WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Good evening.
I'm William Brangham.
Judy Woodruff is away.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: a dream deferred.
A deadline comes and goes, leaving uncertainty for the fates of hundreds of thousands of
immigrants.
And Republican leaders break with the president on trade.
Then: West Virginia's public school teachers are on strike for the eighth day, after lawmakers
fail to meet their demands.
Plus: working for a brighter future -- how a garment factory in El Salvador is using
education to empower those who are often left behind.
RODRIGO BOLANOS, General Manager: I saw the American dream, where lower- and middle-class
kids can work and study at night.
And for me, that is a good way to resolve, to give the American dream right here in El
Salvador.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: President Trump is holding firm on his plan to impose new tariffs on
steel and aluminum imports.
He insisted today he's going ahead, and he warned Canada and Mexico not to expect exemptions,
unless they renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The president spoke as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval
Office.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We're not backing down.
We are renegotiating NAFTA, as I said I would.
And if we don't make a deal, I will terminate NAFTA.
But if I do make a deal which is fair to the workers and to the American people, that would
be, I would imagine, one of the points that we will negotiate.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan said through a spokeswoman today
that he's extremely worried the tariffs could incite a trade war.
And Republican leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee circulated a letter also opposing
the tariffs.
The visit by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was his first since President Trump recognized
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Today, Mr. Trump said he may travel to Jerusalem in May.
That's when the American Embassy is to be moved from Tel Aviv and reopened.
The decision has alienated Palestinian leaders, but the president insisted there's still a
very good chance for a peace deal.
A 10-member delegation from South Korea met tonight with the leader of North Korea in
Pyongyang.
North Korean state TV quoted Kim Jong-un as saying it's firm will to advance relations
and ease military tensions.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesperson said the U.S. is cautiously optimistic about the
North-Sou talks.
The first humanitarian aid in months entered the besieged suburbs outside of Syria's capital
today.
Government airstrikes continued on Eastern Ghouta, as a U.N. convoy made its way into
the rebel-held area.
U.N. officials decried the bombing and shelling and said they needed calm.
MAN (through translator): We were hoping to enter without shelling sounds because there
must be respect of the cease-fire, especially that this is a humanitarian convoy.
We organized and negotiated 12 to 16 hours to deliver supplies.
This convoy, to off-load it, it will take many hours, so we may be out well after nightfall.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Amid the heavy shelling, the aid convoy had to depart early, after
off-loading only part of its supplies.
And war monitors reported at least 50 people were killed in the ongoing assault today.
A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in Vietnam today, the first such visit since the end
of Vietnam War in 1975.
The U.S. Carl Vinson sailed into the Port of Da Nang carrying 5,000 crew members.
The five-day visit is seen as a counter to China's increasing expansion in the South
China Sea.
The most senior Vatican official charged in the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal appeared
in court in Australia today.
Australian Cardinal George Pell is a former Vatican finance minister who's been accused
of sexually abusing multiple people going back decades.
He attended a hearing in Melbourne on whether there's sufficient evidence to go to trial.
The hearing could last two weeks.
Pell has denied all the allegations.
Back in this country, the race is on to restore power after hurricane-strength winds blasted
the Northeast over the weekend.
Nearly 440,000 homes and businesses were still in the dark today.
Crews from Virginia to Massachusetts repaired downed lines and cleared debris.
They're working against the clock, because another big storm is set to strike midweek.
And on Wall Street, stocks shook off Friday's fears of a trade war.
Major indexes all rose at least 1 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained back 336 points to close at 24874.
The Nasdaq rose 72 points, and the S&P 500 added 29.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": a victory for populism and the far-right in Italy's
national election; the political stakes of President Trump's steel tariffs; a Salvadoran
garment factory that's offering jobs and hope in a gang-ridden neighborhood; and much more.
Italians went to the polls yesterday in Europe's latest test of the political strength of populist
and right-wing parties across the continent.
While Angela Merkel in Germany and Emmanuel Macron in France survived that wave last year,
in Italy yesterday, centrist and left-leaning parties were drowned by it.
The two biggest winners, the populist Five Star Movement and the right-wing League, earned
better than 50 percent of the vote, while the establishment political parties, those
that have mostly held power in Italy since World War II, lost big.
Special correspondent Christopher Livesay joins me now from Rome to help us sift through
the results.
So, Chris, this seems a pretty dramatic upending of the traditional left-right parties that
we think of in Italy.
