#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 10.31: Trump impeachment vote; Twitter bans political ads; NC school votes down Black history class

Episode Date: November 7, 2019

10.31.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump impeachment vote; Twitter bans all political ads; North Carolina against having African American history classes; Black American University student is dragged out of her room by police; The story of Harriet Tubman comes to the big screen this weekend. - #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: Ebony Foundation | Home by the Holiday Home by the Holiday aims to reunite Black and Latino families separated by bail, while challenging racial injustice and mass incarceration. For more info visit https://www.homebytheholiday.com/ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Thursday, October 31st, 2019. We are broadcasting Roland Martin Unfiltered live at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where the folks with Culture Shifts Lab will be holding their welcoming reception. We'll be broadcasting live this whole weekend and streaming of this conference,

which focuses on African-Americans, venture capital, and technology. But on today's show, we'll talk about the House vote to move forward with the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. Republicans are not happy at all. Why do they keep lying and making things up by saying somehow the rules are different than they are. We'll break that down. Also, a North Carolina school votes not to have black history classes. I'm trying to figure out exactly what is the problem with them. Also, folks on the show, Twitter's analysis, they are not going to take political ads. Well Will that put pressure on Facebook to do the same?

Lots to talk about. Might as well let's get to it. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, 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 rolling

It's Uncle Roro y'all It's rolling Martin Rolling with Roland now Yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Roland Martin Now Martin

Ask and you shall receive. Republicans have been saying for weeks they want an official vote to move forward the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. Well, Nancy Pelosi said you want it, you got it. That took place today in the House. Here is Speaker Pelosi introducing H.R. 660. I want to begin my remarks by some of the most beautiful words in our country's history. We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare,

and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity to ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States. It goes on immediately to establish Article I, the legislative branch, Article 2, the executive branch, Article 3, the judiciary. The genius of the Constitution, a separation of powers, three co-equal branches of government to be a check and balance on each other. And it's to that that we take the oath of office. We gather here on that opening day with our families gathered round to proudly raise our hand to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And that is exactly what we are doing today. Sadly, this is not any cause for any glee or comfort.

This is something that is very solemn, that is something prayerful, and that we had to gather so much information to take us to this next step. Again, this is a solemn occasion. Nobody, I doubt anybody in this place or anybody that you know comes to Congress to take the oath of office, comes to Congress to impeach the President of the United States, unless his actions are jeopardizing our honoring our oath of office. So I'm grateful to our committee chairs for all of the careful and thoughtful investigation they have been doing as this inquiry has proceeded. And today, the House takes the next step forward as we establish the procedures for open hearings conducted

by the House Intelligence Committee so that the public can see the facts for themselves. This resolution ensures transparency, advancing public disclosure of deposition transcripts and outlining the procedures for the transfer of evidence to the Judiciary Committee to use in its proceedings. It enables effective public hearings, setting out procedures for the questioning of witnesses and continuing the precedent of giving the minority the same rights in questioning witnesses as the majority, which has been true at every step of this inquiry, despite what you might hear fulminating there. It provides

the President and his counsel opportunities to participate including presenting his case, submitting requests for testimony, attending hearings, raising objections to testimony giving, cross-examining witnesses and more. And contrary to what you may have heard today, we give more opportunity to his case than was given to other presidents before. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for making that point so clearly. And these actions, this process, these open hearings seeking the truth and making it available to the American people will inform Congress on the very difficult decisions we will have to make in the future as to whether to impeach the president.

That decision has not been made. That's what the inquiry will investigate, and then we can make the decision based on the truth. I don't know why the Republicans are afraid of the truth. Every member should support allowing the American people to hear the facts for themselves. That is really what this vote is about. What it's about the truth. And what is at stake, what is at stake in all of this

is nothing less than our democracy. I proudly stand next to the flag and I thank the gentleman from New York for providing it for us, this flag. So many have fought and died for this flag, which stands for our democracy when Benjamin Franklin came out of Independence Hall you've heard this over and over on September 17th 1787 the day our constitution was adopted he came out of Independence Hall and people said to him, Dr. Franklin, what do we have, a monarchy or a republic? And he said, as you know, he said, a republic, if we can keep it, if we can keep it. And this Constitution is the blueprint for our republic and not a monarchy. But when we have a president who says, Article II says I can do whatever I want,

that is in defiance of the separation of powers. That's not what our Constitution says. All right, let's go to our panel. Joining me in the studio is Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Also, Scott Bolden, former head of the National Bar Political Action Committee,

attorney there in Washington, D.C. Lauren Victoria Burke, Chief with the NNPA. All right, first and foremost, Scott, here's what I find to be just hilarious. Republicans, in fact, I got an email today from the Republican National Committee saying that what Democrats are doing is Soviet-style dictatorship. And I'm going, they don't follow a constitution in the Soviet Union. Putin does whatever he wants. Then you have Republicans saying that this is, if this was, Steve Scalise, if this was a trial, first of all, you clearly haven't read the Constitution.

The House doesn't conduct the trial. The House serves pretty much as the grand jury. The trial takes place in the Senate. Then they say this has been done in secrecy. But they're using the exact same rules that the republicans implemented when they were in charge it is so hilarious how they're bitching and moaning about process and just flat out lying as if democrats have created some new set of rules that we've never seen before as as foreign as all get out.

