in the african-american community, most of the religious views -- african-americans are substantially more favorable. there are more muslims and more folks in the african-american community that are asking that question. tavis: black people know what it means to be disenfranchised indeed the -- and be the "other" in america. i digress on that point. it is a dense attacked. i am fascinated by this title. grace is a merited favor? an unmerited favor? i am trying to juxtapose the grace with our increasing arrogance and our increasing elitism. how can we favor this grace, and around the world, they see us as arrogant, elitist, pompous, and increasingly nationalistic. >> if i were writing a book on international affairs, i would agree with you. obama as the leader of the country has had some affect on that, i agree that in terms of foreign policy, we might seem like a bully. we're looking at a different aspect of americans, how they're able to manage strong, divergent faiths. we think that americans are surprisingly tolerant. most americans are very religious. most secular americans say th

it carries a lot of weight in the african-american community. there is this long and painful history. there's a lot of mistrust. this story has long set into that. tavis: what is the timeframe of this as compared to the tuskegee experiment? >> same time. it was toward the end of that. the study started earlier. one of the things that tied the stories together was when her family found out about the cells, it was when the tuskegee study broke. it sort of was held up as one of the most famous unethical research studies done in the u.s. where hundreds of african- american men with syphilis were set -- studied to watch how the disease kills from infection to death and when treatment became available, they did not offer it. they watched them die without treating them. it -- that study and a lot of similar ones done all the way back to the slavery era caused a lot of mistrust. no one knew that the tuskegee studies had happened until the 1970's. it hit the press and her cells being alive. the press. people wondered, did they not treat her cancer so the

african-americans and asian- americans. do you novak when the agent exclusion act, the chinese exclusion act was before congress in 1870, the first national leader to speak out against that was frederick douglass. the same man who fought against slavery. do you know that when the chinese exclusion act was voted on in congress, there was one black senator named blanche bruce, the only african-american in the u.s. senate, voted against it. similarly, we work side-by-side for semel -- civil rights and improve public education. in '86, and laundry owner sued the san francisco board of supervisors for a racially discriminatory law, and it brought equal protection to minorities, and that overturned the 1857 dread scott case, which held that minorities were not protected by the u.s. constitution. we have the landmark case of brown harris is board of education, 1954, to thank for equality in education. -- brown v. board of education. seven years later, the chinese community here worked shoulder to shoulder with the african- america

that means supporters are not just african-americans. they are from all backgrounds and races who believe is important in the 21st century to do something about this achievement gap, the high- school graduate asian right. it is important because it is important the economy of the future that continued economic inequality creates a great deal of social problems in the country and will continue. we also have to be mindful of the fact that black america is much more diverse than it has ever been. where the unity shows out is that the ballot box. the unity shows up mainly in national elections. but that unity does not necessarily show up in the local races because you have a whole degree of competition. the new order in a lot of communities is black candidates competing against each other, white candidates competing against each other, black candidates competing against latino candidates. there is a new political order in a lot of communities. it is not the classic distinction, the classic competition. i think the idea is you are stronger wh

recy taylor, the freak show and little movement was led primarily african-american women.nd i will say this. in detroit, the free joan little movement was led by rosa parks. at her trial, defense attorneys tried to paint her as a typical black jezebel, enslaved. they attacked a credibility they portrayed her as a prostitute. they suggested little wanted to have with the jailer, that she seduced him and then killed him in an elaborate plot to escape. littles attorney on the the oven at her store into a much longer context. he read to the jury and long passage from african-american woman's 190 to essay decrying the lack of protection for black womanhood and a special vulnerability of system for white men could use them regularly. by reading this passage a loud and pointing to decades of abuse in the past, he bore witness to black women's long-standing tradition of testimony and their attempt for dignity. after deliberating for over an hour, the jury unanimously voted to acquit joan little of murder. as the jury foreman read the verdict, little broke into sobs at the defense

