07/03/20 07/03/20 democracy now! test 07/03/20 07/03/20 democracy now! test 07/03/20 07/03/20 democracy now! test 07/03/20 07/03/20 democracy now! test 07/03/20 07/03/20 democracy now! test 07/03/20 07/03/20 dedemocracy now!w! test 07/03/20 07/03/20 democracy now! test 07/03/20 07/03/20 democracy now! test 07/03/20 07/03/20 democracy now! test amy: from new york, this is democracy now! james: what, to the american slave, is your fourth of july? i answer, a day that reveals to him, momo than all l other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. to him, your celebration is a sham. amy: what to the slave isis the fourth of july? wewe will hearar frederick douglass's 1852

independence day address performed by james earl jones. then we look at the historic uprising against police brutality and racism that continues to sweep across the world, following the police killing of george floyd in minneapolis. we will speak to the legendary scholar and activist, angela davis. angela: i have never experienced anything like the conditions we are currently experiencing. the conjnjuncture createdd by t the covid-19 pandndemic and the recognition of the systemic racism ththat has been rendereded vise under these condititions because of the disproportionatete deaths in black and latatinx communities. amy: plus we will speak to profefessors keeanga-yamahtta taylor and cornel west. prof. west: the catalyst was certainly brother george floyd's public lynching, but the failures of the e predatory capitalist economy to provide

the satisfaction of the basic needs of food and healthcare and quality education, jobs with a decent wage, at the same time the collapse of your political class, the e collapse o your prorofessional class. their legitimacy has been radically called into question, anand that's multiracial. amy: all that and more in this democracy now! special cocoming up. this is democracy now! democracynow.org. the quarantine report. i am amy goodman. today, in ththis special broadcast, we begegin witith the words of frederick douglass. born into slavery around 1818, douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. on july 5th, 1852 in rochester, new york, he gave one of his most famous speeches, "what to the slave is the fourth of july?" he was addressing the rochester ladies' anti-slavery society. this is james eaearl jones readg the historic address

duduring a performance of voices of a people's history of the united states, edited by howard zinn. the late great historian introduced the address. howard zininn: frederick dougla, once a slave, became a brilliant and powerful leader of the anti-slavery movement. in 1852, he was asked to speak in celebration of the fourth of july. james: fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am i called upon to speak here today? what have i, or those i represent, to do with your national independence? are the great principles of polititical freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that declaration of independence, extended to us? and am i, therefore, called upon to bring our humble

ofoffering to o the national al, and to confess t the benefits and exprpress devout gratitute for ththe blessings s resultig from your independence to us? i am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary. your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. the blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. the rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. the sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. this fourth of july is yours, not mine. you may rejoice, i must mourn.

to drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? what, to the american slave, is your fourth of july? i answer, a day that reveals to him, re than alall other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. to him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted liberty, an unholy license. your national greatness, swelling vanity,

your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence. your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery. your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy, a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages. there is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these united states at this very hour. at a time e like this, scorching irirony,

not convinincing argument, is needed. oh, had i the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, i would, today, pour forth a stream, a a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. for it is not light that is needed, but fire, it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. we need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. the feeling of the nation must be quickened. the conscience of the nation must be roused. the propriety of thehe nation must be startled. the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed, and the crimes against god and man must be proclaimed and denounced. amy: that was james earl jones, reading the words of frederick douglass. we turn now w to look atat the uprising

against police brutalality and racism, following the police killing of george floyd in minneapolis on may 25. the protests have helped dramatically shift public opinion on policing and systemic racism, as "defund the police" becomes a rallying cry of the movement. well, for more on this historic moment, we turn to the legendarary activistst and scscholar angela davis, professor emerita at the university of california, santa cruz. for half a century, angela davis has been one of the most influential activists and intellectuals in the united states and an icon of the black liberation movement. i interviewed her in early june and asked her if she thought this moment was a turning point. angela: this is an extraordinary moment. i have never experienced anything like the conditions we are currently experiencing, the conjununcture createdd by the covid-19 pandndemic

