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tv   Melissa Harris- Perry  MSNBC  October 11, 2014 7:00am-9:01am PDT

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this morning my question. will there be an indictment in ferguson? plus, ramon simon takes issues with labels. and jennifer lawrence tells us when it is okay to look. but first ebola in the u.s. and the possible global pandemic. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry.
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we're standing by for a news conference on the enhanced ebola screenings beginning today at jfk international airport here in new york. we're going to bring that to you live when it begins. this morning less than 20 miles away from where i'm sitting, the busiest hub for international travel in the united states is beginning to implement a new rigorous screening process in order to determine if if passengers entering the united states from certain west african countries have contracted the deadly ebola virus. these will be in place at four u.s. airports. and u.s. citizens who refused to be screened could be quarantined for up to three weeks. this development comes just days after a man sneezed on a us airways plane and proceeded to alarm the entire flight by allegedly yelling "i have ebola." health care workers in hazmat suits boarded the plane and escorted the man away as a flight attendant helped to calm everyone down.
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>> need your attention. okay. it's going to look worse than it is. i've done this for 36 years. i think the the man that said this is an idiot. and i'll say that straight out. >> health care professionals say there is still virtually no chance of the ebola outbreak like the one devastating west africa happening here in the united states but more questions about the risk we face after dplast patient thomas eric duncan became the first ebola death in the u.s. now we know he was sent home from the hospital, even though he had a fever of 103 degrees. and in spain, a nursing assistant at a hospital in madrid has become the first person to contract the disease from another person outside of west africa. meanwhile, the united states continues to ramp up the response in west africa, where the official death toll has now topped 4,000. on thursday 100 u.s. marines landed roberts airport in
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monrovia, bringing the total number there up to 300. the obama administration has pledged to send up to 4,000 troops in order to try to stop the spread of this deadly disease. joining me now is kristen dahlgren at jfk airport in new york. kristen, we will soon enter this busy holiday travel season. what are officials at airports doing now to make attentions feel safe? >> reporter: well, good morning. i think that flight from the dominican republic shows how anxious some air travelers are. that will continue, i think, as we go into the busy holiday travel season. so this is the five major airports where those passengers from west africa come in, they are having this enhanced screening. we're waiting for an update from the cdc in custom border protection about how things are going this morning at j, fk. this is the first airport to implement it. a flight coming in from guinea will be screened with additional screening. that means passengers who have
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been traveling in the west african countries like liberia, and guinea will be able to tell if anyone is running an elevated temperature. there will be questions about where they have been. whether they were exposeded to another patient with ebola. if they suspect somebody has some type of exposure, they'll hand it over to the cdc for more additional screening. they do have the option of quarantining someone if they are suspect. that's happening here today. if we go into next week it will be added at newark and chicago o'hare. but it was interesting. we heard from a texas law man asking them to extend that to houston. thomas eric duncan ended up in dallas after his travels. really 94% of travelers come in
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through here. 43% come in through jfk, melissa. >> thank you so much, kristen dahlgren at jfk international airport in new york. each day we're presented with staggering death tolls and predictions about how many people this virus will claim. and as the numbers grow, and the headlines start to stack up, the human cost can become more and more abstraction. and real lives lost in the epidemic quickly fade from our understanding of what's going on, which is why it is important after the first ebola death on american soil, we remember thomas eric duncan as a person. that's a person with a long and complicated story. a person no stranger to conflict and the ravages of infection and disease. duncan grew up near a liberian leper colony and fled his home during a period of brutal war. he fathered a son in an ivory coast refugee camp. he parted with that son for 16 years.
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when the boy's mother was given a life changing opportunity to resettle in the united states. duncan returned to liberia and made plans to once again up end his life with a move to the united states where he came to marry his long-time girlfriend and the to witness his son graduate from high school. but despite those plans, duncan selflessly risked his life and his health to help a neighbor in need by assisting a pregnant teenage girl infected with the ebola virus, by helping to get her to the hospital. we should remember that. when that girl was turned away from that hospital, it was thomas eric duncan who helped carry her home to spend her final moments among family. duncan's is a unique story in certain ways. but it's also a reminder that death may seem to come in the somehows. the tens of thousands. almost inconceivably it may eventually come in the hundreds of thousands. but it comes one person at a time. each death is the end of a story most of us will never know, but a story undoubtedly intertwined
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with so many others. we can't let ourselves think as the the ebola virus solely as thousands of deaths. we must think of it as one death and another and another and one more. this is the experience of far too many in west africa. and though he was not an american citizen, thomas eric duncan was a man with a story who despite all the resources of our health system died here in our nation. and in mourning thomas eric duncan's death, we must ask the tough questions about why he became the first person in this country not to recover from this disease and what we can do to prevent this from happening here again. first right now we want to take you live to jfk international airport here in new york where federal officials are holding a press conference on the new enhanced ebola screenings beginning today at the airport. >> -- and contact information. customs and border protection has authorized and coordinated staff that will take the
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travelers' temperature and assess if it is within a normal range. right now united states koecoas guard core men will be doing that. but we are coordinating very quickly with professional medical staff to do that. if the traveler has a fever or other symptoms or has been exposed to ebola, customs and border protection will refer that traveler to the centers for disease control for a public health assessment. from there the cdc determines if the traveler can continue on or is taken to a hospital or for further l eflgts or referred to a local health department for further monitoring. we continues evaluate and updates our guidance to our front liar personnel regarding ebola. bgt information on the outbreak, impacted regions, origin,
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pathology, mode of transmission. symptoms, all of these procedures and precautions for processing attentions showing signs of illness. a cdc quarantine officer is located at cdc headquarters and that provide and continue to give us subject matter expertise. additionally, the centers for disease control and presengs can provide a do not board notification regarding individuals considered infected with a highly con teenage ouls disease, presenting a threat to public helts and should be prevented from traveling on international aircraft. once the passengers arrive in the united states, they are subject to additional measures 6789 as part of every inspection, cdc officers conduct an observation of travelers, that includes monitoring them for signs of illness. and notification to cdc or other
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local public health entities. our officers are trained and have been trained for many years in illness recognition by the cdc. and they look for overt signs of illness, and they obtain additional information from travelers for additional inspections. and if the traveler is identified with a sign of a communicable disease of public health significance, that traveler is isolated from the traveling public, referred to cdc's regional quarantine officers, or as i said before, other local public health entities. the cdc maintains jurisdiction to determine whether to detain, isolate, quarantine or issue monitoring orders to potentially infected individuals. the personnel may be called upon to help with enforcement for the cdc's determinations. and we stand ready to help them. cdc has distributed health advisories to travelers arriving
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in the united states from those ebola-affected countries. the advisories provide the traveler with information on ebola, the health signs to look for, and information for their doctors, should they need to seek medical attention in the future. cvp and the transportation security administration posted many es sajs for the cdc on select airport locations to provide awareness of how to prevent the spread of infectious disease. the typical symptoms of ebola and instructions to call a doctor if a traveler becomes ill. the personnel at all airports, not just the three that i mentioned, continue to observe travelers entering the united states for signs of illness. they will continue to assess the risk of the spread of ebola into the united nations. we are going to take additional measures as necessary to prekd
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the american people. i want to thank the men and women at these ports of entry for their dedication and for their vigilance to keeping our country safe, and upholding the mission of protecting the american public. l let me just close by saying that in partnership with the centers for disease control, these two organizations of highly trained, highly skilled, very professional, very dedicated people that worked hard through that number of public health issues. h1n1, sars, and always upheld that tradition of protecting the american public. so right now i would like to turn this over to the drek or of global migration and quarantine program. >> that was government officials briefing on the the latest plans for ebola screenings at select u.s. airports. the first of which starts today at new york's jfk.
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so right now i want to bring in my guests. here at the table, laura flanders, host and founder of grittv.org. and from new orleans, the assistant professor at lsu science center and tulane medical center. i want to start with you, doctor. we just heard what these new screening procedures will be. based on your expertise, does that sound like reasonable steps to be taking? >> well, make no mistake, if ebola spreads in the united states, it's not going to be because of the virus. it will be because of the lack of communication of health care workers on the ground, as evidenced in dallas, but it will also be because of the lack of coordination of medical systems and administration and agencies of the federal government. what i think is that this is a good start to be able to stop the spread of this disease in the united states.
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meaning stopping it at the border. i appreciate it. but we also have to know. it's just a firewall. it is not 100%. there therefore, medical mers nel in the united states, we have to be um 24/7. if a person gets through this firewall, which is easily done, then that person can have the disease and spread it. >> and it's easily done. so help me to understand. part of what i've been experiencing. i was off last week, spending time with normal people who aren't making television, and i kept hearing all the time an anxiety about two things. one, that people were purposesly coming into the u.s. knowing they would have the disease, in hopes they would benefit from the health care system here, and the second anxiety that we weren't being told the truth about how it spreads. and they kept saying it's airborne, it's airborne. and no matter what i said, given i am a doctor of political science and not health science, and i would say no, no, that's
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not what it is. but those seem to be boiling fear ls underneath. can you help us to put some of those fears to rest? >> yes. and we have to be clear. this is not spread by airborne droplets like the flu or the measles. this is spread by direct contact. we've sads this over and over and over. but america is a place that loves to be alarmed. we make movies about this kind of stuff. so we loved to be alarmed. let's stop any fear that from what we know the virus can be spread by direct contact with body fluids. there have been some isolated cases in canada and other places where an animal has transmitted to another animal by a respiratory droplet, but those types of things have not been proven. at this point all we know is you have to come into direct contact with bodily fluids. people will try to come this this country. in their country they don't have the infrastructure.
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let's be clear again. if you want to stop the spread of ebola in the united states, new must start by stopping the spread of ebola in west africa. thises a global community that we're dealing with, and people are going to try to do that. that's human nature. if they don't have a fever when they get off that plane and their flight may have originated some other place besides west africa, then they could slip through the cracks. there's no way to get around that. >> hold on for a second. what was said just then, what the doctors said to me is so key. on one hand we have americans feeling some alarm. we see resources being mobilized to generate firewall. the point he just made. that you cannot stop here unless you cure it in west africa. >> there's nothing more important to stress. you hear border control people talking about the border and protecting the american people. what the doctor said is absolutely right. when wealth and resources migrate from poor to rich countries, people will do the same. unless we deal with the
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inequality in the world that we're a part of, we've got a problem, secondly, the first part of the press conference was all about public health. we always talk about public health in a situation ik this. we don't have a public health system. we have a private health system for the the most part. for most people. the story out of dallas has to do with a man who didn't have insurance. a hospital that didn't have protocols, nurses that weren't listened to. the most striking thing is the really brilliant work being done by national nurses united, who did a survey of almost 1,900 nurses, their members, many of them, in 46 states. so this is a national legitimate survey pool, asking them do you feel prepared? have you had the kind of preparation that enabled to you to ask questions? hands-on training? 85% said know. this goes back to we need a health system with registered nurses and hands-on care.
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not robots providing that system that the nurses say leaves them no time. >> ily say they released a statement saying it wasn't about this patient not having health care. i just do want to state for the hospital, they're saying he simply had low grade fever and abdominal pain. >> they're trying to channel patients into higher profit clinics and home care. that's a national trend. it's not dallas. it's the nation. >> dr. corey aber, thank you so much and for the clarity of your positions here. laurie is going to stick around for the rest of the show. still to come this morning, hollywood star jennifer lawrence shows us just how many of her neighborhood body she wants us to see. bu but first, we're going live to st. louis, missouri, where demonstrators are lining up as part of a weekend of action. more than 16 days since officer darren wilson shot and killed
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on wednesday night in st. louis, missouri, an offduty police officer shot and killed an 18-year-old after a chase that began with a physical altercation between the teen and the officer. now during the the pursuit, the st. louis police chief says vondeerit myers shot. but his parents are saying he is unarmed. ordinarily, this kind of a story, a man that police say is armed shoots at the police and the police shoots back would not amount to much more than a lead story on the local news, but this story of a young african-american shot by police made headlines nationally, because it happened just 16 miles from ferguson, missouri. it happened just miles for a ferguson community still reeling from the killing of michael brown by officer darren
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williams. will and although, unlike michael brown, there is evidence that this man was armed when he was killed by police, it is why the recent shooting sparked a scene familiar from ferguson. two nights of protest during which police armed in riot gear using tear gas to control crowds clashed with angry demonstrators in the streets of st. louis. those demonstrations joined the ongoing movement for justice for michael brown, which has begun borrowing the spotlight from high profile public events in order to amplify its message. when during the intermission demonstrators in the audience stood up and sang for two minutes what they called a requiem for michael brown. two days later the call for
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justice sounded again, this time outside of busch stadium where the cardinals played the dodgers in a major league playoff game. that protest turned to an ugly confrontation when protests dplanding the prosecution of darren wilson came face-to-face with the cardinal fans. this week the justice for michael brown protest movement is culminating in four days of action in st. louis county called ferguson october. the weekend of resistance began yesterday and includes a series of public events to build momentum towards a nationwide movement against police violence. a march at the prosecuting attorney's office yesterday afternoon and a candle light march last night are followed today by a national justice for all march and rally. we're now awaiting the start of today's march in downtown st. louis, which will get under way around 11:00 a.m. eastern time. standing at the site is truman lee. tell me first about what the
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scene was last night, and then what is expected just a little bit later this morning. >> so last night as you mentioned earlier, there was a rally outside of the office of st. louis county officer bob mccullough. hundreds rallied and later in the evening they gathered not far from the scene of michael brown's killing, where there was an altar dedicated to those killed by police violence or manifestation of violent racism. but they also carried a cough fi to the ferguson police headquarters where 300 protesters or so rallied. there were people that drove away from philly, from brooklyn, new york, from tennessee and georgia, all to be here in support of justice or call for justice for michael brown. >> so when you say that there are people from all over the country, we know in some of the early reporting, those kinds of folks were called outside agitators. kind of taking us back to an era
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50 years ago. explain what those folks are doing in missouri. why is it important to them? what are they arkansticulating t why they are there? >> these groups have been organized by clergy. they're organized on college campuses. they're here to show it's not just an issue mof what they see as racial profiling and police abuses. it's not just about michael brown in ferguson. it's not just about what happened in st. louis a few nights earlier this week. it's about a national issue and concerns about holding police accountable. and raising the voices of so many people who have been killed by violence and their voices are going unheard. people are streaming from all over the country to be here. last night there were only a few hundred. organizers are hoping today they get 4,000 or 5,000 more that
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registered to come. >> thank you so much for your continued reporting in st. louis, missouri. now i want to bring in my panel in studio. still with me is laura flanders. joining me now is michael denzel smith, fellow at the nation institute. and editor in chief at globalgrind.com and russell simmons' political director. thank you all for being here. michael, i just wand to start with you. the point he just made. the flash point is ferguson is st. louis. but this ain't just about what's happening in missouri. this is about a national problem. >> i think what's inspiring is we are 60 days past the death of michael brown and a lot of young people in ferguson. people known by twitter. music over people. these folks have maintains a movement for 60 plus days and inspired folks to come across
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the country. i send folks out there from global grind to be on the ground and capture and witness a historic moment where young women have taken the lead to galvanize the issue that happens to be ha hot spot in ferguson, but we know it's happening across the country in so many cities, not just ferguson. >> that point feels so critical to me. it feels like visually you can see it. when it started it was hot. it was august. think how protesters were dressed in the hot initial protests. then you see people in the cold. you're starting to get a sense of how long this is dragging on. on one hand i love that it's enduring movement turning into something. on the other hand, it is 60 days, no indictment, no arrest. is justice delayed, fundamentally justice denied in this case? >> to me, justice again is not confined to whether or not darren wilson is arrested.