Can you tell us, who came out on top, who took it on the chin?
CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY: Well, as you mentioned, populists really came out on top.
The biggest among the populists is a relatively young party.
It's called the Five Star Movement.
They were born about nine years ago.
The founder was a stand-up comic, and they are mostly railing against political corruption
and a tepid economy, high unemployment, namely youth unemployment.
Over the last nine years, youth unemployment has actually gone above 40 percent at times.
It's still scandalously high, in the 30s, so that's what they were really riding on,
and they have rode it all the way to the head of the polls.
They came out with over 30 percent.
The leader of their party is a young man, only 31 years old, a college dropout by the
name of ®MD-BO¯Luigi Di Maio.
He has scant political experience, but these days, that's a feature and not a bug.
He's seen by his followers, at least, as being untainted by what they see as corrupt traditional
Italian politics.
But perhaps even more surprising than the rise of the Five Star Movement is the rise
of another, more radical populist party called the League.
Their main platform is that they are against migration.
In fact, they want to deport approximately 600,000 migrants who have come to Italy in
the last few years.
So these two populist parties with ideas that many would consider to be radical edged out
the traditional parties.
So the center-right party of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, they did really
poorly, and this probably sounds the death knell for his very long political career.
He's 81 years old now.
It's hard to imagine him making a comeback at this point.
And then, of course, the outgoing ruling party, the center-left Democratic Party, they came
away with less than 20 percent, so they took a real beating.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Given that we say Merkel and Macron both be able to hold bag this sort
of populist anti-immigrant tide, now we have seen the opposite in Italy.
What does that mean for the rest of the continent?
CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY: So, this result should really be a wakeup call, I think, to the rest
of Europe.
I mean, the fact that this party, the League, could really grow as much as it has in recent
years is really phenomenal.
It used to be something of a fringe party that only had a strong following in the north.
So I think, you know, it's a wakeup call to the rest of Europe, at this point, absolutely.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, special correspondent Christopher Livesay, thank you so much.
CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY: Thanks for having me.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We turn now to politics back here in the U.S.
In the fall, President Trump and announced the so-called DACA program, which gives protection
to immigrants brought to this country illegally as children, would end, effective today.
But that deadline has been delayed, for now.
Lisa Desjardins lays out where things stand.
LISA DESJARDINS: For dozens of protesters marching toward the U.S. Capitol in support
of so-called dreamers, this wasn't a silent deadline, but it was only a symbolic one,
as their issue sits in limbo.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last fall the DACA program would end by March 5
unless Congress acted.
JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. Attorney General: We firmly believe this is the responsible path.
LISA DESJARDINS: But Congress has not acted, despite flurries of meetings, including one
where President Donald Trump seemed to embrace compromise.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Let's see if we can get something done.
LISA DESJARDINS: Two days later, he rejected the leading bipartisan deal.
Democrats tried a three-day government shutdown over the issue.
The result?
No action.
Instead, the action has been in the courts.
In January and February two different federal judges temporarily blocked the Trump administration's
plans, leaving DACA in operation for now, while lawsuits are pending.
Those now sit with an appeals court, which the Supreme Court is waiting for, and encouraged
to act expeditiously.
Some in Congress were looking to the next funding deadline, March 23, as the next potential
DACA showdown.
But, today, the Senate's number two Democrat, Dick Durbin, indicated this time his party
won't tie immigration to the spending bill.
SEN.
RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL), Minority Whip: I don't think that will include these other topics.
I think it's going to be focused exclusively on spending.
LISA DESJARDINS: In the meantime, some 21,000 previous DACA recipients failed to reapply
on time, and now have no status.
In all, nearly 800,000 people have been in the DACA program.
For now, most of them safe from deportation, but not one of them knows how long that will
last.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In addition to the protests over immigration, it was another wild day
in Washington.
Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran said he will resign on April 1 because of poor health.
The 80-year-old Republican chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee.
And a former Trump campaign aide announced he will defy a subpoena from the special counsel
in the Russia probe.
Sam Nunberg left the campaign in its early days.
Today, he rejected any suggestion that the Trump team colluded with Russia.
But he also said he thinks the special prosecutor may have evidence against the president.
It's a perfect time for Politics Monday with Tamara Keith of NPR and Susan Page, Washington
bureau chief for USA Today.
Welcome to you both.
TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Thank you.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So we can all agree it really was a wild day, officially.
But let's go back to DACA.
Lisa set up, very nicely, Tam, I think, how we got to this point.