and the recogngnition of the systemic racism that has been rendered visisibe under these conditions because of ththe disproroportionate deats in black and l latinx communities. and this is a momement i don't know whether i ever expected to experience. when the protests began, of course, around the murder of george floyd and breonna taylor and ahmaud arbery and tony mcdade and many others who have lost their lives to racist state violence and vigilante violence, when these protests erupted, i remembered something that i've said many times to encourage activists, who often feel that the work that they do is not leading to tangible results. i often ask them to consider the very long trajectory of black struggles. and what has been most important is the forging of legacies,

the new arenas of struggle that can be handed down to younger generations. but i've often said one never knows when conditions may give rise to a conjuncture such as the current one that rapidly shifts popular consciousness and suddenly allows us to move in the direction of radical change. if one does not engage in the ongoing work when such a moment arises, we cannot take advantage of the opportunities to change. and, of course, this moment will pass. the intensity of the current demonstrations cannot be sustained over time, but we will have to be ready to shift gears and address these issues in different arenas, including, of course, the electoral arena. amy: angela davis, you have long been a leader

of thehe critical resistance movement, the abolition n movement. and i'm wondering if you can explain the demand,, as you see it, what you feel needs to be done, aroundnd defunding the police, and then around prison abolition. angela: well, the cacall to defd the police is, i think,k, an a abolitionist demand, but it reflects only one aspectt ofhehe process represented byby the dememand. defunding the police is s not simply aboutut withdrawing fundg for law enforcrcement and doining nothing else. and it appears as if this is the ratherer superficial understandg ththat has caused biden to move in the direction he's moving in. it's about shifting public funds to new serervices and new institutions, mental health counselors,

who can respond to people who are in crisis without arms. it's about shifting funding to education, to housing, to recreation. all of these things help to create security and safety. it's about learning that safety safeguarded by violence is not realllly safety. and i woululd say that abolitin is not primarily a negative strategy. it's not primarily abobout dismantling, getting rid of, but it's about reenvisioning. it's about building anew. and i would argue that abolition is a feminist strategy. and one sees in these abolitionist demands that are emerging, the pivotal influence of feminist theories and practices.

amy: explain that further. angela: i want us to see feminism not only as addressing issues of gender, but rather as a methodological approach of understanding the intersectionality of struggles and issues. abolition femiminism counters carceral femism,m, which has unfortunately assumed that issues susuch as violence against women can be effectively addressed by using policice force, by using imprisonment as a solution. and of course we know that joseph biden, in 1994, who claims that the violencece against women act

was such an important moment in his career, the viololence against women at was couched within the 1994 crime act, the clinton crime act. and what we're calling f for is a process of decriminalization, not -- recognizing that threats to safety, threats to security, come not primarily from what is defined as crime, but rather from the failure of institutions in our country to address issues of health, issues of violence, education, etc. so, abolition is really about rethinking the kind of future we want, the social future,

the economic future, the political future. it's about revolution, i would argue. amy: you write in freedom is a constant struggle, "neoliberal ideology driveses s to focus on individuals, ouourselves, individuaual vict, individualal perpetrtrator but how is it t possibible to se the massive problemm of racacisstate e violence by calling upon individual police officers to bear the burden of that history and to assume that by prosecuting them, by exacting our revenge on them, we would have somehow made progress in eradicating racism"" so, exexplain what exactly you're demanding. angela: well, neoliberal logic assumes that the fundamental unit of society is the individual, and i would say the abstract individual. according to that logic, black people can combat t racim by pulling themselves up by their owown individual bootstra. that logicic recognizes or faia, rather,

toecognizeze that there are institutional barriers that cannot be brought d down by individual determination. if a black person is materially ununable to attendnd the univer, the solution is not affirmative acaction, they argu, but rarather the person simply needs to work harder, get good gradedes and do what is necessary in order to acquire the funds to pay for tuition. neoliberal logic deters us frfrom thiing about the simpler sosolution, whicich is free education. i'm thinking about the fact that we have been aware of the need for these instititutionall strategieses at least since 193, but of course before, but i'm choosing 1935 becaususe that was the yearr when w.e.b. du bois published s germinalal black reconstruction in america. and the ququestion was not what should indidividual

