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JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening. I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: forced landing. Belarus diverts an international flight to
arrest a dissident journalist, prompting accusations of state piracy and terrorism.
Then: one year later. The father of Michael Brown, killed in Ferguson, Missouri, reflects
on how the country has and has not changed in the year since George Floyd's death.
Plus: desperate journey. We follow one migrant's struggles to reach the U.S., escaping the
violence and poverty of his home country.
JOHAN GUERRA, Honduran Migrant (through translator): I have heard from friends what you make in
Honduras in one year, you make in two months in the United States. There, you can go grocery
shopping calmly. Here, they will assault you or can even kill you. Life there is so much
better there for economic and security reasons.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: The nation's largest school system will return to fully in person learning
this fall. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced it today. He said remote options
will not be offered for the system's one million students.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles schools also announced a return to full in person learning come fall.
Remote options there will be available in special cases.
The World Health Organization warned today that unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines
is prolonging the pandemic. In Geneva, the agency's head criticized what he called a
scandalous inequity.
TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WHO Director General: A small group of countries that make and buy
the majority of the world's vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world. The number
of those administered globally so far would have been enough to cover all health workers
and older people if they had been distributed equitably.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That warning came as India surpassed 300,000 deaths, third most in the
world. The total included more than 4,400 deaths in just the last 24 hours. The country
has been racing to accelerate vaccinations and testing.
India is also bracing for its second tropical cyclone in just 10 days, this time battering
the country's east coast. The storm is churning in the Bay of Bengal before an expected landfall
on Wednesday, with winds of 100 miles an hour. Last week's storm killed at least 140 people
on India's West Coast.
More than 170 children are still missing in Eastern Congo two days after a volcano erupted
near Goma. At least 22 people have died, and more than 500 homes were destroyed, as lava
blanketed villages. Some 5,000 people were forced to flee. The city's volcano observatory
says that government funding cuts prevented any advanced warning to the public.
The deposed leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, appeared in court in person today for
the first time since a military coup in February. State TV showed a still image. Suu Kyi's lawyers
said she wanted followers to know that her political party stands by them.
KHIN MAUNG ZAW, Attorney for Aung San Suu Kyi: One thing she said is that the party,
her party grows out of the people, and wherever the people is, there must be, and there is
-- necessarily be the party. The party may exist wherever the people is, she said.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Suu Kyi is charged with breaking a colonial era secrets law, among other crimes.
Her supporters say the proceedings are a sham and meant to discredit her.
On Wall Street today, stocks started the week on the positive side, led by tech stocks.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 186 points to close at 34394. The Nasdaq rose
190 points. The S&P 500 added 41.
And Phil Mickelson has etched a new entry in the annals of pro golf's history, the oldest
player to win a major tournament, at age 50. He tapped in on the 18th hole Sunday to claim
the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, by two strokes. It was Mickelson's
sixth major championship overall.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": a string of anti-Semitic attacks raises tensions in
the wake of the Israel-Gaza war; we follow the journey of one migrant's struggles to
escape violence and reach the U.S.; the father of Michael Brown reflects on what has changed
since George Floyd's killing; how a Houston museum is widening its lens to showcase Latin
American art; plus much more.
Today, the European Union slapped sanctions on Belarus, one day after Belarusian authorities
ordered what European leaders call a state-sponsored hijacking.
Yesterday, a civilian airliner was forced to land in Minsk, so authorities could arrest
a journalist who had been critical of the regime. It's being called the biggest political
crisis for global aviation in years.
Here's Nick Schifrin.
NICK SCHIFRIN: When Ryanair 4978 was forced to land in Minsk, authorities didn't only
remove the luggage. They also arrested 26-year-old Belarusian activist Roman Protasevich. He
ran an online news service that helped organize mass protests against President Alexander
Lukashenko, known as Europe's last dictator, who's been in power one year longer than Protasevich
been alive.
Tonight, Belarusian authorities released a video of Protasevich giving what appeared
to be a scripted confession to organizing the protests. But, today, Ryanair chief executive
Michael O'Leary blamed the Belarusian government and said four Belarusian security agents were
on board to ensure the hijacking succeeded.
MICHAEL O'LEARY, CEO, Ryanair: I think it's the first time it's happened to a European
airline, but, I mean, this was a case of state-sponsored -- it was a state-sponsored hijack.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The flight path shows the plane flying in a straight line to intended destination
Lithuania, when it did a U-turn, landing instead in Minsk.
State media said Lukashenko ordered a fighter jet to escort the plane to Belarus' capital.
A bomb squad official in a balaclava explained how there might have been an explosive on
board.
But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen dismissed that claim, and accused
the government of outrageous and illegal behavior and a hijacking. And, today, at a E.U. summit,
leaders Belarusian airlines from flying over E.U. countries or using E.U. airports.