Where do we go from here?
There is so much grassroots effort and enthusiasm to get this solved.
And I would point out this was also -- there was some bipartisan agreement at one point
that DACA should be addressed.
How do we go from here?
TAMARA KEITH: So, President Trump today tweeted, hey, let's make a deal.
But the White House is also saying that the president has laid out his four principles,
the things he wants.
What happened is that the president had met with bipartisan members of Congress.
He said send me with whatever you can come up with, I will sign it.
Then, next thing you know, he is saying, actually, I have these four principles, I need these
four things, and without these four things, I won't do it.
The Senate voted on the president's principles, and of all the things the Senate voted on
a few weeks ago related to immigration, that got the least support.
It had something like 39 yes votes.
It had a majority who opposed it, and that included Republicans.
So it's not clear where it goes from here.
And without that really firm, pressing deadline, Congress just doesn't move quickly.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Susan, you were saying before that, when it comes to immigration, we have
seen this movie before.
SUSAN PAGE, Washington Bureau Chief, USA Today: That's right.
We saw President George W. Bush pursue an immigration package, and then President Obama
did, and then President Trump said he wanted to pursue one.
But the fact is, when the Senate was moving toward a bipartisan deal, the president undercut
that movement by tying new limits on legal immigration to the effort to protect the so-called
dreamers.
The fact is there is a national consensus that the dreamers should be allowed to stay
legally in this country.
There's no political consensus in Washington.
The country's made a judgment on this.
In that way, it's like a guns debate.
You take a poll, Americans agree on this by a pretty sizable number.
It's just that Washington can't seem to make a deal.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, take up this point, Tam, that Susan mentions.
On the issue of guns, we saw the president last week following the Parkland shootings
say -- he brought a bunch of bipartisan group of lawmakers together, indicated that he wanted
to have a big, omnibus, comprehensive gun control piece of legislation, harden schools.
And then he meets with the NRA and it seems like now in the Senate and Congress that nothing
is going to happen.
What happened to that momentum?
TAMARA KEITH: I think that what we have learned is that when President Trump has a big bipartisan
meeting of members of Congress that's televised, it's like throwing spaghetti against a wall
and whatever the president says isn't necessarily what the president believes or, more to the
point, what the president is going to push for.
And the president has shown with both of those -- in both those cases that he's not actually
willing to expend political capital to make the deal.
SUSAN PAGE: It's always safe to vote against action, especially when it comes to limits
on guns.
The one thing that might shake up this paralysis are the marches that students are leading
on March 24.
And the question we have had is, is this a moment that terrifies politicians enough that
they actually pass something that Americans support?
I mean, support for things like universal background checks or limits on assault weapons,
they are all but universal in this country.
A majority by big margins of big gun owners support them.
So I wonder if these very articulate students with their heartbreaking stories about what
happened at their schools might move this debate at last.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We will obviously be watching how that one goes.
Tam, we also saw today a cleavage within the GOP over President Trump's proposed tariffs
on steel and aluminum.
He came out very forcefully and has been for several days now tweeting very strongly why
he thinks that this is important to do.
But within his own GOP all the way up to Paul Ryan saying, no, trade wars are bad ideas.
They don't get won.
Don't do this.
How do they resolve that?
TAMARA KEITH: President Trump has found a way to drive a wedge within his own party,
which is a relatively impressive thing to do.
All along, he's been sort of governing -- he talks like a populist and he has been governing
like sort of an establishment Republican.
Here's a case where he has been literally saying the same things about trade and America
getting a bad deal for, like, 30 years, that you know, guns, immigration, taxes.
There's nothing that he believes more fundamentally in his core that he has been more consistent
on than this trade issue.
And now, all of a sudden, he's being told by members of his own party and members of
his own administration, no, this is not a great idea, you can't do this.
The president clearly doesn't want to hear that.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Susan, we have a couple of these little that are elections coming
up.
We have got Texas, we have got Illinois, we have got Pennsylvania, all possibly different
little barometers of how the president is doing, how much his message is resonating
or is being used to support Democrats.
Democrats think they are riding an enormous blue wave.
What does your reporting tell you?
SUSAN PAGE: There are red flags for Republicans everywhere, and I don't mean because it looks
so good for the Republican Party.
I mean signs of trouble.
You look at this Pennsylvania special House election, which is next week, it's a district
that President Trump carried by 19 percentage points.
It is really tied up now.
It's entirely possible that the Democrat will win.