Right, right, right. Well, let me start my commentary off. Hats off to the Washington Nats, spiking up on the Houston Astros. Give a damn about the Washington Astros. You ain't even from D.C. Y'all can't even win at home. You can't win at home, in any event.

You ain't even from... Y'all didn't win at home either. Don't start. Don't start. I've been here 30 years, but hats off to the Washington Nats. It was a good series. But be that as as it may what was your way from DC? You mention the Nationals and I heard you mention that in four years champions, that's what I'm ever

Some like Nick sound like Negroes celebrating the Capitals winning don't even watch hockey We still celebrate winners in D.C. In any event, don't be mad. That's my point. Hold on. Let me go to Greg Carr. Greg Carr, I know you're prepared to answer my question. See, that's how you shut Scott down.

So, Greg Carr, let me start with you. Greg, Republicans consistently lying. They're lying, Greg Carr. Scott, I'm reclaiming my time. Greg Carr. No, brother. Hey, look. And listen, I don't have a horse in that Houston Astros versus Washington Nationals fight.

Yield your time back to me. I haven't spent it. Yield your time. I haven't spent it. You know, you got to bring it all into legal perspective, Scott. I know. You already know, brother, because when they got rid of Dusty Baker, I haven't been to dime. You know, you gotta bring it all into the legal perspective, Scott. I know. You already know, brother,

because when they got rid of Dusty Baker, I haven't been to the Nationals game since. I really don't care. So that having been said, you know, the Republicans are playing the only card they have. Right. I mean, they are the party of white nationalism. They are the party of hyper-capitalist interests.

And they're the party of a permanent anti-democratic minority rule in the Electoral College. So the only play they have is no. And this is probably the only play they're gonna have for the foreseeable future. That means that no matter the evidence, no matter the truth, no matter the Constitution, no matter any of that, in fact, it was Thomas Jefferson that said

the check on the passions of every citizen in the United States is what he called, quote, the chains of the U.S. Constitution. But of course, that doesn't stop Ivanka Trump today from tweeting that another Jefferson, quote, talking about spies and enemies, which gets to the real point. This isn't about process. This isn't about substance. This is about propaganda and a permanent political war from an increasingly minority white party that is now looking at the fact that it can't win a popular election because their last candidate, Donald Trump, lost about three million votes in terms of the popular vote. That hasn't been said. Nancy Pelosi

seems to be playing again. People are accusing her of being a political genius, and she may very well be. She could string this all the way out to the election. And you see how she talks in a way making them even crazier with the even tone and the Benjamin Franklin and the American flag and the constitution. Meanwhile, people, uh, Hicks like, uh, Jim Jordan and this Mark Meadows and all this crew of cartoon characters just getting angrier and angrier and angrier. And Nancy Pelosi is playing for the cameras. Finally, the one man who had no job to do today, he's not standing at the world famous Apollo. He's not doing anything. And that's Donald Trump, who had no public, no events on his public calendar today,

tweets that it's the biggest witch hunt in American history. This is all politics, brother. Constitution be damned. Yeah, Roland. Lauren Burke, what is so hilarious about, I'm sorry, reclaiming my time. Lauren Burke, what is so hilarious about this is that Republicans have presented this view,

and then you've got people on Fox News just going along with it and lying their asses off as well. As if Republicans have no role in this, they're not in the hearing, they're not asking questions. There are 47 Republicans sitting on the three committees involved in this. To act as if they're being frozen out is a joke. Yeah, I mean, the strategy that they're pursuing now is to completely evade any conversation about the details of what's going on.

So they're not even really talking about, they're not really making an argument about anything that has been alleged at all. They're just calling the entire thing bogus. The entire thing is a witch hunt. The entire thing is illegitimate and secretive. All of that, of course, makes no sense given what they performed during the Benghazi targeting of Hillary Clinton, which had hearings and conversations and testimony and deposition and everything else that they're now complaining about. So they're trying to dodge any conversation, obviously, about the details, but they can't do that when we get to the hearing phase and you have one side of the aisle asking specific questions of specific actors. And obviously the other thing that they're doing, too, that at some point has to come to a halt, and I think this is when we really come to the sort of constitutional crisis phase of this is that when they start saying executive privilege and they refuse to have people testify

and they refuse to have people actually answer questions at some point it has to be a confrontation right and then i even get to the point where the people are actually showing up they're just saying we're not showing up because this person is never going to speak to this committee so that's when i think we get to a point in this of real confrontation, because if there is no testimony offered by certain actors who are likely in trouble one way or the other, the Republicans can kind of continue

their obstruction argument of what they're doing. But at some point, it's going to come to a head. It's going to come to a vote. He's probably going to get impeached in the House. Obviously, in the Senate, it's a different story. Well, Roland, I also think that... is going to come to a vote, he's probably going to get impeached in the House, and obviously in the Senate it's a different story. Scott, here's what here's what's the most hilarious about all of

this. There will be public hearings. So the Republicans have presented this as if everything is in secret and you don't know and secret witnesses and secret testimony. There are going to be public hearings and they are going to have to try to explain away individuals who have been appointed by Donald Trump, who have worked for him, who have defended

