05/23/22 05/23/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i say to fellow australians, thank you for this extraordinary honor. tonight the australian people have voted for change. amy: in what is being described as a greenslide, voters in australia toppled the prime

minister, ending nearly a decade of conservative rule. the main issue? climate. the new green labor coalition prime minister anthony albanese. we will get an update from tim flannery. then this week marks the second anniversary of the police murder of george floyd. we will speak with "washington post" reporters who co-authored the new book "his name is george floyd: one man's life and the struggleor racial justice." >> everyone in the world knows how george floyd died, but our book is about how george floyd lived and italks about his persistence nigating structure around the country that were laced with systemic racism. wanted to write this book in part because we wanted to show how george floyd h experienced institutional racism over the urse of his life long before he met

up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. presidenbiden has vowed to defend taiwan if it was attacked by china. he made the remark when questioned during a news conference in tokyo earlier today. >> you did not want get involved in the ukraine conflict terribly for obvious reasons. are you willing to get involved militarily to defe taiwan if it comes to that? pres. biden: yes. >> you are? pres. biden: that is the

commitment we made. look, here's the situation. we agreed with a one china policy, signed on with all the intended agreements made from their. but the idea that it could be taken by force is just not appropriate. it will dislocate the entire region and other actions similar to what happened in ukraine. amy: after biden spoke, white house officials tried to walk back his comments which mark a shift from longtime u.s. policy on taiwan known as strategic ambiguity. biden also unveiled a new trade initiative with 12 indo-pacific countries as part of an effort to counter china's growing power in the region. on sunday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in tokyo to protest biden's visit. >> their actions are extremely dangerous now. japan and the u.s. are trying to conduct a war of aggression on china. amy: while in japan, biden is meeting leaders from the other members of the so-called quad -- australia, india, and japan. australia will be represented by its new prime minister anthony

albanese who was just sworn in today. albanese's center-left labor party won the most seats in saturday's election, toppling the right-wing pro-coal scott morrison who had served as australia's prime minister since 2018. ending a decade of conservative rule. anthony albanese addressed supporters after his election. >> we can end the climate wars. [cheers] together we can take advantage of the opportunity for australia to be a renewable energy superpower. amy: the australian election has been described as a greenslide, with voters strongly backing candidates pushing for stronger climate action. we will have more on australia after headlines with leading australian climate activist and scientist tim flannery.

president biden has signed a $40 billion military and economic aid package for ukraine after the legislation was passed with little debate in congress. the massive spending bill was supported by every democrat in the house and senate. over the weekend, "the wall street journal" revealed the white house is considering deploying special forces inside ukraine to guard the newly reopened u.s. embassy in kyiv. this comes as ukrainian officials give conflicting accounts on the state of negations with russia to end the three-month-long war. as russia intensifies attacks in the eastern donbas region. on saturday, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy signaled talks could resume soon. he said fighting "will only definitively end through diplomacy." meanwhile, one of zelenskyy's top aides has ruled out any talks until russia leaves ukraine and gives up all land seized. in other news on the war, a russian soldier has been sentenced to life in prison in ukraine in the first war crimes trial since the invasion.

meanwhile, russia has cut off gas exports to finland days after finland and sweden formally requested nato membership. a u.s. military plane carrying nearly 80,000 pounds of baby formula flew from germany to indianapolis sunday as parof an effort to ease the critical shortage in the united states. meanwhile, congressmember ilhan omar and two dozen other house democrats have urged the federal trade commission to investigate the baby formula industry which is controlled by abbott laboratories and a few other companies. the shortage is linked in part due to abbott's closing of a plant in michigan in february due to contamination concerns first exposed by whistleblower who was fired. a federal judge has blocked the biden administration from lifting title 42, a trump-era policy which allows the u.s. to expel recently arrived migrants without due process. biden had vowed to end title 42 by today, may 23.

