drama green book past racism in america back in the spotlight this is a problem with think of the past or is it still an issue very much alive i ask calvin alexander ramsey an award winning author and playwright who traveled across the united states collecting memories of the jim crow of. golf a century after the victories of the civil rights movement. still the problem. trumps controversial presidency will civil rights groups find fresh campaign against racial hatred in america. racism or the truth. from the united states. calvin alexander ramsey award winning writer and playwright welcome to the show it's really great to have you with us today mr ramsey know you have been digging into the green book for a long time the travel guide for african-americans during the jim crow laws that

help them avoid painful discrimination and segregated south jame crowd may be a saying of the past but for instance film director spike lee believes racism is ingrained in the day and day of the united states days think it will ever be overcome completely. well it's going to take a long time because you know with the development of the i guess the you know the country with the native americans and with the you know the the many many years of bondage by africans who were brought here you know and then you had the black codes after that and then you had. jim crow doing you had reconstruction and so is you know it's a lie it's a lie you know and what i will say that is has gotten better during my lifetime.

i've seen changes but they came about because people worked to bring those changes black people white people and people of the same i so it wasn't easy the strides that have been made there were hard fought for it i've heard that there are special projects and local director is like new orleans black book or black friendly flat project that comprised black businesses making it easier for black customers to get certain services as this kind of a same thing as the green book. man misinterpreting it well the grain. well is similar and a mine away is i guess spending dollars with people of your same race and maybe mindset but the green book was totally different graine book was a it wasn't a luxury where you could just decide who you could spend money with

a where you want to sleep or a stay green book was really all you had because you could not belong to aaa you cannot belong to any car club or hotel that was just a bit and not just in the south with throughout the whole country so the green book was a not a luxury it was a necessity and it was really started by just two people a letter carrier vicki who go green and his wife going after american people living in our room and working together they didn't have any children so this was like their baby and by victor greene being a mailman he was able to get other male men through his union the national association of pro sort of federal employees so his network of federal workers throughout the country would ask people on their routes what they would they not my being listed in this guide and really it was the black home maker because back then

a lot of black women work in their home they don't work outside like today so when you look at the green book the listings in the green book is never a mr so and so's home as lists it is always mrs brown or mrs. smith or mrs so and so knows how the listings appeared and there were no phone numbers you would just show up but i know you're working on a documentary about the green book do you feel like movies. movies like that could actually help diffuse the current racial tension in the united states well every little bit helps every little bit helps you know you. meet people all the time you know i have a children's book ruth and the green book i do a lot of school visits not part to key is as young as the second grade to the fifth grade and. and they are exploring you know the history.

and they are. learning things dead they had no idea existed this is way after you know their way before their time but sometime before the paris time that this was an issue in traveling a lot of people. by and why they were born after one thousand nine hundred sixty four. feel as though the roles were always open they could always stay wherever they wanted to stay where they wanted to eat and they just take it for granted but it was a hard fought dr king. another's but mostly mostly dark became. you know they're good more shoe was writing in the courts and one played a role but i think dark and king by putting people in the street in the streets i think that put pressure. really think that made a big difference and i think his movement was

a personal movement for him was also it was a spiritual move it for him you know i think the movement the day before black was matter is you know is this generation's turn. to to push forward for more let me ask you something where the yeah let me ask you something a president obama's presidency was a landmark moment for the african-american community but we now see the pendulum sort of swing in bat and all the racism troubles are still here and maybe getting worse do you seeing a bomb was when it was a one off that there's no lasting impact right now for the african-americans in america i think it was a positive say i think there's some pushback. there was some backlash because of that i think some people were afraid that it was a

a major changing tide and i think some people became very frightened. and i think there were others who were taking advantage of that fear. it has expanded people reacting the way they're reacting. but but from my travels and my experience. i think there are no always focus that people that there are more good people around and people who may be misguided or confuse or frightened i think some of the white backwash back question is people feeling there's joe they were losing their country that the blacks and the brown and the yellows the gays are taking over and there's no place for them so i think somewhere inside the food though this fighting for their lives they're

fighting for their children and their grandchildren so i think they see that the turf battle. you know lately you were saying the movie industry tackling racism a lot with pictures like black klansman or obviously that bring book the green book that won the oscar. not everyone was happy at about the latter however i was very surprised because i loved the film but most of my african-american friends from new york there were few reus and they're saying like it's one big cliche and the end of the day it's about a white savior that makes a black man's life better in your opinion does hollywood really understand racism or is it just doubling down to whatever brings money well i you know i haven't seen the film you know. yet i plan to see it. is seen like the the major problem from what i hear from people who do not like the film