him. They're going to explain away them saying, yes, he asked for a foreign power to investigate a political rival right trump is going to keep saying he tweeted read the transcript we haven't seen the verbatim transcript we've seen a summary and so they're going to have to that that's going to be a day of reckoning and so at some point you're lying about process isn't going to do anything because you're going to have to face the music yeah you're going to have to face the music. Yeah, you're going to see the power of television

with those witnesses. And you and I and others on this program have talked about the power of television and the reality of depth and substance and truth, and the whole process argument goes out the window. They're going to have to defend that. The other thing to watch is John Bolton and others have filed a lawsuit in

federal district court to ask the court to determine whether they have to testify or not on the subpoena. And I predict either this week or next week, the federal court is going to rule in favor of the House Democrats that Bolton and others have to show up as former employees, and they're going to have to testify as part of this impeachment process. Watch for that decision, because everyone involved in this impeachment process is watching for it, because that'll be a legal decision that future witnesses and people who have been subpoenaed won't be able to get out from under, because hopefully you'll have a judicial decision, even if you get expedited review at the D.C. Circuit level. But lastly, Roland, you know, the Republicans had a saying when they ran the House. They say elections have consequences. Well, they lost.

The Democrats control the House now, so they control the rules. And the Democrats have given them what they wanted. They wanted public hearings. They wanted to be more people in these depositions. They wanted the release of the deposition transcripts, and the Democrats have agreed to all of that. They are afraid of the truth, and it doesn't seem, if you're so innocent, if the GOP and the president are so innocent, why not fully cooperate and show your innocence? The fact of the matter is there's no innocence to be found

on the GOP side or the White House. Oh, so they're trying to gin up their face. But Lauren, what's also not even more laughable, what's not even more laughable, what's not even more laughable, Lauren, is now you have Donald Trump threatening to withhold campaign cash from Senate Republicans who vote against him. Can we call that bribery? Can we call that... I mean, Jesus, these people, these people, I mean, the amazing thing is, they actually... You ever hear a cop say, thank goodness for stupid criminals?

Thank goodness for stupid people who work for Trump, because they just go ahead and brazen and just do it, then go, I didn't do that. They're gangsters. They are political gangsters. There are political gangsters. There's really no surprise there. That's been their pattern all along.

They did admit when they came into office, they were shocked that they were elected. And you can see, of course, they have absolutely no idea what they're doing, particularly when it comes to ethics. That type of gangster move to openly tell people you're not going to supply money to their campaign or whatever, they just don't care. They don't view it, they don't view it as unethical because this is the life that they lived, you know, in the real estate world in New York.

That's how they got there. And so they don't, they don't understand that you got to shift gears when you're in public service. But they didn't want to be in public service. They just wanted to be in the business of power and controlling other people and trying to one-up Barack Obama and undo his legacy. So when you're only concentrating on the ego games, I mean, this is what happens. But they are going to eventually get caught because, you know, what they're doing is not ethical

and it's illegal. And so they are going to get caught, but the question is when does it really come to a head? Because the Republicans, I think, their whole thing is to get their base thinking that the entire world is upside down and everything is illegitimate. I mean, when they started going after the FBI and law enforcement,

that was a new low. That's right. And what it proves is they'll say anything and they will do anything to get people to believe that everything is illegitimate. There's a dark state. There's this mystery magic hand that's trying to take down Donald Trump.

So all of that lying and all of that nonsense is what they're really doing. They're trying to completely avoid the conversation. But they've even attacked a Purple Heart winner who testified to the truth on the road. That was unbelievable. In fact, that split the Republicans on the GOP side. Right.

What I'm still laughing about, Greg, is to call this process undemocratic. Can you actually read? See, these are the people who wave the Constitution constantly.

Between waving the Constitution in one hand and waving the flag in the other, that's what they do. But this is undemocratic. It the flag in the other that's what they do, but this is undemocratic It's actually in the Constitution Right Roland. I mean, but Lauren laid it out. I mean, this is about naked power You know Donald Trump is clearly he's a confessed sexual predator He is a serial liar. He has violated the plain language of the emoluments clause repeatedly. He has pandered to foreign companies who now are investing

in direct contradiction to the United States Constitution in his children, like Ivanka and all her China patents, among other things. This has long since... And countries too. Oh, no question. It has long since not been about the rule of law. And you've talked about this a number of times,

as have all of us, on Merlin Martin Unfiltered. At the end of the day, Lauren laid it out. This is about naked power, and you're talking about a restructuring of American politics, and one party has decided not only to double down, but they've decided their only remaining strategy to remain in power is pure propaganda. Now this doesn't mean that the Democrats

don't engage in subterfuge, I mean it's politics, but at the end of the day, this party has no other card to play. And so there is no bottom. Let's be very clear, finally, if Donald Trump were to be impeached, and Mike Pence were to be inserted, let's be very clear, Mike Pence is a Christian jihadist.

