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62 of Nation's 101 Largest School Districts to Start Year Online; Calls to End Racial Inequality in Corporate Leadership; "On The Trail" Starts Streaming Today on HBO Max. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired August 06, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Look at what's happened in Georgia, look at what's happened in Indiana, we've had cases in North Carolina now as well.

Now, experts I've talked to said that even in a best case scenario, we should expect to see some cases at schools. That doesn't mean that all schools should close then that it's considered a failure. They need to isolate the students. And they need to get parents alerted to come pick up their kids if in fact they were in touch with those students that tested positive or teachers.

The problem is the testing itself. If we had rapid testing, if we could get results as soon as possible, you'd have a better chance of mitigating the risk of having to close the entire school down. But, of course, you know what the statistics show now that you've got anywhere between five to seven, sometimes 10 days that people are waiting to get their results. And that's causing a huge problem even for the best school districts that have complete and specific plans in place. If you're not going to get a result back, you don't know what your next steps going to be.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Well, I know you're going to be watching it very closely, and, of course, all of us parents as well that all our kids will be affected by this.

GOLODRYGA: Our fingers are crossed, guys.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Here and folks watching at home. It's really, really tough. Bianna Golodryga, thanks very much.

GOLODRYGA: Sure.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, well ahead, an important conversation on race, racism in corporate America, next.

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[10:36:09]

HARLOW: Welcome back. This morning, in open letter calling out America's most powerful leaders for lack of swift action to address racial disparity signed by more than 50 chief diversity officers from big companies like Twitter, Nike, Intel, Zoom, Coca-Cola, and Google. They write, quote, you express your commitment to ensuring racism-free work environments, frequently calling for a renewed focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Collectively, however, we must share our consternation that it took thousands of protests sparked by unconscionable incidents of racial animus to garner the attention of many leaders denying, minimizing or ignoring racism is no longer an option. And we are hearing a resounding message from the many voices that are speaking out globally from your C-suite to the entry levels of your organizations. The message? The daily racism in your black employees live with is killing them literally and figuratively.

Joining me now, the author of the letter, Dr. Johnnetta Cole, she serves as the president and chair of the National Council of Negro Women, former president of Spelman College and Bennett College. And Melonie Parker, Google's chief diversity officer. Good morning, ladies, thank you for being here.

MELONIE PARKER, CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER, GOOGLE: Good morning.

JOHNNETTA COLE, PRESIDENT AND CHAIR, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NEGRO WOMEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Dr. Cole, let me begin with you. How is it that we are in America in 2020 and there is not today a single black woman leading any one of the Fortune 500 companies? That's just an example of what's going on here. And how are you actually going to affect change?

COLE: That is a perfect example of what I would call systemic racism as it is expressed in corporate America. Those of us who came together and I must say, all together by Candi Castleberry (INAUDIBLE). Those of us who came together, you have experienced working in corporate America. These professionals understand the struggle to not only bring more black women into corporate America but to sustain them there, and to give them the support to rise.

While the letter -- (INAUDIBLE), I'll listen.

HARLOW: I was just going to say to Melonie's point who's leading this effort at one of the big tech companies where there's a dearth of black representation across Silicon Valley. Melonie, if you could just speak to Google, right, if you look at your own diversity numbers that you guys put out and transparency is important. 2.6 percent only of leadership at Google is black, two of the 11 board members are black. And when you look back to 2014, about 1.9 percent of the workforce was black. And that even now, six years later, it's only 3.7 percent.

How do you convince people that this time is different, right? That real meaningful change and those numbers are going to go way up going forward.

PARKER: Poppy, it's a great question, and, you know, at Google, we actually see diversity as a verb. So it's that action. It's bold and decisive. And so we have made steady progress over the last six years.

I really consider Google a leader and a learner. So we have the largest publicly available DAI data set in industry. And we do that knowing that we use data to inform us how to continue to get better, but we're transparent about it. So as we're learning by looking at the data and informing how we hire, how we progress, our talent, how we retain people every day, we want to encourage other companies to be as transparent and to come along as collectively as well to do the same.

