we will speak with michelle alexander, author of "the new jim crow." >> the appearance of racial equality that barack obama election has afforded, serves to deeply disturbing, underlying racial reality, which is that large segments, a majority of african-american men in some urban areas are either under the control of the criminal justice system are branded felons for life, blocked in a permanent second-class status. >> and what happened at trayvon martin, and the like a punishment faced by his killer, is not unique area did we will look at a report by the malcolm x grassroots movement that found at least 100 36 unarmed african americans were killed by police and security over the course of 2012. go to california were prisoners have entered the 10th day of a hunger strike calling for better conditions -- many of them held in solitary confinement for over a decade. today, july 16, 2013, 2493 inmates in 15 state prisons are participating in a mass hunger strike. 201 inmates in seven state prisons refuse to go to work today. >> all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democrac

. >>> joining me now, civil rights attorney michelle alexander, school of law at ohio state universityauthor of the book "the new jim crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness." michelle, you and i have spoken before and your book transformed the way i think about race and criminal justice. do you see an opening right now in the very rare public conversation we're having about race and criminal justice to really get at the root of the problem here? >> well, i'm hopeful in part because of groups like the dream defenders, which have so inspired me in the past week. you know, i think, you know, immediately following the verdict, there was great reason to be discouraged. there seemed to be a media circus and a lot of punditry. >> i hate that. >> but it wasn't clear a meaningful movement might emerge. what we see with the dream defenders is young people standing up, standing there ground courageously and nonviolently, taking matters in their own hand, not trusting that politicians who have done so little in the past decades to stand up for the rights of black and brown men, in p

>> cenk: michael michelle alexander says that in inner cities 80% of african-american men wind up in prison system, a stunning fact. but the assumptions that we've been talking about, jayar mentioned throughout the show, michael bloomberg said of course i stop and frisk blacks and latinos, they're the ones who commit crimes. i couldn't believe he said that on a show. but maybe you arrest blacks and latinos because you assume they're going to commit crime. blacks in this country smoke marijuana at the same exact rate as whites, but they get arrested for it at four times higher rate and in some cities eight times the higher rate. >> of course it's in the perception. it's having to have martyrs like trayvon martin unfortunately like oscar grant going back to 2008, like emmett till and you think that's going to change things. it did change things in the 50's, but i don't see it changing things as much now. when an immigrant in new york was killed in a horrible way, he was shot up--somebody else was shot up, but abused by the police, and i thought that would change the way we talk about i

michelle alexander, for example, wrote a piece in "time" magazine all about the terrible injustices ofan/martin trial. well, she was just too busy to speak with us. brother cornell west very outspoken in the civil rights area too busy to talk with us. congressman clark from brooklyn said quote the lives of black men and women are not a quarter the same value of the lives of white americans. she couldn't make time for the factor. martin luther king iii simply wouldn't respond to us. jesse jackson appeared on a number of programs but couldn't make time for the factor. finally, congressman charles rangle, well, he didn't respond at all. i thought that was pretty strange because on the night the zimmerman verdict came in i spoke with mr. rangel personally and he assured me he wanted to come on the program, but then he ran. so it's clear that people pushing racial injustice, that they believed happened in the zimmerman trial, they don't really want to talk about complicated racial problems in general. what the grievance industry does want is to divide the country along racial lines because

there's no confronting what michelle alexander called the new jim crow, a mass incarceration. there's no confronting the condemnation of blackness and how that is connected to why black people are treated and dehumanized in the criminal justice system. the reason trayvon martin goes from victim to criminal is because of a cultural racism that infects the united states. i'll say that the contradictions we're talking about up here are not contradictions. they're part and parcel of race and democracy in america. what dr. king and malcolm x and -- 49 years ago, fanny lou hamer said is this america before the credentials committee at the convention. 44 years old from louisville, mississippi, being beaten for voting rights. the said, is this america? lyndon johnson organized the press conference to take her off of national television because he said, who is that exposing the lack of democracy in the united states? so the contradictions that we're saying that you can have a black president of the united states, and you can have 841,000 black males in jail, that's not a contradiction.

michelle alexander has this incredible book called the new jim crow which gives you a essential of howminal justice system operates as a new jim crow system. we need everybody to read that book and continue to support ground troop like the dream defenders. >> the young people are the key, are not they in. >> they are. in every movement, it was all about young people pushing change. >> all right. our second topic, in light of last month's supreme court decisions. striking down a key provision of the voting rights act. attorney general eric holer is taking texas to court. >> based on the evidence of intentional racial discrimination that was presented just last year in the recase of texas v. holder as well as the history of pervasive voting-related discrimination against racial minorities, that the supreme court itself has recognized, we believe that the state of texas should be required to go through a preclearance process whenever it changes its voting laws and practices. this is the department's first action. to protect voting rights, following the shelby county decision. but it will

michelle alexander has written the key book on that the studies are there over and over again. there's no question about it. >> how do you change it? you were talking about that. and i think it is very important to point out. not only is it disproportionate in the number who are charged. in the number who died. but in the number you go into any prison across this united states and you look at the conviction rate against african-americans versus other defendants in the disparity is shocking. >> i think you change it by challenging those state laws. you challenge with outside government and what you have to put on state legislatures. i think this verdict will energize that movement to do that. that's exactly what happen in the civil rights movement in the '60s. it was out of atrocities like someone mentioned to be. that energized the march on washington. so i think what they've done is won a battle but will lose the war. because people are going to say, wait a minute. this started when the local police made a unilateral decision that even the florida state prosecutor didn't agree

itself we want to do that but it is agreed that the war on drugs is a war on us and certainly michelle alexander's book the new jim crow demonstrates that if we have to be opposed to it and find safe humane unjust alternatives like that if i have the head of absa got it dr di daniels and and and thank you for that i'm curious how your. boycott of florida is this just of airing and economic effort with regard to florida the trayvon trayvon martin or they george zimmerman verdict i guess tell us about that we have about a minute and a half left here tell us about that and what you hope to accomplish and how it's going to work what is tremendous anger and outrage all across the country to the point is the anger and outrage has to have a focus and that focus is seems to me and to us is two things number one in florida and indeed across the country those who are angry need to register and vote we can change the complection potentially of the legislator in florida because my estimate is probably twenty twenty five years. black people particularly young people in florida are not registered or do not vote

alexander louis of cambridge. this morning he's with his parents in his mother's hometown of buckleberry. nbc's michelle kosinski, good morning to you. >> hi, savannah. you know what, it only took a week to name prince phillip, a month to name prince charles, but two days to name baby prince george. that was the odds-on favorite here in england with history, of course, behind each of his names. ♪ 400-year-old bells rang out with the little prince, formerly known as baby cambridge, now his royal highness george alexander louis. >> we know that the subject that you're ringing for, or actually we're his subjects. he's actually going to be within earshot, hopefully asleep, and i hope we won't wake him up. >> george comes from a long lines of british kings george. likely in several decades, he could be king george vii. george vi was a queen's father, well-known now from "the king's speech." his father was the imposing george v. george iii lost the american colonies and lost his mental capacity as he aged. alexander might come from alexandra, one of the queen's names. louis is one of william's. the world erup