♪ anchor: this is al jazeera and these are the heavens. an arctic blast continues to cripple large swats of the united states where at least 30 people have not been killed. millions are without power and are under boyle water advisories. the national guard has been stationed across texas which is among the hardest hit states. the governor says it will be days before the situation starts to roof. -- starts to improve. >> most of the state will be below freezing tomorrow morning. along i 10 in north, remaining freezing through thursday night.

with ultracold temperatures once again. anchor: facebook has blocked australians from viewing or sharing news on its platform because of proposed laws. it is also affecting the accounts of some government agencies whose pages went blank. u.s. president joe biden has spoken to israeli president benjamin netanyahu bite phone the first time since taking office. the long delay fueled accusations of a proxy relation ship, but both sides downplayed the issue. biden expressed support for israel's the relations with arab countries. a rescue operation is underway in central nigeria where gunmen have kidnapped a group of students. the exact number of those taken by the armed gang is unknown, but hundreds are missing.

residence iman marshall second-biggest city mandalay say police have shot at railway workers who were protesting the military to. they were blocking the track to a railway station whenever confronted by the police officers. it is the latest in the movement have continued for two weeks. the u.s. department of justice has charged three north koreans with a series of global cyber attacks. they are accused of trying to steal more than $1.3 billion from banks and companies. prosecutors say they also targeted a hollywood studio, in revenge for a film depicting a fictionalized assassination of kim jong-un. those are the headlines. i will have more for you after the bottom line. to stay with us. -- do stay with us on al jazeera.

>> i am steve and i have a question. is white supremacy growing in the united states? let's get to the bottom line. steve: president joe biden became the first leader in history to attack white supremacy in his inaugurion speech. then president trump refused to can them -- condemn white supremacy. the idea that america should be made great for white people only has been around for more than 150 years. we are not just talking about the south. this mentality is widespread in places like new york, california, oregon, every quarter of the country. as the riots showed, it is

everywhere. the department of homeland security under the trump administration added white supremacists to its list of priority threats. will that do anything? today we talked to two people who dive deeply into the american movement. in fbi agent, he infiltrated neo-nazi groups and militia groups. today his a fellow at the brennan center for justice. he wrote about paul thinking like a terrorist -- he wrote a book called thinking like a terrorist. she conservative talk show radio host. in case you are wondering, the movie is not based in the confederate south, but up there in the northeast of the country. thanks so much for being with

us. let me start out with you, michael. i read your book in 2007. this is 2021. we saw the insurrection on january 6. as part of the flavor of the moment, white supremacists are out there. i would ask you, is it still a clear and present danger? >> it's been a persistent threat all along. now that the media and some government entities are starting to look at it, it looks like it is increasing, but this has always been there. when people asked me about the threat moving forward, i state it is exactly what it was on january 5, 2021, and january 5, 2011, 1999, this has been a persistent part of our culture.

violence has been not exactly ignored, but not addressed in a systematic way. steve: thank you for that. when i so your film five years ago, and i watched it again recently, it just hit me in my gut. i said oh my god, you are way ahead of everybody in terms of getting a snapshot of this verlyn's that was going on. how do you feel about what you did as a film then? >> to piggyback off of what mike said, the great discovery i made when i started looking into this film, i started working on and around 2013. this movement, the adherence to it, they were always here.

not like they suddenly magically appeared in 2016 when everybody started paying attention to them. it's not like they are appearing now. it was simply that nobody was really looking at it. for someone like me, or really anyone that cared to look in 2013, 2014, 2015, you can very easily go online and find on much communities with millions of members talking about everything under the sun. i think for me, when i started -- when i became aware of is community, when i became aware of the numbers and depth, i felt very strongly that there was a story to be told. i remember even in taking the film around, for 2016, for this all hit into the mainstream, after him is like, well, this is not really a thing anymore. i think what has been happening is there is an awakening, and