the judge, who was appointed by donald trump, said title 42 must remain in place until a lawsuit filed by two dozen states is resolved. the public health order has been used to block over 2 million people arriving at the u.s.-mexico border from seeking asylum, a violation of international law. leaders of the united states' largest protestant congregation ignored or covered up nearly two decades of sexual abuse allegations against clergy while seeking to protect their own reputations. that's the finding of an independent investigation into the southern baptist convention made public sunday. the report found southern baptist leaders had a list of hundreds of ministers accused of abuse but took no action. it also found survivors and others who reported abuse were "ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the southern baptist convention could take no action, even if it

meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation." the world health organization held an emergency meeting friday to discuss the recent outbreak of monkeypox outside of areas where the virus is endemic. the who has documented 120 confirmed or suspected cases mostly in europe. there has been one confirmed case in the united states in boston. monkeypox is usually spread between people after close, skin on skin contact, making it far less contagious than the coronavirus. scientists say the fatality rate for the form of the monkeypox virus being found in europe is less than 1%. in afghanistan, the taliban has ordered all female tv anchors to cover their faces. some female journalists have publicly criticized the decree but have agreed to follow the new rules in order to stay on thair. this is sonia niazi of tolonews.

>> this decree is unpredictable for all female presenters. every islamic scholar and political figure has opposed this decree. amy: in solidarity, the male staff at tolonews also put on face masks in a picture. in iran, a colonel in the elite quds force of islamic revolution guard corps was shot dead in tehran while he sat in his car outside his home. no one has claimed responsibility. iran has blamed israel for several past assassinations. iran's president ebrahim raisi has vowed to take revenge. france's former ambassador to haiti has admitted france and the united states effectively orchestrated the 2004 coup that overthrew haitian president jean bertrand aristide, haiti's first democratically elected president. the former ambassador, thierry burkard, told "the new york

times" one benefit of the coup was that it ended aristide's campaign demanding france pay financial retributions to haiti. over the weekend, "the new york times" published a special section headlined "the ransom," looking at how france devastated haiti's economy in the 19th century by forcing haiti to pay reparations for generations to former french slaveholders after a slave rebellion led to the 1804 haitian revolution. a judge in argentina has ruled the state was responsible for the massacre of more than 400 indigenous people a century ago, calling it a crime against humanity. in 1924, argentine police and settlers opened fire on qom and moqoit indigenous communities as they protested dreadful working and living conditions on cotton plantations, conditions the workers said amounted to slavery. the ruling does not offer victims' relatives and descendants financial

compensation. instead, it will require schools in argentina to teach the history of the massacre and will fund efforts to find victims' remains. in pennsylvania, progressive democrat summer lee has been declared the win of last tuesday's primary for a house seat representing parts of pittsburgh. she is poised to become the first black woman to represent pennsylvania in congress. her election is seen as a major defeat for aipac, the american israel public affairs committee which spent more than $2 million on the race as part of a broader effort targeting progressive democratic candidates. aipac's super pac has also spent over $1.2 million in texas to help democratic congressmember henry cuellar who faces a runoff tuesday against the progressive jessica cisneros. bernie sanders has criticized aipac's spending. he told "the new york times," "this is a war for the future of the democratic party." newly released emails show ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas,

personally urged two arizona state lawmakers to back efforts to overturn joe biden's 2020 election victory. thomas urged the republican lawmakers to choose a "clean slate of electors" in order to fight back against what she claimed was election fraud. this comes as justice thomas is facing increasing pressure to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the january 6 insurrection in part because his wife took part in the january 6 "stop the steal" rally in washington. hillary clinton's former campaign manager has admitted clinton personally approved a plan in 2017 to share with the media a sense --since debunked allegation that donald trump's campaign was covertly communicating with a server at alfa bank in russia. the revelation came during the trial of former clinton campaign lawyer michael sussman, who is accused of misleading the fbi

during its trump-russia probe. the allegations about trump and alfa bank first appeared in slate.com days before the 2016 election. in other political news, the conservative archbishop of the catholic church in san francisco has barred house speaker nancy pelosi from receiving communion until she "publicly repudiates her support for abortion." the archbishop said pelosi must first confess and receive absolution to what he called a grave sin. and in california, the united steelworkers union has filed charges against chevron with the national labor relations board, alleging the oil giant illegally surveilled and coerced employees at chevron's richmond refinery while refusing to bargain in good faith with workers who have been on strike since march 21. this comes after chevron reported it made $6.3 billion in profit during the first quarter