You look at Texas, which has its primary tomorrow.
And they have concluded early voting.
If you look at the early voting, the early voting by Republicans is up by 11 percent.
Early voting by Democrats is up 24 percent.
And that is a sign of energy and enthusiasm among Democrats, even in a state like Texas,
which has not elected a Democrat statewide in almost a quarter of a century.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lastly, quickly to you, do you think there is a blue wave coming?
TAMARA KEITH: Well, just another sign of that enthusiasm, Democrats in Texas have fielded
candidates in every single congressional district.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In Texas.
TAMARA KEITH: This is the first time that has happened in 25 years.
Democrats -- and this is happening not just in Texas, but all the over the country, that
in districts where Democrats typically haven't even tried to play, they are now playing.
So if there is a wave, and it's more like a tsunami, all of a sudden, we're going to
be learning about Democrats we didn't even know existed.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Tamara Keith, Susan Page, thank you both very much.
TAMARA KEITH: Thank you.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": West Virginia teachers strike statewide for the eighth straight
day; two Afghan women leading the charge to get more women involved in public service;
and a call for inclusion at the 90th Academy Awards.
But first: combining school and work to build a brighter future for employees and their
communities.
In his final report from El Salvador, Fred de Sam Lazaro visits a garment factory that
hires workers who are normally left out of society, including ex-gang members.
It's part of Fred's series Agents for Change.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Fifty thousand T-shirts and sweatshirts buzz through the sewing machines
in this factory every week, bearing the seals and mascots of some 1,600 U.S. universities,
Princeton, Michigan, Kenyon College, each one, it seems, a reminder to general manager
Rodrigo Bolanos of what El Salvador desperately needs.
RODRIGO BOLANOS, General Manager: Now, only if you have an educated population, you can
do something for this country.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And you don't right now?
RODRIGO BOLANOS: Seventy percent of the population have not finished school.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It's one consequence of the brutal civil war in the 1980s from which
El Salvador has never recovered; 75,000 people died.
Many more were displaced.
Many migrated to the U.S., and many of those deported back here have been responsible for
escalating gang violence that has given this country the world's highest homicide rate.
RODRIGO BOLANOS: We are one of the few being left behind.
We have to, as a country, unite and put a plan together just the way we're doing it
here.
I'm working with the community to make sure that all the kids end up in college.
We offer English every an half-hour.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: About a fifth of the 550 workers at this League sportswear factory
are high school dropouts, a gap in their education that Bolanos demands they fix if they want
to keep their jobs.
Failure to get their high school equivalency degree draws a stern lecture and a not-too-subtle
threat.
RODRIGO BOLANOS: If you don't study, this is not the place for you.
You have to study.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Bolanos often brings back those he's fired if they make a new commitment
to study.
People deserve a second chance, he says, or a first.
His work force is a cross-section of the unlikeliest hires for a factory job in El Salvador.
FRANCISCO ESCALANTE, Factory Worker (through translator): In this country, it's hard to
find a job, especially when you have a disability.
Nobody will hire you.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Twenty-seven-year old Francisco Escalante is among two dozen disabled
workers here.
Blind since he was a 8 years old, Escalante works in the quality control lab.
His fingers, sensitized by reading braille, are ideally suited to detect any imperfection
in the millions of feet of fabric.
FRANCISCO ESCALANTE (through translator): It's most important that the cloth is as smooth
as possible.
There are five different categories that I have to check in order to certify that the
cloth is up to standard.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Another category of workers are former gang members, identifiable by their
trademark tattoos and unemployable most places because of them; 39-year-old Carlos Arguetta
says he was a leader in the notorious MS-13 gang, but gave up gang life when he joined
an evangelical church.
He told me that when he heard League Outfitters was hiring, he hid his elaborate body art
for the job interview.
CARLOS ARGUETTA, Factory Worker (through translator): Mr. Bolanos said, "Why are you dressed with
long sleeves?
Do you have tattoos?"
And I said yes.
And he said, "Don't worry about that anymore.
That's your past.
Now you have to start thinking about your future."
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Arguetta now works security during the day, and takes intensive English
classes in the plant at night.
He dreams that someday he will own his own business, but, for now, is grateful for the
job he has.
CARLOS ARGUETTA (through translator): If I didn't have a job like this one, I would probably
still be part of the gang and be doing killings.
I want to send the message that we need these kind of opportunities.
We need prevention programs.
That's what this country needs.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Another former gang member, Oswaldo Henriquez, was with a rival group,
the 18th Street gang.
