karen: today on "cityline," who is lifting up the voices here and around the country. plus, a talk with journalists so without o'brieledad o'brien. interview soledad o'brien, host of "matter of fact," which is right before "cityline." prisons in several states around the country saw inmates engage in strikes. these protest which took place on the anniversary of attica prison uprising were in an

work wages and working conditions for inmates. while receiving little to no media attention, it is spurring conversation about our nation's population of incarcerated men and women and whether or not they are living environments and treatment in violation of human rights coul. he joins us to discuss this very weighty topic. welcome, professor sullivan. start by giving a little more into history of the attica uprising and its significance to the events of september 9. prof. sullivan: the attica uprising was in 1971 and was a shock to the conscious of america. prisoners essentially took over a prison and took some people hostage and demanded that the state negotiate with them. it was the first time prisoners

i think it is important to remember and preference -- preface what i'm saying is that although some of your liberty is taken away, all of your rights are not taken away when you are in prison. as a human being, you still have rights to basic necessities and medical treatment. they felt, and it was true, that they were being unduly worked and that they were not being treated medical attention and they demanded change. unfortunately several people died, inmates and hostages, and cut uprising -- in the attic cut uprising. karen: how does that relate? prof. sullivan: the same basic issues are at play. people working for a quarter of a day where working regular hours for a quarter of the day. that goes into their commissary. complaints about the increased

prison cell 23 hours a day. they get to go out to a slightly larger prison cell alone for an hour for exercise. the other claims have to do with medical treatment that people are essentially left to languish and not receive adequate medical treatment. that is quite amazing that they were able to coordinate across jurisdictions among several prisons around the country. u outside. it is not like they can pick up the phone and call other prisons, so the coordination to me was inspiring. karen: these strikes have been happening around the country. hasn't reached any massachusetts prisons it? prof. sullivan: not yet and not on the scale as we saw in alabama and so forth. i believe it is probably coming

what is happening at far too many prisons across the country. the proliferation of private prisons, the federal government stopped it. thank you, president obama, but there are still private prisons in the state system all around. they are trying to make money. they have no incentive to spend extra dollars on basic care for inmates. that is what is missing and that is what inmates protest. karen: and people are using the mass incarceration problem and likening it to slavery. they say that convicts are the exception to the rule. that's not quite exactly the wording of the 13th amendment, but there is some suggestion in there that slavery is ok if you are committing a crime.

amendment, we know as the first reconstruct an amendment. -- reconstruction an amendment. it reads something like the following. slavery and involuntary servitude is abolished, except for punishment of a crime where of the individual has received due process of law. historically that clause was not intended to stand for the proposition exception to slavery. rather it was intended to mean that there were some people whose liberty was taken away at the time based on crimes that they had committed. the notion was the state could still restrain their liberty in the prison and not that they can make them slaves. the way that it reads, i think it is subject to multiple

move in the court was to be a strict constructionist. the document says what it says and we cannot read into it. there may be time for a constitutional amendment to clarify that. karen: do you think people running our prison systems are hiding behind that clause and using that clause as a justification for the treatment of prisoners? prof. sullivan: i do not think it has risen to that yet. i think the people running government doesn't care about incarceration. karen: or doesn't know. prof. sullivan: i'm actually glad you're doing this. you started off in the opening saying that this has been an underreported episode and it has been. the public doesn't know and there are people of good will who would be outraged at the way fellow human beings are being treated. even though you committed a crime, your human being.

of the public that doesn't care and that is sad. karen: what are people like you and advocates around this cause doing to raise awareness of the issue? prof. sullivan: what i do is litigate. i think that there are people who can do many things for many different angles. in appropriate circumstances i go to court in order to get relief for a client, personal clients or clients through the order the prison to do certain specified things. there also has to be legislative reforms. they should be outside advocacy to bring awareness and all these things working in conjunction hopefully will converge and help create a better system. karen: professor ron sullivan, thank you for being here today. you give us a little insight into what's going on. prof. sullivan: absolutely,

o'brien and how she's bringing diverse thoughts to the

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karen: beginning with this past september, soledad o'brien has taken over the helm of cross-section of americans. o'brien seeks to push conversations with not just high-profile political guest but trusted voices in academia, science, and journalism. nothing is off limits, especially race. here, of ryan the controversy over colin kaepernick's silent protest in the nfl with baltimore ravens tight end ben