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and whether or not he's indicted. justice is the other commands. that is talking about how we shift police culture and how the interactions go from here forward. and that's what they are in this for. that's the bigger movement thing that we're talking about that's been building for a while before michael brown. and i think that for me, like the images of the baseball game, i think those are the things that are really, for me, the biggest images. now we're taking this and making people uncomfortable. right? it's meeting them where they are. like in their safe haven ls. like particularly white people. and like saying to them, look, racism affects my life every day. now it's going to affect yours. and it's going to disrupt your every day. and we're going to make sure you are so uncomfortable you're forced to do something about it. >> so cora, this is what i
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wanted to do a t table. exactly those moments. particularly the baseball game where we are seeing the drama of impolite conversations. of conversations where people's privilege is about, i'm at the baseball game. i don't want to talk about racism. >> right. right now our conversations about race tend to happen with people who look like us. not a table like this here. and we have to move beyond that moment. and we have to force people to engage and elevate the dialogue. what's so worrisome is that folks are still surprised. at that point it doesn't really matter. what matters to me is, okay, you want to say you're surprised, well, let's validate what my experience is and what i'm experiencing. >> all right. so that's exactly -- i want us to take a break. i want to come back exactly on the question of surprise and this continuing kind of gulf in
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opinion. i want to ask you a little bit about the politics of that when we get back. up next, the surprising news that the white residents of ferguson received. almost every day, you notice a few things. like the fact that you're pretty attached to these. ok, really attached. and that's alright. because we'll text you when your package is on the way. we're even expanding sunday package delivery. yes, sunday. at the u.s. postal service, our priority is...was... and always will be...you.
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drink more water, filtered by brita. clean, refreshing, nothing is better. for the citizens of ferg son, missouri, the city is a sight of disrest and content. their hometown is a subject of poli and where they are still seeking justice for the unarmed boy killed by police. for others, ferguson is a place of harmony and unity among the city's residents. this week a report in the "washington post" examined the stark racial divide that separates those two perceptions. the post spoke with some white residents of ferguson, who were surprised at the racial tensions that were exposed in the wake of michael brown's death and concluded of those residents that, quote, they have discovered that blacks and whites here profoundly disagree about the existence of racism
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and the fairness of the justice system. and now whites who once believed their town was an exception in the country struggling with racial divisions have to confront the possibility it is not. laura, is it actual confusion, or is it willful confusion? >> well, who the heck knows? at this point there's plenty of information out there, so there's a willful element about it. our society more racially segregated than ever. they have people self selecting the information they absorb, who are presented with media that doesn't encourage people to see any side of the story opposite than theirs. your program is and exception. no surprise. i don't want to be a pollyanna here, but i wish the post, this is an important story for sure, and i hope the folks are reading about a black man 21 times more likely to be killed by white men
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than cops. we need to absorb the history of this country, 95 years of jim crowe. and then a drug war. we have a systemic national problem. i think also think there's stories not be reported that would be interesting. one is the role for the people trying to raise the minimum wage. on the ground, there in ferguson. another one would be the engagement this weekend. all the headlines are about will there be riots? the moral monday movement is there. they will be there ob monday. are we going to see the same kind of coverage as we do of the moral monday movement now after many months? coming out of north carolina? or the talk of outside agitators. i would love to see bill mcgibben stand up today and say you didn't call me that. let's see a growing movement. i think it is what we're seeing. we've gone from reaction in ferguson to organized resistance. it's something to keep an eye
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on. while these stories are important, it's not where the press need to focus full time. >> it's an interesting perspective. as you began, you were citing these statistics and facts and history, and cora, part of what i find distressing as an academic, we're meant to if we present information change opinion ls. so there's theorys about how we could iffics the problem. if people understood the history. if they knew the facts. and also if we lif near one another, so the ferguson major james knolls, this is from the "washington post." he said in the post i chemoa lot of african-american friends. some of my dearest friends, but when we hang out at the brew house, we don't talk about these issues. a lot of residents are going down. i never realized any friends felt that way or had these experiences. that is that black friend thing that makes this troubling. i take him at his word.
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he actually does have intimates and yet somehow none of that changes that capacity to see through the same viewpoint. >> right. because now we'ring from, it's different to just say you're surprised. which is passive. to move toe the action of apathy. and that's what we're seeing in that post story, what's happening. so it's not just people are surprised. they're like, well, i don't get it. that's a deliberate action that you're not valuing the experience or trusting. you're surprised. but we're telling you this is what's happening. and that's where -- we're shifting at that point. >> i think part of it, though, is people's understanding of what racism is, right? i think that's the problem. everyone believes it to be a personal hatred that is expressed by an ignorant person. and so as long as the police didn't stop you and say, you're a black person driving a car, and i want to stop you, people don't get it. it's not a visceral reaction to that, because that's like a really easy bigotry to
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understand. >> you're right. >> and it's not just people. it's the supreme court makes that assessment. the supreme court does that. >> right. right. so this is the big challenge when you talk about the court. you're talking about we ma be going away from the standard for determining discrimination so you would have to be standing on your front porch screaming the "n" word. but there's a pew poll on racial issues raised by the michael brown shooting that for white americans, they don't see race as the primary question. they were asked do you see race as central for african-americans. 80% said yeah, race is in here somewhere. for white folkses, just over a third. when we come back, michael. i want to ask you about that. in part, this question of moving from information and away from apathy and how we get that actually happening, when we come back. how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last.
