#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 10.10 RMU: Dem donor Ed Buck pleads not guilty; Little Rock schools battle over desegregation

Episode Date: October 15, 2019

10.10.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: RMU: Dem donor Ed Buck pleads not guilty to federal charges ; Little Rock schools battle over desegregation; Still Seeking Freedom: The impact slavery has on Black men today; Black man who was kicked out of a hotel in Portland is suing for $10 million; Stand your ground killer Michael Drejka is sentenced to 20 years; Rev. Jamal Bryant's talks Kanye West Sunday Service in Atlanta. All that and more today on #RolandMartinUnfiltered - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Life Luxe Jazz Life Luxe Jazz is the experience of a lifetime, delivering top-notch music in an upscale destination. The weekend-long event is held at the Omnia Dayclub Los Cabos, which is nestled on the Sea of Cortez in the celebrity playground of Los Cabos, Mexico. For more information visit the website at lifeluxejazz.com. Can't make it to Los Cabos for the Life Luxe Jazz Fest? Get your live stream pass at https://gfntv.com/ - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Absolutely. So why is she going to attack Black people and not say anything about that? Well, 2019, Roland Martin here, broadcasting live from Atlanta, the Georgia Freight Depot, for the 98th birthday celebration, Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowry. On today's Roland Martin Unfiltered, we, of course, will share our thoughts about the great Joseph Lowry and a number of guests who are already arriving here. Also, Ed Buck, of course, the man who has been indicted in the deaths of Jamil Moore and Timothy Dean. He actually showed up in court today to issue a plea. We'll tell you exactly what took place in the federal courtroom.

Also on the show today, the school district in Little Rock, Arkansas. Could they be trying to go back to segregation? Parents there are not happy at all. Also on today's show, black folks still seeking freedom in 2019. We'll talk about the impact slavery has on black men today. Also on today's show, a black man kicked out of a hotel in Portland for making a phone call in the lobby is suing for $10 million. Also in Florida, I remember the guy who was convicted of stand your ground. Of course, they were rejected to stand your ground defense for

killing a black homeless man sentenced to 20 years in prison. And Reverend Jamal Bryant, of course, took lots of flak when Kanye held his Sunday service at New Broadbush Area Baptist Church in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Now he is giving the money Kanye gave away because of his comments recently at a Sunday service in Utah. I will unpack all of it. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it.

Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all.

It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's Roland Martin now. Martin. Hey, folks, Roland Martin here broadcasting live from Atlanta at the Georgia Freight Depot for the 98th birthday celebration of Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowe. Of course, one of our civil rights legends. And I'll be emceeing the program a little bit later.

But let's get right into our show in Los Angeles. Ed Buck appeared in a federal courtroom and pleaded not guilty for the deaths of Jemele Moore and Timothy Dean. Of course, he was of course charged a three-digit account of distributing methamphetamine. Book, of course, is a wealthy Democratic donor. Was first charged in federal court in September with providing methamphetamines led to the 2017 overdose death of Jemele Moore.

He was then indicted in connection with Moore's death, as well as the January death of Timothy Dean. His next hearing is scheduled for November 26. He will remain in custody. He'll be arraigned on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court on state charges, including operating a drug house. Go to our panel there. Dr. Greg Carr, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, Dr. Avis Jones-Dweaver, political analyst, and also Abisha Cross, she's political commentator and democratic strategist. I will start with you, Avis. It was public pressure that actually brought this to bear. And what is shameful is that Jackie Lacey, the black district attorney there in Los Angeles County, was not the one to really pursue this. In fact, had this been left up to Jackie Lacey, Ed Buck would now be out of jail because he had the $4 million to meet his bail in state court. Of course, there's no bail on the federal level.

And so if it were not for these federal charges, Ed Buck will be back at his home, likely doing the exact same thing. Chilling, getting away with murder. I mean, it is really inconstable that it's taken this long. I mean, these are not the first two incidents that he's been involved with in terms of black men showing up dead in his space. And so it's good to see that finally it looks like there will be a measure of justice here. But it's a shame that when left to their own devices, specifically, as you mentioned, at the state level, he would have been able to get away with it once again. Amisha, again, public pressure matters, and this is why it matters in this case.

