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I'm Lee Cowan, and this is Sunday Morning. The number of COVID cases kept its unrelenting march upward in many parts of the country this past week. As frightening as that news is for all of us, it's especially worrisome for Black Americans, who, for a variety of reasons, are at highest risk of old.

Alison Albury will report our cover story. As the nation erupted in protests over police brutality, Keishia Matthews had her own struggle. I've never been as scared in my life. I didn't think I was coming home.

It was hard. Black Americans are at higher risk of getting the coronavirus. People are now hungry, and they are hurting. Coming up on Sunday Morning, race and the pandemic. Doing a late night talk show without a studio audience has been tough on comics. Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, included. He's in conversation this morning with our Jim Axelrod. When do you think you'll be back in?

No clue. When the pandemic shut down his studio, Trevor Noah took The Daily Show online. Hey, everybody. Trevor Noah here.

And for the stand-up comic. You know what's really interesting about what's happening in America right now? It's become a standout moment. How do you find the funny in it? Sometimes I don't find the funny in it. I use the funny to deal with it.

Laughs and lessons ahead on Sunday Morning. Bill Whittaker is asking the perennial question, what's cooking? But he's not posing it to just any chef. He's dining with the award-winning chef, Dominique Krenn. Just smell it. With chef Dominique Krenn, each plate is a unique creation, with an eclectic mix of ingredients to delight the palate. The seaweed, the apple butter.

And even with an incredible three Michelin stars, she doesn't consider herself a chef. I just found a way of speaking. It was not a pen. It was not a brush. It was food. Later on Sunday Morning, what's cooking with Dominique Krenn? It's beautiful.

Seth Doan walks us through a Rome without tourists. Mulrachka talks with actress Melissa Gilbert about the new popularity of an old TV classic, Little House on the Prairie. Plus, a COVID update from Dr. John Lapook, thoughts from Steve Hartman, and the great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt weighs in on the debate over our statues. His views just might surprise you. Those stories and much more on this Sunday Morning for the 12th of July, 2020.

We'll be right back. As merciless as coronavirus is for so many, it is particularly aggressive for Black Americans, who seem to be at highest risk for a variety of reasons. Our cover story is reported by Allison Aubrey of National Public Radio. As protests against police brutality began in late May, Kayshia Matthews lay in a hospital bed battling COVID-19. I really could not breathe at all. Like, I just felt no air, no nothing. It was scary. It was terrifying. It happened fast. I didn't know where.

Like, it just hit. She was treated by a team of doctors at Johns Hopkins University, including Dr. Panagies Galiatsatos. I couldn't forget how she looked, the fear in her eyes, realizing she could die.

Kayshia Matthews is a Baltimore native and was just about to graduate with a degree in criminal justice and forensic science from Coppin State University. But it wasn't clear if she'd survive. I've never been that scared in my life. I didn't think I was coming home.

It was hard. Young adults are much less likely to die from COVID-19, but... Kayshia was telling us her pre-existing conditions. As soon as she said diabetes, I mean, my heart sank. I wasn't just dealing with now a 27-year-old. I was dealing with someone with one of the variables that we know is going to create a likelihood of worse symptoms.

According to the CDC, people with chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes are a staggering 12 times more likely to die from the virus, and Black Americans have a higher prevalence of these conditions. Kayshia was in the hospital for three weeks and on a ventilator for six days. When she was finally released, she emerged with a new sense of urgency. Taking my house seriously, I need to.

I don't ever want to be put in a situation like that again. But her determination is just one piece of the COVID puzzle. The lifestyle changes needed to tackle chronic disease are often difficult to make in economically challenged areas. One of the reasons why we see disparities ravaged in the minority populations is because those kind of lifestyle requests are really hard to do in neighborhoods that are plagued by homicide, neighborhoods that are plagued by food deserts. And the challenge there is, resources to give them the opportunities to overcome that were at a pace that, in my opinion, is unethical.

Hasan Amin is the imam at Mashida Haq, a mosque in West Baltimore. People are now hungry, and they are hurting. They were hungry and hurting before the virus.

Now they're really doing so because a lot of times the people we serve, these are the ones that are the last hired, first fired. Dr. Galian Santos has teamed up with faith leaders, including Imam Amin, to address these obstacles. I'm Dr. G. If you guys have any questions about COVID-19, I'm happy to answer any.

On this day, he's answering questions at a community event at the mosque where fresh produce and grocery gift cards are being handed out. When is it over? That is the best question, right? How many people here are sick and tired of it? I am.

This is where nature and God really dictate their own peace, right? Dr. Galian Santos' goal is to build relationships. What's your name? Emory.

Emory. Dr. G. Medicine is a public trust. We can't just know the science, right? We have to know the patient and we have to know the community.

