I am thrilled today's guest Eddie Cloud Jr. Eddie if you watch MSMBC if you watch Morning Joe is a stalwart on there.

He is the James McDowell Distinguished University professor of African American

Studies at Princeton University.

He's also the chair of the Center for African American Studies and the chair of the Department of

African American Studies.

He's written many, many best-selling books, his most recent, beginning again, James Baldwin America as

urgent lessons of our own, a New York Times bestseller. He is one of the

premier thinkers and teachers on race today. We've got to have got a lot to talk about Eddie

thanks for taking time man. Oh it's my pleasure Don it's always a pleasure to be in

conversation with you, Doc. So you know it there's not a day that goes by that

we're not reminded of the divide in this country and the inequities.

A couple days ago, a few days ago, after three state legislators,

protests peacefully about gun violence in America and the continuing what happens.

Two of the three get fired and they're both black.

And we just... three get fired and they're both black and it just is it seems that we take one

step forward two steps back when it comes to race in this country all the time.

Yeah it was a bit on the nose wasn't it? Yeah for it to happen in Tennessee and the way that it did. I think it was really important though Donning for it for us to see it in real time as we were as we engage in the ongoing debates around critical

race theory or our history and the way in which our history shapes our present. I think it's important that we saw it, and we

witnessed it in real time because it also revealed, for me at least, the undercurrent, the undertow to our current to our current debates that race hovers you know it is this

this this torrent underneath our politics that can threaten to pull you under at any moment and here it was

out in the open it was a throwback in some ways it wasn't you know dog whistles

and fog horns it was just blatant action right And so, you know, we're at that moment,

...