and finally, if you are 50 and over. number for is the you to dial into. now, you can also participate in the conversation via social @cpanwj, twitter handle. facebook.com/cspan or [email protected]. this is from the wall street journal a couple of days ago. american's review of race low.ions, a two-decades his is a wall street journal news poll. relations were bad or fairly bad. of americans believe race relations in the u.s. are fairly good, down from a high of 77% in january, 2009, after the election of barack obama as america's first black president. the figure is the lowest since october 1995 after the cquittal on murder charges of african-american former football tar o.j. simpson, a traumatic and racially polarizing event. over the past two decades, blacks and hispanics have always ad more negative views on race relations in the u.s. than white. following the election years of mr. obama in 2008, the majority vieweddemographic groups race relations in the u.s. as fairly good. in february 2012, a volunteer eighborhood watchman named george zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old trayvon martin, then series of unarmed killings of chicago, in cincinnati, and beyond, have parked outraged protests and significantly diminished views f race relations among all racial groups, according to this poll. a little bit more from this article is in the latest wall street journal nbc news poll, 26% of african-americans, 33% of hispanics viewof race relations as very or fairly good. in the same poll, 22% of democrats said the debate and of force by the use police was one of the most personally important news pieces of he year, compared to 7% republicans. call from with a davonne in greensboro, north carolina, in our 30 sxurnd line. davonne, what's the view of race relations in the u.s. today. caller: appreciate you having me on. i'm from cleveland, ohio and detroit michigan. nt in elations are importa this country. we have millions among millions along in a o get commerce-based activity every day. i can understand where these groups of black lives matter and everyone else are coming from. yes, we do have kind of a -- i epidemic, but that's what people are calling t, of officers killing african-american unarmed gentlemen but at the same time when there's a criminal element, big or small, whenever you initiate to have interaction toh police, you need to come a comply and not a resist mode. ace relations in this country are great. white, black, latino, muslims, along and etting coexisting each other, if we could get our government to do to do as far as legislations and policy, not to but let s or hinder us us strive and thrive, we'll be fine. but as far as, you know, the police things with the black community, we have a culture of drug, sex and violence in our hip-hop munity, in our culture. if we don't change that, we're going to have the same problems we have right now with our police in our black culture. you know, facebook is filled with fights and gang-related this and guns with youth and drugs with youth and if we don't change that culture, those same are going to be who fox and ms nbc are talking about, a gunned down. he have e, why doesn't a book? gunis he out playing with a that basically looks real. eric garner. you have an episode where police are always being called for something so at the end of the expect youe going to to be doing something. line, on our 50 and over this is pat from austin, texas. hi, pat. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i believe that the race but i ns are terrible believe what's happening here now is that it's more visible. anything new.it's and i'm not sure where the polls all that from earlier years and now. i don't think nobody has ever me, but i just think as are concerned, i think it's been going on. with w about the history slavery and lynching and all of those things, but now with media, with video cameras, with television, it's visible now. and so we have never really i believe, that the only way to deal with hatred or prejudice or whatever you want o call it, is that hearts of people have to change. when the hearts of people change, then there is a and the hearts of people, i believe, have to be changed towards god. my opinion.ust thank you very much for taking my call. laning magazine, 2015, the year in race relations. from ferguson to charleston, long-standing problems erupted public view. .s. race relations were on a downward slide 2015 began the atlantic rides. declined to indict aaron wilson michaelatal shooting of brown. propelled violence and racism into the national spot light, but it was just one of many. coates wrote about the due-process double standard in the gangsters of ferguson. it was a big year for coates too. t was named a macarthur fellow for his writing on race and he took ohm the national book award me," between the world and an exploration of the heritage that "the ploitation atlantic" excerpted as a letter to my son. here is ta-nehisi coates from this past year. mr. coates: you know, in the african-american community, it's our solution we choose in the mental health issues. very often in the african-american community, a solution we, is used for drug issues in the african-american community. "new was a piece in the york times" about two weeks ago, and it was talking about how rising among