Lukashenko's been fighting for his political life since he arrested leading opposition
figures last year ahead of what the international community called a stolen election. His regime
arrested many protest leaders and reporters who covered the uprising, but the Ryanair
incident is unprecedented.
GULNOZA SAID, Committee to Protect Journalists: We just realized, I think, not just as the
Committee to Protect Journalists, but a lot of Belarusian watchers realized how far Lukashenko
can go.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Gulnoza Said is the Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the
Committee to Protect Journalists. Protasevich founded the Nexta forum on the Telegram app.
It shares user-generated content from protests, with millions of subscribers, and helped demonstrators
avoid state censorship.
GULNOZA SAID: The free and live information and videos also that were being distributed
on Nexta became very, very important for Belarusians, as the authorities were trying to close down
or to control other media outlets who were providing the same sort of information.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she feared
for Protasevich's safety.
GULNOZA SAID: He could be interrogated by KGB. He may be tortured now as an enemy of
Lukashenko. We are dealing with the harshest regime in Europe in decades.
NICK SCHIFRIN: For more on all of this, we turn to Matthew Rojansky, the director of
the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Matthew Rojansky, welcome back to the "NewsHour."
Why would the Lukashenko regime consider a Roman Protasevich such a threat?
MATTHEW ROJANSKY, Director, Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:
A few reasons.
First of all, Protasevich has been in exile. He has had a suspended sentence or sentence
in absentia of 12 years for alleged terrorism against him for some time. So, this is not
new.
But in the last several months, in the aftermath of the stolen August presidential election,
which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people coming out of the streets of Minsk,
the Telegram channel, the news service Nexta, which Protasevich co-founded and has been
instrumental in reporting on what's actually happening in Belarus, this has been viewed
as a national security threat, a threat to the regime by the Lukashenko government in
Minsk.
And so the opportunity to snag this political opponent clearly was too tempting for them.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, the verb snag is pretty much what the Europeans have called it today.
And, tonight, we have seen the European Union announced new sanctions, including a ban on
Belarusian airlines flying over E.U. countries and the use of Belarusian airlines in E.U.
airports.
What's the implication of that? And how effective is it likely to be?
MATTHEW ROJANSKY: Well, it's interesting in a couple of respects.
One, it is proportionate, in the sense that it's responding in terms of commercial air
travel, which is where the violation was done. It's a violation of basic principles of commercial
air travel, freedom of navigation, et cetera, that this plane was downed under false pretenses
for political reasons. And the E.U. is responding in that dimension.
Second, it's effectively isolating Belarus, because this is a landlocked country, surrounded
by E.U. members and Ukraine, which of course, is likely, I think, to go with the E.U. on
this and then only has an Eastern border with Russia. And so this in effect doubles down
on the political position that Lukashenko was in after his crackdown, which was to become
wholly dependent on Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.
Now, in terms of literal physical access to the outside world, via the Belarusian national
air carrier, Belarus is in that position of total dependency on Russia.
NICK SCHIFRIN: You describe how this further isolates Belarus, but what leverage do the
Europeans, do the Americans have to actually get Lukashenko to change his behavior?
MATTHEW ROJANSKY: The dilemma of Lukashenko's current position for the West is that he has
chosen sides.
When Lukashenko was bouncing back and forth between currying favor in the West, currying
favor in Moscow, playing one against the other, one could have argued that limited pressure
could achieve limited ends. For example, a certain amount of economic sanctions pressure,
a certain amount of diplomatic pressure, naming and shaming was able to get prisoners, political
prisoners, released.
At this point, having signed up essentially fully for Vladimir Putin's protection and
abandoned any pretense of good relations with the West, it's hard to see how that kind of
leverage is likely to be successful.
Now, that said, give it a little bit of time, because I don't think Putin and Lukashenko
view one another as reliable partners. They have had 20 years to work through that relationship,
and they have never reached that point. So, it is likely that, in a few years, when there's
a falling out, and there's a reason for Lukashenko to change course again, he will seek to curry
favor in the West by releasing these political prisoners, and including perhaps Protasevich,
who's got this 12-year sentence hanging over his head.
So there's there's good reason for the West to impose those sanctions as leverage, but
I would not expect quick success.
NICK SCHIFRIN: You and I have talked about authoritarianism increasing across the world,
not only in Minsk.
I wonder, has this kind of thing, this hijacking, as the Europeans have put it, ever happened
before? And what message does it send to the rest of the world if the Belarusian government
believes that it succeeded?
MATTHEW ROJANSKY: This is being described across the board as unprecedented, or, frankly,
if there's a precedent for it, it's a hijacking by a state. It is a state-sponsored act of
terrorism.
The Russians, of course, are backing Lukashenko. They're claiming that this sort of thing has
been done by the West. There was a case in 2013. Evo Morales was leaving Russia. And
no European country would refuel his aircraft, so he was forced down.