He's not a Christian, he's a jihadist. Mike Pence actually believes the ridiculous stuff that Donald Trump doesn't believe in anything I don't even know if he believes that he has his own name Is there a question of his mental health is very real but Mike Pence is a true threat to American democracy But at this point the Republican Party wants to get rid of Trump sure anybody rational But they also want to retain power and they don't want Donald Trump to say something on Fox News To speak to that base you just heard Lauren talk about, and then turn around and withhold

support, and one of these silly congresspeople or senators gets primaried from, can you imagine there being a right to the right of some of the crazy stuff coming out of Lindsey Graham's mouth, and yet, somebody could primary Lindsey Graham from the right. No, at this point, they don't

have any other reason, but propaganda is their only play left. Let me ask each of you this question. Something else happened on Capitol Hill today. Congresswoman Katie Hill of California, she is resigning, gave her last floor speech. Her and her supporters say she is

being targeted by right-wing extremists who have been leaking naked photos of her. Of course, she has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a female campaign staffer who also worked on her campaign. She says, no, it didn't happen when the person worked for me on Capitol Hill, but it happened during the campaign. There was this love triangle happening between her, this woman, and her husband, her estranged husband, who's getting divorced. But here's the question. Should she have resigned? and her husband, her estranged husband, who's getting divorced. But here's the question. Should she have resigned?

I don't think she should have resigned unless she'd violate... Even if she'd violate a rule, that comes down to you being punished, censured, admonished, whatever the punishment is. She, to me, has a right to privacy. All of that stuff that happens with this person before she becomes a member, to me, is nobody's business. But we live in a world of...

But that business is out there, though. We live in a world of clicks and Twitter justice, of cancel culture. Yeah. And so the minute that the sort of Republican... And you can see that there was a right-wing sort of effort there to get the pictures out, and I know the husband thing and all that but the point was clearly it was a political thing she's in a swing seat that was a

red seat before she got there so there's a political you know thing going on the background against her but she to me shouldn't have resigned unless there was something else that we don't know about that's against the law otherwise none of that was anybody's business. Her husband had no business putting that stuff out. What people do in their private, what adults do over the age of 18 is nobody's business as long as there's consent. And so it's confusing to me as to why she resigned. Now, had she broken this rule with regard to having a relationship with a staffer,

whether that staffer was a campaign aide or not a campaign aide, that's a violation of House rules. You get punished by that by the Ethics Committee. But, of course, as usual in the culture we live in now, right, there's no time for investigation. There's no time to look into anything. There's no time to give anybody a chance to tell their side of the story. And so she just resigned.

Now, I am sort of, I will say this at the end. I'm amused by some of these feminists, because I think if this was a man, they'd be saying something completely different. But I don't think she should have resigned. Well, that's probably true, but Senator Al Franken resigned also without a judge or a jury or any investigation.

He ethics... He was cooperating with them. You know, this whole body shaming, porn shaming thing is highly inappropriate. In fact, it's illegal. It's illegal under federal law to put pictures of anyone naked that you have a relationship with to body shame them or to porn shame them. Look for the feds in that jurisdiction

to start investigating the husband. It was interesting, The husband said, listen, I know my wife is bisexual. I can deal with her having a relationship with a woman, but not with a man. And she was having a relationship with a man and a woman. So it is kind of a weird relationship,

but it's their business. But most of the time, having represented a number of politicians and elected officials over the years, there's more to it. What's out there isn't the whole story. She didn't resign because of the time, having represented a number of politicians and elected officials over the years, there's more to it. What's out there isn't the whole story. She didn't resign because of the pictures that were released by the right wing. She resigned on what's not out there. And as a result, she was not electable.

And the ethics committee loses jurisdiction when she resigns. So there would probably be more. So that's really why she resigned. And yeah, I would agree with you. And, of course, all House, and Greg, and Greg, all House seats are up for re-election every two years, and so she would be dealing with the primary, then the general election,

and so all those are factors. Go right ahead, Greg. No, no, no. You read my mind, brother. I was going to say, in addition to everything that's been said, which I think is spot on, you just said it. This is a political universe we're living in. It always has been and probably always will be. The Democrats have decided at this moment in time that their political brand has something to do

with this question, with the idea of integrity and morals. And so they unilaterally disarm whenever something comes up in the idea that this imaginary three white voters in the world is this imaginary three white voters in the world is gonna somehow come to them because they slaughter their side's transgressors, whether it be an Al Franken or a Hill, or you know, the late John Conyers.

And I'm not trying to compare them to other than to say that any hint, meanwhile, the Republican Party playing their brand, they've decided that they are the brand of patriarchy, they are the brand of when they're a star, they let you do it. I moved on her like a bitch. I grabbed her by the pee.

In other words, this is our brand. So, yes, you're absolutely right. Had he been primary. Yeah, but Greg, what about personal responsibility? There is no such thing in politics. There is some recklessness on her part vis-a-vis pictures even being taken, quite frankly. And then put in, hold on, put in possession of those who would do the shaming if you will.

You've got to have some personal responsibility. Why aren't the Democrats, you want to talk personal responsibility? Let's talk about Duncan Hunter. Why aren't they talking about Duncan Hunter and Katie Hill? No, let's talk about this. There is a segment for personal responsibility. Why do Democrats go harder against their own than people in the other party that are doing worse like Duncan Hunter? I can't answer that.

