BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

WALLACE: All this after President Obama tried to explain Friday why the case has been painful to blacks, in his most extended discussion of race since entering the White House.

Joining us now to continue that conversation, a rising conservative voice, noted pediatric surgeon, Dr. Ben Carson, who is in Sun Valley, Idaho, and Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland.

So, let's start with the president's remarks in which he talks about being profiled as a young black man. Then he said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that -- from top to bottom -- both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Dr. Carson, some conservatives are criticizing the president for making this about race again. Do you agree?

DR. BEN CARSON: Well, you know, what one has to recognize is all of our opinions are based upon our lifetime experiences. And, you know, for instance, if you think somebody loves you, everything they say will be interpreted as loving. If you think somebody hates you, everything they say will be interpreted as hateful.

And in a situation like this, I can certainly understand why there is such divergent views and I understand why there's a lot of outrage. You have a situation where you have a young black male, walking home, not doing anything incorrect, and he ends up killed and nobody suffers any consequences.

On the surface, that would appear to be a gross miscarriage of justice. However, one also has to integrate into that the fact that we have a legal system in which we appoint jurors, in which they have access to all of the facts. We don't have access to all of the facts -- and in which they then make a judgment.

It's not a perfect system. But it's the best system that we have. We have to decide whether we are willing to live with that or not.

WALLACE: Let me bring Congresswoman Edwards into the discussion.

There was no evidence in the FBI discussion beforehand or in the trial, no evidence that George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin because he was black.

So, was it constructive for the president to talk so much about race?

REP. DONNA EDWARDS, D-MD.: I think it was. I mean, when I talk to my son who's 24 and to his peers, what they say is that the president gave them their voice for their experiences.

And, you know, as the president described being followed around in a store, or clutching bags in an elevator, those are experiences that my son, our sons have had. And it gave them a voice. I thought it was important for the president to validate and articulate that.

WALLACE: All right. Let's go beyond rhetoric, because some civil rights leaders are now demanding that the Department of Justice either file hate crime suits or civil rights violations against George Zimmerman. But it seemed to me the president in his remarks made it clear, he said that people should have a clear expectation that's not likely to happen.

Does that disappoint you, Congresswoman Edwards?

EDWARDS: Well, I think that both Attorney General Holder and the president have indicated the limitations of federal law. And although there is an open investigation, the attorney general said this, I have an expectation that it will be a thorough investigation, but there are limitations of federal law. It doesn't mean that there aren't things, as the president has said, that we shouldn't do -- whether that it is about law enforcement training, it's about people organizing to change state laws and the things that we can do on a federal level, to make sure that all of our young Trayvons have justice.

WALLACE: But if after an investigation, Eric Holder, the attorney general, says we can't bring federal action on hate crimes or civil rights violations -- you'll accept that?

EDWARDS: I think in the same way people said that we wanted to make sure that there was justice in the justice system and that those charges be pursued in Florida, that that happened. A jury verdict happened. We might be disappointed with it, but it did.

And the same thing would be true of a Justice Department investigation.

And I think as you saw in the peaceful demonstrations, hundreds of them, yesterday, it's really clear that people want -- not only want justice, but they want change.

WALLACE: Congresswoman Edwards, one more question, I'm going to bring Dr. Carson back into the conversation. Some of your colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus say that they are supporting the Reverend Jesse Jackson's call or threat of an economic boycott against Florida, which he calls an, quote, "apartheid" state for its passage of "Stand Your Ground" laws.

Do you support Jackson's rhetoric and his call -- or possible call -- for an economic boycott of Florida?

EDWARDS: I actually haven't examined that, to be quite honest with you. And I think that, you know, many of us understand that sometimes when we call for those kind of economic boycotts, the impact on some of our communities could be really tremendous.

So I want to examine that first. And I don't think there's been a unanimous call within the Congressional Black Caucus. In fact, we didn't even discuss that in the Congressional Black Caucus, to my knowledge.

WALLACE: Dr. Carson, it turns out that, in fact, in Florida, blacks have made one-third of the claims under "Stand Your Ground" in homicide cases they were involved in -- double their representation of the population of Florida. On both that question of "Stand Your Ground" and also all the other demands that the civil rights leaders are making hate crimes or civil rights violations, what do you think of those calls?

CARSON: Well, you know, I think we have a tendency to overemphasize superficial aspects of people. You know, I was asked once by an NPR reporter why I don't talk about race that often. And I said, "It's because I'm a neurosurgeon." And she looked at me quite quizzically.

And I said, "You see, when I take someone to the operating room, and I peeled out a scalp and take off the bone flap and open the dura, I am operating on the thing that makes the person who they are. It is not the covering that makes them who they are. It's the brain who makes them who they are.