of the year. on saturday, about 150 people rallied outside chevron's san francisco bay area refinery and joining them was human rights and environmental lawyer steven donziger who was released from nearly 1000 days of house arrest last month as part of a years-long lal ordeal that began after he successfully sued chevron on behalf of 30,000 ecuadorian amazonian indigenous people. >> you can't help me with these record-breaking profits that we see right now with chevron a the whole fossil fuel sector, a campaign a fair wage to the workers? who are responsible for keeping this industrial site a safe as possible? its all connected, isn't it? screwing over the indigenous people of ecuador, screwing over there workers, and doing things in this community that are

extremely disrespectful to every citizen. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, we look at the greenslide in australia where the conservative prime minister was toppled, ending nearly a decade of conservative rule. the main issue? climate. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "short memory" by midnight oil. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in a stunning electoral victory in australia, the green labor coalition has overturned a decade of conservative rule in an election driven largely by concern over the climate emergency. voters saturday elected anthony albanese of the center-left labor party as their new prime minister, defeating the right wing scott morrison who had served as australia's prime

minister since 2018. the labor party also won the most seats in parliament. anthony albanese addressed supporters saturday. >> i say to my fellow australians, thank you for this extraordinary honor. [cheers] tonight the australian people have voted for change. [cheers] i am humbled by this victory and i am honor to be given the opportunity to serve as the 31st prime minister of austraa. amy: australian prime minister albanese was sworn in today and immediately flew to japan to meet with president biden and other leaders from the quad. that is australia, japan, india, and the united states. the australian election has been

described as a greenslide with voters strongly backing candidates pushing for stronger climate action and against morrison's pro-coal policies. australia has the least ambitious plan to address the climate crisis than any other nation in the global north. many climate advocates call australia's policies inadequate. australia's economy has overwhelmingly relied on coal and gas despite urgent calls to phase out fossil fuels and for the world's richest nations to slash greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half to prevent the most catastrophic effects of the climate crisis. the country has been on the frontlines of the impacts of the climate catastrophe with massive fires, floods, and drought only expected to worsen if no immediate measures are taken. response to the election portent from --

fiji's prime minister congratulated albanese in a tweet saying -- "of your many promises to support the pacific, none is more welcome than your plan to put the climate first -- our people's shared future depends on it." for more we're joined by tim flannery, climate activist and one of australia's leading writers on climate change. four australian voters headed to the polls, he wrote a piece headlined "will the australian elections finally spark action on climate change?" well, it is been called a greenslide. can you explain what happened? >> can i just say how great it is to be back with you again on this landmark day? what we have seen in australia is a fundamental shift in the way politics operate in the country. lisa half-a-dozen of the safest conservative seats in the nation won a green independent

candidates, most of whom were younger women, professional women with big concerns of climate, social equity, and for anticorruption agency in the australian parliamentary system. that was a fundamental shift. can you imagine what would've been in the u.s.? if the republican safest seats went to people like that? we have also had a real renewed vote for the green. there vote is much higher than it has been in recent years. four seats in the lower house. they may even hold the balance of power in the new parliament. had rather was a muted policies in terms of addressing climate change, far better than the conservative party that has lost power now. amy: talk about the teals.

>> they are the most fascinating phenomenon five seen can australian politics. i was involved with the very first teal. she won the seat over tony abbott in australia in the previous election and she has now increased majority, it is very clear that seat is not going to go back into conservative hands anytime soon. she's now joined by five other younger women, professionals, corporate's, people in the philanthropic sector and so forth. they have all been conservative members of parliament. the equivalent of your republicans. it is such a fundamental shift, it is hard to understand you go from that far right position to what appears to be left position. amy: explain the term "teal." >> blue is the color of

conservatives. if you take blue and mix it with green, you get teal. amy: liberals in australia? >> exactly boast of the liberal parties are conservative party, the equivalent of the republicans. their color is blue. the teals, although they represent physical responsibility and so forth, they really care about climate, accountability within the parliament and anticorruption and so forth. and about gender equity. teal was the right color. amy: explain australia's dependence on coal in the world's dependence, where auralia stands in terms of coal and gas exports. >>- joy is the world's largest exporter of coal by caloric value and also of gas.