If they want to message what Greg just said, which is the purity test, message it against the Republicans, which would be Donald Trump. But if she's not electable because of these pictures, the Democrats want her out sooner than later. This is a political move. If she's not electable in that swing state... George Papadopoulos is going to run for her seat? Oh, I don't know. George Papadopoulos is going to run for her seat? Okay, he is running for her seat.

But my point is, the Dems, as Greg said, the Dems, they do have this kind of purity test, and they want to win the vote. They don't want to win the vote. They want to win the argument, if you will. Let me tell you something. And so they want her to leave so they can put somebody else in there to run

that would be stronger. With what we know right now about Katie Hill's situation, I'm not judging Katie Hill. That's what we're talking about. I'm not judging her, though. I'm just saying there's some recklessness on her part, and the Dems may want her out to put a stronger candidate there because she's damaged herself or others have

damaged her. She's been damaged politically. Does Papadopoulos win? You don't know that. There's a Republican segment. Did the election happen last week? You don't know that she can't win again. Okay, one second, one second, one second. The Democrats are predicting.

One second. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. She did not have to resign. That's right. That's true. She did not. So one second.

She did not have to resign. That's right. That's true. She did not. One second. She did not have to resign. She made the decision. You did not have the level of public pressure put on her that you saw put on Senator Franken or Congressman John Conyers. So, I would dare say

to Scott's point, with her resigning, must be some other stuff out there. Gotta to go to break. Exactly. We'll talk with Rashad Robinson. No, he agreed with me. We'll talk with Rashad Robinson of Color of Change. Excuse me.

Excuse me. Excuse me. We'll talk with Rashad Robinson of Color of Change about Twitter announcing no political ads on their platform as it put pressure on Facebook. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasted live from the Apollo Theater in Harlem, site of the Culture Shift Labs opening reception.

Back in a moment. keep it real. That's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. Alright, family, it's almost time. The holiday season is my favorite time of the year. And whether you celebrate Thanksgiving, Ramadan,

Christmas, Kwanzaa, or New Year's, this is when you think about spending time with the people you love most. This is also the time to count your blessings and support those less fortunate and look at how you can have an impact on their lives. Well, I have the perfect opportunity for you to be a holiday hero and have a major impact on other families.

Now, here's the deal. Right now, hundreds of thousands of Americans are sitting in jail without being convicted of a crime. Why? Because they lack the financial resources to pay their bail. Now, think about it. If you are arrested for any minor offense, you'll be taken directly to jail.

If you don't have bail money, whether it's a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, you will stay there until a court date is scheduled. That could be days, weeks, or even months. Now, America's bail system is broken and has created a two-tier system of justice, one for the rich and another for the poor. Folks, freedom should be free. And that's why the Ebony Foundation has partnered with the Bail Project and is sponsoring the Home Mother Holiday campaign. Now, with your help, the goal is to bail out 1,000 people by New Year's Day.

Now, a donation from you today can change someone's life tomorrow. And this is critical because people of color represent upwards of 90% of the jail population across the country. Now, when folks stay in jail, 90% of the people with misdemeanors end up pleading guilty because they want to get out of jail. However, when bail was paid, 50% of the cases were dismissed,

and less than 2% received a jail sentence. Sometimes justice needs just us. To join the fight to be a holiday hero, you can donate $25, $50, or more to help the Ebony Foundation bring our brothers and sisters home by the holiday. To donate, go to homebytheholiday.com. That's homebytheholiday.com. Please support them now.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter would not be accepting any political ads. This was after Facebook was under withering criticism on Capitol Hill when Mark Zuckerberg said they were not going to essentially fact-check the political ads of politicians. Hmm. A lot of folks have been praising Twitter for that. Will it put pressure on Facebook? Joining us right now is Rashad Robinson, of course, the leader of ColorChange.org. Rashad, this is, first of all, interesting because the two people who, the two groups that were the most vocal against this action were Donald

Trump's campaign and Russia. I wonder why. But clearly this is Jack Dorsey firing a broadside against Facebook by saying, let's see if y'all have the guts to do what I did. Zuckerberg's house on Monday to sort of deal with some of these issues that we've been pressing Facebook, you know, back and forth with Sheryl Sandberg for the last year since Facebook was exposed to have been attacking color of change by the New York Times exposed that. You know, it's a couple of things. I think it's important that we we think of this as a good step forward, but we recognize what this doesn't do. So there has been a lot of pressure on Twitter about dealing with white nationalists on their platform and dealing with white supremacists and sort of the hatred and violence that many folks bring up. We have had multiple meetings with Twitter. We have called on them. Twitter came out with a policy where they addressed gender and religion, but actually did not address race. And you could still sort of

attack, you could call Black people monkeys on, literally on Twitter, but they made, they dealt with religion and they dealt with gender. And, or they, I mean, they really actually only dealt with religion. I should back up. They only really dealt with religion. So this, while it's an important step, we have to recognize that all these guys out in Silicon Valley are in competition. This actually doesn't fully address all the problems. And it also allows Jack to not actually have to deal with the fact that not all ads are the same. So by blanketly banning all political ads, he can get some good press right now, and he should get some good press. But structurally, there are a whole lot of people with Twitter accounts able to say and do things on the