I don't see a direct comparison there. I mean, this is an attempt to actually grab, to snatch
out of midair someone who's viewed as an enemy of the regime. It really is an act of terrorism.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And, therefore, could we see it repeated by other countries, perhaps even
by Moscow, which, to no surprise, has backed this effort?
MATTHEW ROJANSKY: I think the Russians view their territory in terms of absolute sovereignty.
At this point, although they certainly take part in international civilian air travel
agreements, if they have reason enough to try to grab someone or target someone who's
on an aircraft -- think Alexei Navalny -- they poisoned him intentionally just before he
got on a civilian airliner.
I think the Russians view their airspace as totally up for grabs, fair game for their
political warfare against the opposition.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Matt Rojansky of the Wilson Center, thank you very much.
MATTHEW ROJANSKY: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The cease-fire in Gaza is holding for now. But while the confrontation between
Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas was taking place, there were growing reports of
anti-Semitic attacks and slurs in several American cities.
William Brangham focuses on the disturbing questions this raises once again about intolerance
and hate in America.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Judy, the Anti-Defamation League tracked reports of online comments,
verbal confrontations, and physical assaults in the U.S. during that 11 days of bombing
in Gaza and in Israel, finding -- quote -- "a drastic surge" in anti-Semitic language and
attacks.
That included an attack on a 29-year-old man in New York, who was punched, kicked and pepper-sprayed
in Times Square. In Los Angeles, five people suffered minor injuries after they were attacked
by people waving Palestinian flags. In Tucson, Arizona, a synagogue was vandalized.
The ADL also reported thousands of tweets or retweets that seemed to echoed the phrase
"Hitler was right." Last week, five Jewish organizations, including the ADL, wrote a
letter to President Biden about their concerns over this rise in these hateful attacks, asking
him to speak out more forcefully against them.
For more on all of this, we turn to Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation
League.
Jonathan, great to see you back on the "NewsHour."
In the past, your organization has documented that, when there is violence between Israelis
and Palestinians, that anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S. go up. Compare now to then. Are
we seeing more now?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO and National Director, Anti-Defamation League: Yes.
It is certainly true that in the past, conflagrations in the Middle East between Israeli and the
Palestinians or its neighbors have created an -- or catalyzed an uptick in anti-Semitism
in America.
But what we are seeing now is more drastic and, frankly, more dangerous. The ADL track
between the two weeks of the conflict and the two weeks before a 63 percent increase.
And that surge is far greater than what we have seen in prior incidents, like 2014, for
example.
But what I would also note is not just the quantitative, but the qualitative. The span
of these attacks, they spread like wildfire across the country. You mentioned a few, California,
Arizona, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Florida,
acts of harassment and vandalism and violence.
So, number one, the span is much greater than what we have seen, but secondly the tone,
the brazenness, the audacity of these assaults in broad daylight. We have seen people basically
say, if you are wearing a Jewish star, you must be a Zionist and you should be killed.
We have seen people hurling bottles and objects at homes with mezuzot on the door that were
identifiably Jewish. We have seen people driving cars or marauding through Jewish neighborhoods
and yelling, "We're going to rape your women," right, or yelling things like "Allahu akbar,"
and literally then wreaking physical violence on people.
And one of the incidents that was captured was in broad daylight in Times Square, a group
of people beating and bloodying a Jewish man whose only crime was he was wearing a kippah,
to the point where he was left unconscious in the street while people kicked him, bloodied
him with like crutches. It was really quite disgusting.
And to think that this is happening in America is really unconscionable.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, what do you attribute this to?
I remember, back during the Trump administration, you were quick to point out instances where
you thought -- political language that fomented anti-Semitism. Do you do you see political
leaders now who are exacerbating this?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: Well, let's be clear. None of the people committing these crimes
wearing MAGA hats, right?
The reality is, is, I do believe that political language can have real world consequences.
But this is very different kind of political language. So, yes, we called out the prior
president and his kind of acolytes, the extremists from marching in Charlottesville to marauding
through Capitol Hill.
But, in this case, we have people waving Palestinian flags and then beating Jewish people. And,
in this case, you know what I might really draw a parallel to is the hate crimes committed
against Asian Americans, where unhinged, fictionalized conspiracies about China first spouted by
political leaders led to real-world consequences, as Asian Americans were attacked on the streets.
Well, today, we have unhinged, fictionalized conspiracies about Israel, that somehow the
Jewish state is systematically slaughtering children or committing genocide. And then
that leads to real-world attacks on Jewish people in the streets of America, on our campuses,
in our communities.
So, although, again, the political tenor may be different, the real outcome is the same.
And that's why we think people, regardless of where you are on the spectrum, need to
speak out clearly and firmly and forcefully and say, in an unambiguous way, that anti-Semitism
is unacceptable, because, again, this isn't activism. It's hate, and it should be called
out as such.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In that letter that you sent to the White House, you specifically
asked President Joe Biden to speak out more forcefully.
Have you heard from the White House since you sent them that letter?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: We have been in touch with the White House.
