Word. Whoologize for those folks wrote good questions on cards but we didnt have time to get to. But i would ask one final time for you to fill out the blue evaluation forms if you havent already. I would also like to thank eric colleagues to thank our helping to ar great extent shape this program and put it together with an excellent panel. And i would like you to help me think that panel for what i bet is not the last time we address this question. It is certainly one of the most and lighting discussions we had on exchanges. Inc. You. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] if you missed any of this exchange, you can find the video in our library at cspan. Org. Sending hisama is president obama is signing the Student Lending bill. The president this afternoon will be holding a News Conference beginning at 3 p. M. Eastern. A number of topics to be addressed come including u. S. Russia relations and also the white house or the associate reporting that the president is meeting with apple theat t about concerns with government sweeping surveillance service. John kerry and chuck hagel have been meeting with their counterparts at the state department today. At the beginning of that meeting, secretary kerry noted that the relations between the two countries is important and what they shared, but they also have different interests. Ears a little bit of what he had to say. Here is aationship little bit of what he had to say. The relationship is needless to say a very important relationship. And it is marked by both shared interests and, at times, colliding and conflicting interests. I think we are all very clear about that. Surrogate lover off and i are old hockey players sergey laborov and i are old hockey players. We are aware of the occasional collision. So we are candid about the areas in which we agree but also in the areas which we disagree. It is no secret that we have experienced some challenging justts and obviously not over the snowden case. All of those remarks are in our Video Library at cspan. Org. President obamas News Conference is coming up this afternoon at 3 p. M. Eastern. We will ring that to you and follow it with your phone calls, your Facebook Comments and tweets. President sp to the News Conference coming conversation from this mornings washington journal on the president s remarks on the recent George Zimmerman verdict and looking at Race Relations in the u. S. In a recent oped in the washington post, you wrote on multiple occasions, obama has asked lacks to understand the high wire he is forced to walk on the subject of race. He has treated that we cut him some slack. So, even asne conditions in the but community have become more desperate. Guest yes, i did that. I wrote that as an oped in the washington post, as a he for the president to speak at truthfully and boldly on the issues of race and racism and white Still Matters in this country. After the zimmerman verdict, many of us were stunned and concerned about raising these old questions and people of color get justice in the criminal Justice System here in america. And i wanted the president to speak to that. President spoken to that in your point of view . Guest he surprised everybody by walking into the Briefing Room two days later and he spoke in a way, here, that no other president before him could have spoken. From a personal experience, having experienced racism and racial profiling as a young man, all the way up to his becoming a u. S. Senator. You have to bear in mind the president is a harvard graduate, magna cum laude, University Professor and has written several books and he has been profiled in his life. So he knew something about racism and he spoke to at beautifully and i applaud the president for doing that. I think he opened the conversation on the issue of race and racism. Ed, many ofe the op my friends and some of the reporters that i most admired him they were opposed to the president speaking on this issue because he said the president would degrade the conversation. Contraire, anyau precision the president enters, he elevates it. Host how would he degrade the conversation . Guest thats what i said. Now you see Oprah Winfrey and others speaking out about it. And i would like to see more whites speak out about it. Host what was the about the zimmermanTrayvon Martin case the angered you . Yes it angered me and it stunned me. I dont know quite really stunned me, peter, because as africanamericans, we are so accustomed sadly, tonight getting justice in the system. But i was hoping against hope that this time would be different. And while the defense and the prosecutors were saying adamantly that this case is not about racial profiling or race, its not about stand your ground, i thought it was exactly that. And it angered me and frightened me because, i thought, given our history in this country where young black males are concerned, this verdict, that law would send a signal to the rest of the society, the intolerant part of our society that its open season on young black boys and men. Host it is talking but the state of oregon and how they now have racial impact statements when it comes to creating laws and verdicts. Guest what does that mean . Post the next time lawmakers in oregon want to increase the maximum sentence for arson, there arent just requirements for child custody applications, they will have two explaining the potential impact on the states hispanic, black and other minority residents. State legislators are now required to prepare racial impact statements to ensure that blacks, hispanics, american indians, asians and other minorities are not affected unfairly by criminal justice legislation. Guest that is a good move. It is said that in the 21st century we saw to consider that. But when you consider our history, particularly my history and yours 300 years of slavery and 100 and so years of america, segregated america, jim crow, lynching that we couldnt get federal sanctions against lynching . Its about time that we consider that. Race is a factor in sadly every aspect of our