OSWALDO HENRIQUEZ, Factory Worker (through translator): I cannot tell you where I would
be if I hadn't gotten the chance to work here.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He is now in his second year of college, studying mechanical engineering.
The two-year college is located inside the factory walls and is affiliated with the University
of Don Bosco.
Bolanos says he got the idea while in Houston, Texas, where he studied engineering.
RODRIGO BOLANOS: I saw the American dream, where lower- and middle-class kids can work
and study at night in community colleges.
And for me, that is a good way to resolve and to give the American dream right here
in El Salvador to all these poor people.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Four years ago, Bolanos created a new pipeline to get employees into
this unusual garment factory college.
He teamed up with a nearby school, promising every student who graduates a job in the factory
by day, and college by night.
The idea is to give these young people an incentive to finish high school, instead of
dropping out and joining a gang.
At their school, heavily armed soldiers patrol to keep gang recruiters at bay.
Principal Davidos Sandoval says the partnership with League Outfitters has transformed the
school.
DAVIDOS SANDOVAL, Principal (through translator): Before we had the relationship, we had a 36
percent dropout rate.
And now nobody drops out.
League gives the students an opportunity to keep dreaming about their future.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Rodrigo Bolanos keeps dreaming as well.
He's begun several start-up companies within the garment factory to tap the higher skills
being acquired by his newly college-educated workers.
RODRIGO BOLANOS: He used to work as a sewer on the floor.
And now he's repairing boards.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: If El Salvador is to join the 21st century economy, he says, it needs
to create 21st century jobs, and provide them to all its citizens.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Ciudad Arce, El Salvador.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at University
of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
Public school teachers in West Virginia are on strike for the eighth consecutive day.
Schools in all of the state's 55 counties remain closed to more than a quarter million
students.
Teachers, who are about 20,000 strong, say they're striking for better working conditions,
better health insurance and increased pay.
They are among the lowest paid teachers in the country, with an average salary of about
$45,000 a year.
Last week, Republican Governor Jim Justice approved a 5 percent pay raise for teachers,
which passed the state House.
But that measure didn't make it past the state Senate, prompting teachers to stay on the
picket line into today.
For the latest on this strike, I'm joined by Ryan Quinn of The Charleston Gazette-Mail.
Ryan Quinn, thank you very much for being here.
Can you just lay out roughly, what are the issues at stake here for the teachers?
RYAN QUINN, The Charleston Gazette-Mail: The biggest one is their health insurance coverage,
Public Employees Insurance Agency coverage.
They want benefit cuts and insurance premium increases to stop, and they want long-term
funding promises to prevent those in the future, although they seem to happy at this time with
the governor's task force to actually work on those into the future.
Secondarily is pay.
They have -- they want this pay increase that the governor has proposed and that the House
of Delegates have passed of 5 percent for next school year to actually go through.
That would equal about a $2,000 raise for teachers for next school year.
And then they also don't want other bills to pass that they oppose, like ones that would
make it more difficult to divert their paychecks to pay union dues and ones downplaying the
role of seniority and layoffs and transfers.
They want those all to disappear.
Seems like that's going to happen.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I know you're in the state capitol right now as we speak.
And the crowds are growing so big both inside and outside that they had to close the building
for safety fears.
With this much attention and this much passion, how do you see this playing out?
RYAN QUINN: It's tough to tell.
The Senate was met by -- we have 55 counties in West Virginia.
School systems' border are contiguous with the counties, so each of them has one superintendent.
Over 40 county superintendents came to the capitol on Friday, told the Senate president
that we're going to have a really tough time actually getting our workers back into schools
and, thereby, getting students back into schools, unless you pass this 5 percent pay raise for
next school year.
And the Senate president has not yet actually acquiesced to that demand, and the strike
continues.
And it's now tied our last statewide strike, our last teacher strike at all, 1990.
And it's up to eight school days now, and it looks like it's going to continue tomorrow
if action isn't taken, and that will break the record.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do the teachers have the public support?
I can imagine there's a lot of working parents in West Virginia who, while they may support
better pay and benefits, also have kids that they want to get back into school.
Do they have public support for this?
RYAN QUINN: It seems like it.
I have gotten some calls from angry parents, and I have seen some posts on social media.
But, consistently, we have county school systems that are refusing to take legal action to
try to stop the strike.
It's generally agreed, although it's only been tested I think once previously in court,
that public school employees don't actually have the right to strike.
