Look a bit more like their rosters . The nba commissioner has agreed to meet with civil rights leaders, and we should discuss diversity. We should discuss ownership. Not just talent on the court, but ownership. Thats america. And we need to start reflecting it. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton. Hardball starts right now. Sterling habits, lets play hardball. Good evening, im Chris Matthews back in washington. Let me start tonight with this, burgeoning National Focus on racial remarks. Did yesterdays banishment of Donald Sterling mark a new zero tolerance in hostile language . Are we entering upon a new era where words spoken in private or
public that carry negative attitudes or views will face round condemnation . And what about the political side of this . Is there a new line that elected officials have to respect . Can they no longer place the primary blame, for example, on poverty, on the poor themselves . Can they defend cuts and welfare and other support programs by saying people simply dont want to work . Well, finally, are there certain americans out there who remain even today able to say the most Disgusting Things about blacks, for example, about they were better off as slaves . Another ugly nonsense like that. Eugene robinson with the Washington Post and Howard Fineman is editorial director at the Huffington Post media group, both are msnbc political analysts. Well, there are certain ways you have to speak in a tolerant society, of course, your words do matter, and one thing the Donald Sterling incident has shown us, is there isnt much that is truly private anymore. Kathleen parker has a great column out today on what she calls the sobering message from the recent sterling fallout. She writes, if you dont want your words broadcast in the Public Square, dont say them. Such potential exposure forces us to carefully select our words and edit our thoughts. Speaking ones mind isnt really all that its cracked up to be. I love that line, i am what i am. You love that line . I dont know. Its a great line, because its actually i was thinking back, talking about the 47 line. Yeah, right. Your paper is most famous for what . Richard nixons tape recordings. The days of the private cone of silence with your girlfriend are gone. No, there aint no code of silence. Lets talk about what were really focusing and not little he said she said. Racially antagonistic, hostile language, is there a new zero tolerance in the way were going to cover these stories and the
way the publics going to react to them . You know, way back in the past, there was a whole lot of tolerance, right, stuff was said in the open. For a while now, it has been socially nonacceptable to say, i think black people are inferior. I dont like black people, i think they smell bad, that sort of when was that okay . Ugly racism. Well, it was never okay with me. May have been okay where you grew up in south carolina, it may have been okay in the back room somewhere. Exactly, exactly. But now there is no back room. And so when society is confronted, when we are all confronted with, you know, irrefutable proof that, here, this is what this person thinks because this is what this person said, then it imposes a duty to react to that. Do you realize what weve been through . Were all roughly the same age here. Do you realize we grew up, you had one of the most talented performers ever, he grew up in washington, made his living in black face, al joelson. Think about it, on the radio, everybody listened on the radio. The members in philadelphia used to be black face, right . Now that was, yes, okay. You couldnt pull any of that stuff today, nor should you. Now were getting to this new level of words and words being recorded and words killing peoples public life, really. Banishment coming with it. Chris, its paradox call, because the progress that weve made makes sensitivity that much more important. Weve eliminated some of the gross things that gene was talking about. That was simple arithmetic. This is higher math, because were an even more Diverse Society than we were. Were talking about multiple sensitivities, not only of africanamericans, but hispan hispanics, people from asia, people from all over the world. There are more languages spoken in new york now well, more languages spoken there than anywhere in the world, and more than ever before, so i think
everybody, you mention the social media component of it, thats important, twitter, facebook, instagram, plus recording devices, et cetera, everybody is going to have to live in this new world, especially political people. Anybody presuming to speak in the political Public Square has to be sensitive. They just do. Thats the new reality. Well, if you want proof of how quickly words do spread of racial hostility and all i said variants, look at this on monday. The leader of a local chapter of republicans in illinois sent out a newsletter. This is old print stuff, a newsletter. It was out on email, but it was a newsletter which attacked president obama of being mixed race. Of all the weird things to go after. Media update, saw on the news this week the offspring of a donkey and zebra, rest all donkey. Not sure why this is news. Now we can teach him to read a teleprompter. We could have two living creatures the media will fawn over that is part white, part black, and all ass. This is whats written in this