black people do, butut rather hw to reorganize and restructure post-slavery society in order to guarantee the incorporation of those who had been formerly enslavede. the e society cocould not remn the same,, or should not have remained the same. neolibereralism resisists chae at the individual level. it asks the e individual to adat to conditions s of capitalism, to conditions of racism. amy: i wanted to ask you, angela davis, about the monuments s to racist, colonizezers, confederates, that are continuing to fall across the united states and around the world. did you think you would ever see this? you think about bree newsome after the horror at mother emanuel chururch in charleston, south h carolina,

who shimmied up that flagpole on t the grounds of thehe south cararolina legislslature and totook down the confederatate flag, and theyey put it righght on back up. what about what we're seeieing today? angela: wellll, of c course, be newswsome was a wowonderful pio. and i think it's important to link this trend to the campaign in south africa, rhodes must fall. and ofof course, i think thihs reflectsts the extent to which we are bebeing called upon to deeply y reflect on the r role of historical racisms that have broughght us to the point where we are totod. you know, racism should have been immediately

coconfronted in n the aftermah of the end of slavery. this is whatat dr. du bois's anasisis was all l abou, not so much in terms of, well, what we were going to do about thesese poor peoplple who have been enslslaved soso many generations? but rather, how w can we reororganize our society in order to guarantee the incorporation of previously enslaved people? now attention is being turned towards the symbols of slavery, the symbols of colonialism. and of course, any campaigns against racism in this country have to addresess, in the very first place, the conditions of indigenous people. i think it's important that we're seeing these demonstrations,

but i think at the same time we have to recognize that we cacannot simply get rid d of the history.. we have to recognize t the devastatingly negativeve role that that history has played in charting the trajectory of the united states of america. and so, i think that these assaults on statues represent an attempt to begin to think through what we have to do to bring down institutions and reenvision them, reorgaganize them, create new institutions that can attend to the needsds of all people. amy: and what do you think shshould be done with statues, for example, to, oh, slaveholding founding fathers, like george washington and thomas jefefferson?

angela: wewell, you know, museus can play an importantnt educational rol. i don't think we should get rid of all of the vestiges of the past, but we n need to figure ouout context within which people can understand the nature of u.s. history and the role that racism and capitalism and heteropatriarchy have played in f forging thatat history. amy: can you talk about racismsm and capapitalism? you often write and speak about how they are intimately connected. and talk about a world that you envnvision. angela: yeah, racism is integrally linked to capitalism. and d i think it's's a mistake to assume ththat we can combat racism by leaviving capitalism ininlac. asas cedric rorobinson p pointt in his book black marxism,

capitalism is racial capitalism. and of course, to just say for a moment, that marx pointed out that what he calalled primitive accumulation, capital doesn't justst appear fromom nowhere. the origininal capital w provideded by the labor of slav. the industrial revolution, which pivoted around the production of capital,l, was enabled by slave labor in the u.s. so, i am cononvinced that the ultimate eradication of racism is g going to reque e us to moe toward a more socialisist organization of our economies, of our other institutions. i think k we have a long way too before we can begin to talk about an economic system thatat is not based on exploitation and on the supuper-exploitation ofof black people, lalatinx people ananother racicialized populatations.

but i i do think that wewe now have the conceptual means to engage in discussioion, populalar discussions, about capitalism. occupy gave us new lananguage. the notion of the prison-indusustrial complex requires us to u understand the globalization n of capitali. anti-capitalist t consciousness helps us to underststand the predicamenent of immigrant, who are barred from the u.s. by the wall that has been created by the current occupant. these conditions have been created by g global capitalism. i think this is a period during which we need to begin that process of popular education, which will allow people to understand the interconnections of racism, heteropatriarchy, capitalism. amy: angela, do you think we need a truth

and reconciliation commission here in this country? angela: wewell, that m might e one way toto begin, but i know w we're goingng to d a lot more than truth and reconciaiation. but certainly wewe need truth. i'm not susure how soon recononciliation is going to emerge. but i think that the whole notion of trututh and reconciliation allows us to think differently aboutt the criminal legal system. allows usus to imagine a foform of justice that is not based on revenge, a form of justice that is not retributive. so i think that those ideas can n help us begin n to image new ways of structuring our institutions, such as -- well, not structuring the prison, because the whwhole point isis that we have to abolish