awareness, where people have come to understand what has always been out there, and what is there today. steve: one of the things i opened the show with was talking about president biden's condemnation of white supremacists. donald trump, when he had an opportunity, did not do that. let's listen to president biden's comments. >> now, the rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, we must confront and be will defeat. [applause] steve: i want to ask you bluntly. this is the president of the united states talking about this. for as long as i have known you, it has been for a very long time, you have been on this beat. concerned about the blind spots in our law enforcement, the

negligence, the dereliction of responsibility in following and taking these white supremacists and neo-nazi movements seriously. are you comforted i what biden said? >> i certainly think it is important for the president to acknowledge that, and i think that was a primary opportunity to do that in a weight that was going to get this type of attention to the issue. it is easy to present white supremacists and far-right militancy as something that is on the fringe of our society. the skinhead with the swastika on his neck, and not recognizing how deeply woven white supremacy is throughout our society. that is why we have so many racial disparities in pretty

much any category look at. that part of what we have to deal with i think is going to be much harder. law enforcement should focus on addressing the violence, that is their job. but it is for the rest of us to address how white supremacy is affecting our society. steve:nk thank you for that. let me ask you a similar question. michael is writing these reports, he says look, the law enforcement, any law enforcement groups don't even have prohibitions on affiliating or joining white supremacists words. i guess when your film came out, your name is now tagged to this line of inquiry in the country. do you find yourself in targeted at all by police groups, by law enforcement groups, that think you have opened a pandora's box? >> thankfully, no. at has not been my experience. but it was one of the things

mike brought up early on. this overlap. they are incredibly high and disturbing numbers of people both in the military and law enforcement organizations who either have been affiliated with white supremacist groups or know people that have. i think the great lesson that i learned from mike, the thing i try to portray in the film, is what he was talking about. the sense that -- we have a stereotypical notion of what a white supremacists or a neo-nazi is and looks like. the reality is, that is a very visual tip of the iceberg. in today's world, even within the hard court parts of the movement, people more and more are trying to distance themselves from those types of symbols, but their beliefs and activities are executive same. -- exactly the same. these people exist that all sorts of levels of our society. suburban communities, have

educated communities. i think that is what was so shocking to me back then. i think it is a little less shocking today to people, but i still don't think people really understand the degree to which these belief systems and ideologies exist among large swaths of the population. steve: michael, daniel describing you, your educated. but of the things that comes out in the film, daniel redgrave, -- daniel radcliffe if this individual has the knack and ability to be empathetic with those folks that want to create violence, want to create a race war. celebrating heller. my question to you, is what is it in you that has given you insights into thinking like a domestic terrorist, into thinking like these people. what is that bridge that many others of us do not understand? >> i think the experience that i

had working with these people, who otherwise were normal and every kind of way, and ordinary, except that they saw themselves actively at war with american society, and were willing to engage in criminal conduct to further their advantage in the war. it made me realize that this was not some french on the border of our society. -- french on the border of our society. as an fbi agent, my job is to focus on people engaged in criminal activity to further their cause. but, far more of them -- there are former neo-nazis out there that neo-nazis will commit crime. i think that distinction is really important one that has been lost since 9/11. there were a lot of hard court

nazis who saw who i was hanging out with when i was undercover and would say hey, you're a smart young guy, why are you hanging out with those idiots. those idiots are going to get you arrested. they are going to get you locked up. come with us, we produce a newsletter. we can ready for office. we can put a tie on you and write you for a school board. don't hang around with those idiots. from a law enforcement perspective, those people are fine. i don't spend time with them. heidi -- i need to focus on the criminals. but understanding how that part still has purchase in our politics, is really important to understand, if you want to address this problem holistically. steve: let me share with you both some numbers. about what some americans are looking at when they look at the future of the country. some embrace the diversity, some don't.