the economy is far broader than that. we all know both coal and gas have a limited tenure and will be big changes globally within the next decade and a terms of their use. wh the labor party and the teals and the greens all recognize, we need to transition our economy from what dependency it currently has on those fossil fuels to new industries that may be hydrogen, baby export of electricity, minerals process using clean energy. weon't know quite yet but we see there is a real transition for that. that need was simply not recognized by the conservative government. they were saying coal and gas were going to go on forever. in the coal electrics and gas electrics where these things are mind, new this was not true. in fact, there was going to be a limit. we have lived through the most catastrophic climate in australia since the last

election, in the last three years, and it is clear now to people change is absolutely essential. amy: tim, we met so many years ago in new mexico, which has had these terrible fires. but if you can talk about what has happened in your country of australia for the world to understand the impact of the climate crisis. climates not at the top of voters concerns. maybe it is based on the kinds of questions asked in the united states, but to understand the profound impact climate has had on your country. >> look, pulling a showing climate is the most important issue the last election. that has come about in part because of the catastrophic impacts we have seen in australia since the previous election just three years ago. that began just after the election with massive wildfires. before those wildfires, the largest area burned in australia by far was about 2%. during those fires, 21% of the

forests burn. thousands of people lost their homes. many thousands. only 10% of those people have managed to get back into a event. 90% are still try to build houses or living elsewhere, some are still camping out. a massive impact. during those fires, are premised of the time decided to go on a holiday to hawaii rather than face this catastrophic event that saw our navy resting people off our beaches. if you had not seen it, would think it was a picture but it was absolutely true, people were trapped that needed rescue by our armed forces. that was followed in quick succession by some of the most severe floods the nation has ever seen. entire rural cities devastated by unprecedented flooding. and that flooding has gone on and on and on and on without three or four major flooding events. it seems to be relentless. for people living in the city,

think we might have escaped. but we haven't. toxic smoke and hundreds of people died. people in the beach were covered in ash. with the floods, sydney, which used to be a beautiful, yellowish sandstone city, the sandstone has turned black because of the mold. people's houses are covered in mildew and mold. people are throwing up whole wardrobes of clothing. the beaches are unusable because of the runoff from sewage plants and other sources into the ocean. life for australians has changed . the lovely, sunny country is a distant memory now. it is very, very strongly felt by the people. amy: tim flannery, thank you for being with us, leading climate scientist, to, writer, professor university of melbourne, author of numerous books, including "the weather makers: how man is changing the climate and what it

means for life on earth." and "the climate cure: solving the climate emergency in the era of covid-19." next up, this week marks the second anniversary of the police murder of george floyd. we knew about george floyd's death. what about his life? we will speak with two washington post reporters who co-authored the new book "his name is george floyd: one man's life and the struggle for racial justice." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "human too." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. this week marks the second anniversary of the police murder of george floyd. nine minutes and 29 seconds. that's how long minneapolis police officer derek chauvin

pressed his knee into floyd's neck on memorial day 2020. floyd was handcuffed, face down on the pavement, not resisting as he gasped for air, begging for his life. a teenager named darnella frazier recorded cell phone video of their actions and helped spark global protests demanding justice. derek chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for murdering george floyd. three other former minneapolis police officers were found guilty of violating floyd's civil rights as they ignored his repeated pleas of "i can't breathe." today we remember george floyd, the man himself and his impact. he died in minneapolis but he spent much of his life in houston, texas, where he is remembered for his efforts to break the cycle of violence in his community by mentoring young men. this social media post from george floyd, in his own words, captures the type of outreach he

did. >> i want to speak to y'all real quick. i want to say i've got my shortcomings and flaws, but the shooting that is going on, i don't care what religion you're from, where you're at, man, put the guns down, man. that ain't what it is. you got parents out here bearing their kids. think about it. love y'all. amy: george floyd in his own words, repeated those words over and over as a greeting as a goodbye. after his killing at the hands of minneapolis police officers, there were protests worldwide and in all 50 states. in houston, more than 60,000 people honored george floyd. mayor sylvester turner addressed the march. >> today is about lifting up the