platform that both before and after this policy, it doesn't change anything. The real issue, I think, what you have here is the fact that Facebook wants to have it both ways. Facebook, they want the money. You know what? And I would have more respect if Mark Zuckerberg just said it. If he just said, you know what, damn that, we're trying to make as much money as possible. The fact of the matter is, you can put things in place, and if an ad is a flat-out lie, you're wrong. And we now see that. We now see where they said, well, you know, if you're a politician, we're not going to take it down. So one guy filed for office to run ads. They said, well, no, you're

really with an advocacy group. So they took the ad down. Those are the games they're playing. And so Facebook just refuses to come to grips with the fact that their platform was used in order to impact the election. But Twitter has to deal with the same as well. We have to reckon with the notion that these platforms are being weaponized. They are being used to attack black people. There were Russian farms, troll farms, fronting as Black Lives Matter activists and others in order to sway the points of view of African Americans. We need to deal with that,

and these platforms just keep making excuses because they don't want to stop the spigot of money, Rashad. It's a couple of things. You're absolutely right that growth and profit are the two key drivers of the decision. For Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, they're also dealing with trying to keep growth and profit moving by avoiding regulation. And so at all costs, they are trying to avoid right now the Trump administration, Donald Trump and Attorney General Barr, from actually regulating them. Threats to break them up, threats to create new regulation, with a party that is actually generally anti-holding corporations accountable. But that's why we've seen Mark Zuckerberg go to D.C. and meet with Republicans.

In fact, he spent one trip going to D.C. and met with no members of the Congressional Black Caucus, just sort of like Barr, Trump and other folks in private meetings, has had dinner with Tucker Carlson and others because they are absolutely focused on ensuring that they can have enough Republican support to avoid the threats of regulation. By avoiding the threats of regulation, they are making concessions to Republicans who want to continue business as usual on a platform that worked in their favor in the last election. And that makes it hard for civil rights groups like mine and the other groups, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, other groups that have been spending a lot of time and energy pushing on Facebook to do the right thing and trying to hold them accountable. you know, a 30-year-old, you know, the fifth richest man in the world. He is deeply focused on keeping Facebook and keeping this infrastructure the same. And so he trots out arguments like free expression or trots out sort of that it's not about money. Sheryl Sandberg released a video today saying this was not about money. Anytime a corporation tells you that it's not about money, they are actually like doing a disservice and malpractice to their actual shareholders because it should be about money with corporations.

For us, we recognize that we all have a big challenge heading into this election, that right now Facebook is not ready to deal with voter suppression on their platform. My conversations with Facebook oftentimes end with me trying to explain to them that it's not just about Donald Trump and the fact that he may say crazy things and he'll get on CNN and maybe people will push back. It's about that local state legislator in Alabama or that city council person in Texas who can get online and also use misinformation to suppress the vote. And there is no media apparatus that is tracking that, is pushing back. Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg seem to believe in this idea that the truth will just rise up. They have this idea of civil rights that these set of laws were passed

in the 60s because of free expression, because people pushed back and now we're all equal. When in fact, those laws were only part of the story of black folks struggle to express our will for a better future. And while there are written rules that change, there are a wide range of unwritten rules and a wide range of the ways in which racism shapeshifts itself and reforms itself from poll taxes to being voter ID law. And so the platforms like Facebook and Twitter do both have they both have a long way to go. And and while they've made and brought in some people who do understand some of these issues far too often, particularly at Facebook. And Facebook represents

a much bigger threat than any other platform out there. Far too often, it is right wing conservative Republicans right now that are in positions of power at Facebook. They are weaponizing this idea of free expression. And and Facebook is making rules about how to deal with this election, not in the interest of stopping what happened in 2016, but trying to both stop what happened in 2016 and also try to avoid

pissing off Donald Trump and the Republicans. And you actually can't do both. And so they either are going to make rules that focus on what's right or they're not, and we're all going to suffer. And that's why we've been so focused on pushing back. Rashad Robinson, ColorChange.org. We appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot.

Appreciate you. Thank you. Up next in North Carolina, they vote not to allow, make it mandatory for African-American history to be taught in classes, even though a bunch of people want it to happen. We'll discuss it next. Roland Martin Unfiltered, back in a moment. If 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. It's 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. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com 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 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. The second annual Life, Love, 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 will 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-E-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. All right, folks. The Winston-Salem-Forsyth County School Board voted against a proposed mandatory African-American history class. The vote was 7-1 against the class, even though during the council meeting, 28 folks spoke in favor of the history class, including one city council member. Teachers complained that they teach British literature, even though none of the students at the school are British.

Seven board members rejected the proposal, said they needed more time and more data. I'm sorry, Greg, of course, you chair the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. You're in North Carolina. I would think in North Carolina you might

want to know more about black history than British history. And aren't they the same people who say listen to the teachers? Yeah. Well, Roland, I guess, and I do have some direct experience with this, not in North Carolina, but in Philadelphia. I was

the leader of the curriculum team that wrote the curriculum framework for the first mandatory African American history course in Philadelphia public schools. Really the first public school in the country, first major school district to make it mandatory. That was 2005, 2006. And what we had to do, people have to understand,

and this doesn't make it right, but this is the logic, and you're reading that debate. There is something called infusion. The infusion attitude is whatever the subject, you have to infuse content from anybody involved. So, for example, if you're teaching a British literature class, understand that that means Jamaican literature. That means Trini literature.

