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>> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these companies and more including wow. >> fast, reliable internet is something that no one can live without. we are there for their customers, it all starts with great internet. >> wow supports c-span as a puic service along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. " continues. host: our guest is journalist and podcaster toure. you can see his work on the thegrio.com. what is thegrio? guest: thegrio is a black media network. there is america coming a global, economic power. not just the to talk about amera from our perspective.

host: what is your perspective at thegrio? >> caller: -- i write -- guest: i write about a variety of things. i am working on a podcast where we talk about songs of different decades and the political ramifications and meanings inside those songs. i can also talk about politics, culture, some new form of racism we are seeing. i might write about rihanna's super bowl performance. it can be anything that much matter to black americans. >> host: -- host: all of those topics would make a great segment on "washington journal." you have podcasted about what it means to be black in america today. we are halfway through black history month. what to think about the debates we are having in this country about teaching like history in high schools and colleges. guest: it is quite

disappointing. i was an african-american studies major at emory university and long time ago. learning about my history and african-americans' part in that history gave me a sense of self, a grounding in my history in this country. 's give masons of purpose about what i want to do with my life and how i honor the people who sacrificed and died so i could have the opportunities i have. quite often this discussion about black history in the curriculum, people want to throw in critical race theory. most people using that phrase have no idea what it actually means. from the right, it is a dishonest conversation which transit is in them like -- should we teach a five euro white kids who hid themselves? literally nobody is talking about that.

he doesn't care about the five-year-old or 10-year-old black child trying to figure out the world and does not understand the world. we do need to have any honest understanding and reckoning in this country about what has happened and where we are now. racism is not just in the past. racism is not just things people say to each other or the feelings people have. is about systems that produce inequality in terms of policing and criminal justice in terms of where we live and how we are educated, in terms of wealth, how people are able to have and maintain wealth. some of these systems are invisible to many of us. it was only in the last year i really became fully aware of where we still are in terms of racism. a lot of times people come to assess the value of a home and

give that value may be half or several hundred thousand dollars less in value for a black family vanna white family. there are a number of families who have sued and got this overturned. there are thousands of families that did not know they could do that or did not have the money to sue. this is millions of dollars of value that has been taken out of the black community just from missy valuing the homes we have because we lived there. when you talk about how is it black america has not gotten further already, this is part of why. i am going to start writing about this that are today. there is a new podcast called out the best boys that breaks down how the federal government used people to infiltrate black lives matter protests and

discredit the movement, to do things that are violent or not legal to make the movement look bad. we see this throughout history going back to the black panthers, malcolm x. the government working against our attempts to become a more liberated and a deeper part of this country. how can you get to any sort of liberation with the government working against you? how to be understand how to move forward if we don't understand the things that have happened? host: let me give you a few numbers -- the phone numbers for viewers to join the conversation. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. the house is coming in edited cook a.m. eastern. we will go there -- is coming in at 10:00 a.m. eastern.

we will go there for less coverage. a headline from the washington post, "as red states target black history lessons, blue states are embracing them. the lessons children are receiving are diverging in this country depending on where they live." what does that kind of approach lead us to in the decades to come? guest: it is hard to say where we are going to be in decades to come, but i don't think we should have two entirely separate nations within america where in some places people are taught that racism is real as slavery happened and systematic racism is real. test of the barriers of entry for black people are harder. another part of the country ignores that and does not teach that at all. inherently tedious to me why superiority. systemic racism does not exist, then how are we to explain that white people have almost all of the wealth and hold almost all

of the positions of? power in? this country? what is the expression for that? is it that white people work harder, deserve these positions more? my child's assistant racism does not exist -- if my child sent to me systemic racism does not exist, why isn't that almost all ceos of fortune 500s are white? why is it that 90% of all wealth is held in white hands? why are there so many black people in prison? if i do not say systemic racism is part of those things and the legacy of slavery is part of why those are true, that what i am -- then what am i talking about? the inherent superiority of white people? surely by now we know that white people are not inherently superior to black people.