family of george floyd. say his name. >> george floyd. >> say his name. >> george floyd. >> it is about lifting up the name of george floyd. amy: well, for more, we are joined by the co-authors of a new book entitled "his name is george floyd: one man's life and the struggle for racial justice." robert samuels and toluse olorunnipa are reporters for "the washington post" whose deeply researched book tells the story of george floyd as well as the history of the united states through this one man who says since he was a boy, he hoped to touch the world. the book also addresses slavery, housing, education, health care, and of course, police violence. robert samuels and toluse olorunnipa, we welcome you both

to democracy now! what an astounding journey you take us on. this is also a history book of institutionalized racism in the united states. touse, i was wondering if you could begin in north carolina because that is where george floyd was born. but you don't start with george where his family called him, perry, you go back to slavery times, to george floyd's family enslaved in this country. >> yeah, and it is so great to be with you. i'm glad you started with that question because in order to tell george story, we needed to remind people of the 19th century, george floyd's great-great-grandfather was born enslaved. that is how far back the records go in terms of what we were able to find. his great-great-grandfather was born enslaved but received his freedom after the civil war.

he was someone who was hard-working. he worked incredibly hard in this country and he was able to amass 500 acres of land in the late 19th century as a black man. that is something that was almost unheard of and made him one of the most wealthiest black been in that stretch of north carolina. this was a normal story. george floyd would have been the heir to that fortune. that is how wealth is built in this country, how many people came into the world wealthy because of the hard-working ancestors. unfortunately, george floyd's great-great-grandfather had all of his land taken from him their fraudulent tax schemes, and scooby list business deals, by white farmers and landowners who wanted to take advantage of him and did not like the fact there was a wealthy black man going around their community. this was a time of racial terror in the country at the turn-of-the-century, around the time of the tulsa race riots and

a number of different things happening and george's great great grandfather lost all of his land was not able to pass any of that late down. what did that due to the rest of his ancestry? it meant they were living in poverty despite working hard for years and years. george floyd was unable to and here in you the benefits of the hard work of his ancestors the way many people have been able to benefit from the hard work that has built up over generations. this is an american story. it shows how american poverty works, how american wealth works. george floyd was on the wrong side of the line because the color of his skin, because of the color of his skin of his ancestors. we also did a comparative analysis of the family that owned and abused floyd's ancestors and how they were able to build wealth, to be quite wealthy and passed on generational wealth. that really explains how even though people say slavery was a long time ago, it still has

reverberations and impacts on the 21st century. amy: robert samuels, this is a profound book that everyone in this country needs to read. ultimately, it also goes to the issue today of reparations and what this would mean. i am wondering, the two of you, as black reporters looking at the life and death of this black man -- again, we all knew immediately about george floyd's death. we did not know about his life. talk about taking on this project, investigating george floyd, and what you identify with and what you did not. the different paths you all took. >> amy, this is the most important inconsequential thing i've done as a journalist. we have combined 30 years of

experience. the reason i thought it was important is that i learned over the course of doing this writing and reporting that the idea of systemic racism -- i used to think of it as a dark cloud that just hung over us, a stain and at theabric of america. it is something far more terrifying. when i was with these families and these people watching the trial of derek chauvin, not knowing how it would turn out, it started to feel like a force, or pernicious force that was threatening everybody, black, white. we thought by digging into the story of floyd's family, learning about george floyd who was a striver despite his own mistakes and despite having an american society that always looked on him as a threat -- often looked on him as a threat,

he still believed in the promise of this country. and we wanted to be able to show readers about the cards that are stacked against people like george floyd. it was a personal thing because people saw us and they saw two black men carrying the story. but because we are two black man, we understood a lot of the things that they were talking about. emotions. what we hope for is that people would understand not just the emotions, but the history and be moved to think about these ideas in different ways. amy: toluse, you have george floyd's family, named for his father george floyd, moving from north carolina to houston. and then you show the systemic, the institutional, the structural racism of what he enters when his family -- what he ultimately grows up in the largest housing -- housing

