amy: james baldwin in 1963.ill be back with michael eric dyson, authoror of "what truth sounds like: rfk, james baldwin and our unfinished coconversation about race in america." ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we turn now with michael eric dyson, georgetown university professor, author of "what truth sounds like: rfk, james baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in america." we turn to the issue that took place last week, the ongoing racial justice protest by professional sports players, particularly black nfl players. lastly donald trump abruptly called off a planned visit by the super bowl-winning philadelphia eagles -- tweeting -- one not a single eagles player knelt during the national anthem in the 2017 season. malcolm jenkins to protest by raising a fist gin the national anthem in what has become one of the most enduring images of the protest. last week malcolm jenkins silently held up a series of signs to reporters i

dyson's new book is "who truth sounds like, rfq, james baldwin and our unfinished conversation about race in america." and michael eric dyson joins us now. michael, i want to read you something we heard today. i wonder if this is what truth sounds like. this is written in the middle of melania trump's written statement today, which said only this about the children she met today. she said, the children were eager to learn and were kind and in good spirits. is that what truth sounds like on our southern border tonight? >> not at all. that sounds like anesthesia. that sounds like addiction to forgetfulness. that sounds like trying to paper over a volcano of hurt and pain and trauma that these children are enduring. can she imagine her own beloved son being subject to forcible separation from his mother or his father? this is the politics of unempathy. this is the denial of the humanity that binds us together. and to have such a statement,

in the words of james baldwin, and i think it's befitting that frida kahlo is honored in this way. to quote the words of james baldwin, he said, "only an artist can tell and only artists have told, since we have heard of man, what it is like for anyone who gets to this planet to survive it. what it is like to die or to have somebody die. what it's like to fear death, what it's like to fear. what it's like to love and what it's like to be glad. hymns don't do this, churches really can't do this. the trouble is only the artists and only the artists alone can do it." thank you. >>> thank you. [applause] >>> any other public comments at this moment? seeing none, supervisor kim, would you like to close public comments? >>> at this time, we will close public comment for item number four. >>> let me make a couple remarks here. first of all, did you want to make -- okay, when i called you didn't stand up. can we open it back up? >>> we have to take a motion to reconvene or to open up public comment again. can we do that without objection? we can do that without objection. >>> great, thank

kennedy and james baldwin. it was supposed to be a friendly gathering but it became very bitter? >> initially they met over breakfast the day before. and bec ause it was rush meeting, baldwin's plane was late when he got to d.c. then out to virginia. the attorney general said tomorrow i'll be in new yoro let's getther. they got together he s od bring soyour friends. they also brought a student activist who wasof onethe most storied activists, freedom they got to the meeting. kennedy wanted to black people to be grateful for what he and i see brother were doing. and they were having none of it. they said we'ref tiedthis. the young man, jerome smith, said't dworry about it the voice of rage. me who'sned about willing to take up a gun because i'm tired of o athis. he tried to pivot away, robert kennedy, to the responsible they saidle, but wit the only person you need to listen to it got nasty and bitter. kennedy was angry. at the end of theeeting he went back to his office and sicced the fbi to the people who were there. he eventually said if i were black, i would be angry too, maybe

kennedy, james baldwin." i want people to know you're also a preacher. you make of the attorney general's interpretation of roman's 13 in the bible. >> he needs to go back to seminary. he's never been there, so he needs to begin. this is a vastly wrong m misinterpretation of the bible. that was used to justify, and make valid slavery. we were told not to oppose the government because the government was for the establishment of slavery. and as a result of that, god ordained it. if god made the law then one had to defer to the law. so this misuse of scripture is certainly that conservatives have done over the last year to justify and legitimate an administration that they would be opposed to some behavior. atrocious behavior of the president in office. the atrocious misuse by jeff sessions to use that as the basis of any biblical effort. why didn't he quote joshua or amos let water run down like a mighty stream. here is cherry picking of a scripture as aatrocious. i guess jesus would have been seen as an immigrant separated from his mother, father, joseph

kennedy, james baldwin, and our finished conversation about race in america.tonight. thanks for watching. i'll see you right back here tomorrow. is the #1 choice of hospitals to wrap your baby in blanket-like softness so all they feel is love pampers swaddlers we just switched to geico and got more. more? they've been s5 aving foney. a company you can trust. geico even helped us with homeowners insurance. more sounds great. gotta love more... right, honey? yeah! geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. hi.i just wanted to tell you thdependability award for its midsize car-the chevy malibu. i forgot. chevy also won a j.d. power dependability award for its light-duty truck the chevy silverado. oh, and since the chevy equinox and traverse also won chevy is the only brand to earn the j.d. power dependability award across cars, trucks and suvs-three years in a row. phew. third time's the charm... your hair is so soft! did you use head and shoulders two in one? i did mom. wanna try it? yes. it intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake fr