in a marvelous job to empower african-americans -- who has done a a marvelous job to a power african-americans. it is great and i'm collecting a help dividend. prolonged interaction with princeton students helps ward alzheimer's disease. we have a very austere time ahead of the spill -- ahead of us. we have seen a lot of breakthroughs in the african- american communities over the last few decades. in 1963, i stood with a couple of hundred thousand other people listening to the speech by martin luther king that echoes and inspires to this day. he foresaw the election in 2008 when he uttered those words heard round the world "i heard a dream -- i have a tree more my four little children will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." the team that my generation never thought would materialize -- the dream that my generation never thought would materialize was with the inauguration with president obama. for me, it is the political equivalent of seeing neil armstrong climbed down from apollo 11 to be the first human being to step on the surface of the ming. th

and the chair of african-american studies at princeton university.entlemen, thank you for being here. there's been so much talk over the last year or two that the black church is dead. you wrote a piece called the black church is dead. is that true? have we lost our way? has the church lost its purpose. >> we need to understand the church as the institution. the myth of black churches, black churches differentiated landscape. they are human beings, conservative, progressive, in the middle theologically. the idea it has a center of political politics has to be decentered so we can understand exactly what black religious folks are doing. in trying political times, it needs a closer inspection. i was trying to spark conversation. >> he did that. >> i have a slightly different take having been away from the church for a number of years and then returning to the church. i found that the church certainly was not the church of my youth. there were all kinds of models when i returned to the church that i think have responded very well to critiques like the n

an african-american beat her. we have to have a closed door discussion and say we can't always control these general person agreements. i say we to try to have the dialogue on nafta at the federal level. the issue of labor unions being concerned by jobs. my part of the country where it was important, the african-american members of congress and teixeira politicians restrained themselves from getting that -- out too far that they were defense the issues because they knew it was important to hispanics as it was the case if it was south africa on the border with with dks instead of mexico. so i think we at least in my backyard we try internly to have the discussions before it blows. sometimes people have a bad attitude. it won't have anything to do with you being black or brown, you got a bad attitude. that had nothing to do with race, it is because i just didn't like that person >> i can give you an example of where -- where african-american and hispanic communities in the redistricting process fought against each o

>> we are african-americans, leaders in the media.identify with african-american? >> american. >> do you identify with african-american? >> i identify as an american. for me, what the media and the world defines as being black and black culture and the kind of images they show i don't want to have anything it to do with it. many people buy into these stereotypes. >> don't you have to be in the house to fix it? >> >> that's a different issue. >> that's politics. >> not race. >> i'm talking about the issue of race. okay. >> i did want to turn the corner a bit and get some grades and some assessments. first of all, if you had to give a grade to president obama for how he's done so far, what would it be? >> c-minus to c. >> what do you say? >> d-plus. >> what do you say? >> d-plus. i voted for him. i'm thoroughly disappointed. >> the issues and election with president obama, that only white men had ever occupied the white house and they definitely weren't the most competent and best we ever had and the most qualified, history was so stron

an african-american beat her. we have to have a closed door discussion and say we can't always control these general person agreements. i say we to try to have the dialogue on nafta at the federal level. the issue of labor unions being concerned by jobs. my part of the country where it was important, the african-american members of congress and teixeira politicians restrained themselves from getting that -- out too far that they were defense the issues because they knew it was important to hispanics as it was the case if it was south africa on the border with with dks instead of mexico. so i think we at least in my backyard we try internly to have the discussions before it blows. sometimes people have a bad attitude. it won't have anything to do with you being black or brown, you got a bad attitude. that had nothing to do with race, it is because i just didn't like that person >> i can give you an example of where -- where african-american and hispanic communities in the redistricting process fought against each o

it's one of those things where many african-americans inherit this party.any of us grew up, you don't think anything about it. but for the first time, you can say, i'm in my 30s, i have totally different ideas about life and social concerns than i did in my 20s. and making an independent decision, i can look at both parties and say, on my social values, republican. on my fiscal values, republican. i am 100% comfortable being republican. >> and no one's called you benedict arnold or anything like that? >> not within the african-american community. not in that way. >> where? >> on blogs. people don't have names, we just blog. >> ashley bell, andre walker, we appreciate your time. >> thanks, john. >> thank you. >> that interview conducted last night when i was in atlanta, georgia. now let's take a quick look. we're continuing to track the tax cut debate. that's debbie stabenow speaking on the floor tonight. the debate continues late into the tonight. but we're now told to expect the final vote tomorrow morning. we'll stay on top of that one and bring you the l