white people in this country, this alarming rise of heroin use, and i could not help but ote the very sympathetic and benevolent tone that was taken, when you talked about heroin use among white people and compare that to the time in which i grew p in the 1980s, when we were very much worried about crack. i was very worried about crack tone was not benevolent, it was not sympathetic. an arge part, it was argument for incarceration so i don't think you can separate the you can view how folks. host: from our facebook page, tamara writes, besides the shooting of the black men and black lives matter movement, i think race relations are good on a daily basis. black people are getting along with one another, interracial marriages and dating is increasing, which is an indicator we are becoming one. jim in fort laider dale, florida, in the 50 and over line. go ahead, jim. host: good morni-- caller: good morning. person.lder i don't know how much longer i have on this earth so i'd like to pass along a little of what i call wisdom. first of all, to answer your question, i think that the black want to have good race relations have them. i think then you have everybody they come from all our society.ks in do know after observing race relations in the united that the at i am sure worst enemy of black people in is other blackes people. hey just give each other the worst advice that you could ever friend or ome from a associate. "don't snitch" which propriates more crime in crime-ridd crime-ridden communities. ou have people being spoken of about black men who want to make it in the culture of business or any organization. you know, the way black women black men, you know, if callers want to call in do, his subject, please because i'm really interested. ut what i have observed is for is way little respect black women among black men. and i think -- you talked about african-americans. what about white people? caller: well, you know, white people.are white white people don't care if you're black, blue or green, if you do the things that help them time.ou at the same a company president isn't going to care if somebody s white or black if he's the best salesman. a company president or manager isn't going to care if somebody is red, green, black or blue, if they can make the computer system work. if they can help the employees. you can't make it as a black person, that's omething that other black people tell other black people, and i think it's very, very destructive. host: that's jim in fort lauderdale, florida. tweets as ie who is built: our country on racial inequality, no matter how hard we try to have good race relations, it just isn't isn't genetics. ramon, from the 50 and over. caller: talking about the black situation and what's happening, it's race relations overall, hispanics and the the people are going to continue. we have trump talking about the from race of dy descent. i'm a citizen, but i feel like other people, like mr. bush, republicans, so that's pretty much all i got to say. we've got to watch out for everybody, not just one particular group. i disagree with the muslim situation. everybody has to consider in order to come to the land of freedom everybody is seeking. host: ramone in miami. again, as 2015 winds down, we want to look at the major issues f the past year, get your perspective on them. today, we're talking about race relations in the u.s. zebedi is in fort lauderdale, 50 and over line. hi. caller: yes, as a whole, race improved, and they are fair. they're better than they used to be. i'm 81, so i go back from the sheeps to the present day. e do still have our hate, and that's the problem in america. relationships would be better if e didn't have our haters, and our haters are imbedding themselves in various areas to they have always done. hat has happened now is that of ing has a new mode operation. e have those haters who gain their ability to do what they ant to do by going to our police departments and swearing want to be a part of the blue and protect the people, and guise, e cover of that they kill blacks. only problem we have and what's agitating our relationships, are those haters under the cover of the police blue. zebedi, you said -- caller: another thing, don't ut all that crime on black has been cause crime dpbeginning of time, from the wild west to the present. host: zebedi, you said you're 81 years old, correct? caller: that is correct. i've seen it all. host: and are you african-american? caller: i am african-american. in fact, i had to leave bahoke, florida, and now i'm in fort auderdale, florida, because ome white boys lassoed my aunt out of the car going down the caught themmy uncle and beat him. the white sheeps was looking for to get him out over to miami. host: what year was that? back in that was the -- host: i'm sorry, what year was that, zebedi? caller: that was back in the '50s. host: back in the '50s. why do you think race relations changed? caller: beg your pardon? host: why do you think race relations have changed? caller: why i think they are what they are today? host: yes, sir. caller: like i told you, they have improved. host: but why? fairly and they are good, except for our haters are still there. host: why do you think they improved. caller: that's the problem. host: why do you think they've improved? caller: in every way. we