Gun violence spreads fear and Death Threats over easter. Us. Does a new Supreme Court ruling mean the end of affirmative action. Crushing numbers for the middle class has the u. S. Trailing other nations. Shakespeare turns 450 on wednesday how Many Americans owe their names to birthday. Im antonio mora. Welcome to consider this, here is more of what is ahead. Stop the killing. Chicago. Gunshots. Related. Why shoot enjoyment children. It certainly is a wake up call that we have a lot of work to do. The american middle class is no longer the richest. The game is rigged to work power. We need an economy where it grows from the middle class out, chance. President obama leaves for a weeklong trip to asia. We believe prosperity in asia is tied to the growth in this region. That many are concerned the United States will not be there when the United States knocks on the door. China is the elephant in the room on this trip. We begin with an explosion of violence in chicago. Nine killed and 36 others, including children shot and wounded over the weekend. Five of the injured were between the ages of 11 and 15, playing in a park next to an elementary school. The weekend before easter 37 people were shot, four fatally. The Chicago TribuneEditorial Board on tuesday arrived if chicago was helpless. The department of justice moved to create a special federal unit devoted to kerb the gun problem giving the city an unwelcome main, chiraq. Mayor rahm emanuel was visibly shaken by the shootings. I made decisions in the mayors office. There is nothing harder to do than to reach out and put your arms around a mother mother and a father who have lost a child to senseless violence. People are immune to the sound of gunfire. This is at home. These streets dont belong to the gang bangers. They are our streets. For more, we are joined by the reverend reverend jesse jackson, founder and president of the chicago based rain bow Push Coalition and a longtime chicago resident. Good of you to join us. The shootings over the weekend horrific. They brought the number of whom sides to 90. Two less than during the same period last year, to the shooting, bullets in the past of the kids are traumatised. Chicago has been the murder capital of the u. S. This . Its a painful state of an underclass state of emergency. Theres three chicago, theres inglewood, and there is austin, lan dame, rowsland unemployment is around 4 . Unemployment in chicago around 4 . Theres chicago land, with jobs on signs. Three chicagos, all of this where you have cut schools and schools, trauma units, jobs and post offices. Its a lands of desperation. Drugs are coming in, guns are coming in and guns out. Theres poverty and disparity. The disparity is dramatic, between. 3500 blacks die, 3500 lack of access to health care. There are health disparities, education disparities, and there is no solution. We have 10,000 long black use with the cost of 50,000, some have been there six months to six years in pretrial detention. Each. S theres no lockup solution to the crisis. The difference is so dramatic, that you have within a matter of a few blocks, you go from a dangerous part of the United States to the safest. Look at first class gaols and secondclass schools. Look at the suburbs down state. We know where the guns and drugs are manufactured. We know a store that cells 7 . We know where the gun shop is. We will not stop the gun flow. We know where the drugs are coming from. There are no gun shops in chicago. Guns in, and drugs in, and jobs out. Unless we look at it comprehensively as well as targeted employment and job training, well miss the mark. These shootings happened, despite the crackdowns and strategies and the most violence prone areas. Do you think the unit will change anything . Most of this is taking place in the area where president obama was an organiser. One other place would be a reconstruction plan right there given all the numbers and lots that you have begin to rebuild and have people put to work building houses. Its an area where the businesses close. The Congress Starts economic investment. They go it 11 down. What would be a better place in the zones of crisis to invest to invest in job opportunity, and some youth have been in gaol for so long reasoning should be trained and monitored, not just turning criminals. And do you worried without investment and jobs, that the cold winter may have kept the violence down and now the nicer weather came out, now maybe the weather is nicer, there has been violence. Mayor rahm emanuel questioned that saying its not the weather, weather you have values. And the Chicago Tribune agreed, asking on the editorial page is chicago repless. We are seeing a superficial article featuring the mayor, police chief, a romantizizing of chicago, ignoring poverty and disparity. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction, reducing life options, undermining a will to fund education, weakens the body and mind. It matters. Unemployment matters. Lack of access to jobs and training matters. Schools and hospitals and trauma units, and post offices all of this matters. Unless there is some welfare l. B. J. Reviving poverty. That its the cause, not just of the effect. Its horrible, horrible with us, chicago, its the fear for the International Drug trade war. The guns are targetting chicago, and jobs leaving chicago in those zones, we know where they are coming from and the gun, and we know where they are going to, we need the will to fight the fight. The number of killings reportedly dropped to 415. That was according to the statistics out of the police department. They have come under scrutiny. Theres allegations, investigative reports in the chicago magazine. Books are being cooked. Do you think the problem is getting worse or better. Those problems give us a falls sense of hope. You go to the community. Abandon lots and vacant houses where the base bailed out, not linked. City bake, a meeting in st. Louis, they are in six or seven billion bailout. Who could not be reinstructed with a bill and say they paid it back. You take the interest of that kind of lone. You can rebuild and make the one . 