Throws around i word. The president obama is a personal friend of mine. Talk of impeachment gets into the realm of birth certificate. Amazing grace how swede the sound that saved a wretch like me. Penny wise and pound foolish. President obama is on the road facing down his latest detractors in congress while getting to hear from Everyday Americans in atown haul meeting in new york as he deliberates matters from the economy and crisis to the economy and the crisis in syria, today continued a twoday focus on education. The president this afternoon got to hear whats on the minds of students and fact at Binghamton University including a question on the sequester cuts and head start. We dont have the an urgent deficit crisis. The only crisis we have is one thats manufactured in washington and its ideological. And the basic notion is that we shouldnt be helping people get health care and we shouldnt be helping kids talking about even deeper cuts in programs like head start. Even deeper cuts in education support. You know, thats like eating your corn seed. A little home spun which is come from the president there with more to come this hour as the president makes remarks with Vice President joe biden in bidens hometown of scranton, pennsylvania. But right now, we want to go to washington and naacp and chairman emeritus julian bond. Thank you so much for being here. We want to get into a little bit of the politics. I would be remiss if we didnt talk about the march on washington, the 50th anniversary coming up this weekend on into wednesday. As a veteran of that movement, can you give us a big picture where we are 50 years on . Well, were on i would say about halfway to dr. Kings dream if that far. But what he dreamed about hasnt been realized yet. The poll in the New York Times today shows enormous gasp what white and black people feel about racial progress. It strikes us as a country struggling hard to do the right thing but not succeeding so far. What do you guess is behind that disparity between the way white americans and many black americans feel about the progress in Race Relations given the fact that we do have our first africanamerican president elected with substantial shares of the white vote . Its so elusive white people tend not to know other people who are black and black people dont know that many black people themselves. Its as if we are living in two different worlds and we dont really know how to judge the people over there who look like this. And everything seems to be fine. We do have a black president. Isnt that the great news. Therefore it must be a wonderful country and everything is all right. But if youre living in that country and an your skin is dark, know that is not true. I want to play you what a professor asked the president about his view on the progress weve made in 350 years. Obviously, weve made enormous strides. Im a testament to it, youre a testament to it. Lets assume we eliminated all discrimination with a wand and everybody had goodness that their heart. Youd still have a situation in which there are a lot of the folks who are poor. And is that really the next sort of place that the Civil Rights Movement has to go these issues of income inequality . Its the place where it should have been all along and tried to be 50 years ago when this was a march for jobs and freedom and the jobs seemed to have not gone the the attention they should have even though many of the people who spoke 350 years ago from the platform at the Lincoln Memorial mentioned jobs. And it ought to be a preoccupation for us today. But al apparently there are people in congress who dont want it to be and blocked every attempt to make jobs an important part of our american legacy. And as a consequence, were slipping behind. And the job des a part between book and white americans, the Unemployment Rate between black and white americans is as frightening now as it was then. Black americans have always had a higher Unemployment Rate than white americans have. We did then and we do now. Just to get into the politics a little bit, you had senator tomko described himself as a friend of the president talking about the i word talking about imbeechment. It could be written off as pandering to the extreme parts of the base. Is it possible to imagine president obama leading a discussion about improving things in this country with that kind of talk from his friends in congress . With friends like that, who needs enemies. This is incredible somebody should talk about it. Its not incredible today because we hear nutty ideas coming from this Political Party and we know there are even nuttyer ideas weve yet to hear. You look at the pattern of behavior over there will of people and the rodeo clown in a variety of ways make it clear they disliking this president primarily because of the color of his skin. Hes guilty of president while black and as long as too many people feel that, were still going to have disparities and opinion about had imand were going to having this crazy talk and more and more crazy talk. Youve almost reminded me now and its probably one of the more depressing numbers in the recent polling. There was a recent poll that asked specifically about dr. Kings dream and the point you just made about color of our skin. It asked whether right now in america, are people judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character. 