is the fact that the black actor who's betraying dark the darn surely. was not the lead character or the lead actor in the film but the telling character in the play i mean the movie. his son wrote the screenplay wrote the book did the research it's his ahmad's to his father so he's coming from a different point of view and he's a tell you. what roots in the bronx and italian people were also maligned and still are they have stirred types about this being you know in various illegal activities and they smeared with that so but i think he can speak for him but i think his overall intentions was

on his father. and i think and also in his own way to to to talk about this relationship between these two guys that he thinks he is what they are but you feel like in general in our general hollywood doesn't really understand racism maybe not particularly it with this film because you haven't seen it it's hard to say and i mean i like this film but like in general because you know the issue from inside you feel like it misinterprets racism and really goes for what makes the money. well you know they have to you know you think it's watered down because they're playing to the whole country to play into the whole world i mean hollywood is you know it's a worldwide you know it business you know so it's not just you know the minority community so it is a who who makes the movie who writes the history who tells a story. you know i think. it's hard for someone else to tell

someone else a story it really is is you can do you bez but you're going to fall short but i think he would have done better the screenwriter the producer a director there restart maybe to shirley's family but in general i think they missed the market more than they hit the mark and i think that's a legitimate concern but most people i've talked to a lot of people as well who like to film the black and white so so it's. but it seemed like the ones who disliked the film were more vocal so seems like it's a. mort not liking the film they're liking the film but the film has done well and one pretty much every major award that's out there so it's almost like there is to it or get to do this two countries watching the

same film and coming away with two different you know impressions. and i don't know if it's these guys could have ever gotten it right not just because they are creative team mr and so we're going to take a shot break right now when we're back we'll continue talking with a warrant winning author and playwright calvin alexander ramsey talking about racial tensions in the united states stay with us. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. clearly dramatic probably the only.

strategy that will be very. yes to all this is all the groups.

seem wrong. quotes just don't call. to shape our. adjective and it. equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. from common ground.

and we're back with calvin alexander ramsey award winning author and playwright who traveled across the united states collecting memories of a poker so mr ramsey i feel like this is something we have to bring up for fairness sake the case of just a small black actor who staged a fake racial attack on themself and the police are saying that he may have a stage to attack to get more media attention to himself to further his career is

this normal that someone expects to profit off of being a victim of a hate crime. well you know if it has happened before. you know what has happened with. a war i'd say that there were attacked by blacks there was a famous case in south carolina where a woman killed her children and she drove it into a lake and she said you know a black man kidnapped her and made her do it and found out that that wasn't the case at all i think she's still serving time for that so so unfortunately that it happens. he was. never seen that show him prior but i send a very popular and people like him and they like his character if it's true that he stays is i think that was a. you know all you can say is he's young then you'll be can bounce back if that's what he actually did so he's still saying that he was attacked so so i don't know

it was the the way around this is just a real sad situation for. him and his family and his supporters in the meantime the number of actual hate crimes are on the rise in the united states for three years in a row now and that's according to f.b.i. and race is to main travelling factor but we see america becoming poller as between left and right and white people are just as happy to shout at each other about trump as they are to shout at people our way surely motivate hate crime is just a part of a larger culture of war that america is waging upon itself. well it seems like you is always been right under the boiling point is also a lot more crimes against the jewish community than ever before. there's more hate crimes against gay community. things are being reported fairly accurate more so now

than ever and i wouldn't be surprised if that more you know you know violence toward women so it seem as though this current. administration has. whether knowingly or unknowingly has as given people in their estimation permission. to go there goes elements within themselves that are. based on fear and resentment and not liking anyone this different. and the same people i wouldn't be surprised if you go to their home will see that their home life is not very good either so it's a sad comment no commentary think over on what i still think you know that there are more good folks out there who are not doing the say instead of

doing these things the other group is more vocal and more visible they definitely doing it i think is scary a lot of people. but i'm of a certain age where i grew up you know in the jim crow south and and i've seen this . before my parents and grandparents seen worse so you know and it's got to keep organizing and fighting and educating and. and listening to each other and. just see where it's going to go because it is. very disturbing. to most people and it looks like it. is on a daily. uptick so let me ask you something the esquire magazine has put a white teenager on its march cover it with a headline the american boy now this sparked a huge controversy as a cover appeared touring the black month history do you see that reaction is

justified i mean does the u.s. media have to be seen as racist and discriminatory every time we depict white people as average americans well you know we have to be realistic this this this is you know. the people who are making the rules. and running the show are mostly white people and if you go to a country where a different group was running the show you are seeing different images so i'm not surprised that in this live in a country where the majority of the population was was was dark or black or brown and. if you if you have the numbers you you call the shots so i don't think people are shocked that these types of things

