the pay gap for women who make 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man doing the same job. according to the national woman's law center, the gap widens to 64 cents for african-american women and to 54 cents for hispanic women. >> first i'm going to sign an executive order to create more pay transparency by prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with each other. secondly, i'm signing a presidential memorandum directing the department of labor and our outstanding secretary of labor tom perez to require federal contractors to provide data about their employee compensation. >> now, the woman you see standing next to the president there is lily ledbetter, and she's the woman who worked at goodyear tire for 19 years making 40% less than her male co-workers until one of them wrote her an anonymous note exposing her pay gap. the actions build on the fair

pay act that bears her name. she spoke to my colleague about today's actions. >> if this had been a law back in my day, i wouldn't be here because i would be at home drawing the proper retirement that i had legally earned through my working career. >> today republicans are firing back calling equal pay and the president's actions a political ploy. >> so on this equal payday, i would urge us to stop politicizing women and let's start focussing on those policies that are actually going to help women and everyone in this country have a better life. >> now, in all fairness, this is a medicine term election year, and the president is and has been working hard to rally his base. our nbc first reid team points out the reasons why firing up the female base is key. women have made the difference between democrats winning and losing elections. most recent xavrms, president obama in 2012 and virginia governor terry mcauliffe this

past november. by the same token, republicans won the house in 2010 with the help of suburban women voters, as did virginia governor bob mcdonald back in 2009. seems like women are not such a secret weapon after all. and the truth is if democrats have any hope of keeping control of the senate, women need to show up at the polls. meanwhile, the white house itself is under fire responding to accusations of unequal pay inside the administration itself. joining me now is white house domestic policy director cecilia, she's also the former vice president for policy at the national council of lorasa. i want to start with you on that last point, and thank you for being here, about the white house itself. is there a pay gap inside the white house for women? >> so the white house is doing better than the private sector, but there's really two pieces to the equal pay question, and the first of them, which is the thing the president addressed today, is transparency. making sure that people know what everybody is making so that you can address questions of equal pay. we have pay transparency here at

the white house. that information is public information, and we have equal pay for equal work in the sense that people with the same jobs and the same titles make the same exact amount of money. that's the first piece. the second piece -- the second policy challenge with respect to equal pay is making sure women are in the higher paying occupations so we have a higher concentration of women, for example, in the lower paid entry level jobs here at the white house. we're trying to make sure that girls and women are trained in science and technology, engineering occupations that get higher wages. making sure our training agenda is focused on making sure that women have access to higher paying jobs, and he those are the jobs that we're seeking and choose and that we're trained and ready for. there are two pieces to the equal pay agenda, but the first one, the transparency issue, is what the president addressed head on today with respect to federal contractors. he signed an executive order basically saying they can't retaliate against people who share their pay information and that way we can know whether or

not there is a disparity. >> so getting, as you have just said, banning federal contractors from retaliating against employees, their employees, who discuss their pay and also instruct the labor secretary to require those federal contractors to actually make public the data about their payments in the same way that the federal government agencies use. okay. what will that do to close the gender gap? is there a ripple effect expected in the private sector? how has this helped women outside the beltway? >> well, so, for example, if you work for federal contractor as lily ledbetter did, you cannot get penalized from the employer if you share information as her co-worker did. that co-worker did it anonymously. that stops for federal contractors as a result of the actions today. also as a result of the second action, the department of labor is putting forward a regulation which basically says contractors have to disclose salary band information. if you are an employer that wants to do the right thing, you can look at that data and say,

oh, here is where the right salary range is. here's a way that i can make sure i'm praying folks properly and i'm want creating disparties. data actually helps illustrate where there's a problem. for those that want to do the right thing, they have to make good judgments and make sure they are want creating disparties. we know that diversity in the work forces helps make for a higher quality product. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> all right. i want to bring in elizabeth plank, executive social editor tore for policy and sabrina shafer, executive director of