And yet you don't see county school systems trying to take legal action or the Department
of Education trying to take legal action or anyone else to actually try to get them back
into classrooms.
So it seems like the county school systems are going to continue as they have for the
past few days.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Ryan Quinn of The Charleston Gazette-Mail, thank you so
much.
RYAN QUINN: Thank you.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Much of the news from Afghanistan is about war, an endless war, between the
government and Taliban militants.
Attacks in Kabul happen almost weekly.
But even after years of fighting, efforts to rebuild continue.
Recently, a delegation of Afghan women leaders visited Washington, and we wanted to talk
with some of them about what life is like for them in their country.
This conversation took place before Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered to bring the
Taliban directly into the political process.
Judy Woodruff spoke with two of these women.
Shararzad Akbar is a senior adviser to President Ghani.
Before that, she was country director for the Open Society Foundation.
Muqaddesa Yourish is a member of Afghanistan's Civil Service Commission.
Prior to that, she was director of human resources for the city of Kabul.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Shararzad Akbar, Muqaddesa Yourish, welcome to the program.
Shararzad Akbar, let me start with you.
People think of Afghanistan as a country in the middle of a war.
Is it not consumed with fighting?
SHARARZAD AKBAR, Senior Adviser to President Ghani: War is a part of the reality -- a part
of our reality, an important part of it, but it's not the whole of our reality.
It's also a country that's being reconstructed.
It's a country that is undergoing a generational shift in leadership.
It's also a country that's undergoing widespread social and cultural change.
Gender norms are being discussed.
What does it mean to be an Afghan in a modern world?
This is a part of a discussion.
Thousands of people are pursuing higher education.
Millions of children are graduating from schools.
So it's much broader than that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Why are you trying to get more women involved in public service, in visible
public service jobs?
SHARARZAD AKBAR: It matters greatly to improving the life of everyone in Afghanistan, I think,
to have women in public service, particularly in the lives of women.
When we are around the table, we are present in the room, the discussions include women,
the discussions include women's well-being, the availability of services to women, and
also the specific needs of women.
But also we have brilliant, well-educated, experienced, competent women in Afghanistan
who deserve to be in the Afghan government and in the decision-making processes, and
our government needs that expertise desperately.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Muqaddesa Yourish, how do you persuade women that they should take a public
role?
What are the questions they have when you talk to them?
MUQADDESA YOURISH, Afghan Civil Service Commission: What I always talk about is how we, as senior
women in the government, are a testimony to the fact that the government of Afghanistan
is very open to giving women equal opportunities to be part of the government.
And at the same time, as my role as a commissioner in the Civil Service Commission, we have continuously
been trying to make sure that we have policies such as work safety policies, and also measures
such as a career coaching center for women to make sure that we provide an enabling environment
for women to feel safe in the workplace and also to come forward and join the civil service.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, that is a concern that many Afghan women have?
MUQADDESA YOURISH: Traditionally, you know, there's a strong disbelief about a woman's
credibility and also women being in the government.
So I think a big part of what we are doing in the Civil Service Commission in terms of
making sure that we provide the enabling environment for women to be in the government also feeds
into that bigger picture of making sure that we fight with that -- credibility that exists
for women.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Shararzad Akbar, how much do you have to overcome what men think of women
and their role and what their role should be?
SHARARZAD AKBAR: There's a lot to overcome about people's perceptions, both men and women
in some cases.
I have constantly walked into rooms full of men.
I sit in meetings.
And the first few weeks when I had assumed my position, a lot of people looked at me
and thought, oh, OK, government wants to look diverse, they have just brought a young woman
here, she probably is not qualified for this job.
So, that was the assumption.
And changing that assumption, building relationships, having a voice on political issues, all of
this takes a lot of daily courage, I think.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Sure.
SHARARZAD AKBAR: And every time I spoke up initially, I was hesitant, and my voice would
shake.
I would be worried about people's judgments, my colleague's judgments.
But, slowly, I have started to build a network of support with other women in the government.
That is something that is also very, very important, with women in the civil service,
all of us support each other, give each other tips.
But also male colleagues come to view you differently when they see your work.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I was going to say, some of these things happen, I think, to women everywhere,
not just in Afghanistan.
SHARARZAD AKBAR: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Muqaddesa Yourish, are there parts of Afghanistan where you can go and
openly recruit?
Are there parts where you cannot?
We know the Taliban still holds a great deal of influence in your country.