That means the blacks in Great Britain. That means the blacks in English-speaking West Africa like Ghana or South Africa. And so if you say British literature, you must infuse it with the African presence. That means the blacks in English-speaking West Africa like Ghana or South Africa. So if you say British literature, you must infuse it with the African presence. That's one strategy. The other strategy would be to have a single class that focuses on the experiences of African people. In this case, in North Carolina

it would be African American history. What we did in Philadelphia was do both. K-8 because you don't have subjects in K-8. You do math, you do literature. You infuse black content in all of the areas. And then when you get to high school, you have a mandatory class in African-American history. Finally, here was the thing that we found interesting.

Then we said, since you teach world history in ninth or 10th grade, it's got to be now world history. Where are the indigenous people of North America and South America? Where are the Chinese? Where are the people who are North America and South America? Where are the Chinese? Where are the people who are not European, who are in Europe, like the Roma, the so-called gypsies that they use the slur word.

My point is this, it gets complicated in the politics of curriculum, and in North Carolina, the dodge, and I do believe it is a dodge here, is them trying to say, we really wanna do infusion, because mostly what infusion means is, they drop a few Negroes in in February and forget them the rest of the year. Scott, at the end of the day what we're dealing with, well the end of the day Scott,

we're dealing with the folks who want to frankly limit this to 28 days in February when the reality is if you look at the history of North Carolina itself look I'm born and raised in Texas you a requirement in seventh grade in Texas is to take Texas history so to act as if you can't have a mandatory class on African-American history makes no sense whatsoever well why well what are they afraid of I was going to ask professor uh my professor black people right but why are black people and our history, our successes, our failures, our oppression, our overcoming, our succeeding? What is so frightful about that to people that don't look like us? I've never understood that.

Why does the race question? We can get beyond the guilt. You can get beyond guilt by talking about it and teaching it. I mean, are we still going to teach the course that says Jesus was white-skinned and blue-eyed when he was born in the Middle East and he was of matted hair and olive skin? I mean, that's a whole other discussion. Well, actually, I want to correct you.

He wasn't born in the Middle East because the Middle East didn't even exist as a name until long after he was crucified. He was born in that region then. I'll say the region, which was where. Okay, the region is Africa. So just say the continent. The region is Africa. Okay, the continent then.

The Middle East didn't. Okay, the phrase the Middle East didn't exist at that time. I stand corrected, but my point remains. Of course you do. That these images, hey, you know, the images and the fear of white people in confronting black history and what we've gone through is a powerful story, not only in America, but world history. We learn from it, and we can't get past the race issue and the race questions we have until we start having a real dialogue about it rooted in honesty.

Learn. Yeah, so, I mean, so many of these things to me are a tour of ego. Anytime you have to choose one thing over another, or at least you perceive it as choosing one thing over another, you're now announcing, whether it's formally or just sort of in the ether, that one group is more important than the other. And I think, frankly, the fear is that my group is now

not as important because I'm teaching somebody else's history. I mean, that's one thing. And so much of our history is infused with people trying to tell themselves that they're better than another group. And when you're teaching history on an equal level and you're prioritizing or making equal that other group, you have to then admit, uh-oh, we're equal.

That's hard for a lot of people. So right there, I think, you know, that touches off an entire debate within itself. Let's say nothing of the fact that a lot of the people who have brought up in this country as so-called professors and teachers are brought up on a history that does not include us. So now they've got to learn and confront all of that. And so I just think that that's a highly complicated question

in terms of them having to deal with our history, meaning African-American history. But them prioritizing us has never happened. But that's a sad commentary in 2019. Well, I'll tell you this. Very sad. I'll tell you this. My wife and I don't have biological children,

but if we did, all y'all teachers, y'all would have caused some serious hell in your classrooms because they would have been correcting teachers constantly, Greg. I would have been getting phone calls like, Roland, your son is unruly. I'm like, no, he right. You're right. But let me ask you, let me ask you, let me ask you this right quick, Roland. I know we got to move on, but let me ask you this. Since Texas history is mandatory in the Texas public schools, when they teach it, do they include the African presence and the Latino, Latinx presence in the history of Texas as it was taught when you took it?

Barely. Oh, okay. I'm looking. Barely? You said barely? Yeah, but this is also why, right, but this is also why when we talk about politics, why we have to expand this conversation because who sits on the Texas State Education School Board? That's right. Which controls the textbooks.

See, and the thing is, and this again, though, this is where I think people have to understand you have to connect the dots between politics, power, and education. Because there are only three states in America that determine school textbooks for the whole nation, Texas, California, the state of New York. Those three states buy more textbooks than all the other states combined. And so how those states go, then you understand how these textbooks are written, which is one of the reasons why I support, frankly, not physical textbooks, but the software where you can immediately

change it, where you can make some modifications to it. But also the people out there who ask me why do I support charter schools? Primarily because if I got a school, guess what? I get to determine the curriculum. I'm not waiting for somebody else to do so. What we're dealing with here though is still this constant ongoing fight to have full inclusion of our story in the American experience.