the independent women's forum. okay. let's get into this question of equal pay. i want to show a graphic. do love the graphs. this is sort of what women could buy essentially if they were paid not at the 77 cents on the dollar, but full pay for women versus men. $431,000 estimated lost to the gender pay gap over the course of the average woman's working life with which she could buy a house, college tuition for two kids, $21,900 in gallons of gas and feed a family for 6.4 years. are those kind of statistics really are what is going to be used to sell the wider public outside the federal contracting world on equal pay. >> yeah. i think, you know, sunday "mad men" the last season is approaching, but when we look at the workplace, we still live in the "mad men" era, and those are the kinds of figures that are really going to speak to women. we've been hearing 77 cents, 77 cents over and over again, and, of course aring that's a compelling number, but when you add those pennies and those pennies add up to dollars, that's really what is going to be compelling information for women when they show up at the

ballot box to remember, you know, who is backing them up, who is going to make sure that they have that money back. >> right. sabrina, what would you say to people as i asked cecilia saying, listen, if you do this, if you sort of force the private secretary of stator to equalize pay for men and women, all you're going to do is discourage employers from hiring women. >> well, i agree. look, i mean, i think they have to back up. the reality is this whole conversation is based off of a faulty statistic. the 77 cents statistic. as the white house conceded yesterday is grossly misleading. if you control for any number of factors that are very important. you're a college major, your experience, your time spent out of the work force, your time spent in the office each day. this wage gap all but disappears. i think it's really important that we realize that it's far, far smaller, maybe 4 cents, 5 cents, 6 cents, and there are lots of different reasons that that may be the case. maybe discrimination is part of the explanation, but maybe it's because women aren'ting inning as frequently as they should be. the reality is that the law that is they're trying to put out there aren't going to create equal pay. they're going to tie things up in court, and we have laws on

the books already to protect women and men from gender discrimination. >> but, sabrina, just to push back on this a little bit, if you are saying that you're essentially saying that because this pay gap has persisted over generations, are you just saying that women are bad negotiators and pick bad majors and that that is the entirety of the case while this real world average exists? you're saying it's because women pick bad majors? i don't understand your argument in full. >> i think there are bad employers out there, but you can't legislate away all bad behavior, but i think the larnler factor is that, look, i was a history major, and i knew men who are pet let me engineers. the reality is i don't have any interest in being a petroleum engineer, and a lot of women, even if you look at women at m. i.t., which i did, and you look at the majors that they go into, even at the top science university, more women are going into subjects like biology, like architecture, social sciences, while the men are going into the computer sciences and the engineering. the fact is men and women are different. these aren't bad differences, but they are different, and i

think that sometimes it's okay instead of trying to force us to do things that we don't want just say, all right, but if women want to be -- go into the hard sciences, great, but if not, this is not discrimination. >> so, elizabeth, that sounds like the argument that was made in the "wall street journal". women are picking those jobs that just pay less. they're choosing to be, you know, a history major and complaining because a biology man makes more. is that compelling to you? >> i'm going to have to agree with sabrina. i think the 77 cent figure is misleased because that is the figure for white women. when you look at black women, they make 64 cents. when you look at latinas, they make 54 cents. that's almost half of what the white women -- >> is it down to choices? is the argument that it's down to poor choices? >> the problem with the argument that sabrina is making, she's ignoring the huge market biases. >> i'm not ignore it. >> we're going to let you get in, sabrina, but let's let her finish her point. >> if we say that women are choosing lower wages, we're saying -- it's as crazy as saying that women choose poverty

or they choose the minimum wage over higher wages. two-third of minimum wage earners are women, and saying that is just a choice of women, that that is just a choice of black women is not only sexist, but it's racest. >> how do you respond to the fact that in a position like lily ledbetter was in where she had the exact same job, she had made the exact same choice, she had the exact same job description as a man and was still being paid less, when those things happen in the workplace, how do you blame a woman's choices for that? >> i don't. i don't. i say that that -- if something like that happens, then a woman or a man for that matter has the right to take their employer to court, and we have laws on the books. we have the equal pay act of 1963. we have the civil rights act of 1964. we have the lily ledbetter fair pay act, which extends that time that a woman or man could sue. we have all sorts of law that is are currently on the books, but i would rather see more tools available to women so that they can better themselves. the reality is that women in their 20s and many urban centers are out earning men.