now what we're seeing is the contradiction that james baldwin pointed to those 50 some five years agop was a cultural figure before he was a political figure. culture is powerful, i want to ask you about something that's been talked about a lot. everywhere but the news, which is this feud between the very popular artist drake and somewhat lesser known writer and rapper pusha t. it got racial. pusha t saying, always felt you weren't black enough, afraid to grow it because your 'fro wouldn't nap enough. your analysis of racial credential checking in this part of the debate. >> it's interesting, drake is from toronto. you look out toward afterry ka, but the borders of our northern neighbors. he's already up against t boulders of authentic blackness. then when he admitted as a biracial child that his hair didn't behave with the same rules of curling, what the anthropologists call nappi head. drake admitted that. you're not really black enough, you're not authentically black, black is as black does. what we've seen james baldwin id race is not a reality, it's a political fiction, it's a pr

in other words, james baldwin said, race is a political projection, fiction. it's not something we're born with, it's not in your genes or in your genetic code. it's not in your d.n.a. it's in american and other society as cross this world that have created an artificial conception of difference to justify and validate their own superiority and the inferiority of others. so i wanted to say to white americans, please, let's together join in the conversation to really confront the racial bigotry and bias that prevails, to understand the privileges you get from that, even if you don't want to, and to doesn't from that larger architecture of white privilege by helping us build a counter veiling building of democracy, the he had physician of our social conscious and radical american imagination that people from thomas jefferson down to martin luther king invested in. host: you quote james baldwin, it's not the social or economic divide, but the racial divide that is the biggest root problem in this country. guest: there's no combe that. inequal le say, hey, sit rea

kennedy and james baldwin. itnas supposed to be a frly gathering but it became very bitter? >> initially they me over breakfast the day before. and because it was a rh meeting, baldwin's plane was late when he got t d.c. then out to virginia. the attorney general said tomorrow i'll be in new york, let's get together. they got together he said bring some of your friends. they also brought a student activist who was one of the most storied activists, freedom writers. meeting. to the kennedy wanted to black people to be grateful for what he and i see brother were doing. and theonwere having of it. they said we're tied of this the young man, jerome smith, said don't worry about it the voice of rage. be concerned about me who's willing toake up a gun because i'm tired of all of this.t he trie pivot away, robert kennedy, to the responsible black people, but with they said the only peon you need to listen to is him. it got nasty and bitter. kennedy was angry. at the end of the meeting he to went back his office and to the people w were there. he eventually said if i were black, i w

james baldwin said that you think your pain and your heartbreakre unprecedented in the history of the world. but then, you read. reading reminds us of the humanity we share across continents and centuries and civilization. as a fiction writer and journalist i am accustomed to the role of spectator, as close to invisible as possible helps me straw. what led me to accept the honor of this position is the belief that literary values, curiosity and kinship are under siege in our culture. pen america's work from fostering literary translation to mentoring and rewarding cars rated writers to the festival is geared toward enabling shared experience between people who are structurally separated. it would be hard to createen america today, the broad optimism of its vision to celebrate and defend the freedoms that make it possible can sound quaint. the range of opinions might prove to disparate together enough of us under one umbrella. but here we are. with our strength in numbers comes the credibility to foster genuine dialogue at moments of crisis and impact. as pen america's presidents i hop

also, james baldwin did incredible work through a documentary called the hammer, where he spoke to kids at lincoln high school, and if you haven't seen it, it's on youtube. it's about the african-american students at lincoln, asking them one day if they could be president. i encourage you to watch it and hear his response to them. which was to paraphrase, it's not whether or not you can be it, but if you believe you can, you believe what they've told you about yourself. so you've already lost. so with this resolution, as we consider renaming schools, i want us to tell something powerful to the students that continue to be marginalized in our community. we take one step forward in that direction if my colleagues support this and we pass it. thank you. >> thank you. commissioner sanchez. >> mr. sanchez: thank you, president. so, it is a long time in coming. and i apologize as well, this was never taken up on my first two terms in the board, 2001 to 2009. sometimes status quo gets in the way of progressive and that is one of those cases. i think commissioner haney was brave and bold, tweet