Look, and Joe Biden has been good on these issues his entire career, from his time in
the Senate, to vice president, to now as president. He announced his run for office decrying the
anti-Semitism that he saw in full view at Charlottesville.
So, just this morning, he tweeted out a firm statement we were pleased about. But we do
think it's critical for the administration to stand squarely in solidarity with the Jewish
community in this moment, when so many of us are feeling frightened.
I have heard from Jewish people across the country, and they are feeling scared. They
have extremists on the right. They have these, if you might say, radical voices from the
left. And they are wondering, is it safe for me to go out wearing a kippah? Is it safe
for me to walk to synagogue on a Saturday morning?
Again, this is in America in 2021. So we think the leaders, not just President Biden, but
members of Congress need to speak out and clearly and consistently call it anti-Semitism,
without making equivalence or excuses for any other form of prejudice.
You can have fierce debates about Middle East policy, but that is not an excuse to assault
and victimize Jewish people in America, in Europe, anywhere.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, thank you
very much for being here.
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: Thanks for having me.
JUDY WOODRUFF: One way the Biden administration is trying address the challenges posed by
migrants crossing the border is by focusing on where the journey for many begins.
The U.S. is offering incentives to Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico to better control their
borders to stem the flow.
Tania Rashid and Neil Brandvold report.
TANIA RASHID: It's been eight days since Johan Guerra lost his job at a factory operating
heavy textile machinery for the Canadian apparel maker Gildan. He was among 12 workers fired
without severance after protesting for higher pay.
He barely survived on $12 a day to support his wife, who also lost her job at the same
factory, his sister, and his 3-year-old daughter. After back-to-back devastating hurricanes
that struck Central America last year, the family lost their home and belongings and
had to move in with an uncle.
And a last brutality: Shortly after that, Johan's father was murdered by gang members
in an attempted robbery. At just the age of 23, Johan is the sole breadwinner for a desperate
family.
JUANA MARGARITA LOPEZ GUERRA, Sister of Johan Guerra (through translator): It's really difficult
since my dad died. He's been a father to us. Since he was 9 years old, he's worked for
all of us and our mother. He's the one who raised us.
TANIA RASHID: They live under constant risk in Choloma, one of the most dangerous cities
in Honduras, the murder capital of the world.
Two gangs operate here, MS-13 and 18th Street, responsible for thousands of homicides this
past year. Johan fears anything can happen to him at a moment's notice. He says his only
way out is to go to United States, where a very different world awaits.
JOHAN GUERRA, Honduran Migrant (through translator): I have heard from friends what you make in
Honduras in one year, you make in two months in the United States. There, you can go grocery
shopping calmly. Here, they will assault you or can even kill you. Life there is so much
better there for economic and security reasons. Everything is so much better.
TANIA RASHID: Since February of this year, tens of thousands of Hondurans have organized
on social media to join in caravans heading north. They're hastily formed, and Johan received
information to meet at 6:00 a.m.
He shares his last dinner with his family before he sets off on his trek.
JUANA MARGARITA LOPEZ GUERRA (through translator): It's really difficult because people talk
about how dangerous the road is. But, with the trust in God, we know he will make it
there OK.
TANIA RASHID: The next day, several hundred people across the country took to the streets
in the scorching sun, making their way to the Honduras-Guatemala border.
Johan starts the first leg of his journey alone by walking, then hitching a ride on
the back of a pickup truck, where he meets a group of young men. For hours, they take
whatever vehicle they could find.
Along the journey, Johan's hopes seemed high that he would make it to a more welcoming
United States.
What do you think of President Biden?
JOHAN GUERRA (through translator): From what I hear in the news, he's a better president.
He will give asylum. He will help, not like Donald Trump, who didn't want anyone to enter.
This president, from what I have seen, is much different than Donald Trump, and he's
different in a way for migrants.
TANIA RASHID: So you're confident you're going to get asylum?
JOHAN GUERRA (through translator): Whatever happens. Either I will get asylum or I will
cross illegally. Whatever happens, the mission is to make it up north.
TANIA RASHID: At the official border crossing at the Honduras-Guatemala border hundreds
of people arrive, many families including mothers with newly born babies. Fights break
out, as several migrants are stopped by Honduran authorities.
MAN (through translator): We are not bothering anyone. I am paying with my own money.
QUESTION: What are the police saying to you?
MAN (through translator): That we should go back. We are migrants. They are saying: Here
is the border.
This is the problems with the Guatemalans. They don't want to let us in. We are Hondurans.
How can we be illegals in Central America?
QUESTION: Do you have documentation?
MAN (through translator): Yes we have everything?
QUESTION: But they are not letting you pass?
MAN (through translator): They won't let me pass.
TANIA RASHID: Frustrated families storm through and continue to walk. To avoid the military,
Johan joins scores of migrants on an illegal path through the jungles to get to Guatemala.