society. Host youre the coauthor of a book, love in blackandwhite. Yes, with my husband. He is the first republican to serve in a democratic administration. Asserved bravely interagency secretary of defense. He was the republican senator for the great state of maine. He and i decided to ready but the kids in i note and i both know something. Tell is half irish and half jewish. His mother was irish and his mother was jewish. Because of jewish law, the jewishness is passed through the matrilineal line. Not jewish, heas could not be accepted as jewish and not be part of ms. Fudd and not be arm its fun and vahed. Bar mitz i felt, as an African American growing up in apartheid america, it wasn 1941 when segregated. My husband and i deck and could not sit together on a bus, much less marry each other. So i know something about being in a country that i love and loving the country more than it loves me and sometimes feeling like an outcast. So together, we wrote this look ove in blackandwhite, wha host this is a poll that just came out. Guess how sad. We are supposed to be an integrated society. You have friends from another race, dont you, peter . Post sure. Host sure. Guest even though we have integration and we go to school together, it is probably pretty much like it was when i was at the university. The white children or students and i would study together and something would happen when we would leave class. We would go our separate ways. In the classroom, we had to learn math in a book, english and a book, but we didnt have to learn the social mores in a book. We all knew the rules and we would go our separate ways. And Charles Barkley was talking recently in one of his books about how, in alabama, the kids get along fine,. But they have a black homecoming queen and a white homecoming queen. I have friends of many races. I have cambodian friends and friends from bolivia and my husband, of course, is a friend from a different race, my best friend. Host who is your best what friend . Who was your first friend of . Guest i dont usually think of friends in terms of color but character. Dearest friend i adopted as my godmother, one of the first woman to serve in world war ii. Hutch is her name. We just lost her a few years back good she was my dear heartfelt friend. Host why until age 35 to do not have a white friend . Guest i grew up segregated. You get lucky when you get a friend and you can hold onto them. But i never really thought in terms of race and friendship. Host if you had the generalized Race Relations in the u. S. Guest i think we might get a c. We must celebrate our triumphs. We have an africanamerican president , like men in the white house, the one man in the white house doesnt get rid of all of the disparities in unemployment and video in education and the mass incarceration of black men. While i want to say that, the narrative is always negative and its not good. But there are more like children, black students in college than there are black. Eople in prison so i want to make sure i make that point. But its like martin king said. We have a long way to go. Weve come a long way. Were not in slavery and when we were in slavery we were told it would for for to wait for freedom. When we were free, were told to to wait for quality and our rates. And when we got a black resident, we were told to black president , we were told to wait for his second term to say anything to him about race issues. From what i understand, the president will speak on the march on washington commemorating i have a dream. I think that will be his legacy speech. I think they will remember that speech the way they remember the gettysburg address from Abraham Lincoln. I think it will be something special. Host a few days after your op of thees a little bit president president talking about his own experience with race. And then finally come i think it will be important for all of us to do some soulsearching. There has been talk about whether we should convene a conversation on race. I havent seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations. They end up being stilted and are locked and folks into the positions they already have. On the other hand, families and workplaces, there is a possibility that people are a little bit more honest and at least you ask yourself your own bringing out am i and my reading as much by a set of myself as i can . Amide urging people as much as i can aced on not the color of their skin, but the content of their character . That would be inappropriate that would be an of rope bridge reaction to this that would be an appropriate reaction to this tragedy. Caller can you hear me . Thank you foro prompting the president to speak out on his humanity. I know he is in a tie position and has to be careful about what he says. I think the president has to sometimes take the lead and try to bring people to come to some sort of conclusion that involves everyone am a that brings everyone together. That is his job, to bring people together. I know it is hard for him to about being a black person in a white society. And he supposedly represents everyone. But he does have to do this. He is the leader. And i think you for prodding him and trying to get him to look at it in this manner. You have a nice day. Guest thank you very much. If we have a woman president , will she forfeit any discussions on womens or productive rights or rate or equal pay or bricking the Glass Ceiling . If we have a jewish president , will they be prohibited from speaking on issues important to the Jewish Community . Or someonea veteran who is disabled as we did with Franklin Delano roosevelt, with a b recruited from speaking on the issues would they be recruited from speaking on the issues. Thank you for calling. I agree. He is the leader regardless of his race. When my husband served with bill clinton, the resident had just had an economic summit and st the president had an economic summit and my husband met with him in the rose garden. A note said, dear mr. President , now that you have had a summit on economics, will