i would use dollar trap as a key for that case. host: this is governor ron desantis on why his estate education department boasts rejecting a proposal from the ap african studies program put together. ron desantis from last month. [video clip] gov. desantis: the required teaching black history. this was a separate course for advanced placement credit and the issue was we have guidelines and standards in florida. we want education, not indoctrination. if you fall on the side of indoctrination, we are going to decline. if it is education, then we will do it. i figured they may be doing -- it is way more than that. this course on black history, what is one of the lessons about? queer theory. who would say an important part

of black history is queer theory? that is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids. they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that is a political agenda. that is the wrong side of the line for florida's standards. we believe teaching kids facts and how to think but we don't think they should have an agenda imposed on them. when you try to use black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are trying to use that for political purposes. host: toure, indoctrination and political purposes here. guest: it is important to not have politicians shaping our education system. obviously that is going to have political implications. ron desantis is running for president, this is the pregame. he is setting the floor for himself so that the far right

that supported trump will support him. that is what he is doing here. he does not actually care about what happens to the children of florida. i don't know what indoctrination means in this case. i know what he is trained to signal. -- he is trying to signal. indoctrination is teaching them something that is not true. we do see neo-nazi homeschools happening. there was a report about what is happening in indiana. that is indoctrination, teaching young children to be 90's. -- to be nazis. teaching the history of america is not indoctrination. the notion of queer theory not fitting into black history is a historical. there's a huge number of gay and queer people who have been incredibly important to american history in general and also to black history and the black liberation struggle. we could sit here for 10 minutes

naming important figures in that struggle. to say that doesn't fit for him either shows his political attempt to rally his base behind him for a complete misunderstanding of american history. there is this notion that children should never be uncomfortable in the classroom. i remember taking college classes as an african-american studies major and learning about the particulars of slavery and walking out of the classroom feeling very upset, very uncomfortable, very angered. i was working at a restaurant at the time. it was difficult to work at a restaurant after hearing these things about what my ancestors had to do. that happens in the classroom. if white americans are

uncomfortable doing about what happened, they should understand that is because of what has happened. we are not made a better nation by pretending bee stings did not happen. when we look at the history of germany and south africa, extra ordinary atrocities have happened -- extraordinary atrocities happened. that helps you understand who you really are. we don't avoid people by pretending it doesn't exist. between must talk about it and confronted. host: where did you go to college. guest: emory university. host: what was the extent of teaching black history in your high school? guest: that is a good question. i graduated from milton academy in 1989. at that point, there was much more of a discussion nationally. it wasn't as codified as it would be later, but that we should have black history in classes.

i had a black history class my junior year and my senior year. i went to a new england prep school, so it was a white christian man teaching those classes. as a person who was extraordinary dedicated to that history -- this was a person who was extraordinarily dedicated to that history. he remains dedicated to black students. his knowledge was in the right place. but it also shows institution's and ability to find black people to teach this stuff. which was important. i did not have a black teacher. there were a couple of other black teachers in my school but i did not have a black teacher until i went to college. i feel like not having that black authority figure was a

loss to me as well as my students. we should have experience of seeing black people in charge. that should absolutely be the case. host: let's chat with a few callers. linda is up first out of connecticut, the land for democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have been listening all day and the colors keep missing the point. is not about joe biden, it is not about republicans in congress. i don't know why so many of you are ignoring the fact that alan block is trying to possibly newspaper union. that should be a bigger story on your network. host: a couple of colors -- callers brought that up. is not an editorial issue we

discussed here. do you have a question for toure? okay, we will go on to mike in michigan. caller: there are 36,000 black millionaires in this country. 11 black billionaires in this country. who is the victim? host: do you want to think that -- do you want to take that? guest: there is a small number of black people who have been able to acquire wealth. that does not speak to the vast majority of black people who have not been able to acquire any wealth and are living in the working-class and have a history of wage theft and other ways of stealing their wealth or income throughout history. when we think about victims,

that gets into an emotional and triggering situation. where we start to say who is the real racist, people get emotional. nobody wants to be called or feel like a racist. i don't want anybody to feel like they are racist. i don't want to engage in that conversation because it is not a very emotionally productive -- it is not very emotionally productive. white people in this country are benefiting from the white privilege. that is accrued to everybody, even if you are an ally and you are loving and you are fully engaged in black liberation. you are benefiting from white privilege. the fact that oprah and jay-z and beyonce have been able to become billionaires in fairly traditional ways, lebron james

and tiger woods as well. sports and entertainment has been open to a people for decades -- open to black people for decades. white people are able to get ahead in sorts of ways. they don't realize they can move through their day and have white privilege affecting their day. they don't notice the cop that does not stop them. they don't realize the job they may not have gotten or any number of things, benefits accrue to them constantly without needing to do anything from white privilege. the idea that oprah is more rich than mike from michigan does not disprove white privilege. i read this interesting analogy this science-fiction >> we will take you look to the white house, you can watch this

on the