The protests shining a light on Ed Buck, the social media, the work of Jasmine Koenig and so many others, us, of course, placing, putting issue on this show. The constant attention is what is what happened here. But the bottom line is two black men have died as a result of being in Ed Buck's home. This tells you that black lives don't matter even to a black D.A. in Los Angeles County. Absolutely. It tells us that, but it also tells us that even to the LGBTQ organizations that are supposed to be fighting to protect people against this type of predatory behavior, black lives also don't matter.

One of the things that we've consistently seen is that among those organizations the faces are always white LGBTQ members. They are rarely black people in general. And when we see an issue like this, those organizations have largely been silent. Where's human rights? Where are all of these organizations that stand in the intercession for victims of these violent crimes? In Ed Buck's case, I agree. There was so much of a groundswell of individuals across Hollywood who have stepped out and have said for years, actually, that this is what's happening. And it took a very long time. Two people died. However, there have been dozens

more who have almost died or have been held captive and have also been injected with these lethal drugs and have been a part of this secret sex dungeon or not so secret sex dungeon that he's had going on. And I think that this tells us something else about society, where everyone knows what's going on and it takes years for any legal charges to actually come up. Greg Carr, we've often talked about this whole issue that, again, for Black folks, for Black men comes up missing. There has to be protests. There has to be a massive focus put on mass media. The fact that this guy, a multimillionaire, using his money to be able to keep his freedom,

and again, thank goodness he's arraigned in the federal court, otherwise he would still be out. Absolutely, and I agree with everything that Dr. Jones-Weaver and also Sister Cross have said. I mean, when we look at this guy, Ed Buck is a former Republican. Of course, he's donated to Democrats now. But this is a story about class. It's about the super elite. This is a man who has supported LBGTQIA causes, but also engages, as we just heard Sister Cross say,

in some fairly devious and deviant behavior. But his money shielded him up until now. And then when you see, you know, in our community, just because we happen to be from the same race, when you start disaggregating that by social class, these are some of the most vulnerable people in this society. So these black men who have been read a certain way sexually and in their social class are at the bottom of the pyramid, even so much so, as we just heard, that you don't see people advocating for them.

And finally, what you have echoed again and again, the fact that this show is one of the few places, along with the people in the streets, that is consistently talking about this. This isn't going to be covered in any way on Eurostream or commercial white media. The fact is that popular pressure is what leads to transformation. And that's always been

the case. There's only one weapon you can use against money. That is people. People have to be organized to deal with people who have money. Alright, folks. Again, the next court date is in November, so we'll certainly be covering that. And I want to thank Jasmine Kane

for keeping us updated. She also posted on her social media account a video of Jamil Moore's mother and Timothy Dean's sister actually meeting in a restaurant and hugging. Quite emotional. These two black women, of course, in an unfortunate situation, their loved ones dying in Ed Buck's apartment. Both of them, of course, were seeking justice. Going to a break. We come back. We'll talk Reverend Jamal Bryant.

He pretty much said, Kanye, don't sit here and play with Jesus and your Sunday service. I'll unpack that when we come back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And subscribe to our YouTube channel. unfiltered. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, folks, you've heard me talk a lot about MarijuanaStock.org because I want to keep you informed of investment opportunities that make sense. And we've all watched the growth of the cannabis industry.

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Jamal Bryan. He took his Sunday service there. It was a packed place. Reverend Jamal Bryant said more than 100 folks actually committed their life to Christ. Just so many millennials who were there. And a lot of people who criticized Reverend Bryant for having Kanye West there leading his service in the pulpit. But Reverend Bryant said, look, his job is to reach people who will not ordinarily be reached by normal means. Well, last weekend, Kanye West held his Sunday service on a Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah. During that Sunday service, he actually made some comments where he talked about why he was voting for Donald Trump, talked about Republicans were the ones who freed the slaves, and he talked about, again, that support. Well, that unleashed lots of criticism.