women 35 and older without children are also out earning men. we're talking about a very narrow subset of under-educated thanks to all of the democratic women who are standing up there today who will not support any kind of educational freedom bill. we have under indicated, lower income women who are unmarried. this is an easy audience to appeal to more government, but the reality is this is purely political. >> your witness, elizabeth. is it just under educated women? is it just basically low information women who just don't know any better and they ought to just get out there and get a lawyer and sue? >> if you look at the data, actually the most educated people in our country are women right now. women are earning far more degrees than men are. >> i agree. >> the problem is that's not actually translating into more senior positions. there is a glass ceiling, and it's making it very hard for women to have access to those leadership positions, and there's a sticky floor where women are stuck in these low earning positions and they can't get out of them. >> really quickly, sabrina, how much do you think it costs to file a lawsuit against a big employer if you're an individual?

>> well, it's not going to cost a lot if you have a class action lawsuit which women are going to be automatically filed, and when there's no caps on damages, it's going to be very easy for women and it's going to be great for trial lawyers. >> so you do then agree that we should have laws on the books that allow women to sue because the only way can you file a class action lawsuit is if there is something in the law for you to sue over, so then it sounds to me like you do agree with having equal pay laws because that's the only way someone could possibly file a suit. >> yeah. no, i agree. if you genuinely are descriminated against, there are laws on the books that allow to you sue, and you should do that. i don't think that the paycheck fairness act that's being voted on this week is going to actually close that very small pay gap. it's going to make suing easier. >> if there's nothing in the law that said that your paychecks have to be the same, what is your legal action? >> we already have that. we have that. my point is -- >> then why do we have a pay gap? >> because i think that there's a combination. are there bad employers? yes. do women make different choices than men? yes. do they maybe not negotiate as much or not take a seat at the table, cheryl sandberg said?

yes. are these things we can change on the margin? absolutely. should we? of course, we should. i want to see women excel. they can and they are, but the reality is that i don't think we need more legislation to do that. >> okay. last word to you, elizabeth. can this all just be solved by women getting more educated about filing class action lawsuits? >> no. i think it will help with transparency, which is what president obama is trying to do. it's very hard to know that your male co-workers are being paid more than you if you actually don't have that information, and we've all had or tried to have conversations about salary with our co-workers. we know how awkward those can be, so i imagine when a female employee wants to go to their bosses and have those conversations, i should know that i would not feel very comfortable doing that, and information will absolutely empower those female employees to do that. >> an important debate, and i want to thank elizabeth and sabrina. thanks to both of you for being here. >> thanks. all right. coming up, we go around the world with the latest on the search for the missing malaysian plane. more trouble in ukraine. another day of dramatic testimony from oscar pistorius in his murder trial in south

africa. back here republicans just won't give up. two different republican led committees are now racheting up their threats and probes of the irs over handling of not for profits. what if i said that the irs is just doing its job and following the law? we'll show you. okay, listen up! i'm re-workin' the menu. mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here! aah! [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of great-tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition in charge™.

[ bottle ] ensure®. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. disturbing the pantry. ortho crime files. a house, under siege. say helto home defense max. kills bugs inside and prevents new ones for up to a year. ortho home defense max. get order. get ortho®.

we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is.

>> in the southern indian ocean they are searching again today but could not pick up any ping this is could potentially be from the plane's black boxes. the sounds were heard saturday and sunday. the battery life for a plane's black box is around 30 days. the plane disappeared 332 days ago. now to south africa where olympic runner oscar pistorius broke down on the witness stand again today. pistorius is accused of killing

his girlfriend reeva steenkamp. the double amputee described what happened on the night of the shooting saying he heard his bathroom window slide open in the middle of the night. he says he picked up a .9 millimeter pistol from under his bed and started shooting through the door because he thought there were intruders many the bathroom. >> i flung the door open, and i sat over reeva, and i cried, and, um, i don't know. i don't know how long -- i don't know how long i was there for. she wasn't breathing. >> we'll take an adjournment. court will adjourn. [ crying ] >> as you heard, pistorius was sobbing so uncontrollably the judge decided to end court for