that institution in order to begin to envision new ways of addressing the conditionsns that lead toto mass incarcerati, thatat lead to such hohorrendous t tragedies as the murder of george floyd. amy: the legendary scholar and activist, angela davis. when we come b back, we will l talk aboutut the 2020 electction and more.   [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! democracynow.org. i am amy goodman. we are spepending the hour lookining at the ongoioing uprig against police brutatality and raci, following the police killining of george flfloyd. lalater in the program, we hear from -- we wilill hear from m professs cornel west, keeanga-yamahtta taylor and tamika mallory, but first we continue our didiscussion with the legendary scholar and activist angela davis. i spoke to her in early june, a week before she received the fred l. shututtlesworth awad from t the birmingham civil rights i institute in her hometown of b birmingham, alabama.. the ininstitute made internanatl headlines lalast year when the institute initially rescinded the award due to angela davis's support for palestinians

and the bds movement. that is boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. after outcry, the institute reversed its decision. she formally received the award on juneteenth, june 19th. i i asked her abouout the significance of whatat happene. angela: a lot has happened over the last period, including wiwithin the con of the birmingham civil rights institute. ththey have cocompletely reorgaganized. they have reorganized their board. they have been involveved in conversations with theommunity.. of course, as you know, the mayor of birmingham was ththreatenining to withdrw funding from the institute. there was a generalized uprising in the black community. and you know, while at f first itit was a total shohock to me that they offered this award to me, and d th they rescininded it, i'm realizing now th ththat was an n important mome,

because e it encouraged people toto think out the meananing of human rights and why is it that palalestinias coululd be excluded frfrom the process of working toward human rights.s. palestinian n activists have long g supportedd black people's struggle against racism. whenen i was in ja, solidaririy coming from papalestine was a major source of courage for me. in ferguson, palestinians were the first to express international solidarity. and therere has been this very important connection between the two o struggles for many decades, so that t i'm gointo b be realy happy to r receive the award, which now represents a rethinking of the rather backward position that the institute assumed,

that palestinians could be excluded from the circle of those working toward a future of justice, equality and human rights. amy: speaking about what's going on in the west bank right now and about the olole issuee ofnterernational solidarity,y, the global response to the k killing of george f fl. in the occupied west bank, protesters denounced floyoyd's murder and the recentnt killing of iyad el-hallak, a 32-year-old palestinian special needs student who was shot to death by israeli forces in occupied east jerusalem. he was reportedly chanting "black lives matter" and "palestinian n lives matte"" whwhen israeaeli police gunnedm down, claiming he was armed. these links that you're seeing,

not only in palestine and the united states, but around the worldld, the kind of global response, the tens of thousands of people who marched in spain, who marched in england, in berlin, in munich, all over the world, as t this touches s a chord and they make demands in their own countries, not only in solidarity with what's happening in the united statates? and then i want to ask you about the u.s. election that's coming up in november. angela: yes, palestinian activists have long supported black people's struggle against racism, as i pointed out. and i'm hoping that today's young activists recognize how important palestinian solidarity has been to the black cause, and that they recognize that we have a profound responsibility to supportrt palestinian struggles, as well. i think itit's also important for us

to l look in the direction of brazil, whose current political leader competes with our current political leader in many dangngerous ways, i i would say. brazil, if we think we have a problem with racist police violence in the united states of america, look at brazil. marielle franco was assassinated because she was challenging the militarization of the police and the racist violence unleashed there. i think 4,000 people were killed last year alone by the police in brazil. so, i'm saying this because -- amy: and, of course, the president of brazil, a close ally of president trump. we o only have two mininutes, d i want to get to the election.

