President Obama Says U.S. Has Made Progress on Race
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Don in for Carol today. Thank you so much for joining me. Across the country calls for change and also for justice after two high-profile deaths involving police in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City. The names of the victims Michael Brown and Eric Garner, along with the phrases "hands up, don't shoot" and "black lives matter" becoming rallying cries for thousands of protesters. The incident and the actions that have followed not lost on President Barack Obama and in an interview airing tonight on BET the president says this.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's important to recognize as painful as these incidents are we can't equate what's happening now to what was happening 50 years ago. All right. And if you talk to your parents, grandparents, uncles, they'll tell you that things are better. Not good in some cases but better.</s>LEMON: Joining me now, the man who conducted that interview, Mr. Jeff Johnson, he's the chief of strategy for Illume Communications. Also a social activist and a journalist. Jeff, welcome. You know, in the past, the president has been criticized for avoiding the topic of race but he told you that the issue is, quote, "deeply rooted in U.S. history and society." Why do you think he is speaking out now?</s>JEFF JOHNSON, INTERVIEWED OBAMA FOR BET NEWS: Well, I think that the president realizes how serious things are around the country and wants to not only talk about what the administration is doing, whether it's through the Department of Justice or utilizing other means to address the issue but also talk about the fact that the president knows what this issue is really about, understands how pervasive it is, and more importantly understands that it's not going to be changed overnight but we can't ignore it.</s>LEMON: Yes. So I have to ask you, because he's speaking to -- by speaking to BET, he's speaking to a specific audience. But then, you know, a broader audience now because the interview makes it on to CNN and other news networks. But he's also urged younger African- Americans to be patient. But persistent in fighting for racial justice. And there has been criticism of him that he has not done enough for the black community. Do you think that his words will still carry weight with people who may be disillusioned or in some ways disappointed, Jeff?</s>JOHNSON: Well, I think that they will hear him and I think that once you hear the entire interview you get a sense that President Obama number one understands how important the very young people that were wondering how are they going to receive him, he understands how important they are to this process. And so I think people will give a listening ear. I think most members of the community, especially those in the BET audience, are looking for the president to understand why they're angry, looking for the president to understand why they have distrust, and looking for the president to understand that, frankly, they don't need him to say be persistent but I think that there are many that will appreciate it.</s>LEMON: Jeff, did he -- did you guys talk about all the protests that are going on across the country and what he made of this new wave of protests and what it means?</s>JOHNSON: Well, I think we talked about whether these protests are going to be necessary to see the kind of policy shifts that I think many of us, whether we're marching or not, want to see. There's no question that there needs to be shifts in local police accountability. That some of that may come from the federal government, that the vast majority of that is going to come from local policy shifts, and we talked about the role that these young people in particular all over the country are playing in whether or not that will happen.</s>LEMON: Some of the people who attended this recent White House meeting on Ferguson said that they want him to be more visible. More vocal on these issues. Speaking with him, did you get a sense that the topic of race may become a larger part of his agenda in the last two years or even after his presidency?</s>JOHNSON: Well, what I asked him is if he felt that presidential obligations sometimes got in the way of how he wanted to respond as a human being, as Barack Obama the man, as Barack Obama the African- American man. And so we talked about that a little bit and talked about how he perceived those that -- those who don't believe he addresses straight on the disparities as it relates to African- Americans being shot by the police versus those that are non-African- American.</s>LEMON: Yes. Looking forward to your interview. Thank you, Jeff Johnson, appreciate it.</s>JOHNSON: Thanks, Don. Appreciate it, Don.</s>LEMON: Chief of strategy at Illume Communications. Again, thanks to Jeff. Still to come here. Tug-of-war over a dinosaur. There's a new CNN Film tells us about the paleontologist who discovered Sue. We're going to hear the government's side of the story coming up.