It is lethal, man. This is why we're doing what we're doing today. It's a good question. So by bringing him here, you're building bridges.

Oh yeah. We're building bridges slash filling in gaps because right now it's the people don't trust hospitals and doctors. The hope is that partnerships between doctors and community leaders like Imam Amin can help build trust.

Okay folks, you're getting a little too close. We have to do social distancing. Physician Sharita Golden is the chief diversity officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine. The reason those trusted messengers are so important is that there are many of these vulnerable communities that are distrustful of the healthcare system. So this is because of prior historical experiences. From the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment in the 1940s when treatment was deliberately withheld from black men to Dr. James Marion Sims in the 1800s who performed surgical experiments on enslaved black women with no anesthesia, the history of racist mistreatment of black Americans by the medical establishment is well documented. And what still persists today is the misperception that black people are somehow different from other groups of people. There's been sort of this questioning that our African Americans more genetically or biologically vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. And there is no evidence of that. There's nothing genetic or biological about working in a service sector.

Where you have to be essential and you're just going to get exposed because you happen to be there. So there is no evidence that genetics is playing into this at all. But another factor that likely is playing into this. What about the role of stress? Stress can make people more prone to infection.

So what happens is that it alters your body's immune response so that you may be less likely to be able to fight infection as well. The structural racism that induces a form of chronic stress. Thinking about where's my next meal going to come from.

I've got to work three shifts tonight and then I have to worry about my child getting pulled over by the police. Like those chronic stressors, even though you may not feel you are acutely stressed, they are still impacting your hormonal system. Looking back, COVID-19 survivor Kayshia Matthews says she was under tremendous stress when she got the virus. Working a full-time job, going to school, seven classes at one time, two hours of studying, three hours of sleep.

And all of that takes its toll. Imam Hassan Amin points out Black people in Baltimore and around the country are more likely to have the types of jobs that you cannot do from home. And that means that they are exposed to all kinds of people all day long, coughing and sniffling, whatever, and then they end up maybe catching something and then may end up taking it home to their family.

It's one more reason why Blacks and Latinos are about three times as likely to get COVID-19. But Kayshia Matthews says she's now full of hope. When she emerged from the hospital to see Black Lives Matter painted on streets and white people joining Black people to protest injustice, she saw it as a symbol of progress. My goal is to be an FBI special agent. That's my next career goal and that also goes along with me and my health goals. You know, you have to be healthy, fit, in shape.

So another thing that's motivating me. And Dr. Golden says that Kayshia Matthews deserves a country that rewards that determination. This is an important time for us as a country to really think about what are the things we value, what do we want to focus on, and how can we use our power of legislation to really address the issues of making our communities healthier, making our communities safer.

What do you think your role is in pushing for change in your own community? I want my people safe. I want them to have someone they can trust.

I want to have someone they can look up to. You seem hopeful. I am hopeful and determined.

I'm going to always be hopeful. As we've told you, COVID-19 numbers are on the rise in parts of the country. So what is that all about?

Here's our Dr. John Lapook. Let's talk about face masks. In April, we learned that people with few or no symptoms could shed coronavirus and infect others.

That meant we could no longer rely on the simple advice to stay home if you're sick. So health officials advise wearing face masks to prevent people with COVID-19 from spreading it to others. But many have chosen not to wear masks for a variety of reasons, including people not realizing or not caring that they might get infected and be fine, but they could spread the virus to somebody else who could die.

And wearing a mask became entwined with politics, rejected by many as an infringement on their rights. Here's the science that explains why wearing a mask is so important. When we cough or sneeze, larger airborne droplets containing virus can travel, usually up to about six feet. But we now know that smaller particles can be emitted simply by talking or singing and can go much farther and linger in the air for hours. The Centers for Disease Control says respiratory spread of coronavirus between people occurs mainly within six feet. We don't know yet how much of the spread of COVID-19 is due to virus traveling in the air greater than six feet. But it could help explain events like the choir practice in Washington State, where one person apparently infected 52 others inside a church. Last week, nearly 240 scientists urged the World Health Organization to acknowledge the importance of aerosols in potentially spreading COVID-19 past six feet. In response, for the first time, the WHO acknowledged evidence emerging of airborne spread of the novel coronavirus, especially in crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings. More research is needed, including defining exactly what is a safe physical distance both indoors and outdoors.

Here's what makes sense to me. We should wear face masks when physical distancing is not possible. We need to develop more effective, more comfortable, reusable face masks. And a top priority should be improving ventilation in our buildings.

That could be as simple as opening a window or cracking a door. It could include making sure there's adequate air exchange between the inside and outside and installing better air filtration systems. We should not be frightened by the possibility of airborne spread of coronavirus. We should do something about it. The saying, when in Rome, presupposes that you're actually in Rome. A supposition wildly off base this summer as Seth Doan, who lives there, now shows us. There's no doubt Rome's spectacular backdrop remains. But in the wake of the coronavirus, something else is missing.