HARLOW: Well, Dr. Cole, to you, Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, who is called you a quote, singular force for transformation, he told me on this show that there's a real problem with corporate America. The corporate -- the culture of corporate America is white. And, you know, he wrote in the New York Times, it's not just about what you're going to give, it's what will you give up?

[10:40:09]

Do you believe that more white leaders need to be stepping aside like Alex Ohanian did on the board of Reddit and saying I want a black person to take my spot?

COLE: Well, first of all, I have to say that Darren Walker is an extraordinary champion for racial justice, for social justice. You know, when you put the question in terms of a zero-sum game that all white men have to give up their positions for black folk. I think that's a -- that's an unreasonable picture. But some black men (INAUDIBLE) is clear because there are so many people of color, ready, able, fully qualified to lead.

HARLOW: Yes, there's no question about that. Melonie, one of the things that really struck me about this letter that you signed on to is that you guys talk about the need to specifically address the racism and inequity that black people in your companies have faced, not to -- that it's been a mistake to group it in sort of overall diversity and inclusion. And I wonder about that because you look at Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google who recently has said and committed to raising the percent of underrepresented people in leadership at Google to 30 percent by 2025. But do you need to make that specifically about black people and setting goals for black employees specifically at Google.

PARKER: So Poppy at Google, we routinely set aspirational goals across underrepresented minority including black people. And I think it's important that we're informed by data to see where we have gaps and what we need to do to get better, what we need to prioritize. So I actually think it's critically important to set those goals to measure ourselves and to learn from them as well.

HARLOW: Dr. Cole -- yes, please go ahead.

COLE: You know, our letter says specifically, do we stand in solidarity with all allies, communities, but there is a specific need especially at this moment in our country for corporate America, for all organizations to address systemic racism that affects black people. And I don't see a contradiction in calling for that, and standing simultaneously with all marginalized community.

HARLOW: Yes, it's a very important point. I wonder, Melonie, to the extent you're comfortable speaking about your own experience because one of the things that I was moved reading about your comments is that you say there's a real difference between being at the table and being welcomed at the table. You're a black woman who has risen very high up at one of the biggest companies in the country, one of the most important companies at the world -- in the world. What is your experience been like throughout your career?

PARKER: You know, my personal experience as a black woman, I have benefited greatly from mentorship. And I have been invited to the table but not welcomed. And so I'm very personally passionate about making sure that all feel welcomed at the table.

One of the things I'm particularly proud of as a black woman is that in this movement today I was able to sit down with Sundar and speak with him directly. And he asked me for my feedback and my recommendation. So that critical leadership commitment and buy in, our CEO saying he's with us, he's in it, and what can we do and we set forth a set of commitments critically important to my own lived experience as a black woman not just in industry but in tech.

HARLOW: It's a very, very important point and I'm glad to hear that. Thank you both. I wish we had many more minutes to talk about this. Thank you for what you're doing to lead on this, Melonie Parker. Dr. Cole. I'm going to tweet out the full letter because you have seven concrete recommendations so that people can see it. Thank you both.

PARKER: Thank you.

COLE: Thank you.

HARLOW: Of course.

So CNN is exploring the past, the present and the future of women's rights in the United States and around the world. For more, go to cnn.com/representative.

SCIUTTO: And starting today, you can go behind the scenes with some of CNN's journalists as they hit the campaign trail with the candidates even in the midst of the pandemic. It's a unique look at how these fearless women are covering the 2020 election.

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[10:49:19]

HARLOW: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer set to speak in just moments. Right now, there's a desperate push for all sides in the White House to reach a deal and agreement on more stimulus but still no deal in sight. The top four negotiators meeting again today to try to reach a compromise.

Meantime, presidential campaigns can be tough and nasty for everyone involved from the candidates to the voters to the journalists covering the race. Now, a CNN film produced exclusively for HBO Max called "On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries" gives you truly an all access path to the early 2020 presidential races. SCIUTTO: We follow some of CNN's female core correspondents, reporters, and so-called embeds as they cover this remarkable election.