end ben watson would struggle if he had to stand or kneel on the football field this year. he is out with a torn achilles tendon that has ended his season , but it has not stopped him from weighing on the national dialogue generated by san francisco' 49ers quarterback colin kaepernick. he has been holding his silent protest against the treatment of afghan americans by refusing to stand during the national anthem. in your latest post, spoke about colin kaepernick. i would like everyone to check out what you wrote. a quick i stand because of this mixed back of evil and good is my home. my home is my standing and a pledge to fight against all injustice and to present the greatest attributes of this country, including colin kaepernick's right to neil. kneel. such displays against the status quo are distinct the american.

the problem not the protester. you go on and on and i think it's a very thoughtful column. do you think that what has been happening has brought more attention to the problem and not to the protester? ben: there always been protest that pushed the envelope forward and brought change along. as a black man, i understand there's a lot i don't like about our country's history. there's a lot i'm upset and angry about. get better. when i stand, i'm standing for all the injustices, but i'm also standing because i've seen great progress because i want there to be more progress. my hope is that we can actually have that conversation and have that progress. karen: joining us now from washington, d.c. on satellite is soledad o'brien, a peabody award-winning journalist who is now part of the hearst

producer of "matter of fact soledad o'brien," airing sundays at 11:30 a.m. on wcvb. what new perspectives are you going to be bringing to the show? soledad: it is interesting because i think it's all about just giving access and really seeking them out and making sure that we are not sticking with washington insiders and boldface names, which is very easy to do when you're covering politics. you tu perspective your hearing to make sure you are moving the stories out of the nations capital. politics is everything. it's your school, it's your streets, it's everything. we want to hear from people affected by issues today with some kind of context and not just shouting at each other when they disagree. karen: you must have some goals or ideas about getting people involved and engaged outside of the beltway.

open up conversation to diverse voices, that does get people involved. i think people are interested when people are interested in hearing what other people have to say. they may not agree, but they wanted discourse that is respectful and has context and is informative and they can make up their mind when something is done thoughtfully versus just again people yelling at each other. i think people want that. for a conversation and also a conversation where you frankly hold people accountable and people are not allowed to say what they want unchecked. one thing i like best about being a journalist is that you do your homework and you hold people accountable on the issues that matter. karen: speaking of people yelling at each other, we are in a very strange political season if you have not noticed. soledad: i've not noticed. tell me about it. i have not noticed at all. [laughter]

presidential election, i assume you're going to be taking and -- digging into some of these interesting conversations and back-and-forth we have been having. soledad: always, i think that's really important. i think especially frankly with our politicians. we really do have the slowdown and fact checked and dig into some of the things being said and get context and history to the things being said. it has been kind of a crazy political year. it does not feel like we have been covering this election. karen: yet appeared on cnn recently and criticized the media for what you said "normalizing white supremacist ideas." soledad: you don't even need to quote me because i will say it again -- normalizing white suppresses ideas. that's very true. you take somebody who self

them time to recruit people, that is not responsible journalism. i'm sure it is great for ratings. a journalist job is to make sure that your thoughtful in the people you are interviewing and how your interviewing the. you cannot just put people on who has hateful speech. that has been something done poorly by some journalists. i'm not going to call the guy a white supremacist. he self identifies as that. i think that is a big problem. you give people your credibility when you put them on camera and you have to spend a lot of time thinking about how you do that to make sure that you are doing a service to your viewers and not a disservice. karen: some of the voices that

with soledad o'brien" will offer a balance to some of those conversations that we hear on cable news. soledad: absolutely. i really just want to expand the number and types of voices and perspectives. they don't have to agree with me. it's not really about that. it's about a thoughtful, respectful conversation where we get to push people on their beliefs. karen: i cannot let you go without reminding people here in boston that you have a close li we will not mention the call letters. soledad: i got a lot of coffee for everybody. that's how good i was as an intern. [laughter] i went to harvard college and got a chance to speak at their graduation a couple years ago, which was really fun. my sister lives there and my other sister lives close their. re.

me back to boston. we will be watching you on "matter of fact with soledad o'brien." soledad: thanks so much. karen: "matter of fact with soledad o'brien" is right here on wcvb at 11:30 a.m., followed by "cityline" every sunday at noon. be sure to pick up the november issue with soledad o'brien on the cover. check out the banner this financial at reggie lewis track and field. it is a free event, but registration is required. up next, using art to change the narrative.