They are the largest demographic and without them we just don't have a business. Annie Ogile is talking about the American tourists she's always relied on to book Vespa tours through the Eternal City with her company Scooteroma. So now we're going back inside the wall. We first met the Minnesota native in 2017. Don't take the bus.

Get on the Vespa. While working on a Sunday morning story about the stylish scooter that's synonymous with Italy. At the time, business was good. I've always prided myself with that every year we grow. We do more than the year before, except this year. In 2019, more than five and a half million Americans visited Italy, spending nearly three billion dollars. But one travel industry group predicts this year may be the worst for tourism in decades. And last week, the European Union extended its ban on American travelers.

Since COVID, everything has changed. We lost 100% of our bookings. All of them?

All of them. Last June, for example, Ogile and her crew took more than 400 people on trips. Typically, they'd make pit stops here for gelato.

Federica Pudino says they've lost upwards of 60% of their business. We come here between three and six times a day because we stop with each tour. And the tourist is at the center?

Yeah. As cancellations piled up, Ogile started taking pictures of a Rome that was almost unrecognizable without the throngs of tourists. And as Italy has reopened, its museums and famous sites are notably quiet. A lot of people say that Rome has returned to the Romans, but it is absolutely devastating for the economy. And the tourism sector is the first to feel it.

We saw that trickle down at another stop on her tours, to Staccio Market, where she brings visitors for pizza at Casa Manco. You're working with about a third of the business you used to have. So you've lost about 70%?

Yeah, I'd say more or less, yes. Owner Paola Manco misses Americans, even their culinary peculiarities. A bit selective on food. Really? In what ways?

Yeah, they don't like anchovies or they want meat on their, or chicken on the pizza, which is mmm. Has the modern tourism industry ever seen anything like this pandemic? This is definitely a crisis that's unprecedented.

Jennifer Edou is with the European Travel Commission. She says the rest of Europe is facing the same problems. There's one issue of being able to afford it.

People have lost jobs. There's another issue of just simple confusion. Can I get to one place or another? Will there be flights? Will there be quarantine rules? There's a lot of confusion, but at the moment there is a lot of efforts made to make the situation less confusing for travelers that are willing to go on trips again.

Scudaroma is hoping to attract tourists coming from within Europe and is adjusting to COVID by offering rides with masks and socially distanced walking tours featuring street art. During the lockdown was impossible. We were inside a cage, like tigers in cage. It turns out even street artists were affected by the pandemic. It was a very big problem because we had booked a lot of dates because our work is painting around the world.

Everything is priest. We lost like four big commission in all over the world. I do miss the interaction and meeting people from all over the world and having this exchange of energy. Annie Ogile has written off this summer season. And as she fights to save her business is focusing on what she can control, her patience. We're just waiting. I always say all I know is what's happening today and tomorrow.

And then we'll see about the rest. Melissa Gilbert, charmed TV audiences decades ago, is the child star of Little House on the Prairie. These days, Mo Rocca tells us that you're likely to find her down on her farm. This is the rooster.

This is Dr. Fauci. These days, Melissa Gilbert calls Sullivan County, New York home. While you're doing that, I'll just be going. It's very rustic. Just look at my hands.

I have blisters from shoveling and there's dirt everywhere constantly. And I've just given up. This is our little house in the Catskills, I guess you could call it. What's really exciting for me is that nothing has died. It's a setting that suits Gilbert well. After all, we first met her gambling through the great outdoors as Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, based on the beloved series of books and one of the most watched TV shows of the 1970s and early 1980s.

It was like a really great summer camp, but I also got to play the ultimate game of dress up and be in those fantastic clothes and the button up boots. And I don't remember it ever not being fun. Why do we always have to play ring around a Rosie?

Because I say so. Little House is still in reruns. In fact, its popularity has recently been spiking. Why are people watching the show now? Oh my gosh, with everything that's going on in the world right now, I think from what I'm hearing from people is that Little House on the Prairie is a reminder of when things were simpler for us in our lives those 45 years ago. When the show debuted in 1974, the country was in the midst of an oil crisis, a recession, and the Watergate scandal. Little House on the Prairie then provided people with a reminder of what we went through when we started this country and how difficult that was. And I think we're at that place again.

If we could have done what we did in the 1800s and the 1970s, we can do this. The keys are going to be compassion, community, faith, whatever that faith looks like, love. That's it.

That's all that matters. Some of the episodes seem to have been produced with a vision of 2020. There's one about a plague. Plague is the episode with the rats. Family from here, a family from there, and it's spreading. I don't know why.