54 of all adults agreed with that statement but just 19 of africanamericans. Why do you suppose theres so much pessimism on the part of black americans whether or not theyre being judged by the content of their character. Its not because black americans are naturally pessimistic. Its because they live life in this country and see what happens to themselves, to their children, they see their chances to move up the economic ladder stunted. They see their inbought to dolt better for themselves, their children, their grandchildren and see things not working out as well as they can. Things were better than 50 years ago. There are loss in this country that prohibit me from being the victim of discrimination. But that doesnt mean that life is wonderful and everything is free. It means weve still got a lot of work to do and feed to have everybody put his and her shoulders to the wheel and make sure that work is done. We had a Great Movement in 1963 when this march happened. We need a Great Movement today. Well, said, julian bond, thank you. Thank you. Of course, msnbc will have full coverage of the march and the speeches at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial all day tomorrow. Coming up, well discuss the white house game plan for syria after this weeks alleged chemical weapons attack. Its back to school time and were talking with diane about the walmart low price guarantee, backed by ad match. You got your list . Lets go look at that price i like that they need those for school. Wow thats the walmart low price guarantee backed by ad match. Save time and money getting your kids ready for school bring in ads from your local stores and see for yourself. Still running in the morning . Yeah. Getting your vegetables every day . When i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] couldve had a v8. Two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories. [ female announcer ] only aveeno daily moisturizing lotion has an active naturals oat formula that creates a moisture reserve so skin can replenish itself. Aveeno® naturally beautiful results. Yeah. Try new alka seltzer fruit chews. They work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. These are good. Told ya im feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. Enjoy the relief the syrian civil what, been raging for two and a half years. And its killed more than 100,000 people. Including about 7,000 children. But its the images of a possible chemical attack where estimates of the number of dead range from a few hundred to over 1,000 that have sparked calls for president obama to mount an aggressive response. However in, an interview this morning, while the president called wednesdays attack a big event, he didnt seem ready yet to cross his famous red line. There is no doubt that when you start seeing chemical weapons you had on a large scale and again, were still gathering information about this particular event but it is very troublesome. Joining us now, mark ginsberg, a former u. S. Ambassador, now serves as president of lavalina arab production pchz ambassador, if this turns out to genuinely be a chemical attack perpetrated by the Bashar Al Assad regime, does the u. S. Have any other choice or i suppose we should say the u. S. And the world but to take some sort of military action. First of an all, theres a u. N. Team already on the ground that has to verify this. I accept the opposition while the pictures are agonizing for someone like me who has been following this day in and day out, we have a right to know who is responsible because of all of the actors that are at play. But lets go to the president s posture in his interview which i watched very carefully. Mr. President , i would say stop agonizing. Okay . The worst thing to be appearing is to be pushes against your will to take actions inconsistent with your goals and objectives. Between your not wanting to do anything and between putting boots on the ground, i could drive a truck through. Heres what i would be saying to the president. Mr. President , the fact that the chemical weapons have now been used more than once and the credibility of the United States is on the line and the assad regime has not been held accountable in an International Criminal court and this is a violation of International Law means its not boots on the ground, mr. President , but you need to go to the United Nations. You need to go to the United Nations despite the russians and chinese and you need to send the assad regime a message that there could be ways for you to act that dont require to put boots on the ground. Stop agonizing, mr. President. There are things that you must and should do. I mean to, that point, at the same time you do have a lot of political pressure on the president right now. I want you to listen to what senator john mccain, a known hawk, obviously, on all things to do with the middle east, this is what he had to say about the president. He said its been a year since the president said that the use of chemical weapons in syria would constitute the cressing of a red line but because the thats have not been backed by any real consequences they have rung hollow. As a all the killing goes onon. I actually, to be honest with you, a couple of years ago, there was a bliss tierious attack occurred on a Syrian Air Force base. The israelis may have been responsible. Someone else may have been responsible. Where are we going to be held responsible for nonactions we dont have to take credit for but the Syrian Regime knows that were behind it. They need to understand we need to act, number one. Number two, the fact of the matter is 100,000 people have been killed. At what point in time do my democratic friends in this administration wake up and realize this is a question of at what point in time do we stand for our principles. Mr. President , you dont have to put boots on the ground in order to be a merciful actor from the air. Youre thinking things like sanctions short of military action. Even if we have to take Covert Military action, its time that we did so. Were going to wake up two months from now and see another chemical weapon and our hands are going to be agonizing again . We have to stop doing that. Ambassador mark ginsberg, thank you very much. Coming up, the president and Vice President will be speaking in joe bidens backyard