communicate with each other. other.e happily with each we intermarry with each other. we do all the things that a normal, healthy society should do together. host: thank you, sir. just a reminder, if you get turn h on the phone line, down the volume on your tv, because there's a bit of a elay, and it gets a little confusing, and we can hear it back here. and you'll be able to hear your hing through telephone. nashville, georgia, 50 and over line. earl, your view of race relations in the u.s. today. caller: first, let me say good morning, merry christmas to you and happy new years. host: you as well. caller: you know, i want to say this here, i'm a military veteran, you know, spent two there, southwest asia, another tour over there too. nd i've seen racists come and go, amongst the whitest and the brightest. i want to say this race thing has been building up uppered the mean by thatnder the ground, and what i mean by that time, you could hardly see it, and now you see it coming. expression on some of our faces, i just heard the caller before saying about the black peoples jobs and all this kind of stuff there. i want him to know it's not only the blacks that are racist. racist have black people amongst each other. we have white the same way. church and they treat me the same. but when you dig down into the to -- things gin start to happen, you can say wow, where did this come from? it was always there. always have been there and always will be there. and when we get rid of this racial stuff, we've got to love one another, and put each other hand hands to the lord. host: this is rick on twitter. ofth carolina caller is part the problem. our first caller this morning, devin from north carolina. by blaming victims for getting killed and otherwise being discriminated against. you can also participate on part ok if you want to be of this conversation this morning. a lot of folks are already posting. next call comes from ken in olympia, washington. 31-49 years old. hi, ken. caller: hello, good morning. this is a funny subject to me. my brother lives in salt lake, city. i live in olympia washington. we have this conversation about race relations all the time. we're both black. i'm actually a military veteran. and i don't think there's a problem with race relations, but what happened, i think, after the civil rights movement, it kind of came to a stall. when we talk -- when we have this conversation about has race relations gotten better, i think that's a bogus question, because what's better? i mean, what's better? is whenonce it's better we stop having this conversation or don't have to have it anymore. host: thank you, sir. new s calling in from hampshire, west chesterfield, and overhire on our 50 line. ron, you're on the "washington journal." your view of race relations in the u.s. today. caller: good morning, c-span. thank you for the opportunity here. a great eryone had holiday. listen, i think they're improved over the years. think we need more than improvement. i think black folks, mexican-americans, they want more than an improvement. they want more than looking back a saying, yeah, things are little bit better or things are better. we want -- but what we're is full equality here. we want to be equal with everybody else. i don't think you're going to have race equality until people, americans, stop thinking of other americans with labels. black americans, mexican americans, irish americans. we're all just americans, and so people start looking at other people as just americans, no matter what their color, what their race, what their color, ou're not going to have really great race equality. and i've got to tell you, i've just been completely sickened by some of the police shootings, his 12-year-old kid, tamir race. eric gardner, choked to death by selling cigarettes. i mean, come on. ridiculous. totally again, a gun or hurting someone or choking someone to death, that should be the last resort under ng to get somebody control. ridiculous in the amount of prison population that's just completely outrageous. you know, we've got enough prisoners right now to start a whole new country just with prisoners. ridiculous. and there's things that need to stop and people have got to stop thinking of other people as black americans, mexican americans, irish americans, thinking just start of our fellow americans as americans. host: that's ron in west chesterfield, new hampshire. back to the atlantic and some of the issues regarding race relations this past year. gray died in die baltimore police custody and the nation erupted once again. here was momentum for criminal justice reform on both sides of he aisle this past year, and anniversary of the civil war arrived in 2015, david atlantic explained why americans have yet to make peace with questions at the heart of that conflict in an entitled "the civil war let me er yet." introduce you to reddic hudson. former st. louis police officer, works for the naacp, chairs the board of the ethics project. here he is, talking about rebuilding trust between police and community. mr. hudson: another thing that i think would go a long way oward resolving some of the issues we've seen is a special cases of , in all force by a police officer result nothing serious injury or death. the relations between security and police departments are too close to have a