MUQADDESA YOURISH: There are conflicted areas where sometimes the government has control
of the area, and other times the Taliban, but -- and we call them sometimes -- whenever
they're under the control of the Taliban, we call them the inaccessible districts and
villages.
I wouldn't really say it's at the provincial level, but it's obviously at the village or
district level.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you think -- Shararzad, how do you think the work you are doing may
change your country?
SHARARZAD AKBAR: It's difficult living in Kabul.
It's a city -- and working in Kabul -- it's a city that, as you know, is constantly attacked.
And some attacks really leave you wounded and angry and also in a state of despair.
But then I look at everything around me that gives me hope.
I see a generation of women younger than me.
They are more assertive, they are more confident, they have a lot of dreams for Afghanistan.
I see my colleagues in the government, and I see that we are developing a common language
on development, on politics.
We are redefining our vision for Afghanistan.
I see that more and more interested in politics of values, rather than politics of ethnicity
or religion.
And when I see all these signs, I see the major trends of how, for instance, the government
is being reformed from within and it's actually becoming about service, rather than power.
When I see these major trends, that gives me hope and inspires me every day.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And Muqaddesa Yourish, just finally, education.
How much of this depends on young women being able to get a good education?
And is education able everywhere to women?
MUQADDESA YOURISH: We definitely have had advances when it comes to education for girls
and women in the past 17 years.
We have more and more families who are willing to send their girls to school.
And, very recently, we announced 17,000 civil service vacancies, and 3,000 of them are specific
vacancies for women teachers.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It adds up to a lot of potential change and a lot of change right now, and
certainly is another dimension to your country.
Thank you very much for being with us, Muqaddesa Yourish and Shararzad Akbar.
We appreciate it.
SHARARZAD AKBAR: Thank you for having us.
MUQADDESA YOURISH: Thank you for having us.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Thank you.
MUQADDESA YOURISH: Thank you.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the wake of the MeToo and TimesUp movements, last night's Academy
Awards had a very different vibe from the past.
Several presenters and host Jimmy Kimmel spoke about changing the culture of the movie business,
and pushing to make it far more inclusive, both in front of and behind the camera.
Jeffrey Brown looks at a particular call for action.
JEFFREY BROWN: A striking moment came when Frances McDormand accepted the Oscar for best
actress for her performance in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."
She told the audience she had some things to say, and then put the focus directly on
the issue of inclusion and disparities in Hollywood.
Here's part of her speech.
FRANCES MCDORMAND, Actress: If I may be so honored to have all the female nominees in
every category stand with me in this room tonight, the actors -- Meryl, if you do it,
everybody else will.
Come on.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
FRANCES MCDORMAND: The filmmakers, the producers, the directors, the writers, the cinematographer,
the composers, the songwriters, the designers.
Come on.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
FRANCES MCDORMAND: OK, look around, everybody.
Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we
need financed.
Don't talk to us about it at the parties tonight.
Invite us into your office in a couple days, or you can come to ours, whichever suits you
best, and we will tell you all about them.
I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: inclusion rider.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JEFFREY BROWN: Two words, but many were left wondering what they mean.
Well, my guest is credited with inventing the idea of the inclusion rider.
Stacy Smith is founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California,
where she's released regular reports on the representation of women and others in film.
She joins me now from Los Angeles.
So, Stacy Smith, welcome to you.
I gather you were as surprised as anybody by that.
What exactly is an inclusion rider?
STACY SMITH, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, University of Southern California: Indeed,
I was shocked.
An inclusion rider is really straightforward.
It's a stipulation in an actor or a content creator's contract that says there will be
target inclusion goals on screen for diversity in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, LGBT,
people with disabilities, and behind the camera, below the line, that good-faith efforts and
interviewing will consider women and people of color in key gatekeeping positions.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, it's not affecting leading roles, right, but the idea is that the lead
actors have the clout or directors have the clout to get this done?
STACY SMITH: Absolutely.
We wanted to respect story sovereignty and ensure that the creative process could thrive.
We also don't stipulate for a historical piece that inclusion goals on screen have to be
met.
For historical dramas, they can cast based on what that might entail for the period or
for the story that's trying to be told.
But for stories that represent present day and take place in cities like Los Angeles,
or New York, or Chicago, the story should look like the world in which we live, and
that has not been the case in decades in Hollywood.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, you know, you have been looking at this lack of inclusion in Hollywood
for a long time, I know.
So, what's the nature of the bias that you see that this would address?