As they make their way, our team crossed official borders, where we arrived to a dramatic scene.
The army are armed and vigilant. Because the government has declared a state of emergency,
they have been given permission to use force on the migrants when they arrive.
This deployment of security forces comes in the wake of a recent agreement made by the
Biden administration with the Central American governments to militarize the Southern borders
and to make the journey more difficult for migrants in this particular caravan.
JEN PSAKI, White House Press Secretary: So, Mexico made the decision to maintain 10,000
troops at its southern border, resulting in twice as many daily migrant interdictions.
Guatemala surged 1,500 police and military personnel to its southern border with Honduras.
Honduras surged 7,000 police and military to disperse a large contingent of migrants.
TANIA RASHID: As we drive through Guatemala, we see the Biden administration policy and
coordination, as large groups of migrants are met with militarized checkpoints, stopping
and detaining migrants along the trek.
We are about four or five hours into the Guatemala-Honduras border, and the army has detained 45 migrants
for illegally entering Guatemala. Many have been without food or water for four to five
hours, and now they are about to be sent back to Honduras in trucks.
In just a matter of minutes, they are taken away. Later that night, we hear from Johan.
Just now, we have received this video footage of him trekking in the dead of the night through
the jungle. And he sounds out of breath and exhausted. And shortly after that, he just
now sent a text message right after that video saying that he is really scared and that half
of the people he was with were kidnapped.
And now we have tried to get in touch with him. I have called him several times, and
we haven't heard anything back.
As we continue to wait for news from Johan, we come across reports of other migrants kidnapped
from the same caravan, a common danger for many heading north.
So, we just got word that Johan is nearby, and he made it after all, and he's walking
up right now.
Is that him?
It is. And he tells us about his harrowing journey.
JOHAN GUERRA (through translator): I was afraid because it was dark, and there were three
people that I didn't know. And I'm in a foreign country, and it's definitely not a good reason
they are waiting for me.
It scared me even more because they kidnapped the other people. I was also really afraid
when I crossed the river. And halfway across the river, I was out of energy. But I prayed
to God in the middle of the river that he would save me. The only thing that came to
mind was the image of my daughter. And so that motivated me to make it to the edge of
the river, and that's how I got out.
TANIA RASHID: Johan tried to hitch a ride for the Guatemala-Mexico border with his group,
but couldn't catch up to them on time.
JOHAN GUERRA (through translator): Part of me is happy because nothing happened to me,
like other people who leave the house looking for the American dream, and they lose a leg
on the train, or when they are trying to cross a river, what almost happened to me, and they
drown.
On one hand, I'm happy, and, on the other hand, I'm really sad because I didn't reach
my goal. Like they say, God knows what he does and why he does it. He has a purpose
for every one of us. So, that is the mission, to try it again. Maybe right now wasn't my
moment to pass. But if it is God's will that I make it to the USA, then I make it.
TANIA RASHID: Afraid to continue the trek alone, he has decided to return to Honduras
to rest, gather the strength and the courage to try again for the USA for a better life
for them all.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Tania Rashid with Neil Brandvold in Guatemala.
JUDY WOODRUFF: This week, as we mark one year since the murder of George Floyd, we look
back to another police killing that changed the country.
Nearly seven years ago, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police
officer in Ferguson, Missouri. His death led to weeks of protests and sometimes violent
clashes with law enforcement and gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Earlier this month, Yamiche Alcindor spoke with Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., about
what has changed since his son's killing and George Floyd's murder.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thank you so much for sitting down with us and talking.
It's been nearly seven years since your son was killed. I wonder how you're doing, how
you have navigated this time.
MICHAEL BROWN SR., Father of Michael Brown: Every day is still different.
Sadly, this thing with community and police is still continuing. So, it definitely does
bring back up old feelings, open wounds, brings that anger, that madness or whatever back.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: So much has changed and so much hasn't changed since the death of
your son.
I wonder if you can talk to me a bit about where you were when you learned about George
Floyd, if you saw the video, and what that moment was like for you as a Black man and
as a father who had lost his son.
MICHAEL BROWN SR.: I was at home when it was going live on the Internet. We all went to
Minnesota to support and be down there on the ground roots with the rest of the community.
The energy reminded me of 2014. It was so much anger, pain. I met with the family, gave
them words of encouragement. And I told them, any time you want to reach out, just reach
out. My phone will be on, because this is something that's going to be hurting for years
to come. And you want to try to understand, why did this happen to your family?
So, it's different stages with the trauma. You got the denial, you got the anger, you
got to trying to get past, and then you got coping.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Where are you in your in your stages?
MICHAEL BROWN SR.: Definitely not at the point of forgiveness. I would say anger/coping.
But I'm in a space where I don't have to -- I'm not around negativity to open old flames back
up.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Where were you when Derek Chauvin was found guilty? And what went through
your mind when you heard that that family was going to get justice?