the day. pistorius has pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder and three gun charges. now to ukraine and check out this voted from the ukrainian parliament. a communist leader accused ukraine's nationalist from playing into the hands of russia by using extreme tactics in the ukraine crisis. the argument escalated into a full-on brawl. in another part of the country, ukrainian police took that control of government buildings from pro-russian demonstrators in eastern ukraine. this morning secretary of state john kerry pointed the finger at russia for organizing violence in the region. >> everything that we have seen in the last 48 hours from russian provok tours and agents operating in eastern ukraine tells us they've been stlent to create chaos, and that is absolutely unacceptable. these efforts are as ham-handed

as they are transparent, frankly. >> at that same hearing on capitol hill, secretary kerry and senator john mccain argued about america's approach to dealing with russia. >> on the issue of ukraine, my hero, teddy roosevelt, used to say talk softly but carry a big stick. whatture doing is talking strongly and carrying a very small stick. in fact, a twig. >> your friend teddy roosevelt also said that the credit belongs to the people who are in the arena who are trying to get things done, and we're trying to get something done. that's a teddy roosevelt maxism, and i abide by it. >> ouch. kerry and mccain also tussled over syria and the middle east peace talks. if i can impart one lesson to a

new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does.

the was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com >> krip we read between the lines on how president obama is handling race and how that's causing a great debate among liberals. now it's time for we the tweeple and the stories you can't stop

buzzing about on social media. i have received a lot of tweets about the story of a georgia police officer who reportedly pulled a gun on a group of african-american boys building a tree house is the most shared story in my timeline right now. you said you wanted the story to be known that were accosted by officers, one with a gun drain and how the 11-year-old is now scared to go outside. you have sent tweets in disbelief like this one. "little black boys are building tree houses and it's threatening the neighbors?" yet, reports say it was a neighbor concerned for the boys' safety who called 911. his mom has filed a complaint and the henry county police department is looking into the incident. now to a lawmaker who should have looked before locking lips. republican congressman vance mcalister of louisiana was caught on a surveillance camera in his office in an intimate embrace with his district scheduler. that was back in december 2013, but the pictures were leaked anonymously this week.

both are married, and not to each other. their coupling was captured after he was running on a family values platform with the duck dynasty family as support. mcalister issued an apology saying "trust is something i know has to be earned, whether you are a husband, a father, or a congressman. i promise to do everything i can to earn back the trust of everyone i've disappointed." his district scheduler has been removed from the payroll. now to men caught on camera in a good way. rob maiden and his son, 15-year-old trey wowed the crowd during halftime at the ncaa championships. he is captain of the mav maniacs, the all male dance squad came up with this excellent routine. they had 80,000 b-ball fans on their feet and got huge applause. they were not the only ones to grab the spotlight. you can't stop talking about this picture of bill clinton and george w. bush who sat side-by-side in the finals in texas. tony romo is also a bonus star

sighting in this viral pic. abby huntsman from "the cycle" tweeted bipartisan sportsmanship. 42 and 43 enjoying the ncaa championship together. ah. as you probably know, the university of kentucky took the title, and you can take the title by joining us in the conversation on twitter, facebook, instagram and msnbc.com and keep telling us what's important to you. up next, republicans expand their witch hunt in the irs targeting scandal, but is their target misplaced? we'll get to the heart of what it really means to be tax exempt. tle things. tiny changes in the brain. little things, anyone can do. it steals your memories. your independence. insures support. a breakthrough. and sooner than you'd like... ...sooner than you think. ...you die from alzheimer's disease. ...we cure alzheimer's disease. every little click, call, or donation adds up to something big. alzheimer's association. the brains behind saving yours.

♪ i ♪ and i got the tools ira ♪ to do it my way ♪ i got a lock on equities ♪ that's why i'm type e ♪ ♪ that's why i'm tyyyyype eeeee, ♪ ♪ i can do it all from my mobile phone ♪ ♪ that's why i'm tyyyyype eeeee, ♪ ♪ if i need some help i'm not alone ♪ ♪ we're all tyyyyype eeeee, ♪ ♪ we've got a place that we call home ♪ ♪ we're all type e ♪

when jake and i first set out on we ate anything. but in time you realize the better you eat, the better you feel. these days we both eat smarter. and i give jake purina cat chow naturals. made with real chicken and salmon, it's high in protein like a cat's natural diet. and no added artificial flavors. we've come a long way. and whatever's ahead, we'll be there for each other. naturally. purina cat chow naturals. >> loour looking at live pictures of the house floor. democrats are making the push to restore unemployment benefits. the senate passed late yesterday a long of -- that expired for more than two million people in december. right now house democrats are rallying on the capitol steps to encourage speaker john boehner to hold a vote thursday before