if you look at those who say i prefer to live in a community with people who come from diverse cultures, let's look at this graph. 70% of democrats say -- 78% of democrats say they are turned on by that, 40% of republicans. our country has made the changes needed to get black americans equal rights, that means the job has done. the white community says 40 my percent -- 49% believe that. the black community, level percent. racism is built into the economy, the government, education system. the white community says half of that. the black community says 83%. my point is when you look at those dimensions, half of the white community is not on board with further steps of diversification. i think that when you kind of

look at this other question out there, that by the year 2045, 50% of the electorate will be nonwhite voters. you are going to have the minority, which already emerge at that point. when you look at that, the anxieties people have, white supremacists today, people concerned about immigration. losing their jobs probably. or the ships -- my question to daniel, as a filmmaker, conceptualize or, by shining a light on this you are interested on, how do you get americans to embrace diversity, to not have the fear they do that they are going to lose their standing in society as the culture becomes more multiracial? >> i mean, if i have the answer to that.

it's a very difficult question. i think one of the good byproducts of all of this is it has allowed us to at least understand that the things you are talking about are lies beneath all of this. even a neo-nazi, that was the great education process from me, is operating from the point of view from a grievance in the sense that they think they are the victim, as crazy as it sounds, they think they are being exterminated by jewish interests. take conspiracy theory, it's crazy. the emotional content of it is, i am being victimized, people are trying to exterminate me and my family. that is the most extreme version of it. there are lesser versions of that. i am being marginalized, i am docketing a fair shake, i am being discriminate against. all of the rest of the things that characterize a lot of people who have the views that you just showed in those slides.

while i do not necessarily know how to fix it, i do believe at least from the perspective i, these things from, at least understanding the mindsets, being in touch with the fact that they feel that they are not getting a fair shake, don't have opportunities, whatever it is. how we address that and how we effectively communicate to them what is actually going on, that i do not have an answer to. but i think we are at least going to understand the phenomenon in the psychology behind it better. steve: michael, one of the things i have been trying to get my head around, i have interviewed dr. cornell west. important black leaders in the country talk about in their equation of inclusion and people who need help, they both say that we need to take care of the by community who is poor to, at the lower end of the latter, that is a fighter -- vital part

of getting social and civic justice in the right place. my question is in 2016, i interviewed joe biden, and he said the democratic party had become a party of snobs and that needed to be. do you think that there is a strategy from what you know about the radicalization, about how do you undo some of what you see out there. i just looked at a law enforcement person who dealt with human beings. not to blow the ending of the film for folks, everybody go out and watch. there is a scene that i think i can talk about of a young man who finds his way out of this. how do you get more young men, in this particular case, the radicalized? >> i have trouble with this concept of radicalization, because it suggests some irrationality. where that is not actually

proven by the empirical studies of people who actually commit political violence. they are not brainwashed, overcoming reason, they have chosen a path. again, we have to make sure that we are addressing the right thing. i think it is very important to have an equitable society for that goal, that there is economic justice and social justice as well as racial justice. but, it's not that poor white people are joining these groups. people went to that attack flew there on private jets. this is more deeply woven throughout our society. we have to understand what our media culture is doing is doing that is pitting americans

against one another, and how politicians are using those divisions to secure their own politics. we have often heard of racist dog whistles in our politics. well, donald trump, with some media outlets that promoted him, found a way to make those dub whistles april horn, and it made a lot of this activity more public, and more acceptable to be part of these militant wings of the party and still be accepted into the mainstream political conversation. i think that is what is very dangerous. it's different. steve: this would be an opera question, if you were to update the movie to make it in light of what we are seeing play out, have you thought a little bit about what else you would bring to this set of visuals, this set of stories you told, if you were to bring it into today? >> i want to piggyback off what mike said.