And last night, Reverend Bryant took the Periscope to share his thoughts on this and also made an announcement regarding a big donation Kanye West gave to his Atlanta church. To say that you unashamedly support Donald Trump when he called the mother continent of Africa, a collection of S whole nations, smacking the entire diaspora in the year of the anniversary of the year of the return. The same Donald Trump, who in fact brought in all of the presidents

of United Negro College Fund, HBCUs, and promised them that he would give funding and given a dime. And still, he says he supports them. I don't align with the statements of Kanye West. I don't endorse it, nor do I subscribe to it. And I am not a runaway slave. To that end, Mr. West made a significant donation to New Birth Cathedral. But I do not want to be guilty of double speech.

So I met with my team today. And the donation that he made to our church, I am now redirecting. And I'm going to be giving that donation he gave to Morris Brown College. I'm he gave to Morris Brown College. I'm giving it to Morris Brown College because Kanye West's mother was a professor there, Dr. Donda West. Morris Brown College is one of the oldest black colleges in the state of Georgia, but with the money, Kanye, that you gave to me, I'm going to redirect

that and open up a scholarship in your mother's name in the English department so that an entire new generation will be able to read, comprehend, write essays, directions, letters, and hopefully policies that will reverse what Donald Trump is endeavoring to do. Greg Carr, I want to go to you first. There are a lot of people who, again, criticize Reverend Jamal Bryant for having Kanye at his church. I dare say I disagree with those people. The reason I say that is that you look at the Sunday service, look at those previous Sunday services, Kanye West, it was music driven. It wasn't about politics. But what he did in Utah is what changed the game. And it caused people to say, oh, is Kanye using Sunday service as a rally, if you will, for Donald Trump?

To me, it makes perfect sense what Pastor Jamal Bryant did by saying, giving that money away, not going to the church. He certainly was bothered by what Kanye had to say, and frankly, to me, made the right move. Your thoughts? I agree. I mean, I think, you know, Dr. West, Dr. Donda West, who not only taught at Morris Brown College, taught at Chicago State University,

spent a great deal of her life, that's right, and career at HBCUs and with black students. I think it's a wonderful and fitting tribute, particularly, and we know Morris Brown needs the money. As it relates to whatever Kanye is or isn't doing in the church, you know, my dear brother, I don't really have a dog in that fight. I don't believe that we should be listening to celebrities for anything politically if they haven't distinguished themselves,

unless it's Paul Robeson or Nina Simone. I don't really see the need to try to parse through anything Kanye West says, and if he wants to go into church, the doors of the church are open. I would agree with Jamal Bryan or Michael Eric Dyson or anybody else that said, whosoever it is, let them come. The only other thing I would say is this. The important thing for me, what we just saw on Periscope

is that Jamal Bryan said, I met with my people, with my directors, with my board. No individual should be making decisions for institutions. We gotta get away from this celebrity culture where we listen to one person as if they speak for everybody. And I'm sure that board said what ended up being the decision that Jamal Bryant did not take on his own.

So altogether, I think it's about the best you can do. Avis, the reality is when you look at the Sunday service, when you look at what Kanye West is doing, again, some people said, is he being for real? Is he being serious? He apparently is putting out a gospel album. But I think what really jumps out here is the fact that here he had an event that was supposed to be a religious service. And all of a sudden, he turns it into a rally for Donald Trump. Yes, Donald Trump did win Utah. Yes, he might be talking about Jesus in Utah.

We know that there are Mormons. But it is an issue of accountability, I believe, when it comes to the black church. When you recognize what somebody's doing. And I think in this case, this was a smart move. Your thoughts on this whole issue? Well, I'm certainly glad that the donation is being made to an HBCU and specifically in memory of Kanye's mother. I personally believe that he still is struggling after losing her. And now as to his antics in Utah, you know, I just find it interesting that he, if he feels so strongly about it, why did he wait until Utah to go into this pro-Trump screed?

He was just in Atlanta. He ain't have the nerve to say that in front of a church full of black folk. I'm just wondering why he waited until he was at Utah to say this. And so, you know, I'm one of those people that's a little bit more skeptical about his transformation. You know, I really believe this is a marketing scheme for his next album. And I think that he will morph to best be able to relate to whatever crowd he's in front of at the moment. And so that's why when he was at the black church, he said nothing about Donald Trump. He's going to sit there and try to get everybody all hyped with his music, which is good.