thing. You know, yesterday thats in a newsletter, caught the attention of the press. The author quickly apologized, of course, and today his comments were denounced in the Washington Post editorial page itself. Well, yeah, you know, thats whats going to happen, right . Whats this weird new knock about people who are mixed background . I think a lot of people, were sort of intrigued by Barack Obamas background, you know, a white mother from the midwest, a kenyan father. Pretty unusual background. It was seen as a sort of a plus because it combined the immigrant experience and it seemed with the American Experience and the racial experience and everybody said, well, this is fascinating, but this guy is that old thing in the cowboy movies, the half breed. Is this the new knock on obama . Yeah, but who thinks like that . This guy. What rock has this guy been under . There was a time when we were kids, if you saw, you know, a black man and a white woman or a white man and a black woman walking down the street together, you know, holding
hands, well, you wouldnt have seen that where i grew up. Where i grew up either. But if you saw it, youd turn your head. It would be something you dont see every day, and now you certainly wouldnt notice. It would not occur to you that that was what you were seeing. Why the knock on obama . Who are these people . You know, where have they been . Well, they are working in the local republican headquarters somewhere out there in the midwest. Its wait, we got this guy in pennsylvania just jumping up and down about how Voter Suppression was keeping people from voting for obama. I think the point is, chris, that these things are now stories everywhere. Because they are more unusual. I would argue its because they are more unusual, because we have such a allseeing, allknowing media that turns every little thing from a small newsletter in wisconsin to a national story. Were seeing whats left of this in the country, and it gets pushed to the surface because its less usual than it was. Its less usual than it was. And i would argue that overall, the acceptance of president obama as the first africanamerican president has gone over pretty well overall in america society. Were missing the big story here. I like that story, the fact that Michelle Obama largely celebrated as a very attractive shes the most admired woman in america. Lets turn to this, how its rubbing politically. Republican paul ryan met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus today to clear up the air about comments he made on a conservative radio show citing the work of Charles Murray, he actually did this, academic that argued black people face certain social disadvantages because of inferior intelligence. Nobody would touch this, but ryan did, and here he is. Your buddy Charles Murray or bob putnam over at harvard, those guys have written books on this, which is we have got this tailspin of culture, in our
inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work. And so theres a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with. Well, on sunday, buzz feed published the interview where congressman ryan basically pleaded ignorance here, saying it doesnt even occur to me it could come across as a racial statement. But thats not the case, apparently, what i learned is theres a whole language and history that people are very sensitive to. Understandably so. We just have to better understand, you know, well be a little clumsy, but its with the right intentions. Thats nonsense. Im not saying hes an evil man or anything, but hes saying these people are a bunch of bums. Thats what hes basically saying. Hes the intellectual brightest light of the Republican Party. Tell the viewers who Charles Mauer murray is. Hes the academic whose research, research i put in quotes, essentially says blacks
have lower i. Q. S and are dumber. Why do you quote him . You know, and if you dont know enough not to quote him, then youre not a very bright intellectual. Why dont we bring him back . Bring him in, too. You know, there is more recent work that i think murray has been involved in, in which murray got the idea, so broadened his research to talk about white lower class and working class people, as well, to try to make a point about where the society is heading. So, you know not genetic arguments. Some people learn. Some people dont. This thing, i dont think anybody says paul ryan racist terms are thrown around too much, but policy differences. There he is basically saying the reason were cutting welfare, whatever were cutting, school lunch programs, whatever we want to cut, we can pull back and say, well, that isnt the problem. Their problem isnt being denied those programs, their problem is
basic bad behavior at home. Couple things. First of all, he doesnt have the rest of the vision culturally to really totally know just how offensive what hes saying it. Ill grant him that. Hes from jamesville, wisconsin, hes a guy who loves studying budget numbers. Hes now making a tour of america to introduce himself to the bro. Thats what hes doing. The problem is, the big problem is, that the numbers dont lie, and if you look at paul ryans budget proposal, he whacks away at every program, at every funding program, and everything designed to try to help the problems he claims he wants to address. The column i wrote about ryan wasnt was he racist, was he not racist, its that he kept saying, culture, culture, culture, culture of the inner cities. Thats a very lazy argument for a bunch of mush, basically, in
my opinion, this cultural hypothesis that culture explains everything. Whats the number one problem poor people have . They dont have money, and they dont have a job, and they dont have good housing. Also, culture in america is having a job. Yes. Its a very, very lazy argument. Well, thank you. And let me just go back to my simple replica of history. The Old Neighborhood i lived in in north philly, which was once irish, is now black. When it was irish, my grand pop could get on the subway and go two blocks to a really good industry job. Its the deindustrialization of the big city, the destruction of all blue collar jobs in the inner city area where blacks live now today, they dont have the jobs our crowd had two generations ago. Thats the reason these kids, only Business Model looming in front of them is trouble, and thats the problem. Anyway, thank you, gene