project, overwhelmingly african-american in houston. if you can lay that out for us stuff i can't help but think as i was reading her book this weekend how many school districts might ban this book because you are directly addressing structural racism in this country. >> we are journalists and we wanted to tell the full story, including the story of structural racism, which was a part of george floyd's life. it is clear floyd moved into housing project that have been created specifically to house black people in the late 1930's, during the time of segregation that this housing project was created. it was allowed to fall into disrepair in part because the residents were 99% black. housing project became this sand

trap of poverty for most of the people living there or below the poverty line, the government had essentially given up this large housing proje and it was riddled with crime and all kinds of problems that made it a place that was hard to inhabit, a place hard for george floyd and his family to live and have a normal lifestyle, have been normal childhood. when you're growing up in that kind of community where you feel the government neglect, it is hard for you to have ambitions, have dreams. george floyd did still have dreams as an eight-year-old, spoke to second grade teacher, we knew he wanted to be a supreme court justice. we knew he was making all of its national benchmarks on reading and writing and math despite his impoverished background come despite the fact most of his peers were falling behind. he was someone who is able to catch up and for a brief period was able to show he had that potential. now, when you continue to live in that kind of community, to go to underfunded segregated

schools, it is going to be hard for you to continue to maintain grade level. that is what happened to george floyd, especially as he got taller, got bigger. people looked at him and said, this is not going to quite work for you because the schools you are in are not well-funded, they don't have the resources to get you out of here, but you have a body that can get you out of this community. it can lead you to great wealth if you condition that body and work on sports, go to the football field. that is the store he was told and as a child he bought into and did focus on sports. there was a time where it looked like he was on his way to great sports. unfortunately because his education was not strong enough, he was not able to capitalize on his body and was not able to capitalize on his athleticism and found himself going back to the housing project where he did not have a college degree, did not have any income, did not have a job. the next thing wedding frame was the criminal justice system, which was tailored to target people like him, looked like

him, came from the backgrounds he came from. lo and behold, he ended up cycling through that system for much of his life. amy: even as a young person, though he was extremely tall, he actually tried to compensate, write, for looking in any way ominous. and that took away from him being an effective athlete, and aggressive football player. they felt he was not aggressive enough. he was always trying to reassure people that he was not threatening. >> yeah. he would walk into a room and shake everyone by the hand and look everyone in the and he told his brother who asked, why do you always do that when you go into room? he said i can't go into the room the way you do because people would be intimidated because of my size. i have to put him at ease. that is why he went around saying "i love you" to make people feel comfortable. on the field, he was a jokester

and coaches try to toughen up because they realiz he was big but did not have this aggressive, domineering personality. that was always part of his personality and that is why it was so tragic in some ways for the people who knew him to know the police that killed him saw him as this big, intimidating force, this person that was going to rise up from the ground and start menacing them and other people in the public. that was not his nature, even while he was being addressed it, said "i'm not that kind of guy." he wanted the police officers to know he was not the kind of guy they stereotyped. >> i wanted to turn to his brother philonise floyd. he was joining protests to demand justice and calling on lawmakers to take action. this was less than a month after

his brother's murder and philonise travel to washington, d.c., to address the house judiciary committee in person. >> george always made sacrifices for our family and he made sacrifices for complete strangers. he gave the little that he had to help others. he was a gentle giant. i was reminded of that when i watched the video of his murder. he called all the officers "sir." he was mild-mannered. he did not fight back. he listened to all the officers. the man who took his life come who suffocated him for eight minutes and 46 seconds, he still called him "sir" as he begged for his life. amy: that is george floyd's brother philonise testified before congress.

if you can talk about his encounter with the criminal justice system. you also, through it, tell the story of private prisons as well being held at hutto --80 in texas know that prison. hutto was named for the man who was the creator of cca? >> we wanted to show how the systems operate. it is not happening in a vacuum. millions of men, including hundreds of thousands of men that look ke george wood, were swept into the criminal justice system. there is also a profit motive for some of the for-profit prisons that benefited from mass incarceration, benefited from the idea he would lock up as many people as possible, spend as little as possible doing so, and there's a profit that can be made there. it goes back to the history of convicts, policing, slavery.