But I'm going to tell you, I can find music that beautiful in any church, in any black community around this nation, so I'm not particularly impressed by it. But when he was in Utah, he did what one would expect him to do in front of thousands or how many hundreds of white folks that was there. He capitulated to what he thought their desires were, and at the end of the day, I think he's looking to maximize his bottom line once his album comes out. Let me show you, there is a reality. There is a reality that celebrities are able to reach a different audience than traditional church leaders. I remember watching that video. First of all, that was a time when, you know, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church had 20,000 plus members

where every seat in that facility, which seats 10,000, would be filled. I remember being there in 2000, where a long call for a men's meeting on, it was a Sunday, two days later, 4,000 black men were at that church. Obviously, when he got hit with sexual assault charges of being involved with men in that church, it just plummeted, and then their membership

went down to under 1,000. And so that church was jam-packed when Kanye was there. In that video by Brian, he said that some 500 millennials actually were in line at 6 a.m. or 6.30 a.m., and the church didn't start until 9.30. But what you see here is that's one side. And the flip side is what then happens when you have a Kanye who all of a sudden somewhere else begins to turn it into a Trump rally. And that is what changes this whole deal. And so clearly, Bryant realized they needed to address this issue.

Absolutely. I feel like at the end of the day, the recognition has to be here. People came to that church for Kanye. They didn't come to that church for Jesus. And moving beyond that, I think that the timing is also very interesting because, as you know, a week ago in D.C., there was the huge Blexit rally and all of those. And you had a ton of millennials, particularly the outreach to black would-be Republicans. And I think that, to be honest, there has probably been a conversation between Trump and Kanye. You know, he's elevated Kim Kardashian in the criminal justice space and everything. There's probably been a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point.

I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point.

I think that's a great point. I think that Kanye is somebody who he sees as a friend, somebody who is well-known, somebody who has respect in the black community, someone who he thinks can really help carry the mantle for him. And I think that he was using his Sunday service as that. I agree with Avis that at the end of the day, he wasn't going to do this in a black church in Atlanta. That's just not the audience. But I do think that he is going to continue popping up along the campaign trail, not necessarily at campaign events, but utilizing this newfound audience in terms of the church going group that he's trying to get going to help him to pass along that message. And to be frank, this isn't the first time we've seen a rapper or a hip hop star or a black artist go from being that black artist to going into to going into the churches we saw with mace we've seen it with uh with several people from the 90s as well um we saw with mc hammer at the end of the day it usually happens when your record sales are tanking in his

case we're seeing it in a ton of sort of a different sense but i do think there is something to be said about him linking this alongside his church-going audience or his newfound church-going audience. All right, folks, we're going to leave it there. We're going to go to break. We come back. Our weekly 1619 to 2019 segment, we'll talk about slavery and the impact on Black men. That's next. Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live here from Atlanta, the 98th birthday celebration of Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowry. We'll be back. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered?

Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our our goal is to get 20 000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year All right, folks, that's my homeboy there, Gerald Albright, one of the folks performing at the Life Luxe Jazz Experience in Cabo, November 7th through 11th. I'm going to be there as well. Weekend-long event held at the Omnia Day Jazz Experience in Cabo, November 7th through 11th. I'm going to be there as well. Weekend-long event held at the Omnia Day Club in Los Cabos,

nestled on the Sea of Cortez in Los Cabos, Mexico. Folks, it's going to be an amazing time over those four days. We're going to have lots of great food and drink and golf and spa, health and wellness, you name it, at the second annual Life Luxe Jazz Experience. Of course, some great people, entertainers are going to be there. Comedian Mark Curry, Gerald Albright, Alex Bunyan, Raul Madon, Incognito, Pieces of a Dream, Kirk Whalum, Average White Band,

Donnie McClurkin, Shalaya, Roy Ayers, Tom Brown, Ronnie Laws, and Ernest Quarles. I'll be broadcasting Rolling Martin Unfiltered for that Thursday and Friday there as well. And so we want you to be in the house. It's going to be a great time. Go to lifeluxjazz.com, L-I-F-E-L-U-X-C-J-A-Z-Z.com for more information. Packages are going fast. You also want to book it soon so your airline tickets are not crazy high. So go to lifeluxjazz.com. For Roland's Still Seeking Freedom segment this week,

we are joined... Our understanding of sex and sexuality, even our responses as black men to sex and sexuality and ideas of sex and sexuality even today. And I think one of the things that's important about it is the ways in which the black male body was used sexually. I think we have not really explored that as a phenomenon during enslavement.