reasonable expectation that the prosecutor is going after gone in that epartment, that they work with alliance in almost 100% of the time. mccullough is a prime example of that. e was recently sued after mike brown's case. recently sued in the last month r two by a grand jury that he illegally removed from the grand jury because he thought he had a propensity to lock at things differently. he's a former aclu attorney. is.hink i know he they haven't announced his name i lic le, he's john doe, but know who he is. taken off the grand jury in violation of state law. think they don't shape outcomes? ou think they don't decide who gets justice and who doesn't? host: elsa is joining us from line.apolis, 50 and over elsa, good morning, you're on the "washington journal." your view of race relations in the u.s.? caller: good morning. i'm glad i've got a chance to kind of bring something forward. first of all, i marched in the civil rights back in the '60s. i married an african-american man. e have five children, 23 grandchildren, and eight great. we have what you would call the rainbow coalition. they're doing well, and i'm very grateful for that. but what i see here in inneapolis and especially through the black lives matter a uation that we just had is lack of grandparents and great-grandparents that are involved. crack explosion '80s just kindrly of wiped grandparents of both kids are , and young just having children, and they have no guide to raise them. we, as a people, each me together and help other make sure that these kids and be able toer alk with one another and not see that hate that comes with it. in e had our problems here i thank god but that -- i think they'll be less than we see around the country that we do believe have many people that want to help. also, it really bothered me that 50th anniversary of and the bus during this particular instance here in minneapolis, with black lives matter, and that just seemed to pass on by. so what i do, i try to teach my my , my grandchildren, and greats. i have their history on their mine on my side, and i tried very hard to teach how we came re, together and who they want to be. you elsa, what year did marry? caller: well, first of all, you know, you couldn't get married '67, but we were married on the base in fort polk, louisiana, in 1962. host: what was the reaction of your family? waser: you know, my mother sick. my grandfather, who is a democrat, i would think he's socialist, anyway, from denmark, from the old country. he told everyone else, this is my business, and you let her live her life. actually died on a ship alled the leopoldville, on christmas eve in 1944, in the english channel, so i was only 11 months old at the time, so my my guide andof was my family accepted it well. and a sister er with 've all just shared each other. our children love one another. i don't know, i think maybe there's been some times through that they've had ome different views, but i thank god that they've been able o work it out, cousins from different facets of the family, but i think because my grandpa such a strong advocate for i think everyone knew what needed to be done. though, i tell you, saw some pretty ugly things. bus remember being on a with my oldest son who will soon be turning 50. and we were traveling. we were in omaha, nebraska. traveling from north omaha to south omaha. off, and this lady that was sitting across, babysit for a u black family? and i said, yes, my husband. got he rang the buzzer and off the bus. that, t ugly things like but you can't allow that to be the thing that turns you around and say, ooh, or all white people are like this, or all black people are like this. we're all people. we're all god's people. and if we could come together, that truly, truly believe because of the laws -- and i'm erious when i say this -- i am a recovering addict myself, so i am ot something that i talking about that i don't know anything about. and grandparents great-grandparents, who are ing in ut here struggl their addiction. they can barely help themselves. how are they going to be able to guide their kids and these grandkids? and i just think -- ost: in 1962 -- what was the reaction in 1962 of your husband's family? they have u know, always been the greatest. everybody, i tell my mother died in 1965, and i y, right now today, my mother brought me in this world. he raised me to be a young lady. but i have some of the strongest black women in my life who took me from that young lady and taught me how to be a woman and , how to cook, how to be withstand ugh to whatever. they showed me nothing but love. ost: that's elsa in minneapolis, and this is willy louis, illinois, ages 31-49 line. hi, willy. caller: yes, i'm 62 years old. about, i lived g in ferguson in 1970 -- can you hear me? host: we are all listening. caller: okay. and i was raised there in lawyern, and i went to a and told him that i was raped for a black woman to be raped, it's terrible, because when i told him that i was raped and it was a non-black person, sealed everything about that e, about my twins were born, and i'm 62 years old and my sons, i raised them by myself, i'm a single parent. one is a medical doctor, doctor, medicine anesthesiologist, and the other is a high school teacher. and i'm just -- this is what we're going through, what black people are going