it's existed historically in the chattel slavery and also in the form of segregation that existed before the civil rights movement and as it exists today in the form of mass incarceration in the ongoing struggle over voter suppression, for instance. so a lot of this focus on monuments is really a proxy battle in a lot of ways for the ongoing reality of structural racism as it exists in both policy and social practice. >> and i thought it was helpful that "the new york times" pointed out that in charlottesville, virginia, half of the residents during the civil war were actually enslaved. this is an area where thomas jefferson is still revered and of course, he was a slave owner himself. when you talk about these protests over confederate statues and flags and proxy battle the real issue is systemic racism. can you talk about how that is playing out on the streets of the united states today and how what we saw yesterday is an outgrowths of that?