kennedy, james baldwin and our unfinied conversation about race in america.here tomorrow. our dad was in the hospital. because of smoking. but we still had to have a cigarette. had to. but then, we were like. what are we doing? the nicodermcq patch helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. nicodermcq. you know why, we know how. and with twice t f other s... ...it can show dad where he's from ...and strengthen the bonds you share. give dad ancestrydna for just $69- though rare, it can take your teen's life in just 24 hours. even if they had the first dose of mcv4 vaccine at 11 or 12 years, they need the second-dose at 16. call their doctor today. they need the second-dose at 16. albusiness but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... ? hocaare new virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... ike that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more busin

i want to read one quote. 55 years after jame baldwin met we're in dire need of more pro detecti duckativeemphasize productive conflict. how do i get to that? >> we've got to navigate past, the extremes on either side. there's not a false efif lensy between sides. there are racists and bigots on one side. >> he sees them equally. and i think that's a problem here. it's not on the other hand and on the one hand. if you are against big got tree and racism, you are by nature opposed to those who would compromise on that. it's just a microaggression. they are bite size bigotries that pollute the air for everybody. when bobby kennedy went into that meeting he thought they should be grateful for him and his brother. they lit him up. james bal james -- they said no. there was a young man there who was a freedom rider. we're tired of what you're doing. bobby kennedy got so mad, he went and allowed the fbi to sur veil most of the people. he got his brother to deliver a speech saying race is not simply a political problem. it's a moral problem and wednesday on for the rest of his life to commit hims

side of the black voice and he invited a group of black people to come visit him, lena horne, james baldwinnce jones w w dr. king's attorney to come and just have what he thought was a social chat. at the time a at the had a time tet-a-tet, and in the midst ofexchange, smith said i'm out of here and bobby was kind of why? what do you mean? and jerome smith said, you're asking us to give you some information that could be used against the best interests of our cause. i'm here to tell you that we cannot be won over that easily. what do you want of us we're not able to do, and what he meant by that was he thought bobby was looking for a way to get black voices to be more favorable to the kennedy point of on our issues than dr. king had implied. because jerome smith and what jerome felt, trk imploded. >> yeah. bobby was quite angry and he thought thatthers of us in the room in the mr. jerome smith's attack would be defensive of him, would come to his defense and we didn't. and he thought that that was a breach of iendship. d he threw usut -- he didn't throw us out. we left his home. after that,

if it is a good story and you've done it accurately, james baldwin wrote from this perspective.part of what i think is is appropriation. she said the proof is in the pudding and something later on about the vulnerability of the characters which i think all of us spoke to that and i would add as an answer to the question something i hear from my students, my female students mostly i did spend on before, what do i have to say. something that hasn't been said before like our men worried about thei their divorces or afs or baseball or whatever, writing things that all the stories we love our telling of the things we need to hear over and over again. there might be more attention on the women's stories or writers of color that writers of color is and telling their stories for a very long time there just hasn't been a microphone in front of them is [inaudible] but also to step out of the spotlight and i feel a little bit of that like i am a person that should step up and let other people step in and tell their story. i'm not going to give up but i do think about it when i got into a n

and he's gotten those guys reading james baldwin. your faith. you had your mom. >> yeah. >> talk about her and lester. >> lester. lester who -- >> both of whom had lots of grace. ther and father. my father lost his mind when i was about 4 years old. my mom did everything she could to make sure that we was brought up right. i often say that if i had one wish in this world, i would wish that every child could have a mother the way my mother were. i never went without food, i never went without clothes, i never went without food, all of the things a child needs. she gave me unconditional love. i was blessed to have lester bailey. when everyone turned their back on me, he there was for me. >> he's here today. we'll show lester in the green room. >> he would sit and never questioned my innocence or guilt because he knew who i was and how we been brought up. we always been friends since the ages of 4 and 6. often people say, well, you have a true friend that would come see you. and i often tell people, to be honest, he didn't have a lot of