congress leaves for a two-week break. >> it is pastime to act, but it is never too late to do the right thing. let us do the right thing. let us pass this bill. >> speaker john boehner has called the measure "unworkable." meanwhile, if you looked at the calendar today, you probably realized it's almost tax day. just one more week, people. for some republicans in congress, every day is tax day. politico points out the house weighs and means committee will vote this week to formally says ask the justice department to pursue criminal charges against former irs employee lois learner. now, don't get confused. this actually is separate from plans from house oversight committee chairman darrell issa to hold a contempt vote against the former head of the tax exempt organization division head on thursday. now, it's been a while, so here's a refresh other why we're here. still talking about lois lernor.

the kind of organization that is get to be exempt from taxes. they include labor unions, business leads, chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations and clubs, also the nfl, but that's a whole different segment. in u.s. code 501 section c paragraph 4, the exempt can include civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit, but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare. whose net earnings are devoted exclusive i feel to charitable, educational, or recreational purposes. how that designation short-handed as 501 c went from meaning exclusively for the promotion of social welfare to organizations that primarily engage in social welfare without congress ever rewriting the law is at the heart of the so-called irs scandal. a scandal in which irs agents in cincinnati actually did their jobs with inundated with applications for tax exempt status ahead of the 2010

elections, including by tea party groups, and by liberal leaning groups. in fact, a 296 page report by the treasury department's inspector general found that the only group to have its tax exemption denied was a liberal one. yes, hearing after hearing in the house oversight committee has turned up no evidence of a coordinated campaign against conservative groups. instead republicans are determined to hold lois lerner in contempt of congress and here's what dems have to say about that. >> this is really turning into a witch hunt. frankly, to serve the base of the republican party. when you say no information, there are literally thousands of pages of information that have been given to the committee about this issue, so there's been very extensive investigation. >> editor in chief of think progress. judd, i think the sort of obvious question here, republicans control the house of representatives. wouldn't it be easier for house republicans to simply attempt to pass a bill, changing the

language of the statute to primarily from exclusively? >> well, i don't think the goal here is really a legislative fix. this is really about trying to recover from what was a pretty severe political embarrassment. if you remember when this irs scandal first came out, this was on the front page of all the papers and the story was, look, obama and the obama administration is targeting conservative groups trying to deny them tax exempt status, and the air kind of got taken out of the story when it turned out after a long period of time we then find out, well, actually progressive groups were also targeted and there are lots of materials, like slide shows and training materials, that show both conservatives and liberals were targeted by this. so now we're trying to sort of repackage things, rev things back up. i think in advance of tax

season, as you referenced in the opening. and see if we can get things going again. >> it does feel like this whole thing, as you have said -- there's been no actual evidence that they can say the white house called up the office in cincinnati and said, hey, go after tea party groups. they have no evidence of that and haven't been able to find it. it does feel like this is now become the scapegoating and really sort of relentless pursuit of one person, lois lerner, who is now being double pursued for potential criminal charges as well as contempt of congress. >> well, it's an odd pursuit too because she's really has a 34-year long career in the government. obviously through republican administrations, democratic administrations. clearly he she is worried about something. she did plead the fifth when she was brought in front of congress. i think that although it doesn't appear to be part sfwlan, meaning it wasn't -- didn't appear to be targeting either republicans or democrats or liberals or conservatives, there

probably was some improper use of targeting groups because of what their name was or because of what their political views were, which i guess she's concerned could get her in some difficulty, but these latest charges and these latest actions are puzzling. we don't really know what the basis for criminal charges would be against her, and there's also a controversy as to whether she really can be held in contempt based on what happened before the committee. >> darrell issa basically shut the microphone down on the ranking member, congressman cummings, before lois lerner could be apprised of her rights. this idea that there was obviously something improper or maybe something not done right. if, in fact, the statute says that you can't have tax exemption, meaning you and i and every taxpayer subsidyizes you unless you are exclusively doing social welfare and you send me an application that in the name of your organization says that