>> tonight congress says african-american farmers discriminated for decades by the u.s. government deserve payment. one republican congressman says the program is riddled with fraud and is really a way to make reparations for slavery. his remarks have set off a firestorm. tonight you'll hear from him. is the congressman playing fast and loose with the facts or are his opponents? also accused of ethics violations, maxine waters, her hearing was supposed to begin, but now the ethics panel is in disarray. the lead investigator mysteriously taken off the case. can congress really police itself? details tonight. and later, hiding in plain sight, the child slavery business right here in america. hard to believe. we have the evidence, though, for you to see for yourself. we begin as always keeping them honest. the congressman who says a billion dollar federal program for settling african-american discrimination claims is full of fraud, pushed by what he calls a, quote, very, very urban barack obama and amounts he says to slavery reparations. we're talking about steve king, repu

we have an african-american president of the united states, we have an african-american c.e.o. of one of the fortune 500 companies. we have so many gains for women that are going on, too, but we've always set out to make a more perfect union and we're still some distance from that. i think a lot of this is quite honestly exacerbated now by the anxieties over the economic condition of the country and about where america fits in the world. we are a much more multicultural country than we were 25, 30 years ago. if you go to the pacific northwest, california, oregon, or the state of washington, for example, there is an enormously profoundly greater presence, for example, of the pacific islanders and the asian americans in every aspect of life so people are still adjusting to that in some fashion. what we're hoping to do with this broadcast, not just on the race basis, but on other issues, as well, is to get them to take a deep breath and step back and remember, this is an immigrant nation and we're always at our best when we're more than the sum of our parts. tavis: you've said two

>> african-americans who farmed or attempted to farm between 1981 and 1997. and the reason we use that definition is because the civil rights office at usda was closed under the reagan administration and we went in and found -- investigated and found thousands of black farmer civil rights cases that had never been processed. and that's what this case is about. this case is not about fraud, this case is about bringing justice and equality and fairness to a group of people who deserve it. and it's long, long overdue justice. >> it is shocking when you start to look into what happened in the usda. they were literally throwing out discrimination claims, just dumping them in the garbage in some cases. you claim 75% of the claims now being made in this program by african-american farmers have been fraudulent. you say an unnamed person working for the usda gave you that estimate. usda says that percentage is complete nonsense of the fbi investigated, found only three cases of fraud. where's the proof of this 75% claim you make? >> well, and john boyd says there's no

oh, yes, cheryl dunye is a fine young filmmaker-- african-american woman. and she made this film with some n.e.a. money, some help. and it was a modest film. it was a very loving film about some young african-american lesbians looking for this fictional movie star named watermelon woman, a black actress in the '30s. the scene was very tasteful. i mean, by hollywood standards, you wouldn't even bat an eye. and it was blown way out of proportion. some house of representatives-- oversight and investigation committee-- wanted, again, to hammer the n.e.a. and take all the amount of money we had given away from this filmmaker. to make a long story short, when it got to the house floor, the debate on it, shelia jackson-lee, a fine african-american congresswoman from texas, took the floor and said-- talked about diversity in our nation and the strength of diversity in our nation. and that was the end of the discussion. it was one thing to hammer away at the often disenfranchised group of african-american lesbians in the united states. it was quite another to take o

but i'm african-american. i'm an african-american first.ing this to our current mayor, mr. gavin newsom, and he put together this action plan. and right now i want to know who's in control. >> ♪ i want to know, yeah who's in control right here in san francisco yeah i ask the mayor but he really didn't care you know why he's out the door he's tiptoeing up to sacramento and i'm going to talk about you all the board of supervisors some of you are a bunch of liars and you all are going to pick the next mayor the redevelopment i'm going foff to sue and -- to have to sue and make a settlement all the money they spent we don't know where it went and it ain't no accident and now they're gone you know what housing authority they just ignore me then we got the h.r.c. force forgs the human rights you better listen to me it ain't no mystery just check your history and look around blacks are leaving town what's going down blacks are leaving this town where's willie brown i guess we're going to have to talk together to jerry brown yeah you know what thrs