And I think it's extremely important that we do that because without doing that, we will not fully understand the assault that black men endured and the assault that black masculinity and black manhood sustained. And I remember being particularly excited about this topic because I had read the narrative of Linda Brent, wherein Harry Jacobs talks about this young man named Luke.

And I remember just being really frozen by the way she spoke about how this white man treated him and had even tied him to a bed and quote unquote made him perform unnatural acts, made him do things unspeakable. And I began to look at and began to think about the coded language in which sex and sexuality was talked about in the 18th and 19th centuries.

And I began to think about the silences around black male exploitation that I think has been perpetuated from enslavement to this day. And so I'm very much interested in uncovering and speaking those silences in order that we might begin to get the kind of healing that I think will allow us to be fathers and husbands and brothers

to the degree that we have always wanted to be. It's interesting, Dr. Black-Sensiton, Dan, as we think about this, as you play this out, what form would those types of healings take place? I think about that because of course, around the country and around the world, your work has traveled, but you are based in Atlanta, and there in the Atlanta University Center,

and having taught your work and having, you know, know your impact on students, you know, you see Tyler Perry open this new theater, this new complex there in Atlanta, the biggest one there is. You know, but I mean, how do these popular images, and I'm thinking of course about not only Medea, but you know, the question of sexuality

in black popular culture today. How much of that can we attribute to the impact of how we think about sexuality coming out of the traumas of enslavement? I think we contribute probably most of it to that because I think we're really in the age of a kind of hyper masculinity or it swings the other extreme and that is a hyper femininity. And I want to say, I think there is a toxic masculinity, but I think there's a toxic femininity also. And I think there's a way in which understanding masculinity at either extremes

is a distortion. You know, when you think about popular media today, I think the thing that's driving popular media and popular culture and popular images of black men more than anything is really hip hop. But I think hip hop has images and notions of manhood and masculinity that are extremely dangerous to and for us as a people. Some of them are wonderful, and there's some amazing, amazing, amazing hip-hop out there. But there's also some very popular notions of manhood and masculinity around this notion of sex and sexuality, around this notion of money and getting money, and all I want to do is get money, and smoking weed and all of this.

These kinds of things which seem to do nothing but present black men as purveyors of pleasure but i think that's a direct connection to enslavement because i think quite frankly enslavement was an aesthetic enterprise as much as it was an economic enterprise it was an aesthetic one too i i am more and more convinced that when i study this topic that that not every slave not every african who was potentially enslaved was brought here. I think those Africans were brought here who whites could imagine would be serviceable to white sexual imaginations.

Oh, wow, that's powerful, man. I mean, talk some more about that. I mean, your work, I'm thinking now about the coming in particular, and this question of desire, this question of this kind of white gaze and the black response to it. Where have you find evidence of that?

Where do you find evidence of that in the historical record? Given, you know, I'm thinking about your first book, Dismantling Black Manhood, for example. I mean, did that jump out of the archives at you? I mean, what kind of examples did you see of this type of behavior and this type of desire, this white desire? It did.

And in fact, what's interesting, Doc, is of course I combed through slave narratives just over and over and over and over again. But the other thing that I read a lot of in graduate school was what I called free narratives. And that is the narrative of black men during the antebellum period, but they were not enslaved. And looking at these narratives, whether slave or free,

the thing that stood out most in my mind is these men's absolute preoccupation with the notion of maintaining manhood, which meant in my head that manhood was slippery, that it was not something that was firmly held or firmly grasped. It was something that men could lose. And I was very interested in this notion of how does one lose one's manhood? Like if you're an adult and you're a male,

how do you ever, how are you ever not that, you know? And I began to see that we began, once we encountered this place called the diaspora, to accept and to embrace notions of manhood and masculinity that had to do far more with performance than being. Let me ask you, Doc, in the couple of minutes we have left, I really wanna turn now and continue this conversation in asking you this question. What do healthy relationships for our people look like? I'm thinking particularly now about your work

around rites of passage with Ndugu and Nzinga. What does it look like to engage in that kind of recovery or repair? Or is it even about recovery and repair? I mean, if manhood or womanhood can be lost, how do we regain it? Or is even regaining the question, I mean, how do we now move forward into creating these healing spaces and ultimately these whole human beings that you've been talking about in your work? Sure, that's a very complicated question, but I think the simple answer I could give in the amount of time we have is that I think we need to reclaim the power of touch. I think one of the things that has not happened since the Middle Passage, literally since we were forced to lie on top of and next to and alongside each other, I think that we have avoided in many instances touch unless it was violent or sexual. And one of the things I would love to help us as a people do is to reclaim the power of our own bodies,

to reclaim the power of our own into our own spirits, to reclaim the power to touch and love each other just as human beings who deserve to be honored. Not because I'm trying to possess you, not because I'm trying to consume you, but just because I'm trying to acknowledge that you are magical and you are wonderful and you are black and you exist. And so I think this notion of what it means to touch one another, it seems so utterly simple, but I really, really believe that we are touch deprived to the extent of it being pathological. I think we literally

rob each other of touch. I think we steal it from each other in ways in order to stay alive. But those ways we do it tend to be very volatile and very violent. We can do it on the basketball court. We can do it on the football field. We can slap one another in terms of fighting. What we cannot do is hold each other tenderly. What we cannot do is hold each other's hand and share ideas together. All of that is taboo. But the reason I think that is taboo is because that looks too much like a human being

on a black body. That is very interesting, particularly when, you know, all of us travel in the continent and we see touch is much, much more free. That's right. Particularly between, yes, very interesting to see men is much, much more free. That's right. Yes, very interesting to see men holding hands, women holding hands. It's not a sexual thing.

You know, people are very sexually. And we do touch, but it is a difficult thing to navigate. Listen, brother, we're very happy that you joined us for this segment. And we certainly encourage you to continue with your work. We're looking for your next book. Yes, sir. And we continue to teach the coming in your other books around the country. Thanks, Dr. Daniel Black.

I appreciate y'all. Thanks, Dr. Carr. Talk to you soon. Yes, sir. Talk to you soon, brother. We'll be right back after this short break. You want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show.

There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUn Filtered.com. Oh man, how hard is it to be black? A black man in Portland, Oregon. Remember,

he was accosted in a hotel where he was on the cell phone talking to his mother and a security guard came up to him and said, what are you doing here? Demanded proof that he was actually staying in the hotel. Demanded to see his room key, and he continued to press him. Well, Jermaine Massey is now suing the Hilton Doubletree in Portland for $10 million.

What eventually happened was that the security guards told Massey he was loitering and that he was a risk to the safety and security of the other guests. Eventually, the hotel manager called Portland police, who then escorted Massey out of the hotel. Massey was not arrested, and the police officer who responded to the incident offered to drive him to another hotel. We'll keep you updated on this suit. Amisha, what it just goes to show you, and this is a thing that white Americans don't understand. In fact, I had a black conservative who was upset with me because of a crazy-ass white people segment. He was like, well, what if somebody else had a segment called crazy-ass black people? You don't see black people

doing the kind of stuff where calling the cops on somebody black who's barbecuing or saying your car was one inch in the crossway or selling lemonade and then calling the cops. You don't see that happening. And here's a case where, again, brothers in the lobby talking to his mom on the cell phone, staying at the hotel, but they say, oh, I'm sorry, you're loitering. This is called being black in America. Absolutely. And anyone who doesn't see it or understand it is someone who refuses to see it or understand it. At this point, you know, we're at a point in our nation's history where these types of stories keep ticking up. Not that they haven't always happened, but they're getting, or at least in black media circles, the actual coverage that