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and now an update to a story
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we reported last week. we told you about a report from the st. louis county elections board that voter registration in ferguson has surged since officer darren wilson killed michael brown. so the board initially reported 3,287 ferguson residents had registered to vote. that would have been both a significant increase and a political statement where the the city of two-thirds of the 21,000 people are african-american, but where the mayor and every member of the city council but one is white. now this week weave learned that the number we leased by the county elections board was simply wrong. the board has revised the actual number of newly registered voters down from 3,287 down to 108, raising the question about the extent to which this moment and movement can be translated to meaningful political change. so my question is, okay the new campaign, turn out for what? like, if i am living in ferguson at this moment, and i have a democratic governor, but what he did during this was to show up
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and impose a curfew. if i'm living there and may mayor hangs ourt with black folks at the ale house. turn out for what? why would i show up to vote? what would voting do to if this? >> well, before we talk to people about voting, let's talk to people about justice. there's a much deeper conversation. go vote tomorrow or in four weeks and everything will change. . >> nope. >> exactly. nope. and back to this the question of allyship. if i look at white people and how we're viewing this, for far too long we said racism happened a long time ago and now we have a black president and now we have black friends or now i have a black classmate. but now with technology i think it's a game changer. we're seeing things as white people that we didn't really think existed. we're seeing eric garner get choked and killed by police. we're seeing police in riot gear looking to riot against the people of ferguson, witnessing police attacking people. we're seeing our families in a car and a woman calling the
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police on the police when she gets pulled or and saying i don't want to roll down the windows and the police smashed the window. so we're seeing the videotapes and footage online. >> but isn't the funky part of american racial divide that we can look at the same stimlisk but not see the same thing. when i show it to you, you and i see different sides. not you and i. >> certainly. not you and me. but that is the challenge. if you look at that, there are white folk ngs that audience standsing up and saying which side are you on? i think there might be a turning point. not in 60 days or 40 days. but maybe in a generation to turn and say i'm on the side of justice, and not just the side of police. >> an there has always been. on one hand you show the graphs of the sort of dramatic differences, and it feels like this is a fully racialized
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story. so you look at the racial perceptions of discrimination. and you have black and white folks thinking racism declining. only white folks thinking racism towards white people is increasing. but it's not quite that -- forgive me -- black and white, right? i think that's what i'm trying to get to. so who are the folks where it shifts and there's something meaningful that happens? >> well, this is so important that we need to see and i think we are seeing a shift from generation of focus on politics, which we needed at that time, to a discuss of justice. and that discussion of justice like the folks involved in the union movement endorsing this action this weekend, this weekend of action in ferguson. you have the aflcio. you have the richard trump tweeting this is all about one union. one union of people. we're talking about politics and policies and principles and how do we move forward as a nation? i think we get it. we have been a nation ruled by
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divide and conquer too long. >> i think there are obviously white people that get it and are participating. i think for too many white people it's, i'm not like that. i'm absolved and so i don't need to get involved in the fight for justice. i don't need to be a protester. i don't need to worry about the racial politics of someone is when i'm voting for them. because i am personally holding no bias. >> right. >> each of these guests is going to return in our next hour. but still to come this morning, the blowup over ramon simone's rejection of labels. but first, the article is entitled how to destroy a public school system. perhaps more to this the point. why would anyone want to? and that is next. i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 70,000 bonus points
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about 200 students walked out of class in philadelphia on tuesday in a show of support from teachers still reeling from an unexpected bombshell earlier in the week. in an unprecedented move, the school reform commission, or src, blind sided educators by calling a surprise meeting to announce the cancellation of their union contract. teachers had been working under an expired deal for more than a year. after months of bitter negotiations, the commission claims it ran out of options. >> they have refused to make any meaningful to help us deal with our structural deficit. after 21 months the time has come for them to share in the sacrifice. >> the vote allows the commission to import new rules on teachers. teachers will now pay a portion of their health care premiums for the first time. the district says pay cuts are off the table for the time being.
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>> we want to provide and get these resources into schools so that they are able to support our children as quickly as possible. >> teachers say it's difficult not to be outraged by a decision carried out with little warning and no chance for public debate. >> if i wanted to speak on the resolution how am i going to do that when they're past the resolution. this is an act of cowardthat the people of the city do not want before. if they weren't sure before, they know it now. >> now as philadelphia public schoolteachers strategize about how to respond, some fear the unintended tashlty of this battle will be nothing less than the future of a city and its children. journalist daniel denver has studied the school crisis. dan is a reporter for the philadelphia city paper and a kriblt tor for the nation magazine. he joins me now.
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dan, just for folks not from philly, what exactly is the src and what in the world gives them the authority to do this? >> so the state of pennsylvania took over philadelphia public schools in 2001, basically making the argument, which is the self described reform movement, which is that segregation and funding inequ y inequities are not the problem. the problem is public management and unions have failed children in big public urban school systems. they establish the school reform commission, which is controlled by the governor. he gets three out of five seats. the mayor gets the other two. and people hoped maybe the state finally taking control of city schools would make take responsibility for adequately funding them. >> right. >> that hasn't been the case. >> right. in fact, as you point out in the piece, there's a discourse about it being about teachers, right? there's a weird language in this. 54 million will now go into the classrooms. out of teachers and into the classrooms, as though teachers are not the ones in the classrooms. i want to listen to jane robuck,
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who said something interesting about how you could possibly get good teachers under these circumstances. >> why would i come in teach in philadelphia given this kind of approach? why would anyone stay in philadelphia give thn kind of approach? it seems to undercut all of the progress we've made in philadelphia. >> so why would a teacher come to philadelphia in this movement? >> well, the answer is everyone sacrificed. you know, it's time for the teachers to step up. in fact, teachers were under a pay freeze for a year, which the district saved them tens of millions of dollars already. this isn't about an individual teacher's finances and how they may feel about having to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year in health care costs they didn't have to pay before. teachers in philadelphia are paid significantly less than counterparts to teach in far more physical conditions. how is the city of philadelphia going to recruit and retrain the best educators possible for philadelphia students when they can get paid more to teach in
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better conditions just across the city line? >> help me to understand what charter schools have to do with all of this. >> well, basically like in philadelphia and in many places, they were described as the silver bullet solution. that private sector management would fix the public school system. there's some great charter schools in philadelphia. there's mediocre ones. there's really bad ones. there's straight up corrupt ones. but overall they've not been the silver bullet. and in fact, the way the financing is structured in pennsylvania, actually means charter schooled are funded at traditional public school expenses. >> the money follows -- if a student leaves the traditional public school and goes to a charter school. the $8,000 goes with the student. >> exactly. it's not just that. the money goes with the student, but the costs don't all go with the student. if you have, you know, ten students in a classroom, obviously, you would never have a class size that small in philadelphia. let's just say for abstractly, and one of those students goes to a charter school, the
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district can't then pay the teacher 10% less. >> right. >> so the cost remaining. there's an estimated cost of additional $7,000 on top of that for every student who enrolls in a charter for the district. >> so, much of this has happened under the current governor. there is a race right now. it is a very close race. is this race about this issue? >> it has very much become that. our republican governor tom corbett was elected on this tea party wave. about $860 million from k-12 education spending in the state. said in his budget address. i'm here to say that education will not be the only industry exempt from the recession. and look what happened. thousands of educator jobs across the state, particularly in philadelphia, but really across the state, have been lost. he's now considered the most endangered governor in many polls. of any incumbent governor in the country. it's because he hasn't been able to marginalize philadelphia as,
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oh, look at this poor, disproportionately black city that messed himself up again. his education cuts have hurt working class and middle class districts across the state. >> dan denvir. thank you so much for reporting and staying on this. we'll keep reading your reporting and trying to stai on it as well. still to come this morning, jennifer lawrence says it's okay to look so long as it is on her terms. first we're going to go live to st. louis, missouri. where dplemonstrators are abouto begin this morning's justice for all march. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment.