he would go into a room and james baldwin, the black intellectual and get beat up.., met with seirhan sirh sirhan, the man accused of killing his father. he thinks there was a second gunman, not just sirhan sirhan. what do you make of that? >> he's the son and he has the right to figure that one out. i spent years writing these books. i wanted to focus on the life. people say to me, you brought that guy back alive for me. and you know how i did it? i closed my eye to the idea of how it ended. if i started with assassination, i couldn't have gotten anywhere. i had to start with these people and do what they did for this country. the peace corps, and the spacei breaking news: this is video from nbc bay area skyranger .. a >>> good morning. it's 8:26. breaking news to tell you about this morning. this is video from nbc bay area sky ranger, about a half hour ago. flying over a fire at an acura car dealership. on stevens creek boulevard, near lawrence expressway. the fire started in the service department before the doors opened this morning. you can see there are the fl

laugh and footnote and say thank you, maxine kingston and we must footnote and say thank you, james baldwin and all you people who are angry. we must acknowledge like i say we are all part of an ecosystem and some of us are freed up, really to be one way by people who are another way. host: gish jen, first of all where does your first income from because that's a birth name guest: i was born at lillian jen and that was actually a very elegant name i had been given by my mother because my chinese name sounds like lillian. also, they both have the same root. they both have literally as a root, so very elegant name. i was named for the lotus that grows out of the mud but opens up. as i opened up my mother was thinking this is not the pure white lily i had in mind trick on going along with this beautiful name, but when i was a junior in high school-- okay, i was a junior in high school and was part of a creative writing group, a little club. this was-- everyone got a nicknameib that was related to their name because we were inventing ourselves and going into new york city to watch cinema. and i

we must footnote and say thank you, all james baldwin, all you people who are angry. we must acknowledge that like a say we are all part of an ecosystem and some of us are freed of really to be one way by people who are another way. >> host: first of all where did your name come from? >> guest: i was born lillian jen, and that was actually a very elegant name that i've been given by my mother because my chinese name was -- [inaudible] it sounds like lillian. also they both have the same root. they both have lily as a root. so it's very elegant name. i was named for the lotus that grows up out of the mud but opens up. as it opened up my mother thinking this is not the pure white lily i had in mind. and so i'm going along with this really very beautiful name, but when i was a junior in high school, i went always, weight, okay. i was in junior high school and i was part of a creative writing group, a little club. this was run by a guy named -- [inaudible] everybody got a nickname that was related to the name. we were in this kind of come in defending ourselves, going int

senator from the great state of wisconsin, tammy baldwin is joining us tonight. [ cheers and applause ] and she's a jameseard award-winning chef and owner of "lilia" in brooklyn. here to cook up some delicious meatballs for us, chef missy robbins is here tonight. so -- [ cheers and applause ] before we get to that, president trump retreated to the safe space of a campaign rally last night as we learn more about the aftermath of his family separation policy. for more on this, it's time for "a closer look." ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> seth: republicans love to rail against the so-called "elites," despite the fact that their party controls all three branches of government. or the fact they are the party of the money class. or the fact that they elected a wealthy golf course owning new york real estate magnet turned tv celebrity as president. it's probably their most oft-repeated talking point. liberals drink lattes and drive priuses and republicans are hard-working, blue-collar, getter-doners. and yet, at a rally in minnesota yesterday, trump completely gave away the game when he bared his insecurities for

baldwin. thanks for being with me here. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. >>> thanks, brooke. the report comes out that says jamestimately help donald trump? "the lead" starts now. >>> it's out, the long-awaited report on the fbi's handling of the hillary clinton e-mail case blames now fired fbi director james comey, does it let president trump off the hook for firing him? >>> north korea basking in the propaganda. state media proudly showing president trump returning a salute from a north korean general as the president restorally defends one of the most oppress i leaders in the world. plus, suing the trumps, president trump unloading as the new york attorney general sues him and his grown children and tries to dismantl

baldwin. thanks for being with me here. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. >>> thanks, brooke. the report comes out that says james comey screwed up. but did the fbi ultimately help donald trump? "the lead" starts now. >>> it's out, the long-awaited report on the fbi's handling of the hillary clinton e-mail case blames now fired fbi director james comey, does it let president trump off the hook for firing him? >>> north korea basking in the propaganda. state media proudly showing president trump returning a salute from a north korean general as the president restorally defends one of the most oppress i leaders in the world. plus, suing the trumps, president trump unloading as the new york attorney general sues him and his grown children and tries to dismantle the trump foundation. >>> good afternoon, welcome to "the lead," i'm jake tapper. we begin with the highly anticipated report from the justice department's inspector general examining how top officials handled the investigation into hillary clinton's use of a private e-mail server. it just dropped like a bomb in the j. edgar hoover building, assailing the dec