they deserve. In this case, one of the things that struck me the most is that there are meetings that happen in hotels across this country every single day by people who do not actually have a key card or not actually people who are staying at that hotel. They are as frequented by people who are just there to hang out or to meet somebody else as a Starbucks is with people not actually purchasing or doing anything other than having conversation. And those folks rarely, if ever, again, unless they're a black man, have someone who steps up and asks them any questions whatsoever. So I think that this also goes to the fact that we know that there are people who hang out in hotels and have those conversations. And if there is a loitering rule, then that loitering rule should apply equally to everyone. But there is absolutely no reason why you should confront someone who is literally on his cell phone, not bothering bothering anybody and basically be forceful

towards them and elicit the type of behavior that we saw this individual doing. I think that this goes to show, one, how, again, people in authority, literally white people in authority, often view black bodies, specifically black men. But in addition to that, there's absolutely nothing. If I'm at a hotel and you demand that I show you some proof of my stay at that hotel the odds of it happening are very low but I don't think that even in that type of situation as a woman I think that this is one of the dissections that we have to make as well as a woman I'm not going to get treated the same way that that black man did in that instance and I think that we need to you know continue to elevate these stories but also have an

understanding and push these hotel corporations and these other industries that exist need to you know continue to elevate these stories but also have an understanding and push these hotel corporations and these other industries that exist to to not only identify by those anti-bias trainings but also to have a strong understanding of the things that they do every day these micro biases that exist where it tells you inwardly that this person is some type of a threat or that they may um they may be disruptive or that they may cause issues for other people who are in who are in that area this man was on the cell phone talking to his mom he wasn't doing anything inappropriate at all there was nothing about him that was menacing there was nothing about him that would showcase any level of fear to anyone in that

area other than the fact that a white individual assumed because he was a black man, that that was cause for fear and cause for action. Let me go to Greg on this one. Greg, again, you're in a hotel. You're staying there. And to demand that you show your proof and then to accuse him of laundering, I mean, how hard is it to simply say, when you finish your phone call, then I'll speak to you? That's all you gotta do.

Well, I think that would be the second thing you would have to do. The first thing you would have to do is see another human being. And that's simply not gonna be the case in a racialized society. This is about policing black bodies, plain and simple. As someone who, like you, was born and raised in the american south um you know i can think of what my father used to say sometimes like son sometimes you got to go through life as if you got one bullet in your gun the question is is tonight the night you're going to use it there have been many times when i've been approached and asked for identification and

i just produced it why because it was easier to get this person out of my face than it would be to say no i'm not going i don't have to show you anything out of my face than it would be to say, no, I'm not going to have to show you anything. But of course you don't have to show anybody anything if you're living in a society where your life may not be at risk. But this is a question where you make a judgment call. And in that moment, you know,

you never know the circumstances. And this is a message for white people, the many white viewers and those who might tune into this. Y'all don't get the right one one day. And a man gonna be talking to his mother on the phone and she's gonna tell him about something that's very personal and may make him very emotional and you're gonna walk up to them and say, uh, excuse me,

can I see your ID? And you're gonna catch something you didn't intend to catch. So here's a message to white people. Either you start treating us like human beings or you might find out that you're gonna get a surprise. It's lucky that this hotel may just get off with a few million dollars, because that could have ended very differently depending on how any of us, woman or man,

is approached at a moment when somebody tries to decide that they're going to impose their humanity on us as if we're something less than human. Avis, again, I think, look, we have seen more and more of this. And I'm telling you, white folks have been emboldened in this country since Donald Trump was president to literally challenge the mere presence of black people. We had the story in Maryland, of course, where these sisters were by the pool. And this guy pretty much just chased them off of the property. And then, of course, the lemonade, the barbecue.