So, actually, it's not... From my view, it's not mandatory African-American history. It's called American history, just emphasizing the African-American perspective. All right, folks, gotta go to a break right now. Full inclusion of our story means that they have to admit all the wrong stuff that they did for 400 years. That's where the problem comes.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. They have to confront that. They have to confront that their ancestors did something for 400 years they didn't want. They don't want to talk about. That's the catch. Full inclusion means factual. And that is always the case there because folks also want to change,

just like when they tried to change in Tennessee and Texas, slaves to indentured servants and Texas, slaves to indentured servants. No. That's two different things. But again, and so we have to be on the lookout for all of that as well. So, all right, folks. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. When we come back, we're going to talk about

African-Americans, technology, the importance of course, access to venture capital dollars. Very few of us, 0.2% of black women to venture capital dollars. Very few of us, 0.2% of black women, receive venture capital dollars. 0.2% of all dollars. And who starts business at a faster rate than anybody else in America?

African-American women. What gives? This is Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from the Apollo Theater, site of the Culture Shift Labs opening reception. We'll be back in a moment. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin.

And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. If 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 goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, for the last couple of years,

we've actually broadcast from the Culture Shift programming here in New York, but also in Silicon Valley. Of course, this organization was started to be able to bring together folks who are African American and people of color when it comes to putting folks who are VCs in the room and connecting individuals to be able to do various deals.

When you look at the numbers out there, for black women, I guess I said earlier, 0.2%. For African-Americans overall, it is less than 2% of African-Americans who are receiving venture capital dollars. And so why is this important? Well, our next guest can tell us. Reginald Van Lee, Chief Transformation Officer, Carlyle Group. How are you doing? You good?

Good. All right then. First and foremost, again, the people who don't understand, when you look at right now, when you look at jobs, when you look at the growth in this country, it's happening in technology. But unfortunately, we, like in so many other areas historically, we're just talking about African-American history, not be talking North Carolina, frozen out of that process as well. So not only do we not have access to technology, we don't have access to the money around the technology. And there are many people that want to create projects, that want to start businesses, and they don't have access to funds. They don't have access to capital.

And so Culture Shift is about connecting the people with money to the people that need the money in the African-American community and women and to make it happen. And not just in terms of those dollars when reverend jesse jackson senior was highly critical of various technology companies uh when he began to highlight the issues he said first and foremost 60 of all technology jobs are non-stem he said so who are the uh advertising agencies uh who are the others of the supply development uh companies in terms of that you're doing business with. But also what he talked about was them ignoring the places where black talent lives and being taught. And so all of a sudden these companies like, oh, wow, we didn't even realize Xavier and Spellman and Morehouse and FAMU existed. And we're going, OK, it's simple. You're trying to find black people who are engineers and who understand them.

You go to HBCUs. Exactly. Well, this is the whole sort of mythology around not being able to find qualified people, not knowing where to find them. And so Culture Shift is about bringing people into the room to facilitate them activating these networks. And these are networks that have been laying dormant for years and we're finally activating them. Also, I think what is also important here is that for many, and you hear many of them say, for many of the black folks who are at these companies,

they are lone individuals. And so all of a sudden it's like, you know, there are other black people who are in this space? And so this allows them to be able to create, in essence, a peer group of folks and realizing who's in other spaces if they had no idea even existed. Well, in some cases, people said, oh, I've kind of heard of this person,

I've heard of that person, but never was in the room with them. So it was amazing when we started this 10 years ago, people that had heard of each other but had never spent any time together, bring them to the room. And what we want to do is make real deals happen. And the difference here is it's not just a conference where people meet and go home. Actually, deals happen, money exchanges, and we're able to make businesses grow.

Carlisle Group is obviously a huge investor in companies, purchasing companies. Do you track deals that come out of conferences like this and others to ensure that it's not just a meet and greet, that actually you're seeing progress? Exactly. I mean, Carlisle is about real results and impact. And so when we get engaged in things like this, it's to make real stuff happen and to track it and to learn from those experiences and figure out what do we need to do the next time,

who do we need to bring in the room that we hadn't seen in the room before. But it's a real effort to really make something happen. All right. Well, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Looking forward to the next two days. Great.

Well, thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Also, folks, details have been released with regards to the funeral arrangements of, of course, comedian John Witherspoon. And so we'll be, of course, pushing that stuff out on social media. And tomorrow on the show, the movie Harriet, of course, comes out this weekend. And we will have interviews with the director, Casey Lemons, about Harriet.

If you want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered, please go to RollerMartinUnfiltered.com. Of course, we're the only daily digital show that focuses on African Americans. Nobody else does it five days a week. In addition to, of course, us broadcasting from events like this live, of course, our studio there in D.C. Also, the live events that we also cover

all across the country, conferences, summits, and seminars. And what we'll be doing here is not just broadcasting the show. So beginning tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. Eastern, summits and seminars and what we'll be doing here is not just broadcasting the show so beginning tomorrow morning at 11 a.m eastern we'll be starting live streaming from the various conversations taking place here at culture shift and we do the exact same thing on saturday if you want to look at a previous year simply go to our youtube channel or facebook page or even go to periscope account and you'll see what took place last year and the year before that from culture shift all right folks i gotta go i'll see you guys tomorrow right here from new york city take care holla I know a lot of cops.

They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording

studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves.

We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.