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CNN Live At Daybreak

Interview With Jesse Jackson

Aired January 14, 2003 - 06:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It doesn't look good for African- Americans in corporate America. That's according to Rainbow Push's Wall Street project. Their annual conference begins in New York this morning, and their founder and president, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, joins us live from New York.
Good morning.

REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW PUSH COALITION: Good morning to you.

COSTELLO: So, tell us about this conference, and what it may mean.

JACKSON: It's an economic summit conference focused on the need to expand the marketplace. There are patterns of gender and racial discrimination, which limits market money, talent and growth. And 50 top public corporations in New York, 602 board members, 44 African- American, 9 Latino and 88 women, and 11,500 nationally, 472 (ph) women and people of color.

Banks have not unfortunately committed to the reinvestment act, and when they red-line rather than green-line, again, they limit growth.

You know, we didn't know how good baseball could be until everybody could play. We don't know how good our economy can be until everybody can participate...

COSTELLO: And having said that, Reverend Jackson, some of the statistics that I have right here are rather shocking. They say black unemployment is almost twice the national average, one-third of Latinos lack health insurance. Why do those facts remain true?

JACKSON: Well, because of patterns of race and gender discrimination. And on the one hand, you see the lock (ph) out of the economy, and then you the lockup in the jails. That's the anti-social institutions. There are 900,000 black men in jail and 600,000 black men in college. So, you're either going to social people through schools and jobs and contracts. You will anti-socialize them through jails.

And part of our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) open up the marketplace. There is no talent shortage. There's an opportunity shortage. And so, today, we open up at the Sheridan Hotel here in New York. We have a jobs and career fair from 4:00 to 8:00 today. There will be major (ph) inspections (ph) with the insurance companies who have been guilty of using race and denial of fair insurance practices. In fact, there's a skin tax. Blacks and browns pay more for automobiles, they pay more for insurance, more for mortgage lending, more for access to banks. And so, we must end the skin tax and let the economy grow.

COSTELLO: Well, Reverend Jackson, I know that a lot of people are going to sit down and talk about it in your conference, but are you going to come up with solutions? And how will you get officials to enforce the solutions that you come up with?

JACKSON: Well, one solution is to enforce the law. I mean, if we enforce the affirmative action laws, and the women and people of color are protected by law. And that's the majority, by the way. Enforce EEOC -- equal employment -- enforce the Community Reinvestment Act, enforce contract compliance. In other words, if government will enforce the law, then corporations will see value added when everybody wins.

COSTELLO: All right, Reverend Jesse Jackson, thanks for joining us on DAYBREAK this morning, and good luck with your conference (ph).

JACKSON: And we're going to ring the bell on Wall Street tomorrow.

COSTELLO: OK, we'll be looking forward to that. Thanks.

JACKSON: Indeed.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired January 14, 2003 - 06:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It doesn't look good for African- Americans in corporate America. That's according to Rainbow Push's Wall Street project. Their annual conference begins in New York this morning, and their founder and president, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, joins us live from New York.
Good morning.

REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW PUSH COALITION: Good morning to you.

COSTELLO: So, tell us about this conference, and what it may mean.

JACKSON: It's an economic summit conference focused on the need to expand the marketplace. There are patterns of gender and racial discrimination, which limits market money, talent and growth. And 50 top public corporations in New York, 602 board members, 44 African- American, 9 Latino and 88 women, and 11,500 nationally, 472 (ph) women and people of color.

Banks have not unfortunately committed to the reinvestment act, and when they red-line rather than green-line, again, they limit growth.

You know, we didn't know how good baseball could be until everybody could play. We don't know how good our economy can be until everybody can participate...

COSTELLO: And having said that, Reverend Jackson, some of the statistics that I have right here are rather shocking. They say black unemployment is almost twice the national average, one-third of Latinos lack health insurance. Why do those facts remain true?

JACKSON: Well, because of patterns of race and gender discrimination. And on the one hand, you see the lock (ph) out of the economy, and then you the lockup in the jails. That's the anti-social institutions. There are 900,000 black men in jail and 600,000 black men in college. So, you're either going to social people through schools and jobs and contracts. You will anti-socialize them through jails.

And part of our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) open up the marketplace. There is no talent shortage. There's an opportunity shortage. And so, today, we open up at the Sheridan Hotel here in New York. We have a jobs and career fair from 4:00 to 8:00 today. There will be major (ph) inspections (ph) with the insurance companies who have been guilty of using race and denial of fair insurance practices. In fact, there's a skin tax. Blacks and browns pay more for automobiles, they pay more for insurance, more for mortgage lending, more for access to banks. And so, we must end the skin tax and let the economy grow.

COSTELLO: Well, Reverend Jackson, I know that a lot of people are going to sit down and talk about it in your conference, but are you going to come up with solutions? And how will you get officials to enforce the solutions that you come up with?

JACKSON: Well, one solution is to enforce the law. I mean, if we enforce the affirmative action laws, and the women and people of color are protected by law. And that's the majority, by the way. Enforce EEOC -- equal employment -- enforce the Community Reinvestment Act, enforce contract compliance. In other words, if government will enforce the law, then corporations will see value added when everybody wins.

COSTELLO: All right, Reverend Jesse Jackson, thanks for joining us on DAYBREAK this morning, and good luck with your conference (ph).

JACKSON: And we're going to ring the bell on Wall Street tomorrow.

COSTELLO: OK, we'll be looking forward to that. Thanks.

JACKSON: Indeed.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.