MICHAEL BROWN SR.: I was riding in the car, and I heard it over the radio. And right then,
I was happy for the family.
But I know it's not satisfying for that family, because they still lost their loved one. People
that lost that type of way, we're not satisfied. Until we start to change the policies in different
cities, some people will get justice, some people won't.
So that's what we're working on, changing some things here in Missouri, so another family
won't have to go through this. I still got little, small children. I don't want them
to go through nothing like that. I don't even think I'd be able to take that again.
So it's all about the community and families, trying to make better things for families
to be able to walk down the street, drive their car without being harassed or killed.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thinking about your son, a teenager walking down the street, some people
see that as a teenager walking down the street. Some people see that as someone who's threatening.
We know that, in this country, Black men in particular, Black people in particular have
been criminalized. How does that change?
MICHAEL BROWN SR.: Definitely profiling. Profiling has to stop.
You have 16-to-18-year-olds that look like grown men from the back. So I think interacting
with teenagers should be in a different tone, frame, whatever you want to call it, especially
when they turn around and you see this baby face.
There's no threat. You know, it's procedures that you can do. What's your parents' number?
Where you going? Follow them home. Talk to a parent. It shouldn't have to end in death.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Do you think that what happened to your son, it ends up leading to the conviction
of this officer in the murder of George Floyd? Do you think that momentum and where our country
is played into that?
MICHAEL BROWN SR.: Of course. That's what I think.
Some people might not, but that's what I think, yes. He opened up a lot of doors for a lot
of families, so even the bodycam. Mike started that especially here in Saint Louis. It was
other places that was half of the police force had them, and not all. But now they're almost
everywhere.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: What perspective could you share now that maybe you couldn't share in
2014? What perspective have the last seven years given you as you think about where our
nation is now with the death of George Floyd and the death of your son?
MICHAEL BROWN SR.: Well, I just say, if we don't unify, we're going to die. I don't care
what color we is. You have white allies. You have all types of people to understand what's
wrong.
And if you support what you know is wrong, you the problem too. This -- the only way
this world can be better if we start understanding what the problem is. All of us is not the
enemy. But we have been traumatized for so many years to where some people, they don't
know which way to go.
So we have to have different conversations, so we can try to work on doing something good
or better for our community.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Undoubtedly, there will be more of those conversations happening this
week, and particularly tomorrow, on the anniversary of George Floyd's death.
Members of the Floyd family will meet privately tomorrow with President Biden at the White
House.
We will have much more on all of this tomorrow night.
It is a jam-packed week for United States senators, considering everything from China
to administration nominees, infrastructure and investigating January 6, a perfect time
for Politics Monday with Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of
NPR.
It is so good to see both of you see both of you on this Monday.
And, Tam, I want to start with you on the maybe-not-so-glamorous, but very important
subject of infrastructure.
The president, the administration has been talking about it for weeks. The president
signaled in the last few days that he is prepared to accept a smaller amount of money from Congress.
Where does it stand right now?
TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Well, and what was fascinating about the counteroffer
sent out late last week by the White House to Senate Republicans who they are negotiating
with was that they said, we will come down $500 billion on our proposal, so from $2.25
trillion to $1.7 trillion.
But all of the items that they were willing to come down on were things where there actually
is fairly broad bipartisan agreement that something needs to be done. So, they took
the areas of agreement and offered to come down on that, in a way almost seeming like
the point was just to highlight the vast disagreements with congressional Republicans.
In the end, they still don't agree on the definition of infrastructure, how big the
package should be, or how it should be paid for. And it is not clear how they're going
to get there or if they're ever going to get there, though the White House is still at
least publicly insisting that they are having these conversations, the conversations are
continuing, and that they haven't given up yet on something bipartisan.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Amy, what is really going on here?
Because I think a lot of people look at this and they say, hey, it's infrastructure. We
know what infrastructure is. And we know, yes, the White House has tacked on some things
that they say are important in terms of the social infrastructure of the country.
But what is the nub? What is holding this up?
AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: I mean, Tam laid it out really well. The definition,
they don't agree on. The price tag, they don't agree on. They don't agree on how to pay for
it.
And other than that, they're really this close to getting bipartisan agreement.
(LAUGHTER)
AMY WALTER: There is nothing they seem to agree on here.
It seems like what the White House is doing right now is setting the groundwork here to
be able to say, when Democrats end up trying to pass something through a Democratic-only
proposal for something called reconciliation, that they say, well, we tried, we want to
be bipartisan. I brought all these Republicans.
They will list all the names and even the number of Republicans who aren't in leadership
that he invited over to the White House. But we just couldn't agree.
In many ways, this is about convincing some of the more moderate Democrats, especially
somebody like Senator Joe Manchin, who has said out loud for many months that he wants
to see more bipartisan cooperation on an issue like this. His colleague, his Republican colleague
from the state of West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito, also engaged in this process.