when i intererviewed you in 201, you said you wouldn't supppport either main-party candidate at the time. what are your thoughts today y for 2020? angela: well, my position really hasn't changed. i'm not going to actually support either of the major candidates. but i do thihink we have to participate in thehe election. i mean, that isn't to say that i wonon't votee for ththe democratic candidate. what i'm sayaying is that in or electoral systemem as it exist, neither party y represents the future that we need in this country. both parties remain connected to corporate capitalism. but the elecection will not so mh h be about who gets to lead the country to a better future, but rath how we cacan support t ourselves and our own ability to continue toto organize

and place prpressure on those in power.r. and d i don't think there'e'sa question about which canandidae would allow that process to unfoldld. so i think that we're going to have to translate some of the passion that has characterized these demonstrations into work within the electoral arena, rerecognizing g that the electoral arena is not the b best place for the expressision of radical popolit. but if we want to continue this work, we certainly need a person i in office who will be more amenable to our mass pressure. and to me, that is the only thing that someone like a joe biden represents. but we have to persuade people to go out and vote to guarantee that the current occupant of the white housese

is forever ousted. amy: the legendary scholar and activist angela davis. when we come back, we will speak to cornel west, keeanga-yamahtta taylor and tamika mallory.    [musicic break]]

amy: this is democracy now! democracacynow.org. the quarantine report. i am amy goodman. as we continueue to look at the recent upuprising against police brurutality and racism i want to turn to a conversation nermeen shaikh and i had in early june withth the schcholars keeaeanga-yamaht taylorr of princeton university and cornel westt of harvard u university. i i began by askining keeanga-yayamahtta taylor to talk about the mass uprising and the police killing of george floyd. prof. taylor: thank you for letting me cocome on this morning to o ta. you knowow, i think papart of t we are seeining is years and years ofof pent up rage. many people have referenced the 1960's, have referenced ferguson in 2014, but i think it's important to say that these are n not jujust repeats of past eventn.

these are e the consequencncesf the failures of this government and the political estatablishme, the economic establishshment of t this countrtry to resolol those cririses, and d so they build d d accumutete over time,, and we are watatching the boiling overer of that. imagine hohow angry, desespera, rage-filled you would have to be to come out and protest in the conditions of a historical pandemic that has already killed over 103,000 americans, that has had a disproportionately horrendous impact in black communities. i believe 23,000 or 24,000 black people have died. to put it more bluntly, one in every 2,000 africican americans inin the united stats has died as the result of covid. so imagine how difficult things have to be

for people to come out in those conditions. so i thihink that the bubuildp araroundolice e brutality, the continuation of police brutality, police abuse and violence and murder has compelled peopople to ve to endure those conditions, because it is obvious that there is either nothing ththat our government can do about this or that the government is complicit and chooooses not to do anything about thihis. and i i think that we have t tod to thahat the crisis that is unfolding g beyondnd police brurutality in the counu, as well, becacause we all know that the videotapepes of police beatatings, abuse, murder have neverer stopped. so the movement t that grew out of the fererguson uprisingng, that became black lilives matte, ththe conditions that led to tht never r actually ended.

and i think k that what h has reigniteded that is obviously the public lynching of ororge floyd one week ago in minneapolilis, but t also thehe conditions, the wider context within which that is spilling over. and because of that wider condition of mass unemployment, of the death that has be causeded by the pandemic, that this is not just -- i don't believe these are just protests around or against police brbrutality. but we see a l lot of -- hundre, if not thousanands, of young white people in these uprisings, making these multiracial rebellions, really. and i think that that is important. some people have sort of described the participation of white people as outside agitators,

or i know that there are reports of white supremacists infiltrating some of the demonstrations. and i think that those are things that we have to pay attention to, keep track of and try to understand. but i think we cannot dismiss in a widespread way the participation of young white people, because we have to see that what has happened over the last decade has gutted their lives, too. and there has been some discussion about this with perhaps their parents' generation, with the description of deaths by despair. so we knknow thahat the life expepectancy of orordinary w whn and women has gone into reverse, something, by the way, that does not t typically happn in the developed world. and d it is drdriven by opopioid addictction, alcoholism and suiuicide. and so, this generation, whose lives really -- you know, if you've graduated from college,

your life has been bracketed by war atat the turn of the 2 21st cen, by recession and now by a deadly pandemic. and so, i think we're seeing the convnvergence of a class rebelln with racism and racial terrorism at the center of it. and in many ways, we are in uncharted territory in the united states. nermeen: dr. cornel west, could you respond to what professor yamahtta taylor said? you agagree thatat, of coursrse, the rdrder of gegeorge floyd s a lylynching. you've alslso said that his murr and the demonsnstrations that have followed show that america is a failed social experimiment. so c could youou respond to tt and also t wayay thatat the state and policicfors haveve responded to the protest, following george floyd's s killing, with the natational guard caed o outn soso many citities