you please have a summit on race . We had a race reconciliation right here at cspan. You covered it here in i think it was in two thousand eight, before the president was elected. We talked about race. Thead it from each side of color line. We asked whites to leave their shame at the door and for blacks to leave their blame and to come together and talk. We African Americans talk about race all the time. Based on what im, quite stop about race all the time. So why dont we talk about it together, engage in a friendly conversation and see if we can resolve this stain on our country . Host before this segment, we talked about dividing our normal lives which we divide politically. We talked about dividing them by race. Host i would have loved that. We rarely ever hear what people talk about race. Inhusband is a great leader the conversation on race. He is one of the few fight men. Ken burns, the great documentarian. David deren, peggy mcintosh, but we dont hear what people i want to sit back and hear what people talk about what they will do about it, how they feel about it, why they are afraid of black men, why do they find the masculinity of our men menacing . I would like to know about that. I would like please commissioners to talk about race. There is a disproportionate number of black men and boys accidentally murdered by police. The pope has just come out in his trip home from brazil and he talked about you shall not judge here in he will not judge those who a different orientation. For those who are gay. That was evolutionary, revolutionary for the pontiff to say what he said durin. So he can talk about this you. Why cant eat so he can talk about this issue. Why cant he talk about race in italy . He doesnt have to come all the way to the faithful here to talk about race. You can begin their in italy and sadly racism is a global problem. Host hopefully they will listen to you and do that. Smiley tweets in. Guest as i just said, i did write a personal note to bill clinton, president clinton, because i knew him. I dont know president obama. Ive only seen him socially. But i do know president clinton and my husband at hand in a note to ask them to talk about race and racism and he agreed to do it. And as i said, events overtook the situation and he was unable to do that. Post janet lang heart is our guest. Caller i find the hypocrisy of liberals and people that constantly want to point out the color of skin instead of content of character amazing. Recently on the news, which is being ignored, there were three young like teenagers beating up a white boy in a bus. You dont hear Jesse Jackson or al sharpton. It doesnt fit their narrative so they dont speak about it to as far as president obama being reluctant to talk about race because it is divisive, dont you remember that stupid beer summit where he threw his grandmother under the bus . Im not afraid of a black kid. , fred of a kid that wears his pants down around his sides, im afraid of a kid that wears his pants down around his sides, has a hoodie on and where statues and doesnt have a job. I dont care if they are white or black. That is what im afraid of. And everyone uses that type of discerning. Host can we ask you come and eu have black friends do you have black friends . Caller i have had black friends. But there you go again. We should leave this alone. Planned parenthood destroys more black babies. The black community is devastated and the liberals have acted like black people can take care of themselves. Welfare, affirmative action, its so insulting. Host that is a lot of information. Guest i just want to say to patty that im really sorry about young white kid who was beaten. I think it is wrong for anybody to lior hurt anybody. If you havent found if you havent heard from Jesse Jackson or al sharpton, you have just heart . Om janet lang as far as president obama throwing his grandmother under hear himi did not saying that she was nervous about black men. A woman of prayer was culturally conditioned a woman of her era was culturally conditioned to fear our men. I think that the president spoke boldly and honestly. Host lauren. To dumppeter, you need this program and run for president here in i appreciate what youre saying. I have gotten into dialogue about race for years and years and years. And a find it frustrating when i hear people say we need to have a National Dialogue or we need to talk about race. So here is my question. What specifically would you like to have whites discuss and what would be the outcome . Quite . Awrence, are you are you white . Caller no. I am black. I have been subject to physical racism and i have observed institutional racism. I know that it is out there. And i also say and i dont mean this lightly so dont take blacks way there is a in the white house house. We have come a long way in this country. Not that there arent issues out there. But companies have removed barriers that present that prevented men and women from moving forward. We have come a long way and i think what we really need to do is have a dialog that says what do we need to do to take care people who have had behavior, not throw down the victim mentality. Guest as far as the conversation i want white people to have, it is the same conversation we had, except have it in public did and i would like white people to recognize the history in this country. A lot of it is not studied in our history books. I learned more about the holocaust when our debts when i was in school than in slavery. I knew there was northern aggression and confederacy and Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. I knew very little about the economics of slavery. And i think it is important to , theabout the advantage whitesd privilege that have. Im sure, peter, when you walk into a video store and someone follows you, you probably think they are there to serve you. Because of my conditioning as an African American or black person, as i, too, prefer to be called, im not sure theyre coming to serve me or patrolling the are monitoring me. Because i am hi