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total effects from olay. (receptionist) gunderman group is growing. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. like smart pick ups. they'll only show up when you print a label and it's automatic. we save time and money. time? money? time and money. awesome. awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! (all) awesome! i love logistics. welcome back, i'm melissa harris-perry. right now in st. louis a justice for all rally is getting under way. more than two months since officer michael brown was killed thousands are converging in a united stand against police
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violence. today's march is start of ferguson, october. a four-day weekend of marches, gatheringings and panels all with a goal to resist police violence nn communities of color. the weekend got under way yesterday with a day long schedule of events, including a march at prosecuting attorney's bob mccullough's office yesterday afternoon and a candle light march last night. the planned protest in response to the killing of michael brown are coinciding with a separate round of protests that began wednesday night in south st. louis. after police shot and killed 18-year-old myers. police say the officer was returning fire after myers fired at least three shots and pa weapon was recovered at the scene. state and city leaders are calling for a federal investigation into the shooting. but even as a weekend of peaceful protests if ferguson gets under way. the scene in south st. louis in the two nights after echoed the
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images we saw out of ferguson. police juvenile court fitted in riot gear, using pepper spray in a clash of crowded dplon stray tors. joining me now is host and founder of grittv.org, laura fla flanders. michael skolnig, editor in cheer at globalgrinder.com and cora daniels. and joining us from st. louis, missouri, a licenseded clinical psychologist and president of the st. louis chapter of the association of black psychologists. you've also been with with us from the beginning, from the earliest gays of resistance in ferguson. how would you compare where the city is now to where it was a month or two months ago? >> i would say things have become a little more intense. it's been 64 days since the
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initial incident. and we've had two more officer-involved shootings where african-american men were killed. powell and now vonderrit myers. as you can imagine, you already had protesters in place marching for justice and answers, to have two more incidents since that time, things have rightfully so become more intense. >> and a level of trauma is is what you have been talking about with us over these weeks. this feeling that it's not only the immediate family who is are traumatized in each one of these officer-involved shootings, but the whole community feels this wound again, which is still not closed because there's still no grand jury indictment of officer wilson. >> reporter: yeah. definitely still a lot of nightmares, flashbacks. i've spoken to protesters who have lost anywhere from ten or more pounds within a couple of
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weeks. people getting no more than three or four hours of sleep because they feel responsible for standing outside and protesting. if i'm not out there, who else will be? but i've been on panels that talk about the psychological impact of law enforcement as well. so looking at the duties and the responsibilities that they have and some officers that have been on the streets dealing with this day in and day out. it's been 64 days. so there's a lot of psychological impact across the spectrum throughout the city and county. >> stay with us. i want to come out to the panel for a sec. i want to come to you for a moment, cora, because part of what i keep feeling here is that when police are showing up with the riot gear and tear gas, it feels like no one is listening. that part of the protest was about michael brown, but then they were also about the
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treatment of peaceful protesters who have a right to say something. and when they keep doing it months later it feels like no one is listening. >> right, that's part of the problem that's why we had that number where no one was registering to vote. why should you trust a system that con standpointly doesn't listen? and hopefully this is sort of a water shed movement where we can sort of move into that action. otherwise, i mean, i think not to feel totally melodramatic, but the repercussions will be felt for generations if we can't move forward. >> i keep thinking about the likely angst. we know we are moving up and the grand jury is going to make a decision. i think there's a certain empathy there. to make the point, not only are protesters exhausted and distressed but police officers, as just a matter of human, sleep
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and eating and water and like the things that humans need, they're probably not in a good place either. and i just keep thinking this is a toxic cocktail. >> yeah, and this police department and this mayor -- and the governor, and the supervisor of the county have made so many mistakes from day one. ft talk about no one listening. when they didn't have a town hall meeting for four weeks after michael brown was killed. and they didn't respond. they let people speak with no response. how do you have a town hall conversation with your own community and not respond to the questions being asked by your citizens? now here we have 64 days later with no indictment. we have no autopsy. we have no police report. forget about the indictment. give us an incident report. one was not reported until 30 days after michael brown was killed, when the acl you filed for the report, they said there wasn't one. i think you said a toxic recipe
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for dast here. and i would urge folk who is are watching and talk about reinforcement and backup. certainly many folks are tired. we have to keep going out there. if we don't live in ferguson, we need to go and support the folks who have been there every day when there isn't a call to action, every single night they are out there fighting for justice. >> and michael, you at this table talked about the experiences of trauma, and it's getting to a place where it feels like on a daily, weekly basis we're sharing the videos of the violence against black bodies. some of them it happened mondays ago but the videos are just becoming available. the sense of trauma, twaugs and the potential lack of justice. even in the smallest sense. >> yeah, yeah. and that to me, like what you're saying about the police still being there and using the
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military reference, not listening to the protesters, that to me speaks to the power of this moment in this potential movement. these are tactics they're using to quell that voice. they recognize that they are in it for the long haul. this is two months on and these people exhausted physically and emotionally drained have this the psych ig toll taken on them. they are still there. people are still showing up. and the power structure needs something to say, like to protect themselves. that's what the police are still there for. >> and the thing they come with is tear gas. we're not going to relen kwish anything to you, no matter what your demands. i think it will intensify the longer this goes on. >> in addition to people coming, i also we need to nationalize in struggle. it is going to be what happened next. with the moment of silence, there's a sense of back in the summer, the sense of esh has
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something they can do, everybody has this problem on their doorstep. and i mean everybody. not everybody the same. but everybody needs to look at this, and what beth richie says, it doesn't just affect the people blind bars. it affects the whole state. we had the extraordinary report about how fines on the people of ferguson, 25,000 fines, three per household. it looked like they were funding the city. there's a good campaign from color of change being claunlaun that will remind people of twirter of a black person killed by police. i urge, particularly people not african-american, to go and research every story they find out about through that campaign. >> i want to come back to you before we go here, on the ground there. we in new york are sitting here talking about, does that resonate? are these the kinds of things that the people of ferguson need to keep going? is there a specific call from
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the ground that you would like to issue? >> i think what's been said is so true. ch in that there is a type of motivation here that despite the fe fatigue, not eating, not sleeping. despite not spending leisure time with friends and family, that there's a certain type of motivation. lt a type of persistence that people here on the ground are saying we will not let this go. we deserve to be heard. we want to be seen. and so it's definitely a strong movement here, for sure. >> i keep recalling that the montgomery busboy cot went on for an entire year with an entire city making the decision for a year to car pool at all of the power of the state that came against them. and then, that was the moment. it didn't fix the world. but it was a change moment. i feel that. i want to say thank you to dr. marva in st. louis and all the
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people doing work on the ground. also here in new york. thank you to laura flanders. coming up, the news made this week by raven-symone and jennifer lawrence. women making choices for themselves. but first, my letter of the week. dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. that's why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. [ male announcer ] cleaner, introducing a pm pain reliever that dares to work all the way until the am. new aleve pm the only one with a sleep aid. plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. so it seemed like a gwell, we make it pretty easy. in fact, your appraisal should be ready, let's pull it up. now, how long do i have to decide on this offer? seven days, and we'll buy your car even if you don't buy ours. but if i decide to buy a convertible?