we show that link. george floyd got caught up in that. even as he agonized over his mistakes and talked about feeling sorry for the decisions he had made, some of them lead him to having criminal record, he also felt he did not get a fair shake. he had to plead guilty in all of his cases. he never faced by jury of his peers. he always played guilty even when he told his friends "i did not do this." some of the police officers who charged and were later charged with falsifying a rest on a lot of people in charged with falsifying the arrest of yours floyd himself. he was caught up in that system and there were people making money off that system. america decided to continue to enforce that system is our incarceration rates shot up, becoming the highest in the world by far and millions of people ended up being locked up, behind bars, putting several for

nonviolent drug crimes. a scheme we're just now trying to unravel. amy: we're talking to toluse olorunnipa and robert samuels, the co-authors of "his name is george floyd: one man's life and the struggle for racial justice." this is the second anniversary of the police murder of george floyd. which takes us to robert. from houston to minneapolis, he had been arrested or imprisoned for selling drugs. he also used drugs. it was this cycle of drug use that he was constantly trying to break that his family was trying to get him to break. he would also try to break the drug use and members of his family. take us to minneapolis and what he hoped for, going there not to sell drugs, not to take drugs, but to try to start life again. >> right. george floyd, when he was in

houston and when he was incarcerated in texas, they had moved from thinking about -- to rehabilitate folks with drug dependency. and he comes out of prison, he is looking for a job and can't get one because of his record. you can't even have any professional licenses. you can't become a barber in texas at the time if you had a felony. also he had no health insurance because texas had decided not to expand insurance after the passage of the affordable care act. so george floyd, he becomes a part of a group of men who are led by a pastor who tries to rehabilitate themselves, who try to find a way to get clean. the pastor tells him if you want this for yourself and your family, there's a place in minnesota. and so he goes to a center, a rehabilitation center to be able

to get his life back into order. and when he comes out, he is clean, sober, working -- working two jobs. he finds the house in a nice park in a suburb overlooking sparkling waters. things are going pretty well for him. but one of the things, amy, is there are things that as a black man living in america you can't escape. the residue of that racism that you had lived with all your life continues to haunt you. so one of the things that happens in minneapolis is his roommate who was in rehab with him, he dies of a drug overdose, which puts toward floyd in a dark place. we go through them a new shot of that in the book. -- the new shot of that in the book. he is an assistant where if you are white and living in a

suburb, there was a lot of interest in helping to rehabilitate you. the federal government put billions of dollars into treatment and education and research about the opioid crisis when you hit white suburban communities. but if you are black and the state health department acknowledged it, they completely miss the alarming rise of use of opioids within black communities. to the point where they started -- rates started becoming higher than whites and a part of that has to do with the way we were thinking about drugs at the time. it is true that when they passed the crime bill in the 1990's, there was money dedicated to research and funding and education for black community's, but when we looked at the records and when we went to the records, that money was never sent from the federal government.

so he was living in a world where he was trying to get better but there weren't a lot of support to do it. as you know, do everything that we have seen, the actual physiology of how a person responds to a substance abuse addiction does not change whether you are black or white in this country. what changes is how a person is treated. and that is what happened with george floyd. amy: robert, you do some really interesting investigation into cortisol. people might be shake their head, what are you talking about? explain. >> and early 1970's, there was a lot of effort put into thinking about something called high stress coping. it was about maybe if you were working too hard in the middle class, something bad might happen to you. you ght get a heart attack.

there was a small group of public health researchers that started positing the question about the blackbody. and what stress does to them. it turns out that no matter your educational status, or socioeconomic status, or income where you grew up, if you look at stress hormones in black people, things like cortisol, the stuff that triggers the fight or flight response, those stress hormones are at elevated rates. so if your stress hormones are elevated for little bit, it is not that bad of a thing. it can help you pass a test. it can help you do a feat of strength when you needed. but if they remain high, that raises inflammation in the body. so that means you're more susceptible to things like heart