We could only find the source. Another about a quarantine. You will go straight home and you will not play at one another's homes or farms.

This is a quarantine until further notice. Can you answer me something, sir? And this one about race with actor Todd Bridges playing a child of former slaves who comes through Walnut Grove and is taken in by the Ingalls family. Would you rather be black and live to be 100?

Or white and live to be 50? The question itself is intense enough, but Michael Landon's reaction is he has no answer. And that's where we are.

So please God, answer me. Melissa, just nine years old when she was cast, starred opposite Michael Landon, who was already famous from his days on Bonanza. Landon didn't just play Charles Ingalls, Laura's pa.

He kind of was the show's pa, writing and directing episodes and executive producing the series. Big people have all the fun. You were just a kid with a lot of lines to learn. I had a lot of words, but more than just a lot of words, I did a lot of running.

I'll fetch him. I don't think I ever walked anywhere on that show, even as a young adult. I never walked.

I ran everywhere. And did you always know all your lines cold? Only one time did I not know my lines. And it only happened once. I kept forgetting and I kept forgetting. And Michael finally cut and he said, you don't know your lines, do you? And I started crying. So he cleared the set. He made everybody go away. You just burst into tears.

Just burst into tears because I was busted. And he said, just calm down. We're going to do this.

You're going to learn your lines. And we did it and we did it and we did it. And I finally got it and I was ready. And I said, thank you so much. And I gave him a hug and he said, you're so welcome. And then he got down right in front of me and he said, and that is never happening again, is it?

I think you two better get dressed. I don't want you to be late for church. And there's no buts about it. Now you made a mistake. You're going to own up to it.

And it never did. Gilbert's off-camera life was more complicated. I tell people I do not have a family tree.

I have a family shrub. She was adopted a day after her birth by actors Barbara Crane and Paul Gilbert. When Melissa was 11, she was told her father died of a stroke. I was 45 when I found out that my father had taken his own life. Yeah, that was a very deeply hidden secret from pretty much everybody in my life. Do you think it was a good thing that it was hidden from you? You know what? I think it's my thing that it was hidden from me. It's not my thing, like my fault.

That's what I've been dealt. Would I do something like that with my kids? No, but because I know how damaging those kind of secrets can be. That expression, you're only as sick as your secrets, is absolutely true.

Melissa Gilbert is 56 now, a mother and a grandmother, and married to actor Timothy Busfield. She's the woman she is today, she says, because of her upbringing in Walnut Grove. I absorbed so much without even realizing what I was learning. Really important life lessons about family, community, tolerance.

Because I was saying all of these things and having to understand all of these things, they became a part of what I learned as well. The show's values, where did they come from? The show's values, I think, were absolutely a reflection of the values of our leader, Michael Landon. He was that man.

He believed that people are always really good at heart, and that anyone is redeemable, and that the only way to change things is to do it from a place of love and fairness and understanding. It's unfortunate for so many reasons that he passed away when he did, because I think his voice would have been an incredibly important voice to have today. Michael Landon was just 54 when he died from cancer in 1991. The show he helped bring to television has never been off the air. What do you think Michael Landon would think if he knew that people were still embracing the show? Oh, I think Michael Landon would be proud and thrilled.

I think that he would be here talking to you instead of me, and I'd gladly yield the chair. This is Intelligence Matters with former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morell. Bridge Colby is co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative, a project focused on developing strategies to prepare the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. The United States put our mind to something we can usually figure it out.

What people are saying and what we kind of know analytically and empirically is our strategic situation, our military situation, is not being matched up with what we're doing. Follow Intelligence Matters wherever you get your podcasts. She's an award-winning chef in one of our most beloved cities. Bill Whittaker of 60 Minutes asks Dominique Crenn just what's cooking. This is the fennel. Smells delicious. It tastes delicious. Before COVID-19 spread through California, we visited French chef Dominique Crenn and her six-year-old twins at her picturesque organic farm in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. The calmness of this place is like, okay, let's bring that back to the craziness of the kitchen and be calm. I can taste that?

Yes, I mean I hope so. The farm was sprouting to life in the California sun. The early spring seemed to renew the land and Crenn, who at the time was busy overseeing her growing enterprise, two restaurants, a bar and a soon-to-open bakery. Then the coronavirus hit. One of the world's leading chefs, Crenn was pained by how the virus afflicted the restaurant industry.

When Californians were ordered to shelter in place in March, Crenn had to lay off 50 staffers. A restaurant, a small business, live day by day. If they're lucky, they can make maybe up to five percent profit.

That's not a lot. Atelier Crenn, her three-star centerpiece known for its dazzling interpretations of French food, began providing meals for frontline workers and selling dinner through the front windows. Your fine dining restaurant is now a to-go restaurant.

