Easing Racial Tensions In America
CLARISSA WARD, CNN INTERNATIONAL GUEST ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. Let's get a check of headlines this hour. Donald Trump is just hours away from announcing his vice presidential pick. We're already getting a good idea of who it may be. Sources say Indiana Governor Mike Pence appears set to get the nod. They say Trump has been moving closer to Pence and the governor has been told to prepare for his call. The Trump's campaign said a short time ago that no final decision has yet been made. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Moscow seeking greater cooperation with Russia on the Syrian peace process. And there is a potential deal in the works involving joint air strikes against ISIS and the Al-Nusra front. But Defense Secretary Ash Carter is expressing skepticism. It's been another busy day of political comings and goings in the United Kingdom as new Prime Minister Theresa May shakes up the conservative government. One of the major casualties is lead Brexiteer, Michael Gove, who has just been removed as the justice secretary. Investigators in Southern Italy are still trying to figure out what caused a deadly train crash earlier this week. Two train collided head-on on Tuesday, killing at least 23 people and human error may be to blame. Will Ripley reports from the village of Andria.</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police are closely keeping watch over the scene of this horrific crash at this olive grove in Southern Italy, where a mangled pile of metal and a few partially intact train cars are all that remain of this really awful accident that took 23 lives. However the investigation is now shifting from the scene here to a multiple manslaughter investigation. We are told there is a team of five magistrates who are on the case. So far they have announced that three people are officially under investigation. These are workers at two local train stations, Corato and Andria. They are suspended, which is standard procedure as officials look into whether it was human error or a technical problem that led to this crash. Horrible stories coming out. A mother who was found holding her young child, both of them died. But also stories of hope, a 6-year-old boy, Samuelle (ph), who is still in hospital with his family. He was traveling with his grandparents. They didn't make it, he did. He celebrated his birthday in his hospital bed, still unaware, we're told, that his grandparents died. There were four crew members, two on each train. Three of them were killed, one did survive. Police say at some point they do expect to talk to that person. Meanwhile, a huge show of support from the community, which has overwhelmed blood donation centers to try to help the 50 people who were injured, eight of them still in serious condition, we're told. But also from as high up as the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, who along with many others is expressing his condolences as these families prepare to bury the dead, funerals beginning on Saturday. Will Ripley, CNN, Andria, Italy.</s>WARD: His death was streamed live on Facebook by his fiance after he was shot repeatedly by a police officer during a traffic stop. Today, Philando Castile is being laid to rest. His mother urged mourners to pray for peace. The shocking images of the 32-year-old's death spurred nationwide protests across the United States. Mourners also gathered in Dallas for the funeral of Police Sergeant Michael J. Smith. He was one of five officers killed by a sniper last Thursday. They were working to protect a peaceful protest against police violence when they were attacked. Racial tensions in the United States are nothing new. But concerns over police violence and profiling have flared in recent years. CNN brought together people on all sides of the debate for a moving, honest conversation, police officers, victims' families, and mothers who fear for their children's safety. Here is CNN's Poppy Harlow.</s>CARLOS ZAMARRIPA, BROTHER OF SLAIN DALLAS OFFICER: He would want peace. He would want good to come out of all of this.</s>POPPLY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two families impacted by last week's violence, coming together. Stressing the need for unity.</s>ENRIQUE ZAMARRIPA, FATHER OF SLAIN DALLAS OFFICER: This has to stop. By taking another person's life won't make the person come back.</s>QUINYETTA MCMILLON, MOTHER OF ALTON STERLING'S SON: Violence to violence will never be the answer to nothing. And I think we all come together to say that we want peace. We want peace for both families.</s>HARLOW: Activists and law enforcement all joining a candid conversation about whether policing in America is inherently biased against blacks.</s>K.L. WILLIAMS, KINLOCH, MISSOURI POLICE CHIEF: I have spoken to police officers who have told me that they believe that black people are genetically predisposed to be criminals and it is their obligation to control these people by whatever means are necessary.</s>GARRY MCCARTHY, FORMER SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: The history of African-Americans in this country started with slavery then it moved to black codes, to segregation. Who was it who was enforcing those racist policies? It was the white police officer. So that narrative exists in the community based on the history and it's factual.</s>HARLOW: Questions over how to comply with police dominating the CNN town hall. Many fearful and distrusting.</s>MONITA BANDELE, SENIOR CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR, MOMSRISING.ORG: Instructing our young people day in and day out that there's something in their behavior that brings on the abuse is tantamount to telling women that there's something that we do that causes street harassment and rape. We have to change the culture.</s>MARK O'MARA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: We should not have a racial divide in this country anymore but we do. So I say to him, you do put your hands on the wheel. You do be careful and maybe you do still have to be extra careful because you're black.</s>CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Can we just take a moment as America and register how profound and immoral it is to say, this is the only thing that will keep you safe, is that if you pack this toolbox and take it with you everywhere you go, and it's not how everybody has to behave. But it's how you have to behave, because of you who are, and the do not see you as the person that I love but as the person they should fear.</s>HARLOW: A heart wrenching moment as one mother shares her fear for her son.</s>SHARAY SANTORA, HAIRSTYLIST: Every moment he's not with me, I fear for his life. I keep hearing you tell me to tell my son what to do. My 14-year- old is sitting right there. You tell him he needs to be more respectful. You tell him he needs to be more compliant to your rules and your laws because I've told him, and obviously it doesn't matter, because you're telling me I'm not telling him enough.</s>HARLOW: Then this officer comforts her.</s>DIMITRI ROBERTS, FORMER CHICAGO POLICE OFFICER: I'm sorry that we have not fulfilled our civil duty and our responsibility to you and this community and your children. And I'm sorry, and I just want to take a moment and say to you, I'm sorry.