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this was the scene in madison, wisconsin, in early 2011. thousands of protesters fighting to stop a bill that would eliminate the public employees unions rights to negotiate health care and pensions and everything else except wages. part of the outrage was just shock. the new governor had not campaigned on gutting public sector unions. acco ahe never hinted at it once
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months of campaigning. this is a man who can hide his true feelings until it's too late. that's why my letter of the week is to wisconsin governor scott walker. dear governor walker, it's me, melissa. before you run for president, you probably need to ge reelected as governor next month. and i know your opponent has you against the ropes. so i want to talk about your new campaign ad. >> i'm pro-life. but there's no doubt in my mind the decision of whether or not to end a pregnancy issing an agonizing one. that's why i support legislation to give more information to a woman considering her options. the bill leafs the final decision to a woman and her doctor. reasonable people can disagree on this issue. our priority is to protect the health and safety of a wisconsin citizens. >> whel, that just sounds gosh darn reasonable. you reasonably the choice to
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terminate a pregnancy should be between a woman and her doctor and nobody else. there's a problem with the republicanness, you and, and what you really think. because you, governor, don't want the choice to be a woman and her doctor. you oppose abortion, all of it. you're on the record as being quote, 100% pro-life. that's not a throwaway line. that's a designation from pro-life wisconsin. and it's hard to win pro-life wisconsin's endorsement. you had to say you believe in no abortions, under any circumstances. not early in the pregnancy. not late in the preg sif. not for rape or incest. not to protect the health or the life of a pregnant woman. not for financial reasons. not because the woman thinks it's her own best interest to terminate. as a state representative in 1999, you wrote a bill to outlaw the university of wisconsin madison medical school from teaching medical students how to perform abortions. you wrote another bill in 2001
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that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions that conflict with their beliefs. so even if a woman and her doctor had decided emergency contraception was the right call, a pharmacist could deny her that care. you are so pro-life that you used to o oppose the death penalty. and then there's the law you signed just last year. the one you're defending that would require doctors performing termination services to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. governor, it is difficult bordering on impossible to ob table those privileges. abortion is so safe already that doctors performing them don't bring in enough patients to a hospital to warrant admit p admitting privileges. this law is being challenged in the courts. if allowed to go into effect, it would close down at least one of your state's four clinics that
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provide abortion. it would greatly reduce the number of abortions performed at another, and severely restrict women's access to legal reproductive care. and you hide this behind the seemingly good intention of protecting women. >> our priority is to protect the health and safety of all wisconsin citizens. >> you want to make abortion safer, governor? make it easier to access. that way wem can terminate a pregnancy early on, under the care of a doctor. waiting until late in the pregnancy when the risk of complications is higher. your pro-life, so surely you want to prevent abortion, the way to do that is simple. help women prevent unplanned pregnancies. make sure they have access to affordable birth control. and to affordable nearby qualified doctors. if you were doing that, i might believe you that your goal is to protect the health and safety of all wisconsin citizens.
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but you have done the the exact opposite. your budget eliminated state funding for planned parenthood clinics. it was sold as a way to preechbt taxpayer dollars from performing abortions. what really happened is five clinics all in rural areas have shut down as a direct rul of losing state funding. not one of those clinics performed abortions. they provided other crucial affordable health care for women. screenings for breast and cervical cancer and birth control and std testing and treatment and health exams. and you shut them down. you say you care about women's health and safety, but come on, governor. don't hide your anti-abortion ideals. when someone asks who opposes reproduct i have freedom, just raise your hand. let that anti-choice flag fly. the people of wisconsin have a right to know the real you this time around. sincerely, melissa.
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this sunday 28-year-old actor raven-symone made a return to television. but not to play a role viewers best remember her for, like olivia in the cosby show or her character in disney's that's so raven. this time she found a set of oprah's weekly talk show "where are they now" sitting down to talk about her child stardom, her recent experiences as a college student and more. so raven was also asked questions about her relationship. specifically her relationship with model azmarie livingston. raven responded to news about additional states legalizing same-sex marriage by stating, i can finally get married. during sunday's show oprah asked raven if that tweet was her way of coming out. and this was part of raven's response. >> i don't want to be labeled gay. i want to be labeled a human who
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loves human. i'm tired of be labeled. i'm not an african-american. i'm an american. i don't know where my root go to to. i don't know how far back they go. i don't know how far back. and i don't know what country in africa i'm from. but i know my roots are in louisiana. i'm an american. and that's a colorless person. because we're all people. l i have lots of things running through my veins. >> after hearing raven-symone self identify as an american and outright reject being labeled an african-american or gay, oprah shared the following reaction with many of her viewers. >> oh, girl, you starting up twitter on fire. what? oh, good lord! what did you just say? stop, stop, stop the tape right now. >> and set the twitter on fire she did. while some twitter users supported raven's request not to be labeled, others were bothered tweeting she was rejecting her heritage or appearing ignorant about race and sexuality.