youment to restore democracy, restore liberty, reduce the size of government, something that has to directly to do with your politics, i don't get how that's a scandal if someone gives that extra scrutiny. what is scandalous about that? >> well, i don't know -- i don't think it's scandalous in that someone is doing something neff air yushgs but i guess if you are looking at it from a constitutional point of view, it could be inappropriate if you are being targeted for, you know, your political views or someone's inference about your political views based on those kind of requirements and that kind of language. i think the distinction here is you are looking out for social welfare. that can be based and formulated upon some view you have about what constitutes welfare. that gets mixed up in politics, of course. i think there's -- so it's -- i think it's a slightly subtler question, but i agree with you that regardless of what occurred, it's not really a political scandal that has much

to do with the obama administration or the fight that darrell issa is trying to have on capitol hill. >> not to mention the fact that every single one of these groups that are complaining about this still got to be tax exempt and we're still subsidyizing each and every one of them to this day. >> that's true. except for a couple of the progressive groups. >> except for progressive. the liberal ones didn't get it. thank you very much. >> thanks. next, advancing the dream. it's been 50 years since lbj signed the landmark civil rights law, but the fight for equality continues. we'll look at how far we've come and how far we still need to go. ♪ when i'm halfway into your heart ♪ ♪ you have to let me know [ female announcer ] when sweet and salty come together, the taste is irresistible. sweet and salty nut bars by nature valley. nature at its most delicious. thank you. thank you. i got this. oh, no, i'll get it! let me get it. uh-uh-uh. i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week.

and it's her treat. what about a tip? oh, here's one... get an allstate agent. nice! [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-905-6500 now. here we go! hold on man. is that a leak up there? that's a drip. whoo. okay. aah. now that's a leak. that is a leak! and if you don't have allstate renters insurance... game over. [ female announcer ] protect your valuables from things like water damage for as low as $4 a month when you add renters insurance to your allstate auto policy. call 866-905-6500 now. plus, drivers who switched saved an average of $498 a year. just a few more ways allstate is changing car insurance for good. [ female announcer ] call an allstate agent and get a quote now. without standard leather. you are feeling exhilarated with front-wheel drive. you are feeling powerful with a 4-cylinder engine.

[ male announcer ] open your eyes... to the 6-cylinder, 8-speed lexus gs. with more standard horsepower than any of its german competitors. this is a wake-up call. ♪ 1

. important developments to tell you about in the george washington bridge lane closings investigation. new jersey lawmakers are updating members on the probe. they could demand today documents from lawyers who investigated the ins don't behalf of the governor's office. that report released last month concluded governor christie did not bn the bridge lane closings in advance.

also, several major publ kegs, including main justice.com and esquire are now reporting that former christie appointee david wildstein is cooperating with federal authorities. you'll recall wilds to ein replied got it. time for traffic problems in fort lee. the governor's office internal investigation named kelly and wildstein as the key instigators in the bridge closure plan. sfwlimplts now to the debate over civil rights that's been raging in this country for decades. this week in austin, texas, the lyndon b. johnson presidential library is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the civil rights act of 1964. that monumental legislation along with the voting rights act of 1965 began what will become president johnson's great society. in his signing statement johnson said it's time for americans to move forward. >> let us close the spring of racial poison. let us pray for a wise and

understanding heart. let us lay aside irrelevant differences. and make our nation whole. >> 50 years later some would argue the nation still isn't whole. the lbj library is host aing three-day summit called we shall overcome, reexamining five decades of saifl rights history and the convergence between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the civil rights battles of 2014. including the fight for same-sex marriage and immigration reform. fundamental to these issues are common themes of fairness and that question of fairness is also at the heart of another ongoing debate. this one taking place not just between right and left, but also among liberals.