[10:50:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what we call hell week. Oh my God, this feels so nice. On a normal day, I do three events a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This isn't going to work. I need people now.

I'm (INAUDIBLE) embed, I stalk presidential candidates for a living. Let me just get in there. I run around with a 20-pound camera seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Oh, there she is. Documenting everything that a presidential candidate is doing. Right now, I'm covering (INAUDIBLE) with Elizabeth Warren. I've been traveling the country with her for eight months full time, non-stop, providing the base for coverage to our company.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining us now are two of CNN's political embed producers featured the film, Daniella Diaz and Jasmine Wright. Thanks to both of you guys. You know, watching you, we're having a lot of folks don't realize how much falls on the shoulders of just one person now in covering these campaigns. The shooting, the reporting, the chasing around, the audio, you know, it used to be a whole team of folks.

But what if I could start Daniella with you, what in particular is tough covering it in the midst of a pandemic, right where a lot of these events aren't in person anymore?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN POLITICAL EMBED PRODUCER: You know, Jim, the part that I really miss about being on the trail is interacting with voters. It's been really difficult to be able to have that one-on-one contact that we would have at these campaign events, talking to voters, asking them about the issues that they care about. That was one of my favorite parts of being on the campaign trail and I'm not able to do that as often as I was -- as I would like.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Jasmine, to you, both of you are women of color, young women of color. I'm interested in how that impacted your experience overall. And also your recommendations to young women of color watching right now who emulate what you have been able to achieve and want to do it themselves.

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN POLITICAL EMBED PRODUCER: You know, I think that being a woman of color on the trail gave me numerous experiences that we aren't used to seeing women of color in these positions, in this really integral level of news gathering, running around with cameras on our back, you know, in the middle of Iowa, where it's not really that diverse or in New Hampshire. But for women of color who watched this film and who think, you know, I could possibly do that, my advice is you can absolutely do that. And you should just go for it.

You know, this job should not be dictated by your experiences or the background that you have. It should be dictated by the passion that you have in telling the story of America and telling the story of the election. And so my advice for any woman is just go for it, you know. Get ready to strap gear on your back and take the country by storm.

SCIUTTO: Daniela, (INAUDIBLE) inside cities without a lot of travel. As you go out and see what people are saying and what the candidates are saying, how they're reacting to them. And again, I know under the restrictions of the pandemic, what's the biggest surprise to you? People watching now, what would surprise the most about how voters feel this time around?

DIAZ: I feel like voters want political journalists to understand that they have real lives and are impacted by these issues that the candidates are talking about. Every time I was on the trail, I heard about people's concerns with health care, with immigration, with the economy, with just having a job that it was a one job that was able to provide for them. These are the issues that I feel a lot of people they're able to experience when they travel, when they go out. These are the issues that impact voters that are going to vote in this election.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Jasmine, take us behind the scenes, favorite moment "On the Trail". Give us the dirt.

WRIGHT: Well, I think one of my favorite moments is actually in the movie, it's that Iowa caucus night where, you know, surprisingly, there were no results. And it was so exciting because it was so abnormal to tradition, and that just heightened the amount that we needed reporting on it, right. We needed to find out about what was happening, we needed to find out where the results were. And I think in that scene, you see Kyung saying, OK, go find reporting. So -- because she was, you know, doing her live shots. So it was really up to me to figure out what the reporting wasn't covering a tour.

And so I think that that was really one of my most exciting and fun times and, you know, kind of just living in that chaos and feeling that adrenaline rush.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Any election without a result on the night perhaps a harbinger of things to come.

Good luck out on the trail. Danielle Diaz, Jasmine Wright, thanks very much.

WRIGHT: Thank you for having us.

[10:55:00] SCIUTTO: You can watch the new documentary "On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries". It's now streaming on HBO Max.

HARLOW: Can't wait to see it. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. Newsroom with Kate Bolduan starts right after a quick break.

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