life of an african american male is not worth a telephone.r not worth any other instrument they might be holding in their hands that all of a sudden somebody decides it might be a weapon. >> want it to be clear we're here not just about the opd but about bart -- both jurisdictions that share the bay bridge. >> the irony and the percent of trust, nonfor the oakland police department. it will be my job as mayor to rebuild that trust. >> well, the focus of this hearing is not just the controversial darrick jones case but it also has been in the works ever since police shot and killed the unarmeled barber last month. that's the case that has sparked outrage around the city. another high profile case is the bart police shooting of oscar grant. statistics shown out there, telling numbers, 45 officer-involved shootings in oakland between 2004 and 2008, almost all of the victims were african american males and not once in any of those cases has there been a criminal prosecution of the officer involved. >>> thank you. the city of antioch has now sent

and more than 1 out of 3 african-american students in california drop out before graduating from high school. and a climate watch conversation assessing the outcome of the u.n. climate conference in cancun, mexico. u.n. climate conference in cancun, mexico. we'll have those stories next. captioning by vitac, underwritten by fireman's fund ♪ ♪ >>> good evening, and welcome to "this week in northern california." i'm belva davis. joining me tonight on our news panel are jill tucker, education writer for the "san francisco chronicle." howard mintz, legal reporter for the "san jose mercury news." and tom abate, business reporter at the "chronicle." and tom, we will start with you. california does have one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, but how is the bay area faring? >> inside the california economy the bay area is a little bit more of an engine. but i think the overarching thing to say, this is a very uneven economy, from top to bottom, whether you look at it regionally, inside the bay area, a little bit better than the california's 12-plus percent unemployment rate, her

an african-american beat her. we have to have a closed door discussion and say we can't alwayscontrol these general person agreements. i say we to try to have the dialogue on nafta athe federal level. the issue of labor unions being concerned by jobs. my part of the country where it was important, the african-american members of congre and teixeira politicians restrained themselves from getting that -- out too far that they were defense the issues because they knew it was important to hispanics as it was the case if it was south africa on the border with with dks instead of mexico. so i think we at least in my backyard we try internly to have the discussions before it blows. sometimes people have a bad attitude. it won't have anything to do with you being black or brown, you got a bad attitude. that had nothing to do with race, it is because i just didn't like that person i can give you an example of where -- where african-american and hispanic communities in the redistricting process fought against eachther. this

chamber of commerce is concerned about the gross lack of for dissipation of african-american firms in your program. we would ask that the tjpa prior to awarding this contract demonstrate a commitment to the diversity programs. we are further concerned that your waiver of goals further demonstrate again to the agency does not take the sbe dde program seriously. awarding this project to the apparent low bidder who has not met the goals which show that the agency has ignored achievable participation of qualified local endeavors companies, we would hope your agency would send a serious message. sincerely, frederick jordan, president of the chamber. i am a subcontractor, a vendor who has put in a bid for this project. i represent 5% of the contract will agreement with granite, so i'm not just a vendor. i'm actually a contractor. hopefully, that means something to the board. director ford: thank you. >> i'm also a subcontractor consultant doing work with granite. basically, i have been -- my previous experience has shown that i have fought for live companies when i was on the other side of

i am speaking for the african- american, black man, negro, what ever you want to call us. legislation to [unintelligible] ayou talk about jobs at 50%. that a good-faith effort has been out there for years. but you need regulations to make it happen. we don't need you all to tell us. i will be out there regulating to make sure it happens. nihon -- [chime] supervisor avalos: thank you, mr. washington. next speaker, please. >> i don't know whether you are doing a good job or not, but i will say it like it is. i would like for you to go through with this proposal, but i would like you will to pay attention to it. these contractors, when you tell them 50% of the black folks working in the neighborhood have it before the job is way over with. it might be two or three years if it is an eight-year job. they will hire another hispanic or another white person or another filipino person. it is still anything but black. you need to look at this. it is not right. i lost my family because i was mistreated. i have a hard worker and i lost my family because every time i got a job, he did