disease, diabetes, high blood pressure. two of the three things that george floyd had. in conclusion, the stress of racism in this country and in others can make you sick. that stress comes with feeling from discrimination, fearing micro-aggression, feeling have to work twice as hard to get by as a white man, and also the fear for your life. the fear you might encounter one of the wrong police officers who might kill you one day. racism can make us sick. amy: which is exactly what happened to george floyd. i mea if you go to the men who were killed by police in minneapolis before perry, were four george floyd, was a very aware of this and affected by

this. one of the things in this book that is so enraging is the record -- this does not take responsibility all over the country and police violence, but over and over again, he abused people and was never called on it. explain that record. i should say we have five minutes left in this interview and i really want to get to some issues here, but the pervasive racism that had to underlie the minneapolis police department, for him to have gone after so many people come almost in the same way as he went after george floyd and not be called on it. and then trained people. >> well, one thing i have to say is derek chauvin's record as a police officer was not in usual for that precinct and at the amount of complaints he got, which is a part of the issue,

right? the second thing is derek chauvin himself had a track record of aggressive behavior, that there were complaints. there is no public documentation that anything ever happened with those complaints. including several uses of the neck restraints, suffocating someone, that went on -- he started using that restraint first instance we know happened about 18 days after he was trained for it. george floyd was the ninth person he used that technique on. now, the interesting thing is as derek chauvin continues to use this technique, it becomes more aggressive. there is no record that anyone ever course corrected him. it became our aggressive until he actually killed a man. one thing that we say systemic racism corrupts us all, and it

has an impact on black people and also has an impact on what lives as well. derek chauvin was in system that made it seem like it might be ok to do this to somebody. amy: you spoke to now governor tim walz who warn you the momentum to make legislative changes to reduce racial and letty might have expired. as we hit the second anniversary of the police murder of george floyd, robert samuels, what is your sense? >> if you are a person of color in this country, and we talk about this in the last chapter where tim walz makes that comment, you cannot believe that the future is so bleak because that would be too bleak. it could cost you your life. we have seen some changes on the legislative level, at the state

and local level. and now we are seeing a backlash to it. people were saying everyone should read books in 2020 are now the books that are being banned in 2022. when we talked to reverend jesse jackson about this, he said, you have to consider the course of history. you have to look at the fact progress comes in fits and starts but people keep on moving. and we are moving toward a better place. we hope with this book, once people can realize the context of george floyd's life and also remember why so many people took to the streets in the name of a better tomorrow, that they might also start thinking about systemic racism and how people can see folks in a fullness that -- with the fullness and grace that george floyd never seem to fully get. amy: toluse, as we begin to wrap

up, you are a nigerian american journalist. the first reporter of african descent to cover the white house. you said you felt convicted by floyd's story. explain what you mean as we wrap up. >> there is a common thing among people of faith, there but the grace of god go i. that was a refrain that was in my head as i read this story, as i learned about george floyd, as i wrote this book in part because i knew i had received a number of lucky breaks in life allow me to have a different pathway than george floyd. it was clear that it was important to write this story with empathy because any of us can experience hardship in life, any of us can experience structural barriers in life. it is very uncommon for anyone who might be watching this have experienced the number of hardships and structural barriers that george floyd did,

in part because that systemic racism works and operates in the background, operates behind the scenes. we wanted to shine a light on those barriers, even for people who have had a better experience in this country, it is important for us not to leave behind the millions of other george floyds operating in silence, not getting the same attention and who are experiencing some of the same struggles and troubles he did during his life. i know as a black reporter, it is important for me to shine a light on those experiences and make sure people's voices are being heard, those experiences are being seen and george floyd's is one that will get people to understand that we have a lot of work to do as a country and one of the first things we can do is acknowledge our history, acknowledge our systemic areas come and see what we can do about fixing and changing the number of them. amy: did you feel more or less hopeful when you finish the book? >> i have no choice but to feel more hopeful. that is the story of the black

american experience over the last 400 years. something that the black americans have had to have. we have had a number of different times where we could have given up on this country. if black americans were ever going to get up -- give up, live plane every since 2 ñçñqñqñqñqñw

♪ ♪♪♪ samantha hawley: as a foreign correspondent, my job takes me to many countries, but stepping into this one, i'm feeling mildly unsettled. after all, this is saudi arabia, home to islam's holiest cities and governed by sharia law. women have few rights here.