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if raven set twitter on fire, she also set media outlets in the blogosphere. they rejected her comments calling her views about racial labels blind or infuriating. on wednesday raven doused the flames by releasing a statement to thegrio.com. i never said i wasn't black. i want to make that very clear. i said i'm not african-american. i never expected my personal beliefs and comments to spark such emotion in people. i think it's only positive when we can openly discuss race and being labeled in america. that's exactly what i want to do with our panel now. joining me now to unpack the question of race, language and self identification that resulted from raven's interviews is a senior political writer for cosmopolitan.com and, frankly, i
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just didn't truck with the comment, saying i didn't say i wasn't black, so you're black in double negatives now? no. it's part of this strain of anti-blackness that i think young black folks struggle with in particular because there's a sort of narrative at the base of her comments about identifying with being an african descendent person as excludeing her from all of the things that come with the label human apparently provides for her. >> so that is one way to read it. >> yes. >> i legitimately felt no distress in the way that some of the other folks did. especially because i was a little late to the party. i didn't hear the first comment
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until after i read the second one. i hate the imagined africa situation. so there's an actual place, there's an actual continent, in it are countries. from those countries there are ethnic groups. from those people came a people who end in the u.s. but when we do imaginary kwanza that comes from southern california and not the west coast of africa, i am not in alignment with raven-symone, but i can see the ways in which imagined africa rather than actual experience, connections and the continent and its people also lets black folks in america do a weird kind of performance of blackness that isn't really quite as authentic as we like to present it is. but i'm not advocating for her to have an irresponsible connection to african descendent person. she also uncritically embraces what it means to be american. part of the schism over claiming black identity is about the way
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in which america has foreclosed rights and possibilities to folks. so when she feels the need to assert her hur manty as a black queer person, that's homophobic, sexism and racist. i want us to have more responsible notions about african culture, very particularly, but what she's doing is not gesturing towards that. i think it's something different. >> there's also part of me that was just maybe that was the level of analysis that the baby raven could do. >> yes. >> the fact is, weather government, yeah, i'm not gay. i'm a human. wlfs that a deep or pitiful analysis, it did spark impolite conversations. >> just the fact that the twitter lit afire and it shows just how much those labels still matter to folks. and how we can't get away from the labels. and what's problematic with the
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color blind argument or i'm not labeled argument is we should be striving not to ignore our differences, but respect our differences. that's something the argument does acknowledge. >> race is a social construct, right? the fact is you can't take a black person's blood and a white person's blood and set them next to each other. there isn't a fizz logical difference. race is socially constructed. in history, in law. in time. so in every meaningful way, raven-symone is black. she would have been enslaved. she would have been jim crowed. but isn't it also because of the social construct open to reinterpretation. and couldn't she be part of reinterpreting it. >> well, i think she's reinterpreting it because she's in entertainment and hollywood. which is also a race ift system that doesn't uplift people or color. it doesn't uplift queer people. in her mind, in her head, i don't want to be black to hollywood. then i'm put in a black box. i don't want to this be gay to
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hollywood. then i'm put in the gay box. and so many other stars in hollywood have said similar things in the past. i am post race and post gay. and also to her point, i'm not being labeled. >> well, being an american is also a label. >> yes, my friend. >> across the world it's not always liked. >> let's listen to zoey zaldana make a similar point for a moment. >> do you think you're kind of questioned or boxed more in along your ethnic lines now? >> no. no. let me tell you something. i literally run away from people that use words like ethnic. it's preposterous. you know. to me there's so such thing as people of color. in reality, people aren't white. paper is white. white paper is white. people are pink. >> okay.
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so there's a part of me just like, well, now i'm going to have a conversation about somebody who said people are pink, which feels bad. to go to the hollywood point, this is the actor who is then cast to play nina sim moan. she can feel whatever she wants to feel, but then you don't get to be nina simone, r who did understand blackness and was down with it and critiquing the ways in in which inequality was operating in people's lives. >> right. >> i very much understand the impolicy to say i'm a human. it's like people who say i'm not a femme nims. i would love it if we were all treated equally. as human beings we are all equal. we should have equal rights and opportunities. we don't. that's scary for a lot of people to recognize. especially when you have to recognize it about yourself. i operate in a world where because of my gender or the color of my skin or my sexual or
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yen stati orientation, i'm going to blocked from certain things. i can understand the impals to say i'm just going to say i'm fine and everyone is equal so i can try as hard as i can to achieve what i can. >> i get the impolicy. that is aggressive individualism. my mom socially constructs that she was black. it cracks me up. she constructed it. up next, just how much jennifer lawrence does jennifer lawrence want you to see? her body on her terms and her consent. almost every day, you notice a few things. like the fact that you're pretty attached to these. ok, really attached. and that's alright. because we'll text you when your package is on the way. we're even expanding sunday package delivery. yes, sunday. at the u.s. postal service, our priority is...was... and always will be...you.
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on my journey across america, i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on car insurance, it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. they all lost their lives because of preventable medical errors, now the third leading cause of death. only heart disease and cancer take more lives. proposition 46 will save lives with drug and alcohol testing to make sure impaired doctors don't treat someone you love. safeguards against prescription drug abuse. and holds the medical industry accountable for mistakes. i'm barbara boxer. let's save lives. vote yes on 46.
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"american hustle." she's among the most talented actors and compelling personalities in hollywood today. but this "vanity fair" cover is not about her buoyant personality. it's about her buoyant breasts. sparkling eyes and jewelry aside, this cover asks us to look at her implied nakedness. and while we look at her, she looks at us and says it's my body. it should be my choice. so maybe you're among the millions who viewed her stolen naked image online. in this moment she offers a vivid reminder. consent is sexy. a mouth breather! how do you sleep like that? you dry up, your cold feels even worse. well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. cold medicines open your nose over time, but add a breathe right strip, and pow! it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more
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designer necklace and floating naked in the water. the internet made the connection to some other photos of the actress. private pictures she took years ago specifically for her then boyfriend. pictures nevertheless discovered by hackers who cracked into her personal icloud account and posted the photos for the whole world to see. jennifer lawrence is speaking up about this breach of privacy and her comments are featured in "vanity fair's" cover story. but it didn't follow the blueprints who have dealt with similar privacy invasions in the past. in 2007 disney star vanessa hudgens apologized and said i'm embarrassed and regret having taken the photos. disney channel said vanessa has apologized for what is a lapse in judgment. we hope she's learned a valuable lesson. or maybe there's a valuable
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lesson to be learned, a lesson lawrence sums up when she tells her interviewer, i started to write an apology, but i don't have anything to be sorry for. it's not a scandal. it's a sex crime. it's my body. it should be my choice. and the fact that it's not my choice is absolutely disgusting. what do you think of that response? >> i think it's awesome. i was so happy to see her come out and say this is a crime. this is a thing done to me without my consent. everyone is naked under their clothes. there's nothing shameful about a woman. if this was a man, nobody would have bothered to hack in and his steal his nude photos in the first place. we assume men can be sexual and also intelligent and talented and professional actors. and it's not a scandal. when it's a woman, the implication is everyone has seen her naked. she should be humiliated and she's a slut. and if she's a slut, she can't be anything else. she's not smart or talented. that's definitional of who she is. i was so glad to see her say, no, no, no, you don't get to put that on me.