Yeah, a really cool one. This was Atelier Crenn on a Friday night before the virus. Dinner service, a well-orchestrated symphony of food in motion. In the kitchen, Chef Jean-Christophe Bourguignon works with maestro Crenn to design each course. He tastes each before serving him. Some nights they serve 15 courses a sitting. Each plate a piece of art with an eclectic mix of ingredients to delight the palate, like this tartare of spiny lobster, which I got to taste too. That is wonderful. Dominique Crenn never went to culinary school, but food is her passion.

Battery. It's all about butter. After arriving in California from France in 1988, she worked her way through kitchens in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and in 2011, she opened Atelier Crenn. You don't talk like most chefs. Well, I don't think I'm a chef. You don't think you're a chef? No, I'm just someone that I found aware of speaking. It was not a pen. It was not a brush. It was food. So are you an artist?

Yes. Her artistry catapulted her to the forefront of America's chefs. The Netflix show Chef's Table and a James Beard Award raised her profile. Earning three Michelin stars has given Crenn a platform to influence the way we relate to food.

She recently cut meat from the menu, but that hasn't cut her customers or her accolades. We had one Michelin star, two Michelin stars, and you get a call that tells you you've gotten a third Michelin star. How amazing is that? We must have done something good. First woman in the United States to get three stars.

Right. You were also the first woman to get two Michelin stars. Yeah, it's interesting to be the first when you say first female chef. It's weird, right? At one point, you were called the world's best female chef.

Why do you roll your eyes? Why do you bristle at that? Because I was a bit... Sort of diminished in some way?

Yeah, diminished. You're not considering us as being the best chef, but you're considering us as, well, let's take the woman just on their own, and let's pick someone that will get the award. Why not the world's best chef?

Right. She knows what her authentic self-envision is and how to make that a reality in the world, and I admire that. She doesn't listen to anyone else's rules. Chef Crenn listened to her heart and got engaged to actress Maria Bello of CBS's NCIS in December. Crenn's new memoir is dedicated to Bello. In her memoir's dedication, Dominic calls you the love of her life. What does that mean to you?

It's nice to believe in fairy tales, right? She and I, we just lit each other up from the first minute we met each other, and it felt so familiar and comfortable. Love of my life. You know the depths and layers of Dom's food? That's who she is in life, too, the way that she builds layers of flavors. I feel that you build layers of love. Buoyed by the love of her life and her love of food, Crenn was on top of the world. But last year, her world was shaken like a California earthquake when she learned she had breast cancer.

I remember I asked my doctor, I am, I'm in trouble. And he say, no, but you get to do the work. And I'm like, okay. And then you start to peel the layer of who you are and start to look at yourself in the mirror and you like start to learn so much about who you are. What did you learn?

A lot of humility. Your health today? Amazing. I'm good. My hair is coming back.

My eyelashes, cancer-free, but I'm good. I'm stronger than ever. With indoor dining in California on hold, Crenn says she's eager to open her restaurant again with modifications like partitions between the seating. People are going to need to feel safe. Like actually Crenn, you know, I'm going to redesign it as a new experience. Dominique Crenn calls herself a warrior. She survived cancer and she has no doubt her restaurants will survive the coronavirus.

That is amazing. The same thing with cancer, I'll say, okay, I have something in front of me that I've never dealt with before. It's going to be hard, but I'm going to do it and I'm going to fight it and I'm going to win. To Steve Hartman now and the story of one man's encounter with police and its remarkable aftermath. Who could blame Dalen McClee for hating the police? He was falsely accused of pointing a gun at an officer and spent a year in jail before a jury finally acquitted him, not to mention the countless traffic stops. What happens? Oh, typical running is you just pulling out from your house and you get pulled.

No traffic violations. How does it make you feel about police in general? Definitely a lot of animosity as in, you know, if I seen him, I wanted to go the other way.

And that was the bitterness he brought to this street corner in Uniontown, Pennsylvania last month. Dalen says he rushed here after hearing a huge crash. There was just a lot of screaming, a lot of chaos.

Oh man, I get chills when I think of it. It was a bad traffic accident involving a police car. Officer trapped inside, gas tank leaking, flames spreading toward the cabin. Another officer who responded to the crash tried to rescue his colleague, but couldn't get the door open. And that's when a lone bystander stepped toward the burning wreckage. That bystander, Mr. Dalen McClee. I don't know how I got that door open and I grabbed him out. All of a sudden the door just gets ripped open.

Jay Hanley is the officer Dalen rescued. It's amazing when there's true love in people and they can get you out of something like that, no matter who you are or where you've come from. There should be more people like that.

And certainly, if there were more people like that, there'd be more moments like this. Finally get to see you, man. Appreciate you doing it. Good, man. God bless you, man. Thank you. Last week, Dalen came over to check on Officer Hanley and meet his very thankful wife. Yeah, she's been dying for a long time.

