President Obama Says Racism Issue Is Progressing
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Here we go. You're watching CNN. Bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. And you know what? Black lives matter. Black lives matter, if you've been watching this rallying cry that's been constant in the protests rocking the nation after the non-indictments in the Michael brown death and Eric Garner's case here in New York. But while these protesters are making the case against what they call blatant racism of law enforcement, we heard the chants last week. President Obama is arguing that progress has in fact been made. I want you to listen to part of his interview with BTV.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As painful as these incidents are, we can't equate to what's happening now to what was happening 50 years ago. And if you talk to your parents, grandparents, uncles they will tell you that things are better, not good in some cases but better. When you're dealing with something as deeply rooted as racism or bias in any society, you got to have vigilance but recognize it will take some time and you just have to be steady so that you don't give up when we don't get all the way there.</s>BALDWIN: Words from the president there. Joining me now on set here in New York, Patricia Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, co-founders of Black Lives Matter, an organization founded in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. So ladies, thank you so much for taking the time. I know you're semi fresh off airplane. And so many people here, really, joining, not the moment, the movement here in New York and really beyond. So my first question to both of you is you just heard the president, he said as far as race relations go not good but better. Do you agree with the president?</s>ALICIA GARZA, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK LIVES MATTER: Well, I think the real question is what do we need to do to push it farther? So what we're seeing across the country in every state across the country are protests and uprisings that are in response to the continuation of racism in our society. We're seeing people going out into the streets all over the world to say maybe we've made some progress but we still have a lot more to do.</s>BALDWIN: But I think it's a fair question too and I really want to push you more on specifics on house resolutions. But in your lifetime, at least, do you sense an improvement?</s>GARZA: Well, what we're seeing according to the Malcolm X grassroots movement is that every 28 hours in this country a black person is murdered by vigilantes or police. So that is way it's a hard question to answer because for folks who are living that reality, it's not actually the question. The question is what do we need to do in order to change our conditions? And we need bold quick action. And I think many people around the country and around the world are looking to the United States and looking to what's happening here in New York and in Oakland to make sure that we push this fight even further.</s>BALDWIN: Patrisse, may I hear your voice?</s>PATRISSE CULLORS, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK LIVES MATTER: I would also say that the generation that's saying that things have changed, yes things have changed for their generation. But there's a whole new generation that's suffering at the hands of law enforcement. There's a whole new generation of black people. There are 2.3 million people in prison, one million of them are black. There is a whole new generation of issues that plague black America and I think the real question is ask the people on the ground. Do you think things have changed? And for us, things haven't necessarily changed. If you go into poor black ghettos, folks are hungry still. Folks -- the unemployment rate for black folks is high. That's an issue. That's a huge issue and I think the question for President Obama is, are you going to look at this generation's issues and really deal with them?</s>BALDWIN: We're talking specifically about African-Americans but there are two different interviews that made news. Eric garner's daughter and then Eric Garner's widow, they both agree that this wasn't about race. Love your perspective on that. This was the widow.</s>ESAW GARNER, ERIC GARNER'S WIFE: I really don't feel like it's a black and white thing. I feel it's just something that he continued to do and the police knew, you know, they knew.</s>BALDWIN: I mean that's pretty huge to hear from the heart of the matter. I mean, this is Eric Garner, the man who was taken down in Staten Island in July, you know, the police officer was not indicted, so here is his own wife, now widow, saying this isn't black and white. In other people I've talked to say it is about police brutality, about abuse of power and it is also about socio-economics. You would hear also people arguing in a poor white community saying Appalachia. They were be this similar sense of fight against police. Do you agree with that?</s>GARZA: Well first I think it's important to send our condolences to the garner family. There's a lot they are going through. And it must be an intense moment to see people all over the world standing up and fighting in your husband's or in your son's name. One thing I think is important for us to consider is that we're as a country still trying to grapple with what does racism look like. And a lot of times what we think is that racism is about people being mean to each other. We try to bring up examples of places where there's not patterns but the reality is that most folks, right, would agree that there's a pattern of police abuse and police violence against black communities. And so, whether or not that particular officer was motivated by that is a hard question to answer but what the statistics and the data tell us again is that every 28 hours in this country a black person is murdered by police or vigilantes.</s>BALDWIN: So final question just to take this full circle on your point about solutions and protests and I was in the thick of it on Thursday, stopping traffic. I know people want the world to stop and say what's going on, what's one solution, one solution. Tangible specific would you want?</s>CULLORS: I think the main thing that we want is a redistribution of funding into poorer black communities in particular that are really burdened by police violence. So we have police departments that are funneled with hundreds of millions of dollars. That money can be totally reallocated to communities to give them jobs, to give them housing, to give them access to healthy food. And so, that's a really clear demand that can happen locally and happen federally.</s>BALDWIN: OK.</s>GARZA: Another key solution is tying funding to police departments to performance. We have data that folks are collecting all over the country. And what we are seeing is that in places where there's patterns there's still a healthy amount of federal funding that they are receiving. And so, what we would be saying is, actually, you need to show us your decreasing your racial disparities in order to receive federal funding.</s>BALDWIN: Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, thank you both very much, co-founders of #blacklivesmatter. We will keep the conversations going and the solution and hopefully find the success for all these different communities. Thank you ladies very much. I appreciate both of you.</s>GARZA: Thank you.</s>CULLORS: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Just ahead here, the duke and duchess of Cambridge don't have a lot of down time on their visit to the United States. While William was at the White House, Catherine had her own engagement in Harlem. What's next for the world couple, apparently involves a basketball game this evening. We will talk about that. Plus, Bill Cosby was once America's most beloved comedian. And now, he is facing accusation after accusation and under intense suspicion. Will he address all these women coming forward? We'll talk to Don't Lemon next.