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>> it was a moment when you know, we talked that she has this big personality. it's one of the things my 12-year-old likes about her and she seems quirk i can and cool. i did appreciate that she resisted shaming. there's a discourse about very much like in the case of raven-symone who from a pox of relative privilege talk about sort of pushing back against labels that from a position of privilege she can push back against shaming in a way that a womaning working minimum wage may not be able to. >> i'm happy. i love it. that's what we want folks to do. create and make space. that's what she does. i think the challenge is feminism, we're fighting for a world in which women can choose things. that runs against the limits of a world saying we're entitled to your body. we subscribe to the ways you can
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express yourself. that means the feminist movement has to create ways to make private decisions and make sure it's publicly respected. >> the connection to me was the glass floor sexual harassment in the industry, published on tuesday by the restaurant opportunity center, and it shows those working for that sub minimum wage from basically tips minimum wage are more likely to be uniquely vulnerable to sexual harassment because for them if you complain about the customer who sexually harassing you, they may not leave the tip. >> that felt to me like, okay. yes, go j-law and let's get in what it means for women on the ground. >> there's an interesting campaign started in new york city by the commission of domestic violence. i think for men especially, we have to stop being bistandards and being up standards and stand up for people like jennifer lawrence or when we see a man harassing a woman, say that is
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not acceptable. and jennifer lawrence has been outspoken about this and her body in general. she talks about her weight. >> they called her fat. >> she was very upfront about her body in general. for men, we have to be more vocal when we see things like this and we see women stand up for themselves and say we stand up for you as well. >> i keep seeing there's so much neighborhoodness. it's like tuesday. right. it's just a regular sort of thing. so it almost feels like the only thing that makes it a moment is the idea that it was stolen. it is the sex crime nature of it. because as lovely as i'm sure a naked jennifer lawrence is, it's the stolen naked jennifer lawrence that makes it something so many want to consume. >> that's what has r what was the most interesting to me. she wasn't criticizing the hackers and the folks at the post. she was criticizing all of us that clicked it. so she was putting the
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responsibility on all of this and make us all take responsibility for it. so it's like the famous case they teach you in psychology class. and how folks just stood by while she was getting raped and murdered. and we just click on these things. we're collectively participating. >> we're bistanding in that way. i wonder, though, if there is a value in the slepty conversation. because there's a part of me that thinks, are we about to do two segments on j-law and raven-symone. but somehow the celebrity moments allow us to clear the space, bring the people to the stadium, and have the conversation. on the other hand, the domestic violence conversation that emerged, then it started to go away. how do we sustain it? >> i wish i knew. you know, i think that what britney said earlier is very on point. celebrities, because of their position of privilege, can create space for other people. that have similar issues. revenge important has been a
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problem for a long time. there are a lot of women who ex-boyfriends or jilted lovers have released nude photos of them to these revenge important websites. if you're an average woman and not a public figures, do you want to fight that publicly. so, i'm hopeful that these celebrity moments can, you know, have somebody like jennifer lopez, who is saying that's not okay. and then you have the girl in texas whose boyfriend sent her photo out who then feels a little bit more empowered to stand up. >> and it was jennifer lawrence. >> jennifer lawrence, i'm sorry. >> we get our celebrities straight. thank you to jill and britney cooper. also to michael and cora daniels. up next, the evolution of a criminal. at 16 he robbed a bank. now he's made a movie about why. don't miss it.
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in 1997 when16, darius clark monroe was arrested for helping to rob a bank. he was sentenced to five years in prison. stay with me because this is not a story of a wrongfully convicted teen. darius did the crime. and he served the time. then he did something surprising. after his release, darius sought an education and eventually enrolled in film school at new york university. there he began working on a film about the crime he committed and the lives he affected. evolution of a criminal is part documentary, part dramatic re-enactment. it chronicles the events leading up to the robbery and the reaction of darius' family, the reaction of his victims and why he felt the need to take such desperate action. >> once i began to realize the extent or financial problems or for being a care-free and joyous
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child to becoming acutely aware that the world was not as i saw it and the burden that my parents had was slowly trickling down to me. i don't know how many times i wi wished that money was not an issue. and she wasn't telling me, you need to save me, you need to rescue me. but it's like, no one was rescuing anyone. >> joining me now, the director and producer of "evolution of a criminal," darius clark monroe and back with us, michael denzel smith. darius, when i watch the film, i became distressed by the title because of all the things that you seem to be, son, person who committed crime, the idea of you
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as a criminal felt discordant. why think of it that way? >> for me, the title is just a play on words. it was just playing on the whole stigma that if you are a black or brown boy, you are pathologyized as a criminal. i want to go in with the idea of this criminal and unravel and let humanity and real people speak through him. >> it is, as i was saying to you in the commercial, it's quieter as a movie than i expected it to be. there is a sense of sorrow that hangs over it. and yet also -- i want to make sure i ask this the right way. there is a kind of burden of masculinity. i just wrote for "essence" magazine about my own angst of growing up with financial deprivation.
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i wonder, is fixing it the man part, the masculinity that you have to make it better when you see that something is wrong? >> i'm not saying it was forced. but you just feel it as a son. and i was the oldest child as well. so that played into it a little bit. but just as a young man, i always wanted to make sure i was going to help take care of my mom and support the household in any way that i could. i never thought it would be through robbery or through crime. but i've always felt the pressure and didn't reject that pressure to help out. i wanted to help out. >> michael, you brought this film to our attention. you were like, you all have to see this. what is it about it that felt so compelling to you? >> i felt like he's telling the story of the root causes. i think we get so caught up in the idea of people committing crimes and then labeling them and stigmatizing them and locking them away in cages and solving the problem somehow that way. but what darius is talking about is what leads someone to that.
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these are not just irrational people acting irrationally. we're talking about a story of generational poverty and people living and working hard every single day but not seeing the light of day. and then one instance sets them back. his home was robbed. and that one thing -- it's not just that it set them back economically. but it's demoralizing. it's also a story of redemption. but then i think that opens the doors for talking about how we don't want to exceptionalize darius for what -- it's about the support systems he's had to be able to make it. >> but for folks who haven't seen it, it's not -- you go and reinterview people who were in the bank at the time you were involved in the robbery. i want to just listen for a moment to a pastor who was in
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the bank when you robbed it and what he said. >> but i'm grateful to god that when i saw you, there was nothing in me with any type of malice. >> how do you feel you would have responded had you met myself and the other gentlemen if not a week or just a short while after the robbery had occurred? >> i probably would have hurt you. >> how hard was it to stand there and talk to these people? >> it was very difficult. you have to understand that through all of this, i had my own experience and my own side of the story. so when i'm standing in front of these individuals who are victimized and they're telling me about their loved ones and how they felt that was going to be the last moment for them, it's tough. and it also -- it creates a brand-new experience all over again. i really didn't understand just how traumatic the event was because this was emotional trauma. this was psychological trauma. a lot of times we don't think
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about that. if it's not anything physical or violent, we don't think about that. but these people had been turned. they had been traumatized. >> i so appreciate the film. it's quiet, careful. it's important. thank you to darius clark monroe and to michael denzel smith. "evolution of a criminal" is playing at new york's ifc center. thank you for watching. see you tomorrow morning, 10:00 a.m. eastern. right now, time for a preview of "weekends with alex witt." >> that was such a powerful interview. i loved that. thank you so much, melissa. she is scheduling her own death, a 29-year-old woman with a terminal illness had picked the day she wants to die. i'll talk to a medical ethicist on how iconic this is. and a building in new york just bought by a chinese company. in kentucky, allison grimes
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