And that's what Martin Luther King was talking about when he said let's talk about the content of one's character rather than the superficial characteristics.

We need to tone down this rhetoric. Those of us in leadership positions need to be looking for things that we can take out of the situation that will be helpful. Not things that inflame the situation. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't look carefully at all of our laws, we shouldn't look carefully at this verdict and its outcome. Make sure that everything has been done correctly -- the I's have been dotted, the T's crossed.

But let's tone down the rhetoric and recognize that we, the people, are not each other's enemies.

EDWARDS: Dr. Carson, really to be clear, there are deep systemic problems that really impact African-Americans in the system that have to be addressed. And I think the president spoke to some of those. So, we can't ignore that.

I mean, I'm going to acknowledge, just like anyone else, that everything is not about race, but there are some things that are. And we have to acknowledge those and make the systemic changes that are important to advance all of our communities so that people can enjoy things and the benefits, frankly, that Dr. Carson has enjoyed. WALLACE: All right. But let's talk about another aspect of this, a systemic aspect of that.

The president talked briefly in his extended remarks about black- on-black crime. And as I looked into this, the numbers are staggering. Let's put them on the screen.

African-Americans make up 15 percent -- 13 percent rather of the population. Between 1976 and 2005, they committed more than half of all the murders in the U.S., and 93 percent of black murder victims are killed by blacks.

Congresswoman Edwards, should the African-American community be focusing on that -- the black-on-black crime, the carnage in our inner cities, and not on George Zimmerman?

EDWARDS: Well, let me tell you -- to be clear -- when we're focused on addressing issues of poverty, when we are focused on improving our education system, when we are focused on changing gun laws because there is such a rampant availability of guns in our inner cities, and we have no inner city agenda in this country that's focusing on statistics that you talked about.

WALLACE: When you have people demanding, let's go after George Zimmerman, let's -- hate crimes economic boycotts of Florida, that isn't talking about the real problems in the inner city.

EDWARDS: Well, let me just going to say to you, because there have been calls for those actions, it doesn't mean -- we're not, you know, sort of one-trick ponies. We're able to focus on a range of different things and if you just look, even in these last two weeks in Congress, the debate in Congress has been about things like -- do we provide for food and nutrition? Do we address issues of poverty? Are we going to have an education system that works for all of our young people so they can succeed?

And to the president's call, are we going to address the laws that actually contribute to the problems in our city?

WALLACE: Let me bring Dr. Carson into this. I understand the concern with racial profiling. But is that the real threat to young black men?

CARSON: I don't think it is. You know, obviously, you know, I grew up in the inner city. And I had an opportunity to experience a lot of the problems that were there. And many of those problems are a result of the environment in which people grow up and the philosophies people develop.

For instance, in the inner city community, if it's late at night and you are walking along and somebody starts following you, you know, that's a serious issue. You know that immediately. You go into a fight or flight mentality. That may not happen walking in a gated community in Palm Springs --

EDWARDS: Dr. Carson -- young men --

CARSON: It depends on -- excuse me.

(CROSSTALK)

CARSON: Excuse me. If I could finish I would appreciate that. May I finish?

EDWARDS: Well, I just want to say, Dr. Carson, you cannot ignore the fact that our young black men, in fact, are profiled. I have a young man who works for me. You know, he's a college graduate. Three times in the last month, he's been stopped by law enforcement going to work. This is a reality, Chris.

WALLACE: Let give me -- we're about out of time. Let's give Dr. Carson the final word.

CARSON: Thank you. I appreciate that.

WALLACE: And the key point is -- I guess, is George Zimmerman a diversion from the real issue facing -- real threat facing young African-American men?

CARSON: Right.

Now, what I was trying to get across is that when you grow up in that environment, you develop a different type of philosophy. And in fact, Trayvon Martin may have had that philosophy and went into this fight or flight mode. So, we can't necessarily say that he's evil or horrible more so than anybody else when you grow up with that particular mentality.

But, again, I want to come back to what I was saying before. So often we take any kind of situation that occurs today in America and we get on the different sides of it and we hurl hand grenades to each other rather than engaging in intelligent discussion. This is what we need to do.

Do we have a perfect system? Absolutely not. Does everybody think about things the right way? Absolutely not. But we are never going to get there if we continue to make ourselves into enemies.

WALLACE: All right. We're going to have to leave it there. Dr. Carson, Congresswoman Edwards, we hope we contributed to the conversation -- thank you both. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us.

EDWARDS: Thank you.

CARSON: My pleasure. Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT