Is racism built into America’s DNA? That is the controversial topic explored in the new documentary, “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America."

Jeffery Robinson is the producer, writer and presenter of this compelling look at the history of racism and how that history repeats. He joins In Focus to talk about one particular aspect of that history: the fight for voting rights. 

Robinson speaks to the battle that has been going on since African Americans first won the right to vote in 1870 (African American men, at that point), from poll taxes to ridiculous tests not required of white voters (remember the jars full of jelly beans?), and how that rings familiar as states enact restrictive voting laws designed to make it more difficult for Black voters and other voters of color to cast their ballots. 

He also talks about the disappointment, if not surprise, in the failure of the U.S. Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, which would have clawed back many of the rights guaranteed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, then taken away by the Supreme Court in 2013. 

Robinson also addresses the issues in his documentary, in which he speaks not only to African Americans but to the people determined to take away hard-fought-for rights to find out if there is any common ground, and his disappointment in finding out, there really is not.