Journalist Anderson Cooper said at a discussion for ASU’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy that race in America is still a pertinent issue, and creating dialogue among different people will get the nation closer to being a better state.
Many audience members asked Cooper how to stop the deaths of young, black men, like the recent death of Walter Scott, a man killed by a police officer after fleeing a traffic stop in South Carolina.
“I don’t think this is a trend; it’s not anything new,” Cooper said. “I’m not saying this to disparage police officers. I know a lot of great police officers that take that very seriously. What we’re seeing now is what’s been happening without a lot of documentation.”
Cooper said seeing the documented experiences of others can change the way people view the world.
“When you have one isolated incident over here and you have another isolated incident over here, after a while, how many isolated incidents is it until that’s just the way it is?” Cooper said.
Cooper said one of the greatest lessons in his life has been learning “the commonality of being human beings” through his travel to other countries and cultures.
“We are all human beings,” Cooper said. “We are all linked. We are closer than we realize. When you start to scratch away at it and you start to talk to people, the commonalities are very present.”
Cooper said growing up, he always recognized police officers as guardians and people whose job was to keep him safe, but he never thought there were people in the world who were afraid of those guardians.
“There’s a real difference in perception and a difference in experience,” Cooper added. “I think seeing other peoples’ experiences happen on camera, that helps change the perception.”
Cooper related the polarization between races in American society to the gay community.
“It’s one of the blessings of being gay that you have,” Cooper said. “I think if you can say there’s a gay community and a straight community, I think in the straight world people are much more segregated than they are in the gay world. You have a common experience with someone. There is a democracy to it just by being a gay person in this society.”
Cooper said people should stay current with international events. War can seem far away for those who don’t have a direct interest in it, he said.
Matthew C. Whitaker, founding director of the CSRD, said the center’s main goal is “to help educate people through research to help have conversations … (which will) bring us together so we can forge in unison a better democracy.”
Whitaker said history is filled with examples of people being able to “overcome remarkable things,” from slavery to genocide to the Holocaust.
“Whatever the case may be, when we band together and we know ourselves, we … are standing in a better position to enact positive change,” Whitaker said.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton announced at the event that Whitaker has been contracted by the City of Phoenix to provide cultural competency, procedural justice and legitimacy training to the Phoenix Police Department.
“This is good for our department and good for Phoenix,” Stanton said.
Contact the reporter at ntyau@asu.edu.