So, if they are able to convince Manchin that they have been working on bipartisanship,
it didn't work, needs to pass on Democratic votes, then there we go.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Tam, in a word, do we know whether the White House really wants a bipartisan
deal or not?
TAMARA KEITH: Oh, man.
(LAUGHTER)
TAMARA KEITH: I mean, they sure are putting on quite a public effort to try to get something.
I think that they would love to have a bipartisan agreement that they could get through that
was more strictly, narrowly defined as infrastructure, and then a much bigger package that they could
push through reconciliation potentially.
But they aren't there yet, on even the things that they sort of agree are infrastructure,
that Republicans largely would agree are infrastructure, like rural broadband, where they don't agree
on the price tag.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It gives us a headache just thinking about it.
(LAUGHTER)
JUDY WOODRUFF: But thank you both for trying.
Amy, let's talk about the January 6 commission. This is something the Democrats very much
want, a bipartisan commission. We know Speaker Pelosi has reworked it, did finally -- a proposal
passed the House, now in the Senate.
What does it look like? What are the pressures on Republicans, especially on those Republicans
who did vote to impeach former President Trump over his role in the insurrection?
AMY WALTER: Well, it seems like what a lot of Republicans, especially on the Senate side,
have made the choice that it's riskier to have the commission than to vote against a
bipartisan commission, because the risk is that, once again, as we have seen in these
last two elections, 2018 and 2020, if the election is a referendum on Donald Trump,
if Donald Trump is the center of the conversation, the political conversation, that's not good
for Republicans.
You have heard folks like Susan Collins this weekend say, look, I'm all for having a commission.
Here's the thing. I want to make sure that the report comes out at the end of 2021. In
other words, I don't want this used by Democrats to hit us over the head in an election year.
And even though there are Republicans in the Senate who had supported impeachment, saying,
look, we have so many other avenues to investigate this attack -- we know the Justice Department
is looking at this. We know that other committees in Congress are looking at this. I just don't
think we need yet one more commission.
But it seems, fundamentally, the worry is that Democrats are going to use this to once
again remind voters about what they didn't like about Donald Trump in an election year.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Tam, we know it's not the White House that is necessarily behind
this, but a lot of interest there in seeing it happen.
What about the thinking on the part of Democrats broadly on this?
TAMARA KEITH: Yes, I think that Democrats do want this to happen.
If they didn't want it to happen, then I'm pretty sure that Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats
in the House would not have compromised so much on the design of this commission.
But the reality is that they can keep investigating. It just won't have sort of the Good Housekeeping
Seal of Approval of a bipartisan, nonpartisan commission. Instead, it could be a committee
like that investigated Benghazi, or I guess there were like five investigations of Benghazi.
Or it could be various House committees doing the investigations. But it just won't be bipartisan.
It won't have that same approval. So, for Republicans, though, the other risk, it isn't
just that Trump could go after the Republicans who voted for such a commission and exile
them, like he is trying to exile anyone whoever votes against them, but it is also just that
the entire time that the commission is meeting, the former president could be making noise
about it and drawing attention to it even more.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And in connection with all of this, Amy, with the falsehood that the
election, the November election was rigged and that Joe Biden didn't really win, you
have these re -- or audits, I should say, going on in the Maricopa County in Arizona.
You have Georgia and other states looking at this.
What's -- do we see Republicans making headway on these efforts to, frankly, try to overturn
the election still?
AMY WALTER: Right.
I mean, Judy, what is worrisome about these is not that the election will be overturned.
The election is over. The courts have weighed in. And the legal process has gone -- has
taken root. So it is done.
The problem is that we know that many Republican voters, a majority of Republican voters, don't
believe that the election results were fair, and that even the process itself for adjudicating
disagreement is not trusted.
These two states, Arizona and Georgia, are going to be battlegrounds for the foreseeable
future. In 2022, they have Senate races that could determine the majority in the Senate.
In 2024, we know there will be battleground presidential states for the Electoral College.
And what you have going on here is a complete undermining of trust, not just in the way
the campaigns operated, but in the local officials. And, Judy, we talked a lot about this in 2020,
about how the guardrails of our democracy really were these local elected officials,
and the work that they were doing.
Now even they are being undermined. And that is a very worrisome trend.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Never seen anything like it before.
Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, we thank you both.
TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.
AMY WALTER: You're welcome.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now widening the lens to see more of art history.
In the midst of the pandemic, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, opened a new building
that highlights its growing collection of Latin American and Latino works.
Jeffrey Brown visited recently for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
JEFFREY BROWN: Wire sculptures from the 1970s and '80s by the Venezuelan artist known as
Gego, Gertrud Goldschmidt. Abstract paintings by several Brazilian artists in the 1950s.
A 2017 installation holding the belongings of a deported migrant titled Temporary Storage
by Mexican artist Camilo Ontiveros.