happening because they happening so frequently so either that these people who are running these organizations and these are young people sometimes. doing this it isn't like is their grandfathers and grandmothers these are. people in the twenty's and thirty's making these. does it might seem like a blunder to them they just their consciousness is just not there. so just earlier this month state italian luxury brand gucci was forced to remove a black wool. per from its collection over accusations of racism. kathy perry the singer has also faced fierce criticism over a shoe designer resembling blackface i mean this is just close don't we read too much into things when it comes to the race issue well it depends on who you are

if you are. from the group that has been criticized and made fun of humiliated and beaten down you know or for centuries then you assess it so that. if you are not part of that. you don't have this is. so. good and price or design team. our young people. and you have to call these things out sometimes people just make mistakes. you know i agree with that they just not thinking you know black people make mistakes everyone makes mistakes. but. it has to be a grown up somewhere in the room to say this could go another way i think you have to just be somewhat sensitive. and when you called out. you should grow from that they proud i also had

a situation with gucci and kathy perry and every other is going to be others. is same as oh no one is learning about how the other person feel. if i say something or write something that's derogatory toward women. you know i would be called out and i should be called out. i think the sensitivity and the awareness is just not there so another black face incident just tilt at the state of virginia where the governor and that attorney general both democrats have been accused of putting it on some forty years ago. there is now pressure on bus to resign what's your take on this should they go i think they should go not that saying that people can make mistakes and can grow from things that they you know did in the past when i was in college or were doing they were all done things that we would be embarrassed about today this guy apologized he i think he said it wasn't even

him so i don't know where that stands today but what if you get caught up in this every day you don't get any work done. and i thing on some level. with this stuff happening and how the media it just pushes it out like it is. something that i think is very very true. for artists you know sometimes people who are putting stuff out there constantly keep you from doing your work and if you get caught up in this on a daily basis weekly basis monthly basis you can't do your work you have to wonder whether that is just done deliberately. to keep your balance. from doing to important thing you know i which is your own work and so i don't get too been out of shape but these days i hear them and i keep moving because i have to so let

me ask you something this far right and white supremacist groups today what they're saying is that they are a reaction to movements like black lives matter to the new theory and somewhat radical civil rights activists are they be allowed to be blamed for the rise of the far right in white supremacist in the u.s. well you know i think it was always there in the current i think these groups have been around forever you know. with different names john birch society. citizen action committee. her belafonte says something. once that i agree with he said you know. is you know the same enemies that he had during his time with dark. are the same enemies that are out there today. you know it could be

the grandchildren of the ills of those people but what is the same people you know just like you have people who have d.n.a. running through them or the social good for everyone you have people out there who d.n.a. is is is to to to be the way they are. and most of these people really believe what they're doing they're not faking it they believe this they believe they're being attacked and if they are being replaced and and there's fear. you know i think we will get much further along down the road when we start talking to one another and listen one another because when i see images and hear things what they're doing. i see people who are afraid and i see these young men and some women in these white supremacist groups and i see that i see really scared people scared to be losing. but all they have to hold on is the color

of their skin that's all they have going for themselves. thank you so much for this interview on thank you for your inside it was great talking to you who are talking to calvin alexander ramsey award winning author and playwright traveled around the united states to study the history and legacy of james crowley iraq america that is it for this edition of. my seven years doing drugs my nephew's was still in drugs my sister just with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one

in the united states is drug abuse the sort of the users in the prison population who are we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill. the war on drugs. there are countless numbers of people who are in prison for. sins for minor minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in waves and say bye daddy as you're walking out of a business it doesn't get easier. life expectancy in america is plummeting if you look at the chart it's shocking to look at almost every other country it's kind of inching up on one side of the chart and then as an outlier is the united states is way over here it is all crashing down. from the

drug problem having junk food having junk culture having it's junk politics and fake news it's all fake and fake doesn't sustain life and you see it in the numbers it's clear. the maturity to. go in and you may never get out some sort of the most of. my teenage gang rules here to go to one of you to move the not be mine. you were through with but. minus. zero to. zero in for the. kind of element.

you do when you. see. an offshoot of the al qaeda terror group stages a deadly surprise attack in syria as the us offers a million dollar reward for information on the blog sun. also in syria heavy fighting resumes as u.s. back to kurdish forces close in on islamic states last stronghold that despite having already announced victory over our numerous times in the last few months plus. i'd like to see as broad a coalition as we can put together to replace but to replace the whole corrupt regime.