in contrast, african-americans in the east bay typically live in neighborhoods that are about 28% african-american. that's a big change from three decades ago when the typical african-american resident lived in a neighborhood that was 56% african-american. >>> a new report says san francisco is one of the most dangerous cities in the state if you're walking. more than 800 people are hit by cars in san francisco each year. according to to the san francisco chronicle. and december is said to be one of the most dangerous months for pedestrian accidents. more people are out walking and shopping during the holidays and also an increased alcohol use this time of year. >> i feel safe out here walking on the streets. but i am extremely careful to pay attention to the cars and my surroundings. >> the top ten most dangerous parts for walkers are concentrated in the financial district, tenderloin, south of market and bayview neighborhoods. >>> well, if the weather cooperates you'll be able to check out a rare treat in the skies tonight. the longest total eclipse in this century. e earth's shadow will complet

he had been changed by his experience in the african-american church. bonhoeffer also was -- because he was taking god more seriously, he's now beginning to see what's happening politically in germany. he knows -- i go into this in detail in the book. he somehow seems to know before anyone else knows what the nazis mean to germany. he seems to be able to smell that this is directly opposed to germany as a nation, but more importantly, to the church in germany. if you take god seriously, if you are not just a gentile who goes to church, but if you actually take this seriously, you are going to have big problems. but most people were as we know extremely badly fooled. bonhoeffer was not. he beginning to seek out from the lecture. he begins to teach theology and say things to the christian audience, if you are a christian in germany, you have only one savior. that's jesus christ. when he says this, it's obvious what he's saying. hitler is not the savior. so many germans were biblically i guess or -- ignorant, they didn't have a sense that satanic. many peo

department, we discovered haphazardly that they had known for years that in bayview hunters point, african- american women under the age of 50 had the highest rate of breast cancer in the entire state, but the health department has noted for years, and they failed to address it. they only started talking about it when we actually found out. >> we have babies that were born -- that were stillborn. we have babies that live for maybe an hour or 2 and died afterwards, and nobody could explain why. nobody could explain any of it to us, and it all has to do with where we live, what we are breathing, and what we are playing on. we are not put it all off on pg &e, because we know that there are many issues, but this power plant was the number one largest single standing source of air and water pollution in bayview hunters point. for obvious reasons, we wanted to make it go away, but we started -- we decided that we were going to plant our feet and go after them, as we said, one goliaths at a time. >> the power plant issue, both potrero hill and bayview, you never hear one mentioned without the other. the sp

of anything that shakes and moves the has to be related to the african-american community.

her goal is to create books for and about african-americans. i write because there is a need to have books for, by and about the african-american experience and how we helped to develop this country. i present to you patricia makinsik heart of literacy. >> i am from st. louis, missouri. a lot of you think i have said it in correctly when i said missouri. you think i got it slid into my southern dialect, right? no. i was not born in st. louis. i was born in nashville, tennessee, a little town side of nashville. that is where i grew up, went to high school, met and married my husband. moved back to st. louis where i lived part of my life. i heard people saying missouri and missouri. what is the correct pronunciation of our new home? the best place to go when you want information is where? >> [inaudible]. >> of course, we all know that. i went to the library and the librarian gave me a wonderful book and began a life long friendship with the librarian. missouri is the native american pronunciation. in their language it is the people of the big boa

this is a histori problem, one that goes through history to lynching of african american males and persists around the country. the life of an african amican man does nohave the same worth as for other citizens. >> where the life of an african american male is not worth a telephone. or not worth any other instrument they might be holding in their hands that all of a sudd somebody decides it might be a weapon. >> want it to be clear we're here not just about the opd but about bart -- both jurisdictions that share the bay bridge. >> the irony and the percent of trust, nonfor the oakland police department. it will be my job as mayor to rebuild that trust. >> well, the focus of this hearing is not just the controversial darrick jones case but it also has been in the works ever sin police shot and killed the unarmeled barber last month. that's the case that has sparked outrag around the city. another high profile case is the bart police shooting of oscar gran statistics shown o there, telling numbers, 45 officer-involved shootings in oakland between 2004 and 2008, almost all of the victims were