Thank you so much. He's a good man. I can tell. That's the other thing they're grateful for.

Despite all his run-ins with the law, Dalen still believes there are a lot of good cops worth keeping. We're waiting for you to get back out there. I appreciate it, man.

Thank you. In times of rage, we often paint groups with a broad brush. But Dalen says at some point, you have to go back and fill in the fine lines between good and bad. Because in that subtlety lies our humanity. I want people to start to look at everybody as Americans and not, you know, he's white, he's black, he's Asian. We're people. And when we start realizing that, things should get better.

In a small way, I think they just did. And hopefully the world follows suit. I hope so, man. God was with us, bro.

God was with us, bro. Definitely, man. Definitely. How to be funny without an audience. That's an issue for late night hosts like Trevor Noah and something he talks about in conversation with Jim Axelrod. March 12th, 2020. This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

Like a lot of us, it's been a while since Trevor Noah's had a day at the office. When do you think you'll be back in? No clue.

Literally no clue. Time for social distancing. Pack your things and go. Just about four months ago, the 36-year-old host of Comedy Central's Daily Show, also a ViacomCBS property, said goodbye to his studio audience. You know, I'm even gonna miss those people who forgot to turn off their phones during the show.

It would mess me up and spoil jokes. And started life in the work-from-home world. Hey, everybody. Trevor Noah here with another episode of The Daily Social Distancing Show.

How much can you replicate the energy of a writer's room when it's a Zoom room? You know, the first few weeks, you're stumbling over who's speaking, who's not speaking. Somebody forgot to unmute themselves.

They said a whole soliloquy and you didn't hear it. But then once we were beyond that, it's become the new normal and we settled in. With this fake health crisis, we will enslave all of humanity. And what I said to the team was, let's use this opportunity to create something different. Hey, what's going on, everybody?

Something different. You know, what's really interesting about what's happening in America right now... Is exactly what Noah posted at the end of May. I feel like everything that happens in the world connects to something else in some way, shape or form. Please call the cops. I'm gonna tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life. I'm watching what's happening. I see the Christian Cooper video in Central Park with Amy Cooper, who threatens 911 on him. I'm being threatened by a man into the Rambo. Please send the cops immediately. On that same day, start seeing the videos, you know, about George Floyd.

I can breathe. And then that week later on, you start seeing the rioting. You start seeing the protesting in Minneapolis. What's the name?

George Floyd! And I'm sitting there genuinely saying to myself, how do we as people not see that everything affects something else? While everyone is facing the battle against coronavirus, black people in America are still facing the battle against racism and coronavirus. In a stripped-down model of lockdown content... Black Americans have seen their principles completely delegitimized.

Noah looked directly into his phone and spoke from deep in his soul for 18 minutes. Police in America are looting black bodies. Not chasing laughs, chasing light. When you are a have and when you are a have-not, you see the world in very different ways. George Floyd and the dominoes of racial injustice has been viewed more than nine million times on YouTube alone. My show wasn't on TV, but I just felt like, hey, man, if there's five people who I can try and explain the nuance of this whole situation to, then maybe there's five people who will understand it as a larger story, as opposed to just a moment. It is not just a moment.

All moments are connected. This next comedian is from Africa. And people think a guy in leopard skin will come running on the stage. You know... Born and raised in South Africa, under the apartheid system of racial segregation, Noah is uniquely suited among the late-night hosts to offer perspective, not just on what is unfolding in America. This is all a wheelhouse moment for you. Unfortunately.

But why? I think America's strange in that Americans are always told that there are only two sides to every story, two sides to every debate, two sides to every argument, and I-I vehemently denied... I-I'm opposed to that idea. So I've often thought we're a coke, Pepsi, Mets, Yankees... No. ...society.

No. Yes, yes, I think America is that as a society, but I don't think that's true. That's something that-that people need to acknowledge in American politics. If you only have two choices, people are always gonna make one of two choices, which means people are automatically always gonna be against each other.

In a country consumed by, and often divided by, black and white, Noah thinks we'd be a lot better off somewhere in between. Nuance doesn't sell as well in America. Nuance means you can't just take a stand and fight the other person. Nuance means we have to talk a little bit more. And until the American political system can find a way to represent the nuance that exists within America, you are going to create this false impression that there is this or that. There is only racism or not racism.

There is only... You know, it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Because life is gray. Life is not black and white, and yet we don't do nuance in this country. You know, I remember when the riots were happening in Baltimore. People quickly jumped these thugs. These are a bunch of thugs running around. These thugs, you know, I'm starting to think black people like crime.

That's what I'm starting to think. Is that the only way they can deal with it? Black people like crime.