</s>WARD: That was Poppy Harlow. Racial tensions can sometimes seem to be America's oldest and most entrenched national challenge. So what can be done? Let's bring in Dr. Cornell West, he is a professor at the Union Theological Seminary and a Princeton University professor. He's also a prominent author. I would love to start by asking you, you've been quite critical in an op-ed piece today for Britain's "The Guardian" newspaper about President Obama's handling of this crisis. Where do you think he has got it wrong?</s>CORNELL WEST, PROFESSOR, UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY: Well, I think you cannot avoid the vicious legacy of white supremacy and the shaping of the American empire and the shaping of the American experiment and democracy. So that unfortunately he's rarely wanted to take it head on. He only hits it when he's cornered and he gives a fine speech, his pretty words. But you have to be able to look the problem in the face, the tradition in the face, and say, OK, in regard to police, you are going to make sure black life has the same value as any other life, which means police will be accountable. There will be civilian boards. When police commit murder, they'll go to jail. Zero police go to jail. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of black people who are shot. So it's very clear that you make it a priority that the issue of justice, not black people are some interest group, black people are some constituency. I'm the president of all America, no. Are you concerned with justice? That's what we've been calling for. That's what the legacy of Martin Luther King and Fannie Lou Hammer was all about. I want all elites no matter what color to be accountable in regard to justice for the least of these, which begins with black and indigenous peoples, poor whites, brown and so forth.</s>WARD: But what do you think needs to happen? I understand exactly what you're saying in terms of calling for justice and calling for accountability. But some of these wounds really appear to be deeper than that. Do you think there's a sense that America needs to go through some deeper healing beyond just making sure that these policemen go to jail? I mean, is it as simple as that that you send them to jail and everybody will kiss and make up and skip into the sunset?</s>WEST: No, no. I'm not saying that police accountability means that you have a kumbaya. I'm saying that sends the message that the lives of black people have value. Now, unfortunately the American empire living in the moment spurs to decline in culture decay so you got agreed and indifference that are in the driver's seat, especially corporate greed, indifference toward the plight of poor people no matter what color. But the joy of the present moment is, there is a moral and spiritual awakening. Because what you're pointing to, I think rightly so, is a moral and spiritual issue. Young people of all colors are part of the black lives movement. Young people of all colors are fundamentally concerned about the greed and indifference. It's not just in the United States. It could be precious Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. It could be Jews being mistreated in France. It could be (inaudible) people in India. This is an international movement that's the kind of democratic awakening concerned about those who are suffering. But it's unfortunately it tends to be too much a matter of the younger generation. Those of who of us who are older need to get in on this revival because the elites at the top, be they Donald Trump, neo-fascist catastrophe in the making, Hillary Clinton, neo-liberal disaster in the making, elites at the top are out of touch.</s>WARD: They may be out of touch, but I just want to ask you, there are vast swaths of Americans who feel that Black Lives Matter is a racist group, that it's problematic for a number of reasons. How do you reach out to them, how do you persuade them?</s>WEST: The Giulianis and others in the world who say Black Lives Matter is inherently racist are simple reinforcing the same kind of indifference towards the lives of black people. They're saying, in fact, when they say all lives matter, in the past they rarely acknowledged that black lives matter. That's why "all lives matter" rings shallow and hollow. We know all lives certainly ought to matter. This is the legacy of Martin Luther King again. But of course, Martin Luther King, would have been the first one to say, in the history of America, slavery, Jim Crow Jr., Jim Crow Sr., lynching, black lives have rarely mattered in the same way that white lives matter. So when you say it's inherently racist, it's just another mode of avoidance, another mode of denial, but unfortunately, we have black leaders, black politicians, neo-liberal ones, from the White House across the board, that use lip service that don't follow through on the ground in terms me of letting folk know that black lives matter. That's one of the reasons why he can fly over Baton Rouge and go to Dallas. Baton Rouge, you had black folks suffering. In Dallas you had police families suffering. All of those individuals precious. But it was clear where the priority was. That's what many of us are tired of. That's why we continue to try to speak the truth and bear witness. That's why we're going to stay in the streets and continue to go to jail. That's our tradition. That's what the love supreme of John Coltrane is all about, to make sure you make justice real for the least of these, the wretched of the earth.</s>WARD: That's what I wanted to ask you. Where does the Black Lives Matter movement go from here? It has to many people been tarnished by the Dallas shootings, how does it move forward in a productive way? How can America start to move forward?</s>WEST: Well, I think I can't speak for the larger Black Lives Matter movement, I'm just a small part of it. But we keep the love at the center of justice, what love looks like in public. We keep the justice at the center of it. We sympathize genuinely with the lives of any innocent people, police or whatever. But we also acknowledge that loving black people is something we are not ashamed of and it is nonnegotiable. That's where the Black Lives movement for me continues to go. But that's what the struggle for black freedom has always been, my dear sister, going all the way back to Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Martin King, Fannie Lou. We've always said our movement is tarnished by various acts of various people. But we continue because we are committed to something that is grand, something that is transcendent, something that stays in contact with the humanity of everybody, in every corner of this globe. That's why it's a beautiful thing to be in a struggle for justice, even in these sad moments in the American empire.</s>WARD: OK. Keep the love at the center. We'll certainly remember that. Thank you so much, Dr. Cornell West. We want to take you now back to Annandale, Virginia. As we mentioned, Hillary Clinton is holding a campaign rally there. A potential vice presidential pick, Tom Kaine, is joining her, the state's governor. Analysts consider him to be a safe VP option. We'll continue to monitor this. For now, a short break. We'll be right back.