figuratively. Well bring ta to you live. But first, the ugly intersection of race and crime. I think that in the post trayvon era, there is kind of a perverse tug of war going on now. Conversely conservatives are saying, hey, wait a second. Why didnt the liberal media so exercised over the Trayvon Martin slaying take up the three black boys beat up the white kid or the slaying of the white toddler by the two black teenagers. [ female announcer ] made just a little sweeter. Because all these whole grains arent healthy unless you actually eat them multigrain cheerios. Also available in delicious peanut butter. Healthy never tasted so sweet. Theres a new way to fight litter box odor. Also available in delicious peanut butter. Introducing tidy cats with glade tough odor solutions. Two trusted names, one amazing product. Its a horrific tragedy all over the news. Three teens arrested in oklahoma for gunning down and killing 22yearold chris lane. An australian man in the United States on a baseball scholarship. An affidavit was filed with the District Court in oklahoma on august 20th which describes the teens as twos black males and one white male. Despite these facts, heres how some in the media told the story the next day. 22yearold a white guy shot by three black teens, three black teens shoot white jogger. Who will the president of the United States identify with this time . Excellent point. What we do know so far as least one of these thugs has spewed antiwhite racist comments and tweets. Baseball player came from australia, targeted apparently by three africanamerican young men. And president obama jumped into the Trayvon Martin shooting. Will he jump into the oklahoma thrill kill too . And for more, im pleased to be joined by Vice President for policy and outreach Heather Mcgee and director of african na studies as the Lehigh UniversityProfessor James peterson. Heather, i want to start with you and see if you can unpack for us why you suppose the right is so determined to have president obama speak out on the chris lane case. Its not as if there are not lots and lots and lots of horrifying murders that happen in this country every day. Its really a shame. Theres such a difference. I mean, we have to say that this murder is deplorable. We dont have to defend it and we dont have to defend it at all as people of color because its actually not the what most africanamerican young men would ever do. Right . It is not a symbol of something larger in our society. Whereas the George Zimmerman case, what we felt that was so painful was that George Zimmerman was armed not only with a gun but with the same kind of fearbased negative stereotypes pervasive throughout our culture in which a heinz Study Foundation found when monitoring the news in pittsburghing that 86 of the coverage of africanamerican males was about crime. So its not a slol symbol of anything other than our gun obsessed disgusting violent video game culture and the depravity of these young men able to shoot and target someone outside of the circle of human concern for all of us as americans whereas the zimmermanen and martin case ignited a conversation we needed to have. Its interesting, james, that heather brings up this idea of culture. I feel like theres actually a really useful discussion we could have had and that could be had in the chris lane case about that cultural violence among a lot of youth, black, white and indifferent. You could see it in aurora, newtown and in the chris lane killing. But instead, were having this sort of racial titfortat. Its an unfortunate situation like you mentioned here, joy. I want to add on to what heather is saying. Remember part of the reason we were outraged around the zimmerman case is because George Zimmerman wasnt arrested for 44, almost 45 days. These three men, young boys actually have already all been arrested. The media is demonizing all of them, taking the statement of one and imposing it on the impetus for the crime on all three. This is a horrific crime and unfortunately, the crime itself is becoming a casualty of the culture wars because were having these battles around race and gun culture and violence and theyve all been politicized to such an extent we cant get to the core around the disaffected youth and the way they become disconnected from pr society. Unfortunately, political opponents are going to fight over who can use race as a political football from here till the end of time. That does not serve the case well here for chris lane. Absolutely. Chris lane is getting lost in it, as is the issue of guns. I want to go back for a second to the Trayvon Martin case. That is what spawned the desire for revenge for people on the right. He got off scotfree. What do they need revenge for . Just for the fact that africanamericans dared to be outraged about the case. There is a sense of vengeance on the other side. One of the things you did see, heather, was Trayvon Martin portrayed as a thug and a criminal. One person said he was a rabid dog that needed to be put down. Because for whatever reason, angry that people were upset, this need to portray almost all black menace criminal, almost inherent inherently. One of the things thats fuelling that in the chris lane case, you had this tweet by one of the alleged killers in which he said 90 of white people are nasty hate them. Now were off to the races. And its all so incredibly sadat this moment, right at the 50 tth anniversary of the marchn washington. We could be lifting up stories like antoinette tuff. That was a beautiful example of an africanamerican woman finding dr. King like love, godlike love and empathy for a young white male who tends to be who is the mass killers in our society who is armed with a gun and could have killed 500 Young Children but was able to be find an emp think beyond skin color and share her pain with him. And th