Different shapes, styles, forms, all part of a 20-year project to expand the story of
art history. Now the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has a new showcase, the Kinder Building,
designed by architect Steven Holl, to house its collection of modern and contemporary
art. And a quarter of it, everywhere you look, is by Latin American or Latino artists.
Curator Mari Carmen Ramirez:
That's a statement in itself, isn't it?
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ, Curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Absolutely. Absolutely. And
it's a statement that very few museums in this in this country can make.
JEFFREY BROWN: And why is that an important statement for this museum, for you?
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: Because of the ascendance of the Latino population and other groups
here in the United States. These are the populations that are going to be defining the future of
this country, in my view.
And so it's important for the museum to position itself in that debate.
JEFFREY BROWN: Since coming to the museum in 2001, Ramirez, who was born in Puerto Rico,
has helped build an enormous collection of works little known to the American public
and rarely seen in most U.S. museums.
What did you want people coming to this museum and Americans more generally to know about
Latin American art?
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: I wanted them to know that Latin Americans were not just practitioners
of 20th century art, that they actively contributed new ideas and new approaches, because we have
-- in this field, we have been fighting from the very beginning against the notion that
Latin American art is derivative of U.S. or European art, that everything that Latin Americans
did was to follow Picasso or Mondrian or Rauschenberg or many of the artists.
And that's a fallacy.
JEFFREY BROWN: Americans might know the great Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera, and the
painter Frida Kahlo is a phenomenon unto herself.
But beyond Frida? The Houston museum expands the picture dramatically, to Brazilian abstractionists
from the 1950s and '60s like Lygia Clark.
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: It is what she called a Bicho, which is translated as critter. It
is about the sensorial experience of manipulating the object.
JEFFREY BROWN: And in a very different mode, there's the Argentinean Antonio Berni's painting
with found objects' including street trash, a commentary on the migration of the poor
from the countryside to the city.
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: But the idea is that this is the reality that these people live.
And so what better way to represent their plight than to use the same garbage and the
same trash that they're exposed to every day?
JEFFREY BROWN: The concern with social issues has continued in more recent years, as in
Mexican artist Teresa Margolles' harrowing Lote Bravo from 2005, 400 adobe bricks made
from the earth where bodies of murdered women were found, the femicides in Ciudad Juarez.
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: She picked up earth from those places, and then, working with an artisan,
they produced these bricks. And...
(CROSSTALK)
JEFFREY BROWN: So, each one represents a woman.
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: Each one represents a woman. You can think of it as a memorial,
but you can also think of it as a cemetery.
JEFFREY BROWN: A big focus for the collection now, art by American-born artists of Latin
American descent, already numbering more than 400 works by some 70 artists, like Houston-based
Vincent Valdez's painting of a young man suspended in the air from his series titled Stranger
Fruit.
Ramirez sees a vibrant and growing Latino art world, but one still in need of what she
calls an infrastructure.
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: Galleries, museums, collectors, institutionalized study programs, without
these elements, the art cannot flourish. I mean, it can flourish at the level -- the
artists are producing in, but nobody's going to get to know what they're doing or to really
understand its importance and its significance.
JEFFREY BROWN: Do you see that changing, though?
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: Yes, I see that changing. I think the change is coming. It's going to
take a while still. But I'm hoping that, in 20 years, it will be in a different -- at
a different level.
JEFFREY BROWN: The Kinder Building opened amid the pandemic, and amid a social justice
movement that's led museums nationally to rethink their missions.
The timing may have been serendipitous, but Ramirez says the effort here fits that larger
reckoning.
MARI CARMEN RAMIREZ: Latin American or Latino art or African-American art, it's not about
a fad or a tendency or a trend or some fashionable movement that is in vogue right now. It's
about the fact that museums really need to reinvent themselves.
They need to really reflect the demographics and the profile of the audiences that they
are serving. This country is living a transformation. And museums need to position themselves to
address that transformation.
JEFFREY BROWN: A new world just as artists like Argentinean Gyula Kosice have long been
dreaming of and creating, now for all to see.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
JUDY WOODRUFF: As we reported, this week marks one year since George Floyd was killed. But
what has changed in this year of protests and racial reckoning?
On Tuesday night, we hope you will join us for an hour-long special on PBS, "Race Matters:
America After George Floyd."
PROTESTERS: I can't breathe!
JOHN YANG: In a year of racial reckoning, violence, abuse and inequities persist.
JUDGE PETER CAHILL, Hennepin County, Minnesota: "We, the jury, find the defendant guilty."
JOHN YANG: The Chauvin verdict hinted at a path to justice, yet much more is to be done.
JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: Now is the time to act.
JOHN YANG: How can we create lasting change?
"Race Matters: America After George Floyd," a "PBS NewsHour" special report, Tuesday,
May 25, at 10:00 p.m./9:00 Central.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can watch the special report here on your PBS station, as you heard,
at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. And join the conversation by following the "NewsHour" online.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight. I'm Judy Woodruff.
Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.