and stateses across the countr? prof. west: well, there's no doubt that this is america's moment of reckoning. but we w want to make the connecon b between thehe local and the global, because you see, when you sow the seeds of greed domestically, inequality globally, imperial tentacles, 800 military units abroad, violence and africom in africa, supporting various regimes, dictatorial ones in asia and so forth, there is a connection between the seeds that you sow of violence externally and internally. same is true in terms of the seed of hatred, of white s supremacy, hating black people, anti-blackness hatred having its own dynamic within the con of a --

the context of a predatory capitalist civilization obsessed with money, money, money, domination of workers, marginalization of those who don't fit, gay brothers, lesbian sisters, trans and so forth. so it's precisisely this convergence that my dear sister professor taylor is talking about of the ways in which the american empire, imploding, its fououndations being shaken, withth uprisings frorom below. the catalyst was certainly brother george floyd's public lynching, but the failures of the predatory capitalist economy to provide the satisfaction of t the basic needs of food and healthcare and quality education, jobs with a decent wage, at the same time the collapse of your political class, the collapse o of your p professional class. their legitimacy has been radically called into question, anand that's multiracial.

it's the neofascist dimensio inin trump. it's thehe neoliberal dimension in biden and obama and the clintons and so forth. and it includes much of the media. it includes many of f the professors in n universities. ththe young people are saying, "you all have been hypocritical. you haven't been concerned about our suffering, our misery. and we no longer believe in your legitimacy." and itpipills overer intoto violent explosion. and it's here. i won't go on, but, i mean, it's here, where i think ella baker and fannie lou hamer and rabbi heschel and edward said, and especially brother martin and malcolm, their legacies, i think, become more central, because they provide the kind of truth telling. they provide the connection between justice and compassion in their example, in their organizing. and that's what is needed right now. rebellion is not the same thing in any way as revolution.

and what we need is a nononviolt revolutionary projoject of full-scale democratic sharing, power, wealth, resources, respect, organizing, and a fundamental transformation of this american empire. amy: and your thoughts, professor west, on the governor of minnesota saying they're looking into white supremacist connections to the looting and the burning of the city, and then president trump twtweetingng that he'e's going to try to put antifa, the anti-fascist activists, on the terror list -- which he cannot do -- and william barr emphasizing this, saying he'e's going after the far left to investigate? prof. west: no, i mean, that's ridiculous. you know, you remember, sister amy -- and i love and respect you so -- that antifa saved my life in charlottesville. there's no doubt about it, that they prprovided the security, you see.

so the very notion that they become candidates for a terrorist organization, but the peopople whoho were trying to kill us, the nazis, the klan,n, theyey're not candidates for terrorist organization status, but that's whatt you're going to get. you're going to get a trump-led neofascist backlash and clampdown on what is going on. we ought to be very clear about that. the neofascism has thahat kind of o obsession with militaristic imposition in the face of any kind of disorder. and so we've got to be fortified for that. but most importantly, i think we've got to make sure that we preserve our own moral, spiritual, quality, fundamental focus on truth and justice, and keep track of legalized looting, wall street greed, legalized murdrder, police, legalized murder abroad in yemen, in pakistan, in africa with africom, and so forth.

that's whehere our focus has to be, because with all of this rebellious energy, it's got to be channnneled throrough organizations rooted i in a quest for truth and justice. amy: professors s cornel west and keeanga-yamahtta taylor. we will hear more from them in a moment, but first let's turn to former women's march co-chair tamika mallory. she spoke at a rally in minneapolis d days after the police killing of george floyd. prof. mallory: we are not responsible for the mental illllness that has been inflicted upon our people by the amerirican government, institutions and those people who are in positions of power. i don't give a damn if they burn down target, because target should be on the streets with us calling for the justice that our people deserve. where was autozone at the time when philando castile was shot in a car, which is what they actually represent? where were they? so if you are not coming to the people's defense,