>> i'm going to start with you. i want to talk about the ark from dr. king until today. >> to use your christianity to make this a just nation. many people have gotten it twisted. they believe evangelical piety means we're going to create a christian nation. dr. king never believed that. he stood against school prayer, but believed he could use his christian base to make this a just nation, and how can we deliberately deny to a select subpopulation of our community the rights that should apply to all? i think the ark and the trajectory and the continuum to use all those met fors and to

mix them suggests that from dr. king's fight against economic inequality, social injustice and racial dominance and white supremacy until today when we fight against hit row sexism, the belief that hit row sexuality supplies the only norm that's available for appropriate sexuality is something that dr. king will stand for. his wife stood for it before she died, and it's something i think dr. king would certainly embrace. >> yet, the part that sort of religiocity, particularly on the focus of lgbt rights. the hobby lobby litigant. the person saying the fight for religious liberty is about being able to exempt one's self from the onward march of gay rights. can you square that circle for us? >> well, yeah, let me square it on their terms, first, and then talk about why it's wrong. their thinking that their religious liberty is being impinged upon because they have a certain kind of belief in scripture, and that belief in scripture is that homo sexuality is against god and against god's

wishes. now, i don't think that it squares very well because if we look at what the founders and framers intended, religious liberty was not for this. it was because they were trying to get away from the crown of england and the rule of law that said that they needed to follow after the church of england. so when we look at this from a historical basis, what the right is doing today is just simply wrong. it's not the correct way to think about religious liberty even though they've hijacked it to make it for their own ends. >> you know what, just to go back to you, michael, the other issue i would guess that's inescapable when you look at this ark from 64 today is the obvious fact that we do have our first african-american president, and i want to sort of pivot a little bit because there has been this debate that we've been seeing on the left now about sort of the orientation of both left and right, black and white toward him on the basis of race. i want to read you something that jonathan chate wrote in new york magazine today. he says many lubrales believe that only race can believe the

ferocity of opposition to barack obama. he that says anything that republicans say about obama that could be explained by racism is probably racism, and since racists wouldn't like anything obama does, that rendered just about any criticism of obama, which is to say nearly everything republicans say about obama presumpttively racist. talk just a little bit about kind of this liberal critique of fellow liberals in the sense of chate arguing that now it is liberal who's are overly racializing the context of the obama presidency. >> martin luther king jr. was edifying elence and poetry suggested that the real enemies to progress wasn't the white racists that stood against us. it was the white liberals who were soft in the sense of refusing to take a stand against injustice. it is just such liberals who have failed to stand in the trenches with people of color whose backs are against the wall because they benefit more broadly. i'm want talking about mr. chate individually, but it doesn't get its own, if you will, cage

examined because liberalism has reinforced the propriety of racial references as well. in other words, white liberals have benefitted from racism as well, even though they speak against it. remember, some of the working class white people say you white liberals won't have to live next to negros, but you go live in the suburbs. you don't have to deal with the consequences of living next to black people. liberals have often had their cake and ate it too, and i think here the problem is that white liberals failed to look at the structural and systemic affects of racism that is so pervasive that, yes, just because we know that every conversation about barack obama doesn't have to be racist, you might not like his politics. the fact is race has poisoned the well so deeply and profoundly that making that distinction gets harder and harder. >> the -- it always does go right down to economics, doesn't it? it is about even in king's day about this fight over resources and scarce resources in economics. i want to play you something that kicked off this

intra-liberal about raceed, the economic struggle of african-americans and how barack obama's view on race plays into that. sdoo liberals and progressives, we have this idea we were racist in the past, and we are suffering after effects. young african-americans who are looking for low wage jobs have about the same chance of getting a job as a white person with a felony on their record. i mean, when we see things like this -- this is a thing that's happening right now. a really, really small number of people on the planet earth are african-american males, and, yet, 8% of the incarcerated population is african-american and male. you can't separate those two things. this is happening right now. >> first of all, is it depressing that this is still the debate we're having right now, and where do you come down on it? >> well, you know, i come down on it this way. first of all, what i think jonathan did was essentially just try to wipe away 400 years of history. what annoys me a lot about these pundits when they start to write

about the issues of race and the obama administration is that they don't really seem to want to claim two things. one, that there has been a history of racism in this country and it has not just been against african-americans, but a lot of other groups of color by whites. we've had, you know, racism is a part of this. if you can't ignore it if your people are doing it too. that's the first thing. i think the second thing about this is that it's an inability to really see the privilege aspect of all of this. if you can't see where your privilege is and how you operate in that by being able to right the kinds of things that you do that ignore history, then it doesn't mean anything to you. i think the third thing -- this is the most important. jonathan this morning tweeted out something. he said please don't -- all of who you reminding me you're white, thank you so much. keep reminding me. as an aside. i think the reminder about where we all stand, whether we're african-american, white, latino wroe, whatever, is about history and about the histories that we