through, is institutionalized racism. an i had been getting electric bill for really, i white t must have been a person's electric bill, but the electric man came by today and no, your meter is throwing out, you know, mistakes or whatever. so he put a new meter in. so i know now that i'm going to bill.tting a higher so what we're going through, to le -- black people need know is institutionalized racism s, h these utility companie and i don't think people should try to help pay these utility bills when they are charging us more than they charge the whites. host: that's willy in east st. louis. pittsburgh.h in rich, what's your view of race relations in the u.s. today? caller: well, i don't think good.s are that i i'll give you a couple of quick thatles of personal things happened to me at a national study. a personal thing that happened o me is my boss was an african-american woman, one of the smartest, nicest people i've olderet, and she drove an model car, and i always asked her -- she was a manager of a pretty large division in the company, and i was working underneath her, and i said, why don't you get a nicer car? you can afford it. she said, i'm saving for my dream car, which is a bmw. she said once i get enough, i'll buy my bmw. i said oh, okay. so she bought the bmw. and six months later, she traded it in. i said what happened? i said that was your dream car. she said i couldn't keep it. she said i was stopped twice for dwb. i said what? she said driving while black. she was stopped within a six-month period for two registration checks. two registration checks. i'm 59, been driving since i was 17, never been stopped once in registration check. she was so disillusioned she traded in her dream car because she couldn't keep it. another study i saw was that as far as renting rental properties, i said these people, they had this study, and it's pretty consistent studies that when people are taking appointments over the phone, they're told property is available. f they shop in person and see an african-american, they're told the rental is not available anymore. two examples like that. the one caller from florida that says white people are white people. they don't care about the color. most naive f the statements that i've ever heard. pompano beach, florida. good morning. morning. good can you hear me? host: we are listening. your view of race relations in today, go ahead. caller: it's been bad since biblical days, it's been bad, bad.it's going to stay and the reason why is this: my great-grandfather, and esau is your great-grandfather, with just the white people. now, i had to call this morning. didn't want to, but i had to, because i am so tired of african-americans that named us, that you named, youll the african-americans are not african-american. ou are the true biblical israelites. fath as your argentina argentina -- grandfather. esau was the white grandfather, edomits. it is what it is. you've got to come back. thelord commandment he gave israelites. that's why we're in captivity. punished.y we're being you've got to come back to his laws, okay, and he'll save you captivity.s e the one save us from this capti captivity. read deuteronomy 68-28. disobey tell you, if we the law, he will send us to the okay, pt, with ships, that goes for efrain, which is levites, o ricans, which is the hattians. we're all a big nation and we're all in captivity. it is what it is. host: lawrence is up next, in st. paul, minnesota. lawrence. caller: good morning. opportunity. the my take on it is, one, there are a million billion acts of kindness that go on across this country, across this world, betweenankly, every day people of different religions, ethnicities, cultures, call it what you want. problem is of the we tend not to recognize the fact that there are good people people, e are bad y,gardless of gender, ethnicit culture and what have you. yes, we do have problems in this country. problem look at every that comes across our table in race, then we miss he opportunity of recognizing the million acts of kindness. and it's not just black/white. it's people from the asia pacific region of the world, people from africa, people from europe. there are good people out there. and we have got to emphasize of what is good, if we're going to fix what the problems are. so i appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today. you're always a good host. thank you. host: that's lawrence in st. paul. as 2015 comes to an end, we're looking at some of the major issues over the past year here on the "washington journal." this morning we're looking at race relations in the u.s. we've divided our phone lines a little bit differently this morning. 202-74 202-748-8000, for those of you 30 years old or under. 