then don't challenge us when young people and other people who are frustrated and instigated by the people you pay, you are paying instigators to be among our people out there, throwing rocks, breaking windows and burning down buildings. and so young people are responding to that. they are enraged. and there's an easy way to stop it, arrest the cops. charge the cops. charge all the cops, not just some of them, not just here in minneapolis. charge them in every city across america where our people are being murdered. charge them everywhehere. that's the bottom line. charge the cops. do your job. do what you say this country is supposed toto be about, the land of the free for all. it has not been free for black people, and we are tired. don't talk to us about looting. y'all are the looters. america has looted black people. america looted the native americans

when they first came here, so looting is what you do. we learned it from you. we learned violence from you. we learned violence from you. the violence was what we learned from you. so if you want us to do better, then, damn it, you do better. nermeen: tamika mallory speaking in minneapolis over the weekend. professosor kekeeanga-yamahtta tayaylor, if you couldld respond to her extraordidinary speech, and alsoso the way inin which pubublic officials,s, includuding liberal ofofficias like newew york k city mayor bill de blasio, have responded to ththe protest, simultaneously saying they feel the pain of f the prototesters but condememning the violelene and looting, ashehey say, thahat have happend during the demonstrations, and then the fact that there are manany who have been calling fo defunding g the police in respoe

to what's happenened here? i meanan, one ofof the thing that's b been so remarkakable about the imageses everywhere are the kind of military gear that s so manyf these policece officers are wearing. i mean, one democratic senator, brian schatz from hawaii, tweeted sunday in response, saying that he's introducing an amendment to the national defense authorization act to discontinue the program that transfers military weaponry to local police departments. professor keeanga-yamahtta taylor, if you c could respo? prof. taylor: yeah, there's so many things to say about this. i think, i mean, one thing that becomes so appaparent with the c cops on the strtreet, one, y you understand, i mean, for momost of america, you get a a glimpse of why people are e so angry. i mean, lookok at the kind of w wanton,

reckleless abuse and violence that the p police are instigati, and attacking peopople who are trtrying to protest. i feel like what we'e've seen over the weekend is a national police r riot. and you know, it's no wonder. they f feel emboldened by the white nationalism of the president of the u united states and really, the lawlessness of the republicican party writ lar. soso, it feels l like we're e bg the conseqequences of that. but i think that there is a bigger issue about the cops that is also worth talking about, which is why these police are never arrested, prosecuted, punished, really, even beyond just arresting and prosecuting people, but just punishing them as public servants for their kind of racist, abusive and violent behavior.

and i think that, you know, regardless of what these elected officials have to say, i think that we're actually going to see a lot more of this, which isis why the e conflicts will continue. and the reason why i say that is because it has been a strategy of cities across this country that have committed themselves to not investing in the civic and public sector infrasastructure -- so, public schools, pupublic hospititals, pubublic librarie- all of the thihings thatat make a cityty function. those have been systematically defunded, increasingly privatized. and the way that cities manage the inevitable crises that arise from that, when combined with unemployment, when combined with poverty, when combined with evictions and all of the insecurities that we see wracking cities across this country, the police are used to manage that crisis.

and that is why, in city after city, as othther public institutions take financicial hits, as other public institutions are defunded, it's the police that always get to maintain their budgets. and we look around now, where, because of the covid crisis, every city is talklking about massive budgetet cuts, bubut not to thehe police. the police almost nevever have to o incur layoffs.s. they never have to incur budget cuts, because they are seen as the public policy of last resort. and so, this is -- when we talk about defunding the police, it is that the police should not be absorbing a third of the budget, as they do in cities like philadelphia, chicago, los angeles, new york, while we're closing public schools, while public hospitals don't have the proper personal protective equipment. look a at the way that police are -- the gear and the equipment that they have,

compared to hospital workers dressing themselves in garbage bags, being forced to use the same n95 masks for weeks at a t time. look at the contrast between ththat, and then you understand what the actual priorities of the governing politicians and bodies are. which is why -- and this is the last thing i'll say -- the hypocrisy of someone like andrew cuomo or bill de blasio or any of these politicians coming on tetelevision, on their press conference, wringing their hands about the police, talking about t these issues asf they are p passive bystanders or just concerned citizens, and not elected officials who have power, who have authority, who have the ability to punish the police, who have the ability to make budgetary priorities, who have the ability to shift resources in one direcection or another, but they sit back and act