that point of radicalization is really important. it is borne out by what we just saw, i.e., a huge group of people from all kinds of backgrounds, if provided with information that we know is false, but that they believed, would engage in activities that are unthinkable. breaking into buildings, be willing to commit violence, would you also strip things. -- we do all sorts of things. we saw on public display with that thought process looks like. there are a lot of people, if they are convinced that there'd be bargain -- certain things are going on, out of their own sense of justice, they will do terrible things. i think that in terms of updating the movie -- it's interesting because it is a movement that is always in flux. all sorts of groups now from the

proud boys on now were not part of the equation back five years ago. there is a lot of change, especially since, ironically, i think parts of the movement are very media savvy and focused on their image, and changing that image, and how they get on the news. a lot of it will be looking at how it continually, unfortunately, is able to rebrand itself. get more media access, more attention, try to mainstream itself. that is the huge opportunity of the last several years. it has given these folks -- there are all kinds of opinions that are becoming mainstream, or even if they are not mainstream, much more out there, and apparently socially acceptable to talk about. that is the biggest change that i see. this is not in the shadows anymore, and i think that has a ripple effect all throughout the movement. steve: one of the things that

has struck me about your stories and your work since 2007, is trying to focus on the blind spots of the fbi. the blind spots of our enforcement. dashboard enforcement. one of the things i would ask you is, what do you think the temperature is today of these movements, and secondly, when you listen to legislators, they also talk about the protests after george floyd's murder, the blm movement. but we look back in history at the black panthers or others in some areas around race, i guess in terms of not having blind spots, do you have any concern that there is a rising organized violence on the other side of this equation, of those that are trying to be wrapped around blm movements? i want to ask this because it

comes up a lot in congress. >> sure. i think there is a blind spot and that the fbi remains a mostly white, mostly male organization. if you look at how white males voted over the last two elections, you have a pretty good idea of what the vast majority of fbi agents would believe. particularly, after 9/11, the idea was we had to unleash the fbi. we reduce what are called criminal predicates. this is the level of evidence you need to start an investigation. we remove these predicates with the idea that we want the fbi to act with less evidence. but when you do that, you have a tendency, and this is through -- true throughout the history, when a white male fbi agent looks out on the horizon about who might be a threat later, these violent white supremacist

who have been part of our society for decades, are not seen as the big problem. it is some new and emerging issue but tends to come from a space that is uncomfortable for that fbi agent. it is easy to look at black lives matter movements or the standing rock water protectors and think that that is extremely dangerous, even if you evaluate them objectively by the evidence, they are not nearly as violent as white supremacists or far-right schuurs. -- melissa groups. there is a tendency. they created aategory to try to manufacture a terrorist threat out of the black lives matter movement. i think it is a problem. my concern with those groups actually becoming violent if the lack of law enforcement attention to white supremacist violence. steve: we are going to have to leave it there today.

this is a discussion i could have for a very long time. i think it is a very real and present struggle in the country right now, dan, you begin looking at this way early, and mike, even more. thank you so much for joining us today. >> thanks so much. >> thanks, dave. steve: what is the bottom line. history is clear. every time men have to share power, whether with women or any minorities, there is a rise in intolerance. these groups pray on fear and talk about my genocide, and their followers are not just the poor and uneducated. it's very important for white supremacy to be taken seriously by the biden administration as a threat to the national security. about why domestic terrorists they will actually do? did --\ if that happens, this

whites versus anybody different mentality will continue to be america's constant cars. that is the bottom line. ♪

- hey, i'm valerie june. coming up on reel south . - you are a princess. - [valerie] for young latinas, a right of passage comes at age 15. - you have to be responsible. you have to be mature now. you have to know exactly what you want in life, like strive for your goals. you have to be and act an adult now. - what makes a quinceañera mass a quinceañera mass is that declaration. - [valerie] but in the south, a quinceañera has evolved into more than a birthday. it's a commitment and celebration of a maturing identity. - i want to invite friends to notice or be part of this new culture that they've never seen before firsthand. - you have to coine both your culture and our culture because that's what you are and who you are. - [valerie] even for those who come to the party late.