No, no. Black people don't like crime. Because you know who's not a criminal? Most black people. Yeah, most black people...

This is the deepest stuff a society could be engaged in. Right. How do you find the funny in it? Sometimes I don't find the funny in it. I use the funny to deal with it. You know? To process the pain, the despair. It's what humor is.

But it's not just his home country's reckoning with racial injustice that gives him sharp insight. 11 years ago, Noah's mother was attacked by his stepfather. My mother was shot in the head. I thought she was going to die. And I'll never forget, she's looking at me from the hospital bed and she says to me, Trevor, Trevor, don't cry, baby. I said, no, mom, I'm going to cry. You were shot in the head. And she says, no, no, no, no. Look on the bright side.

I said, what brain side? She says, no, at least now because of my nose, you're officially the best looking person in the family. I couldn't believe that my mother would make a joke.

I could not believe it. She wasn't dismissing what had happened. She wasn't negating what had happened. But what she was doing was using humor to process the madness of this world that we live in. Just like sex, my success or failure will somehow be determined by how much noise you make during my performance. Noah's success has been rocket fueled by his mix of humor.

I don't mean to brag, but South Africa is by far like, like we've got top quality racism out there. Observation. I was like, yo, dude, there's a truck. And he was like, it's OK. We've got the light.

Criticism and commentary. If meeting the moment requires tinkering with this formula, that's just fine with him. Wash your hands. Don't take candy from strangers or family. I'm not afraid to make shows that have no laughs. I'm not afraid to make serious shows that speak to the issues and communicate honestly what I'm feeling and what society may be experiencing. We've made some shows at The Daily Show that literally have no jokes. There are some days I've come into the office and said to my team, hey, guys, there is nothing funny for people. This is not even a moment to try and find the funny.

Meaning these days, Trevor Noah is doing business a little bit differently. Still provocative. There is never a right way to protest.

And I've said this before, there is no right way to protest because that's what protest is. But less concerned about humor than he is with our humanity. This was among the most moving and compelling pieces of content you've put out there and there's not a laugh in it.

That's fine. There's not always going to be a laugh. We're all a part of a global community. But what about neighbors helping neighbors? In Shreveport, Louisiana, that's more than just talk. September, 1988, Shreveport, Louisiana, 20-year-old William David McKinney had been fatally shot by a white teenager. Racial tensions already simmering, boiled over. In the aftermath, anger, frustration, and pleas for change. Shreveport is still a racist city.

It's a divided city. We're sitting on a powder keg in this community. We're sitting on a powder keg in this community.

And nobody wants to come to grips with it. 32 years later, that powder keg is exploding with yard signs that say simply, we care. They're everywhere. Everybody around here is like family. And that's what neighbors is for, is to help one another.

Through the streets, back before COVID made things like this impossible. These are my people, guys. These are my people. White and Black joined together to walk the neighborhood and pray for it. And we know that you have the United States of America on your heart, Lord.

These were the scenes before George Floyd. And, well, Shreveport has been changed like just about every other city by his death. So here is a gang. What hasn't changed is the belief of a Shreveport pastor that communities torn down by bigotry and segregation and poverty can be built back up simply by neighbors caring for neighbors.

We can email people all over the world. And we don't know who's living and dying four houses away from us. Mac McCarter invited us to Shreveport back in February. All of the houses. All over the place. He's a proud native of this city.

He left, though, to go to seminary and didn't return for years. But when he did, he set up shop in Allendale, the Bottoms, as some used to call it, a neighborhood long plagued by crime and drugs. What did people think when they saw you walking down these streets? Well, so I drove down, and I thought, good heavens, I'm going to die. But I pulled over and stopped and then went up to their shotgun row house, knocked on the door, and said, there's a group of us that believe if we'll get to be friends, then we can change this city.

And not many doors open. Not at first, but he kept knocking. And he started attending church in the area, too, mingling with the congregation just like any neighbor might. And over time, something started to happen. I saw friendship overcome our racial divide. I saw it overcome our socioeconomic divide. I saw it overcome the fact that we had been strangers.

And for sure, I saw it overcome fear. Bye, y'all. Love y'all. The experience was so impactful that he set up a nonprofit called Community Renewal International. How you doing?

It's a faith-based organization that's been making friends out of strangers for more than 25 years. Well, hello there. Hey, Eddie. How you doing? Good. How are you? Good to see you, girl. Good to see you, too. How's that baby? Good.

He hired those who believe as strongly as he did. All right, man, you in a hurry? That an outstretched hand could work wonders. Well, we don't do something to restore those relationships and restore that love from person to person that America is going to collapse.

We are going to fail. Emmett and Sharpell Welch live in what's called a friendship house. It's one of 10 built in communities all around Shreveport. They're sort of part residents, part community centers.

