no issue here at all. we have this whole thing going on in d.c., it's interesting that they would come here. i would say that overall, trump is very divisive. in the larger country we have a lot of issues. in the washington, d.c. area, people around here are not racist whatsoever. you have african-american, caucasians, indians, asian spanish people, we all live together and there are no issues. that's my comment thanks for listening. host: we read this story earlier, but this is from the front page, courtesy of "the new cm -- of the newseum. fort lauderdale, mark, go ahead.

caller: good morning. i'm very fortunate in that throughout my life i have been able to spend a great deal of my time traveling overseas. i think that you will find that in just about any country in any ofce in the world, it's more a majority versus minority thing rather than race, where the majority always tends to do what they want, run the things the way that they want and the minorities are there as the wood -- at the will of the majority. granted that in trump's time over the past couple of years, we have gone backwards. the fact that trump in his other resume, anyone who is not a white person or eight true american, how he phrases it, enables people to be more vocal about the various prejudices. prior to that time, we were making progress.

there's no perfect civilization group of people, there will always be people of goodwill and all we can do is hope that the people of goodwill out way and make progress over the people of ill will. hopefully we will learn something from our time under trump and we will get act to making progress as far as an open and free society. i just have back thailand. is, the same kind of thing goes on there and the .urmese come there they have a illegal immigration from burma, myanmar, what everyone to call them. them.ook down on kind oft-skinned thai's show prejudice or superiority or a feeling of superiority over ties that theyd

regard as the farm people. i spent a lot of time in africa. in a lot of these countries. i go to another country overseas i try to live among the people instead of in a tourist or ex-pat enclave. or onyugo is a tourist business? tourist, but i a try to live among the people, if you want to put it that way. and in a lot of these african countries, all i can say, the ones i have visited, like bob way or the republic of congo, if you get outside the tourist enclaves, where they have got to be nice to you because they want your money, outside of that those people are very bigoted against white. is that hopefully we

are only in a temporary swing as far as the wave is are going in this country. trump time is over we will hopefully get back to making progress. mark, we right, there, appreciate your call this morning. headline from "the dallas morning news." trump calls for victory. supremacists and to gather outside the white house to mark the anniversary of the violent rally in charlottesville." us, in dallas. good morning, go ahead. fromr: actually, i'm trinity. host: caller: ok. i'm a daughter of two depression era orphans. my mother came from a wealthy family. $100,000 year or so in 1939, that's pretty wealthy.

mammy in her house. my daddy, on the other hand, he was -- well, he's a twin, 13th or 14th son of people that are sharecroppers. his daddy died of pneumonia before he was born. his mama was trying to take care of all 14 of these here kids on her own and share raab at the same time. nurse by asn't wet black lady who was a friend of theirs. these two individuals, my mama and my daddy, there are four children in our family and they raise this all up and we had a sense of racism from the get go. thank you, cynthia. we appreciate your wrapping up a program shortly and trying to get it is many voices as we can. we are joined by shawn harper,

race and equity executive university ofthe southern california. we have been going across the country this morning talking about race relations and more specifically, police and community relations. give us a sense of how things are in the southern caliph on your region on race relations. guest: thank you for having me. before i answer that russian. i want to respond to something that is previous caller said in which he equated crime with black people and suggested the reason there was no crime in his community was because there are no black able. -- people. that is part of the problem here . there are these associations, implicit and explicit associations of black bowl with crime. the reality and the fact is that more people are -- poor people are more likely to commit crime than black people. people across all racial and

ethnic commit crime. my point here is that -- it's not just black people. and black book cannot and should not continue to be the face of crime and criminal behavior in the country, which affects policing. if the only portrait of crime itt we have is a black one, causes police officers, school personnel officials in charge of safety to always think of lack people as deviant, as criminals. i think that that kind of disparate or chanel it he that we see in the criminal justice system. start with you this morning, maybe appropriately, looking at southern california and going back to 1989 and the robert -- rodney king beating. going back 30 years, how do you think things have improved?

or have they? host: one of the things -- guest: one of the things i found most striking about the program this morning is that there have been a variety of offers from every geographic region of the country, which i really appreciate. i think that sometimes people believe that southern california and all of california to be this incredibly liberal place where all of these residents from different racial and ethnic totally get along. that is not always the case, right? one of the things that came out of the irruption that was the rodney king tragedy was an understanding that not everybody gets along. and there is not enough dialogue about the realities and complexities of race and racism in our country. read of us in california the same textbooks as children in other parts of the country.

and we consume therefore the same racial history. which is largely race less, right? even in a place that is politically more liberal, there are lots of evil who are still largely underage dated about the realities complexities of race. host: southern california may also be different in as it is a large concentration of hispanic community. but the immigrant communities, and even other more recent , has thatcommunities complicated the race is an issue there? caller: i don't think it -- guest: i don't think it has complicated the racism issue but it has read at an incredible opportunity for the state of california and the rest of the country to figure out how to facilitate opportunities for people to learn across racial and ethnic lines and to address some of terrible racial

misunderstanding that i have heard articulated on the show this morning. it has been really clear to me that evil that have been gracious enough to call in and share their view reince, it's many of themhat are largely underage dated about race. -- under educated about race and haven't had inning will opportunity to interact with others across racial groups. i think that southern california is a great laboratory, if you will, for cross racial learning and meaning interaction host: -- interaction. host: as we wrap up, tell us about see your organization doing there in southern california. guest: we bring across you searches from across university who study race, racism,

immigration, color, racial interactions and so on. our aim is really to be helpful to the nation as we continue to grapple with racism and help people understand that isn't just he torch carrying >> or just kkk members, racism is also historical, cultural, structural, and systemic. that is the kind of racial understanding that i think many of the people who called in this morning, too many americans across the country seemingly lack and our aim is to educate the country on those very thaticated and complex mentioned the verses of. shawn harper, we really appreciate you joining us, capping a program this morning

here on washington journal. guest: thank you. host: that will do it for sunday's addition of washington journal. we are back tomorrow morning 7 a.m. eastern. we are joined tomorrow morning by former education secretary and we talk about his new book "how schools work." we are also joined by sean spicer, his new book is "the briefing: politics, the press, and the president." hope the rest of the weekend was a good one for you and we will see you tomorrow morning. ♪

announcer: here on c-span, newsmakers as next with jim bridenstine. that is followed by a discussion on first amendment protections for offensive speech. then, and the afternoon, we will take you to freedom plaza and washington, d.c. for a counter protest against white nationalists known as "dce and i did against hate." d.c. unitede -- " against hate." on this edition of newsmakers, we are joined by jim bridenstine. henry,joined by caleb serves as a staff writer and christian davenport of the washington post, thanks for coming on. mr. davenport, you start. >>