1 justice and opportunities. But for the 99 we build more and more gaols bearing the youth young and younger. Hope is about despair is about the hope. It must not be allowed to have this. I hope the president and the tenacity, necessity, coming to that zone, to prove that we can together do something and we can, i believe we can. We cant do it in passing, we need to invest time and money. Given the level of violence in chicago for many years, theres little doubt that there is a state of emergency, reverend jesse jackson, a pleasure to have you on the show tonight. Thank you. Thank you sir. Switching topics to tuesdays Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action. The court ruled 62 to uphold michigans voter supporter band to use racial preferences to help determine admissions to staterun universities. Justice elena kagan reduced hers. Kentucky, writing for the majority said the debate was about who kepd writing for the major di said the debate was over who could control it. Jami floyd joins us. What does this mean. In 2003 the Supreme Court said that michigan law schools could, in fact, use affirmative action as part of their decisionmaking process as to who they admit. For the state of michigan they vote to amend the constitution. Decision. You cant use affirmative action as part of the admissions process. This ruling basically says yes, a state can vote not to use affirmative action. This goes all the way before. This is what we are talking about, a legacy of tension. In education. And other areas of life. Tension in race and education. Interpretation in racial poverty making. Thats what Justice Abdulla sodig said. Well get to that. Yes, well get to that. It this affirmative action or something else. One of our sweets, something that follows us, you and i were tweeting about the fact that wed do this, a follower wrote in this is not an affirmative action, its a political process case recording the topic of affirmative action. Thats what the major city said. Justice Anthony Kennedy says in the majority the case is not about how to debate racial preferences should be resolved, but who resolves it. The majority wants to say this is not about affirmative action or racial preference, its about whether voters can decide in their state and there are seven states that have done so whether or not affirmative action should be rolled back or done away with. In anna cavell you know it began with prop 209. Now we are in michigan, and a number of states are going in this direction, and justice Anthony Kennedy with the majority says they can do it. Seven states, including californias no affirmative action. Is it a statesrights issue, that states can decide, voters can decide what the Supreme Court is saying, Voters Decide what we go in our state. Justice Carl Soderberg says not. Here she says Sonia Sotomayor says no, we are talking about bigger issues, we are talking about equal protection of the laws, the fundamental rights that a democracy provides for all citizens, and we are not at the point where we leave minorities who are oppressed alone to fend for themselves. The affirmative action debate evolved since john roberts got to the court. Pt chief justice direction which issues will come before the court and justice Sonia Sotomayor, and chief Justice John Roberts tangle about whether we should be ready for the colour Blind Society or there. She wrote a 58 page dissent and read it from the bench. An unusual mood. Anthony kennedy read his. She said specifically that it evis rated an important strand of laws, voting against affirmative action mich knan voters changed basic rules of process in a move that disadvantaged racial minorities. In effect, does the decision says that minorities can target minorities if they vote in favour of a measure that might harm minorities. Justice kennedy and the chief that joined the opinion say we are not saying that we approve the rol back of affirmative action, we are saying the dialogue about race can happen in the political process. She is saying that is not good enough, spif. And its interesting the viewers should know we are reading a lot of language, because its important language coming from the Supreme Court. And a detailed line. Misquote. Choouz roberts wrote in a 2007 opinion on affirmative action, the way to stop discrimination is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. Eloquent and idealistic notions of what he believes we become as a society, that we dont need affirmative action. Simplistic. You probably have the same language, because we are two lawyers. She said do you want me to do it or you do it, we can argue it out. The way to stop discrimination, she almost mockingly writes is to speak openly and capped didly on the subject of race and says lets use the constitution to do that. They are coming from differentize places and so are we as a country. He came back criticising her saying it does more harm than good to openly question the candidacy of the Supreme Court. Thats right. Judicial comedy. I think that he has a point that we should assume pure motives on the part of every justice on the u. S. Supreme court, and i think she does much when they get back and our colleague wrote about whats behind the scenes of the Supreme Court, and i condemn his book the nine, i think when they get back they are col eejal. The power of lapping whim on the u. S. Supreme court is undisputed. I encourage people to read part of these opinions. A final question is this ruling consistent with higher rulings in the Supreme Court that seem to say no, you cant vote in a way that targets minorities even if it is a state right. Affirmative action is well targeted. Even a decision which is a rollback is reestablished that affirmative action is legal and