african-american life and history and she was on that panel.chicago. she has continued to be an activist and a proponent of nonviolence red faction, and what else do you want to know? >> okay, thanks. >> the first part of the question was where is diane nash so that was the information. i just want to add for people who don't necessarily know what that may mean, diane nash was one of the leaders of the nashville sit in movement which successfully desegregated nashville. she was the first of the sudan activist to go and work full-time for the movement and she was the first female secretary for sncc and later she also worked for sdlc. >> thank you. first of all good evening. for all you ladies who were former members of sncc, i am not that much younger than you all but i can never thank you enough for all of your contributions. i know i wouldn't be you today as an organizer as an activist had it not been for you and the ladies who could not be here this evening. thank you again. [applause] it was a great privilege and blessing for me. i went to t

it represents african-american artists to during the 20's and 30's used an incredible body of work.t is one of the most incredible works of art in the city, bar none. it is a huge mural of incredible works. >> the san francisco civic arts collection has been in existence since the turn of the century. it consists of everything from monument to golden gate park to market street, other works in the collection, from the wpa era, the quite tower, the works from the george washington high school. we have the contemporary education, where they depict some of the vocational arts that were taught at george washington high school. what is interesting is the artist's and corp. of some of the -- incorporation of some of the architectural elements. they used the speaker from the p a system as part of the design. on the opposite side of the library, we have a large fresco which depicts the academic subjects that were taught at the time. it serves as a foil to the other fresco in the library, we have academic subjects on one side, vocational subjects on the other, and result is the concept of a w

your relationship with an african-american woman? a model? >> i thought of women in the fire departments san francisco and how they take a lot of heat sometimes. it did they change the case so they can pass on. all those ideas of affirmative action are part of what went to the idea. >> it's funny how time is a change can imagine that 20 years ago saying i need an african-american person tell me get where want to go in terms of a book deal. >> and we've seen so many, i always think there's two kinds of books about black, white shoes in america. if why would be where the white guy goes in it helps all the minority kids and saves the day, if the other one it is the one where a black person is being oppressed by white people. if obviously his starkly that's an important one to do and we know why it's there. i tried to do something that's kind of in between. >> domain to press you on this which you feel like i would not get the breaks that now attractive african american what? >> for that specific publishing house i don't think a seen a p

i am african-americans and i'm proud of my heritage. -- i am african-american. we have other mothers and fathers that are collecting now -- that are latino. it takes our children's blood for other children to get jobs. i am asking you to please think about it and please don't forget about our children. we love our children and we still need our children. please don't forget our children. i think about the people that are out there on the streets and in need jobs. >> next speaker, please. >> thank you, i am here as president of -- resident counsel and also as a private citizen of san francisco. we're looking to replace the mayor for an interim time. we're looking for someone who is all-inclusive of the city and who is very aware of the diversity and engages in that. we have one of the best supervisors and tested nine then we have ever had so i just want to support his name, supervisor campos, i hope that you are on the short list and that you are chosen. i would like to give honor to one of my board members. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm here to encourage

and this case is about african-american farmers who farmed or attempted to farm who was discriminated against by the united states department of agriculture, and i can tell you about discrimination because i had a county official to spit on me and to tear my application up and throw it in the trash can. and i begged and pleaded with the committee to have that person fired. that person was never fired. he was transferred to another county office to continue to work out his service for the united states department of agriculture and they gave him a big party. a big retirement party. so i can tell you that this discrimination is real and i invite mr. king to walk in my shoes, and other black farmers' shoes in this country before he pass judgment and refer to them as johnny or someone that has a drug problem. and i'll tell you that, anderson, these farmers have proven their case and they deserve to have their cases heard based on its merit.