We talk about, I mean, story after story. And people don't understand when black people get tired of this and black people go off. They're like, why are you all upset? Because near blackness is what is being questioned. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's so, you know, as Dr. Carr was saying, our humanity is being ignored. It's being undermined. It is, and it's being done by individuals who are using authority, quote-unquote perceived, or

what they believe is their real authority, right, perceived authority, as a tool of oppression against us. So it's either their personal authority in the form of a security guard in this particular instance, or trying to insert the authority of the police by picking up your cell phone and calling the police for a ridiculous reason. And so we've always in this country had this situation where white people use authority as tools of oppression against African Americans. I think it's very interesting because it sort of parlays into a meeting that I was in a

couple of weeks ago at Facebook's headquarters around the reality that black people, for example, are more likely to be put in Facebook jail than white people. And one of the things that was brought up in that meeting, in terms of one of their explanations for this, was that white people just tend to report more than black people. And they will report all sorts of ridiculous things, but according to them, a lot of the people who interpret what's being reported are people from around the world. So they don't even understand our cultural context

here in America to really make oftentimes good decisions about whether or not what was reported was actually something that deserved attention. I say all that to say that it's just another example of how white people are more prone to use authority in order to oppress black people, either in real life or even in the virtual space in terms of what we see in social media. All right, folks, I got to read this story here real quick here. Michael Dredka of Florida was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2018 killing of an unarmed African-American

father. He was shot at his feet over a handicapped parking space he was sentenced today to serve 20 years in prison the victim marquise mclaughlin's family delivered their impact statement before the sentencing saying that drake has beaten his cowardice and anger for the reasons he killed mclaughlin director's attorneys that they plan to file an appeal asking that the conviction be overturned. All right, folks, are you here? Of course, you're hearing all of this noise here. So I am here in Atlanta where there's a massive celebration going. And so I'm going to actually step aside. You see all these tables that are lined up. And so Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowry, of course, he's turning 98 years old.

And so we were here about two or three years ago. They had his 95th birthday celebration and award ceremony. This, of course, is benefiting the Lowry Institute, named after him and his late wife. And they asked him. So then what it was, it was a program. It was in a theater. They had an awards program.

And so he told his daughters, look, I don't want an official program, I want a party. So that's exactly what this is. And so you see all these tables. So you're going to have more than 600 people who are going to be here. I, of course, I already see Atlanta Mayor Keisha, Lance Bottoms, so many others from all across Atlanta, Ambassador Andrew Young. I saw him come by.

Matter of fact, he's sitting over there as well. And so they're all here to pay homage to Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowry, turning 98 years old. And so I'm going to actually be emceeing the program. So we're going to actually be live streaming as well. Now, we've got some technical issues here. That's part of the reason why the show looks a little bit different, because I'm actually broadcasting from my iPad, because we've had some issues getting the signal out of here through our normal system. And so we're trying to do a workaround as we speak.

And so if we don't live stream Celebration tonight, we, of course, will shoot it, upload it to our folks and actually live stream it once the program is over tonight and tomorrow as well. So lots of things happening right now in D.C. Executive Leadership Council having their big dinner, benefiting, of course, honoring billionaire Robert Smith. I would have been there, but I said, look, we're here in Atlanta because we wanted to honor, of course, one of our great civil rights icons, Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowry. So that's one of the reasons why we created Roller Barton Unfiltered, to cover events like this. Because otherwise, if you weren't from Atlanta, you wouldn't know about this. So we want to be able to be here to bring this to the nation, bring it to the world, all the folks including Reverend

Joseph Lowry. So that's one of the reasons why we want you to support what to be here to bring this to the nation, bring it to the world. All the folks saluting Reverend Joseph Lowry. So that's one reason why we want you to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. We want you to go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Join our Bring the Funk Fan Club. Give via PayPal. Give cash out via Square. Because, again, we are here to cover black America. We are here to speak to our issue.

This will not get national coverage. But we want to pay homage to one of our own. That's why we created this platform. We want you to speak to our issue. This will not get national coverage, but we want to be able to pay homage to one of our own. That's why we created this platform. We want you to support us, so please do so. So I got to go. I got to go host the program. And so it's 7.03. I'm running a little bit late.

And so look for us to have this a little bit later. Okay. I want to thank Greg. I want to thank Anisha. I want to thank Avis as well. Thank you so very much, folks. I shall see you tomorrow from Denver, where we're having our school choice at the Black Choice Town Hall.

Looking forward to it. Until then, holla! This is an iHeart Podcast.