constitutional. Just saying that quotas were not. Chief Justice Roberts focuses on stigma. It is believed that stigma may be worth it for some who can avail themselves of the programme. I dont think any of the justices, even those in the majority said that affirm tv action is unconstitutional. The question is whether theyll chip away at the wellestablished principal, to undermine it as feels. A judge joined the justice. On a narrow ground. Its an important decision, good to see you. Coming up, is the wealth of americas middle class falling behind other countries. What message is he sending. Join the conversation on twitter as america strives for energy independence. We cant do it on just solar panels or some wind turbines. We look to alternatives you are sitting on top of a time bomb and the familiar. Its amazing what oil can do for ya. Black gold and what are the human costs of the new energy boom . Lots of men, and lots of money, your going to find prostitution people are just dropping like flies. Were paid with our lives. Dirty power an america tonight special series only on Al Jazeera America americas middle class, once the envy of others, is no longer. An analysis in the 1960, found if you were poor in the urks you were worse off than counterparts in europe and canada, a reversal from 35 years ago. Thats despite the fact that Economic Growth in the u. S. Is equal to or stronger than growth in other countries. Those gains have gone almost exclusively to wealthy americans with less trickling to the middle class. How did we lose the richest middle class title to canada. We are joined by branko milanovic, a senior scholar with the luxembourg study center and a visiting professor. He served as the lead economist at the wank world bang and the author of good to have you with us. Thank you for having me. The new york times, and the Luxembourg Income study center looked at the numbers. The conventional wisdom is the poor are getting poorer. When the poor in this country are compared to the poor in industrialized countries its the case, and also is the case for the lower middle class. The middle american, the median american income, that that canadians. Thats the point of the study. You know, its basically inequality has now really started hurting even the middle class. Its a big story. We knew that the american poor have been actually basically stagnant for a long time. And falling behind the poor in other rich countries. That gradually has gone up towards the lower middle class, but for the first time, to some extent we have the data going back to the 1970s. You can probably extrapolate in the past. For the first time, maybe in 50, 80, 100 years that the middle class americaners not the top. This happened after 2000 or so, because american incomes had kept growing by 20 sips 1980. The year 2000 came along, incomes stagnated from the middle down, and thats why its really happened. Other countrys wealth in those income categories went up. Its a longer process. It started in the 1980s. Obviously it accelerated in 2000s and more with a crisis. Its not something that happened overnight. Many people knew that for a while. It is that ipp equality was ipp equality was not a topic. People did not talk about that. The middle class did well and borrowed a lot. All the combination of developments made things more visible. Why is it happening. It has happened for many reasons. I go over some of the conventional. One is that u. S. Slipped in achievement. The other one is that the effects of globalisation and openness and outsourcing have been a little stronger in the u. S. , in the hollowing out of the middle. On the education front. Theres a difference between Older Americans being better educated than counterparts, but americans. Thats a striking finding. Its the case, over 50 or 80 years, that the americans had a High Percentage of people as College Graduates and enrollment at universities, and having younger americans falling behind counterparts and being on the level with italy and spain, which is not normally the level that americans aspire to, is a shock. This is not the process starting five or 10 years ago. Its something that if you look behind. Could any of this be that the dollar is not as strong as in the old days, and the currency differences are part of the problem . No, in this study, what we do, we do the study, and you make comparisons where you take groups much people, and adjust for the cost of the basket, which they use. Cost of living. You adjust for cost of living. Thats why norway, which is expensive, if you compare their number, in normal dollars, they will be greater. Because the cost of living is high, they get incomes that are reduced by 30 . On the other harningsd the spaniards hand the spaniards and italians get a boost. One of the things that the article in the times mentions, its not a question of salaries, buts people in European Countries have benefits. People in the lower middle class and poor get more from the government in the way benefits monitor. The advantage of this study, these are the data. The is not only wages. The dominant part of the income. Its income from capital which is strong for the rich people, but also from social, selfemployment, unemployment benefits. Social security, all of the things. You are not counting five weeks of vacation and other social services that others provide. No. That makes the u. S. Comparison worse, because the one thing we cannot include is how many hours you working or if you get stateprovided health care. Its complicated. If we include that. That makes the u. S. , you know, fall behind further. What do they need to do. Its a big question. Therell be a change. Political change would essentially respond to the awareness of people in the middle class. In other words we should not look calmly, which is is g. D. P. Growing. We should look how is the average person, in our jarring job, the median, average guide. He may be doing significantly w