each have had that have intertwined with each other and sometime have been very difficult histories. if we ignore that history, we can't figure it out. >> all right. professors, thanks to both of you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> all right. what is civil rights mean to you today? tell us by tweeting using the _#advancing the dream. we'll read between the lines next on "the reid report." avo: wherever your journey takes you the expedia app helps you save with mobile-exclusive deals download the expedia app text expedia to 75309 expedia, find yours that would be my daughter -- hi dad. she's a dietitian. and back when i wasn't eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing.

helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a delicious taste. grandpa! [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side

>> once you have described the significant factor of president obama's election, race would almost disappear from the narrative, but if you instead set out to write a social history of the obama years, one that captured the day to day experience of political life, you would find that race has

saturated everything as perhaps never before. that passage from a recently published piece by jonathan chate in new york magazine has set off a fresh round of debate within liberaldom about president obama's orientation towards race, to an extent to which race plays a role in relation to him and his policies. being president has a lot of components, one of which due to the peculiars and particularities of american culture is to bring the good news, even when delivering the bad news. the great depression is upon us. the good news is we have nothing to fear but fear itself. the president's life has been taken in dallas. the good news is his vision of a civil rights act will be made real, so help me god. the space shuttle is destroyed killing all on board. the dead have slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of god. president obama became a political rock star in 2004 based in part on the promise that he could deliver the good news on race. he could feel the pain of out of

work white steelworkers just as much as the woes of the black single mom. bypass the old racial arguments and herald an era where white americans no longer have to give our racial history a second thought, and black america would be paid in full for all past wrongs by the very existence of the black family living in smiling affirmation of american great innocence the white house. it was a good fairy tail until it wasn't. a black harvard professor treated like a burglar in ois own home by police. a black teen shot dead and the cops take six weeks to make an arrest. when the good news didn't come, obama was snapped back into the racialized character tour his opponents tried to turn him into during the campaign, courtesy of his pastor. meanwhile, some on the right have had no problem pricking at racial resentment to keep the right wing base constantly live and on edge. the irony is that black america isn't looking for the good news on race. black america is looking for the

news, and president obama doesn't always deliver it, at least not in overt policy, so when he tells black america to do some of the fixing on their own, the jonathan chates of the world call it a sensible practice of encouraging people to concentrate on the things they can control, and some in black america just say wth. the good news is that this is a debate worth having because it's one we've avoided for far too long. that wraps things up for the reid report. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 2:00 p.m., and be sure to visit us on-line at the reid report.msnbc.com. the cycle is up next. hey, cyclists. >> hey, joy. how is it going? >> what you got going on today? >> we've got lots of good stuff. we have the very latest on the plane, the missing plane. we'll be taking a look at that. we will be picking up on the very feisty discussion that you had on your show over fair pay. >> oh, yeah. >> and the political implications there. i will be explaining why you can thank uncle sam for your iphone. >> okay. okay. i'm intrigued. i'm intrigued.

definitely it's a must watch. the cycle comes up next. . i got this. [thinking] is it that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he's saving. i hope he saved enough. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. whether you're just starting your 401(k) or you are ready for retirement, we'll help you get there. we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours.

 turning dreamers into business owners. ♪ make every day, her day with a full menu of appetizers and entrées crafted with care and designed to delight. fancy feast. love served daily.

straight ahead on a tuesday on "the cycle" the sound of silence. hope floats in the search for flight 370, but it is fading fast. as the sunrises and crews resume their search in one of the most remote parts of the world, the nagging question remains, what are they looking for? >> leading politics this afternoon, payday at the white house. president obama uses his pen to write a midterm message to the republicans on torre. if you think politics aren't involved here, our first read team has a warning. >> the sports headline today. the uconn huskies are top dogs, but millions of bracket busted college hoops fans may not be calling them man's best friend this afternoon. i'm abby huntsman. connecticut already made history, and they could do it all over again tonight. >> often the out of control world of parenthood. it's not just a hit nbc show. the scientist who