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karen:: there is a wide range of perspectives and american share the common fear of the notion of terrorism. many muslims agree that radical terrorism is a threat and should be debated. often their voices get lost in the anti-muslim rhetoric in talk we are joined now by a local muslim artist. she along with other artists are tempting to change the narrative of what islam means with the exhibit more than my religion. it is on display at the cultural arts center in cambridge. >> thank you for having me. karen: what was the inspiration behind putting this exhibit together? >> for me personally, i was compelled with this sense

american muslims living in the united states. given the broad negative rhetoric, we felt that it was really urgent -- the need was urgent and critical to highlight and spotlight the reality of the american muslim and their story and their narrative and to reclaim it. karen: what kinds of images will be see in the exhibit? >> i really invite you to stop by at some point. it is up until december 5 at the multicultural arts center. struck by the diversity of the artwork that is on display right now from traditional calligraphy to still life to very thought-provoking photography. a lot of portraits so the diversity that comes through these are pieces is incredible

there's more to people than one angle of their identity. karen: the topic of the pieces is not necessarily about islam. the point is that there are artists of muslim faith who have diverse interests and representation in the art world. that is what we will see. >> absolutely. karen: let me just share some statistics with the regarding anti- america . according to a poll in early 2015, and found that 55% of surveyed americans had an unfavorable opinion of islam. three weeks after 9/11, and abc news poll showed that unfavorable view went down to 39%. pretty interesting.

has turned increasingly negative in recent years. a recent survey conducted by the public religion research institute revealed 56% of people surveyed agreed that the values of islam are at odds with american values and the way of life, which is a significant increase of 47% since 2001 -- from 47 >> with the statistics that you were just talking about, it is often coming out of the fear of the unknown. we strongly feel that through this initiative we can take that anxiety and that fear down to some level. using our as a platform we can bring people to a very good neutral ground where we can have some of these informative conversations and get to know each other.

initiative right now. i think some of those misconceptions or mistrust is a byproduct of some of the fear of the unknown. that is what we are sort of aiming to critique. karen: fear of the unknown and lack of knowledge. >> absolutely. karen: you have had a similar exhibit in providence in 2015. what was the reaction to the exhi >> the city and mayor of providence welcomed us and give us a very warm welcome. they received this initiative really well. it was a warm and powerful endorsement from the mayor at the reception gallery. i remember to this day that a reception evening started off with showcasing the muslim work of artists. and then it became a really wonderful platform for a lot of

dialogue to initiate, and that brought us to a much better place at the end of the event. a follow-up to the reception was a salon talk that was held and that in itself was very productive. it was a room full of members and a panel of muslim artist and we engaged in a very productive in constructive dialogue. at the end of that lot of reduced anxiety and knowledge about each other. karen: so when bostonians have a chance to visit the exhibit here, what would you like them to leave with? >> i think if they take time out of their hectic, busy schedules

i think i can say with confidence that they will come away with the feeling of wow. there's so much diversity in the small sample that we are seeing. each one of those paintings is really talking about an american muslim experience and life and story. it will bring hope to the fact that there is a lot more shared common values and shared ground. that we all have the same aspirations and values. we need to connect at that level and really get to know each account the headline news and react to that. karen: come with your eyes open and your heart open. thank you so much. be sure to catch more than my religion at the multicultural arts center in kim at now through december 2. you can learn more about everything we featured on today's program by logging onto our site at wcvb.com. do not forget to follow us on social media at cityline five. thanks so much for watching.

which is responsible for its

? >> welcome to "teen kids news." i'm veronique. let's begin with our top story for this week. ? competition -- in sports, it gets our adrenaline flowing. in class, competition helps keep us on our toes. but as amelia reports, too much competition isn't a good thing. >> our generation is possibly the most competitive generation ever. for many of us, it seems like we're in competition from the day we're born. >> well, in elementary school, it was about who could run the fastest, who could jump the farthest, who could play basketball.