STACY SMITH: Well, there's not just one bias when it comes to hiring in Hollywood, but
I think that the inclusion rider at its outset was really trying to tackle implicit bias
in the auditioning and casting process.
Often, you would see a script, and somebody might have firefighter, police officer, or
plumber, and automatically that raises a perception or a thought that it should be filled by a
male.
And to really counter those occupational biases or those role biases, you need guidelines
to help casting directors slow down and be thoughtful and really consider broadly the
talent that can fill different positions that are oftentimes very minor in films, but are
important in terms of building a pipeline of talent.
JEFFREY BROWN: You know, Frances McDormand herself last night said she had just learned
about this rider.
Is the rider in use now?
Are there examples where people have used it?
STACY SMITH: Well, I think, informally, many times, actors have negotiated through their
representatives with different production teams or studios about what they value.
We took it a step forward.
We concretized the language, ensured that there are inclusion criteria in defensible
language that actors can use.
And we have given out that language to multi individuals that are very prestigious when
it comes to their acting careers and have met with entertainment attorneys and agents
across the industry.
So it has been in use.
And had I known this was coming, I would have received -- or reached out to get permission
to talk about the people who have used the rider.
But I'm hoping we can circle back very soon and let you know just how many and how often
it's in place and the impact that it's had on storytelling in film.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, it clearly got a lot of attention last night.
What's the reaction since, and how hard will it be to implement in a larger scale?
STACY SMITH: Well, the reaction has been absolutely amazing.
There is so much visibility now in the press on this issue, and that this tool can be used
by actors and content creators.
And it's really easy for this to be adopted by agencies, to put it in the hands of every
single one of their clients and ask if they would like inclusion criteria in their contract
negotiations for all their upcoming projects.
So, implementation is easy.
This is about just having people say yes across the institutional stakeholders that have typically
said no when it comes to decision-making in Hollywood.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right, Stacy Smith, thank you very much.
STACY SMITH: Thank you.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And we will be back shortly with a perspective on how race can affect
self-confidence.
But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.
It's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air.
(BREAK)
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Ignoring what others think about you is easier said than done.
Morgan Jerkins is an acclaimed writer who speaks six languages.
And, tonight, she offers her Humble Opinion on overcoming what's called impostor syndrome.
MORGAN JERKINS, Author, "This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female,
and Feminist in (White) America": It was in the eighth grade when my intelligence was
questioned for the first time.
Every week, each student in my social studies class would have to present a topic, and if
the teacher thought that that student didn't know the meaning of a word, you would have
to define it.
My words were formulate and enigmatic.
Not too long afterwards, that same teacher accused me of cheating to my parents.
My film studies teacher told me that I would never be a director and that it was best for
me to do more behind-the-scenes work.
My high school guidance counselor attempted to steer me away from the Ivies and suggested
community college instead because she assumed that my parents wouldn't be able to afford
it.
All of these teachers were white.
In a 2016 study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and American University,
it was revealed that white teachers expect less academic success than black teachers
expect from the same black students.
A white teacher is 30 percent less likely to think a black student will graduate from
a four-year college and is 40 percent less likely to think that a
black student will graduate from high school.
So, why am I bringing this up now, with high school many years behind me?
Have you ever heard of the term impostor syndrome?
Impostor syndrome is the inability to absorb one's accomplishments and the persistent fear
that one will be exposed as a fraud.
I feel it now even when I'm writing for prestigious publications, even after I got a book deal
from a top publishing house.
I kept wondering why.
It wasn't until I realized my success two years ago that I understood how much of that
difficulty to believe in myself came from childhood, especially those experiences with
those teachers who tried to derail my growth.
I had written off those experiences as being normal for a black girl.
And, besides, if I had spoken up, I thought I would be seen as troublesome.
But it's not normal.
We have to see it for it is.
For black girls and women out there who have had their abilities questioned, and in turn
have doubted themselves, even when they have accomplished great things, there is a reason:
Other people do not expect greatness from you, and, therefore, they don't want you to
expect it either.
You have earned everything you worked hard for.
But it's also beneficial to acknowledge the roots, the memories that fueled this doubt,
memories that tell you, you're not good enough.
But you are good enough.
More than enough.
You are.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: On the "NewsHour" online right now: The next book in our "NewsHour"/"New
York Times" book club, Now Read This, is the novel "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid.
If you're reading along, you can find discussion questions and learn more about the book club
on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm William Brangham.
Join us again online and here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and good night.
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