202-748-8001 for those of you between the ages of 31-49. if you happen to be 50 and over, 202-748-8002 is the number for you to call. victor, et from responding to an earlier caller: we love you, elsa in minneapolis. that call warmed my heart. she's had a great life full of song. and this is parkstorm saying, i totally agree with this man, redditt g back to hudson. special prosecutors need to be cases like mike brown and tamir rice. here's steve. right now, we're seeing racists in shock now that we have the president.k once we get past the novelty, things should get better. larry, in indianapolis, indiana, 50 and over. larry, good morning. caller: good morning. happy new year to you. i've seen -- i was -- my ex-wife, my deceased wife, which is white, we were married in 1979, and there were places that we would go here in the city where you would see people look at you with disgust, with but you know, fast-forward now, you just don't see those looks anymore, so i think we're getting better. we still have a way to go, but we are getting better. i can even see -- you see it dating. interracial you don't see that hatred -- you don't see that look. host: larry, why do you think it is? why do you think you've experienced the change? you r: well, actually, now, at that time, we were going to some of the major tores here, grocery stores, or department stores, and people would look at us. obvious.t was i mean, the look of disgust, the eyes to hatred. mean, it's like, we wasn't supposed to be. and i really didn't see a change then really the '90s, and as time progressed, and my hildren -- my children experienced racism. ere black kids w as well as white kids would them.iminate against the black kids would say oh, you're a half breed. you know, ids, well, because of me being a black father, it wasn't acceptable. grandchildren, my i have 10 grandchildren, and two f my children have married white girls, and so i had my grandchildren, you see the whiteness in them. you know, people look at me. they don't look at me anymore as like what's that black man doing with those children? and for those that asked who are those, i say they're my grandchildren. you know, people, white people, come up, they're just nice to them. i mean, we go to kroger's, and i them eople there gives candy and just various things. o i have seen a change in the attitude. host: that's larry in indianapolis. poverty advocate robert woodson is somebody we've covered here on c-span over the years. here's an event from earlier this fall. he's talking about black-on-black crime. mr. woodson: talking about race always seems to be the issue itself.trudz the problem of always looking at the police through the prism of ace, it means that we discount that black lives matter only when it's taken by a white police officer. and it means that when the perpetrators are black, we look other way. geraldo, rivera, for instance, two-hour special on the rape of women in prisons country.t this for two hours. was a case, the victim black woman and in each case, he victimizer was a black correctional officer. but because the victim and the perpetrators are black, it did large-scale any discussion or debate, because we first have to know the race of the victim and the victimizer before we can become animated to take action. that if the perpetrator wears a black face, it means evil escapes responsibility. host: a couple of facebook posted that are being on our page. raymond says america still sucks relations, always has. seemsz seems like it always will. americans live to hate other americans. ammy says race relations have deteriorated dramatically since obama became president. the democrat party continues to based on country race. ohn paul hamilton agrees, race relations is still utter garbage in office.still and carol says blaming a black racism by or americans would be funny if not so tragic. the president is responsible exists. he because he exists, it exists. many americans who hate him him, arehim, disrespect also blaming him for their actions. break, c-span. john is calling in from jacksonville, florida, 50 and over line. race re your view of relations today? caller: i think race relations have somewhat improved but at the same time, they've deteriorated. if you look at the history of his country, it's always been based upon color since african-americans were brought thathere into slavery, and basically is the driving force behind the racism in this country. i mean, the last -- if you look at president obama, the minute he got into office, the first thing the republican party started doing was saying they were going to make sure that he any of his through bills or try to get anything done. they were immediately after him for that. and this is basically, you know, because he was black. i feel because he was black. i mean, when george bush was in ffice, george bush did the exact same thing that president didn't go in that he to congress to start wars or go to congress for anything. nobody said a word. but when obama did it, it was world.ggest issue in the i think the comment on race. i think race issues have improved in some areas but i still think we have a long ways to go, because everything, whenever it comes to people of color, that issue that's always brought to the forefront. remember the black person it's ng about something, always the color aspect is interjected. and i would like to say finally, lastly, as far as african-americans treating one another, i think this also goes slavery. i mean, the way that we were disciplined as kids, we were always beaten. we were never taught different. you know, and that seems to be exists in t that african-americans that, you know, you have to be more orceful with our children than with any other children. it's sad. and i just sad, don't -- i really don't know. generation is a lot better than ours, but i hope they continue not to listen to the older generation. i called on the wrong