The goal here is to mentor, to solve problems internally, street by street. All right, y'all make yourself at home, baby. I'm good. Thank you. Government is not going to come down and model loving your neighbor to stressed and blighted neighborhoods.

They can't do that. We have to do it. Take my worries with you. The Welch's have taken in seven children from the neighborhood. Y'all are just amazing. No boyfriends in the house ever.

Raising them as their own. Thank you for the food. We'd rather receive. That's what's happening on one side of the friendship house.

Are y'all ready? The other side is open to anyone in the neighborhood who needs it. And those who show up the most. That would result in me being bullied. Are teens.

So your challenge is not to become what you despise. This is a youth club that Emmett and Sharpell Welch run. It's hardly your average after school program, though. How many of you know somebody who's been arrested, is in jail, or in prison? We spent time going to the local judicial system, getting kids out of handcuffs. We're going to parent meetings. We're going to see the principal, to put them back in school after suspension. We were just doing a lot of work. I actually was a bully. That kind of help is often rejected, but not when it comes from inside the community.

That's what made the difference for La'Kyra Burks. We care about our community. We care about our neighbors. We care about our community. We care about our neighbors.

And if we didn't have those things, who would we lean on? My dad got killed when I was two. Tierney Turner has watched the stability that the Welch's have brought become infectious. The whole inside of my life got changed.

Introduced me to the world, and what I can do better to not have that situation happen to me, or my future husband, or my family. Since community renewal moved in, crime has moved out. It's dropped by more than half in Allendale.

Graduation rates are up, and so is home ownership. Skeptical? Well, so is everybody. Some people watching this are going to say, it's just too simple. Just another fluffy program, yeah. A lot of them fluffy, that it's just, it's got to be, it's got to be more than that. There's got to be more to it, yeah. Right, yeah. And to those people, I dare them to try it. To try it. I get the cynical people.

I will challenge them, and I have done it. Get to know everybody on your street. First name, last name, something about them that you didn't know before. Human beings have faults, and problems, and heartaches, whether you're rich or poor. McCarter has expanded the program into some of Shreveport's wealthiest neighborhoods. I can tell you, where I was is not where I am now. Paige Hoffpower lives in a community where stately homes line a private golf course.

It might look good, but that doesn't mean it is good. She's not comparing her problems with anyone's, but she did realize that sometimes the only thing residents in this gated community had in common was the gate. It's painful to live on a street and not know your neighbor. Isolation can be a real thing, even in a crowded subdivision. We just want to welcome you today to your own neighborhood, but just another house.

Yes, her block parties look a little different than the one in Allendale, but many of the same people were here, and they were here for the same reason. Random acts of kindness, that's a great bumper sticker. It will not stop the disintegration of community. It has to be intentional acts of connected caring.

Mac McCarter is no pushover, he gets the idea, it's pretty hard to grasp. Continue to rise to the call of community. But he believes to his core that caring can not only be cathartic, it might just change the world. Lee, I'm living for the hope that one day, one day in the human race, some child is going to say, what's hate?

And I'm living for that day. Last month, New York's Museum of Natural History announced that it's removing a statue of President Theodore Roosevelt that many find objectionable. It's a decision that has the full support of Mark Roosevelt, president of St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt. The subjugation of other races by those of us of European origin is our nation's original sin. That sin began soon after our arrival on this continent, and it's been a tragic part of our history to this day. If we wish to live in harmony and equality with people of other races, we should not maintain paternalistic statues that depict Native Americans.

And African-Americans in subordinate roles. The statue of my great-grandfather, Theodore Roosevelt, in front of New York's Museum of Natural History, does so. And it is good that it is being taken down. When some argue that we should not erase our past, and that such statues can be invitations to examine and civilly discuss complex issues, that is disingenuous. That is what books and classrooms are for, not monuments.

Monuments are designed to honor people, and to keep those honorees and what they stood for alive in our collective memory. We are all of us in this country, bound together by the tragedy of racial subjugation and continuing violence and multiple other affronts to black Americans and other people of color. Those of us with power and influence, who say we wish to do better, are diminished by our stalled, failed, and woefully insufficient attempts to actually do so. Those with power and influence who will not even acknowledge these wrongs are an embarrassment to the nation. If we wish to allow for historical nuance, and I do, to continue to recognize Washington and Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt for their very real accomplishments, while also allowing that they, like so many of us, were complicit in our nation's original and ongoing sin, we must start by admitting that we have failed to acknowledge the depth of that sin, and immediately remove all memorials and statues honoring those who fought a civil war or otherwise worked to perpetuate that sin. And then we should get on with the desperately needed work of uprooting systemic racism wherever it is found. I'm Lee Cowan. We hope you join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. In the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy. ...is to convict the bad. So here's to us. The Good Fight, the final season, now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.