as if they are just watching the train wreck in slow motion, and not that they are actually in control of the gears. and this is part of the hypocrisy that is makiking people so a an, is that we have these people, elected officials, getting on television, talking about how terrible this is, andrew cuomo saying, "say her name." andrew cuomo, do your job. and i think that this is part of what is forcing people to feel that they have no other choice, no other response, than to rebel, because the levers and mechanisms of government that are supposed to attend to these issues have shown themselves to be completely broken. nermeen: professor cornel west, if you could comment on what t professor eangnga-yamahtta t taylor said, and also theacact that some observers are sayaying

that all of these ergencies ococcurring siltananeously, the economic emergencycy with ovever 40 millilion ameris now w unemployed, the e health crisis with the pandemic, that these couldld result -- and then, of course, t these protests across the e untry -- that thehese could r result inin some signgnificanant structural transformation within the u.s., as occurred, in p part, following ththe great depression and the protests of 1968? do you agree with that? and if so, what kind of transformation do you think is essential? prof. west: well, i would just want to say, first, just ditto to what sister taylor said. and i want to say, of course, send my salute to brother bakari. he's part of a family of political royalty with brother cleleveland and others in so many ways. but i think we alslso have to be very candid about the decadent leadership class,

that when sister taylor talks abououcuomo and the others, absolutely. but t you see, we've had a blak leadershipip that has so sanitizezed and deodorized t the black freem struggle that you end up with neoliberaral politicians who have accommodated themselves to the wall street greed. that's why they bail out wall street rather than everyday people. they have accommodated ththemselves to the killing machine of the pentagon and state department. that's why they can vote for budgets where 53% of every cent goes to the military, and there's no money left for investment in education, healthcare, jobs with a living wage. and we haven't had enough organized voices to bring critique to bear on t that kind of decrepit neoliberal black leadership. obama is at the center of it. the blacack caucus is at the center of it. black professionals are at thehe center of it.

and these cowardly black celebrities -- not all of them, but most of them -- are at the center of it. so their lives become simply lives of luxurury and exemplary of success, and have little to do with service to poor people, have little to do with sacrificing for working people. so, when martin king can say, "my country is the biggest purveyor of violence in the world," that takes courage in 1968, takes courage today. that's the kind of courage we need. malcolm would be the same way. fannie lou, ella baker, these are not just names. they exemplify something that's deep and rich in the history of a hated people who have taught the world so much about love. that's my tradition, the greatness of black people, not the cowardliness of black people. we've got both in our community. but our tradition of telling the truth and being willing to live and die for justice, that is what is necessary in this moment of reckoning. and we don't -- young folk hardly see it at all,

hardly see it at all, because so many of the professionals have simply been bought off. ththey sold out. they're indifferent. they're too callous to the plight of their poor and working-class, not just black, everybody, not just here, but around the world, the wretched of the earth, as the great frantz fanon wrote about with such power. amy: harvard professor cornel west and princeton professor keeanga-yamahtta taylor. if you wouldld like to watch the e whole conversationon withm as well as angela davis and more, go to democracynow.org. that does it for todayay's sho. democracy now! is produduced by remarkable tem in the stutudios and sheltetering at home. we want to thank each and every one of them. democracy now! is produced withth renee feltz, mimike burke, deena guzder,, libby rainey, nermeen shaikh, carla wills, tamimi woronof c charina n nad, sam alcoff, tey marie astudillo, john hamilton, robby karran, hany massoud, adriano contreras and maria taracena. our general manager is julie crosby.

special thanks to becca staley, miriam barnard, paul powell, mike di fillippo, miguel nogueira, hugh gran, mike burke, denis moynihan, david prude and dennis mccormick. i am amy goodman. thanks so much for joining us. stay safe. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. email your comments to outreach@democracynow.org

every decade, more or less. sami yaffa: aepublic that works s as the gateway between e east and te e west,greeeks f antiity, romans, byzanti a and ottoman empirires, this place is built upon the cultural heritage of all these ancient powers. it's plplace of conontradictions that has been the meeting place and the destination for different peoples, traditions, cultures, and art forms. it respects tradition but wants to be modern. t this musicall melting pot is thpeperfect subbjector "sountracker." welcome t turkey. [kanunun, baglama, and d clarinet plalaying]