robinson, and thank you, Howard Fineman. The a students are always going to do well, im worried about the b and c students, like me. Senate republicans say no to an increase in minimum wage and democrats smell a campaign issue. And now Rick Santorum says i would say confess republicans dont care as much as democrats do about the poor. Isnt that a statement . I think he meant it. Plus, this isnt something you see every day, a former Supreme Court justice testifying before the congress. John paul stevens says its time we all learn whos paying for these candidates campaigns. He wants full disclosure by the kochs, et cetera. Plus, a big victory of opponents for voter i. D. Laws, the decision in wisconsin followed similar decisions in pennsylvania and arkansas that tie, this is good news for progressives, may be turning against those republican attempts to keep democrats from voting. And let me finish tonight with this brave new world, where even in private, what you say can be used against you. And this is hardball, the place for politics. [ male announcer ] thats why theres ocuvite to help replenish key eye nutrients. Ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. Ocuvite. Help protect your eye health. Or how ornate the halls are. Tall the building is, ocuvite. It doesnt matter if there are granite statues, or big mahogany desks. When working with an investment firm, whats really important is whether the people behind the desks actually stand behind what they say. Introducing the schwab accountability guarantee. If youre not happy with one of our participating Investment Advisory services, well refund your program fee from the previous quarter. Its no guarantee against loss and other fees and expenses may still apply. Chuck vo standing by your word, thats what matters the most. New numbers for president obama and the democrats in our new nbc news wall street journal poll. Job Approval Ratings up 44 , thats the highest in six months. Still, 50 of the country disapproves of his performance. And on the congressional ballot that asks who you want controlling the house of representatives, its a dead tie, 45 all for both sides, but the tie goes to republicans because of higher republican enthusiasm in the way congressional districts are drawn. Well be right back. During the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. At night and when its cloudy, we use more natural gas. This ensures we can produce Clean Electricity whenever our customers need it. Transit fares as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. No . Oh, right. Youre thinking of the 1. 6 million daily Customer Care interactions xerox handles. Or the 900 Million Health insurance claims we process. So, its no surprise to you that companies depend on todays xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. Which is. Pretty much what weve always stood for. With xerox, youre ready for real business. Were back. Democrats have made raising the federal minimum wage to 10. 10 an hour a top priority in this tough election year. But late today, a bill that would have raised the minimum wage was blocked by republicans. The vote was 5442, positively along party lines, save from one republican, but it fell short as we all know now of the magic 60vote threshold it needed to overcome a republican filibuster, so it got a majority vote, but not a 60 vote. Afterwards, democrats vowed to continue the fight, but its not sure if harry reid will be into reintroducing the bill at all. Here was reids reaction today to the vote. Today we saw clear distinction between what were fighting for, we democrats, and the republicans, what they are fighting for. They are fighting for the billionaires, were fighting for people who are struggling to make a living. Well, as senator reid made clear, arguing for an increase in the minimum wage is a key part of the democrats larger midterm political strategy, to focus on the poor and unemployed, and they hope their message is a fair shot for all. Its going to be a winner, compared to Republican Party, they say the democrats say favor the very rich. And an unusual confession this week. Former republican senator for pennsylvania and failed 2012 president ial candidate Rick Santorum broke with his party on the treatment of the poor. Santorum opposes increasing the minimum wage, but listen to what he said when asked if his party cares as much about the poor as the democrats do. People ask me do republicans care as much about the poor as democrats do, im not sure we do. Im not sure we do. And the reason im not sure we do is because i dont hear us talking about them very often, and if you really cared, youd talk about the problems they had. With us now, joe connson of the National Memo and michelle bernard, president of the Bernard Center for women. Lets get to this point here. Im trying to figure what ricks up to. I find it fascinating, hes catholic, old school catholic, very orthodoxed about it. Could this be the popes leadership thats led him, michelle, hes beginning to think we have a conscience issue
here, a moral question that the Republican Party, his party, hasnt been addressing for decades. You know, i moderated a debate between Rick Santorum with Rick Santorum in the last election cycle, and i think that this is an issue that hes always grappled with. He deeply believes in what he believes in. I think he believed the sentiment that he expressed in that sound bite that we just heard, but heres the thing thats difficult to deal with, with Rick Santorum. Hes making these eloquent statements about caring about the poor, but this is the Rick Santorum who has a very simple, twostep solution to getting, you know, alleviating poverty. Get marr